Leaderboard

Feel free to use this'un if you want. One of my favourite photos of me ever, mainly because you can't see my ugly mug

You didn’t read the post, did you 😂

You might be over thinking this. Bass has a support role in Blues (old and new) so just get a good sound and play well. Listen to Pino, Carmine Rojas and Sean Hurley, and you'll hear totally different sounds and styles. I'd just use my go-to 5 string active jazz bass with rounds and my regular Aguilar/Barefaced rig. What you play will be twice as important as what you sound like. More importantly, find a drummer who knows the difference between a 4 on the floor Texas shuffle and a Purdy shuffle and can play an interesting pattern on a slow blues.Then youonly need a guitarist with a brain and a singer without an ego. . . good luck with that search!!

Finally got mine flight cased up. After recently adding a wireless I wanted a plug in and go set up. Had the helix 6 months now and absolutely love it. I don't use many fx but do use the built in darkglass od pedal lots and love how easy it is to switch basses between songs and just step on a setting ready for each one. Both me and guitarist have ditched backline completely now. Helix and IEMs all the way baby!

Feel free to share this one of me:

A 5 string for blues? Sacrilege. I reckon I could do a whole set on the E string alone.

Here’s my whole family of cheapos. All get gigged, the white PJ and the black J regularly. Together they cost less than half of what my Fender Jazz Deluxe cost.

Just bought this for £50 Made In Japan Hohner P bass, all original apart from the screws on the scratchplate! Any Info On these chaps? Really plays well!

I’ll sleep on it. Been one of those days anyway so maybe I’ll feel different in the morning. It’s a right come down when you get all excited and then it doesn’t work tho. Proper downer on my evening after a long and quite stressful day working. Either that or I’ll get a refund and buy a TE Elf for the sheer hell of it.

Have you got another one where you aren't blinking?

I realise that now. Lots of people like peas and I don’t... Personally I’d have a wall of valves, an old P-Bass and a chequered relationship history if I was regularly playing blues. I have two (just missing the P bass).

Recently, i was fortunate enough to be able to visit Stephen Chown and try out various basses and effects. After a trip to visit family down south, i went to see him in Bristol. The office is housed in a Victorian bridge arch, which certainly beats most offices. After a while messing with basses and pedals, i brought up the point of me making some short scales. Within ten minutes, i had two chowny swb necks in my hands. At some point, a chowny swb with a carbon top will exist (watch this space) Anyway, cheers to Stephen for allowing me to attempt an swb replica, i recommend chatting to him if you ever get the chance, and hopefully visit him in Bristol again soon.

You know what, I really miss lojo in threads like this. He would definitely have had something interesting and thought provoking to contribute. Sadly missed 😞

That sounds fair to me Lozz, especially given that half the song is likely to be in the energy level. But in a covers band it doesn't matter whether you're learning Brown Eyed Girl or Sweet Child O' Mine ... the rest of the band will expect you to learn the right bass line and get the song structure right, if only because they know that their audience will expect that. In that context, being able to hear the mistakes so that you can correct them becomes quite important.

I would say all your thoughts are bang on - 57 with maple / 62 with rosewood etc. Maybe someone with both decided to swap them over or something?

Scale length is an irrelevance unless you have a general preference for a particular scale length irrespective of the number of strings. What is important is the construction of the bass in particular the neck and how it attaches to the body and the strings that you choose. Strings are tricky things. IME what works well on one bass doesn't necessarily work at all on another, and also IME most budget (sub £500) 5 string basses come with terrible low B-strings. Unfortunately the level od construction required to make a decent 5-string bass comes at a price and generally unless you get a second hand bargain you are unlikely to find anything really satisfying under the £500 mark. The cheapest decent 5-string bass I own cost £700 and it was only that price because it was an EOL model that had been reduced from its original £1700. Go to the Gallery and play all the 5-string basses you can get you hands on including those that are outside your current price range and you'll find what suits you and what doesn't. Don't buy something you don't really like just to test it out because that's all you can afford. AFAICS most people who buy a 5-string bass and then give it up do so because the bass wasn't very good in the first place. If you've tried lots you'll get a feel for how much you need to spend to get something you will be happy with, and if you can't afford it now put off your purchase until you can.

You may #Repost anything on my own Instagram https://www.instagram.com/DanVeallBassist Just tag me in the post. There's always loads of bass related stuff there which could be of interest. I'll post a few high res pictures / posts here later.

I prefer using my fingers. OK, I'll get me coat...

Most 6x10's deliver a fairly distorted sound and don't have a flat frequency response. A lot of relatively cheap drivers in a portable cab means that the speakers are technically underdamped and give an all enveloping warmth at around 120Hz as well as extraordinary efficiency. Modern fashion calls for a flatter, less coloured response. That's not inherent in the technology but that's what you'll find in a lot of commercial offerings, so it's kind of true but not for the reasons most people think. I use 12's, One does most of my gigs, up to a couple of hundred people and it can go as loud as pretty much any drummer. If I take two it can be overwhelmingly loud, I don't like overpowering bass but after a mild argument with one drummer who kept asking me to turn up I did, to cut a long story short at the end of the first set he complained about not being able to hear his own snare drum. So yes they are loud enough and will give you a huge sound but it's likely to be a bit different from what you are used to. Ignore the comments about neo speakers. Neo magnets are more powerful for the same weight as ceramic magnets but they are just magnets. You can use the extra efficiency of neo to make a lighter speaker or a louder one, or one with a longer throw for extra deep bass or even get a little of all three but there's no neo magic, they are still just magnets. In the end you need to listen and judge them on that. Barefaced are making old school sounding cabs with modern drivers using their 10" units, they may be worth having a look at.

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

Small rooms by their very nature nearly always have terrible acoustics, that’s a fact. Gig venues are generally larger and thus less susceptible to some of the worst issues; but they can still sound crap. Acoustics are reliably unforgiving at the best of times. PS: The idea of a drummer going full tilt in a room the size of a domestic garage is plain crazy to me. Makes my tinnitus go wild just thinking about it. Some of you guys must have thoroughly trashed hearing. I SAID SOME OF YOU GUYS MUST HAVE... oh never mind 🙄

'Old school' drummers (I'm one...) can use brushes (very, very old school, which give a totally satisfactory 'thwack' when handled properly...), and/or 'hot-rods', an excellent compromise between the brush technique (admittedly a bit different to sticks...) and ornery sticks. They, too, can make quite a din, but one has to really work hard for that; normally they're very positive as a feeling, but produce less volume. Of course, real drummers can play well, even hard rock, without excess volume, but that's another can of worms, I suspect.

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

I had to put my foot down with the band about rehearsals. We were in tiny rooms, shoddy kit being pushed to the max, ears ringing for ages after. We now pay more to use the big studio rooms in the same place so we can play at low volumes but with real clarity. Nobody has ringing ears and the practice is far more productive, so though we pay more we are actually getting value out of it now. Why do all rehearsal rooms stink of damp??

Background: After 18 years and hundreds of gigs I’ve just “retired” my trusty Warwick Fortress One from live duty. I’ve seen so many reports of band’s gear getting knocked off lately that I just didn’t feel comfortable taking something of such sentimental value out on the road any more. As a replacement, I picked up a reliced sunburst P bitza and, after a bit of a fettle, it plays and sounds as good as any bass I’ve ever used. It cost me the princely sum of £100 which proved to me that it’s possible to build very useable, great-sounding basses for very little money if you’re prepared to put a bit of time into tidying up a few rough fret ends etc. I therefore sold my backup Fortress and took to eBay to see what I could pick up. I’ll not be using anything high-end (e.g. the necks are from China and cost about £30 each - they’re the same as on the aforementioned P) and hopefully I can put together at least a couple of good live workhorses that can get chucked around without too much concern. After a few near misses I managed to pick up 2 loaded Jazz bodies (the blue one is a J&D, the yellow unknown) and paid about £100 in total. I’ve always preferred the looks of Jazzes to Ps -and only bought the P bitza because it was so cheap and had a Jazz neck (great for my small hands) plus everyone needs at least one good P bass in their life, right?

Took this in a trade against my Waters PBass. My Second Geddy - the first was a Black MIJ, this is a Sunburst MIM. now then, never one to leave things be. I have a spare Jazz Pickguard and must say I’m in a quandary...I wanted to put a montreaux celluloid shell jobbie on it (they’re about £70) but it looks great with the Parchment one (even though it has a truss rod route on it). help me out...

The monologue does great bass sounds. The envelopes are a bit more limited as they aren’t full ADSR but there are plenty of great sounds available. Have you checked out the Behringer Model D? £285 for a Minimoog clone!

Just leave the Sansamp at home. The Precision with rounds will work fine for the stuff you're talking about doing.

Thanks, I put the orange one together from parts.

Go on treat yourself - you're clearly smitten, and these are as rare as hen's teeth!

Clearance Bargain (Exclusive Basschat price too) This CHB-1 bass was perfect except the top of the headstock got a small scuff that won't polish out during transit. Brand new. 2018 Indian Made in Sapphire Burst. £420 including shipping.

There is this solution :

Well, I love my BH800.

The odd thing to me is that the black ruby fish was / is named Barbus Nigrofasciatus rather than Nigerfaciatus. Though I am no etymologist I understand that the N-word is a corruption of the word negro which is Spanish for black and itself derives from the Latin word niger (also meaning 'black'). Opinion appears to be divided as to the etymology of niger before its appearance in Latin. Familiar modern descendants of niger include nero (Italian) and noir (French). By contrast the English word for black derives from the proto-German blakaz (burnt) which may descend in turn from the Indo-European bhleg. Funnily enough the defunct Old English word blac meant 'light or pale coloured' and derives from an alternative reading of 'burnt', referring not to the blackened quality of the burnt item but to the flames or light generated by the burning process. The Old and Middle English word for black was swart as in the English word swarthy and the very familiar German word schwartz. It is not just obsessive pedantry that leads me off on these ramblings. I believe that a wider understanding of words helps to understand and to de-fang troublesome examples such as the N-word. In the broadest historical context the root of the word has no inherent meaning beyond its function as an adjective; the issues we must prioritise are the hateful beliefs which have accreted around the word and the actions which spring from those beliefs. The fact that an adjective became a noun is significant but not critical, and agonising about Elvis Costello is of secondary importance

Our drummer used to use a sennheiser Freeport but had to change to a regular mic because he tends to hum whilst playing. Took us ages to work out what it was lol.

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.

Only four years ago so not so interesting a story - my still most loved GMR 5, in easy arm's reach right now. I went into Promenade Music in Morecambe knowing only that I wanted to play bass and wanted a 5. Gary spent two hours helping me choose, and wouldn't let me buy until he was sure I would be happy with it - which I am more than. Still grateful to him! My grandson - just turned 5 - is obsessed with guitars, and most loves my Aerodyne. I kind of hope he'll think of it as his first bass (he was not quite 4 when this pic was taken). Anyone else would have to prise it out of my dead hands, but if he does grow into a bass player it will be his 🙂

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.

The black pickguard looks ok too

I really like the yellow one!! I've just done a bright orange Jazz but was considering bright yellow but I might do that on a 5 string Jazz I've got planned Watching with interest to how these turn out 😀

Yeah - We're a blues band and I love the groove of "Hey Little Schoolgirl" but we decided against it as we're all in our fifties and the "Can I Come Home With You" line seemed somewhat inappropriate to say the least.

Haha, so if you ever need to play a low C or D below the bottom E? I have heard some bass players stray that far... Just teasing... a 4 string bass (I'm making an assumption that is what you have?) is just fine. ...That is until you decide you want to try out a fretless, a P as well as a J, a 5 string and (god forbid!) a six string or and 8 or 12 string(!) and then stray into playing EUB, and then you buy yourself that dream bass to celebrate your band getting its first function gig. If you carry on playing bass and love it and manage to stick to just one, we'll you're a better man than me

How is it possible to have the same tension for normal tuning or drop?? Si

I saw that. I hope it's not too cold or damp in that basement. Ours is just a budget issue and my wife is the sensible one.