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Being the bassist in a band requires so much more than ability on the instrument - enthusiasm, learning parts for rehearsals, practice before gigs, maintaining communication with band mates, turning up on time reliably etc. I am a very basic, untechnical bass player but pretty good at the other stuff.

This is beautiful 🥲 https://yamahaguitardevelopment.com/2023/10/26/yamaha-guitar-development-custom-shop-amos-heller/

My Caveman Audio BP1 Compact arrived this week - and all I can say is WOW 🤩 All the words people use to describe it that do sound a little bit generic (like ‘it sounds so clear without being harsh’ and ‘it just makes you sound better’) make perfect sense once you’ve played through it. I actually don’t really know how best to describe it, it wasn’t until I’d practiced for a few hours that I really started to understand it - it’s not just a sound, it’s how it feels under your fingers, it almost changes the way you play the to a degree because it makes he dynamics & subtleties of your playing shine through. Combined with a bit of the Marcus Miller-esque sizzle from the SBP-2 and the well known benefits of the Cali76, I reckon I’m pretty satisfied with my board. I’m gonna get a HX Stomp (or similar - any suggestions for any alternative that’s good for bass, like the Hotone Ampero, Headrush gigboard etc, are very welcome) for Dep gigs which I do quite a lot of, but for now I think I’m done….. 🤞 🤪

After selling off a medium sized board with effects that I simply never used I have built up a high quality small board for amp less church worship dates running direct to PA. Optical compressor - tuner - API preamp - passive di box.

In covers bands, it's band members not learning parts prior to rehearsal that has always bugged me the most. Hey, let's all hang around in an expensive rehearsal studio for a good 20 minutes while the guitarist listens to the song for the first time........... 🥺👎

I think I posted this elsewhere but: This is the list of filters I have had (not including those built in to various multi fx): Had and sold: Mini Qtron FX25 (sparkle) MXR M87 3Leaf Wonderlove 3Leaf Proton V4 Meridian Funk-u-lator Mr Black Fwonkbeta Aguilar Filter Twin Chunk Syatems Octavius Squeezer Maxon AF9 Lovetone Meatball Solid Gold FX Supa Funk Currently have: Mutron III Bassballs Green Russian Mutron III+ Qtron Qtron+ Bassballs USA FX25 (light green V1) Xotic Robotalk 2 I think my all time faves and the ones on my board are the Mutron III+ as well as the original and the Green Bassballs. Trouble is there are so many things to take into consideration - the bass you put into the pedal, your dynamics, how you amplify.. some of the pedals I sold ages ago may sound better with my current setup. But I'm definitely happy with the Mutron sound, something about the lack of anything harsh and the usefulness of the range switch.

Not going to lie…… We kicked donkey last night. It’s our 40yr anniversary, and a bunch of gigs are coming. I’ve been through a bunch of basses during this reunion, but it’s all about the Thunderbird and the Ashdown ABM 500. Such an amazing tone. Anyone into original heavy rock….. not being funny….. we’re still ace for a bunch of old men. 😆

I appreciate these are BB Basses in name rather than in appearance, but I’ve recently acquired an almost identical twin to my long-serving BB604. They are both from 2003 (serial number says even the same month…) identical colour, spec and weight (both are 3.8kg and well balanced thanks to that small headstock.) My main one is a bit more scuffed up and feels a little bit more resonant and loud, possibly because I’ve played it to death for the last seven years. Both strung with D’Addario NYXLs too. The newer bass has got replacement Gotoh machine heads, my main one has the originals. When I got the first one back in 2016 it quickly became the best value bit of gear I had and a proper Swiss Army knife bass to cover loads of different stuff. So I’ve been on the lookout for another for a while and this came up on Basschat over the summer. Delighted. Excuse to play it loud at a gig expected in the coming weeks.

Devil Gait Drive - Suzi Quatro

Pretty crass thing to say. He wasn't talking about 'your' mum, it was a figurative term of speech. A lot of people on this forum aren't going to have mums for various reasons yet you have to try to weaponise it. For a man with a history of low scoring posts I do believe you have set the bar even lower. Well done.

They should have taken it back and refunded you, even if it was on commission. Misrepresentation pure and simple.

TLDR: In search of my main recording bass. Dove into five Precisions and made some measurements, charts below. Hey everyone, So, a mate of mine suggested (probably as a tease, knowing him) that I throw my recent obsession onto basschat. Been neck-deep (pun intended) in specs of different P-Basses, and thought, why not. Might be fun to see what others think. I’ve embarked on a quest to find a new bass that I can call my main, especially for recording. I want to downsize, so I’m being quite picky, particularly about the feel. I turned to the specs and made some measurements, focusing mainly on the neck to understand why some of them just click while others are meh. I’ve recently had the chance to compare five models: MIM Deluxe Active Special, MIM Classic 50s, Player, American Performer, and Professional II. What really struck me was discovering that the Player and the Performer have very similar neck specs on paper. However, when I got my hands on the Performer, it surprisingly felt more akin to the Pro II neck. I'm wondering about the consistency between the US models (Performer, Pro II, Ultra even). I know for a fact the neck lottery is a standard "feature" on Gibson guitars... Speaking of the Pro II, it’s a fantastic piece of craftsmanship overall, but the neck is quite chunky. It made me question whether all Pro IIs are like this or if it's a lottery as well. Anyone else have thoughts or experiences with the Pro II specifically? The Deluxe Active Special has a Jazz neck. It’s pretty comfortable, and I tend to prefer slimmer, narrower necks. However, the rolled edges on the Pro II are something else; I wish that Jazz neck was finished like that. Attached some graphs for y'all, hopefully useful for a few of you. Shoot if you have some insights!

I suffered for several years wondering why I struggled to play material at rehearsal that I could play perfectly at home. Then we got a dep drummer in and realised where the actual problem was. I left the band soon after and haven't looked back since.

I ended up going with the end of the neck. Sounds pretty awesome at home so looking forward to trying it with the band.

You’ve inspired me to order this…

My 1993 Washburn B200 LP bass. I have had it just under 3 years and it cost me about £200 from eBay. It will always be my #1. Looks great, sounds great, plays great, it's pretty much all I need. 😎

Great player, just watch this clip form the BBC.

Maybe you should spend more time over there then?

Oh the lustre was back last night, in absolute spades. It was the best I've seen them in years. For anyone who's interested, the set was: I'm off to make a playlist of it

Unless they are sequenced, it is pretty well impossible for most original bands too Also, not being Johnny Cash would have caused exactly the same lack of success. Ask an orchestra, they seem to like it. And the art of playing things, the fun of playing things and playing live motivates a lot of people more than coming up with something new. Some people prefer playing music to a 100 people who are all dancing and having a good time rather than their mum saying 'thats nice dear'.

I know we’ve mentioned this before @BassApprentice @Brian18242 But Miki Santamaria has a beautiful MM bb.

Yet another example of "What Yamaha Can Do vs What Yamaha Give Us" I know this could be said of most brands - but I feel the BB range has such potential for different finishes or pickup arrangements. Maybe one day something like the above will make it to market.

Just fill the existing holes with standard wood glue, squeeze some tight fitting wooden sticks down in the holes, pinch or cut off the excess sticks above the holes, wipe away excess glue with a moist cloth and let it cure for 24 hours. After that you don't have to worry about this. Also just because the body wood of the bass is relatively soft doesn't necessarily makes it a crap bass, the Music Man Bongo Bass and several other relatively high end basses got bodies made out of Basswood, which is a relatively cheap and soft wood that is infamous for stripping screws if exchanging anything, but also acknowledged for actually being a great Tonewood.

Last Sunday was our regular jam night. We're in our 7th year at this venue and we've got a good little scene going and it's well-supported. It's also very orderly. we get new people sometimes and that stops it being groundhog day. We're getting some promising younger people along to take part and it's all good. We rehearse new songs at the jam (by learning them at home and rattling through them to get them together. We haven't done that for a short while. I'd like to get a few new things together. We HAVE been playing things that have fallen out of the set list, so we can slot them back in. After the jam finished on Sunday, we were packing up and I fell over some mics stands in a carry case in front of the drums and fell down hard to the stage floor with a very loud crash. Ii hurt like hell and I felt bruised for a few days and was knocked sick at the time. What I really couldn't get my head round was a weird woman who's there every week, acting like she owns the place, who laughed and clapped when I fell over. She saw how annoyed I was with her and she said she 'thought it was part of the act'. Lame. I said 'keep digging'. I was furious. I'm not looking forward to this Sunday.

In the same way that some people go to discothèques, to dance to pre-recorded music, or a DJ's mix or 'mash-up', and some folk like the 'live' aspect of singing, or watching others sing, karaoke, there are many that want to see and hear a 'live' band play music that they know and like, often with dancing and other social interactions involved. There are some that will enjoy a musician's version or interpretation; most won't have that as their main source of enjoyment, and having something close to what they have in their head already is what's required. The whole point of 'covers' is to give the audience the impression that they're seeing and hearing the original version, or close enough for them to recognise it and enjoy it. Bringing something 'original' to the party can work, of course, but it's not the 'main event'. Being close '1:1' is next to impossible for most pub/club bands, but add one's own 'flavour' is a secondary part of the affair, for most bands and for most pub/club audiences.

Yes, superb gig - they looked like they were having a whale of a time on stage. Great to hear some proper oldies in the set, I swear I squealed like an excited child when started. 😄 I do wonder if perhaps we're seeing the farewell tour here though...

What's this "five" stuff after the root?

I absolutely live and breathe envelope filters lol. After trying nearly all of them I have come to the conclusion that every filter reacts differently to every instrument you use it with, and that also depends on the player's style and attack. As such it's really hard to recommend any given filter because even some of my favourites sound better with some basses than others. As said above, it's a slippery but funky slope and you won't lose anything by trying out as many used examples of all the different types as you can. Can I also recommend that you keep your first one, because it's annoying to realise that you liked that one best all along when you're about 20 filters through the journey!

And the music video for our song 'Micromanager' has now been released! You can see some up-close shots of the Ric, but the audio is from a Warwick Thumb NT4. Enjoy! 🤣😎🇬🇧

I quite liked Clive Dunn's reggae phase. "Permission to Toast, Sir?" and "They Don't Like It Uptown" are dub classics.

Great, thanks for that, but "are you a fan?" wasn't actually the question.

A week ago this little one man enterprise in the Netherlands caught my eye: Brooks Bass Guitars. https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/ The guy is truly into Gibson basses, which has never been my cup of tea. He even wrote a book about Gibson basses. Anyway, Rob builds his own versions of Gibson bass models, but with a twist. I totally fell in love with his EB-TB bass, a fusion of the first model EB0 (like a Les Paul Special) and the Thunderbird. Absolutely gorgeous! I just had to order one, based on the design alone. So - now it is ordered. It will look like this: Classic but yet not. Classy!

Jackson JS1X Minion bass. Well, not quite today, but it arrived at in the office whilst I was on holiday, got it home on Friday and checked it over but didn’t get a chance to really play with it today. Set up this morning and band rehearsal this afternoon. I've been looking at lightweight 'hope-I-never-need-it" alternate backup bass options. It's become a pain dragging a spare full size bass to gigs that sits in a gigbag all night. Besides, I've also been instrigued by short scale basses and wanted to try something inexpensive. Even though I hope I never need it at a gig, I still wanted something I would enjoy playing at home, where I sometimes find my other basses unweildly to play whilst seated. After looking at various options I settled on getting the Minion. I’m a sucker for maple and black markers so I've been waiting for one of these to become available for months. I had a couple of email notifications setup and one came through from Mann’s Music on the first day of my holiday. Only one available and good price (£169). Tracking down the case was a little trickier, but found one from Musik Produktiv at a good price inc customs and shipping. Got both sent to work and collected on Friday What can I say. It’s so cute, and so much fun! Nice and light, almost too light to feel right. Dead easy to play - I thought the scale might cause problems with muscle memory but it didn’t at all, well not until I got up to the dusty end. Me and my band mates could not believe the sound that comes out of this thing. Seriously, this thing punches well above its weight. I might look a little toy like, but its certainly a most playable and giggable instrument.

Well, she didn't rebook us. You may draw your own conclusion.

By the time you're ready to leave you'll have at least three on your list of "must haves" and GAS for loads of basses. It's cheaper in the long run not to come but great fun if you do.

I’ve just rediscovered my big box mini Q tron, it has the slurpy sound I always had in my head. Been using it ever since I plugged it back in!

Every band plays differently and it doesn't matter to me if I'm playing someone else's lines or my own. I'll approach originals, covers and interpretations with the same care and attention.

I have bought so many over the years and the EBS is the best. In a live mix it does the sound I hear in my head when I think envelope filter

On more than one occasion, I haven't even been the best bass player in the band ...

An absolute bass monster who doesn’t get nearly as much love as he deserved. 17-11-70 remains one of favourite live albums and it’s in no small way due to Dee and Nigel.

I've been going to see Level 42 for nearly 40 years, every time they tour (every other year trhese days) Mrs S and I see at least one show. We are going to see them twice this time around. I've probably seen them perform more than any other band, and I'd say they are better now than ever apart from maybe the early jazz funk years. I'd admit MK and Lindup's voices aren't what they were but the band are amazing. Nathan's BVs help to bolster the falsetto these days. Pete Ray Biggin is a tour de force on the drums, simply astonishing, and the horns totally add value to the show. They generally have a great lighting set up, too. The days when MK stood at the front of the stage showboating slap are long gone but, in any case, it is his fingerstyle playing that I find far more impressive. I've been going to see live music for over 50 years during which time I've seen the great, the good, the bad and the ugly, and I reckon MK to be the most accomplished all round bassist I have ever seen. And that is without taking into account he is the main singer and composer. His complex bass lines weave through the songs in a thoughtful and musical way - it isn't just 'Love Games' thumping on the open E. My main thought, when I hear the MK detractors, is that they actually haven't actually taken the time to listen to the band but merely trot out the same old 'one trick pony' and 'bucket of nails falling down the stairs' cliche based on an interview they saw back in the noughties (or whatever). Their last new material, the EP Sirens, had fewer slap bass lines than finger style and even pick on one. It is entirely possible to recognise and appreciate talent even in the context of music you don't like but I guess that takes effort and an open mind - rare commodities these days.