All Activity

I used to go to school in Bingley / live in the next town and I can safely say that JSG (later Spectre) was a big part of me starting up playing in bands. We used to go walk across town to go there at lunchtime (or get the bus on Thursday late night opening) to hang out, look at guitars that we wouldn't be able to afford for several years and try out ones that might be our next instrument. On weekends and Thursday nights, there were always local musos hanging out who would give impromptu lessons and advice about gear or playing or whatever. A few years later, I was the one of the guys giving advice or showing kids how to play Smoke On The Water or Wishing Well properly. Quite a few of my mates / bandmates worked there and as I walked in they would put the kettle on, or if they were busy, ask me to put the kettle on, or answer the phone, etc. Then we would go to the pub after they locked up. As I said, a big part of my early musical journey. The demise of these sort of places (and Electro in Doncaster was another one) was a symptom of the decline of local music scenes. It's where musos would hang out, put bands together and share knowledge. All gone now unfortunately...

I’d be looking at LFSys. Top stuff. After hearing a cab shootout at the SW Bass bash, that’s where I’d put my money!

A long as it's too high for the punters to reach.

Refusal to design a soundhole to suit the instrument, instead just throwing on a random f-hole. Fanned-fret basses. The "Dingwall/Darkglass" atonal screech. What's considered "Prog" these days. Lollipop tuners. People playing the "My Generation" solo incorrectly OR other band members taking a solo each. Youtube demos that give us a clean DI tone only. The bass stylings of Mark King. YouTube thumbnails. Tech 21's UK distributor. Tool. David Tennant. BBQ sauce on pizza.

I think probably the shop I spent the most time in was in Canterbury, where I went to university. A place called – I think – castle street music, or something like that. It was a guitar shop on castle street, and businesses in Canterbury tend to go for pretty straightforward names. It was a funny little shop that, like most shops in the city, was actually two tiny old storefronts knocked together, with a little doorway between the two. I went in there a few times a month and played basses, bought strings, etc., and made awkward conversation with the guys who ran the place. I'm sure I was an irritating nuisance as I never had the money to buy anything big, but they didn't chase me away. Sadly they shut down not long after I graduated, so I never got to go back there as a taxpayer with cash and buy something shiny to pay them back for all the time I'd taken up. All the chat about the Denmark street of old reminded me of a funny experience I had a few months ago. My company's office is about five minutes' walk from there, and I swing by the shops from time to time to buy strings and fill my lunchbreak. There was one day when I popped into Wunjo to get some bass strings and chatted for a bit with the bass cellar guys about some instruments they'd recently gotten in. I came out, walked to the junction with Charing Cross Road and found myself absentmindedly thinking "hmm. Should I got up to the Virgin Megastore or get on the tube and go straight up to Camden?" It passed in a flash, but for that moment my brain was fully transported back to the summer of 2003, I was 16 and frittering away my paycheck from the supermarket.

Wow, it’s all downhill from here though ☹️

My dad's a keyboard player and he's genuinely one of the nicest people I know... but ... I can't share a stage with him!

I know (now) that Hipshot do conversion rings to take them up to 18mm, but I thought I'd save myself twenty quid with my homespun solution.

Here's a cool pic of Tom Petersson on stage with the bass Pic by Alive Coverage

Same here old farts, see you in ... 11 days. 🤪

Your ad gets pride of place!

Had a oedal from @Earbrass... Arrived after some Royal Mail Shenanigans... All Good.