Leaderboard

Yesterday at the Wirksworth Arts Festival in Derbyshire. The Desperate Cowboys did a 45 minute set as part of an all-day multi-act show. It’s a small town with grim parking at the best of times, so park-and-ride systems were set up from the nearby quarry sites. Consequently, it was my Taylor Mini Bass straight into the supplied PA. The Taylor has enough character and quality to sound good enough though that setup, so no complaints. Initially, we were disappointed to only get a midday slot. However, given the way the weather went, we were quite happy. I even had to swallow my prejudices and play in a hat! I think I’m done now for outdoor gigs in Derbyshire until next spring.

The headlining Bredon Cider Festival gig with Jagged Little Alanis from a couple of weeks ago is the gift that keeps on giving. The official photographers have been rolling out loads of stuff but these ones are amazing - love his edits! 🙂

We played Murton Officials Club in a local colliery village 20 minutes from home last night. It's a small club with a fantastic crowd, and one of our favourite gigs, with a very easy hump in and out. After a week with a chesty cough I struggled with my singing, but keys and guitarist helped out and we really enjoyed a brilliant atmosphere. I only use my Cliff Bordwell fretless on three songs, but got sent this pic of me studying the fingerboard between verses..

Some better pictures. Perhaps one day I'll re-do the chemical blacking on the metal hardware. I probably could get the finish a bit shiner and less scuffed looking, but I've been working on this thing for about two months, and there comes a point where you just don't want to sand things anymore. I feel good for having revived this bass and, if I may say so myself, made it probably a bit nicer than it was when it left the factory when I was about 2 years old. I think, all told, this project has cost me something like £250-300, so not a sensible financial decision but still not a huge outlay for a very nice instrument.

Saturday: Fortunate Sons (not a tribute) at Barry Football club. Someone asked me 'where are you from?' I said over there... I was born a stone's throw from the far end of the stadium. First half I was a bit rough... still recovering from a brief visual migraine, no headache but leaves me washed out. By the second set I felt better. Stuck in a few little fills of my own, some of which madevthd guitatist crack up. Keyboardist is a lapsed bass player (😯) which meansvhe doesn't compete with mycfound so the mix was excellent. Monitor with my own mini mixer worked well. Good numbers, lots of dancing, lots of handshakes afterwards. Sunday: My first Bluesfire gig for months and the setlist had evolved a bit. New songs but not complex, three or four we hadn't played begore, but I had gone through earlier. A few key changes but only one that I didn't get tipped off about! I know blues isn't everyone's cup of tea but we have very wide idea of what goes and on many songs there's space for improvisation. I found being away from the band playing other stuff gave me some interesting/unusual ideas. We felt the break got us out of a rut and we were paying more attention to each other rather than playing from habit/memory. Had chances to get up the dusty end too. An encore was demanded so we did a randomly arranged Superstition about 30% faster than normal. At one point I was slapping the riff from Play that Funk Music... strangely it all came over as pretty tight. Audience was a bit thin due to torrential rain, but all three of us were on fire and we played a good two hours. Felt shattered afterwards but in a good way. Same gear for both gigs. Unashamed Fender lover. Sound was great IMHO. My udual cheap quecha trainers as they are the best thing for my dodgy ankle (podiatrist and physiotherapist approved!)

New venue for us at The Winged Horse in Basildon. Pretty much your usual community pub in a busy resential estate, with an array of lively, colourful characters. We were also joined once again by one of our dep singers, Hazel, who did a fantastic job once again. Initially they wanted us to set up in the main bar area, but there's barely space for a duo, let alone a 6 peice band, so we set up in the secondary room. It did however mean we had to compete with the football on the screen in hte main bar. Nevertheless, we played well and had a decent crowd who came through to watch, sing and dance. Only real downside is no body told us it's payment via "Just Pay", not cash. So that's that's going to take a while to come through. Oh well. Next stop, The Sarah Moore in Leigh-on-Sea.- about 15mins walk from my front door.

Played The Prince Albert in Brighton yesterday afternoon. We were asked to open with just a few weeks’ notice after the headliner pulled out, and the other two acts moved up the bill. I was already running on fumes after seeing The Stranglers (with the fantastic Skids supporting) in Watford the night before, so leaving the house at 10:30am was a bit of a struggle. I ended up using another band’s bass rig—an Ashdown head on a tiny 4x8 cab—as a stage monitor, while DI’ing my Tech21 DP3X. Bass was the Nate Mendel signature P. It sounded fantastic. The set went really well, and the crowd seemed to genuinely enjoy it. Numbers were thinner than expected (likely due to the original headliner dropping out), but the energy and enthusiasm from those who did show up more than made up for it. After our set, we headed to the back room for a quick drink and a sandwich. As we emerged, the drummer from one of the other two bands hands us a roll of cash—turns out he had kindly manned our merch table and completely sold out of our albums, EPs, and even a few shirts! We stuck around to watch the other bands before heading home. Long day, but a great one.

As a biker, the same goes for motorbikes. They are machines, they may have some character but they do not need a name. I used to be in a Jaguar car owners group. One lady referred to her Jag as her growler. I suggested she might want to look up what growler can also mean. She never called it that again.

From last wednesday's rehearsal(!)

Probably not the most exciting pedal for bass players. I wanted to add a bit of reverb to a band that plays a bit accustic and quiet at times so I thought adding the reverb as an option to the chorus already on the board. I am looking forward to exploring the possibilities of this pedal.

I've been able to be in bands for almost 50 years now without owning a car and for much of that time without being able to drive. Technically I can drive, but I didn't start leaning until I was in my 30s, there was no point before as I couldn't afford lessons let alone the cost of owning and running a car, and it took me 2 years of intensive lessons before I passed my test on the 3rd attempt. TBH I'm a terrible driver and the roads are safer for everyone without me behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, so I don't drive. As others have said, it very much depends on where you live and the sorts of bands you want to be in and the sorts of gigs you want to do. It may also depend on what other skills and resources you can bring to your musical ventures. I have chosen to live in a fairly large city with good public transport and taxi services which is more than adequate for getting to rehearsals and local gigs. In fact for local gigs getting a taxi to and from the venue is far more convenient and often cheaper than driving myself would be. Taxi drivers have zero problem stopping in the middle of the road directly outside the venue for me to load in and out. I don't have the hassle of trying to find somewhere to park that isn't going to cost the earth and if the gig goes on past midnight there is a very good chance that two taxi fares will be less than the cost of parking anywhere close to where we are playing. Any band I have been in that regularly does gigs in other parts of the country has had dedicated band transport, often with a driver/roadie, and IME it makes more sense if travelling any distance for the whole band to travel together. Remember that you can't finish setting up and doing your sound check until all the band are there and invariably if you are travelling in multiple vehicles, at least one will get caught in traffic or some other incident. Otherwise what else can you bring to the band or musical venture other than yourself and your bass? For about 20 years I lived somewhere where it was possible for any band I was in to rehearse for free. I also had what started as a simple 4-track recording setup that eventually grew to become a fully-fledged home recording studio where we could record everything except an acoustic drum kit. All available to whatever band I was in at no charge. Also in my day job I am involved with graphic design and can produce imagery for all the band's visual identity - posters, flyers, CD and record covers, T-shirts and on-line graphics - for free and able to get the print at discount prices or for free too. Do you have any other musical skills? Can you sing backing vocals? I currently play in a Goth/post-punk influenced band as well as playing bass I do all the drum programming and much of the sound design for our songs. I also provide all the hardware for the playback of the drums and second synth parts when we gig. All these things mean that the bands I played with since I first started gigging have been more than happy to help me with transport where I can't sort it out for myself.

Squier Classic Vibe, Labella MUS flats, Gotoh Resolite GB528 tuners, and I'm installing a set of Sentell handwound pickups and a new wiring harness on Weds. Can't wait for that! It sounds fine as is to be fair, but, y'know how it is...

Must keep away from the Gardiner Houlgate auctions, they're a dangerous place for me, or at least for the integrity of my anatomy if I keep buying basses and can't manage to sell any. Went down to near Bath to pick up this lovely Shuker Uberhorn today. Body: African blackwood topped mahogany body Neck: seven piece wenge/mahogany with CF strengthening rods, 35" scale Fretboard: phenolic resin Electrics: concealed EMG pickup system and Graphtech piezo saddles All in an original branded Hiscox hard case. There's also a card from WM Guitars whose hands it has obviously passed through giving the specs (and the price they sold it for). The strings are described as D'Addario tapewounds in the WM Guitars description, and that's still what's on it, looking a bit worn, especially the long thumb rest string. It will be getting some nickel rounds. The action is ridiculously high, mainly (I think) due to the relief being absolutely huge. The battery is in quite reasonable nick, should get a bit of use out of it. There's a couple of little dings around the edge but nothing major. For some reason, it hasn't got straplocks on it, which I see as a significant omission to be rectified very soon. Pictures are from the Shuker website and the auction website. When I summon up a bit of energy, I'll take some more.

Drrrrrrum rolll! Here's the Brooks SparkleBird - Body: Korina. Chambered. Thunderbird shape - Neck: Korina three piece. Glued in. - Two spokewheel truss rods. One carbon stiffening rod - Fretboard: Rosewood. Checkerboard inlay on 12th - Luminlay side markers (blue) - Frets: Jumbo size. Sintoms. Nickel-silver - Scale: 34” - Top Nut: Buffalo horn - Bridge: ETS twelve string bridge set. Gold - Pickup: Gemini Dominator TB Pickup. Gold - Output: PureTone 1/4 inch Jack. Gold plated - Controls: Volume . Kill switch - Pickguard: Pearloid with blue led light - Binding: Pearloid - Bass string tuners: Gotoh Res-o-lite GB350. Gold - Octave tuners: Schaller Grand tune Gold. Pearloid buttons - Strings: d’Addario. 170-12 - Strapnuts: Large, Gold - Finish top: Cobalt Blue Candy - Finish back and sides: Stained. Finish clear transparent. - Weight: 4.6 KG Led light ON Led Light OFF I'll post pics of the build process in separate posts below

If you’ve seen the viral videos being spread on social media that say Kier Starmer is bringing in new banking rules so that bank transfers over £800 will be frozen for 24 hours from 1 October to allow for advanced AI checks, reporting to HMRC and preventing scams, this is not true. I don’t know who is responsible for making up and spreading this 🐂 💩, but the world would be a much better place if that kind of person didn’t exist.

And made a demo video of course.

Thanks for this! He's absolutely flying with it, he spends so much time playing it's incredible! Not even a year in, and I think he'll be better than me soon 😅 Got him his first proper bass at the guitar and bass show back in March, a Dave Ellefson 5-string Jackson, and he's wanting a new bass for his 16th next month! Here we go..... #GAS

As mentioned in my 1 Sept post above, I had problems with my Lekato WS90 wireless system for the bass at a rehearsal. As a result, I went and replaced the unit with a JOYO JW02S in a hurry as I had a gig the following week. It worked fine last Wednesday and last Saturday for the gig. At last night's rehearsal there was nothing from the JOYO kit - no sound at all. I checked everything in the chain and ended up using a lead, which worked fine. When I got home, I tried the JOYO and it worked, with no problems. Curious and suspecting an issue in the rehearsal venue, I tried the Lekato kit - it worked fine too. More frustrating than a worry. My current theory is that the WiFi kit in the rehearsal venue is interfering with the wireless systems as I've eliminated the bass (I used two different ones) and the channel pairing (I went through them all and the pairing indicator was confirming a link). I have a gig next week at the rehearsal venue (a village hall) and I'll take both systems to try again. I always have a spare lead just in case. The rehearsal itself was ok - we went through the first half of next Saturday's set as they are the newer songs and we needed to polish them off a bit. My fingertips were sore after an bust week of rehearsing new songs for last Saturdays gig (different band) and playing the gig itself so I used a pick for all the songs. I'm used to playing with a pick and it works for the rockier/punkier stuff anyway but it's definitely not for the soul/funk stuff we do. Still, a useful exercise to rty out new sounds and experiment. Sometimes it's easier to stick to what you've always done, but for me a rehearsal is a place to try out different things even if I don't end up using them.

Posts on social media of a view from a stage with the title 'tonights office'. People who name their guitars and then ask me to participate. What's she called? 'Well I haven't assigned a gender and it's a @&#£?!# fender jazz'. (BB King gets a pass).

Got invited by the drummer of a band I've depped with a couple of times to check out another band of his which is being rebooted. Went down to meet and jam this afternoon, and it's a four-piece alongside singer, guitarist/bv and drummer, playing upbeat rock/alt-rock/indie-rock covers that aren't my usual fodder but I can still see being fun. All involved seem to be affable and have realistic expectations, the singer can sing, the guitarist had his combo up off the floor and was playing at a reasonable volume... sounded pretty good, so I reckon I'll see where it goes. Travelled light as I was on the bus and knew there was a decent cab I could borrow in the room: RB Streamer LX 5 -> Telepath wireless -> Fly Rig v2 -> Markbass Nano 2 -> Hartke VX215

As reported in a previous thread, back in 2012, I visited a relatively new Nash dealer: Westside MI in Denmark Street, London, (a shop that has sadly since disappeared, like so may of recent times). My aim was to see, feel and hear for myself just how good Nash basses were. I have to say that I came away a little underwhelmed after trying out a couple of Precisions and Jazzes. Whilst the finishes were very good, the feel was generally okay if a bit on the heavy side, but none of the basses I tried that day had the resonant sound of my two Fender Jazzes. It was an interesting visit, and I came away satisfied, in the sense that I had tried them, and could tell myself that at that time, Nash basses were probably not for me. But I have never forgotten them........... Wind forward 13 years and I have just travelled back from Bass Direct at Warwickshire, as the proud owner of a Nash 52 Precision (Butterscotch Blonde) which sounds amazing. Whilst at Bass Direct, which was my first visit, due to the distance, I received a warm welcome, with plenty of time to "try out" a number of Nash's including a PB 55, a PB 57, and a PB 63 as well as the PB 52 which I settled on. My feeling was that the Nash basses had come a long way from my trip to London back in 2012. Of all the basses I tried, I would have been more than happy to have brought home any of them with me. I settled on the 52 as it had great feel, super sound and just looks so cool. My thanks to all at Bass Direct for making the experience so good and to Bill Nash for making some superb basses. Ad Multos Annos!

Two nights, two gigs. Had some mega-feedback from the double bass so emergency jumper was called in to sort it out.

Good luck with the study but as with many, I'm pretty wary of clicking links. It might be a good idea to provide some details of the institution at which you're studying (including department), your supervisor, and a link to your research ethics statement/data control protocols.

The contrast in these posts is getting quite serious! I'm in danger of retreating into BassChat Cats for some reassuring content!

The problem was the sound post, it was way too tight and choking the bass. The bridge also had some problems but he did some creative woodworking on one leg and set it up so the adjusters work properly. I had asked him to check the bridge position and he decided to leave it in the same place. Bass plays a lot better both arco and pizz and is louder with a better sound, strings (Spiros) are roughly 5,6,7,8 mm but I may change that a bit, gotta love adjusters. All in all money well spent but a bit tired today after a 9 hour 800km round trip yesterday into the craziness of Toronto's traffic, happy to get back up north where things are much quieter.

What *have* I done!?? I've just ordered a Cioks 8 Extender for my DC7. Too many pedals doubled up on single outputs. Messy. Image from the website, obviously. I'm about to switch from a modest home made wooden board to a Pedaltrain Novo 24.....which is enormous and completely overkill. I'll get my Dunlop wah back on the board though. Will post pics when I get it figured out. Next big purchase will probably be a Darkglass Bk7 ultra pedal.

Err not sure if this will work. This is played with a pick through my little GK combo and it is picking up a bit more mechanical noise than you would hear in real life. NBD SQUIRE SONIC CUSTOM.m4a

I need to look into better footwear for gigs for similar reasons. My right foot rolls inward after rolling my ankle badly some years ago. Often, gigging makes my ankle ache for ages afterwards. Strapping it up helps, but it's not comfortable. My go-to trainers are a pair of Camper Beetles as they're so comfy, but obviously not giving enough support for lengthy standing stints. Having a high instep also limits my choices somewhat - typically, trainers that fit my footshape are too loose around the heel, which starts to slide inward.

I'll have to look into Newtone strings, thanks. I'm glad I booked the day off work today, as I'm just sitting around playing it. I have to admit, I'd not expected it to sound this good. It's also even more comfortable to play now that my hands aren't all cramped up from spending a day sanding and working with a soldering iron.

I’ve had a similar thing. My ear openings are quite different, one fairly normal size and the other quite a bit smaller. Using plugs to protect my ears would often result in them hurting a bit, especially the smaller side. I have different sized plugs for each ear too, and am always careful when inserting and taking them out. Using plugs also compacts the wax in my ears a bit too, meaning regular visits to have them cleared. I also use light olive oil sprayed into my lugholes, do it once a week which seemed to help. Anyway, I found the ultimate solution - I left the loud band where I needed to wear ear protection!

I enjoyed that @walshy got to say hello to a few Basschat alumni. Nice to have bought mini Trav (Ella) with me. Quite a team

Sad news but a life very well lived. A truly astounding musician. I had the privilege of hearing him play in an amazing concert at the Barbican in 2016. If you haven’t yet heard him, please do yourselves a favour and have a listen. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/14/hermeto-pascoal-brazilian-jazz-musician-the-sorcerer-dies https://youtube.com/@hermetopascoaloficial?si=F21_RUHpWbcsI6uH

Oh, more importantly, it's finished! I'll take some better pictures tomorrow when I have some daylight, but here's a decent enough shot of the completed bass. I think it looks rather nice, and it sounds good as well. I've attached a quick bit of noodling, recorded direct into my interface with no tinkering. It's neck position, both pickups on, and bridge position. I've since raised the bridge pickup a little, so it should sound a bit less feeble. Untitled.mp3 Thanks to @Chienmortbb for being willing to part with this project bass, @PaulThePlug for his Hohner/Steinberger knowledge and @Jackroadkill for his 3D printing work. Also, special thanks to the cheap white-and-orange beach towel/workbench cover that stars in many of these pictures. My mum bought from a Leclerc in Brittany during a family holiday about 30 years ago, and it's only recently occurred to me that I have no idea how or when it ended up rolled up in a cupboard in my house.

Returned to The New Inn in Buckingham last night. Not as busy as has been but still a reasonable amount of people who seemed to enjoy us. Landlord and Landlady were very complimentary. Our singer had a bit of an off night as she had had a tooth out the day before and was on some pretty strong medication. Will be back there next year.

They need to pay you to do some YouTube content - Sheffield's version of IMA...

Charity beer festival at the Shirley British Legion this weekend, Friday and Saturday, and quite busy for me. Friday evening I did Hey Joe with the first Chris, then it was the band to which I've been recently recruited with one and a half rehearsals for an hour. Quite a lot of jamming occurred, the audience liked it. Definitely needs a lot of tightening up. Then another hour with Graham and Tony - Graham had sent me the song sheets but I hadn't looked at them properly and missed the "capo 4" on Eight Days a Week. Sat that out as I couldn't transpose it on the fly, coped OK with Come up and see me (capo 2) and something else with capo 1. Saturday I was there for the latter part of the setting up and ran through some songs with Paul, then did the first half hour with Rick and nine short 60s songs, half an hour of rest, then half an hour with Annette where I sat out a Smiths song due to confusion over chords and capo but did the rest. Another hour and a half of rest, then back with Annette and Chris the sax for half an hour, and then I played guitar with Mrs Zero singing for another half hour, then straight on to an hour of blues with Tom and Tony. Shouldn't blues be restricted by the Geneva Convention to a maximum of half an hour at a time? Half an hour of rest, then one that had been sprung on me, playing bass for Paul and his two lady friends on ukes and guitars. Then half an hour accompanying Blind Young George. My old band played next for an hour but didn't include me, although I sneaked in for their encore. I think I played about 70 songs over the two days. Gear was Sei headless fretless 5 -> Lekato/M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> HH bass combo, footwear was the usual Caravelles. Blind Young George really is blind, and 14. Very talented. And I do have a music stand because I can't learn 70 songs that quickly (only needed it for one of George's songs though).

We did two this weekend, both with good crowds and we played out of our skins - it's renewed my enthusiasm a bit.

We graced a huge sports bar last night. Palpable sense of menace in the air, drunken, broken nosed, tattooed football fans wandering into the playing area to chat with the singer during songs, people asking for Pink Floyd tunes (we're an Irish band, whistles, mandolins, cajon etc) and one guy offered to take over as our bassist. I nearly let him.

Depping gig inside a church for a wedding near Hinckley. I was worried about the acoustics of playing in a place with high ceilings etc but no problem at all. The audience were really up for it with lots of dancing, plus one guy who came up and sang a couple of songs with us (I think he knew the singer 🤷🏼‍♂️). Good catering too courtesy of a pizza oven thing out the back. Winner. Took a small rig of just one Markbass 2x10 cab, a LM2 head and a Yamaha BB604 bass. Pared down the effects board to just a tuner and a compressor gaffer taped to the top of my amp head.

Resurrecting this to say my daughter and son's band, Tulpa, release their first album shortly. Preorder available, and a video of their first single below. https://www.roughtrade.com/product/tulpa/monster-of-the-week https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JexAQGyZMYM&pp=ygURTGV0cyBtYWtlIGEgdHVscGE%3D

I have no real detail or further information but just saw a 'we're back' banner on the Hiscox site. The company now appears to be operating/trading our of Poland, at least that's where enquiries are directed. Proudly Hand-Made in England could become Proudly Hand-Made in Poland. According to the banner, shipping is scheduled to re-start in late September: https://hiscoxcases.com

Just thinking about this is stressing me out 🙃

I re-listened to the SY1 a few weeks ago. Jeezo that’s a bad sounding pedal 😅 (IMO). Si

Thanks Dave, We didn't do so well last time we played The Bend . We had something to prove last night . Daryl

You are not alone @binky_bass... 😉 Instead of speaking of boutique basses, I prefer the term luthier basses, because this is what are my basses and if I've gone that path, it's because I couldn't find what I was looking for in mass produced instruments when I started playing fretless bass 40+ years ago, yes I really started with a fretless as it's the bass tone I hear in my head. Before the first fretless I had an awful Maya EB-2, then a way better Ibanez SoundGear SDGR 800, but I was simply noodling, and then came the first fretless, a now long gone Aria Diamond Violin that had been defretted by Christophe Leduc to my request and fitted with EMG pickups including a piezo pickup: It sounded ace and made me want to take lessons to learn music, but I was attracted by the fretless ERB, hence these luthier made basses that started my love for these instruments, because I had no other option available back then. That said, I like some vintage instruments too for what they are, and even if I'm a vintage Fender expert (some mates here can confirm this), I don't own any Fender vintage instruments anymore, because they don't meet my requirements at all. It's all about tone, nothing more, and, yes, I fancy coffee table fretless basses as well as ultra well thought instruments designed around efficiency and tone. So, please, accept that we don't all like the same stuff. 😉