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No I didn’t, and they did it as a duo. I didn’t go myself, but people I know who did said if was very strange. There was no attempt to replicate any bass parts, nor to fill out or adapt the arrangements. Playing for instance a Muse song, which is very bass driven, without bass. It looks like they’re continuing as a duo. Good luck to them. I had a look at their social media accounts the other day to see if they have any gigs lined up, and noticed that they’d removed every photo with me in it, every post that mentions me, basically deleted any record that I was ever in the band. They’ve deleted any trace of our former rhythm guitarist who left amicably of his own volition a couple of years ago too. Very odd... In other news though, I had my first rehearsal with a new band this week. It went well, I liked them, they liked me, and asked me to join. It’s very early days yet, and we’re a long way off gigging, but it’s good to be back on the bass again. Let’s see how it works out. Tell you what though, it’s great to play with a good drummer again!

This has been a lot of work, but this is our promo video. This kinda started semi seriously to have fun playing hard music with my friends but I've decided to try and get out doing shows. I'm Scottish, so my accent is wrong for singing like Mark King so I just tried to sing in my voice. I am also not a singer! There's obviously some autotune at work, but we probably only spent about 10 hours in the studio recording the audio for this! My singing is...passable live. My sister (who is filling the role of Mike Lindup) is an outstanding singer, who fronts my other band called Danger Zone (wedding/events band). Level 42 splits people. Some people hate slap bass out of principle for some reason. For me, it's hugely enjoyable and highly expressive. So I'm aware I'm going to take flack for even attempting something like this! So be it. I'm well aware of the failings of this band (my vocals!). However, the guys in the band are top notch and I want to show off our hard work. This has been a very challenging project from start to finish. In truth, we don't sound much different live - thought obviously the singing is not a good. I can sing and play the parts no problem, the drummer is super humanly tight and our keyboard player is also a masterful sound engineer. We use a Soundcraft UI24 which is awesome. The bass was my JayDee through a Trace Elliot GP12 with what I think is the correct EQ setting. The only track with the Status was "Heathrow" I'm trying to get this band out doing shows, but my home town of Dundee is dismal for live music. I guess I need a promoter or an agent. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated!

Just move your head to the right a bit.

I'd invite you all over here to stay in Ireland but... you know... well... wow, this is awkward... 😳

Closest I've been to this situation was a couple of years back. It wasn't nearly as bad but my response to it was important. I was promised an audition which never happened, just didn't hear back... until... I got a call saying they hadn't bothered to audition me or anybody else as their regular dep has changed his mind and decided he wanted the full time gig. However he wasn't available for new years eve and could I maybe step in? Oh and it doesn't pay very well, it's for a pub which lets us rehearse for free so we play cut price for them. I could have said all sorts of rude things but I didn't I took the gig and gave depped for them many times since, am in a band with the singer who also got me a regular gig in another band with her recommendation. So yeah, stay cool, keep the contact, you never know.

Not a problem for me, as I have a UK passport, and pre-existing EU citizenship. Best of both worlds. 😎 (Of course all UK citizens had the same rights before the lunatics were put in charge of the asylum)

It's a protest song. It's only doing its job if its being heard.

Can I suggest rounding the internal corner to avoid creating a stress raiser, even a 3-4mmm radius will make a significant increase in resistance to a split starting at this point if it fall backwards and the headstock hits something.

Good news, it seems Juan is making some improvements. I was very happy to hear this!

It's a fair bit bigger than the Elf and also the BAM200: AE Ant - 21 x 11.8 x 6.2 cm TE Elf - 17.1 x 10.4 x 3.4 cm TC BAM - 16.6 x 13.3 x 4.3 cm

In all fairness, I made the decision to buy one of these two years ago when I wrote that first review for Bass Guitar Magazine. I was only ever waiting for availability and for the price to drop to a more sensible level (i.e. below £2k). I like the neck finish a lot. In fact, I like most everything about this bass, despite it apparently ticking virtually none of the boxes that my regular go-to basses tick. I particularly like the fact that it plays SO well with a pick ... my pick-work has long been an embarrassment to me so this should give me some real incentive to raise my game. Once I've had it a month or two, got half a dozen gigs under my belt with it, I'll do a proper review for Basschat.

No one tell @cetera then; he'll be unavailable for work for a week!

Based on the current one, I suspect Comic Sans will be next on their list.

I just headbutted my colleague. Thanks m8

Dark Cloud Carl, my new band name...

Easily solved. Just leave the UK. Plenty more cheap Thomann goodies for me. 😁 Oh, and did I mention the cheap beer, low cost of living, borderless travel, and the right to live and work anywhere in Europe unhindered. I really miss the UK. 😋

You never know who was the instigator on things like this, so rather than burning bridges with all of them I’d just reply and say thanks for letting me know, wish you all the best. That simple communication could really work to your favour years down the line when not expecting it.

I'm sorry, but you've been well and truly shafted here. Shouting and banging your fists might make you feel better but won't change the situation. Yes, have a conversation or respond to the email, but keep it reasonably polite. You never know, It may all go t**ts up with their mate Carl and you can be ready to take his place, or if you've proved you've been reasonable you might get a recommendation for another band at some time in the future. My approach is always to keep it polite and professional, even if in this case they clearly haven't managed this. 😧

Anyone remember Tom's ( our very own @wwcringe ) African Build? Turning a wavy, cracking, variable hardness, unknown species and less than an inch thick body, presented to him by African drum-maker contacts of his in (I think) The Gambia: Into this fretless through-neck: Which he played later that year at the Mayor of London's Show in Trafalgar Square?: Well - they've presented him with another one: And before you ask....of course I said yes

I splashed out on a 62 relic Custom shop P bass two years ago this month, On the talk of starting a 60's band with a couple of old friends, it never happened It has been to just two rehearsals in two years and I had convinced myself that I am now a five string man till the day i die, the 62 CS and has been marked for sale at the bottom of my page for months 😂 But hey, a new year and I have been shedding away for three weeks on this and it has all came back to me, that 62 string spacing is no longer a canyon and I have now clocked up my first big band reading gig on it. When i went over to five string bass about 17 years ago i made myself play it for a year with no going back started by using the B string as a thumb rest until comfortable when to use it in my playing. So seems crazy why i didn't treat the new my P bass with the same dedication and determination. So I am now going to make sure i keep both 4 and 5's in use so i don't get scared and have to relearn them again. hope this helps some of you having the same fears in either direction. PS It is no longer for sale sorry, I will be editing my page very shortly , 😊

and the newly built "Bruce Foxton" bass gets a video debut..

There’s a pretty cool cello patch in the Future Impact v3 factory soundset. Check this demo:

Here’s a brief video 🙂

I've started feeling uncomfortable about 'cultural appropriation' ever since an American bride got slated for wearing a kimono to her wedding. My daughter, who speaks some Japanese and has Japanese friends says they were all horrified and couldn't understand what was wrong with other people appreciating and enjoying something they are very proud off - after all it was being used in a respectful ceremony (why don't people boycot Gilbert and Sullivan?) Personally I think 'cultural appropriation' is only an issue when people 'pick and mix' aspects of a culture in a way that is genuinely disrespectful - thing like bastardised versions of religious ceremonies or using special symbols as decorations. I don't think most of the stuff criticised is any more direspectful than non-Scots wearing tartan kilts. But one point you raise is really about 'do you need to have a black experience' to sing this song? To be honest, most black people in the UK have no more validity to sing about lynching than anyone else. The author of American Dirt was on the radio today, she's of Puerto Rican extraction but has written a book about Mexican refugees. She made some compelling arguments such as 'do we replace one set of gatekeepers/censors with another'. I also feel that raising such issues is more important that who raises the issues; if no Mexican immigrants feel able to write their story in the current climate in the USA, it's good that someone, anyone, is. So I'd argue that yes, white people or anyone can sing this song. On this level, is it materially different to a man singing a song about a woman's experiences or vice versa? What I do think is the real issue is the sincerity and authenticity brought to the performance, and that reflects where and when it is performed, to whom and the motivations of those involved. Personally I feel it should only be performed if the occasion suited it and that performers had the audience's 'permission' to do so. This may or may not involve issues of ethnicity or cultural heritage depending on the situation. After all Woody Guthrie sang about lynchings, racism and other such things with no disrespect.

Same for me. I sent two MIA Jazz basses back a few years ago because of string miss alignment. I felt that although it doesn't effect tone, for £1200 (at the time ) i should get a bass thats been made properly. I would feel the same about this one. Doesn’t matter what the cost, money is money and if my money is good, I expect the item to be.

You're right about some people hate slap bass Doc, because i'm one of those, but when Level 42 hit the streets, it seemed absolutley right and i found myself falling in love with MK's technique. You have no worries pal. Your playing AND singing is top notch. Playing a bass and singing is an art in itself, and even harder when using such a bass technique as MK's. The whole band sound 100% and i'm sure everyone wishes you the best of luck. Once you get noticed, which you will, there'll be no shortage of work, i guarantee Carry on sir.

Glad you've found a new band @BrunoBass Best of luck with that.

Camille & Kennerly

Don't listen to him...buy whatever you want...whether you need it or not...

P.S. Make yourself a promise: Keep buying loads and loads of different basses, in fact so many, so regularly, you don't have time to learn how to play any of them. Fixed.

Just as with short, medium and long-scale regular basses, it's largely just personal preference. One thing I like about the scale on the one I do have (Padalka - photo below) is with it being 34-36" a number of off the shelf strings fit (i.e. all the DR normal long-scale strings and some others as well) so no need to have to order or have made specific strings.

You do realise that we'll all be checking the alignment of all our basses now.... I hate you all!!!

Bass-wise, you could do a lot worse than this: String it BEAD and destroy everything in your path

I always use combined effects 😁 I normally have on a Future Impact bass synth (with 80s funk zeeeeeeooooow sound), two different envelope followers (one's a Bootsy fwapfwap sound, the other adds a sweep low end), plus basswhammy pedal which either adds one or two octaves (I emphasise some vocal lines by following them 2 octaves up), plus Darkglass tube distortion to thicken up and add grit. All except the distortion are on separate loops of a Wounded Paw blender, so I can control loop and blend levels with the Darkglass on the final output. Not sure how that helps with a Line 6... But I'd say play with it; it's taken me a couple of years to work out how all mine fitted together!

I think you can get a 'bowed' type sound with an VCA filter that swells into the note; auto-volume echo works in the M13 but you've got to dial back the 'echo' bit. Maybe a bit of reverb too. And when a cellist bows into a note they know the note length whereas the auto-volume echo will be the same swell so won't react to your playing. Maybe a volume pedal might work instead, but I really hate the sound of volume swells on bass (except Jeff Beck's version of Nitin Sawhney's Nadia). BUT... effects for effects sake is a bad path to go down and you'll be putting warbly choruses and spacey flangers on everything if you're not careful. My advice is to have a clear idea of what sound you want to create then apply the relevant effects to get that sound. You might have to experiment to get there, and it's worth noting that a fast 2 pole phaser is radically different to a slow 8 pole so don't think of 'chorus' as 'chorus', instead experiment with parameters to explore what 'chorus' can do.

Try the mob. 😶

Ooh, here we go! (Pulls up chair and gets comfy)

Doesn't annoy me as much as the middle string of a 5er not aligning properly with the dots on the fretboard...

Yes, indeed. Another example of the (over populated?) EB3 and Rick parts bins being situated adjacent to each other. I don't ever recall seeing that 2651B model before but do remember the next version of that model.

Turn up your amps bass and volume more? Otherwise Dimarzio Model Js are brill. If you do change pups, instead of getting the soldering iron out just cut the wires of the pickups a couple of inches from the pots and install small Connector blocks on each one. You can then easily try different pickups to your hearts content just by using a small screwdriver.

Huh! It sure bothers me big time, but not as much as the outside strings looking out of alignment with the fingerboard edges! Now that is surely criminal! I mean, come on.

@Frank Blank Regarding a book, I don't think - at this stage, at least - it would be possible to write anything definitive, because what's known about vintage MIJ stuff has huge gaps filled in with largely speculative info. Because of the nature of the industry, unfortunately a lot of it will probably stay that way. Also - I have to say, trying to find consensus among the various people studying & discussing this stuff online would probably be harder, more problematic and more divisive than Br*x*t! @phil.c60 You wanna see some Brazilian porn, do you? Oh I bet you do... Meet the Giannini AE10B: But compare these two catalogue shots: I've actually dug out a lot of pics of these old Brazilian beauties - they're understandably pretty common south of the Panama Canal - and they all feature very dark, typically unvarnished fretboards with shiny shell inlays, and tend to have a fairly big gap between bridge & pickup. And the manufacturer's at pains to point something out on the trc: I'm inclined to think they used a sneaky pic of an MIJ (Chushin) Faker for the first catalogue pic - after all, they all look the same don't they? And who's going to notice? Apart from some sad sod with way too much space in his head and time on his hands, in 40-odd years' time. Anyway, that's enough Braziliana - although it doesn't actually end there - Giannini weren't alone, so if you ask nicely, I might show you a Finch one day. When I think you're ready. Back in the day, there wasn't any litigation against Rick copies - in fact despite the "lawsuit" guff that gets bandied about, there wasn't any litigation against anyone, just a mistimed threat that never came to anything. Which leads quite neatly to your second point - they sort of did. There weren't many well-known brands making copies in the 70s who didn't also have their own original ranges, and some, like Ibanez and Aria Pro II made the transition to high-end, pro-level original instruments incredibly successfully. Most people probably won't know that Ibanez' prestigious Artist range first appeared in 1973: Interesting choice of bridge on the bass...

I think a wee bit of slightly more positive thinking might be in order? 😏 The video and music is way better than you appear to think and I personally can hear nowt wrong with your vocals either. As someone said earlier, Mr King is hardly Pavarotti! You say Dundee has no legacy music scene: Average White Band, Danny Wilson and The Associates all hailed from Dundee (thanks Google) and did OK. You've got a great video, if the rest of the set is as good, get it out there, use social media and whatever else. There must be agencies who book the big 'soundalike bands', find out who they are and make some noise. Why not contact Mr KIng himself, he may be impressed and offer some advice? I wish I had your talent, the nearest I got was having a Jaydee Roadie back in the 80's!!

I gig weekends around a normal 9-5. I had to send them 2 videos of me performing and I got approved. If you 'might' be eligible, I'd definitely encourage you to apply.

That's sort of how I play anyway....

I disagree. As you say, CV - It is like any other job. If you decide to leave then it is good to give them notice and cover things that need covering. However, if they kick you out, they kick you out. it is up to them to sort out arrangements afterwards.