All Activity

Always a huge treat to be playing at the London 10k and we couldn't believe our luck with the change of location we found ourselves moved to for this one! We had a late one at a function gig the night before so an early morning start to arrive to set up at 8pm meant just 4 hours sleep, but it was one of those gigs that the adrenaline gets you through! In some ways our own mini marathon - playing for two hours solid with no break, but we all loved it. A memorable moment for me right at the clos was when a local London lady, who had an ice cream van set up behind us, thanked us all for providing the music and offered us each a free ice-cream! A little clip from the race: LA Mixtrax - London 10k

First Bass Owned: Hohner jazz copy ~1985, pre-arbor series. 'Go To' Bass: Flea Jazz. The one I use if I need to be in my comfort zone. 'Your bass': I don’t use it much nowadays, but the best sounding bass I have has always been my Hohner B2.

Brian Ritchie with his Big Johnson Acoustic Bass.

Well, I didn't take the photos. That's guitarists for you. The monitors are Alto TS408s, which have the mains leads and XLR leads coming out of the back. When the audience are literally inches from you, them treading on a mains lead and pulling it out is always a possibility. And although the room on Saturday was comparatively massive, the enthusiastic dancers and sing-alongers got as close to us as possible.

The Q4.

Q4 has an EMG BTS circuit which is nice. As long as the condition is good/neck is straight etc I'd go with the Q4 and then possibly upgrade the EMG Hz pickups to full EMG soapbar P & J pickups to get closer to the classic Spector tone.

Size of a Cow - The Wonderstuff

Aged 18 I got a fretless to upgrade from my Tanglewood beginners P bass. I used it as my sole bass all through my first gigging band and for some years later. I still have it almost 25 years later and it still gets gigged occasionally. I had a Warwick Korean made fretless for a while which sounded fantastic but I sold it when my 80s band folded, but it would have been nice to keep it as it had the most outrageous "mwaaaaahhh". I now own two fretlesses as I have the Harley Benton fretless jazz. This is also gigged occasionally and comes along as a backup quite often. While the music I play (covers) are not fretless bass recordings I always find a way to tastefully (???) add in some fretless when the mood takes me. I used it more as a "seasoning" than a main ingredient, it keeps me thinking and stops me getting bored.

I used to use my fretless for a few songs at every gig way back when. I rarely use it now, but once took it to a bluesfire gig and ended up playing a whole set using it. As Dad says, you can play most stuff perfectly well on fretless.

I just bought a TGI case for my Squier Jazz as I needed a case with decent protection but didn't want to spend more on the case than I did on the bass which was a cheap project bass purchase. I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived with regards build quality. You can tuck the straps away in the back sleeve if only carrying with the handle. Front pocket is larger than it looks. The only niggle is the velcro strap to hold the neck is a little long but it does fasten. Worth a look in my opinion but I can't attest to it's durability yet. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/TGI-4836-Extreme-Series-Bass-Guitar-Gig-Bag/2WP4?_gl=1*tpfb0g*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjA4Nzg4MDE5Mi4xNzUyNTAwNDU2*_ga_0WF1R5QW3K*czE3NTI1MDA0NTYkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTI1MDA0NTYkajYwJGwwJGgxMjc1ODMwMDk5JGRMd1RsYUx2MXc0dFJFcE41VUU0VUtCd1lRZGt6UU5CQUxR With regards your other Gator options. I have had a Gator hard case for my main bass for 20 years or so and will stand by Gator quality so if you do choose a Gator case, you won't be disappointed.

Many years ago, I had two and they sounded quite different. The fact that one was fretted and the other was fretless had nothing to do with it, obviously.

So the next question is - what's a better option - a 20ish year old Q4 or a newish Performer? 🤔

Now That The Buffalo’s Gone - Buffy Sainte-Marie

The Bunker tension-free neck comes to mind. Ibanez had them make the USRG and USATK series with this neck tech, and Bunker has been building guitars and basses with this neck since the 1970's. They use a construction method where a steel rod holds all the string tension, while a wooden "shell" around it makes for a traditional feeling and playing instrument:

A Flying V that's had its airworthiness certificate rescinded with extreme prejudice.

I'm intrigued by the idea of some kind of modular setup - the neck itself could be full graphite, and you could have a P, a J, and a couple of 5- and 6-string options with different widths, but then have neck pocket adapters enabling these necks to be bolted onto a range of bodies, and some way to make switchable headstocks or just go headless. The headstock and neck pocket adapter needn't be full carbon fibre, but could use some other strong but easier to mould composite that doesn't require all the same tooling and setup as making bespoke carbon fibre components. Something where the moulds could just be 3D-printed or easily CNC'd. Not sure about the feasibility of any of this, but it might be something worth exploring. EDIT: The other advantage of this sort of approach is it might make the neck "portable" - if you get another instrument with the same number of strings but with a different headstock or neck attachment, the neck could come with you, and all you'd need to get would be the new neck pocket adapter, and maybe a new headstock. There's also the possibility of switchable fingerboards - fretted/fretless. I know this has been tried before, with the old Novatone necks, but nobody's ever really progressed the idea since then, as far as I'm aware.

I can't really comment on the cases you have listed but for me the obvious choice would be a Hiscox liteflite case, you'll not get a new one in your budget but they're not hard to find secondhand and on a weight vs protection ratio I don't think there is anything better, personally i've got 12 of them and many were bought secondhand, some for as litlle as £30 a wanted ad on here would probably find you one, alternatively i've had good luck on facebook marketplace and ebay, as you're in London you've got a good chance of finding one. Matt

Ah right. cool. I found them all to be quite varied but like you, only one really works for me. It's a shame there isn't an iOS app I could use to change these over when away from the house.

I used a fretless Sei Original 5 for my main bass for several years - switched back to fretted for the current rock covers band but do use fretless now and again when I feel like it, and take the fretless out as a backup bass. May switch back to fretless. I decided to use fretless for the originals band as it seems to fit better than fretted, trying using a 6-string fretless which seems to be working quite well.