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What have I discovered and what can I share? These are just common sense and have been in many threads on Basschat in the last 10 years. Effective bass lines are the best. Simple bass lines are the most effective. A good "Adam Clayton" is worth his weight in gold. An almost good "Jaco" misses by a mile. Your groove is more important than your sound. Obviously don't sound bad, but what you play beats the sound of your gear every time. The audience or your mates might tell you you sound good, but if you're a good player you'll be asked to join bands. Get the basics right. Second nature, so you can't play it wrong. Then you can focus on the good stuff. Learn to keep good time. Don't count but feel the beats. Play every note exactly in time.The basic difference between the world's best and semi pro is the quality of the timing. If you're going to stand in front of an audience, bring your best game. Every time. It doesn't matter if they are not listening or there is one man and a dog. Go home knowing that you couldn't have given any more, even if you were playing the Albert Hall. Learn to sing. Bv's are a bare minimum and will make you more valuable to your band.

It's been posted before, but both Chas and Dave played on this ...which was later sampled by Dr Dre for Eminem's breakthrough single 'My Name Is'. So, in conclusion, RIP Chas Hodges, international hip hop superstar.

The R-400's getting a WB-100-ish facelift... pics just posted on FB:

RIP indeed. Great player.

All wired up and making a noise!! I fitted an EMG 35DC and 2 band EMG preamp in the end.... A few little things left to do but the end is in sight!! Will post some more pictures later.

Worst gig ever was a band showcase, or at least that’s what it was billed as, at a Country Club/ hotel type place. We were told there would be travelling expenses plus food and drink for all the acts. Arrived at venue to be told that travelling expenses info was incorrect, not really an issue as it was only half an hour or so away from us. We were a originals rock band, all hair and Ibanez guitars (as was the thing back then), we then get told we were on between the magician and the Neil Diamond impersonator, alarm bells are starting to ring. Go to the backstage room, here’s the free food and drink, a huge bowl of stale crisps and a crate of out of date light ale! Get through the gig, being largely ignored or frowned at, and as we’re packing guitars away in the backstage area, the organiser comes in and says “well done lads, you finished second, Neil Diamond won”. Feeling very deflated by now, our guitarist pipes up to try and cheer us up and says “ah well, he was very good, at least we came second” at which point our drummer walks in and says “turns out only three acts turned up, and while we were getting ready backstage, the magician tried to saw his assistant in half but the table broke and she fell off the stage and fractured her wrist, and we only beat him by one vote”! Luckily no one else wanted the light ale so at least we could drink enough to see the funny side of it all!

I caught the gig at the Jam House this week and as a big fan of Gil Scott Heron & Brian’s collaborations it was great to see him. I’ve now seen them both live. Anyway Yolanda was on bass and she is great. She captured the vibe both tonally and with her note choices and fills so with that and the fender rhodes it was back to that authentic 70’s vibe. She was playing a fender jazz bass 5 string and usually when i hear bass players on these basses playing notes on the low B string they generally sound disconnected from the other strings but this wasn’t the case this time. She uses the B string a lot rather than just to drop a low note here and there, and even when she was digging in or doing a bit of slapping on it everything was consistent in tone, weight and volume. Could be a compressor in the signal path or just good technique on her part or both but whatever it was, it was a pleasure. I look forward to catching her gigging with her own band at some point. A superb musician

Like most ‘debates’ on Internet forums it’s a case of If you like it buy it if you don’t don’t. We can rationalise opinion or choice but ultimately the chat was about cost. We’ve had the Warwick price hike chat, the EBMM price chat, the new Fender Pro price chat. Sandberg are pretty market appropriate in their ‘regular’ range price before heat and vibration treatment, relic’ing etc. They make as strong and reliable a product as EBMM or other non fender brands. Have the detractors played one? Compared one to their fav brand? Had some actual time playing one of just decided they don’t like it? The internet eh! Proper ball ache!

Down the rehearsal space/gig venue this morning - I swear the new finish makes it sound better! The Marshall has decided it - white piping coming soon.

Well this is really something.

Spoken to Lee At Gallaghers in Grimsby. Hes found out that ALL the last batch of 12 to 18 RPBXs have come with the wrong necks but marked up correctly and been sent out to retailers. Another batch coming in October but because they are en route they cant check for correct necks. Im waiting and if they come with P necks, swapping mine for one of that batch. Lee's always a great guy to deal with and keen on price too. If anyone wants this J bass with double P pups, talk to me!!!

I saw a 'stealth' telecaster bass that I really like the look of and I haven't got a black bass so I think I might give it a go 🤔

Aye, but can ye trust t'rod..? ...

If you want to here the SuperLight Sandberg go to 20mins in this video.. Sandberg - Thomann/Studio Chimiel. Sounds fantastic. If you’re a Jazz Bass and Slapper, you’ll love this.

Give your guide dog a pat and a biscuit from me.

i was never bitter about it , after years of thought , decades it could be the whole idea of show biz & fame ? ,, the ruthless effect it has on people ,, during those 5 weeks they tried every guy around who knew 4 strings ,, one week out of the 5 was cancelled , live music , but no jam session ,, maybe its true ,, if i only played the 1st note & bar ,,could it be , they had to stop it , ? WKD a bar down the road used to hand me the bass as soon as i walked in , yeah , so the whole thing made me completely not interested ,, in how good / big name / look at me musician , some people are , not all , you tube changed all that ,, we started to see few brilliant bedroom musicians taking on the pros ,, quite happy on you tube

I’ve got one from back when I was a DJ during the rave days in the early 90s, this is really embarrassing. I used to play at illegal parties in disused warehouses and squats, rickety old buildings, dirt and broken glass everywhere etc. One night, just before my DJ set, I’m up on the rooftop of a particularly dirty burnt out building, chatting up some girls and trying really hard to look cool, going on about my DJing skills and impressing them with some very boring ‘rave’ stories. I look at my watch and tell them “it’s time for me to hit the decks, ladies”, and with a wink and a smile, I turn the wrong way, trip and fall off the roof. I fall about 25 feet and land on my àrse with a loud crescendo. It’s chucking it down with rain, and I land on a pile of wet cardboard boxes filled with garbage. One of the girls is screaming, the other one is pointing at me and pìssing herself laughing. Somehow I am unharmed and there’s not a scratch on me. It takes me a good 20 minutes to find a way to climb back into the building, and I then spend the rest of the night drenched, with a huge brown muddy wet patch on the àrse of my bright yellow ‘rave’ trousers, stinking of garbage and hiding from the hot girls on the roof.

Looks like "reasonable travel time" varies a lot.I play in two bands that rehearse an hour away from me and both bands rehearse weekly.Gigs(15-20) are also also at least an hour away.I also have played in pit bands for musicals that also require an hour each way.Unfortunately things always seem to be on different days/evenings due to work/family/other musical groups ,especially in the 7 piece swing band. I live in Northern Ontario in Canada where nasty winter weather is just part of life and sometimes the drive to rehearsal is a bit more of an adventure than I would like but I'm smart enough now to know when to stay home on really bad days/nights.I'm 72 and still working part time as well as my band commitments but as was said above "being in a band at all is golden" and even though I figure it actually costs me money to play in the bands it is worth the time and money to me.I have gear(BG,EUB,DB,amp) that works for me and is paid for and currently have no GAS,well,nothing serious. As I have said before, we are so lucky to have music in our lives and be a able share it with bandmates and audiences.I am fortunate at my stage of life to not have some of the responsibilities that many of you have but I also realize my time is running out and I want to use it musically as much as I can,I'm contemplating finding a DB teacher(also an hour away of course) to help me with my DB skills and augment the teaching vids on the net.I live in a very rural area so any type of public transportation is out of the question...remember this is Canada. I'm lucky I get to play lots of different types of music with very good musicians and at this point I'm willing to make time for it and my playing is improving as I try to keep up with them.Making music is magic.

I struggled to get this one together. I've gone through a lot of variations on it before finding a small part that I liked then built the track around it. Hope you enjoy.

For fake wear on fake fenders? Yeah, why not? 😀

It’s one of their “Masterpiece Aged” models. Looks like you’re paying an extra grand or so to have someone ruin a perfectly nice £1-2k bass for you.

Is it a British thing or are we unable to give a simple thumbs up or a quick thanks to the guys who spend a lot of time and effort to post there hard work of there transcriptions here on BC. For me these transcriptions are a main source for my going forward as a bass player. Not only that several of these guys go the time and trouble of maintaining a website which believe me is no mean effort. To date I see that ChrisDev has had 25,880 views and a mere 201 replies to his post and TKenrick a 10,381 views and a total of 71 messages. There are many other contributors which show the same story. Ron. (I wish I had more feedback, good or bad)

Alright folks, figured I'll start this thread to log my performance progress and what not. To start if off here's my song 13am played at a local Open-Mic and recorded on my mate's phone, let us know what your rekon;

Another plus one for Ashdown customer service. They aren't afraid of a ringing telephone either. I think the ABM is a reasonable substitute for an all-valve amp. Doesn't get you there exactly - but set the valve drive at the sweet spot and go.

The all-tube is wonderful - it just sounds bigger than the R-400. I was actually saving to buy it, but someone beat me to it (lucky for them!). In the meantime, I'm back with the R-400 and I'm in love with it, but the touch-sensitive draw of the WB-100 will probably win eventually. Truth is, I would (and have been) smitten with both, which I guess is a credit to the preamp.

With the possible exception of Snooker Loopy, they were way beyond novelty records. But yes, he'll certainly be remembered fondly by me.

Mine is basically different types of dirt a bass balls and a tuner

I was thinking of asking him "how long is a piece of string....?"

I like the combo pickguard design, a really nice blend of Telecaster guitar and '72 Tele bass. Should the bridge pup be closer to the bridge?

Yes indeed. I'm just into great basses that don't look too fussy.

On 14th August 1965 I was an 8-year-old wanting to be taken to the public swimming pool. I had no clue what a bass guitar was.

Was the Geiger counter delivered with ?

Now you can play a cover of this with this Tonika :

Hi Adam

I think you'll find they are holes... ok, ok, I'm leaving!

Fretless versions are quite rare - I have one that used to belong to @TheGreek funnily enough.

I bought my first bass on 14th August 1965 and started gigging on 20th November 1966. I bought the bass and amp in the first year then had to wait till the next summer holidays to earn enough to buy the cab. In some respects nothing has changed. My Duck Dunn bass lines still fit into all the bands I play in. . . with Little Richard, Bruno Mars and Jessie Jay songs alike. Then it seems like you blink and everything has changed.

Don’t forget to include fuel expenses in the equation 😂😂

Personally I would only regularly travel an hour to play with a band if I was really enjoying the music and the company. Once it stops being fun then the travel starts to become a chore.

We're finding the same thing. I think it also helps if you're not a metal band.

Picking up my new jazz on Sunday...

This doublespeak logic astounds me. So it's better than the real thing (conjecture; a two part bridge and some chrome hardware does not make it better, or worse, than the real thing), but irrespective, let's put a Gibson truss rod cover on it so it purports to be the real thing, even though it isn't. If these Epiphones are so great, then surely your logic would be that all Gibson owners need to start putting Epiphone truss rod covers on their Thunderbirds, right? Also, just because Epiphone company is part of the Gibson Group, this does not justify changing the truss-rod cover to a Gibson one either.

With @fretmeister on this seems to be one of those irrational hatreds. Aged finish bad, a bass looking exactly the same but 30yrs old and been in a few shows - mojo. An innocent chip in the paint of a bass and apparently it’s not cared for and may not play well and needs £500 off the asking price. I can’t stand turdburst, think Warwick’s look like a bass which a child has drawn with a chubby crayon of a still life melted wax candle, but some people love em. Markbass look like a swarm of bumblebees have plopped in a daffodil. What do we think about Sandblasting leaving tactile cavities? Fender done this and Fender do custom shop ageing, they don’t seem to get hammered as much for it? I tend not to slam them, horses for courses

Great gig last night - the sort that makes sit all worthwhile. A street party in Brighton - road closed for the day, all the residents and their kids having a lovely time. Set up a bit tricky - the road slopes and has quite a camber so had to keep the PA stands very low. No stage - we just set up across the road! Love to have a photo but didn't think to take one. Two sets with an hour in between so they can have their raffle: 7-8 and then 9-10 so a relatively early night although I had agreed to keep the PA up until 11 so they could play music through it (and I knew it would finish then because that was the curfew and time to reopen the road). One guy has asked to sit in on a couple of songs on keys ( we knew in advance and had OK'd it) so he brings out a very nice Fender electric piano. He turned out to be surprisingly good! We were well looked after, everyone was very nice and we had a lovely time: harmonica player brought his Fender Bassman and was like a dog with two doodahs as he got to turn it above above 2 for a change. People were dancing from moment one including a very nice lady right in front of me who had her shoes off dancing barefoot in the road within the first bar of the first song. A wonderful night, we played well even with a dep drummer (who is, to be fair, a great player and thoroughly nice guy) And we got paid. Great evening on all levels.

And I’m very happy to say that I’m the very happy new owner. I’ve just given it a blast in the practice room, and it is A-MAZ-ING! It grinds my Genz Benz ShuttleMax 12.2 into the dust. It just has an authority that that the GB cannot get close to. It sounds so alive and the GB just sounds sterile in comparison. And it is loud, I mean really loud, and when I tried to get the same volume and depth out of the GB, it caused the output to clip. The EQ is simple but very usable. The build quality is absolutely impeccable. It looks fantastic, it’s compact, and whilst it isn’t light, it’s certainly very manageable. If this amp wasn’t actually mine, and I’d just borrowed it for the night, I’d be ordering one tomorrow. It might sound ridiculous to say that an amp that probably costs the best part of a grand is bargain, but it’s hand-made, hand-wired by someone who really knows what he’s doing. I cannot speak highly enough of this amp. Anyway, I’ve got a gig on Saturday, and maybe I should’ve waited until after that before I posted this but I’m just gushing! Thanks again Michael for meeting up, really appreciated, and I can so understand why you were sad to see it go. Anyway, here’s a pic:

I personally prefer Gladys Knight voice to Aretha, it’s more soulful, Aretha at times was very shrieky.