Leaderboard

Great gig, depping with Duran/Spandau show 'From Gold To Rio' in Gainsborough on Saturday night. Almost full.... and receptive audience up and singing/dancing. Bass sounded great in my IEM's, and apparently out front too, really cutting/punching through. Gear used: Spector Dimension HP4 set flat, through dimed HAZardlAMPS preamp pedal, in to HXStomp with my own EQ'd GK800RB/Ampeg 810 setting (& chorus where needed).... and out to desk.

Quiet couple of weeks for me, our annual 2 weeks blanking the duo’s diary for holidays etc. However, I’ve had a couple of gigs this weekend with friends. First one was my favourite boozer, The Sun Inn in Beverley on Saturday evening, depping with a band of mates in their dad rock band. Absolutely torrential rain so expected it to be quiet but by 9pm we had a nearly full pub when we started. It was one of those gigs that didn’t really gel for some reason - guitarists struggled a bit, and it was a bit too loud towards the end. Still, went down well so job done I guess. Played my P-Lyte into the Rumble 500 combo. Then yesterday it was playing at a memorial gig for a good friend Lynn Blakeston ( Blako ) who died in April. This was in a local civic hall, with a big PA and backline / kit supplied. Plenty of acts / bands lined up to play, and of course we were on last ( bit annoying because we all arrived early but hey ho). I was playing with an old Hull band called ‘Uncle Sam’ who were an early country rock band in the mid to late 70’s. Four original members plus myself. John Cambridge on drums ( ex-Bowie) and Steve Lee on lead vocals ( also a writer / multi instrumentalist with a CV including Joan Armatrading, Lionel Richie, Will Young, Then Jericho). Steve came up from London for the gig, and was amazing - a pleasure to play with such a talented singer. I used my 63 Precision which had done a lot of gigs with Blako so seemed fitting. Used the house HA5000 / 410 which was fine. We did eight songs, including stuff from Poco, The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt and went down well, with a few dancers at the front and a good reception from the rest of the audience who were mainly made up of musicians. Despite the sadness of the occasion it was still good to see loads of people I’ve not seen for ages, and we all agreed we’d have to do it again in happier circumstances.

Yesterday afternoon at the "Piv" in Nuneaton. It's our only gig this month due to the guitarist being off touring elsewhere. The Piv is a great social club that belongs to the allotment society, and has survived by having regular entertainment. As we were leaving our early evening gig in the lounge, people were arriving for ballroom dancing in the big room and others were setting up a poker night in the conservatory. I should really have taken some photos while the lights were on, but was a bit out of sorts after the guitarist's Mesa Boogie combo released the magic smoke! We think it might have been a dodgy socket it was plugged into - duly "sorted" by sticking some gaffer tape over it 😂. Anyway he luckily had the foresight to carry a spare amp with - and what a fabulous little amp it was. Switchable output up to 50W and sounded great plugged into the Mesa speakers I did ask him why he was still lugging the big heavy combo around! (The tablets are Vocalzones btw) The afterthought photo just about showing my Rumble and Stingish bass... Oh and you can also see my new Gravity lighting stands - the black ones. I've been wearing shorts since the spring but went back to jeans, which felt strange. Footwear were black DMs to match the rest of the garb

She is currently with Fury, who supported Metallica Unloaded tribute at Torquay Arena tonight. I only caught the end of the Fury set. But I told her she's brilliant and that I play bass too. Yay!

First gig report: I purchased a Monaco last week and gave it its first run out at an outdoor gig yesterday. My first impressions are that this cab is superb. The sound of each note from low E to high on the G string is even and balanced and speaks clearly, just like the bass does when practicing using headphones. Setting the amp's eq to flat the speaker sounds a little bland but once eq is set to taste then the sound really comes alive, it is full, rich, clear and present. The ABM is a perfect match with its seven band eq; after a few adjustments on the fly I had a really pleasing sound, with a touch of drive and compression to complement; in melodic, sensitive passages it felt like my technique, the string and the speaker were working as one as if it was an acoustic instrument; and in fast, loud passages with the drummer moving around the low toms muddying the sound, now each note spoke clearly through the mush. My only gripe is that there aren't rubber feet on the cab - easily solved - I can see the corner protectors getting pretty scratched up quite quickly and the cab needs a mat at home to protect the wooden floor from getting marked. So overall this is a wonderful cab, yesterday was the clearest and most even sound I've ever had on stage. I'm really excited to be taking this forward with me on my musical journey as I think it will help me become a better bass player.

Both gigs were good with nice responsiveness crowds. The Ziegler Winery gig was moved inside due to the rain. The,Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Fest was another win for us. The stage and sound was very good. Daryl

Sadly not mine - just in my custody while waiting for it's new owner to pick it up, but a delightful example of a 2004 Textured Teal/Checkerplate 2EQ MusicMan SUB.

You were lucky. I practiced for three months on a rolled-up newspaper that I found in a septic tank. I used to have to get up every morning at six o'clock, play the newspaper for 14 hours a day - and when our Dad got home from working in the orchestra pit, would thrash us to sleep in 7/4 time, with a curly guitar lead.

Friday night saw Hurtsfall's first proper headlining gig. This was at Liquid Light in Nottingham, which is first and foremost a brewery that has a bar and occasional events such as gigs and film nights. I discovered the place as it used to be home to the best vegan burgers in Nottingham. Unfortunately they seem to have moved on and there was no food on when we played. The PA is something else - it looks home-brewed but sounds great - see the photo of support band St Lucifer: There were plenty of people about while the bands were setting up and sound checking, but only a few of them opted to come inside once the actual gig started which was a bit disappointing for opener Joshua Todd, but luckily for the us and St Lucifer it filled up as the evening went on. I don't think the location helps, although it's close to the city centre, it's on an industrial estate and quite hard to find if you've not been before. With it being our first headlining set we were able to play for longer than our normal 30-35 minutes, and dusted off a couple of songs that we haven't done for a while. While it would have been nice for a few more people to have been there, once again we were competing with a goth festival in Morecambe and some of our audience were definitely in attendance there. Still it wasn't band for our first self-organised gig and we sold a decent amount of merch afterwards. Hopefully I'll be posting some more photos of us playing later in the week when they appear on social media. Next gig is also with St Lucifer in Manchester on Saturday 27th September.

Jazz is the other band's, not mine.

* Headstocks that don't match the body * Headstocks the size of match boxes * Amps the size of a paperback * Amps the size of a suitcase * Knobs and switches on basses pointless because they do nothing * Knobs and switches on amps pointless because they do nothing * Pick- Ups that are weak and ineffective * White pick guards * Scratch plates referred to as Pickguards * Refering to plectrums as picks * Explaining to my grandsons what a plectrum is * Bass players spending too much time fiddling with their pedals * Bass players affected by GAS (I mean Gear Affected Syndrome - not the baked bean issue) - I think I have over 30 basses, I must do a role call sometime 🤔 * Guitar Techs who think they're Luthiers * Luthiers who consider themselves Gods * Music stores/suppliers stocked floor to ceiling with budget basses with white scratch plates * Basschat members who reply to Posts using asterisk bullet points

Not long got back. Played a local venue for the second sunday in a row, this time with the Fortunate Sons. Unexpected gorgeous sunny day meant a packed audience and plenty of dancing. Again played best part of 2 hours and 35 songs(!) We were much tighter than our previous gig. I'm getting more comfortable on bvs, so joining in on more songs. The singer caught me out by shoving his mic in my face during Moni Moni... Went for a sunday lunch with my partner beforehand. A pint of coke, pint of Guinness and a bottle of becks zero on top, with two hours of bouncing around and I have a fine stomach ache. Lots of people I know there which was nice. I loaded in from the front. The other guys were less lucky. The route to the back is like a scene from the evil dead...

Finally, more or less satisfying setup. I had this DIY, oldschool, solid and bulky single-row pedalboard made from fiberboard for almost a decade now and since the guitar cable was pulling the FurFur (first effect in the chain) upwards, I've decided to fit the board with built-in input and output jacks with their cables. I bought it originally from some kid (he had his dad built it for him, and was upgrading). Originally it had a built-in 3-socket power extension cable plugged via IEC power socket. It also had a "carpet" and nailed-on silver edge slats. I swapped the carpet for the loop side of adhesive h&l, vinyl-wrapped the slats black, added corner guards, and replaced nails with screws, and also removed the extension cord w/sockets to accommodate the JOYO battery power unit. And I used IEC hole for input jack, drilled the new hole for output on the opposite side, masked the imperfections with vinyl wrap and installed the sockets with cables. It's quite clean, but still with neat DIY vibe, so I like it, though I'd prefer a bit more room since there's still one huge pedal I want to add. In the future I will also use a method to mask the holes that is slightly better than the wrap.

We talk a lot about Spector basses but don’t share the sounds very often, so hopefully this’ll make a change. I’ve been editing the recording of the cover band’s last gig and thought I’d just post these snippets of my gigging basses. Depending on the song, it’s either the Bahama Blue (Jap Import) Euro 4 LX with the maple board and black blocks or the Amber Euro 4). Both have EMGs and an LHZ-03 dimed going through a GK Fusion 550 with an Origin Cali 76 comp. FoH is taking a DI from the 550 postEQ+FX. The 550 is going through an LFSys Monaco on stage. Recorded with a Zoom H2n mounted above the mixing booth at the back of the venue. These clips should give you an idea of what it sounds like both up and down in the mix. You can hear some of the top end sizzle and clank cutting through in places. Is a Spector a one trick pony? Maybe. But it’s the best trick in the World and it’s a golden winged pony. YFKI! 😀 RDVictoria 240825 Zombie Ending.mp3 RDVictoria 240825 UPressureIntro.mp3 RDVictoria 240825 LoaPsection.mp3 RDVictoria 240825 DSBsection.mp3 RDVictoria 240825 HLTWsection.mp3

Well - after a rather lengthy hiatus due to work/family/mental health and all that jazz, had the wood kicking around for this for ages so decided it needs doing. Decided to go full DIY (sans hardware) - winding my own pickups and making a preamp! Doing this as more of a "proof of concept" than anything else, as I've never built a multiscale bass before, or indeed put a preamp together. Bit late posting as most of the process is done now, but hopefully is of interest to someone! First of all, as always I spent a good few evenings designing in Inkscape, here were the results:

Ok, sorry for delays, I've had the chance to put the Goodwood through it's paces more now, and I like it. This cab is mighty loud. I'm not actually that surprised by that, it's a 10" driver in a box that many standard 12" drivers would fit into. I feel like many bass cab makers make their boxes smaller than they ought to, which reduces low end sensitivity for the sake of easier carry. I get it though, a properly sized driver in a properly sized cab ends up a lot bigger. I've had no problem keeping up with a loud guitarist and loud drummer in a jazz-funk setting, even with me using octavers and whatnot. That was great. No problem carrying the room with a a mic'd up ceilidh band (fiddle, mic'd drummer, mic'd accordion, and me) at the weekend. A church hall with about 100 folks, so not a massive gig, but plenty enough to carry the room without PA support. What was great was that my drummer, about 70 degrees off axis to the cab, had no problems hearing me either. I do love the horn on Stevie's cabs. It's pretty good outdoors, although I want it on the ground near a wall to get max volume out of it when busking. But then I'm unusual in that I'm busking with a drummer on a proper portable kit. Every bass sounds honest through it, same as for the Silverstone. There's no hiding, what's in the signal chain is what you get. The B-Amp is a very good match for the cab, as I can sculpt the tone out for the room with high and low pass filters and then use EQ for other areas as desired. It also matches the B-Amp power rating well. (When I tried the Monza, I felt like that might want a slightly more powerful amp than my B-Amp to get the most out of it.) The Goodwood is very slightly leaner in the low end than my Silverstone (around 100Hz), but in real rooms when it's placed on the floor, I need no bass boost. I'll try and see if I can do a video review of it. It's a great cab. It's way more capable than any other 10" box I've owned, which has included a Barefaced One10 and the venerable Acme 1x10, and beats some 12" cabs I've had. This is the most compact FRFR solution apart from an LFSys Monza, and it's a fair bit lighter and a bit cheaper. I finally might sell my Silverstone. I try to be a one-cab guy...but I've had that for so long I can't quite part with it...hmm.

Becky is a lovely person, engaging, very chatty and a delight to be in the company of. I know Becky deps with said Metallica tribute when they need a bassist too and stayed over for random vegan breakfast à chez Dood when they played this way a while back. Definitely works very hard managing/publicising Fury and playing in with Mercyful Fate. Great work ethic and "can do" attitude. What was it Nathan East said? "Attitude + Aptitude = Altitude"

I've got a roasted swamp ash body with the graphite necks name on it. Single humbucker route in the music man sweet spot. Any guesses what I'm making?

Of course it's my problem, this isn't the rational prejudices thread.

I take whatever I fancy taking. If that means an Esh Poseidon at a folk club or a headless Sei anywhere (but most notably at an R&B gig), then that's fine by me. If anyone has a problem with it, it's their problem, not mine.

I've just put a new rig together - ABM EVO lll and Monaco - our band is a four piece v/g/b/d covers band playing mostly pubs and small festivals. I gave it its first run out yesterday - absolutely superb. Plus lightweight, fits in car easily etc. I've just put a review of the Monaco on the Monaco thread if you want to know more about the cab.

So I got the amber LG3005 above from E Sharp and now have a pair of Roscoes. I've owned some wonderful instruments over the years and for me, this brand has been amongst the very best.

Ponders @Owen's view on south of Brum being more accessible.... Also ponders the concept of @Stub Mandrel and the Glamorgan Massive...

American dates...

Last night, played The Railway Club in Keith with Nine Lives. Drove through a one minute monsoon on the way there - rain so hard had to slow down because even with the wipers on full speed I couldn't see very well. Then it was done. What a bizarre, angry, and incredibly small pocket of weather! So we get there and get set up - it's an odd place - L shaped, so we are in the bit round the corner from the bar. It has alcohol, we don't. So, as you can imagine, we had only a trickle of folk getting off their backsides and coming round to see us, and a bunch of folk who were quite content to sit round the corner and merely listen. Are people not curious any more? Anyhoo, I frankly don't know how busy it was. We had some people come round for a dance and a singalong, so at least there's that. Got some nice comments afterwards, compliments on our playing and the sound (which surprises me because the first half was a nightmare - just couldn't get the singer loud enough. At half time we swapped out her wireless gear for a good old wired SM58 and things improved greatly - we'll need to investigate that. We played pretty well for all that, and the Neep One got its first live outing and didn't explode/collapse in half/go silent so yay for my dubious luthiery skills? Gear was G&L L-1000 then the Neep One into the cubes of doom.

A fairly long trip to Bridlington in god awful storm weather last night for Glam Viva. A great venue, the Black Lion in the old town, first visit for us. A great venue with a small theatre type arrangement. Unfortunately the weather had put off a fair few punters so it was only about half full, fortunately those that braved the onslaught were up for it and danced the night away. Only negative of the night was the outside door that let water through due the the storm and wet my clothes through in the changing room so had to drive home in 70s glam wear…… Footwear….red silver and blue sequinned converse.

Getting excited, huh? I've been ordering and collecting parts as the graphite necks are nearing completion, and my walnut body by @Silky999 is also nearing completion. You can see where I'm going here...

An almighty trip to the other end of the country for an Eagles tribute show in Newbury. Beautiful venue, and an appreciative crowd. Nice to bump into BC’s very own @alant!

Marked out the fretboard for cutting slots - basically made a small mark for each fret using both scale lengths, from the parallel fret (in this case I settled on the 9th). Then joined those marks up very carefully using a 0.5mm pencil. Used a planed offcut of the body clamped to the top as a guide for each slot as a precaution, which worked really well!

@HeadlessBassist Sorry for the delay. I recorded a play along of one of my favourite songs: “Come as you are” by Beverley Knight. And then because I was curious I recorded did it again for another 3 takes with different amp sims. SVT 4 Pro. Dirty Aguilar Tonehammer Joe Dart heavily compressed (although new roundwounds not flats) Fat DI. Bass EQ stayed the same apart from the Tonehammer as the low was far too much so I backed it off a little, but it was only boosted a little in the first place. There’s a little playlist of the 4 on YouTube.

The problem was that it wasn’t gloss, it was matt, made glossy by playing, which in turn made them sticky. I never regretted stripping mine, it felt and played so much better.

This was on my list but somehow I tried this in Bass Direct over the weekend and it followed me home. I'm really not a fan of white pickguards but this bass was all sorts of shades of amazing in both feel and sound palette. I even liked the price. I had to do it. There are options to configure a darker colour on the Public Peace website but not sure I can be bothered 🙂 Shout out to Adam their newest staff member. Really cool guy.

I've just been sent the set list for a gig on 27/9 for a band I dep for. Three songs in there I've never played before and they don't rehearse. I wasn't informed of this when I said yes, but the singer is also a dep and everything will be tuned down half a step for him. There's a song in there that should be played on a 5. That's not going to happen if everything is being tuned down. They can put up with me playing the low stuff higher on that one. Plus....I've also got the full house in cover band bingo....Play That Funky Music, Summer of '69, Sex on Fire, Chelsea Dagger AND Mr.Brightside!

I have a Jackson Charvel complete with pointy headstock that I played in a function band for years, until I decided it didn't really look right. I ended up buying a Mahogany Ibanez. I then played the Ibanez in a thrash metal band for a few gigs, completely oblivious that maybe the Charvel would have looked a lot better.

I have, I didn't and I would be happy to do it again!

^ this I do this with our acoustic Americana’ish trio on double bass. I used to use the TC BG250 208 for ‘personal monitoring’ but now prefer to use in-ears with the bass going into FoH via the Stanley Clarke’s DI.

I think the answer is yes, but the tone will change - the classic MM sound is parallel

I agree large rubber feet would make it better

Our next gig is on Saturday 27the September in Manchester at Fuel The Music. We're supporting the excellent St Lucifer:

I’ll be first - Fender V3 Rumble combo.

We played at a 40th birthday party last night, held in the hall in which we rehearse, so very much a home fixture. The audience was a mix ranging in age from 5 to 65. Food and drink provided, which is always good. We had been asked to provide a 'rocky' set and I decided to give my recently acquired 5 string Ibanez GSH205 an outing. I've rehearsed with it a few times and it was my back up at the Hulla festival back in June, but this was the first time it took centre stage. I don't play 5 strings regularly enough to be able to swap between 4 and 5 easily but I'd been practicing with it and was reasonably comfortable in using it. It was an 8pm kick off and we had a great sound thanks to our regular sound engineer and, of course, it being a familiar venue. I had a few senior/jazz moments, mainly as a result of the extra string throwing me and I felt the band performance as a whole wasn't as good as it has been recently. There seemed to be a lack of energy in some of the faster songs, with our encore of Dakota being particularly bland. But we went down well with the audience, with our younger fans particularly enjoying Taylor Swift's Love Story - they all gathered around our singer and stared adoringly at him as he sang it. 😀 My kit was the aforementioned Ibanez GSH205 into the pedal board - a Sine HPF, MS60b (for noise gate and tuner only), NUX Sculpture compressor, EHX Bass Clone, NUX Voodoo Vibe and into the desk via my Ampeg SCRDI. This board hasn't changed for a couple of months now (unusual for me) and I find it works equally well into an amp and speakers (last week) or DI (this week). I was monitoring from the desk via a Behringer P16m and wireless IEMs. This gives me my own mix and some protection from excessive noise levels. Footwear was the same as last week - unbranded black boots. Kit: Love Story:

Our twice yearly date at the Ringwood Meeting House. They’ve been hugely supportive of the Otis Jay Blues Band for the last three years and we have rewarded them with four different line-ups in the past four visits! Cecilia our new singer went down a storm with 53 paying customers - a reasonable haul and very appreciative. Rig: Sandberg VM4, GK MB200, BF One10, Clarks leather shoes.

Just back and having the usual tea and toast from our first ever gig at the famous wedgewood rooms in Pompey with the Phil Collins tribute. Geoff, the guy who is the main man there is such a gent! Super nice guy who has a fantastic team of people working for him. The sound lads were very friendly and professional and done a fab job for us. On stage sound was perfect and everyone said how good it was out front aswell. (11 piece outfit so not the easiest to sort out!) Got about 275 in there tonight which wasn’t bad for a first pop. Very appreciative audience and they said we are welcome to another gig there nxt year 😊. Used my GB spitfire 5 again, through my usual puma 900/ LFsys Monza rig, PA support obviously. All together a really fun experience.x

We stuck with USB-A for a reason... there are a variety of USB-A to 9V, 12V, 15V and 18V converter cords available for use with pedals, but also the USB-A to USB-C and USB-A to lightning cables are readily available and very inexpensive so you get the best of both worlds. https://lovemyswitches.com/usb-to-9vdc-power-cable/?srsltid=AfmBOopZVrbjs29mAccByIl4AMwGF66xRajKnUtln5fc-rE7Rd5RIkAR Yes, I write all the basic outline and structure of the manuals, and then I have a couple of our outside test players who help with the editing process. One is a very experienced aerospace mechanical engineer who writes operations manuals for NATO compliant equipment (the big stuff) and the other has outstanding communication skills combined with really good intuition. Both are also excellent bass players (I'm a somewhat-mediocre keyboard player), so the goal is a technically complete manual written and edited from the perspective of bass players, to be accurate, clear, concise, useful and free from the vomitous marketing babble that makes manuals virtually unreadable. Thank you for appreciating our efforts. ❤️ We figure that if you are going to pay for a premium product, you also deserve a premium manual.

I can't find the car thread but the immortal line that sticks with me is "Mate, your f***ing cab has broken my car.....". We got the 1516 in the back, were walking around to the front seats to get in when we heard an ominous crack from the suspension. The rest, as they say, is history 👍