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Yes, I’m aware of all that, thanks. I forgot to mention I also play a 7-string Viola da gamba, but only well enough for the simpler Bach movements. It is thought that lute players still played circa French baroque pitch for solo work, but for ensemble work that could vary up and down depending where you were based. As a lute player, I often use all-gut strings at 392, sometimes even slightly lower if the instrument seems to want it. Baroque pitch is a musical feast. Yes, one suite is for 5 strings, and the first string down a tone. I’m not looking to arrange other music for the bass, just the cello suites, which I’ve been exploring on and off for 40 years or so. It’s always refreshing to explore them on different tunings and instruments. As I’m focused on the 4-string bass these days I thought I’d put some thought into how best to play them, and I quickly came to the conclusion that EADG would cause many problems. Once you’ve played them in 5ths tuning, and seen how perfectly they fit, it’s worth pondering at least how to emulate that on the bass. Hmm…maybe a piccolo bass 😎

Looking forward to watching this, it’s the track that led me to bass (there’s a thread on here somewhere) 👍

I reckon that my favourite Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons bass line has to be the one from 'The Night'. The bassist, Joe Long, is really is at his finest in this song. I spent quite a few years playing in the original London production of 'Jersey Boys' a while back, but bizarrely this song wasn't in the show. Although we discussed it in the band, I don't remember us ever finding out why! Maybe it was something to do with the writer’s credits. The Night was recorded during the Four Seasons 'Motown phase' in the early 70's, and you can clearly hear Jamerson's influence in Joe Long's bass line. I made a YouTube lesson on this bass line a few years ago, but I've now made a play-through video with the original track. This was quite a challenge, particularly in the pre-choruses, because of the fast tempo. I could have done with a few days to practice it, but I managed to get something half-decent down for this week's YouTube video. You’ll find a link to my full transcription in the video description. I hope you find the transcription useful and enjoy my play-through.

@Baloney Balderdash It's a sonic monster. Fantastic. Again, all original style. I'm a fan.

An eight loaded top is sufficient for pub gigs, provided the woofer is of high quality. The same applies to eight loaded subs. The trick lies in knowing the quality of the woofer, as manufacturers are loathe to reveal what they're loaded with. Eight loaded tops are less directional, as the angle of dispersion is inversely proportional to the size of the cone/radiating plane . As to throw, the inverse square rule applies to all driver sizes. The advantage to 'stick' systems is they have very wide dispersion on the horizontal plane, due to the smaller driver sizes, along with narrow dispersion on the vertical plane, due to the taller radiating plane. That aims more sound into the audience, less at the floor and ceiling. The disadvantage is most use woofers too small to do the job, at an unjustifiable price. A very good arrangement is a 2x8 top, which can give output equal to a 1x12, with wider horizontal dispersion and narrower vertical dispersion. The same applies to 4x6.5 inch tops. But those are few and far in between, as their advantages are very much unknown to the average user.

Yeah - a 4 string “wav” version (albeit maple rather the graphite) would be cool. but then again, looking at my bank account, it’d need to be in 10 years time 😆

Play them on it over bluetooth from your phone. If you press the bass knob it goes into Bluetooth mode.

I have a usb powered air purifier that runs of usb and uses carbon cartridges. That could run in a car.

Could work. Importantly get a good clean cut. I used decent sharp electrician's cable cutters. I also think ezbass's recommendation above of a dab of superglue & maybe a bit of a tape is a good idea. Obviously you're not gonna get as much windings of the silk on the tuner posts. Particularly on the E string.

Honestly I would say Wilton Felder definitely deserves a spot among the greats of the 70s. “I Know I Want You Back alone” is iconic but his work across Motown, RCA, ABC and beyond really shows how versatile and influential he was. Some of those lines are just timeless and you can hear their impact in so much that followed.

I'm seen her a couple of times, both great gigs. Is that possibly the world's thickest and heaviest guitar lead she's using in the photos above?

Of all the various mutes and devices I’ve got I usually resort to my trusty foam, but it’s good fun to try these things

My piece of foam has been working well for pennies for about 10 years. I'm not sure I'd want to spend £££'s on something that does the same job.

Could you survive the War of the Dead?

Was anyone lucky enough to have a successful bid on any of the bows on the Amati online auction ? I bid but wasn’t successful, although I was never going to bid big money on a bow I hadn’t had the opportunity to try. Looking at the (partially redacted) usernames it looked like a dealer was bidding on most of the German bows anyway.

Currently relearning Kashmir by Led Zeppelin. We did try it a few years back but it didn’t seem to work without the vocals, so now we’ve a singer giving it another go. Which is great as I love this song.

I've gone a bit disco lately amongst other things : Money by Pink Floyd, interesting time sig and is OK until you get to the boring guitar solos (like most PF tbh) Staying Alive by BeeGees, have isolated the bass and its not really what I was expecting, glad I haven't tried to wing it You should be Dancing by BeeGees Stomp! Brothers Johnson - its cool but on a five string muting is a challenge Sofa by Wolf Alice - they have lots of nice bass lines / parts (Beautifully Unconventional also v cool) Flesh for Fantasy by Billy Idol - love this, its not hard but its fun Been working on getting Queen 'Its a kind of Magic' accurate and up to speed, I feel like i need it in my back pocket I need to get some flares .....

As far as I can tell, it's just making light contact with the G, I'm ordering one now so I'll report in later when I get it.