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A fellow bass-player made this mash-up and he did an excellent job imo..The rest of his videos are a treat too . Thought it was too well played and original to go unnoticed.. (plays a mean guitar too)

What an amazing bass to play. Stingray PDN Starry Night. More than the sparkles it was the neck that does it for me. Roasted maple with gunstock oil so smooth and silky. Enjoy 😉

OK trigger pulled on mojomojo thanks gents

I did a favour for some friends last month. They were stuck for a bass player for an unpaid charity gig. A festival in a field and several bands. The guys who set up the stage got paid, as did the sound guys, the stall holders made money, security got paid and maybe the guy who owned the field got paid. The musicians were the only ones working for free. I wonder why that was? Why would the musicians be the ones expected to work for nothing? Maybe we are the only ones gullible enough? Maybe it's because so many musicians don't realise what they do has value.

I bought this DOD FX 59 “Thrash Master” sometime in 1990, I think. It’s a terrible sounding thing on a guitar, for which it was designed. On a bass, however, the copious amount of low frequencies give a thick and meaty distortion which could level a village in the wrong hands.

Usually when things happen to me that are 'mostly invisible' I have learnt to leave them alone. Mostly invisible to you means definitely invisible to most people....

I love the Motown sound, and have gone through a fair whack of pedals trying to get it. The Aguilar Tonehammer is the holy grail for Motown tones as far as I'm concerned. It has that bouncy rubber band effect on the peak of the note just right, and still sounds rich/tubey/3D/whatever you want to call it. It has battled everything else out there that generally gets recommended and come out way on top. Plus it works via phantom power if you're the type to just grab a DI box for the gig rather than a powered pedalboard! Here's a little clip I did recorded direct ages ago (P with TI flats, tone up full, which should have been rolled off some in hindsight!): https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApKsVfvGwYkOiqV6Q61pUu3yvWelVg The TC Mojomojo, One Control Sonic Silver Peg, Bearfoot Blueberry, Catalinbread SFT, VT Bass, and SolidGoldFX Beta all do a good job too (and roughly in that order too, the TC is well worth a bash). I wasn't a fan of the Grizzly at all for Motown, I had high hopes but it was bottom of the list for me. I also had an EBS Valvedrive in the dark and distant past, but I was chasing angry punk tones at the time (which I couldn't get from it) so would have to try it again before passing judgement!

Obviously no longer in use, but I think my parents still keep this: Me and my sister played a LOT with this back when we were (very) young, and I still think it's brilliant. The red mouthpiece top left is a kazoo, and the orange one is a whistle, and you could make the craziest musical instruments with them. And it stuck, because way before I started playing guitar and bass I played the recorder in school, and my sister played the recorder too and later switched to the flute, which she occasionally still plays today.

You should worry - I switched to a new-to-me 12-string at a rehearsal once and nobody in the band noticed. Really. 😕🙂

Another vote for the TC Electronics MojoMojo, despite most of the YouTube videos focusing on running at higher gain settings it does a great, smooth, creamy low gain tone that will give you that Motown/valve amp just breaking up vibe. It doesn't get too gnarly or fizzy like some bass overdrive pedals. It has a 2 band EQ and isn't inherently voiced to have all the useful and useable mids scooped out like some of the offerings from DarkGlass and Tech 21. It easily holds its own against pedals costing many times as much. The full sized TC Spark Booster is also worth a look, despite the name it does also have some low gain drive built in although it doesn't go as far as full on overdrive, but you're not looking for that anyway! Put the voice switch into the mid bump position, dial in bass and treble to taste and job done.

Guys ...dair-y say.. I think we’re milking this.

Frankly, I think it's time that the estate of the late Mr Paul Bigsby (1899–1968) sued both Fender and Gibson. Below: From 1947-1948 (four years before the Les Paul and six years before the Strat). Nice headstock and body shape, eh? and this two pup Bigsby: It is a fact that both Leo Fender and Les Paul knew Bigsby, sat around and discussed guitars, saw his work, etc. Suck on that, Gibson bread-head dudes.

My bass guitar heaven 😋

I think Ola has gone a bit mad with his pricing. I had a new Boden 7 string guitar back when they were new and harder to come by. I sold it and barely lost any cash on it at the point when I sold all of my guitars to start playing bass, although I did keep my Ibanez K-7 which I'll never sell. The pricing of the guitars has jumped substantially, the same model now costs about 30% more than mine did when I bought it new, despite them vastly increasing production numbers. You think economy of scale would bring prices down, but it seems Ola gambled on demand being high enough that he could charge more and more for the same product, increasing the price way ahead of inflation. It reminds me of the financial crash in 2008, when Ibanez increased the price of their Japanese Prestige line guitars by 30-50% depending on the model, to counteract the damage the Yen suffered against the dollar. I think Ola has misjudged the bass market. I don't think there is appetite for £3000 Indonesian bass when Dingwall are churning out cheaper mass-produced Indo basses with a spec sheet which makes more sense to people who are into this sort of this, at half the price to boot. The ergonomic achievements of the Boden guitar don't translate to the bass, I don't think. The Boden guitar is tiny, sits perfectly on the lap or strap and feels almost like it isn't there. The Endureneck is good but in all honesty didn't feel any faster than a traditional neck, though it does help people who struggle with bad technique. If you don't keep your thumb in the right place, you won't be able to play it well at all, but you don't need a Strandberg to learn good thumb placement. I think this will not be a huge success for Ola, after the initial excitement of the target audience, which is likely the "math metal", "djent" or "tech" lot, which I'd also consider, as a small aside, to be three of the cringiest genre names I can think of. 😂

They are incredibly good instruments aren’t they, and not just for the money, at twice the price they would still be good value imo.

To paraphrase Billy Connolly: "Don't tell me how to do my job, or what with...do I come to where you work and tell you how to sweep up?" 🙂

The nearest bass I would compare to that rolled neck would be the Maruszczyk models. I can confirm that if the Sire basses are even remotely similar, (they look it) then they will feel beautiful.

serious question. Are you wearing ear defenders? If not you should be. 500W into two 12's you'll be pushing out over 120dB where you stand and the rest of the band may be adding another 6dB. Your average sound exposure will be well over the 100dB level. Over half an hour exposed to those sound levels you will be permanently damaging your hearing and it will get worse each time you play. It seems slow at first but the hearing loss will become noticeable and then seem to accelerate. I speak from experience and wish I had used ear defenders earlier. Your guitarists and drummer will all have problems too. Maybe it has already happened and that's why they won't turn down. Maybe it's already why you can't hear yourself playing in the band. On a practical level you could try re-eq'ing if that's a word. You say it sounds nice at practice levels. Do you reset your eq when you play with the band? Most of your amp power is used up by the deep bass, and that can't be heard over the rest o the band. If you reduce the deep bass a little and boost the upper bass and low mids you'll sound bassier in the mix and it'll give your amp more headroom. If you want to be heard over the band then you need more mids generally. These are the frequencies our ears pick up best so if the guitars have all the mids and you have none they are going to drown you out. Bass eq'd for live work sounds awful played at practice levels but it's what it sounds like as a band that matters. Final point, are you actually not loud enough or just struggling to hear yourself? Try getting a long lead and go out into the audience area or record yourselves and have a listen. It's natural in a band to want to be louder than everyone else so you can hear what you are playing. You have a volume war. Nobody wins at war.

I have three of the pedals that have been mentioned to hand, so here are some very quick-n-dirty Motown impressions: TC Electronic Spark: https://picosong.com/wKSre/ Catalinbread SFT: https://picosong.com/wKSdM/ TC Electronic Mojomojo: https://picosong.com/wKSdi/ Not a comparison as such - I reckon you could dial them in to sound pretty much the same. More like an illustration that they can probably all do the job. It's the Precision, flatwounds, and rolling off most of the tone that gets you 80% of the way there. edit: Wait, no-one mentioned the Spark? Try the Spark! 😄

Plays like butter....

I could play that bass for heifer.

Or somebody very talented could pass the audition for me, and then I'll turn up. That'll teach them. What're they gonna do, dock my wages? 😀

Do you play it, or milk it?

I'm interested. Would you accept $950? 😀

This is the MU take on it, sent to members yesterday. It has recently been brought to the MU’s attention that the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (REMT) has advertised for experienced musicians of what would appear to be a professional standard to apply to form a new stage band for a 25 show run throughout August. Including worldwide television coverage. The MU have contacted the REMT for further detail and have received confirmation that despite imposing stringent demands and requirements for applicants, there is no fee available to musicians for this month-long engagement where only food and accommodation will be provided. These requirements include being available for an intense period of rehearsals and a run of 25 shows, being at least grade eight standard, possessing an ability to sight read, an ability to perform to an excellent standard in front of over 8000 people, have experience of performing in a showband, pit-orchestra and/or musical theatre band and a demand that although participants “may” take on other work, they must prioritise the REMT. Furthermore, the engagement expects the rights to be granted for worldwide TV coverage – for which there are of course union agreements in place. This issue falls clearly under our Work Not Play campaign and as such we now seek responses from any MU members who have engaged in this work so that we might ascertain the impact on our members. This kind of call for work is gravely concerning for the Union and our members. If you have been engaged for these shows, we would very much appreciate your response to this. Please let us know by emailing [email protected] as soon as possible.

Here’s just a quick update with the Jazz neck.............😀

Which means gibson would have difficulty competing as it would very hard to get less rigorous quality control!

Didn't sales of Les Pauls soar after Appetite for Destruction was released despite the fact that Slash used copies of Les Pauls complete with Gibson Logo'd headstocks? I don't think that Slash would have been able to afford the real thing at the time so surely it was good publicity for the Gibson brand despite not actually being a Gibson. Later on they did release a Gibson version of his copy which is, again, great for Gibson,despite them actually making a replica of a replica

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I wouldn't be too bothered if there were no more Rics or Gibsons fake or real tbh