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You asked the questions, what should I do, what would you do. No need to get arsy when you get a realistic response.

I think it's more likely that the interpersonal dynamics of being in a band will change before new genres appear. For example, one wouldn't sit around the rehearsal studio swigging beers and skinning up enormous chalices if there were women in the room. More likely we'd be handed pinnies and a feather duster and told to clean the place up. Then we could talk about kittens and knitting and feelings. So, most likely, men wouldn't do bands anymore and Fender would have an entirely different problem, serve 'em right I say.

Anything that drives interest in making music is fine by me. But while I welcome more guitarists per the linked article I'd prefer to see an upsurge in drummers - that's where the real shortage is. Funnily enough, one of the best drummers I ever auditioned was a woman. Even had a 'Bonham rune' tattoo on her arm. Absolutely stunning player. After she'd left the room we had a chat about her. I was all for hiring her on the spot but the other two were dead against it, claiming it would 'unbalance' our image. Utterly specious bollocks of course; they were just intimidated by her, which I found a bit odd, them being peppy little twenty-something millennial snowflakes and me being then in my mid-50's.

Better latte than never

NAD - More Trace Elliot Content... I bought a Trace Elliot 7215 Series 6 GP7 300W Combo way back in January, and enjoyed it very much. However... I did some rehearsals and gigs with it - and to be quite honest, it did seem a little heavy to transport efficiently, especially for a man who is used to Barefaced cabs and Rumble Combos. So I moved it on. But over time I had to admit to myself that I was missing something from what I laughingly refer to as 'my tone'. Long story short, there was a hole in my sound that was Trace-shaped. So When I spotted this 1997 Trace 715 GP7 SMC 150W Combo on eBay, I put a bid in for it. There wasn't a lot of competition for it (possibly because it was 'only' 150W RMS?) and I snagged it for £80. Given the quality of build, components and facilities available (not to mention the 'tone') I can tell you that this is a ridiculous bargain - especially given the condition, which is good, as you can see from the pics. This example has stood in a recording studio for twenty years, has had very little use and has been recently serviced. The black cable-tie you can see was a temporary addition to hold some wiring in place while I re-attached a sticky pad - it's now gone. And it's a real lightweight, too - my previous combo weighed in at just over 35kg - this one's only 32kg! OK, so it's still relatively heavy. Relatively. I have one of those £20 Maplins folding sack trucks which makes it easy to get to the car, whereupon I still have enough strength in what remains of my body to lift it into my hatchback. It's honestly not a big deal. OK, if I had to physically carry it for more than a couple of hundred yards I'd be seriously worried about my hernia repair, but that's also true of a 16kg amp, or even a 12kg amp. The bottom line is that it does of course have the Trace slam and yes... 'heft' that I crave. I'm certainly no electronics expert, but I genuinely believe it's something to do with the FET arrangement (which apparantly emulates valves to a certain extent - happy to be further educated about this) and also something to do with the power stage and that big round iron thing. Trace amps just seem to have a bottomless tin of beans available on tap regardless of their output numbers. It's really bloody loud considering it's rated at 150W and when playing with my band (drums, guitar, mandolin-violin-bazouki-banjo, 3X vocals) I have the master somewhere between 8 and 9 o'clock, and even then I'm too loud. Apparently... I'll record an audio clip through the amp with my Zoom H1 later. Thanks for looking.

Not if more than one woman can't be in the band!

Didn't think you were. All experiences welcome. As are off-colour jokes, rambling diversions and blatant derailment. I'd say buy a decent, complete and unmolested Trace amp or combo for peanuts and give it a go. If you don't like it, use it as furniture for 10 years or so. I'm convinced that once the penny finally drops, Trace gear will become highly sought-after and prices will go through the roof, as they have done with just about any old manky valve amp.

I can't make up my mind on whether that's good news (i.e. Yay! More women play an instrument!) or bad news (Woman goes into guitar shop, is steered towards a Fender, buys it because she isn't geeky enough to know there are lots of better choices). (I quickly lost count of the number of times I went into a shop while first-bass-hunting, my only requirement being 'suitable to petite player with small hands', and was offered a frigging Fender Jazz! 😮 Luckily I did know better.)

Two slightly distorted guitars.

I do feel like Paice gets massively underrated as a drummer. I suppose, just as Zeppelin overshadowed Purple as a whole in terms of popularity, so Bonham overshadowed Paice - which seems as a shame, as Bonham's playing doesn't really do it for me, but Paice's playing always seemed to be on the money.

I have a fretless sunburst '79 pre EB Stingray I bought off Pino and it enables me to play just like him. Not all listeners agree.

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Possibly best to ask permission before posting my profile picture in a new thread, no? @Dandelion

Maybe, but remember that we're looking at this through the eyes of bassists, our live (and often studio) world is all about 'DI'. All of Line6 stuff is squarely aimed at guitarists, we're an afterthought. As such, guitarists are simply interested in Send/Returns and instrument outs, simple because in a live environment their cab is usually mic'd. Yes there are other use cases, some guitarists like to DI with in-ears etc etc, but they really are fringe use cases. So from a guitarist point of view, XLR is wasted real-estate and eating a few pence per unit into their revenue. Si

@AndyTravis yeah, kinda want it too, but just bought a Steinberger Spirit, literally today... hot rod yellow XT2 incoming tomorrow...

That problem is solved. Introducing the Quorn Tuna ...

I had the opportunity to take some more photos today, the sun is shining which obviously helps... I took it to see Westbury White Horse Then we found a red telephone box (which is now a book exchange) When pulling out on to the main road after taking the photo above one of the intake pipes on my car literally exploded! I pulled over in a layby by another local attraction and whilst waiting for the recovery to arrive I took this... Sadly, that was the end of our excursion. Who's next?!

I had the same weight issues when I had a TE combo, loved the tone but not the weight, I've solved it by getting a TE GP12 head (well 2 actually) both weigh around 14KG easy one handed lift and light weight cabs

How's this for an iconic intro?

Spent a bit of the summer recording this and it's dropped onto digital streaming platforms today. A few of the tracks have also had radio play. It's punky, garagey, dubby, noisy stuff. Give it a spin.

Yes, had an 'armchair' bassist address me on stage the other night with 'why are you playing a girls bass?' (referring to my MIJ comp stripe 'stang). I proceeded to play the crap out of it, making the growliest sound come out of a small package.......he left before the end of the first spot.

This is such a subjective topic and essentially comes down to what we feel and notice as players, how much money we have and where we place value. The Fender CS Pino is by all accounts an incredible instrument, well made, incredible feel, quarter sawn maple neck (you don't get that in the lower end instruments), Nitro finish, basically as close to a 62 Fender Precision you can get without buying the real thing and in many peoples views, the best Precision Fender have made. A lot of people covet the early 60s Fenders for feel and playability and general 'mojo'. I don't believe that all of them were superb instruments by any stretch of the imagination, there were probably just as many horrendous ones as Fender currently chuck out. Yes Fender are charging a premium for the Pino and I am in no doubt that the Pino signature alone is adding to the cost. Some people see very little difference between a £300 precision vs a £3000 bass and to an extent, I don't believe they would sound much different and I don't personally believe anyone would hear the difference, at least not live. However, most of the Fender basses I have owned have been shoddy and I disagree that a MIM precision would play just as well or feel as nice, but that is where things get incredibly personal and subjective. Every Fender CS Relic instrument I have played (guitars and basses) have had the most sublime fit and finish, and the necks and fretting have been out of this world. Beautifully rolled fingerboards and no sharps frets etc. just great instruments that have made me want to just keep playing and playing and really inspire me to play. I have felt that with much cheaper instruments, but very rarely. Almost every new instrument I have played over the years has felt sterile and lifeless apart from very expensive hand made custom basses costing around the same as the Pino. Just to fill you in, I am not some devout Fender CS fan boy, I own a £150 Squier and a second-hand 17 year old Music Man Stingray. The Stingray is worn in and has a great feel but I really dislike the new ones, the years of playing have made that bass feel the way it does and IMHO Fender do an incredibly job of replicating that broken in feel. I cant afford a Fender Custom Shop but I want one so badly, partly because I lusted after them for years in my teens and I have an irrational and romantic view of them. Is it worth the extra money to you, probably not, but to someone else it will be, but that's like almost any other product on the market. My cheap as chips VW Up does the same job as my friends Audi A5 sport in my eyes, and I don't see the point in buying anything more, but to him there is no comparison. Some people buy own brand beans in the supermarket and say there is no difference, some people buy Heinz because they can taste the difference. In terms of guitars I don't believe an expensive bass will make you better, they are just different flavours of the same thing and be grateful you like the cheaper ones. However, if you are lucky enough to find that one instrument that really inspires you, buy it if you can, whether it be a £100 Harley Benton or a £9000 Fodera.

If it's worth doing, then it's worth overdoing.

Supreme cowbelling here and the drumming ain't half bad too boot. Actually when I was much younger Ian Paice was the main reason I used to listen to DP.

My Squier VM P5 has been fitted with original the pickup from Dave Swift's white Sadowsky P5. My Aguilar DB112 cabs were previously owned by Paul Turner. I now sound like some bloke called Dave Turner (who Google tells me is a science fiction, fantasy and comedy author and not a bass player at all). It's all very confusing 🤪

Ha..! You're in good company; this is Basschat..!

I know, but i not much of a musician. I'll give it a try right away thx

My Babies 82 JV Squire Jazz (with Fender decal) with a Hipshot Kickass bridge,Nordstrand NJ4's,East J retro Deluxe and Gotoh Lollipop Tuners strung with DR High Beams Fender Nate Mendel with a Hipshot Vintage Bridge,Aguilar P60 and a mint rebel relic pickguard. Strung with TI flats Used to have loads of basses, but now just have these two! They do everything i need 😁

Not ready to gig after that many rehearsals? Ask them what's wrong with them.

At the next rehearsal, tell them that you want to start gigging. If your guitarist thinks you're not ready to gig, then ask him what he thinks you need to do to get to that stage. Either his answer will be something solid that you can work on, which is great, or something handwavy, in which case you walk. What's the background for the drummer and guitarist? Have they been in gigging bands before? Are you sure that they're actually interested in gigging at all? It may be that really they're happy with things the way they are, but feel that they need to be elusive with you otherwise you'll leave. S.P.

Not bass, but check her out, Fender is pushing this stuff out through social media and it's obviously getting through to the right people. She's cool, unpretentious, and talented. If I was a kid and I saw this, I would instantly be drawn to Fender because of this, regardless of my gender actually. They're way ahead of other brands with this stuff.

The triangle in Everlasting Love.

I’m sometimes to be found recovering from a fully Victorian conniption being pushed around the grounds in a bath chair, legs wrapped up in a tartan blanket, coughing gently into a neatly folded hanky, upon which, on closer inspection, one can find tiny specks of blood. I’ll be in the library until dinner. Words are great. I was feeling a bit under weather once, way back in my teenage years, just the first inklings of a cold, someone asked me if I was ok, to which I replied “Yes, fine, just a touch of ontological nausea” their comeback was a grumpy “In English mate...” My love of words was partly inspired by that incident and my mother’s (spits) habit of cracking me around the head if I asked her the meaning of a word and yelling “There’s a dictionary in the cabinet, go and use it.” I no longer drink, haven’t for many years, but I did occasionally drink gin but on those rare occasions I’d always find myself sitting in the dark at 4am listening to Dead Can Dance, gin eh?

Help! My Seymour Duncan Doubleback compressor suddenly stopped compressing and now sounds like some kind of crazy overdrive... Bought the pedal a week ago here in the classifieds on BC, it worked great for 4 days untill today. Now it sounds like a glitchy distorton with some sort of hi-cut on almost all the settings. I isolated the pedal from the chain and bypassed everything sounds normal, but as soon as I activate the compressor I get a loud hum, an inmense volume boost (even with the volume and sustain knobs almost all the way down!) and some sort of distortion that varies from a heavy sounding overdrive to some sort of bitcrusher-esque sound... I've already opened it up to look for loose wires/contacts, but can't see anything wrong with it... 😥 I've uploaded a video to show you how it sounds like:

If it's not a 36x10 then it is not loud enough.

From my experiments with Native, I got some good results from the auto filter, but not as good as the filters I had already. One of my favourite filters is the Z-Tron on the B3n btw! This is a very useful post from Talkbass:

Yes, it is changing. It's no fun playing low energy rooms. I don't think even the few Milwaukee originals clubs are doing " door money" anymore. These clubs are located right by the University Of Wisconsin. Those kids don't have any money. Money at the door doesn't work until your a professional signed regional or national act. And they struggle too. Many of the bars and clubs that provided local rock bands with work, are no longer providing live music. However, summers in the Midwest can be great because of the amount of lucrattive festivals and fairs. We had a great summer, but fall bookings for us are weak. Didn't mean to hi-jack the thread with " me syndrome". Blue

The cheap ones (especially the zebrawood) are definitely more interesting - although the bog oak are best offer so maybe he would take £12

Most decent venues over here have their own PA and Sound guy and if really lucky he knows what he's doing but he doesn't get paid from your money altho some venues you hire the hall and take the door money. Sound guy is usually just like any other member of staff on the night. So different from how you guys have to operate. No wonder bands are dying off in US Everyone wants a piece of the action over there and it'l get to a point it won't be worthwhile. Dave

Some of that is harsh but true. However for an originals project 4 months to write and release 9 songs isn't unreasonable (depending on the songs of course). For the majority of new originals bands a handful of 25-30 minute support slots would the way to ease into gigging. No one is going to want to see an unknown band band with unfamiliar songs playing for any longer. IME originals bands don't need a PA. The venues they play nearly always have them. In the last 10 years of gigging with originals bands I have done less than a handful of gigs at venues that didn't have an in-house PA and engineer to drive it.

I've just rewatched that vid.. the strings are off. Hmmmm. It sort of sounds like the ground connection in the actual pickup itself is faulty. The best way would actually be to test continuity using a meter between each point and see where it's failing...

Here's my old one: And here's my current one: And the two of them together cost less than he wants for the one in that listing!

Interesting reading Andy.... I know from recent conversations that you currently have a lot on your plate....however when I read your initial post I was constantly adding "currently" to the points you were making. Like you, and many others who are contributing to this thread, I got to the point where making music meant little to me. However there were times when not having instruments around left a huge hole in my life - I find that playing a musical instrument is what satisfies the creative part of me - without this I feel "not whole". Sometimes a 15-20 minute "noodle" can be priceless for my soul. I'm currently not gigging or playing with other musicians. I don't care...I often don't play for weeks at a time, it doesn't really matter...but when I do pick up an instrument it fulfils a part of me that very few other things do - maybe drawing/painting to some degree, perhaps walking the dog - but I believe that the thing that drives us as musicians is the creative outlet we get from it. Yes, there are times, when our commitment to playing is low. I think this often runs parallel to the other shite that's going on in our lives. What I regularly fall back on is picking up a bass, plugging in and tuning out the rest of the world. Playing, for me, can be really cathartic - a place I escape to when the rest of the world is shite... Personally, when I feel the way you are currently I too think about unloading everything I own. Fortunately, for me, the market is weak at the moment so it's unlikely that I'm going to get what I think my gear is worth - this puts the brakes on - now is NOT the time to sell. I also remember how I felt without my creative outlet, another reason to hold on to my gear. Many of us here have an excess of gear - if you can unload some of it and use the proceeds to make other aspects of your better than by all means do that. What I wouldn't do though is be without a bass. Instruments, to me, are more than the sum of their parts. They aren't just bits of wood and metal - they are the thing that make me whole again and recharge my inner being - possibly not today, but one day, the thing that you may need to be "Andy" again. As others have said, take some time off, free up some cash, concentrate on some of the other aspects of your life - but don't turn your back on what I know must have been one of your true loves - making music. Hang in there...