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You are of course correct my friend. Weirdly my boss doesn't see it that way. However I have loaded a couple of 'pre-EMGs' pics for your delectation. When finished it will be a Limelight Lee Sklar bass although as I don't know any famous recording artistes gathering sigs may take some time Here you go with a couple of pics of the original first: My L/L version awaiting some ink...

Not getting a good tone at the moment. Ken Barlow wearing a beige cardigan drinking a cup of Horlicks.

All the bits fitted now. Sounds great and LS is a genius for coming up with the idea. Need to do a bit more tweakery and we're good to go.

Speaking as someone who used to advise insurers on claims, if a venue required you (as the insured party) to supply evidence that equipment had been PAT tested and you bought stickers pretending they had been, and then one of your untested electrical items caught fire, I'd be looking at the least to decline your claim on the basis you failed to take reasonable steps to prevent loss or damage; or potentially on grounds of fraud or moral hazard (i.e. you procured the engagement on the basis of false representations to the venue). At best, your insurers may potentially pay the third party claim and come after you; at worst, they could look to avoid your policy and leave you to deal with the claim. Similarly, if you weren't insured and represented to the venue that your equipment had been tested when it hadn't, I would fully expect the venue's insurers to come after you to try and recoup some of the cost of any damage caused. If you had had your gear tested, and it passed, at the least you could say you acted reasonably and were not therefore negligent. Putting PAT stickers on untested equipment is the worst of both worlds - it shows you are aware of a potential need to have your equipment tested, but have deliberately chosen not to. If you haven't had it done or don't want to, don't fake it as it could make things much, much worse. And as noted above, the only legal requirement as regards PAT testing is on employers to supply equipment which is 'safe' to employees; one way of demonstrating it is safe is to have it PAT tested. If you are not an employer you have no legal obligation to have your equipment PAT tested. However, a venue may make it a requirement for access that you have your gear PAT tested. It's worth noting that there's no specific qualification required to carry out PAT testing; you just need to be a 'competent person'. I'm considering going on a PAT testing course and buying a tester so I can do my own gear, but not sure whether economically that makes sense, as I have someone that does it for £40 for up to 40 items; it looks like a basic tester is around £200, plus the cost of the course. If you had more items, or perhaps ran a studio it might be more cost-effective.

Just following up with a conversation w/ Dave over on TB so that you have a better idea about what's going on. I just heard about this decision this morning, I'm really sorry about this. The compliance issues aren't the issue with the bass gear as they are already globally compliant, but the supply chain pressures just won't let up. As soon as we solve one shortage, something else comes along to create a new issue and it's darn near daily these days. The decision was made to wait until these problems are resolved (on both the guitar and bass side) before re-starting things in the EU and UK. It's understandable why they made this decision, I absolutely acknowledge that it's frustrating for you (and for me too, for different reasons). We are seeing lead times on a few parts approaching 60 weeks, and lead times are increasing on some parts that already have scheduled delivery dates, it's a moving target. It's something that's out of anybody's control, and it's even worse on the guitar side with tubes and certain specialty capacitors/resistors, alternate sources of some parts affect safety compliance and require new approvals. Again, I am as sorry as you guys are about this, and I appreciate the few PM's I have received that were refreshingly respectful.

Probably getting ahead of myself but decided to make the truss rod covers from ebony and aluminium.

When I arrived on Saturday (not a short trip from Oxford but at least there wasn't any bad traffic!) I have to admit to being totally underwhelmed and disheartened when I entered the show. It almost felt like a joke, with maybe 15 stands in total. But then I got to talk to Sheldon Dingwall (I have three Dingwall Basses, NG3-5, DROC 4 and a Super PJ) and he spent 30mins talking to me and was just a generally awesome chap to talk too. At a busy show I doubt i'd have to 2 mins talk time with the legend. I then watched the absolutely amazing Dr Funk and got to hang out with him afterwards. So from what felt like a total joke, turned into a really special afternoon for me. I took a couple of videos of Dr Funk too, which you can find at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvkq7YjsImA and https://youtu.be/oUJ__HG6O0o.

Went pretty loud at rehearsal tonight. Volume over talent, but thunderous and great fun!

Back when they were great. That era of QOTSA was their peak. My daughter is called Flo because we saw QOTSA a month before she was born and they opened with Go with the flow. Lucky they didn't open with Regular John.

Nah, dropping down never works

The probability of someone having it is 1- the probability of nobody having it. 1-(10/11)^⁴ = 32%

The answer is yes. And no. Sometimes. Ultimately you just need to buy a new bass. It's what the doctor said.

NWA - Straight Outta Compton 1988!! Really stood the test of time.

Oh God ... he's lit the blue touchpaper ...

Yeah. I want to go to Wal. It will require me being left alone for a couple of hours and a few trips to the car with various bits of bass. I will not be questioned and charges will not be pressed. Basically. I want to steal a Wal. While pretending to be a filmmaker.

Not sure what makes "a pair of RCF 312As" a "compact budget PA". You're straight into £650/£700 if you buy new, and that's assuming that you already have the poles, the cables, and of course the mixer. Obviously a lot depends on (1) what you currently use, how big it is (dimensions, not Watts), how much of it could be re-purposed to work with the RCFs, etc. and (2) what makes the new venues you're targeting a challenge, is it because they're very small, or because there are noise limiters, or because access is restricted, etc. @Silvia Bluejay and I have a spare system too, in fact we have enough components to create a variety of different rigs to deal with different challenges. Most of our purchasing is driven by reducing the weight and simplifying the load-in/set-up at the venue. We play far more pubs than clubs, and very few events that you'd call 'functions', and we totally prefer the power amp + passive tops route for most gigs. Passive tops don't need a power supply + XLR cable, just a Speakon, so that's half the pluggery and cable routage and the Speakon cable will be far more robust under pub conditions than a 5M mic cable. Passive tops weigh a great deal less than active so they're much less likely to get knocked over by that drunken woman in a low-cut blouse as she dances sideways into the speaker pole. And if they do get knocked over, they're far less vulnerable to damage and far cheaper to repair or replace. Power amps are available cheap as chips these days and, sitting under the mixer, they take up effectively no space at all. Best of all, assuming that you currently run a top-end functions-stylee PA system with powered subs and tops, bells & whistles everywhere, then going the power amp + passive route will complement the existing rig because you can use it as a top-of-the-range monitoring system if you want.

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/i-deserve-it-reverb-fraud.1557587/

For me it’s this old girl from 1970. Bought it 28 years ago when I was a young whippersnapper at university (sold my pointy Charvel bass to get it dammit!). Been thru a lot together in that time. I don’t have lots of basses, just a few that work nicely for me. When i plug this in it reminds me why I have it.

Hi Everyone, My name is Andy and I'm the singer at the front of that picture and I can categorically say that I am most definitely NOT working with him and he will be no where near my show that night !! There are no circumstances on this earth that would have me willingly work with him again..... I don't know where the Booker got that picture from, it dates back 2018. I've asked him to remove it.

And there you have it!

Great to see this outfit getting some good support from BBC6 Music. Great players and great modern fusion of styles. Cracking drummer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0016fvw

The Timmy C is great but it is not my fav signature bass though. That spot is taken by my Spector Euro 4 Mike Starr LE. As a massive AIC fan, I had to get it and I had the Haz 9V preamp put into it. Together with the solid maple wings and the crown inlays, it comes pretty close to a NS-2. It also has the classic Spector look - White gloss, cannot get any more 80s 😉 Well, it is the only bass in my collection that is "not for sale". All the others can (and, knowing me, eventually will ; -) go but the Mike Starr is only going to the well-known destination called NOWHERE 😉

It’s amazing the difference it makes getting the gain set so the VU meter is pushed into the red on the loudest notes. Sure it can be set by ears but having a visual really helps, brings the amp to another level imo.

Sheldon is an absolute legend. If he humanly could, he would spend 30 minutes talking to each and every visitor to his stand (or BD's stand in this case), and that would include when he exhibits at NAMM and when he was with BD at the LBGS, both very busy events. At one of the past LBGSs he also gave an excellent luthiery masterclass on (tone)wood and the physics of making a bass, and spent time to continue talking to us after he had officially finished. I have the impression that he genuinely enjoys being with fellow low-enders.

That doesn't prevent people from trying to own every bass in the world.

It was a condition of entry to the venue; most places have them. Security were quite insistent about it I recall.

🤣 Horrific, but excellent combination of words!

Very true. Also "Tiny Desk" concerts and a few other similar ones.

Let's just call it what it is: a Fender sticker on a Harley Benton

Not my normal listening, but KEXP is the gift that keeps on giving and has introduced me to loads of great music that I would never other wise have encountered. Bass dude is great in this band!

Thanks @Happy Jack - some v useful pointers there. In terms of your initial questions: - why compact: we'd be looking to use these as standalone without a sub for use without any backline for bass. So my not taking a bass rig vs going from RCF 310As --> RCF 312As makes the set up much more compact; critically the RCF 310As can't really handle low end bass in a full band mix well enough for my liking; - why "budget": obviously what counts as budget is going to vary from band to band, but £700 new for 2 x RCF 312A is a lot less than the 2 x RCF 732A or 2 x QSC K12.2 alternatives which are often considered to be gold standard. They're also a lot less than an RCF Evox 8 system which I'm eyeing up for our main PA to replace the 310A set up having heard it in action with @Paul S's band and being very impressed by a "backline PA" system. Cheers for that - reassuring to hear. I suspect the next step is to audition some of the PA speakers with a 5 string bass up at PMT Romford in the next week or so.

Ild love to go around some of the U.K. luthiers with a camera and do similar - partly cos it would be interesting but also cos the marketing of smaller companies like this typically isn’t as good in the U.K. as US

I've been a fan of tuning down since I started playing in the late 80's. The first band where I was actually able to downtune was when I wrote all the music and we played slooooowww, which formed in 92. Since Sabbath had tuned to C#, we decided to go "one lower" and tune to C. It really suited the music. After I left that band, they continued, playing the songs I wrote, but tuned to E. It was awful 😂 Since then, I have played in bands who tuned to dropped-D, another who went between B standard and dropped-A and another who tuned down to A standard but had some songs in dropped-G. It's down to the music you're playing, that darkness and weight really suits lower tempo, heavy music. The last stuff I put out was tuned down to A. There is a lot of joy to be had playing the same octave as the guitar and then introducing to low A on the bass for effect. It's something I have always enjoyed immensely since I was a kid, but it's definitely not right for all music types. Some examples...

All the more bizarre since Russ Ballard wrote it (and as he mentions) pocketed the royalties! https://www.loudersound.com/features/argent-god-gave-rock-and-roll-to-you-the-story-behind-the-song

Say you have a mate local to him who could collect. I bet they suddenly go quiet. Avoid this like the plague.

In The Neighborhood ～ Tom Waits

CD's have now arrived, so for those that still do it's on Bandcamp - https://thealibi2.bandcamp.com

Those brands who did attend and stick it out deserve a huge pat on the back and thanks for all the effort they've put in as I know those pitches were not cheap! So, from me, it's a huge thank you!