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I'm fairly sure it's a Sb1000 anyway, it definitely fretless 😂 So, it's not really a new bass day. It's more like I've become it's custodian since the owner picked up a Tony Franklin fretless. So it's mine to enjoy for the time being, and enjoying it I have been. The neck is lovely and fairly straight all the way down (as in little taper to it), it's really resonant unplugged and sounds great. Speaking of sounds, I'm still getting used to the circuitry and all of the tone shaping options, which are almost as alien to me as not having frets. I have to play it with headphones for the time being just to save the house hearing my bum notes.

Much saddened by this. Sam clearly was a very decent human. I believe her contribution to NHS as well as BC will be remembered. May she rest in peace. Thank you, Steve, for caring enough.

Genuinely taken aback by this, she was a real asset to the forum, not just chatting on the main threads, she had mad electronics and programing skills skills and posted some really cool stuff in the build diaries, especially her first attempt at building her own bass. A huge loss.

Oh no, very sad news, I never met Sam but you can tell she was a lovely caring person, Rest in peace

This is the mistress of my downfall. I needed a 5. I got a 5. An Ibanez GSR205 relic-ed by the previous owner more through neglect than intent but not so you'd notice (a screw forced into a bolt insert for the battery cover, some dings and scratches, all pointed out by the seller).

I'll just leave this (Ebony and Maple pair) here for now... ...pending tweaks, Preamp transplants, stuff...

She deserved more than this, she was a really lovely person and 63 years old is way too young. May you rest in peace Samantha.

Ok so I’m getting ready for recording so figured why not go a bit mad using the ML10x under the hood to split the signal between two amps yes I get four muff in parallel is extra but sounds glorious

As part of Record Store Day, I played a church in my hometown. Not only did it mark 12 months of me being alcohol free but it marked the first time I played a venue that my Dad had played. No, we're not religious but it amazes me that in 37yrs of playing, it hasn't happened already. I had friends come over from Wales and down from Yorkshire and we were on it throughout. The playback confirmed it. It was promoting my friend Rich Davies and his band The Dissidents. Got to use my Blackstar head and cab with my trusty Ric 4003s. It sounded immense.

He doesn't seem too devastated He put this up on his social wotsits a few days before the official announcement

Too awful 😢 seemed like a really lovely person and very community spirited

This is very sad news indeed. I remember the terrible time she had with the fire and how this community stepped in with help and support. Her commitment to nursing and also her technical abilities were notable. She was the same age as me so that really hits home. May she rest in peace. 🕊️

He’s the Talented Mr Ripley of guitar, no taste, no creativity, no morals, just a talent for mimicry

Well the pedalboard is still being configured, but here's the anti-gas bass 😁

Everyone's on their honour here. I may be the reason the gift rules got tightened up now that I think about it - a couple of years back Mrs. Neepheid treated me to a Reverend Triad. At the time the rule was more vague, merely stating that unsolicited gifts are exempt. Now this wasn't a pre-arranged thing, we were in Glasgow and I was doing what I always do when we're down there, have a browse of the guitar shops. I tried the Reverend, really liked it and popped it back down. But she asked me if I liked it, I said yes, so she said that she'd buy me it as a treat. This came as a complete surprise to me, there was no pre-discussion, I wasn't trawling the guitar shops looking for something for my wife to buy me. In the end, my circumstance was deemed to have not contravened the rules as they were written at that time as I had not asked my wife to buy the bass for me, she offered. Since then, this very scenario has been nixed with the addition of the text "Genuinely unsolicited presents, which you had no involvement in choosing." Regarding msb's situation, I don't know what (if any) discussions were had between the parties regarding this bass. My reading of the scenario as presented to us is that the third party saw something online that msb had written about having tried and failed to obtain a bass, then decided independently to do something about it ie. offer their bass to msb out of some feeling of sympathy and/or wanting to do a nice thing. I'm confident that msb didn't write the online material which triggered this offer of donation with the express purpose of coercing or convincing someone (in)to gift(ing) them a bass. "Involvement in choosing"? Seems like a stretch to me. Yes, the online text may have influenced the nature of the gift, but I don't believe it was an active involvement. I've written about "the one that got away" before. That doesn't mean I'm expecting a fairy godmother to appear with said bass or a copy of one, and I will argue until I'm blue in the face that I'd be exempt if such a thing ever happened. Ergo, I consider this approach to be influenced, but not directly by msb, as there was no intent, and therefore is unsolicited. Defence rests.

Alright. I got my new bass. I got my new pedals I wanted, a board with case, the power supply needed. I got all the cables and stuff. I even got spare strings and nuts. STARTING NOW, how long can I go on being completely dry? Ideally I'd want to avoid buying anything else at least in 2025. Jusging by this thread, it's much harder than it looks! 😁

Incorrect, in the context of this contest's rules at least. If this is a completely out of the blue, unsolicited gift, it's not a fail. Otherwise, I could find a bass in a skip and gift it to someone participating in the thread to knock them out of the running! Offering to pay the for shipping ain't cheating either, it's merely polite.

I actually made it to Bass Bros, finally… Mrs Travis booked us a little break to Stratford as we’re both on holiday. Did all the Shakespeare gubbins etc. @Willfunk and I had been talking about my Gibson and a Stingray 5 he had in stock. Now, because I’m useless with geography - I’ve no clue where anything is…I did not realise how close I would be this weekend. Will and I have dealt with each other a few times now; at some point in the past via BD, and I’ve sold a few basses to him. Anyhow, a quick message back and forth - I collected the stingray today, and the Gibson leaves tomorrow (wish I’d took it with me now, but didn’t realise until I got to Stratford). Anyhow - he was chilled, ace and it was a nice place to be. Impressive space with some great gear.

A bitter / sweet gig this one (Chateauroux in France) 18 original compositions from a good friend who's now sadly very limited with regards to time left. 10 pce band and I only know one of them, two days of rehearsal, live recording third day and public concert on the last night. Quite an honour to be asked to provide the low end. Fingers crossed I don't mess up🤣

That’s so unfair, awful to hear. She had some cool ideas and great humour. If i recall correctly, didn’t her cat meet an untimely end in the flat fire? If so, I hope they’re both making cool music up there together now.

He was a properly good bloke and really down to earth when he came to the last SE Bass Bash - and absolutely hilarious. How many players of his stature would leave his original Betsy and the Spector he used to record Like a Prayer sitting on stage after his talk and say, “I’ll just leave those there if anyone wants to have a go on them…”? Barry Moorhouse brought a range of his Bass Collection basses to try out and I can confirm that the Betsy copies are really, really nice. Properly tempted. Enjoy it! I’m not the slightest bit jealous, honest!

Very sad news. Sam will be missed by the BC community. RIP.

Seems reasonable given Moon was known for his underplaying 👍

Very sad

Thanks @Steve Browning for posting. I am genuinely in shock here.

ah damnit. RIP Sam.

That's awful news... she was lovely. RIP Sam

That’s so sad. She had been so unlucky with the flat fire and seemed to be getting back on her feet and now this. 😢

Oh, that's super sad, I never met her but she seemed lovely. I always think of her as the ukulele bass player.

I would really like a good double bass… …Waits patiently for unexpected delivery truck 🫳🫳🫳.

I strongly disagree that they're similar. I am not going to filter everything I say online lest it be interpreted as some sort of call to action or intended prompt for someone to do me a solid. You make out like it would be my fault if someone noised me up and offered to gift me an example of the Fazley bass I had ordered back in September last year and now will not receive due to the collapse of Bax Music, just because I've been documenting the saga on here. Nuh-huh, I'm not having it. I don't control what other people do as a consequence of what I write online (unless I've got the begging bowl out - which I don't). I didn't ask anyone to help me out, and as such I would consider myself blameless and having had no involvement in them choosing to do it. It's not even remotely similar to me trying out basses in the physical presence of my surprise benefactor, save for the most mean spirited of argumentativeness, which I'm concerned that's the route it's starting to go down. I think it's been mentioned before, but this thread is ultimately supposed to be a bit of fun, so I'm going to stop the discount Asda SmartPrice Perry Mason routine now and return you to your scheduled programmes.

Right, straight off I should say I love acoustic basses. I currently own two, although one - my Tanglewood 4 string is currently for sale on here, as my recently defretted Warwick Rock Bass Alien 5 string is my main acoustic squeeze and having recently moved into double bass ownership, I need the space. Acoustic basses vary greatly. At the lower end of the market you are getting basically an acoustic guitar with a longer neck so don’t be surprised if it can’t keep up with a couple of aggressively strummed acoustic guitars. The more you pay, the better they become. There will always be those happy exceptions and I remember playing and being very impressed by a parlour sized short scale Ibanez a few years ago. Most come with an adequate pickup and/or preamp. Higher end models like the German-built Warwicks and the legendary Takamine B10 are a thing of musical beauty and something I aspire to. Strings-wise, I cannot abide those phosphor bronze strings that acoustic bass manufacturers use. I have always swapped these out for flat wounds as soon as I could and I find that the La Bella low tension flats work great on acoustic bass. Don’t be put off by the neigh-sayers, acoustic bass guitars have their place. Buy one and enjoy it.

Now , if I had been able to buy the original DanArmstrong for the asking price I would have done so in a minute. It was going for a song. I was not really willing to pay the market price for one. They do fetch a top dollar these days. Several years ago I was tempted to order a Chinese copy but never did. My friend used to do a gear blog , and was always buying and selling gear. He reviewed much of what came in. His offer to send a bass was completely unexpected. He lives in LA , I live in Halifax.

They're as useless as any other acoustic bass, I guess

Herbie Mancock

Fender innovation at its peak.

The contents of this thread thoroughly explain why tubes and SS are different, and why watts don't define loudness or tone. Folks like agedhorse, Phil Starr and myself have been posting this information for as long as there have been forums to post it on. Can't say we haven't tried.

Two gigs for me last weekend. First was with the blues band at a rather remote pub on the coast. Not as busy as last time we did it but still a small appreciative crowd. I made a classic schoolboy error of leaving home a bit late and grabbing a gig bag on the way out, only to discover I’d brought along the ‘wrong’ bass. Fortunately I also brought along my Dano Longhorn to show the guys, so ended up using that into the Rumble 500 and it sounded pretty damned good. Haven’t used it for a while, so a nice reminder of how it will always be a keeper. (see pic). Then Sunday I was with the duo at our regular venue in Scarborough, ‘The Lookout on the Pier’. A full house as per usual and some interesting requests, including ‘A certain smile’ ( for the owner Jill ), ‘Africa’ and ‘An Englishman in New York’ with the crazy walking bit in the middle which is OLF. Encore of ‘Eight days a week’ which is a cracking tune as well. We’re there again in May and it’s always a pleasure.

This is a bit weird to me. "Obsolete" definition is being stretched a bit too far. I have a Line 6 Pod XT. It stopped getting updates donkeys ago. It still sounds as good today as it did when I bought it. This is not the same as a PC not being able to use a new version of anti-virus, or even a new program / app that has been designed for a newer operating system. My pedal is still working the same as it always did. It is not obsolete in the slightest. It's just old. There is a real difference.

Tribute Band Replaces Drummer

So sad. RIP Sam.

No recent posts on Twitter. Last one appears to be in March 2024.

Sadly what I feared

I had a similar Chinese made thing about 10 or so years back.. it collapsed in on itself while waiting to play a gig; I took it for repair with a trusted friend, who told me the construction was crap but she'd do what she could. A few weeks later it collapsed again, so I scrapped it except for the neck which is decent and is now part of my ongoing project EUB. More recently I bought an unashamed doer-upper Stentor DB with quite a few cracks and splits. My friend is now pretty much retired, and a DB would take up her whole workshop, so she taught me the basics of crack repair over the phone plus there's a ton of good stuff on YouTube. I've now played loads of gigs on is, love it, paid for itself times over! Could be worth getting the basic techniques together yourself @Happy Jack!

A new and improved Fender P bass... In a different colour!

NOT LAST NIGHT! I played a gig at the O2 Ritz in Manchester (My old stomping ground) a few weeks ago with The Groove Chorus - a 40 odd piece choir playing fun/funky/cheesy/disco/pop stuff. I used to go clubbing at The Ritz when I was a kid (Monday night Alternative (Goth) night and Wednesday night student (Indie) night) and I've seen loads of big gigs here (Including Chas & Dave!) so... this was a big deal for me! It was a long day, got there about 1 for setup, tech sortouts etc then a full run through... knackering but good fun! Eight piece band including a four piece horn section - we had a monitor engineer which hasn't happened to me for a long time. The MD, guitarist and drummer were guys I've worked with before and not seen for ages, which was nice; the keyboard player was a great bloke and really good laugh - it's always nice to meet someone who hasn't heard any of my jokes. The dress code was 'Denim on Denim on Denim' (NO black clothes allowed!) so I had to buy a pair of blue denim jeans - I don't own that many clothes that aren't black... It was as camp as a row of pink tents (at christmas) - we did 'I Will Survive'... how camp do you want it?! The gig was FANTASTIC - the place was packed, the choir sounded brilliant, the crowd loved it, the band were great, I played pretty well... a great night all round. Certainly the biggest gig I've played for a while. The organisers (and the rest of the band) said some nice things about my playing, which was gratifying and I've since been asked to play the next one, so... a good nights work! (Decent payer as well) Highlight was probably 'Groove is in the heart' - who wouldn't want to play 'that' riff through an ENORMOUS PA while hundreds of people dance to it?! Played the StingRay -> Secret Weapons board (Thumpinator ->VTDI) -> MB802 -> ENORMOUS PA Shoes were peach pink sparkle Converse (not pictured) Video- https://www.facebook.com/reel/1005081587691904