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The Pipeline in Brighton last night. Fun but smaller crowd than we would have ideally liked (and I felt for the main act who drove all the way from Nottingham). Guess even a rainy Sunday night doesn't pull out all the goths! Anyhow, my make-or-break test run of Rickenbacker was OK but not as comfortable as my short scale Mustang

Punk gig with Emergency Exit last night 6-9pm so able to get a kebab on way home Fairly busy but not packed. Few dancers throughout the evening. Used the Godin Shifter Classic for its first gig. Took me a while to get a sound i enjoyed altho others said it sounded deep and more full sounding than my MarloweDK. I think my problem was where i was standing directly in front of the amp it was just hard to hear an accurate sound. Some vids appeared late last night and the bass sounds really nice so i think its a keeper. Great neck and very easy to play. Pick-ups are very hot on the Godin and i had to drop the compression level and gain quite a bit to stop peaking which is always my starting point for any new bass and then i start bringing the gain back up to get that little bit of overdrive. New Pinegove strap i got from @walshy worked a treat with no shoulder aches at all. Ampeg SVT7 and Mesa cabs Great night with enthusiastic audience. Dave

Great gig for Red Heart rock band Saturday night although we had lighting issues !! A lot of lights and lasers etc as part of our setup but at times the lighting was hard to see fretboard !! Good crowd and we enjoyed playing Ipswich again after a two year break

Interesting tuning.

Larger than life character... Played with everyone. Dominated the Warwick bass channel with his intro for many years. A nice guy by many accounts of his appearances at the London Bass Guitar show.

Until Thursday 😀

ok so it still needs some cable ties tbh but I’m happy

Back to the 80's with an Arion PSU Case, Tuner, Metal Master, Chorus and Flanger

Video of mark collecting the bass

And which would you feel pigeon-holed playing? I'm gonna kick off and say I'd happily own a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz bass. I love early-to-mid-70s Fender Jazz basses and the GL ones have a great reputation. They're proper disco funk machines, as well as being great for rock. I'd feel able to use one of them in pretty much any situation I'd use a 4-string. I don't think I'd get a Dingwall NG as it seems just a bit too focused on the hard-rock/metal genre, though I think they're awesome instruments. I own a Combustion and I can kind-of sneak it into a lot more situations than the NG without looking like I'm in the wrong band! The darkglass tone capsule is also less versatile than the EMG.

I would hope so. On this side of the pond the SUV has practically replaced the sedan, even though they have the same passenger space, while pickup trucks with size inversely proportional to the owner's IQ are the norm. The dumbing down of America is officially complete.

I do like my Japanese Geddy Lee J bass (one of the first run they made). Not because I'm a big Rush/Geddy fan (I am), but because it's the best Fender I've owned, and I've been through a few looking for one I liked and could stick with.

Where power conditioners are concerned there's no more need for them in the US than in GB, which is to say none. Since they don't do anything useful they amount to being expensive power strips.

For a signature bass transcending the artist, the Warwick JD Thumb - JD being John Davis. The progenitor of all Thumbs, AIUI.

I see a big player in Nordstrand is now wading into the Wal tone pool with some new "kind of" multi coil pickups. https://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2024/03/new-gear-nordstrand-audio-polyvox-multi-coil-pickups/ It has just one coil per string with 2 pole pieces (effectively a splt P pickup per string on a staggered angle) Different to the Wal.. Should be popular though.

I use the Fishman Platinum Pro for a multitude of uses, not just straight preamp or DI and they are very versatile; find one 2nd hand (I did and a 'wanted' advert on BC can be useful) and you won't regret it.

For me the Sadowsky Verdine White. It really just feels like its own instrument and not a signature model.

Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival at Magna yesterday. One I've always wanted to do. Sound engineer was fantastic, my brother was in the audience and said the sound out-front was spot on. I assumed it would be as the woman doing sound asked me to play multiple times during the changeover/line-check. She actually cared about bass sounding good out front which is great!

The audience will be full of 50 year-old men. Be like the opposite of a Take That gig. When are tickets on sale? Asking for a friend.

Did sound with a friend and his new PA in a village hall up the Tweed Valley. Interesting options for bass amplification. Two nice vintage drum kits but only got pics of one.

Your Aguilar board is cute though, and @admiralchew doesn’t have one of them

Man, The Admiral has both quantity AND quality. I’ve just got quantity ha ha 😆. Seriously Mr Admiral, your boards are bonkers and are how you are supposed to do it, hats off to you sir 👍🏻

The finished Bass. Mark is due to visit the workshop this Friday to take delivery, and we may make a short video/sound check.

Picked up on Friday from the Gardiner Houlgate auction house following their guitar sale (along with an Ebow and a Boss CE5). This is the JTV69 with HSS pickups rather than the JTV69S which is SSS. Also came with the Workbench hardware - I already have that but it's not a bad thing to have a spare.

i though Rolf was more of a wobbleboard man.

I don't understand the need behind signature basses. I've never been a big enough fan of anyone that I would buy the bass they played! I would still sound like me, so why would I be trying to achieve?

There's No One Quite Like Grammar ～ St Winifred's School Choir

The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers - Charles Mingus

Just read about this; I have to say it hit me. Live life the way you want, when you can... or not if that is your bag but you never know what shyte is coming your way.

You might recognize this from a thread I recently posted. I decided to pull the trigger, sight unseen. A friend picked it up for me because I have a broken leg. 2004ish Corvette standard 5. Active 2 band EQ. Paid $500CAD and it came with a gigbag, levy’s strap and Dunlop strap locks. I’m happy with that. Plugged in and it sounds remarkably good for what it is - certainly has that unmistakable Warwick sound, which is what I was hoping for. Very tight string spacing, low action. I’m happy so far. The bass itself is in great condition, it just needs a damn good clean. It’s obviously been well played but relatively well looked after. The fretboard is filthy, there’s some dusty gunky discolouration around the bridge, and the low b tuning machine has been spaced out weirdly which I’ll be investigating. Otherwise it’s in pretty great shape so the plan is to just clean it up, and I’m excited to spend some time playing it.

Took the bridge off and found some nastiness.. used a scotchbrite pad to clean up the body a bit and sanded the back of the bridge but I think I’d maybe like to replace it long term. Getting stuck into cleaning up the fretboard. The wood was thirsty as, and covered in crap. Nothing bugs me more than seeing someone else’s finger grime on a fretboard 🤮 I think I might also order a new nut since that’s not in great shape, and perhaps a truss rod cover. Otherwise it’s not looking too bad. Frets could use a file/crown but I’ll play it for a bit before I get into that.

I'm just going to straight out say that the Epiphone Jack Casady Signature has more than transcended JC's use of it. I would go so far as to say it has become over a 27-ish year production run (and counting) one of the go-to answers to the question "which long scale, hollow bodied electric bass should I buy?" I don't think I've ever played a lick of Jefferson Airplane or Hot Tuna on mine. It's a great sounding bass regardless of the genre being played. Furthermore, I don't feel pigeonholed by any bass. I don't give a crap what other people think of the bass I'm playing. I pick them on a whim and if anyone has a complaint, they're welcome to come on stage and take over and do a better job. I'll play a Mockingbird or an Explorer in church, or at a country gig, and I'd play metal on my JC because I DGAF. People who complain about these sorts of things should remember that they use their ears for listening, not their eyes

I’d happily play the Ida Nielsen Signature Sandberg, I nearly bought one a year or so back, not because of anything to do with Ida or what she plays, it’s just a lovely bass,

The three that spring to mind are the Fender Geddy Lee Jazz, the Fender Marcus Miller Jazz and the Epiphone Jack Cassidy Semi-acoustic. All very well known bassists but with basses that you would be happy playing in all sort of contexts. The fact that two are flavours of Jazz bass probably helps their transferability. The bass I’d feel pigeonholed by would be any pointy metal type bass. They look silly enough in their coven genre but utterly ridiculous anywhere else. I saw Chuck Berry at a festival in 1983 and he was clearly using a pick up band. The bass player had an Explorer shaped bass - an Aria ZZB IIRC. Playing Maybelline and No Particular Place To Go it just didn’t look right!

Poor guy on bass, we need to set up a crowdfunding to purchase him some shoes. 😀

I was in London this weekend and went to the Gibson Garage. It's one of those shops where it's a good experience just going in to look around. I didn't think I'm a Gibson person until I realised 50% of my instruments are Gibson brands (two Epiphones and a Kramer). There's some hideously expensive guitars and some reasonable stuff too. The t-shirts follow the same pricing as the guitars, with Epiphone and Kramer t shirts half the price of the Gibson t shirts which are mostly £69 each (not a typo). There's a good range of basses out if you look for them, Thunderbirds, non reverse Thunderbirds, EB-3s... Downstairs in the Epiphone area I had a go on a Newport. Obviously I had to play it upside down but impressions are... Felt nice to play. I don't think I've played a short scale before but this felt good, no big adjustment needed. The fit and finish seemed very good, nothing about it felt cheap which painted neck guitars often can. Surprising range of sounds from the pickups, the blend control really made a difference. There was a satisfying "fullness" to the low E string and nice clarity on the D and G. I'd imagine playing with a pick would be really good, or putting on some flats for finger style. I am tempted to get one and "reverse" it because I don't know of anything else out there like it at that price point or in left handed. Also the available colours are great, love the banana yellow!

My Son's Bitsa Board for Guitar, Bass and Keyboards... Cry Baby GCB95, Joyo Tuner, Sonicake Fuzz, Behringer Bass Chorus, Boss Vocoder, Joyo Delay, Joyo British Sound

A little update; I got to use the Monza at a rehearsal for the blues band I play in. For rehearsal it was the Monza/Warwick Gnome iPro/Flyrig 2 combination with my Boss wireless. To say I was pleased with the Monza’s performance is an understatement. Although this is the loudest band I play in, we tend to avoid ear-ringing volume at rehearsal. Still loud enough for a small pub. Anyway, I had the Gnome with Gain around 11 o’clock and Master between 9 and 10 o’clock, with the EQ settings following @Phil Starr’s recommendations. I could hear myself so clearly that I thought I must be too loud but I took a wander around the room and the balance was perfect, with the bass cutting through clearly. What really impressed me was the amount of low end coming through. I play a Maruszczyk Elwood 32” with this band and the Monza was really letting it shine. Unfortunately, both the bands I play in are currently suffering a gig drought. We haven’t got anything booked until June 😭, so it is going to be a long time until I can hear what the Monza is like at a gig. On current form though, I think it is going to be brilliant. The only thing is my rig looks comically small alongside the guitarists’ 2 x 12 combos. That will be their hernia though 😀!

About five years ago I went into a florists in Kidderminster the day before Valentine's day. Ordered a bunch of Roses for the then Mrs StingRayBoy and nodded hello to the long-haired, leather jacketed old feller waiting for his flowers. We stood there and made "Tsch, mad this innit, what are we like?" faces at each other for a very long five minutes, while my brain played "That's Robert Plant. That's Robert Plant. That's Robert Plant. Out of Led Zep." on a loop. They say never meet your heroes, but I think he handled it really well.

His children have formed a symphony orchestra.

I’ve played gigs and festivals with Wilco Johnson (nice guys!), Jethro Tull, Carl Palmer, Arthur Brown, Wishbone Ash, the Stranglers, Asia and quite a few more I can’t remember. Went on tour with The Musical Box and recorded two albums with Genesis producer Johnny Burns. This stuff means nothing to most people but was fun. Sold a guitar to Phil Oakey and I’m sort of friends with Sade’s producer.

Half cut, I once stood there chatting backstage with Dave Edmunds for half an hour or so without a clue who he was I was the bass player in a scratch band to back Geoff Downes (Asia, Buggles) at a charity gig he'd organised. I was rather ashamed that I didn't have the foresight to learn Video Killed The Radio Star even though it wasn't on the song list. I busked it ok, but it would have been so much cooler to have known it properly Last year I lent my Thunderbird to Martin Turner (Wishbone Ash) when he turned up to a gig in Nuneaton without his bass! 😂

I find particularly pleasing the pairing of a Fender teal houndstooth strap with my American Fender Ocean Turquoise Acoustasonic Jazzmaster.