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It was my second gig of the double header weekend last night. A dep spot with a band I've played with before. Great bunch, very relaxed and very welcoming of the 'new guy' when I first played with them. Last night they also had a dep singer so I wasn't the newbie anymore. It was a golf club Christmas dinner, so quite formal and posh but we were looked after by the club - a tab behind the bar (being gig teetotal, I was gutted but ultimately it's the thought that counts). I decided to use my ungigged Ibanez SR300 and my ungigged Valeton GP5 into the FX return on my well gigged Peavey Minimax 600 and the pair of TE 1x10 cabs. Also present - Sine effect H24 HPF and Joyo wireless transmitter/receiver. At the last minute I was offered a lift by the guitarist and had to leave my spare bass (Ibanez EHB1000s) behind as it wouldn't fit into his car with all the other kit. I expect you can see where this is leading. In my defence, your honour, although half the kit was ungigged, I'd been practicing with it at home a for about two weeks so it was all tested. The singer turned up late and although he seemed a decent chap, he had been expressing concerns about half the setlist ('I haven't sung that one', 'I don't know the words to that one' etc) to the band in the days leading up to the gig. So in the soundcheck before he arrived, I had a go at singing 'Sultans of Swing', only the second time I'd sung it in front of a band. I remembered 80% of the words and was about 80% in tune that was deemed good enough in the cirumstances.😂 Three songs into the set, with the audience up and dancing, I started to notice that the volume from the amp was fading slowly up and down from the full gig volume to about half over about 10 seconds. My first thought was that I'd hit an unexpected patch on the GP5 ('Slow, Annoying Trem' or similar) but the GP5 was set on the Ampeg patch I'd set up for the night. Then I started to smell something burning. The Minimax is on it's way out, I thought. No problem, I can DI. But someone in the audience had knocked over a candle and it had smouldered on one of the napkins for a bit. Meanwhile the slow tremolo was now speeding up a bit and my bass was spending more time quiet than at gig volume. I reasoned that the battery on the bass was going and as I was due to start 'Keep On Running' with the bass riff, I called a time out. While the rest of the band played a longer intro with the guitarist covering the riff, I changed the battery. I managed to get through the song but the problem was still there. I didn't have any time to do a 'one thing at a time' test of the signal chain so between songs, I got rid of everything between bass and amp, plugged into the amp's 'proper' input with a cable and to my great relief, finished the set without any problems from my side. There were a few dodgy moments with the singer not knowing/forgetting/making up lyrics but nothing that couldn't be dealt with. 'Sultans' went well (by now I'd remembered 95% of the lyrics and scored 90% on the 'in-tune-o-meter') and got a good response from the audience. I even got a bonus on top of my fee from the band - presumably for stepping up to sing, or perhaps entertaining them with the harried, rabbit-in-the-headlights look I had as I tried to sort my problems out. This morning will be taken up with identifying the culprit, taking it into the garden, beating it with a baseball bat and burying it. My suspicion is that the Valeton was playing up, as apart from it and the Ibanez all the other components of the chain have been played 'live'. I was using the wireless transmitters at the previous night's gig with no problems. Another option is that there is some strange interaction between the Valeton and the H24 or the H24 and the FX in on the Minimax. Although the bass wasn't the issue, as the problem developed it would have been reassuring to have the spare just in case. As an advocate of bringing a spare to gigs, I hang my head in shame at the lapse. Ironically, the SR300 was purchased with a view to it being a light weight spare itself. You will be relieved to hear that my footwear of choice - black Skechers - performed admirably throughout the night. EDIT: In testing this morning, I was unable to recreate the problem but suddenly the sound cut out completely. Replacing the cable from H24 to the FX Return on the Minimax with the one I used to plug directly into the amp last night fixed it. I suspect I have my culprit. Found 'Not Guilty'.

Just back from our gig at The Stables, Milton Keynes. We always sell out, such a special venue, wonderful staff (mostly volunteers) and such an appreciative audience. Took the Smithy up for a blast as I’ve been reacquainting myself with her lately. Fantastic! A guy last year unbelievably donated £1000 to our homeless charity we collect for, and blow me he done exactly the same last night!! Incredibly humbling peoples generosity, it really is! Great night as usual up there x 😊

Just come off stage with Stray at Strings on The Isle of Wight. We’re supporting British Lion. It’s the fourth night of the tour - we had a rest day yesterday. Last week we played Bradford, Manchester and Nuneaton. To aid quick changeovers I’d decided to di straight from my Stomp XL and Junction DI into the desk, use in ears and rely on monitors for the rest of the guys. The rest of the band hated it, I wasn’t keen either, despite decent monitors (BL travel with their own monitors.) So on Thursday I asked Harry if I could use a couple of his cabs. He was fine with that so today we were in our bloody element. I only used one side - two Orange 4x12s - what a glorious sound. And to top it off The Man let me have a noodle on his new signature bass! Anyway we had a fabulous gig - waiting for them to finish now so we can load out!

Christmas gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam at Longstone Hearts club in Edinburgh. Its a small intimate club and only holds up to 80 with only a few unsold tickets for the night. We know they're struggling to get money in for the club and we've deliberately kept our price same since we first played there about 3 yrs ago to try and help keep them going. Was a bit of an odd one as we had dancers from the first song but our Xmas songs had none ? Never seen that before even tho we played well. Only Xmas song they were up for was the Wizard one "I Wish It Could Be Xmas" and even then it was only 7 or 8 people. Last song (encore) dance floor was crammed full and they were all shouting for more but we had a time limit from the organiser. Plenty of pics / vids being taken tho so that's always good. As a band we thoroughly enjoyed the gig and were having a great laugh on stage. No major mistakes with just a few wee mishaps that only we noticed. 4 Xmas songs in the set for the next few gigs. Usual gear Sandberg MarloweDK because its Xmasy looking in red and white - Shure GXLD wireless - Keeley Bassist comp - Handbox WB-100 - Barefaced 212 cab. Quite enjoying the Marlowe at the last couple of gigs. It has a nice growl thru the WB-100. Easy drive home with hardly another car on the country roads on way home which was a nice relaxing drive and home by 2am for my ritual coffee and tea biccie before beddy by bo time. Dave

Local venue with my regular gig, SlowJin. Lakland 55-02 via Shure GLX wireless into EBS Microbass. DI to desk, line in to Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 power amp section and Vanderkley 2x10. Long term IEM user. Big Martin house PA Rig. We came, we saw, we Rock’n’Roll’d.

Last night we played in Heath Charnock between Bolton and Chorley. A brilliant landlady and nice crowd. One of the punters gave us a £30 tip and the landlady did too. We gave this song a second outing. Played for the first time on Friday...

It's nice money but there's a reason that we don't do corporate gigs often. The first reason was getting in early and then sitting around for a couple of hours. The next reason is it can be darned hard work getting them partying. Anyway we'll chalk that one up as another success and we were well received, if a little unfulfilled personally. Kirby Muxloe golf club has a short stage and ceiling tiles that seemed to suck all of the top end out of the room and I had to back off my bottom end too to avoid stage boom. A bit of a shame as I took the Sire P7-5 out for a bit of an airing but it couldn't really sing. We were dressed fairly smartly. Shiny black DMs FTW Tomorrow's gig is probably the smallest pub we play in...

First Christmas show with Glam Viva! last night, awesome live music venue on the outskirts of Chesterfield. We hadn’t played this venue before but it had been advertised well and we hadn’t played a rammed pub for most of the night. Dancing from song one..like @dmccombe7 the Christmas songs were less appreciated than the normal songs but we normally stick to just 2 for this reason. Sandberg Lionel into my normal Boss pedals using my aging Smoothound wireless. Normal Markbass mini rig of doom. End of gig celebration with 4 jammy doughnuts - I did share! Crap drive back home as, as per normal on a Saturday night after midnight, plod had set the variable speed limit on the M1 at 50. Purely a revenue job as there was no roadworks or poor visibility. Cruise control is your friend.

Played the singer's local. Was a weird setup. Lead guitarist's pedalboard was very noisy Went down well, helped by various friends of the band. Manager kept videoing us and was right up vlose and trying to get us to look into the lens which was pretty distracting at times. Just rehearsals now until mid-january.

Last gig of the year with the Andy Wales Band at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. Busiest I’ve seen it in all the times we’ve played there, tho thankfully a massive crowd of really rowdy chanting lads moved on elsewhere before we started yay. Good few friends and family of various members were there which is often the kiss of death in my experience but not so. Went with Elton’s Step Into Christmas which mostly worked (complete with surprisingly fiddly bass part) and also chucked in Green Onions and I Am The Resurrection in tribute to Steve Cropper and Mani respectively. I was wedged against a pillar unfortunately so tried to lean on it nonchalantly from time to time and attempted to look cool. I wasn’t having a great day up to then and was a bit narky so it was nice to have two hours of leathering my bass onstage to get it all out of my system. Cheaper than therapy. Gear was the usual Markbass Traveller cabs and LM3 head; pair of Yamaha basses, various pedals, Mackie powered cabs and Allen and Heath desk. Footwear by Converse. Tea by Twinings.

The older I get, the more I see bass as a percussion instrument that has pitch. I went to a gig last night and all I could think was "Bassist! Calm down and lay it down!!! No one wants to hear your pentatonic noodlings". "And while you are at it, tune the instrument".

The 7-10 gig at Rockfield Music & Media went pretty fast. The place was packed. I don't know where all these people come from considering the place sits out in the middle of nowhere. Our performance was just ok. We had some good moments along with a few sloppy ones. I got lost in "Jolene". The dep drummer showed some improvement. The provided rig was fine. However the XRL out was not functioning so we miced the cabs. I wasn't able to get any decent pictures. Daryl

The bass just came in and its a total Time Capsule! It has the original Eveready battery in it from the early 80s...like the Bunny...still going! Union Carbide, Cleveland Ohio. They sold the brand in 1986. The battery compartment and screws appeared to be untouched. The original foam was covering the battery. The battery measured at 5.4 volts. Not bad for 43 years old! The action on the bass is very high. It has round wounds. All of the screws appear to be untouched. The active output was very weak and the tone controls did not work. They do work on the passive side and it sounds good. I am going to continue to look in to that and gently examine the electronics. Here are photos of the unboxing. This bass has not been played much and probably was in someones closet for many years. It could use maybe a bit of polishing. Frets are close to perfect. No marks or gashes on it anywhere.

Second time we've played at the Crown in Rugeley. Parking is a bit dodgy, and our singer had to get from Worcester up the M6 on a Friday evening so he was a bit late. It's rather cramped there but we squeezed in a bit better than last time. That's just before we started, when the singer broke his first string of the night (final score: three). Audience reaction was the same as the first time we played here - we'd be playing a song, there would be quite a few people reacting to it or singing along, then at the end of the song absolutely no applause (apart from drummer's wife and guitarist's girlfriend). And no calls for more at the end, and we're not one of those bands who insist on playing the encores, so we didn't. Everyone was very friendly though, and one of the bouncers was very complimentary. A little incident did occur - towards the end of the second set, nearing the end of a song, I noticed a woman at the back of the room (which wasn't very far away) in some sort of physical distress, and the man she was with got an inhaler out for her. Our guitarist's girlfriend is a nurse and I was going to point her at the woman, but she noticed her just as we reached the end of the song and went over to check on her. Apparently she reeked of fags and had had a fair bit to drink, so she rather brought it on herself (I think it's reasonably clear which "she" is which). Edit to add: Sei Flamboyant 5 -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212, Caravelle memory foam trainers (and thermal non-slip socks).

Played with our 9 piece 60's band SHOUT! Last night in a pub called The Spateston Inn in Johnston just outside Glasgow. Busy night with punters and a Christmas night out from a local supermarket! The guitarist thought it was very funny seeing them in their ''civies'' and was tempted to go up and ask where the bacon was....We just about fitted in and lucky for us our keyboard lad was given the night of to see Madness (The band not the illness!!) So....8 band members stuck in a corner whilst the resident DJ had much more room and plenty of tables! He played for about and hour,we did an hour then were off for another hour! Far too long a break and we had to endure ear shattering techno (down with the kids man!) music! Good night had by all,nice buffet I recommend the egg sarnies! SHOUT! Higher and Higher..mp4

Hello. Thanks for the updates. I am checking the used market for a used Hi Mass bridge from that era. The ones that Ive seen that come original to this bass in 82 say "Fender pat. pending" on them just like The Claw does, however I have yet to find one that is stand alone for sale and I doubt that there are many out there. As Hellzero pointed out, the earlier ones don't have the logo? I like The Claw and it works and sounds fine, however the bass is 11 lbs as it is now, and going to a standard Hi Mass bridge may take 1 pound off of it and make it around 10. My Ibanez Blazer from 81 is 9.5 pounds which is a P Bass style bass, for comparison. I don't mind the 11 lbs on this one, since its a studio bass anyway. Last night I put Flats on it, and spent time dialing in the action and intonation. I got the A, D and G strings dialed in perfectly. Nice low action up and down the neck and intonated perfectly. However the E string is a tiny bit of a struggle. It plays perfectly below the 9th fret, but starts to get a little high action from there. At the 12th fret open, from top of the 12th fret crown to the very bottom of the string, its about 1/8th of an inch, so a little high but not unplayable. I can work with it. That E also has a bit of issues intonating. Its still a bit sharp (fretting the 12th fret) and I have to move the saddle all the way back in order to get it to be perfect. (it did this with both rounds and flats, so its not a "flats" thing). So.... ultimately the bass may need a light "shim" in the neck cavity towards the rear, maybe the width of a business card. That would help with the geometry and angle and get it a closer in intonation too. However as it is, its pretty good so I am going to play it all day today to evaluate exactly how I want to tackle this. This is an old skool, thumpin' P Bass. Its thick, heavy and rich like the best German Chocolate. Its got a deep "nutty" tone. Its got that 70s Pop and Soul P thing down cold. I'm playing along with a top 100 hits from 1979 right now (Blondie, EWF, Bee Gees etc) and it just fits in to the mixes of those classic songs perfectly. Its the sound. It also can do the early 70s Soul and R&B (Stax, Willie Weeks, Chuck Rainey, Gamble/Huff/Philly sound etc). I keep it in the Passive mode most of the time and prefer that over the active, but I could see switching to active for certain more aggressive style songs, or in particular live situations. I really like the neck. Its not too thick and its fairly fast. Its closer to my Fender Jazz bass than it is to my Blazer P. This bass is a beast. I appreciate all of your comments and suggestions.

Slade was our opener for our final set and did the job of getting them on the floor. It was the only Xmas song we played though as we just gave them a segued onslaught of dancing tunes to keep them on the floor. Most of our Xmassy songs are done tongue in cheek and they were not really the sort of crowd for that. Tonight should be better suited.

In the past I've found it useful to play along to drum rudiments. I also trg to vary my rhythm when playing certain songs. Perhaps most of us don't think about naming rhythms or consciously learning them, perhaps shuffles and bo diddley... or just play along to different drum machine rhythms without actually breakingthem down. I was listening to 'Add to Playlist' earlier and they mentioned Samba rhythm. It made me think 'how is a samba constructed?' I found this short video interesting: Spoiler: it does not mention samba...

About 80% of what I play

Here are some gut shots. Likely the first time its been opened since the factory. The preamp appears to be original, and is very quiet and everything is working great. I cleaned the pots with D5, then the switch and jack and reflowed the jack. The ring area had some exposed wire which may have been causing the short. The pots are 2 from 1981 and 1 from 1980 all CTS. Caps all look good. Im not going to "fix" what is not broken by capping it since its all original and working and sounds awesome.

Well, it's finally finished. In the end I went in a completely different direction with the colour - a subtle pearl white (my first bass hero was Duff from Guns 'n' Roses). The guy who painted it did the neck as well - it now looks less like an original '70s Precision and more like one that was refinished by a hair metaller in the '80s. It sounds amazing too - it's a heavy beast but the ash/maple really gives it some snap, which is exactly what I wanted. The normal deadspot you get on 34" basses is barely there either, which is a bonus. Nice low action too.

Dave, It is someone's house. There is a huge bar when you enter the place. It's our 4th time playing there. People love it because you bring your own booze and save money. It's a very lucrative gig for us . Daryl

I nearly had to cancel last nights gig due to the drummer messaging me to inform me that he had no drums * 🙄. Anyway, a few phone calls later, I'd got a pro drum tutor on board. This guy is probably one of the best that I have had the pleasure to play with. Cracking gig, three piece blues / rock trio, local pub. * Drum kit in loft, loft hatch won't open. Joiner didn't turn up due to illness, err ok.

Cool thread. I'd add one more ingredient to this. 'Ghost notes'. Ghost notes are like ligaments, they bind rythmns together.

I'm always in a duo with the drummer. The rest of the band is important but give me a good drummer to work with and we'll make the band happen.

We had a really good night last night, with lots of friends there, at a venue not far from me where we have celebrated various milestones with my bands over the years. Just what we needed really. This year's been really difficult for the band with a change of guitarist and all the things that led up to it, plus our drummer's serious illness and us running with a replacement. The band as it is now is really enjoying itself.

Why is it that DJs are pathologically unable to tell that their PA is distorting... let alone have any idea about EQ.

I just watched the Flea/Beato interview where Flea bigs up M'eshell Ndegeocello for her absolute distillation of the bass line so that what she plays is driving the song to the max but not drawing attention. He put it well.

If venues provided high quality stuff, it would either be trashed or nicked. Sad but true.

We do a Sweet version of "Let It Snow" in the first set and then Mud, Slade and Wizard in 2nd set with Wizard being last song of the set altho our encore is a lengthened version of Shang a Lang including excerpts from various Scottish themed songs. Bit of a Medoly and it always goes down a treat up here. Dave

I'm trying to really nail Do The Strand by Roxy Music at the moment and that line seems to exemplify a lot of what is being said here. The rhythm of the song, which is an absolute classic mover, is driven by the bass which is working largely as percussion and it's busy in a sense with the notes without over complicating the choice. I also find you get a fantastic sense of how much the bass of a track is holding the rhythm when you pull the bass out and listen to the tune without. Sometimes it is still largely the same (a lot of pop stuff) but with others the whole thing falls apart and feels completely empty. Roxy Music's first few albums are a great example, as is Roly Wynne's lines on early Ozrics stuff. They are often quite busy tunes and quite a lot of the time he is noodling but the bass is nearly always the dominant instrument in terms of the tune feeling like the tune. What a player, gone very much too soon.

So, a secondhand Besson Sovereign euphonium

Just thought I would add to the thread with this Ken Taylor 5 that I bought last year. I got it new from BAX for an absolute steal, prior to them going bump. It's not fashionably light (9.5lbs), but I'm not too bothered - (it's much lighter than my 6 & 7 strings!!) The main thing is it sounds absolutely immense, love the growl of the humbuckers, the EQ and blend can get a great variety of tones, and almost plays itself. Build quality is as good as anything else I've played.

Angels With Dirty Faces — Sham 69

The holiday season is just around the corner 🎄 The Temptations - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer | James Jamerson

All those woke music fans cancelling Christmas this year...

I hated Markbass amps when I was a younger, more naive man. Everyone seemed to have one, and I was once loading out my Ashdown CTM 100 all valve head into the back of my Corsa when a chirpy ‘older’ bass player on before me pointed to his 1x12 Markbass combo said ‘you want to get rid of that, get one of these! Does everything that one does but lighter!’ - despised them from that moment on. Why would I not use a big, gritty valve amp instead of some horrible little yellow thing? Anyway, here’s my AG1000 head and Ninja Cab. It sounds so good in a mix with minimal tweaking, it’s got handles in the right places on the cab, carry bag is hideously convenient for the head. Preferred this set up to nearly everything else I own apart from my SVT and Bassman 8x10, but it annihilates everything in terms of portability, quality of sound and ease of use, second maybe only to the stupidly lightweight GR Bass stuff.

First and foremost It's the rhythm of one's bass playing that holds a band together and propels the rest to glory (whether they deserve it or not 😄). Rather than being a frustrated guitarist playing bass, I've always thought of myself as a frustrated drummer. Basically I play the drums on on bass, with the chord tones of whatever is going on being my kit. That's a very simple description of how I go about it but people always seem to like it.

As @SurroundedByManatees mentioned, the bridge was not factory fitted, but is an add-on, I remember owning a set of original Fender brass knobs still in their packaging that I gave to a friend needing them and they were so heavy!?! You now have to search for the original bridge which is the one not fitted (so the packed one) on this fully original 1982 (aka Dan Smith era) Fender Precision Bass Special and you can also try to find the original ashtrays while you're at it.. If you look at the image above, you'll understand that the two outer holes on your bridge were meant to align with the bridge cover holes. 😉 Just in case you want to read the Fender ad provided, again, by @SurroundedByManatees, here it is: My main question is: How much does the whole bass weigh as, with all that brass, it must quite heavy? I guess around 5 kilos or even more...