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An ex-colleague from the '3 Elephants' festival days was organising a private party (we've already played at mini-festivals he'd put on...), and invited us to play as support for a rock'nroll trio. A couple of rehearsals (we've not played since 2016, as I've been ill, and other stuff...) so a bit rusty, but still... As if conditions weren't precarious enough, our 2nd guitar has taken a contract for four years in the Caribbean, so this was to be his last date with us..! We arrived an hour early, giving plenty of time for setting up in a well-adapted agricultural outbuilding, the size of a small cathedral but open on one side. A decent PA and efficient, friendly sound crew, simple but effective LED lights and spots, so conditions were quite comfortable. One slight but significant bugbear: the tom mics had a longer than usual overhang, and protruded over the batter heads, making it quite delicate when executing stuff like 'Toxicity', for fear of hitting 'em. A bit more than an hour in all, to a mixed audience; we managed to warm 'em up enough for the main attraction, though, so 'mission accomplished'. Got home at about 02h30; we'll unload the truck in a while this afternoon and discuss how we're to continue. We've a new 2nd guitar to talk to, but I'm not in any real state to take on a world tour, so we'll be taking things easy for now. It was great, despite everything, to get out and play again after this enforced hiatus, and well worth the sore arms and calves..! Next outing..? Hmm... Maybe towards end of year; we've a date pencilled-in, but we'll see... I may get some pics later, if Juliette remembers to send 'em. Edit: Photos added ... The 'tour bus' for the occassion (Merci, Monique, for the loan...)... No, I'm not asleep; I'm setting up a drum stand, honest... Our departing 2nd guitar, sound check ... ... and again, chatting with our singster ... Yes, that's my 'relax' session before we kick off ... Our Eldest ... ... and the singster, errrm... singing ... ... and a couple of (very..!) short clips from a 'phone (thanks, Juliette...)...

A darned shame, as they were/still are excellent polos; I wear mine often, and it's still as good as new. Real quality stuff. I'm biased, perhaps, but I'd recommend going for quality stuff over stuff that just 'sells'. Just sayin'.

I think you're in danger of spreading yourselves too thinly. I've been taking to Akio and have suggested a rough format along the lines of: -News -Interesting threads this week/month -Interesting items for sale this week/month -Topic of the week/month (short scales - why?... Graphite - all it's cracked up to be?... How to use a delay pedal... Overdrive on bass... plectrum - yes or no?....) -Answer Qs sent in about previous show -What's the question next week? send any questions to... -end (total runtime about 60 mins) I'd suggest to begin with not having sound clips and samples but just keep it to two people talking clearly about the issues at hand. Like being in the pub. Sound clips and so on (if recorded) could be added as downloads perhaps in a dedicated podcast thread which would be closed to comments except by the team. Anyway that would be my suggestion.

I think that would make an excellent feature. You can find all sorts on YT illustrating the differences in tone from changes in the control settings to the differences in pick and fingerstyle sounds. With our podcast being audio only it removes the distraction of the talking head. The sound samples speak for themselves. We should look at doing some A/B samples in a controlled environment such as a recording studio with a Basschat version of The Stig - free of charge preferably...

Seeing as the recent thread on playing with a pick became pretty popular and interesting, how about discussing that, with sound samples? There are plenty of other threads too where peeps are describing differences in sound, and having actual audio would be a real advantage. Even something as basic as comparing the characteristic sound of a P and a J, and explaining why they sound as different as they do, and suit different types of music. (And therefore why almost all Fender bands play either Tele and P or Strat and J.) It never hurts to hear simple things that you sort of know, explained well.

After several years of gigging with just bass, lead, amp, cab and band, I started to get into the slippery slope of pedals 15 months or so back and wondered whether to go down the multi-fx vs dedicated pedals route. I came to the conclusion that multis, other than the really high end stuff, were not bad and a great intro into particular effects but couldn't really compete with dedicated pedals, particularly in the 'harder' emulation stuff e.g. synth, filter, dirt, polyphonic octave up but were pretty decent at some of the other 'easier' stuff e.g. delay, flange, chorus, tremolo, with compression and octave-down somewhere in between. I ended up getting a couple of the more budget Zoom multi-fxs (MS-60B and B3n) and a bunch of dedicated pedals. Then the Helix and Helix HX came along. They are hitting the 'definitely good enough' level for a lot, but not quite all yet, effects - and let's face it in a live band mix the audience is not going to notice the last 10% difference between what the Helix is doing and a dedicated analogue pedal on those effects where the Helix gets close - I know that is still not all of them. Importantly (for me anyway) the HX is also not much more than the cost of 2 or 3 decent analogue pedals. I'm now working with a couple of guitarists (one who regularly deps for us) in a function covers band. Our main guitarist has a traditional analogue pedal board & Roland Blues cube amp; the dep has a Line 6 Helix ('full fat') and a relatively cheap Alto FRFR. The overall costs of their gear are about the same. I love the ability of the dep to programme his effects and have everything 'preset' for each song and effortlessly reorder if we decide on a different set list content or order. When it comes to linking songs our 'main' guitarist will be switching pedals on and off, faffing about tweaking knobs and in terms of song 'flow' spending around a minute between songs. Might not sound like much but if you have a dance floor audience it's not what they want. One of our BC'ers posted his board recently with a Helix HX and I'm rapidly coming to think that this is very much looking like the 'future' for live music; if so is the corollary for live performance that analogue pedals have had their day?

I didn't know I was going to play it?

I bought a set of Gotoh GB640 res-o-lite twiddlers for my thunderbird and got around to fitting them today. In my haste I think I could have fitted them a little straighter so I'll probably refit them at some point but I'm very happy with the classic vintage-cool 'long stem' look. The stock Wilkinsons were OK but in addition of look much better these are lighter and smoother. This GB640 set tunes the standard way, but there's also a GBR640 set which have reverse gearing like vintage Klusons and other modern versions that look like Klusons. Another difference common to the GB640 & GBR640 is that the baseplate fits flat without needing to drill dimples like you would for original vintage & vintage replica versions. They are made from something called duralumin alloy and weigh just 67g each.

Go for it. Might have started life as an HB but it's evolving to suit your taste. Doubt you'd be thinking of swapping the neck if you'd dropped £600 on a bass,chances are you'd just sell it. This way you're getting exactly what you want in small stages.

Well... I've got this far, I think I'm going to go all the way. The HB neck is 14" radius (or more accurately 350mm), which is a little flat for me. Also I'm getting a bit OCD about the headstock, as I was a bit too, er... enthusiastic in the reshaping. The whole thing is about 1mm too small all round... This isn't about budget basses any more - if I replace the neck it really won't be a Harley Benton. I think I may go for a Northwest Guitars one-piece maple neck (9.5" radius), they seem to be great value... and take the opportunity to change the finish... again. Stand by for 'Modding A Bass That Has Already Been Modded TWICE!' I thank you.

Does in my book.

I dont know why people are always surprised that you can buy the stickers online in pat test threads, I'm sure I could buy some surgical scalpels but that wouldn't make me a surgeon either.

Anythings possible, but I'll just give you a rough idea of things; At present on @ped's recommendation we have 6 segments not including an intro/outro. That's 5 roughly 10 min segments and a 20-30 min feature segment plus a 45min to an hour interview. In half an hour there wouldn't be time to say anything meaningful about much of the content we have to work with. The majority of podcasts in the charts are 2-3hours an episode, my personal approach would be why split what the listener can pause? Podcasts are a long form media, especially if you're including some form of interview. What real insight can you get into a topic or someones' mind and body of work in a 3-5min sound bite? Which is what we'd be looking at doing a half hour cast.

We played Moon Rally, a small biker event at a holiday park in Penarth. We were last on of three bands, due to start at 11:00pm but due to the inevitable overruns it was about 11:30 that we finally got going. This was only the second time I've played at an event with a provided PA and sound man (well, third actually, but on the first occasion the PA was a couple of underpowered and over driven 12" tops and the sound man was more clueless than me, but that's another story...). As we brought our kit in the sound guy grabbed me and told me that I'd best set up at the left hand side of the stage as the sub had just failed on that side. I suspect it's not often that the sound guy tells the bass player "turn up as loud as you like, and I'll balance the rest of it with you" ! Then after about half an hour of playing all the power went out - I think the main PA had blown a fuse and tripped out their circuit breakers. Power came back on after a couple of minutes and we started up again, not really knowing what was going on at that point. Sound guy comes over after the next song and tells us it's just our backline and the monitors still working, so we just turned the monitors around to face the audience and carried on playing. The main PA did get restored after a few more songs, but the sound guy seemed very impressed that we'd just got on with it in the meantime, which left me wondering what bands do in that situation - flounce off?! After we'd finished the guy came over for a chat - he'd miked up one of my cabs (Basschat 1x12 Mk 1s - calling @Phil Starr...) rather than taking a DI and was hugely complementary about how even the tone was through the range. All in all a good night - got a great reception, had a good time, and didn't have to pack up the PA at the end of the night!

I like that. If the podcast is to stand alone it shouldn't link out to stuff at all. We already have the forum for that and if non-member listeners want to find out more, they're more inclined towards signing up. I had 45 minutes overall duration in mind for some reason.

Don't have enough space or time to contrast and compare my amps. Plenty of good reviews and youtube clips about but a quick summary. Edit: I have been using Markbass Cabs for over 10 years and more recently (last 5 years) Vanderkley or Barefaced with all the Class D amps mentioned below. Have used MARKBASS SA450 and Little Mark 500 for around 15 years, both excellent amps, the SA450 no longer in production. Little colouration so sound of bass very evident. Lots of tonal choice and VLE and VPF controls are great. Plenty punch and power. No mute Switch. Good DI out. Good value overall. GENZ BENZ ShuttleMax 9.2 and Streamliner 900. My preference is for the Shuttlemax which I have been using the most over last 5 years or so and I marginally favour over Markbass. Great sound, two channels, loud , punchy, excellent DI out feature laden but which I very rarely use. I find my Shutttlemax cuts through mix better than the Streamliner which is a great simple little amp particularly for warmer older school sounds, three valve preamp and far less features than the Max, Sadly Fender pulled the plug on the amazing Genz Benz range over 5 years ago. I have little doubt that the GENZLER MAGELLANs are excellent just waiting to try one out. GK 500MB, bought as a back-up, but excellent amp as first choice. More colouration than other amps here with a distinctive GK sound (which I really like), seems very loud for a 500W amp.great overdrive and boost. High end can be a but hissy and a little noisey Good DI. Great value for money. Phil Jones Bass D400 with C8 cab. I love the PJB stuff of which I use a variety and the D400 is most recent. Excellent clean HiFi sound, great for studio and practice. Nice low B for such small drivers, excellent for acoustic instruments. PJB gear does cut through the mix nicley, but to even begin to compete with other amps here and loud drummers here one would need to consider the D1000, which is close to a grand! SANSAMP RBI and CROWN XLS 1002 power amp. Great set-up, classic Sansamp grit for Ampeg-like tones, 1100W of power.but getting into rack gear here. QUILTER BASS BLOCK 800, Portability, great tone punch and power at a very competitive price, only Markbass and GK come close at this price point. The Depth and Contour controls provide all I ever need.( Siimilar idea as Markbass VLE AND VPF). I was very pleasantly surprised by this little beauty at under €500!! The QUILTER DI/line out is great and DOES vary with Gain and Master volume. Not overly impressed with T.C ELECTRONIC great fun TONE PRINT stuff but sound a bit synthetic and under powered to me. Had two combos, both with unusable humming DI outs!! Have gigged with HARTKE gear nice punchy sound, like the old HA3500, if it didn't weigh a ton. The new TX600 is nice but seems very quiet compared to GK, QUILTER, MARKBASS etc. Used an AGUILAR TONE HAMMER 500, very good indeed, nice gritty punch but cost quite a bit more than the QUILTER. I started out 45 years ago, with HIwatt 100, then Fender Bassman135, and then Acoustic Control Corp 220/406 which was my favourite. Have used HH, Peavey, Laney, Trace, Carlsbro (less said the better), but am now firmly in the Class D club, for portability as much as anything. In summary the QUILTER is a USA built unit that should be seriously considered by any player. BTW I have no connection, allegiance or affiliation to Quilter, but think I know a bargain when I see one. Hope my self-indulgent ramblings are helpful. Cheers

Some of the new finishes look nicer than the the 'Pro' range! I saw one over on TB, a new limited edition MIM that was (I think) Ocean Turquoise/Tort. It looked the dogs' danglies! 😍

Bit of a story to last night's gig. My 'fledgling' Bon Jovi tribute band are still looking to do as many gigs as possible, so when the agent offered us a weird one a long way away we decided to take it. Described to us as a 'mystery celebrity' having a 50 year birthday bash for which he was hiring the Meridian Showground in Cleethorpes, big covered stage, 3 tribute acts - we were headlining etc. We are based in south Essex so it was approx 4 hours away. It was thought that there may well be lots of other celebs there and it could lead to other things, good exposure etc (yeah, I know ). We were due to start at 9:15, play 75mins then fireworks. We shared the drive in two cars, arriving in plenty of time to a windswept open space with bouncy castles, face painting, fairground rides.... it transpires that the mystery celebrity was in fact Total Fuels, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the local refinery with a family day. So not quite as advertised... the promised 'big covered stage' was just a smallish marquee that, at a push, could have housed maybe 200 of the 800 or so people that were spread over the site when we got there if the weather took a turn for the worse. And my God it did. 10 mins into the first act - a Little Mix tribute - the heavens opened and it absolutely hammered down. Some people sheltered in the 'main arena', most in the similarly-sized cream tea tent. Groups of children ran around, jumping over the soaked hay bundle seating. The occasional drunk ran through the rain, aeroplane-fashion with twinned beer cups aloft, to the beer tent for refills but soon even they got drenched and bored. Small lakes appeared on the grass, the rides packed up and left, pulled pork and burger baps remained uneaten. People left in droves, some returned with coats, others didn't bother. The Little Mix lot overran. Next band were a local pub band. They were late starting and also massively overran, playing perhaps a 70-80 minute set. However, the rain had stopped by then. They then took a staggering 25 mins of our 30 minute change over time to clear the stage - the drummer had augmented the provided kit with a whole bank of extra toms, cymbals, fan etc - each of which were then fastidiously packed away with smoothed out bubblewrap packaging into their boxes all over the stage. We set up without sound checks in record time but were still so late we were left with just a 45 minute slot before the fireworks. So an 8 hour round trip for 45 mins playing. To be fair the 100 or so stalwarts who remained to the end gave us a fantastic reception, we played well and got handsomely paid. I then slept and snored all the way home. Luckily I wasn't driving.

This ^^, with the addition of two more, very important factors: the equipment used for listening in (ear-buds..? Car stereo..? Full home hifi..?), and the biggest of them all: the nerdiness of the listener. Those expecting 'absolutes' from a BC podcast (or BC in general, or the interweb, or even Life itself...) are likely to be underwhelmed. For anyone else: relax and enjoy.

An hour flies by, trust me. Especially if the podcast wants to be relaxed and conversational. Listen to the podcast I posted earlier. Two guys talking about watches with a rough theme each week. Buy you wouldn’t set an actual time, just a rough idea about how long to chat in each section. The idea with the companion sound clips would be so presenters could say ‘check out the clips if you like’ so you can hear them another time. Otherwise it would get complicated to edit to begin with. Again, the podcast I posted they say ‘see the blog for the pictures of the watches we’re looking at today’ How often do people post sound clips here? Rarely. You wouldn’t want to go out if your way to attain them, and then what sort of quality? Nah keep it conversational, relaxed and uncomplicated before anything else creeps in.

I totally agree. For the first pilot I think it should stay focussed. My DB suggestion was really throwing an idea into the pot for the future if it takes off - which from reactions so far seems very positive. (That's why I posted in this thread rather than the questions thread)

Hey guys, really looking forward to this Podcast! I currently listen to the Practical Bass Pod which is great, but it'll be fantastic to have a pod from this side of the pond at last. My question is based on my own experience when, pretty much overnight, my right hand technique was taken to a completely different level when 3 finger plucking added to floating thumb clicked. It was an almost instant transformation and from that moment, totally changed how I play. So, what have you guys learnt that's had the biggest impact on your playing? Doesn't have to be technique, could be gear, strings, strap length... anything really! 😁 Cheers Steve

I agree. In fact I'd go as far as to say that the double bassists mustn't get left out. Perhaps we should co-opt a double bassist onto the podcast team?

It's a good question. However, I'd rephrase it so as not to give the impression that it is the only bass in the village. For example, why is the Fender Precision so popular? Does that cover it?

It would be nice to have a bit of a double bass discussion from the uprights amongst us. I'm sure there's a few db-curious on BC

So spent quite a bit of time with these ZS10s. Quite a different sound to what I’m used to. Warm, with not a particularly wide soundstage (blocking the port makes this worse) with the recessed upped mids and treble clearly audible. So whilst I don’t particularly dig on them for casual listening of music, this trait could be quite favourable for onstage use as it will keep your ears fresher for longer. Having said that, I do like the warmth of the dynamic but I do find them quite a fatiguing listen generally - but I think that may be down to the mid range bloom. What I will say though, for the money - great. This or a 215? No competition. And if you think that this whole setup is comparable to the cost of an entry level cable from the big boys... not a bad thing to have in the spares bag either!

My brother used to run his own company producing merch for bands. (He tells a story of Radiohead's tour manager phoning him up saying they needed 500 t-shirts in Madrid the next day. He did it.) He insisted on everything he supplied being top quality, and would turn down orders from bands who wanted cheap flimsy stuff. His view was that when peeps buy a t-shirt at a gig they're going to cherish it and the memories that go with it, they'll want to wear it to that band's gigs for years, and to sell them something that's going to fall apart or lose its print after three times through a washing machine would just be unacceptable. Admittedly a BassChat t-shirt would probably have less emotional value and be easier to replace than one from the only time in your life you got to see your very favourite band 🙂 but the principle holds imho.

I find it hard to believe that there's not much money in merchandise T-shirts. From my experience of doing them for the various bands I've been in, T-shirts are the easy money. A good design well executed in 1 or 2 colours on a run of 100+ garments selling for £10 each will make your money back before you've sold half of them. Just remember to get the size breakdowns right. No matter how many skinny hipsters you have in your audience the people who buy t-shirts are all L, XL or 2XL... Certainly I've easily covered my costs with all the band T-shirts I've produced. I wish I could say the same for the music.

Was a recent recall on one brand of those ( I think it was a fluke model? But don’t quote me ) as it caused more risk than it solved. I’m sure the recall notice is in a workshop at work, I’ll try and find it.

Totally agree with Casapete we should all push back a bit with these venues, and ask to see their periodic testing certs for the venue installation . best have your paperwork in order first though. I have seen many bad things in the last 30 years that the venue expect me to plug into. In our bands conditions of hire, I state that we maintain the right to refuse to play should we find the electrical installation to be in a dangerous condition. I state that it should be maintained in a safe condition and correctly earthed as defined in the IEE regs.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats got a spin in the car today on a two hour drive. enjoyed them.

The Fret King Elcat is given a contour...

Same experience here, swapped from rotos to reds after a thread on here and finding the life much better and sound 95% as good.

The question is slightly wrong. It should be have non-programmable effects had their day? There are some programmable analogue effects units - I own one the Roland GP8, which apart from the digital delay and chorus/flanger is all analogue but digitally controlled so it's programmable. For me non-programmable effects had their day in the early 90s when I bought my first programmable effects unit. Before that in the 80s I was mostly playing synths where affordable keyboards with programmable memories couldn't come quick enough for me. When I went back to playing the guitar and bass, I briefly had a complex multi pedal set up, but the amount of messing around between songs, even if it was just to set the correct delay time was too much, and the moment I could afford a second hand GP8 I bought it, and haven't looked back. Over the years I've had a few different programmable effects units for my guitar and bass rigs - Roland GP8, Peavey Bassfex, Line 6 BassPod XT and now the Line 6 Helix which along with an RCF745 FRFR cab has completely replaced all my old effects units and guitar and bass amps. I can see why people think they need a particular effects unit to get a particular sound, but in the context of a full band mix is it really that important? In the studio I'm happy to try anything if I think it will give me a better sound for the song, but live the fact that I can hit a footswitch and know that I will all the correct effects in the correct order with the correct settings is far more important than whether my distortion or octaver is absolutely the most perfect one for the song when the programmable one in my Helix will be 90% right.

I always wash my hands before playing, and before I put my bass back in it's case, I apply a little methylated spirit to a cloth and quickly wipe the strings. Managed to get about a year of my last pack of NYXL's doing that.

A close fit is preferable so it doesn't rattle and so the bend is exactly where you intend it...in the middle. Ref rattle some people pop a couple of spots of flexible sealant in, but my logic is that,as soon as there is any tension on the rod at all, there's nothing able to rattle anyway. I use a 6mm router bit going 9mm deep for the ones I use. A touch too deep is no problem, but make sure that the fretboard isn't being lifted up by any high spots on the rod top. You may need to open out either end a touch with a chisel - on some types, the end screw blocks are a touch wider. For the wood on wood fretboard joint (and any wood on wood jointing) I would strongly recommend Titebond Original. Not only does it do the job, but in the event that you ever needed to remove the fretboard, then it is possible, using heat and technique, to do so, and without damaging the fretboard. With epoxy or other similar glues, it would be a 'router off' job

Great link and an interesting read, thanks for that.

Gosh. Where to start id like to hear a discussion about the impact of a basses set up and how the ideal set up is achieved

OK I'm in a simple affair this time , nothing too complicated but I am very short on time this month, gigs, work and setting up for Lurksalittles 18th birthday bash next weekend ! Enjoy For some bizzarre reason I cant get the picture to upload this time around , I will try Again in the week

Love Bill Withers, love that track (Use Me), but am I alone in being amused by the contrast between Bill's agricultural guitar strumming and the funkiness of the uber-cool band surrounding him? It's not like he couldn't play guitar:

It’s either a problem with your instrument cable, your bass, or your amp. You need to work out which part has the fault. I would try the following: 1. The cable could be broken. Try a different cable to connect your bass to your amp. The cable is the most likely cause for this, especially after you have tried to change the battery already. 2. Try your setup in a different location. Maybe there is a problem with the electrical circuit where you practice. Something like a fridge or a boiler on the same circuit can cause a problem. 3. Can you get another bass and plug it into your amp? If it works then you have a problem with the bass. 4. Try your bass and cable though a different amp. If it works then you know the amp has a problem.