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I run my own Jazz gig in Felixstowe so get to play with Gods.

Just a updated family photo

Received this from Tom at COG this morning, and it was too good not to share.

Had a BBQ this afternoon, and had Original Musiquarium playing and I will always be amazed by the musicality of him and the musicians on this particular record, The horn section, the rhythm guitars , the backing vocals, his piano playing. The bass playing...Its up there with Willie Week's bass playing on Donny's live album, very different record of course. This spectacular playing from Nate is way up there as is Stevies harmonica playing and vocals. Don't be fooled by the shorter version. The full album version is the best. My ears are saying Andrew , you are at 100% musical enjoyment.

As someone else who also appreciates a good cup of the Earl, next time you cross la manche, I would recommend tracking down a bottle of Marble Brewery's Earl Grey IPA. It has saved several evenings when I've been caught in the dilemma of whether to have another beer, or a cup of tea!

The weekend before last, my CTM100 chalked up a (very unofficial) victory in the (very unofficial) volume war between our guitarist and me - at an open-air gig I actually had to turn down for a change! Admittedly I was driving two 12" speakers to his one, with 100W to his 15W, but we all know the lengths to which we have to go to keep up with most guitarists. At any rate, the tone was to die for.

A lot of these copies are made in factories where the people making them have probably never seen a real one, they can't help but build them to a better standard which gives the game away! 😁

Mine has to be a favourite place I used to play as I don't gig anymore..... Rock City Nottingham... Iconic Rock venue, just about every famous Band you can mention has played there at some point. The Stereophonics tribute band I was in has played the main stage there 5 times. It was an all day charity event ( I'm far from famous 😉) but the crowd loved us. it was always a sell out (2450 capacity) raising thousands of pounds for the relevant charity but the best bit was the on stage sound. There was a front of house soundman AND at the side of the stage, a sound man that just gave you a monitor mix ...he was BRILLIANT ….anything you wanted in your monitor at sound check was delivered in seconds. I know the combination of Tribute band and Charity gig is an anathema to many on here but they were the gigs of my life and I would do them again, at the drop of a hat , If only I was well enough.

Francis Hylton played bass on this record. He told me via FaceBook and he is my new best friend. 😂

Curious indeed. I thought there was only one owner, unless things have changed in the past few years. Very odd marketing indeed.

Fixed.

I got the bass back from Laurence Dixon (The Bass Place, Herne Hill) today. He installed a Realist pickup (at my request, and in addition to the existing one), replaced the bridge with an adjustable (again at my request), shaved & profiled the fingerboard to match the new bridge, sorted out the twin soundposts so that they are correctly positioned and work properly, and did some corrective work on the end-pin structure. His work was every bit as good as Clarky told me it would be, and the bass is instantly far more playable and more comfortable to play. It also sounds noticeably better. I wanted the Realist since the existing pickup arrangement did a great job of picking up the sounds of the strings and of the slapping, but disguised (almost completely) the sound of the oil-drum. The Realist picks up far more of its sound from the resonating body and that means that you can actually hear the aluminium. All I need now is to run the two outputs through a blender and I will be able to control how much oil-drum the audience hears. The adjustable bridge allows me to switch between a rockabilly setup and a blues/jazz setup at will. The rest of the work was, frankly, remedial. As I mentioned before, Dave Gartland is not a professional DB luthier and he doesn't claim to be one. The bass as delivered had a few flaws which were easily fixed (well, "easily" by someone like Laurence), plus one which it is stuck with. As far as I'm concerned, it is now fully giggable and I'm looking forward to doing exactly that. I'm also expecting a fair bit of trepidation from any sound engineers who have to deal with it ...

My offer was accepted. Personalised orange bass on its way for mr orange.......

Jamie, when I read your OP the first thought in my head was 'Oh No, not another bass solo post'. So having scanned your playing I am glad I did. Your playing is fine but you fall into the trap of projecting the bass (guitar) as a solo instrument. The bass is so much more important than that. As everyone here knows, the bass links up with the drummer to create the foundation for the singer and other musicians (guitarist?) to perform. A solid foundation or groove is what gets people off their seats and onto the dance floor - it makes them want to dance. In a band situation, each musician has a role to play. It might be hard for a bassist or a guitarist to accept but their function is to support and make the singer look good. Of the two mentioned, the bass is the more critical for the reasons listed above. Queen (the band) are a typical example. The band supported Freddie - even the guitar and bass solos and playing were only used to put further emphasis on the front man Freddie. The band were and are fine musicians in their own right but they knew that they could help make the sum of their efforts to be greater than their individual playing. Take a young child's jigsaw puzzle for example. Four parts to assemble the picture, but the picture is only fully revealed when each piece is in the correct position. Take away one piece and the picture collapses. Likewise take one piece and emphasize the colours using a painting set, and the picture has lost its wholeness, its balance as one quarter is now brighter and more vivid than the other three pieces. Just because a musician learns a technique, does not mean that he has to use it unless the song requires it. And searching for a song to use this technique results in the other band members learning the song to accommodate the other musician. Which is not conducive to a good or great overall performance by the band. We have all heard examples of this - the guitarist learns a song because it has his new solo in it.......... Please don't read this post in a negative fashion. I am not criticizing your playing. Rather the idea that the bass is or could become a lead instrument. If the song requires three root notes plus octave, nobody will sack you for playing those notes. It might be boring as hell but TBH a lot of playing is repetition. Repetition can become boring but the boredom is reduced if the dance floor is full of people swaying and dancing to the music. People hear the singer and the overall band sound and react accordingly. They may not pick up on the subtleties of bass playing but they will feel the groove. And they will want to dance. What more is there to ask for?

Just to be clear... The legal threats only concerned fake Rics, new or second-hand, but it was made clear that pursuit would follow even if the posted ad was of a supposedly genuine Ric that turned out to be bogus, a fake Ric that we (the site...) wouldn't be able to distinguish. 'Good faith' was not, apparently, a protection, so the decision was taken to not take the risk, and forbid any and all Rics. That way, there's no question of its authenticity being questioned, and zero risk of breaking the law. New or second-hand made no difference; any ad for a fake Ric would lead to a legal action.

The tolex will probably fall off fairly soon anyway

Another surprise birthday present from Mrs. Baggins. Sounds really nice through my Acoustic Image set up but is also surprisingly loud acoustically. What I love about these Harley Bentons is that they allow you to try things conceptually without taking to many risks. I have all sorts of ideas for this instrument.

A bit of a messy work in progress! Bass - Spectracomp - LS2 - Loop A: OC2 - Mooer Fog - Columbus Chorus - Sonuus Wahoo - Arion Delay , Loop B: SA Manta - Mooer Pure - EHX Epitome - Zoom B3- Boss V wah. Have yet to hook up SA hub for Manta presets.

They are very much still gigging, I depped with them for four gigs in June. We played a fantastic gig in the town square in Calais the day France knocked Argentina out of the world cup, needless to say the crowd were up for a party that hight.

I had a Laney Pro Bass head back in the 90's with graphic and other whistles, but it was pretty unremarkable and so was I probably. I was also unimpressed by my trace elliot smx 350 rig which shows how little I knew. The first rig I was blown away by at another band's gig was a Warwick Thumb into a Hartke AH3500 with 410XL and 115XL. I sold my SMX rig and about 10 basses to get that set up and gigged it happliy for many years until this forum introduced me to GAS. I should give my lawyer a call!

Yeah I think @Reggaebass is right Halfords do sell a cellulose primer https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-body-repair/car-spray-paints/halfords-primer-white-500ml

Wembley Stadium, love playing there...... now just to make it happen

And doing something you really enjoy

I used to play this winery right above the Columbia River (http://www.maryhillwinery.com/) a few times a month for several years. It was perfect for my jazz trio and the owners and staff were super nice to us. Their wine is first class too, so for years I had a really nice stash at home. And we got to do tasting room pre-show stints before Bob Dylan and ZZ Top, with a few thousand people coming through before they made their into the adjacent 3000 seat amphitheater. This gig paid OK but not great (regular local scale plus a few bottles each, and pretty good tips), but it was one case where exposure really did pay off. All I had to do was tell other venues that we played Maryhill and that was typically enough to get the gig if the style match was workable. Good hours too, usually 1-5 PM, w/ four45 minute sets. The place next door wasn't too shabby either (http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/) : View from back: Mostly we played arts festivals there, out on the lawn with a great family atmosphere, cool food booths, numerous juried art vendors, and good advertising in the big city markets like Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. If your band made the promo poster as a featured artist you could leverage a ton of mileage out of that. I think we managed that three years in a row.

Thats the same head I have but I use a 4x12 cab, get a great sound out of it.

You could also talk to Steve at Guitar Lodge in Felixstowe. I didn't realise it, but he advertises refinishes. I've used him for setups and a mandolin neck repair, he's a really capable guy and very pleasant to deal with. https://www.guitarlodge.co.uk

If you're into more ambient stuff, either beatless or light beats, then CBL are great. These are seen as classics of the genre Woob - 1194, 4494 Global Communication - 76:14 Future Sound of London - Lifeforms, Environments The Orb - Adventures beyond the Ultraworld, UFOrb Biosphere - Patashnik, Substrata, Cirque Autechre -Amber, Incanabula

Looks like an American diner theme now!

Splendid! Love them

My Favourite Christopher Cross record is Arthur's Theme. Is just sublime. Micheals vocals as far as I'm aware are not on this recording. Micheal McDonald's backing are missed quite a lot although his vocals are so recognisable up front. His vocals on some Steely Dan's records are just so very clever. Oh ill let it slide, it its a great record.

As far as I’m aware there’s only the Polytune clip and the Unitune clip. The Unitune is cheaper as it doesn’t have the ability to detect the pitch of multiple strings at the same time - a feature which is pretty much useless for bassists anyway IMO. I have the Polytune clip (bought about 3 years ago when it was the only clip model TC made) and find it to be both sturdy and reliable. The tuners come in either black or white, which may be adding to your confusion!

There are a couple of easy tells, more obvious than a Fender (there are so many variations in Fenders, "upbranded" Squiers, fake decals); I don't think there are any factory fakers which are an exact copy. The current Chickenbackers are an easy spot - they are a different scale and the bridge is wrong. There was a site, joeysbassnotes.com, which spelled it out, but it appears to have gone off the air. Here's some of mine: A Hondo II and a CMI(?) Japanese I'm currently working on: Both have single truss-rods, the Hondo's treble pickup is in the wrong place (ignore its bridge, that's a Hipshot), the CMI's machines are standard Japanese (the Hondo's machines are replacements), the Hondo has a bolt-on neck, the jack sockets, the strap button position, the split-shaft pots and push-on on knobs. These are the typical Japanese machines. A nice Shaftesbury I sold. The Shaftesbury is one of the best ones, with a thru-neck. Note the same machines. This one has a real Rickenbacker bridge/tailpiece. From a distance it looks right, but up close it's like Joanna Lumley wearing makeup. The weight and general feel are wrong. Only 1 truss rod. The back of a bolt-on neck CMI with wavy non-Grover machines which I sold. No 4001/4003s have bolt-on necks and those machines are unbranded. The skunk stripe is too wide. The strap button is usually in the wrong place. Some have shonky treble pickups, like this Diamond (Aria) branded one; this was my 1st faker, which I sold on. The finished Diamond. Replacement machines' posts too wide, strap button wrong, wide skunk stripe, bolt-on neck (notice the stripe isn't full-length), jack socket says "Stereo Sound" not "Rick-o-Sound". And here's the above CMI (4001 copy) alongside a Rickenbacker 4003. Skunk stripe, machines, pickguard, strap button, bolt-on, position dots for control knobs. (The neck pickup position is OK - that's a 4001/4003 difference.) Just like with any copy, they look fine from a distance, but a little bit of sleuthing and you can pick out the details.

I recently picked up a B3n and did consider saving for a Helix ... the one big advantage I could see other than price was the Helix is a top of the range guitar effects pedal with bass functionality added... where as the B3n models some quite esoteric bass equipment- you get the feeling that someone at Zoom plays bass

Great song, great version. Guilty secret - quite like the Saxon version too.

Don’t get me wrong, the Helix is, in some people’s hands, an amazing bit of kit (in the same way my Kemper was before that). I’m not a complete novice with multi-effects/ modellers but I’d rather spend time playing than faffing around continuously tweaking. It does have lots of flashing lights which is always good though 😃 having being around the loop of effects, no effects, effects, no effects, lots of effects, no effects, multi-effects etc etc so many times, I now realise that in the places we play, and the fact that I’m running the band sound, simpler is best if they made a 1U rack-mount version with a few, more bass specific preamps and less of the clutter, that would be an interesting product (same goes for zoom to be fair) but I guess the market for small rack mount multi-effects / modellers isn’t there anymore. I could always dig out my old Rocktron Blue Thunder bass multi-effects !

I have an old RBW200 in my office. Sounds great, weighs a ton! It has been gigged and a number of occasions and did a bloody good job I hasten to add.

I’m just guessing but I suspect his post was in relation to “how do you clean your strings” and not your post.

Well I used my Vintage Tony Butler Sig V4 this eve with the band for the first time and to say I`m pleased would be an understatement. I`d expected it to be ok, but it by far surpasses that. So much so that not only will I keep it as a backup as originally intended I`m going to use it on gigs where we fly, to save flying with a US Precision. Now I wouldn`t do that/gig with a bass I wasn`t comfortable with, I`d prefer to fly with the more expensive one and take the risk, but this eve has shown me that the V4 is more than suitable for my needs. Playability is great, and the sound is spot-on what I want.

I borrowed an RB9 head back in the days before I had any gear of my own. I couldn't fault it; sounded good, had plenty of power on tap and that head is still used heavily in a rehearsal room to this day. A tad heavy maybe, but we're spoiled in this day an age with amp heads we could throw like a frisbee. I had a 1x15 Richter series cab given to me as an extension to a combo I was buying and it was perfectly adequate. Sold it due to lack of use rather than anything else. I don't think Laney as a company, or the people that use them, shout loudly enough about how good they are. Undeservedly overlooked.

Well hello chaps, I thought I'd better say hello and explain Bridgehouse's pickup as I'm the person who designed and wound it :-) My business involves a hell of a lot of pickup rewinds (as well as building new pickups), and the most common bass pickup to need my ministrations is that 'certain classic California-made' bass we are discussing. It's always had me thinking that it's kinda an object lesson in how to break the mould in bass pickup design ... because it's actually built pretty much the opposite way to the way you'd expect to produce bass tones. It's thin bobbin and super fine wire combined with relatively low output is really poles apart from the tall bobbin, thicker wired P Bass and J Bass. There are plenty of guitar pickups that use the squat bobbin approach: the P90 and the Jazzmaster are two notable ones, and they instantly sound different to taller bobbin pickups like Strat ones. My instant thought was to replicate the tones Bridgehouse was looking for (without tons of extra EQ) a 51 P Bass bobbin was too tall and would accentuate too much treble over mids. So I fired up the laser cutter and produced a custom bobbin of exactly the same winding area as the ... um ... Californian bass, and sat it atop a ceramic magnet ... filling it to 14k with 44awg wire. As a finishing touch I added adjustable dome head steel poles. Now does it sound exactly like the original? I popped it briefly into my bass pickup test guitar (a P Bass partscaster with a dirty big central rout) and gave it a little go ... I ended up with a big smile. Not an exact ringer, but a lot closer than I've ever got with a Precision and no EQ. I'll leave it to Bridgehouse to do some sound samples ... but I'm pleased I proved a bit of a concept, at least to myself.

I once bought a ... ... ... ... ... ... delay pedal.

For those more used to a bass fretboard, remember that larger members of the mandolin family are available... I play a flatback octave mandola, which is 21.5" scale length, tuned GDAE an octave down from a regular mandolin. It's great for chords and pretty good for playing tunes on. You can also stick a capo on 5 to turn it into a tenor mandola (tuned CGDA).