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Absolutely mental, very funny, and a great player.

It's his hat, right?

Has there ever been a cooler drummer than this?

Modding an Already-Modded P Bass... You may or may not have seen my Modded HB PB-50 (Version 3) - if not, it's here. All well and good - I liked it a lot... the single-coil vibe is nice, but sometimes you really want that mid-forward, split-pickup dual-coil 57-type P sound as featured on every recording since the Bronze Age. Consequently, I started looking for a bog-standard 57-type P Bass. There are lots and lots and lots of them available for sale... THEN, I came across the concept of the dual-coil 51-type four-pole telebass-type pickup... with that in mind I bought this Jess Loureiro dual-coil 51-type pickup with a view to fitting a switch to give me the option of series (57-type dual) or parallel (51-type single) coil pickups, both with the fast attack you get from a one pole-piece-per-string setup... hopefully negating the need to buy another bass, cart two basses around with me and change them on stage for different songs... I also fitted a new Fender American Deluxe bridge with part-threaded saddles. Stable, well-engineered... top load or through-body options... and way too expensive in the UK, which is why I imported one from the States. Even with import duty it was still cheaper than buying one here. Many thanks to Mr Gary Mac, without whose help and assistance I'd be in hospital suffering from soldering iron burns and crying. Thanks, Gary. Sound clips: Listen on good phones or decent monitors, etc. etc... Dual Coil.mp3 Single Coil.mp3

Blast! Well, based on it feeling like the fretboard has taken longer than the body so far, I'd better just remake the body and persuade Neil that learning to be ambidextrous is a real life-skill!

No worries Dave, I see what you mean. I took said claw hammer so that if I saw the person I suspected of stealing my bass, I could hit him with it. I was less reasonable in my younger years.

Great idea! Looking forward to the first one. ☺ Once it's up and running, can I suggest that we link this idea to the various regional Bass Bashes, where there will be opportunities to get some fantastic content for the podcasts. For example, the SE Bash has had so many good workshops and guest speakers over the years, much of which would have made for interesting and relevant podcast material...

I heard this on Radio 1 earlier and love it. Me and the wife's heads were bobbing away in the car. I thought we were listening to another station too be honest.

Garfield Fleming from the Delfonics was walking past a record shop and heard a record he wrote and sang.. They didn't realise who he was. Just an excellent moment.

John Taylor from Duran Duran gets my respect. I was never a fan when they were big in the 80's, I always had them down as a kiddy pop band. But some of his lines are incredible.

Last time I went for a 'well person's checkup' at the local surgery, the GP told me that for the health of my heart, I should do "1/2hour of intensive effort at least once a week that you enjoy and that makes you hot and sweaty" and then gave me a big wink. How the Dickens did he know I have a Veritas Pullshave??? Sure enough, 1/2 hour later, I'm hot, sweaty and pleasantly fulfilled: What a doctor! What great advice!

Buy a Harley Benton PB-50 from Thomann and put some decent flats on it. Sorted. https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_pb_50_sb_vintage_series.htm If you like P Bass necks, you'll love this. You get Thomann's 3-Year Warranty and 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee, too...

And when looking at it too, when my Custom Shop decal arrives!

It seems to work really well, especially 'in your face' through an amp. I'm no top recording engineer or producer, I did the audio clips very quickly. There are a few other dual-coil 51-type options available, notably from Lindy Fralin: https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/split-51-p-bass/ It is a lot more expensive that the Loureiro version, though. And the main selling point is noise reduction - the fact you can approximate the sound of a 57-type split-pickup seems to be totally ignored. As a split pup is essentially a humbucker yes, you're going to get less noise in theory, but I've had no problems in that area even with a single coil. My bass is quite heavily shielded with copper tape though and is just as quiet with a single coil or a dual coil.

It's interesting as I'd heard examples of the old S2 switch on past Precisions and felt that their pickup choice didn't seem to suit the function, whereas this sounds way better by comparison. I'd put it down to the qualities of this pickup. (The S2 is great on jazz basses).

Yes - but look where my mind's gone now, no wonder 😃

Thanks for the comment, Dan. Plugged the bass into my combo this morning and wound it up - The Loureiro is a quality bit of gear and no mistake. The previous Herrick pickup was a class act in itself, but as well as having the switching options, the Loureiro is a bigger-sounding, warmer pickup overall.

Ooooh it makes me wonder!

I think I met him once. Is this him?

What do you think are your chances of finding a buyer who appreciates a neck as you do? IMO I think it's pretty certain that you'll adversely affect the value of the bass if you start scraping off the finish. You've posted this so I guess the resale value is important to you. . . . in that case, don't do it.

And here is Happy Jack with that bass!

Very nice; but you appear to have made a left-handed fretboard!

Absolutely no prob re. getting audio from the bashes. I usually record almost everything on video, so adding a dedicated, good quality audio recorder will be no problem at all. Looking forward to this!

Well, it was a lot of work - but on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfying was that?

I’ve got a Spectrum DX and it’s really decent. Maple body rosewood neck. High gloss black finish looks immaculate from several feet away though fairly dinged up on closer inspection. Single pickup is I believe essentially a p and sounds excellent. Unlike the Thunder it’s not a heavy bass. I’d definitely recommend.

Thanks for this - I don't know how peeps (on both sides) would feel about a closer link than that with the magazine? Feed each other content and promote each other to some extent??? Audio would be a perfect complement to the forum - I for one would enjoy listening to sound samples in the flow of a podcast which I don't bother to click on in a forum post. A good example of the value of audio but perhaps a bit extreme tech for some of us :-? Thanks to those who have offered to make this happen, I await with interest 🙂

As with all things bass-related; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My first decent bass was a Thunder 1A in natural finish and what first caught my eye was the visible real wood - ie not hidden under solid paint or a plastic pick-guard. The other thing I liked was that it had its own look and wasn't a clone of an American design. Having enjoyed playing it for about 2 years I wanted to upgrade and a Thunder III was the automatic choice. Having owned that bass since 1985; I can only say that the build quality and components stood the test of time and I've never had any problems - the bass was 100% original until I did the electronics upgrade mentioned in my post above.

Apparently, if Wikipedia is to be believed, Bob Harris has been running his Country Music show since 1998. On the whole I think Bob Harris plays pretty good music on his shows. He also champions live music so he's a good'un in my book.

I use Simple Pure Fine Talc, as it's unfragranced. Mrs CP put some in a jar which I keep in the uke gig bag. If ever I get stopped on the way home from a gig and the police do a search it could be interesting....

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

If you have two at once it’s always tough...

The amount of new (to me) music you've introduced me to over the last few years, I should either buy you a pint or send you a bill.

The Squier Affinity Precisions, once set up nicely are very nice basses. If you like a big chunky neck however I`d recommend the Vintage Tony Butler Sig, really nice basses, and a real chunker of a maple neck.

I'm not a slap fan at all, but I've always got time for Mark King. Tasty player, bass out front, definitely done a lot for the instrument. Comes across as a nice guy too.

Normally avoid ‘virtuoso’ bass players but Michael Manring blows my mind.

I think your absolutely right Mark, nice one. Anyway, nothing wrong with your new pick up, it sounds great, and that HB looks very cool in Shoreling Gold. I bet most of us would have easily believed it was a Custom Shop if we were told so when listening to it. But that's another story, for another minefield of a thread....and it's all in the fingers eh?!

I had to google the Supro - what a cool looking instrument! I'm intrigued.

And it makes me wonder . . . . . and come to think of it 😲 there's a feeling I get . . . . .

I like the look of the JMJ and seriously considered one to supplement my Squier Mustang for gigs. I felt the price is a touch pricey at the minute though and managed to get a used CIJ Mustang for about half the price. I'll probably look again when they start coming up used.

A friend of a friend ( I have actually met him and spent time having a beer with him...it's not made up!) , Played drums with Jason mraz. Jason himself insisted that he wanted him to be his drummer, he made Warnerbrothers pay for him to get an "excellence in his field" visa so that he could move to America to be in the band. He toured the world, supported The Stones in Rio etc etc BUT The label insisted that a session drummer recorded the albums,even though he "wrote" the drum parts during the writing process of the songs. Eventually he quit the band because the management were inflexible on this point. Jason hasn't had a hit since over here ...coincidence??? 😉😁

Squier Affinity or Standard P. Vintage P (the JHS brand)? Harley Benton P? Something cheap & unwanted from Gumtree?

Ive played Squier affinity basses that were actually well playing/sounding. The standard as mentioned above might be a bit better. Both can be very usefull as a cheap backup. You can also look for something japanese like an old westone thunder/spectrum. These are generally good value for the moneyz. And lets dont forget Yamaha RBX series. My experience is with the older ones; fine basses (though lack in character to my taste).

I think this is an uber idea , I have never really understood the concept of podcasts, but this could be ace 👍 Caveat .... how many regional accents would need subtitles 🤔 , or worse , no brummies FFS , it is supposed to be interesting 😄 We would also need to invest in a special filter for the Welsh language members 😉 .......Tacsi

Setting up bass gear = 5 minutes, No problems. Trying to figure out a sound desk = 1 hr of stress

Bill is absolutely right, cabs on top of each other with the centres of the cones aligned is best. Anything else and you'll get places on stage where frequencies are cancelled due to the sound arriving from the two speakers at different times. However I'm not a purist about this. We rarely play in ideal conditions in the UK, lot's of small venues and misshaped buildings, and bands who are run on a shoestring budget with inadequate gear. Sometimes you have to improvise and then it is a question of balancing two evils. When I started doing PA a long time ago we often used to swap speakers in a stack so the bassist had one of the guitarists 4x12's in their stack and vice versa. On a wide stage that helped them hear each other. Some of the older rock bands still do this, probably out of habit but at least one band had that arrangement at Glastonbury this year. If the onstage gear is just for monitoring and what the audience hear is through a massive PA it wouldn't be a problem. In one difficult venue I had my amp facing the audience but added my practice amp (Hartke Kickback) as a monitor for the drummer. If you think about it some bands scrap backline altogether and use floor monitors, the bass might be coming out of all of them so you have set up all sorts of interference/cancellation problems. It works because you are much closer to your own monitor than the rest. That means it is louder than the rest so although there is interference from the other monitors in practice it isn't noticeable. So I'd say default position is vertically aligned cabs but if you are due on in 5 mins and someone really can't hear then be prepared to be creative, then go back and think how you can sort your monitoring after the gig. In our case we gave the drummer their own monitor at ear level and let them mix in what they wanted to hear, mainly vocals and bass.

IMO that puts a whole different perspective on the feasibility and attractiveness of the Basschat Podcast. Someone with your abilities at the helm makes the finished product far more likely to be of a quality that will appeal. IME of listening to podcasts, poor audio quality overshadows interesting content every time. Make your podcast sound professional and you you'll have far more success persuading people who have interesting things to say to take part.