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Last gig this year! 🙁 Booked back in May for a mate's 50th so a gig with a guaranteed crowd, two sets of mostly originals. Our few covers are from Tom Petty, Whitesnake, AC/DC (of course 😄), JJ Cale, Rory McLeod and T Rex. Chris, our guitarist, found the backdrop from the band's pre @super al era so I pinned it up on the pub window curtain rail 👍🏻 Could probably do with an iron. Great crowd, mostly people I've known for 20-30 years so there was definitely a good vibe. Great comments after, love the word to describe our sound from one mate - seventiesness 😂 (he was drunk). Airwalk trainers on my feet, they are wearing thin on the sole so may have to retire them and just go with the various colours of converse I have in the future. Have been using the ibanez 1205 lately but as this was an end of term gig I went with my PPI bass, the Lakland 55-02 (the swiss army knife of basses 😄). It's a shame there's no more gigs in the diary but we haven't recorded any new songs in almost a year so we'll use this time productively...I hope 🙂

Thanks everyone for the kind words. That said, I'll come here on a daily basis as there is no PianoChat.co.uk ... yet, and I really like this community too.

Played in Sevenoaks on Friday. My new amp had developed a fault and its replacement didn’t arrive on time. As such for the first time ever I had to go straight to the PA and use in ears. The gig went very well, but I found it a strange experience not having an amp behind me. Ours is quite a basic PA and so we could only put a bit of bass through it, but it all seemed to work OK and the crowd all seemed to enjoy it.

I took the decision after the weekend... So after playing mainly fretless bass and double bass during 40+ years, I've come to the decision to quit. Why? Because my bass duet is officially over and at 60 years old, I really don't want to join a band or other musicians again and start toying with people ego... From now on, I'll focus on piano only, which seems to be my instrument and only took me 40+ years to figure that. 🤦🏻 At least, I can play anything on my own without having to manage some badly placed susceptibility. I'll be selling some gear too, watch the ads. Farewell bass world. 👋🏼

And finally, my entry for "bass face of the bash" is...

I have made it home in one piece, and all the basses safely stowed in the house. Thank you to all involved in organising the bash, thank you for the delicious lunch, and thank you to everyone who turned up with loads of amazing basses. Great to chat to you all, sorry to anyone I missed. I had a great time! I have photos, will post them up after a well earned cup of tea!

The HB and its new owner - or rather the brother of the its new owner 🙂

Nice little gig at a wmc just outside Barnsley last night. Nice audience but numbers were a bit down, this was our first visit so hopefully it’ll be higher on a return next year based on the favourable comments. That’s it for 4 weeks as we always take a break at this time of year to recharge and get ready for the pre silly season stuff. Normal gear set up, Markbass with the EBMM shorty Ray which I’m now managing to tame sound wise with a few eq adjustments. Footwear - silver converse.

After our gig on Friday we were inundated with media forwarded on to us: 66 photos and 14 videos. The same people were there at our gig on Sunday and... nothing! (So far). So you'll have to put up with the single photo I took, this time from behind the drum kit for a change... Our second visit to the Donkey (now the Donkey Venue) since the change of management. The old regulars are still boycotting the place, but we still managed to fill it. It doesn't quite have the same vibe though - it's lost the "specialness" we used to feel. It was hot again, and great fun though. However I seemed to use up my annual allocation of cockups in the first spot, starting off in the wrong key on the very first note and continuing downhill from there. Ah well, I got them all out of the way in the first 6 songs so can look forward to playing the rest of the year flawlessly 😂 Usual kit: Stingish bass, GT-6B, Big Muff again (but didn't actually engage it!) into Rumble. Shiny black DMs. Compliments this time included my lights: a pair of Thomann Stairville CLB4 RGBW(?) 4-way bars with a couple of mini kintas bolted on top. Now, it's a simple formula: band plays, beer gets sold, band gets paid. I'm not quite sure if the new management have quite got the hang of it yet though. We could have done without hanging around after we finished loading, for 20 minutes waiting for them to stuff some notes into an envelope. 🙄

Not refering to the Jean Michelle Jarre album! At the bass bash I brought some magnetic field paper to see what was under the pickups of various devices. Most are pretty obvious what you are going to see, but here are some notable ones. I found it interesting anyway As a reference, this is a standard bart soapbar, twin coil humbucker, looks like you would expect This is a high gain rickenbacker 4004 pickup, obviously originally designed to go over 4 strings, but covers 5 nicely A dingwall twin pickup - goes with the line of the pickups, with the high notes further out Here is a normal single coil and what I assume is a GK3B (although obviously could be a GK2-b This is a mudbucker on a homemade Gibson Les Paul bass clone - huge area covered and probably explains the name! This is a sandberg pickup in a soapbar case - looks similar to the dingwall pickups mostly - this pickup was lined horizontally, so the pattern is just how it is in the case A fender (actually squier) metal covered split bass pickup - I looked at two of these, and the pattern is the same, the D string has most of the magnets! On the same table - two single coils and a P pickup - no surprises but very well balanced Finally a G&L MDF pickup in a L2000 - as you can see the magnetic field is so high its bending reality around it. And maybe even gravity. Interestingly I wanted to put the Rickenbacker 4003 pickup here, but pressing hard against the pickup I can just make out the dots on the pole pieces, but it is so weak it is very hard to see.

And here's a few more pic's - at last!! In order of appearance: GrahamT; Charliebass; Basstone getting to grips with chyc's (Christopher) UB; Rosie and her gorgeous bunny bass; Neepheid playing the amazing Lego bass built by Rosie's partner Andrea; various; one of Jabba's builds; group pic. More to follow!

And the winner is............

Don't name and shame until you've put your points across to the builder and got a response - don't let the Basschat horde persuade you otherwise. At the very least they should be given a fair and unbiased chance to right their wrongs. I'd be pushing for full repair/refinish etc, FOC including shipping. Failing that, a hefty partial refund to cover the cost of someone else doing the work (maybe get some quotes if you can). Last resort for me would be a full refund (I assume you want to keep it and they certainly don't want it back).

Wow. What a day. So many incredibly nice people. Tried lots of 'first time basses'. Cracked up with the absurdity of that bass synth that turned me into Eddie Van Halen 🤣 Brilliantly organised, wonderful nosh. And then I won the bass... I think I was in shock for half an hour! On my way back, I stopped to call my guitarist brother and he was 30 minutes before a gig at the Earl Haig. Only 15 minutes away, so I decided to watch the gig and give him the bass. He was absolutely made up and says it's stunning and "It’s the bass I would have chosen!! Colour and spec". He promises a photo soon... Thank you everyone, what a brilliant day. Three requests for next year: 1 a compressor workshop to explain how to set them up properly for different purposes. 2 more vegan lardy cake. 3 can I win a left hander for my other brother? 😁😁😁

This piqued my interest, being as Yolanda is one of my favourite players. Interesting colour choice, too. Scale: 34″ Body: European Ash Neck: Maple and Mahogany Fingerboard: Rosewood Frets: 24 Inlays: Oval, Glow-in-the-Dark Side Dots Pickups: Delano VT Spilt Coil and Single Coil Electronics: Sandberg 3-band Active/Passive EQ Bridge: Sandberg Tuners: Sandberg Finish: Brown Burst Matte Other: Made in Germany

Here's a few more contenders.

For me, the bass of the day was @Rosie C's lovely doghouse.

Sorry to see you go, Hell, as I’ve just got to know you from your helpful comments and recommendations in a DB thread. I had a c.40-year career as a lute and historical guitar player, but due to illness I gave up a couple of years ago. The overwhelming feeling I had was one of relief! Finally, no more demands, no more stress! It was the best thing for me then. Now I’m turning to bass playing - something I’d always done on the side - and not in any professional sense, just for relaxation and exploration. May you be as happy in your new adventures as I am in mine.

Bit of vid here from Saturday in Chester featuring the only song written entirely by MeMyselfAndI! I've reduced video quality a bit to save on size...

An interesting contribution to a Facebook thread (not from me, I should add) that has relevance ot us here. I’d just like to chip in my views on all of this, as I hold some pretty strong opinions on the state of things right now. I’m both a hospitality consultant and a musician that plays across the UK, so I can see the issues on both sides. I feel this gives me a fairly balanced take on the problems, though I do think the blame rests mostly with venue operators. 1st issue: Many venues book the band but then expect the band to do everything. The ones that offer ticket split type shows are the worst for not promoting anything. They already have their captive audience, but it has to be a team effort when it comes to marketing. 2nd issue: You have to spend money on promotions. Gone are the days where a crappy poster and a couple of Facebook posts were enough. The time has to go into it. We’ve played around 30-40 gigs this year and most of them have sold out. The common denominator is that both the venue and ourselves have spent money on sponsored posts and time on content. That’s the world we live in now. A crappy Facebook event isn’t bringing anyone that wasn’t already going to come. This should be agreed and decided at the point of booking - it pays dividends on the night. 3rd issue: If it’s a fixed fee, the venue and band should decide what’s being spent on marketing, and that should be factored into any payments or costs. For covers and tribute bands, the best policy is usually for the venue or promoter to head up marketing. It makes the biggest difference as they have the captive audience in their area. 4th issue: Venues need to understand that bands aren’t cheap and stop mugging people off. It’s often a 10-12 hour day including travel. £300 between six people should not happen. Bands also need to stop selling themselves short for £5 an hour. If a venue can’t afford to pay a band properly, they need to rethink their goals - book solo acts, duos, or DJs instead who are better quality. If you’re getting £300 bands, no wonder nobody’s coming. It’s because they’re probably shit and you’ve built a rep for having mediocre bands 5th issue: We can’t change the world, so we have to live with it as it is. Stop trying to run pubs like it’s 1970. It’s a digital world now. If you can’t get on board with socials as a pub manager, employ a company to do it all - otherwise you will inevitably fail. 6th issue: I wouldn’t worry too much about pubs having gigs listed on their website. Most pub websites get very few views aside from people checking opening times and menus. It’s handy as a ticket outlet with direct links from socials, but that’s about it. Socials are the absolute decider in whether venues fill or not. Lastly, for bands: Work on actually creating a brand and image for yourselves. Don’t just be another dad rock band or claim to be the number one tribute. Put some effort into creating something memorable that stands out and stop accepting shitty gigs. Be more selective about who you work with and where you play - it all adds to your image. The first thing I look at before booking anyone is where else they’ve played. If it’s a bunch of skanky, run down pubs that are on their last legs, I’m probably going to look elsewhere. In short, both sides have got lazy or are too stubborn to move with the times. Both must. Formula for a dead night: Shit band + no promotion. Cost to average size venue: the band and Running at 50% capacity. Let’s say a venue can take £6k on the bar on a busy night - you lose £300 on a cheap band and miss out on £3k of sales. Gross for the night: £2.7k (without other factors or overcomplicating it). Formula to sell the place out: Fairly decent band (£800) + £200 on marketing. Venue at 100% capacity. Gross for the night: £5k. Even more if it’s ticketed. Plus a growing rep for having the best bands around on. Why venues don’t understand these simple maths is beyond me. There’s no excuse. If a venue says “Even if I promote it, it doesn’t work”, then either you’re promoting it wrong, or your venue is already past the point of no return and you probably need to start thinking of a plan B.

Just to add my thanks to @scrumpymike Mrs Scrumpymike and the Scrumpettes for creating such a wonderful opportunity to meet with other kind like minded bassists. Atmosphere, food and fellowship second to none. T'was an absolute joy. My humble aray of basses and home brew combos . Thanks to all for a wonderful day.

He covered all the basses

The morning after the drive after the bass chat the day before... What a great day, so many people, so many great basses and sounds. Can't thank the organising team enough, fabulous food and on-demand tea and coffee. Lovely people to talk to as well. If I missed saying "thank you" to anybody yesterday who did all the organising, my apologies and "thank you". @scrumpymike and Mrs Scrumpy were brilliant. I wasn’t 100% certain on who all the various scrumpettes were but thanks to all them. Thanks to @Phil Starr who conclusively proved I cannot tell the difference between six different speakers. My appointment with the hearing aid specialist is on Friday. Thanks to @stevie on allowing me to plug a six string into one of his very, very nice cabinets. We'll talk later I have no doubt., Lovely to meet @Rosie C, I would have loved to have tried your double bass, perhaps next time when I bring a gnome along. @Chrs seemed to be the only person who has the slightest interest in my Strat and for that alone, thanks. I have no idea what @Woodinblack was doing with what appeared to be an etch o sketch screen but it looked interesting. Also the only person to show any interest in my ToneX and Mod Dwarf. @Stub Mandrel for having the good grace to at least look slightly embarrassed at winning a short scale purple metallic guitar. Great to talk to you. @Chienmortbb Really nice to meet you and happy I could help with a guitar stand. Did you donate a cable to the raffle? @neepheid won it and we thought it might be on one of yours. @Richard R Nice t-shirt to match the avatar. Some interesting and great chats during the day. Feel free to chat if you are looking at getting a 3d printer, always happy to help. @Mottlefeeder You sensibly set up your stand adjacent to the tea and coffee, diametrically opposed to myself in the hall and so never really talked about your briefcase amp. One day, he says yet again. @Nos and I talked a lot and I still have no idea what your name is. Apologies for being not asking. @MichaelDean and @Rosie C for saying nice things about my 3d printed bass. The cheques are in the post. I never managed to talk to everybody, but thank you all for making it such a great day. Rob

Hey Tony, I hope that's a decision that works for you, and that's it's less a farewell and more an au-revoir. Either way, please keep sharing your knowledge and experience here, BC wouldn't be the same without you mate 🙏

A busy week so this is a bit late. Last Tuesday Simply Blu (not my idea!) played to packed house of over 120 with extra chairs crammed into the corners and we had a great night. We normally play summer bluegrass festivals that are mostly open air and this was the first time we have played in a hall. Some debate amongst the organizers if this was the biggest crowd they have had since starting monthly concerts in 2017 so we were very happy with the turnout that included some friends and family and a whole bunch of bluegrass fans and some who were just regular attendees. We were up for it and from the opening notes of Freeborn Man until the last chord of our encore we put on a good show. We played a set of about 70 minutes and took a short break before another good hour of energetic bluegrass and the crowd loved it. The band members are scattered over a large area so our only rehearsal was on the Sunday before the gig, first time together since early August but it came together fast. These guys are fantastic musicians and I am lucky to be playing with them, I joined the band almost 4 years ago when the leader saw me playing with a jazz band and asked if I had ever played bluegrass. The answer was "no but I'll give it a go" and it has turned out to be great fun and a good learning experience. Given the setting we decided to abandon the usual laid back festival approach and went with energy and entertainment in mind and it worked. Lots of amazing solos throughout the show but the only bass solo was in I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome where I tossed is nice gliss on the G string and apparently got the most applause of the night for a solo. I'm not a great bass player but sometimes a schticky lick will fool most of the people! A memorable night.😄 Not the best photo but it's all I have now...

And the next lot!

Simplified even further. Big clean tone with a bit of modulation. Happy days. Running into an RNDI which sits off board. Trace Elliot DI acting as backup.

I did this. Sold everything. Didn't pick up an instrument for 4 years. Eventually I got the itch again though - with no band or desire to be in one at the time - I just wanted to make noise again. It was the best thing I ever did, as I came back with a renewed interest and some real excitement for it. For me quitting ended up just being a break, but whatever it ends up being for you, as long as it gives you the mental headspace to feel good about it, that's all that matters!

Is it because you saw my fretless playing and thought 'can't compete with that' 🤣 Glad you're sticking around. My bands have come and gone but I derive just as much pleasure from playing along with stuff and noodling at home as I do with the faff and organisational nightmare of being in a band.

So don't then.

That is the kind of "giving up" I like to see, i.e not really giving up at all.😄 Never make the mistake of thinking that if you're not out there gigging ect that it's not worth continuing. A friend of mine is a very successful artist and he always emphasises the importance of pottering about at home for any creative person. That is often where great ideas are born, and who knows what those ideas might come to?

Great gig last night. A long long day and all for charity. 7 tribute artists across three back line bands. The event was sold out a couple of hours before doors. Line up was Bon Jovi (Jon Bovi), Alanis Morissette, Elton John, ABBA, Elvis, David Bowie (ChangesTwoBowie) & Queen (Queenage) - plus encores from 4 of them. I played Bowie and Queen plus the encore set. It's nice to get paid, but to have an audience go this nuts for the songs they love, I'd do it again tomorrow. A truly remarkable ensemble who I'm honoured to have as friends. Not sure what the final total is yet, but I'm expecting it to be lots of thousands.

that's just his face, not a specific bass face!

D'addario

That’s like saying no one should have a graphic or parametric pedal, or indeed an active EQ bass, they should buy the right amp for that bass/basses. I don’t need, or want, a different amp, I like what mine does and if I want to enhance it to my tastes, then that’s my choice, plus I’ve had it longer than all my current basses and I wasn’t going to buy a new amp with every new bass I’ve acquired over the years. YMMV of course and you’re free to buy as many amps you think are right for your basses.

Forgetting the B string is there until needing to play across or treating it like a thumb-rest in my opinion might not be the best approach to incorporating it into your playing. I suggest using it immediately and often. My mental anchor was the 5th fret of the B string being the same as open E string-that way the 5 notes I played below that was what separated it tonally from a 4-string. @NickA I have never heard the B string on a Stingray being described as weak before. All the ones I owned in the past would disagree with that and don't get me started on my two Warwicks and my Marusczcyk fivers,all 34" scale. I don't personally buy into the 35" for a better B based on my personal experience but I'm digressing now🙂

Auditioning a singer turns out to be harder than you think... We've still not done it. Undeterred we will continue with the guitarists friend providing vocals for now while we get the songs tight. We had a vote on the rest of the songs to learn, each band member given a list of 80 songs and a scale of 1-5 to score the songs. 1 = I'd rather quit than play this; 5 = we absolutely MUST do this. There was some interesting patterns in the data, but it has given us a solid top 10 to work through next. Practice tonight. Can't wait

What a completely brilliant day that was. Absolutely the bestest SWBB yet. As always, huge colossal thanks to @scrumpymike, Mrs Scrumpy and the Scrumpettes (oh god, the crumble ❤️) and of course Graham at the door. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am seriously considering a cab full of 8" speakers after the astonishing results of the shootout. Thanks Phil, it was intriguing.

Here we see @Sean demoing (1) the new pickups in his Precision, and (2) what an all-valve 22.5W amp sounds like when driven to the max!

This reminds me of a local double bass player whose licence was revoked this year due to dementia. A friend bought him a Yamaha silent bass so he can more easily get a lift and still do gigs.

Definitely the busiest bash I've been to! Always nice to meet other players, many of them coming from very different places in terms of the music they pay and/or the kit they favour. Of particular note - @Wolverinebass and his amazing John Entwistle-style bass; @MichaelDean and the passive tone mod on his Dingwall NG2 - why didn't I think of that! Can I also add my thanks to @scrumpymike and all those who assisted in making the day such a great experience.

Good luck with your next chapter. I'll stop when the phone stops ringing, they take away my driving licence or I peg out. . . . whichever comes first!!

When using a brad point bit (which you should for drilling out dot markers), run it backwards for a few turns to cut through the lacquer, this should minimise chipping.

@neepheid and I have just arrived back at Chez Clapham. 278 miles, one stop. Four hours and 30 mins. Thanks to all. Great day out. More thanks to follow when brain is working properly.

Oh… There are a few I always liked… Fuzzrocious - Ram The Manparts EMMA Electronics - Discumbobulator Dr Scientist - Frazz Dazzler Horrothia - Teeth (both company and pedal name!) COG Effects - all of them, I’m a massive Star Wars nerd.