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I'm so glad the scientific situation has changed so substantially from a couple of months ago. They sorted the vaccine quick, didn't they? Oh, wait...

I remember leaving a band over musical differences. I was musical, they were different. I remember playing a gig in a prison on 11/9/2001 (an easy date to remember). The singer, a serving prisoner, asked to room for a minutes silence for the World Trade Centre victims. Nobody asked him to do it. It was his idea. And he sang like Marvin Gaye.

I was 17 and studying for my A levels, when my mate and singer in my school band, Pete Bond, called me from Charing Cross Road. It was a Wednesday, he'd bought the early issue of Melody Maker and was phoning about an advert. "Bass player wanted for professional Chicago blues band". I called and was given an address and time to be in East Putney the next day. I turned up with my trusty Framus Star bass, to be met by Peter Green. He was forming a band and needed to find a bass player as John McVie wouldn't join. I spent a stunned half an hour sitting on his mum's sofa trying to play bass. I was hopelessly out of my depth but he was very nice and gave me time. Sadly I didn't unfreeze until about 4 hours later.

Lets hope it's noone you care about eh?

Instead of a simple drum screen we'll need full band-screens! Or maybe now's the time to do a Spinal Tap tribute?

I've been on the look out for a used VS4 in almost this exact spec for almost 2 years. This one came up for sale last week, the stars aligned (I sold my Fender P quick sharp) and she arrived today...

Some new Sandberg VM4 love. NBD is always a great day. Wasn't really sure 100% about the burst, but it's doing it for me.

I have actually finished this now. It was stringless for a while as I was undecided on what I wanted on there, and what will fit the stupid guitar tuners. My strings of choice are D'addario half rounds so after some checking on where the windings end, the outer winding needs to go past the nut but finish fairly quickly as it won't go through the tuner and you can't have to many winds on the tuner post as they are so small, I found they'd fit so ordered a set. Now on they feel and sound great, good tension for a short scale. I like a thumbrest and the pickups weren't doing it for me so I toyed with getting a chrome one to match the hardware but wasn't sure. The black one I had didn't look good and then I thought, why not just paint it the same green, so I did. Then I couldn't find a suitable place as the design of theses basses means the strings are very close to the body so the standard plastic thumbrests actually sit higher than the strings, and to get enough clearance to play properly you need the thumbrest to far away from the strings to be comfy, well for me anyway. So I sanded the thumbrest down on an angle to lower the height in total and to get the string side lower still. Plenty of string clearance and comfy to play, perfect. In fact the strings and thumbrest, coupled with the slim neck and featherweight body make this a super comfortable bass to play. Finished pictures. The vacuum cleaner drive belt hanging system (pat pending). Ooh sparkles 😁 I've plugged and drilled the holes for the old strap pins as they were just taper fit and prone to coming loose, fitted a similar style but they are held on with screws like normal strap pins so are secure. The following two photos are in normal light so better represent the true colour, it's hard to capture it properly. The picture with the flowers reflected in the scratchplate is the best likeness of the colour. I've painted the bottom part of the control knobs black and have decided to leave the top yellowed plastic as the match the tuners. The only thing left to do is wire in a pickup series switch, but that's nothing exciting to look at. So there you go, my minty Longhorn. 🙂

I remember attending a Jazz Summer School in Pontypridd in the mid 90s. There was a woman there who was a professional actor who wanted to have a go at Jazz. We rehearsed a tune with her for four hours, A Nightingale Sang In Berkley Square, and we really arranged it. We performed the tune in the evening's open mic session in front of all of the students and tutors on the course. You could have heard a pin drop. The singer's first ever time singing Jazz in front of a room full of Jazz musicians and she got a standing ovation. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stick up.

Most memorable moment on stage was probably last October, on stage with the Grateful Dudes, when we played Ripple as an encore and tribute to Robert Hunter, who wrote the song and had recently died. The entire audience joined in and everywhere we looked people had tears running down their cheeks. It was hard to get through the song without choking up. Definitely memorable.

Moollon P classic in Root Beer Sparkle. P classic with J neck, gorgeous player! I love the colour, although I haven't yet compared it with actual root beer as the Co-op only had Dr Pepper: Really pleased with it, very high quality craftsmanship throughout. Looking forward to stringing it with incoming La Bellas as I'm on a lockdown Jamerson journey! Will record some tones when I get the chance.

We never had any James Last records at home when I was a kid. I managed to remedy this deprived childhood by buying several James Last records once I left home. There's some cracking tunes if you look beyond the useless covers of the Seekers or Cliff Richard or Jim Reeves etc. "Voodoo Party" is great. Well, I say great. It's great if you like the idea of James Last covering Sly & The Family Stone and Marvin Gaye and Santana etc... The other LP that Lastheads go nuts over is "Well Kept Secret". It's the one where he roped in a load of LA session folks like Jim Gordon, Tom Scott, Max Bennett, Ernie Watts, Larry Carlton etc... But the absolute best is James Last doing Hawkwind: I'll leave it there, otherwise I'll be uploading his disco bangers or the live stuff with Benny Bendorf on bass. Please don't ban me yet, I can change, it's only a phase, etc...

A couple for me: Playing main support to Midge Ure at a festival some years back was an experience Headlining a festival in front of 6000+ people was fun Recording at Sony's Whitfeild Street Studio was a scary experience especially as the Spice Girls had recorded there the week earlier Best of all was playing to 200 or so Downs and profoundly disabled kids at the Rocking Roadmender club night, the sheer joy on the faces of the Downs kids was absolutely priceless and is what making music and entertaining should be about!

The last 45 minutes of Freebird?

Good morning all..... I just thought I’d conclude the ‘72 P’s journey to the French Alps. In the end, Stephane put the money directly into my bank account. I packaged the bass in a bicycle box, which took some packaging but I’ve now lost that old King size quilt that was in the loft. I had to organise the pickup time with UPS. They arrived. The bass left and it’s now with Stephane and he is chuffed to bits. Happy days.

And the purfling is in: Bit of domestic duty stuff to do today, but later on should be able to get the swift inlay done and then the sound hole can be cut out using the same Dremel radius tool from the same centre holes to get nice concentric curves. Also today, I'll be ordering the woods for the bracing, kerfed strip (don't worry @Si600 - I'll explain ) and so on.

Lots and lots but 9yrs ago today I played a show in Swindon and in the crowd was a lady who is now my wife. That's gotta stand out!

I assume many people on here do. For me personally, this is often about certain chord changes I not only dreamt up there and then but even got out of my fingers - something I knew I couldn't do but then did inexplicably. There were other moments too that take too many words, but the most stellar moment was the day I played a Bach piece on the pipe organ, and exactly that day I played better, deeper and with more musical expression than I've done before or after. It became very hard to even finish the piece, and I was exhausted. That was not the moment. The moment was: unbeknownst to me, a young soprano had entered, and rather than making herself known she'd waited and listened before approaching me. When the piece was done, she came up and said: - "You know, I've always hated the pipe organ, but you just explained it to me."

Here's a little idea I knocked up last night. Guitar and the germ for the Wurly part from my good friend @GisserD

Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny. Many a guitar hero fails to do it justice.

I played a charity gig at the Shepard's Bush Empire in the Late 90's I got the shivers at the soundcheck as Bowie played there the week before. After the set, I was in the dressing room and our promoter came in and said" I would like you meet my mate, he thinks You're a solid player." I was gobsmacked that his mate was Martin Turner from Wishbone Ash. We had a couple of beers together and he complemented me on be a tight player. Martin is one of my biggest influences having played in a Wishbone tribute band in the '70s.

I've had them mounted on walls and some kept in cases but I can't claim to have managed a pic of them all... certainly not at once. I know at least 10 of them are still owned by Basschatters. Some of those I presently owned are here but I moved house just after this pic and I've not had the opportunity to get hangers back on the walls.

He didn't own it, but I met Sting and had him sign (and play) my custom Larkin Reacter fretless a few years ago. Turns out he has a 6-string Larkin from roughly the same year!

James Last and Bert Kampfert were regularly played in the home of my youth. I didn’t mind it, but I preferred the Ted Heath Orchestra, The Peddlars and absolutely adored Tom Jones Live at Cesar’s Palace (with Big Jim Sullivan on guitar).

Has to be this for me. It is quite simply........ outrageously brilliant and utterly hilarious at the same time Got to number 1 in America as well.

There's going to be a second wave no matter what, and a third and a fourth until something like 60% of the country has had the virus, then herd immunity kicks in. Right now about 5% have had it, so there are a lot of "spikes" to come, unless it mutates into a common flu virus. Right now I just think, let's get it over and done with. Some people will die, most won't and the survivors can get back to living. If the current situation carries on, and the country tries live on credit for much longer, our kids and grandchildren will be paying for this into the next century.

When all this first started, I was pleased at the money I was saving by drinking at home instead of going to the pub, but in the last few weeks, I've been saving even more by not drinking at home either. I intend to try and maintain that when the pubs open again.

Gees.... well, looks like social distancing is over then. I can kind of get how they can manage the restaurant side, as the culture is to sit down, but pubs? I'll be giving it at least a month to let everyone bump into each other, grab each other, fight each other and generally give any virus to each other, before I even think of going back.

Correct, in my experience. With my overdrive settings it does indeed sound fizzy via DI and likewise through the cab with HF driver fully engaged. I therefore use mine with it up set to around 25% ; it's a good blend of cab voicing with just enough high-end definition.

These things shouldn't be taken too seriously, but they are really interesting. The shoot outs we've been doing at the SW Bass Bash have only really conclusively proved a few things The source sound is really important, different basses and different players suit different speakers. Room Acoustics are really important, even moving the mic a few feet might change your preference of speaker and what works in one room doesn't guarantee it working as well in another room. No two bassists ever agree on what is a 'good sound' FWIW I preferred the SC to the BB2 but only marginally The sound of the BB2 was particularly impressive on the lower notes but less so on the dusty part of the neck. The SC din't sound so full on the bottom notes but was IMO rather sweeter in the midrange and was more even across the fretboard. One of the things we noted at last years bass bash is that most bassists prefer more bass in shootouts however accurately it is reproduced. Bassists like bass, who'd have thought it?

The title has a typo. It was meant to be " You can only keep 11", but the OP caught the shift key. Nonetheless, 11 represents an unacceptable degree of down-sizing.

First time we played to a full Marquee Club was pretty good... But in terms of "Kwality", my old improvisational jazz band once decided to do a live thing on the roof of the studio the guitarist lived in in Shoreditch. While we didn't have any songs and everything was improvised we had the (possible!) advantage that the drummer and I had played probably 300+ gigs together with our other band, and he was proper funky. So we started playing - simple funky groove, occasionally slapped and occasionally Bootsy-wah-bass, with African percussion, Marc Ribot-a-like guitar and horn players who also played with Lol Coxhill (i.e. crazy every note possible). And before the Police turned up 4 hours later to stop us there were a hundred or so people dancing in front of the pub below (Bricklayer's Arms), windows opposite were lined with people hitting congas, tambourines and nobody threw anything at us!

A bit of an unfair comment - you can disagree with me all you like - all the green name means is I was daft enough to volunteer 😄

While Victor Wooten is one of my absolute favorite bass players, but while I am not into a lot of his music, but still really dig his bass playing on that music, this particular piece is just beautifully amazing on every possible level:

Toblerone... nice... Like the neck on an old Fender!

I've spent most of my bass playing 'career' playing in covers bands of all descriptions. Occasionally, very occasionally, it all comes together. You're in the right band playing the right venue with the right set list - and the whole band and the whole venue is buzzing. It all lifts off onto another level. And, of course, you have the best bass sound ever. And it's only a fleeting moment, and then it's all gone. And then you have to wait three years and a hundred gigs for another of these magical moments to happen again. But it's absolutely worth the wait 😊

Just before we were sent into our houses for the foreseeable (big shoutout to those key workers who are out making the world go round), I bought myself a Squier Classic Vibe 70s Precision bass. I had sold a Squier Chris Aiken bass last year that I had modified with EMG GZR pickups and really regretted it, so it was time for another. I wanted a P bass that I could leave in the back of a van or not worry so much if it gets knocked or, to a lesser degree, nicked. I've got some great basses but it's hard to relax when you've got a couple of grand on a stage in a dodgy venue! I needed a 'cheap' bass. So here she is... £339 from A Strings in South Wales. They had two in stock, this and a brown one. The brown one looked cooler on the Internet but the black looked better in real life and this one played better. I also wanted a bit of a project - I enjoy taking guitars apart and wanted my new bass to be different to everyone else's. So I decided to set myself a bit of a challenge, Top Gear style (but without the laughs and million pound budgets). A cheap bass challenge it was then. I gave myself the challenge of spending 10% of what I paid for the bass on each upgrade - maximum of £34 per modification. I'd been looking at P bass pickups and the prices you can pay are crazy - you can easily spend 50% of what I paid for this bass on fancy pickups alone, so I thought I'd try a few budget conscious options out. First to go was the bridge. The bass played very well to begin with, but I've always had a problem with the thin, bent metal bridge that Fender supplies on its poverty instruments. I find they wobble a bit in the saddles and don't feel secure. So I ordered a Fender High Mass bridge from here -> https://mickleburgh.co.uk/shop/fender-jazz-bass-p-bass-brass-bridge-assembly/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItePq_P7q6AIVQbTtCh08ZgWEEAQYAyABEgISgPD_BwE for £34. I wanted to see if the age old forum rumour was true - does a bridge increase sustain and improve tone? To find out, I recorded myself before changing the bridge and after. (Soundcloud link at the end, and no it doesn't!) The new bridge made the bass feel a lot tighter, and better screwed together, weirdly. It also added some weight to the very light body and helped it sit a bit more nicely on a fabric strap. It's a quality item, with well machined parts and no sharp bits. Intonation was easy to sort and it required very little saddle adjustment to get the bass playing nicely again. I'd recommend Fender's Hi Mass bridge. In terms of sound, I didn't hear any difference. See for yourself in the Soundcloud link below. The notes don't sustain for years like people say and the tone of the bass remained the same. I never understood why someone would want a bass that sustained for ages, I've certainly never found any use for 2 minute long sustained notes... yet. Happy with the bridge, I decided to try some new pickups. The pickups that came with the bass were a pleasant surprise - they had character and a nice output. The tone control was useful and helped tame some top end but it could also let the bass 'bite' when you wanted it to. I decided to change them just because I had some free time and I was curious. I had acquired a set of Seymour Duncan SDP-1 pickups courtesy of @shoulderpet. They arrived really quickly and I set about carving up my bass to try them out. They needed a little soldering, but I fancied a challenge. Unfortunately, I was only getting sound out of the E and A strings. Upon going through everything with a fine tooth comb (and a magnifying glass), I had realised that in trying to solder a connection from one half of the pickup to the other, I had lost the end of the winding. I had probably lost it when I put some heat on the solder point and it had slipped out of it's hole and gone missing. Bugger. I shelved those for now and I ordered a set of Entwistle PBXN pickups to see what the fuss was about. Whilst I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to shield the insides as per @la bam's awesome thread on his John Deacon bass. I had noticed a bit of noise when I wasn't touching the strings previously so thought why not. I got some aluminium tape and went to work on the gizzards. It's a surprisingly therapeutic thing, putting foil tape in the pickup cavity, but my attempt did look a bit like a 5 year old had finished it off. I put some on the back of the pick guard and we were done. This was the tape I used, a whole £4.09 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fixman-190288-Silver-Aluminium-Adhesive/dp/B00FHXA7TE/ref=pd_nav_hcs_rp_2/258-0320931-5931511?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00FHXA7TE&pd_rd_r=abbd6043-4e0b-4aae-9843-e48fde7dfe81&pd_rd_w=LHmq1&pd_rd_wg=TIXYi&pf_rd_p=12e82a50-703f-4e6f-ae56-e22f8e18f1f0&pf_rd_r=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7&psc=1&refRID=M0X9MJ3HJM004AQ0HFH7 The new pickups arrived from Pickupsplusmore on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Entwistle-PBXN-pickup-for-bass-guitar-neodymium-designed-by-Alan-Entwistle/233364897542?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649). First thing's first, these pickups are DEEP. The screws that go through the pickup go pretty much the entire height of the pickup again underneath. I had to cut the foam that kept the original pickups secure in half and put them either side of the screws that hang down. After a quick test with a tap from a screwdriver and happy that they worked, I tried to refit the pick guard, but as is well documented on here, the 'ears' of the Entwistle pickup cover are bigger than the originals. IMG_3912.HEIC Luckily, I had the Seymour Duncan pickups here which I salvaged the pickup covers from. Popped the Entwistle ones off, put these on, and the pick guard fit. Voila. I'm not a badge snob by any means (in fact I'm a bit gutted not to be representing a British guitar legend), but the Seymour Duncan covers look cool and the Entwistle pickups are superb. Using neodymium magnets obviously gives these pickups an increased output, but they can sound aggressive and menacing or they can chill out but keep a fat, smooth sound. There's more of everything - every frequency seems to have been turned up by 4 or 5 notches. Playing with these pickups reminds me of the first time I plugged my old MiM Jazz into my friends Fender Bassman 135; it made my bass sound higher in quality compared to playing through the shitboxes I usually went through. There were deep, rich overtones and each note left my bass beautifully. I feel like that is what these pickups have done to this bass. I'd be impressed if they were £130, but they aren't. They're barely £30. Honestly, a brilliant buy. I recorded this bass throughout the (admittedly limited!) mods. I've uploaded them to Soundcloud with a fingerstyle, a slap line and a picked blues tune to give a bit of a range. The fingerstyle pieces were played with the tone at 50% but the rest had the tone fully open. There is no compression, no touching up (oh matron...) or do-overs, or even a backing sound. Just the raw sound of the bass with all of my mistakes after each mod. So in all, this bass has cost me: £339 - bass £34 - Fender Hi Mass Bridge £29.49 - Entwistle PBXN £10 - Seymour Duncans (that I ruined, sorry!) £4.09 - Aluminium Tape Total = £416.58 I'm really pleased with everything, and all upgrades cost no more than 10% of the bass. I've spent around 23% of the bass' new value modifying it. God, lockdown is fun, isn't it?

And so to the inlay. Normal stuff - MoP cut out with a jewellers saw, then the outline of the inlay penciled onto the wood and routed out with the Dremel and precision router base and 1mm bit: Glued in with some epoxy mixed with the same wood sawdust to create a colour matched glue: And once that has dried, a quick sand and we have a swift There's a bit of tidying up around the purfling to do, but I will do that prior to the final sanding once the braces are all fitted. Tomorrow, I will cut out the sound hole and the outer shape, including a few mm oversize and then it's just waiting the dishing, bracing and tap tuning (oh, and the sides, and the back and the back dishing and bracing and the binding and outer purfling and the neck and the bridge and the...… )

I’ve been so high I was hallucinating whilst listening to a Joe Satriani track - I focussed on the reverb and saw the band playing inside of an empty swimming pool. wow man.

I got myself a Hakko 888D a couple of years ago and, and at the same time I also brushed up a bit on proper technique as it was a long time since I'd learnt. I'm happy enough now to rewire basses and make my own leads and some of that is down to the Hakko. I pretty much know what temps I need for soldering different things and for desoldering. I think the big thing with temperature controlled is that it will try and maintain the iron at a temp, so if you're doing a pot and it soaks up a little bit of heat, the station will get it back up to temp. I've noticed that I can solder earths to pots as easily as anything else now and it used to be a proper pain in the proverbial with an iron.

I agree that it does sound superficially heartless. But there are a bunch of tough choices ahead for all countries and their leaders. I'd hate to be in their shoes right now. India tried lock down and people started going hungry: they had to pull back: Covid deaths now starting to pile up. Tough choices. We're obviously more fortunate than many developing countries, but 4 million folk unemployed by November is no joke either, state school kids not being educated with their futures blighted, cancer patients not being treated to make way for Covid sufferers. This thing ain't easy or straightforward.

Not a bit of it ... @MacDaddy has now named some songs, but it was a long wait!

It's really hard to formulate a reply re. Warwick, never mind comparisons with Mayones (or any other manufacturer); so I'll start with the Warwick though it may sound like a history lesson as I don't know if you are only buying new. My views are based on presently owning 10 Warwicks and having owned at least another 50... not one bought new and no Rockbasses. New - If you are buying new the issues with truss rods, breaks, nuts, sockets are all pretty much a thing of the past BUT you are in the realms of a massive range of basses from Chinese RB basses up to German CS and priced accordingly. Sadly the highest grade are now into boutique bass category and price range. Used (vintage) - If you are talking 80's and 90's then the plus side is that you are only discussing instruments made direct by Warwick in Germany (OK... apart from the MIJ Dolphin Pro II), so no clouding of country of origin. Issues with jack sockets cost £5 - £10 to sort and generally should have been done by this point. Neck breaks at headstock and truss rod issues likewise should have occurred by now, if they haven't chances are they are OK. I've had 2 truss rod issues out of nearly 60 used basses and owned 2 further basses that had historical breaks/fixes... maybe some context? Model - You have everything from the Spector copies of Streamers (Stage I & II), through the Infinity, Thumb, Corvette, Dolphin, Katana, Darklord, Nobby... and a few others I can't think of off my head. Each has pretty much a distinct and different tone (the Streamer is 'probably' the most generic but not diminished because of it), further compounded by the fact that bolt-on models can/do sound different to neck-thru models and many of the ranges come in both. Oh... and you also have all of the Limited Edition models. The commonest models are; Streamer - ergonomic, well balanced, not extreme. Stage I & II very different tonally. Thumb - unique tone and appearance, can be heavier than it looks like it should be for its size, first position stretch isn't great for certain people (I still own one and play it seated). Corvette - well balanced, broad range of pup options inc $$ which could suit heavier styles. Infinity/Infinette - an upgrade to the Corvette that is chambered. Dolphin - like the Thumb a very focused tone with great balance but some can be heavy and necks generally broader. Weight - I presently own a bunch of Streamers and they range from 8lb to over 10lb (the latter being a Ltd Ed with a dense piece of maple as the body). I've got a Thumb from 1985 that is less than 9lb but a friend has one from 1991 that is 9lb 10oz. I've owned a couple of Corvettes, again presently 8lb 5oz but as much as 9lb 8oz in past basses. Actually I could give you personal experience of having held basses that go from low/mid 8lb to 10lb BUT I've owned other manufacturers basses that are likewise broad ranging (Lakland is a classic example). Neck profiles - Oh gawd... they range from super slim up to baseball bats and this is compounded by the various outsourced ranges available. You also have the option of a 'Broad Neck' on some basses, with wider string spacing. Pups - Used older models can have pups from: MEC, EMG, Bartolini, Seymour Duncan, Alembic and a few others I'm sure. You can get gold and silver MEC models (active/passive) EQ - 2 or 3 band active or passive (German models are switchable... but some are still technically active even when in passive), again early basses could be EMG, MEC, SD, etc. Bridges/Nuts - 2 pieces bridges are multi-adjustable inc string spacing. Early and CS models can have solid brass bridge plates which can add a bit of weight and sustain (allegedly). The bridge saddles can corrode but parts are available. Earliest JAN nuts in brass were great (never glued on properly but easily fixed), the Mk II models were made of chocolate and were an embarrassment. They seem to be sorted again now though. I can't say that I'm well up on a few of your musical choices but for a 'rock' orientated sound, you could theoretically take any of the above basses and make them fit but the $$ range gives you more scope for a fuller tone. The Thumb bass is used in a few rock bands for it's focused tone. The Dolphin and Infinity don't seem to feature in your choice of bands style but that's not to say they wouldn't! If you narrow down new/used and a price range, I might be able to refine the above! LOL Mayones - I've had the chance to play with 2, a Jazz style and a BE model. The Jazz (was it a Jabba?) sounded like a good Jazz and was probably put together way better than most Fender Jazzes I've played. It was different tonally but I could get it to sound like a Jazz on steroids. The BE model oddly, I thought sounded a bit like the Dolphin I had. Again, well put together but REALLY hard to compare to a Warwick in other ways. Phew... later!

Hi guys, had the amp fixed by a great tech, everything runs smoothly and the amp sounds SO good compared to my class D toys! The only thing that tops it is my Hexa Valve - that one has even more heft. Got some JJ ECC83S valves coming in, one will be going into the pre section of this RAH. Yay!

Because we can’t really go out anywhere my sons made various curries and dishes and brought them round, and gave me this card 😄