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Found this beauty in the mail today:

Hi everyone 😘 I've been good in 2023, so the Three Wise Men brought me a 2000 made in Taiwan Yamaha SBV-500, which I had been craving for the last decade or so. Bass came from Japan for a great price. It's in good condition, has a small (non structurally compromising) crack going on from the E string tuner screw, apparently repaired (doesn't move and closer inspection reveals what looks like a glue line). Also it had a lot of surface rust on polepieces and screws (pickguard, pickups). Looked like it lived in a demanding environment (highly humid or beach zone, I guess). Nothing to worry too much about. I scraped it all away with sime sandpaper and steel wool (only steel wool for the polepieces). Also swapped the factory knobs (which I don't like) for those chickenheads. Took some time to scrub the back of the neck with some scotchbrite pads too, not that the finish was sticky bright, but it's even nicer to play now. Also I shielded the bass cavities. This is the 3rd bass I shield (did it to a G&L L-1505 and a cheap parts Jazz before). I WON'T DO IT AGAIN, NOT WORTH IT, no results really, hum reduction is negligible or inexistent. The sounds amazing. It's like a more aggressive Jazz Bass tone. Has a really skinny sharp C profiled neck (less than 20mm thick @fret 1), which makes it also play awesome. Here's some pictures (or it didn't happen)... This is how she looked all rusty... Thihs is how it came out after cleaning rust... This is the aforementioned crack... Time and coper tape miserably wasted... Detail of the scrub work on the back of the neck... And last, but not least, a bass cover vid (very appropriate song for the bass), so you can hear how it sounds...

Yesterdays gig (Sunday) was in the lounge of an ‘old school’ working mans club in what we still refer to as a ‘pit village’ despite the fact their pit closed in the 1980’s. This is a regular gig for us that we play twice a year. It’s always well attended and yesterday was no exception despite it being the first full weekend of the new year. Played to around 100 enthusiastic punters who get the band and our choice of music. Some idiot (that’ll be me then) forgot to pack the reel of XLR cables so we were ‘back line only’ which meant a lot more stage volume than normal, but the audience didn’t seem to mind. Another plus was the drummer going in-ears - he’s now a convert so that’s three down two to go towards getting the whole band on IEM’s 😎

Picked up a last minute gig Friday night, at a regular venue for the busy band - so regular, in fact, that we cancelled a few gigs leading up to Xmas (we were booked every 4 weeks) and into the New Year, but the landlord had been let down by another band. Very quiet (about a dozen people in the lounge, and another dozen in the pool room), I've no idea how they make it work financially...still, we got paid, and it's one of the more local gigs for me, so travelling wasn't an issue...

I really need help! An opportunity to get my greasy mits on something I've wanted for 20+ yrs came up and I couldn't say no. Especially considering there aren't many of them around these days and certainly not in New Zealand. It cost me my beloved first run CIJ Jaguar and a bit of cash but once I saw that beautiful quilted amber maple top, honestly, it was worth it!!! It is an absolute SUPER Jazz, in every sense. it is pretty tidy all over, save for a couple of tiny nicks and the tones are simply astounding. It can pretty much do it all, with ease. Only issue is the pickup pan knob is a little scratchy so will give it all a once over later. But yeah, pretty darn happy!!! 2024 ain't bad so far

"It's gonna be free practice for us tonight...super quiet"... Lead Singer Well it was the start of "dry" Jan, but that's maybe going to be the worst prediction of 2024 already in the bag! Was a huge amount of fun!

Spent all day yesterday in the huge cold industial unit 'venue' that is KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton where we were filming the new promo video for "The Bootleg Rock Show featuring Leather & Lace", our 'rock anthems & power ballads' theatre show.... Huge stage, lights, video screen and sound. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Others in Brahms - Dire Straits

Heh, found a piece of 5mm hardwood ply in the shed. Back panel is go! Now, about that logo. I thought of doing a cheeky sendup of a famous logo and I decided upon doing something Moog-like. Found a font that someone had created in the sprit of the Moog logo, asked for permission to use it, got it, then got to work using it to create this: How will I get this onto a piece of ply? With another cheapskate move - the old homemade carbon paper technique - scribble f loads of pencil on the back, tape it down then trace over it with a pen... Admittedly, it was super faint so I had to go over it again with the pencil to have a useable guide. Next question - what now? Paint? Sharpie? Scrub this off and create a waterslide decal? In the end I did none of those things and went back to a craft I used to partake of as a child - woodburning. First pass with the big round tip on the iron yielded this: Then moved to the fine tip for the corners and the little musical note thing inside the 'p'. I'm really pleased with how that came out! Time for a wee mockup (some paper straws keeping it up where it will be when attached) That turned out way better than I anticipated. Really pleased with it. All that's left to do is lacquer the back panel then attach it. Will probably use wee panel pins and just nail it on, like the backing panel on an Ikea wardrobe.

I really enjoyed the gig I depped for. I learned the songs I didn’t already know (I had to learn about 12 of 15 or 16). 4 or 5 were originals - it was fun doing them. One of them was entered as a candidate for the UK entry to Eurovision ( it didn’t get selected). I did an Instagram diary on the prep with the intent of putting it on YouTube as a guide to prepping to dep (still an intent😜). I had a practice with the guitar player. The gig went well. The key things for me were prep, get a run through with at least one of the band members, then enjoy it. I think it improved me as a musician.

Out again…I suck at this game.

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2024/01/08/bass-of-the-week-brooks-eb-tb-iv/?fbclid=IwAR3-y0X6Q1P6GplCoyGjBmVvo6RFmq5ymsoxzTeD4NHFRuA_MGyqiyuNjbY

Maybe I've purchased an original '70 competition Mustang bass... See how much the body contouring differs! Just received the '70 2 hours ago. Strung it with Labella's and did a set-up. They are very different basses imo in feel ('70 neck feels fuller with a rounder fretboard radius). Soundwise it's a bit harder to tell due to different strings. Though the vintera seems to be more aggressive while the oldie sounds more mellow.

That's what keeps me going

Because we use a ridiculous low tuning (drop A#) I've been telling the guitarist for ages now he should try a baritone guitar to get some decent definition in the lower notes. Last night he turned up with one. It's such a huge improvement to our overall sound compared to his standard strat. He complained a lot about how difficult it is playing with a .60 lowest string. I pointed out mine is more than double the thickness and told him to stop complaining. I'm not sure if it was just because the guitar sounded so much better but we all seemed to be really tight and it was a really productive rehearsal.

My rig from yesterdays gig. Ashdown “Head of Doom” Geezer Butler signature with Vanderkley 212MNT. Bloody lovely 😎

For those people who absolutely HAVE to create music (or anything else) will always find ways of avoiding the obstacles in their way. IMO anything that discourages the casual dabbler who has heard a Coldplay or Sleaford Mods album and decides to have a go, is a good thing. There are far too many musicians playing in uninspiring bands, and if they want to have a bit of fun in the privacy of a rehearsal room that's fine, but lets not have them clogging up venues, Bandcamp and Spotify. I think that too many posters on here appear to have forgotten what it was like to be in their first originals band. You don't need half the stuff that older musicians seem to to think is absolutely necessary, and many other things are far cheaper in real terms than they were in the 60s, 70s and 80s. If you want to do something badly enough you will work out ways of doing it within your financial constraints. Firstly almost no originals band needs the hassle and expense of PA ownership. All the venues worth playing on the originals circuit have in-house PA systems and if you want to play somewhere different that doesn't it is still possible to hire a system for the gig. In 50 years of playing in originals bands I been two that had their own PA and in both cases that is because we had our own dedicated rehearsal space. The PA was primarily rehearsals and only used for gigs on a handful of occasions. These days everyone thinks they need personal transport but actually you can get a long way (pun intended) without car ownership. In my first few bands hardly anyone could actually drive and if they did, only a couple of them owned cars which were invariable tiny and unreliable. For local gigs we walked or used public transport. For out of town gigs we would hire a car or a van and if none of the band could actually drive we'd have at a least one fan who could and would be happy to drive for us. Remember that all the decent out of town gigs your band would most likely be supporting so all you'd need to take would be instruments amp heads and drum breakables. A four-piece band plus that fits into a typical car. It might not be comfortable but it gets you to the gig and back. If you put on a decent show you'll soon get better gigs with better pay and be able to think about buying a cheap van. I still go to local gigs by taxi. It's cheaper than the running and parking costs for the evening (especially if the gig goes on past midnight) and taxi drivers have no problem stopping in the middle of the street directly outside the venue while I load in/out. As has been said plenty of other aspects of being in a band are much cheaper in real terms than they used to be. Instruments and equipment are a fraction of the price for the same level of quality. In fact unless you buy something dodgy direct from China you are very unlikely to be saddled with the sort of unplayable crap that was all most musicians could afford when starting out right up to the end of the 80s. And recording (if you're not doing it yourself) is ridiculously cheap these days. For my first 3 forays into proper recording studios, we had to watch every minute on the clock otherwise we might not be able to settle the bill at the end, and there were always "hidden extras" like the cost of the tape, both master and multi-track, that you used. Back when I started gigging there were all sorts of free or cheap resources available to those of us who were prepared to put the effort in tracking them down. And they still exist if you can put in the time networking to find them. Four out of the first 5 recording sessions for The Terrortones were absolutely free because they were either part of some training initiative, the studio owner liked us enough to offer us a couple of free sessions when the studio would otherwise be empty, or paid for by the record label who were putting out a compilation album with the band on. Maybe the challenges that face originals bands these days are different to those when I was first recording and gigging, but anyone really committed to getting their music heard will find ways around them. You do have to be living and breathing and dreaming about music 24 hours a day 7 days a week if you want to treat it as anything other than a hobby, but IME that has aways been the case.

I use the big yellow Dunlop picks that look like rounded off triangles. I play guitar and bass and have used them for both for years. Below is a pic from the Strings Direct website.

Agree, and it made a right mess of the thread I started about male chickens born in the east end of London running around highly excited while prepping their shotguns for action and tilting their heads to one side

A combination of the attempt to regulate private landlords combined with the spike in costs of debt repayment is reducing the rental stock significantly and pushing up rents at an alarming pace. Once inflation is brought back under control the UK needs a good hard think about how treating homes as assets is crippling the young causing unprecedented inequality and stymying economic growth. I doubt if anything will change though.

So thats where my order went... I've been looking for that all week...

Many little metal bars only have a stage big enough for you to play your triangle.

I've had one of these for years, one of my favourite basses. Looks awesome, sounds like a Jazz on steroids, great player, pretty lightweight & balances a lot better than you'd think. Only a couple of changes from stock - I'm not a fan of a white scratchplate so I made the red pearl one, & the hi-mass bridge was gathering dust in my spares box, bunged it on for the hell of it. Not sure it makes any difference but looks nice! Got mine aaaages ago from a BC member (can't remember who, sorry!) who went through an odd phase of attempting to collect every model variant (including the ultra-rare Blue Jeans 5-string, if I remember), every colour, and the original 60s/70s SB5s & SB7s etc. Mine was one of several duplicates he ended up with!

Ultex Triangle 1.0, essentially a more modern sounding Tortex.

Very sad news and along with Cetera (Gary), we were lucky to catch a scaled down Cloudbusting gig at The Half Moon, Putney where he got up and played but also regaled us of KB stories and he chatted to us. Such an integral part of KB's sound and success and much more on the personal side of things plus a great player. R.I.P

First 'gig' of the year was in fact a string orchestra workshop day on the Wirral. There were over 50 in attendance - I was one of a dozen cellos. There were a couple of DB as well. Main work for the day was Ireland's Downland Suite, which is a 'classic' piece of English string music. The middle two movements are the best known - Elegy and Minuet - but we played all four. It's also known as a brass band work - Ireland arranged it for both.

Yes, the new generation FT filter is the same tuning as Wal. I also have multicoil buffers now, and the Q levels for push and pull on the filters can be adjusted (0-8 dB for push, 0-13 dB for pull), which is of interest for a Wal-like setup because you can dial in a higher Q for the bridge. The adjustments are done with trimmers.

Bartok bordello. Stranglers

No Debussy Blues — Grinderman

Thanks Dave, More pics from last night. Daryl

In France — Frank Zappa

Indeed there is a burst going on. IIRC some of the original ones were done this way too, though I've never seen one in the flesh. Here some attempts to capture the finish. It really gives some "movement".

Nobody will be buying a Squier Classic Vibe / 40th Anniversary for £600 right now. Unless you're very dim.

This "too many" you speak of sounds foreign to me.

Dark/deep metallic purple, like this, maybe? : Or, as someone else suggested, buy an adhesive skin, covering the whole body of the bass, in just about whatever color or pattern you should wish, for example purple paisley, here for instance: https://www.skinyourskunk.com/ Just to get an idea of what is possible, try to take a look on these to start with: https://www.skinyourskunk.com/pattern-guitar-skins.php

That's what our guitarist bought. It's only a Squier but with dual P90's. It sounds great.

First chance to gig the Vanderkley today. Because some idiot (that’ll be me then) forgot to pack the reel of XLR’s we were back line only out front. The room was a moderate sized social club lounge sitting around 150 folk. The Vanderkley filled the room beautifully and the Ashdown Geezer was hardly ticking over 😎

My ampless set up. Wireless into EBS Microbass II, line out to tuner (which is also a backup DI), One Control Hooker's Green in the loop. Will be trying it for the first time next week at the tech rehearsal for a ska band I've joined. I've used in ears a few times with my current band, but never gone without backline before.

Looking back to the 80s when I started playing and when I got into my first proper band in 87 at the age of 21: Bass - Yamaha BB1100s. Cost £450, on HP. Amp - Laney 1x15 Linebacker. Cost £260, on HP. Employment status - Fully employed, salary was £4750 so £400 a month before deductions. Living status - at my Mums. Transport - car at the time was broken and couldn’t afford to fix it. Used to get to rehearsals & gigs with the band leader doing a round-robin and picking us all up/dropping us all off in a van that was probably unfit for even the scrapyard. It was a great time.

Isn't this the same for anybody pursuing a dream? Athletes, footballers, sportsmen in general have to invest in themselves. Some make it, some don't. Nothing has changed there. Loads of people have stories of being skint musicians. It's never been easier to be a musician - promoting your own wares is simple compared to pre Internet - producing something that will sell , now that's the trick.