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If you played bass in an indie band in the eighties, Andy Rourke's level of playing was probably your aspirational goal. His contribution to The Smiths was as huge as it is underrated.

The build is over! Took ages getting the Walbuckers, but well worth it. The range of tones available from the Lusithand preamp is staggering. I really didn’t know what to expect, as I’ve never owned a Wal or experienced multi-coils. It weighs in at 9.0 pounds, which is just about right, and no sign of neck dive. I’m looking forward to gigging this!

One of my earliest bass inspirations and truly one of (if not the) greatest melodic bass players of all time. Everything he played with The Smiths was terrific. Playing the way he did with someone like Johnny Marr on the guitar means that he not only anchored the songs rhythmically but also harmonically, giving very crucial context to all of those broken chords and arpeggios. Stephen Street said that he noticed Morrissey would often lean heavily on the bass lines for his vocal melodies and it's not surprising. There are so many song recommendations I could give, but This Night Has Opened My Eyes is truly sublime. Perfectly measured, perceptive, meaningful bass playing. One of the best early Smiths tracks that really showcases a band of four equals. I cannot praise this man enough. A very sad day.

Don't worry, the new website is coming

Just got home from playing the beautiful, ornate Ilkley Kings Hall and the more modern Solihull Core Theatre.... and both fabulous shows! Our band is really on fire now... it's amazing what a series of shows can do for cementing a band socially, musically and performance-wise.... Loving it! Next stops.... Swansea Grand Theatre, Eastleigh Concorde Club & Hunstanton Princess Theatre!

From the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/may/19/andy-rourke-bassist-for-the-smiths-dies-aged-59) "(Johnny) Marr’s tribute continued: “Watching him play those dazzling basslines was an absolute privilege and genuinely something to behold. But one time which always comes to mind was when I sat next to him at the mixing desk watching him play his bass on the song The Queen is Dead. It was so impressive that I said to myself ‘I’ll never forget this moment.’" Bit dusty in here.

Took the M4 on stage for the first time last night, had a great time and had plenty of suitors!

The Grand Old Duke of York ～ 'nuff said

Creep - radiohead

I'm a big fan of your man's stuff. Always interested in checking out new pedals. https://lusithanddevices.com/product/ground-pound/

I care not for his later life. This is just fantastic. He was 13 when he sang this. It is probably one of the greatest vocal performances ive ever heard.

So sad to hear this, one of my absolute favourite bassists. Always seemed to be able to get so much heartfelt emotion to even the simplest of parts. I adore his playing on this from John Martyn:

It's totally dependent on the question, and we don't know what that is, so not much point in speculating or saying one is better than the other. IMO, 'do you have XYZ in stock' is a phone call, whereas 'can you quote me for this' is an email.

He was a terrific bass player with a sound and style that really stood out. Quite literally; that bright P Bass tone with roundwounds and a pick was unmistakable even on medium wave radio and the lo-fi TV sets most folks had back in the day. Such an inventive and creative player. The Smiths wouldn't have been the monumental band they became without his contribution. I'm very sad. RIP Andy Rourke.😟

RIP Andy. A great bassist, but never given the recognition he deserved. I saw a Smiths Tribute a few years ago and was amazed at the number of cracking basslines Andy produced.

Made some changes recently. Replaced my old Turbo Tuner with the Turbo Tuner Mini. Replaced my ODB-3 with the MBD2 (I love this pedal!) That created enough space to add a Carbon Copy as a little temporary fun extra. I've been thinking of getting hold of a Walrus Julia to use instead of the CE-2B. That'd make space for something like a Meris Polymoon where the CC is. Open to suggestions about good chorus', they just need to be in an enclosure along the lines of the MBD2 ideally. Seems like the Walrus Julia, EQD Aurelius and JHS Emperor are the main items that fill the bill? I like the idea of the Julia and the Polymoon or Red Panda Context 2 as I've been thinking of putting an "ambient" "adjacent" guitar setup together.

This must be the most under-rated Jackson family tune ever.

Why rehearse or refer to an idiosyncratic live version which could be s mistake anyway, studio version is straight forward

Working for the Yankee Dollar - The Skids Now doesn't that take you back??

Never heard of Mark King, is he really good?

And let them know why you are going direct to them, because IME they'll try and direct you back to their UK retailer/distributer.

A great bassist for sure with that terrific P-Bass tone (even if I really can't stand Morrissey). May he rest in peace.

The erectile disfunction of websites.

The size of your fingers is immaterial, it’s about technique. Apart from a brief reverse back to playing a 5 string during the first year of my degree, I’ve been playing 6 string bass for nearly 20 years. I would recommend having a few lessons from someone who plays a 6 string when you start, just to get comfortable with playing it. I think the reason why so many people buy 6 string basses and then sell them, is that they’re trying to simply transfer whatever technique they use on a 4 string instrument over to the 6. That won’t necessarily work, they’re very different beasts.

Daz The Way I Like It ～ KC & The Sunshine Band

Thanks. 👍 But I've still got absolutely no idea, Chris.... 😂 Being the old git that I am, I don't know any pop music released after 1982.....

Another sad loss this week. It seems like only yesterday this came bursting out of my AM radio.

This arrived from Bass Bros just over a week ago. I was actually away on a residential course from delivery day onwards, so I had to confess to Mrs Rocks about buying it and ask her very nicely if she would stay at home and take delivery of it. She duly did, and even unpacked it and sent me pictures. Anyway, the bass! It’s a 1987 Made In Japan Fender PB-62 Reissue. These were apparently made by Fujigen Gakki for Fender at the time. The build quality is amazing, easily as good as anything I’ve seen from Fender. Acoustically it rings like a grand piano, very reminiscent of the 2016 AVRI P bass I had until recently. One of the most remarkable things about the bass is the condition, it looks more or less new, which is surprising for a 36 year old instrument. There are a handful, maybe four or five tiny marks on the body, that’s it, no buckle rash and no fret wear. It weighs 4.1kg, or 9lbs 1oz. It even came in it’s original shipping carton with matching serial number. The neck is lovely, very very close to my ‘73 P bass, 41mm nut, but just ever so slightly slimmer from front to back. I bought this bass primarily as a bass I need to worry less about than my vintage 70’s Fender basses. Also as a bass I can try things out on, looms, pickups, bridges etc, something I don’t need to be too precious about keeping original. So it’s going to get gigged, and changes will be made, in fact I’ve already made a couple. The first pics are as I received it, totally stock, with the white guard. I’ve been playing it like this since I got home, even with the rounds on it. Today, I received a new loom for it from John (thanks @KiOgon), so I was ready to make a few changes. Now it’s sporting a tortoise guard (thanks @dodgnofski) with full vintage style shielding plate underneath, Fender Custom Shop 62 pickup, new kiOgon loom, and new knobs. And it’s got a new set of TI flats on it. The action is low, it plays wonderfully, and it sounds great. The original guard and wiring with knobs, and the pickup are all stashed away safely if ever I want to put it back to stock. I’m going to take it out on Friday night to the local jazz jam and hopefully play a couple of tunes on it. Thanks for listening! Cheers, Rob

Bruce Thomas again ...

Hi everyone! Just to let you all know the surgery seems to have been successful and I’m home now. Thank you for all the kind words, definitely why it’s my favorite community online!

Yup….just come on the downbeat….

Don’t do it!

Wha a cracker of a bass part this was.he even played some double stops

There has probably been enough instruments constructed over the last 60 years to keep the world of music going for years to come. There is no reason to produce new instruments in any quantity. We, basschatters, should lead from the front, set a good example and only buy used equipment. Now you're saying to yourself "that makes sense - that's basically what I've been doing for the past 10/20/30 years". Let others take the first financial "knock" - let them lose 20% of the instruments value and let it be us who snaffles those bargains from ebay/ Gumtree/ the BC marketplace. We can be Environmental Heroes and have a good time doing that.

Only really gig a 5 nowadays so unfortunately can't. Yes, that's the reason. Can't think of anything else.

If the pickup has a 4 conductor lead you can add a 3 way DPDT switch to get series/single coil/parallel options. I did this on my Squier Jaguar H bass and it really opened up the available tones. An alternative would be to use 2 push/pull pots: one to provide a coil tap and the other to switch between series and parallel wiring of the coils. Series is louder and fatter, with prominent mids; parallel has scooped mids like the classic Stingray tone (and is not as loud); single coil is more like a Jazz pickup but the exact tone will depend on which coil you keep active. You may not be able to get the full Fallout tone this way, as I believe they use some resistors, in addition to series wiring, to shape the tone. Apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs: there are plenty of wiring diagrams online for these mods. I found the Bartolini diagrams very useful but bear in mind that there is no standard for the conductor colours, so you will have to figure out which colours your pickup uses. You need to identify start and end conductors for each coil, or do it by trial and error. There are some online guides on how to work out which conductor is which, if you don’t have the patience for the trial and error method.

You could drop a G&L pickup in it, although that is probably covering the same ground.

Long time since I've worn a strap vibrator. 🤣

The bass has now been dropped off to my local luthier for nut grooving and final setup! Looking to have a NBD this time next week!

I can confirm this

They look great Ricky, love those ☝️, if you want some good headphones for reggae and not that expensive, the House of Marley XLBT ones have got a heavy bass sound

Thats tragic, big influence and when I use to see them in the early days always stood in front or Andy. Great player.

I’m really happy with my band mates; we get along, are happy to compromise and are generally on the same page. We are 2 guitars, bass and drums, with one of the guitarists on vocals, standard stuff. We would like to cover certain songs but can’t due to the original having keys or sax, for example, and we have trouble converting that to two guitars. Sometimes our arrangements work, sometimes they don’t and we drop the song. I’m nitpicking here, our set is 33 songs strong and we are adding more.

I can chip in £30. times that by 100 ish. The Dood keeps his Shuker. And a few quid for a Greggs.. When my mortgage triples I will expect the same when I want to keep my Sire btw.😆 Thats £2 each so start saving.

After picking up a bass for the first time ever (never played any other instrument either) that I borrowed I went and bought a brand new Fender Precision then a week later a really nice GK amp. I figured buying some nice gear would make me want to practise and it worked, I love my P-bass and I get excited every time I pick it up (although I suck playing it) and the nice powerful amp sounds awesome turned up. Makes me excited to just play one note! In every hobby there’s people that spend a lot of money on their first set of gear, some stick with it, some don’t. One important consideration is that different hobbies or skills have different costs and to be honest I think playing the bass is relatively cheap so you may get more people getting nice gear to start off with. It’s all relative. I have ridden MTB bikes for pretty much 30 years and I sold half of a bike to buy my Precision. I would have not hesitated to spend £2k on a mountain bike so £700 on my first bass didn’t seem so bad and I figured if I looked after it I’d get a lot of my money back if I got a Fender (and that’s what I wanted after demoing them - wow that can be a bit embarrassing when you can’t play anything!). I’ve been looking at a bigger amp and found a nice GK setup on eBay which is £650 - I’ve spent that in the past on a set of forks for my bike! I don’t need it but wow I’m tempted! (Need to pay gas bill first though 😂😂) I reckon most people don’t mind people who have all the gear and have no idea as long as they are honest with it. Every bass player I have met has been more than nice to me and helped me along. It’s the people who have all the gear and think they have an idea, or think that expensive kit someone makes them more important.