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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:

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 Go to the backstage room, here’s the free food and drink, a huge bowl of stale crisps and a crate of out of date light ale!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!

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.

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.

Been playing for 40 years and if there's one thing I've learned playing in a band it's, don't get yourself in a position where you are being 'told' what to do by a guitarist or a singer. If you do, you may as well become a session player and earn some money! The real fulfilling part of it all is - you will be the only one that is! The realistic future for those that 'tell' others what to do is loneliness as everyone will eventually have enough and leave. Same as any relationship!

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.

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;

My transcription of The Police Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.pdf

All fair points. re: the former, Leszek seems a reasonable sort. The middle point? Yep, I guess it's a leap of faith (which I personally wouldn't have regretted but YMMV). The latter..? It's not, but then again it's not mass-produced on a production line in Taiwan (mind you, it's actually the same price as some of these :-D).

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.

Having done the London thing for 30-odd years before decamping to the boonies I can assure you that rehearsing in London is a complete nightmare. There may be a great public transport network but using it in evening rush hour (i.e. about the time you'd be on your way to rehearsals) is a Dante's Inferno of fat, sweaty locals and whining tourists. And it breaks down all the time, so you think 'F**k it, I'll drive', but road traffic moves slower than it did in 1900 so forget about sneaking out of work at five, home by six, studios by seven so that means bringing the car to work to go straight to rehearsals but there's nowhere to park your car on the street at work so you stick it in a private car park which costs you £20 and even if you set off on time there's a burst water main on Camden High Street and nothing's moving so you throw every back double you know and you're banging your head off the steering wheel and when you walk into the rehearsal room 20 minutes late the singer gives you the stink-eye and says 'Glad you could join us' in that sarky way of his and the next thing you know you've got your teeth in his windpipe and everyone's shouting and grabbing at you. And anyway London's full of cockneys going 'Cor blimey, guv'nor, I can only get me tone by turning right up, strike a light, me old china'. So think yourself f**king lucky you live where you do. It's grim down South.

So, I've been busy... I thought I'd document my very amateurish progress on my first ever project! Neck after defret and a quick sand to remove sharp edges: Slots filled with cuts of maple veneer. Superglue used. I started using the veneer strips cut with the grain, and then thought I'd try cutting against the grain. BIG mistake - it's much more difficult to trim by knife and really didn't like being sanded. After trimming and a quick rough sand to partially level the veneer. In retrospect, I wouldn't use SG again as it has stained the fretboard. Hopefully the finishing sanding will clear the staining though. Had a couple of bits of veneer break out when sanding - obviously not an even enough layer of SG. So, I have Tru-oil - I just need to get some finer grade sandpaper and some wire wool. Hoping to finish it tomorrow!

Incidentally, I'm always looking out for more unnecessary bits to put in my parts box: pickups, tuners, neck plates, knobs, etc. So if you've got a box of junk it might be worth bringing it along.

@Muzz so you don’t like relics. I think you’ll find there’s a huge market for them and lots of people love them. They like the fact they don’t worry if they ding it. Plus it’s just a finish. Yes, a finish! It’s not an attempt to fool anyone there old or vintage. It’s an aesthetic! I don’t like black basses, but I don’t whinge about it at every opportunity. I know several player (relic haters too) who have sold basses that are less than 6-months old because they had a small ding, an imperfection. Crying at their beautiful things being scratched. It’s sad and hilarious. Bring on the relics I say, we play hard and don’t give a sh*t.

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

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

My God, I'm slacking...! Get thee along here, @joescartwright...

In that context, I can understand. PS; Does the Futurama come with a "shiny metal a s s"?

Every day’s a school day here at BC. I thought Donner only made kebabs!... I’ll get my coat...... 😐

Was the Geiger counter delivered with ?

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

Add a squirt of cleaning alcohol too, leave no stripes.

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

I used my nearest high street Revelation stockist to special order it straight to my workplace so as to give him some business without the 60 mile round trip. The retailer is asking the supplier the relevent questions as we speak.

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.

FINALLY.

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:

hi folks, i have been rather absent recently thanks to a particularly stubborn case of writers block. i have just been struggling to feel musically inspired. i had a couple of tunes for the comp recently but i never got past a quick record of a basic idea. so i decided to throw something together this morning and get it out and maybe i can kickstart my inclination again. so this was all done in an hour or so and each track was only recorded once, so dont expect a masterpiece. the tune is meant to fit the scene of a couple of stoners sitting in the grass talking about how we will colonise the moon and the physics of garden maintenance. no, of course its not based on personal experience, how could you think such a thing? you must be some kind of crazy person. i dont have to listen to these wild accusations! (it was a long time ago😜)

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

I’m impressed but the dog is obviously harder to please lol!