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"Has no bum notes"? Hand it over pal, I'll find 'em.

Well the tag line is: NEVER PLAY A FENDER THE SAME WAY AGAIN.

NBD today after seeing it on Facebook shared by @cd_david in a super cool little music shop. Man it’s good! Originally sunburst but refinished in Oly White in 1973 when the J pup was added. Owned locally since then by a pro theatre musician. Always had flats on so frets are almost brand new. Bar that everything is original and man it sounds well! Looking forward to gigging this next year 🤘 Shots with and without the covers 😍

Did the physiotherapy/specialist thing. Good and bad news. The bad: my back is injured from a combination of posture, “general use”, bass playing and genetics (my upper back does not have a fully normal curve). Good news: it is manageable and controllable by exercise, better posture and putting less strain on my back. So got a good exercise routine and posture tips, which will help alleviate. I was advised to consider lighter weight instruments and broad straps to minimise strain from my bass playing. All in all pretty good news, although it will take several weeks for the back to improve. Need to think about the lightweight comment.... my favourite basses (Status Electro, Yammy BBP, Ray and Bogarts) are all between 9 and 10.5 lbs. I do not look forward to swapping them for 7/8 lbs basses unless I have to so hopefully exercise will be enough.

Even more off topic, a Sherlock Holmes Cover Band would surely do 'Baker Street'?

Whether they are the average, mutts nutts, or sprinkled in Leo’s fairy workshop sawdust, I think we can all agree that for £150 - that is a steal

Progress.....but still a bit of tweaking needed.....

I am a weak. After kissing an awful lot of frogs I finally found my prince in the shape of a Maruszczyk Jake 5 built to my spec. Black/black/figured maple neck, weighs 8lbs, sounds just exactly like the P bass sound I have in my head. It's bloomin' luvverly. My back up is an EBMM Sterling 5 that I have fiddled with (now passive with the same Delano P pup as the Jake, also bloomin luvverly). So I sold all my other basses, 4 and 5 string, because those two can cover all scenarios and are a bloomin' luvverly pair, the only basses I'll ever need. I was a model of restraint Well, apart from a JV Squier Precision, that is, which I decided to hang on to as it is rather special. Then I joined a new band - a blues/rock trio. First couple of outings I used the Jake. And it was bloomin' luvverly. Then I thought 'that JV Precision will sound awesome' so I used it and it did. Then I thought 'a short scale would be just the job' and got hold of a Squier VM Mustang (having actually sold one not that long ago) and, yes, it was just the job and I remembered how much I like playing short scales. Then I saw the new Gibson Les Paul DC and thought that would be spot on perfect for the blues band. And it is - my new go-to, I just adore playing it. But that seems to have opened the floodgates and suddenly I find I am in some sort of short/medium scale, double cutaway frenzy and bought 3 other cheapos which are all vying for position as back up to the Gibson. While all the time the Jake, which is bloomin' luvverly, sits in its case until such time as my, now infrequent, 5 string gigs come along. I could, and should, use the Jake for everything but once my head was turned that sent me back onto the slippery slope I thought I had put behind me. So, yes, I am weak. But do I care? Not in the least 😂

A legend in their own lunchtimes.

Those of us of a certain vintage will relate. Our drummers only 45 and can see without readers so she likes to take the micky.

Having played bass for a number of bands I know that the bass player and the drummer generally get little recognition , guitar players and vocalists tend to get a lot more recognition. This got me thinking about how strange this situation is as drummers have to be the best at their instrument in a band, you can have a weak guitarist in a band or a weak bass player (and I could name some well known bands where this is the case)and as long as the material is not overly complex you can convey the songs reasonably well, on the other hand if you have a drummer that is weak the songs can fall apart very quickly. What this is leading to is that the band I am playing with, our drummer is leaving and it has really brought this home to me, he is a phenomenal drummer, easily the best I have played with, always on the ball, never loses tempo and we really gel as a rhythm section, he has a crazy Keith moon kind of drumming style and we both play off of each other, I was reminded very quickly of this when we played some songs at an open mic the other day without him, I played the bass parts I usually play which play off of the drum rhythm heavily and they were just not working with what the drummer we were playing with was playing and it all sounded rather clumsy. In short if you have a good drummer, look after them they are worth the effort

Pretty underwhelming. And a quick visit to snakechat.co.uk confirms that cobras aren't even blue.

Will give you 150 quid for it

Can we report Fender for "fake news" on this one? They regularly market their refreshes as ground breaking, brand new, better than ever before, and all they are ever really offering is a few new colours, and if you're lucky a pickup combination they haven't offered for 9 months. I am SO bored with this stuff, I appreciate that's just my opinion, but surely most of you find these announcements massively underwhelming? Eude

Does that happen to include any of Monk Montgomery's, e.g. "Bass Odyssey"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4ZiFt6hSRQ

So, what is so great about The Beatles?

Cripes! Is it that time of year again already? Think I'll start another 'what's so great about The Beatles?' thread.

Hearing that record prompted me to quit the band I was in and get lessons. It had a profound effect on me. For me, there is electric bass pre-Jaco and electric bass post-Jaco. And I love Bright Size Life with Pat Methany too. Mental to think Methany was only 21 at the time that was recorded.

You don't necessarily need pork-based products wrapped round your nether regions to look like an eejit - I find there's slightly less smelly ways 😁 (BTW, I bought this outfit in 1990 in Portobello Road, and it a) still fits and b) hasn't disintegrated due to toxic sweat overload... And apologies for sticking up yet more daft pics of yours-misanthropically)

I've finally managed to clear some time to upgrade to v3 and have a play through the presets now, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I didn't want any preconceptions about the patches, so played through them all a couple of times without knowing the names or what they were going for etc, and while there are a few interesting patches, my clear favourites were 21, 23 and 26. I then had a look at the list online and realised they're 3 of the original Deep Impact sounds! The vast majority of sounds on the pedal, while interesting to play around with at home, I think a lot of people would struggle to find a use for live - especially those who are in the market for a bass synth pedal. Imo there are nowhere, near enough 'synth bass' patches. I want to be able to play synth bass lines on my bass that sound good enough to not have to buy a keyboard synth. There seems to be 50 or 60 very similar 'lead pad' tones, plus another 20 or so novelty patches which I guess show off some of the limits of what sounds the pedal is capable of making. To me it just feels like there's been too much desire to show off what a crazy range of tones and effects it can produce, and not enough effort put into producing and showcasing solid and convincing synth bass sounds. I know there's the editor to allow you to create whatever patches you desire, but having no experience with synth whatsoever it's all a bit overwhelming, and I just would have liked some more 'usable'/'traditional synth bass?' tones. Overall its a very very capable unit, I think I'm just disappointed that it's going to require so much work from my extremely novice position to get some usable sounds for what I need it to do. I'd have much preferred 10 great synth bass presets than 99 presets with the odd few scattered in amongst them.

I used to have a Wal that Dave used to own - he knows his gear...

Yes, i tired that, but I also want to slightly adjust the EQ at the same time, just to give a bit more edge to the driven tone. I'm this close to getting the HX FX, so it's all laid out in front of me, but this evening ive just programmed in the other two 'unique' effects in to one patch. So now i have 5 footswitches controlling 4 unique effects, inc one going between the two BDDI's. This is 99% of what i need for a gig. EDIT: I know i can also set the Treble (for example) to the same foot switch but my way seems easier to tweak.

🎵His name was Rudi, he was a skanker. With polished loafer shoes, and "Ska'd for life" tattoos. He wore sharp mohair suits, and claimed he played with Toots, but we all know he's mates with Ricky and a real fruit loop. At the Copa, blah blah blah! 🎵

Enjoyed that so I'll dig a bit more. Here's the sort of playing wooten should stick to...

I reckon Maude's band could do Copacabana, drifting into Sing It Back for the slightly younger folks (and its a much better song), then blend it back to Copacabana to clear out the pub at the end! Job done, he can thank me later. 👍

You want to do a ska version of Copacabana. 😃

It made my wife leave the room so it still has a visceral impact!

I think one term that cannot be used for any Bergantino cab is mushy. I have yet to see a bad review or comment about Berg cabs and when I used them the tone in every part of the room was fantastic. There are several manufacturers, Phil Jones, AudioKinesis and Bergantino, with a range of upwards and rear firing drivers and tweeters in their cabs. If designers of this quality think they can get an acceptable and workable upgrade to the sound of a cab by firing drivers in different directions then I'll believe them.

Played on a Reichenbacher....

Jaco wasn't in 'em!🤣

Covering Dave Thomas' Band I captured this. Probably my favourite to date, but soft focus - either my hands, slow shutter speed or the AF issue mentioned above.

Ah - the wonderful Percy Jones. I think my ears fell off when I first heard this in 1980.

For a more accessible Jaco, try to find his collaborations with Brian Melvin - jazz street and Nightfood are great albums of listenable jazz. I get the bass virtuoso comments though. I have about 2 feet of CD shelving taken up with bassists' 'solo' albums - jaco, marcus, wooten, clarke, lawson, entwhistle, Berlin, feraud, strandberg, hellborg, bona, nitti and so on. Very few of them have had a second playing and sit gathering dust because, for the most part, they're a boring as sin. However, stick any one of these players in a decent band and they invariably shine.

Of course these days 13 year old girls are on Youtube ripping away on Donna Lee and JP is considered a bit passe...as is Hendrix. But while they were both alive they were blowing everyone else out of the water in terms of both technique and creativity. Context is everything.

Steve Jobs paraphrasing Henry Ford True, but Ford held deeply antisemitic views which met with Hitler's approval. In 1938 Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Hitler cited Ford's book The International Jew as inspirational while Heinrich Himmler described Ford as 'one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters'. Ford formally repudiated his antisemitic writings in 1942, a month after Pearl Harbour and 27 days after Hitler declared war on the USA, two events which had no influence on his thinking, obvs. German consul Fritz Hailer pins Nazi medal on Ford

He doesn’t do a thing for me, but then again neither do any of the other bass virtuosos that people get excited about. I respect the talent and the dedication, but it just leaves me cold. I look at bass as a supporting instrument that serves the song.

I could not wait any longer and bought a legacy in an US-online store. Here I have written down my impressions after about 5 weeks of use. KLICK Sorry, unfortunately only in German.

All Glitter and stack knobs, or in old money, all fur coat and no knickers..

"You'll never play a guitar the same way again.." or words to that effect. The new range is going to be entirely left handed with just one shitty bottom of the range right hander in black only with no options. A small recompense from years of neglecting left handers. That's it, if you want one you have to play it upside down.

I've never really got into the self-titled Jaco CD, but I do like his playing on Joni Mitchell's albums

The famous, yes the world famous Red rick, lives in my loft and no I would not recommend anyone play it. Very bad things happen to anyone who fks with that bass. Mark, otherwise known as he 3 fingered bass player...😨

No long shaft 500k pots to hand so a mock up while I wait on them. Scratchplate is just paper but I do think it needs one,also help get position for the knobs. Pots will be rear mounted,chrome control plate is optional.

Michael Monroe in Milton Keynes this eve, am super excited. Edit - have just got in and can say it was worth it, they played for 75mins and were amazing.

Cheers Mr 'Bag! Summerfields was UK importer for Ibanez during the notorious 70s copy era, and it seems as part of the deal they sourced their own CSL brand from Ibanez owner, Hoshino Gakki. Ibanez has only ever been a brand name, not a manufacturer, and I think the CSL Dan Armstrong copies very likely are the same instruments as Ibanez, and as Fleabag says, made by Fujigen. Later CSLs were rebrands of Hoshino's Cimar range & don't look like Fgn builds to me. Looks like most of the Japanese factories in the mid-70s had their own version of the acrylic Armstrong - there's a long & interesting (if you like that sort of thing) article about them on the Dan Armstrong info site: http://www.danarmstrong.org/copies.html Regarding acrylic basses in general, a few years back I lobbed this together - body came from a cheapo thing branded AXL and everything else from the parts box: Absolute back-breaker, and unfortunately the neck turned out to be like a bendy tree trunk. Would be the very definition of a wall-hanger, assuming I wanted huge lumps of plaster & brickwork ripped out of said wall.

Hmm... £3.7M at current bullion rates, eh..? They're gonna miss me when I'm gone..! ...