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I love ‘em for this.

Looks like they're properly announcing headless Dingwalls at Guitar Summit this year. Doesn't appear to be any other details yet. The little wings for the headstock so it fits on a hangar seem odd, but it's nice they've thought about it.

Body finished with Cosmoslac rattle cans, never used it before so was a bit of an experiment - so far so good

Another preamp from Master Effects in good ol Canada - 4 business days for delivery from shipping and no custom charges or fees at all! This is based on the GK RB800 and I think it’s a keeper, although I have said this many times before 😁 Also a NBD for me too! BBP35 fitted with Nordstrands came this morning 🔥 so a gratuitous shot of that is needed too I think! I’m about to go down to the shed and have a right old afternoon of it! Haha

Triplets.

I've depped once at Gloworm Festival for Johnny & the Raindrops. I enjoyed it and as it happened, the drummer was also depping and we gelled really well. I did loads of prep and had everything on my tablet clamped to a mic stand JIC They do original songs for kids and Johnny gets loads of kids up on stage playing carboard guitars, which is brilliant. At the gig I did, as the kids cam off stage I was high-fiving them and one of the little girls gave me a hug! My best moment on stage ever!

In my first band, late 80s, I played guitar. We had a bassist and he was very good but he was an odd character. It's very difficult to describe but he was unpredictable in behaviour. Never aggressive or loud but his actions were often annoying. An example was during a studio session (we had a week in the local college studio as the keyboard player was a student there). We were recording an albums worth of material. He turned up on day one, recorded his bass parts and left while we stayed to record the rest of the songs. No interest, enthusiasm or even a check in to see if we needed him again. When we played him the final mix he wasn't happy with it and wanted to re-record all his bass parts. He would make a lot of suggestions on arrangements and what other band members should play during rehearsals - try this chord, use this sound etc. While no single comment or action was the trigger and some of his suggestions were good, the constant need to change things and inability to move on with arrangements started to become very frustrating for all of us. At our first ever gig we had brought his gear to the venue from the rehearsal room as he didn't drive, and he was due to meet us there. At the sound check he was nowhere to be found (this was before mobile phones) and as kick off neared, the guy doing our sound offered to stand in for him. With about 10 minutes to go our bassist turned up completely oblivious to the stress around him and asked when we were sound checking. Needless to say, he didn't get one and this made him quite upset. It turned out he'd called in to the shop where he worked on the way to the gig and had ended up doing an hour's (unpaid) work there. We played the gig and for a first time it wasn't bad - but there was one grumpy bassist who thought it was the worst as he couldn't hear himself etc. Not long after we were offered a short opening slot at a local beach festival - about 20 minutes - and we were discussing how to cut the set down to fit. We decided to trim our songs by taking out the long intros (we were very much influenced by early Hawkwind) and trying to get the best songs in. But as one of the intros had been written by the bassist, he insisted that it remain despite our explanations. There followed an argument that built like a well crafted song into a climax that involved a bar stool being thrown across the tiny rehearsal room by the keyboard player at the bassist. How it missed the kit I don't know, but the bassist being in the way probably helped. It was only the difficulty of getting out of the synth den he had made for himself that prevented the keyboard player from physically attacking the bassist, who made a quick exit. The drummer and I calmed the keyboardist down and the rehearsal came to an end. As he didn't drive, I gave the bassist a lift home but it was an awkward and silent drive and the following day we let him know that his services were no longer required. The band limped on with several temporary bassists (I hadn't yet seen the light or heard the call) but never really recovered. Several years later I bumped into the same bassist and for some reason (probably desperation) recruited him into a covers band (in which I played rhythm guitar) for a few gigs as we were booked but without a bassist. At the last of these we were offered extra money to play an extra set and, true to form, the bassist refused (I'm still not sure why). I stepped in and played the bass for the extra set while he sat in the changing room for 45 minutes. He didn't get any of the extra fee and, once again, I was driving him home as he still didn't drive. It was a long journey made in complete silence.

Our guitarist really has a gift for banter. Usually he's talking utter rubbish but you just go with it because the audience finds it hilarious. Don't be precious as you're there to entertain, but then try to keep the banter pretty harmless too and you won't upset anyone.

It's an art form in itself if it can be tailored to the crowd and event. The worse on stage patter though is in-band jokes that noone else gets.

The guitarist/singer in a former band got very sweary in his intersong patter. Not sure whether the drummer was intending to leave anyway, but he did, and the band broke up - story in the acrimonious band break-ups thread. In another former band, the singer (only a teenager) was very poor at stage patter so we wrote scripts for her. She didn't exactly deliver them fluently, but it was something. I saw another band of teenagers who also had a script. At one point, the singer said "Oh. Our guitarist has broken a string" at which point the guitarist put his still perfectly strung guitar on a stand and picked up his other guitar. Yet another former band had a Scottish guitarist/singer who would do intersong patter in an impenetrable mumble, from which the drummer and I had to try and work out what the next song was ("Hurble wurble wurble hoo hay, ha ha ha"), before the guitarist started and we joined in (no drummer count ins). At least the set list was mostly constant although songs occasionally got omitted.

I'm sure there are endless views on this, but all I know is I'd much rather someone said something - anything - between songs rather than the stony silence you get from some bands. If you can be witty with it, all the better, but perhaps draw the line at a full comedy routine. That said, read the room. Bill Bailey tells a tale of going to a Whitney Houston gig. She kept the audience waiting for an hour, then came onstage and gushed "I just wanna say, I love each and every one of you!" at which point a big black guy standing beside him shouted "Sing, b*tch!!". Tough crowd.

A man can have other hobbies than music right 😉 .. I assemble and paint scale toy soldiers / make terrain .. Then myself and other adults in their 30- 40s have games against each other 😉 . It's quite social we also consume beverages and converse .. or not / some people take it far too seriously when they don't win , There are also big competitive tournaments .. I don't expect to win the few I enter but I have twice done so in my years of playing .. usually doubles .. as my buddy / rhythm guitarist is far better than I. It's an equally expensive hobby as music .. or drugs ... 😉

I just sent two basses off to ROBIN MANTON (Manton Customs) - one to have the fingerboard replaced for a fretless one and the other for a set-up. Absolutely excellent work; would thoroughly recommend. https://www.mantoncustoms.co.uk

The OP has at least 4 different EQ modules on their Boss GX-10 plus whatever tone controls are part of the various effects modules. That should be plenty without the need to spend extra money on something that appears to do the same job but less well.

Finally, on that note, ive just knocked my drink over my PJ's. It's off to bed in reckon. Lol

Ta-da!!

Evening folks, It was very sad to hear about the passing of Danny Thompson today, someone who was a real inspiration for my bass playing. In fact it was watching Danny playing in the Transatlantic Sessions series that got me back to the double bass after being away for a lot time, playing along with those videos taught me a great deal. A player that I much admired not so much for his virtuoso skill personally, but someone who could sit behind and accompany many different musicians across many styles, understated and looked damn cool doing it! Here are a couple of my favourites, please share your thoughts Much respect and thanks...

We had a prompt start on the 1st of meteorological Autumn. After a very tight call for August , 1 vote splitting the pack, and with what looked like me giving that vote, congrats to @Chiliwailer, now on a double, seeking the elusive hat-trick I guess, The business in hand , being the chosen image for our inspiration, was, as he explains... "Autumn is coming in with it's stunning sunsets, so given that my photo-choosing creative mojo has dropped under the horizon here's a nice pic that even has some Northern Lights, sea, stars, rocks, and a pensive dude for your muse..." So here are the entries , please have a listen and choose your favourite 3 tracks 1 @Baloney Balderdash An alternate take of an ending scene for a fictive sci-fi western movie 2 @Leonard Smalls Captain Kirk has got a date on the Enterprise Holodeck with Nurse Chapel in his favourite romantic piano bar on Aurora Prime. However, alien microbes have got into the matrix so when Kirk goes to find Christine admiring the view from the bar's private beach he finds she's actually a bloke called Derek from Redditch... 3 Lurksalot Nice sky but... 4 @Chiliwailer Coasting - a deep dreamy kind of vibe that reminds me partly of holidays abroad years back, and partly of British summers in my youth - this tune kind of captures both for me. Though there’s a tiny bit of rock thrown in towards the end too as they were just sat there, scattered on the beach…. 5 @Jean-Luc Pickguard 6 @Wolfram In keeping with trying something different for every entry, I'm going spiritual and ethereal this time, and I present my first choir composition and arrangement, Aurora Caelestis. 7 @upside downer Another poor, shipwrecked sap falls for the sound of the sirens. Though he escaped with his life, he now spends his days tormented as he watches and waits for a ship that never arrives. superb stuff , I love that these pictures bring these tracks together in this little challenge , most excellent. Anyway , pick your favourite 3 and place your X where it suits voting will end midnight on 30th September good luck

Lol. Yes, it's happened again, a story told on BC as old as time itself. Its 23.27, im a few drinks down and doom searched stuff till I found this.... https://www.musicstore.com/en_GB/GBP/Fame-Custom-JB-4-Black-Paisley/art-BAS0012971-000 I'd say a questionable challenge to the real thing, but I dont have over £4k for the real version. Always fancied the paisley tho. The website description is an enthralling enticement to feel polish hand built quality, im genuinely looking forward to it, I know nothing of them but have taken a punt and am hoping for something produced with a little love. Not too much, that would be weird.

I do the majority of the onstage banter in my duo. I have always had a quick wit and as our music is definitely darker in tone, it lifts the mood. I worked with a singer a few years ago who was naturally effortless at this onstage (not so good without a mic, ironically) and I learned a lot from working with him. The best line from our last show was as we finished the set, our backing track started up again. I stopped it and said down the mic, “So sorry, you’d not asked for an encore!” I think it is a difficult balance between not being too full of yourself, not putting your act down, not going on too much but keeping people entertained. I think I usually get it about right but don’t sweat it too much if I don’t.

What a legend, RIP

I seem to have inherited the duties yet again for my most recent band (and for the previous band I set up and ran for 15 years). This was because none of the front persons felt comfortable doing it (ones a teacher so no problem speaking to large groups!) As @lowregisterhead says having some sort of interaction with the audience is part of the show however I tend to keep my waffle to a minimum because: 1) Very few people can hear what most between song chat is about. I find most people mumble into the mic as well. 2) Very few people care what most between song chat is about unless its "the buffet is open" or "last orders". 3) We are more of a party band than introverted singer songwriter that tells what has inspired them....also see 1 and 2 above 🤣 4) I try and keep any comments to be about the music / event / venue and away from politics, religion, football or any controvesy for obvious reasons. This usually reduces the chance of a dispute over things said. Our setlist is grouped into 4 or 5 songs which we play close together. A very short break between groupings is then used for changing guitars / settings etc whilst I introduce the band / thank people for coming / social media stuff / random fact about a song / thank dancers & staff etc. I have notes on my setlist for these sort of comments & the venue name etc. All very regular stuff which if you think about it and write yourself appropriate notes beforehand makes the job easier. The more you do it the more you can come off script and ad-lib / interact with the audience.

My neck turned up this afternoon, a whole 100 days earlier than quoted. Very happy. Thanks for the tip @rainbowreality, it's something I've been meaning to try and sort for ages.

My son and I have matching basses in that they are both butterscotch and both maple necks and also from the same era. His is the Jazz and mine is the Precision. Anyone else have family related basses or even twins!

We cannot wait for these! Already on order!

There is no 100% correct bass for everyone. This forum would probably half in size if that were not true...

You can do it perfectly well with a hand drill, just get (or make) a drilling guide so the holes go in square to the face. Use some sharpie or tape around the bit as a depth gauge so you don't go too far. As far as making necks goes, just try it! As long as you're starting off with a cheaper piece of wood and are prepared to risk it turning into scrap, what have you got to lose? You don't need a bunch of expensive jigs, just lay it out carefully and take your time. The first one might be a bit wonky or maybe even unplayable, but you'll learn a lot and the next one will be better. Remember, if you wanted the best possible bass you'd buy something, but you actually want the best bass you can make!

That's not a crossover. A crossover splits the low and high frequencies, sending the lows to the woofer, the highs to the tweeter. That's just a high pass filter, and a very poor one at that. It's what's called 1st order, meaning that it attenuates below its knee frequency at a rate of 6dB per octave, which is totally inadequate. I never use less than 3rd order high pass filters, which attenuate below the knee frequency at a rate of 18dB/octave. That makes them over ten times more effective in reducing low frequency content to the tweeter that leads to high distortion and blown tweeters.

That's sad news, I love Danny's bass on those John Martyn records. I spoke to him briefly in the bar of the Winchester Theatre Royal after a sparsely attended gig there. I think at the start of the gig he acknowledged and spoke about the lack of an audience but the performance he and his band gave was excellent, that was around '92/'93 I reckon. The only other time I saw him live was with Martyn at Salisbury City Hall, I think he did Blue Monk. There was a fair bit of banter between them, probably the main draw for the tour 😄.

This one will be put together in the next few days and then for sale on here. Some idea of the specs: Sapele hand sanded Liberon Finishing oiled body Wenge neck with custom poly finished headstock shape but back of neck just sanded, oiled and waxed, rolled fretboard edges, levelled, dressed and polished frets. Hipshot Ultralite tuners Gotoh bridge Tone Emporium TE-18 pickups Bloodstone Guitarworks solderless electronics with .47uF capacitor Handmade walnut control plate Schaller Strap lock buttons D’addario EXL165 .45 - .105 strings If this bass sounds like it might be for you, it will be selling for £600 so feel free to message me to ask more questions or reserve. i will post more photos and hopefully some sound clips when I do the advert. Builds coming soon are a wenge drop top and elm body J bass with roasted flame maple neck with rosewood fretboard A spalted English walnut drop top with sapele body which has not been built yet so could be a P, J or PJ if you want to commission that one (it’s not going to be a Flying V!) I would like to get the grain swirl in sapele in the middle of the back of the bass if I can so it runs the length of the rear. Walnut will be black grain filled and oiled to make it pop then either just waxed or satin/gloss nitro depending on customer preference if reserved. this is the walnut body that I am doing for Headless at the moment to give you an idea of what oiled and poly looks like.

Not the greatest of photos, but here are my Zon Legacy basses (one fretted, one fretless) That I used to own a while ago.

My guitarist mate in our duo is pretty good with the ‘bants’. I sometimes interject when I think it’s appropriate, especially if he’s getting inappropriate and needs digging out of a hole. As we rely a lot on requests for our gigs, there is plenty of opportunity to discuss the song selection, and also apologise for the ones that are beyond us ( including ones we’ve just attempted that weren’t that clever). Another topic that comes around quite often is my age ( being 8 years older than him) so he gets a fair bit of mileage out of that , which doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I think the golden rule is chat when it helps the gig move along, and just shut up and play the tunes when it’s obvious that’s all they want. Add alcohol into the equation and it can get harder knowing which is best of course….😆

I owned a US LB100 for a while and it was a quality product in every sense. The problem with G&L is that they are mainly seen as the Volvo of the bass world (not sure about in the guitar world). We expect rock solid and high quality engineered parts. But they are just not very cool. That is a shame because I think if some well known players played them that could change. I've always wanted to try a JB (the p bass with jazz pickups) and the SB1. Let's hope G&L gets snapped up and they get a bit of a makeover. I'm just thinking of their employees who are probably really worried about their future right now.

Danny has been a mentor and been a wonderful friend to me. Although most of our friendship was done from a distance, his wisdom, kindness and humour were just a text away, and that felt great. His music and personality touched so many people, such diverse people…and we all loved him. What he thought me about playing the double bass (and music…and life) can be written on the back of a stamp, yet would take a lifetime to elaborate upon. I’m certainly still working on it. Such was the depth of his magnificent character. We will all miss him very much, but we can all rejoice in the fact that his tone, that unique Danny tone, will be forever.

I guess the G&L basses, despite being part of Leo's legacy, are not as distinctive as a P, J or MM. Each of those, you can easily identify in a mix. G&L either do the same sorts of things or something else which sounds like a more modern bass, but not one that can be characterised so easily. Maybe that leads to a sense that they aren't as 'landmark' as the previous designs, regardless of the incremental developments like the locking bridge, MFD pickups etc.

I've been in awe of Danny ever since I heard this back in the early '70s.

DT was the URB player of all time. For me at least. His was work with Pentangle and later Martyn was pure magic. What a shame, a one off.

I can practise scales on your behalf if that helps

*ahem* It's the one current G&L headstock I don't like the look of though. It's blobby, wonky, and the way the G tuner is positioned just feels like an afterthought. In the past there have been far worse offenses, like the headstocks (and everything else, really) on the Interceptor guitars and basses.

What about an easy to use preamp like this:

I'll add a vote for inserts. I see photos of vintage basses where the neck comes off for inspection of manufacturing codes. I always think that eventually a thread will get stripped. Also, I think you get a better coupling between neck and body if you use machine screws. They're easier to torque evenly.

Alembic SF-2 clone:

So, a little glimpse into how it’s going to look with a scratch plate… I was considering a clear plate, but I actually really like it with the black. Add a black bridge and black tuners with a maple neck, I think it’s going to look decidedly cool!!

No longer with me but these were two rather lovely, if rather different pairs.....