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Last week out was a rare outing for my hard rock band as booked to play a 50th wedding anniversary. I'm not quite sure we were the correct booking but plenty of people danced so whatever. Plagued by some technical issues from the electric kit though, specifically the kick drum trigger. I wouldn't care however we only took the electric kit as we were worried about being too loud, it certainly would have been better with an acoustic kit. Bass: Spector Pulse (G&L L2000 as backup) Rig: Wireless>Quad Cortex plus a QSC wedge beside the drum kit to make some 'stage' sound for us all, especially the electric drummer. Footwear: Black hiking boots. Partly because I hurt my ankle doing some DIY, partly as the load in involved some questionably slippery slopes and mainly because I am a perfectly respectable height but our singer is over 2m tall and I'll take whatever heel I can get.

Settling in to my new weekly residency at a local club’s rock and roll night. 2 x 50 minute sets of stuff for dancing, ranging from rockabilly and Elvis along with some lesser known tunes from Eddie Cochran, Buddy Knox and Dion. It always ends with a waltz, and this week it was ‘Until it’s time to go’, made famous by Elvis and The Four Pennies, written by Buffy Saint-Marie. A lovely song but with some strange changes - glad I had a part supplied! Nice crowd in, including a couple who regularly come to see our duo when we play in Scarborough, so nice they made the 100 mile return trip. My first gig there using my own rig, so took along my lovely GK 800RB amp and my Loud Inc 4x10 cab. Used my Precision Lyte passive bass with them, and it sounded fine. Think I may take my old Precision along one week, or maybe the Dano Longhorn too.

Urgh I forgot how old everyone is on BC. If you are reading this site via ticker tape then I am 0.000319 leagues (5'9") and our singer is almost 20 hands (6'7").

Had the third of three consecutive rehearsals with three different bands last night. Monday night was the blues band - spent a couple of hours taking apart a simple Chuck Berry number (Never Can Tell), reallocating parts for fiddle and sax in the absence of keyboards, then putting it back together again in a form that none of us will probably remember come the gig this Saturday night 😕. Tuesday night was the punk covers band - just a great blast through the first part of the set for the upcoming gig on July 5th. Bit of a weekly therapy and offloading session as much as anything..... Last night was the folk rock band, and we started work on a couple of the original songs written by the guitarist and singer when they were a duo. The addition of acoustic bass and fiddle, plus the bouncing ideas off each other was the greatest night of the three - recorded the happenings on my H4n and getting it sent out to everyone later today. It's currently chucking it down with rain, and I'm in the local cafe with a latte and toasted teacake doing a bit of 'admin'........😉👍

No? Me neither, but he must be famous. Andertons is selling his Fender signature bass (second hand) 😁

Ok , so it was actually Saturday night just gone but we had a fab local one for us at the hawth theatre in Crawley, 600 tickets sold, and such an appreciative audience. I recently purchased a Trb 5 mk1 Yamaha, one with the ‘slap cut’ recess. Second show I’ve done with it and I’m bloody well blown away by how good it is! The b string is sooo good, i never imagined I’d get on with the wide neck, but it’s nice and shallow and seems to fit me like a glove! Lightweight as well ( from what I’m used to anyway) the B string actually interacts with the other strings and is so useable.Ironic as it’s by far the cheapest 5 string I have. happy days! X

As promised, here's a little picture and write up of the Chinese Amazon special in the Bronco. As I said previously, it fits in the stock pickguard and the mounting screw holes line up perfectly. The pole pieces almost line up perfectly, at most the strings are 1mm misaligned from the very middle of each pole piece. Also feels like a well made unit, cloth pushback wire and enough potting wax to keep a Yankee candle aflame for a few days. Really quite impressed with it. Sounds a lot more balanced than the stock pickup, and is a lot quieter in regards to background hum. Also sounds like there's more low end in it than stock, almost as if it's a bass pickup and not a cheap guitar pickup. Does sound similar-ish to a 51 P Bass style sound albeit with the thump of a short scale. Keen to try it out in a band mix at rehearsals tomorrow night. All in all, I'd highly recommend it. Absolute bargain if you own a Bronco and don't want to put the normal cheapo hot rail in but don't also want to spunk £60-100 for a Toltec or McNelly or something. Link to it is here if anyone is interested: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B06XQVZG72?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

WTF is wrong with cubits ? It was good enough for God and Noah, what makes you so special ? Hmm? 🤔

With you on this one! Five foot five, extra bit with the Dr Martens work boots (toe protectors for loading in/out), and non-slip soles. Short scale basses also help add to the illusion.....😉😎

Ahhhhh, Tom Crusing it? Good idea. Yeah, when there's a band baseline and normal (whatever that normal is) and then just one outlier it can be a problem. I think we've got it down with the posed ones It's the candid ones that cause issues

The 7lb jazz bitsa bass which has I believe has had a number of bass chatters as its custodian has me as its latest one. I bought it yesterday of Chris (cdog) in Leeds. I really like it, light as a feather (compared to my last jazz bass) and plays wonderfully - probably due to being played in extremely well by the excellent bass players who have had it before me!

Well that was interesting! A quiet rehearsal! A drummer I haven't met before who put a towel over the snare. I got to refine my basslines for about eight originals. We jammed a few things, including me and the guitarist (Daz the daffodil) trying to play and sing Child in Time 😱 Aside from that, quite a chilled evening. I even had go with a pick.* *It seems no-one calls them plectrums any more.

One of the many ways in which I hold myself to higher standards than biblical characters.

I have form for this.

It’s quite hard to find a reasonably priced, decent P, or P/J medium scale these days. The Ibanez Mezzo has been discontinued and the Squier Jaguar H is a bit marmite (I think it might have been discontinued as well). I recently had a near miss with an 80s Aria P/J and that gave me huge GAS for one of those 80s Japanese medium scale basses. There seemed to be so many of them back then. A lot of the Matsumoku produced Ibanez and Aria basses are commanding a premium these days, so I was delighted to see this Greco Atomic medium scale P/J for sale on Reverb for around the £235 mark. I took the plunge last week and it arrived yesterday. It’s actually in amazingly good condition for a bass from the 80s (I think it genuinely is from the 80s). The worst knock it has is where it obviously got put down with a bump or dropped on the end strap button, which caused some of the poly to chip off around the button. Apart from that there are some minor dings and scratches on the body that haven’t gone through the poly, which has aged from white to cream. There is a very slight hairline crack off one side of the neck pocket that looks pretty innocuous. The Jazz style neck is in great condition for its age with no significant dings and no cracks, or repairs. It’s carved from a single piece of maple which might make it vulnerable to headstock cracks/breaks but it is fine. The rosewood board is in really good condition with no gouges, or wear and the frets are fine, with no sharp ends . It looks as though it has Gotoh machine heads (marked Made in Japan). In common with the rest of the hardware, there is some pitting in the chrome but it’s all serviceable. It appears to have the original electrics: full sized pots (Vol, Vol, Tone), which turn smoothly without crackling. On the not so good side, the bridge was in a mess. The A string saddle was on the wrong way round so that the string was not sitting in the slot but crossing the adjuster screw and spring over the edge of the saddle. The D string saddle was upside down, with the Allen sockets on the bottom of the screws. It had the top 3 strings from a tired medium scale light gauge set on it and an E string which was .110” long scale bodged on and sitting proud of the nut (too big for the slot). The pickups were crazily high on the bass side and on inspection all the screw heads were cheesed, so clearly not functional. There is a slight twist in the neck/fretboard, according to my local luthier, which he doesn’t think is too tragic. After adjusting the truss rod (that fortunately seems to work fine) it is pretty straight. Adjusting the rod is a pain because the hex socket is at the heel end and there is no cut out in the body, so you have to release the strings and undo the neck screws to get at it. I gave it a quick once over yesterday afternoon: sorted the bridge saddles, lemon oiled the neck, adjusted one of the machine heads and put a set of barely used D’Addario nickel medium scale lights (45-100) on it. I also replaced all the pickup retaining screws, which enabled me to set them to a sensible height. All of that done it plays and sounds pretty good. I took it to a band rehearsal in the evening and I was very pleased with it. I still need to sort out the nut, which is a bit high and get the intonation set. It is incredibly light and really tiny, so a great bass for long gigs. It will certainly do fine as a back up to my Maruszczyk medium scale ElwoodI. In fact my bandmates asked why I had brought a toy bass. In short I’m well pleased so far. I will add some photos when I have reduced them in size.

And I got to rehearsal this evening and.... it all fell into place. No More Heroes was bob on, even if I say so myself.

Untreated brass pickguard just fitted. Made by TinyTone. Looks good I think

Our renaissance-folk-rock duo went to a local open-mic on Monday - the first we've done for a couple of years. We did a medieval tune on recorder and bongos, then a Blackmore's Night song with octave-mandolin accompaniment. It was well received. Of the other acts my highlights were an American over on holiday doing some folk, a lady playing John Playford tunes on a melodeon type instrument, and a couple of younger singer-songwriter guitarists.

Ha, different way for me, in one band the singer guitarist is about 5ft6 so with me at 6ft playing a short scale bass I look like a giant in comparison 😂

Yeah I think you find yourself in a tricky middle ground; standard pub rock covers you can probably find someone easily enough, but anything else means more prep work/time for the dep which then pushes the financial demands higher. Which is much the same as my “for fun” band, our set is too niche to have someone just walk in and play it, and we are too cheap to be able to pay someone for the time to learn it! 😅

Other end of the (short) scale: As received... will be tarting it up: A quick set up saw a half turn off the truss rod and a hefty neck shim and the action is still high with the bridge bottomed out. Slight buzz at the nut on g string, think the slot is a bit tight as pushing string down stopped it. Very light strings so hilariously easy to play. Was thinking of a refin, but the yellowed colour evokes aged olympic white...

Had a very productive practice. We went over 4 songs that we weren't happy with and sorted them out. Then we played through the whole set as a rehearsal not a practice and it all came together.

Eventually managed to shrink this to less than 175 KB.

I’ve been bandless for coming up to a year and I did need the break but just as I was thinking about finding a new one, this thread reminds me of all the reasons I might not bother…

Pink Lloyd, the well-known Welsh prog band.

We finished by hamming Marilyn Manson style sweet dreams. I think thst shows where it's heading. Our own songs have titles like Kill the Clown, Circling the Drain and Dreams of Despair. I suspect it's all going a bit goth...

We're going on a Welsh tour next weekend! Well, Newport and Cardiff... 😂

My band SHREDS. are playing the Slugfest In The Park festival in Wales at the end of June. The festival is four days, FREE ENTRY, and just look a this lineup!!!

It actually all looks ok, apart from the fact it's not a 1967. 1967 would have had the smaller transition logo and either lollipops or the older reverse gear tuners. Most likely 1968 at the earliest.

Somewhat busy for a part of the evening - about two minutes before getting up to accompany one guy, someone else (sax player) decides he wants to do Baker Street when it's his turn, so I'm just starting to jot the chords down when I'm on, then it's me and Mrs Zero, then I'm accompanying a harmonica player with two guitarists and two never-ending 12-bars (12-bores, I accidentally christened them), then it's the sax player plus Mrs Zero on vocals and female guitarist on, er, guitar after I scribble down the last four chords (sax player was playing the right notes in the right order but completely the wrong length), then I accompany the lady guitarist for her set, then a former bandmate who has just come back from a holiday in Japan did a slot so I accompany him too. Evening gets finished off by the perpetrators of the 12-bores, with the guitarist that I first accompanied taking on bass. Just for a change I didn't accompany Young Blind George as he was doing Midnight Rambler - I don't know it and unlike everything else he does, it's not easily busked to.

And for size comparison: next to a Sire U5 short scale fretless. This is one dinky medium scale bass!

Was Asked to play bass behind two acoustic guitarists tonight. They fist-bumped me (afterwards) so it probably wasn’t terrible (thanks god for lending some talent) was aiming for a dark jazz bass sound but sounded disconcertingly toppy through PA - more playing around needed sire v7 5 in passive, mostly front pup middle in tone control

I've been playing all evening and absolutely loving the sounds I'm getting from it. Dirty channel on my Revolt preamp pedal, both pickups on full, and it sounds huge.

I've had both the USA and the SB14. The SB14 gets you 90% of the way there in terms of both sound and feel. The finish of the neck isn't quite so premium but the dimensions are pretty much the same. It has cheaper tuners. The USA sounded a touch fatter and just a bit more 'grown up' I would say. The top end was sweeter and it had a bit more booty. All the non USA Sterling stuff I've had was a good approximation but when you play them next to the USA ones they come up a tiny bit lacking sonically (I've had a few 2 and 3 band USA Stingrays along with a USA Sterling and also a USA S.U.B, SB14 and Ray34 - The USA S.U.B was miles better than any Far Eastern ones) If you're thinking of upgrading the pickups and preamp you're going to take it further away from the classic Sterling sound unless you find a genuine USA set of electrics somewhere. I think most people would stick a Nordstrand pickup in there. Bearing in mind an SB14 is probably about half the price of a USA Sterling on the used market (£600ish against £1200ish?) and is so close I would probably just leave it alone and stick with it. A £600 extra spend doesnt stack up to a 10% improvement in my books. Although having said that you'll probably always wonder what you're missing.....

Fender Studio is new and free. I've had a little play and it seems pretty decent. Lots of drum loops to play with. You get some guitar amp sims too, so you can just plug straight into an audio interface, then audio interface into the tablet without needing other hardware. https://uk.fender.com/pages/fender-studio

Temperature always in celsius for me. I can't grasp fahrenheit at all plus it has no logic to it.

I thought I’d be older and wiser, I feel slightly short-changed but then 1 out of 2 isn’t bad.

He was bassist in Pink Flod I think…….

I first met Rich in 1992 when I started working at NCC on Oxford Rd, only a few hundred yards from A1 Music where he worked. That year I bought a nice condition all original 1973 Olympic White Fender Strat in the original case from Rich in the shop, for the princely sum of £225. We've done countless deals since, and he introduced me to Joe Bonamassa in 2015 when we hung out at a studio in London for a day with him before the Royal Albert Hall show. Joe put me and my wife on the guest list for a show in Leeds subsequently.

That's just vulgar!

It's unusual for a drummer to do it without being asked though!

I just bought this little Ashdown Studio 15 combo of a guy who I know well and is moving abroad. He only gigged it three times so it is mint. I've just plugged it in and have to say I'm very impressed by it. It's incredibly light - I went and dug out my old Rumble 25 practice amp from under the stairs and this thing feels about half the weight! Does anyone have any experience of gigging with the Studio 15?

You can tell her that I think that looks really cute. Lady I know would love one of those

Tuesday night at the Cavern, finished up playing with three others - female vox, female guitar, and male drummer. Sum total of their ages was 23 years younger than me. It was great fun. They are all really good - from a bassist's POV, the drummer and I have clicked from the start and like each other's playing. There were a couple of bands on - one was a duo, guitar/vox and drums, deafeningly loud (I carry earplugs and they went straight in), the other a three-piece who are regulars there with a drummer who only knows BANG BANG BANG - earplugs back in. There were four or five guitar/vox artistes, and in the absence of Mrs Zero, I was one of them. Rather a contrast to Wednesday night, which was quite a low turnout - normally it's a full list with everyone getting two songs, tonight it was three songs apiece. Managed to get Mrs Zero out so the audience weren't subjected to my voice.