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Travelled to Moffat on Thursday to collect this beauty. Forgive the crappy pic but proof that its mine, all mine! I’ll take some more in natural light after Christmas Spent an enjoyable time with Alan talking bass and other stuff and got to see his workshop. It was a 5+ hour round trip but well worth it to get the opportunity to shake the hand of the fellow who makes these beautiful instruments. Just starting to get my head round the DFM preamp. The palette of tones available is huge.

About an hour ago through gumtree I picked up this little beauty, a decent gig bag, a fender cable, and a leather strap (a cheapo one, but still...) all for only £200. There's not a mark on it, not even on the protective plastic which is still on the scratchplate. Just put on an old set of flats that I've had sat in the cupboard for a while, and OMG this thing sounds flipping amazing.

Last week I decided to finally put the Labella flat wound strings that I had bought almost 2 years ago on to my Yamaha BB 1200. You can imagine just how gutted I was when the A-string broke as I was putting the strings on. Finding a single replacement string was clearly highly unlikely so this would render the whole set as useless or at least mean that I would have to buy a new set and have three spares. On the off-chance that they might be able to help me I wrote an email to Thomann.I heard nothing back for several days and thought, “oh well tough luck”. Imagine my surprise when, four working days later, I received a single replacement A-string in the post and that during the Christmas rush. Many thanks to those nice people at customer service at thomann. Merry Christmas XXX.

That's step up from my ability, do you undertake commissions?

So let me think... 'A' list session player with a colossal live and studio CV spanning mainstream pop to the left field, hip-hop originator, industrial dub legend who has worked with Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, James Brown, Madonna, and George Clinton. 'Not a great player'? Spare me.

There's a huge difference between picking up a bass at 60, after a 30-year break, and picking up a bass for the first time at 60, 45 years after your mother beat it into your head that you would never be able to play. I desperately resent and regret the 45 wasted years. The important thing is that I've defeated the "you will never be able to do this" demons and I am actually now playing bass. The demons are still there - I grabbed the chance to play in the jam at Carlisle Blues Festival a couple of months ago with two of the best blues singers in the UK, Connie Lush and Kaz Hawkins, and pretty much turned to jelly. Held down a basic 12-bar, which was enough - and far more than I would have dared to dream for most of my life. It's too late for some of the dreams, but it's not too late to achieve some of them. Go for it.

Makes me miss my 55. Just shouldn’t have sold it. i saw this in PMT yesterday and had a very strong desire to whip out the credit card

It was actually Monday but I've been busy The other week @Billy Apple had 2 Wishbasses up for sale and I've hankered after a Wishbass for a while. If you're unaware of Wishbass they're made in the US by Steve Wishnevsky,he's quite a character With strong beliefs on bass building his motto is "paintbrushes for musicians, some think this just means tools to make music ! Personally I think it means " you add the colour". Steve uses locally sourced timber,doesn't believe in truss rods,isn't keen on frets,doesn't do fancy finishes and offers a very limited choice in pickups.Definitely not the man to see for your dream fanned fret ERB. He also charges $100 per string !! That's right a 5 strng will cost $500,check ebay as he often has sales on. So strong beliefs and limited choices. What does that get you ? For a start,and I'm sure Billy will agree, you don't get some refined instrument with a finish shined on the thighs of dusky maidens You get a bass in it's rawest form. Mainly wood, strings and a pickup.No tone control,Steve's also not keen on active preamp.It'll have rough patches,unfilled holes,splits packed with filler,a corian nut & bridge. Sounds terrible right ? Why would anyone buy something cobbled together in somebody's shed,there was a fire couple of year back destroyed the shed so Steve's in a new workshop now. So why buy one ? Cause they're great Just you and a bass.They have really thick necks but strangely it's comfortable. The maple weighs 6.5lb and the bloodwood 8.5lb. I've never owned a single cut before and reckon I'm off to a good start. They have the "mwah" and sustain thing going on. Not sure what Billy strung the bloodwood with but the maple now has La Bella flats. I'm well chuffed

I stumbled into that said Yamaha shop in London today, ended up playing the P34 and the 2024x, both were really good. I liked the neck on the P34 more but the 2024x sounded nicer (albeit on a smallish hartke, and not played in anger). Anyway, I am not in a position at the moment to be buying such expensive instruments but if you'd like one, the man wanted to sell me the P34 300 quid less than the shop price (which I think was GBP1664 so say GBP1350, and that's with set-up and a hardcase), 3TSB, and a black 2024x for GBP1950 (I think the RRP is around the 3k mark ...). Thought I should put it out there as these seem like good deals for these brand new, if Santa does not get you what you wanted this year, well, here's a way to make it right PS. Merry Christmas everyone!

Hi Basschat - i played on The Late Late show with James Corden earlier this year and was really happy with how the mix came out on my Elite Jazz 5! no pedals or effects, just jazz bass straight into a Bassman 800 Head and Cab, let me know what you think :-) Regards! Bill.

Certainly looks the business, and assuming it`s better than the Rumbles - and it should be as it`s a higher range - then no doubt it sounds awesome, congrats.

That’s as nice as twa hoat pehs, so it is.

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. thats why I love Doug, and Billy, Les, Stu, etc..

Looks great, I always fancied an early Precision, or an affordable copy of one, anyway!

I've fancied one of those for a long time. It's one of those Squier models that I suspect got discontinued for being a little bit 'too' nice.

Nice! Treated myself to the fiesta red classic vibe precision a while ago - fantastic sound and feel 😀

Ha! The standard passive precision that people rave about and which I normally find rather dull ... in this case was spot on.

@kodiakblair: You've already got your eye on that neck, Davie??

Bass players

Yep, very nice playing and great tone. Really like that arrangement!

I find these bizarrely appealing.

Grumpy ‘musicians’ who are keen to compartmentalise? 😂 i’m only joshing, of course. Merry Christmas everyone.

If they had made it larger it could no longer be called an Elf. The next size up would have to be a Gnome, according to my extensive knowledge and research of Ben and Holly on CBEEBIES. Trace Elliot Gnome? No way José. Marketing would never allow such design principles to win through...

I hope all your stockings are full of cool gear and job bookings.

You clearly weren’t listening. He marked exactly where the original bridge was to get the right annotation.

At least Feliciano didn't have a music stand ...

I'm going to use that as I've struggled for some time to adequately describe preshape buttons on amps. "Suckmode." Genius!

A small votive bust of Laura Kuenssberg made of earwax.

Get your coat. And don’t let the DAW hit you on the way out.

I've asked our dog to have a look at the pic to see if she could spot anything. She gave me this look: That will be a no then.

It's a search 'flood' setting so we don't get overwhelmed by web spiders / search bots etc. To search just within titles just use the +search options button to refine it. Col

So within Reason it's not Logic al to get Pro without a Mac and I'll be just fine with Reaper if that's what I sow and besides that should be no less of a Cakewalk than Cubase - everyone agreed? In which case that's settled then!

That's not a 6/8, but a swing or shuffle feel. That's not the same thing. The pattern you hear in both songs is 1/8 rest followed by 7 8th notes, in swing feel

Sounded lots better through headphones but I'm sure Trudie Styler was shaking ( not nodding) her head to the music. Thing is if Sting was American he'd be whopping and hollering all the way through and we'd all think 'what a sport' Instead he shows a natural reserve and gets castigated! Paradoxically when Annie Lennox does her tribute to him, he looks genuinely touched. When Gregory Porter totally aces 'It's Probably Me' you can tell he recognises a great vocal performance. Trudie is well up for Greg too...

Well they were designed by Dave Green, and I suspect they do little more than final assembly being the size they are. I would think all the amp manufacture is sub contracted out, it certainly was by Trace Elliot back in the late 90s / early 00s

I have owned 3 Ricks and a couple of Spectors over the years. Here is my honest, objective observations; Spector - modern, ergonomic design, comfortable, flexible powerful pickups, great range of tones, small bodied, great hardware, easy to adjust, light weight (ish) Rick - none of the above :-) The Rick has one sound and it does it well. I personally think a lot of people play them because a lot of people played them. Logic would say there is absolutely no contest and the Spector is the obvious decision all day every day...then again logic often goes out the window when it comes to the performing arts.

I'd avoid any compression on the MG unless you really know what you are doing. They really increase the likelihood of getting feedback, especially if they are used on the vocal mics. I only use compression on the kick drum. Turn them all right down to zero before you start.

Thread resurrection. I finally took the plunge and bought the Stingray last week. Loving it so far. :-)

This is very similar to one of the (many) I am contemplating next year! Very nice sir, great Christmas present to yourself 👍🏻

We have 2 left this year - Saturday and NYE - and that'll take us to 48. Next year we have 48 confirmed and a few waiting in the wings. The good thing is that every single one is one we all love doing, we've dropped the shaky ones, the ones that don't promote or have an indifferent crowd and the smaller venues that are a bit of a squeeze. Oh and its just the one band - I don't have time for anything else. Its been a pivotal year for us

Gah. It beats the Mesa. Except for the HORRIBLE pre-shape circuit which I named "suckmode".

Also, if using active speakers with a mic/line switch, make sure it is switched appropriately. With regard to the green lights on a channel, memember that a mixer is summing all the channels... so that if all your channels are registering near 0, by the time they are summed at the LR, they could send the main output into clipping... so be careful where your LR is placed. In other words, don't push that LR too hard.

I'm sure I remember Doug confirming this exact thinking in his podcast interview with SBL. This topic (the original post mainly) basically highlights some peoples lack of understanding of what is sometimes necessary for full-time musicians to undertake, basically to monetise whatever you possibly can. Clearly there is a 'market' for his more esoteric solo performing, at trade shows, clinics etc etc, but as has been mentioned above, it probably represents a tiny percentage of the bass playing he undertakes daily. He's good at it, people will clearly pay him to do it, why wouldn't he play like that. In any case, the whole 'bass should stay in the low end' is the most boring, yet constantly visited, rhetoric going. These people are musicians, that they choose the bass guitar to represent their voice is a moot point. Those players will likely stick to a 'role' for a lot of their musical life, but who cares if they diverge if it's an enjoyable experience for them or someone else?! Si

I think Janek Gwizdala summed it up nicely when he pointed out that what he's 'famous' for is what he spends about 5% of the set doing. Nobody makes a video of you paying straight eights. This is true for pretty much every great player.

Two pics One is 1969 the other is 2017. Why stop Blue

I just go Bass > BDI-21 > Audio Interface > Computer > Studio Monitors. Sounds great. Don't need a home amp. I do have GAS for something like a Selmer Treble 'N' Bass 50 for gigs, though.