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The Black Horse in Whitwick was the first gig in a few weeks and a good job too - we've all had man-flu during the downtime. Luckily I am just about over mine now, but it was pretty grim at the start and then spent ages slowly trailing off. Anyway nothing that a bit of performance adrenaline can't fix. Although I'd created events on Facebook the guitarist/vocalist didn't do any further plugging with a day or two to go like normal, because he wasn't certain we'd be able to play. So it was satisfying that we managed to fill the place on a dark, wet and gloomy Friday night. We played quite a few songs that we don't do often so that made a nice change too. The Stingish bass is becoming a mainstay now - it's just so lovely to play. Boss GT-6B multi-fx into the Big Muff that I'm still playing with (more fuzz, more fuzz!) and thence into the fabulous Rumble v3 500 combo. Some nice compliments too to round off the night. I think we only have one weekend kept free for the rest of the year now - the long run towards NYE has started

I managed after a long time of being skint to get my old Suhr Jazz bass back. There is a BC member that offered to buy this bass for me and he offered that I could pay him back which was such a lovely EPIC gesture!! It really was and it blew me away tbh. But the time wasn't right. His BC name is three and his name is Loz bless him. I don't want to bore anyone as I'm aware everyone is struggling but it's been brutal financially and we struggled to get to the next mortgage/council tax payment for a long long time. But we're now mortgage free so me got some basses a comin.!!. Debora doesn't know this yet.. 😆 Suhr Custom Classic J4 Swamp ash body. Maple neck. Suhr 2 band pre. Aguilar single coils.

The Hulla band played last night at a hoedown in the village hall where we rehearse, to raise funds to repair and maintain the building. Country and Western isn't my thing so I wasn't enthused by the setlist, and much of it was new to the band so the run up to the gig was a trail of rearranged songs, last minute set list changes and, frustratingly, a key change with 24hrs to go that meant I had to relearn a tricky bassline using open strings instead of the all fretted version. I always struggle with including open strings in a riff for some reason. All in all a good night. Well attended (we sold just under 90 tickets which meant the hall was comfortably full) the bar was popular and the bangers, mash 'n' beans went down very well indeed. From a bass perspective, most of the songs were quite simple but I have developed a liking for Johnny Cash as a result of learning three of his tunes. We tried to include as many line dancing type songs as we'd heard that a large contingent of the audience had been practicing their line dancing for the night. Sure enough, there were about 20 regular dancers for anything vaguely line danceable. Our backdrop was a series of old black and white cowboy movies on a projection screen and there were the inevitable cowboy hats. I used my Squier PJ into a Laney Digbeth preamp on the valve setting, with a touch of drive to add warmth. That went straight into the desk and I monitored using a Behringer P16 and wireless system with earpieces. I've changed the gain structure on the IEM system I use and it has resulted in a much clearer sound in my ears at a much lower level. For a couple of songs I played up the neck using the edge of the neck where it joins the body as a thumb rest. It gave me a nice thick tone for 'These Boots'. Highlight of the night for me was 'Rhinestone Cowboy', which I'd made the effort to learn the full bass part for and it gave me a new respect for the musicians playing on those kinds of songs. Footwear was a pair of ordinary black boots, cowboy boots not being available. Hat was by Amazon. Checked shirt courtesy of a local BHF charity shop.

Well, no pictures (was I even there?) - we played in a local pub last night, it wasn't our gig, it was the drummers other bands gig, but their singer got a cold and she didn't want to sing - there maybe more to it then that, but not my issue. Anyway we could all do it so we took it over to not leave the pub without a band (and it is the pub we practice at). Easy enough setup, cramped but we have done it before so know our place, would be easier if the rest of the band didn't stand in the way chatting while I was setting up I thought I would mix things up - so I took the new rickenbacker, which shockingly only has 4 strings (at the moment), the XVive A58 and the XS-1 octave pedal, so testing everything I got recently. The XVive, perfect, no noise, no having to work around the noise the lekato that I had, absolute winner. The ric. Well, its ok, it wasn't cutting through that much, and obviously thee is the lack of string thing. I didn't realise how much I relied on the 5th string, so a few mistakes were made, quite a few on one song, but at least with brick in the wall, I played the whole thing an octave up with the XS-1 an octave down and it sounded pretty spot on. Some of the rest of the gig I played with an octave up, and mix down to give a bit of bite and it worked well. The second hand I went back to the Maruszczyk and it felt more comfortable and easier to get a good sound, I think maybe because the output is higher everything is set up for that, so the ric wasn't cutting it much. Still, it was nice to play, but I may leave it for the other group, where i can use it as a drop D bass, I think the loss of the 5th string is something that adds a complication gigging. Anyway, second half there were more people, more dancing, and everything went more or less ok, so pretty good, and actually ran out of time without realising it. Not a bad night, and we have another gig tonight, might try the same things, and see if I get the same result - maybe increase the input gain of the pedal.

I joined facebook (about a year or 2 ago) and since have stopped posting here as facebook seems to have consolidated everything I use to do on the web in a single website! It's actually taken the fun out of posting and reading about bass guitars and bassists... It's just all superficial click bait & with little to know substance. I suddenly realised I was just scrolling through endless reels of 1 minute videos designed to grab my lizard brain attention. And the groups are just again, post a flashy pic of a fancy bass and lets all celebrate... zero discussion, good or bad 🙂‍↕️. So I have decided to quit facebook and just use bass forums and X. At least with X there's discussions but not so much about the bass guitar, so that's actually a good thing, it's an untapped market! Anyway, does anyone feel the same or am I just getting old. great to hear you thoughts 🙏

Nearly 25 years out getting married, having a daughter. Getting back into music helped me cope with divorce. I'm only an amateur but I identify more with being a bass player than my various work identities.

Thanks, itu. Appreciated. I was contemplating the cheap Thomann fretless Beat Bass, £175, just for trying the project out, fingering-wise. I've already recorded the first three suites on a tenor and cello-banjo, so have experience of CGDA. Cello-banjo:

I know it’s not the real deal. But, I wanted to give the Rush tribute ‘Moving Pictures’ a shoutout. Saw them in Birmingham last night with my old man and they were fantastic. Incredibly tight and very convincing. Granted, I’ve not seen the real thing live. But, my Dad has seen them a handful of times and was equally impressed! I’m sure many have seen them before but I was well impressed!

I've been dreaming of picking up the double bass for a long time, but had been writing it off for various reasons. So imagine my surprise when my wife organised this for a big birthday this week! Currently renting for a few months to see if we can live with it, but I now can't imagine a world without DB... it's so addictive and rewarding! It seems playing cello as a kid, and fretless bass for a long time has helped get me started, but there's so much to learn!

And it is worth mentioning that apart from me costing @cetera some money this below cost ME some money and heading my way next week 😉

No social media at all here. Deleted my FB account over a decade ago. Never had an X/Twitter/Instagram account. Though I suppose BassChat is a form of social media... So I'm guilty of that.

Thanks to @Paulhauser for giving me the heads up on this stunning limited edition Spector Euro CST! Ordered and paid for last night and due next week... 1 of only 6 total made in this colour (3 x 4 string & 3 x 5 string). Ash body with Poplar Burl top, Ebony board with Abalone inlays, black hardware, EMG X pickups and DG Legacy preamp.... and that beautiful Purple/Black finish... 💜🖤

Hi all, not been around here for many, many years, mostly thanks to spending the last 10 years doing a PhD - tends to soak up all of one's discretionary time A huge thank you to everyone who's ever shared news here about my music and gigs in the interim, and I'm especially grateful for the thread regarding my 2022 Cancer diagnosis (still cancer free three years after being told I was in 'complete metabolic response'). Life these days is still making large amount of music, released exclusively through Bandcamp, most of it subscriber only, alongside teaching on Zoom (message me for info, or check out my website ) and lecturing at BIMM in Birmingham, on the degree and MA courses. Plus other visiting masterclasses and whatnot. Hopefully I'll be able to drop in more often now that I'm not freaking out about PhD deadlines cheers! Dr Steve

Erm...from a Jazz Bass?

I quit for 4yrs at the tender age of 27yrs old, because I felt that I was getting too old. I cringe thinking about it now but I needed to get my career and life in general kickstarted a lot more. I had always promoted my bands so had less time than band mates who were getting on with their lives away from music. I felt invigorated coming back. The pressure to “make it” was off and I have since worked in groups where someone else does the behind the scenes stuff. Ironically, I feel that I have had far more success in my later years. It is never wrong to stop or have a timeout when the mood suits. I have scaled back in the last year or so as the multiple band life was causing me a mild amount of stress. So, a soft reboot, of sorts.

Lee Anderton interviews Billy Sheehan, I'll be watching it later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVJtEGvgUg John 😎

In the mid 2000s I remember standing on the stage of a club in one of the Welsh valleys with the band I was in at the time and thinking 'I'm so bored with this set, I need a change'. We hadn't changed the set for more than a year and we seemed (to me) to be playing the same venues over and over (a lot of the clubs looked the same and had the same characters running them and booking the bands). I quit the band on friendly terms and as I used to share bass and rhythm guitar duties with the other rhythm guitarist/bassist in an attempt to make things a bit more interesting, they were able to carry on without me. I took about 3 years off and initially I had no plans to return to bass, so I sold almost all my gear. I was tempted back by an offer of an Eagles tribute act (which didn't fully materialise) and ended up with the same guitarist/vocalist as before in a trio/quartet (depending on who was available). It was good for a while and I stuck to bass but the same stagnation crept in again (the BL's argument was that we were gigging so often that we didn't need to rehearse, which was true of the current materiel but meant we weren't getting new stuff in) so once again I took a break. This time it was for the best part of 5 years. In 2018 I retired and with time on my hands I helped the previously mentioned BL with his rockschool (a summer school for his music students). At the end of the rockschool week, he organised a gig for the bands that the students had formed and somehow, I ended up in a scratch band with him that finished the night off. And stayed in that scratch band until 2022 when I left to join my current band. Both times I left for the right reason, at about the right time and it did me no end of good. I stayed friends with the band members and didn't burn bridges (that's not who I am). I think I came back a better musician both times an this was as a result of taking the pressure off and allowing myself to enjoy playing music rather than it becoming a job.

I think we've all of us been here at some point, and it can apply to any part of our lives, not just bass In my case, learning other instruments whilst I've taken a long time off bass not only kept music as the main theme of my life (which it always has been) but also improved my bass playing no end when I came back to it

It's usually a mystery as to where they've been before, sometimes we get a bit of an anecdote, or info on the immediate previous owner. Full history is usually not available. With my '73 Jazz, which is very heavily worn, I bought it from BassBros, but Nick (@oldhorsemurphy RIP) contacted me as he'd only just sold it to them. He told me how long he'd had it, and where he bought it. He'd bought it from the original owner, who was responsible for ALL the wear on that bass. He must have played it every day since 1973!

I’d love a production version similar to Amos Hellers BB. I love my 1024x, they’re super affordable and solid instruments. Loved the 734a too. You could pick up an older 2nd hand BB, get it refinished in a more exciting colour and have it set up professionally and still spend less than most other basses in its class.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday. I'll get a chance to hang out with a bunch of our local musicians. I'm glad we're going on first. It's a beautiful room on the marina in Port Washington. Daryl

Another bucket list transcription, the complete Glenn Hughes bass part to the title tune from the 1974 Deep Purple album 'Burn' album. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/burn-deep-purple/

I have to admit there are a few instruments in my own collection (guitars and basses) that I really like and don't want to sell but I don't play them either . It's not a great time to sell anyway so they're basically wall decorations or filling up a hardshell case in the spare room wardrobe. I do get to 'rediscover' them after a time though.

@Baloney Balderdash It's a sonic monster. Fantastic. Again, all original style. I'm a fan.

I'm only on Facebook so I can promote whatever band I am currently in. While I don't think I'd quit if I wasn't using it to promote my music I'd probably only look at it once a week tops and my page would simply be whatever my friends had tagged me in.

Well.... it's finally up for sale!

I would work out where the cuts are likely to be. Then, before cutting, I would smear the area with some superglue, let it dry and then cut. Perhaps even add a small piece of tape over the area too.

Jazz bass pickup config

Although Facebook is mostly irritating nonsense I find it very useful for promoting the two bands I’m in. Also for keeping an eye on venues and other acts working in the same area. About a half dozen times over the last three years-ish we’ve picked up gigs when venues put messages on Facebook for last-minute replacements. I often think that musicians who reject social media either don’t gig or leave all the promotional donkey work to others.

I look at it this way … I used to own an mgb it went wrong more often than you’d expect when the fuel pump went I bought a new & better one. I didn’t seek a rebuild of the exact fuel pump it started life with. It had lasted well, but was frankly a bit rubbish. Theres no use in pretending that every “old” bass was made perfectly with components that were functionally perfect and that the whole thing emitted magic sparkles unless changed, whereupon it became as lifeless as the worst 70s Kay I didn’t add a whale-fin spoiler to it and in the same vein I’d never re-fin an old bass. It is irreversible it still looked like an mgb and if it had optical ignition rather than clunky old points, no one will know. In the same way, it doesn’t matter if a volume pot has been replaced with a modern version of the same thing. Keep the old one for those of the potential buyers who might care, and use something better for you in your time owning it. No one truly gives a toss about original, unmolested solder joints. 🤷 afterthought: those “included original pots and pickups” where replacement has been declared to the buyer. I’d be really interested to know proportionally how many vintage buyers have gone to the trouble of having the original part repaired and replaced in the instrument. I suspect “quite few”… just as I preferred optical ignition and an electronic fuel pump.

Win, win!

Its a shortscale water-bottle with flats on it i reckon Daryl. 🤣 Dave

Robin at @Manton Customs work is great. I've seen his basses at bashes and shows (and he has a thread here in affiliates) I have no association with him, or any idea of the cost, but someone to talk to.

That’s what my guitarist thinks I do.

Folks, This is really too good not to share. Apologies if its already been posted elsewhere but I couldn't see it. Miss Chile stuns everybody at the Miss World contest with her death metal vocals. Too good not to share

Thanks, and I don't look a day over 70. Lol Daryl

Ian Hunter - All American Alien Boy (1976). Jaco just getting started. Fabulous mix of classic soloing and some tasty minimalist playing from the master.

They're both fine looking basses, but that 5 I'd love to try. Congrats gents.

Or this But with Or most any other distortion pedal + crossover blend will also need phase inversion when it is on. Without minding phase a returned distortion pedal signal is 180° out. The lower mid fraction remaining collides with its clean other half and the crossover frequency gets chopped.

Hmmm, do I like a Yamaha bass? I currently have a BB424x, BBPH, BB734a, BB1100s fretless, Attitude Ltd II, and a pair of BEX4s. They're alright I spouse. 😁

Here's cover I recorded of Chaka Khan's Move Me No Mountain, poignant for me as this was a week or so before AJ (a huge influence for me) passed away (may you rest in peace Maestro). For anyone interested, I've also posted a complete transcription here - https://www.benwalkerbass.com/p/move-me-no-mountain

I stopped playing for close to 20 years between 1985 and 2003. I had far more success and status in the former, far more joy and satisfaction in the latter 👍

i stopped playing for a few year about 20 years back and when i resumed i found i was more able to identify and drop bad habits that i had previously gotten used to

My understanding of getting the best fit of a neck in the pocket was to slacken off the strings so they are exerting very little pull on the neck and to loosen the neck bolts very slightly. Then tighten the strings back up to pitch, allow everything to stabilise for a couple of hours and retighten the neck bolts. This has the effect of pulling the neck as far into the pocket as possible, the transfer point being the end of the neck pocket and not the bottom.