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A present to myself at Christmas time, although I don’t celebrate it. couldn’t ask for more if I did 😄

Also this

What are you up to this New Years Eve ? Staying home, party , gig ? Me , very low key. Gig at The Barley Pop in Germantown WI. Great hours, 3:00 - 7:00 with 15 minute commute. I should be home by 9:30. Blue

If we don't get locked down, and nobody in the band catches Omicron or is pinged etc., we are gigging with Damo And The Dynamites at a nice small pub in Buckinghamshire. There will be little space for the band and even less space for the PA and the sound engineer (me), so we'll try to simplify the setup as much as we can. 🤞

Happy Xmas, peoples of Basschat. 🎅🎄🎉

I got this from my son for Crimbo 🥳

Box no.2, mahogany and oak, BLO with wax. I'm not convinced with how I left the end where the lid fits in, I should have cut the top frame rail in half so the end panel is finished rather than flapping in the breeze, but that would have bu$$ered up the proportions. Yes it looks like another table tomb.

Just listen to Ray Brown’s playing on Have You Met Miss Jones. Every note in its place and an example of how to swing without going he’ll for leather. Happy Christmas!

Angel Dust - Faith No More The first album where Billy Gould really showed the full range of his talent and versatility. The record blurs genres with bits of pop, heavy metal, lounge jazz and alternative rock mashed together in to something completely original. Paranoid - Black Sabbath Geezer Butler at his most creative and possibly the most influential metal album ever. And out come the wolves - Rancid Matt Freeman was absolutely on fire from the first note to the last on this album. About as far from typical punk bass as it gets. He combines elements of ska, rockabilly and punk in to something really special and in my opinion, the greatest punk album of all time.

Rattus Norvegicus - The Stranglers All Mod Cons & Setting Sons - both by The Jam

Merry Christmas Folks! 🎄☃️😊

Three that immediately spring to mind: Marvin Gaye - Whats Going On Donny Hathaway - live Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debbie

It doesn't happen nearly as often as I would like but, occasionally, there is an album that you listen to and, from the first beat to the last, it is special and you keep going back to it for inspiration, sometimes for decades. A few I can't get over are: Michel Camilo Big Band- Caribe - Anthony Jackson is on absolutely top form here. He is also massively impressive on Steve Kahn's live album 'The Suitcase' - a double live CD with Anthony Jackson on fire. Allan Holdsworth's 'Road Games' with Jeff Berlin ripping us all a new one. Jimmy Johnson on the first three Wayne Johnson Trio albums; Arrowhead, Grasshopper and Everybody's Painting Pictures Bruford's first three: Feels Good To Me, One Of A Kind and especially Gradually Going Tornado - Jeff Berlin at his finest but the production on the last one really works for the bass. Joni Mitchell 'Shadows and Light' - Jaco's finest moment? Possibly. But what about Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life. Marc Johnson's Bass Desires Dave Holland's Conference Of The Birds. Which are the albums you go to for bass inspiration?

We all started somewhere, I used to hear terrible bass players in brum, hence I’m not famous and awful at bass 😄👍🏻

I've got a bank lined up. It's next to a Library, which has very scant security and whose cellar is adjacent to the bank's main vault. So it's get all the drilling gear downstairs, a couple of hours on the coalface.. and I'm in.

Medeski, Martin and Wood - Shack Man Primus - Sailing The Seas of Cheese Mr. Bungle - California King Crimson - Discipline Cynic - Focus Parliament - Mothership Connection The Pacific Breeze compilations released by Light in the Attic, wonderful City Pop comps!

White with a mint pick guard looks great with a maple neck

Want to keep playing, but got kids and food to sort!

Don't want to rub it in, but this arrived from Germany for me a couple of weeks back. Awesome basses you'll love it.

Christmastime:

In an interview a couple of decades back: "What are your influences Pino?" "Stevie Wonder's left hand." Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life.

It's been a challenging year for many with COVID and Brexit but for most of us, we've made it through 2021 at least. Christmas isn't celebrated where I am so it's otherwise an unremarkable weekend and a normal working week until we get New Years Day off. But I'll be cooking Christmas lunch and in the evening our place will be deluged by 7 nine year olds from my son's class for dinner, along with their parents. Whatever you're doing, where ever you are, we hope you have a relaxing break, an opportunity to take a step back from the usual grind and enjoy some quality time with the ones you love. Merry Christmas from the BC Moderating team

Unfortunately, my Christmas present did not make it in time. Ordered it from a shop in Germany but there were problems with obtaining export forms or something like that. Don't worry, I am not starting a rant about "you know what", but it is still a bummer. Well, will be my first bass of 2022 then 🙂

Gig at a small local venue in Bolton. Postage stamp stage. Unless our Prime Minister cancels it for us...

"Chicago's" early albums with Peter Cetera on bass, especially their first album "Chicago Transit Authority".

Quadrophenia. IMO JE’s finest hour.

TBH at this point I’m going to go with what the family say as opposed to AI colourisation algorithm 😄

Most people who’ve been in the Spector or Musicman threads know I’ve been lusting for a Wal. There’s been arguments against, offered alternatives and arguments for, all of which I read and yay or nay that lust didn’t change. This wasn’t sudden GAS this has been going on for years, but failing to act and cheaper impulse buys stopped me. Lately the £5,000 - £10,000 (yes 9.9k on eBay) has started to see my dream bass slip further into just that, a dream. So, as with most of my purchases ‘it all happened so fast.’ I was searching the internet for “Wal for sale UK” and there it was, Bass Bros in Stratford upon Avon had a Wal Pro 1, Birds eye’s maple and not only that it was almost in my favourite colour ‘honey burst’ AND it had the single pickup at the Bridge end of the bass where it should be. (I love my stingrays and modulus FU) But and this was a heart dropping moment , it was passive with just a volume, tone and series/parallel switch… What the hell, a quick call to Will at Bass Bros and a chat about some gear I could part exchange had me promising to head down the next day (it was afternoon and late in the day I had things on) to: 1. Check the Wal out and 2. For him to check my gear out so I could haggle him up a bit more. I got as far as the kitchen and was suddenly back on the phone to him making arrangements to be on the road within the next hour… (now the GAS had hit home.) I took the Waza bass air with me as I didn’t think he’d have an all tube/Bag End setup and I’m familiar with how my other basses sound through the headphones. I played it cool when I arrived, there it was sat on a stand but I ignored it while we passed the usual pleasantries, until, finally the time had come. “Would you like to try it” It had flats on and the action was high for me but as soon as I plucked the first note a huge grin I couldn’t stop appeared. That Wal sound, punchy, loud, distinctive, beautiful. It took me less than a minute to know I was going to take this bass home with me and after Sterling service by Will an exchange of gear and some funds I was on my way home. Casting furtive glances in the rear view mirror at the Wal sat in its case, like it was some super model crossing and uncrossing her legs while she promised I was going to get some when I got to my destination those miles went by quickly. photos courtesy Bass Bros

Who will be doing the refinish, as a burst is more difficult and time consuming, therefore more expensive? Just something to bear in mind. My 2p worth on colour choice. Fiat did the 500 in a lovely dark turquoise, that with that neck and the blocks & binding would look great. I know you don't want a scratchplate, but a mint one with the turquoise would be fantastic. Turquoise Fiat 500 Anniversario

This appears on my feed within minutes of reading your post. All the colours. With glitter.

Working, I had nothing social planned and I prefer getting paid double or more to getting drunk.

Nothing, am on call for work, but wouldn’t be going out anyway unless I was gigging

We can't not have a Christmas song by a bass player:

And many more, including:

That's the key quality I always look for in a band.

Me from both bands. BLOCKBUSTARZ 70's Glam Rock covers band last gig and Emergency Exit classic 70's Punk covers band recent gig.

I’ve got some bad news; there is no such thing as an accelerator when it comes to jazz. I recall an amusing quote from Mark Levine’s Jazz Theory Book when talking about standards - something like “if you want to play in New York you had better know most if not all of these tunes” - referring to several hundred standards. I’d categorise jazz as “slow” learning - sure, you can learn scales, modes and chords, and learning some piano will definitely move you forward - but you need years of listening, transcribing (if you want to) and playing stuff you don’t know and can’t play. Improvisation is great fun but it can be a mountain to climb initially because there are so many possibilities. If I were looking for value I’d spend the money on buying a load of jazz albums - and wear them out. One more quote from the same book: “all the answers are in your record collection”.