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Gear doesn't have to be gigged to justify having. There's no rule or special virtue about that. In fact plenty of us might be between bands or have ceased being in a band altogether. Does that mean we should sell all our gear? If it's sitting around not getting played at all, whether at home, in the studio or live, it's only at that point I think "yup this should be with someone else". But as long as it gets used and you get enjoyment, creativity or simple pleasure from playing it; in my books that's plenty.

And to the next scary bit - cutting and gluing the ebony blocks. The process was straightforward but needed to be quite accurate. Not only does the ebony have to be cut spot on, but because of the radius, it needs to be certain that the middle is proud of the fretboard but the sides set into the fretboard so, when attacking it with the radius block to smooth them flush, I don't sand into fresh air. Here's 6 done and 4 to go: And here's all 10 in place: I'm going to leave it on the template until I've sanded them flush - in the event that any or them are flawed, it then would be a simple job to rout out the ebony with the index pin still in the right place and re-do. In the meantime, I popped across to Neil's and took some profile and depth measurements from his favourite playing neck: Every bass has its own feel, but making the new one to similar profile and measurements should make it have a comforting familiarity when Neil gets to play it

Well the deko Stingray alike has arrived and well i`ve managed to find the reason for being a deko, a badly cut nut, ive set it up, played it and its perfectly fine even the B string is ok, quite happy for £43

Total miming should be compulsory for some acts, Florence and the machine for a start.

Having just sold my passive FRFR cabinets, I am hoping to soon join the powered FRFR collective! Exciting times ahead I am sure.

Hello Pete, as you quite rightly said, this is a huge area, likely to mildly upset the connoisseur by relating my experience. I’m no Milt Hinton, but I have recorded in a fair few studios, so I have formed an opinion which I transiently consider sensible (I.e. I may change my mind next week). I started out by being very particular about mic placements and now I’m of the school of thought of “stick the best mic you have a foot-and-a-bit away from my bridge and I will try to play my socks off”. That seems to work for me at the moment. Depending on your personality trait, you may also augment your chances of success by bribing/threatening the engineer. I feel being friendly works best... what I find very important is to keep your cans at a minimum volume on one ear only, so you can hear yourself playing “in the real world” which is essential for tone and intonation. your problem really lies on the mixing afterwards, when the bass may keep being pushed further and further back...you may want to keep the threats for that phase.... all of this may well be a load of rubbish of course. Most of all, have fun!

Sometimes good things come from bad auditions. I've been trying to find a band desperate enough to want me, and had some ...interesting... experiences. Audition 1: answered an ad on JMB for a blues group. I tell them how long I've been playing - not all that long - as I want to be honest up front. I do a bit of recruiting in the day job, and know how narked I get when confronted with bovine manure. Better to be straight with them from the off. Anyway, he replies, telling me that there's a drummer lined up, plus someone on blues harp and maybe keys too. Could I learn a couple of songs and pop round for a twang? Rightio. I turn up at the BL's house and am treated to half an hour's talking about his guitar collection before we get down to business. He's provided an amp - an ancient Vox gee-tar amp that didn't look much younger than me. Hm. I'd have brought the Eden if I'd known. But I crank the low end and off we go. He's hunched over his chord chart and doesn't look up. With no drummer to lock in with, some eye contact might have been helpful. He then chases me out of the house before his wife gets back. Hmmmm. Then about a week later, I get a 'thanks but no thanks' email. Meh. Think I dodged a bullet there. Audition 2: answered an ad on JMB for a rock covers band. Again, I'm up front about my level of experience. I get their set list - wow! Fabulous! - and learn half a dozen songs, as requested. Then the audition's brought forward a week. Great. But I rock up at the appointed time - to a studio this time - to find that the BL was struggling with one of the songs I'd learnt and had to teach the singer one of the others. Oh dear. But the rest sounded good, although at the end of the evening, they said they thought it was beyond me to learn everything on the list before their next gig. They were quite decent about it though, so fair enough. Audition 3: answered an ad on JMB for another rock covers band. As before, I make it clear how much I do and don't know. I learn the requested songs and turn up to a slightly less-than-ideal studio - bare wooden floor, no sound insulation and a PA that didn't look much more powerful than my home stereo. As I'm getting set up, a guitarist walks in; he's being auditioned too. He sets up his backline - a lovely Marshall valve amp. Then the BL arrives and sets up his backline. Then off we go. The PA just about copes, but after the first song, the BL says to me, 'it needs much more bass'. Well, I was standing in front of the amp and I could hear it OK, which meant he certainly could from the other side of the room. But no sweat, up went the volume to just under half and we launched into the next song. Jesus. My amp was making the room shake. I went to turn it down and the BL said ‘no, leave it, it’s just right’. The guitarist turned up his amp as it was being drowned by mine. Not wanting to be left out, the BL did the same and we went into song number three. This time, the weedy studio PA was completely overwhelmed; all I could do was lock in with the drummer and hope for the best. Then things started to go south when the BL started playing something a bit different before stopping to tell us that we needed to follow him. By now the volume was up well past 11 and the only way to follow him was by lip-reading. The next song fell apart when he missed out an eight-bar sequence from the intro. By now, the negative vibes were starting to creep in. At the end of the evening, the BL thanked us for coming and said ‘we’ll have a chat and we'll let you know’ in a sarky voice. So much for that, then. The guitarist and I compared notes outside and we both reckoned we wouldn’t hear from them again. We swapped numbers though, and decided we’d look at doing something together if it didn’t go anywhere. After a week of radio silence, I pinged the guitarist a text and as expected, he hadn’t heard anything either. He then asked me if I was still up for getting together, as he had another guitarist and a singer who were interested. Oh, was I ever. So a few days later, the three of us (the singer couldn’t make it) assembled in a very nice studio in Cranfield. What a difference! No attitude, a lot of fun and some great songs to play. The Stooges, Black Sabbath, the Undertones, Tears For Fears, the Cult… all good stuff. Plus some originals that the guitarist had written that needed basslines added. I had a whale of a time, and when we decided to make a go of it at the end of the evening, I was on cloud nine. So I did join a band from a terrible audition. Just not the one I originally went for!

Take that responsibility ! i joined up with a new formed band and after the first gig we had terrible PA sound issues , so when I asked who knew how to run it they all shrugged the shoulders and said the PA came from a previous band split and a different guy used to run it 😂 So took all the kit , hired a hall for a couple of hours and played with all the kit and worked a simple solution with desk , amps and speakers , sound checks take a 2 minute blast of roadhouse blues 👍 In the land of the blind , the one eyed man is king 😉

Get 2 layers of foam that are half thickness and cut right through one then put it on top of the uncut one...

...followed by gagging and a sack over the head for a finish

Not much cop if he couldn't even get your name right.

Am I the only one who read this topic title as Guest Beer at gigs? Wishful thinking or dementia, I fear

I play in a duo where I sing and play guitar. I also play bass and do bv in a 4 piece playing "red dirt" country (modern alternative country from Texas/Oklahoma). The singer who does some solo gigs called and wanted to use a duo at a bar-b-que place, but the guitarist didn't like the money offered so the singer asked me to back him on guitar. Did the gig, got more money than expected and free ribs. Singer called said he missed the bass, getting more money, so now the guitarist is in, it'll be a 3 piece for the next 3 gigs. Same money for me. So.....either he really missed the bass, or he likes the other guy better on guitar (he is good). I don't care. I'm getting money for nothin' and my ribs for free!

A bit of a whim purchase this one as it really hasn’t been the best of years but I was on the Eastwood site and saw some cheap ex-demo stock. I’ve always liked the natural finish on a flying V and really liked the look of this one. Eastwood’s always seem to play well and be great value for money (at least all the ones I’ve tried do) so I took the plunge. Amazing customer service from Eastwood as always, although DHL could probably warrant a thread on its own in terms of how they tried to deliver it. 30.5” scale, fairly lightweight body with a pretty thunderous sound. No, you can’t sit down with it but standing up, you can release your inner Rock God. And yes, I am probably old enough to know better!

I really must get round to watching the last two episodes, I'm really glad it's not like the good old days though, when I had to sit though the whole of the Old Grey Whistle in the hope of seeing the odd good act, at least we've got fast forward buttons now, count your blessing you youngsters

Well after several gigs and a couple of rehearsals with my new QUILTER BASS BLOCK 800 I am as pleased as punch. I am now using it at all gigs. Way too good to have as a back-up. A fellow player was very impressed with my sound last Saturday night (and surprised at the price). Quizzed me about the amp, took photos and went off to buy one. A great range of usuable musical bass tones, plenty of punch. Simply marvellous ever player should have one

It looks like this might be a thing folks, I'm going to try and put decent pilot together with @SpondonBassed by the end of the month, so we'll see where it goes from there. I'll PM people individually to sort out the specifics. Thanks to everyone for showing an interest in this and feel free to keep posting any ideas in the mean time, but it's not the end of the world if this thread sinks, I'll be sure to bump it once the episodes out! 😁

Ah fair enough, I think I'm just defining slickness with a different threshold but I totally agree with that. I'm a freelance audio engineer on-top of my part-time day job, I'm not just a hobbyist, the last job I did was for the "The 8th Asian Awards" and I've done a tone of audio restoration work and production on different podcasts. Plus I'm a fairly eloquent and charismatic fellow too on the sly, 😜🤣 so i'm up for putting a pilot together if folk are cool with that? Personally I think https://appear.in/ is the way to go for the first punt, it's like Skype or google hangouts but with less delay and better audio. That's if everyone's cool with me capturing all the audio at my end to minimize fuss for this first pop at it. If we want to go for better audio after then; we could use something like http://www.pamela.biz/ and everyone capture audio at their ends and we comp it afterwords but that means we'd have to use Skype. If no one objects to me kinda taking the rains for the pilot would you @SpondonBassed be up for co-hosting? We could do a few segments and then interview @Chownybass? Providing your still up for it Chowny? Then once its all recorded I'll do a rough edit and possibly pass it to you @project_c to do a QC listen through to catch anything I've missed? Then if you'd pass it back to me I'll master the audio and bosh; post it up here and see what folk reckon, get some feedback on if we should/how to proceed with it? If it get's "green lit" then figure out who's going to run the Libsyn and the admin side of things. What do folk think? I by no means wish to dictate what should happen to everyone, I want it to be BC's podcast not mine. You just posted this after I'd typed up my previous gambit so for the record I'm up for traveling too if in-person would be a preference but it's definitely less doable if we'd like to make it regular. I'm in Manchester not sure where everyone else is?

I'm finally in a band with a great drummer AND a guitarist who can play quietly and I'm very grateful for that. Those who say they have to play loudly 'to get my sound' are talking crap, basically. Even rock bands can sound 'heavy' without being really loud. My view is that some people like to be loud to direct attention away from their playing, paradoxically.

Yes indeed missed by many a band. One huge problem is with certain musicians who are under the mysterious spell of thinking that things only sound good when REALLY loud. "My valve amp sounds better cranked" and "I can't get the tone out of my kit if I play lightly" I have heard oh so often. Thing is, I agree that certain equipment does indeed sound awesome loud, but are totally overkill for 90% of gigs. That Marshall 100W and 4x12 cabinet doesn't start to do that beautiful compression characteristic until the valves are working hard and the speaker cones are near their limits. By that point, the volume is tinnitus incurring. So, for the most part, that kit is the wrong kit for the job at the Dog and Duck on a Friday night.

I remember my Thunder 1A as being a solid and great sounding bass. The biggest downside of them was their weight though. Bloody heavy basses, but when they sound like that, you can manage. The cachet is coming from people of a certain age, who bought & used them as their first/second instruments, and went on to use them in our first bands. Add to the fact that they have the Matsumoku history, and better build quality than some of the other "budget" instruments of the time, and now that people of a certain age have a bit more time available and a bit more disposable income, then prices start to rise. Yes, I would have another one, purely for nostalgia purposes, but it'd have to be at the right price. Saying that, I always wanted a through neck Thunder II or III.

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

Have you ever bought any bass gear which you expected to be good, but turned out to far exceed expectations? For me this would be my Epiphone vintage pro bass. I've owned a bolt-on epiphone thunderbird before and still have a pro-v 5 string, and I expected the vintage pro to be prettier version of something between the two. I've not used roundwounds since the last century, but after receiving the bass I played it for a few weeks with the stock strings and apart from the abrasive roundwounds on my fingertips I loved the feel of the bass - the 'oval' narrow neck with a slightly rounded fingerboard edge and the well finished fret-ends make it very comfortable to play. I was not prepared for how good it sounded though - the pro-bucker pickups sound huge and are dripping with tone. It is possible to a massive range of usable tones with just the three knobs and it is sometimes hard to believe it is a passive bass. The roundwounds had a little too much zing for my taste when they wrre new, the bridge pickup was on and the tone pot was open. I didn't enjoy the feel of the strings as much as I enjoyed the sound so I decided to get some La Bella 750T white nylons, hoping for a brighter variation on flatwounds, but not really knowing what kind of tone to expect from them. Once I had the strings on the bass, the smooth feel was even better than my previous favourite strings Thomastik TI-344, but what I liked about the bass's tone with the stock strings on was preserved, perhaps with a little more low end punch and without the excess brittle zing. I don't know whether the La Bellas would work this well on every bass, but they are perfect for me on this one. So this bass which cost me £450 (b-stock for a near-invisible minor cosmetic issue) and a set of £30 strings (it pays to shop around) which I originally bought mainly due to the super-cool vintage looks rather than for it to become my main bass, has replaced my CIJ mustang as my go-to bass for rehearsals and recording, it's the first one I grab to play at home, and I used it on my only gig since I bought it. What has anyone else bought - perhaps a combination of bass/amp/strings/fx/etc which was expected to be good, but far exeeded those expectations?

Thanks, AD. I deliberately didn’t listen to yours before I posted, but I’ve given it a listen since. That’s quite a bass tone, and I love the percussion.

Not even close IMHO, the Mojomojo wins that fight. I bought the Beta when it first came out, moved it on pretty quickly as it was very muddy with a baked in bass boost. I actually bought a second one a few years later as I was using a very bright sounding always on Darkglass B3K/M900 sound and wanted a darker sounding drive pedal to boost into it. It worked pretty well for this purpose, and it went on my band board. But listening to the pedal direct it was pretty bland, and the drive quite harsh and fizzy. Not tubey at all, very transistor like - a lot like a tubescreamer in fact, just with hyped lows and subdued highs. The Mojomojo has just as much (or even more if you want it) low end depth but the drive is much more natural sounding, a softer top end yet with more clarity / less mud than the Beta. I can happily play a P-Bass into a Mojomojo direct into headphones, and I couldn’t say the same for the Beta.

eBay and Paypal is a shining example of what happens when there is no real competition in the online auction sector. Too big and too complacent.

You missed off the bit where dood stated combo jack (as in both 1/4" and XLR)...

That's looking really good mate! I'll have to send you mine for my build 😁

A while back, my 4 piece jazz(-ish) group lost the original sax player. Well I say lost, he is still with the band as far as I know, 'cos he's never told me that he's gone! Why? Well, I gave him a bit of a hard time after he refused to assist with helping with group tasks like carrying in the PA, helping other people to pack up after a gig, etc. Bit too much of a prima donna on that front - "I didn't bring it so I don't see why I have to carry it. We replaced him with a keyboard player who didn't really work out to anyone's satisfaction. The end result of that was that we got in another saxophonist and things got better because she was in tune with everyone else personality-wise as well as being a good player, definitely better than the first guy. Except then the drummer started being ill all of the time (but was still doing deps with other people!); however, the new saxophonist knew a drummer with whom she used to work and after one practice, all of us wanted the new guy in the band. So then I had to let the other drummer go, but he wasn't bothered - nowhere near as much as I was. And now, we have a 4 piece band that's on the same page musically and personally and it's absolutely the best incarnation ever of this quartet; and we're starting to see some decent frequency of gigs and some success. And I love it.

Been a while etc, etc...Anyway, bear in mind that this, the first track Ive ever submitted, was written, recorded, mixed and mastered in one day. The idea came to me while while looking at the image and watching our various cats going about their business and interacting with one another; It starts off pleasant enough, then changes to a slightly ominous atmosphere before kicking off... if you have cats you'll (hopefully) get it

Yep. And he'll tell the boss he paid the band the full fee and put the remaining hundred in his pocket. Oldest trick in the book.

Now that’s a difficult question to answer because I tend to choose instruments I buy very quickly, the one I’m going to purchase ‘becomes apparent’ almost straight away. In all honesty thei was very little difference between the Talman and the Jaguar, I was equally impressed with both, but the Talman was in cream, which I’d never buy and the Jaguar was black which I’ll always go for over any other colour but the ergonomics of the Jaguar just suited me more than the Talman. The Jaguar just felt ‘right’, it is comfortable, light and I just felt at home with it. I was impressed with the Talman, however I was smitten with the Jaguar. You are right, the look of the Jaguar is lovely, I really don’t like the look of the Talman headstock, again, aesthetics but with the basses being similarly priced things like that tip the balance. I loved the matte neck on the Jaguar, I think I’m right in saying the neck on the Jaguar feels a little rounder too... I’m waffling, I just preferred the Jaguar for mostly undefinable reasons!

I come from an orchestral background originally and playing with dynamics (as written of course) is a BIG THING. It's not especially difficult to play most instruments softly or loudly and things in between. However, to most 'rock' bands I have played in this is a complete mystery. There is one volume and it is loud. Why is this so difficult to understand? Even some quite rocky songs have some subtlety but not once the average pub band has got hold of it. That quiet middle eight is just as thrashed through as the chorus. Even otherwise excellent musicians seem to struggle with this. Is it me?

You could ping the main man himself, he has his own section on talkbass. https://www.talkbass.com/forums/ask-justin-meldal-johnsen.194/ A wider question around the differences in his signature to the production models already in the market would likely get you a response.

You might actually be better off looking for a second hand Clarett 8pre, rather than buying a separate preamp. I know it's a stretch but they come up on EvilBay fairly frequently.

It's true, though. Ideally everyone should be competent at the very least. If the drummer is not, then essentially you have no band - and it will forever be a thorn in your side until you do something about it. Nothing worse than laboriously trying to push and pull a crap drummer timing-wise, IME. A real chore and takes all the joy out of something which should be a great pleasure.

Lozz - I think your situation is a little different as you're not a pub covers band playing to random punters, you're an original balls-out punk band with an audience who have come to see you specifically. I'd be very surprised and maybe even a little disappointed not to have my eardrums rattled somewhat...

He’s standing in front of a cabinet with rubbish dispersion. The backs of his knees are getting a great volume, but like everyone in the audience it will sound sharp and scratchy. He needs to move away from the cabinet and point the cones upward directly at his ears. its a common complaint. Off Axis, I.e stand above the cabinet, you will hear less top end and clarity. Guitarists will crank the top end, gain and ultimately volume to compensate for these shortcomings. It will start to sound nice where they are stood, but the volume and top end will be searing to those in the audience and on the other side of the stage, on-axis with the speakers.

It totally is! I'm very lucky to work with some really talented drummers and my 'function band' drummer knows how to set his kit for tone rather than volume. He has also played (like me) in metal bands and used a different kit accordingly that was better suited to keeping up with big stacks and crazy bass rigs!

I once discussed joining a band with someone - their precise requirements were that I play exactly the lines they told me to and also drive him and the singer to and from gigs as neither of them drove. That was a tough gig to turn down!

I'm following this with interest. If it happens, I'll make sure to share it on Basschat's Facebook and Twitter, as well as mentioning it in my column.

A few things that every podcast/youtube producer should be aware of: 1. Use a script. And if the format is that of an informal discussion have someone who is in charge of the direction the discussion should be taking, and can get things back on track when it veers too far off topic. They should at least have a set of notes of all the main points that need to be covered during the podcast. And if it is just discussion, have guests who are reasonably eloquent. It doesn't matter how knowledgable you are on your subject if you can't convey that knowledge in a way that is interesting for others to listen to. 2. Edit. Get rid of all of those ums and errs and awkward silences, and make sure the podcast moves along at an entertaining and informative rate. Lose the mumbling and rambling, and keep it snappy and to the point. 3. Get some decent mics for everyone so that they can be heard properly. Learn how to EQ for the spoken voice and consider recording each contributor to their own channel on a multi-track recorder so that each can be individually processed to make them as legible as possible without affecting the others. 4. If there is going to be video make sure that the people and their surroundings look presentable. Anything that distracts from the main content of the podcast/video is diluting the message or subject. 5. Keep all the non-talky bits as short as possible unless they are an essential/integral part of the podcast. Intro music/titles? No more than 10 seconds max, 5 seconds would be better. If you can't say what you need in under 10 seconds you are saying too much. Especially stuff that is going to be repeated in every podcast. If you must have loads of credits etc. put them at the end. People will skip over them, but if it's all at the beginning listeners may not even bother listening.

For the avoidance of further confusion: England Flag UK Flag Flag of the Klingon Empire

Stuart Clayton's series on Reading Music are good https://www.basslinepublishing.com/bass-essentials.html also Josquin Des Pres' Simplified sight Reading for Bass https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simplified-Sight-Reading-Bass-Josquin-Pres/dp/0793565189 For tabless resources for bass guitar music, Standing In The Shadows of Motown could keep you busy for a while. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Standing-Shadows-Motown-Legendary-Jamerson/dp/0881888826/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528277392&sr=1-1&keywords=standing+in+the+shadows+of+motown