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Stonking gig last night at my local club. We usually get a few friends turn up when we play this place so we asked the proprietor to open 15 minutes early at 6:45 so we could load in and get a bit of a sound check. Alas the punters had other ideas and it was standing room only by 7:15. Amazingly we did manage to get a decent sound - suspect I was slightly on the loud side as I was using my Fallout bass which is a bit hotter than my Mustangs. A guy and his wife traveled from Dewsbury (about 40 miles) to see us and brought a big bag of party wigs which he dumped near the stage - wasn’t sure what this was about...then on the second number he got up and danced his heart out and got all the punters going, distributing wigs for them to wear. It was like having a 70’s glam Bez 😂😂😂 All in all another great night, next week we venture into the dark lands on the other side of the Pennines so we’ll see if our run of great gigs continues.

Our return to The Coach House, Paignton on Saturday night was well received, although it could have been just a bit busier. Still, those there were very complimentary. Second outing for the Stealth Bongo, and absolutely loving it. Also, second assault on my headstock by the guitarist’s Pete Townsend windmill impression during Won’t Get Fooled Again (as per last week, and first Bongo outing), and still no dink.

Ok, time passes. Still many barriers to overcome, but with the aid of a 4-wheel walker, have managed a 1.5 mile circuit of Tavistock town centre and park. There is still pain, and unexpected instability to deal with, quite apart from needing personal care for some things. Still uncertain as to regaining the superpower of putting on my own shoes and socks!

Our 2nd gig of the weekend was last night in a pub in Essex. They've banned hazers and smoke so we travelled light and just used the couple of par bars the pub has installed - it was a nice quick load in and out without all our usual lights and lasers. When we arrived it all felt a bit quiet and we were fearing a dead duck evening. There was only about 15 people in there as we kicked off the first song but after about 20 minutes it had filled up and was packed out at the start of the second set. You play nose to nose with the crowd in here and it can get a bit lively. Last time here we had to stop at 11.45 as there was a fight kicking off mid crowd with a couple of cokey chavs being idiots. The security team here aren't as good as they used to be and have become a bit slow on the uptake. You can smell when it's likely to get a bit silly but they can't seem to pick up on it. No fights tonight but we had a youngish girl sneaking round the side and trying to hit the cymbals and getting too close to mains leads and stuff - we had to stop mid Sandman to tell her to hop it or we wouldn't start again. Drinks were going everywhere due to some pretty frantic dancing front of house later on. Another drunk woman was going on at me to give her the singers tambourine to play with - I kept saying no but the singist gave in, said yes and she immediately hopped up next to us and proceeded to do some odd booty wriggling routine and knocking the drum screen rather precariously. I booted her back to the crowd side of the monitors with her precious tambourine. We have a few more there later this year and we're definitely asking for some barriers at the front or a security guy for the second set.

Third gig of a busy weekend. First time in this venue. All went well, appreciative hard drinking crowd. We finished , started to pack down, barmaid tells me her boss told her music should go on to 11.30. We started our second set a bit earlier, I tell her, you had your two hours. She's adamant. The gig was from a booker and we didn't want him to get poor feedback so we did a somewhat stretched encore. 15 minutes of Born To Be Wild anyone? The drummer was on the wrong page so it literally restarted three times.

This was out tonight at TTT Motorcycle Sudbury…! of course, sound man spilled a mug of coffee over my new pedals (all except Polytune arrived this week for my bday). Dried them in a rush and they all seem to be working, but man, what the ffffffflip…!?!?! Will not play them for a couple days and pray they still work as they did, happy to hear any tips just in case 😢

Top night at the Bowling Green, Horwich. Busy all night with a decent dancefloor from the first song, moving to packed from about halfway through the first set. By the middle of the second set we were moving mic stands backwards and I had to give a few dancers a gentle nudge to prevent them from joining us onstage. Punters were very well oiled and right on the edge of crashing into us, but it was all out of enthusiasm. With such restricted room, the Ibanez SMS 1005 came into its own. Our singist, who has become used to avoiding the bass headstock on cramped stages was most grateful for the headless. I've mentioned before that this is our last year, and we're all milking every ounce of fun from it. Combine that with a great crowd and we found that extra 5% you get sometimes. Best we've played in quite a while. I still can't take a decent selfie though!

Having lurked on this thread for a while I wanted to add my recent experience as thanks to this knowledge and help for others. I was previously in a band which was full in ears, silent stage, Yamaha mix app on your phone to manage everything and loved it. My main gig is now in a 17 piece Big Band. I sit between the Drummer, the guitar amp and 4 trombones and was concerned I was damaging my ears. Since I'm doubling on Bass Guitar and Double Bass, having enough volume to stay in tune was also becoming an issue. I tried lots of ear plugs (they all muffle the bottom end no matter how flat or "perfect for musicians" they claim to be). So following advice here I got a second hand Zoom H6 and it has been a game changer! My amp volume is lower (correct volume) since I can now hear myself. And the stereo mics on the H6 pick up the whole band way better than expected including speech from the band leader at the other end of the room during rehearsal. I mount it on my tablet stand and angle it away from my amp and drums and send my DI-out to one of the inputs. I plan to experiment with a monitor signal from the PA desk which only has solos, vocals and keys, but should add even more clarity. I already had a pair of Shure 425 which give me a great isolating fit so my ears are protected, I can hear my bass clearer (without deafening everyone else) and all for the cost of a second hand Zoom H6. (Used in multiple rehearsals and 1 gig so far) It hadn't occurred to me that I could run an IEM system for my self in a non mic-ed up big band, so thank you for all the great information in this thread. Feel free to give you selves a pat on the back or ask any questions if you trying to do something similar

I’ve not written a new bass day post before but if I don’t do it for this bass I’ll never do it. I sold my flat at the end of 2022 and my partner and I are now renting somewhere together (i.e. a home that could house two people and bass gear) while we save for a new place together. I figured that this is probably the only time I’m likely to have the cash balance to justify acquiring my dream bass (even if only for a while) so I went for it. Shortly before Christmas, I was lucky enough to have my prayers/wanted ad answered by a kind member of this forum and acquired my holy grail bass: Please meet the newest member of the family, a beautiful Wal Mk III 5-string with shedua facings. It’s absolutely thunderous and everything I hoped it would be: the preamp is a dream, the B string has the smoothness of my Warwick Streamer’s mixed with the raw aggression of a Stingray, and the gorgeous tiger-esque facings seem to move in the light. I’m sure like many folks on here, I’m a big fan of Justin Chancellor’s playing with Tool (I tried quite hard to avoid saying I am a big Tool fan/fan of Tool there) and the preamp gets me in the tonal ballpark (my playing is miles away from his though, sadly). While not really on topic for the NBD post, I was lucky enough to bump into Justin Chancellor when Tool were in London last year. I was entirely starstruck and stunned into incapacitation for a short while before recovering my senses enough to ask him if he wouldn’t mind signing a wedding card I was carrying for my brother and his now wife as they met owing to a mutual Iove of the band. He was very gracious and my partner and I seem to take it in turns to wear my/her hoodie that he gave to me at the show. Anyway, back to the post… If you happen to see me posting basses and pedals in the classifieds over the next few months, this is the reason why. A big thanks to those that helped make this happen, particularly @dyerseve and @TrevorR. May you all get your holy grails in 2023!

I felt like I had a breakthrough with my Poly Blue last night. I used it on several songs, adjusting on the fly each time, and the sound was astonishing. The combination of phase, octaves and the 'mono' button produced a quite remarkable sound. Is this an octave pedal? Or is it a multi effects pedal? I used it to thicken the sound of one song played higher up the fretboard - a song which didn't need that synthy sound - for a disco synth sound, for a huge funky semi synth, which, combined with an envelope filter was wonderful. Truly my favourite pedal.

Played a large music bar in town last night which is a regular gig. I thought we were sounding pretty good and the guitarist had a great sound (he's changed from a Les Paul to a Telecaster and the sound is now much clearer than before). He was playing through the venues Orange Valve head and a 4x12. In fact after the second song I actually shouted over to him what a great sound he had. That was probably the wrong thing to do, as it fueled his egotistical guitar brain and he went straight for the master volume! At the break the sound engineer came up to us and said that one of the barmaids (it's a big bar with a capacity of 900, over two levels, and she was working at least 50 feet away) had complained that she couldn't continue working as the guitar was so loud. He said the guitar sounded fantastic but it was the loudest he had ever heard a guitar being played at that venue and the guitarist had to turn down before he sent the bar staff deaf. For the second half the guitarist turned way down and I had to listen to him through the monitors (which sounded, in comparison, like a ukulele played through a cheap transistor radio). Next time he plays I've told him to bring his 15 watt Fender pro junior, which is what he usually plays through, and he'll not be able to make anybody's ears bleed.

What sort of finish? I've got: Matt, satin and gloss varnish Worktop oil Floor oil Table wax/oil mixture I'm thinking maybe the worktop oil in a slurry/buff fashion ala @Andyjr1515

Well, it’s been over 2 years and I’m doing a refinish. I damaged the control area a while ago and I decided to “fix” it by routing the top to fit a tele type control plate. the refinish is going pretty good. A few spots of finish left to remove completely. Then on to finish sanding. Tru-oil will be used.

I found this interesting:

A week or two ago I took a drive north to pick up a bass I bought from the BC marketplace. I kept looking at it, passing it by, thinking about it, not thinking about it, continuing with my macrame antimacassars, essentially I was curious but not gassing. I sent a message asking if it was still available and the buying process began. Anyway, the seller was far enough away that after driving up I booked a hotel and we arranged to meet the next morning. On seeing the bass in the flesh so to speak, I was struck by how beautifully made it was, how light it was and yet I remained stoically underwhelmed by it. I paid up, put it on the back seat and set off home. Arriving back I stuck the bass in the rack and left it there to languish, I'm not sure I played it for a couple of days, when I finally did I was, again, just south of whelmed. Another bass bought on a whim that I'm going to lose money on I thought. A few days later I had a jam with a friend of mine, just some songs he's learning with his guitar tutor, some Beatles, Neil Young etc, I plugged the Acinonyx in and kind of forgot about it, and that's the whole point. I have gassed after some lovely basses and, more often than not, I've bought them purely on the basis of aesthetics, not ergonomics, not sound/tone, and, I shouldn't be surprised should I? That a huge percentage of these basses didn't suit me or my needs, they simply satisfied my desire to own something a) because I could and b) because I liked the look of it. Rarely (if ever) did I take my needs as a band member into account. To be honest that was exactly what I did again with the Acinonyx, only this time I wasn't even sure I liked the look of it, after all, it's a funny looking f***er innit. That whole point I was on about. When I was rehearsing with it I forgot about the instrument, how it looks, how it feels, entirely, I just played it. It was supremely comfortable, ergonomically right for a change and, so comfortable, so 'right' that, well, we just got on. It has a limited range of tones and yet play it in a band setting and those tones are the right ones. Given my druthers I would never set my bass to any of those tones, which is obviously why I've never been satisfied with my tone! The Acinonyx doesn't give you room to fånny about tweaking stuff for ages until you tweak yourself into a sonic corner. I play through an FRFR powered speaker so I just set that to 'default' and then pressed a couple of these crazy buttons... ...I can't even remember which, and I forgot the bass and just played music. If you push all four pickup buttons down at the same time (easier said than done!) it switches the pickups into series mode. Anyway, I'm no good at technical stuff, it was more how, for some reason, I was almost totally indifferent about this bass until I plugged it in and loved it. We are always looking for something perfect, exactly the right tone, exactly the right look, essentially we are looking for something that probably only exists in our heads and that no physical bass can actually live up to. Inevitably I'll buy a bass, clearly for all the wrong reasons, rush home, plug it in, declare it to be the best bass I've ever had and invariably sell it a fortnight later at a loss because there's a lot more stupid stuff going on in our heads psychologically than any of us is prepared to admit to. I should, at this point tell you all that the Acinonyx is the best thing since sliced Fodera but I'm going to stick with underwhelmed because underwhelming is clearly what I should have been looking for all this time, I'm not even going to say this is a keeper, I'm just going to stop typing and play it.

Just a bit of fun to satisfy my curiosity, and only a bedroom test, so hardly conclusive. However I was surprised by the results. I looped an 8 bar phrase, and set each pedal to what I thought showed it to its best advantage. Then switched back and forth between pedals. I whittled the Zoom MS60B down to its best 4 choruses then treated each as an individual pedal. And the Bass Chorus on the Zoom was, simply, the richest, warmest, chorusiest of them all. Second place the Joyo, and then the CE-Cho5 again on the Zoom, followed by the Ampeg. The rest were much if a muchness. Except for the Fender Bubbler which appears to be broken . So a win for Zoom.

Thanks for posting some great tunes @taunton-hobbit 👍, someone on another reggae forum i visit reminded me of this track that I hadn’t heard in a long time, anyway I went down a bit of a rabbit hole searching and there’s lots of great variations , I’m sure you’ll recognise the riddim .

I’ve had this pedal for ages, bought from a member here but can’t remember who. It was sold as an fx25 clone with LPF mode and synth. I was deep into my Fx25s at the time and didn’t really give this a proper go and it broke shortly after. Well today I decided to fix it (just a broken connection) and got it working again. I’m pretty certain it’s actually a Prunes and Custard clone/type pedal (which is good because that’s a fav me of mine). The synth mode gives that same wet spattery fuzz but this one doesn’t blend in any clean. The envelope modes (fast and slow) sound amazing, especially on fast where the thing farts when you dig in, like an fx25 does, but with no low end loss or big bass whump as the filter closes. Weirdly the ‘level’ knob doesn’t do anything except at the very start of its sweep where it turns off the signal so I’ve renamed it a DFA knob. The other two are really responsive. So kind of a free pedal. Reckon it might be my fave filter for the Mustang at least… and that’s saying something!!

@Kateplaysbasshaha, happy to help! You’re coming from the position of what sounds best in a band context, so I can see why versatility would be so important to you. Right now, I’m playing to an audience of one (unless my cat is with me), so I’m mostly concerned with comfort and what sounds good solo. I have the Acinonyx strung with flats so it also feels pretty amazing.

How about having access to a Swap section as a bonus to the Marketplace subscription ? I think a purely Swap section is a great idea.

... and the books by George Melly. Owning Up, particularly, charts how he first heard Bessie Smith at boarding school (before WW2) and sought out the small and growing band of aficionados and discovered the embryonic jazz and blues scene in London and the provinces. This is almost charted by the wonderful Lonnie Donegan album Puttin' On The Style where he plays his greatest hits with a cavalcade of contemporary players whom he influenced - Rory Gallagher, Brian May, Elton John and many others.

The Labella's LTF have a very warm/dark smooth sound (The Labella tone) and are really smooth to the touch.They are lovely to play, I found the tension on par if not a little less than Tomastiks, I recall not liking the feel at the time. The Tomastiks have a more pronounced mid range tone and a sweet treble when new, which later dies off leaving a warmer thump. I've had these on a few of my basses, before I realised the feel wasn't right for me. You can feel the wraps on these strings, but not a harsh feel at all, and for want of a better description, they felt "plasticky" Both great sounding strings, very easy to get about on, but I think next tine I get flats, it'll be light standard Labellas, they seem to have the classic tone.

Just got in from a gig, and this has pretty much been my rig for the last year now- can’t see me changing . Bit of a quick naff photo mind

The first time I was really happy with my bass sound was when I started using a GK RB 400. And I continued using it for years. I finally decided to try other things and bought a used GenzBenz Streamliner. Tube preamp , it was versatile and had some serious slam. When I was using the GK heads it was pretty much set and forget. I had found a happy place . But with the Liner I started tweaking the amp more , and was trying to get a better handle on tone. And I was discovering that different amps could be quite different. And that I could quickly access various voicing with the Liner. I bought some Bergantino cabs and was floored by them. Loved the cabs enough to buy a Forte amp , a simple modern transparent hifi amp , and loved it. With the Forte I’d simply dial it in and forget it again. Simplicity. A great sounding amp. And then managed to pick up a Monique preamp. I had been reading about them for years and wanted to give one a try. I had hoped to find one last year , one finally came to me this year. I use the effect in and bypass the Forte’s tone stack , and I’ve gone from clean , transparent , modern hifi to thick , warm , old school tube goodness , with some slam. I absolutely love what it does. So my changes have been mostly searching for tone. I have a curious mind. And I love checking out amps. At the moment I’m in a happy place with my stage sound. And I realize it could all change tomorrow. I might pick up a dedicated back end for Monique like the Demeter Minnie , but the Forte works well. I might pick up an Aguilar TH 500 for home use , I do love their SL 112 cabs. It would be a handsome looking thing , but I’m pretty well equipped as it is. I’m kind of nerdy about amps. In fact I signed up here to hear about amps and cabs that are common in the UK and Europe , but rarely found here in Canada. edit I mostly play mid sized rooms in town , so I load the car , set it up , play , tear it down and drive it home. No big star , just a working , blue collar musician. I have a nice , modern , lightweight , modular rig. Back in the day I used an Ampeg fridge. And although I loved that I’ve got no desire to haul one of those things around again. I like the advances they’ve made in amp and cab design.

See if there's any specialist radio shows (airwaves or internet) that play your style of music and send it to them. There's a radio station in Stoke On Trent (we're in Cornwall/Devon) that plays us sometimes on their Sunday night Mod show. Before Christmas they did a little feature and played five in a row and we were getting calls for gigs in Scarborough, Essex, all over, unfortunately we're not playing at the mo. If you're lucky you might be able to get a little tour together.

Really relaxing to watch!

This was monstrous! Obnoxiously loud and punchy, lots of fun.

I’ve got a Warwick Rockboard which is slightly smaller in width than the Pedaltrain Nano, a good size for three pedals.