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Just spent an enjoyable two hours going through this book. If Geddy Lee wasn't so damn nice, I could honestly hate the guy for snagging so many beautiful instruments. Have to say that after 200 pages of drooling content, it's just information overload. The content steers you round the ultimate question of, 'Whatever happened to that <insert manufacturer here> bass?' before drawing you in for the last few pages of the really important guitars. There's no envy here in the slightest; it's just a lengthy journal about vintage bass collecting. He's been a successful musician for donkey's years and now he's simply kicking back and reaping the rewards of that. It's a beautiful publication.

not wired yet.

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Hes so very clever. And was never just another session drummer.

Living in a very small rented flat, I can't fit wall hangers. So they're out on floor stands. - I'll pick one up on impulse just for 5 minutes, which can easily turn into 15. - I do play all of them - some more than others - but I make a point of picking up a different one every day. - They make me smile. None of those would happen if they were in cases.

I`m like that after gigs, no energy, feeling knackered, am also 53. But then I think what life would be like without gigs and the tiredness pales against a life of boredom.

Any bass of mine in a case doesn't get played. If it doesn't get played it gets sold. Therefore if I put a bass in a case it means that it is going to end up sold! Sometimes I will pick up a bass and play it for a minute and put it back because I have an idea I thought about - if there was a case in the way that would stop that. I guess it works for people in tidy or big houses, I have neither!

Wow ... Just watched the Chic/ Sister Sledge performance at the Budokan, Tokyo. April 17th, 1996. STUNNING playing and superlative tone, from the fantastic Bernard Edwards. Great concert really. Something notable of that event ... During the performance, Bernard wasn’t feeling so well, even saying ‘I’ve got a touch of the Tokyo Flu, but I’m still here’ ... It was in the early hours of the morning, after that very show, that he died in his hotel room. The cause was pneumonia. If he’d gone to see a doctor, a simple treatment would have prevented the tragedy. If you’re a fan of The Nard, this is something I’d recommend watching. It’s emotive too, given the circumstances. What a great player, and such a terrible loss. RIP Bernard

Did her and Peter Gabriel ever hook up (as in romantically)? Artistically they've always struck me as counterparts of eachother. Kate is a very rare example of a mainstream female artist I take seriously and respect...for Hounds of Love if nothing else. Give me her worst effort any day over today's autotuned airbrushed hoes gyrating their way through ghost-written "club bangers". Urgh.

Brand new, been 'playing' for 10 minutes, still baffled/in awe. 3 off us were playing 'normal' guitars, something was missing, so . . someone told me to buy a short scale, so I bought an Epi EB0 i saw a nice looking Squire VM Jazz, bought it . fell in love with a Fender Kingman, bought it. now I've got to play them !

So in an effort to sit firmly on the fence of Killing Rock N Roll (see several other threads), alongside my DI/In-ears setup, I sometimes have need of backline for the Rawk band I play in. I'd been using my Walkabout into my Barefaced Super Twin to very satisfactory results, but a while back I picked up a Compact, just to get all modular for smaller gigs and a slightly (15lbs or so) lighter load. I'm sure you can guess what happened next, on an idle afternoon while everyone else was out... Soooo, it's got the best thing about a proper stack, in that it's much, much nearer my ears, but sweet guinea pig of Winnipeg, what a noiiiiiiiise...ok, I've not gigged it yet, but I nearly dismantled the back half of the house with it. I used to have an SVT/810, and I'd put this up against one for sheer thunder. The WA will be putting out a fair bit more than 300w into the 2.67 ohm load (and it was loud enough anyway), but those cabs get every db out of every watt... And the whole thing weighs 80lb or so. 😀

Looking good johnny, for that money it’s worth a go 👍

This was the only one that wasn't 'right'. I've had three maple Jazz necks from eBay and they're all spot on. Two of them were used here: I guess for less than £30 a chuck you are taking a punt, but that's half the fun 😉

So in the feedback it will be: "Someone very similar to [Geoff/ Graham / Dave / Josie...delete as applicable] may have acquired something with [4, 5 or 6] strings on and I suspect would have been a great person to deal with had I done business with them. Should you also nearly do business with them in 2019, do it with confidence."

Ditto I guess without realising it, my weight appears to be on my right leg when gigging. No shape throwing for me, or foot trouble ( just an aching leg ) Mrs bag couldn't give a McToss

That really is pornographic!! Properly jealous..

In West, you play bass guitar. In Soviet Russia, bass plays you !

I’m over the moon about everything I’ve bought this year. Nothing was bad: mexican ‘player’ precision - can’t belive how well built Mexican fenders are nowadays ampeg svt-cl and svt-810e. Both USA made ones. Yup, pretty happy with this 2009 music man stingray. 3 band. Love it ashdown abm evo iv 600 + klystron 410 & klystron 115. Can’t find fault with this

Only bass related purchases were amp stuff... I got a Crown 1502 power amp with 6u rack and rack power distribution to replace my 28 year old Marshall. It weighs about 1/2 of the Marshall, puts out 1500W against the Marshall's 300W. And the difference is that I get much more bass weight, even when using sub octaves - the whole thing is clean right down to 20Hz rather than the slightly indistinct bass-amp tone I used to get. Now I dial tones/effects in via pedalboard and rack BBE pre and know that I'm getting exactly the same sound from my Precision Devices/Markbass speakers as I'm sending to the desk. Anyone want to buy a Marshall Jubilee?

I suspect you are right Rich. There will be a mention of tractors and a 5 year plan.

Yeah my hard cases are in the garage but the triple case I have is really narrow, much less than three cases and considerably less so than one of those ‘racks’ you can get. Works quite well. But yeah if you’ve got no floor space then the walls are next. When the walls are full you’ve got the ceiling!

You’ll fit right in here then!!

Have a look for Eich or Tecamp Bassboard or Porter and Davies. They both do these. I took the DIY approach and bought the parts from Ebay/Amazon/Homebase for the platform and secondhand Markbass Nano to drive it. I also have a small mixer so I can mix my bass with a microphone in the kickdrum.

I've been thinking that for a couple of years and in that time I've checked out at least half a dozen Sadowsky Jazz basses, including a chambered NYC, a Modern, PJ, a Satin and some other Metros. They all sound good, but so far, I'm just preferring the sound of my Metro RV5 Jazz. Now I'm not sure that I need an NYC at all.

@probonopublico you are one sick puppy

A very Merry Christmas to you Marvin, lovely to see that neck put to good use Merry Christmas to everyone else too

My wonderful Sirius by Franz bass guitars ❤️

Aye - last one was tongue in cheek.....

FINALLY! I got to try one of these today. Here’s my take: this is a really cool pedal! It does a ridiculous amount of stuff. I had a solid 2.5 hours with it (with 15 minutes on my Future Impact for comparison). The basic waveforms sound fantastic and fat. Dialling in a bit of the modulation knob, (which introduces a second oscillator with increasing amount of detune) gives a very analogue-sounding gentle phasing, especially on the sawtooth. I was using a Mexican P with rounds and tracking was great. There were two notes (low F# and F) which caused multiple triggering but that may have been the bass itself. With the synth voices, the lowpass filters sound gorgeous, especially with resonance. This is the best sounding digital filter I’ve heard. The cutoff goes way low (probably 40Hz or less). It is very easy to dial in good sounds quickly, and great ones once you’ve got the shift functions down, which doesn’t take too long. (The main thing which tripped me up was the fact that some knobs do completely different things (in shift and normal mode) depending on whether the pedal is in dry (not bypassed), mono, poly or arp mode. I can see how it can be easy to quickly lose track of which knobs are set to where. For instance, I was wondering why the dry envelope filtered sound sounded a bit naff. It turns out I’d inadvertently switched compression on which killed all the dynamics. I think this happened because the shift knob on this unit was switching out at the slightest release of pressure (I was operating it one-handed, thumb on button, fingers on dials); I was trying to adjust a different parameter. The triggered envelope control has some pretty cool possibilities and is capable of a reasonable range of sounds, though it is still frustrating that there isn’t separate control over the attack and decay. Due to the fact there’s no (filter) sustain control, the fast envelopes cut off the sound quite abrubtly at the end. This might also be partly to do with the fact that there’s no separate envelope depth control. The envelope follower was quite disappointing and didn’t seem to have much of a range. (Perhaps there’s a setting to adjust input gain somewhere but I was only using the quick-start manual as opposed to the full one.) That was a shame as the filter on the dry bass sounded pretty good. Not as fat as my analogue pedals but actually pretty decent. I’m pretty sure the disappointment is due to the lack of envelope sensitivity though as it sounded really rather good when sweeping the filter knob manually. There’s portamento! This is cool. Sadly the scaling on the knob means there’s much more travel devoted to the longer times than to the shorter (and more useable-to-me times). I only played with the arp and poly modes briefly. Arp produced some pretty cool sounds. Ring mod sounds cool too. I’m not sure if there’s a way to decouple it from the envelope whilst still having the envelope controlling the filter, I’ll have to investigate further. Pitch shifter sounds cool, though I didn’t play it much. I put the synth into the highest register for lead sounds and I thought it played much more tightly than the FI. (I’m interested to hear if the new FI update will change that as there is to be a new and improved tracking algorithm.) I’m partly regretting not having bought this last week when the eBay 15% discount was offered. I didn’t buy it today but I may in future next time a similar discount comes around. Yes, it has its limitations but it the sounds it does make are pretty awesome. I still hope that the Meris people consider a future firmware update to add more envelope control and refine the envelope follower. Quatschmacher out. 

I have had gig hangovers, or ‘gig-itis’ as my wife calls it now, ever since I started playing when I was 16. I think initially it was down to alcohol, two lots of loading and unloading all in the same day, and getting very excited and physical onstage. Now I have removed the alcohol, but it is still very physical and a lot more kit to move with my last band, so I now get more aches and stiffness the day after. I have never been one for really late nights either so I think getting home late, combined with the time it takes me to get over the adrenaline and buzz, makes me pretty tired and grumpy the day after most gigs. The only band I felt fine every time after a gig, was a large soul band where I didn’t have to do anything other than plug my kit in and play.

Good points there, some of the best sounding gear I`ve heard in isolation has sounded pony is a band setting. We did a cab shootout a few years back and whilst the winner was a Bergantino someone brought along some very affordable PA cabs and the difference in sound between them and the Berg wasn`t as much as what the price tags would suggest. Likewise being able to get a giggable full-stack for not much money, especially if in a country where it`s difficult to get hold of reasonably priced gear, well has to make sense.Look forward to hearing your views on these.

Been suffering post gig hangover today. Gigging tonight as well, so I know that tomorrow will be a write off. Still enjoy it though but next year, the plan is not to do two gig weekends.

Something I picked up in the video was that the 15 didn't have a tweeter, so maybe not good as a stand alone, low volume cab?

As long as you have a volume knob they'll be fine! Might find a 2x10 suits better at lower volumes because the sound is usually a bit tighter than a 15

I always thought he was a good drummer who didn't really get a chance to shine in The Police because they were so awful. It was nice to hear him playing with Stanley Clark in 'Animal Logic'. He did the drums for Stanley's 'Night School' show a few years back and absolutely smashed the kit. As my mate likes to remind me, he also wrote the score for the PS1 game 'Spyro the Dragon'.

This. . . I know nothing of KB's political leanings, and care even less, but if extreme political views puts you off you should also be boycotting anything made in China, Russia, the Middle East, the Far East and a lot of what is made in the US, Africa and South America. Doesn't leave much, does it? These people are actually doing nasty stuff rather than just talking about it. Most major companies are run by people you would never ask to tea, and as for politicians and presidents. . . . if you shot every dictator there would be 10 people fighting to take their place. Just appreciate good tunes. No matter where they come from.

And the one you would save in a fire would be the... ?? Come on, it's got a 3 band EQ, so what's not to like?

No, but I hear there's a new book out which might cover this kind-of stuff...?

One pickup, no electronics and the body is a slab of stained ash not the full, shaped and laminated hardwood sandwich. Then again a MK1 would be over £3500. Put my full blown Wal on front pickup only and wound the filtering off to see what a passive Pro might sound like. Not something I'd normally do. Certainly not the full Wal experience but not bad, especially if played near the bridge. Plus, Wal necks are nice and that alone would cost £1600 new; but there are Better basses at this kind of money I think. ..this for instance (lusted after one of these in the 1980s) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ibanez-Musician-MC900-bass-guitar-excellent/302831220965?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160323102634%26meid%3D14d8e8bc047c4c04b38f6ee857da6953%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D123037422806%26itm%3D302831220965&amp;_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1 .

Jam nights are, in my experience, just self indulgent boredom. Endless guitar solos, sax solos, piano solos etc etc. Most of it seems to be 12 bar, some 8 bar if someone's feeling adventurous. Other than that if anyone tries anything outside that it all starts to fall apart because no one knows what the hell is going on. EDIT: even supposedly well known songs get completely smashed to bits. Someone, I think, suggested Stormy Monday. I don't know it, but the number of people who think it's a 12 bar. It does make for some funny moments when the one person who knows and probably suggested it is playing it right and everyone else is 12 barring it.

To be fair they'd both get it!

You really need a Fender Bassman Neo 410 to sit that on. But there again I would 😁

Just you i think,from her warbly period if its December will be magic. Not my favourite era but of its time Mad eccentric musical genius .

I’m with you, 100%. I would like the purchase of my Stingray Special to be my last bass related purchase for at least a year. I think I’ve used up my lifetime quota of basses to own I told my wife that I’d give £100 to charity if I buy anything in the next calendar year, she reminded me that giving £100 to charity may give me a ‘feel good’ factor that helps me justify it. So, I’ve had to add a weekend away for her too.