Leaderboard

The Zep tribute played at the Nightrain in Bradford on Friday night, a hometown gig for 60% of the band these days and the only one we're playing anywhere near locally all year. We hadn't played (or rehearsed) together for a month, so it a bit rusty but a pretty good performance overall. A few people reckoned it was a bit loud at the start of the set, although a muso mate of mine who was near the back reckoned it sounded awesome! First gig since the drummer got his driving ban, so the logistics were a bit of a challenge! I think the reality of the situation has started to affect him and he even managed to forget his bass drum pedal! Fortunately, there was one there we could borrow, so no harm done. Same rig as normal (Fender Jazz / Handbox amp / Berg cab) and the new Vans pigskin hitops got an outing! Before and after show pics:

The next evolution of my Nano Rock Covers pedalboard: R-L 1. Korg PitchBlack XS Bass Tuner. 2. Microthumpinator v2 (underneath). 3. Grimalkin. It's like a posh fuzz that does so much more. It's very cool. 4. Origin Effects DCX Bass sparkle box. Makes Spector basses more Spector than is appropriate in most circumstances. 5. Origin Effects Cali76. A compressor that I actually understand and get to work for me easily. 6. Aguilar Chorusaurus v2 analogue Bass chorus. It's lovely, so much so it's turned me into a Chorus-whore-us. I can't turn it off. Edit to explain signal path: It all runs through a PedalSnake, which keeps it really neat on stage. What you can see in the photo is RHS=guitar cable, Middle = 9v supply to board when not using the PedalSnake (at home), LHS = the PedalSnake tails. The power comes down the power connector of the Pedalsnake. It’s a TrueTone OneSpot 1700mA. The Chorusaurus goes through the send/return loop connection of the PedalSnake. You can see the red/white connectors on the top. The others go straight in the front of the amp via the black PedalSnake connection. Sometimes I go cable straight in to the tuner from the bass and sometimes I use wireless bugs.

If you have time you could pop in and see us, we can put LOADS of 5-string basses in your hands

We've played 37" B strings that have been pants and 33" that have worked wonderfully, and the other way round too.. So its all personal

On this day in 1949 Phil Lynott came into the world....the rest is history..

Agreed - its like those little stickers on laptops, hate it.

If you can miles try one of the necks with the B width nut, you might be pleasantly surprised, my 71 precision and all the early ones I’ve had have ( like most from 67/68) a 40mm nut but they are very comfortable , I’ve played mainly jazzes for years and I can pick up my P and not really notice a difference , the mid to late 70s ones can come up a bit chunkier, but not the earlier ones

Something new from CMC Audio: Si

I had an Ibanez GWB35 (the matt black one). I stripped off the dull as ditchwater, black finish and the basswood underneath, whilst not flamed or otherwise, was pleasing in its plainness, I liked it. Sonically (if these things ever make a noticeable difference [opens can of worms]) it was absolutely fine and the weight was great and not just for a 5 string. I kind of miss that bass.

Well, he only put 20 frets on Precisions originally, so presumably he wanted to keep bassists away from that 22nd fret when the pickup would meet the antinode and the streams would cross. After a while he realised that nobody with a Fender goes past the fifth fret so he stuck those dangerous extra frets on for marketing purposes.

Sunday day gig, thought it was going to be hot so took a fan, so did the drummer. We eventually made a fan table behind us and it was a good thing! The gig in general went well, normal set list, we didnt' get any new songs ready like we were hoping too, people were too busy. I used the Ric in the first half and it was as good as normal, but the guitarist broke his single guitar strap (he has 3 guitars and 1 strap), so as my ric has a strap with no strap lock I switched to my Maruszczyk in the second half so he could use the ric strap. In the second half he was getting electric shocks from his pedal board and threatened to stop so I let him use my wireless so he could continue. Aside from that and a few messed up songs that noone noticed, it went just fine!

1. I visited Franz Liszt's house in the Weimar Republic in the late 80s while I was a music student. Yes, yes, I know. He was out. Saw his Piano, though. Anyway, did you know that he totally knackered his tendons by taping wooden blocks in between his fingers in order to try and gain an even wider hand span? (Eejit!) 2. Also, is this the five minute argument, or the full half hour..?

There isn't really a clear "I want to play bass" moment for me. It was an impulse that just bubbled up to the surface from the teenage primordial soup of dumb ideas, anxieties and dreams. When I was 14 or 15, a few of my friends at school started to play the guitar, as did my older brother. I thought they seemed really cool and wanted to join in. My dad would probably let me play his old bass, I knew that, but I was ultimately too chicken to try. At the time, I thought of myself as unteachably inept at any sort of physical skill – I was crap at sports, a risk to myself and others in a workshop and had displayed a spectacular lack of musical ability throughout my childhood. I figured trying to play an instrument again would just be setting myself up for embarrassing failure. At around the same time, oddly, I also developed a sort of nagging and largely irrational anxiety about the prospect of learning to drive. Like, I was aware that this was a thing – a physical skill – I'd need to do, and I was concerned that I would turn out to be just as bad at that as I had been at everything else. I started thinking that perhaps I should try to learn to do something (play an instrument? juggle? knit?) to reassure myself that I was capable of learning something new. The final piece of the puzzle came on a day when I was off school and bored. I was playing 1080 Snowboarding for the N64, and set a time on the "Crystal Lake" run that was genuinely world-beating. Well, perhaps not world-beating, but definitely fast enough that I could write into the magazine if I wanted, get my name in print. I sat there, looking at my character celebrating on the screen, looking out of the window at the sunny summer's day I was avoiding, and had a sudden urge to do something – anything – more productive than this. Something that might make people think I was cool, something that girls might think was cool. I went upstairs and pulled my dad's old bass out of a cupboard. I downloaded the tab for "Dammit" by Blink-182 and started awkwardly plucking the notes. With help from my brother and my dad, I beat my expectations and got surprisingly good surprisingly fast. Haven't stopped playing since. It never did help me get any girls though, and I never did learn to drive.

I have done the Luthier thing. It is impossible to tell how 2 pieces of wood will mate together. If it is built by someone who knows what they are doing it will work. Will it float your boat? That is another question. And you are financially in deep by then. Having being doing this for a LONG time, I have found that a TC Spectracomp lets all my basses speak clearly all the way down. Part of me sees this as cheating. But it works so I do not fix it. I find 33" scale basses really comfy to play. I bump the bass eq on the pre, hit the compressor and can forget about the planks of wood I am playing. The one there is not, the chase only there is.

For me it started at about age 14. A friend was front man boy in a high school band and they were short of a bass player. I played keys at the time, but he lent me his bass, and overnight I learned "Teenage Kicks". We rehearsed the next day and I was in. I still have the enthusiasm. It waxes and wanes though. I sing and play a bunch of other instruments. But it seems there's a shortage of bass players, especially upright players, so bands tend to want me to play bass. Also, since picking up the microphone I'm not content being in the shadows at the back, I like being up front. Lately I've had my own home studio though, so I multi track more than play in bands these days. My musical tastes moved away from pop/rock into classical then jazz then country, early music and most recently folk. I've no idea what that very first bass I played was. It was a four string, black gloss body with white scratch plate. My main bass now is an unbranded laminate upright that's had a fair bit of work done, and set up "just so".

The rickenbacker gang love keeping stickers on pickguards… knocks me sick.

Failed at violin lessons. Chucked out of the choir audition. Found school music lessons grim. Discovered TOTP. Got into ELO and part of that was the realisation that each instrument and voice had a different rhythm and melody. Used to listen to those albums over and over focusing on different parts - so I was aware of bass. I had a 'classical' guitar I fitted bronze strings to... then a Kay 'sg copy' (I still have it) and made a couple of deadly amps from old valve record players. Went to uni and got better - used to vamp chords along to a copy of "The Beatles Compleat" as folks sang along. Got a gorgeous mid-70s Epiphone Jumbo and became moderately competent as a rhythm player on it. My best mate had a Precision that fascinated me - I had to play it whenever I saw it. In the end he leant it to me for a month on the condition I learned one finger per fret. Ended up buying a new Hohner Jazz and getting into a cover band at my second audition. then my brother gave me a B2. Then I got a Maya fretless P, followed by almost accidentally getting a Fender Performer. Two originals bands brought me to 1996 - I lived for music and mountain biking. <over 20 years of non-musicalness due to work but mostly a tough marriage> Towards the end of this I was self-employed and started playing bass to break up the monotony of working on my own - discovered I was good at playing by ear to the radio. Then I started finding my own way again (divorce incoming). Did a weekend warrior event and led to a band, Ialso did some random stuff with a local singer songwriter. Starter buying basses... Then covid... Once vaxed, moved out to look after my dad. As soon as I could, joined two bands. Met my new partner through gigging. One band never gigged so left and started another. Started going to jams and open mics, got confidence and did some depping. Got asked to join two more bands. So now I have too many basses, four bands and I do the odd dep and have an incredibly supportive partner who lives for live music. Yes I'm burning the candle at both ends but I have a lot to catch up on. And it's f£%@ing awesome to rediscover myself.

Ahead of the Nick Smith Memorial Charity Gig on Septermber 7th (Where you have the opportunity to WIN this incredible bass designed by Nick and @Grainger guitars,) Darren and Gavin arranged to bring the bass over to me to put it through its paces. It was quite a surreal experience and not without its emotional moments off camera as I was sat playing the bass Nick would never get to play. Thank you to Darren and Gavin for the opportunity to show it and at the same time, for me to give something to our community in remembrance of our fallen hero, friend, brother and loved one. I put together this video for the Charity Raffle, but don't worry, there's a full in-depth video review coming up later too. I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to watch the video, like, share, subscribe to my channel and follow, as well as giving the video a positive comment for Nick's family to see please.

Can you spare just ONE minute of your time to watch my video, like, share, SUBSCRIBE and follow, even leave me a positive comment? It would really mean a great deal - and to prove you prefer watching actual bass content over the fakers of the world taking over our feeeeeeeds!!!!

B with are my faves too!

Which reminds me, the new Spinal Tap movie's due out soon... 😀

I "think" that the A width neck on a precision was an option right through the years, but as a special order, and are therefore rare. The B width neck became standard on P basses in '68, but A could be ordered, and I assume therefore a C width too, although I've never seen a C width neck from after '68. I too like an A neck, but my early 70's B width necks are just lovely, it's not just the width, it's the profile too. Mine are around the 41mm mark at the nut. Rob

There is among some on BC a tendency to think of anything that's not root'n'fifth (or at most, on the mellow side of McCartney) to be showing off and not proper bass playing. So most of jazz, anything with slap'n'tap or excess widdle gets dismissed as "unmusical showboating" - which completely ignores the fact that you have to have a hint of show-offery just to get on stage and play any music, never mind the classical concept of the cadenza or solos in jazz or even (God forbid!) in rock! BTW, not saying that's you - I agree with what you're saying...

It wasn't me who pronounced the alleged "showboating" as unmusical... Just because something doesn't float your boat doesn't make it "Unmusical", though the dictionary definition of unmusical is also deeply unhelpful: 1. not musical; deficient in melody, harmony, rhythm, or tone. 2. acoustically and aesthetically harsh on the ear; strident; dissonant; cacophonous. 3. not fond of or skilled in music. According to my mother, a piano teacher, just about all rock and pop music is unmusical. Many folks would find most free or improvisational jazz "acoustically and aesthetically harsh on the ear", but this fails to say which ear. If it's mine, that's not true. Many others would disagree, but that's taste - one man's beautiful music is another's nails on a blackboard. So as a result I wouldn't say something I didn't like, whether it's showey-offey or just plain old Black Lace, was unmusical - but perhaps not to my taste. Or after a couple of beers, a steamy pile'o'sh!te...

...so is anyone still in? I'm already thinking about next year as having (unexpectedly) acquired essentially an entire new rig this year (plus a bunch of cabs), physical space may limit my GAS next year!

Almost impossible to say. What suits one player may not suit another. There is no one size fits all. The things that matter most to me are: construction - a well constructed bass will always produce better low notes than extending the scale length alone, by all means pick a long scale length because you like the extra space between the frets but don't automatically assume longer equals better. Everything else IME is down to playing technique. If you play hard, like I do, you'll probably find that you'll want a taper-wound B (and maybe also E) and you'll also probably want to move the pickup(s) away from the lower strings slightly. If you have a light touch these things may not matter and something else (I don't know what) will be more important. Spend a couple of days out at Bass Direct and The Bass Gallery trying all their 5-string basses including some outside your budget just to check that you don't need to save a bit more to get the bass you really want.

Had a good practice last night. Just getting the set together for tonight's gig at the Gryphon with a couple of Canadian doom bands, Witchrot and Tumble. Tumble were caught up in a Canadian flight attendant strike and it was touch or go if they'd make it or not, so we prepped a short and a long set. I've also managed to make a parallel fuzz sound on my GX-100 inspired by the Mountain King Megalith that actually sounds as good as pedals and confirmed by the rest of the band, so I'm very happy with that and have taken the pedals out of the effects loop (after carefully backing up the patches of course!).

A great bass tone comes from how well the bass is made and the quality of the components. Cheap pickups will never sound good. The bass that ticks the quality materials, quality manufacturing and quality components boxes will get you the best tone, across all strings. The 3 best basses I've discovered so far are Sadowsky (Japanese, US and German models), Mike Lull basses and US Lakland 55-94's. . . . the Lakland Skylines are also worth a look. Don't rush this. Take your time. You have a great budget. Buy a good used bass and get much more bass for your money.

Given the emotional content of this thread do you genuinely believe your comments help? If so, please can you be so kind as to advise how they are constructive as I have missed this.

Aye... Playing anything complicated or difficult shouldn't be allowed! Just because they're using a musical instrument to produce sound doesn't mean it's music, it's just about inflating their own ego. They should just stick to straightforward and easy tunes, so for keyboards, no harder than Chopsticks, and for bass players, stick to the root and throw in the occasional fifth if you really must. I blame that Paganini and Liszt.

As a Spector fan and Euro LX 5 player, always play one standing up with it on a strap before committing to buy.

Shaping/smoothing out of the area I just routed away. Refinishing of the area I've just been working on. Bridge pickup is on its way from South Korea. After that arrives, pickup installation and wiring (got an Artec SE-2 waiting for the remainder of the guts). In the fullness of time, something decorative on the headstock. If you're super desperate for news, the felt washers for the strap buttons should be arriving tomorrow, but that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel!

You aren’t the real @AndyTravis

I think he needs to invest in a back up strap and some time in sorting out his pedal board. No-one should be getting shocks from a pedal board. Its generally all low voltage in pedals and suspect its more a static thing than actual voltage shock but definitely needs investigating. I prefer my fans in front of the band 😂😜😂 I take a large 18" gym fan for our female singer and a smaller 16" gym fan for myself. Drummer also uses a 16" gym fan. Wearing Glam costumes and wigs it does get very hot on stage and those fans and 2 litres of water each gig are my saving grace. 🤩 Dave

Now here's something quite different than your typical Muff-like/FuzzFace-like/ToneBender-like fuzz. Emma OKTO-NØJS. While most samples online evoke that funky and synthy stuff, I'm happy to say it dooms as well especially if paired with another dirt pedal. It's fun on its own, of course, but it shines in a company. I love what it can do when coupled with an octave fuzz and/or envelope filter. Of course it has its learning curve. Quality, fit and finish is great. It is also a looker.

Definitely. Agreed. Also agree - I have many years of classically trained double bass technique and excellent intonation, but even I won't play a fretless live. Turn it through 90 degrees and all will be well... 🤣

Having had zero interest in any kind of music for the first 11 years of my life I went Scout camp where Radio 1 was on all day every day and was completely taken by the sounds of the emerging glam rock bands - T. Rex, Slade, The Sweet. My parents were horrified as pop music was not considered to be real music and did every thing they could to dissuade me from listening to it. I finally managed to persuade them to let me go to folk guitar evening classes when I was 13 and then to buy me decent (read playable) acoustic guitar for my 14th birthday. That was the end of their support though. The following year I formed a band with three other like-minded friends from school, writing and recording our own weird compositions. We were very much a DIY band, I even built my first solid electric guitar at school while I should have been studying for my "A" levels. None of us owned a bass but a couple of people in our year at school did and we would borrow one for a few days during the holidays when we were recording. I finally bought my first bass - a heavily modified second hand Burns Sonic - while I was at university in 1981. In many ways the disapproval of my parents only made me more eager to play, write and record music. On top of that there were two pivotal points in my musical career that pretty much set me on the route I'm still following today. During my first year at university which I was not really enjoying. I spotted a news article in the NME which mentioned a band called The Instant Automantons and the fact that their second album was available for free to anyone who sent them a blank C90 cassette and a stamped, addressed envelope. Intrigued, I sent off my cassette and a few weeks later got it back with the album recored on to it along with a printed A4 sheet folded to form a cover. I found the music variable, some I liked and some I didn't. What did impress me was the fact that if The Instant Automatons could do this why couldn't my band? We already had several hours worth of music recorded that had mostly been done for our own enjoyment, so during the Christmas holiday we assembled a C60's worth of recordings and I sent off press releases to all the weekly music papers. I didn't really know what to expect, but both NME and Sounds featured our news article and over the next few months I received a steady stream of blank cassettes which I only just managed to keep up with. By the end of the university year I had received over 100 requests for our album, which isn't bad for a band no-one had heard of and that didn't even gig. Not only that but people seemed to like our music, and as a result The Instant Automatons asked us to appear on a vinyl compilation they were putting out. A proper record, how could we say no? We even got played on John Peel's Radio 1 programme. We made another 3 cassette albums and contributed a track to another vinyl compilation. However with all of us being at different universities and only getting together during the holidays to record, it was getting difficult to keep the band together. Myself and the percussionist moved to Nottingham where we started a new band with the express purpose of playing some gigs. Again people seemed to like what we were doing and we were building up a decent local following. By being in the right place at the right time we got our newly recorded demo track included on a sampler that BBC Radio Nottingham was putting out to showcase local bands to record labels. Then out of the blue CBS records got in touch and seemed to be very interested in signing us. This was just the push I needed to drop out of university (to my parents on-going horror) and try and make a go of being a musician and songwriter. Eventually the band was passed over in favour of a much more commercial proposition - Wham! and as a result we folded. There is a good chance that without those two opportunities I would have at some point knuckled down and got on with my university course and gradually stopped writing and playing music. However I'd had a glimpse of what was possible and that set me on the course that I'm still following today. 70s glam rock got me into music, but it was the post-punk and electronic bands of the late 70s and early 80s that have really shaped the musical path I've followed when it comes to writing and playing and the sorts of bands I've been in over the past 45 years. If I didn't still love what I am doing musically I wouldn't be doing it. I no longer expect to be rich or famous out of it, but it's been a fun ride and I'm still having a blast gigging and recording with my current band. I even owe my current day job in graphic design to being in bands and needing to produce posters for gigs and cassette covers for our demos. My taste in musical instruments has been eclectic from the start. With glam rock I would see bands with outrageously shaped guitars every week on Top Of The Pops, and that's what I wanted. The bass players in my favourite bands all seemed to be Rickenbacker and Gibson players, or they had something custom made by John Birch. Fender was never really on my radar. When I made my guitar in the late 70s it was unconventional in both shape and electronics. Even when I was playing keytar in a synth-pop band in the 80s it sported a number of different custom paint jobs to fit the changing image of the band. When I saw the first Gus prototype guitar in a musical instrument magazine in the 80s I thought that if I ever had the money I'd have one. And now I have the money I have 3 (a guitar and two basses). My latest bass acquisition is an Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass which was bought specifically for the band I currently play with. When the guitarist left early in the band's development I suggested that instead of immediately advertising for a replacement that we see what it would be like with me play Bass VI instead. It appears to work fine. Six years later we still haven't felt the need to add a guitarist to the line up. And that's probably way more information than you wanted...

At 16 I got asked by a (then) girlfriend’s brother if I knew any bass players. My brother had a P he didn’t use so said ‘me’ (I’d been noodling on a guitar for a bit) and just joined in with them playing root notes. As a group we used to regularly see a band in a local pub that had John Currie playing bass who was amazing. He agreed to teach me (after much begging (and if he’s on here please do get in touch!)) and this fired me to learn (reasonably) ‘properly’. Moved on to other basses and the P went into my brothers cupboard for over 30 years. Recently he needed to sell it and I couldn’t let it go so bought it off him. It’s a poorly made boat anchor of a late 70s P. But two drummers (yes drummers!) have told me it sounds like the dogs doo dahs so that’s what you usually see round my neck. With my 2017 Status S3 as spare (😂). Had a few years over on the ‘dark side’ playing guitar in a couple of bands but actually sold two guitars recently - the only instruments I’ve ever sold…

I've just been triggered by seeing a six year old bass with a manufacturer's sticker still on the scratchplate 😱

You guys are awesome thanks for all the input it’s given me so much to think about

UPDATE: We’ve finally wrapped up the warehouse move! The new pre-owned showroom is now open too, so if you’re in the area swing by, grab a coffee/tea/beer, and check out some lovely basses. Always happy to talk gear and hang out.

Sadowsky, musicman, Dingwall, lakland, Warwick, fender etc all produce high quality 5 string instruments. I’d never, ever consider buying one without having it in my hands first, as I’ve had some that were miles better and worse than others. In an ideal world, I’d settle on a specific model than I’d want to try about five of the same model to pick the best one and avoid an expensive lemon. If only there was enough stock around in a single dealer to do this.

Warwick Thumb NT 5 string without a doubt, ACG Krell is very close, with MM SR5 as a very decent runner up. The Thumb is definitely "thunderous" but you'll need backline/PA support capable of accurately reproducing that low fundamental. I had a Barefaced Big Twin T that was absolutely brilliant. All of these are 34" scale and I tend to use 130 B strings, I've played 125 too, doesn't seems to make much difference. Alan Cringean quite rightly identifies rigidity of construction as being vital for sustain and clarity, which jibes with what many people are saying about build quality and construction. That said, I played a 5 string Steinberger which didn't sound great, but had huge rigidity. I'd go play some good 2nd handers, you can't afford to get into Fodera, Alembic etc territory, but there are plenty of very good old basses around for £2500 ish, my thumb was about that I think. In theory, any decent luthier's work should produce a B string of quality, but there's more to a great 5 string than a big B.

Ive had a few and if you want a really thunderous B string with good clarity then multi scale is the way to go and the best Ive tried is the Spector NS Dimension 5.

In fairness, he did say it was internet-only "I'm in the US so I never met Lorne, knew him about 10yrs online, we were Facebook friends,", so I guess it's entirely possible that he only got the "manipulated" (ref. your Christmas presents comment) view. I'm just trying to rationalise, not contradict; I'm really hoping that @impathological will drop in and close the loop.