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I've been a bit lax with this thread lately but Friday's gig was ace. The Great British Alternative Festival at Butlins in Skegness. I've never even been to a Butlins let alone a festival at one so the whole thing was pretty bizarre to me. We were first on at 4pm on the 2nd stage, and after a 3.5hr journey there and feeling pretty ill, I didn't have high hopes. The venue was not what I was expecting at all, like some sort of giant shopping centre food court or something, but the stage was plenty big enough. The sound was ace and we went down well. There must have been 1000 people there

After 40 years of playing guitar in bands, and never being without a band until 2016, I've got my first gig on bass! I first picked up a bass last November, so almost a year ago, and I was immediately hooked. I have practiced pretty much every day for at least an hour, until I felt confident enough to start looking for an opportunity to play with others. In the end, it was me who was approached, and we did our first rehearsal last night. It's an originals project, female singer/songwriter who plays guitar and piano and who is also a fabulous drummer (though she's not touching the kit in this project). Her husband is playing guitar, and the drummer is also female. Rehearsals were well organised, lots of info in advance including MP3 demos, in a brilliant live performance venue, proper stage, monitoring, a real piano, and even a house bass amp - Mark Bass CMD102P for me to use. They were pleased with what I was doing and it looks set to continue. This feels like a moment. Thanks for listening 😁 Cheers, Rob

I didn't have the confidence ( or the technical skill) to think of a career in music as possible. Like most youngsters I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living (sleeping all day and going to the pub at night wasn't an option apparently!), my Mum was insistent that I was going to University to qualify as a history teacher. After a spectacular argument involving me saying that I didn't want to do that ,and her insisting that I tell her WHAT I wanted to do instead I blurted out...PLUMBER ( I have no idea why!). The next day I came home from school and was taken to a family friend's house, for an interview with his friend, who owned a plumbing business... et Voila..I was an apprentice plumber! It was years later after playing the clubs, pubs, and corporate circuit as a part timer, that I moved to Tenerife, joined a band and earned a "living" playing bass for three and a half years. Maybe doesn't carry the Kudos of being in a famous band, or even, teaching music and playing in theaters, but I enjoyed my time playing to the holiday makers...having a laugh and generally being an irresponsible fifty year old. 😉

New Cardboard Packaging Day! I ordered a cardboard box from Thomann and it came with this little beauty included for free! 😃 Reading another thread, I was intrigued by the Bass VI concept and I thought I'd give it a go with the Harley Benton version as I could do with the extra couple of strings but I have small guitar player hands. So far, very impressed with the quality (the only adjustment I've made is to raise the height of the neck pick up as it was quite quiet). Not too heavy and the string spacing is the same as a guitar, which is comfortable for me.

When I was in my last term at school, my school music teacher found out I wanted to be a musician for a living, he decided to try belittling me at every opportunity he could find. He was quite young and fancied himself as a bit of a musical hero. A proper show off. In reality, he had no ears at all, a terrible feel for music, wore Piano players boxing gloves and had an internal metronome that could have done with some new batteries. Finally, I had enough at the end of term when he really went for it in the final lesson.... He pointed at me from behind his upright piano, "what am I playing?" Me "God Save The Queen"...."In F....for some reason" Him again..."Oh, I see" and smirked..."what am I playing now?" Me "God Save the Queen...in G" Him "Playing games then?" Me "no, Mr Clement" Him "What's this then?" and played some minor chord nonsense in his usual non-musical way. Me "I'm not sure...I don't really know, sir" Him..." God Save the Queen in D minor...You need to do some ear training if you want to go far in the business". Me..."Okay, that's fine. But so do you, that was never God Save The Queen in D minor, and you know it...or actually, maybe you don't..." In fairness to him, no more was said, and I never saw him again, until I was working for Lloyd Webber and his JCS show in Norwich. At the end of a show, someone hung over the pit rail, holding a program and said to the MD, "where's xxxxx xxxx, the Bass Guitarist?" The MD pointed to me; I was actually standing next him talking at the time. "Do you remember me?"..."I was teaching you music" (or he said something similar" His face looked familiar, then it came horrifically flooding back...he said "Mr Clement"... Me: Ah yes, of course. Him, putting his hand out for a shake; "how are you?" Me: "F**k Off..." I then walked off with the MD for a beer...hoping Clement wasn't going to be in the pub. And he wasn't I wasn't proud of myself, and it was really out of character for me, also the MD was quite taken back with my behaviour. But we all had a good laugh about it in the pub. The MD found it really amusing, although myself, I was a bit worried for a couple of days...

True story: At school I told my careers advisor in front of my whole class I wanted to ve a session musician. She replied, “That’s all well and good Daniel, but what will you do for a real job?” In your face lady! My bass has been solely paying all of my bills for many, many years now and has been my obsession for over 35 years (as those who have seen my reviews know!)

Just to follow up on this little beauty/eyesore . . . It's now my number 1 bass. It's light and easy play, the tone is not massively versatile, but I like the tone it has. The flat fingerboard has turned out to be very comfortable. The deep flat back profile is comfortable in the hand. I have had a lot of positive comments going out and playing it. The only downside is that I can't strip it down and put a finish on it, I need it available to play The obvious answer is to build another . . . Mrs Random will not be pleased.

Well - I think I mentioned that I have a predisposition for getting bored and wandering off, or (more specifically) succumbing to my innate tendency for existential ennui and spiraling into the depthless, howling abyss of my own internal hellscape. Or something. Well - whatever it was, it happened, quite predictably and my Stupid Headless Bass Project got ignored for the better part of a month. However! Having eventually succeeded in prising my head from between my own gargantuan, corpulent and quivering buttocks, I cracked the f*ck on and levelled & dressed the frets, tidied up a few scratchy fret ends, foil-lined the cavities, bunged all the wires & pots back inside and then glued the lot back together. Before: And after: I bet some of you contrarians won't think that's an improvement. Anyway, in detail: The shoddy budget tuners! The cheap Chinese knobs! The stupid, wonky headflap! The Really Very Convincing inlay stickers! The much more aesthetically pleasing back view! And that (apart from minor details like a proper setup & plugging it in to see if it actually works), is a wrap. Over to you...

They probably used the jawbone of the last blithering fool to question their creation

Back after a lengthy hiatus, finally got around to posting a few pics of the finished item, which I finished almost a year ago.

When I left school I told everyone, including the school careers officer and my parents, I didn't know what I was going to do. It was the easiest way to deflect the stupid comments about real jobs etc. I knew exactly what I was going to do. Two weeks later I had joined a pro band and was recording my first album. For the last 30 years I've been playing with professional musicians most of whom have made 40 year careers in music.

I let out a squeal of delight and did a little dance today! These beauties arrived, donated by the very kind @Si600 (Thank you so much!) The tuners have traveled from Brazil, via Memphis and are now "Operationally Delayed" at Charles De Gauelle ... hopefully not too much longer and I'll have all the bits I need S'manth x

It's not for me to comment on whether this is the "worst ever cover", but... the bass player is staggeringly good looking, don'tcha think?🤩

Our drummist is also a talented producer and MD (who'd have guessed for someone who started off hitting things with sticks for a living?), and he and I spent an illuminating afternoon working through compression with my bass sound(s) on my Helix. Turns out my previous prejudice against compression was entirely fuelled by my ignorance of how it could work, and the positives it brings...

Isn't it just jealousy that you have a job that sounds infinitely more fun than some carp like corporate accounts manager or not as menial as council tax supervisor or some shtit like that? My brother is a football coach for kids, and making a good living out of it. He was never more than a pub player and has a degree in history. If anyone gets sniffy about his job it's just jealousy that he can make a good living out of doing something a lot of people have a go at on a volunteering basis.

There’s no dust on my fretboards. My repair guy made the comment that I’m the only Bassist that requires a fret dress on the highest B on the E string. You paid for those notes, use them 👍🤣

I'm interested in putting together a Precision Bass ('building' would probably be too grand a term!). Basically getting second hand body, neck (complete with truss rod and frets and nut) and other bits and putting them together. I'm assuming that a passive P Bass is the simplest in terms of complexity of the actual Bass and ease of getting parts. I'm also assuming it is relatively easy as I'm basically just screwing parts together and not doing anything like shaping wood or adding frets/fret levelling or dealing with multiple pickups and active preamp.....but is there anything in particular I need to look out for? These are my assumptions: Body £90 (sold, but as an example). Depending on the body, I would perhaps paint it white - knowing that it'd be quite a shoddy sand then rattle can job (I quite like scruffy looking basses anyway). Neck £40 (also sold), this one being a Jazz neck, which I might do - assuming all J and P heel/neck pockets are the same so it's just a case of screwing it on with a neckplate. P bass pickups and loom £75, seems a faily simple process as they fit the P bass body cavities. Tuners £50 (they'd need to match the width of the headstock and ideally match any pre-drilled holes) Bridge £30 (ideally with the screw holes in the same standard P bass positions) Pickguard £20 Additional things like strings, neckplate, knobs, strap buttons, string tree, etc. £50 Total: £355 .......then some fairly easy going jobs of screwing pieces toghether and perhaps a small bit of soldering and Bob's your unkle, a one-off custom Bass! I'm not expecting it to be cheaper (or better!) than just getting an equivilant cost second hand bass but it will hopefully be fun or at least rewarding and I will be able to personalise it possibly cheaper than getting another Bass and then changing lots of parts (Ideally I want: lightweight white P bass body, J Bass neck, black pickguard, white pickups, Black lightweight hardware - including drop tuner).

Warwick Castle is portable compared to the Trace Elliot combo I have.

I knew it wouldn't be long before this popped up! I'm not a fan of Disturbed, but I really don't understand the hatred for this... it's an incredible vocal performance.

Hey, my lot played that stage at 6pm on the Fri. We had a brilliant time and were well recieved. Loud cheers, people singing along and a decent amount of merch sold. The chap running the stage complimented my rig and bass tone, which felt great.

Gotta be this:

All through my teenage years I wanted to play a guitar, could never afford one and I didn’t know anyone who played or even have any music shops nearby. School music lessons put me off and never mentioned guitars anyway, I never understood why so many school aged people picked up violins. 😂 Well done to anyone making a living out of music, you’re living my dream (well you never know I might do one day, picking up a bass for the first time at 46!).

I had something similar at school as well. I wanted to learn to play the trombone around 1981. They put me in a room, played me The Beatles When I'm 64 and some other music I'd never heard, maybe classical. They gave me a written test. They called my parents into the school and basically told them I will never make a musician, I don't have a musical bone in my body 😄 Thirty Six years later, I've had a record deal, released multiple albums, written a piece of music used in an advert, done many tours, two John Peel sessions, a Virgin and XFM session, various TV and Radio shows and made a living out of it. Moral of the story, follow your dream and don't let anyone say otherwise 😀

You just know that, as Ugg was crouched over, using a piece of sharp flint to whittle the first spear, someone was standing watching over his shoulder saying "Ugg, not want do like that..."

Yep - Daughter #2 (Year 😎 just had careers session at school. She listed her interests as running and watching Police Interceptors. So the system told her she ought to consider being an Athlete or a Police Officer. Err ok... that's totally why we have 1 million astronauts, 5 million firefighters and several million Vets in the UK...

All I wanted to do after school was be in a band with my mates, and make our own music. I got a toolmaking apprenticeship, but that was merely a way to make money to buy equipment. Gave up toolmaking after I finished the apprenticeship and for two years gave the band everything. It didn't work out, we weren't good enough and the songs weren't good enough, but I wouldn't have missed those two years for anything. I have played in covers bands over the years and enjoyed it, but It never came close to the feeling of taking on the World with my mates, playing our own music.

Bad Moon Rising

Chaos and Dave

The do say that it isn't a job if you enjoy doing it.

Ooh, sorry, will attend to that. Taking it to band tonight with a recording device

Dirk wears white sox. A&TA again

I write out my own notes (mostly chords) I put down a verse, a chorus, bridge/middle 8 Then I put down the structure (e.g. Verse (x2) Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Solo over Chorus, Bridge etc. etc) Seems to work OK for me.

For 5 grand I'd want a chauffeur-driven limo to a 5 star restaurant for lunch, where the bass would be presented to me by Keira Knightley.

That's why I prefer headless basses, then you only stick it in the singer's ear if you really mean to.

Awesome … may your groove be great! S’manth x

That would be my choice, too. £100 isn't budget in my book. But then I am a tightwad

Pubs that should be classed as small clubs, without sound reinforcement apart from the DJ, with whom you are competing. You don't want it to drop flat as soon as the band starts up. It's better to have it and not need it, than it is to need it but not have it. That I do know.

I bought a set of Rotosound Nexus black strings last year and the coating flaked off when using a pick.

When I auditioned for my current band, I walked in with my Class D Head and Basschat 112 speaker. "You will need more than that for a gig". Needd less to say that all the previous bassists had head height stacks, Anyway I got the job and have never had a complaint that I was too quiet.

I drove out to Heathfield today (It's about midway between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne) to visit https://luthierssupplies.co.uk/, it is an aladdin's cave of beautiful wood (and other luthier related stuff) run by David Dyke, the atmosphere is full of the most lovely aromas full of promise of things to come. I'd visited once before, on the 8th of August to collect materials that were intended to be the basis of Flo, my second bass build. Pictured below is Twiggy (My first bass build) and the block of maple for Flo as well as the truss rod, carbon fibre support rods and wood to form the skunk stripes. Just 24h later it looked like this. Today, in an act of amazing kindness and generosity, I was given (at no cost) replacements for many of the bass build bits I lost in the fire. A lovely block of Idigbo (West African Hardwood), truss rod, two carbon fibre shafts and some strips of wood for the skunk stripes. (S'manth pinches herself to make sure she is not dreaming) S'manth x

Pedant Alert... These amps are all 'semi' parametric, none have a Q control but I concede we refer to them as parametric EQ.

Hipshot Ultralite tuners fitted Hipshot Kickass Bridge fitted Could possibly fit a Dunlop Flush Mount strap lock to the back of the body like Dingwall do and a normal strap lock to the horn to get it nearer the 12th fret to help the balance even more. Pretty good as it is though!