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I have just complete a tremendous experience, ordered a bass for my 50th and it arrived early thanks to Alan. From start to finish Alan has been great. The bass on the other hand is fantastic. Full specs here: https://www.acguitars.co.uk/project/0328urecurve5/

Call me crazy, but I just met a chap in Buxton and did an eBay trade deal. Traded my PDN Musicman Starry Night Stingray for a Euro 5 LX. Couldn’t be happier!!!!

... but almost as good - I've just re-strung my Jazz Aerodyne BEAD. I'll have to play the strings in a bit, of course, but first impressions are excellent. The strings (basic D'Addario medium gauge rounds that I've been carrying around as spares) fit the bridge and nut nicely, the tension and action were fine without any tweaking, and the B string (which is supposed to be E) is better than the one on my Jazz V (which is supposed to be B). This is going to force me to use the B string in my main basslines rather than just for throwing in passing notes under them. I do tend to drift towards the higher end of the range, although I know that means my sound can get a bit lost in the mix - this should keep me away from that. It also gives me a new sound - and a new toy! - for a lot less trouble and money than buying a new bass! 🙂 Happy cat.

A completely unplanned ambush which left me with a fit of the giggles and slightly spoiled the rock'n'roll sneer that this song needs.

Plan is, try and remain cost neutral. If I want something, then I need to sell something to raise the funds. Thats 2019, still got a week of 2018 to shop in first and I’m going out in style. 😂

Merry Xmas Basschatters! Thought I'd share a quick arrangement of "Christmas Time Is Here" by Vince Guaraldi Trio, taken from the incredible "A Charlie Brown Christmas" album. Always loved Guaraldi's contrast of sweet melodies against unusual harmonies so thought I'd have a go at transcribing a piece finally! Have a great Xmas when it comes, all!

I thought I was going to be able to contain myself about this build, but the more pictures Chris sends me the more excited I am getting I can’t wait to get my hands on this thing! I cant recommend Alpher highly enough, anyone looking for a world class instrument should really give them a shout!

Otoh I stepped up at the jam at Carlisle Blues Festival last year and found myself playing with Matt Long from Catfish - possibly the best young blues/rock guitar player in the UK atm - and Connie Lush and Kaz Hawkins, definitely two of the best female singers (both in the loud unsubtle mould - hurricanes if you get anywhere near them on stage). Utterly intimidating (I've told the story in full on another thread) but Matt supported me brilliantly and I got through ok (on the cr@ppy recording on my phone I sound better than I thought I was at the time). Playing with better (in this case off-the-planet better) musicians is imho the best way to raise your game, if you get the chance. And that is now one of my all-time most cherished memories and motivations. If the chance comes again I'll be able to play better. Promise to myself.

I used to go to open nights when I lived in Chelmsford in the late 90's. I had some fun nights there, getting up to play on a few numbers. Then one night, Guthrie Govan turned up and joined in. I hid in the bog for half an hour until he went away.

It just has very serious look that says “I am capable of knocking down buildings”.

He was in Curved Air for a bit so he's alright by me.

It's that orange that I thought they must have used Tango to stain it, I was thinking of leaving it near the window so the sun gets on it and it might lighten up a bit but then I realised I lived in Wales so not much sun so the UV lamp idea sounds like a good idea 😀

It's an illness, it sneaks up on you when you're not looking and causes you to make irrational decisions. It doesn't discriminate, it cares not of wealth, colour, sex, race or age. Be careful folks, it hides around every corner and pounces when your guard is down. I was totally happy with all my gear, even started working out what to sell in order to downsize to what I really need, and this time I really am going to sell stuff. Then in a 24 hour period I'd seen, pondered and spent the most I've ever spent on a bass, without even holding it. As I said be careful out there folks, beware of the classifieds, FB selling pages, instrument shops, even mates of mates who 'have this bass for sale', it's too late for me but if this cautionary tale helps just one person then it's been worth it. Stay wary! 😁

They have the suffix "M" if they have the magnetic pickups, so that would be (but isn't) a CR5M.

Best bass purchase: my NS Design CR5 upright bass - Love it!!!! Worst bass purchase: Dunlop Super Bright bass strings. Dear goodness! At first they're all top and zingy, but without a solid bass fundamental to the tone. Then, as they bed in, they start to settle down. And then one day, overnight, the sound goes from zingy to sounding like someone is kicking a cardboard box down the street. Bloody awful strings!! (in my humble opinion)

In all fairness, you only have to play one note at a time so that's easy, right?

10 o'clock yesterday morning and I was just up and pottering around the flat when I received a phone call.. could I dep with a Rolling Stones trib band, performing that very afternoon? Load in time, 1pm!! I madly said yes. I depped with this band for a few gigs over the summer and really enjoyed it and I got to know the songs really well. However, I hadn't played any of them since the end of August and I didn't really feel 'match fit'. Still, it seems they were desperate. There had been some sort of falling out the night before, leading to the departure of both bass player and drummer. The gig was a 'Rock n Roll Circus' event, featuring a John Lennon trib, a Who trib and the Stones trib 'headlining'. I had in fact intended to go along to watch with a few friends, so I had to let them know I'd be going on ahead and actually playing!! The Who drummer agreed to be both Keith Moon and Charlie Watts for the night 🙂 It was a smashing afternoon. There was an MC all dressed up like a ring master and a very good magician doing conjouring tricks with balls (steady, discreet!) which all added to the rock on roll circus atmosphere. However, I felt very nervous as I was completely unrehearsed and was just hoping that it would all come flooding back. As we were last on, my nerves just grew throughout the afternoon. When I got up to play I decided not to do anything flashy, just concentrate on trying to remember it all, and to stay at the back and not to try to move around much. A pretty good Bill Wyman impression then, haha! 🙂 Afterwards everyone was very complimentary, especially the 'John Lennon' who I know slightly but who hadn't see me play rock n roll before. So I took that as the biggest compliment, as he made a point of coming up to speak to me. However I felt I had only just got through by the skin of my teeth and delivered quite an array of bum notes! Saw some vids of it on line today though, and I didn't sound as bad as I thought, so that was a relief. Looks like I'll be doing another one on Friday!! I'll be better prepared this time though 🙂 I love my life 🙂 🙂

Sorry, I’m with the seller, I’d always expect payment in advance to ensure I’m not waiting in all day for a no-show buyer.

Nope. Just bought a new USA three band. Big, full bottom end. Loads of punch and clarity. Particularly enjoy boasting the mids with the bass and treble flat. I played a Ray34 on a shop a few yrs back and didn't see/ hear anything distinctive about it, but the real thing is excellent IMO.

For some reason I had always assumed that Sverdlovsk was the name of a city. Quite surprised to find that it's an administrative region instead.

His dad was Miles Copeland Jnr, he of the CIA. Miles Copeland the 3d was Stewarts brother and manager of The Police. Even more pointless and pedantic trivia.

Haha! Maybe, because "Santa Baby" got the best reception and the most people up dancing!

Mines actually TWO that got away! Mid-nineties and my desire for a Wal had been ongoing for about 10 years by then. At that point I'd never seen one in the flesh but all the photos in the bass mags and video on the telly had fueled the lustfull GAS I was feeling. I was living in Huddersfield at the time and had graduated as a mature student (with family, mortgage etc) about 4 years earlier. I'd been playing a pre EB Musicman Sabre for the last 8 years which was not a hard task to put up with......but GAS persisted. After many hours overtime and saving what we had my wife said why don't you treat yourself to a new bass. Yes please! I'd been down to the Embassy in Mansfield before and lusted after all the delights they had adorning their walls. Maybe they might have something of interest..... I'd looked through their advert in Bassist which listed what they had and then called them on the Thursday to check their stock etc. During the conversation (I think it was Dave Shields) dropped the fact that they had a matching pair of fretted and fretless MK2 Wals. They were the other shop owner, John's personal basses that he had made with some elm facings from a tree in his garden. Both 5 string, gold fittings, great condition, hard cases, set up etc......I was feeling a bit excited but new there would be a catch. "He really wants to only sell them as a pair". "Darn it....ok, how much?"........"£1500"........"So that would be £3,000 for the pair then. Well out of my budget"........."No. £1,500 for them both!" At this point my mind starts working hyper speed as to which of the kids I should put up for auction to bridge the gap between the money I had (£1,100) and the £1,500 they were asking. I couldn't commit on buying the Wals as I knew I didn't have the money and wouldn't put it on the credit card. (Our credit card at that time was for emergencies only!). That Thursday night me and the wife talked about the basses and she said "I think this constitutes an emergency doesn't it?" Phew...the kids were safe! Now, with hindsight, what I did next was logical but maybe not smart! In the past I had always checked bases out in person before buying just to be sure they were OK etc. and so I thought it would be wise to do the same this time. Instead of pleading for a day off or calling in sick at work on the Friday I decided that I would go down first thing on the Saturday morning, check them out with a 99.999% certainty that I would bring them home with me! I mean what could possibly go wrong? They hadn't been advertised in the magazines, no internet lists of equipment for sale etc. The chances of someone visiting the shop in out of the way Mansfield, seeing those particular basses and buying them in the 8hrs the shop would be open on the Friday were miniscule....or so I thought. At this point you'll be ahead of me in the story. Saturday morning came around. Kids, wife, money and Musicman packed in the car and down to The EmBASSy for just after opening time. "I've come about the pair of Wals we spoke about"..... "Sorry, we sold them late yesterday afternoon." I didn't cry...honest, but my wife could see on my face I was gutted. She insisted that as we had all travelled down together I might as well continue to have a look around and see if there was anything else I liked. My mind was at this point a bit distracted as I was mentally kicking myself and half heartedly checking out their stock. One of the first they offered was a fretted and fretless pair of Sei headless 4 strings for £1,100. "Sei...nah thanks, never heard of them" My mind was obviously not functioning properly! I'd got it into my head that I was going home with a 5 string and it would be a Wal. Eventually after several hours of checking their stock I decided on a bass that was to be my main axe for the next 10 years a JD Calibas 5 string. If someone had shown me a picture beforehand I would have said it looked "Ok". In the flesh it was "Oooh". I guess looking back it was actually 4 that got away 2 Wals and 2 Sei! Here's the 2 Wals that got away W3648 and W3649 and my Calibas….

My only significant purchase this year and undoubtedly the best - I've had one of these before so it's like coming home!

here are my BB basses a 614 a 424x and my bb1000s,i only have the bb1000s left now I sold the other two I never really got on with the 424x different feel to the neck,the 614 had a really nice neck but the sound wasn't my thing.the bb1000s is a really nice sounding bass and even the j pickup is good.

George Ls solderless. I also use a long one to connect my pedal board to the amp. EDIT: Re tone. If this system is good enough for the tone hound that is Eric Johnson, it’s good enough for me. I’ve done side by side aural tests with other long leads, including monster and I prefer the George Ls. I’ve been using them for over 20 years.

My "one that got away" eventually did end up with me, just 11 years later! I spotted a unique solid white Status S2 Classic headless for sale on Leftybass.com, with the white epoxy Roman numeral fret markers of the John Entwistle Buzzard model. I'd never seen another one like it, and despite never having played a Status before, I had to have it! But I was too late, it had just been sold to someone in the US. Just before the summer of 2017, 11 years later, it popped back up for sale. In Israel this time! The guy bought it through Leftybass.com when he was studying abroad in the US. He already had a potential buyer, but the guy kept doubting and asking for more pictures. Finally the bass was sold to me, and I've been hooked to Status Graphite ever since.

Thought I might as well update this here. We did one rehearsal (without the singer) and it went quite well. Got a decent sound. Vibraslap on the go and everything. Currently half time at the gig and it's going ok so far. We've still got a totally unrehearsed "Santa Baby" to come though so it's all to play for! Surprised how good the congas sound for the songs we're doing, which we're playing quite laid back. Although I can't hear them too well from behind the PA.

I'm ok-ish the day after but on the rare occasion we gig on consecutive nights I'm totally fooked the day after the second one. I don't mind at all, especially after the gigs that go really well....last night was one of those, we've just added Under Pressure to the set (we're a Bowie trib band) and when I started the famous bass line, the crowd went nuts. We nailed the song, the crowd were singing along...briliant...almost an out of body experience! Something to remember at 1 in the morning loading gear after a 'so-so' gig with a 2 hour drive home I'll be 16 next birthday....oops, I mean 61

I love post Gabriel Genesis. Although some of their stuff before that was ok, I can listen to it, Collins Genesis would feature as one of my all time favourite bands. And strangely, Gabriel solo work would feature as some of my favourite 'solo' artist. For me, Gabriel leaving Genesis was one of the best things that happened in music, they both became so much better afterwards.

@mhoss32 How are you getting on with this, dude?!

OK ..... here is a pair of Sandberg Ken Taylor 5's

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.

My Mrs. has always been a big Pink Floyd fan. She'll happily tell anyone who will listen how she used to sit on the stage or wander around half empty pubs listening to them back in the 60s. She'll also happily tell you that the sound was always crap, they would shuffle on and play meandering pshycedelic nonsense for ages and then wander off again with no audience interaction whatsoever and that they would spend the whole time staring at their feet. It would often be 20 minutes in that it would dawn on you that this was actually the gig and they weren't still tuning up.

If you want to support a British firm making strings have a look at Newtone.

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Of course, if a load of drunk Puerto Ricans and Cubans walk into the pub, they will love it...

That's a great band name regardless of anything ...

The octaver that’s based on the EBS Octabass is surprisingly decent, although it won’t be replacing my analogue octavers. As for the filters, the best one IMO is “Autofilter” which isn’t modelled on an existing pedal (it’s a Line 6 Original) but the level of adjustability is quite impressive. There are loads of parameters to satisfy the keenest filter tweaker (I’m thinking of you @Quatschmacher) The other day I managed to get quite a nasty gated fuzz-driven synthy filter patch with a Clawthorn overdrive going into the Autofilter and the noise gate on the input block set fairly tight. Chucked a chorus/phaser on the end and had a blast playing some dirty synth lines. Then I forgot to save the patch and lost it all