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So, today on the way home from a work trip I met a chap that sold me an amp... That amp was a Marshall VBA400 with a Jubilee 410 and 115. The cabs have seen better days, cosmetically they have their war wounds, but the work a treat! The amp has a few tiny little marks, but would probably rank 8.5 out of 10 for condition. Just lugged this colossus down to the garden studio some 300ft away from the driveway (yes, my spine is now dust) and set it up. It's quite monstrous... it's current set at about one quarter volume and gain and its still making my ears bleed. Given it has 8 KT88 valves powering it I shouldn't be too surprised. Pumps out +400w of glorious Marshall valve bass goodness! Given I play 6 string bass, and mostly prefer a more HiFi sound, I am pleasantly surprised that the 'bright' button really does hit the mark for me. Been lusting after one of these for probably 20 years! Happy to now have one and not be disappointed.

Remember boys and girls: When the fun stops, buy another bass.

Last weekend I got a call at 3:30 if I had something to do that night. I didn't. So I got a bunch of chord sheets and did a Bruce Springsteen tribute show with no preparation. Brought the 1970 Jazz and CS 64 Jazz. Pretty satisfied.

Oh eff off ebay!

Hello folks. Name's Ben. I've been playing since I was 16 or so, and I'm getting alarmingly close to 40 now. I have never been a touring or regularly gigging musician, though I have had periods of playing live fairly frequently and have been in many, many of those sorts of bands that rehearse for months and then fall apart without playing a gig because everyone's too busy. My formative bass influences were, as is probably pretty ordinary for my generation, Flea and Stuart Zender, with a bit of Matt Freeman and Mike Dirnt thrown in. More recent years have seen me gravitate towards the work of the old masters, studying the ways of Jamerson, Dunn and Rainey. I've always kept my stable of basses to no more than two – a fretted and a fretless, though the roster has changed a few times. The fretted list starts with the family heirloom Gibson EB-3 that I learned on, then an OLP Stingray copy (see the note about Flea), a Yamaha BB604, a Squier VM Jazz, and finally a thing I made myself. My fretless basses have been a mysterious 1980s Yamaha I got from a pawnbroker, a Warwick Corvette, and finally another weird headless custom of my own design. My amps have been many and various, but these days I rock a Markbass head and a stupidly heavy 1x10 cab I made myself. My effects consist of the traditional bass player tuner>compressor>overdrive. In addition to electric bass, I also have an upright bass (that I got for free and can't really play very well), various guitars, a banjo and a mandolin (which I think of as a tiny bass strung backwards). I'm at the stage of life where old bandmates from days of yore are getting bored with parenting, and deciding that maybe they want to get a band together and play Steely Dan covers in the pub. Which means I'm starting to get called on again.

Your username makes this opinion not particularly surprising to me

Sustain Alive - The Bee Gees

I just bought and returned a Fender American Pro 2 P5. While not the point I intend to make, the Fender had terrible QC issues. I’ve had many new Fenders that have been great, but, sharp frets, a neck pocket that was horribly cut and finished, 3.3mm action at the 20th fret with bottomed out saddles… it was an awful example. A P35 has been my bass of choice for a while. Sound wise, I had chance to play them b2b, through my own amp at my leisure. I love P basses, I’ve had 8, old to new, flats and rounds and they’ve been great. But, the BBP35’s approximation of a P bass are as pleasing. It’s more ‘modern’, tighter lows and a clearer, snappier high end. Probably more scooped than the traditional low mid push. But, the BB with the P solo’d is a P bass alright, and the tone knob takes some of that and pulls it back to the more recognised P bass tone. I only just roll in the bridge single 20% or so most of the time, but it gives something I missed on the Fender and brings so much to the table to make it a truly versatile instrument, rather than the one (albeit, awesome) trick pony. I don’t want to write Fender off on one bad example here, especially as I’ve had some great ones, but Yamahas attention to detail is faultless. The BB is just such a workhorse, it’s not the most thrilling, fancy looking, but is a proper solid gigging bass. I’d sold it to a mate, eager to get back to my roots with a P bass and scratch the itch that is comfort induced boredom. Thankfully he agreed to call off the sale. Turns out the grass wasn’t greener.

The problem with playing music with the intention of earning money to be able to live off, is that unless you are very lucky you will need to take pretty much any gig that is offered. That will normally mean playing music you don't like in dodgy places with people you don't really get on with. I've said before I do something creative for my day job - graphic design - and while I would love to be able to spend all my time working for one or two clients who are keen on cutting-edge designs and think everything I do is fantastic first time around, the reality is that most of what I do is an exercise in trying to get the logo, the product shot and the USPs as big as possible without it looking too horrible, for people who wouldn't know what good design was if it slapped them around the face. Because what I do earns me enough money to live and have some fun, I put up with it. If a client wants something that I think is seriously wrong/bad, I'll politely suggest what I think would work better, but only once and if I'm over-ruled then the client gets exactly what they have asked for. However I like music too much to treat it in the same way. Having to treat playing music in the same way as I treat my design job, would mostly likely kill off any interest I have in playing or composing. No wonder the "giving up" thread is so busy!

Here’s a couple

My local music shop have had this in for a few months and I finally had the time to pop in on Saturday and couldn't help myself. The previous owner bought it new and had it defretted (which is probably why it's been in its case for most of the time) - it has just been refretted. Other than a refinish, it's all original and is in great condition apart from a few dings. It's a high quality instrument with the original case, tools and manual! Not lightweight at ~4.5kg but it sounds great and like a more focussed P to my ears. It just needs setting up to my preferences and I need to make the difficult decision of flats or rounds...

Leo probably got a batch of them at a good price and used them everywhere until the box emptied. We eulogise various aspects of the Fender story, when the reality was that they were just making a product to a price point. Am I happy that my 66J has the special machine heads (and binding and dots)? Obviously, yes

Germolene - Dolly Parton

Hi I regularly see ACG basses sold that go for more than they cost when new. So not always the risk you think but I get the point you are making in that it is not a standard format.

Fantastic! Marshall bass gear gets nowhere near enough love The VBA truly is a monster of an amp

It's no secret that I love 3-7, warm weather afternoon gigs to the more mature sophisticated crowd. Getting paid well and home by the time most guys are just getting started. Daryl

Agreed, I guess I'm lucky to be in a band that's been gigging steadily since 2007. At this time we can be very selective about what gigs we will accept . Daryl

I'm in the process of booking dates around the UK to tie in with my next album release, due in late April. It was tricky booking shows last year and it's proving even harder now. The loss over the last few years of many venues that catered for the music I'm involved with has certainly had a big effect. Getting back into EU countries to play some shows is now a complete pipe dream as well. However I not overly pessimistic about this. I've just had to accept the reality of playing live less. I had mused with the idea of joining a band or ensemble to satisfy my desire to play live as much as possible, but realised I'd rather concentrate even more on my own music and make those fewer shows even better.

Good.

These are getting popular - always amazes me how many people will turn out on a Sunday, but freaks me out returning from a gig - on the road by 9pm, as my SO said on sunday "this is usually when we are going out!"

There will be times when you won't want to bother, but I'd approach it with the attitude that it's better to have the capability and not need it than to need the capability and not have it. That mainly falls on the mixer.

Oh, I don't know..... maybe some nice Slayer 'Reign In Blood' might compliment a 'carvery'

My best two gigs for 2024 are both Sunday daytime. Timing, playing to our target audience and both good payers! Perfect! Balances out the others...

Leader of the pack(age) - The Shangri-las

As for @casapete, I’ve seen the Sunday afternoon gig grow scene grow in the last 5 years. There are four pub venues doing it around my small town. None of them ‘food’ pubs, either. The Flowerpot, generally Americana, blues or folk. The Smithfield, exclusively heavy rock or metal, (no housing nearby 😆). The Crossroads Tavern, generally covers bands. The King William, usually acoustic acts. Having played Sunday afternoons at two of them my experience is that pay rates are lower than an evening slot. However, there’s a balance of getting home early, usually easier drive-in and parking and more sober audiences.

They are a few venues in my area who have started putting on gigs on Sunday afternoons, say 4pm to around 7 or 8pm. I’ve done a few and it seems to work well, often in pubs where they serve Sunday lunch and then put music on to keep people in afterwards. Home by 9pm does make a change!

I love mine. Gigged it last weekend for the first time in an age. I should take it out more.

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Loft?! Somebody got one of these into a loft?!

I take them all off before restringing so I can give the fretboard a good clean.

They’re having you over mate. I’m assuming it was a brand new item and not sold as seen within any faults? If so, tell them to do one and get your money back. I would also very much like to know who they are so I can avoid them.

What a great place Basschat is. A goldmine of information, support, conversation and of course GAS. I’ve been on here a long time, like many of you have. Some of you may be new, if you are, you’re welcome. I’ve had a lot of help here, parts, advice, insights, opinions and all given with a real sense of a community, even if we don’t always agree with each other, which is often part of the fun, as long as it’s healthy disagreement and not nasty, which it rarely is here. There is no better resource on the internet for all things bass. Ask for help, you will get it, ask for advice, you will get it. No questions are stupid, all answers are welcomed. No opinions are ignored, all views are observed. Thanks to everyone who run the site, long may it continue.

I've bought another Brian May guitar. This one is the Super. It's a little bit closer to Brian's guitar but still not an outright replica It has an enormous neck and silky smooth fingerboard for strung bending 7 pounds and 4 ounces Will be gigging it this weekend

Nah I’ve had a few P basses with Lollipops on.

Glue ear from the roses. EC

I have on both sides of this story. When I was playing for my living, I did play full time, in every bar and club that would hire us, and made good money, but it is a young man's game, IMHO. Now, I love playing with other good musicians, and will be looking for opportunities to dep in as I find that an interesting challenge. I am turning down anything I am not going to have fun doing.

Metalheads need Sunday lunch too! Gap in the market here I reckon.

What's more, the chap has two listings, so two 8x10 at a 100 quid each.

having read this thread - i went to David at Northern Pickups - got the vintage pups with alnico5 not overwound - as the JMJ has A5 magnets and i like the tighter bottom end and slight more bite - still sounds vintage and i really like them, David sent them attached on a pickguard - so no faffing with springs and i wanted a new parchment guard - swapped them out to a solderless kiOgon loom from here with full size pots. - dont do what i did and put them on wrong way round and send a pic to ki0gon for him to point out i had a pot in the jack hole haha oops embarrassing - sounds great though-- i had to use a hair dryer just to warm the guard up so it'd make the fit round the neck easier

I bought this '94 jazz off here from Ramsey777 as I was looking for a project. It was originally red and had been converted (very well) to have P pickups. I wanted to add a PJ to the collection but with jazz neck/body, so really glad this came up. Stripped the body back and resprayed in Gulf Racing blue. Added a new white pickguard. Really happy with the result. Took my time setting it up how I like it and plays and sounds great.

To be fair, recording a video on the phone would take less time than writing the message out here. Even if you don’t have one, perhaps you could find someone to help you? The company won’t resell this as it’s faulty. Instead it’ll go back to the manufacturer, and they may request evidence it’s not working. I really don’t see this as an attack on your consumer rights. Perhaps if you identify a fault you could save others time and hassle…

That sounds very unlike them. I shop with them and have never had an issue. If it were me, I would be ringing them up and asking to speak with someone in authority rather than the spotty YTS oik. They have absolutely no grounds to require you to provide video evidence of the fault with the product they have delivered. What's more, anyone who has half a brain at that shop knows that and whoever you have had dealings with is out their depth.

I had money before I joined. Awful place.