Leaderboard

And they're done, barring another couple of coats of finish:

I blame BC for this!After attending the BC double bass bash in April I developed a serious case of GAS and this is the result."Marilyn" is blonde, curvy and has a sweet voice and I couldn't resist her. She is an Engelhardt Swingmaster ES 9 that was purchased from Gollihur 10 years ago and has sat virtually unused since then and is in absolutely mint condition.To make it even better, she came with all the paperwork for her and a K&K Double Big Twin pickup,K&K Pure preamp, an Ingles stand,German bow, three types of rosin, quiver,mute and several books including an untouched Simandl.She was dressed in a lovely green like new Gollihur bag.I also got the original almost new Thomastiks that the bass started life with, she is currently strung with Correlli 370 F strings.The original owner has been playing pedal steel in country bands and just wanted to get rid of the bass because he wasn't using it. I am still tweaking the preamp and my amp to get the sound I want(I play jazz standards in two bands) but it is certainly fun and I am also enjoying trying out my woeful bow technique. She came home with me yesterday after a 13 hour 994 km road trip to pick her up.It was a long day but in Canada drives like this are a fact of life. I'm still not sure why I did this at my age(72) but I plan to have fun with her.I have a gig tomorrow night but I will use my trusty Yamaha SLB 200 EUB and save "Marilyn" for another day. Thanks again for that great day in April,it was just what I needed to make me pull the trigger and join the "real" DB world.

I do exactly this. With this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000KTC5AO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's Post-It tape so it comes off again without damaging the page.

Ah, I'd not thought about this modern malarky. Masking tape over the screen..?

Well I've just got around to listening to the rest of the podcast this evening, and I must say - what a fabulous effort by all concerned! The Chowny interview was lengthy but very engaging. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to hear more about CITES from a manufacturer's point of view. I do feel slightly embarrassed at how my questions dominated the Q&A so much, but am pleased that they instigated some excellent discussion . Hopefully there might be a few more contributors next time The pedal demo, and discussion of the analogue vs digital thread were also brilliant. 2 hours did seem a bit daunting at first, but it actually flew past. I'm looking forward to the next one. Well done, and a big thank you!

Hi folks. I just want to mention my Classical and Contemporary Studies for Bass Guitar has just been published by Mel Bay HERE - which can be downloaded straight away as an eBook, or hard copies are available from the publisher, or one of their sellers. It will take a month or so to reach Amazon UK, I imagine. So, what is it? Half the book is given over to 21 studies by "the Paganini of the bass", Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889), very classical in style, and progressive, from fairly simple to complex. For the second half of the book I commissioned 12 Studies for Bass Guitar by Gilbert Isbin, whose influences run from contemporary classical to jazz, world musics, etc. If you like Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow, etc, you might well like these solo repertoire pieces. Isbin loves yearning, often haunting melodies, and the 12 pieces are generally in two-part counterpoint, or a melody and accompaniment. Every item in the book has a sound file recorded on a fretless 4-string bass by me, but all the pieces could just as well have been played on a fretted 4-string bass. You can see videos and hear soundfiles of every piece from THIS PAGE of my website. Any questions, just ask. Cheers, Rob MacKillop

Hi all, An artist I play for, Jocee, released her latest EP to a sold out Pizza Express Jazz in Soho last night. Take a listen here: The last album, Just Love, is also available on Spotify, plus CD & vinyl on her website here: http://www.joceesmusic.com/shop For those who care: Don't Say - Bass Collection Jive fretless with La Bella groundwound strings Where On The Map - Lakland 55-01 (US Bartolini electronics) with La Bella White Gold Nylons Not Wrong - Lakland 44-94 passive P/J (solo'd Precision pickup) with La Bella Gold Flats Dancing In The Kitchen - Lakland 44-94 passive P/J (solo'd Precision pickup) with La Bella Gold Flats All recorded DI into a Focusrite Clarett 4Pre USB Let me know what you think Cheers Si

Just thought I'd do a quick update on this topic. I haven't had much of a chance to use the cab in anger until the last couple of weeks down to the usual band politics and lack of gigs followed by all the work involved in starting a new project. You've probably all been there. Anyway I have had the chance to try it out in anger at a full rehearsal. As a little extra spice the drummer has a 7 week old baby and hasn't been out for a while so was hitting things with a little extra enthusiasm, thank heaven for earplugs! So, I was back in the hall with the most appalling acoustics, all hard surfaces high ceilings, well you name it. To save anyone having to go back the speaker was designed to cope with this sort of space, and those pubs where you just can't get the bass sound right. The deepest bass was rolled off with a 2dB hump at around 120Hz to add a bit of thump so they didn't sound too bass light, a kind of old school underdamped response but with a modern high excursion driver using a single 12 built into a very simple 30l cabinet. To complete the picture I was using a Fender American Deluxe P Bass with a Markbass Tube everything set flat with VPF set at about 10.00 o'clock. We play pop/rock covers AC/DC, Queen through to Chelsea Dagger via Summer of 69 sort of thing (I've no shame) It sounded awesome, first of all really effortlessly loud with two guitars a keyboard and drummer really driving on it was really well up in the mix, not a hint of a clipping light on the input and with plenty to play with at the master volume. I have to say there didn't appear to be much in the way of high power compression either, it was over 30degreees outside, warmer in and we played for three hours without any noticeable tail off in performance by the speaker. This with a single 12 in a cab the size of an old fashioned milk crate. The sound? Well it was the sound of a P bass, punchy but sitting just right in the mix once the band got going. Not the sort of thing you'd set up playing alone at home where you'd probably want a bit more deep and some mid scoop but with a band just spot on. I can also report that in this really difficult room I had no problem in monitoring my own playing both with and without ear plugs. I know you can't trust someone praising their own design but this was meant to be built as a bit of fun, a demo at the bass bash, something I wanted to try. I fully expected to be building a 45l cab which to my mind modelled a lot better but thought I'd try a cab just on the silly side of 'too small'. it was only when we plugged it in at the end of the bass bash I realised it was worth sticking with. It started life as a curiosity piece really but honestly I'd recommend building one to anyone who wants something really portable, isn't too bothered about the top end (it has no tweeter/horn) and who is happy with a straightforward old school sound straight out of the box. It will cost you around £120 to build and once the parts are cut, well it took me around an hour to do the basic build in the video, maybe 2.5 hours in total including the pre prep and finishing.

You guys don't have stage lions in the UK? Blue

Nah - it's from a Maison - a decent 90s Korean-made Nanyo clone. Still a bloody waste.

In terms of making the control knobs, I used the same method as my first attempts with Jane's lightweight electric. For the backs, with my press drill locked in position, I drilled a hole for the 6mm grub-screw collet to fit into from some ash offcut with rosewood veneer glued on the back : Then a forstner to create the rebate for the pot nut and washer: Then my panel-hole cutter: Leaving me with a back, with all drill cuts concentric: Then glued the poplar burl tops and cut the assembly to height, ready for insertion of collet, drilling of side grubscrew access hole, installing of position dot and final shaping, which are the next jobs on the list:

Mastodon seem to have one sound now: loud with too many drum fills. Even the vocals are relentless.

don't like him. Too talented. Not jealous. At all.

we're all different, that's the main attraction of Trace heads for me, the GP12 gives me the chance to shape my sound better, especially like being able to cut the 30Hz and 40Hz area to clean up my sound and cut out any boom that happens in certain rooms

Not the prettiest of solutions, but masking tape over the tab would solve that particular issue, I'd suggest. Just a thought.

ACG if you do not already own one.

Just to let you folks know that the first pedals from Malcolm Toft's Bassics have started to ship to UK retailers and have a are RRP of £199. They are made in small batches with loving care. All Bassics pedals* and are road friendly …they have a unique feature in that they will work with any power supply from 9-18 volts, A.C. or D.C. and any polarity. We'd love to hear what Basschatters think. Visit http://bassics.co.uk for more information Bassics Cruncher Pedal The Cruncher distortion pedal can be switched to 'hard' or 'soft', with the hard setting adding extra harmonics, and could become a favourite with guitar players as well as bass users. Bassics Omni Pre The Omni Pre preamp/bass switcher is just the right foot stomp to instantly change from one instrument to another, say from fretted to fretless, or upright. Heck, Malcolm Toft has even done the unthinkable and put in a mix switch to run both channels at the same time! RRP £199 Bassics Squeezer The Squeezer compressor pedal is a studio quality VCA with a sound much like the revered dbx160. The controls allow the player to control the levels of drive, compression and overall gain. RRP £199 Bassics Tone Ranger The Tone Ranger EQ pedal is a three band preamp with sweepable frequencies. The illuminated controls come in to their own on a dimly lit floor! RRP £199 *Excluding the daddy of them all, the BPA-01 Floor preamp which is AC powered only.

Heres mine. Loveing the SA stuff especially the Aftershock. Goodbye B3K. Biggest suprise is i can use it as a clean boost as well, set it up to have a parametric mid boost. Still need the analog octaver though.

Seems like he loves distressing all kind of things. Is Fleetwood far from Langney ? He could spend a night there.

We played Scarisbrick Marina Festival, just outside Southport, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Saturday clashed with the footy and predictably there were only a handful of people there, it felt a bit too quiet, and we drifted toward the end. Better on Sunday - we had a drummer this time, a dep who did pretty well, still only about 30 people but they were bouncing around in their seats and clapping to the faster songs, better atmosphere and we played better. Afterwards an elderly lady came up to me with the sweetest smile, put her hand on my arm and said "Thank you - the bass drives the band, you know." Made my day 🙂

That headstone looks wrong should be a walnut plug,looks fake to me.

there is also the Heil "the fin" I can't give any advice on it but I know that there are plenty of people who love heil mics, they also come in black or silver and light up either red or blue (depending on version) when fed with phantom power. https://www.studiospares.com/Microphones/Mics-Dynamic/Heil-The-Fin-Dynamic-Mic-Chrome--Blue_318070.htm Matt

So pleased you are happy with it. I got my Mustang (exactly the same as yours) in 2015 after years of playing a Rik. I too changed the strings to flats (D'Addario Chromes in my case) and am absolutely delighted with the sound. Unintended bonus is on small stages I tend not to whack the singer with the head-stock so often. 😎 Well, she thinks its a bonus.

Since I've recently landed a new gig, I've been in a diary-writing mood, and have been reminiscing about the various bands I've been in over the last decade or so, and some of the near misses. This one springs to mind: I responded to a posting on joinmyband looking for a bass player to join a drummer and guitarist to start an originals indie-rock band. Sounded interesting so I sent a message asking for more information. They seemed to have reasonably good credentials, though I was a little concerned that the guitarist seemed to be more interested in namechecking the bands that he's been a tech for. They said they were also looking for a singer, and at the moment the guitarist is doing the singing in rehearsals. They told me the date of their next rehearsal, and that there'd also be a guy coming along trying out for the singer job. With 3 days to go, they asked me if I wouldn't mind learning 3 covers that the singer knows well, just to help him out. Sure, I said. I arrived at the rehearsal rooms, got my stuff set up and started chatting with the drummer and guitarist. Apart from the guitarist giving off vibes of being a horrible womanizer, they seemed okay. Then the singer arrived. A fairly stocky fellow, he bumbled in, smiling through broken teeth, and growling about how he's got a stinking hangover so apologies if his singing wasn't 100%. Uh-oh, I thought. Give him the benefit of the doubt though, maybe he's just being very modest. But no, he started singing, and it was not good. Maybe it was the hangover, or maybe he just can't sing. There's no way to tell, and so I'd never take that risk. The end of the "audition" came and the guitarist and drummer were practically shaking this guy's hand saying "welcome to the band". I took that as a red flag and made my decision. S.P.

A spot of excellence going on there, methinks..? If I was to be really 'picky', I'd say that the vocals are a tad 'intense' for my general listening pleasure, better suited to live performance, perhaps, but that's really looking hard for summit to criticise. Compositions..? Excellent (to judge from the snapshots linked...). Arrangements..? Excellent. Standard of playing ..? Excellent. Quality of recording-mixing..? Excellent. Bass..? Excellent. S'not flattery; s'excellent, is all. Good Stuff, well done all involved.

I agree with you agreeing with Norris. I think Dolando's "if you were really careful" sealed it for me...I am careful, but I do not want to do anything that will risk damaging the body, so I do not think I can be careful enough.

I should also add that having had first hand experience of Shure Super 55 as it was Mr Venom's microphone of choice for the Terrortones, I can say that underneath that supposedly rugged exterior, they are quite flimsy. In particular, the wires that run from the XLR socket in the base to the capsule in the body of the mic are very thin and weedy and if your singer makes a lot of use of the pivot between the two, the wires will eventually break and need replacing. I had to do this 3 times over 6 years with Mr Venom's mic and they continued to wear out with use, even after I replaced the wires with something a bit more heavy duty. Admittedly Mr Venom, gave his mic some serious abuse, but after 6 years I had replaced almost every part, so they are not as robust as their looks would have you believe.

The GEQ or para EQ on the Zoom MS-60B both work well; the pedal is around £50 second hand and does a ton of stuff besides. If you get, make sure to get the free Tone Lib editor which makes editing patches a doddle and fun. Out of interest, why not use the EQ options on your Helix (which I presume it has in abundance)?

Another solution to the Tab (if it really bothers you that much) is to photocopy the piece, cut out each system, and then just glue the standard staff systems onto a blank sheet. Simple! Just to add, Rob is a national treasure and has written some extremely nice books for all sorts of plucked instruments. Acoustic guitar in DADGAD, ukulele (some lovely piece by Baroque composer Gaspar Sanz), mandolin (recently some baroque Scottish lute pieces arranged for mandolin) and the tenor banjo (including the Bach cello suites). I know some of us here are multi instrumentalists, and his considerable volume of work for Mel Bay is always very well presented, achievable, and very rewarding to play. I love the sound of the Gilbert Isbin pieces in this new book 🙂 Robbie p.s I forgot to say as well that Mel Bay are always having discounts on their website. Usually I get to hear of them from the Mandolin Cafe forum, but sometimes it’s as much as 30% off. I always use the ebook option, so it makes getting these books even cheaper. These days I definitely my prefer to have my music on the iPad . I’ll let you know when the next discount is 🙂

Maude clearly is hook line sinker. Guitarist; reasonable, polite, insightful, apologetic 🤨 hmmm

Waterloo Festival! Eddie was walking along the beach round about the time I was playing! Back playing with the China's, off and on, have been for a couple of years. Even played Hanna Hanna a few times. Hadn't been played since '83, seems like nobody could work out how I do it. Not telling! There's a live version from the Ahoy in Rotterdam in '83, which even I hadn't heard till a few weeks ago. Grin like a Cheshire cat in the gym when that came on. Back playing fretless, 5-string, now. Haven't loved playing this much in years, and I'm 60. Gig at every opportunity till you drop, I've learned that too many times in the last 20 years. Just do what you love.

Well, I guess bass will always be there but the satisfaction of clanging out a ride driven jazz groove is hugely satisfying..guess a goodly long break from four strings might do me good.

Also known as a Norrisole.

The 55 is the classic Elvis mic and it's a wonderful thing, but it's a different beast from an SM58. It's worth spending a bit of time getting the EQ and levels just right - you will be well rewarded. Lovely rich sound.

i picked up a skeleton case, its super tough and a perfect fit, i paid around £40 i think, doesnt mess with my settings too which is nice.

Lol. I'm going to suggest what I was using. Tecamp Puma 900 (500W into 8 ohms) is loud as hell into the F112. The voicing options on the head work well. The bass knob cuts at 30Hz so acts as a HPF for some rooms. 'Taste' knob radically changes the sound from crisp/clear to 'old school' middy/thumpy. The treble knob is set a touch high for my taste, but I only really tend to cut a bit there, so no biggie.

Club Tropicana by Wham???

Must be, if you need a fire extinguisher on hand. Or is someone using an Ashdown?

Bas was very accommodating had a great little chat very pleasant and communicative. Lovely guy. sold him my bass synth E-H

I would say our US bar scene also has elements of dysfunction. Bar owners can be a strange lot. If it's a new venue for a band it's a good idea to be clear and direct with all your terms. Otherwise you never know what might happen. " My boss told me your fee was $400.00 not $500.00" Don't fall for that one, stick to your terms. Blue

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!

And some more piccies in the garden sun! I replaced the original string retainer bar as I got a comment that the Hipshot one on the ash bass I made looked much better. I quite agree!

So the PA outfront - people seeing a gig is usually an isolated event where if they are uncomfortable with the volume, should be standing further back. Most gigs are too loud anyway and will cause permanent hearing damage.... but you can always take earplugs... but again, that isnt rock and roll is it? When playing regularly in a band, this problem is compounded further as despite what the literature says, playing with earplugs doesn't attenuate across the frequency range like one big volume knob... so a lot of people still play without them. Standing next to a drum kit with loads of splashy cymbals and amps running flat out is also going to play havoc with your hearing. Buy hey, as long as it's flapping those trousers, all is good. Here's the rub - those amps running loud are going to bleed absolutely everywhere... straight into the mics, muddying up the mix somewhat rotten. That will make the band sound worse out front. Everybody knows, whether you are in the studio, or live, mic bleed is not a sound mans friend. Similarly, running amps so loud you can hear them over the PA is equally frustrating, as you can't get a good mix and you can't get a good balance between the left and right speakers because those loud guitar amps are highly directional. Pity the guy in the audience who is getting blasted by it. Pity the guy who has come to the gig and is off axis to the guitar amp and can't hear the guitar. Yes, the sound guy could put more of it through the PA... but then poor guy getting blasted is now getting full on assaulted and everybody is questioning whether the sound guy is deaf because there is so much guitar in the mix. You yourself have stated that bleed into mics (from the cymbals etc) is a problem. It is - so by having the onstage volumes more quiet alleviates this. Yes, I know you are going to say that it's just not rock and roll to not be smashing seven shades of sh** out of a kit... but you should be playing for your audience... not for self indulgence. Your band will sound better with a smaller / less loud kit and darker cymbals to avoid all the shrillness coming over the cymbals. Will make your vocal sound infinitely better too. So lets talk in ears. Which inears were you using? When I am talking about inears, I talk of inears that give you 26db attenuation - much more than your typical 17db attenuation that you typically get from ear plugs. Note - 17 to 26dB is a big amount. 26 is like putting your fingers deep into your ear holes. If you had to turn your inears up so loud, I guarantee that you did not have a good seal on them. If you did, you can do a gig on inears at whisper volumes. Fact. Standing 1 metre or 1 mile from the drum kit will make no difference when the band is playing because the isolation provided by the inears means you can't hear the ambient drums with any clarity or volume. So when you say the snare is too loud in your ears, it's because it's too loud in the mix being supplied to your inears... not because you are standing too close to the drums. If this indeed the case, I know everything I need to know about your IEMs. They either don't provide any serious attenuation or they are a poor fit. This isn't my opinion. This is fact. Theres guys out there using IEMs in tiny venues every day - and it's arguably better to use them in those type of venues than the stadiums because you will be usually standing a lot close to the drums due to the reduced stage areas. So you tried the Helix instore? I'm glad you had that time to learn the system intimately in order to form a good opinion on how it can work for you. I guarantee that the store would have set it up in it's optimum setting and nobody had messed around with the presets or anything like that too. Likewise, I'm sure your rock and roll ears are a good medium to draw such statements. Should also point out that modelling from the Pod and Eleven Rack is very, very old and not in the same category as the modern offerings from the main players, Helix, Kemper and Axe FX. If I was to blind test you with a Kemper, there is zero chance that you'd be able to tell the difference between the two... even with your golden ears. This isn't me saying this... this is the industry. These great bass players that you talk of - most of them don't. They have roadies. On theatre shows, they will have carriage (this in particular will determine what they choose to use - the truth is, they'll use what ever is the least hassle - they won't even care if it sounds any good or not most of the time). And again, a lot of the time, it's stage dressing... because the audience want to see something on stage, even if the sound isn't coming from it. A lot of these great players ARE using modellers - because they can take their rig with them on a USB stick. It makes it more consistent when the hire stock hasn't got your amp and cab of choice. What you have to remember also, is that a lot of these guys are using the gear because they are either endorsed to do so, ego driven because they want to see their image in the bass rags or because they are dinosaurs. As I've stated, theres nothing wrong with dino gear... but things can be done differently. There is a load of backlash against inears and modellers... and as demonstrated by yourself, those opinions are usually strongest from the people who haven't tried the gear properly. Your inears experience is typical - using the buds you got free with your phone does not count as trying inears in anger. I, along with a load of other guys have been the dinosaurs.... and thats cool... because modelling was pants compared to where it is now. But I kept my eye on the modelling market as I knew that if they got it nailed, thats where we should be... in terms of tone and portability... and safety to our own ears. Im sorry that dinosaurs are insulted by such a label. I kinda get fed up of being called a sound geek. Ah well, this is the snowflakeosaurus generation after all. Right, I'm going to find a corner to cry in because I think somebody accused me of not knowing sh**.