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There's a very long thread elsewhere as to me leaving the band I'd formed seven years ago. People are just asshats really. Stupidly, it took a while to get over it; so much time invested and work to keep it together. I went out for an Indian last night with some friends and they asked whether I miss it. I just answered no and then showed them a photo (below) of the old band, headlining a gig in Reading last weekend playing to six people. It was precisely this, the unconditional acceptance of every gig offered and playing to next to no one (it happened) that led to the cracks. I mean credit to them for continuing to grind through gigs like this, but frankly it's just not worth the effort.

Last update for a while, here's the twins upright on stands just to get a better look at how they look. They are now hanging in an old wardrobe until they have hardened enough to be safe to handle without risk of marking the lacquer, somewhere between a week and eight weeks, I really don't know until they get there.

My 1980 Wal Pro 2E has been my most treasured possession since 1986. The only thing I would even momentarily consider swapping/selling it for would be another Wal, a five-string fretted one.

I guess Jimmy quit and Jody got married did they😂

Don’t think I have a number one bass anymore. I have a bass I gig more than the others and basses that would be tough for me to replace but none are sacrosanct. I keep thinking of selling the 3 non-cheapies and getting something really special but I doubt I’ll ever go through with it. Ironically my main gigging bass is nominally the one of lowest value (the Mustang on the left - the Jag is no longer resident).......go figure.

That must have been a terrible band - I never sh*t in the car, as mrs discreet moans like hell.

Now I'm wondering where I can get shoes in candy apple red...

Black wins! And it’s fitted...

It should bridge the gap between the bottom of the knob and the top of the pedal to provide friction. You could also do the brofressional thing and invest in some gaffers tape.

It’s only through pain that thou shalt find salvation....🤦🏻‍♂️🐒😁 under the blisters nice calluses are waiting, then the holy grail of the double bass player will reveal itself: taking teabags out of the cup without the need for a teaspoon (what’s a few germs amongst friends...)

Going to listen to this today. I also found out yesterday that there was a bonus track on the Cog CD In Search of Better Days called Liberation Groove, it’s a killer track but for some reason doesn’t appear on my physical CD! Whilst talking about new music I listened to the album Le Chic Remix by Dimitri From Paris this week, there’s some really clever work on old tracks but they have boosted most of ‘Nards lines in the mix and you can hear them so much better. It’s awesome.

Old thread resurrection. I’ve been hammering The Clash this week on the 800-odd motorway miles I’ve done. They’ve never been far away from my ears since I heard Bankrobber as a kiddie back in 1980. Simonon is one of my absolute heroes and the reason I play a white/black Precision. Has anyone cooler ever strapped on a bass guitar?

I'm colour blind. Explains the consistently crap playing.

It's true. I've been known to tap my right foot when playing my blue bass and tap my left foot with the 3 tone sunburst.

modified 62 top Pino Stingray 64 Jazz Family photo of the remainder, 65 and 62 2nd and 4th from left respectively. Thanks to Mark for assistance with image and kind comments below🙂

Just buy a '64 Burns Sonic and one of those toy Hartke combos and you'll nail it

I'd never change an "offensive" lyric if I was covering a song. The composer wrote those words for a reason and I think it's a greater offence to bastardise someone's art than to offend someone who deams their language to be inappropriate. It's your God given right to be offended and it's my God given right to offend you. Words are not and will never be violence; "Sticks and stones... Etc." to equate "offence" with "assault" is a very dangerous road to tread in my eyes.

Popped over to my local shop recently and tried out three new lefty Fenders they had in: Player series Precision Player series Jazz Custom Shop Pino Palladio Precision They were all really well put together and sounded like they should do. With the exception of the Palladio which is ridiculously expensive, I’d happily buy any of them but the player series Precision was my personal favourite overall. The maple necks are lovely. Hardware seemed much better than the Sire V7 I used to own. Sadly they didn’t have the colour I want so I have to order and wait......

We had bookings I’d sorted - wasn’t having them paid for gigs I’d toiled for 😉

That body colour is nearly swamp ash with a tinted danish oil finish as well..

I changed my knob once during a gig. I got chucked out of the venue...

I’m hoping it becomes a classic lol!

Would the taylor GS mini bass strings work if you did something like this?

Maybe this might help? https://sites.google.com/site/guitarplanscollection/pdf-files/fender-ish There's the link it's the Jagbass. PDF so you can print it off if you want......

There’s plans for a Jazz Bass here: https://www.gitarrebassbau.de/download/file.php?id=6282&sid=a489b2dba605a9837dd72e33386db328

I recently got the valenton OC-10 as well. Amazing little thing for the price, and sooo damn close to my old boss oc2 and feels very well built

Thanks Linus! As the band's 'pair of ears in the audience', my opinion is that the Crazy 8, luscious as it sounds, will only be adequate for smaller venues. For larger venues or outdoors, you may have to go modular, as in, have two cabs you can use together if needed; otherwise add some bass feed to the PA as reinforcement to your backline. (For the tech details I'll have to refer to @Happy Jack again as he's done that, and I haven't! )

I was thinking about this just yesterday... I quit my first band aged 18. We had spent a year rehearsing before our first gig. I got most of the gigs in even though the drummer and guitarist were older and way more experienced. At our last gig the guitarist, amazing guitarist but awful singer, introduced a guy to us and said "he's my mate, great singer, I want him in the band". To which I had to say I'm sorry but I move away to go and study for four years. That was the end of the band. I realised that while I liked the guys and we had a great band, we never socialised or talked about anything other than our set. So they didn't actually know that I was going away to uni even though it was my focus for the last two years! Other bands I've left because: rock covers band, plays biker festivals and so on... Singer spitting all over the place during rehearsal (disgusting), and not very good. Guitarist had guitars worth thousands but couldn't play in time, no energy to it and never felt part of it so quit without needing to say anything. I didn't ask about next rehearsal and they didn't contact me. New covers band with a dictator on guitar who wants to play loads of Stereophonics songs. We had two female singers!! Plus guitarist wanted to hire and fire other guitarists, drummers and keyboard players each week. It fell apart but me, the drummer and another guitarist had already thought to set up on our own without them. Failed covers band three years back. Great guys but two of them had a bit too much to drink before rehearsal every time. Endless versions of a song I told them I need time to work on, but they jam it for twenty mins anyhow... Etc. Couldn't see it going anywhere so got an audition for an established band and quit politely.

I think my postman is starting to dislike me. Not a huge fan of the vintage tint but at £29 for a neck with block markers I can deal with it. Still waiting for shielding tape to show up so I can continue work on the bodies.

I think that the PA is an issue best dealt with separately. It's much better to go through the PA for all sorts of technical reasons and good PA has come down so much in price it is probably cheaper to have modest backline and good PA than the other way round. However, (can you tell I was a science teacher) I still maintain backline good enough to be able to run without PA support for flexibility. First of all don't worry about the extra 300W. It'll only give you 1dB of extra volume, that's the smallest change in volume a human can detect. Our hearing isn't linear, it's very sensitive to quiet sounds for obvious evolutionary reasons and protected against very loud sounds so we have the maximum range available to us. The downside of that is you need to double power to get a meaningful increase in volume of 3dB. In practice a 200W amp is enough to do almost any gig if you have typical speakers. You could buy a Transit to transport that flatpack home from IKEA but they pretty much always fit in the back of your car. In this case either amp will be more powerful than you strictly need. Choose your speakers on the basis of which ones sound best, then get enough of them to be loud enough is the best advice. Mixing speakers is fine but problematic. The character/timbre of the speakers doesn't come from the bass for the main part but the mids and if you look at speaker frequency plots they usually have plenty of bumps and dips. When you mix them you'll have no idea if those peaks align and emphasise each other or align with a dip and cancel. The combination will sound very different from the speakers on their own, that's if they are equally loud. If they have different efficiencies then one speaker may dominate and the other be little heard rendering it into an expensive stand to sit the other one on. If you own loads of speakers then trying them out with each other is fun and you may hit lucky but it isn't a sensible thing to plan on doing from the start. Two 12's, two 15's, two 2x10's will all be plenty and in reality you'll end up taking one to a lot of gigs on it's own. Don't choose on size though choose on sound.

I do up basses. One I had was a Warwick with a wenge fingerboard. The frets were worn out and the strings had been well ground into the wood of the neck. I guess this is what would happen to your fretless. Why not remove the fingerboard and fit a new ebony board? This would also give you the opportunity to put the side dots in the right place: in the fret-wire positions.

Yeah , he did 20th Century Blues album with Trower, and he's also worked with some well known players - Phil Manzanera, Jan Akkerman, Tina Turner, Bryan Ferry. I think he produces a lot as well as bass playing. Also play keys

There is no other logical explanation as to why I lose socks. Thanks.

Rock hopping a little on the sequence of the build, but the top wood has arrived so I've planed the joining edges using the 'offset fence' technique on the router table and now am gluing it prior to thicknessing it from 5mm to 2.5 - 3mm. Now it's down in the cellar being glued: The only clamps applying any pressure are the three sash clamps - two on the bottom and one on the top. The rest of the clamps are just gently holding the cauls, top and bottom to prevent it bowing or twisting. I will be doing the thicknessing using hand planes and cabinet scrapers (gulp) once the glue has fully dried overnight. I think this afternoon will be taken up with me honing plane blades and burnishing scrapers!

I wouldn't worry about "pushing too much" - that's why you have a volume knob! It comes down to what sounds best to you and how many (and how heavy) cabs you are comfortable carrying. But only you can answer those questions. Either a 410 or a 210+115 should be plenty to cover pretty much anything. The 210+115 (or 210+210) would give you a modular setup so that you could only bring one to rehearsals and small gigs. Still, if you love your amp, as you say, be careful because you might end up giving a lot of money and in the end being happier with your previous setup. New isn't always better!

Hey @Bassmingo, I've got an identical bass, that had exactly the same problem. I hope you still have the neck, as the headstock is distinctive with a black finish. All you need to do is loosen the truss rod and clamp it in a reverse curve position. Leave it like that for a few weeks, then re-assemble the bass. I did this clamping with some wood blocks, a long spirit level and a G-clamp. It takes time, but worth doing.

Black for me. It's going to look really good whatever

Er... where we in the same band? Seriously though, you’ve just described my current situation to a tee.

I quit my last band because I was fed up with the choice of music (and my say in the choice of music), the interpersonal dynamics, the uneven sharing of the workload, the stagecraft and quality of live performances, and general balance of power between those who saw it as their band, and those who actually made the band any good. Ive been gigging solo for nearly two years now and haven't looked back.

This is going in the same direction as "what direction should I place my bass knobs" thread. There is a reason why you have never thought about it before. Because it is totally irrelevant.

Go wireless?

I have had up to five basses in the past of various makes and models but now I have just three.... ...and I am very, very pleased with them and GAS free 😎

Would you actually use the "n" word in a performance? An artist doing original works may well want to ignite debate, or make a point. But a pub covers band? They've just picked the song because they like it. They are not invested in the subject. It doesn't mean as much as to the original writers - and the cover performer cannot truly know what the original intent was. I can't think of much more stupid (within music anyway) of the chance a white man might use the "n" word when covering a song in a pub. Might get a kicking, might even get a conviction depending on what the rest of the lyric was.