Leaderboard

Every gig I do this, and I pull a bird every time. Might be a slight exaggeration...

Can I suggest that we split the "arm danglers" into two camps: those relieving strains & cramps, and posers. Now for the posers, rather than dangle the spare arm, grip the top horn of your bass firmly and thrust it aloft while plugging away at the open string of doom. That's proper posing. Having separated out the posers, the remaining arm danglers can now receive our fullest sympathies rather than ire. Next week I'll be solving the middle east crisis and making a suggestion to avoid a hard border in Ireland, that is so obvious that politicians around the world will facepalm in unison. I thank you

I nearly put this in the Gigs section but as it is a bit more of an event figured it was better housed in General Discussion. Just before Christmas I went up to Camden in the rain and did an audition for what was initially a dep gig. It's kind of grown and I am now doing 2 tours of the UK and going over to Italy, Denmark and Sweden. I appreciate we've all got different tastes but if Glam tinged Power Pop is your thing come and see me at one of the shows. Last Great Dreamers are the band and I have known them through mutual friends since '94 (small world but I gigged with the new drummer back then too). I'll be firing up my new Orange rig and I'm just deciding on which basses to take. It's going to be a lot of fun. Wed 13th February - EDINBURGH Bannermans (w/Enuff Znuff) Thu 14th February - LONDON Lounge666 (w/Enuff Znuff) Fri 15th February - NUNEATON Queens Hall (w/Enuff Znuff) Sat 16th February - BRADFORD Trash (w/Enuff Znuff) Sun 17th February - BUCKLEY Tivoli (w/Enuff Znuff) Mon 18th February - STOKE ON TRENT Eleven (w/Enuff Znuff) Thu 21 February - (TBC) (ITALY) (w/Enuff Znuff) Fri 22nd February - VERCELLI Sonore (ITALY) (w/Enuff Znuff) Sat 23rd February - SAN DONA DI PIAVE Revolver (ITALY) (w/Enuff Znuff) Sun 24th February - BERGAMO UFO (TALY) (w/Enuff Znuff) Wed 27th February - VARBURG Backstage (SWEDEN) (w/Enuff Znuff) Thu 28th February - GOTHENBURG Tregaarden (SWEDEN) (w/Enuff Znuff) Fri 1st March - OSLO Olsen (NORWAY) (w/Enuff Znuff) - TICKETS Fri 15th March - BRADFORD The Underground (w/Electric Boys) Sat 16th March - HRHAOR Festival (Prestatyn, Wales) Sun 17th March - BLACKPOOL Waterloo (w/Electric Boys) Mon 18th March - EDINBURGH Bannermans (w/Electric Boys) Tue 19th March - NEWCASTLE Think Tank (w/Electric Boys) Wed 20th March - LONDON Underworld (w/Electric Boys) Thu 21st March - MILTON KEYNES Crauford Arms (w/Electric Boys) Fri 22nd March - BUCKLEY Tivoli (w/Electric Boys) Thu 18th April - LONDON – Hope & Anchor (Rockaway Beach Club)

A professional demonstrates the correct method of holding the bass guitar...

I can answer that one. Without people like cetera, i.e. who can actually play and know how to put a band / show together then the music scene at the medium size club / better pub level would die and people would stop going to watch live music all together, apart from the big production pop acts and the occasional band that could still manage to tour…

I know this has been mentioned a few times, but for those who don't already know. The guy holding the 24 stringer is Chris Cardonne (Hope I spelt the name right). He is the mastermind behind Circle-K (now KALIUM) Strings. This bass was built for NAMM and helps to showcase the massive range of strings that Kalium offer. Low strings that have a gauge in excess of .200 and everything all the way up to skinny offerings for our treble brethren. I do like the "cause we can" attitude. It's fun. The "Jaco only needed" brigade wet themselves every time. Oh and as to whether a person likes it or not, well, thats cool with me.. we're all different

Yeah, OK... Nick's come out the woodwork. So now that the secret is out... this is what we've been working on... Plenty of hours gone into this one! Features : Handling : under 200w OK… so I know this power handling is going to raise a few eyebrows when compared to other boards. A lot of bass transducer boards are a lot higher power than this… however, after much testing of transducers, it’s the sensitivity and the way that the nuances of the frequencies are transported through the board to your feet which is key. So yeah, some of the other bass boards have way higher handling power… but a lot of that is just lost in heating the coils of the transducers and delivering big thuds, which may all be very entertaining at a theme park - but aren’t necessarily the best for a more balanced hifi response. Reproducing the detail in the feel, alongside what you are hearing through your IEMs whilst playing is what is key here. I can guarantee despite the lower rating of this transducer, on full power, it is still more feedback that you’ll ever need. On full pelt, it will make you sick. In reality, its about finding the sweet spot for your preference. It can make you feel that you are in an earthquake… but in reality, you won’t want it anywhere near that powerful! Unlike other boards, this is a single transducer design. The first part, the smaller board means that it doesn’t need the force of multiple transducers to get the feedback needed. Secondly, multiple transducers can cause phase cancellation, causing frequency dependent dead or hot spots on the board. Sometimes less is indeed more! Portable : 60x60cm Having a big board is all very well and good - but in reality, taking up a load of room at a gig isn’t going to make you very popular. A lot of boards are pretty large and take up a lot of precious real estate at the Dog and Duck. The thinking behind this board, is a portable board of a manageable weight that is going to deliver detailed feedback. Construction : The inside construction is under wraps - what I can say though, is that it’s different to the other boards on the market at the moment. Having experimented with lots of designs, the insides of the board deliver a very tight response across all of the lower frequency ranges that we are interested in. The top is a strong, grippy, long life rubber surface, which gives plenty of grip and won’t look shabby after just a few gigs! (Oh and it's a bit more sexy than the other offerings, right?) Amps : I’ve got a few amps in mind but have successfully tested an amp that works especially well for this application. There's plenty of research I'm still doing around this area, especially in the DSP area. So anyway, let us know what you think... 😛 And who's interested so far...? (and yes, total system cost will be cheaper than the current offerings...)

So just to check, playing with a pick and the bass at knee level while making devil horns with my left hand is ok?

And here the pictures of my heavily modified BB5000A in Purple Pearl :

Welcome to Basschat. You do realise that your wants will never be fully satisfied? 😂 It's a kind of joining fee 😉

Definately input gain first, find the clip point and then back off till no clip. Then adjust main volume for what is required. Adjusting the EQ could ( depending on what you adjust ), push the input gain to trigger the clip again, so in that case, just keep backing off the input gain to pre-clip, ( with the EQ set the way you like ) and adjust main volume again

recorded at Homefire studios Harrogate. Please feel free to comment weather you like it or not,all feedback is very welcome, I love my bass tone on here,it really kicks derrière & DI'd straight to the desk from my Darkglass AOU If you live in the Harrogate are you can check us out at Bilton Working mens club this evening cheers

Not helpful!!!!

Very much enjoy playing my Maruszczyk Jake 5p/j. Chambered body so it weighs less than a duck, lovely shallow neck and low action. Sounds great too. I've just got a new stingray and it's usually one in one out for me but I can't quite bring myself to list it.

I spend a lot of time transcribing bass and guitar parts for songs I'm going to cover. Some may view this as 'not creative', but it helps me learn things I would not have thought to do otherwise. I won't always stick note-for-note to the transcription when it comes time to play, but at least I have started in the right place! Having said that, I am fine with people doing in a completely different and off-the-wall way, but please, spare me from sloppy covers.

Contrary to common belief learning and covering songs is not easy. It takes committment, drive, ability and time to do it properly. This is just my theory , I think people with strong backgrounds in originals resist learning covers because they feel it's beneath them. I'm sorry but in actuality it's because they probably don't have what it takes to learn a cover properly. What's so frustrating is there are tons of good bass and guitar YouTube tutorials showing you exactly how to play a song from start to end. I have first hand experience with folks that absolutely refuse to learn covers properly. And they all have a million poor excuses. The real reason is, they don't want to put in the work required. Sorry for the rant, but this is a " hot button" topic for me. Blue

1988 Yamaha bb1100s in a fetching aged white. 🤔

Well then instead of getting a new bass amp get some better monitors instead. The whole band will benefit.

Almost. Nick Lowe released his ‘Bowi’ EP in response to Bowie’s ‘Low’...😆

I thought they weren't interesting enough to leave 'em. Planned to just post them for a day, and 45 people must have had an earbashing , according to the stats, but since it's you asking, father, no probs sir The top one is not the band, just a fretless demo of my ESP recorded with a guitar and keyboard wielding pal. The rest is the band - and yup, we're really called What The Funk. This was the chosen name of our singer, Jane. Tut tut Jane

I think that's a bit harsh - the mods do as good as job as they can under the circumstances...

I still don't get it. How are you supposed to take a selfie without letting go of the neck? My Instagram would be crap if I played bass with two hands.

If there's one lesson I've learned in life it's never take your hands off the neck until the job is finished.

You need to know the magic word. "I'llneverhavemoneyagain!"

Probably a chance to stretch their arms, let the muscles relax for a moment

is it just me or does anybody else find it irritating when bassists take their hand off the neck when playing an open string, usually with a 'look at me aren't I clever' look on their faces? when it's exactly the opposite to being clever.

Yesterday morning I had the amazing chance to play the Holy Grail (for me) of bass - a 1960 Fender Jazz What an incredible bass, and a wonderful piece of history. It belonged to the the owner of my favourite music store, who sadly passed away in 2016, but his wife still owns it. All original, and he had it strung with medium gauge flatwounds, which were nicely broken in, and it played and sounded incredible. Needless to say I was pretty stoked to have the chance to play such a bass, definitely a day I’ll remember for a very long time! Here’s the beast in question (pic attached). Cheers, Ryan

I’m impressed that you recognise the owner and the shop from one photo of the bass Yeah, Mark was a great guy - I bought quite a few guitars, basses, setups, strings etc, from him over the years. Boring story alert... First visit was just before Christmas 1992 (I was 10 years old) for a replacement string for my terrible catalogue guitar. So obviously when my birthday came round a few months later, I wanted a new guitar and I begged my Dad to take me to Mark’s shop so I could try some out and choose one. I fell in love with a Yamaha Pacifica which was £25 over budget, but Mark overheard my Dad trying to steer me towards something cheaper and reduced the price on the Yammy. And threw in a gig bag as well. That was the kind of guy he was And his setups were second to none, extremely thorough and quality service. Great guy, great musician, great shop.

That’s what you think. she’ll slap you awake to night as you mutter in your sleep about that sexy Taiwanese blonde bird you met on the internet. save your blushes - get it bought and you can at least explain your sleep talking.

All this chit chat ain’t getting me a good mix of birthday pressie ideas either 😂 (but it’s always good to chit chat with the legend that is @AndyTravis tho)

I was looking for something a bit, um, sportier - not a Mondeo

Well, it took all day (6 hours of waiting for the moment and 6 1/2 minutes actually doing it) but got the opportunity to straighten up the join lines. These are just pushed together: And actually, I can't remember who said it, but been thinking about a join strip. Join the two back halves with a 6mm middle strip of purpleheart? I reckon so! Shouldn't be as much noise involved in doing that, so should be able to cut that purpleheart strip and join it all up tomorrow...

On the contrary. It’s the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how awesome we bass players are. One hand, one finger, one string and still we are the powerhouse behind the band. No other musician, other than the cowbell player, has so much awesomeness. Look smug? You bet.

Did we post Bill Clements already? - As far as I understand it, before losing his right hand, Bill Clements was a session player. Much like Rick Allen from Def Leppard, the loss of a limb was gonna hold him back. Massive respect.

Only scrap....

Master up full and adjust gain to give the volume you want is a pretty standard way of getting a clean tone for guitar amps. As someone said upthread it bypasses the master volume. A master volume simply sends some of the power amp output signal to ground, passing the rest to the speakers (yes, I know they actuall pass it to the output transformer, but the net effect is still to reduce the amount of signal sent to the speakers). So turning up the master volume to max sends all of the output signal to the speaker. So adjusting the gain (or pre-amp volume as it should be called) will simply send more or less signal to the power amp. It means that the gain control adjusts the amount of distortion and the volume of the amp. If the master volume was lower, the gain would have to be turned up to get the volume needed, but it may also introduce some distortion into the signal. With the MV up full, the full headroom of the amp is being used which means the signal can be kept free of distortion. Well, almost free of distortion. With a valve amp there is always some distortion, but it will probably be so low it can't be heard. The lower the wattage of the amp, the more you have to turn up the gain to get the volume you want, and the more distortion you get. It is virtually impossible to get a really loud, really clean tone from a small wattage amp. That's why people who want loud and clean go for big wattage Fenders (100W Twins and the like) as they have high headroom. Guitar amps are not bass amp. They might work along similar principles, but they are built with different aims in mind, and are voiced differently. When I played in bands, I used to use a non-master volume AC30. In eeffect it was like having a mster volume turned up full. To get it clean was easy, just adjust the gain to get the volume you wanted. To get it to overdrive (which is what we all wanted to do!!) you needed to turn the gain up to start it distorting, but that was loud - really, really loud!

Luckily for me I've never given a sh*t what other people thought about my playing style/stagecraft - after all it's never stopped me getting a gig. Those who matter have chosen me for my reliability, musical dexterity, groove and personality . You know, things that matter.... Probably why I'm the one on the stage and people who judge are in the audience (if they've actually left their bedroom)....

A band this good should be making money. If not then consider some of the tribute agencies. Dave

Succinctly put that man!

Very nice lamination job

Hi all, Forgive me if this in bad taste... I've just consolidated some of my drum loops into a playlist on Youtube for bass players and other musicians to use as a practising and creative tool. Please feel free to share the link around with anyone who might find the loops useful/enjoyable and let me know me know what you think. Many thanks! Migs (@migsdrummer) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFgLxsSY-GapBSK7GWTpZZBzf7Qzna51R

I took the OP as tongue in cheek but maybe I was wrong. I do it as I'm a particularly showy tw@t, our audiences are there for the whole show, not just the music.

OLIVES?? Why that makes me mad. Evil devil's food.

The point is if you are putting on a rock show there needs to be an element of ‘show’. Therefore, you should try to develop some degree of stagecraft. This may include the singer being able to engage with the audience, the band making eye contact with punters, the guitar (or bass) player throwing a few shapes, the drummer twirling the odd drum stick, or even, the bass player taking his hand off the neck when it doesn’t need to be there. I think that the pretext of the OP is that he doesn’t like anyone who is a better player than him or has a better command of stagecraft. I suspect this goes far beyond bass playing and he also probably hates anyone who has a bigger car or eats olives, etc.

I’ve been a mix of pic & fingers, depending on the song. I’ve always kept the same setting on the amp for both & use the bass’ twiddly things to dial in the sound (if needed). Conan’s suggestion of a compressor to level things out might be worth investing.

Looks like that nut was cut with a cheese grater

What about if you take your left hand off for a second to relieve carpal tunnel pins and needles, then notice someone with a camera while your simultaneously catching your breath after being too energetic and the resulting photo just looks like you want to kill someone. I was really enjoying this gig as well, honestly 😁

I frequently remove my fretting hand from the neck in order to point at random strangers in the audience and wave to them, thus conveying to my band-mates the (false) impression that those at whom I am pointing are my own personal fan-base and have come to see me perform. I have pulled this flanker on many, many occasions and can recommend it as an effective tactic for establishing psychological dominance over otherwise unbiddable guitards and front-persons.

As the mighty Derek Smalls said, playing open strings leaves your left hand free to punch the air. Game over!