Leaderboard

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....

I think that Blue’s original list was pretty sound, if a touch excessive on one or two points – do you really need a dedicated sound engineer / lighting guy for a pub band or is that just another mouth (or two) to feed?? I recently saw an article about this subject that I thought mad a lot of sense. I’m not sure who wrote it, but some pro who gets decent gigs, who said that there were three elements that he considered before taking a gig: the music, the hang and the money. ‘The music’ is obviously if the other musicians are of a good standard and if you like the music that they are going to play, ‘the hang’ refers to if you like them as people with ‘the money’ meaning was it a decent payer. For him to take the gig then at least two of those elements has to be in place, so for example he suggests that you might consider a gig playing music you don’t care for if it is with friends and pays well. To put it in context for my personal situation, I’m currently standing in for a band for a few months who are OK but possibly not the sort of stuff that I would normally play, but they are great guys and I’m earning decent money. On the other hand, me and some friends (who are good players) have been trying to put together a side project playing music that I really like but will probably not make much cash.

Most gigs I use my ‘good’ gear but occasionally we play rowdier pub gigs (my favourite gigs as it happens) and for those I use the cheap stuff. I’m not worried about stuff getting damaged necessarily, but playing eyeball to eyeball with an up for it crowd means that inevitably beer can get spilt, mic stands can get knocked etc. I look after my gear and don’t abuse it, but I’m not precious about it and if it gets dinged in the line of duty then so be it. I’d just rather the cheap stuff got dinged than the expensive stuff.

I once took my 3 Gus G3 Basses and and Gus G1 Guitar to a gig. Total value along with the bass rig I was using at the time, somewhere around £25k...

Oh, how true

I don't want to discount my Flake-O"Meter bullet point. I bet all of us can detect "nut jobs", "goof balls", egotistical types, and " A Holes" rather quickly. We sometimes overlook these guys thinking it's a fluke or they'll change Word to the wise. It's neverr a fluke and those guys never change. Blue

Thanks, Blue, but it's basically your list with the order shuffled around and a bit of mordant snark thrown in at the end. H'mmm. Mordant Snark... good name for a 60's garage / psychedelic outfit. All Hail The Snark: Milwaukee's hottest new band 1967

Excellent. Any effort that entices hipsters to part with stupid amounts of cash should be praised 😉

Report it please.

Aaaaah ...thought so 🤗

Don't worry the weather here is terrible too, and I've had my fair share of warm beers! Mike does great work, and his shop is awesome if you ever get a chance to visit. But yes definitely check out Marco's stuff! We have a few artists in the UK, and we are hopefully shipping a couple out to Sandy at the Great British Bass Lounge this month, so I will keep you posted!

To hear the compressed track on a 20p piece of rapidly degrading plastic 😂 Who are you kidding mate? 🤣 Good is good, better is in your imagination.

Isn't that the less visited cousin of Australia's famous Ayers Rock (sadly not related to Kevin of that ilk)

I'd use the ABM line out which is post- master volume. Use the active cab volume control to set the appropriate relative levels, and you should be good to go. 🎸

No the court wont award any money if he gets a sentence which he will do, also he is classed as unemployed so the only thing we can do is take a private prosecution out against him and he will be ordered to pay compensation at a pound a week or something for the next however many years, but that will cost us to do. But he is still paying for the scams he did in 2017, so the amount he would be asked to pay would be miniscule. And it isnt guaranteed he would be made to pay anything to us. Cheers Steve

Anything graphite is OK with me

You'd need McMillen's MIDI Expander then (or equivalent)

I know a guitarist who hates (she says) anything from the 70s. She's pushing 50. However, although hating -'the 70s', she plays in a punk band! Somehow that musical point missed her along the way....

I went to see it when it was resuscitated revived a few years ago, largely because I'd been corresponding with one of the cast about a TV series I'd written. It was a lovely production and the whole thing worked well, but when I listened to the soundtrack in isolation... nah. All the childhood dislike came back and the CD was quickly promoted to a coaster.

I have 3 of those, the faux headstock types. Indeed well made, but I will stop hijacking this Vigier thread (which are some seriously sexy sounding and looking basses in their own right).

A proper "bass" pedal board should always be a more reliable option for what you want. However if the Behringer FCB1010 will work in the way you want, then it will be more versatile since you can attach any Midi Note Number to any foot switch and not be limited to a single octave.

For heaven's sake, man, where's your sense of aesthetics? That overhang is shocking.

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Man this is boss, very nicely done. I'm proper digging the grungy folk vibes. 👏

I too switched to bass because it seemed an easier way to get into a band, but I first became aware of the what the bass could do listening to Alan Lancaster on the Status Quo albums Hello and Quo, nothing complicated but it made the band rock

Maybe, but all too often insolvency makes it unlikely that any real money gets clawed back.

That's one heck of a list for a pub band, in my opinion. If looking for a full-time job, or career, maybe I'd agree with a lot of the points, but for 'week-end warrior' bands, for folks with a 'real' job for the mortgage, I'd suggest it's royal overkill. Is it fun..? Do you get on with the band members..? Is the gigging frequency compatible with other stuff going on..? That's about it, I'd say, for a great many of us. For a more serious gigging musician, I'd say that depping brings about the best opportunities, with the bonus of knowing exactly what the band does from having played with 'em on gigs, if a permanent offer comes up, as well as the contacts it offers. No real need to go about it like an accountant, I say. Just my tuppence-worth.

For me it was " Lord of Light" by Hawkwind from the album Do Re Mi... Eternal thanks to Lemmy.

Insurance scam. I read his notice on Wednesday afternoon so he was posting about the theft before it even happened!! Seriously, I hate to see anyone parted from their gear so I hope he gets it back shortly.

Bought Kev's Limelight - great comms, super easy transaction and all as should be. Top marks for Kev - another 'good guy' on this forum!

Thanks guys, got it up and running again, tried the effects loop and got sound via that, so assumed it was a valve, cracked the amount open and switched the valves around, they don't look blown, maybe it came loose . .either way it's working again and will be ordering some new valves Thanks guys! So Andy said: Try bypassing the effects loop with a short 1/4" shielded cable. Also, it's possible that you have a bad tube (valve). Try substituting a known good 12AX7 into each of the 3 tube positions and see if the sound comes back. Otherwise, you will need to find a technician or service engineer that is experienced servicing class D amps. I can support the Fender service guys, as well as Sutherland Trading and any Mesa Boogie authorized service center if they are willing to work on it. Best regards, Andy

Love Blue Turk ! In fact almost any of Dennis Dunaway's bass lines on School's Out are great.. Luney Tune and Gutter Cat vs The Jets in particular. ☺

@lowdowner If your Flute reading in treble clef became second nature, you will be familiar with rhythms. They won't change in Bass clef. The only thing different in the Bass clef will be the register/octaves. You just need plenty of practise with Bass Guitar/Double Bass charts. Read, read and read on a daily basis. There are a ton of accurate, transcribed Bass charts here (Link below). Get stuck in and work your way through them. They are free.....😀 https://freebasstranscriptions.com/transcriptions/ Example PDF. ABBA-Dancing-Queen-2018-edit.pdf

I was in Post Office queue trying to pay for parcels to be sent out and soon as i stuck my card in the machine, it was refused. Tried again, nothing. Had to phone HSBC while i was still in the queue ( which was getting longer, and the tuts were starting along with sighs ) and i was told that there had been suspicious activity. I was scratching my dome as i didnt know what they were talking about. They wouldnt tell me what it was. A day or so later, i walk into my local HSBC and ask to see someone in the " suspicious activity " dept. Lady comes out - i explain what an embarrasment the situation in the post office was, and i wasn't happy, but if they were just protecting my account from fraudulent activity, then fair enough. She still wouldn't tell me what the " suspicious activity " was. I started to get a bit furious around the gills, so she phoned someone above her pay grade ' further up the food chain '. Eventually , after much debate and raised voices, i finally got an answer. " A suspicous payment was made to O2 " " You mean the same £10 top up for my phone that i've been making for the last 6 years ? " Bar stewards

Bought a new set of the Retrovibe "Vintage" pickups recently, decided to fit them to my Bass Collection Californian. All was going well, until I realised that the neck pickup is bigger than the original, and expanding the existing hole would be very messy. Some time ago, I bought 2 sheets of pearlescent plastic (black & white), with the intention of making some new scratchplates. I completely wasted the black sheet, made loads of mistakes, and they were resigned to the bin. The white sheet was untouched, until now. Third attempt, started slow, taking my time, looking good, until I realised that I'm not left handed. The air turned blue for a moment or three. D'oh! Fourth attempt. Start slow & taking my time again, looking good. Made sure it was the right way round this time too. Some time later, I was left with a new scratchplate & TRC that I was happy with. Big grin. Fitted them last night, new neck pickup fitted perfectly, had to make a couple of minor mod's as I went, nothing too drastic though. Definitely need a new soldering iron. neck pickup fitted, sounded good, switch to the bridge pickup, sounded thin, something wrong. Take the strings & scratchplate off again, and the earth wire is loose. Resolder that, put everything back together, restring, plug in, and boom! Good to go! The new pickups sound great, quite "zingy" (the new strings help I suppose), and the new scratchplate & TRC look good too.

Welcome Ian.

Overlooking 1971, some people have claimed February 3, 1959 as the turning point.

The last time I saw a performance like that of the poor old gentleman to Jack's left was when we played a bank's office Christmas party. The CEO's secretary who booked us was there to explain that her boss fancied joining us on stage. For the whole set. And he'd already set up his stack. And his pedalboard. And he had some song suggestions. We'd just finished setting up on the periphery of the CEO's square footage when this perfectly pleasant, slightly porky chap wandered over with a PRS round his neck and asked us if we were ready to go? We were and we did. After a couple of numbers I looked round and this chap was pulling all these guitar faces and widdling away like a nutjob - in total silence, his amp being turned to zero. Our guitard looked at me, I looked at him, we both looked at the drummer and we smiled. After we finished he shook our hands, fulsomely complimented us on our playing and asked if we'd like to do it again some time. I said yes, certainly then wandered off to talk to his secretary away from the main party and ended up boffing her across his desk. Funny old world, eh?