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This poem was in the order of service at a memorial service for a young Bass player I knew, taken too young. I appreciate that not everyone shares the poems view on bassists "place" in a band, but the sentiment was definitely shared by the young lad.🙂 Thought I'd share it.

Here's my JJ4 California Hardcore Aged 2011 model, it has the older ABM bridge, Delanos and 2 band active its a complete dream to play, sounds amazing ...

I came across this a few weeks back when i was looking for a VM5.... It made me melt a little inside when i decided on the surf green. i still dream about this bass!

I was wondering when someone would come along and - in an excess of feeling - step firmly upon on the tribute band landmine. It's always fun when that happens. The thing about tribute bands is that they are merely a variation on the time-honoured practice of musicians playing other peoples' songs. Indeed, until the Rutles came along pretty much the entire industry was predicated on the idea that songwriters wrote songs and musicians performed them and seldom the twain did meet. To my uncertain recollection the greatest popular singer of all time (Frank Sinatra) wrote (and subsequently performed) only one song in his career. If it was good enough for Francis Albert, it's good enough for me. In any event, the point is moot when it comes to bass players; apart from ten or so household names nearly all bassists have to dutifully play what they're given by The Talent, even when - as in the case of most 'originals' hobby bands - The Talent is a technically incompetent dullard with an Epiphone Lester and Himmler's way with a tune. All of which is is to say that my ranked musical preferences for a local Friday night out would be: 1. A tribute band 2. A covers band 3. Red hot needles in the eyes 4. An 'originals' band

When we set up to play in a pub, the people who are there have chosen to be there. They could have gone somewhere else, but this is where they want to be. Some (a few, a very small number) are there specifically to see us, some are there to check out the music because it's a music pub, and some are there for all sorts of other random reasons. Once we start playing, those punters who don't like rock music will leave. Those punters who don't like our particular brand of rock music will also leave, but not so quickly. Meanwhile, those punters who DO like what we're doing will be texting or phoning their mates and saying "great band on tonight, you should come down here". By the time we play our last set, the people in the pub will have self-selected to be only those who actually like what we're doing, and who will respond to the music ... dance maybe, or sing along, or at least applaud after each song. The gig is far more involving for the band, far more fun for everyone, far more likely to bring repeat bookings. ************************************************************************************ When we set up to play in a club (Social, WMC, whatever), the people who are there are always there. Most of them cannot imagine going somewhere else on a Saturday night, and if they do their friends will ask where they were. They are there for the venue and to see their friends, and the music is almost incidental. They sit there with their arms folded, staring at us, and daring us to entertain them. It's THEIR club and we are the intruders. Once we start playing, those members who don't like rock music will complain. Those members who don't like our particular brand of rock music will also complain, but not so quickly. Meanwhile, those members who DO like what we're doing will NOT be texting or phoning their mates and saying "great band on tonight, you should come down here", because the club is Members Only. After the first set, one of the members (almost invariably a guitarist, allegedly) will buttonhole a bandmate and explain in enormous detail what we are 'doing wrong', advise the lead guitarist and the drummer to play louder because no one can hear them, and then disappear into the smoker's paradise for the rest of the evening. After the second set, there will be a 30-minute hiatus while everyone pretends they've joined the Jarrow Hunger March of 1936 so that they can get excited about the Meat Raffle. Have these people never heard of Sainsburys? By the time we play our last set, most of the people in the club will be sitting grim-faced and glowering their sense of entitlement at us, waiting for us to finish so that they can return to playing Abba on the jukebox (last Saturday it was Phil Collins!). Those who actually enjoy what we are doing and want to dance will be intimidated off the dancefloor by the drunken poseurs trying to throw shapes while playing air guitar, and stumbling into the PA. The club gigs are well-paid and the venues are usually excellent ... big stage, loads of power, built-in lightshow, etc. But in truth if I never play another club I won't miss it. Silvie and I do all the gig-getting for my main band, and we have already decided not to bother with clubs at all for 2019. Life's too short.

We do What's Going On - Marvin Gaye and Let's Stay Together - Al Green near the beginning of our first set and they always go down well

She’s here!! Obligatory family shot: Have just been having a play for the past half hour or so, going through the available tones and I’m very very happy. Classic Precision growl with the split coil, more trebly bark from the bridge humbucker and blending them together kind of smooths out the characteristics of both for a less aggressive sound, at least to my ears. 2-band preamp with a treble knob which functions as a tone control in passive mode. All basses should have this IMO. So far I’ve got the preamp set identically to my Electra VS4 - treble up about 2/3 of the way and a very slight bass boost in active. Switch to passive and everything mellows out by default. Lovely. Previous owner strung it with new Rotosound Swing Stainless Steels 45-130 which I’ve never tried before but I like them well enough. I’ve got a fresh pack of Dunlop Flats which have gone churlishly unused for over a month so I’m considering putting them on. Action is perfectly playable but just a touch higher than I’d like so I’ll be lowering that at some point either today or tomorrow. The neck is somewhere between a satin and gloss finish, but more on the glossy side of the spectrum. May have to get that taken down a bit but so far it’s not nearly as obnoxious as a typical “true gloss”. There’s a scratch on the back near the neck bolts which I knew before buying. A slight downer but who’s seeing the back anyway?? What a back though: And there we have it. All in all I got a bit of a bargain for an incredibly well built, unique bass. I’ll be going on tour for a year with a theatre show from July and I can only take one bass with me. This is definitely the one. Now my MTD is feeling a bit of sibling jealousy .

Wicked tunes...if these don't get people dancin' you may want to check their pulses...

That's really hard to say after several beverages.

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My Kindle library now has Weekend Rockstars in it. 😎🎸

To celebrate it needs Rage against the machine blurting at massive volume on it. None of your smooth love bass lines

I haven't really touched any of my other basses since getting it (I think it might be the one)

I was so excited about this pedal when it was first announced........ then saw the form factor and then tried a GED2112 that I didn't get on with so eventually lost interest. I've always had a "want to love them more" relationship with Tech 21. Love the ethos and approach, like the VT Bass, never really got the bass driver or RBI . After seeing the responses on this thread I ordered one for Andertons on Saturday and it arrived yesterday (nice one Andertons) I don't know if its the marketing or photos on the website but the form factor is in fact excellent - the pedal is a compact sling in a gig back pocket and go. Not 100% sold on the knobs but time will tell. and....... It does all the things out of the box that I want in an overdrive/pre pedal and more..... sure it's a baked in tone but what a tone and it really is touch sensitive. Agree about the clean channel but in certain situations it's going to be an always on pedal. It's my favourite Tech 21 product by a million miles..... it's pricey sure but it will take a compressor, tuner and overdrive pedal out of my signal chain and I can go direct to the PA without a DI Box. Very excited about using this in a live environment.

Oops, that's what happens when you don't read the whole post :-/ I'll get me coat.

If it's in the right key and tempo you'll be fine. Good luck.

The link is to instrument cables, where shielding is required. The sales pitch is pure Monster, and just as silly. Not that there aren't factors to consider with instrument cables, mainly capacitance when used with passives. But low capacitance cable is both common and inexpensive. I found on their site shielded speaker cables, predictably aimed at the home theater/audiofool market. FWIW no one has ever come up with a speaker wire that works any better than lamp cord. Quite the contrary, expensive/complicated constructions tend to work worse. As it this case with all cable crooks what's completely lacking on their site is definitive data to back up their claims, because there is none.

Tribute cars? What, like the MINI, Fiat 500, New Beetle to name but a few. Yeah, no-one buys those...

Dear Dan Dare, The word 'tribute' has nothing to do with 'fake'. A 'tribute' is actually what is correctly known as a 'paean' - meaning 'a creative work expressing enthusiastic praise' or ' an expression of praise or exultation' (Wikipedia) This may all sound a bit nancy noo, but that's the way it is. By the way, I personally am not a huge fan of tribute bands, but, hey..........................

Scratch that LOL, the car!

I agree that just about any of the songs listed can be a bore or a suffer to get through To me though, if the crowd likes it and I can just play in auto-pilot mode then I will do it But don't ask to practice these!!!

Glad to be of service :¬) :-) and a very tidy P to PJ conversion.

We do 50's and 60's rock and roll and always go down a storm with groups up singing and dancing. We always get repeat bookings.

It looks to me like a homemade body with a Grant neck; Grants were Fender copies in the 70s, similar to Columbus.

Al Green's Take Me To The River seemed to go down well which surprised me. The band were playing the Talking Heads version and I was playing the AG bass line. I was depping and I assumed a soul band would play the original but it went well! They started with Sweet Soul Music which set the tone rather well. Ending with a couple of James Brown tunes, Papa's... And I Feel Good. Loads of Otis and Stevie in between and plenty of dancing including a conga during Love Train!!!

For a through neck, the determining factors are generally the depths of the pickups and pots or switches. For a bolt on it's more about the amount of meat needed underneath the neck pocket. It's worth checking the heel depth and resulting neck pocket thickness, but I would have thought 30 to 32 would be OK. Then you need to check how you are going to fix the neck - you will need shorter screws than the 'standard' ones or you could use set screws (which bring their own challenges!)

It you are lucky/vigilant on the second hand market there is great value out there. Got both of mine for half their new value best money spent

Sandberg are on my list for if a windfall comes in... Been waiting over a year for one that may never come though! Played one at the bass guitar show a few years back, VM4 I think, nicest playing bass I've ever tried.

Just remembered the Ibanez Roadster. Had one of these in the past and it was excellent. Mansons have this one for sale.

Well spotted dear boy, I have chastised him dozens of times about that....ya know what they are like, never be told lol!

I am an engineer (chemical) and often use tight in reference to my work, to be fair it’s when describing the boss at the bar though.

No, I've not come across that, but I'm listening to it now! We played a well-received 'Dark Star' at my first gig with the band at Hebden Bridge last Easter. It's an amazing track to play live, it takes you over completely and at the end of the track I found myself looking round and wondering where I'd been. Definitely a 'Long, Strange Trip!'

Maybe it is a personal thing then as for me there is nothing worse than a tribute band trying to look and act like the original, but I know a lot do. Not that I am a fan of tributes anyway, but the dressing up thing for me is just one step too far.

That's certainly interesting. I have an old style MB Traveller 121H cab and thinking about replacing it with a couple of BF one10 cabs, thinking that I can get away with a single one10 for rehearsal and small gigs and use two for louder gigs. Can I ask why you've moved from BF to MB?

I'm in a Police tribute. We take the whole thing seriously. I look quite a bit like Sting, I try and copy how he moves on stage and play replicas of his basses, matched with the outfit he mainly wore with whatever bass I'm using. Guitarist has a Telecaster that has been 'Andy Summers' by 'The Painted Player' guitar company Drummer has old Tama kit, in one of the colours that Stewart used, octobans too. Live, we play the studio versions but sometimes make them longer, depending on the length of the show. One of our first gigs was at a festival in Crete. Matala. We played to thousands of people with a back drop of caves. I've included a few pics, it was THE most amazing gig of my life. We went on at 1.30am just after some big Greek star. Obviously the guitarist is playing the Red Strat (like Andy's) but not the Tele.

Whenever I'm asked to dep for a band, I try to play like chris_b ...

And a very fine 50s and 60s cover band it is too...😊

well we played our club gig last night, slow start but finished up ok, people up and dancing, the usual half hour break for bingo and sticky 13's, got the end, the usual "Thank you very much we've been Verbal Warning" get the expected encore shouts, then a first, the MC announces over the PA not the expected "Thank you very much Verbal Warning, do we want another one?", no it was "Alright, who wants another game of Bingo then?" we did an encore anyway, then they had another game of bingo while we were packing away

I think it's as simple as knowing the population size, the more people the more they need entertainment and the arts. the bigger the market the greater the opportunities. Every now and then there's a lucky coincidence of great musicians that come together and a 'scene' arises in one town. London and Liverpool in the early 60's, Coventry in the late 70's Manchester in the 80's but you can't really plan for that. No-one has mentioned Bristol yet so I will, lively musically with a bit of an alternative feel. good Luck

Bought a Boss OC3 from Paul. Arrived super fast and pedal is immaculate. Nice job - cheers.

Forum rules don't allow rickenbackers in the bc marketplace because the bods at rickenbacker are a bit mad.

I'll be honest and say I'm less worried than I was, if he wants to buy at a price at which I'm happy to sell, then pay quickly, then arrange the courier, and then list it for sale using my pics, I don't see any huge problem, pretty sharp sales practice but perfectly legal and not even unethical, as he owned the bass from the moment he paid me (so the pics are of his bass). I was more concerned the bass was either going to be 'lost' during delivery or be returned 'not as described' with a Columbus in the box.

We play some unusual covers in The Wirebirds, and it's surprising how well they go down - several times we've had people thank us for playing stuff like Steppenwolf's 'The Pusher' and tell us they'd never heard it except in the movie (Easy Rider). I was not sure it was a good song to play at the average pub, but there's always a few who are singing along, having a great time.

Dave bought my Quilter BB and what an easy deal! Agreed, paid and sent delivery info within the hour and super straight forward quick sale. Hope you enjoy the Amp and I’m sure our paths will cross again mate. Deal with confidence here 👍

Quick and easy transaction wit Paul. Seems like a lovely guy, would definitely do business with him again. Thanks.

For my 50th birthday, all I wanted was a simple meal home with my lovely wife, nothing else, no fancy fair or big fiesta. And it happened just that way : to me, it's the most prized present I ever had. Getting back to your asking, just as some fellow bass players already wrote, if you are into the Wal thing, get yourself a Wal, but as Mick said, you won't have it ready for your birthday unless it's a second hand. Having owned a 4 strings fretless Wal in the 90's (that I sold and bought back twice to finally let it go to a friend who sold it I don't know where, which is a good thing ) and having tried the ACG's, I would say that I prefer the ACG's. The V-shaped neck on the Wal was something really special and the Wal preamp is a bit capricious. That said, now that I will turn 53 this August, I'm thinking of a Zon Hyperbass II or a Leduc U-Basse 6 strings fretless or a Lefay Remington Steele 6 strings (a unique metal fretboard fretless bass), but even if order one of them today, I won't get it for my birthday. And yes I'm a fretless man and proud of it.