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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!

Nice to hear this, glad you all like our little community. It’s been a pleasure to run and has been a massive part of my life.

I used to get grief many years ago when I lived with my ex girlfriend about the combo amp that lived in the corner of the living room of our small one bedroom flat. I had nowhere else to put it really but eventually managed to find room to accommodate it in the cupboard under the stairs (which involved building a shoe rack to put on the triangular shaped wall above it). Imagine my joy when I came home one night to find a running machine occupying the space in the living room where my amp had been...

If you're going to talk like that, at least have the decency to use 'your' rather than you're and put EVERYTHING IN SHOUTY BLOCK CAPS. Looks far more comically unhinged that way.

Bought and sold stuff here for years, never had a bad exchange, everyone's polite and the couple of people I've met have been friendly and honest fellows to a man. Only problem I've encountered is the lack of interest in some of the dodgy kit I've advertised sometimes...!

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.

Phew it's been a hot one today! Not happy I have a blister on my thumb! How you ask? I'll tell you how Started off routing a shoulder at the level of the top of the binding to give myself a clean edge to work to while shaping the tops, yes shaping at last WOOHOO!! After that I drew a rough contour map of the general curves I expected to get, after that well it was shaping time. I used a thing called an Arbourtech, a rather nasty carving attachment that fits onto a grinder, this is a method I do not recommend, it can reduce your guitar body to firewood in less time than it takes to blink. So why am I using one, I've had a lot of practice with it but even then it's a worrying procedure. After rough carving I used some small thumb planes (blister!! ) to just get it somewhere like a shape at the back, the front couldn't be done until the angle for the neck/fretboard had been cut. For that I just made a jig, basically a sloping bit of MDF at 4.5 degrees with a hole in it to access the top of the body. There was some spare wood the jig didn't reach so I whipped those off with a drawknife, a bit like a massive spokeshave then took a bench plane to flatten it. Finally I took the thumb planes and some tiny spokeshaves and tuned the shape to something that looked right, it's sort of an intuitive process, try it you'll see. After that I was tired so I still need to tune the shape on the second body but I'm happy with the first, that just needs the neck fitting and sorting any snags before sanding etc. Oh and I also checked the neck blanks for any movement, admittedly they are still blanks and any movement would be unlikely but if there is any movement at this stage then the blank is firewood. There was none but some of you may be interested to know how I checked. To see if there is any twist on a narrow board you used a gadget called a pair of winding sticks, these are basically two parallel wooden straight edges with two inlays on each one with a pair of black (Ebony) and one with a pair of white (in my case Ivory veneers from a piano), as luck would have it I couldn't find them so I used a pair of 12" rules one balanced at either end from which you can sight down to see any twist (wind) exaggerated by the length of the winding sticks. Handy thing to know

I'm a lifetime member of Scott's Bass Academy. Yes, some of the people in the forum ("Campus" as they call it) are a PITA. Much of the chat is all very... well... But I don't regret having open access to an incredible and growing number of lessons FAR out stripping ANYTHING on Youtube. The SBL paid-for lessons are much better than any Scott ever gave for free. You also have opportunity, once a month (?) to be at a live video-chat session with guest speakers, who are often teachers of bass at the Berkeley School of Music. No, no regrets here. Go grab a 14-day trial membership and try it for yourself. You have nothing to lose. If you don't like it Scott WILL give you your money back. https://scottsbasslessons.com/ IIRC the first year was about £100. Topping up, at the 12 month stage, to "LIfetime" was another £200. Compare that to 1-to-1 lessons with a mediocre teacher at £26 an hour? 10 lessons inc travel costs?

I personally prefer having the jack on the front for the very reason that it gives me the option of sitting or standing. I don't have an issue with the look of it either actually. I've just commissioned my first Fodera build - it's costing a fair amount but I'm obviously comfortable otherwise I wouldn't have proceeded. I play 6ers and my tastes are generally quite conservative/boring - I find they're one of the few builders who make extended range basses that I like the look of - I've gone for an Emperor 6 by the way.

aging hasbeen getting some publicity.* nothing to see here, move along. * I say this as a fan of The Who

Mooer'd right up mate...😊

Or marry another bass player! 😄

Have you tried offering to help carry the stuff to the car, you know, don't leave it all for her to do? I mean, don't strain yourself, obviously ...

Dropped the Mrs at the gym and thought I'd pop into the LGS which is only a couple of minutes round the corner. Just browsing - mostly at guitars when I came across the Mockingbird MK3 below. It looked stunning so I tried it and loved it. It's a bit neck divey as you would imagine , but sustains forever and has an awesome array of tones. I wouldn't have ever imagined buying a BC Rich but it wasn't what I expected at all. The shop had set it up perfectly too. I now feel compelled to put gold strings on it (it's an obsession) It was marked up at £500 so a quick google found it for £386 in Thomann and the LGS (Sound Affects) matched the price. A good days work !

Yeah, I got that.

My worry is what you will find once the glue is out. I wouldn't be surprised to fins a stripped thread. Does superglue soften at all with heat - e.g. a soldering iron??

She's not tidy herself but can't help 'noticing' when other folk aren't. Perhaps it's part of a gradual change or she's been replaced by a Reptilian? 🦎

At least you can get him to make you another one!

Here is something I did, not on purpose but it worked out great When I started playing I was into rock music and the blues The blues has a bunch of great walking bass line from beginner to expert levels The beginner stuff is very easy to get your head around if you know your chords This led me to understanding Jazz bass lines a whole lot better once I got into Jazz music Maybe you could do some simple blues three chord tricks to practice walking bass lines and relate chord structures to the notes being played without to much brain work at first This is just how things worked out for me and passing it along to you or anyone else that it may help out Best of luck to you

Wow.

I had both. I really miss the Roadworn S/B Jazz the most though - wish I hadn't traded it - but in a moment of madness, I was trying to reduce the number of basses I own... I preferred the 60's S/B Roadworn, mainly because, for me, the neck felt "just right". The Flea Jazz neck is a tad thinner, but still very nice Personally, I'm used to the VVT control arrangement, and I wasn't so keen on the stacked knob controls on the Flea Some people much prefer them, but I found VVT a bit quicker to get the sound I wanted In terms of sound, they both sound great, but my sunburst RW Jazz had the pickups replaced with some lovely 70's / 80's vintage DiMarzio's and they were great The Flea sounded good though too. Oh, the Flea felt a bit lighter weight - in case that's important to you (though I never weighed them precisely) Re the Flea bass colour - it's pink, but it's a very pale, faded pink, and not so in-your-face Whichever of these you get, you'll have an amazing bass, I'm sure of that. To my mind, the differences are minor (apart from colour, of course) Fender Roadworn series basses are amazing - they really feel "played in". Good luck with your purchase

Basschat spreading the love (ur, GAS) as always

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I'd like to be - I find his free stuff useful - but I've never managed to justify to myself the expense. It's (as far as I know) about $170 a year. I don't like the way it's almost impossible to find the price on the web site either 😉

That looks perfect. I have a JV P with identical finish (I think it's known as tobaccoburst) sporting it's original white scratchplate and I was thinking of treating my self to a decent tortoiseshell, but yours does look the biz. Where did you get the new one from? - looks like a decent 3ply.

5 pages already talking about a guy who's just released a new album, looks like his work here is done. From the TV advert it sounds poop to me and they've even crammed in "featuring Pete 'I was researching for my book' Townshend on guitar" into it, considering the other two members of the who are dead that'll be a who album then! Lol.

Jolly good choice. Enjoy muchly 😎🎸

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

That’s not a bass, it just a guitar with fatter strings 😀

I'm not even qualified to play bass. Yet I do.

I'm with BRX in the James Randi camp here (without the cash, sadly ) - show me the actual, repeatable, provable science, and I'll believe it. Electronics, pickup placement, strings, design (in the extreme) yeah, everything else? What BRX said...

I'd definitely agree with that summing up...... You have to respect Roger Daltry for his status in the genre and role in one of rocks greatest bands, but it was a very subjective and sweeping statement for him to make. On the basis that Led Zeppelin are generally regarded as the greatest rock band ever, probably most of their fans would say they had peaked by 1971 - though my personal favourite album of theirs is Presence (1976). And you'd have to say that Robert Plant has evolved as a musician more successfully over recent decades than Roger D

Yes he's completely wrong - actually horrendously wrong - maybe his memory's gone a little - just a few post 1971 tracks:- 1) Kashmir - Led Zeppelin - in fact the whole album Physical Graffiti 2) Schools Out - Alice Cooper - just seen it on bbc4 - what a killer bass part - totally blues rock 3) Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Band 4) Anything by Bad Company 5) Anything by AC/DC Ok some of the blues rockers from the late 60s had changed somewhat - indeed Fleetwood Mac is a good example but there's any amount of good post 1971 rock music. I was thinking Black Dog - Led Zeppelin as an archetypal classic rock track - but Led Zeppelin 4 was released in December 1971 so he's just about right there. Who's Next is a great album btw!!

Indeed. Daltrey: “I remember my teenage years and they’re the hardest years of your life for so many reasons,” he says. “You’re just starting to think about going out and really enjoying yourself, then a doctor tells you, ‘Sorry, you’ve got this.’ It must be a terrible blow.” “And when a teenager gets cancer, it affects so many people . . . their families, their mates, their class at school.” As for being a 'chav', it's true that Daltrey worked as a sheet metal cutter before The Who took off. But like many young working class people of the 50's and 60's Daltrey wasn't prepared knuckle under to an establishment clique of bourgeois snobs who relished keeping the less fortunate in their place. It's all different now, of course.

Christ you guys are going to struggle if we have an 'R&B' thread.

I have some sympathy becasue I'd like to think I rarely if ever listen to 'rock' but four of that list I would listen to thinking it not to be 'rock'. 'Rock' is pretty much a contested yet meaningless concept until someone defines or explains what they mean by 'rock'. And then one finds that the definition or explanation given includes examples which one feels have very little to do with 'rock'.

Inflatable PA speakers?

John Paul Jones?

Hmmmm...Hunky Dory, LA Woman, Led Zep IV, Fragile, Aqualung, Master Of Reality (Paranoid and Black Sabbath were still in the charts), then for the non-rock-fan there's Curtis Live, What's Going On, Surf's Up, Joni's Blue, The Allmans at Fillmore East, Shaft, Bryter Layter. Whilst I fully agree Mr Daltrey is hitching his latest project onto a controversial statement, outside of the pop field there was an enormous amount going on in 1971... I think picking the top of the pops in any year can ruin its credibility...look at '78: in the midst of the Punk Revolution(tm), Paul McCartney spent nine weeks at number one, and Boney M's Brown Girl In The Ring was the biggest selling single of the year...

. . . . and another 30% if they moved production to China, but why would they want to do that? Their business model works. The company appears to be very successful in making high quality hand made custom bass guitars. They probably have a waiting list of several years so why change anything? The original question is naive. Why do Montblanc pens cost more than a Bic, why do Bentleys cost more than Dacias and why did Abramovich pay £340,000,000 for his boat when he could have been messing about on the water in a Bestway Lite-Rapide X2 for £140? I understand that people can love McDonalds rather than steak but why would McDonalds lovers think they have a point in questioning the existence of steak and the people who want to eat it?

as promised.... The playing is a bit sloppy but the tone is there even at 5am this morning! signal is.... Fender Jazz elite 5 (Active, Flat EQ)-> GB shuttle 9.2 (flat EQ, low boost) DI out -> Scarlet 8i6 > Ableton (no processing) elite demo.mp3

Time then that the curriculum was changed to educate them that they should do things the way they were in the olden days. They were so much better then.