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Maybe guff, but maybe not. . . . . . I remember the days when you needed a carnet when you travelled abroad with your gear. And the joy on some customs men's faces when you drove up to their post at Dover. They could wave you through, or just as easily make you unload the whole van onto the road and justify every piece of gear against the documentation. The one thing that is certainly not guff. . . . we may or may not be going back to the bad old days, but gigging in Europe will be a much more difficult process that it has been.

We don't all just stand at the back, y'know!

I was having a Hoover up this morning and took a quick pic of one end of my practice room 🙂

...with my first band of 40+ years ago. Started out as a WMC band playing an odd set of country, 50’s & 60’s songs as 16/17 year olds with an ‘older’ bandleader - I joined on bass having replied to an ad for a guitarist as he was retiring as he was too old (he was 30!!) but by the time I got to the audition he’d realised that was BS, but they didn’t have a bass player so did I fancy the job? We did that for while and then as a three piece after he left and we carried on playing clubs, though we had to have a driver for gigs as none of us was old enough to drive. Started writing our own stuff in a punky vein and built up a good following and full gig list on the south coast - I used to have a gig flyer that covered three months and had around sixty dates, which would probably kill me now. Then ‘stuff’ happened and I carried on with the drummer and later vocalist addition but lost touch with the guitarist for some time. Cut to a couple of months back when our old ‘manager’ (ok mate who drove the van and desk) got in touch and we had a meet up in a pub to chew over old times - usual “...and do you remember when...” conversation that band mates have 🙂 Old/ancient copies of songs were shared by Dropbox, keys agreed, and all agreed that maybe we wouldn’t play them quite that fast now, and today we met up in a studio to bash through what we could remember and record what happened. Also a chance to get the cone on my new BF OneTen, picked up yesterday and lovely & easily able to keep up with a Blackstar 20 rig. Despite not having played together as a three piece for 40 years it was still bloody tight. The recordings will be interesting to hear. Despite being ‘punks’ the eclectic range of influences was interesting, Bill Nelson/Bebop Deluxe, Wishbone Ash, XTC, Wilko Johnson, Hendrix/Trower, shades of Motörhead, and many more.

I bought this fabulous combo from a friend, when he got rid of some surplus studio equipment, and got it WAY too cheap. EBS Neo Gorm 212.

Well guys this bass is incredible. Everything I hoped for, expected from an ACG and more. I honestly can't really argue that I "need" any more basses now. Should I be happy or sad about that... Pic for attention... Eude

Q: How many BassChatters does It take to change a lightbulb? A: It takes: Four to say they'd be all over it if only it was a 5 string lightbulb ... Six to ask how much the lightbulb weighs Fourteen to say all you really need is a Precision lightbulb Nine to say they used to have a lightbulb just like that, but it was an original '63 and how they regretted selling it Three to say how great the service is at Bass Direct and how if they were in the market for a lightbulb, that's where they'd go Seven to wonder how the lightbulb would sound if it had different capacitors Eleven to say that the bulbs are less bright with flats but that's how they like it Fifteen to say they have not changed their lightbulbs in over a decade ... Oh, and one to actually change the bulb .... 🙂

Some solders, supplied in the form of bars, contains enough tin to emit a sound called a "tin cry". It is a faint noise that the alloy makes as it is stressed such as during a sharp bending action. Interesting that.

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Only ever had two problems with stuff bought from Thomann, a clip on tuner which arrived broken and more recently a pedal which just suddenly packed up. Today I received a replacement for the pedal, no quibbles, just like the last time, two emails and a replacement was shipped to me. Customer service? Yup, no complaints here.

One, five; one, five; one, five. Hmm, maybe that’s just country music Basschatters (paraphrasing an old joke).

Kamasi Washington’s bassist Miles Mosley can only be described as playing Uprighteous bass! Testify!

Generally speaking the main act at Thekla is on by 9pm, sometimes earlier. Support act normally around 1945. For a busy gig it's worth getting there earlyish if you want a good spot at the front as it's quite narrow and not ideal if you're at the back by the bar. Enjoy!

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKHSE/bulletins/211f52e

Thought I'd post back and say how happy I am so far with the BB800. Really looking forward to gigging with this little rig next month.

I’ve never ever put any credibility into those opinions/statements. ”mij Fenders are brilliant” - some are, I’ve played some Japanese fender dogs, and by the same token some amazing and terrible MIM ones. Same goes for USA built. we once got 8 new 2008 jazz basses in at once and 5 were great, 2 were underwhelming, and I sent one back - just horrific. I don’t believe that geography has a bearing on wether or not a bass is any good. That’s before you take into account what each individual player wants. but if it helps, I owned several Japanese BB’s and some Taiwanese ones at the same time. There was nothing between them, quality wise. I kept the 414, which is Indonesian. And “lesser”. Sits proudly with a jazz bass and Modulus which if I bought new now I’d have to spend £10,000 to replace between them. Think it’s cost me £150 in total.

It is a satisfying material to work with if you follow a few simple rules. Most of these are to do with it being a notch sensitive material. In other words it will easily start to crack wherever there is a sharp nick or inside corner to concentrate stresses within the material. As Maude says, careful choice of sawblade pitch in tpi (Teeth Per Inch) relative to the thickness of the material and rate of cut should produce good results even with a hacksaw. Sometimes however, trial and error is the way to go with more complex cuts. Be prepared to do the same piece over from scratch if it goes bang (usually just as you're finishing it in my humble experience).

There’s always room for one more bass. Always.

I had a 1963 Philips tungsten filament bulb - with it's original box! Had proper bayonet fitting, original price sticker (1/6d) and everything. It didn't work, so I foolishly threw it away. Just think what it would be worth now. 😥

I hadn't looked closely enough to see those as well!

I've got a wooden reel of about 200' of lead solder that my Grandad liberated from EMI Ruislip when he retired in 1961. Not bragging, just saying.

One to threaten a lawsuit if your lightbulb looks similar to mine.

Is the lightbulb any good for metal and how much will it cost to post it to Outer Mongolia please?

Found a pic of my first board, Feb 2015. Life was simpler then

I've always found them absolutely superb too. It's very rare these days to find a company that's an absolute pleasure to do business with.

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I had no idea how useful the ART DTi was until I owned one. I use it all the time now. It converts one connection to another (xlr, phono and jack) and any combination. It has two discrete channels, which is handy for stereo use or for using on two signal paths (or more since it can be used as a splitter), and its 1:1 gain. https://www.thomann.de/gb/art_dti.htm

Anyone checked out the new custom shop G&L model? Double split pick-ups with series/parallel on the neck and vintage G&L style Seems like a neat set of controls to me - plenty of different tones and not too much fuss over loads of switches/knobs First saw them on their Instagram, but there's also a couple of videos up now:

I just realised, the bassline in the lesson from part one: Is this: Knew I recognised it from somewhere... 😛

Better than the original i reckon and i love that sort of mix of reggae and soul/rare groove

Been to the Thekla loads of times, but I'm none the wiser about start times. If it was a Friday, then I'd recommend getting down there early as the bands usually finish by 10/10:30 so the club night can start. On a Tuesday, there wouldn't be a club night after the bands, but the 6pm doors would suggest that the action starts about 7. They do usually have a running order printed out on the door. These days it seems like all venues are reluctant to tell you when the bands are on, I suppose they want you in and drinking as early as possible .

I'll be at the venue from 0900, doors will be at about 1000. Any early birds are most welcome from 0900 to help set up tables etc!! Col

PS love the pics btw, Dave and the way you've used a low f-stop to get that shallow depth of field with just the rig in focus. Nice!!

That's really interesting. I switched from Aguilar to Tecamp specifically because the Tecamp had some character to it and gives out a great 80's tone (I play in an 80s covers band) - the Aguilar seemed too neutral to me, horses for courses I guess....

I did actually enjoy your Jazz clip. Memories from when i was younger and picked up many tips from listening to Jazz albums like that. Cheers Dave

Just to add to the above, it used to play very well as I recall. It got passed around a lot among us as it was (for a time) the only bass any of us had! They were quite distinctive at the time being short scale with the 2 aside headstock. A bit of a departure from the Encore P bass copies that most people bought.

The BB2005 is a great bass in it's own right, but there are significant differences which no doubt contribute to the difference in price: Both are made in Japan, but the BBNE2 is assembled in the Yamaha custom shop by Yamaha's best craftsmen; Completely different pre-amp; Completely different pickups - the BBNE2 are dual-stacked humbuckers, the BB2005 are single coil (at least according to the spec sheet https://www.manualslib.com/manual/539175/Yamaha-Bb2005.html?page=11) BBNE2 has an ebony fingerboard, BB2005 has rosewood. I think there's a lot more to it than the label.

Beautiful! https://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/bass-guitars/4-string/music-man-bfr-stringray-sierra-fretless.htm No further comments!

+1 for Jack - top man, great service.

We all spend a lifetime searching for the right tone! its a long and winding road 😀

What key are you playing it in?

As others have suggested, I would be inclined to look at the heat and moisture approach. It is quite surprising how big a dent it can fix, and those on your neck are small. I've removed dents before with a soldering iron and a damp cloth though generally from bare wood. It does feel like a strange thing to do and is definitely worth practicing on another piece of wood to give yourself confidence!!! Some folk will use very fine abrasive such as 0000 wire wool or a very fine sanding pad to take the shine off the back of a neck to give a satin finish and make it feel a bit more silky. As usual there seem to be opposing views - there seems to be some people that like using wire wool and others that will say not to use it ever!! If you do use wire wool, just make sure you cover everything you don't want it getting in - pickups being magnetic are always a favourite! Again, you should find details of this on YouTube.

Doesn't sound like these speakers are what you need for bass guitar. It would be difficult to combine a 4 and 8 ohm speaker in any sensible way unless one is dual coil. If they are car speakers then the power ratings are likely to be nonsense I'm afraid. I think the advice to buy a cheap Peavey might be the best advice, then cash it in again when you decide to upgrade, you'll lose almost nothing and be able to play straight away. the sound will probably be better than what you plan. I recently scrapped a Peavey cab because no-one wanted it at the time, you should be able to get something really cheaply. If building is what you want to do the speakers inside are usually good so stripping out a peavey and building a lighter cab can be fun and a low cost option.

I know this is too obvious for some, but it needs posting...

Get a definite budget. Go to shop on quiet day. Sit for hours playing the same thing over and over again. (If possible -0 in the same type of amp as you have) Something will click.