Leaderboard

After more than 7-8 years, going back from big to smaller board

2006, France. Music bar. I'm depping in a seven piece blues band. Alain, the keyboard player, whilst technically brilliant, was a nightmare to play with. He'd spent the previous five years in a jazzy trio, drums, rhythm guitar and him so, he'd played all the bass, all the solos and couldn't help over playing. You wouldn't have even noticed if me, or the two guitarists and the harmonica player had left the stage. We got to the end of the first set. I unplugged my bass (active) popped it on the stand and went out front to have a smoke. The first thing I see is two feet, waggling, about 18" off the ground. The harmonica player has him pinned up against the front window, screaming at him in french except for the English words. " My fu#k#ng solos" 😂 I was told he'd left after the next gig with a "no time to really commit to a band" excuse.

I love MIJ guitars and basses I couldn't resist this, I was after a 75 reissue but you don't always know what you want until you see it

The Gulf Of America describes the space between the giant Wotsit's ears.

Oops, 2x10 also came up for £40 on facebook yesterday, right off my commute home... just need to come up with a suitable excuse for the gear abstinence thread... but I didn't know my 4x10 was even expecting a baby?

No good for me then. I've got deep (empty!) pockets and short arms!

Not quite the same thing, but if I gave any concerns about a gig... lighting, pressure to deliver, feeling under the weather, I make life as easy as possible for myself and take my Flea Jazz bass for maximum playability. My Sire P10 gets close.

This works too.

Because this particular leader has a revenge list and is happy to use it instead of being an actual statesman.

I use Transcribe from Seventh String. It only costs about £35 so it is not expensive and it is incredibly versatile. I have had my copy for years and have been upgrading for free repeatedly ever since I first got it. Incredible value for money. You can slow stuff down to 10% speed without changing pitch and you can isolate passages to focus in on one note or a phrase etc. It's marvellous for those tricksy little licks that you can't quite hear at full speed. I could never have done half of the stuff on the website without it. Highly recommended. I then transcribe onto Sibelius which I have on a subscription for less that £20 a month (I can't remember how much). https://www.seventhstring.com/ If you want any Magnum tunes off Chase The Dragon transcribed, let me know. I loved that album when I had more hair. 'The Teacher' is already up there!

I skipped over to 5 stringers never to return. I tried a Dingwall in a store and that low B made me tingle. I’ve spent the last 4 years trying to get to grips with the extra string, extended range and fanned frets and I just can’t go back. It just feels right to me.

Just dipped my toes a bit deeper into the world of cab sim and amp sim IRs:

What is also a joke is posting while waiting for my pizza in an area with very poor signal.

Fender doing a 15% off sale today. Squire Sonic Bronco for £179. In 'ultraviolet' or 'lime green'. Unsurprisingly, ultraviolent is sold out, but slime green still available, if you like that sort of thing.

So glad I got my Mk 1 back in the early 90s (personal ad in the back of Guitarist) and my Pro2E back in 2001 (randomly turned up in a local guitar shop - both for about 500 quid) before the prices got silly!

I dislike the guy intensely. But, when it comes to the music business, he does know what he's on about, since Oasis did start very much at the grassroots level and work their way up. The problem is, they started back in the 90s when the old music business model still applied - the whole grassroots > get management > get signed > put out album on CD > tour > get lots of press coverage > repeat cycle. I'm not sure many people of his generation have acknowledged or adapted to the new reality of this streaming world. I'd be more inclined to listen to some of the younger musicians who have succeeded in the current environment.

...so I heard banging and commotion, came downstairs and lo and behold my Trace 4x10 had given birth to a healthy baby 2x10, a £40 lovechild from Facebook marketplace - I didn't even know she was pregnant and now have to find room for another cab to feed! I'm guessing blaming my 4x10s infidelity isn't an excuse to still be in this?

One of those basses very few know about. Sometimes I forget how good it is.

Having had my £350 Wal in the 80s, I knew I was never getting one of those again, since prices went into the stratosphere. That's why I had this homage built, which bears a vague resemblance to a Wal, late last year. With the multi coil pickups and LPF based preamp, it nails that sound.

Apart from 6 Music! They have Giles Peterson with obscure jazz on a Saturday afternoon. And Craig's funk'n'soul show is filled with gems both obscure and ancient. There's even bangin' choons for da kids with Jamz Supernova's show. Even during peak afternoon shows I've heard bands like The Residents, Goatgirl, Gillaband...

Yep, although I only have one bass now. It's still surprising to me how happy I am with it.

"The seller is a liar and a crackhead" possibly the finest neg ebay feedback I have read, I salute you user o***o, strong work

It's the kinda tweak ability that's great.... till my daughters decide to play with my pedals and move all the knobs- and then something like a SA atlas with saveable presets comes into it's own!

Duck Duck Go works well as a search engine and does not track you. I have long considered Google the evil empire.

i prefer p-bass to be honest

Looks like him. He was on the tour at the York gig last week.

I have just learned that Tamsin Greig plays bass in a forthcoming TV series and I may need to loosen my collar and lie down for a bit.

Why has the OP been typed as some kind of incomprehensible prose poem?

Nine Loops for Nine Pedals. Edit: the mothership 2 lives in the loop of the T70. So it’s 10 for 10… 🎈 A Splash of midi, but mostly straight forward stuff for Improvisation and Jams.

It’s funny… The way music is consumed is totally different; my two 15/16 year olds both got phones as they started high school (tracker apps and knowing what they’re up to etc)… I noticed that they would have music videos streaming while they played/did homework/draw etc. Its like MTV - But that used to encourage people to buy physical format music… “Physical format” music is now your phone/tablet. We did a song in a studio - released it, and so far it has a few thousand streams across all formats; generating £13 (as part of an EP). We did a video for the song - so far it has 8000 views on Facebook and a few hundred on YouTube…this apparently plays ads before and after and has put £30 in our band account. mental. I said this to.. The 602 - “that’s bollocks” Flying Oceans - “you just want to show off in a video” Fiasco Jam - listened. We’re releasing an Album. we’ll pick 4 “singles” and make videos for each - probably following theme/story I haven’t figured out yet. might earn a few quid - better than nowt.

You're on the money there. Herrick pickups and Lusithand pre. I had to sell my 1984 Ibanez to pay for the pickups, but I figured if you do this once, do it right.

You'd get arrested for carrying that on the street.

Is it this one 😂 https://reverb.com/uk/item/86377042-custom-made-viking-axe-bass-guitar-free-shipping-hard-case

BURN THE HERETIC!!!

If you are into following non-mainstream music, especially bands, the easiest way to do I’ve found is to join the mailing list of some of the few remaining indie stores left. I especially recommend https://www.resident-music.com in Brighton for this.

This. There has never been much good music on mainstream/mass media. It's pointless looking there for it. You may as well dig for gold in a coal mine. I remember the 70s (and, sadly - I'm ancient - the late 60s). Most chart stuff back then was unmitigated tripe, just as it is now.

Darkglass Exponent.

Today I am announcing that we’re changing the name to the American Bass. Make it so.

A single grainy picture taken with a phone camera circa 2002, doesn't even show the head and some -ve feedback reviews that probably should warn anybody and everybody to keep as far away as possible...

@Greg Edwards69 1. Have you forgotten about Opportunity Knocks and similar shows? They've always been there and there have always been people who think that they are going the "make it". TBH once you stop thinking that then then you go from a vanishingly small chance to no chance at all. 2. Most of time there is nothing special about album in themselves. Most are simply 8-10 songs whose uniting feature is that they happened to be written and recorded around the same time. They only exist as a whole because the artist and record label say so. Besides IME there are very few albums where every single track is worth playing every single time you listen to the others. And in the days of vinyl there was no law that said when you reached the end of side one you had to flip the album over and play side two. The musical landscape has changed and it would be naive to think that the rules that applied previously should still apply now. My current band when we first started recording our songs made the conscious decision that we would release each one individually as a single because of this change. It has produced some interesting results in that one of our most popular songs is one that under the "old system" of releasing albums would have been tucked away on side two and been passed over by a lot of listeners. However for the last 18 months we've been continually asked when we'll have an album out, so we are in the process of recording one, although it won't stop us from also releasing singles at the same time. The OP was all about the lack of bands in the current charts. And as I implied in my previous post if it wasn't for negative weighting being applied to "back catalogue" the charts would be full of bands. It just that they would all be from the second half of the 20th Century.

Not a van moment, but years ago played a largish venue in Huddersfield. We were in the dressing room, which was directly behind the stage, waiting for our time to go on, when the DJ came running in. He said something like "Alright Lads", pi$$ed in the sink and ran back to the stage again.

Oh, and the TC Electronic TonePrint stuff has the option of using some reverbs I believe?

I played in a band that toured the North East as a Dire Straits tribute. Very rewarding musically. That Knopfler is a genius. The van was a bit of a state. It was covered in rust patches. We named it Speckled Jim after the pigeon murdered by Lt Blackadder. After the last gig in Blyth we had to drive home, putting in almost as much oil as petrol. We got as far as Guildford and just started to allow ourselves to think we'd get home when Speckled Jim had the last word and conked out.

Very true - today it's more 'monos' than 'trios' around here in many venues - one player and backing tracks, played senselessly loud most times. The old '2 in a bar' rule went out years ago - to get round it my trad jazz band (yes, I'm sorry!) in the 60s used to have a bass drum and pedal that the banjo player (double-sorry!) bashed as well while the trumpet, sax and trombone played one-at-a-time, sitting in the audience until coming out to do a solo, then returning after a couple of choruses... and yes, we only got paid for a duo but it was still a quid each (plenty for a couple of halves of Mild, a chip supper, and a deposit on a new suit from Burtons... ah, those were the days!)