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'Cringe' is one of the foremost artforms in the modern world. Culture has now evolved to the point where cringe is rightly regarded as the most divine sustenance and I would invite you share your best bass and music related cringe stories here. In my own recollection of bass related cringe, my mind is often drawn back to an amusing incident in a small bass guitar shop about 15 years ago. I will be sparing with the details to protect the identities of those involved. A friend of mine had recently moved to my part of the country, saying he was looking for a more active jazz scene as that was what he was into. He couldn't afford London prices, I guess, as that would have been the place to go for a jazz scene in the UK. Anyway, he was quite a player and we would often meet at a certain bass guitar shop and try out a few instruments. It was at a time when we both had basses coming and going so it was nice to have a bit of a gas on whilst playing different basses. My pal was quite into Jaco at the time and was showing me a few pieces he had worked on. There was a guy standing at the counter next to us. He had a gig bag with him, he was quite a lot older than both of us and obviously knew the shopkeeper, who seemed to be tolerating whatever conversation he was making. My friend casually asked the shopkeeper if he knew of any good teachers in the area as, having just moved, he didn't have any contacts. The bloke at the counter said he had a few numbers in his book and my mate could take them down if he wanted. At that point, the bloke casually decided to mention to the shopkeeper that he was a teacher; a ploy quite obviously for our attention but presented in such a way as to appear part of the natural flow of conversation with the now-bored shopkeeper. The bloke said "I've probably had enough of teaching. I mean, if I found a guy who I thought was going to be the next Jaco I would, you know, teach him everything I know...", his voice trailing off as if to invite some response from my friend. The phrase seemed intended to generate an aura of gravitas but neither my friend nor I knew who the guy was at the time. The bloke sat down and opened his case, pulling out a very nice fretless bass. I could tell you the make and model, because you won't see many on these shores. However, I won't because this guy may well be identified by that particular bass even all these years later. He plugged in and started 'performing' in his strange sales pitch across the room from us. I found the whole thing quite toe-curling because the intent was so clear. There is also something about a poorly played fretless that causes me some amusement and the odd sharp and flat found their way in which just added to the silliness of the whole thing. I mentioned this incident to my friend years later and he remembered it, though we hadn't discussed it since. He even went as far as to say that if the bloke had just introduced himself and had a conversation about his services, he probably would have had a few lessons for want of a better option at the time. However, his enduring impression was that the ego of the guy was such that he expected this prospective student to audition for him right there in the shop, as if to show he was worthy of being taught by this master. Looking back, it sounds like something out of a cheesy 1980's movie but remembering it still brings me a nostalgic, cringe-inducing glow. I await your own entertaining tales.

Well that was interesting! The mains transformer I bought and installed is not the one I intended to get - it has a secondary of 300-0-300V at 200mA, whereas I meant to buy one that gives 360-0-360V at 400mA. I discovered my error when I checked the B+ voltages, which are about 10% down on what I expected. I used this online calculator to confirm that 200mA should be more than adequate for this amp with a 300V supply voltage - if it gets a bit squashy and saggy, no problem, this is for home use after all. Otherwise I'll have to drop another £120 on a PT that weighs 1.6kg more than the present one! Plate dissipation in each 6L6 is 20W, or 67% of max - that should be fine. With all valves fitted, there is a buzz at the output through my bench speaker but no signal is getting through. I noticed a bad solder joint at the 4ohm speaker output to which the NFB resistor is connected but fixing that made no difference. The 6SL7 preamp valves are the only ones I couldn't test, but I bought them as tested and working, the filaments light up, and swapping them round did not change anything, so I think there's still a wiring error in there for me to find. I've got a busy weekend of gigs and a rehearsal coming up and I need to do some practice, so I'll have to leave it for tonight. In the meantime, here's the mighty valve line-up:

I love a happy ending! Now for the sequel :"I've got a new fuse but I can't push it back in again"

I thought I’d posted this a while back... clearly not!

That whole track is how aspiring performers (myself included) imagine that they are playing and singing - driving and tight rhythms, smooth yet impassioned vocals, funky dancing basslines, and everything seems effortless. Motown - required listening for everyone who is a legend in their own mind...

Couple of my fave Joy Division tracks here

Today is the first anniversary of the Bilbo's Bass Bites website going live. I started it with no expectations other than I wanted to create a resource for people who wanted something interesting to practice their reading on (a lot a reading material for developing players doesn't resonate whereas access to some of the tunes we like, want to play or are interested in exploring would, to my mind, offer people a sense of the 'point of it all'). A few months in, I was seeing a gradual increase in footfall and I thought to myself, I wonder if it will reach 50,000 hits in twelve months or even 52,000 (1,000 a week)'? Well, the final score is in an there have been 62489 hits over the last 365 days. That's 1202 hits a week and 171 hits a day. More to the point, I have had feedback from hundreds of people who have benefitted from my transcriptions and have been in touch with several of the players whose work has been featured, every one of which has been supportive. What has been lovely is to see people hearing things for the first time as a result of these charts and reconnecting with things they have not listened to for years. In short, it's all good! We are 271 transcriptions in including 40 Jeff Berlin transcriptions! I would have killed for those 40 years ago when I started out! It's all down to Transcribe! and Sibelius software which was most certainly NOT around when I was 17 (in fact, thinking about it, computers themselves were a VERY new thing (I got a Computer Studies O Level in 1980) and a website of any kind was unheard of)

I went on a trip down memory lane to my old home town and one of the pubs that used to serve the local music scene. Back in the day it was a bit of a dump and an underage drinkers haven. Mid week unpaid, amateur acts could play. The good ones may even get invited to play the coverted Saturday night slot and get a small amount of pay but to a surprisingly large crowd. It’s now a tasteful gastro-pub. I had hand caught trout and a nice Chablis and put more in the till that afternoon than pretty much my entire teenage years drinking in the place. My middle aged, middle class self liked the place. My teenage self would have loathed it. In short I doubt any Stranglers or Jams will be emerging from that genteel corner of leafy Surrey in the near future.

Severe GAS attack... whilst I wait for my nice 4 string ACG to be built decided I'd have an experiment with 6 string basses. I play the viola da gamba aka viol which is a 6 string instrument. The bass viol is tuned DGCEAD, so 4ths with a weird 3rd thrown in in to confuse you. It's played with a bow and it's fretted - the frets are pieces of gut string that you tie to the neck and you have to move them to tune them... The bass is similar size to a cello. The violone is the ancestor of the double bass and is GCFADG - so the bottom G is a 3rd above the E of the double bass in pitch terms. I don't play that but the tenor viol, which is pitched an octave higher. Anyway, viols have 6 strings, tenor and bass use bass and alto (C3) clef, but you do get lyra viol repertoire that uses English/French lute tablature, which fries your brain. Anyway, the Spector is a Legend 6 Classic with burr walnut top and pau ferro fretboard. Standard tuning BEADGC at the moment. Included a pic of my tenor viol and some lute tablature just for fun 🤣

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Always good for a laugh. You can't beat a proper bassist. Years ago I went to a 'Shadows club's with my brother and our teacher. This was a certain thing in the North of England where old blokes would rent a room at a pub or social club and play covers of Shadows tunes on their pristine Strats whilst having a few pints. They won't be around much longer as their membership will all be ancient now. You would turn up and tell the DJ which tunes you wanted to play and your name would go down in the ledger for your backing track to be queued up later. On a busy night you might only get two or three tunes. Anyway, there was one bloke there with a silver P bass up on stage during the opening performance playing the worst walking bass I had ever heard over some old 60's rock tune. I never play walking bass but I know the format. I was fixated on watching this guy as he continually bobbed along out of time and hitting loads of bum notes. The next performance came as a guitarist stepped up from the crowd. He played 'I never promised you a rose garden' whilst the guy with the P bass farted around behind him. My guitar teacher went up next and as he was getting his strat out of the case (a really nice tobacco burst model with a triple ply mint green scratchplate) the guy with the P bass stood up and stepped towards the stage saying "I'll sit in for this". Doug, my guitar teacher, waved him back and told him not to bother so the bloke sat down, dejected. I asked Doug after he had played what that interaction was all about. He said that the bass player was actually a guitarist, but realised he could spend more time on stage if he came with a bass and offered to 'sit in' on each performance. He would try and play anything but rarely knew the chords so he'd try and 'busk' his way through the music which is what give his playing that odd 'uncertain' quality as he hunted around looking for notes or the beat. Most blokes at the club knew him well enough to say hello but perhaps not well enough to tell him to sod off when he wanted to sit in. Apparently the luckiest spot was when he had just got a fresh pint in as he would be busy with that and wouldn't try to join you on stage! The incident struck me as amusing rather than being an outright cringe as I don't think the guy really ever made any claim to be amazing even if his competence was in doubt. He maybe should have bought a small drum like a dejembe to play instead of a bass if it was his desire to get more stage time.

It’s not a sofa, it’s a settee…

You can now get a full time job changing the fuses in Yngwie Malmsteens rig.

While I was waiting for the neck to arrive I decided to refinish one of my Corvette copies in the 'barncaster' style aswell...... 👍🏻

The tambourine is an accepted instrument in the percussion section. The fact that it is so cheap and easily available makes people think it's a waste of time. When used properly it adds to the music.

All the heaters are wired up now. Those pink and purple wires sit well above the audio connections to the valve sockets. I have elevated the heater centre tap by connecting it to the cathodes of the output valves - as I understand it (see Blencowe 3.17), this creates a DC leakage current that is saturated, and consequently unaffected by any AC component from the heaters. All the other bits are now fitted. Time to fire up and plug in - NOT. I'll put this aside and come back to it tomorrow, when I'll check all my connections against the schematic and layout, both visually and with a meter, before running through a staged start-up sequence. I may change my mind about the knobs - I've already done so several times!

Over my time, say 20+ years, I've played for nothing and at most about £200 for a gig. I would guess most would have done similar. Never my main employment and untrained, I describe myself as amateur. Certainly the venues played for free are different to those paid in my view. Having given up gigging with a week-end covers band I can say I'm enjoying it more than ever. The pressure is off to perform or please anybody other than yourself, (hopefully though others too). I think a wide variety of venues is healthy. Music at every level from beginner to professional has to exist and allow progress to happen. It has to be fluid.

I've had a look around and I'm struggling to find many pictures of Jamerson with a strap on, I'll let you know when I do edit: Never mind, the library have asked me not to come back

Be careful with that kind of gig, it's a slippery slope.

I blame Idris Elba 🤣

These are notoriously bad for your jack sockets as it forces pedals to bend and flex against each other and the weight of the plug. With a cable, when pressure is applied to a pedal and it slightly moves, the cable prevents anything else from moving with it. With a coupler, that force is directly applied to the jack sockets of the connected pedals. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about them, though I admit, I’ve never tried them myself (on account of them historically being considered a poor choice).

Just checked again - and you're right! All I can say in my defence is it's an age thing - and I'd like 23 similar offences taken into account before sentencing m'lud. Seriously though, thanks. I'll maybe change my order to a Sentinel that has 3 switchable 'voices' (who knows, that might arrive before Xmas) - or perhaps it's another order for Andyjr.

So, I just bought the TRBX174, then put Entwistle Neodymium pickups in it (which rock, BTW) and a buddy popped up needing to sell stuff to cover unexpected bills. He made me a deal I couldn't say no to on this monster and now I have a TRBX w/Entwistle pickups for sale. It's nice & light while still feeling very substantial. Has a very fast neck that's smooth as silk. The tuning keys are a great added bonus, as the ergonomic shape makes them easier to turn (for me at least). Took me a bit of tone fiddling to dial in a fat tone, but I started with one I'd dialed in for the TRBX and ended with a tone I like even more than those Entwistles. Overall, I'm very in love with this one. I held onto the TRBX until this arrived as I wasn't sure which one I'd keep, but now that I have them both, it's a no brainer.

Purchased the SY-1 today & had a right good broddle about with it. Very impressed! Some crazy stuff, but it seems usable for originals and covers. Not too difficult to tame the beast to achieve some nice sounds. Thanks peoples 👍🏻

Or "Now where did I put that new bloody fuse?"

https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/jack-ashford

This is what it was like before the blue refinish. I was lucky enough to own it twice. Once before the refinish then once after. I bought it from Mansons guitar shop when they 1st had it then traded it back in with them and i believe that’s when Stuart got his hands on it. I then bought it privately a few years later off of him. That’s when we discovered i was buying back my original bass.

I was doing an outdoor gig with power surges. In addition, this late 1990s amp was still rocking (and then NOT rocking) its original fuse.

She’s mine, all mine..... I did some training with Jon Shuker and my surname is Orange. It seemed like fate to me.....

Once you've seen it done, it works, but to the inexperienced, it's not so evident.

All the basses on the sofa were directly or indirectly purchased via BC. 😃

Lying on the sofa with some Prescription Medication... Hawkwind - Astounding Sounds...

I'm not going to put up with fees being reduced - if venues are permitted to operate at capacity. If there are still capacity issues then I would expect to take a hit in proportion with that.

Thanks Dan - much appreciated! I have been using a PJB flightcase in rehearsals for a while and do love the sound ... just not quite enough for gigs. I have been looking for a Super Flightcase but can’t find one anywhere in the UK. so thought the C8 might do it powered by my Little Orange Bass Thing 500. Could be that I also go the 2xC4 route! Thanks again for taking the time.

Today's teenagers would probably love it. Provided it has a vegan menu.

And here the new one with through-hole caps is, tested and working right off the bat as designed and modeled: At this point I have five working boards to sort through in order to decide on the open source release spec, but this latest one looks to be the likely front runner. The Tayda pots have turned out to work fine so this needn't be a terribly expensive DIY build.

Likewise, I really like the 'barncaster' look. No need to worry about chips and marks on the finish either

Here's my three - got flats on the SWB pro and rounds on the ACG which is just an absolute masterpiece. The baby in the middle is an RMI Boomslang nano which is strung piccolo and great fun to play.

My Bloody Valentine anyone? Here's the breakthrough single, plus a track each from the two albums

There's been quite a few that I regret not jumping on but the two that haunt me (I still have thd links saved) were both Shukers, the Rockinfreakapotamus Flea stye in battleship grey and the tasty orange Jaffa or Tigger jazz with reverse headstock, I'd be willing to cull a lot of the current herd to fund either of those two!