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This just turned up this morning... oh my god its incredible. Can't wait to get home and plug it in!! Check out the gloss fingerboard

I took up bass to see what a bass does and to learn what it adds to music. I cannot think of a single song that made me think, I will have to learn to play bass. I discovered that I love playing bass but to get the best out of it, I took on a music theory course and this led me to learn to play chords on a piano. The bass re-ignited my love of and interest in playing my six strings.... I might be slightly against the grain here by suggesting that the bass is not a lead instrument. It is much more important than that. Drums and bass provide the foundation for the song, for the music being played by the band. I hear music as the total sound created by the band and not the individual members contributions to the sound. On balance if the song requires simple root notes, then I play root notes. Boring? Possibly but the overall sound is what matters, my ego has to be put aside in favour of the song.

Been lucky enough to never have anything truly terrible, but three that stick out: Pub cover band going through a few lineup changes for a variety of reasons. During guitar auditions one guy arrived in triple denim with a guitar worth more than my car and a strap with so much brass on it looked like it was pinched from the wall of a country pub. Widdled badly away to himself regardless of the song, and decided to sit AC/DC out because (quote) "it wouldn't sound right with two guitars". During drum auditions for the same band a chap turned up who was friendly enough but struggled for time and just didn't have the chops - seemed like he was super rusty rather than just bad but we wanted to gig so didn't want to wait a year for him to get up to scratch, but... He was planning our futures the second he walked in, most of which seemed to centre around renaming the band Oi Oi Saveloy..?.. profit. He was genuinely nice though, hope he sorted something. Finally, a drummer audition in the current originals band. A week or so of talking between BL and drummer on joinmyband sorting out mp3s and organising a date. When the audition rolls round the drummer arrives, sets up his cymbals, then tells us he didn't have time to learn anything. Annoying, but the drumming is weird timing and technical so we give him the benefit of the doubt and ask what songs he knows so we can jam along if we know it and hear him play. "I don't really know any covers". In a last-ditch effort to salvage anything of the evening, we suggest putting on a simple enough song that he should be able to muddle through to some extent (it was something like buck rogers by feeder) - "yeah I don't really play anything I don't know." We then try to figure out why he even bothered answering the ad as we watch him awkwardly pack away his cymbals and leave, having not played a thing. Even more awkwardly, 2 days later he served me and my girlfriend in a shop in town and pretended he didn't know me after I said hello. People are odd.

The last couple of years before retiring I squeezed a double pedal under my desk, with a bass drum trigger pad. I would spend the working day doing stuff (in fact, very little, being the IT Boss, so delegating what little needed doing, as all had already been done...), whilst pedalling away with rudiments, basically much like snare exercises. It lasted for over a year before the Director asked me, politely, to desist, as he felt it gave the wrong signals to some of the staff. I was getting quite good at double paradiddles, flams and the like, but complied for the sake of peace. It's a pity that the relative expertise developed in this way has not, as yet, evolved into a workable addition to my playing with the full kit. Occasional 'blast beats' (the climatic ending to RATM's Killing In The Name Of', for instance, and some moderate success adding triplet 'patters' to Buckley's 'Grace'), but not really at ease for much else. Old dog, new tricks, I suppose...

Yes, that'll be me then. I'm not currently with them, apart from a one off this weekend at Tunes in the dunes, the wonderful luke Palmer has been the bassist for the last few years, and yes he plays a squire....very well. I also played a squire for most of my time with them, an extremely playable red CV precision which had a great relic job done by Al Knight, I later installed a darkstar copy pickup called a nu-sonic made by a guy in Brighton, stuck on some TI flats, left them on for four years, and there you have it...... I later had a copy made by Al, in white with a matching headstock. The amp was indeed a GB streamliner 900 through a barefaced super fifteen, with the FOH signal split through a REDDI and a Sansamp VTDI. The Squire will be at home this weekend though as I'll be using a recently acquired JMJ mustang..... what a killer bass ! Anyway, I have to say, it's very nice to get a mention on these hallowed pages. Cheers John Lee-Man, we should get together for a bass pint, i'm in Notts, as I think a few others here are. A pub based bass bash if you will.

If it helps...

I should not come here, too GAS inducing. I have zero Vigiers, but I do have 3 Bogarts which have a very similar "feel", 80's modern, graphite galore, great tight sound etc. I just really dig the shape of the Passions.. want one...

Nothing to do with speed, but the difference in sound is clear. I've seen good bass players switch between pick and fingers between songs, or even mid-song, to get the right tone or attack. I can only play with a pick (right elbow RSI, limited use of my fingers) so I've explored that a bit and it's striking how much difference in sound one can get from different picks. Stone sounds different to wood sounds different to resin. Sharp sounds different to rounded sounds different to blunt. Atm I'm mostly using sharp hardwood with my electric fretted main squeeze, sharp stone with my flat-strung fretless, and blunt resin with my fretted acoustic. And they're rather lovely things...

I usually build through necks and always physically draw the key neck angle points full size, and always using the actual bridge intended to be fitted. I measure the bridge saddle at lowest and highest, mark the neck angle fulcrum, then the fretboard and fret height, the planned action height and set the neck angle to allow some wiggle room either way. As it happens, with the Schaller bridge and my thickness of fretboard and fret-height, the neck will be zero angle: Then I can cut the slot: Once the body demarcation veneer has been added, this will be spot on. Because the angle is zero, then I don't have to allow for the apex that normally the fretboard end has to be sunk into. You can see here above the pencil line on the maple of how thin the neck will be cut to. And finally the components in their respective positions: Tomorrow should see the backs prepared, the neck blank cut to basic plan and side-view profile and then the backs glued to the neck....

- Old mules, one cam & pure malt songs… That's how we named our weekend in Portugal's main centre... one little village called Nesperal. A six pack of friends, ( John M. Dope, Mr. Ben Casa de Sol, The Birdman, Mark the Lizard, Rated R and G Vine) that got together to let their music passion run through the veins, play and sing with their hearts... Fred "à-espera" made sure to make those moments eternal with one camera, some microphones and a candle! So... here we are sharing it with you… Join us at our damn sessions live to tape rough experience and listen to it just as it is. Nothing more... Just moments! Stay damned! https://youtu.be/dq7duRpqBa0 https://www.facebook.com/damnsessions/

Just think its maybe a bit risky Paul and many people might take offence at playing it but who knows it might be worth learning one or two and as you say we can ask the crowd before playing them if anyone objects. We coud cheat and say its by the Glitter Band as in effect it was Dave

Jesus wept, 7 paragraphs consisting of one sentence each?

I suggest you should move the original post straight into the general discussion thread where it should be........;-)

Similar, I became aware of John Entwistles playing quite early and developed a liking for the rhythm sections of many bands but it was Alan Lancaster's seemingly simple bass lines that made me sit up and think "I can do that!". It was only later on that I realised that he was actually a better player than I first thought, to this day he is one of my favourite bassists and along with John Coghlan in their day they were a powerhouse of a rhythm section

Double traitor 😆

Led Zeppelin 2. The Lemon Song, then Ramble On. Almost everything I love about music right there in those two songs.

Brilliant stuff.....was wondering if you were going for the full Gibson Tenon Join. Methinks there's more to you than just an amateur bodger Christine ( like Most of us in 'ere! ). Ian 😊

Not really, IMO, though I'd do it in a slightly different order. * What's the local band scene like? Anyone out there that fits your aims, likes? * You see an ad. Does the band have a FB page, web site to check out? * Having made contact: Why is there a vacancy? Is there a lot of personnel turnover? * Who gets the gigs? Is there any sort of plan or do bookings just sort of dribble in on an ad-hoc basis * Lights, sound? Who humps it? (preferably not me) Then I'd ask them * How often do they rehearse? Where? * Who decides on the songs, set-list? * How many of the band are deluded fantasists; crazed, talent-less authoritarians; unreliable flakes; burdened with sick or unreasonable spouses? Then I'd do what I always do and tell them to poke it anyway.

Wow Chris, I am starting to feel fortunate that the multiple times we bought/sold/traded stuff I was lucky to get out unscathed...... criminal mastermind you. Paypal/Ebay, get your finger out... for the money you charge us when we use your "okay, not great" services/systems surely you can afford to link systems so one agonisingly slow resolution process is enough.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/keith_mcmillen_12_step.htm Good enough for Billy Sheehan...

Neck blank cut: The demarcation veneer I will be using on this one for the top/back, the back/neck and neck/fretboard is Redwood (and it is indeed red wood!). It will darken slightly with the finish but should tone nicely with the brownish hue of the poplar figuring. Here are the veneers being glued to the back joins: It's a while before the top gets glued on - in the meantime I'll try a couple of samples with just this veneer as the main back/top, or triple it up with two redwood veneers and a contrasting one (probably ebony to link with the hardware) in the middle. Might look a little fussy when the top carve cuts through, but you never know unless you try it!

If your amp has a line out, you should be able to get what you want by connecting the sub to that. However, depending on where in the signal path the line out is situated, you may find the input volume on the head, rather than the output volume, will control the level sent to the sub. I'd ask Ashdown's advice.

Without wanting to start a major derail of this thread there are a lot of assertions here that are at least debatable. One thing however stick out as just being wrong, that rectangular vents give more "woof" and ducts are more hi-fi. Whilst the shape of the ports will change the port resonances and changing that shape will also alter the point at which turbulence sets in the idea that different shaped ports of the same length and cross sectional area will have vastly different sounds isn't something with any evidence or mathematical proof that I've seen. I'm interested in what you mean by Line Array. The first of what we currently consider line array systems appeared in PA systems in the 1990's. A series of identical cabs with the mid and high frequency drivers vertically aligned to control dispersion. The idea of 'line source' has been around a lot longer, single cabs with vertically aligned drivers. The original paper on that was published in the 1950's but the phenomenon was known a long time before that and I remember churches with line source speakers fitted probably back before WW2 plus designs published in old books before Olsen's paper. I can't think of anyone using Line Array for bass, though the Genzler Bass Array cabs look interesting.

Won’t the court award compensation?

Cheers for the shout out, @lowdown I was about to embark on some nauseating self-promotion!

Of course. Everyone would just assume it's a Harley Benton with a Fender Decal on it. 😁

This. There does seem to be a fellowship of bass players, I've found it in other places and situations too. I think it's something to do with choosing a relatively uncommon and under-appreciated instrument. My older son aspired to be a cathedral organist, but was never quite good enough. But he had encouragement and support from some of the very best organists in the country. it wasn't a competition, it was a community.

I was about to do a deal and sell my Tanglewater Elite via FB as someone had posted that they wanted one - deal had almost been finalised although no money had changed hands and Mrs Saint said 'oh, don't sell that bass, it's got lovely wood grain on it', to which I replied 'I'm just about to buy another one and this one won't get played'. She then said 'sell it to me and then you'll still do one in, one out' (she doesn't play bass). I had to message the chap back and say 'really sorry, the deal's off' and explained why - he found it quite funny as well. Having said that, Mrs Saint won't talk to the former drummer in the band, as he bought a new drum kit and wouldn't confess to his wife that he had bought it, so it was stored in my house for 2 years. Eventually after veiled threats from Mrs Saint about bonfires, he had to sell his old kit, and pretend to his wife that the one at my house was mine and that he was buying it . . .

I spent all my life without needing a pedal board. At Christmas i got a PT Nano+, and now I’m on my second board this year. This one is pretty much going to stay as it is though. This collection of pedals offers me all i need. I may swap ther Qstrip out for my Zoom 60D at soem point, but only when I’m bored.

Years ago I was in a band who rehearsed at Idle Cricket Club near Bradford ( we called ourselves 'Idle Hands') and after the rehearsal we'd go into the clubhouse for a drink before leaving. We were 10 minutes and in that time the guitarist's guitar, amp and fx were all stole out of his side window which was broken by a brick. Some time later he managed to get some of the gear back. Consequently I never leave my gear in the car, in fact even when loading after a gig I put all my stuff in the car and go straight home. if I'm going to be chatting after the gig the gear stays within eyeshot and then gets loaded in as I leave. Sorry if this sounds sanctimonious but leaving gear in your unattended car is a calculated risk, especially if your face is well known.

Tweeted and Facebooked as Basschat.

T-Rex were awesome. Gary Savile Glitter on the other hand?! 🙄

Hey @thebigyin noooooo need to apologise mate, and definitely don't feel bad - I was jesting with ya I've published something like 700+ videos on YouTube over the last few years... just by the law of averages, some will likely be crap, lol. Have a great day man, and seriously, no need to apologise at all. S

I frequently do a lot of proaudio gear shootouts with my students, the obvious DI comparison amongst many others (I teach audio engineering). My personal conclusion is that the simple and not too expensive BSS DI box is pretty good on an absolute level and unbeaten in it´s pricerange. You´d need to pay x4 the price to get a clear improvement. The above mentioned Bo Hansen DI (it´s a DIY project, not available prebuilt) is better that the BSS, but it depends a lot on the parts used for it. I made eight of them for myself in several versions and each of them cost me app. 100€. If you occasionally need to use the DI for piezo pickups (e.g. double bass PUs, classical guitar, etc.) then the Radial PZ DI is the best option. It offers a 10MOhm input impedance which 5-10x higher than all the other DIs. That makes all the difference for piezo PUs. There´s no better option available in this application. In case you want to chase the last 3% of sound quality, then there are other options. Many people rate the Avalon U5 in this league, but I don´t. On occasions it sounded great, on others it has been beaten by the BSS, Bo Hansen, or a few others in my tests, even by a cheapo passive DOD DI. But it has a few advantages which should be mentioned: It has a preset EQ (if you´re into that - I´m not, I have better options) which may be helpful if you want to track with EQ, it looks expensive since it is expensive which helps half-educated people to nod their head and say "wow, an Avalon DI" while ignoring what they are hearing, it has a line-level output (you won´t need a micpreamp to amplify the signal from mic-level at the DI output to line-level while (the sound of most DIs depend a lot on which micpreamp will amplify their signal). The king and unbeaten DI in my book is the Gyraf G9 tube microphone preamp. Unfortunately it´s stereo, so if you want only one DI then you have another one left over. But since it´s a micpre after all you can use the second channel to mic your bassamp. The micpres are some of the best ever made and cheap compared to other offerings in the same quality range. They beat my Siemens V72 preamps and many others lefthanded all day long. And that´s a statement... http://gyraf.dk/product/g9/

Good call. But they do say that two can live as cheaply as one. To which I would add, IF you both want to end up mentally ill. Have a lovely Sunday, everyone! Hello clouds! Hello sky!

Welcome! Not a name I know, but I'll look out for it now - nice looking bass!

Welcome aboard Ian Don't suppose there's any chance I could "borrow" one for a while?? 😉😉

Hi Ian - welcome 😊

Put down the silver bass Bro. But seriously Ian, nice to see you here. Basschat has a very cool vibe that's all its own.

Cheers, my firts post and new pickguard.

I don't - holding a grudge is an important thing in life