Leaderboard

I left the last group because I asked them what chords they were playing and they couldn't answer me.

If you rehearse in a small room, in a circle, with amps pointing at each other and at gig volumes, then I'm afraid you don't understand the purpose of a rehearsal and you''ll always cause/have problems. However you set up in a rehearsal room turn the volume down (because this isn't a gig) and you'll a be able to work on the detail of the songs. This is where the selfish and incompetent hide behind the 2 great excuses. . . . the drummer has to play that loud and I need to play this loud to get my sound. Anyone who is so inadequate that they resort to using these 2 cop outs should be fired forthwith.

Hopefully we will have a great 'special guest' chat/clinic to announce shortly - just firming it up!

The biggest problem with pretty much every rehearsal room I've been in is volume. You have a room roughly the same size as a single garage and you fill it with stacks by Marshall and Ashdown, plus a PA that could handle the main stage at Glastonbury, and then the band plays at gig volume. Well gig volume only works at a gig, in a decent-sized room with carpets and furniture and stuff, and above all with dozens (perhaps hundreds) of bodies absorbing the sound. I've never understood why so many bands are so stupid about this. The only thing that gig volume is good for at a rehearsal is hiding the mistakes ... so why bother rehearsing? Grumpyguts, try insisting (just once) that the whole band turns down to a sensible level. Turn the singer down on the PA to the point where he's at home stereo level, you take the bass down to match, force the guitarist(s) to follow suit, and then the drummer has no choice. I believe that you'll be very pleasantly surprised at the result. And your ears won't be ringing the next morning.

I have plenty of time to play now as my boys are in their twenties. Cherish the time with your kids Your time will come

Yep, we`ve been together for almost 5 years now, have released 3 albums, 3 eps/singles, played festivals, done overseas gigs/tours, and it`s all still incredibly good fun. I think a lot of it is to do with age, similarly we are all 40s/50s with no illusions of being stars. As such with the ego malarkey out of the way this is the most successful any of us have ever been, probably due to it being a hobby, albeit a very time-consuming one, and primarily done for fun/the love of it. We don`t take any money from the band, it all goes back in to the pot to pay for recording, flights, ferries, hotels, more merch etc. This coming week we`ll rehearse Mon, then got gigs on Tue/Wed/Thu in Bristol, Manchester and London respectively. Later on this month we have another 3 gigs in 3 days, Stockton On Tees, Edinburgh & Doncaster. That`s off the back of releasing an EP at the start of this month, at The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. Were I to be in my 20s doing this I don`t think I would have appreciated it at all, probably would have just got riotously drunk at all the gigs (which is what I did in fact do at the smaller gigs I did back then) whereas I realise now that I`m incredibly fortunate to have my hobby enabling me to do all of the above. I reckon being able to do all of this in my 50s has made me appreciate it all the more.

I haven't said 'Yes' yet mate ...

Just got the Zenith back. All I can say is OMG. It's gorgeous. Simon at GUS has managed to fit a 22 fret 5 string neck to a 21 fret 4 string bass and you'd never know. The passive EMG's and greasebucket tone mod sound lush with a threeway switch and wired in series and parallel. The piezo only has a volume pot but it's got a hidden secret. Instead of being battery run it's powered by a capacitor that takes only 1 minute to charge and this will last 16 hours. I've put the original brass bridge logo on the headstock instead of where it should be. In my opinion it just looks better on the headstock (it looked good on the original rosewood bridge but now that has been made larger it looked out of proportion and 'wrong'). Anyway, I know I didn't do anything to convert it (unlike some of the skilled people on BC I would have just ruined something that, in my eyes, is probably one of the best looking basses I've ever laid eyes on), but I knew what I wanted and luckily had one of the finest luthiers on the planet just down the road from me who managed to transform my thoughts into a work of art

Always fancied the idea of trying Thunderbird pickups, so when a coupla chinese clones came up for sale, I did this, with some bits I had lying around . I really, really like it. Great punch.

I just can't deal with loud rehearsal. It seems like such an antiquated way of working. We use a decent electronic kit, amp modelling and in ears to rehearse. The clarity is awesome and by plugging a laptop into the mixer we can record the whole session. At gigs the only difference is an acoustic kit instead of electronic and a pa speakers so no boomy wall of sound there either.

I know there will be recommendations that this or that 212 will outperform a 610, but I`m yet to have the experience of one that does. Sure they`ll go loud, most possibly louder, but that huge all enveloping sound you get from a 610 imo is due to the amount of speakers all going together. Again I reckon that there will be disputes on that based on science/technology/efficiency etc, but I know that of the high-end 212s I've had they didn`t give that same all enveloping sound. However they did deliver on the low-end punch, no loss of that - they were Neos as well.

Tsk! Pah! Far too late to complain about lack of time now. One has to commit either to being a good bass player and keeping one's pants on, OR banging it on the table and rogering anyone within grappling distance at every opportunity. Unfortunately I did neither.

Maybe. I have a day job tho which brings in most of my income, so I don't need to stay in a band with a##eholes just for money. That's why playing solo works well for me - I can be an a##ehole all by myself then!

Same as Blue: never quit until you have something else (hopefully better) to go to and don't do "personality clashes". They are a pointless waste of time. I have just one bottom line, I'm in bands so I can gig. It's always a bonus if the band is made up of good players but as long as the gigs are good then I have no problem playing with anyone. I mostly play with great guys anyway, but over the years there have been a few very unpleasant people. I make sure I''m friendly with everyone. I treat everyone in every band and every gig with a "professional" attitude. It helps that most of the guys I play with are professionals, either making a living from gigging or teaching their instruments, so I see very few personality problems. Most ex-bands have folded and just broken up, so how to leave wasn't an issue. I've been fired a few times, usually so the band leader can get in one of his mates. C'est la vie. I've left a few to join a better band. Twice I left because I just didn't have enough time to juggle the number of bands I was in with a young family and a job. I've only quit one band, that I can recall, about 10 years ago, because the band leader started messing me about, ie cancelling gigs and not telling me. I emailed him after the second time and told him where he shove his band.

Funnily enough, nor is mine!

18 at the moment: Aria SB700 (1981) Aria SB1000 (1984) Aria RSB Deluxe II (1986) Aria SB Black ‘n’ Gold I (1984) Aria SB1000JT (2006) Peavey Cirrus USA 4 (2002) Fender Jazz Geddy Lee MIJ Fender Precision 1962 replica Fender Jazz Bass Special (1986) Fender Jazz Bass Special (1987) Fender Jazz Bass Special (1993) Philip Kubicki Ex Factor 4 (1988) Yamaha BB1024X Yamaha BB1025X Shuker Custom Sandberg VM4 HCA Warmoth Fender Jazz Maruszczyk Elwood Custom

1st pickup template done, I am pretty happy with the design although will tweak the top curve to better follow the body.

Watched a Rush documentary last night about their last tour (think it was called ‘Time Stands Still’) The overriding impression was that they’re phenomenal musicians, and I can’t wait for Geddy Lee’s bass book - he had some beautiful gear on stage, All custom colour Fenders, a Zematis, a Thunderbird and of course a Ric or 2 (a 4005 in fireglo was a pleasant surprise!)

I liked DuranDuran. The songs were good, the singist can sing, the bassist played some fantastic basslines & the keys guy made me want things I couldn't afford (hence taking up bass). I've always loved synths & synth bands. I don't know how any of Depeche Mode would fare against a good pianist, but that's not what synths are about. It's sound creation.

Now you’re talking!

Here's a pic of some of them. I really must get a family pic of the lot...

Oi..! More than half-deaf, but not completely deaf, y'know..! Any louder and you might even wake me up..!

Absolutely, although I had hoped to find a bit more going on in either Boston (12 miles away) or SkegVegas (10 miles) than seems to be the case. And despite the lack of musical action, I'd still much rather be living where we are now than in Blackpool (and that's speaking as a born and bred Blackpudlian)...

While we're waiting for Christine, I thought I'd share my effort. Not hijacking this wonderful build, this is just for a joke. Rather than build a bass, I though I'd build a case for my bass. The wood almost fits. Just needed some old bits of wood, a saw, hammer & nails. Don't know what all the fuss is about.

What kind of plate are you looking for Tony? Martin Sims probably made a bunch for Stingrays in his time.

I like the quality of their parts but delivery can be quite long (8 weeks last time). Cheers

1st band: We became very popular very quickly and it soon became apparent that we were gigging so much we didn't have time for rehearsing new songs. When the singer and drummer (who were an item) decided they wanted to go out as an acoustic duo with the drummer playing guitar, the rest of us questioned how this was possible when they couldn't find time for new songs with our full band. Cue massive argument outside a venue on a Sunday night and dummies spat all round. I still regret it to this day. Band 2: Played with this lot for around 7 years, great bunch of guys, we played rock covers but the singer and lead guitarist wanted to do originals and push it to the point of getting into a studio and trying to get "famous". We managed to come up with two original songs which were absolute dog 5h1t and used to go down like a knackered lift when we played them in front of an audience. I've never wanted to write original songs within a band setting and have always enjoyed playing covers, so this push to become something we were incapable of was the tipping point for me, along with the increasing ego of the singer. Band 3: Rock covers again, very busy but the singer/guitarist had various issues including turning up late for gigs and leaving the rest of us to set up his PA system while he tuned his arsenal of guitars, changing guitars for nearly every song which would kill any momentum we had managed to build up with an audience - they would go and sit down while he checked his tuning on his newly chosen instrument, and his inability to recognise the fact that his volume knob on his amp could actually be turned anti clockwise. Incredibly loud and the reason we lost a couple of venues because of the volume. 3 years of this and I was done, and so was my hearing. Band 4: An originals band (yes, I know what i said about band 2...) but these guys were serious and the songs were already written, I was replacing their previous bassist who had "commitment issues", I was told there was gigs coming up plus recording sessions at the singer's studio (which was an apple Mac set up in his bedroom). The gigs booked were all weekday evening gigs, unpaid and unattended. I was getting pushed to commit to gigs at the last minute when my day job were in the middle of changing my shift pattern so I couldn't say yes to anything until that was sorted. I sensed the leader was getting frustrated so I suggested that they would be better off finding someone who could commit the time and effort required. My name was swiftly (within the hour) removed from all social media pages, ads etc. and they got the guy I replaced back in. Currently with two bands; one is a function style group playing regular pub and function gigs, quite eclectic and very good musicians. Good fun. The other is a jazz style band playing some standards and pop-jazz (think Caro Emerald) but this one is all rehearsals and no gigs apart from two paid ones that I organised, and some freebie parties. This one might be coming to an end for me, as no-one else seems that bothered about playing regular gigs. I had a message last week about joining a new britpop covers band, which I'm considering.... 😁

Way Huge Pork Loin works better with 18v 😉

I have two basses that are my number 1. My 1984 Aria Pro II B&G and my 2010 Fender Steve Harris The Aria would go nowhere, ever! But in the massively unlikely event that someone wanted to swap my Steve Harris for a black Wal Mk I 4 string, I could be tempted.

It suits me to the ground on paper. Does a “Vintage” sound, has a single footswitch that runs off an instrument cable so I can easily swap it on my board when I use my Fender Super Bassman. The DG is for band prac and those shows where I’d be loading my gear on my own. I’d be able to show up to shows with my bass(es) and a Peli 1510.

It is a problem, and in one respect I think Jack has it nailed with his description. The only possible downside is then when everything is loud at gigs people might find themselves a bit lost but if you`ve put in sufficient practice at reasonable levels then this shouldn`t be an issue. We however only rehearse and write at gig volumes, but that`s cos we`re punk (for that read stoopid).

Isn't that almost certainly as that fret is high, but you didn't notice before because of the angle of the neck?

I wouldn’t get too caught up in the folklore regarding scale lengths and quality of the low B. There are many luthiers out there making 5s and 6es at shorter scale lengths (30”/32”/33”) which sound and feel fantastic. Admittedly these tend to be quite high end instruments but it is proof that there are more factors than simply scale to worry about. The kind of strings on the bass makes a HUGE difference, for a start.

My guess is you could do it yourself, @A.G.E.N.T.E.. You can buy a fingerboard blank and steam the old F.B. off. There are vids on YouTube that show how to do it. Stick the new one on and use a radius sanding block to shape the new board. There are plenty of experienced guys here who can give guidance. Just start a thread in the "Build diaries" sectionand it will soon get attention from the right quarters.

Make the most of it! As soon as your kids hit 14 just reaching for your bass will empty the room!😁

I must be practicing too much I’ve only got 2 kids

I'll watch that later. DG is a very likeable chap and seems like a genuine music fan. The film he made following the purchase of the desk from Sound City Studio in LA was very enjoyable, his clear joy at discussing recordings with the artists was infectious.

33 (+ 1 not pictured here)

People who deride electronic musicians / synth players as button pushers clearly think it's all about those cheap Casios you used to get in Dixon's. Wrong! I'd like to leave them for a couple of hours with a drum computer, a sampler, some high end sequencers, a MIDI system and a polyphonic synth and see what they come up with. Bet they'd still be trying to figure out where all the wires go by the end.

So much misguided hate... So Nick Rhodes might not be the greatest technical keyboard player in the world, but he's most definitely the right synth player for Duran Duran. In the same way that Adam Clayton is the right bassist for U2. I had a listen to Jordan Rudess, and while he's got plenty of keyboard technique I don't think much of his sound design abilities. He'd be completely wrong for Duran Duran. And if the OP thinks it's so easy why doesn't he apply for the role?

I always loved The Barony bar...particularly gigs by Bedford Falls .. .has jazz on now according to their Facebook page but I think that they still have bands on . The standard was always very high. http://whatpub.com/pubs/EDN/23/barony-bar-edinburgh

The Jazz Bar for funky stuff, blues and jazz. Brewhemia on east market st for cover bands. Stramash for all types of bands.

White Cora...

Problem with most stage gear now is it's cut for rail thin twenty somethings. Manufacturers should spare a thought for us middle aged fat bastards slogging round the pubs on a weekend. What do you mean 'diet'? It's just their way of saying 'retire you sad git' I guess.