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I laughed a lot! Superb from Dunlop

TBH anything that isn't a 4 string, long scale bass with either Fender or Squier on the headstock is a niche instrument.

I realised I’d strayed back on-topic!

In a lot of music stores BASSES are niche. Full-stop

Although I think U2 have gone seriously off the boil in the 21st century, they were quite something back in the day. A lot of this was down to the rhythm section - the ultimate safe pair of hands for Edge to create his effected soundscapes and Bono to sing, posture, pontificate and so on. I remember watching the Rattle and Hum video til it wore thin and falling in love with AC's battered Precision bass - for what he does, you don't need bells and whistles (and certainly not a Warwick that looks like melted chewing gum). It nearly fell apart on the Zooropa tour when he went on a big drinking sesh and had to drop a show, replaced by his tech. I believe he was read the riot act by the band and told to clean up his act or else and, to his credit, he has stayed off the dizzy water ever since. Like the other posters have said, it's harder than it looks especially in the stadium era when everything from the lights to the video screens are synced to a click track, and the folks who deride his abilities are generally non-bassists.

Deleted comment because it was irrelevant. How much further off topic was it than outside toilets 😀?

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to top this for pedalboard tetris...

It triggers mine too but less so when I use the my setup like this. However I use this setup mainly if it's a reggae gig and don't have the bass in the PA or it's an outdoor gig. Helps keep the heft in the bottom end. .

Had a fab sell-out show on Saturday night at Teignmouth Pavilion Theatre with Leather & Lace. Here's a little clip of our lovely female singer Tanyth nailing 'Black Velvet'... https://fb.watch/9swAV05Tkf/

Somebody pointed this one out in the Ebay section. After due consideration (which took several days), I decided to have it. Passive, coil-tapped pickups. Controls are pickup selector switch (bridge, both, neck) and two volumes, each with a pull pot which gives the coil tap. The cover at the body end hides the truss rod access, which I haven't delved into. Strings are standard single ball ends with a clamp at the nut end and I think an ETS bridge and tuner system. Although it's 36" scale which gave me a little trepidation, it's easy to play with quite a shallow neck. String spacing is adjustable and currently set to 17.5mm. Fretboard is flat (unradiused). Rather a nice touch - the fret markers cascade across the fretboard. The sound is quite impressive, the coil taps are effective. Appearance-wise, the lines are (to my eye anyway) quite flowing, with an asymmetry that works well. I may adjust the string spacing, not sure about that. I do need to replace the strap pegs with Boston Schaller-compatibles (cue the straplock war).

Oh my goodness. Watched the live version from 2014, all 13.47 minutes of it. First impressions, great filthy bass sound, guitarist in a prog band who was actually quite understated and didn't just noodle at speed for ten minutes, singer who stood in shadow at the back - just brilliant to see that - and what a drummer!

I have always used a single cable direct from bass to amp, no effects. I've been doing it this way for the last 45 years or more.

The sounds I use, the best pedal I own for each position. Missing is distortion but that is one of the gifts of the SY-1, just about any sound you want is in there somewhere. And with all else in the SY-1's parallel loop the synth effects come through unhindered and at whatever level I choose.

Just saw this one. The finish is called "Metal Flake Clown Vomit Green Finish". Clown vomit? Really? 🥴 Who comes up with such a name and who wants to have a bass with a "clown vomit" finish? Ok, maybe it's a great bass and cheap. So, what's the price you are asking? Well, the price is a whopping £ 3,649. Wow. Well, maybe it sounds amazing and plays well. Never heard of "Blast Cult" but could be good, maybe even very good, not ruling it out, but with a sparkly clown vomit finish? Don't think I will give a try. What about you? https://thebassgallery.com/collections/bass/products/blast-cult-thirty-five

As of now, I've been asked to play on NYE by eight different venues and with three different bands. This might make sense if I was God's gift to bass playing, but as it happens ...

I must remember that next time I see a sonic blue Fender 😀😂

Surely an ideal colour for a Chunderbird?

Some roots from Jammy's

A Nice story.

Lots of people are always waxing lyrical about flea , mark king , Louis Johnson , Stanley Clark , jack Bruce , jaco so on and so forth ,whilst these bassist are highly praised and worthy , little or no fuss is made of the late great Andy Fraser , former free bassist lyricist . Being a fan of his playing for many years his sound and style of playing is so clever and melodic not only carries the beat but on occasion takes the bass to another level as a lead instrument, with himself paying tribute to binky mckenzie as a driving force to becoming a better player after soaking up his influence, when you hear him lay down bass lines from such a young age of 15 and making such sophisticated recordings of a mature standard, it makes you wonder how many 15 year olds to today could muster these sort of skills , answers… not many . so what I am saying is simple this is a life skill of shear intelligence as a bassist he is so over looked for such a innovative style , dare I say more famous bassist get all the credits , so I am putting out there a bassist is not all about slap slap slap yes of course I love it as well , but don’t pass by and forgot the lesser spoke about genius that was mr Andy Fraser , check him out and pass on the word for the next bassist talent to see how it’s done . Pj

May an eighty year old member of the forum be permitted to say... I think it’s rather good!

As a left-handed, 5-string bassist who plays fretted and fretless (and, God forbid, also upright 4 and 5 string!), I agree that going to an actual shop for anything that's not a Fender, 4 string, fretted bass guitar is a bit of a waste of time. Large, out of town stores are possible exceptions. What I found depressing when I was a beginner student, in my early 40s, was being offered the abovementioned 4-string Fenders even after stating at the very beginning of the conversation that 1. my hands are small, 2. I'm in proportion to my hands, so I don't want a bass with a big body, and 3. I'm actually left-handed, for real, so there's no point in suggesting I learn to play right-handed. The only concession to the above that the salesmen (all men!) would usually do was to offer a Fender Jazz, as opposed to a Precision, because the neck is so thin. What a pity its body is huge, heavy and stupidly shaped... So I think many bass players who want to look beyond Fender have been saved by the internet and the high number of good, higher-end luthiers we have in this country and abroad.

I don't get the hatred of Clayton. Same as the hatred for Mike Kroeger out of Nickelback. They play just what the songs need. Maybe they are told to just play what's needed. If you look at Cliff Williams from AC/DC, he is told to keep it simple. Same with the drumming. No fills or rolls. Just simple. Let Angus take the spotlight. None of these guys care as they are pocketing a fortune and the fans are happy.

4 months later, I can close the loop and thank everyone who chipped in with advice! Mark just sent the infamous wooden floor shots and all being well I’ll get to play this beauty this week.

Yeah, I've poked fun at AC's abilities, but the fact remains that he's made more money playing fewer notes than any other bassist you'd care to mention. Working by the formula Cost per note = Massive wealth / note then he's probably the most expensive bassist on the planet per note.

This topic subject is always going to be a contentious one. Formerly a guitarist first, I have not owned many brands of basses so have virtually no useful personal experience of the differences their construction woods, neck through, set neck or bolt on etc has on their sound. (this is one of the reasons I joined this forum and talkbass). When I decided to have a go at playing bass properly I made my choice from the bass sounds I enjoyed the most in my record collection, and chose the one who's sound i found the most interesting. Hence ended up with high end bass. With that bass I haven't chosen based on any claimed tonal properties of the woods of construction as I have confidence that any bass I buy from their brand will sound fine. If I was to choose to buy another of their basses it would be based on the model and the cosmetic appearance of their body & woods. I would be hard pressed to recall a gig I went on that the bass sound was dreadful, badly mixed ..yes, some I prefer more than others. Buy what you like and your budget allows, enjoy playing it and pay less attention to what others think you should be playing. Life is too short, and really who actually cares about diminishing returns if you are playing a bass you really love engaging with regardless of price point?

Spamming some more UK product development pics. Here are CHB body blanks ready to be routed (and be painted and have necks fitted).

I've got a NYE gig this year at the Cheese & Grain in Frome, with the ska band, supporting an Abba trib. Something tells me it's going to be a brilliant night. Can. Not. Wait. *jumps up and down like excited 5 year old*

If we applied the same sort of approach to electric instruments as orchestral players do, why is it then that orchestral players may pay £10s of k for their instruments or even hire one which has even more value, when for anyone who has children who learn instruments will know student instruments can be had for the outlay of £100s rather than £1000s + (thankfully)? It would be interesting to hear the sound of an entire symphony orchestra playing student instruments - I think sound and it’s appreciation is a very subjective thing and works also at the margins where, to some people, an imperceptible difference is a massive chasm to others. When I hear people say, of bass sounds, it’ll not be detectable in the mix, well that’s certainly true in some mixes (especially some pop music of the last decade or more) but ask it to do a more fundamental job in the music performed (rather than background plodding and mush) and place it higher in the mix, I’m afraid I completely disagree. That’s where your sound is crucial. It’s also fundamentally important to the player that they are happy with their instrument and the sound it makes - regardless of how much it cost. Some people work on the basis of getting great satisfaction out of a financial bargain - good luck to them - but that’s no reason to suggest others are paying through the nose to achieve value which is not part of the bargain hunters’ core requirements. I once played in a tribute band to an early 60s famous pop outfit - the other guys were from an earlier generation and I always used to inwardly snigger as they loaded their newish Mercedes cars with flight cases to protect their cheap Mexican Fender instruments and wreck the inside of their expensive cars - but the idea of buying a Custom Shop Strat was to them anathema and an extravagance - a sort of an austerity attitude to their musical hobby and anything else would be an indulgence - whereas the cars demonstrated a different approach!!! The world would be a very boring place if we were all the same (especially if we all played Sunburst P basses 😂 - a sort of free market musical version of the Trabant to the motoring market)

Those five string basses, just new fangled fancy malarkey, never catch on

Where have I seen that Verso headstsock design before....?

Also, I could be wrong and just being prejudice, but the first thing that springs to mind is an old shop selling violins and pianos going 'oh, these new fangled electric things will never take on, and who is Hendrix anyway, sounds like a washing machine to me'!

Decided after much pondering that the grain is going to irritate me too much, and more importantly that I'm just not enough of a fan of white to make it work, so unfortunately this one is winging it's way back north to Glasgow. Hopefully a sunburst one will be back down in a few days!

Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Here in New Jersey we have a shop in Edison that carries, the last time I was there, a few Alembics, several lefties, 5&6's fretted & fretless, a couple of those short rubber-band basses, THEY EVEN HAD A CHAPMAN STICK. The owner met Emmett in the 70's and has always tried to have one (or two). Pedullas, etc. The place is known up and down the East Coast. And it's a SMALL shop.

I look forward to seeing this in other finishes - a brown or olive called weaning baby poo; a white called 80s dog crap; a black called no 50 pences for the leccy meter; a red called Burned English man on the Med I mean, the possibilities really are endless.

The BDI21 will always give you a mid scoop, unless the footswitch is pressed or the Blend control is at 0%. Here's what my BDI21's frequency response looks like with Blend at 100% and all the other controls at 50%: There are effectively two sections of the BDI21 - the amp simulator controlled by the Drive and Presence controls, and the EQ controlled by the Treble and Bass knobs. The Blend knob bypasses the amp simulator, and the footswitch bypasses the whole thing. The whole of the frequency response above, including the huge 800 Hz notch, comes from the amp simulator, so if you want less mid scoop, turning down the Blend control will do it. When Blend is at 0% and Treble and Bass are at 50%, the frequency response is more or less flat. Something I didn't realise until I measured it was that the Presence control's behaviour is a bit non-obvious - turning it up applies a few dB of treble boost, but it also significantly reduces the depth of the notch. Here are overlaid frequency responses with Blend at 100% and Presence at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%: So if you like the drive effect but want less notch, another option is to turn Presence up all the way, then turn Treble down a little to compensate for the treble boost...

If it works .......leave it well alone. Dave

That is a very subjective view. However I certainly can tell the difference between instruments of the same make and type but different fretboard necks and bodies, for instance and definitely between low end and higher end models of the same instrument type, as a player. Anyone else’s view is frankly irrelevant to the player. I would be surprised if anyone couldn’t tell the difference between say the sound of a Precision bass, a Stingray and an Alembic. I do worry that there’s a certain level of sniping at other people’s choices somehow being wrong, irrelevant or less relevant in threads like this. Surely, so long as the musician is happy with their choice then it is likely they will get joy from performing and will be closer to achieving their playing ability than if they were playing something that they were not happy with - regardless of how much they paid for an instrument to achieve that. I’m happy to pay extra, for example, for a figured maple neck or a specific colour because they please me, aesthetically. Others may not like them - it’s all a matter of personal choice - and there are lots of them with an instrument. Functionality is by no means the only driver for purchases.

Two favourites for me. Ayron Jones’ debut(ish) album, Child of the State - my favourite new thing to come out of Seattle since the 90’s (and boy do I love me some Seattle music!) And Jerry Cantrell, lead guitarist of Alice in Chains’ new solo album Brighten I’m going to have a listen to the other suggestions in the thread this afternoon!

This is what was usually found at my grandparents'. Trust me: it looks better than it felt

This bass is on the Rickenbacker Register and looks to be a lovely example of an original '88 mapleglo 4003. http://www.rickresource.com/register/viewitem.php?id=34710

I've tried the washer solution and it worked perfectly! Pretty strange that he didn't try it out, maybe he was afraid of damaging the bass.

Here's my entry for November. It's a slow, mellowish instrumental with lots of chiming guitar to try and get that twinkly, night sky, relaxing feeling while everyone else is doing the heavy lifting to put things in order. A Looperman sample for drums, Epiphone guitar with lots of echo effects, home-made cigar box guitar, violin bass and a tiny smidge of keys. Recorded using NCH Wavepad and Audacity.

I loved his playing on the Pop album. Great noises and lines.

Well, I apologise for my attendance record this year, although I do have a note from me mum !! I've been really impressed with this years output from you all, so it's time to drag it back a bit... I heard a play on the radio a few days after the picture was posted. The play told a story of a clever young woman who manipulated two men, so much so that they ended up in a very bad state. Not with her body but purely with mind games, t'was very clever. So that was the premise. You may notice a few 'made up ' words within the lyrics ? I wrote the first line down and then sung along with the track to see if it worked. Imagine my surprise when I'd got to the end😳 So they are as they came out me head ! Anyhow, enough waffle.....