Leaderboard

The first photo was around 1983 when I was posing for a photo student friend, trying to copy a Stanley clarke album cover pose. I've never been a smoker and didn't enjoy puffing that cigar. In recent years I found that same bass listed on a French web site and resisting buying it. I was a guitarist back then, the bass was really an impulse swap when I tried to sell my Laney Klipp guitar head to a small second hand guitar shop. The more recent was taken at a gig where i was depping for a Bob Marley Tribute band.

First time at the Crown in Rugeley last night. Car parking was rather random, there's a sort of car park at the back but it doesn't have any markings (or, indeed, tarmac) so cars just get dumped there in a haphazard way. The space was distinctly petite and bijou, so when the second guitarist arrived fashionably late there was nowhere for his cab so he went through the PA. TBH I'd prefer it if both guitars went through the PA but the singer/guitarist wants to use his cab. While we were setting up, before guitar 2 got there, one lad started chatting to the singer/guitarist - he'd got various guitars so they were comparing notes. A bit later, after I'd rigged the PA, a rather more elderly bassist came over to chat to me. Which was nice. Took until about halfway through the first set for more than very faint ripples of polite applause but once things started going, we got a much more positive reaction.

People didn’t really bring cameras to gigs in the 80s so my earliest band pics are of us stood around smoking cigarettes, thinking we were a bit edgy! The earliest live pic I can find is on tour with SkinTrade in the early 90s at The Old Angel in Nottingham. That P bass did all my early gigs, as did that awful (& heavy Peavey combo). And bringing the world into colour, with Deadlight Dance in Salisbury back in April. I’m back to having basses / kit that isn’t sold on so quickly. However, now I have a handful of decent basses and both quality amp and ampless setups.

Ours was a bit different for me in that I played guitar - 1st time ever in a band. I was finding it a hassle to get guitar players when ours couldn’t do jam night, and thought bass players would be easier to sort out. So I decided to learn to play properly. So for the last year or so I’ve been doing on line guitar lessons. This month’s jam night became the “well if you are going to play live, it’s now or give up” time. It was much easier to get one of the bass players to fill in with us. It went pretty well. A few bum notes, but probably of the “audience won’t have noticed” variety. We screwed up “Don’t look back in anger” - the singer going to a 2nd chorus when it should have been the instrumental and me not sorting out how to fix it quickly enough. I think if I were MD on bass it would have been unnoticeable to the audience, but on guitar I took me too long to get back to the chorus chords to think about where to go next and tell the rest of the band. We managed to sort it and finish it ok. A learning / experience point. We got good feedback from the audience. So overall pretty happy with it.

So, Bought this on a well known selling platform a few days ago. It was a warehouse find, and was reasonably priced. Received a call from the seller after order placement to tell me the neck was unserviceable. Just happens that I've a spare Fender 70s neck here, so I gave an offer for everything, thinking I'd fit my own neck. Well, it's arrived in 1/2 hour ago with the original neck. It's fine. Like, it plays lovely. The electrics are pretty crackily, but I'll fit solderless controls / pots that I have lying around. So I really don't know what the craic is with the supposed knackered neck, but I've scored this for a very, very good price. Feeling lucky today, as I've always been after a Fender with block inlays. Cheers

First around 1977-78 Jedson short scale catalogue special, photo taken in my bedroom (I was probably playing through the family stereo using the old trick of the microphone input and putting the tape deck in record and pause). Second one June 2025, playing my Boosey Hawkes Excelsior double bass, no amp, EBS Stanley Clarke preamp straight to FOH with in-ear monitors.

2009 - my first gig with my first originals band Panda Eyes, at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. 28/06/2025 - Me disproving Thunderbird neck dive theory at Maud Football Club with Nine Lives.

1976. 15 years old with my first bass. Made by Gary Nava, school mate (now makes bespoke instruments for people like Matt Bellamy). 2024. My last gig before retiring from live bass duties.

Another crack converters purchase, this thing was in a sorry state, the electrics were goosed, and it was absolutely filthy. The LEDs still worked on the front, but that’s all gone now…. It’s passive, and I’m not arsed about pretty lights on the dials, so out it all came, and in went new CTS pots, oil filled cap and a new barrel jack…. It’s covered in a rash of scratches, but I can live with that. This thing’s had a life. Had to use 3 black telecast jack cups in the empty control holes where the LEDs were, so that I could mount the pots. Pretty ingenious if I say so myself, they fit perfectly. 3 Ashdown control knobs from an old ABM500 provide the finishing touch. It plays fab, with a freshly oiled fretboard and a new set of Hi Beams. Sounds fantastic too, very pleased with the result, it’ll be gigged asap.

Lots of progress yesterday and today. The final piece of the puzzle (from the procurement point of view) arrived from South Korea: So, the cavities got new copper lining, then wired to the cavity, then the pickups went in. Strings went back on to check alignment and roughly set heights, then it was on with the mounting of the electronics (Artec SE-2 - which had also been in the shed this whole time...) That was me done with it yesterday, but tonight I wired it all up. Unbelievably, it worked first time! So I loosely put some knobs on it (not wedded to these ones yet) And had a bloody good play with it. It still needs quite a few things done to finish it off (in no particular order): area around the neck pocket which I routed off, smoothed, rounded off and refinished suspect I might have to give the neck a full fret level and crown decorate the headstock finish off the control cavity cover (put screwholes in it, then pilot holes in the body, then screw it down) But for now, I can be happy with my work so far. It works, yay!

This is the earliest photo I have of me with a bass guitar - a Colombus Jazz with matt black strings. Bedroom Arena, 1986: The first time I played bass live. I'm hding on the left with the same Colombus bass as above. The band was 'Mr McHenry', 1992: 2024 Hullabaloo Festival playing with '50% Dave', the support act to my main band: Depping with 'The Gowertones' in July 2025:

c1979 local charity gig... Aug 2025 local charity gig... A theme going on that isn't just that I have the same bass on???

My first gig, probably 1987. My most recent gig photo: Inspired by @Wombat and his replica pose/playing style, it seems my left hand technique hasn't changed much in nearly four decades! Another shot from the recent gig:

1st is from '78 - earliest picture on my i-pad. 19 at that time 2nd is from June this year, making me 66

are you trying to use logic? are you new to bands?

Mark Sandman tuned his in a fifth, D and A, and used a slide. A fantastic, unique sound and brilliant band.

I’m not sure that is true. I’ve honestly never played a squier that wasn’t worth at least the asking price and probably more I’m with @Terry M. on this one, it’s much more a fender problem and more US than Mex these days.

I'm back from a week at music summer school near Stafford. This year I'd signed up for a different set of classes to the past. I did conducting, solo singing, string orchestra, chamber orchestra, and choir. I even managed to overcome my dread/fear of singing solo in public and sang in the solo singing recital. I chose "Where'er you walk" by Handel. The YT video is sung by a counter tenor, so an octave higher than I sang it. The venue is a grand country pile which is now used to run arts activities, mostly for schools.

For you, Headless, of course!!! some more oil today….

One of the first gigs I played in around 1980 I think, Polesworth Working Mens Club. Last gig I played, charity event for Capital 1 in a big tent in Nottingham somewhere around 2020.

So first we have me in The Shout, prob 88/89 Secondly we have me in The Spacewasters 2022 (I do have later pics but they’re pony, so this one gets the outing)

This first one is a couple of weeks ago, a band called Heores, new wave, mod , ska and punk. I'm depping here, nearly 57 years old The 2nd one is from 1988. A band called Roadhouse, we did literally 4 gigs a week for 18 months till I left. I was 20 in this band

1st one. Channeling my inner Zal Cleminson at a 6th form college gig (about 1976, I think). 2nd on. Reunited with my ex Pretty Things colleague Dick Taylor (on guitar) at the SoL Party earlier this month. Singer is the ubiquitous (very) Alan Clayson.

Only had a couple of hours with it, and just got in after giving the basses a run out on it, and yeah, glad I pulled the trigger. This a really nice amp, (and many a really nice amp has passed through here I can tell you). It's got more authority than my Thundefunk and is sweeter sounding. Close though. The TF really holds up well. It's got easy the authority of my Walkabout, but more defined. M6 carbine is more brutal and has more presence, but the Glock is really useable, beautifully precise. and made my basses sound the best I´ve ever heard them.

It could have been HOHNER It's Back because of your effort.

Just wanted to write about my recent experience with Bass Direct. I've been wanting to check out an Xotic 5 for a while and on Thursday evening I noticed they had 4 of them in stock. I drove up there yesterday and tried them out. I have to say, I really like the new pre-owned showroom. Tried out all the basses through a decent amp, the new guy working there is very nice and helpful, they even let me change the strings around to find out which had the better B string. In the end I came away with the oldest and heaviest of the lot (it just sounded the best to me, although the lightweight one in surf green was extremely nice too) for a very reasonable price. I've been coming here/buying online since 2018 and can say that they have really turned things around in the last two years or so. Really pleased with my purchase and my recent interactions with them.

Monaco vs Silverstone II - Up in front of the 4K cameras this week. Thank you @stevie for the opportunity to review LFSys. I’m looking forward to putting this video together. #LoveBassGear

Buy the bass that feels the best in your hands and has the look you want. If it has neck dive, replace the tuners with licenced HipShots, if it doesn't sound great, and it probably won't, they always cut corners on pickups, replace them. It won't be the cheapest bass in town any more, but it will be a much improved one. I have a £250 Cort Jazz and instead of replacing the pickups I use an outboard preamp. I haven't wasted any money on modding, I can resell the preamp and it gets me 90% of the way to a decent sound.

FTFY however Two out of three ain’t bad, as meatloaf pointed out there’s a mistake in the bible. Loaves, fishes and sheets of tortoiseshell. Maybe they ran out of ink or forgot to write it in. Tortoiseshell is plainly the stuff of miracles.

Yamaha is never a gamble at this price bracket, absolutely solid. The squier choir conveniently forget to mention how lucky you have to be to find a good one.

First week back after a 2 month break due to holidays and other commitments! Felt good to play again as I've not had the time at home to pick my bass up mostly due to my daughter learning to walk (10 months 🙃) Everyone got on well and had learnt the required material, very enjoyable

We were rehearsing for a big charity multi band event this Sunday. Rushing from work, I was shattered and our drum track edits hadn’t saved so it wasn’t as slick as Wednesday’s run through. However, I am loving my BCB-60 board and have rediscovered my 2008 USA Jazz bass. Once we got over the hiccups, it sounded immense!

I set my car stereo volume to 11, 17 or 23 just to annoy people like you 🤣

1996, first gig, which was a RHCP tribute, I was 18. Last pic is actually the last time I played through an amp 😢, jamming with a drummer mate in 2020.

First one is a rehearsal with a bunch of school friends circa 1973. The bass is a 1964 Burns Jazz……I still have it! Second one is from earlier this year……….rocking a fretless P in a café bar.

Oldest (don't remember the date; that's our singer playing my drums at the time. It's an outdoor 'on the pavement' 'Fête de la Musique' event in our local town...) ... Latest..? [Shock-Horror] I'm 'playing' a recording for a past Composition Challenge. No, it didn't win, but was fun trying (until I tried to get up..! )... Embarrassed, me..? Nah..!

In another thread a forum member mentioned a band finishing with "everyone remaining chums". While I applaud this band for its maturity, I don't think I've ever had a band finish without never talking to at least someone again (which I fear says something about me...). My least amicable split was when we accidentally dropped a flight case on our singers tambourine that she referred to as her "instrument". In penance the guitarist and I went to a music shop to buy her a new one but she didn't like the sound. Thus followed an argument along the lines of "but they all sound the same"... "no they don't"... "well you don't have to play it because it annoys everyone anyway"... etc. and the nickname "Jingle Bells" being coined. I think we only lasted one or two more gigs! I'm sure others can better this!

Thanks for the tip. I got a full A4 sheet of logos printed, so I have plenty of material to practice with. I just need to find things to stick decals to. The logos are mostly the one I use for my home-built guitars, but I did get four of the Hohner logos printed, plus another four in white (because I wasn't sure how the red would come out).

In case a certain customiser should decide to add two more tuners at jaunty angles, add two bridge saddles, and ram a couple of Strat pickups into the pickup routs.

As long as it fits your hands. There’s nothing worse than fighting with a instrument

There's no wrong answer from the replies already given. Buy the one that is so appealing to you that once you have it at home you won't be able to walk past it without picking it up and having a play.

@kodiakblairwill know everything

Go and find one then. The night is still young!

Haven't got any photos of early Weeds with borrowed Gibson short scale... But I do have Barf Roco stuff from around 1987-8. I no longer own the babydoll nightie as that was forcibly removed during the gig by singer and guitarist. luckily I had a codpiece on. Then a couple of weeks ago at Rebellion:

Over in the thread about acrimonious band splits, I was talking about the band I was in where the guitarist just upped and left after a gig. Here's a pic of that band, and it's the oldest pic I have of me onstage (there's probably a few more that I have as actual photos, but this is the oldest one I have on the computer ) - this is from around 1997, and that's me on the left. ...and this is a more recent one from a year or so back, playing my trusty Sei.

Does the current bridge not allow you to set the string heights or intonation ? Do the current tuning pegs slip, even after basic maintenance of a daub of grease and a wee tighten ? Does the bass neck dive in all positions or can you find the balance point by adjusting the strap ? £130 for a bit more output but lose the mids which give the P-bass it distinct sound. Not an ideal situation. Could try an Entwistle Neo, PBXN, at £40. Massive boost in output while retaining the P-bass mids. Screenshot of the SPB-3 signal vs the Entwistle PBXN. Tested using identical basses with same strings, pickup heights and settings.

SGFX Beta (MK1 or MK2), whilst more coloured than the Spark, it just sounds perfect and it’s so reactive to your playing

I too have mostly stayed on very good terms with all my ex-band mates. However, I was in a duo in the early 2000s when I first got back into playing again, after a break. The duo quickly became a trio and ran for a few years with the three of us being thick as thieves. The singer used to get a lot of female attention but was always really humble. Then in the last few months, something changed. It was silly comedy things like him taking his shirt off onstage and posing with fans for photos. I probably overthought the whole thing but one possible turning point was us showing up to do an open mic and he was raving about some 19yr old who was playing. He really rated her and I remember saying privately when asked that I didn’t think she was anything special as a performer. He seemed really put out. I then noticed that having had a rock solid friendship that he was barely speaking to me or even looking at me. He was turning 40yrs old that summer and had a wife and two young teenage boys. His wife was always really intense and a little hard work. One day she phoned me whilst I was on holiday to say that the singer had left her and run off with a 19yr old. The band kind of broke up as a result. I saw him about a year or two later and was really pleased to see him. He was cool but a little distant. He then added me on his social media and was messaging me but as the messages started to dry up, I suddenly just started getting invites to like his new band. I wound up deleting him as I obviously wanted more from him than he did from me. I’m still on good terms with the other guy but it was not so much bitter, just bizarre. It had an impact on me for a couple of years but I just put it down to experience. I saw he was selling our albums as digital downloads on Bandcamp but I can’t imagine 20yr old recordings of a band that never made it do too well so wasn’t bothered. He tried to get the other guy to do a reunion without me about 10-15yrs ago but the other guy was classy enough to say all of us or not at all. Oh, and he’s now married to the aforementioned 19yr old, who is nearly 40 and they have kids together. Good luck to them. No malice on my part. A weird ending to what was a great run of music.

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.