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40 years ago, younger and more arrogant than I am now (or so I like to think), I had this amazing violin teacher. Some teachers you remember for the rest of your life, and she was one of those. If I turned up feeling good about my week's practice, confident I was playing it well, she'd often be full of criticism. If I turned up full of self-criticism, she would often remark how much progress I had made. I don't think she was doing it to keep my confidence in check. We discussed it at the time, and both concluded that my critical ear and actual progress were always out of sync. Over the year, this has helped me masses. When I'm frustrated, and feeling like I'm making no progress, I remember this amazing lady, and I remember that it probably means the opposite of what it feels! Dunno if that can help you at all, but I hope it does.

Nearly bought the earlier version, but couldn't make the connection with the seller to pick it up. I have 2 basses coming, one in the next week, and one in April (backordered) or I'd have one of these on order. Maybe after the 2026 bass arrives. So, buy one and review it and I'll live through your purchase, or be convinced not to get one. Do it, you know you really want to...

Sail Away - Randy Newman or Blanket for a Sail - Harry Nilsson

This is useful and I've found that it helps me https://www.thestrad.com/playing-hub/performance-practice-the-missing-step-in-every-musicians-practice-routine/19405.article Things I do, some of which are already mentioned... 1. Stand up to practise (if you stand for the gig). That way everything is in the right place, your geometry is the same as it will be for the performance. 2. Practice the piece/song faster than the performance. 3. Learn the theory. If I can't write out a rough chord chart (or root note chart) for the song off the top of my head by the time I need to perform it, I don't know the song well enough. Being able to visualise the changes as a chord chart (or root notes) gives you another way to "see" the piece. It's like having the chart built in. 4. Related to 3. Know what's going on. A recent example was a challenge from a guitarist on my replica bass line of It's My Life by Bon Jovi. In the first verse before the chorus there's a C to F chord change where Hugh McDonald does his trademark "drone thing" and stays on the C (the 5th of F) and the chord is F/C. In the second verse in the same place, he moves to F making it a straight F. Knowing this demonstrates that you know your onions and also gives you confidence. The challenge stemmed from the fact that previous bassists had played the change to F in both verses thereby making the band perceive what I played as incorrect. Knowing this and being able to explain it, not only prevented by confidence from being undermined but boosted it. 5. Use visual aids for practising. I use highlighters in different colours to mark up sheet music. I'll use one colour to highlight a phrase that I need to concentrate on until it becomes baked in. Try different stuff until you find what works for you. I tried exploring memory palace techniques and it is great for lists and party tricks but I struggled to apply any of it to learning songs.

I agree, I love this bassline! I Want You Back/Jackson 5 bass play along by Cara The great Wilton Felder on bass on the Jackson brothers' first single for Motown, I Want You Back. I hear how this definitely influenced the bassline on "Your Smiling Face" with the constant double clutches and descending line, anyway just a genius bass part and very fun to play. I picked this up very quickly, just came naturally. Hope you like it! https://youtu.be/B8i53iCabtQ

Sailing - Rod Stewart

If the vibe is right between the band and the crowd and the band is really on fire band member introductions are ok. I wouldn't go as far as including individual solos. Daryl

Stage Patter. I think it depends on the band, what level your playing at and where. What works in a theater or large stage festival gig might not work in a bar. Just think about it. A signed national touring act might get more value out of patter. I always thought if your not famous going on and with some personal story is kind of weird to me. I remember some local guy starts off with this banter with something like, " well you know when your in the public eye" and my first thought or reaction was, " but your not in the public eye" lol On the other hand at the local level bands that don't have a member that's good with "the mouth" might come across as boring. Daryl

Problem with Jools Holland is it's very eclectic, which is understandable, being about the only music show on mainstream TV, I record it and finish up watching 1 act if I'm lucky

Outstanding! Daryl

I think of myself as a guy that seems to be able to play rock and roll bass guitar. Daryl

Title is confusing me as I'm not seeing anything missing. If it's just the TR cover speak to Brian, earlpillanz, on eBay. When I dropped off the scratchplates from my Peavey collection I included control cavity covers and a TR cover. Templates were made but the TR cover never made the inventory, Brian wasn't sure he had the curve right and didn't want Americans moaning "it doesn't fit". If you loose your senses, replacement screws can be bought from "Fretsonthenet", Dave carries all of them; does pickup rings too.

Back at the White Hart in Melton. I do like the sound there. It was very quiet when we started setting up, but livened up ok. Perhaps a little too lively from the young teachers celebrating the birthday of one of them - only two full glasses dropped and smashed. They moved on after our first break. We normally play here on a Sunday to a nice relaxed atmosphere, but it made an enjoyable change to be a bit more "in your face". I got a nice balance on the Big Muff with enough fuzz to be able to tell it was on too. GT-6B before it, Rumble after it. The Stingish bass (Sterling Sub5 with Retrovibe Stinger preamp) is a definite keeper - a load more compliments on my sound and it's so comfortable to play too. What wasn't comfortable was accidentally stabbing the tip of my fretting index finger on the sharp pointer of a temperature gauge only 24 hours before the gig. It was a lot sharper than it had reason to be, went in at least a mm, and spilt a fair bit of blood. Paracetamol numbed it to start with, but adrenaline is the best painkiller.

That's a slick little design you've got! I just had a look over the manual you posted, I like the look of it a lot. So personally, I have two use-cases for DI's, when I'm performing, and when I'm running the desk. There's no overlap for me, I'm not in a band where I have to run out to mix the show while I'm playing it. When I'm performing, right now my DI boxes go at the end of the chain, kicking the parallel to any amps I might be running, with the XLR's going straight to FOH after all of my effects which are relatively simple, mainly heavy drive, amp sim, sometimes pitch effects. That'll change when I finally make the switch to an Anagram, where I'll be splitting the outputs internal to the pedal, using the XLR outs to go to FOH with amp sims, and the 1/4" outs to go to amps, before any amp sim on the pedal. When I'm on the desk mixing a show, DI's are right before the amps as well, and I leave it to the performer to put whatever they want in front of them. For me, the name of the game is reliability. I need to know that when I bring that fader up, I'm getting sound, and it sounds like the player. If I need to tweak things, I usually have some form of EQ on the desk, whether it's a basic analogue channel strip or a full graphic EQ on a digital desk. That said, giving the player a little control over their DI tone with that shaping knob is a great idea, letting them adjust what they're getting out of the monitors a little without trashing what I'm getting at the desk. If I could add my two cents to your current design? As a player who'd mount this to my board, I'd love to see all the inputs and outputs on one side of the pedal. That's just a personal preference, I like having my 'final stage' on the pedalboard to be like that. As an engineer who'd throw this in my pelican for a gig, I'd love to see the controls be turned into something low profile. Trim pots accessible through the enclosure, etc. This is an organisational thing. Engineers often carry DI's in their pelican cases (I've got three of the most basic, passive DI's I could find in mine as my emergency DI's.) and it's already tight for space in there. Having the enclosure as low-profile as possible, with as few things sticking out as possible would make it that much more tempting to have these as my go-to DI's instead. Hope this all helps!

And what f***ing comedy they are 😆

I'm an entertainer.

Marine boy theme. Howlin’ Wilson

This is my 1978 T40, it was in a bit of a mess when I got it, not so much now I'm finished.

The dictionary definition is: ‘noun One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts. A person whose work shows exceptional creative ability or skill. "You are an artist in the kitchen." One, such as an actor or singer, who works in the performing arts. One who is adept at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit. "a con artist." One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. Similar: artisan. One who professes and practices an art in which science and taste preside over the manual execution. One who shows trained skill or rare taste in any manual art or occupation. An artful person; a schemer. Similar: schemer. A person who creates art.’ I don't see anything pretentious in calling yourself an artist. If you do create art then you're an artist. Does playing ‘Sex on Fire’ down the Dog and Duck on a Saturday evening make you an artist? Probably not, but if you're writing lyrics and composing your original music, then yes.

I have the classic issue of my bass isn't cutting through the mix very well at gigs. I have no backline so I rely on my PA completely. The problem I have is that I really like the 2 pickup mid-mid scoop type sound and while it sounds great in isolation, it's gets lost in the mix. I also know that I should be pushing the mids to cut through and while I don't like the isolated sound, I'm sure it will cut through the band mix better. So my question is which frequencies should I be cutting/pushing on my mixing desk(Behringer XR18). For reference my pa speaker set up is 2x18 in bins and 2x12 tops. Thanks in advance.

Thank heavens, as otherwise there would be none that could be guaranteed to be independent.

That's exactly what I was about to say. A new bass should be pretty much immaculate, not chipped and scratched. They should have refined the body before letting it out of their workshop.