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I've not been very active on here recently. We're opening a venue at Riff Factory in Stoke (adjoining my studio) so I've been putting all of my time and effort into that. Anyway, @lurksalot appeared at our gig last night and prompted me to check back in Yesterday was an early afternoon gig. Doors at 2, support from 2:30-3:15, us on at 3:30-5. All very civilised. Not particularly well attended (we've filled the same place before), but we still sold loads of merch and had a great time. Last weekend was funnier. We went to Bristol to play to about 15 people in a pub that stank of damp and mould. The stage was sagging with holes patched up. I didn't really fit on the drum riser. I had to ditch two cymbals and pull everything uncomfortably close to me. We stayed at a Premier Inn, one without a restaurant attached. Our bassist was extremely grumpy about the lack of breakfast. We walked to the pub over the road in the morning, but they didn't do veggie sausages. There was a starbucks back near the hotel but the guitarist objected to starbucks as apparently they give free coffee to the IDF. We found a Sainsbury's with a cafe. On the drive there we passed another Premier Inn, this one with a restaurant attached. On arrival at Sainsbury's, it turned out their cafe was starbucks too 😂 So about face, pretty much back to where we started, where someone found a greasy spoon. The bassist was so hangry I thought he was going to cry and I was dying of laughter Up to Guilford then for a weird punk festival in an old club in the middle of a housing estate. Great atmosphere! I was told I couldn't use my own drums as is often the case on these lineups. Seems a bit much when there were no acts after us, and the house kit was held together with gaffer tape, but I just suck it up and get on with it. Our frontman/boss had been promising a curry in Guilford, but the punk festival had a BBQ and vouchers for the bands, and he insisted it'd be rude not to. My turn to be hangry this time 😂 We made up for it last night with a banging curry in Northwich

We done a gig last Satday in Hereford... I was a bit disappointed to see that we were headlining - simply because I was still dribbling from a cold, had been at work all day and had to go in for 0900 the following day as well. And we were due to go on at 2250, which meant after a hour's drive , home by 0100 and up at 0630... After we'd soundchecked I found a lovely leather sofa next to the fire in the pub's main bar, so I sat there with a Guinness 0 and read my book, which was rather nice. I was then able to recover sufficiently to watch the other bands; Hurricane Tapes - sort of Joy Division-ish with decently played Ricky bass, A Noise, who we'd played with quite a few times before, who dress in bizarre costumes (glitterball on bass player's head - he played a fine 5 string Warwick - drummer in yellow cheese-string-tube-thing, singer in multiple teletubbie/rabbit/bear/wtf outfits). They're huge fun and play sort of rave-punk bangers - recommended! And finally, MC16 who we also know - great Clash-inspired agit-punk with reggae overtones. Always excellent value. And it appeared that 10 minutes changeover between bands wasn't enough (I told him, I did!) - we finally came on at 2310. Luckily, despite not having rehearsed for a month we played well and even managed the tricky end-on-three of Knockout for possibly the first time ever! Folks jigged about, police weren't called, no punch-ups and no vomiting in my bass case, which was also rather nice. Managed a near record 42 minutes to get home for 0100, quick Woodford Reserve and kip ready for work. Kit was ACG bass into Helix (modified Aguilar tone with a touch of envelope filter and variable drive on the pedal), into BBE/Crown amps and DBX compression into Markbass 4x10. Boots were 12 hole Martin bike boots.

It wasn't last night, but Saturday and it was amazing once I got up on stage, but awful with the waiting around before hand, I was a right moody git. It was my first time on a proper stage with people there to actually see us rather then a couple of numbers at an open mic. We only have 11 songs so we were done in an hour I think, and the support band bigged us up something chronic. There is undoubtably tons of video out there from all the phones but I haven't seen any of it yet. Assuming Imgur isn't properly blocked or broken, here's the only picture I currently have. https://imgur.com/a/gP9hj9R#Wy1GuHn EDIT: Shoes were black Vans Bandana print

I was immensely lucky to have met him in New York back in 2013. I was only in my early 20s and myself and my girlfriend at the time went to Blue Note to watch Hiromi, really just to catch a glimpse of my bass playing hero. Afterwards I managed to sneak upstairs by the dressing room and got talking to Simon Phillips, who I will attest to this day as one of the nicest musicians I have ever met. After chatting for 10 mins or so, I asked whether AJ was still around. SP mentioned that he was famously shy but that he’d see what he could do. SP proceeded to put his head round the dressing room and explain that he had a really good friend from the UK over that he’d love to introduce. After ushering me in (what a cool bloke for doing that, will never forget it), I got introduced to AJ, who was sitting in this old battered armchair like some demigod. I’d had several cocktails and quite a few beers by this point, but I was dumbstruck and totally lost for words. He was immensely shy, but so generous with his time. I was a young lad so he seemed genuinely enthused by me knowing virtually everything he’d played on in the late 70s and early 80s. I was so very sad to learn of my favourite bass player’s passing today but I’m quite certain his legacy will live on for many years to come. He was to my mind the greatest bass player alive, unmatched and unrivalled - subjective I know but something I really do, did believe.

Rumour has it that only by reaching the final rank on Basschat can a bassist reach their true potential. It is said that until they reached rank 14, Victor Wooten couldn’t slap and Bootsy had no idea what funk was. It is said that until they reached the rank of Grand Master on Basschat, Justin Chancellor couldn’t play in 7/4 and Flea was merely a Bell Pepper. Since April 22, 2009, I have dreamt of this moment. Finally, it is my time to ascend to the ranks of bass greatness. I’ll see you on the other side… It is time to play the bass and stop spending so much time on an internet forum

One of the greatest, we ventured down to London to see him performing with Hiromi in 2015 and it really didn't disappoint!! What a legend!

The absolute best of the best. So much great music over an incredible career. I got to see him with Petrucciani and Gadd. A memorable experience. Such a talent. He will be sorely missed.

Very definitely a parson's egg of an evening. Jack's Entertainment Centre in Bedworth - we've played there once before, in the front room. This time we were in the back room, using the house PA. We only used it for vocals and the sound man also set up an ambient mic for the drumkit. Nice big stage, pretty good sound, and a good audience. Managed to get quite a few of them up for Time Warp which is by no means a given. Afterwards, one middle-aged man came up to three of us individually to tell us that when we played Dakota (opening number), his dad who had dementia told him he recognised it - it was one of his favourite songs and the pair of them had a great night. Always good to get some positive feedback. Now the not so good bit. The car park also services some flats, and it turned out I'd parked in a bit for residents (I didn't realise). Some complete bastard parked blocking me (and two other cars belonging to residents) in. Mrs Zero and I had to get an Uber home and come back the next day, when the complete bastard had moved, to retrieve my car. No, I didn't key his car. That would have been too obvious. After all, we'll be going back there. As usual, Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212 and Caravelle memory foam trainers, with socks.

I’d only ever leave a band because it wasn’t working, never for a better option. Loyalty is a big part of music 👍

The loss of an icon. He was one of those legends who was in everything, I have one of his studio sessions with Hiromi and Simon Philips playing Alive forever in my playlist where they were all fantastic together!

"Hey man! Great bass buddy! I'll just get you a lead and you can plug it in to this amp. We can do both for a one-off special deal. Are you trading in? Your bass is the wrong colour, weight, make, neck-length, string count, and they moved to the 'mark 3, ten minutes ago, so what you're looking for, isn't realistic, you know, with us having to pay the dreaded VATman, you know mate. What you're trading just doesn't move nowadays. We could have this sitting here for months, you know man. Have a play around and see what you think. I'll go and ask the manager what our best price is, but our Tam, the guitar-tech, has already found seven things wrong with your old bass. What's that? You bought it from us two months ago! Ah well, you see, that company is out of business now, so there's not much we can do. You'll be needing a case, strap and tuner with that. That bass really suits you man!"

In my younger days a band's worth of guys would have bounced the car out of the way (two bounce the rear up and down and three push when the weight is off the back axle). Not that I endorse such behaviour now!

We had a very enjoyable night at the Cow & Telescope on Friday. Due to temporary management shenanigans we haven’t got a gig booked there next year, so we felt we had a point to prove to the new management team, who were very impressed with us. So fingers crossed well be a go to reserve next year if they get any cancellations. I was still on holiday in Majorca with the wife in the morning with the wife and got home around 3pm. So had a couple of hours or so for a quick practice of several songs I hadn’t played for a while, and nap. The nap didn’t help much, I was knackered all evening and flagging towards the end, but adrenaline got me through. We were joined by the lovely Hazel, dipping for Jenny again who wasn’t available. Hence the handful of songs I hadn’t played for ages (and one, we’d never even played as a band before), but it kept us on our toes and gave the set list a good shake up. We had great comments from regulars and people who hadn’t seen us before, including a couple of people asking about merchandise. We have a fairly strong brand identity, so it’s something worth considering. I’ve been thinking about setting up an amazon print on demand store for a while. Next one, Halloween at The Cricketers in Westcliff, with another dep singer. Clip of ‘What’s up’ that we’d never played or even rehearsed before, let alone with a dep. Judging by the crowd reaction, it’s a keeper. IIRC, this is the only song I pulled and IEM out to hear the crowd signing along to. https://fb.watch/CQZJVVKUbR/?

He's just been told the price of that Fodera! 🤭

Haha, I think 'ingenious' is stretching it a bit, but thanks! I can report that the 1x8 fits nicely in a Stagg cajon case, with a little room spare for cables or what have you. Although you need to be OK with the risk that someone will think you own a cajon.

This is my favourite photo of him!

My personal bass hero. I didn't come to 6 strings bass in the late 90's thanks to him, but Alain Caron, so from the fretless side, but discovered a bit later that Anthony Jackson was the bass player on so many records I liked, so I also started to play a bit of fretted bass and had to have a single cut AJ6 model. I really love his bass approach with Michel Camilo and the trio he formed with Michel Petrucciani and Steve Gadd was simply amazing. I've been listening to Trio in Tokyo in repeat mode since I read this very sad news. I'll switch to the filmed Live in Marciac concert with Hiromi and Simon Phillips tonight, another fantastic musical masterpiece. His bass lines are so inventive, complex without being complicated and dedicated to music that is really extraordinary to have this level of musical knowledge always serving the music and never his ego. A true genius has gone forever. Rest in peace, Anthony.

Yeah, that's a problem I'm having. Imgur is only linking rather than embedding. Some folks see it, others just get a link which is 50/50 as to whether it functions. I should look at alternative hosting sites really, and maybe, shock horror, pay for a service. I've nicked @Dad3353's link for it from his BC upload allocation.

"Hello Nottingham! I just need to nip out for a part, but I'll be done within the hour when I get back. This is Moonchild! 1, 2, 3, 4..."

Larkin Poe Friday night at the big Academy, and one of the most accomplished gigs I've ever seen. Wasn't over-familiar with the material, bu it didn't really matter, just a joy to see that level of effortless-looking musicianship. The sound was very good, and I didn't even need my attenuators for most of it (obviously the levels went up towards the last four or five songs, so I slipped them in for that, but I hadn't needed them prior), especially for the half-dozen bluegrass songs done around a single mic with acoustic instruments only...which brings me to a bugbear of mine: people who pay good money for concert tickets and then yak ALL THE TIME. I moved twice, once away from a pair of old farts propping up the bar not even facing the stage who were clearly half-deaf, judging by the volume of their conversation: there's a bar just outside the concert space where they could have had this essential conversation AND still heard the band, but nope, despite a good deal of shushing (especially during the very quiet bluegrass section) from various people they just battered on oblivious. My other half stopped me going over to them to point out (in short sentences) their massive lack of consideration, we just moved, unfortunately by a couple who were clearly on an early date, sadly the bloke couldn't stop himself parping on every ten seconds, to the decreasing delight of his paramour. I was taken by the arm and we moved again, and all was well. TLDR: if you like something very, very polished and accomplished from Nashville, Larkin Poe get a big thumbs-up from me...

Looks very nice, but it has triggered one of my pettier pet hates - any product manager who specs a 4 string with the number 5 in the model name needs their ass kicked.

This thread feels like it started drinking in the afternoon, and really needs to go home now.

...no disrespect intended — I have been known to use a music stand & bits of paper

Celestion hired me to design compact lightweight enclosures for their TSQ 1845 and 2145 drivers. They're now posted on the Celestion site as free PDFs with youtube videos. https://celestion.com/blog/build-this-18-inch-bass-reflex-enclosure-featuring-the-tsq1845/ https://celestion.com/blog/build-this-21-inch-bass-reflex-enclosure-featuring-the-tsq2145/

Ah, so it also carries the implication that you'd like to whack them with a drumstick!

It's a joke which came about from one of my own bands. I was discussing cymbals with my drummer and he said he had seen a Zildjian ride cymbal called "the megabell." Basically it had a hugely pronounced and exaggerated dome which I presume was designed that way so that it was impossible to miss. When he told me what it was called, I burst out out laughing saying that it sounded like a great insult. "That guy's not a bellend, he's a f@&*ing megabell!" In that they have transcended the normal level of bellendry to a higher lofty plain that us mere mortals will never attain.

Afraid I did this once. Left a band with a lovely group of younger guys as I had the opportunity to join a band playing at a higher level (supporting US touring Blues artists). Was given the gig only to turn up to the first rehearsal to hear they were already there, and someone was playing bass. Should have stuck with the first band.

Another positive experience buying with G4M. Went online Friday lunchtime and ordered one of their hard bass cases for £59.99 and as I was in no hurry for delivery, left it at their default economy delivery for £2.99 (great postage price for a case!). The estimated delivery was the following Wednesday. Well……it arrived safe and sound at 2pm on Saturday, a mere 25 hours after placing the order! Really happy with the case, communication and speed of delivery.

Lovely words. Someone said that everything he did was to serve the music not the ego, which was insightful.

Is he that man of the people, ex banker bloke who lives in Belgium, had a german wife but has an issue with the EU, Brussels and immigration?

RIP maestro. My favourite player, and a true genius. His playing on Electric Rendezvous was outrageous, and made me realise just what you can do with a pick. He took the Jamerson chromatic approach and expanded it into all the artists he played with. I was sad to read he had health issues and had to stop playing; I hope he is at peace now.

This is worth a watch, too. I'm sure it's been posted here previously.

Very sad news. I didn't get on with much of his music but I listened to it just the same because of his brilliance on the instrument. This guy was a stunning bass player.

Huge loss. Virtuoso is probably used too often but AJ definitely was. Going to listen to my favorite bass line now - Donald Fagan's Ruby Baby.

😞 Sad day... Just look at him play has made me re-start all my right hand technic from A to Z. I discovered him really with Hiromi and the trio project, and had the chance to see them live. What a music lesson... RIP Mr Jackson and thank you for all..

It'll take me a while to model the response of some of the drivers available today but this looks very do-able. The thickness of the ply isn't going to add a lot to the weight, just remember it's the internal dimensions you need to worry about so you'll need to allow for that when you cut the panels. For example going from 12mm ply to 18mm would make the cab wider by 6mm each side and it would need to be 12mm wider overall. Thicher panels means less pracing so you can shave a bit there. Think about the 4ohm driver a little more. You will gain at best 2db which is just noticeable and for acoustic gigs you won't need that much, I use a BC110T for open mics and it is really overkill. I do a lot now with my 6" design and we've recently put up a design for an 8 which works well, all this with a Warwick Gnome 130W into 8ohm. This cab is around the size of your Monza and roughly the same weight you could go smaller IMO. The 8" cab uses the same 'easy build' construction so is effectively the same cab with smaller panels.

This makes me think about imposter syndrome. I'm a web developer and some of the most competent devs I've met are the least confident, and most critical of themselves, even if they're amazing at what they do. The more you know, the more you realise how much you don't know, which is such a bitter reward for improvement! I think the best solution is to try not to overthink it too much. I think that's especially possible for us a bass players - we need to be feeling it, not thinking too hard.

9th Chaka Khan and 9th Anthony Jackson transcription. Those fills in the Coda!! 😃 Chaka Khan - What Cha' Gonna Do for Me

Not a bad night last night and local to me, though sadly a bit quiet with an Oasis tribute a couple of hundred yards one way and another band down the road the other. Landlady apologetic but happy as she said she still took plenty of money over the bar. “We love having you here, you’re so professional” So we were playing to a small select bunch, but they were all enjoying themselves and singing along. Band was tight and the sound really good. Loads of compliments from those that were there which was nice. Used the usual rig of: FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Darkglass Microtubes, BF BigBaby2. Shoes comfortable barefoot. As there was potentially a bit more space than usual I took the bigger pedalboard but the Palmer wall wart that I had at rehearsal on Monday wasn’t in my leads bag so reverted to the Helix. 😡 Must have a search for that or order a spare.

For weird, read cheapskate.

I find Gear4Music absolutely superb. I had a bass arrive with damage (couriers fault), they gave me several options regarding replacement / returns and allowed me a month to think on it (which I used) before returning it with no quibbles.

Appreciate it's not what you want to hear but... try them! Some Squier CV punch quite a bit above their weight, so it is true that the difference in terms of sound is likely to be negligible. The main difference will be in the feel of the roadworn finish (particularly neck) and in the neck shape. What previous bass are you coming from? The vintage spec P neck with C width is not for everyone, but the front to back profile makes it ok. You'll find many people who actually prefer the feel of the narrower B neck of the CV. The radius is less likely to have an impact, but it's also different - 7.25 on the Vintera and 9.5 for the Squier. I would find a way to try them, or buy from a place with a good returns policy if trying isn't an option.

Yep, same here. Another legend gone, RIP and thanks for the music.