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a ha hahahahaha!

Nice to see Diego Maradona keeping himself busy on BVs!

Getting the drummer to play quieter is like cutting the lawn with a tumble dryer.

From my humble observations and what I hear from people, venues don’t want space taken up with a full band and large speakers/amps, and they don’t want the deafening volume that a large amount of amateur bands seem to want to play at. Sadly in nice bars/clubs a full band is a bit too much for a lot of punters, but they can tolerate a quiet innofensive acoustic duo who just play ‘background noise’. There is a nice bar in the nearest town to me and they have live music a few nights a week. An acquaintance goes there fairly often with work colleagues etc as the food and drink is good, and overheard him say as soon as the local blues/rock/cover band of choice fire up for the night they all get out as soon as possible. I think a lot of the time people just don’t want to hear another band playing the same old dross or murdering modern pop tunes in their local. I’m guilty, I play in a covers band and despite being pretty good (IMO) I would probably avoid a bar with us or anyone else playing 😂

Here's the antidote ...

Thought I'd share this experience in case someone else has the same problem - it might save you some hassle/cash. A while back my MXR M87 died. The level meter was still functioning but there was absolutely no sound coming from the pedal output. I did all the usual quick fixes (contact cleaner on jacks, replaced footswitch etc) but to no avail. After a bit of digging I discovered that the output op-amp in this pedal (TLC2262 in case you were wondering) has a maximum voltage of 16V. Obviously this would normally be OK in a pedal that runs at 9V, except that MXRs "Constant Headroom Technology" feature is essentially a charge pump circuit that doubles the pedal's internal voltage to 18V. It shouldn't take a genius to work out what therefore ensues if, like me, you're unlucky. I replaced the TLC2262 with an AD822 (which has a supply voltage of 18V) and my pedal now lives and breathes again. I believe MXR will fix pedals under warranty for a flat fee of £75, whereas replacing the blown chip cost me less than a tenner and a few minutes fiddling with a soldering iron (the TLC2262 and AD822 chips are both surface mount - soldering these can be tricky unless you're experienced in doing so). It appears that mine is not an isolated issue as a quick Google uncovers many such failures, so I figured I'd pass this info on in case any other BC members' M87s suffer the same fate. Please use or disregard this information as you see fit!

I hadn't heard of Hot Rods so I googled it to see what they were... Found a thread on a drummers discussion board answering an identical question about being too loud for smaller venues, and one of them honestly suggests that to be quieter on stage the offending drummer should mic up his kit because that way they can turn the volume down through the PA

Absolutely this! Our shedbuilder invested in one about 3 months ago - same issues, he's naturally loud so the volumes creep up for everyone blah blah....... We thought we'd only use it on certain gigs where we are scaring the landlord but we've found that our whole sound is miles better with it and now use it almost all the time. As well as limiting the overall drum volume its tightened the whole sound up and i can slot the bass in a lot easier with the kick (which we put thru the pa/sub). Nobody's suffering from cymbal ears any more either. We can get a great controlled beefy sound at lower volumes. Its also a great topic of conversation with the crowd - especially when we tell them we fill it with water in the second set :-) And we're looking for some stick on Garfields to stick on the inside where he cant each them whilst he's playing.

The recommended approach is to position a piece of cord or edge of a cloth under the edge of the knob, (or the remaining insert), then pull the string/cloth upwards. Don't punch yourself in the face when it goes!

I told you at the time that joining a band with John Hall would be a disaster!

...was his solo a spoof..?

Soooooooooo been about 4 years since I bought a new bass. Wasn't out shopping (way it always goes), came across this little beauty in a friends guitar shop. The bass is a 2008 American Fender Precision 60s AVRI and frankly it's just incredible, sounds amazing. Turns out the bass was given away by the band Paramore during the promotion of the Riot album, the girl who won it didn't play so it's sat on a stand in her bedroom ever since. They definitely did more to it after this video, but it's structurally sound and sounds amazing. Now it was definitely a touring bass as I know Jeremy Davis uses some pretty low and odd tunings and this came strung with some very heavy strings, closest I could get to something that worked when trialing it was BEAD, so it wasn't just a freebie from Fender they immediately gave away. Anyway there it is, currently wearing some D'addario Half Rounds (as who has the time to wait for your rounds to go dead anymore), waiting for me to get the right session gig to use it Will it stay, who knows, but so far I'm pretty happy with it and I'm rocking a lot of Chuck Rainey lines on it currently

Brendon purchased a pocket operator from me, quick sale, money sent, deal done, can only recommend Brendon.

Hello Everyone, I'm Jacob, I have been a lurker for quite a while so thought it was time to join the conversation. I used to play a lot when I was younger, but kind of fell off after I finished at university and started 'real life'. Anyway, I recently picked the bass up again and have really gotten back into the swing of things and am enjoying it, even thinking of trying out for some bands once I get a bit more confident. My gear is pretty random, I play a 5 string LTD F-205 with a pair of EMGs which makes me look like I am going to head out church burning, picked it up from a mate who was pretty much giving it away because he had overspent. I play it through a small Ashdown After 8 combo which is perfect for my needs. I am planning on getting another bass at some point but don't know what, mainly because I don't want a 5 string because I never use the B and the LTD is very uncomfortable to play sat down but am also unsure as to what sound I want haha! Looking forward to chatting with you and contributing where I can!

I don't just play Jazz you know.

Not the Flying Machine, by any chance ?

Gibson Thunderbird, bridge pickup full on, neck at 3-5 depending on venue, then Spectracomp on standard patch at 9 o’clock, into 1000w terrorbass amp, bass 9 o’clock, mids all way on, treble 12 o’clock (gets twiddled for different venues if needed), low on gain. Then soul food for added grit if needed and a TC chorus. The AX7s are being swapped for AT7s to tone down the TB a little. It gives the low punchy sound I want with being ‘twangy’. Usually works well but was muddy at the gig on Friday but that was in a quadrangle under a marquee roof with serious issues of sound bouncing back off the wall opposite (we played across the narrow sides of a rectangle if that makes sense). The worst bit was that the onstage sound was the best I have ever had, just not as great out front, Sod’s law. The bass player in the other band didn’t suffer as badly but they were a much gentler band than us, we are fairly heavy and full on.

Hi guys, @Al Krow has decided to make a dedicated thread for us to upload recordings showcasing our synthy sounds. It is located here:

thanks for the heads up.

Somewhere in June, and no. I read it on leftybassist.com, it was posted by a member who works in a music store and got a mailing from Fender. Supposedly they're replacing the MIM Standard series, same way the American Professional replaced the American Standard.

What a fabulous use of space! I really must tidy up my garage. My first build was pretty much done on a workmate, while a perfectly good and stable workbench sat covered in cr*p. You've put me to shame Looking forward to the builds

Sounds like a couple of nice projects looking forward to see them progress

...and another one about changing our branding name to Burns. You're right about the regional shows. We did London Olympia (aka 'the London Marathon'), compared to which the Bristol and Liverpool shows were a walk in the park - and cheap too! The most famous face I saw belonged to my mate Jim, but there won't have been many other visitors at the show who knew about Tractor.

Played a few times in Paris....Rex Club.....New Morning Club....FNAC department store Make sure you've always got your ID on you and do not loiter...we were frisked by the police while hanging around waiting for our tour manager

Please say you're in a Can tribute band

Just a mini-hijack continuing on @Jimothey 's excellent explanation of the sellotape trick. I'm doing a partscaster for @Harryburke14 and he wanted something quirky on the headstock to do either with his name or associated the Peaky Blinders. I thought - ideal opportunity to try out the technique. Still got to varnish on top but even without - FANTASTIC! So, so, so much better than my previous method. Many thanks for sharing the tip @Jimothey and back to your excellent mod job @BrunoBass

How about an “acoustic” bass and a small but good combo at a suitably subdued volume? Or is it actual number of musicians that’s the issue? Or both? Or just plain plugged in phobia? Just a thought......

Norm Stockton on bass?

With a 'regular' drummer and bass player The Who would have been boring, I bet. It was KM and JE's pyrotechnics that made that band what it was. They were both pioneers in their way. If PT can't see that, he must be a ****.

"Next month, the one and only scale guitarists ever need" Doh. Rae,. Me Me Me Me Me........

Keyboard player set fire to me during the gig, City of London Poly, early 80's. Not entirely an act of musical criticism although I suspect that since we were both vying for the lower register at the time some degree of unconscious intent was involved. Lessons learned: (1) never let the stylist use a whole can of Elnett to get your hair in place, even if you are the bassist in a hair band, and (2) don't let the keyboard player flick cigarettes across the stage in your general direction when trying to act cool.

One of the upsides of writing music on my own from a darkened bunker is not to having to engage directly with other human beings during the process… unless I choose to and always remotely over the ‘Net. Saves me a ruddy fortune in hand sanitiser.

Personally, I tend to be able to put up with most people until the limits of their talent has been exhausted. I've definitely got some not very friendly relationships with former band members, but they started at the point of the sacking (or shortly beforehand). I haven't been surprised and am not fussed by them, but it always seems to be that when things are going well in the band their annoying tendencies are just little quirks like everybody else has got, and when things are going badly they are evidence of what terrible human beings they are. One in particular, was a really nice bloke, but being a lead guitarist, a bit of a c#nt. When we formed the band, me and the drummer were waiting to see exactly how he proved to be a c#nt, because there was no evidence of anything we seriously objected to, maybe he was the exception that makes the rule, great feller, good to hang out with, etc. By the time we sacked him it had all soured and we had no desire to ever see him again, and certainly never play in a band with him again, and we've all stayed out of each others way. But if he hadn't been so much of a c#nt in the band, I'm sure we'd all still get along brilliantly

My Yamaha BB604 that cost me £200 secondhand absolutely wiped the floor with the £2.5k Lull PJ4 I had at the time. Ridiculous, but sadly true. And it was better set up. Sold the Lull last year. Still got the Yamaha.

This is my Jazz, modified a bit

If you look closely you can also see this 2002 Jazz Aerodyne in the background of my avatar :-)

I suppose it's a bit early in the game to tell them to go fück themselves with a traffic cone

I bought Brendon’s Freya P51 style bass. It was a perfect and easy transaction. The bass is excellent, it was well packed and the comms were great. Spot On Brendon. 👍👍👍👍👍

Brendan just acquired some pickups from me. Swift payment, good comms, valued forum member. Thanks for your business.

Some of the ones my wife calls me I can’t publish

Brendan (not Brendon...😬) bought a Hohner bass from me. he paid up and was patient while the local post office did their utmost to look like a useless bunch of morons... thanks mate, enjoy that bass.

Starting to look expensive? Just "starting" to? 😋 I wait with baited breath for what slightly tweaked pedal darkglass break the £400 barrier with. The problem I have with stuff like this is they're mainly a one setting pedal or on and off if you prefer. For the price they're getting into now, if it doesn't have midi presets I consider it to be robbery. Consider. The strymon timeline. Arguably the best delay pedal on the market. Full midi implementation and costs less than the Darkglass stuff. Just saying. They are getting very expensive for what they are. I agree about the Helix actually. When my trusty Digitech 2120 dies, it's what I'll be getting.

Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, though just for balance I will be listening to Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children after the former has finished.