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Yep, just got home after having attended both days. Arrived quite late yesterday and missed all the workshops/seminars but got in a couple of hours worth of gear-drooling. Spent some time with Alan Cringean of ACG who was an absolute gent and had some glorious basses on display. I had the pleasure of playing a lovely red P-Retro 5 string which I fell a little bit in love with. Just before closing time I got chatting to Scott Devine who asked if I was coming to the pub afterwards. The answer, obviously, was yes. So off we all went (many of the show’s exhibitors, SBL faculty as well as ordinary folk like myself) to The Albion. On arrival it transpired that the pub were hosting a LBGS jam night, kicked off by Dave Marks who had to promptly leave for a gig after playing the opening number. Before long one of the guys I’d gotten chatting to earlier in the day started spreading a rumour that I wanted to sing. I soon had a small rabble of folk peer-pressuring me to get on stage! To be fair there was a distinct shortage of vocalists so after putting it off a bit I obliged. Got to close the evening with a bit of Never Too Much followed by a blagged rendition of Superstition. It was great fun and I got to meet some great musicians! When the pub kicked us out many of us trawled to the Hilton for another bevvy. Got chatting to Thomas Eich who was happy to talk shop, clearing up a few questions I had re: the Tecamp/Eich split. I didn’t stay long though as I wanted to get to the show a bit earlier today so as to sit in on a couple of workshops. So today I saw the Scott Devine workshop followed by Rich Brown who was incredible. Wanted to stay for Henrik Linder but got caught up in a wild goose chase looking for John East! In the end I never did find him, much to my dismay. Spent some time at the Aguilar stand, wincing at the prices of their pedals. Also, wincing at their ludicrous signal path: Filter Twin > Chorusaurus > Octamizer > Agro > TLC Compressor > Grape Phaser. I was gagging to tear their board apart and reorder the whole lot . To be honest I was mainly there to try the new Grape Phaser but it was borderline impossible to tell if it was any good or not because there was too much ambient noise and I felt like the TH500/SL112x2 setup wasn’t able to cut through it with any real clarity. It may have been wise for Aguilar to do what many of the other exhibitors were doing and provide a couple of Phil Jones headphone amps. Towards the end of today I had a chat with Nick Smith (haven’t seen him in about 10 years) with whom I lamented the absence of several British companies. The likes of Barefaced and Alpher Instruments, amongst others. Bit of a shame not to see them at LBGS to be honest. All in all though, a great weekend was had. I met some lovely people and saw some great playing. I was a first-timer and it wasn’t the mad slap fest I had anticipated, though of course there were moments of it. I’d happily go again next year.

Mwaaaahahaha....😌

Enjoyed today, although didn't manage to bump into many of you unfortunately! Bobby Vega on the main stage was brilliant. Steve Lawson was okay but didn't really connect with the room at all, lots of people leaving quite quickly which was a shame. Gear wise, I come away GAS free really, nothing tearing me away from Warwick any more, although I was thoroughly impressed with the Tuli basses! Amazing craftsmanship. Eich stand was annoying, far too loud, especially the guy with the ridiculous quad neck bass, noone at the Bass Direct/Darkglass/Earthquaker/Flately stands could hear themselves think when he was playing that thing. Its funny, everyone I spoke to thought the same, Im sure they must have done more damage to their brand than good over the course of the two days.

final (and much simpler) version of the REAN connector retaining block. no screws & no clips this time - just a one-piece printed part attached with 30mm wide velcro

If you want that dull thumpy flats thing just buy normal Roto rounds and play one gig, job done

I’m almost back in Amsterdam, and I enjoyed the show a lot The lay-out was better than two years ago (I wasn’t there last year) and although I hung around at the Eich stand mainly (who tried the Bass Board?). Sorry about the noise now and then. We try to keep it down whenever possible but some people love to crank up the amp when we’re not watching. We sometimes had some problems talking when someone was trying out the Darkglass pedals or a Vanderkley amp, so I hooe we can find a better solution for that next year. Testing amps is always a hard thing at a show like this. Personally, the four-neck bass wasn’t my fsvourite either and I’ve turned down the amp multiple times there. But as I said yesterday, please please ask us about the volume next time. We rarely got comments from the lady with the decibel meter, and especially today the guys from Bass Direct didn’t complain either. It’s hard to hear how loud you are on the other side of the room when you’re standing next to an amp I occasionally walked into the luthier’s room or the hallway to have a chat with Sander de Gier, Andrew (of Anaconda basses) or other great folks. Absolute peak for me was the Dingwall Combustion 5, the trans white one. It fit my hands perfectly and it’s an amazing match with the Eich amps. Might save up some cash to buy one soon. Another plus for me is always the city, I’ve visited London many times already and it just feels like home somehow. I already saw some photos on Facebook, looking forward to seeing more shots!

Yes they really are. I had one, sold it, regret it. The story of my life. Well, my life since joining Basschat that is...

In May I'll be meeting in Leeds, with a colleague from Scotland. After the meeting I'll be driving home and on to see my customers in the south counties. So, I could drop it into Wal. So as you may not be a tearing hurry, maybe my colleague and I can help?

Thanks everyone for the brilliant replies, much appreciated. I bought a Fusion Urban direct from Fusion. I’m really happy with it. I like the external padded thing that you can move around. I bought the guitar version which is excellent. So nice that I can carry my bass around and not need to worry about bumping it when I walk through doorways or along trains.

My first interest in Fretless bass guitar was Boz Burrell with Bad Company, followed by Jaco and then Pino. I would say that between Bernard Edwards, Louis Johnson and then Pino, my interest in playing Stingrays was born and when an immaculate 1993 example cropped up on You Tube about ten years ago I couldn't resist - actually playing all those bass parts recorded on a Fretless on a Fretless rather than a fretted bass (as I did previously) is great fun - a good, and probably not obvious example is Feel Like Making Love by Bad Company - sounds better on a Fretless 😏 However this should dispel any idea a Fretless can't be aggressive sounding as well - excellent slap sound as well as Fretless sound - along with Pino's ever impeccable groove. Musicman Stingray and Trace Elliot I think.

EBay, by comparison would charge 10% They won't be standing about in the shop, supervising people "testing" out your bass. They won't hang around after hours waiting for another punter to try it on the way home from work. EBay don't get sellers calling 3-4 times a week for a report on who tried it and why they didn't buy. EBay won't offer your buyer a 6month after sales warranty. And for the added 5% you won't have your buyer calling PayPal to say it never arrived/not as advertised... can I have a refund please?

I've put my Suhr J Bass with the Gallery to sell for me and I'm very happy to accept their commission. They get the right sort of customers for this bass through their door and browsing their web site etc, plus they will ship...meaning I don't have to. I could have put it on eBay and suffer the charges from both eBay and potentially PayPal and in all likelyhood have to ship it too (not to mention all the tyre kickers with stupid low ball offers and so on) So all in all I beleive that for a high value bass, like mine, a commission sale at places like the Gallery do represent fair value.

I have attended every show since it began. I visited yesterday and noted the differences. The large hall has been partitioned into zones. The upside of this is the feeling of greater intimacy and less noise spill. Several repeat exhibitors have downsized their stands. To my mind, this did not reduce things from a visitors point of view. As an ex-exhibitor, I know that this reduces the amount of effort involved to load in and out. Consequently, we all gain because it makes the exhibitors more likely to rebook for the next show. I thought the luthier demonstration area near the cafe was a great idea. It gives people a place to sit to eat and drink whilst watching something relevant. Another improvement, albeit a small thing, is the lanyards have been replaced by wristbands and e-ticketing. This is not only more efficient it is also more environmentally friendly. I didn't attend any clinics or shows but I know these have become a real draw for visitors. All in all, in my opinion it is an improved show and that we should be grateful for Future to be putting on and allowing a focal point for the bass community.

MiniMert and I quite enjoyed the Little Stubby. The overdriven tones are sublime and it goes quite loud, I’d say louder than the CTM30 but I’m basing this on fuzzy memory only. The feedback control is very cool, it literally feeds the signal back through the preamp valve (pre EQ) to thicken up the tone and add more “girth”. It also adds more volume too. The drive control seemed quite sensitive, below around 10 o’clock there seemed very little if any signal passing through, then it suddenly burst into life with warm thick valvey goodness. After about 12 o’clock you start dialling in more and more grit and overdrive - this thing is a monster for a hellish dirty tone. It’s not something I use a lot of but I can see myself trying it more, hehehe. Anyhoo, the pic is of MiniMert, sensibly defending his ears from the slapathon, giving my the all clear to buy it 🤓

i just joined the club!!! ive been looking for a tasty P 5er then i came across this.... well happy

Hi, I have just joined today after visiting basschat stand at London Bass Guitar Show. Looking forward to seeing what goes on and getting involved. I'm in Weymouth Dorset so up for hearing from others in the area as I don't have any bass playing friends! (and love the chance to chat all things bass at the show) Cheers

Hi all I had a bit of a moment during a pressured sound check swapping out our support band last weekend. Problems with one pedal and I just needed it off the board quickly. With all the plumbing , and being faced with a pedal sized gap ( just too big for the patch lead!) I suddenly remembered a female to female jack adapter I had in my 'bits box.' Stuck that in place of the miscreant pedal, rocked the joint- hooray! I'm keeping one handy from now on - mine are Rean NYS236, only a couple of quid.

Most of my problems come from manual work so adjustments in my job were also required in this journey. I have to admit that I carried on playing the short scale bass for several years after my symptoms subsided which took about 6 months from memory. Even now I can only play certain fullscale basses without having issues, strap height and how the bass hangs seem critical to me. Whilst this may seem weird, throughout the day and when going to sleep I try to always keep my fingers straight as much as I can instead of having them curled, not sure if this helps but it seems that as you get older you can have problems straightened your fingers so in my mind this should help?

This thread from Talkbass might be of some help : https://www.talkbass.com/threads/carpal-tunnel-syndrome-cts-info.922789/

If it is indeed carpal tunnel syndrome, "muscle strengthening exercises" are not a recognized treatment. CTS should be straightforward enough to diagnose from your symptoms plus some simple tests +/- formal nerve condition studies if there is any doubt. I'd go back to your GP to discuss the Physio's opinion and would be wary of anyone who tells you that you have CTS and then sends you off to figure out some hand exercises...

Nope , another company . It just has a similar feature set as the Noble - apart from the lack of pedal power . Also a fair bit cheaper too .

They are indeed I feel very lucky getting one from the 80's which I honestly believe was Peavey's best era, mainly for the wide range of basses (in our case) that were available. You had Foundation Dynsbass .Fury, Patriot to name a few & all Made in the U.S.A, and they didn't cost a fortune & I always liked their pointy headstock. I own a Foundation from 1992 and even though it has the Super Ferrite pickups the overall build quality and look for me is not as good as it was in the 80's.

iReal Pro works for me.

I went today and thoroughly enjoyed Jah Wobble and Mo Foster, both on the main stage. The Guy Prat masterclass was very entertaining, albeit not much masterclass but still a great discussion with some very funny anecdotes. Also went to the bass set up with Rob Elrick, he seemed to be replacing Mike Tobias - perhaps a little basic for some but for me, certainly interesting, he popped a couple of myths and elevated my opinion of luthiers and the knowledge involved to create a decent bass. I popped into Yolanda Charles' masterclass which sounded great but left to go to the Rich Brown workshop which was so packed I did not make the effort to find a seat. I think that room did very well attendance wise today. I liked the room division idea. On a more negative note, I was left only feeling whelmed by the exhibitors. Some new luthier names, to me, which was good but overall it felt a bit limited. I found nothing that inspired any GAS, even remotely (I even brought my own headphones and a fully loaded bank card!) - see caveat below. Like others I was not impressed by the volume from the Eich stand. I felt sorry too for the Wobble / Foster performances, the auditorium was less than half full for both bands. Perhaps the weather was still causing issues for potential attendees. In the past I have managed to be entertained for both days or at least for one total day. Today was tough, I originally wanted to stay for Peter Hook but after four hours attendance, I was done and could not muster up the enthusiasm to hang around for another two hours and so left. Perhaps I was not in the right frame of mind, but even so, I did leave feeling just whelmed. My only purchase? A £1 Basschat lanyard!

Sweet bass, those old foundations are excellent.

you tube?

When I first picked up the bass in the 80s I swapped my Yammy BB300 for a Thunder lll. I didn't have it long when I ripped out the frets. Shortly after that I one t back to guitar exclusively, but since returning to the bass at the turn of the century, I've pretty much always had a fretless (or 2) and wouldn't be without one now. If I was only allowed one bass, it would be a fretless. I blame Pino.

I got my Yamaha BB424x for silly low money and I can happily confirm that the label "precision killer" is completely justified. Sounds absolutely lovely with flats or rounds, then you've got the added benefit of having a J pup and a PJ scooped sound.

The WB-100 had me dribbling if I am honest, sadly beyond my present budget but it looked and sounded fantastic from the clips he put up. I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Ashdown, we have a couple of their higher end combos at work and I just can’t get them to sound exactly how I want, which is a bit odd as I am a great TE fan. Perhaps they have just been messed with once too often. They aren’t bad by any stretch but just don’t make me want to run out and buy one. As for the marmite orange, they just do their thing, the sound fits what I need perfectly but they won’t be for everyone by any stretch. It does do a surprisingly good clean sound though, which coupled with a pair of BF cabs makes for the most transparent bass sound I have come across personally, but that’s not what they (or this thread) is about andmits the growl that really makes it come alive. The 1000w version Imhave is obscenely loud and I can’t imagine where you would use that power to be honest. Anywhere big enough to need it would surely see you DI through a desk but there you go. If you are ever in the midlands you are more than welcome to give it a try.

@Cuzzie are you on commission from: a) YouTube b) dUg Pinnick c) Tech 21? d) All of the above? As that's the third posting of the above clip in the space of a morning. Love the enthusiasm bro. Well here's the thing: I've just got my Sandberg TM4 with flats, full bridge humbucker, active mode with treble notched up and bass EQ notched down a touch to deliver that 50s / 60s retro sound I associate with semi-hollow basses of the period. Do you know what, I don't care if my band-mates or the pub audience don't notice it - I bloo*dy love it!! And it's definitely adding zest to me wanting to pick up the bass and work through 2 hours+ of material for the band. I think no-one disagrees we should do everything we can to avoid a sh*t tone (get the EQ right, stop the bass sounding boomy etc) for the sake of the audience, but I'm completely on board with getting a great bass tone, which maybe only we as bass players may notice, 'cos it's our passion and it makes picking up the bass that little bit more rewarding.

@tonyxtiger I'll have one. Perfect birthday prezzie for myself. I've been trying to mess about with guitar amp and bass amp rigs so this will make it easy. Good enough for dUg, more than adequate for me

No, I wasn't laughing at you for not being able to deal with snow. I've been in Virginia when 1" of snow shut everything down. It can be horrible when you're somewhere where they don't have the infrastructure to deal with it. Just trying to inject some humor. Hopefully it'll warm up to where you all can get back to normal weather........rain.

I alternate between these two basses most of the time. The fretless however, just feels like "home" when I'm playing it - there's something special about playing unlined fretless.

I learned on a fretted, but quickly switched to fretless. Fretted didn't get used so sold it. 15 years on, still only play fretless. So much more expressive.

That’s the one for me as well, the fretless was bought for the couple of songs off there we cover.

That would have been 22+ Rolls of film in the old days!

I used to play this in my last band. Great song for some improvised fills in the chorus, reactions from the crowd usually reveal the bass players.

Not sure how a singer could change the tempo without dragging or pushing in most songs (which would be pretty unprofessional) as it's very rare that he or she starts the song. I definitely don't treat being in a band like a night down the pub with my mates. It's my core income and I am md in a busy function band. We would have no issues replacing a singer that tried to change things based on his or her own judgement of what tempo is right on the night. I have been lead singer in various bands including contract bands on cruises and hotels. At present I only do bvs.

Yeah sorry about that. It wasn’t me but I was at the stand and the guy was turning up the amp every time we turned it down. We’ll pay more attention to that tomorrow. Please ask us tomorrow or have somebody ask if you’re bothered by it First day was pretty cool! More people than I expected and I was really blown away by the Marleaux and Dingwall basses. Can’t wait for tomorrow, but first, beer!

I had Ten by Pearl Jam on loop in my walkman when it came out but my only fretless basses are vertical!

It's a more expressive instrument, played well.

Don’t underestimate a good standard USA Precision. I moved to a 2008 Standard (same as the post 2012s, graphite neck, rolled edges, through body stringing but minus the Custom Shop pickup) from a Limelight. Mainly because it was slightly lighter and had low mass tuners which made is easier for my 10yo son to learn on. The tonal variation isn’t as wide as the Limelight, but the fundamental tone is superb. Was minded to try out the Custom Shop pickup but tbh it sounds great as it is. I paid a decent price for it used and won’t lose out should I move it on. Oh and my son loves it...

I messaged the seller and the Maruszczyk is still for sale so I'm going to see it as soon as the bad weather clears up!

Bought David's 20th anniversary Musicman Stingray - completely in love with the bass, was in even better condition than described, and the whole process was an absolute breeze. Thanks again, absolute pleasure dealing with you!

Your wife has installed a special browser plugin that marks everything 'Sold'

Home of Sei bass you say..... Oh god that's not helping me keep my money in my pocket at all!!

This was my last experience of the the Bass Gallery. Just after Boogie brought out the Subway series of cabs, I ordered two (15s) from the shop. The first one arrived and the second took a little longer (from the Boogie end). Once I had the pair, I ran them up and there was a clear rattle coming from one of them. I did everything I could to check things over (made sure all the screws were tight etc) to no avail. Eventually, I contacted Boogie (luckily, a good mate is an endorsee) and Boogie conceded that the speaker must be faulty. Through the Bass Gallery they agreed to send over a replacement speaker. As someone who has a 'real' job to keep a roof over the family's head, I couldn't easily get time off to head up to London but the guy who was going to do the swap (I apologise for not remembering the name) actually delayed leaving for his holiday (that day) to meet me at the shop. he didn't rush around but took his time to open up the box and remove the speaker ready to swap out the rattling one. After getting it out the trouble was evident. The guy stapling in the wadding had obviously reloaded his staple gun and a block of 4 staples had dropped in and stuck to the magnet, near the cone. With those gone, the speaker behaved as it should. Having opted to keep the original speaker, I was offered the replacement one free of charge - on the proviso that I would return it if Boogie wanted it back. They never did and so I have a spare speaker in case I ever need it. I doubt I will becaue my diesel 2x15 has lasted for 30 years without fault. Before then, I had only bought a wreck of a Precision from the shop so I was not any kind of regular. I was hugely impressed by the level of service and customer care shown. For that, they will always be my number 1 store.

1966 Gibson EB-2