Leaderboard

Well, after weeks of deliberation I finally caved and have absolutely no regrets. MusicMan Pino fretted signature (I have enough fretless basses). This sounds immense with the flats, probably pop some rounds at some point. It is an expensive piece of kit but I can justify it. Cracking bass 👍.

One of my greatest regrets was selling my MP-201 some ten years back. Finally, I got my hands on another. Mint condition. Christmas came early.

My "do-it-while-you-can" moment arrived the day my younger sister was diagnosed with a terminal glioblastoma aged 44. She was young, relatively fit and healthy, a mother, a partner and to be told that it's extremely unlikely your 44 year old sibling will survive this is a moment that I'll never forget. Our mum believed that a cure would be found and that she would be ok - the trip to tell her that her daughter had passed away in person, not by phone was a harrowing journey knowing what lay at the end of my travels. It changed my outlook on life...changed the way I looked at blame. If something isn't my fault, not a decision I have made or had any input in then just don't stress it. Equally, if I had any involvement did I try my hardest? Did I try my best? Again, if I can honestly answer yes then don't stress. I do things not because my sister wanted to do the same things, but because she was denied the opportunity to do them, even if she didn't want to! Our grip on this life is slender - live your life to the full and in a way that brings joy to you.

And this classic:

It is fitting that those who have remained Abstinent for 50 weeks, should now find themselves battling at Boss Level. For those of us who were defeated in Round 1 by Mario's banana skin, I give you @Bass Direct, the Bowser of Bass Temptation...

It's the last few weeks of this year's abstinence thread and we've got @Bass Direct in here waving the wand of temptation at people. 😂😂😂

This lovely instrument turned up on Monday. The finish is just great. In a dark room, you wouldn't know it wasn't black, but the quilt veneer just peeps out at you. The NS shape is super comfortable too. The neck is fairly chunky, but not too wide - I'm finding it to be very comfortable. And the rosewood fretboard is very dark and even. It does make me wonder if it has been dyed. Very harsh edge to the fingerboard, but that should soften with use. Nice and light at 3.87kg/8.5lbs but a little bit of neck dive. I think some Ultralights or Gotoh GB350s would be just the ticket to sort that I reckon. It isn't bad with the lightly grippy RightOn strap I got at the same time. The tuners arrived in a sorry state though. There was a scuff on the back and a bubble under the gold plating on the D string tuner. Thankfully, @Bass Direct have ordered me some replacements (thanks!), so I'll get those on when they and my custom Newtone string set arrives. It sounds great. It's very mid forward which is new for me. I'm used to having to add them in with my Dingwall. The boost/cut range on the preamp seems to make a fairly huge difference. For my use I think just some subtle movements are what's required. The Aguilar pickups seem to be nice and clear too. I'm not a bridge pickup person, but the blends are all very useable. It's nice and even sounding across the neck though and nicely resonant. Other than the tuners, which will be sorted in due course, I'm very happy!

WTAF ? When you aliens take over the minds of our members it would really help you pass unnoticed if you don’t make stupid uncharacteristic statements like that. no genuine basschat member would ever come out with such rubbish 🤦‍♂️ Do your freaking homework !

“I’ve booked a spa trip” pulls up outside bass direct ”it’s leamington spa”

Oh dear ….. I see financial damage in your future and I didn’t need a crystal ball 🤦‍♂️

I don't drive a bus.

I suppose it's that time of year again for the classics:

For me, with guitars/basses, it’s more about era when referring to something being ‘vintage’, rather than a dictionary definition. With Fender, it’s pre-CBS (up to end of ‘64), Musicman it’s pre-EB, Rickenbacker, it’s full width inlays etc. I had some ‘82 Fender basses, and while they are 43 years old, I would never call them vintage (despite the definition), they were sold as vintage reissues at the time, and I still consider them that. Maybe it’s an age thing (of me, not the instruments?!) 😜

Any song is open to rearrangement.

The final and true test of an abstainer’s mettle. 😬

Just done 3 evenings on the bounce, which is quite different for me. Yesterday with my usual melodic metal band, Monday with the slightly more symphonic metal band I've been depping for the last year - but have very recently joined as a permanent member following the eventual departure of their existing bassist, and Sunday with a pub lesser-spotted-covers outfit involving the drummer from the former-dep band. The term 'my band' needs some clarification going forward as there are now three of them, but I'll go with it for now. My band hasn't had a full meet since mid-September due to various work and family bits, so it was nice to get back in the room for the last blast of the year. We have the local Metal 2 The Masses competition in early January (we enter every year; I can't see us ever winning it, but it's a bit of fun) so it was good to find that we could all still remember the songs. To quote our drummer, it's like riding a bike; you never lose the ability to fall off. Warwick RB Streamer LX 5 (passive) -> Joyo 5GHz bugs -> [Boss TU-2 -> EBS MultiComp] -> Mesa D-800 -> Barefaced One10 (x2) Also pulled my modded Harley Benton PJ-5 out of storage and played it for a few songs. It's far too good to just sit in storage so I brought it back home. My new band is a bit more organised and busy, so we had a run-through of the set for a headline gig next Friday. I need to do something about upping my ear protection as the rehearsal room is decidedly medium but with a large PA at play, and my ears are singing. I think part of the problem is that my usual vented Doc's weren't quite cutting it so I bought some new unvented ones in the same size.. but the material has changed and they feel just a little smaller so I'm not sure they're sealing properly. I'll have to buy the next size up before Monday, and also take my Flare Isolates just in case. Warwick RB Streamer LX 5 (passive) -> Joyo 5GHz bugs -> [Boss TU-3w -> MXR M87 -> Sansamp BDDI v2] -> TC BAM200 -> Hartke VX215 The covers outfit is very much just getting going and we're still working around some mismatches in musical taste. I'm travelling hopefully, but at the same time I've told them very openly that I'm not in music for money and won't give up my evenings to play stuff I don't like just because I'm getting fifty quid for it. We've got an initial twenty or so songs that are sounding decent after only a few weeks, but bands like that need a fair bit of material so we'll see how hard the next twenty are to find and take it from there. They're good lads, so fingers crossed. Fazley Piranha 5 (heavily modded) -> TC BAM200 -> Hartke VX215

Running late again on updates. Lovely communion service on Sunday night with a nice mix of carols and choruses. The set list for the service was: Great Things Holy Forever Make Room Seasons (piano and vocals) Communion - by Brooke Ligertwood, lovely song with some nice alternating 4:4 / 3:4 bars in the chorus for a wee bit of prog worship!! Mary Did You Know - modelled a bit after the Mary J Blige version Trust In God I do enjoy playing the Phil Wickham songs - they seem to encourage me to break out the plectrum as that just kinda sounds right for the rhythms in the bass. Not a very regular pick player but it just seems to work in the context of his tunes. Seasons is a lovely song with interesting words. We decided during the rehearsal before the service that it would be nice really stripped back so was just piano and vocals in the end. Mary Did You Know was fun too. Such a gentle mellow song, and again lyrics that capture the mystery of the Christmas story. We later funked it up as an outro instrumental after the end of the service. It was doubly good as we had a sax player for this week. Cool. And of course, the church was looking nice and Christmassy, which complemented the vibe very nicely!!! My Sandberg VM4 was my trusty companion for the service. Love that bass!!!!!

Well, it wasn't last night, but on the 30th November. We, Verdant Rupture, did alright on our debut gig. Went rather askew in the last song (the one about the lesbian suicide polycule*) and needs some drum reworking to fix the issues. Playing the song written in Sheffield General Cemetery, that's about the SGC, in the SGC was a thing of beauty. I'd post the link to the livestream, but the sound on that was very not good because no one was monitoring it, unlike in the room and on stage - both of which were decent. *Keira and I choose interesting subject matter.

yeah - sanding finished and just got it first coat of oil (of about ten apparently) so ... in next 3 5 month I guess. no idea. (its gonna have a Darkglass pre amp with dual coil in wooden covers)

I have developed a new habit since I retired 18 months ago. I say yes. Someone invites me for a walk? Come to a concert? Visit a friend? Go shopping in Asda with Mrs Dinger? Go to a meal with 30 people that i don't know? Yes. At most, it is 2 hours out of my life, and it makes people happy. And often, it makes me happy too! As Steve Cropper reminded us, Time is Tight.

Time to bring back this thread to life. A funky Albert Collins.

Modded my VM5 with a split coil switch for a bit more of a P/J tone. Works pretty nicely, I must say. It switches between full humbucker and front coil.

actually sourced it and sent it to him (through suppliers who sell to luthiers and custom shops- its no secret by now I'm a bass dealer) it was sourced in the US

Brian Harvey, takes a certain amount of genius to run yourself over.

Last rehearsal of the year(?) with the originals lot tonight. But now I'm choosing the versions of the new songs for Bendricks Rock to share, so the guitarists can be 100% sure to learn the wrong ones. 😶

I’m glad it’s coming back; it’s a lovely pedal. With Dan Coggin’s involvement at Thorpy I’ve been hoping for something like this for a while.

No idea, but they definitely used tracing paper for the logo!

Last night was my one and only rehearsal with the band I'm depping with on Saturday. It's my second gig with them and they have several new songs in the list that I've had to learn from scratch. Saturday's gig is at a new venue that they're hoping to add to their growing list of regulars and is, apparently, sold out. So no pressure on me to perform and maintain their well deserved reputation. 😂 They are a very tight band and the rehearsals are hard work without being unpleasant. I like that and it's something I haven't experienced for a few years. I left after 3.5 hours last night feeling that I'd worked hard, performed well and that we'd got any minor issues sorted. Sterling 34HH into the board MS60b with noisegate and tuner and for one song a nice synth patch > Sculpture compressor > Voodoo Vibe > Ampeg SCRDI > HPF > FX return of the a Peavey Minimax > 2x 1x10" TE cabs. Plus I was DI'd into their PA which they requested. On the night, with an added bass bin to the PA, I may only use on TE speaker as a backline monitor.

These look like basses someone will get a lifetime's worth of pleasure from playing. Just a really nice old-school Stingray, so much fun to be had with that. Three and a half grand-ish is a lot of money, but these basses look pretty good value to me in the current market. A Stingray Special in a nice finish is now over 3k, and compared to Fender Custom Shop basses these EBMM Pino basses are a veritable bargain.

Thanks this is just what I was looking for, it fulfills the 'Christmas Present' part of the brief in looking more satisfying than a set of 'wires' and being in just about the right price range. The little diamond files from Ali Express are what I would buy myself for a one off job so many thanks to @kodiakblair and @tauzero for their advice too. Let's see what Santa brings

Last night was my first concert with Keswick Choral Society. Main Christmas concert. Full house. Went well, no obvious disasters! The biggest piece we did was by Cecilia McDowall: Christus Natus Est which is a working of various Medieval tunes including Personent Hodie, Entre le boeuf, Gaudete, etc. This is a contemporary work written in 2007.

I might have to drive over and try that Rinaldis EVO FX5. I have absolutely no money spare, but I am really curious to know what they are like. https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/rinaldis-evo-fx5-pre-owned/

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...

I’ve been looking

Interesting timing:

Still in, baby and not going out this year!

Fixed....😉🤣

What was that bloke’s name from East 17? He managed it.

As others have said tension can differ a fair bit I have recently purchased a set La Bella low tension flats and they feel great not cheap at 44quid a set but they are made with a light round core so more like a roundwound that a traditional flat string.