Leaderboard

Sly and Robbie, the rhythm twins, are the best for me 🙂

Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson are the pinnacle, for me. I have a lot of time for Cliff WIlliams and Phil Rudd, too - simple, perhaps, but very effective.

Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton of (Stevie Ray Vaughan and) Double Trouble fame have always been a favourite of mine.

I'm going to be playing live for the first time ever this weekend, and I'm sure I'll love it once I'm done - but right now I'm brickin very nervous about the whole thing. I turned the big 5-0 last week and have organised a bit of a get together for family and friends to 'celebrate' lasting this long without too many bits falling off. My bass tutor is in a band and she's bringing them along to play and very kindly offered if I'd like to sit in on some tracks. Seemed a great idea at the time and I'm only doing three tracks from when I first got into music (Blockbuster and Ballroom Blitz by Sweet and 20th Century Boy by T-Rex), but as it gets closer three things keep springing to mind; 1- I've never played in a band before (only to tracks), 2- I've never played in front of a crowd and 3- The crowd will be made up entirely of family and friends. What could possibly go wrong? I've been on a heavy repeat system of practising and can now play them in my sleep (in fact, I think I may actually do that - certainly they are pretty much always bouncing round in my head) so hopefully I can just go with the flow - just need to get there and get it done, then I'll probably enjoy it a lot more. I'll let you all know how it goes. Wish me luck, I feel like I may need it! 🙂

Roscoe Beck with drummer Tom Brechtline In Robbin Ford’s Blue Line, they always seem to be able to find a different groove and riff for any song Ford wrote.

Have you considered just making your own? That's what I did when I had a very specific setup I wanted to use but didn't want a long pedal board with everything in a row (my always on/infrequent use pedals can go at the back) I bought a job lot of flight cases and ended up making the board to fit inside it. Then I made another to see how many mooer pedals I could fit in. I have a few more cases and tons of scrap wood, so I'll probably just keep making them!

Animal and Floyd Pepper

I like pearl 'guards. I'd have pearl on them both and risk being burned as a witch.....

If you can play them in your sleep then you'll be fine. Nervous energy is a positive thing. Once it's over you might notice that some women, who had once been indifferent to your presence, will look at you in an entirely unwholesome way.

Whoops

Run of 3

Nail varnish 😉

I told him it was unlikely to be a valve, but does he ever listen to me? Oh noooo... no he don't... 😃

You could keep it, just for the crack, like

Great to have my Sterling back after its visit to Mr Shuker. I wasn’t keen on the bland neck (maple board wax/oil jobbie) so after a conversation with DeeDee the bass was taken into the heart of the Peak District. Very happy with the work, a nice vintage tint gloss and stainless frets - looks awesome.

Zigaboo Modeliste and George Porter Jr with the Meters Willie Green and Tony Hall with the Neville Brothers

Video, or it didn't happen

Eugene Wright and Joe Morello...

STPs rhythm section is criminally underrated -

Sparko and The Big Figure

Kenny Gradney, Richie Hayward and Sam Clayton of Little Feat

No one has mentioned Bonham and John Paul Jones - the great rock rhythm section...

You're all fools - Single ply black. 👍 (those stacked knobs look fabulous!)

By halfway through the first song you'll be hooked. Enjoy the years of poverty ahead!! 🙂

Really enjoyed that! Great example of a bass player giving the song exactly what it needs - especially the way he picks up the brass vibe.

After a month of needing something new, switching my mind between a Limelight light relic and a Maruszczyk Jake custom design, I've eventually switched track completely and thought, sod it, I'd like to build something myself. I have always loved the simple, classic look of the Fender 54P design, but I'm going away from the vintage bridge and covers, as I do really like the more modern take on it, a la Mike Lull 54P...so this will be my inspiration...and hopefully I'll end up with one of my own for less than half the price...!! I want a darker wood body, natural Tru-Oil finish, and I'm currently undecided whether to go with a Guitar Build 1 piece swamp ash, or a 2 piece walnut (Kgs?!) body. After my thread yesterday on import tax and duty (as I was stupidly considering buying from the US just to avoid finishing myself!), I've aleady bought the neck, Allparts Tele-Bass, unfinished maple, which I'm planning on tinting and finishing with Tru-Oil...might be a few weeks before it's here though, 2 week back order...🙄 Hipshot B Style Bridge, chrome, 19mm Hipshot Ultralite Clover tuners, chrome Lindy Fralin 51'P Split Single Coil Pup Pickguard...black or white...?! Controls, volume pot and I'm going to throw in a ToneStyler Bass Ten Nervously looking forward to my first ever build...or is it construction when you buy the parts...?!

There's been lots of them out there - including some more obscure ones that wouldn't immediately spring to mind - like this one: The Faces - I'm Losin' You Any more for any more? I've got a few...

Although the real answer is 3 ply black.

I think a lot of the 'others' may be D'addarios.

Here's something i've never seen done before

Off to see Wilko Johnson tonight! With the superb Norman Watt-Roy on Bass & Dylan Howe on drums. Glenn Tilbrook supporting

Soloed J pickups never sound great in my hands, even though I've heard others make them sound great. P + J blended didn't quite do it for me either until I tried a Yamaha BB - the J pickup is so beefy it's louder than the P, which gives it a much growlier tone like a Jazz when using both pickups.

Just came across this on my FB page. 4 stringer maybe

Those cabs are not the same, Kev. The cab police will be along in a minute to explain why you shouldn't trust your ears ...

I would avoid the 100 and go for something more powerful, I used to play in a 3 piece band that did rehearsals in a rehearsal studio that had a 60w Fender Rumble, my bass got completely buried in the mix , ended up going DI into the PA instead

It didn't do Edwina Curry any harm...

It's dead obvious what the problem is!

Jog on, copper... and after all the help I gave you on your tube amp thread... tut tut. 😃

Superbassist!

Good advice ^^^^^. The most nerve-racking gig I ever did was a big "family & friends" thing. I had one pint to settle the nerves, and I swear it was as-if my drink was spiked with LSD (looked like it on the video too 🤒)... we did 3 songs, one cover and two originals... went down really well to the partisan crowd, so we did the first song again as an encore (Hard To Handle - more like the Black Crowes version than Otis Redding's)... at this point I decided to do the age old trick of singing along into a switched off mic'... which I later discovered was in fact switched on... whoops. 😔 Don't let me put you off though! It was a great experience, everybody had fun, and it got us a good support slot with another band who were being showcased for a recording contract. I'd still rather play to strangers though. 😬

And remember to swing your pants! 👍 I'm sure Teebs has an emoticon for that. 😛

Ignore Ricky, he's weird..... You'll have a great time. Just avoid the temptation to have a couple 'just to loosen you up' or to ' settle the butterflies'. 😀 But once you've done your three, go and get bladdered, you'll have earned it!

This has completely passed me by , and I co-organised the last one , I think the fact we did it in snowy Feb reduces the attraction a bit , I’ll have a chat with @funkgod to see if we can do something later in the year , with a bit of notice for peeps

Which may be a problem as he is playing for his family

Will be interested in your build, lots of quality parts. I've read good things about Nash 51 P's. If you have a dark body then you want to contrast it, so an off white or cream pickguard would be my choice.

Yes - lovely. There's a LOT of work going into this....that's a lot of demarcation going on. Looks great for it.

Thanks - handy stuff to know. I have had some turn up recently, should be able to make something out of this...