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My blues rock trio Toredown played at our 'regular' pub in Ipswich, The Shamrock, last night. I arrived a bit later than usual, found a rare parking spot virtually outside. We didn't get to fully set up until after the footie as our space was occupied by viewers but as the place wasn't busy we could get kit assembled by the side - in the event we kicked off at around 9.15ish, so not too bad. We have played better, all of us made mistakes but nobody noticed or, if they did, cared. By the time we were a short way into the first set all our regulars had turned up and the place was packed. Security had to turn people away at some point. Really good atmosphere, we went down really well, got paid more than we asked, no road closures on the A12 homeward bound so 60 mins to my door. Wonderful. Nice to see @Dazm66 who plays with our drummer Joe in another band. Next gig is supporting Dr Feelgood on 15th Dec

Well that was bloody great. First gig in a few months due to folk on holiday etc. I'm always a little nervous after that much downtime - will I remember the songs? Turns out the human memory is a little more resilient than I gave it credit for. Had an amazing gig at the Butchers Arms in Inverurie last night. Slow start but crowd streadily built up during the first half and thankfully didn't bog off during the break. This may have had something to do with after the last song of the first half. After we finished the last song of the first half, the singer was telling everyone we were going to have a break and I absent mindedly started noodling the riff to "Groove is in the Heart"/"Bring Down the Birds". The crowd cottoned on to what I was doing, the drummer joined in and then we had someone rapping to it - they were really good! I have no idea what she was saying, but she was in time and had good rhythm! Second half went fantastic, lots of dancers, and only one minus when a pished wifie came in, tried to steal the mic from the singer a few times, got into a fight with a bloke who came across to stop her and finally she got kicked out by the door staff. Some annoying other pished wifie was indignant that we didn't know any Fleetwood Mac. Here's 40-odd other songs you seemed to enjoy, but no, the whole thing's effed because we don't know Fleetwood Mac. OK then, off you pop Cobwebs well and truly blasted out. What a great night!

Played in a massive converted warehouse venue last night on Gloucester docks. Basically a giant bathroom acoustically speaking. It was fine, with the only thing of note being me watching with my usual amusement as a drunken ‘expert’ regaled our sound engineer with lots of pointing and hand gestures. When I spoke to him afterwards, it turns out the guy was brilliant and actually really helped with some advice that transformed the sound and resolved a bass bloom issue. I suppose mathematically speaking it had to happen eventually 😂😂😂

Had the privilege of collecting my dream bass today and even better the Mrs thought it was more than it actually cost 👀

Our seven piece swing band played inside a store as part of the city's downtown Christmas walk last night. It's a small shop but we had hundreds of people coming in for the three hours we played and got lots of good feedback as we worked our way through a mix of swing charts and some Christmas songs arranged for a band like ours. We played well and were done at 9 and got paid too . I used my Yamaha SLB 200 instead of my DB due to limited space. A shot from inside and one through the window from the street. 👍🎅

Out came the scrollsaw and off came the excess pickguard: Unfortunately, @atsampson , I don't think the offcuts are quite long enough to completely fill the narrow, but long gaps. After doing this sort of thing a few times, one is relatively relaxed hitting a 56 year old icon with a Forstner bit...well, definitely relatively And, again using chisels and mallet, the chamber is cut: And it fits! (Big phew!)

I’ve never had an issue with the stock 3point bridge , but I’ve loved the look of the hipshot. This has been my favourite player for quite a while now, it’s a beautiful little thing to play. With a single pickup in the classic sweet spot this actually behaves much like a Pbass. Lightweight , and fun. I love this bass.

Unless you are looking for a specific sound, look or 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 or 12 strings etc, no one really needs any particular brand. What you need is something that sounds the way you want to sound, plays well, feels good and possibly looks good as well. I've never really bonded with any Fenders that I've owned over the years. My current basses are a Warmoth Dinky body with Status Graphite neck and EMGs so Fender in type but no where near any Fender I've played before. The other is a Musicman Sterling HH which has a loose connection with Leo Fender

Just a couple of days ago I had an email from a Vineyard church quite local to me. It was an invitation to a Worship jam they are doing. It is an initiative to build a new worship band as they feel they need more bodies to cover extra services they are putting on including an evening service which will be all worship without any teaching or sermons. I sent a yes to attend and got back lead sheets for the 3 songs they want to try out to start with within hours. I've been trying to get the gospel church where I play to use lead sheets for 18 months with no results. This looks like I might be on the move to serve much closer to home than the 44 mile round trip I have been making for the last 18 months or so. Please pray for me that all is well and according to Gods will.

Ignoring switches I count 94 knobs and sliders … presuming 10 distinct positions on each knob that’s 10000 0000000000 0000000000 00000000000000000000 0000000000 00000000000000000000 0000000000 0000000000 options

I think the reason my band has stayed together for over 15 years is because we distance ourselves from each other. We rarely see each other outside of gigs. I also think it's the reason all our gigs are fun. Blue

People maybe 40 something, age around the same. They had been having some educational thing the whole day. They really expected something like a slightly advanced trio, and we were 10. We actually played pretty well today and the audience was dancing. A lot. Good vibes from the start.

I love gigging. I need the money and the attention. A friend asked me why I still gig at 69 years old? My response, " The gardner doesn't applaud " Blue

72 Jazz, 75 P Bass and 77 P Bass

I did the audition on Wednesday. As I expected, I played at about 50% of my ability under pressure. It was bit hot and my hands were sweaty which made my flats a bit sticky too. But, they want me in, so it was a good result. My little Barefaced One10 with the LM3 sounded fabulous with my P bass, I don't think I'd ever need anything bigger with this band. I learned six tunes for the audition including The Chicken, which they were quite pleased that I'd picked one of the more tricky tunes to audition with. I now have another 5 to get down before rehearsal next Wednesday. I have permanent jazz earworms at the moment! A couple of the band members will be at Jazz Jam tonight in Lancaster. I'm going down and hoping to do a few tunes with some new people. I feel like I've come a long way since buying my first bass almost a year ago. Onwards and upwards! Rob

Hm I don’t like them for some reason. Or stacked pots. I think a slider switch will be quite neat and a cool take on the jaguar style, plus I think Andy has one already

I believe it's something to do with the colour of your finger.

All string manufacturers publish on your website the string tensions of the individual string and the set total and use the same units or both American and metric and agree on standard conversion figures from one to the other It would make it sooooo much easier to find comparable strings/string sets Especially important when a set of strings is £50+ Failing to publish the data to me means you are either lazy, don't care about your customers, don't acknowledge customer intelligence or that your strings are just whatever came off the machine that day depending on who was minding the machine or what the supply chain sent you in terms of materials and you don't actually know or care what you are making

We're working on a mash up of Groove is in the Heart and Gary Numan's "Cars"...

I doubt that the band that plays the Academy Awards rehearse every week. I'm guessing that most of the players see the charts either at band call (or maybe a week or 2 beforehand at most), then have a couple of rehersals including a full dress rehearsal, followed by 'see you next year'. They won't be going to a rehearsal room every week to work out songs and arrangements- that's the job of the arranger and MD.

Best Precision I've played is a Tokai. Best Strat I ever played is also a Tokai.

Fender are a bit all over the place with their business model IMO. The Japanese made models are generally really good and not particularly overpriced, particularly second hand. With less than an hour set up the Squier CV are good value at around £400 new. Good value first bass or backup that would lose little money should you want to sell it on. The supposedly cheaper Mexican models now feature gems like the JMJ, Nate Mendel, Flea and Vintera range. Again very little money lost if you want to sell them on as they retain their value fairly well. The USA models are fairly expensive, but most products bought from the USA in Europe are expensive. I guess if the instrument feels right in your hands then the cost is worth it.

Of course if they go up to 11 that’s one better…

Welcome to the 21st Century ...

Hello all, From the USA. I've been playing for around 45 years, pro and amateur. I build the occasional bass, have some knowledge from that, and hope to share and discuss it. I'm just back from the UK, which we so dearly love. The wife and I follow follow Level 42 around a bit. We do this every couple of years. We adore the UK. We adore Level 42. Oddly, if L42 played in the US, I'm not sure I'd go to a concert, it's just so much fun in the UK. Concerts in the US are a pain. The audience stands for the entire thing, which is very tiring for a guy with MS. I recently saw Tears for Fears here, and looked at the backside of a Shrek look-alike for 2 hours. Thakfully, TfF were killer! I hope I can be of use here. Cheers!

No, every Fender I've played has been a massive disappointment, including some choice vintage models and the ones I've owned haven't stayed long. The one I kept the longest was a Dimension, which isn't that well regarded anyway. I like the sound of a classic P or J but these can be had from other instruments that produce a wider variety of tones - or the thousands of copies that look and sound virtually identical. One of my Dingwalls on the neck pickup in series is as good a P in terms of tone of any bass I've played. Still, I don't object at all to anyone (or everyone) else thinking you have to have one!

Not particularly bass related…sorry, but any fans here? I love his later stuff with The Hot Licks, when it sounds like he’s singing without his teeth in 😂. Great musicians, clever songs and his duet album is wonderful. This one Featuring Setzer & Costello is a lot of fun. The bass is perfect.

Thankfully I’ve discovered that an old bass I no longer use had close enough screws, so that’s handy for now. just added some tea staining and a single coat of danish oil.

Anything with Danny Thompson.

Maybe go for a bolt and neck insert?

Did a test fit using neck screws borrowed off my sr1200! Went together perfectly. Only issue then is finding the right bloomin’ screws!! Every single set I’ve bought so far has been wrong. But at least now I know it’ll work if I find the right ones! anyone have a set of Ibanez neck screw kicking around ???!

I’ve been on a bit of a roll with classic bass lines lately! This week I look at the bass line from 'The Joker' by the Steve Miller Band. This is instantly recognisable and is one of those bass lines that really defines the song. It's actually more tricky to play in places than you might think and varies a lot during the song. I love how the bass line is a sort of mix of Reggae and Motown. I've transcribed the whole bass line and have also written a simplified version which works over the whole song. You can see that at the end of the video lesson and on the PDF which is under the video in the description. Have fun with this one! https://youtu.be/dG-pYdzqZ_I

Me and the drummer often do this, noone has joined in yet though, the rest of our band dont. It is such a great bass line to play though!

Best Les Pauls many of my mates have played were also Tokais.

I suppose that this is the real point. The Fender Aerodyne looks fabulous and was almost faultless, remember this was a £1000 bass in 2003 in the UK. Since I have had it, I have replaced the stock machine heads with Gotoh Res-O-Lites. That really helps with the weight, although it's not a heavy bass. I have also changed the pickups to DiMarzios as I hated the buzz from the single coil Jazz bridge pickup. On the Sire Marcus Miller M2, the machine heads were not the best and I put Hipshot Ultralites on thanks to a bargain buy from a fellow BC'er. The controls, both the knobs and the feel of the pots are not perfect, but I cannot fault the preamp itself. With the bass, treble and mids set central, the volume and tome is virtually the same as when switched to passive. I van feel a preamp upgrade coming though, as my friend @Passinwindhas a couple of nice onboard designs. I might try a body and neck from Northwest next to build exactly what I want.

Abba - Arrival (because Abba are an indelible part of my pre-teen memories) Planet Funk - Illogical Consequences (kept me going during some rough times in London) Toto- 25th Anniversary live (because Toto have been a near constant musical inspiration) Prince - Aftershow Party bootleg 15-9-2007 O2 Dome with Beverley Knight (because I was there) Rolling On The River - Tina Turner (we used to play it in my last band and it killed every time) Sky - Sky II (because it inspired me to take up playing music. More specifically I wanted to drum like Tristian Fry 2:00 in on Tristan's Magic Garden.) Freemasons - Compilation of their more bombastic remixes (because I like listening to the arrangements) John Williams - Star Wars soundtrack (a movie that I heard the music to before I saw the film) Book: The SAS Survival Guide I'd swap the Bible for a translated copy of the I-Ching. Luxury: Rainsong carbon composite 12 string acoustic guitar (upgraded with stainless steel frets), 30 sets of strings, tuner, a supply of 0.5mm Dunlop tortie picks, a small pair of needle nose pliers and chord sheets for a selection of songs by Supertramp and Abba.

I’ve just got around to listening through all of them and I must say, bravo , superb stuff all of them I might start up the Christmas thread later today as the theme will remain as is tradition , so we may as well open it up .

We did a gig in France, just one night, but 3 days in total, including travel. The gig was OK, but we had an absolute blast, I don’t think I’ve spent a more pleasant bank holiday weekend. Our rehearsals were mini versions of that trip.

Regarding rehearsals, what about fun? Meeting your mates having a play, then going for a beer?

Its not a fender misspelling - it is the name of Mr Victor Carroll Squier, who I guess knew how to spell his own name, especially as his girls middle name is also spelt* incorrectly * deliberate british english form of spelled. But on the main point, of course fenders cost too much for what they are, but they have to support a company and people buy them, so I guess they aren't too much after all. Tune in for next weeks episode, "Are rickenbackers good value for money?"

One of the most stupid/hilarious anti Harley Benton comments I've read recently (and they're almost all just cut and paste by people with zero real life experience) was a guy who says once he'd cut off and thrown away the awful strings it was a much better bass. The instrument came with D'Addario strings as standard.

So, my first foray into playing bass with a band has fizzled out. The band leader has decided she has too much on to keep it going and has put the whole thing onto the back burner. However....... Last month I attended the Jazz Jam in Lancaster and was really impressed by the standard of musicians that showed up. I approached the bass player who spent most of the night backing up all the musicians and asked if he'd consider giving me some pointers on jazz standards. He said he would, and on my first lesson, he said "you can play!". On the second lesson he told me he was intending moving to London in January and would I mind if he passed my details onto the bands he plays in with a view to me being his replacement! The upshot of this is that I have an audition on Wednesday for a jazz band, most of whom attend the jam, and it's jam night this Friday too. So', I'm going to nail four or five tunes from their set for the audition and hope they like me, and play at Jazz Jam on Friday too! Buzzin! Yee har! Rob