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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..?

I took out the passive circuit from my Super P today and installed a Stellartone Tonstyler. I got hold of an old 16 click bass model; they are not made anymore. Just: WOW! This is how it should be... - First position is straight to the output jack, bypassing the filter. Crisp and crunchy! - Second position is like a regular tone pot fully open. - All others have a steep roll-off, leaving much meat and potato all the way up to where it cuts. No wet blanket syndrome... - The last position is all about the dub, but with a nice full and warm low mid, giving body to the tone. Here is a nice YouTube clip demoing... No going back!

Anybody seen this? Looks amazing. ATB Guitars in Cheltenham do sell some choice vintage stuff. They also have a mint 1980 MM Stingray in at the moment. https://www.atbguitars.com/store/product/1965-fender-jazz-bass-sonic-blue-ohsc-nr-mint-1965fjbsb/

Wow, what a question 😊 The sound I have always wanted in the early days was that clunky P-bass tone. Not twangy like punk but also not thumpy like Motown, somewhere in the middle so a nice rounded bottom end but with some of those lovely P-bass tones cutting through. I pretty much got it when I bought my '78 P-bass but in most cases I have never managed it and for the majority of my playing I have used Jazz basses which have always suited my playing and have been easier to great a great tone from. I'm currently playing an AVRI 75 Jazz through a LM3 and 2x NY112 cabs and the tone is lovely. Mellow, rounded with a nice mix of mids to give a bit of growl. Is it the sound I want, well not really, it sounds lovely but safe. I play in a 50's/60's rock n roll band and I am determined to get my Precision sounding great through my rig but I tend to always fall back on the safe but great sounding Jazz bass. Maybe one day 😊

Very much hoping someone bites - I have one of these in 99.9% new condition & with original case - I quite like the idea it's worth £400+ ! BTW it's a Roadster, not a Studio.

It's important to try and listen to your sound in the context of the rest of the band, which is hard to do effectively at high volume rehearsals. I like to play along to studio recordings with different combinations of basses and preamp pedals into headphones to figure out what works best. The last couple of bands I've been in have had a very thick distorted guitar tone (e.g. Les Paul into a cranked Orange tube head). Here I've found it best to use a scooped tone to provide a pillow of low end to underpin the sound, but with a bit of crispy gain up top to add clarity and fill out that upper midrange where the guitarist and vocalist don't often tread. I used a BB1025X with both pickups on which is naturally scooped and growly anyway, into a Darkglass B3K, although the Tech21 DP-3X is my weapon of choice for this tone now. If I'm playing at the jam night down my local, totally different ball game. Often more then one guitar, but usually thinner sounding, and often a higher pitched female vocalist. To slot in here I stay out of the upper mids, go easy on the deep low end and fill out the lower mids with a P-Bass or my Sandberg Basic (a bit like a Stingray), both of which are wearing TI flats. Either straight into the amp or via a low gain drive pedal of a totally different flavour to the other setup. Full range OD with no clean blend is the order of the day here, something that produces a guttural roar from below rather than grind from up top when you dig in, e.g. SFT, BB Preamp, Beta, Agro.

Yes - I would also happily take the dust for a bit of that space I would like to take a photo of mine, but I can't move away far enough from the walls to focus the camera Looking forward to seeing the builds progress

Got plenty of my own dust, thanks anyway!! I've got about a third of my garage as a workshop and I know what you mean about wheeling things around to use them. Looking forward to seeing these builds progress. Cheers

Very jealous of your workshop!!

Lindisfarne were much more radical than people realise ...

Oh man, this is good... I know there are many who sing the praises of tks on here, but I'm over the moon. All the cliched words apply - punchy, articulate, clarity, reactive, rich, sweet... I have read that these 1x12s can be a bit lacking in bass, but at loud home volumes with rounds on a jazz and flats on a P, it sounds mega full. Flipping loud too - I'm running a Eden 260 through it, and it packs a real wallop. Rear ported, metal grilled front, recessed cable inputs, immaculately finished, very nice, thick soft case. Many happy hours to be had with this - heartily recommended...

Of course the bass is the first to go. The reason for acoustic duos is the money, either the landlord can't afford a full band or the venue is so small it can't support a full band (small space, low income from punters). Drummers can take adavantage of it with cajon if the singer also plays guitar. For a bass player it's harder but not impossible, we just need to learn to use our bass as an harmonic instrument and take the place of the guitar/keys. Here's an example of a band in Portugal that can get away with just a bass and a voice: I don't need to say that this guy is one of the best bass players in Portugal

No worries @Andyjr1515 glad I can share my wisdom

You sure it isn't one of those superinposed joke vocals over a video thing? Like

If you're curious and want to listen to it: don't. If you've already 'listened': condolences. Crikey, how one can fall so low..!

Good evening, SF, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Helluva intro chap..welcome to the madhouse, post long and often..and keep us smiling

-

I'm on a sorta' similar project. I own 2 USA SR5s and would never dare such a mod on them, so recently got a nice used SBMM Ray35 to do the P+MM franken-thing, been updating a TB thread about it. I'm waiting for delivery of a Wilde (Bill Lawrence) P-46 pickup to add to this. Also trying other pickups I have at hand with a rather "ratrod" test rig (in this photo with a cheapo -Donlis brand- pickup)... My intention is to integrate it as much as possible into the Musicman scheme, preferrably thru' the stock preamp. In the case of a P pickup I'd route the lower strings part of the P in its "standard" position but move the high strings' part towards the neck, reverse P. I'll update as soon as I do the final install. EDIT: BTW, I've made all sorts of switching mods to Stingray 5ers (both 2 coil as in this case and 3 coil as my USA SR5s). Besides this pickup addition I'm all for full humbucker flexibility. I particularly love how the neckside coil of the stock humbucker sounds when soloed (something not possible when stock either for the 3 coil -single+dummy mode only uses the bridgeside coil- and 2 coil -doesn't even have single coil mode but the "filtered series", which I don't dig at all-). Just ask via a message (not to hijack this thread) and I'll point you to threads and sample videos I've made about it. Being able to solo the neckside coil of a musicman adds a great "P meets Ray" tone in fact, all the punch, authority and cutting ability of a Musicman, plus some of that distinctive P "clonk" we all love. The bass in the photo (a 2-coil humbucker SBMM Ray35) has in fact one of those mods, which simply cut either coil for real single coil tones when in parallel (or none for the stock parallel wiring -and for the other series positions to work-). Can do 2 more tones apart from the stock 3 settings.

"the first chord in a song isn't always the key, fact or fiction?"

SkinTrade. We had single of the week in RAW magazine, appeared on ITV but people had stopped making this sort of music around '91 / '92. We were still a couple of years behind the times. Good times. Sadly, I'm the only one who kept playing.

Another - with a wall - this one taken in Athens

@GisserD there was a Sandberg Appreciation Society all along!

Quite a lot has happened in the world of Gillett since I last posted, and it’s a bit remiss of me not to have posted for a while. (I’m going to do this in easy instalments, as the forum seems to struggle with long posts made up of imported stuff.) So, where were we? Ah yes, fighting our way through the snow in a desperate bid to reach the London Bass Guitar Show. As many of you will know either from being there or seeing Silvia Bluejay’s excellent coverage on this forum (also in Bass Guitar Magazine), we DID make it – albeit a couple of hours after the show opened, and without all our customised stand-wall panels printed with colourful (and expensive) graphics for the show. This is how it should have looked… http:// …but what we actually got was a plain white shell-scheme hastily cobbled together by the show organisers (for which we were most grateful). No matter, the fact that we made it to the show at all was a great relief and anything over-and-above that was a bonus. So, how was it for us? BRILLIANT! We had a steady stream of interested visitors and, thanks to the fact that we had ace keyboard-player Paul Quinn (a mate of Michael G’s) on hand, our stand was notable as the one from which some very nice music was being made much of the time. The way we worked it was that we had a couple of ‘playing stations’ – one in the main body of the stand and another tucked round the side out of the way. When a visitor started playing in the ‘hot seat’, the versatile Mr. Q would just kind of join in with whatever they were doing. If it appeared to be working, it just took off; if not, then Paul didn’t push it. This plan turned out to be inspired and certainly made life a whole lot more enjoyable for stand personnel and passers-by, who generally stopped for a listen, a look, and usually a go on one of our basses. We had deliberately chosen a pitch just off the main exhibition area at the end of the concourse leading to the Olympia auditoriums (and the loos). In this area, there was not much noise (apart from what we were making), a constant trickle (no pun intended) of people heading for the toilets and, thanks to the packed programme of on-stage events, queues of people in front of our stand waiting for the doors to open swelled by the stream of people coming out of the previous show. One casual passer-by was Yolanda Charles on her way to her headline gig on Sunday afternoon. Like pretty much everybody who sees our Contour basses for the first time, she was struck by the sculpted look and promised to come and have a play after her performance had finished. And, true to her word, that’s exactly what she did, accompanied by a couple of her friends (another bassist and a keyboard player). The resultant half-hour jam session was an absolute joy and Yolanda made it clear that she was very impressed with our basses. http://

Sold a Warwick Streamer to Brendon, no hassles nice and easy cheers bud

cool no worries lol.

Eh? was a joke with the (I should’ve explained myself)

Kev, what I was saying was to have patches not digital distortion. Can you imagine how flexible that would be? My Sansamp PSA1.1 is all analogue signal chain with the only part of it being digital is the bit that reads the position of the knobs and stores the midi data. Best of both worlds and that's what I was trying to get across. Don't get me wrong, I've played most of the darkglass catalogue. It's great stuff, but because of its inability to recall anything it's limited as to its effectiveness. However, just salivate for a minute over the thought of a B7k ultra or alpha omega with patches. Wouldn't that kill? Wouldn't that be worth £500? As it is, I just feel it's 10% overpriced. Only my view though. It doesn't matter, as you say people will buy it at any price. Darkglass have done well creating a premium product, but I just think its too expensive. Comparisons made may or may not be fair, but it doesn't make the fundamental point being made any less valid that maybe, the stuff is a bit pricey.

I've already expressed at length how I think there are great basses, and I am a fan. Had I the cash right now, I'd be snappping off your hand for one of your cut price Cuntour S's. However I now cannot unsee that the headstock reminds me of Mr Greedy:

Just about my only preparation for the gig is make sure I drink at least one bottle of water just before going on stage, and make sure I have a pre-gig urination - at 50+ one needs to make sure their bladder behaves.