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I read this story on FB earlier (this is a direct quote, it is someone else writing in the first person, not me): "Twenty years ago, Charlie Watts did a week at Ronnie Scott's with his tentet. A hell of a line-up. Henry Lowther, Gerard Presencer, Mark Nightingale, Peter King, Julian Arguelles, Evan Parker, Brian Lemon. EVAN PARKER AND BRIAN LEMON in the same band. That's a combination that nobody would think of booking. Except for Charlie Watts. Why? Because that's who he liked and who he wanted. And of course, always, always, his childhood mate on bass, the wonderful, endlessly versatile Dave Green. My mate Joel Taylor, who's now high up on the Metro paper, was then a junior reporter at the Camden New Journal. He rang me "Want to come to Ronnie's free with me next week? I'm reviewing Charlie Watts". My response was swift and decisive. So the following week, there we were. We ordered a bottle of wine. When it arrived, we went to pay. "That's on the house." Nice. Second bottle. Same reply. Third bottle. You get the idea. Eventually, we needed to soak some of this up. We ordered a basket of chips. "That'll be £3.50". The following week, I saw Joel for a pint and he said "I've got to the bottom of the wine thing. Cindy Hacker (one of the club management, who handled the PR side) explained that Charlie Watts had said he'd foot the drinks bill of every journalist who came to see the show. When it came to the chips, we were on our own". I should add that it was a great night. That line-up delivered, and the drummer wasn't too shabby. Joel has reminded me tonight that, touchingly, Charlie peered round the curtain just before they went on to see if anyone was in. It was a sell-out for the whole run. It's clear that was the sort of man Charlie Watts was. Someone (possibly either Pete Cater or Brian Bennett) told me that when Ronnie and Pete King were having trouble, which happened a lot, due to Soho landlords and stuff, Charlie was always there. He'd put a band in for a week, pay them out of his own pocket and let Ronnie and Pete keep the door and the bar takings. He saved the club a few times that way. He played rock for a living, but played jazz for pleasure, and his way of paying it all back was to keep the premier jazz venue in the UK afloat, and to keep his mates in well-paid work. It's a sad day. Being a drummer is to be in the finest club of all, and we've lost one of the very best of all of us." Charlie Watts, a real class act.

Don't be ridiculous. Most of us are well past the first flush of youth. Many are even OAPs like me. For me, there's not a lot to do or say apart from feel sad about the news. We don't feel the need to rush into print. Respond how you wish and leave others to do the same.

Fun fact: the original photo depicts exactly what is wrong with this young man.

I'm already loving this Sandberg VS4. Satin black, rosewood fb with abalone. Superb balance either sat or standing. Nice wide fingerboard, but not full PBass width, 22 frets with really good access, flattish radius and (for me) the perfect string spacing High output passive pickups (anyone know what they are?). 30in scale (it's the strangely named "Lionel" edition). I'm a very happy chappy.

Isn’t it incredible how many people can feel the good vibes of a single person through our little community. Buying and selling here has always been a pleasure because it takes trust, and more often than not leads to friendship. Martin’s family are truly humbled by the fantastic showing of memories and tributes posted here. What an awesome endorsement of the community and what a tribute to Martin.

@lee650 and I raised a glass tonight x

I would have paid good money to be in the room when someone told Dave Grohl about it 😂

And let’s not forget he did get paid at the time, his $1 is clearly in the shot.

Deoxit D5 is the one that I use most days. Sorts out the noisiest most crackly pots in no time. Money well spent.

So I came home today to this……. (See pics) My 1984, serial 067 Streamer headstock (it was a glued repair) has miraculously let go…. The body has a minor dent at the bottom from my guitar rack, and obviously the bass is beheaded. Like Gibsons, the early Streamers were prone to breakage due to not having a volute. The break was pretty ugly and repaired by a monkey, but the bass sounds wonderful and glue is stronger than wood. So I used it quite often, never an issue. But since it has let go and I will probable never be able to sell anyway, I have hatched a cunning plan….. I could replace a large part of the top of neck and headstock with new wood, add some splines ….. basic traditional Gibson-esque surgery. But I am going to do something else….. I am going to use the wood of the headstock, graft that in place (keeping serial number intact) and turn the bass into a (semi) headless! Will post the plan/design here soon. But the plan is to go from beheaded to headless, using mostly original wood.

Not enough credit to @upside downer for the thread title. Way to go, sir

According to another article referenced in the above, he recreated the photograph 5 years ago and allegedly suggested to the photographer that he, Elden, should be naked. "I said to the photographer, 'Let's do it naked.' But he thought that would be weird, so I wore my swim shorts," Spencer told the New York Post. Money-grabbing twot

No, you have to bring your own

We've got our first post-lockdown gigs this weekend. At the last rehearsal I decided to make sure everything I would be using at the gig is working. Extension cab - no sound coming out of it at all Overdrive pedal - has developed a fault, I think it might be the switch. I fixed the cab - a wire had come out of its internal connector. It's back up and running. I haven't got time to tinker with the OD pedal so I took the opportunity to experiment with a different one and it arrived today. Moral of the story - in the excitement to get going again don't just rock up to your first gig back without checking ALL your gear, otherwise you might end up looking like a right berk

10 months later the bass has finally arrived... Overwater J5 Contemporary Figured Maple Top Ebony Fretboard Abalone Inlays Black/Grey Burst - Comes out more purple in photos Can't wait to plug it in later!

I had a studio session just after everything opened up. Gear worked fine but when it came to pack down, I couldn't unplug the speaker cable from the cab, no matter how I twisted or pulled the plug. ....I'd forgotten that Neutrik connectors have a little slidey thing you have to pull back to unplug it.

There are 3 separate threads running simultaneously. This one, the Chatlie Watts has put in a dep thread and the notable deaths thread. However, it's not a competition about who is showing the right amount of grief.

I’m sure he gets recognised all the time from that shot…..

Talkbass has a slightly larger membership, I imagine...

I’m not the expert here but it looks like a Bb1100s

Good god that's squalid. You'd think they'd at least hose it down before taking pics. 🤢 No idea how I missed @Reggaebass' thread, this sort of thing being of interest to me - and it's a pity I did, because I think I've got a brass Kay trc at the bottom of a spares draw somewhere!

I really wouldn't use WD40 ! Servisol switch cleaner is good stuff with a good reputation, I've used that whenever I've needed to sort pots etc out.. Worked well on an old Lucas indicator switch in the motor too !

This should be on the landing page of this website, in a huge and luminous font. My band have done a couple of shows since the end of house arrest and before the first one, I dragged all my gigging gear to a local rehearsal room to make sure everything still created the appropriate noises. Just me, without the band. Fortunately, it all still worked, but I think it would be foolhardy to trust any gear that has been sitting still for eighteen months. Weird things can happen...

That's it. I'm getting one. The gas monster has been aroused once again.

People play bass with plicktrums 😳, whatever next 😂

My guess is that a lawyer has contacted him with the suggestion that there might be money in it for both of them... Given the fact that this dude was obviously fine with the situation before..

I think that video was very fair and was at pains to attempt to temper the viewer's expectations of what an £89 guitar can be realistically expected to be - much more than I was expecting, given that they're in the selling business. They pointed out that the stock strings are the cheapest garbage and disclosed that they had restrung them for the video, they mentioned they were using amps and pedals which cost many times what the guitar did (which goes some way to explain how good it sounds in the video), they pointed out the limitations of the wraparound bridge/tailpiece, they pitched it almost exclusively at beginners and even discussed the financial of buying it to modify/upgrade and the ceiling you would hit of its basic construction and nature, they even said something like it was a 5/10 player (I think that's in the bit where they discuss the word "overwhelmed" and whether or not you can be underwhelmed or even simply whelmed). That's just what I remember from one watch through. Having watched the whole thing, I feel I'd be able to approach this guitar eyes open with a realistic expectation. I don't see how you could have gone wrong, unless you skipped all the talky bits and just listened to the playing? My point (in which I wrote far too much so no-one read it) was not that all cheap products are amazing these days - it was simply that today's cheapest instruments have never been closer to the mid/high range of the market. What would you have got for a tenner in 1975? Some Woolworths monstrosity that you didn't so much play as wrestle with? What would forty quid have got you in 1990? Not much, I'm guessing. I've never played this E1 (and I wouldn't know where to start) but I'm willing to say that it'll be better than anything you could get for the equivalent money in times past. Before I took up the bass, I owned an Epiphone Special II, early to mid nineties I think. I don't remember much about it, apart from pretty awful tuners with a lot of play in them but I do remember it put me off playing guitar for life so I thank it for (eventually) pointing me in the direction of where I am today.

BASH NEWS - OFFICIAL T-SHIRT!! OK guys, we've bitten the bullet and commissioned another Bass Bash T-shirt - incorporating the Basschat logo (thanks Ped!). This time it's a more colourful design (that's not specific to this year's event) on a combat-green, 100%-cotton, good quality shirt. To keep the price down to £15, we've had to order 70 shirts. This means that me and Mrs. Scrumpy will have to fork out a big chunk of money for these in the next couple of weeks so could those who definitely want one please PLEASE get behind this by PM-ing me your order and paying in advance. There will be enough shirts for anyone who's not sure to purchase on the day. We've ordered in M, L, XL, 2XL and 3XL so just order what you normally wear and we'll measure/confirm the actual sizes when received. Thanks in advance!

Dan Reed posted that when the Network opened for the Stones in 1990, Charlie had his own sewing machine on tour and repaired his own suits on tour. That's pretty classy. RIP Charle Watts

I'm starting a breeding program.

Everyone's missing the point. The reason Roth is off the tour is because it's cheaper without him.... especially as he doesn't actually sell any tickets because he's so bad. Gene is just stirring it up (as he always likes to) because he loves seeing people getting all self righteous at everything he says! lol! You've all fallen for it again. 🤣 Roth never COULD sing for toffee..... and now can't sing at all. He should have gone to Vegas as a lounge act after A L'il Ain't Enough era.... that way he could talk his way through 'My Way' etc. Stanley, however, could sing very well and is now just doing what's necessary to see out the farewell...

In my opinion there has never been a more precarious time for mid/high priced instruments. Overall quality at the bottom end of the price range has been steadily improving and the quality gap which the premium products used to command has never been narrower. Keeping it focused on the Thunderbird, the current Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro is more Thunderbird than the contemporary Gibson offering ever was. What is that more than doubling of the price getting you? A hard case (fair enough), Gibson on the TRC (which doesn't really carry that much cache in the bass world anyway as we're all well aware), two more layers in the neck laminate, a worse choice of colours, tired old TB+ pickups and arguably a worse bridge (in terms of functionality and operation). I can't see any way the Gibson Thunderbird is the degrees of better than the current Epiphone Vintage Pro commensurate with the price premium it commands. I'm not even sure if it is actually better. Gibson should be scared by this. Their premium products need to blow the cut price ones out of the water to justify the prices they're listed for and frankly speaking, I don't think they do. I don't think facsimile is a fair word - Epiphones are genuine, sanctioned Gibson products in their own right. If some other company started making Thunderbirds, I'd call them copies/facsimiles. I find the pickups interesting on the NR Thunderbird Gibson have brought out recently, if those chrome covers (which I really hope aren't hiding TB+ pickups) aren't a tacit admission that Epiphone have been getting it right with regard to the Thunderbird of late then I don't know what is. At time of writing, I am of the opinion that Gibson basses are not worth worth the price they are commanding - partly because I think they've gone stale and partly because of the excellent job Epiphone have been doing of late. I have 2 Epiphones currently, both bought from new. The Jack Casady, which I have felt the need to make no alterations/upgrades to, and an Embassy to which the only thing I've done to it is swap out the tuners - they were a bit crap admittedly. In terms of quality, build and playability, I can't fault either of them. Well put together, well finished, good fretwork, needed nothing more than very basic setup (action/intonation/relief) to play the way I like. I don't expect any volume produced bass regardless of how much it cost to be tailored to me right off the bat so I don't think that counts. Some people may have viewed me as a bit of a Gibson fanboi/apologist in the past but the je ne sais quoi allure of the brand was lost on me some time ago. I still have a soft spot for the old Gibsons, but I'd want my head examined if I bought a Gibson Thunderbird new today.

Looking good on the 210 anyway! Now to test it....