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Great thread and I rarely if ever read every post of any thread. This last audition whilst not hellish was I have to admit bloody nerve wracking . The practise room is a little annex off the BL open plan kitchen. Everything's setup, tiny muffled kit, keys, couple of amps all crammed into this very small space and I'm starting to think...blimey this is cosy. We sit down and are literally rubbing shoulders with each other, not an inch of room between us. BL asks me what I want to do and I say well lets go from the top of No 1 set list. ( their a 60's tribute outfit, and they do three sets of twenty each!) First tune is the Beatles "I'm A Looser" with that fab two part opening harmony. I haven't played for quite a while and was almost knocked off my stool by the power and tightness of that opening vocal.....christ these guys are good I think. Then the BL wife who's on keys starts warbling and the whole thing goes stratospheric. Not bad for a bunch of 70 yr olds. I'm 58.... To be sat in the middle of a four part harmony reaching for the sky in a room you couldn't swing a mouse in left me feeling emotionally drained....quite an experience. I've subsequently learned they've been doing this for 40 yrs and the front guy had a No1 record in South Africa.....no reason to doubt it really. Our first gig is this weekend ( a mini festival apparently)...can't wait if a little apprehensive. They give the bass loads of frequency space, its all very jangly and trebly as would be expected, so no room at all for any mistakes.....yikes!

Hey all, I wanted to share my experience I had with my CTM 100, just in case anyone out there had been pondering this. A few months ago I bought a second hand CTM 100. Went and tested it at the guys house, thought it was lovely, and ended up buying it. Turns out I was a bit dumb, and I didn't really test it as properly as I should have, because when I got it home and played with it a bit more, I found that the EQ controls were not as useful as I'd originally thought. Mainly that the bass control did practically nothing. The sweep on the knob seemed to show it coming on, but nothing beyond that. It was almost like it could be an on/off switch. I couldn't dial out any bass in my tone on my next gig, so I sounded way too subby, and there wasn't a whole lot I felt I could do about dialling in a useful sound. At least not very easily. So I took it to a local amp tech, who agreed the EQ was pretty useless. He called Ashdown and asked them if there was a fault with the amp. They replied saying that's just how they are. I thought if that's the case, then this amp clearly isn't for me, so I did put it for sale on Basschat for a short time. But when I was failing to sell it on, I still couldn't really understand why the amp was like this. So I decided to contact Ashdown myself, with a little video showing me using the EQ of my amp, making sure that this was how they're meant to be. I got an email back from Dave Green at Ashdown, saying yes that is how they are, and that the bass control only has a boost of 3db, next to nothing. But he also said that there is an alternative solution that he thought I might prefer. Dave send me over (free of charge) a new set of replacement EQ pots to put in the amp. The new values of which were - (Bass - A220K) (Mids - A22K) (Treble - A220K). A change from what was in mine originally - (Bass - B470K) (Mids - B100K) (Treble - A1M) The point of this probably unnecessarily long post, is that I now love my CTM! I had these new pots fitted, and now it's infinitely more useful and versatile. Sounds great with everything set at noon, but for those awkward awful sounding rooms we end up gigging in from time to time, I now have confidence that I can easily make the EQ adjustments to compensate. Even the Mids and Treble control have a wider sweep now so have become much more useful too. The EQ to me has become like a normal usable EQ on any other amp I've used. Do no other CTM users have an issue with the EQ on theirs? Because I was baffled that I couldn't find anyone with the same issue when I researched it. I'm also a bit confused as to why Ashdown don't make them like this as standard, but I'm no amp expert. All I know is my Ashdown suits me a lot better now, and I now rumble trousers with big fat valve tone for days. Thanks Dave Green!

Use it. That's what it was designed/built for. It's not an ornament.

What is this "upper register" of which you speak?

Nope. Everything I buy is to be gigged, as often as possible.

Just to confirm, user banned. It’s a Nigerian user who has done this a few times before so I’m talking to @charic about banning Nigerian IP. Thanks!

Hi All, Arrived yesterday a new ACG TKO from Alan. It is one of two he has made and it is absolutely stunning, the photo's only get you 90% there. The texture within the wood itself really adds something. It comprises: Black Limba body and top. 3 piece Maple with carbon Rosewood neck, 30.5" scale. Hipshot Type B in chrome.Hipshot string tree, Gotoh GB7 tuners, Dunlop straplocks, Newtone strings. ACG PB pickup with Alnico magnets. Weighs around 7.5lbs (not put it on the scales yet). It has what I would call a true PB sound but with more tonal variation available. Can't wait to try it out at band practice on Tuesday.

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 !

My Vigiers... all Series III, build 1994-2004, neck-thru, all original, 3 Passion, 1 Arpège... I REALLY love to play these basses...

And I'd say it's not about me at all. There might be a few personal references I use for examples or to justify a position. But the thread is clearly not about me. The CD promotion was off topic, a mere side note. Blue

Hardly, Christine. If you can knock up basses like you're doing, i'd say you have a bit of mileage left.

Also forgot to mention the Fender Precision Special - MIM, PJ pickups and narrow jazz width neck. Current/ recent models are active but the first ones if you can find one were passive. Again, s/h your best bet, around the £400 mark.

Maybe one day Blue will leave his current band and we won't see these threads every 2 months and he'll be a regular poster in Jack's "auditions in hell" thread instead.

http://glguitars.com/product/sb-2-2/ Very under rated basses.

First thing that comes to mind is a Marcus Miller P7. P body, jazz neck, PJ pickups, plus active preamp. Easily found for under £500 new. Not sure about weight as I've not owned one, but should be fairly light (especially the alder models). Not sure about Squires/Fenders specifically, I'm sure others will though

The current “main” Bass > Temple Audio pedalboard side input > Keeley Compressor Pro > Helix Hx > side output > Mesa amps The Hx also acts as the control centre for the other pedsls, loop 1 “Synths” has the Future Impact and COG T65 in the chain and loop 2 “Dirt and Grit” has the Bearfoot BBO and the Darkglass Duality. I find the B7K emulation to be very close to the original so I no longer have one on the board.

Sadowsky + Aguilar DB751/SL410 Best I ever had.

My mate had a band which has now disbanded I think which had a great name for a bunch of codgers getting together to play: 'Old Country Union' That name always tickled me.

Thanks I will give them a listen If you are not familiar with Peter hook the below... Monaco -what do you want from me Joy division - Love will tear us apart New order - Sunrise

Google too much hassle?

bartelby - I ended up emailing the vendor of the Gotohs I'm interested in he said that 3L+2R was correct - so the eBay one looks like it's wrong. T-Bay - think I'll probably go for the Gotohs, the ones currently on the Hudson are... OK, not great on tuning stability for an otherwise very nice bass, and considering the price I got for, putting £50 into it for tuners isn't so bad. I put Gotohs on a Bass Collection SB100 a while back and was very pleased with the result... so probably worth the investment.

How's the DI out in your amp? Does it have the switch for mic/line? If you could send it in "line" and in "pre" then you could cut all the lows you want in the EQ without affecting the signal to the sub. There are a few amps in wich the "send" output is post-EQ so you would be cutting lows before sending to the sub. This is how i would be doing if i wanted a similar result from my Genz Benz head. I don't know your amp so you should check these things first.

Thats my attitude also, but to be fair I'd think twice taking an origional 65 jazz or something similar down to the dog n duck. If I was a full time pro touring session player in theatres etc then I would!

Blue, We get it. You play in a bar band and make a bit of money at it. We're very happy for you. We all play music for a variety of reasons - financial, for personal satisfaction, to get away from the family for a few hours, etc, etc. They're all equally valid and even "flakes" are perfectly entitled to play music if they want.

Ooh look darling, how about a side table for drinks? No, she said.

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...

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.

Band Name Woes isn`t a bad idea................

Advertisement: Bass Player Needed Looking for a fun band? We rehearse on Tuesdays (except when we don't because of unexpected spousal emergencies, short-term amnesia or just because). We play the same two songs in different arrangements every time, the extent of the variations depending on whether the guitarist has taken his meds or not. The drummer can't keep time and hits his kit like an angry butcher hacking out pork chops. The keyboards occupy precisely the space where the bass would normally be so you'll have to play everything up beyond the 15th fret. The singer has his own music stand and a jokey hat bearing the embroidered motto: 'I'm The Star'. We might have another guitarist joining but no one's really sure because he's the drummer's mate and we haven't heard from the drummer for six months. We've been rehearsing for four years and have a charity gig possibly booked for July 2027 which will be great exposure. We don't play for money, just for sh!ts and giggles and artistic self-expression, so no bread-heads, ha ha! If you're interested, give us a call but only if you own a van, a PA, a lighting rig, have website building skills and are sufficiently incompetent that we can slag you off behind your back then fire you by email two weeks after you've joined. Ciao!

Dave Green is a great guy, and has an amazing amount of knowledge over the range of Ashdown products. He helped me out big-time on tightening up the sound from my ABM410 - as above there was nothing wrong with it, it worked as per stock settings but I just wanted that tight/sealed cab sound, so that`s what he helped me out on. This thread is another plus point for Ashdowns customer service, which imo will reach legenderay status pretty soon.

Well MacDaddy, I stand corrected ! 😏 As far as I can understand after a bit of browsing, it seems: For all classical instruments, legato still has it's traditional meaning - i.e the opposite of staccato playing. For rock guitar (and bass) it has come to have a rather different meaning, referring to hammer ons and pull offs. Always pleased to extend my knowledge. Thanks. 🙂

This we have a hands down winner

Kudos to you for not settling whith what you had and also to Ashdown for presenting you with a working solution for your issue, even though there was nothing wrong with the amp, as there may be some people that aim for the sound this amp has from factory. This may be a helpfull topic for others in your position.

Thanks for all the complimentary replies guys. Alan does make exceedingly good guitars.

Frighteningly familiar. Nice enough bloke but very little self awareness, would grate after a while though not meaning any harm, just excited like a puppy.

Looking good! I really do like that top! I think that the bottom horn would look better shortened a bit 😀

Oh yes. I work in a large university Computer Science department and at least six of us have instruments in our offices - I can think of three guitars and two keyboards, there may well be others. I have the only bass afaIk. I bought a cheap old Encore P to keep in the office just so I could noodle around a bit during lunch breaks, or after working hours waiting for the rush hour to calm down before going home. Turned out a few peeps I've known for many years were getting together after work on occasional Fridays for a jam best described as drinking session with a music problem 🙂 That was actually the first time I'd played with anyone else, and I still love those crazy evenings. And my students think I'm cool 🙂

I’ve not tried the Marcus set, but I found the regular Dunlop Super Bright steels great for slap, very low tension which made it much easier. https://www.jimdunlop.com/product/dbmms45105-7-10137-08601-2.do?sortby=ourPicks&refType=&from=Search&ecList=6&ecCategory=

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

The YouTube stuff seems to be a more common complaint these days, but if I remember correctly there was some sort of change to the Youtube algorythm lately that prompted a need for longer videos to keep your visibility up or something like that. Anyway, I've been a member for the past 3 years. I've learned a lot. I would go as far as to say Scott's 'Harmonic Layering' course on there is the best thing you can do to learn about harmony aside from a one to one teacher. Even then some one to one teachers are awful. The other thing he really drives home is the need to actually put the work in if you really want to get better - which is the thing which has probably had the most impact on my playing. I never had a structured practice routine until I joined, now I do.......... So yeh, I would recommend him!

Plonkety plonkety plonkety in my case!

I had dithered about buying a Cloud guitar when Schecter put a limited run out and missed out on one. More fool me. He who hesitates is lost. I saw an advert on Facebook for a Cloud replica from a company called Sunfield in the USA. The price was reasonable, including case, so I thought I'd have a punt on a purple one. When the tracking information came through, it showed it was coming from China, so I prepared myself for the worst. Chinese guitars can be either good or horrid. The tracking info showed it was on the way to the airport, but nothing else, but it arrived here in the UK fairly quickly. It came extremely well packaged but not in a case, so I am in the process of chasing them about that. The guitar: Well, it looks absolutely superb. The action was quite high, so I took it down. The strings choked on the top frets if I did string bends. Bah. So it went into Jack's Instrument Services in Manchester and they have made it into a pretty good guitar. New posts for the bridge. Fret leveling. Tweaking the bridge ferrules. Packing under the pickups (No, they are not EMG's). Setup, etc. After that work, which meant I was without the guitar for a week, I ended up with a pretty spectacular looking and really playable guitar.

Spot on, Charic! Where can I get tickets for Pink Torpedo Profanity Test?