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I'm playing Glastonbury 2025, I have 4 gigs lined up, playing with Andrew Maxwell Morris. Wednesday 25th: Toad Hall - 17.10-17.50 (40mins) Thursday 26th: Mandala Stage - 14.00-14.45 (45 mins) Friday 27th: Open Arms - 12.00- 12.45 (45 mins) Small World Stage - 14.10-15.00 (50 mins) I so can't wait 😁

Singist hits some loud shit in our Odelay gig, went great, could have been better, could have been worse, Beck has said the same about his own gigs

A bit late, but Thursday's Jam Night was good. We were on shortly after 9 followed by the band I depped for the previous Saturday (Matt Guntrip and the Roadsters). Matt and said Roadsters hadn't heard us play before. A few of my mates also came down, some of them for the 1st time The pub manager told the guitarist he'd had a few people asking about us and offered us a Friday slot if we want one. So I guess we either played well, or played songs people liked, or both. My 1st Granddaughter (and also the neice of the drummer), was born on 4th May. Hence I managed to get this one on the set list. Intro to the song was along the lines of "Can you guess her name. No. No. No. Well there's a clue in this song". violet

A couple of little changes thanks to @tayste_2000: Swapped out my 3Leaf Enabler for the Shiftline Olympic MkIIIs on the Nano, powered by a Cioks Sol, running the Olympic and OC2 at 12v: Swapped out my MXR Studio Compressor for the Diamond Bass Comp Jnr on the Nano+, powered by a Cioks DC5, running the Diamond at 18v: That is all for now 😀 Si

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/people/music-donation-to-thomas-deacon-academy-to-ensure-much-loved-peterborough-bass-player-nick-smiths-legacy-lives-on-5190446 Just wanted to share this article from Peterborough today, our local newspaper. Ally and I visited the Thomas Deacon Education trust to donate some instruments and equipment. It was exciting to start the NSFT! 🎸🙏💚

Hardest album we've played, best gig we've done

I'm playing 4 gigs at Glastonbury 2025 with Andrew Maxwell Morris. Wednesday 25th: Toad Hall - 17.10-17.50 (40mins) Thursday 26th: Mandala Stage - 14.00-14.45 (45 mins) Friday 27th: Open Arms - 12.00- 12.45 (45 mins) Small World Stage - 14.10-15.00 (50 mins) I so can't wait 😎

OK then no singing here then , definitely Ibanez 6 string through waves GTR 3 stomps , lots of compression and a lump of reaper reverb, simple EZ drums , some vocal 'ah' sounds off my digi piano, some keyboard synth with a waves GTR3 backwards effect, and ME with a bit of re-pitch adjustments, all done in Reaper with a splattering of Ozone 8 to put some life into it .

Well I can tell you exactly what I'll be playing and it's not very interesting or original 😂 Fender Japan 60's Classic Precision with LaBella Deep Talkin Flats. Sansamp BDDI, Ampeg Opto Compressor, Boss or MXR Octave and TC Electronic Tuner. Boring but a solid workhorse setup 😂

My band SHREDS. is playing the Slugfest In The Park festival in Wales on Friday. Our very own 'Thrashmaster -- Burnt to Shreds.' hot sauce will debut there, so if you're attending please drop by our merch stall to say 'hello' and grab a bottle!

Might as well make Bass playing as comfortable as possible: Those Zoom pedal displays are small, something like the Boss GX 10 is much more readable. And as already mentioned - get a lightweight Bass (and amp/cab). 'what does it weigh?' is a cliché question when someone puts up an advert selling a Bass without saying the weight, I think most people that do gigs/play standing up eventually find it quite an important consideration. Manufacturers seem to have realised this and there is quite a good choice of lightweights now. There's a slight 'back in the day we didn't question the weight of a bass' attitude sometimes....yeah, but people also smoked in pubs, didn't wear seatbelts, had asbestos and lead around the house, and probably have bad backs now!

Well, thanks again for all the collective help /advice. I have a jazz trio on the go, currently using a mix of electric fretted / fretless. I've depped on a few gigs for a couple of rockabilly bands using a '76 Jazz whose DB players have damaged themselves (building site related injuries). The other band is a 6 piece function covers band which is irrelevant here. I do need a setup, strings and lessons but have sorted the correct height of the bass and stance sorted out for myself. All the best 👍

You are Dr Who and I claim my £5. ...

250??? 250 !!! That is a score and a half! Looks to be american made, The R logo and serial would put it in the 80's for certain. All the switching options and knob design all point to the USA as well. I would put the pictures and details onto the BC rich Junkies page on facebook. There are people on there that could tell you what the builder's wife's cat was doing at 7 minutes past 3 there Thank you for sharing dude!! I look forward to seeing it on FB

So, following on from my earlier post with the electric bass board, some goodies arrived this morning from Anderson’s to complete the meagre double bass / EUB board. Everything I need and nothing I don’t 😎

As above, would need to know the use case. But I would get a D’addario xpnd, wire it with the B7K (though I’d personally go for something from Sushibox or a DG Element) at the end, with the board slightly pulled out. This will give you enough space on the main board for Tuner - Comp - MXR BOD and 2 other pedals of your choice (C4/Aftershock 🤷‍♂️). Get to the gig, slide the board open stick the stomp between the B7k and the other last pedal. That would give you more or less all the functionality of everything I’m seeing here in a very compact easy to carry setup.

So having decided that I'd like to set myself the challenge of having a go at fretless, and wanting to try before I bought, I looked at what was around on the cheap end of the market and my local music shop (I say shop, I suspect it's more the owner's retirement hobby and gear museum/hangout, with incidental music teaching space attached) had this, so I dropped in and had a look. Internet research suggests it was made in the Samick factory in 1994/5 and will have originally been fretted. The defret job looked good to my non-expert eye, the body and neck felt comfortable, it wasn't too heavy, it sounded OK unplugged - considering it had flats of unknown provenance on - and made a good range of tones plugged in to the shop Trace combo. The action wasn't exactly low and I noticed the G string bridge saddle was as low as it could get, but I figured a bit of setup attention could probably sort that. Oh and a previous owner had decided to replace the output jack with an XLR. Anyway though, I decided I liked it, so two hundred quid plus trade-in of a Marshall MB15 I no longer need and it came home with me. Closer inspection and plugging in at home and the imperfections started to look a lot more imperfect. I realised the intonation was badly out and the bridge saddles didn't have enough adjustment (away from the neck) to get it anywhere near right without reaching the string end wraps. And there was a huge amount of interference pickup, which only almost went away when I turned the tone control fully clockwise, which corresponded to maximum treble cut (??). Inspecting the cavity again, the wiring I'd thought looked passable in the shop now turned out to be a right dog's dinner. I started to feel I'd got a dud on my hands. Maybe I should have gone with the safe-but-boring Squier Vintage Modified 4-string that guy in Ashton with the leather sofa had on Gumtree… But then I took delivery of a set of lightly used Elixir stainless roundwounds courtesy of cdog, and went through the setup as I swapped them on, and everything started to make a bit more sense. Intonation came right in a more sensible place and I had to raise the G saddle a little to cure a rattle on the top end of the fretboard, which left the action still a bit higher than I'd like but definitely playable, and the rounds are easier (or at least more like what I'm used to) than the flats. And I've ordered the parts to screen and rewire the electrics and return it to a normal jack socket. So I'm a happy bunny after all. And I do think it looks rather smart in the black. I reckon the fretboard may have lifted a little bit at the top end, so once I've played it a bit more I may get an expert opinion on whether a bit of work would improve the action, but I'll leave that for a while as I'm planning to stick to the fretted until my next jazz jam in a couple of weeks, then play only the fretless and see how quickly I can get used to it. My own intonation is currently at the 'surprisingly good, but still terrible' level so some practice will be required.

Well, I bit the bullet and dipped my toe in the water of nitro spraying a body and headstock front. Previously I had only used oil finishes and wipe on polyurethane. I must admit it has been a very steep learning curve and introduced me to the world of grain fillers and sanding sealers. I used a Okoume JB body from China that was already semi-finished so was routed and sanded to an extent. I had not really heard of Okoume but I believe it is from the same family as Mahogany and is being used more often for guitar and bass builds. The neck is from China. I can honestly say the Chinese stuff is really top notch in respect of the quality and finish. The biggest issue, as I used rattle cans and sprayed in the back garden, was dealing with little pieces of crap been blown onto the finish when wet due to not having anywhere inside suitable to spray. I used Northwest Guitars paint and gloss lacquer as well as gloss lacquer from Nu-gane. I’m not sure I am in a rush to use nitro again as it is not as forgiving as finishing with Liberon Finishing Oil but certainly the clearcoat is a lot easier to rectify runs/burn through etc than using the poly. Blending in the headstock decal was nerve racking as well as the drilling holes for the pickguard, bridge, tuner screw and reaming out the tuner holes by a couple of mm as I was anxious about ruining the finish and having to go back several stages. I would also choose a 21 fret neck instead of 20 from now on as the fretboard overhang on a 21 neatens up the join where the pickguard meets the neck heel. Overall for a first spraying effort and only my 4th build, I am really pleased with how the bass has turned out……is it factory perfect?…absolutely not but for the intended sale price it is a fantastic looking and playing bass. if you’re interested in buying, it should be on the BC basses for sale thread in the next week as I am just waiting for a replacement bridge pickup as the first one was faulty, Specs are: Okoume body Roasted maple 20 fret, black block inlay neck with rolled edges Guyker tuners Gotoh bridge Wilkinson M Series pickups Bloodstone Guitarworks wiring with CTS pots and Spragg capacitor running volume/volume/tone Schaller type strap buttons I will get it weighed as soon as it’s all back together. I have and continue to learn so much with each build and my next ambition is to get to a stage with my knowledge and tools where I can turn a body blank and top into a body myself, route it out to attach a pre-made neck. My ultimate goal is to be able to make the necks as well but baby steps as they say…..

Thanks for that @SuperSeagull Mine still has the same functions to the controls - but I think I'd prefer the arrangement you have, with 2x vol and 2x tone. I definitely prefer a passive bass. Only once did a battery fail on me at a gig... but it's a lasting memory. It was quick enough to fix at the time (I usually carry a spare battery) but a pre-amp fail - ooh, that's a scary thought for a live gig, even though I'm sure it doesn't happen often.

I'll try and catch you on Thursday!

Absolutely each to their own, yes. Just to be clear though I was not setting any conditions on bass ownership. If someone has an expensive / rare / irreplaceable bass that they don't want to take out, it is a decision entirely for them. I'm just thinking if I don't play something (home or live), I personally can't justify keeping it - I don't have the spare cash. And sadly, my holidays aren't even fancy! 😸

I can see the headline now: "Shortage of bassists in Aberdeen after they were all press-ganged into working on a galleon....."

This doesn't really make sense. A passive bass doesn't have detents either, would you say the range of detent-free travel on a Precision tone pot means you can never get the same tone twice? A two band Stingray has bass boost only, along with treble cut and boost. The way I set them up was to use the grub screw on the knob as a marker. For the bass knob, turn it all the way down, no boost, and have the grub screw pointing straight up, from the playing perspective. Then you know when it's flat and, if you boost, by how much. For the treble knob, I move it to roughly half way, then set the grub screw pointing straight up, from the playing perspective. You're roughly flat, at that point and it's very easy to see whether you're cutting or boosting and by how much. Very simple. FWIW, I would set passive basses up the same way, the grub screw pointing up when the controls are up full, i.e. flat, not cutting. That way you can see very easily how you are set on any bass, passive or active whether you have detents or not.

In this instance, any switch or contact cleaner will not work. Those tactile microsites are sealed and do not work in the same way as a traditional electro-mechanical switch. There may be a need for some lubricant in the actual stomp button to keep is moving freely. As @Phil Starr says, you can experiment with foam or felt pads between the springs and the switch, but be careful. Firstly, the switches themselves are not that robust and secondly, too much pressure may lead to the switch being activated permanently, as though your foot was always on the foot switch. Use the rubber end of a pencil or even a cotton buds to make sure that the switch itself is still operating correctly.

This is what motivates my preference to using passive, and my comfort in using my P bass as well. Once everything is turned up I feel like all the knobs just 'make' me fiddle with them! The Stingray I previously used really confused me as well, with no centre detents available on the eq knobs I genuinely didn't know where 'normal' was. I guess I'm just trying to avoid being a bass-luddite and want to get the best out of my gear but I suspect I'll probably be keeping the passive mode selected in the long run.

I have the older model and never experienced any issues. Just shooting from the hip here, but have you tried any different headphones? I’m just wondering if Nu-x is using more power driving the headphones; maybe an impedance issue? I’ve no idea what I’m talking about so please ignore me if I’m completely off target. 😉

I have the exact same bass also in Frost Red and had it converted to passive a few years ago when the pre amp failed. I much prefer it in a passive format, sounds more like a Fender. I went with vol per pickup and tone per pickup to use all 4 knobs.

I asked this question about my Tascam multitrack recorder. It's great but I can't always read the screen. I asked on the Tascam forum and one member said he solved the issue by putting an old tablet on a stand above his screen and using the camera app to see the display on a bigger screen. You probably already have an old phone or tablet, so it's worth a go!

You can get a reading from a multimeter between ring and sleeve which will be proportionate to the battery voltage but not equal to it. I replace batteries when they're somewhat under 9V, if I spot they're below 8V I'll replace them otherwise I'll replace them when they die. KMI Batt-O-Meter incoming, I'll report on it when it's here.

Oh, I'm out, it's getting far too nitpicky in here. All playing is equally valid, regardless of who's doing it, where it's happening, whether or not it's for monetary gain, what time of day it's happening or any other stupid variable you'd like to throw at it. I don't care any more. Some of you have made this thread unbearable. Go play a bass or something

Absolute bargain. Definitely (maybe?) a US model. High quality bit of kit. Congratulations!

Congratulations on the offspring!

For those interested, there's this perfect device, called Keith McMillen Batt-o-Meter, which can test batteries inside an instrument or pedal, outside them and even self test itself, which means it was really well thought. Not very expensive and, to me, worth the price. You can get it for £24,4 GBP from Thomann (and others): https://www.thomann.co.uk/keith_mcmillen_batt_o_meter.htm Here is an old review:

Acoustic duo gig yesterday evening at a local pub - birthday party for a friend’s wife. We played in a room at the back of the pub which used to be a brewery, with a flagstone floor but very uneven. We both spent all the gig balanced precariously on stools with one foot on the ground, not ideal but no alternative. I had to put wedges under our PA speakers on one side to prevent them from falling backwards! We did our usual request format and had some good ones. Because there was no room for dancing it meant we could play more slow tempo tunes, including ‘Sweet baby James’, ‘Rotterdam’ and ‘Let’s stay together’. Bad planning meant the buffet was served during the start of our second set, but we ploughed on regardless as we were due to finish by a certain time. Didn’t seem to matter, and we went down well so all good. Load out in the rain but meant it was quick! Got two more gigs this Tuesday and Wednesday, then a week off, phew.

Sunday afternoon saw our (Rascallion) first live performance since August last year (long story!). The event (outdoors at a local pub) had originally been billed as "Country Music Day", featuring a local female solo acoustic singer followed by us, so we'd worked up a set featuring a few of the more country-adjacent tunes we've not done for a while, and added the 6/8 at 49 BPM delights of "Tennessee Whiskey" to our usual CCR / Eagles / Petty / Stones country-rockesque fare. Sometime over the last month, the event then morphed into a combined Sausage & Cider Festival and SSAFA Fundraiser, but we decided to stick to what we'd already put together, and it mostly went OK despite rehearsals being sporadic due to various members being ill or otherwise unavailable. After Meg had entertained the crowd (and us) with two sets of country classics plus a few very good (and in one case very funny / raucous) originals, it was our turn to spoil everybody's afternoon. Apart from a number of on-the-hoof arrangement changes courtesy of Mr Singer (OK, maybe he was just testing out our recovery skills, but I suspect not... ), a couple of the carefully-crafted intros we'd worked up at rehearsal on Wednesday going to pot as various folks piled in before they should have done (think we need a few more counting lessons... ), and a few other minor moments by all of us, seems we got away with it judging by the amount of applause, outbreaks of (possibly cider-induced) dancing, and complimentary comments at the end! Used my 1997 CIJ Jazz, faithful old Ashdown MAG300-C210T combo (acquired from @karlfer of this parish about 15 years ago, and which doesn't get to see much action these days), plus the usual board of Micro Thumpinator > NUX tuner > Ampeg OptoComp > Ampeg Scrambler > Ampeg Liquifier > Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI > Behringer DI600P DI. I somehow contrived to play the whole of the first set and a chunk of the second with the sub-harmonic engaged on the amp having omitted to disengage it after our last rehearsal, but I don't think anybody noticed. 🤫 Anyway, that's hopefully got the rust knocked off prior to our next gig this coming Saturday at our spiritual home of Anderby Village Hall. Might have some videos to put up later, if I can manage to get them off Mr Rhythm Guitar's phone at rehearsal, but in the meantime here's the setup, and a combined "Post Your Pedalboard / Footwear" shot.

Saturday night was in a school hall playing bass for the local concert band and it's 25th anniversary concert. Was good fun but a total sweat box, especially when the band committee insisted we all walked on stage in full uniform - ie shirt, tie, trousers and heavy band blazers. Luckily the jackets came straight off when we got on stage.....

Lots of people appear to think that the starting point for active controls is that they should be maxed out, and that seems to be why Stingrays for example have a reputation in some quarters as being ridiculously bright and trebley. They're only ridiculously bright if you turn the treble up to a ridiculous setting! You should always start with the controls centred and work slowly from there. In practice I usually end up with a slight bass boost, then on a 2 band eq I'll use the treble like a tone control to brighten/darken to suit the song. This often means my treble ends up below centre in a 'cut' poisition. If you have a 3 band then the Mid control is your "poke through the mix" control. Turn the mids up to be more prominent in the mix, turn them back to sit back inside it. Nothing wrong in changing that from song to song either. When I have a 3 band I do tend more to set the treble once and then leave it alone, and then the Mid becomes my 'tone' control instead. No point in making things unnecessarily complicated.

Oh Chapeau sir, chapeau!

Looks like you bgot a real bargain there. It doesn't look like it's a bolt neck from the pics, so it could possibly be a US built one.

I prop mine up on a 1950's edition of Proust's 'Au Recherche du Temps Perdu' in the original French. Great for that wistfully elegiac P bass tone that so many of us strive for.

Sorry for late reply , been busy. I recently took the amp off and serviced it. I took an old Halfords bike carrier apart. Cut it to the desired length, swapped the locking mechanism around so it works as a stand. I put some prosecco cork stops in the tubes to protect the carpet. It hold the old school Peavey bass combo, about 31 kg. It's not a pretty stand but the combo conceals it.

Thank you so much for posting the update. She looks beautiful, to see his name on the headstock made me 😢 but the positivity she will bring will be amazing! I found Nick's original drawing of her at his studio. He too was talented at DT at school although he was always too busy impersonating our teachers!! Kat 🩵