Leaderboard

I’ve been running this setup for the last couple of gigs for testing, the same basic components as my ‘main’ board, but a few slightly different flavours: Polytune Mini 3 -> Fuzzdog Mr Creosote (Phat Phuk B diy) -> Schu-Tone FLOverdrive (custom BB Bass Pre clone) -> CMC Audio 🤫 -> MXR BEF -> MXR BOD -> Schu-Tone Finn Chorus (his Replicant Jr circuit) -> Olympic MKIIIs. Powered by a Cioks DC7 on a PT Metro 16. Still dialing a few elements in, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far. Little bit more saturation than my very clean Linden EQ ‘main’ board, but it’s very controllable and dynamic, which is fun. Si

What happens when crap bands go unchecked? Worst case scenario- Coldplay, that's what happens.

As for a 32” scale, there is only one !!!

Dammit getting all nostalgic and bought a Tribute sunburst Jazz... And the video that did it for me...

Yeah the 4 string was mine - Jon did a stunning job but it took a while! I still have it and it’s still my favourite most played bass

G & L are the Saab of the guitar industry. Maverick to a certain extent, quirky, historically significant a bit...I love 'em (i own a m2000 and a SB-2). The MFD pcikups alone should have hailed as a classic design Yet, always the stealth brand, with no big name endorsees, always a bit to far off the general path of things. And we'll miss them when they are gone, or bought. Aparently the tariffs have something to overload their costs...conjecture maybe, who can tell these days. Those who knew...knew i guess, just not enough of us. I also owned a Saab..lol

So I've been pretty much a full time P bass/flats player since i started in bands. Ive had a few flirts with Jazzes and once upon a time a burns bison bass but always come back to the P. Over the years I've had a few basses I've always loved the look of a few others (i still think a Spector Euro in Gloss Black and gold hardware is one of the best looking basses) and had mixed reactions when finally getting hold of them. Now, my main 'always wanted' bass is an original Ric 4005 but finances just cant justify even the reissues but i developed a ric itch. Fast forward to last week and my daily trawl of the usual sites took me to Bass Bros where the had a few ricks in. I love fireglo but to me the newer ones have a sort of 'washed out' or 'bleached' look. Then i saw it - a 1998 Ric 4003 with just the right mojo and for what i thought was a reasonable price - i had to have it! Today, after being ordered late Friday evening she showed up in her rickenbacker hard case and she looks absolutely glorious. After years of P's ill need time to adjust and ill need to get her off to the fixers for a set up with my usual strings when they are in stock but here's a few teaser pics in the meantime.

There's actually a precise formula: Too many = how many you have now + 2 That means there's always room for one more...

I have no great insight. It appears to be in the lap of the gods, more often than not. In any event, you always play your best and treat every gig the same. A guy I know played Woodstock and treated every gig with the same mentality.

Just got this EBMM Stingray Special - Aqua sparkle.

I'll light the blue touch paper....we've all done them...grim NYE gigs at social clubs to families! Tired kids up too late, families sick of the sight of each other having spent a fortnight together. The band has agreed to 3 sets, involving dredging up seldom played songs. The attendance issue being; who will last until Auld Lang Syne, despite the cheap beer?

We were on a wedding and the singer was playing his usual, blues/soul set and not going down well at all. He kept complaining about the disinterested audience. In the interval I took him aside and pointed out they were not an audience, but wedding guests and his second set should reflect that! Talk about the bleedin obvious!! He dug out some proper songs and the second set got a much better response from the guests.

For me, it's The Who's live performance of Pinball Wizard from their IoW 1970 set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J03yCE15rg Listen to the buildup; it's only 20 seconds in. But that moment where The Ox's bass blasts in (filling in for the distorted guitar stings from the studio version) rarely fails to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. They also have an entertaining effect if you put it on for unsuspecting friends who usually looked shocked and exclaim, "holy s**t, is that the bass?!"

Thanks Chris . It's reassuring to know that there are thoughtful Bass chatter's out there , willing to help out when needed !😉

Badly attended gigs are just part of life. No point in worrying about it. There could be a thousand reasons why few turn up, ranging from something good on telly to a major international incident. Just play the best you can for those who are there and move on. I've had people ask for our card at poorly attended gigs, leading to another booking, so it's not all doom and gloom. The thing to bear in mind at functions is that the band is not the main attraction. People have come to see the couple get married, to celebrate Fred's 50th, etc, etc. The band is just another part of the picture, along with the catering, flowers, photgrapher and so on. Tomorrow's another day.

I think most people who have been gigging for a while have played to the one man + dog at some point (one spent the evening reading a newspaper!). My personal worst was a wedding where we played to the bride, groom, maid of honour and 3 or 4 other people they managed to drag along after an hour of phoning around. We didn't ask the details but can only assume it wasn't a popular joining of families. You can't take things personally. You can only do so much. You can't always predict the situation at the time you book the gig. All you can do is make sure it's on people's horizon (create Facebook events a month beforehand, followed by a photo post a day or two in advance as a reminder). Some venues are great at plugging what's on, and are usually successful. Other venues just don't seem to have a clue and expect a crowd to materialise on the night with no notice. Then there's also random factors - weather, sports events. Oh, and one of our USPs is that we DON'T do Dakota, Brightside, Oasis, etc. We're 70s "dad rock" and proud of it 😂 And wear shorts when it's hot 😜

A mixed bag. We had our second practice at a different place. The first room we got was all good and we were pleased with it. Today, the room was quite a bit smaller and just so bass heavy. Guitars and bass. We all had to change things up. So, not the best from that perspective. Did get a new song finalised in time for our gig a week on Saturday though. I love having a multi effects. I needed a variation on a sound to really cut through on one section. Ok, load up a mid booster. Bosh! Oh, I need something ambient and weird? Wah with delay and reverb, but the expression pedal is also moving around the feedback and delay times. Bosh! The sky is the limit!

I have found there are a lot of bands out there, and a lot of them are incredibly average and will play for very little. Often live music can be a draw for pubs but equally I have seen bands clear a room, so it’s hard for a venue to keep paying out big sums when there could be no benefit at all. A half decent solo vocalist with backing tracks is going to sound better quality than a rubbish band, cost the venue less and take up less room. Ultimately it seems like less of a gamble. In genuinely don’t believe many people care about the live music experience at a pub level (which is my level) I think a lot of the time a band just happens to be somewhere they like drinking, it’s not the reason they are there.

Fancied a short scale so picked up this Mustang CV today, new pick guard turned up for one of my Teles too

I've had issues with underpowered pedals causing noise over the last few months, the most recent being the CMC Audio Protoype V2, so I bit the bullet and bought a Gen X 8 from Gigrig. It has six 500mA outputs and two 1A outputs so I figured it would solve all those issues. And I was right! Its more compact than if I added a third high current adapter while still providing all the current my board needs.

A couple of gigs at the weekend, one depping in the 8-piece soul band at Skegness, the other my regular light rock band, outdoors at a local pub. Saturday. Great venue (Three Monkeys) and good to get another dep gig with these guys under my belt. Still needed the tablet with notation/charts for about 1/3 of the songs, but going to get there to be able to do it with just the Setlist and keys. 2 free drinks which was welcome, but no changing room, using the network closet on state one at a time, though most of the band went to the toilets! The crowd was dressy and well-behaved, with a good portion up for dancing. My gear held up well (Lakland JO5 with a John East J-Tone preamp (battery failed during sound check - note to self to swap in a gig battery!), Ampeg BA210-v2, Valeton GP-5, wireless bass and IEMs. Started well but was hearing too much of myself in my IEMs so turned that down. Found out at the interval the MD had found my bass too woolly/thumpy in the sound check because the stage alone amplified my bass apparently (!), so he had pulled my DI out of the mixer (so no FOH nor bass in anyone's IEMs) and the bass in my IEMs was down to the personal mixer on my pedalboard (which gave me more of me into the IEM transmitter). Overall the gig went alright and my confidence with the basslines is growing. Have time to put some solid practice in before the next potential dep. Sunday. Outside at a pub where the band is known and goes down well. Unbelievably just before the soundcheck the two main guys informed me and the drummer that the band as it is, will be no more, as the two will be stopping! Great timing. Could have had a bit of discipline and told us after we're performing. The gig went alright, but I gave some of the basslines a bit more beans, given we were told it was the last gig. Pity about the band, but that can happen when the average age is about 65 and guys are getting tired of lugging gear around and various things they see as hassles. Life goes on. No doubt some good will come out of it. VID20250927221649.mp4

I passed up a Wal for £250 in Cash Converters back in the mid-90s. It was a Mk1 with the V-shaped neck carve and it felt horrible in my hands. Would probably be worth a fortune now though. It was pretty much entirely because of Justin Chancellor of Tool that Wal got their second wind. After Aenima came out in 1996, you never saw a cheap Wal again. And now they regularly go for five-figure sums used and have a six-year waiting list if you want a new one.

Yeah, I ran my Dave Hall through the power amp last rehearsal, needless to say, it was epic.

Simple. Just buy another bass that covers all the tones you think you'll need.

Bringing this old thread back to life, and kind of following on from what @SumOne was saying, I currently have 7 and find myself a bit overwhelmed by them all. When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing. I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

My old club band played at one social club NYE gig. We were in an upstairs room, children were only allowed downstairs. The room was half-empty. The consolation was that of the three raffle prizes, we won two (I got whisky, the guitarist got vodka). I've played at weddings - only a couple with rock bands, rather more were with the ceilidh band. For the ceilidh band, we used to use sashes[1] for same-sex dancing pairs to determine which was "man" and which was "woman", but when we did one for a wedding between a gay vicar and his partner, we decided that we could finish up overthinking things. [1] Against my advice, orange. And our dulcimer player wore a bowler hat. Fortunately we never played any Irish gigs.

So many bass makers are gone recently, Modulus, Pedulla, Vigier, Status, and now G&L. Myself, I don't see any of the newer makers as offering worthwhile alternatives to what those established brands offered. I know Wal are still going and turning out better basses than ever but last I heard it was a six year wait, so in practise you can't really buy a bass from them either.

R.I.P G&L, sad times indeed!

I recently bought a Shuker Uberhorn at the Gardiner Houlgate auction. Lovely instrument, 5 string fretless, although it's 35" scale but I can live with that. However the action is stupidly high, because the neck is bowed. A 4mm allen key is too small, so I contacted Jon to ask his advice. He said he used to use ABM truss rods with 5mm adjuster - I couldn't get a 5mm allen key in without cutting it down, so I got one off Ebay and cut it down. I could get it to the end of the truss rod but it wouldn't fit in properly. So today I took it up to Jon and he had a look at it. The adjuster nut has been somewhat mullered, but a different sized allen key did move it, but it also wasn't in the right position and Jon thought that tightening the truss rod any further was likely to break it. So he's going to dismantle it and replace the truss rod with a 4mm one (as God intended), and while he's there make it 34" scale. I'm also going to have a choice of material for the replacement fingerboard, and ebony is very tempting rather than the composite fingerboard currently on it.

Just love this video. Tony Levin's bass part for 'Solsbury Hill' from a live video on YouTube (attached on the webpage). https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/solsbury-hill-peter-gabriel/

Watched 2 minutes of that... Jeez what is so difficult about carrying a TRS>XLR cable with you when you have a Tonex, Stomp et al?

I had a 4003s/5 for a while; the styling amused me, but it didn't feel like a Ric to me and I never quite gelled with it; I sold it back to the person I bought it from after a year(@6feet7). I played @Happy Jack's and his was the same. As for HW, he has a good reputation for producing replicas to order, including some of those instruments RIC never made. I have a faker from another UK-based maker (DC) who has stepped back a bit; it was originally made as an 8-string, but the neck couldn't cope and it was re-purposed as a 4. That sort of hints at one of the pitfalls: a Ric neck can be lovely and slim, but can't handle high-tension/heavy gauge strings and adding an extra one adds 25% more tension which can have structural implications. I'd expect HW to be well across those implications. Also, for info, Retrovibe do 5-string faker pickups. Also (#2), some real RIcs (4004 Laredo/Cheyenne and the 4003S/5) had Schaller 3D bridges, so there'd be no harm in using one of those. Pics of my 4-nee-8 string faker.

A Precision will tend to be louder than a Ric, but the Ric is more subtle and you have to work a bit to get the character. You might need to up the Gain a bit for the Ric. When in mono mode, winding back one of the Vols a smidge can make it louder. To get the absolute best you can use the Rick-O-Sound (stereo) output to run it to two amps and then set the controls to suit. A Precision does what it does very well; if you're stuck playing roots & fifths below the bottom 5 frets then you're as well sticking with the Precision. The Ric realisation comes when you do more adventurous stuff and notice how the sound gets thicker as you go up the neck and more growly as you play lower down. They really are a very expressive instrument. Perhaps it's better to think of it as starting afresh rather than a variant of a Precision.

I've caved. I'm in a band where certain songs can be done in up to 3 different keys, a few semis apart, to suit the vocal register of whichever of our singers is taking lead on a particular night, so this could potentially be a game changer and has rightly pushed itself to the front of the queue, ahead of a couple of more exciting/fun pedals on my wish-list - but which would have been more icing and less cake. Should be arriving next week, fingers crossed.

If you go with the girl singer given you have a sax player you simply have to do Will You by Hazel O’Connor.

I had a little bit of fun with my aux pedal from @pedalnetics and some craft paint. I don't foresee any changes to this simplified pedal board for a very long time. (However I have said similarly before!)

Gregor in the Bass the World video said that the Satellite bass would look really good with a big humbucker in place of the precision pickup set. I guess he thought more in keeping with the 60s bass vibe. Anyway, that has been eating away at the back of my mind and I happened to have a DiMarzio DP145 Will Power in my last remaining long scale bass (a three pickup bitsa I put together). Long story short, I decided to try Gregor’s idea. It meant making a new scratchplate to accommodate the different pickup up shape, which was a challenge but it’s done now. Result in the pictures below. I think it looks the business and it sounds immense without being too muddy. I wired it up with a DPDT switch to give a coil tap option. Tapped it sounds a bit like a Jazz front pickup but not quite as woody. I’m pleased with the result. I may leave it this way.

If it doesn’t work out I can collect Thursday Mike 🙂

Amp turned up today, Factory packaging superb , should be bomb proof in transit ! All now unpacked ,manual studied, and ready to be used tomorrow night ! Exciting, it is .

Move to a different part of the country

Perhaps more of a cautionary tale in buying old school Trace Elliot equipment is that what you may find is that thirty plus year old gear will actually need some TLC and repairs to get them back to a solid gigging standard. My last find was a thirty four year old TE AH250 GP12 SMX head that was sold for parts or not working on a well known auction site. It arrived in very good cosmetic condition but needed a whole lot of work to bring it back to a usable gigging standard. The cooling fan circuit was shot, the mosfet output transistors were distorting badly, and the pre-amp needed a new tube. The power supply caps on the output board and the pre-amp were shot as well. Not all vintage Trace Elliot stuff is going to be a bargain once repair costs are factored in, but some of it is well worth spending some time and money on because at the end of the day you might well have an amp or cab that out performs anything that's currently available in the here and now for a fraction of the cost. Well thats IMHO.