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I've just got back from Islington after collecting this monster that I bought 6 weeks ago. I'd given up on finding one years ago. I've gigged a 12 in the past, I've played "those" songs live, I've seen Cheap Trick a few times, I've seen Tom Petersson guesting with Pearl Jam playing Surrender in the US, I've been chasing one of these for years. It's a 1999 B12L and it's like New Old Stock. It's pristine. @Wolverinebass has given me some great pointers for biamping via the HXStomp and shared patches that I've already trialled with 4-string Spectors. It's the first set-neck bass I've ever had, apropos of nothing, just saying. It needs a set up, it'll get new strings in the morning and then I'll see what it can do. It's relatively light for such a thing @9.5lb. No idea of neck dive yet. That's the original Hamer case and the original certificate with serial number is in there. More pics and updates as the week progresses.

I was in the big time Saturday night at The Bend Theatre with the full Maple Road band.. Sunday we had an acoustic gig and back in reality. It was an okay acoustic gig. We were background music for an event sponsored by wine makers and vendors. Daryl

For me intent is everything. To take the piss in some way - bad. To honour the song / subject - good. A few words spoken before playing it will clarify intent for the audience. "We have been asked to play this song. It is one of the greatest protest songs ever written about a subject that doesn't get enough attention and we just hope we do it justice" Something like that.

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.

You'll have to ask someone who is culturally adjacent to the song. The majority here are grey haired white men.

There are so many compositions that have real meaning ('If I Had A Hammer', 'Blowing In The Wind', 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' and hundreds more...). Personally, I'd much rather play stuff with real meaning than innocuous, bland, 'filler' stuff, whatever culture it's originally from. To me, human is human; the rest is simply coincidence of birth time and place. I see no problem here. Peace.

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.

Personally I feel culture is something to be shared and celebrated by everyone. I think if you are celebrating and sharing culture it’s not appropriating it but absorbing it, being influenced by it and changing your mindset and behaviour because of it. It’s a positive not a negative thing. Appealing to soldiers not to blindly follow orders, which I think this song is about, is as relevant to any culture or race and no more so than in the current world situation.

A photo from rehearsal this evening consisting of my Fender American Vintage 2 precision bass and 2008 Squier Classic Vibe Precision. Both fantastic basses and to be honest are closer to each other in feel, vibe and sound. The Av 2 has more bottom end whereas the classic vibe has a lovely vintage mid range to it but with a blindfold I’d be hard pushed to figure out which I was playing.

Thank you, I’m very grateful that you took the time to read the study details so carefully and for flagging those concerns. I apologise for not including this information up front; that was an oversight on my part and I appreciate you pointing it out. This project is being conducted at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina (https://dimed.unime.it/it), as part of my graduate thesis. My project supervisor is Dr. Matteo Nanni, Consultant (Dirigente Medico) in Orthopedics and Traumatology at Ospedale Maggiore “C.A. Pizzardi”, Bologna (https://www.ior.it/curarsi-al-rizzoli/dr-matteo-nanni-0). Asitionally, I will attach Ethics Statement & Data Control Protocol for the study to this post so anyone can review the full details. Thank you for raising the distinction between sex and gender, that is an important point. To be clear and respectful: The item in the survey asks for biological sex (male / female) because this study is investigating biological risk factors that may plausibly differ between sexes (for example, in musculoskeletal physiology or injury susceptibility). The choice to collect biological sex is therefore strictly scientific and relates only to the research question. I fully respect gender identity and the social meaning of gender. The survey does not assume gender identity from the sex question, nor does it make any judgement about people’s identities or experiences. No identifying information is collected; all responses are anonymous and will be analysed and reported only in aggregate. Because responses are collected anonymously, individual submissions cannot normally be linked back to a person, and therefore it may not be possible to remove a submitted response from the dataset after it has been sent. Thank you guys for your understands Ethics Statement .pdf

Finally made a start on building my second bass, about 25 years after starting (but never finishing) my first. I've decided to buy a neck for this one to save time, money and effort. But I am aiming to make a neck next time... This is going to be a replica/reimagining of the Musicman St Vincent guitar - there were rumours they were going to make a Pino-backed bass a few years ago but it never came to be. I've only seen two other homemade ones, both look very nice but I'm going to try and go one better. Firstly it'll be a 5er, partly because I've always wanted one and also I got a deal on some Fishman Fluence 5 string pickups. The neck I found (£70 on Reverb) has a reasonably good MM-shaped headstock so the overall look should be fairly authentic. The body shape may however be slightly different, as I don't happen to have a genuine St V lying around to copy. I've looked around online at all the plans and photos I can find, and I think it'll be somewhat closer to a modified/truncated Explorer, rather than a straight copy of a St V - no particular reason for this, it just felt like a nice shape to me (I wonder if that might be where they started with the original St V design process anyway). It's still all on paper anyway so who knows? I'm also going to do front and back binding, partly thanks to Basvarken and his beautiful Explorers. Colour will be a deep metallic; I'm undecided between red, blue, green and purple but red is currently in the lead. After watching a bunch of Matt Estlea's videos about sharpening and setting up a plane, I've started smoothing the top and back of the ash body. Feels good to actually move some wood around - I recently redid our front hall with some lovely herringbone T&G, the woodworking genes kicked in hard. Next step is to finalise the body shape and geometry - any tips for establishing neck angle? (saddle height is 12-17mm over the body according to Schaller, bridge is a 3D-5). I've also got a bunch of other things to work out and research, like doing the binding. Everyone says to use acetone for gluing, leave it a hair's width proud of the wood and scrape it back, and do the finish after the binding is on. But should you scrape it flush then do the finish, or finish then scrape? And clear lacquer over the binding or leave it plain? I'm also going to paint the headstock to match the body, should I bind it too? Progress will be slow so don't expect weekly updates! If I've got the body routed out by New Year's I'll be happy.

Another thread reminds me of two. White guys calling each other 'man' or referring to someone as a 'cat'. Actually, add 'dude' to that list.

This looks very very cool https://www.gibson.com/en-gb/blogs/gibson-gazette/how-the-mesa-boogie-bass-800d-channels-50-years-of-bass-amp-innovation

i don’t need another bass!! I don’t need another bass! I’m digging this colour and the red one. Pino and Hurley vibes

Oh, I like the look of that.....and switchable impedance down to 2 ohms.

I used to work with an aussie who just called everyone by the C word. "Hey, do you c**ts want to come to the pub. Im meeting a bunch of c**it's to watch some c**t sing some old s**t" Translation- "Would you gentlemen care to join me at the hostelry to spend time with my family and I as we enjoy a fine singer performing the classics?"

Cultural appropriation = telling people they can not do something because of their culture or the colour of their skin. The last vestige of acceptable racism?

He welcomed Ginger Baker into his band on many occasions. I went to see the Fela Kuti show at Sadler’s Wells and Femi got up and sang a few songs. the audience was predominately white British and the band was white French. None of which mattered a jot to anyone present.

Oppressive governments using coercion and violence against their own people. Working class and oppressed people being used by the military to further their own agenda. Feels like fairly universal concerns to me. I think this song is as relevant to the victims of ICE, the residents of Gaza, the people of Kiev, the immigrants detained in hotels facing a howling mob as it is to the people of Nigeria in the 1970s. To me it’s a universal message that echoes our common humanity and sense of injustice.

From last wednesday's rehearsal(!)

First gig since shoulder surgery (cant use a strap for months!!!) with the bass on a stand. Looks weird but worked & very easy.

A double whammy of a weekend in the first half of October. We’re coming to Frome before returning to our new adopted home town the next day.

Also a Subsequent 25. Modulation into delay into reverb. Nothing else that beast needs. The Canvas line injector serves some good utility - the effects here are stereo, so it gives me a stereo out to the desk, but also lets me sum to mono via the thru for on stage monitoring or if I just need to rehearse with a bass amp. I use this on the tabletop next to the synth, not on the floor.

No that’s great stuff, I’m fairly novice on fretless so I have taken your advice and found that playing slightly flat is really helping. I dropped the bass off today at Chapel Guitars after a very spirited drive across some lovely countryside. Steve is great and totally understood what I wanted. Electronics, shielding and pickup correction all fine, and the neck options: I’ll keep the ebony fretless mustang neck as-is. But I’m going to have the original neck defretted and coated. It’s a really nice piece of rosewood so it’ll look lovely, and it’ll be nice to use the original neck. I can compare both anyway and see. We’re going to try a nitro coating to bring out the look of the wood.

It has, but Mesa are a different breed and these are all built in the USA (not that it is a big deal really as any country can make a great amp). For 999, I think that is reasonable. I expected more. I am interested in this.

Oooh, lovely Boogie retro 👍

I've rather fancied one for ages. Just got to see if the 35" scale causes any issues, given that my other fretlesses are 34". At least it's not a 42" scale...

From Alan Lomax protesting electricity at Newport folk festival, Santana fusing Latin rhythms with rock, Cream taking the blues to a new level, British SKA, Northern Soul, Heavy metal in Delhi, Katmandu and Tokyo. Cultural Appropriation, dilution, desecration or just art? I am all for culture NOT being either sacred or static. That’s the death of creativity. I don’t think Dylan should have apologised to Lomax or Cream apologised or Santana etc. I think George Harrison had as much right to pick up a Sitar as any young lad in Delhi has to wear cowboy boots and sing country music and if working class white lads in Wigan have a passion for US Soul music and are inspired to dance please do.

Yes, for a Cheap Trick tribute in the USA, called Cheap Trip. The customer now owns 7 Brooks 12-string bass guitars...😵

I just realised yesterday that Darryl Anders of MXR has been a member of my FI Facebook group for 3 years. Now I know where he got all the good ideas from. 😂

All I would say is it’s up to you. Personally I am glad that the ancient Greeks didn’t pass upon the rich culture of ancient Byzantium and later Greek scholars took the rich cultural and intellectual heritage to Italy and the renaissance men absorbed and learned from this and passed the knowledge and culture on to … etc etc I do think culture is an incredibly valuable thing and should be shared. If a 52 year old white man can get across the message and emotion of Public Enemy then I see no reason why not. Perhaps Terry Hall should have just done the culturally appropriate thing and become a plumber? Edit: When I spent time in India I met a Harley Davidson biker ‘gang ‘ (mainly wealthy businessmen) dressed according and a line dancing club. All wore full regalia. Were they taking the piss or just people with a shared interest and passion spending time together and enjoying themselves?

Bristol has Elevator Sound https://www.elevatorsound.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop4A2d-1vjoEEkt-LT-NSxJs0OchGEyMImZZiXs1yPOaDQu9fn0

we have different definitions of "stripped things back" I think

He was absolutely ace - what a lovely guy.

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! 🙂

You are retaining the tension of the E A and D and losing the tension of the G BUT most B strings are of a similar tension to a G string; ergo the overall tension remains relatively similar.

Did you get paid in wine?

This has a look of ‘death to false basses !’ about it . Embrace your inner pinnick/ Petersson / manowar , and turn to 12 !

To thine own self be true. I think your concerns are spot on. If you don't feel comfortable playing it then don't. There are certain songs that you just can't play if you do not have a link to it either culturally or through family history. If the band must play a Fela Kuti song there are plenty others to choose from. As Pulp sang, "Everyone hates a tourist".

That bass looks serious! Hopefully we will hear some playing after you have changed strings. That number of strings, it may be wise to change one at a time and not stress the neck too much.

Nor me, even though I have one. And I suspect female membership of this is a bit thin on the ground: http://thegrowlergroup.org.uk/ Quite SFW, in case you were wondering.

Give that man a job!

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.