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Andy is a top guy and I never expected to see the bass again after 2 years - to say it made my week would be an understatement! My lesson learned is always unload the car post practice and gig regardless of whether you're knackered and it's chucking it down and get insured..... the other guitar, an ACG, was returned in similar circumstances a year ago by a great guy in Hebden Bridge As Andy says bass players are a fantastic community of like minded souls - my faith in human nature is reaffirmed! Cheers Justin

Hi everyone, I'm posting this story because it reinforces what a close-nit community that we musicians, and in particular, bass players are. Some of you might have noticed recently I advertised on basschat a lovely Paul Everson Caiman bass for sale. I acquired the bass through a trade about a year ago with a guy who advertised it on Facebook. We met in a service station. I swapped a very nice 4 string Shuker bass for the Everson, had a nice chat with the fella who bought it and returned home. Whilst we were talking the lad confessed to me that he had found the Everson Bass in one of those second hand chain stores that have 'cash' in the title. He knew next to nothing about basses but had liked the look of it and bought it. He then tracked down Paul Everson on Facebook to get some info about the bass. I loved the bass. It appeared to have been treated quite badly. The electrics were shot and it was covered in a weird thick dust. I had it cleaned, sorted and set up and quickly picked up another Everson that appeared on Facebook. That was around a year ago. I recently decided to sell the caiman. Id always had a little niggle in the back of my head about 'Cash _________' and wondered if I'd been a little naieve in my trust. So to put my mind at ease I contacted Paul (Everson) who told me he had sold the bass through the great British bass lounge. I then contacted Drew who was running the lounge and asked them both if any Everson basses had been reported stolen. They both did some digging and came back with a resounding no. Drew had a record of a sale to a lad called 'Justin' who lived near Bradford (I'm in Macclesfield). So back to present day. After advertising said bass on Facebook and BC I received a message from a lad called Justin who explained to me that this was his bass and that he'd had it stolen in early 2016. I immediately phoned him and we discussed at length what to do. Now the dilemma. Justin hadn't been insured and had lost the bass along with a whole heap of equipment. He had been scouring the Facebook sites to try and recover the bass for the last 2 years. I had essentially swapped a 900 quid Shuker with it. The lad who had bought the bass oringally had moved the Shuker on. We were all victims of crime and it was a difficult puzzle to unravel. Justin had contacted Yorkshire police for advice and they had said it was a civil matter. Anyway the final result is that we met the following week and Justin got his bass back. It was a great end to a saga and needless to say Justin was chuffed! Just a big shout out to Paul Everson and Drew for caring enough about this story to help me with my clumsy detective work and a big shout out to Matthew who contacted me on behalf of (current) BBL. The photo below is of Justin (on the left) recieving his beloved bass back! Moral of the story. Cash ___________ are a store I like even less now and Bass players are awesome folk. Andy

The OP made a comment in reference to politics, but it does bring up some interesting parallels. On one hand you have uninformed opinion based on 'belief' and a lack of ability to comprehend simple facts (about compression), and proudly shouting about it. Meanwhile on the other you have a rational explanation (of compression) from people who know what they're talking about, which gets completely ignored. It's an interesting reflection of divisions that exist elsewhere.

3 to 5 coats in and things are looking satiny

I think from a legal perspective you’re okay with that statement unless it’s leopard print

Only just received this 92 thumb.

I can only see your fingers

Sure it's overkill if you only play at home, but if said 800 watt amp is still cool to the touch at bedroom levels, then there's no reason why the cooling system couldn't be designed to be as silent as possible up to a certain temperature threshold, only kicking in the loud fan when it's really needed. I need to store my amp and cab in my room regardless, so I use it for low volume practice instead of having to buy a separate practice amp that takes up more room and doesn't sound as good!

Oh man I laughed so hard at that, a worthy choice for quote of the week methinks!

Saw this one for sale in Chichester on Gumtree. Under @Elfrasho's budget and looks like a lot of bass for the money but more importantly has a slimline neck...

Please lay off the politics and religion, folks. Ta. 👍

I thought of adding some inlayed swifts instead of the dots but then figured life is too short...

well, I changed my mind. I'm keeping it. It's just too nice to play. The Yamahas have an interesting look and sound good but they've never felt "right" when I tried them.

Why would you say such a thing!!!!! The example looks nice......

One Control pedals are built by magic elves. I don't know how else to explain how they can cram in so much into a 1590A enclosure and still have room for a 9V battery!

Ive said it for years - change the names of these pedals from 'compressors' to something like 'sound balancer' and people would get it more and know what theyre aiming for. Ps i know sound balancer is a terrible name, but you know what i mean. The name compressor immediately gives the image of squashing and squeezing the tone, which it doesnt need to be used for.

Just teamed up with a great vocalist who is also a voice coach. She proudly claimed she could teach anyone to sing and I couldn't resist. No band I've ever been in would let me near a microphone unless there was a fire and we needed to clear the room. I sing like a cow with a throat infection giving birth to a tumble dryer. However she has taken up the challenge. All of the work so far has been around understanding my body, breathing properly, hissing and humming. Not a word has passed my lips in three lessons and I am amazed to find the process fascinating. I'm actually excited to continue and while I still doubt her chances of getting a noise from me which wouldn't startle passers by and cause the dogs to hide, I am enjoying finding out just how a real singer goes about their business. Turns out that they actually practice every bit as hard as we do. The voice really is an instrument which requires work. Who knew? My respect for vocalists will of course never be more than marginally higher than that with which I esteem guitarists, but I do feel slightly less contempt for them.

You should probably just think that

same way that a flirty new girl at work makes you horny for your wife again wait, what?

To this... The new board is already full, so I think (hope?) that should mean this is now going to be a pretty 'final' incarnation. For a little while anyway! (I suspect @Skol303 may be surprised to see a particular type of pedal on both boards; a direct consequence of too much tilting at windmills )

...my brother still lives there so I borrow his residents parking permit

If you have decided to do it why not just go totally flat? I've got 2 ACG's with flat fingerboards and love them. Wouldn't go back to a radius if I was speccing a bass build.

Nice shot of my thumb from the gig last night

Ah cheers. Food for thought there. On GAK at the moment, you can pre-oder a Yamaha BB734a for about £630.. That made me twitch a bit but I'm waiting for some overtime to come through at the end of the month so im holding my nerve, plus its ordering from GAK which can be...eventful. Its also very tempting to just order a Sire based on Feedback. I'd get the Natural Ash P7. 150 for that Cort sounds like a bit of a steal. Im seduced by the wood grain and clear scratch plate, but again reviews are very good. I'm using one of the new Rockbasses at the moment. Im trying to force myself to love it but can't, but am making a little headway and am currently on 'quite like it' so its taking the heat off. Just have to avoid alcohol and arguments with the wife..the two things that make me click 'add to basket' quickest.

Everything. All using in ears... Keys DI'd, The guitar player was using a Helix DI'd with no amp/cab. The bass player had the only cab on stage but most of his volume through the PA....

I thought you never take the easy option!!.....

@andysg42 As has been said a few times already, the Genzler Magellan sounds like it ought to be on your shortlist, if not at the top of it! Please check out my review as linked by @Al Krow a couple of posts up. As an update since the review, I've been gigging mine for a year now and cannot fault it. The simple but effective tone stack allows me to EQ to any difficult room in seconds. You mentioned in your original post about "a bit of simulated tube warmth" and the Magellan absolutely nails it, IMO. It's a subtle drive with bags of those critical mids that you need for an effective drive sound in the mix. It's silky smooth too, neither gritty, fizzy or with a bloated low end mush. I cannot fault the amp in any way even though our honeymoon period has long since passed

Excellent review. And great that you're so delighted with the pedal! Hopefully it will also put to bed the view, that some folk seem to harbour, that there is any loss of low end with this pedal Are you using the pedal at 9V or 18V (or somewhere in between?)

Oo-er, missus. I found that when I used a Zoom B1on as an always-on preamp, I gravitated towards one sound that I liked (consisting of a combination of amp sims, cab sims, SansAmp sim, compression and noise gate) and I used that for everything as it sounded truly great. Do you think the Stage will likely be used in the same way or will people bother to select and change sounds for different songs, or what? If the former, it would seem a bit crazy to have all that capability, find one sound you like, then use that sound exclusively. When this happens with a £40 stomp box it's not an issue, but when you're obviously buying into the Fender modelling-amp thing..? Edit: Re the modelling list, above: I can see myself using one or two of the amp and cab models, but as for Effects, Stompbox, Modulation, Reverb and Delay models? They would remain unused. Which begs the question, would it not be better (in my case) to go for a V3 Combo and (if necessary) use another B1on for anything else I wanted? I really like the baked-in 'tone' of the V3 combos... to buy a Fender modelling combo then select the 'Fender V3 Combo' sim would seem a bit silly. But then if you want the convenience of a light(ish) combo but the sound of a (for example) Ampeg SVT, then I can see the attracton - IF the Ampeg SVT model is convincing enough for the job. I await sound clips with bated trousers...

I used my new Stage 800 live for the first time last night at a gig near Bolton and the whole band - even the drummer - complemented me on the sound. There are so many different settings and options but I found one that gave me the perfect right blend of vintage vibe I like with a bit of mid tone punch which is curiously called "young lust"!

I use a Tecamp Puma 900 which has a "Taste" knob (who comes up with these names??) which allows you to dial in either a more old school or hi-fi tone. Or a Demeter HBP-1 800D but these are now direct from the USA (I think?)

Didn't the MOD develop these as wide-area anti-personnel devices?

A feel good story indeed. A very well done to you 👍

What sort of music do you play? It might help narrow the options a bit.

I have found the same thing happens when I play different music.I am in two bands that play essentially the same type of jazz/swing music but one is a quartet where we just use a lead sheet for melody and chords and the other band is a seven piece swing band where we play professional arrangements from charts and that demands real concentration and accuracy.Each band requires a different type of playing, in the quartet I can be more creative and in the septet I have to be right on the money or the arrangement doesn't work.One result is that my reading skills have gone up a lot and using some ideas from the arrangements I have started to be more inventive in the quartet. I also feel better playing bass after a session where I play guitar or banjo, like you, bass is the right instrument. And we are all so lucky that we have music in our lives!

Certainly does, the pub is run by a committee, no one on the committee has ever run a pub before

That is hilarious !

My R8 single cut spec attached...note the weight! 1426.pdf

I will. But it's really less combative than it might seem. The necessity for using compression is borne out of the laws of physics and well-recognised good practice in sound engineering. It's not something subjective, like whether a new set of strings makes your tone sound 'better'. It's proven by the measurable behaviour of sound traveling through air. All quite dull and predictable, really. The short story is that every bass player should use a compressor. Because the bass guitar is an instrument capable of producing extremes of both low and high frequency energy, and there's not a cat-in-hell's chance that anyone can compensate for that by 'good technique' alone, least of all during a live performance. This is why 100% of sound engineers apply compressors to bass, to compensate for the 50% of bass players who apparently don't. Ultimately it's not essential. Just like changing your strings regularly isn't essential. But the question as to whether it's beneficial has been answered long ago, which is why I find threads like this a little tedious (no offence). Compression is complex and very different to the majority of other FX we apply to our instruments, where we plug something in and turn a dial until we hear a noticeable difference. And I think that is partly why it confuses some people and leads others to believe that it's a case of the Emperor's New Clothes. What I find odd is how this confusion seems most prevalent amongst bass players - the very people who stand to benefit most from compression. You just don't get threads like this appearing on sound engineering forums. Instead, you just get endless debate about 'which compressor is best for bass'... and that's just as tedious! Anyway. Next time I record some bass I'll post some clips of the dry signal and the same signal (at the same volume) run through a compressor - and also both again in the context of a mix with other instruments - so you can hear the difference. Until then, my advice would be to cease tilting at windmills

You value the opinion of someone close far more than some random strangers. I will blast out backing vocals to a pub full of people but still wary of fully going for it in the house. Similarly I want to do some lead vocals and have been practicing a couple of songs hard to keep the quality whilst playing and making good progress. May take a couple of beers to step up to singing the lead at a gig though.

Years ago we had a new keyboard player and were rehearsing to go "up north" for 3 days. He casually mentioned that he now couldn't do the middle gig and could we get a dep. There then followed a pretty uncomfortable 15 mins while he was fired, packed up his gear and left the room. This is why I prefer to be friendly with the guys I play with but not their friend. Try to keep personal feelings out of playing.

Surely with packing up all that kit it was the longest storming out it could possibly be. Did noone say anything during the packing up? I'm imagining 5 minutes of angry packing while the band looks on in awkward silence...

FYI an older, regular Model T has appeared on Ebay. Ash, maple neck..looks quite nice. It's in Birmingham which is too far for me but might be worth a look to get an idea of quality etc. I wouldn't have thought It'll go for too much. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Schecter-Model-T-Bass-Guitar/112846248469?hash=item1a46291a15

But can you get mwah out of a whoopee cushion??

Hi, I'd listen to some of that before you buy. I love this music but the singles don't always represent the album tracks.