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Great Thread I still can't get my head around EB bringing out a budget line and calling it Sterling (CEO vanity perhaps) I have a full fat EB USA Sterling, and it's sublime. The quality of the finish and the very slim neck as well as very sturdy high Quality hardware make it a joy to play. I owned it years ago and part traded it, I was very lucky to manage to get it back. It has a one piece Ash body with very unique grain and a matched headstock. It was modded by a previous owner with a Nordstrand vintage pickup, So it has the vintage voiced Alnico pickup, making it sound closer to a Stingray. I occasionally think I could sell it and get one off the far East Sterling SB and unlock some cash,but then I pick it up and I know id regret it. The USA made Sterlings are so well made and as stated smaller bodies and thin necks, great for smaller fellows like me 😁 also they are good enough for Joe Dart etc 😂

New feature alert... Topics in the Marketplace now feature a thumbnail of the item in question. You can either let it automatically choose to generate a thumbnail from your first uploaded image, or upload a specific one when you write your advert. You can also hide the thumbnails if you don't like 'em. I hope it makes browsing the Marketplatz even more attractive. Items you've viewed will be greyed out slightly upon seeing them again. If you're wanting to change your thumbnail then any mod can choose a different image from your uploaded pics, or you can edit your advert and upload a new one. Cheers ped

Thought I'd give the blocks a go, with the frets in. Not as neat as I'd like, but I'm confident I'll do better next time. First 2 in.

Yeah that's new. It also shows moderation events. I think it adds a slight piss-taking twist when someone replies to an old thread 🤣

Hi all, This won't be to everyone's taste, but this guy appeared this morning on my Facebook. I think his playing is pretty cool. Some here might enjoy it.

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So you clubbed him round the head with one.

I did the whole tribute act thing in my 20s - it was hard work, but great fun. 'Twas a Queen act, aided massively by our singer looking (and sounding) uncannily like Freddie, and our drummer having the same hair as Prof. Brian May. As the bassist I wore shorts and a T-shirt, a la Wembley '86, but TBF, all of the attention is on Freddie, so it really didn't matter what we looked like. I think if the band has an iconic look (Angus, Freddie, Lemmy etc...) then I think it's only fair that you try to emulate that, but the sound has to come first.

I feel that I should chime in here as a tribute thingy myself. Of course the music has to be good and sound like the band but in the case of the Police, they sounded rockier live than the records and a bit different depending on the era of their live shows. It has been said that I look a bit like Sting, so that does actually add to the show. I've also studied how he moves on stage and was given the greatest compliment by Billy Kulke (Letz Zep) when he said, you've really nailed that Sting thing. We use the correct instruments (replicas) and I always try to wear an appropriate outfit, depending on what bass I'm using. I saw Wrong Jovi and they did the lookalike thing really well, Ritchie was a touch short but musically they were spot on. Horses for courses of course but the punters do like to see a look a like (I think they do)

A little trick we used on my old band was to put an original in a 3 song medley. Worked really well.

This has degenerated into standard stories of specs, jugs and brock and roll and should be badged as such.

Yup, 3-way selector gives 'Reverse P', then 'Normal P', then Mudbucker.

At least you didn't get. . . . "Play something you know!"

I love the stylings of Reverends. They always feel reassuring familiar but strangely exotic to me 👍

This is great, but I can see it costing me money 😁

Here you go! https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/452759-new-topic-thumbnails/?tab=comments#comment-4522839 It's a feature I've been wanting to make for a long time!

Kiemsa started out, and continued until the end, as an Originals band, (bass, drums, two guitars, three brass and a lively singer...). The very first dates were self-promoted concerts, but quickly expanded to all venues in an ever-widening radius from the Home Town. After self-financing (from gig takings...) their first CD, they became regional, then national. That's when I 'stepped off the bus' (I started off doing the sound, then the lights when the drummer changed; the ex-drummer did the sound...). Having been self-managed up till then, a management deal was struck and they carried on for a couple more years, touring France and Germany. I was invited to the extremely lively 'Farewell' concert when they split. None of the material was covers, from start to finish. Difficult, even, to categorise; I used to say 'ska/punk/rock'. It always went down well; I have many memories of cafés, bars and pubs where the jammed-in crowd exploded the place with exuberance. It's true that the original songs (and their performance...) was very good indeed, and Martin, the front man, took on the role like a fish to water. If the songs and music are up to it, I see no reason why they wouldn't be well received (but they have to be darned good..!). Here's extracts from one of the larger concerts; the repertoire and energy was the same in tiny bars and clubs (Our Eldest on guitar, stage left; I did the lights...). Happy daze..!

Indeed.. it was an utter piece of sh!t... but, it was OUR utter piece of sh!t...

Also, you've got to have faith in your original material. Absolutely bloody love it? Getting that feeling back from people who've heard it? Get it out there. Playing it 'cos it's nothing special, and people aren't that interested, but hey, it's original and that's what counts...? Maybe have a rethink.

I hope he used tonelego.

Personally I loathe covers bands. I’m in a minority though. Generally the public would rather hear p155 poor Oasis covers than a set list of music that has potential to be great given time. Tricky one.

We used to dance to this at Edwardians Nite Spot in Chester many years ago!

I’ve absolutely no idea what you are talking about ! 😂

I read so many ‘reviews’ on here and on the ‘net which does nothing more than list the specs and make claims about how this product, if it can do X,Y and Z will deliver the goods only to find out that the said bit of gear lives on a shelf, in a rack with ten other basses and never once sees a stage. This is so common on music sites where I’d be surprised if they’ve even played the bass - they’re just regurgitating the press release. I saw it recently with the Dark Ray - it might have been posted on that BC thread about it. Or it’s the gushing ‘review’ followed by the for sale ad a few weeks later citing its pristine ‘unused’ condition.

Nail --> Head. I hate it when people buy something new and immediately 'review' it. I need to spend some time with this before I know what to say. Something that was instantly obvious was that the strings are going to have to go. Nothing wrong with them at all, but I won't be happy until I hear this bass with LaBella flats.

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Rest well Dusty and thanks for all the music...

I've had a full fat Anaconda which was excellent (gratuitous bass pic below). Not tried the Essence series although I saw a few on here f/s and they were getting positive comments.

the horn and hf driver were purchased this morning (along with lots of other goodies I don't really need) i may even fit tophats.... Ideal little PA for sordid parties in my s*x dungeon 😋

If the results of the rehearsal are positive, then I would be inclined to build a duplicate of what you have achieved and fit a tweeter switch to both. That way you will have 100% redundancy in the event of a cab failure. Normal use with 2 x cabs with only one tweeter switched on to avoid the issues already explained.

I have only been on the periphery of @stevieand @Phil Starr's designs so I cannot make definitive comments* however that one thing I have learnt is that you cannot design a cabinet purely by modelling and that the traditional "rules of thumbs" similarly should be used for guidance. One thing you can be sure of is that the designs that are published are rigorously tested and measured then gigged to ensure that they meet the original design criteria. Of course there are small compromises, there is always a little more that can be gained by making the box bigger, a more expensive driver but in many cases the extra is not worth the extra. * I do lay claim to the phrase "squeezing the balloon" when describing how changing any on parameter of a design affects many others>

Steinberg have a sale on at the moment and all upgrades are discounted. I have the Variaudio in my Cubase Pro (although I am just an amateur !!) and it is very good. I believe that the Variaudio is included with Cubase Artist nowadays. Also - you said in an earlier post that you do a load of takes of your vocals.... the Artist version and the Pro version of Cubase have a special "comping" function to help you assemble the best of your material.

The Blues-Rock trio I was invited to join came out of one remaining member (drummer) of a local originals trio that had a following but even they used to do some covers (main person in trio passed away a few years ago and we use a completely different name for this act) but so far we have only played one of the originals from that band in the 3 or 4 gigs we've done and even that has had a mixed reception so I think we did the right thing of filling the 2 sets with mostly fairly well known covers. Some of the lesser well known stuff (to a more general audience) that I thought would go down with the target audience (bike rallies) has also been a bit mixed reception wise and will be next target to be pruned out as we learn more stuff. We did a rally at the weekend - what do you think got most people up and dancing? Alright frigging Now. Folk like what they like and you're getting paid to entertain them.

I also spend a lot of time doing retakes of my vocals - not that you'd notice - and many of my verses are a take for each line or phrase. I know it's a confidence/practice thing because sometimes I get something spot on, only to stumble over the lyrics or something. At one point I considered joining a local rock choir to boost my confidence and literally "find my voice". I went along to one session which was OK but when I saw the list of songs I decided that I just couldn't do it -too much mid 80s soft rock and worship stuff for me but I;m still convinced thats the kinda thing I need - as well as maybe a bit of help from an the vst.

Sorry, I was just teasing you with your own thread 😉 Clearly did not work. Judas Priest's Rocka Rolla: Heavy Metal or Hard Rock?

well i've got the bass for it! 😎

Make a paper template of the body neck pocket. Tape a sheet of paper on the body above the neck pocket and trace the body neck pocket. Carefully cut out the trace and stick it to the underside of the neck. Make sure you stick the tracing the RIGHT SIDE UP. Pencil mark the neck joint to depth of the neck pocket and take time gently sanding the neck down to match the tracing.

I learned this one on electric bass very early on in my playing career after seeing it performed on TV on an Oscar Peterson fronted Jazz programme. I recorded the programme on VHS video cassette and then recorded the soundtrack off that onto a C90 tape cassette before learning the piece (I didn't write it down that time as I was not reading). No Transcribe software in those days The tune is called 'Airpower' and features the bass player Neils Henning Orsted Pedersen ripping us all a new one. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/airpower-niels-henning-orsted-pedersen/

Well despite what I said about launching into a 'review' five minutes after taking delivery, one thing that is immediately very in-yer-face with the OE roundwound strings is the amazing sensitivity to both pickup selection and plucking location. The Mudbucker is less distinctive than either of the split-P selections, but you can certainly hear the differences between the three switch positions. Bring in the Tone knob (which is not just an on/off switch, as is so often the case) and you have a very good range of tones available before you get near the amp's EQ section.

My last band transitioned from being a pub blues, blues/rock band into being an originals blues/rock band. The originals tended to blend well with the covers so we didn't have too much of a problem. I'd suggest trying a couple of others, but make sure they work really well with what you play either side of them. If one already goes down well there's no reason a couple more won't. But the opposite is also as important - ditch the ones that aren't working.

Bet it'd turn out to be made of some mad hardwood and you wouldn't be able to break the bastard !

Leg

True badger story Many years ago, I was driving down a lane in Kent that i knew very well, slowed for a corner and saw a lump in the road, i pulled up, in the lights i saw a flicker of an eye in this "lump".. I jump out of the motor and there at my feet a badger, clearly just been hit by a previous car and still just alive.. I had an old blanket in the car so bundled him up in it and put him on the passenger seat.. My plan was to take him to a local stables where i knew them very well, and ask about a vet or whatever, assuming the badger didn't die shortly. Anyway I drive off with my patient, the place was circa 10 mins away..after a few minutes in the warm car, I'm aware of stirring in the seat beside me, seems to be perking up a bit... Good sign anyway, five mins later when nearing my destination, the badger was by now fully conscious and standing up with his front paws on the car door looking out of the window ! Clearly he'd been hit and stunned but otherwise seemed ok on the face of it.. I arrive at the stables and we confer about what to do with him.. We decide to put him in a spare stable overnight with straw bedding and water to drink, and re- appraise in the morning, getting the vet to him if it looks to be necessary. After a bit of a chat i go and watch him for a while in his temporary "accommodation" by this time he's quite lively and trying to climb up the old brick walls of the stable to get out... After a bit more serious conferring we decide he doesn't appear to have suffered any serious injury, and on balance seems the best plan to release him... obviously we'd never have done so if we had any doubts that he had injuries, the lady who owned the stables was very experienced, over decades, with all types of animal so I'd trust her judgement, this was my impression also. It was about 10 pm by now, so I quietly opened the stable door and stood away... Or friend had a bit of a sniff round, then trotted off out of the door and down the big field behind the stables.. He looked absolutely fine with a fairly jaunty swagger as he disappeared into the night. He'd easily be able to back track to where he came from, hopefully going via the farmer's fields rather than the road ! And that's my close encounter with a badger... People say they're savage and will have your fingers off, but this one was happy enough in the car with me it seems, even quite chilled out like a dog or something! I'm sure he was fine, hope he learned a life lesson about roads and traffic for the future.

Shut up and.... no I can't be so rude There are a few Beymas that are really good value, the CMV range are across the board good value. It's a shame they stopped making the SM212 though. In this case the choice of the Celestion Pulse was a good one mainly because of it's mid-range performance. Most bass/mid speakers have a pronounced peak at cone break up. At high frequencies the out part of the cone can't keep up with the centre and the cone starts to flex and this creates frequency anomalies. For a 10 the response is fairly flat and rolls off evenly and this makes adding a horn driven through a simple high pass filter relatively simple. To get a flat response from most bass/mids you need to have a 'proper' crossover and control the roll off for the bass unit. The inductors for this tend to be large and relatively expensive and beyond that you often get other frequency problems which need extra components and design work to tame. You'd be amazed at the manufacturers who don't bother doing more than a cursory job on their crossovers. It's probably why some bassists don't like horns; there's nothing wrong with the horn but the crossover leaves little frequency peaks that sound harsh/distorted/honky. So Win ISD models the bass response and you may well find better 10's but the Pulse was chosen because it gave good enough bass but a really helpful treble that enabled a good response with just three cheap components in the crossover.

T'would need the processing power of Deep Blue to even try to get my 'singing' even remotely in tune. I think I'd be best relegated to the 'Lee Marvin' camp (and even then...). I envy anyone with a voice (except maybe Lurks...), and applaud anything that improves anything. Precious, me..? Precious little.