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I think my first audition made the band giggle. They're a covers band that will cover anything from gossip to audioslave to GnR. I had never been in a band before, and was terrified turning up to the audition. I'd played the bass for years, at home.... When I get there the bassist before me was just tearing down his 2 4x10 rig with Trace head and I immediately thought "shi what am I doing?" I place my 25 watt peavey practice combo next to it and tell the other bassist I was ready to bring the thunder - we have a laugh. I take my guitar out of its bag. Did I forget to mention I didn't actually own my own bass? It's my sister's that I stole years ago and it still has pink ribbons on the case. Anyway... I play my heart out and barely get heard over the thunderous drums. I place my tiny amp in a corner at head height to allow us to just about hear me and somehow I get the gig! We've just booked our 8th gig in July in front of 200 festival goers.

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Oh bollards, I put Sir first time and quickly changed it, no point changing it back, I’ve already pi55ed in my chips.

Well just picked one of these beauty up of ebay, oh man it just a beauty sound wise in real good condition its obviously live a charmed life, how much you ask I won for princely sum of £44.00 pounds , get in, happy as pig in stinky poo

These are the two fretboards I'll be using on the twins. As I mentioned before they are not wood but Rocklite a wood substitute made from wood fibres impregnated with resin. One is an Ebony and the other Rosewood substitutes, I think they are very impressive, they even have actual grain just like the real thing. I've wet the Rosewood version to show how it will react to an oil finish

I thought maybe a posh one might have a cravat and paisley smoking jacket and a common one is just wearing Burberry check (sorry I’m just being facetious) The macassar ebony veneer does sound really nice (that’s what I’ve got planned for my 5 string single cut build)

This morning I opened the new bearing cutter, a very impressive looking thing it is, it has a split bearing at the shank end, I suppose it can be used in a restricted space? Who knows but it worked well enough, probably the best bearing cutter I've used so a bargain all in all I also re planed the wood for the top down to 21.25mm (I need 20mm eventually) and jointed it and glued it up. It is sat there now until the morning when I'll plane it flat on one side and glue them to the backs ready for the final bits of shaping etc.

Done. Nice to see an online community working like this, cockles, heart etc.

Done. Glad to help. Not a pleasant story and I hope the scammer gets what he deserves.

Glad your little one is doing well!

Ironic.

Well, my other P sold so I’m gonna keep hold of this for now and see if I’m afforded some more time to play now Iris is home and doing well. I am however going to go the route of making it less black rather than a refinish. Just while I’m making sure. All mods will be reversible.

It comes down to what 'better' actually encompasses. Super smooth, refined, hi-fi sound quailty might not be what some players are looking for, while for others it might be top of the wish-list. Over the last couple of years I've abandoned any prejudice against Far Eastern equipment in the face of overwhelming evidence that there's some excellent, affordable gear out there (which currently comprises most of my instruments).

The only bit of potentially useful info I can give is that when bluesparky sadly missed of this parish was very ill and out of work a charity for musicians helped him greatly, some of us donated to this charity and they checked out as a good legit bunch, they are there to help people who have done their bit as pro players, they may even be able to assist with the medical treatment, they will be named in this thread somewhere. Best wishes.

Not all plain sailing though. I remember when he was jilted.

Fleet (Hampshire) A bit of a departure, this one. Week #1 DDD is the singer who wants to put together an Elvis Presley / Buddy Holly band. Now I've been here before, and I know (from bitter experience) that you can't put together the band and then look for Elvis ... a bit cart-before-the-horse that way. So here I am with the Elvis I need, he already has a drummer, I play bass, all we need is a guitarist, how difficult can this be? DDD says "let's catch up after Easter". I ask him for some YouTube of his own performance. Week #2 DDD sends me YouTube links of him fronting a serious holiday-camp-style 60s tribute act, full matching silver suits, the whole thang. There's not much of it, but he can certainly sing. He can't find a guitarist, do I know anyone? The email ping-pong continues, I suggest we meet face-to-face and have a chat over a beer, maybe even jam through some of the proposed material. Week #3 DDD wants to hook up but can't do so for a week or two. He starts copying the drummer on the emails. Have I found a guitarist yet? I'm currently chasing FIVE of the buggers. Week #4 DDD circulates a short list of a dozen songs, six each by Elvis and Buddy. I've found just one guitarist who seems to be up for this. We all agree to meet the following Friday. Week #5 My guitarist is up for it, but needs another week to prepare. Week #6 My guitarist is no longer my guitarist. He's decided to stick to bedroom widdling. At least he has a more realistic view of his abilities than most guitarists I've met. Week #7 DDD says he will try again to find a guitarist. I make supportive noises whilst quietly thinking "Game Over, move to radio silence". Week #10 (yes, 10) Things get surreal. DDD emails out of the blue - would I be interested in playing a charity gig on Sunday during the BH weekend? My reply was, and I quote: Deano can apparently bring in both a guitarist and a keyboard player. It's a MacMillans Cancer support gig at a big pub in Fleet. That's all I know. There's nothing on the Web about it and the pub is closed for refurbishment. Several days of email ping-pong follow between the three of us regarding whether or not there will be a PA, will there even be microphones, is back line provided, etc. What could possibly go wrong? Halfway through, Deano adds a fourth person to the email trail - who he? Is he a guitarist? Is he a keyboards player? Week #11 Silvie and I drive down to Fleet. We're taking no chances ... we've left the van fully loaded from Friday night's gig, with complete PA, bass rig, etc. in case we turn up to find a child's karaoke set being used as the PA. And yes, I've seen it done. At the venue we are greeted by the sound of very loud, very live music. There's a large beer garden alongside the car park, a very serious PA is in use complete with proper sound engineer, and the band before us are a professional functions band. Hmmmmmm. Whatever next. I meet the others for the first time. Deano and Roy (the drummer) are relaxed, the 'guitarist' is laid back to the point of limbo-dancing under toilet doors. I say "You're the guitarist, right?" and he replies "Actually I'm a bass player who dabbles in guitar". Oh dear. I ask him if he's worked through the set list. He says he looked at it briefly last night. "But what about the key changes and so on?", I ask him. "What key changes?", he says. Oh dear, oh dear. "Are you going to be OK?", I ask him. "I'll be fine" he says, "I can play anything, and I play harmonica too, and of course I'll sing a few of these. If I'm in doubt, I'll just copy what the other guitarist does". Oh dearie dearie me. We set up on stage and - inevitably - the layout requires me to stand between the two guitarists. In the event it probably doesn't matter, since the sound guy turns down the guitarist as soon as he hears him play. So, how did my audition go? Judge for yourselves - here's the edited highlights with all the cockups skilfully and surgically removed:

Limelight 00218 has finally arrived and what a beauty she is. I asked Mark to do as light a relic as possible on a '57' precision. She looks great, sounds great, and plays great. What more can I ask?

My band, Juniper Nights, has been shortlisted to play Truck festival! Out of 100 selected only 15 are added to the bill by a panel including BBC Introducing and Nightshift magazine and other organisations keeping the Oxford music scene alive. One slot is down to a public vote. Your vote would mean a lot to us but first check out our EP and social medias with the links below: [email protected] www.junipernights.co.uk www.soundcloud.com/junipernights www.facebook.com/junipernights www.twitter.com/junipernights www.instagram.com/junipernights To vote for Juniper Nights use this link: http://truckfestival.com/vote Thank you BC'ers for your support!

Ever since 'Johnny' made his first appearance in the Chuck Berry song (or mebbe even before JBG), he's cropped up time and again in a zillion rock and country songs over the following decades. It must be the same Johnny as he's this badass dude from the wrong side of the tracks, who don't care for nobody. He lives fast and eventually dies young (usually in an RTA) , only to be reborn to appear in another song about some crazy renegade who don't give a s***. His girl loves him but he's one moody mutha who thinks nothing of robbing the local liquor store etc. Meanwhile in the history of the rock song where are the Phils, the Daves, the Chrisses, the Dereks.? Maybe someone here has a written a song about this fella called Clive. As well as 'Johnny', another popular rock song character is the 'workin man' a poor blue collar geezer who toils hard and sweats blood to do right by his family but in the end he's beaten down by the Man / done wrong by his woman. Of course, the working man never works in a call centre or Carphone Warehouse and has a comfortable PAYE income. Are there any other characters that crop up time and again in song?

Ha, yes, those beams were chewed by horses before this place was rebuilt in the 1990’s, it may have originally been built in the early 1700’s so you are not far off. The bass is brand new though and only born in Czech quite recently.

HAHA That's Fantastic! There's always mums involved at this point in a bands timeline. I'm very grateful for the vote: We're getting loads of support and it's great Cheers

The last Wormrot album is bloody marvellous. First time I heard it, it took me right back to how I felt when grindcore first started appearing.

They sound really good, I was looking at the Ebano one for my next builds, also they are quite a bit cheaper than real ebony too

I have suffered an aggressive form of arthritis for the last fifteen years. The worst bit is the early stages where you struggle to get diagnosed and find meds that will help you. After that it can be controlled to a large extent. It’s not easy, but it can be limited and suppressed. At first I couldnt see how how I could still be working five years down the line (there were days when 100 yards took me fifteen minutes) but fifteen years on I play every day, I do an active job and last month completed a twenty mile running challenge (not all in one go) so it can get better as well as worse. The best bit of advice I was given is that when it hurts most is when it needs to be moved most. It’s completely counter intuitive as the pain makes you want to rest but that can allow further damage which then limits movement later. I don’t mean heavy lifting or serious exercise but enough to keep the full range of movement. I actually took up playing the bass in part as to cover some of my daily exercises. If you need any info or I can be of help in any way give me a shout/ PM and good luck and don’t despair!

I must admit as a scientist I was originally sceptical about some of the claims made during basschat debates about tone, and it is true that in many areas there is a general lack of data from properly controlled experiments. In particular I found it hard to believe that the amount of energy transmitted from a string would move a relatively massive bass body enough to feed back to the string and modify the original signal. I own four basses, a Fender P American Deluxe, a Highway One J, a Burny T'bird and my starter bass a Cort Action Bass. The only other bass I've owned was a Gibson T'bird. The J,P and Cort all have J style necks, all with maple/rosewood necks and all the basses are 34" scale. The Burny is a pretty faithful copy of the Gibson, certainly in physical shape and pickup placement. They are all currently strung with Dean Markley Blue Steels The Cort has had a series of pup replacements, it plays great but sounds completely dead, both acoustically and through the pups. All of the others sing acoustically, sustain better than the Cort and the acoustic sound is reflected in the sound I get through an amp or through headphones. The two T'birds sound fairly similar acoustically, both have remarkable sustain too but the Gibson had a lovely rough edge to it which the Burny lacks, I have that down to the pickups in all probability. Now you are right that strings, pup's and their placement all make a difference but pups aren't going to make much of a difference to the acoustic sound. The bodies of the two Fenders vibrate enough for me to be able to feel them through my stomach never mind my fingers and lets face it, if basses didn't vibrate clip on tuners wouldn't work. So I'd say it is certainly plausible that the nature of the body would affect the sound and that some energy is transmitted to the strings. I'm not hazarding a guess as to how important each factor is but I certainly no longer believe a bass body or neck is an inert part of the system.

A major reason for his marching home..?

The Joni Mitchell album, 'Both SIdes Now'. Oh my word, terrific big boy arrangements from Vince Mendoza.... And top, top playing from the musicians from both sides of the pond.

Fretless blueburst one with an f-hole for me - when you get 5 minutes. impressive - following with great interest 👍🏻

Of late and as I work right now it's all been back to back Future Sound of London, their entire From The Archives and Environments series.

Made the body contour and started to shape the back of the neck.Also open the pickup cavities

Quality.

Just been spinning Yes' second offering 'Time and a Word'. Haven't listened to it for 10 or 15 years but it still sounds fresh and most definitely 'Yes' music unlike the last 2 albums which I found truly boring). What is really remarkable is just how inventive Chris Squire was back then - His playing comes across really prominently on the original vinyl (apparently due to the sound guy having the bass turned down in his headphones so he kept turning chris up) so it's really easy to make out every note. Unfortunately Pete Banks guitar takes a bit of a back seat but there's still plenty of wonderful music on there.

Added this nice one to my arsenal Arpege six SeNr 026

Done. Was gutted to read about what happened to you both, hopefully my contribution helps. I totally agree with the above, this place has some cracking people

Aye - of all of them, it's the one I was most worried about. It was fine though - I was even able to enjoy it...!

Done. Basschat is such a great bunch of people. All the best Stephen and FunkShui.

Good idea I thought I had, thanks for the reminder

Surely that should be … irregularly?

Pleased to help.

Done

Done, and very glad to get behind this. Anyone who behaves like this scammer should be nailed (and as I understand the story SH provided the key evidence that nailed him). And anyone in our BC community, I hope, will get this kind of support. I'm only responding to the support I've had.

Done.

So basically the other guy's made a £60 profit on a voided transaction, the 'justification' being a couple of vanilla set-ups. Nice work if you can get it. Really, everyone needs to learn how to fettle their own guitars. It's not difficult; the basic tools are dirt cheap; forums like BC are full of helpful people with bundles of experience; there's tons of information and vids out there; and even a little practical knowledge helps when trying out prospective purchases.

I think that's a great plan. Both the 5 string and the thru neck aspects involve tackling steeper and rockier learning curves and you will come out the other end not only with a great bass but with a significant extra skills under your belt