Leaderboard

Continuing my post-midlife crisis 'straying from Precisions' period, I couldn't resist this absolute stunner over the weekend. Just... look at it. It's a 1998 model, and was actually the L-2000 they used in the catalogue that year. A couple of honest dings here an there, but otherwise spot-on. I'll be gigging it on Friday.

I was rather bemused when my son told me there was a pedal-sized parcel for me today. I knew I hadn’t ordered anything as I’ve been having to tighten my purse strings due to impending major change of circumstances. I was therefore completely taken by surprise to find this incredibly lovely gesture and gift when I opened the box: Folks, this was totally unexpected and unnecessary, nevertheless I want to express my profound gratitude to the anonymous benefactors who were kind enough to do this. Thank you! My faith in humanity has been given a much needed boost after the kicking it’s been getting lately. ❤️

So, that is how it went to Heiko, and it came back last week, but I had to do my part of the job, as we agreed that I'll do all the reassembly. It's now fitted with a brand new BassLab/Richter 3 bands with variable mids preamp, the mandatory Richter status LED between the Delano SBC 5 HE/S pickups, some new ETS knobs, a new output barrel jack, a set of Dunlop Straploks instead of the usual Schaller ones, a new Gotoh battery box, the BassLab identification brand that was removed/missing on the bow, the official side "dots" with the F-clef at the octave on the front, a new "bracing" for the top, a new zero fret, some repairs in the carbon that were needed and the pickups support correctly glued as well as the ETS tuning system put the right way round with the correct screws (check the photos). It's now tuned E to C; the action is very low going from 1.2 to 1.5 mm at the octave with the perfect neck relief; the playability is, of course, amazing and the tone is really huge with a kind of permanent reverb, even dead flat or in passive mode, and becomes immense when you start using the 3 bands EQ with variable mids preamp. It's also hyper ergonomic and very light at 3.445 kilos. The colour is the official Maserati Yellow. It took around 5 months to Heiko to finalise the resurrection of this extraordinary instrument, but it was worth it as it's almost as new, even if it's a very early model without truss rod or serial number, so from 1998 or 1999. Enjoy, and especially @Dazed!

EXCITING DAY!! I've managed to buy an Aguilar J-M pickup set from Sweetwater in the US and get it shipped over with the help of a friend in California. I tried to buy one 'locally' (i.e. UK & Europe) a couple of months ago but no-one had stock and or even any deliveries scheduled. I was told it would be 'several months' at least. Anyway, the set arrived yesterday and I'm just off to see Kevin at Taunton Audio Visual to get my Sandberg upgraded (he also sells guitars). And I am definitely expecting it to be an upgrade based on the wonderful Aguilar J-J set that's standard on my Vox Starstream A2S. Watch this space!!

So last night I told my band (The Spacewasters) I’m going to be leaving and they’ll need to replace me. Since I did my lower back in a couple of years ago I’ve just not enjoyed pretty much everything about gigging, aside from the actual playing, as it’s just made it difficult & painful. I see an osteopath and we’ve got it pretty much as good as it will get but the strains of gigging just too much. I did feel sad on the way home as I’ve really enjoyed being in this band, the music is great, the lads are a good laugh and the relaxed manner in which we do stuff has really suited me. Had some great experiences too - recording an album at Boz Boorers studio in Portugal the main one. Not walking away tho, until a replacement is found I’m still there, my intention is to just not be gigging next year. Now just need to write a hit single so I can retire on the publishing…..

I’d pay 6k if it made me play as good as him 😁

Well as per my other thread I’m now winding down gigging, but: The Spacewasters - original material, garage punk/rock I suppose. Been going for 20 years, I’ve been with them since 2021. 10 gigs a year approximately, obtained usually by people asking us to play. Used to be only London-ish gigs but now stretch to south coast, plus a few overseas. Knock Off - original material, street punk/Oi. Started 2013, I left 2019 but am back standing in for the rest of this year. They were doing 50 odd gigs a year, all over UK and Europe but have scaled back a bit to concentrate on less but better gigs, these usually obtained by being asked. Thunderkunt - instrumental classic rock covers, a non gigging band, a bunch of old mates we rehearse every few weeks and have a laugh, and play some ridiculously complicated riffs - 70s drugs must have been strong maa-an!

This seems like a good place to put this video, Freddie is such a great player

It's absolutely nuts. Bonkers price. Hard pass.

Finally getting round to updating the studio, I've been doing it piecemeal for years and the cabling has gotten scruffy, plus I need to move some rack units around to make room for some new kit. Having a new rack unit built to house the amps and storage, and adding 2 new units to the upper racks, an RND Master Buss Processor and an RND Master Buss Transformer, a second Shelford will eventually be added and the UAD X16 will go into the side rack. I foresee an extended period of cable wrangling in my immediate future...

Glad someone on here got it Rob and your health to enjoy it

Quite a useful comparison here: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/mxr-bass-synth-sb301.1673883/page-5#post-29152996

It is! Its great, pretty much a Moog MF101 with a few more controls and a board friendly footprint.

Ive always thought it makes sense for the band members to call the final shots over the monitors. After all, they are the ones that will be using them.

I’m one half of Deadlight Dance, Wiltshire’s darkest boy band! I guess we’d be filed under 80s goth. Nick and I met in a Sixth Form goth band in 1989. We did our first gig together and have been friends for over 35yrs now. Here’s a one minute showreel of our greatest hits. Deadlight formed over lockdown as we thought we’d have a jam when restrictions eased, to see if we could play the old songs properly. It just grew. We decided to write together and wound up signed to Ray Records with an album out. Last count, we’d been streamed in 75 countries. I appreciate it’s not rivalling the big bands but it’s not bad for two old mates just having a jam when the restrictions ease! As to the question of originals or covers, we do both. We booked an old Saxon Church (is there such a thing as a new Saxon Church?) in 2023 and recorded a covers album of the songs that first inspired us. We made a short film about it. We can go out as the “full” band with our backing tracks we wrote or chuck some quirky folk instruments into the back of the car and go out acoustic style. I did the numbers on gigs and it really varies. It’s usually at least 20 a year but it has been much higher. We get gigs whenever the Batphone rings.

Earthbound AD. Female-fronted original metal. Based in NY/NJ, USA. Been playing with them for 6-odd years at this point, we put out an album a couple of years back and have been recording tracks for a new EP. We're pretty much a band consisting of immigrants - I'm from the UK, Mark, our drummer, is Indian, and Joe, our guitarist, is Guatemalan! Only Jackie, our vocalist, was born in the US! Haven't done much gigging as of late due to one thing and another, but hopefully going to throw ourselves back into it on the back of this EP release. Here's a live vid from a gig we did at the end of last year. EDIT: New track, "Ashes Of Paradise", now out on Bandcamp - will be out on Spotify, Apple, Tidal, etc in the next day or two: https://earthboundad.bandcamp.com/track/ashes-of-paradise

Thanks Martin, I’m staying with my non-gigging instrumental classic rock band which rehearses once every few weeks, so yes will be keeping my hand in so to speak, similarly I find it great fun. I’ve also got the rest of the year standing in for my old band but it’s only 5 or so gigs (very decent ones though).

I wish you well Lozz As you know I packed it all in last year and sold up. Do I miss gigging ? Not at all as I think I’ve had the better years of gigging and it felt sad but very right to retire from it. I now own a couple of nice guitars and an Orange Combo amp and I jam with my old band buddies once a month on a Saturday afternoon! More fun than late night gigging for a few quid ! Im liking being back on the guitar but I do think fondly of playing bass. In your situation perhaps keep your hand in minus the gigs as I’ve done and being with your buddies jamming is as good as any gig in my opinion Wish you luck bud 🎸🤟

I'm not blaming you - I just have a different idea of what I'm prepared to pay for any bass, and these surpass that level by a fair order of magnitude.

No argument there, honestly on most gigs people really cant tell what bass you are using. A playable bass isn't a price item, I am happy to play my OLP or my Shuker or my Ibanez - hugely different price points. over christmas I played my Aliexpress acrylic bass, its not as nice to play as it is really heavy and the pickups aren't great, but it plays and it lights up with LEDs and people notice that much more than the sound! I buy the expensive basses for me, because I like them but if I didn't care about that, there is no gig I couldn't have done without a sub £200 bass and a sub £200 amplifier / speaker.

In the copper colour, it was on a Portuguese site. I found the owner before the copper edition and thanks to him and Heiko, we were able to date it: October 2000, so one of the last without truss rod. Here are the four colour stages, pickups and preamp modifications of this bass from 2000 to 2025.

I have one bass I actually use and an endless procession of others that attempt to topple the king!

Here's Freddie Washington playing 'Forget Me Nots' with Patrice Rushen at some open air event. He was the original bass player on the recording. He doesn't let up his concentration for the entire performance, and his playing is so clipped and precise - absolutely brilliant. Patrice Rushen is no slouch on the keyboard either, as this clip demonstrates later on. And I love how at around 4.30 she gets the audience to clap along ON the beat - I wonder why ? 😏 😄🙄

I am in Erronaut. Four piece original stoner / doom / grunge. Released our debut album at the end of a last year called The Space Inbetween. available on all streaming platforms. we’re currently gigging a few times a month. We’ve played Desertfest and StoomFest this year which were two bucket list gigs. https://erronautuk.bandcamp.com/merch

I thought @casapete’s old mob were pretty good. Like Pink Floyd, you just need a convincing Lynne/Gilmour - the supporting cast can look how they like…

I played it this afternoon, it's really excellent and different from all my other basses, that clarity and definition, alongside the inherent reverb and the total homogeneity sound wise, are so amazing that you can boost the EQ to the maximum and it still remains musical, simply with more bass, mids and treble without becoming muddy. The Richter preamp is also the most transparent one to date, and I think I tried almost everything available on the market, but I already knew it as I had a few basses equipped with this wonderful preamp. And the blend is so progressive that it's the first time this pot is really blending the two pickups homogeneously without loss, really impressive. I wanted one for close to 3 decades as it was love at first sight and now I can say it's love at first touch (you know what I mean).

So does petrol but it's still overpriced 🤭

Me too, but I won’t be buying one, even if it was priced the same as a non sig ‘Ray. I’ve had 4 ‘Rays, but I’ve never kept them. My other all time fave is Tony Levin, so I have extra inducement to go MM. However, I’m not Pino or Tony (sadly) different things work for me, which is handy, as it’s saving me a fortune .

Just appeared on fb...

Classic Aberdeen mentality, thinking it can charge "London prices" for things

I am using exactly the same as you. 3 Leaf Oct M3.33, Doom2 (is that from last summer Gray type thing glows in the dark? Thats the one I have) and finished off with the IE XD. It just sounds amazing, very impressed.

Been years since I paid for a setup, get yourself a decent notched straight edge (I have a Crimson one which does all common bass scale lengths, not cheap though) and some basic tools then watch a ton of luthier videos on YouTube. £125 is a lot for a basic setup and nut adjustment, unless you also need a fret dress then I'd look elsewhere. The last four basses I bought all had wholly unsuitable setups for me, one needed a fair bit of adjustment and two of them needed frets knocking down higher up the board, the tools have paid for themselves already.

I totally get the attraction of being a one bass bloke. I shall never achieve it.

About £1000 maybe? The Musima bass I use cost me £500 and needed a new bridge, endpin and nut and is now a wonderful instrument. It’s not a complex sound and you’d not want to bow it, but for amplified work, travelling in a van and playing 50 odd gigs a year inside and out and in all weathers, it’s ideal.

Late report... you'll see why. Saturday's Bendrix Rock gig at Penarth Ex's was memorable for all the right and wrong reasons. I help organising/publicising gigsat the club and it was where we had our first gig so I put out a press release bigging up our dinosaur connections. It got taken up by a local paper and I heard stories it was being talked about. Expectations were high but we were down to a four piece. Indeed the drummer and lead guitarist handwrote two setlists of what we could do after setting up. We also had our mascot for the first time. Around this time I got really dizzy while setting up some simple lights. Tried rehydrating but was so bad when we soundchecked with War Pigs I expected the rapidly expanding audience to disappear. This was unusual as people normally arrive at quarter to nine. We had lots of new faces arriving from eight. I did recover a bit but wasn't 100% right through and had a nasty wobble and nearly fell backwards playing Saturday Night's all Right. We went down a storm. Right through the first set we got not applause, but cheering. We played War Pigs, Paranoid and Crazy Train (we had to from our list) and this went down well, of course, but so did everything else. We finished saying we literally had no more songs (our current full band list is about 10 longer). But after several minutes of chanting and roaring we gave in and our singer said what do you want us to repeat. They all shouted "Muse". Fortunately it was Uprising not Hysteria! I turned up the sub on my octaver and you could see the audience's glee when I shook the whole building. Don't say people don't notice bass. It took longer to deal with all the handshakes and well wishes than to pack up. Several people said how much better we were than our first gig. I've been to literally hundreds of gigs there as it's my local club and I can honestly say it was as packed as I've ever seen it and the best reception I've ever had for a gig. People spilled over from the 'Music Alley' into the lounge, but were coming in to join the dancing. We all agreed this was why we gig, and we donated a modest bit of our fee to the raffle for the stroke association. I packed my gear, dropped it to my partner's nearby house and walked to the pub, feeling a little wobbly. I joined her and friends but managed no more than a sip of my Inches cider when the bar stated pulsating and swaying. She walked me home (I was crashing into walls and generally swaying like a drunk). I didn't get to the loo before the first 🤮 I ended up on the floor for three hours, my brother came over as we were told four hours for a priority ambulance. They got me downstairs somehow and I was lying in the porch contemplating how to get to his car when the blue lights appeared after less than an hour. Cutting it short, it's probably severe positional vertigo. I puked so much I had to go on a drip but thanks to the wonderful NHS and lots of pills/IV, I am recovering and hoping to go home soon. Waiting on a cat scan to be sure it's not a brain injury. So good and bad! I gave the Performer an outing. It sounded glorious. This really doesn't give an impression of how full it was.

I must be really boring using the same kit every gig 😂 Sunday afternoon/evening at the White Hart in Melton Mowbray. It was a little bit quiet, possibly due to the Grand Prix, possibly due to being very close to Leicestershire schools breaking up for the summer. Still, we had a decent crowd, plenty of dancing and pointing phone cameras - although not by me because I forgot. Sir Duke was much better for its 2nd (and 3rd!) outing. We also had some great feedback - "How on earth do you make that sound with just 3 of you?" made me smile. Then this morning from a chap that comes to see us a lot, talking about our Mackie SRM450s which only have the vocals going through them, the rest just backline... "Morning Danny, great gig yesterday. Just again realised how perfect your PA setup is. When you first started, I thought it could do with being a bit louder, Ian said what a perfect sound. Later on I went to the toilet, I listened right from the back of the room for one song. I could hear every note and vocals were absolutely crystal clear. And it was still loud enough. Have to say it now, but even in the barn at Barkby, with all Micks expensive gear it wasn't such a nice sound. The harmonies just somehow didn't seem as good. A fantastic job of entertaining us last night as always, let the boys know! Take care." Always nice to hear that kind of thing, especially as we only ever do a line check. The landlord was telling us about a recent band that took 4 hours to do a sound check - sod that!!! 😄

Sunday afternoon gig with the covers/original band at the Red Hart in Bodham. We were meant to be playing outside in the beer garden under the newly completed covered area (nice job) but the governor was worried by the forecast of thunderstorms and the likelihood of the rain being driven under the shelter (guess there are insurance implications). It was decided we should play indoors in the dining room but needed to wait until the end of the main service before setting up. I have been to jams and open mics in the dining room and wasn’t too impressed with the acoustics, so I was a bit apprehensive, especially as we had come equipped for playing outside. Fortunately, our drummer plays an electronic kit, so we can turn him down 😀. I had my two LFSys Monzas driven by a Blackstar U700, with a MB LMIII as standby. Basses: Guild Starfire 1 and a custom made P/J shorty. In the end I only connected the top cabinet and the guitarists just used their amps, with only vocals, drums and keys going into the PA. Somehow we managed to get a good sound, according to friends who had come to watch. I had the master on the U700 so low it was almost off but apparently could be heard throughout the pub: testament to the amazing projection of the LFSys cab. Unfortunately, waiting until the main service was over meant that we lost 50% of our audience and instead of a full beer garden, we ended playing to about a dozen people, with some leaving and new arrivals taking their place. The governor said he would normally have a full beer garden but the weather forecast had obviously kept the punters away. We were supposed to do a three hour stint but ended up doing an hour and 10 minutes for the first set and almost an hour for the next two sets. This was largely because the audience was appreciative and we decided to see if we could get through every song on the set list (bit of a paid rehearsal). Despite the temperature dropping it was very humid and with 5 of us crammed into the end of the room, it felt like a sauna. Anyway, we got good feedback from the punters and the governor has invited us back, so not a disaster. No pics: I must remember to take some next gig. Footwear: trainers to cope with being on my feet that long.

Cool weekend of gigs. Friday night playing bass with Superbad at the Sapcote Social Club in Leicestershire. Really good turnout, lots of dancing and good sound. Saturday night playing bass with my own band (the Andy Wales Band) at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. We were all knackered and it was a bit ragged and “seat of pants” at times but still plenty of good bits, a decent crowd and some righteous noises were made by all. Gear for both gigs was a Yamaha BB604 and little Markbass traveller rig. Then Sunday, helping our local village guitar teacher with his twice yearly gig for his students (including my eldest lad who’s just discovered Nirvana). It’s quite inspiring to see the youngsters grow as musicians over the few years we’ve been involved. The biblical rain from the morning thankfully stayed away all afternoon and it was a lovely outdoor shindig in his back garden, with me providing the PA and bass gear, being a general helper and being roped in on bass for one song. Gig below from Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s gigs.

Had an absolutely banging gig today down in Poole at Country In The Park with Katy Hurt. We opened proceedings and had an absolute blast. Interesting moments..: I didn’t read the set list so was almost caught out by the first song My (Dunlop) strap lock popped out during the first song so I ended up having to improvise til I could sort myself out (embarrassing photo below) Cris, playing lap steel/acoustic guitar/mandolin kept stepping on my lead so I couldn’t wander the stage as freely as I’d been trying to do. Ironically I drove home via @franzbassist to pick up his Rockboard Tree 3.0 so I can have a bigger board to fit my wireless receiver… needed more forward planning on my part! But on the whole, an absolute blast of a gig. Very hot, very fun, and I hope we made some new friends. Shoes were the lo top Soul Cals again. Me pretending to play djent when the strap popped out: The whole band just having fun:

We played the fabulous Richard Jefferies Museum in Swindon. A beautiful setting with what I thought was a respectable crowd. I flew back from Spain yesterday so we hadn’t really rehearsed. I think we have it in the bank though. A varied crowd from 3-87yrs old and the under 10s all helped us pack up. Luckily, the other half of my duo is a teacher so he was able to coordinate them so we had no breakages! Everyone was super friendly and it was certainly one of the more memorable gigs.

Yesterday I was a Punk Pirate, having been to the Brighton Guitar Show with #2 son during the day and managed to avoid an impulse buy of a 72 P bass. It was very nice as was the 73 and the canary yellow 75 , but I just resisted. Having left there around 3:30 and dropped son off I headed over to Emsworth for a little light pirating at Kingsfest. Almost didn’t bother with IEM’s because it was quick turnarounds, but guitar from my usual main band said the onstage sound was a bit muddled, so in the end I set it up and just took a mono aux with bass, guitar and vox and put one plug in and it worked well. Timings for the day got out of sync due to weather and the Fest starting indoors then moving out. Would have helped if the acoustic duo had used the second stage rather than main, so when the compère said “the Pirates will be on in 15 minutes” there were cries of “I don’t think so!” but we were on pretty quick. Still somewhat curtailed of set time, not helped by my right leg going through the stage just before we started so so quick patching required…”I be capsizin’ cap’n” … “‘‘tis but a scratch ya scurvy scum” 🤣 Pretty solid set generally. Some flubs, but we’re Punk Pirates, nobody died, and it was generally good. Good crowd up for it and a lot of money made for a dementia charity, so all good. 90725182-ba33-4dba-ac6a-e0da656b2980.mp4

We put a fresh set of DR Neon strings on the 4 string earlier and it's really annoying, it sounds better than my Ibanez that cost 10 times as much. It plays really nicely as well