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I'm in the house band for the two Sunday for Sammy shows next weekend. I can't give too much away 'cos the line-up is under wraps, but with 5,000 people at each show, it's going to be fun. I'll take some pics and that, and try not to make any mistakes. Disclaimer: I fully acknowledge this is a 'boast post'. Apologies.

Too many of us are obsessive about gear and looking for that elusive tone/sound. If the money spent on gear were directed towards decent lessons then that tone/sound may be more easily achieved.

I got the gig!

HB PB-50 Modded! - *Version 3.0* *Audio Clip* This is my third modification of a Harley-Benton PB-50 Precision Bass. If you want to see what the stock donor bass looks like, Thomann have it for sale here - with more and better pictures than I can be bothered to take: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_pb_50_sb_vintage_series.htm As usual I reshaped the headstock to a 50s-style Telebass and painted the pickguard, but this time I went to town and converted the stock four-saddle top-loading bridge to a through-body two-saddle bridge with ferrules, more in keeping with the 50s vibe. Yes, I had a spare pair of pants on hand when I drilled through the body. And being a bit fed up with sunburst, I did a full refinish in Shoreline Gold. Yes, I know Shoreline Gold wasn't available until after the 57 Precision redesign, but what the hell, I really like it. The pickup is another Herrick Tele '51' - this time the Neo magnet version as opposed to the AlNiCo 5 variant fitted to v2.0. It's a bit stronger in the high mids and top end, throws out a bit more signal and sounds great. https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/tele-51-bass-single-coil/ I really liked the look and texture of the Shoreline nitro, so didn't clear coat it. I'm hoping it will age naturally in all the right places. The only stock components remaining on this assembly are the body and neck (obviously), the neck plate, the control plate, the string tree and the strap buttons. Everything else has been upgraded or replaced. As you can see, the Fender flats are getting a bit elderly and I want to get some of those La Bella flats that are specifically made for through-body bridges. Nevertheless, the bass sounds great and plays like a premium instrument costing many times more than the donor bass. Result. Body refin in Shoreline Gold nitro Pickguard in Ivory Cream Squier Vintage Modified through-body two-saddle bridge with ferrules Herrick Neodymium Telebass '51' pickup CTS solid-shaft pots, Chiclet cap .047uF, Switchcraft jack in cats-eye side plate Fender flat-top knurled control knobs with grub screws Wilkinson WJBL 200 tuners Fender 9050M steel flatwounds 55-70-90-105 Thanks for looking!

I used to feel like that. I'd turn the volume down when playing with my band so my mistakes didn't stand out. I'd fucus on all my mistakes. Let them get to me. By the time we got to the end of a jam session I could not hear myself play and nor could anyone else. Practicing at home, again, id focus on the mistakes - cos that how you can improve... Eliminate the mistakes. I'd play a lot but completely unstructured. Mainly playing things that sounded good when I played them. After twenty years I had a few lessons and we'll... What can I say... Erm... I'd been doing it wrong. My tutor refocused my mind more than my playing directly. She pointed out the good things about my playing and gave me direction for practice at home so I actually improved the things I wasn't quite so good at. I now play at the volume that's right for the band. I still make mistakes but I don't waste my energy on worrying about them. I have a confidence in my playing that means I relax more and hence I don't make as many mistakes. My issues were fixed by fixing my head. (I'm still not that great but hey ho! 😋)

Why are you in a band with a plonker like hat? Suggest you leave immediately.

I prefer this ...

IMO it's a bit like customer service - if you get good customer service, nobody says anything, when it's rubbish everybody's up in arms. If nobody says anything about your tone, you're probably doing something right. Personally if I don't like the bass tone, I don't like the song.

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member....!

These are very approximate prices, I didn't buy everything all at the same time: Herrick Pickup £60 Squier Vintage Modified Two-Saddle Bridge + Ferrules (USA import) £35 Shoreline Gold Nitro £15 Ivory Cream Canbrush Acrylic £9 Wilkinson Tuners £25 Fender Flats £22 Electrics and Knobs £40 Total: £206 Plus the donor bass is around £100 from Thoman, so total cost would be around £300. I'm aware that you can go and buy a very nice-sounding, playable, good-looking new bass for £300 - you don't save money by making a bitsa, you really have to enjoy putting them together - which I do. Also a Squier (for example) will hold it's value pretty well - there's no way I could sell this and get my money back. Which is a good thing, because it means I'll keep it, play it and enjoy it.

I also find that when I’m loving my sound I tend to play better, or at least am less distracted so more inside the performance. More in the groove. That will contribute to a better performance by the band and to the punters having a better time on some subliminal level. So they may not know why but my tone benefits the punters when it’s good. Yes, it matters to me primarily and I may be the only one who identifies if it’s working or not. But, my sound and my performance is part of the sum of the parts...

I went to a blues jam once, it was hilarious. A group of tragically single sweaty men with long hair and expensive guitars clambering over each other to get to the stage, so they could reel off a series of predictable licks that nobody has been interested in hearing since about 1985. One bored looking drummer and a bass player in the corner, playing the same boring honky tonk line on repeat for 6 hours while all the guitarists whack off all over the stage whilst flooring their wah pedals. Horrible.

That colour is truly glorious. Really nice job all round, sir!

Just plugged it in. Omigosh.

A great bass tone is one that sounds great within the context of the song/track/band. It doesn't matter what it sounds like on its own.

If you are playing Level 42 covers it’s probably time to shut a piano lid on your fingers.

I've still got my old Aria Black & Gold I - in fact I played it at a gig recently The Aria was the first bass I bought with my own money way back in '83 when I was a mere 15 years old. IIRC it cost the princely sum of £230!

I think there's an emotional/subconscious level at which all tone matters hugely, perhaps not fine-grain tone but certainly when the differences are audible (i.e., good rig compared to bad rig). Whilst it matters to us bassers in quite an explicit way, I think it's more implicit with audiences. I hear a great tone and to me I know/think it was a great tone; audiences would perhaps experience greater positive emotion throiugh listening to the music but not identify the tone per se? So yes, tone matters to us all. This opinion might however be my executive brain trying to explain the fact that my emotional brain keeps buying rigs

I use this... https://www.amazon.co.uk/TRIXES-Sunglasses-Neoprene-Stretchy-Spectacle/dp/B009AS1H4G/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_200_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Q0ARP3WW98GW6QXWPKYK

Nice job, I see you have a Herrick pickup, I have the alnico version on mine and found it quite 'bassy' so changed the stock HB capacitor to a 0.2 from Monstertone along with a treble bleed kit too. I stopped at the new capacitor however, as it gave the highs quite a lift. I also got a lightly used set of La Bella Deep Talkin flats and prefer them to the Fender flats on my real Telebass. My HB weighs in at 9.47lbs, and here's a picture of mine

No problem - to you, £750.

Tell 'em it's angled to aid dispersion etc and they'll snap 'em up, lol

That is fantastic looking*!!! *except the bridge. 2 saddle bridges are the work of satan

No problem - see post above - to you, £450.

arrghghh, the top-right tweeter makes my brain itch..........

Thats why i dont like jam nights or jamming. Theyre not jam nights, theyre play something the guitarist can noodle over and show off nights.

It could be that the Line level signal that was being sent from your Sansamp was connected to a Mic level input by the soundman. I had this a while back, and e-mailed Tech21 about it, fearing my pedal had broken, they were very helpful and just advised to select the -20db setting if it happened again.

I've not had a look for any more recent videos of it on bass, but note that all of Patrick Hunter's demos are recorded into a Line6 Ampeg model and Juan from pedals and effects into a mic'ed up SVT. So both have a heavily coloured slightly dirty tone as their clean baseline, which means you aren't just hearing the pedal there. They could be demoing a clean boost pedal that would sound like a great overdrive since it's just pushing the amp into more saturation. Always try and find clips of whatever you're interested in recorded direct to contrast and compare!

Well, after some humming and ahhhing... My 50th birthday present turned up last Friday. Fender Precision Professional in Candy Apple Red, from PMT in Manchester. Initially I was wanting a Precision Active Deluxe (in surf pearl) but after trying one in Dawsons and comparing to the American Pro they had it was clear that the American version for far superior – to me anyway. Possibly just down to the string through body, but it just literally sang, felt so much more alive and I thought the quality of ‘heft’ was particularly telling – it felt more solid. Then after spending an hour or so on my birthday (with an unusually attentive wife...!!!) trying their American Pro (which actually didn’t feel brilliantly set-up compared to the one at Dawsons) I picked up a Nat Mandel Precision. flip, I wish I hadn’t!!! Immediately the output of its Quarter Pounders was so marked – quite a bit louder and with a more pronounced growl – also I think the neck was more appealing, very familiar to my Yamaha BB424 so that was probably the reason it felt good. But, the Pro won out for me. It’s a special thing to me this – I can’t see me spunking this much money again on a guitar – I know, I know it’s only a bloody mid range bass, but as I say it’s a special purchase this so it had to be the American Pro – plus you get a lovely case too Ordered it last Wednesday and it arrived on Tuesday, but could only pick it last Friday due to work commitments. Picked it up and its perfect!! I’m a fussy git, but couldn’t find a single thing wrong with it – both in how it plays and cosmetically. The boys and PMT were awesome too – unknown to me, my Mum and Dad had nipped in 4 days earlier to pay off the remainder after my deposit and they played along with it right up until the end when I was about to pay when they then gave me an invoice saying nothing to pay! They also chucked in guitar stand too. Played it on Saturday night at a gig and it was brilliant - the neck is definetley different to what I'm used to, but it's by no means a negative. The action is so much better, more easier to play and it’s tone is unmistakably P-bass, plus got lots of comments on the colour from the ladies too – really, really pleased with it. ...Just need to learn to play proper now.

I think there's some confusion over 'Geezer' v 'geezer'..!

Maybe not if already steeped in the current system, but if starting from scratch, one would play the note written, each and every time. It's a bit like reforming spelling. We (the Old Folks...) are quite used to the anomalies, but how to explain the logic behind the pronunciation of Cholmondeley, for instance..? Those 'in the know' find it to be instinctive, but it's daft, really. Still, I'll be thanked for the idea only posthumously, I fear.

I shall be using this technique at our gig on Friday to play 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. It's what Dee Dee would've wanted.

Haha - I misread that as "I agree, a CTM100 gets me stubby immediately" oo-er

Thank you all for your kind words and get well wishes. I’m very grateful. 😊 I was at a neighbours house at the weekend, and all the floors were bare, varnished, highly polished floorboards, and after dinner, whilst going down some steps, I lost my footing and came crashing down on the stairs themselves. My right forearm took the main hit, resulting in a deep open wound which bled profusely at the time. I was rushed to hospital in a state of shock, and it was confirmed I’d broken my arm too. (First break ever!) I spent the night in hospital and had my arm operated on the next day to clean and close the wound. It’s now in a cast and sling. My whole of my back is also badly bruised, and the side of my face took a hit too. After being given copious amounts of morphine at hospital, I’m now taking strong oral painkillers and antibiotics here at home. Unfortunately, as well as the injury, I’m now going to be missing a lot of work whilst I’m incapacitated. Poor Lucy now has two males at home who can’t look after themselves! 😉 Thank you all again for reaching out. All the best, Dave.

Hope they don't take any flack, they have been informative and played with a straight bat. I think that's all we can ask for, as well as good customer service

Not good news but currently BF cabs can cost less than many other quality cabs, for instance Mesa, Aguilar and Genzler. They are a better buy than some cabs that are cheaper but in order to get the equivalent performance you'd have to buy 2. Sadly, Brexit is going to screw with lots of companies price lists especially if they use imported components in their products and the economy won't see the worst of it for several years. This was an entirely foreseeable situation pre Referendum.

You're probably much better than you think you are.

It was a joke.

Thanks! I think the thicker strap one sounds to be the best. I'll have a look. I did see the flappy ones you're talking about and I think that could get annoying. As for hair hiding the strap, I haven't even got enough hair to hide my head these days unfortunately! What with all these age related loss of things, I probably shouldn't be headbanging in the first place. Growing old disgracefully! Cheers again for the input.

The great thing about Basschat is that you can always find an expert on something.

Dave, sincerely hope you get well soon. Met you at the Gallery last year (or year before?) and we chatted about Hammer films and playing with a pick. Look forward to seeing you back in the saddle.

While I'm here has anyone come across this fella called Davey Pollitt who goes under the name of cambridgebasslessons. Just been checking out his guide to Mark King basslines. excellent stuff IMO

*points at door* Get out.

Or stick a good quality active circuit like an East or Audere mounted on a Jazz control plate and you can boost the low and mids a bit. I put an Audere in my Frankenjazz and it was a monster!

Looks like he was also on acid when he went shoe shopping... matching sizes are overrated innit!

Quick update... Leszek's just messaged to tell me a trial model is en-route to Geordieland :-) He says: 'It isn't the final design, but let's treat this matter like experiment ok? Amp sounds brighter caused by the speaker transformer I have used in this one. I am happy to hear your opinion, but ultimately I will use the transformer with a darker sound.' So... we'll see what happens! It's arriving just in time for a solid week of rehearsals, so I'll have loads of time to try it. At some point I imagine it'll be going on a grand tour of the UK, so watch this space.