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I've just completed another bass part ex / sale with Martin from Wales - we had lots of communication both ways throughout the process and have been exchanging a few texts since about the basses we swapped. And it got me thinking as I was writing his feedback and looking at the three pages of feedback I've got....basically (bar one specific example - exception that proves the rule?!) I've had nothing but overwhelmingly positive experiences ( a LOT of them!) with people I've never met. Often involving quite a lot of money / expensive instruments and therefore trust of this unknown person. It's a great community of people who really do give bass players an excellent name. I'm sure other forums for different instruments may be the same (I'm not on any so can't really comment) but this really is a lovely group of people on here and I"m chuffed to call myself a bass player knowing that there's a lot of lovely people out there who also call themselves bassplayers! All good!

Yeah - and just as important as the gospel chops is the advice he gives about breaking down a rehearsal into sub sections - so many people don't do this. Or maybe some bands simply find this impossible - because the guitarist will NOT STOP NOODLING while the rest of the band is trying to check something out !!

Watching The Selector on the BBC Iplayer at the Biggest Weekend in Coventry. The bassist is playing a Squier Classic Vibe Precision, how cool is that! No gear snobbery there. Good bassist too, although I think Pauline Black is the only original member.

I’d say this weekend has been an emotional game of two halves. Friday we played a pub called the Nelson near Twickenham. Despite a decent crowd the whole band were on a downer as a previous and much loved drummer had suddenly passed away earlier in the week. We played through the tears and raised a glass or two of Guinness to him outside at halftime sharing some of the many great memories we had! This one hurt a lot though, we’d only seen him last month at our guitarists big 50 birthday bash and jam session.He came up and finished the evening with us and seemed as fit as ever! So last night saw us at a new venue for us, Falkners Arms in Fleet. Some of the locals who see us when we’re over that way had recommended us which was a nice touch. Nice slightly raised stage area, good sound and a massively appreciative audience from song one! Big cheers at the end of every song and lots of enthusiastic dancing in the second half. This was the perfect tonic to the previous nights more sombre affair, best moment of the night was when having done a stonking version of Parisienne Walkways the landlord jumped up on the mic and told us it had been his wedding song many years ago and had never heard a band do it so well. He, like my guitarist and myself, is a massive Gary Moore fan so this was a lovely moment. We’re back there later in the year and we all agreed it was a fantastic venue and can’t wait. Good payer and we got a couple of beer tokens each as well, shame I was driving, the Doombar was an exceptional pint!! Few weeks off now, but this weekend will live on in memory for a while.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences both buying and selling on here. The cumulative value of the gear that I’ve bought and sold via BC is well in the 4-figure zone. Sure, I know a couple of folk who’ve had less than smooth experiences but such cases are definitely the exception, not the rule. So much love for this community! Big thanks to @ped and the team for keeping it up and running!

+1

Had a difficult day today, will explain in a bit. Started off where I left off yesterday and finished routing the pickup pockets. Then I moved on to making a jig to rout the bridge pieces which is where I had bother, no idea why but could I get the shape of the tailpiece right?? Three goes it took me before I got there, after that it was just a simple rout and that was done. I drilled through from the bridge, bridge pickup and tail piece for wiring; the neck pickup I got very lucky in that the front of the rout (which was angled remember) just nicked the rout underneath for the switch wiring so I can feed the pickup wire straight through there. I'd had a belly full after all that so I went and sat in the garden and had a nice cup of tea Some shiny bits just for fun

Glance admiringly at your gear, hands on hips with a proud look on your face and say: "Yes it is isn't it dear? Thanks for noticing, I've spent a lot of time and effort assembling it." It's good she's taking an interest in your hobbies, that's the foundations of a strong relationship.

I have two fantastic unlined fretlesses in the Classifieds at the minute.

I have two bass guitars and one six-string. She has loads of minging bowls, a massive thong, a proto-monotone, big bum, wagging tongue and a Rav 4.

I thought that I'd get the - max amount of options this side of buying a dedicated mixing desk, so I bought a Wounded Paw V4 blender... It's got 3 fully buffered loops, 2 with different high pass filters, plus phase, level and 3 different options for which way loops 3 and 4 go, plus it's got a clean blend which can also be used as a 4th loop. It's the Dog's!

You'll get lots of recommendations, but TKS S212 all the way for me. It sounds incredible, amazingly well built, and beautiful.

The only thing around here that's peaked is most of us!

Just bought this book about 1971 for my holiday reading....

Only Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Kings of Leon... Think for a minute what came after 1971 - Led Zeppelin IV, Never Mind the Bollocks, Back In Black, London Calling, Master of Puppets, Appetite For Destruction, Nevermind, OK Computer... rock music has never peaked.

I had a wee blast on a couple of Basic Ken Taylor 5ers. One a 30th anniversary & the other a bubinga. Compared them next to a Sadowsky Metro, a Mayones Jazz, a MM Bongo & a few Ibbys too. I loved the sound of the Bongo, but I’m not sold on the shape & a gold finish isn’t my thaing. The Sandbergs sounded very similar & the lows from them are immense. I actually prefer them to every other bass that I played. I liked the Mayones & the Sadowskys, but despite their higher premiums, didn’t play as well as the Sandberds. I think I may have found my bass! 😎

Always got one eye out for an oversized LP goldtop.

Just bought a PJ bass from Andy. Top guy. Very hospitable. Knows his stuff fair play.

How about a flyrig? Loads of sounds, equipment and FX to play with including a great di.

I had one of those once. I tried nibbling her earlobe, but she farted and flew out of the window and I never saw her again.

http://rgt.org/exams/

Interesting interview video with Ian Hunter's bass player Paul Page on trying to play a song/solo that Jaco Pastorius played on !! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6-7g-N7HfI

Motivation for French language learning (I'm her mentor, not her academic supervisor). My own MSc students are mostly working on assistive software.

I bought the download version and enjoyed every minute of it 👍

If you've not tried the Darkglass stuff and have a recording interface setup at home, give the Darkglass plugins a whirl (I believe they have a free trial) to see how you get on! There is also a Pike Vulcan XL for sale in the classifieds which is very similar.

Knowing PJB, probably nothing at all. My thoughts would be having two C4’s create a modular system where you have greater resilience if one cab stops working.

Purchased a pedal from Bas, perfect deal. Wouldn't hesitate to deal with again, he's a gent. Thanks

The words "attributed to" in my book almost always mean "there is absolutely no proof to this assertion, but I want the Fairy Dust of a Cremonese maker, and the scroll looks vaguely right" I'm sure it's a magnificent bass, and worth a lot of money just for that. Amati though? Who knows? And if you don't know, don't claim it. Gary Karr's bass, now thought to be French, was amazing, but REALLY hard to play...

Mooer'd right up mate...😊

We've tried to call them out, our ten best against theirs, but our challenge got moderated and I got a lifetime ban under TB's strict 'no frivolous postings' policy.

I can recommend the Motown DI, works beautifully for me but I think I might be the only person in the UK who bought one, not sure how popular it is. It’s expensive as fük for what you get, but I fell in love with the sound. Some reviews say it’s transparent, others say it affects the sound drastically. It ultimately depends on how hot your pickups are, but it works wonders on a good old single coil, if you like a warm old school tone.

I don't think Ibanez know how to make a bad guitar. They are probably better built than a lot of premium brands and offer great value for money. They need to take a note out of the Toyota how to manual. Toyota knew they made great cars, they also knew people didn't want to buy a luxury Toyota when they could have a Mercedes or Jaguar for the same money. Solution, make luxury cars, but brand them Lexus. I think if Ibanez launched their premium range under a new name, they may well increase their kudos in the marketplace, increase sales and resale value.

Lovely job.

Our gig list is at www.thethree.org.uk - We are back there in November and at the Romiley Arms at some point, also the Remedy in Stockport and the Crown.

I've bought 1 of each to see which I prefer!

Pleased to say Iris came home after 6 weeks in hospital and 5 operations (the first of which at 2 days old was a gruelling 9 1/2 hours). She’s doing great and it’s lovely to have her home.

Some sooper-dooper DI boxes can add something to your original signal (let's go for a cliche here, how about "a warm valve sound") but that rather pre-supposes that you feel your original signal is lacking that something. I use passive non-valve Radial boxes which don't interfere with the signal (at least, not in way that I can detect) on the basis that, if I'm recording something, then what I want to record is me and what I really sound like.

Our first gig for nearly 6 weeks at Leicester De Montfort Hall last night. Audience of around 1000 all up for a good time, plenty of interaction and dancing. We had our flakey moments, including a keyboard crashing on the opening song, but end result was okay thank goodness. A great venue, with top crew and staff as well, certainly one of our favourite gigs.

And, it arrived this morning 😁

Ever find your cheapest bass has the best tone? Just wondering if anyone has experienced this. Was playing at a live event the other night and decided to take my nice but relatively inexpensive Vintage brand Violin bass as it is lighter than any of my other basses (even my other semi hollow basses), in terms of the bass itself it is a nice bass but its price point shows, the nut I have replaced as it looked like it was cut by a chimp, the fret work is a little patchy and there is some over-spray on parts of the neck. I always thought the tone of this was good when playing at home but I always thought this was just because the deep tone countered the middy tone of my Amplug. Anyway, brought this bass out and plugged it in, the tone blew me away, it was deep, punchy and with some definite growl and a big pair of balls, I even found myself playing a little harder to emphasise this, funny that a cheaper instrument could sound so good

Nice one! I played there in the dim and distant past... It was a bit smaller then.

Can I say the reason was I was too stoned when I posted it.?

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..........................