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The Plough in Ashby is a tiny pub so we do it "acoustically" to have a smaller footprint. It's also rather fun playing songs a bit differently on the "Rocket Music by Stagg" EUB. A few random requests, a few Christmas songs and lots of happy people in the crowd drinking & dancing. In fact it was the busiest we've seen it. One more tomorrow, before Xmas Edit to add this photo - AI has turned us into elves 😂

As a life long John Taylor fan I simply had to get myself one of these Dingwalls. I don't really do more than one pickup and volume, tone knob. This was b stock from Thomann. It had been used in their photos and has a slight ding on the back An amazing set up, action as low as Ive ever played and the pre-amp is amazing too. If only I had some gigs booked that weren't tribute gigs. Fanned frets. My word, just don't look at them. It does sound quite P bass like on the neck pickup I'll bring the Ampeg into my music room over the christmas break and see how it really sounds

The last gig before XMas at the Hilltop club in Dronfield for Glam Viva! last night. This is a great club and was packed to the rafters with enthusiastic dancers. I said on here last week that the silly season gigs can be a bit hit and miss but fortunately this was a hit. Booked back for next NYE with the promise of a mid year gig also. Next Saturday we’re back to pub land, a nice venue we played mid year in Worksop….they’ve asked for some XMas songs so maybe Xmas isnt over band wise just yet.

I think I've been fairly lucky with my '25 gigs and had almost forgotten the common reality of being in an originals band; putting in a lot of time, effort and distance only to end up playing to a very select crowd rattling around in quite a big room. Well, 'Mad Friday' was spent 70 miles away doing just that. We were very much reliant on the two home bands bringing a home crowd, but possibly due to the time of year, specific day, general level of circulating illnesses, £7adv/£10door ticket price etc. it just didn't happen. We nipped into another pub on the same stretch of road and that was dead as well, so it wasn't like everyone was just camping out next door. Ho-hum. I've injured my back so the whole thing was a literal pain, but it was fun to slim back the gear to an absolute minimum and see (with a provided house cab) what I could get away with. In the end, it all went in two Mono Vertigos and one Tick bag. Ear protection worked better for being a size larger in the new material they've started making Doc Pro's out of. Footwear was a pair of the wonderfully named Skechers 'Wascana Benen' tac boots. They're refusing to break in and are absolutely eating me alive. RB Vampyre 5 (Streamer LX 5 on the K&M Heli 2 this time) -> Joyo 5GHz bugs -> T21 FlyRig v2 {DI -> PA} -> TC BAM200 -> Hartke 4x10 Have to hand it to the TC BAM - it's a great little amp and I'm just glad that I didn't let my dislike of the TE Elf stop me giving it a try.

That’s right that’s right that’s right that’s right …🙂

Last nights gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band in Cambusnethan Miners Club. Was sold out with 200+ tickets sold. Not an empty seat in the hall. It was crammed full. Mostly women in the audience and a mixed age group too. Looked like a few Xmas party groups in. Dancing from the first song all thru the full show. One pair of dancers dressed for the occasion were literally dancing every song of a 2.5hr show. They were on their feet more than us. 🤩 The atmosphere was literally electric and it makes you feel better and put more into the show. The singer was on top form with his audience participation. Not bad considering he drove there straight from work. We had so many people chapping our dressing room door to have a chat and thank us for a fantastic night. Was quite over-whelming but still nice to hear. Sound was incredible from our Sound Engineer And PA guy who is now our new permanent 6th band member. People that saw us there 2 yrs ago said the sound was much more full this time around and you could hear the difference between backline and full PA use. Feed back was sensational with many requests for contact details with the venue wanting to book for next Xmas too. Another woman that asked if we would play the club she manages as she was so impressed by the band and the show. This was a club i played back in early 80's. Similar sized Club too. She's adamant she'll have us booked for 2026 and was so complimentary. And she made a point of telling me she was teetotal and sober so that sounds promising. Will see what else comes out of it all. Tonight at The Dreadnought so hopefully will see the same reaction from the audience tonight. We're already booked in for next Xmas so no worries there. Think this is 4yrs in a row so far we've played the Sat before Xmas. My usual gear Sandberg MarloweDK - Shure GLXD wireless - Bassist Comp - Handbox WB-100 - BF 212 cab. Dave

Last gig before Xmas for BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band at The Dreadnought in Bathgate was another great night of party fun. 110 advanced ticket sales at £10 a pop and quite a few walk-ins took it up to approx 120. 80/20 split to us on ticket sales so a good nights work if you would even call it that. Its just great fun doing Xmas gigs. Great feedback from the audience at the end as always in this venue. Its our singers home town and her local at weekends when not gigging. Fun stories of the night :- #1. Our singer was in loo at start of the evening and a guy asked if he had seen the band before. He replied yes and that he'd seen them at every gig in this venue. The guy was none the wiser that he was talking to the singer. Wigs, make-up and outfits tends to throw them off the scent a bit. #2. My wife and singer wife were sitting at a table with very few seats remaining when 2 guys asked if they could take the 2 spare stools at the table and they both said yes and they then asked if it would be ok for them to sit at same table as it was quite busy. While sitting there they then asked if the 2 women had seen the band before and just like the previous funny story they both said yes but elaborated that one was singers wife and the other the bass players wife. We are already booked in for next year the Sat before Xmas plus a summer gig too. Fingers a bit tender from Fri nights gig but managed ok without any issues. Tiredness was creeping in during 2nd set but managed to enjoy it all right to the end. 45min drive home and home for 1:15am, coffee and biccy then bed cause i was quite knackered TBH. Next gig for us is Hogmanay which should be another busy one and then on 3rd Jan up to Dundee for what should be another great one. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas guys. Until next year all the best. Dave 🎅

I found a broken paving slab in the back garden and used that. Lo and behold, 15 mins later, it looks a lot better. Lesson here is don't use a softwood base (cut bad puns) to hammer against. Masked the area off and cut it with a Dremel and new cutting discs and the cutting is almost done. I forgot to take into account the rubber edges which hide the raw metal so it's possibly one row of holes too large in each direction. The blue tape is just to hold things together as the rubber edge really wants to curl off I'm still thinking about how to fix it to the speaker cab OR to the red corner pieces. Magnets might be the answer here. I have a lot of the strong ones and a simple addition to the red corner pieces might work well. A little bit of velcro through a few holes would allow it to be pulled off easily. With a black baffle board, it might look quite good for me. Rob

I'm going to try to do gear abstinence next year, so I thought I'd have one final swatch at FB marketplace. I was instantly reminded how dangerous it is when this bad boy appeared for a very keen price (complete with a Hiscox Liteflite hard case) and on the right side of England for my purposes. I decided to carpe that diem. 9 hour round trip, but it was definitely worth it. Basically unusued, the only issues were that it was a bit dusty in places, and there was some goop on the headstock where a clearly disintegrating stand had been cradling. Managed to get that cleaned off - it hadn't stained the finish, yay! Gave it a fret polish and oiled the fingerboard and gave it a good old setup. So, how is the "Stingray killer"? Good, as far as I can tell in headphones. My favourite finish for these basses would be Soda Blue, but this natural one is growing on me in its elegant simplicity, and the black pickguard suits it very well. But that's it! No more! I will be striving to make 2026 a fallow year in the gear acquisition stakes, so I guess I was getting one final hit in before the lockdown. FYI - no Stingrays were harmed in the making of this. Merry Christmas to me (and everyone else!)

A wise man once didn't bother to say "An expensive bass is one that is bought, but never played."

This is one of the BassChat 110's I've made. I covered it with van carpet. Very red I know but it's different, which is what I wanted.

[Let’s try this in the right place this time] Good gig last night at a new venue. Drummer won the reconstituted Cannon Trophy, awarded in the past for the person that had the biggest ‘mare on the night. Local gig for me, he lives 45 minutes away, and forgot his cymbals so had a mad dash home and back to get them…he made it back with 10 minutes to spare, at which point we admitted the potential for a late start was averted 🤣 FrankenJazz -> Darkglass Anagram -> Darkglass Microtubes -> BigBaby2. Started off with the pad switched in, but it was all a bit lost so turned it off and the whole thing came alive. Had one guitarist (both the other side of the kit) look over and say I was a bit loud but from where I was it sounded fine so left it. 😁 Went to a blues jam this afternoon. I’ve been threatening to go for ages but never have before, however I needed to go to get tyres sorted at Kwik Fit, which gave me an excuse to sneak a bass into the car and go down after. Only the house band bass player other than me there so I got called up a few times. Took the Tokai Hard Puncher which sounded nice from a clip I’ve seen on FB. Had someone come up to ask if I was looking for a band, so I may have dropped myself in the c@rp with ‘er indoors by saying maybe 🤦‍♂️

For me, it's about what my income and expenditure allow. I don't have a huge amount of indulgent money. Like many i/I/we have to plan and save. I have spent a lot on a bass, as I've treated them like investments. I have 2 what I would class as expensive basses. My Fender Jazz custom shop cost a fair amount. However, I've gigged with it for years, and it's never given me a problem. It's consistent and reliable. I've probably earned a fair few grand from it each year I've had it. It has paid for itself several times over. So yes, expensive, but in my opinion, a good investment in a workhorse of an instrument.

Great first show of two this weekend at the lovely Trading Boundaries venue in East Sussex, fairly local for us. Roy and Rob the sound guys are great and always do us proud. Fantastic sound out the GB Spitfire /puma/LFsys Monza set up. Very receptive audience as always, nice not to have to break everything down, just take my basses home . Looking forward to tonight’s one now . Happy Christmas everyone! Xx😊

Next Sunday (28th Dec) at 7-15pm. Jah Wobble talks about bass, bass and bass. Sounds good to me. BBC Radio 4 - Illuminated, Bass Notes https://share.google/mAXXaQY45g9XE5spg

I felt the need for a bare minimum board for the occasions where the Big One is overkill. Or I'm too tired/lazy to carry it. Polytune 2(?) > 3 Leaf Audio Mini > Way Huge Pork Loin > BassRig Fifteen All powered by a Truetone OneSpot into the Gigrig modular system.

As soon as it appeared on the BassBros socials I had to have it. My 2nd birth year Rickenbacker. Fireglo…..but I kinda feel it’s not actually fireglo but maybe Autumnglo?! It’s a lot darker and brownish to what I’d expect a fireglo to be (pictures show it lighter than it actually is) Either way I love it.

Our male singer couldn’t make the gig on Friday so Laurie our other vocalist sang like a bird for 90 minutes straight. Wish I could do that! cbf49fb4-bd9f-4bfb-be3e-57ae883ac503.mov

I have a 1981 Stingray. It is my first and until recently, my only bass. I need a back realignment after playing it for any length of time but.... It sounds incredible. In the early 90's it was Rotosounds through a Trace Elliott 1x15 / 4x10 and it always sounded bloody amazing. Huge growl and a punchy low end. After a decade of laying dormant in it's case, It has seen the light again and yes.... it still sounds bloody amazing! Currently strung with Dunlop flats due to some nerve damage in middle fretting finger (bizarre gardening accident) and you guessed it. It still sounds bloody amazing. Arguably, even better due to a more balanced sound between strings. I can't imagine not having it in my life.

You can't adjust/straighten a damaged stylus. A replacement OE stylus for that cart' is around £60. I'd be leery of no-name or knock-off ones, but it's your choice. Google it and you'll find plenty. It goes without saying that you shouldn't play your vinyl if the stylus is as badly out of alignment as you state. You'll do serious damage. It's worth replacing very old belts on turntables as they do stretch and even perish. If it's 40 years old, it could probably do with a drop of oil for the bearing, but enquire of the everything Dual website you refer to.

First, go there to find all data available for your turntable: https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable-database.php?make=Dual&mdl=CS+505&sort=2&ascdesc=ASC&search=search&drive=any&motor=any&control=any&auto=any&changer=any Then on the same website, you'll find the data available for your cartridge: https://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_database.php?m=any&mod=DN165E&t=any&sort=2&Search=Search&sty=&ovlo=&ovhi=&can=&dclo=&dchi=&stid=&masslo=&masshi=&notes=&prlo=&prhi= Finally, buy a new stylus, like here: https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/ortofon-dn-165e-replacement-stylus

And he's also very well known for being a mega cheapskate, so he bought the cheapest he could find and that was that Höfner (correct spelling), the rest is history.

I guess the question is more what is a too expensive bass than what is an expensive bass, because you have to put the work done and the hardware price in balance as well as the research, patent, trial and error, prototypes and so on. So, to me, any Fender is too expensive as it's basically 2 planks screwed together and sometimes really screwed (see what I did here). I've always preferred luthier made instruments than mass production ones, because you know who you are giving your money to and you can get (almost) exactly what you want after a very long dialogue. The limit depends on so many factors that the best answer has already been given wisely: Expensive meaning simply something you can't afford.

The cartoon says it all. Logically, the genuine road wear ( the scratch) should add more value than the fake ( Sandberg applied ) wear. Meanwhile on Wal and Warwick forums the question is "if I get my bass refinished to look like new, will it be more valuable" to which the answer is generally yes. Equally dumb as it's the sound that counts.

You folk are using money?? I bought a Mexican Fender Jazz back in 2008 and have straight swapped my main bass on here ever since 😇 Thank you Basschat ❤️

Well, you never know... I thought I'd have a look at a Vintera Bass VI and see if that inspired me, and it did occur to me that it would be the right size to put over the retaining nuts for the pots so that when you put the knobs on, they'd be spaced a card thickness away from the control plate so they'd be a consistent height and have adequate clearance.

I interpreted the question as what would be too expensive for me to buy. I think I would struggle to justify anything north of £3k because I would simply be too afraid to take it out of the house, and also the law of diminishing returns probably means paying large amounts for incremental differences once you get above this point.

Just made a video with my latest pedalboard iteration. Reduced to a minimum...for now. I'll see how it develops from here

Hi folks I've always loved the Stingray fretless sound, but they are quite a few quid especially his sig bass, so I set myself a task to see what could be done for not too many £s to get the look and as much of the tone as possible. Here's what happened next... I picked up a preloved DiMavery MM501 fretless as a starting point. Actually a lot nicer that I thought it might be, well put together (even with quite a weird passive set up). Nice Rosewood board, lovely satin finish to the D profile neck and acceptable hardware. Brucie bonus, it weighs less than 8lbs. I acquired a Retrovibe Stinger '77 with the Retrovide AlNiCo MM pickup (wired in parallel for this project) and put it all together. Finally I decided just to spray the midly unpleasant tort pickguard black to save a few quid. I also swapped the original fit rounds for some LaBella LT flats. Here's how it came out. To my ears, and despite my huge talent deficit, I think it sounds pretty good and I am really pleased with the results. If were to do any further upgrades, I think I'd go for a proper new pickguard, some better knobs to cover the nuts on the pots and maybe a nice metal or bone nut. As ever my timing is appalling as my arthritis means I'm not playing much now, but if anyone is interested please PM me.

Wondering just how wierd I am for having these issues over inanimate objects.... I've got a beautiful Sandberg TT which was a 10 yr anniversary gift from my wife. It's amazing and I delight in it every i play it. Feel very lucky to own it. But I've recently bought a Sire Z3 as something cheaper to use in less salubrious venues and as I'd fancied sampling the stingray-ish vibe.... and I bloody love it. Massively exceeded all my expectations and I just love the sound. Got a gig tomorrow where there's no reason not to take the Sandberg, but I really want to use the Z3. Genuinely feel a sense of guilt about it. Anyone else feel any qualms like this?

I've been very quiet on here recently, for various reasons, but the main one is that I've been building, and learning to run a music venue! I run a recording studio, and my mate runs rehearsal rooms, all from one building in Stoke. We've built up a decent reputation over the years. There was one bit of the building we didn't have, and that was a garage, but last year the mechanic upped and left, and the landlord offered it to us. We spent countless hours turning a dirty old garage into a spanking new venue and I'm super proud of it. Please check it out if you're looking for live music in Stoke or The Midlands, and obviously get in touch if you'd like to play! www.rifffactory.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/rifffactoryuk/ The bar: Opening week: The garage:

I wanted an OD that could go from clean tubelike boost to fuzzy grit and some good videos convinced me to get Earthquaker Devices Blumes, but all the stores in my part of the world had it either unavailable or available with bad shipping cost, so I spent more or less identical amount of money at my favorite local boutique pedalmaker's. Went to Blue Colander and grabbed the almighty Crooked Axis. It's a "Multipurpose Gain Device", it offers a super wide range of clean and unclean sounds. Ultra transparent clean 2-band EQ tone-shaping, clean boost, warm tubelike OD, fat and thick OD, grainy and gritty distortion, brassy fuzz and even a lo-fi destruction with spontaneous sub-octave occurrence. It's all there. Plus an active Bass and Treble control with amazing tone shaping capability. Yet another brilliant pedal by Blue Colander.

You might like this one with Zeeteah, Don is on bass, great Bassline

I went for the TS312s on foh and 310s for monitoring. On larger gigs we add a 312s sub.

I'm probably going to try to put a small 3d printed block under each corner with quite a strong magnet hidden away. Thats the lime green bit below. The magnet is 0.5mm under the surface of the plastic and so can't be seen. It will have a plug in the back of it and it *may* have some self adhesive foam under that to avoid rattling, I didn't think of the foam so thanks for that. I will also add some foam on the top of the mount between the plastic block and the grille as you suggested. Good ideas those. The block will be welded to the corner piece (thats the purple bit). Its welded, not glued as the "glue" melts the plastic together and forms a stronger bond than the plastic itself. Might be superglue, might be Floplast. if this doesn;t work, then the recesses battern is plan B Thanks Rob

Aye, he had £30 to spend but a Fender cost £100 so he bought the Höfner. If he'd had a bigger budget he'd have bought a Fender, Höfner would never have got the Beatles association lifeline and went bust decades ago 👍

One of the first basses made for me by Alan Cringean of ACG. Genuinely compares with other high-end basses I’ve played. Get your hand on one (even mine) to see/hear for yourself. I’m confident that you will at least consider getting one (or two)….

I've mentioned this before but during Covid I had to take a bass down to Laurence Dixon. Opened the door to the 'showroom' and there were maybe a dozen DBs lined up on the floor, just in from a big London orchestra for fettling and/or repair. Every single one of them had faint but clear pencil marks on the neck where the dots would be ...

Bit late to this, sorry. What is the actual difference in scale length between the two basses? A friend of mine tours internationally and when she can't take her instrument she has to make do with whatever the venue or promoter has managed to hire for her gigs. This means she adjusts to different string lengths and D/ Eb necks with very little time to practice with an instrument. She has a little leather patch with double sided tape that she sticks on the neck at the D position as physical marker for her thumb on Eb necks. Works brilliantly. As you own both these basses you could make a wooden block to a similar shape curve to D neck and hide glue it on to the Eb neck. Easily removed if you wanted to sell the bass. That's what I'd be inclined to do. As others have said, please Don't shift the bridge - a couple of mm is fine in reality, but there would be no gain in doing this as the difference in scale length is probably an order of magnitude greater than what you could compensate for by moving the bridge (and you would need to tweak the soundpost after moving the bridge). Carving the new nut is definitely the only way to make them have the same scale length without commiting to a neck graft. It shouldn't be expensive and if you are handy is not an especially difficult DIY project, certainly to test the waters at least. You don't need to use ebony. Your Luthier may in fact want to nudge the bridge towards the fingerboard by a few mm to help maintain a D neck with the new nut etc etc, but they will then adjust the soundpost. As others have said the aesthetics may put you off, but I was close to buying a bass with an extended nut which had a C extension so it all ended up looking pretty good indeed! Let us know what you decided to do. Good luck

There is a snobbery about this kind of thing, when all that really matters is that the end product sounds good. Having listened to numerous DB players, some of whom are revered, some dots (other markers are available) would help immeasurably. I’d rather see lines and dots than listen to pitchy playing.

Well I thought I was done for the year as I have spent far too much this year. Then BD had a rather nice Jap Ray and even though I have had a couple before and wasn`t wowed by them this natural/maple combo was just too tempting. I really need to give the 3 band more time and get a sound that suits. Well that`s my excuse anyway! Hopefully it will arrive before Xmas.

You place it over the bridge of your nose to give the impression a solid piece has embedded itself in you. You will also require tomato sauce.

I wouldn't disagree that it seems like a random scratch (as opposed to factory) BUT the very fact the bass is 'aged' I can't see that you'd ever manage to claim it was / wasn't part of the process!

This pic I took captures the colour better. also…my perfect 3 bass setup 😍

Females don't suffer from male weakness. She's had two kids. Don't know about you but I was 9lb 3oz at birth; that's "too heavy" for most fellas on here 😀

Don talking about something that has also annoyed me for a while - the often repeated online misconception that Reggae Basslines don't play on the one, and that the 'one drop' is referring to Bass. "you can play on the one, you can play off the one, it makes no difference when you're playing over a one drop, the one drop is the drum pattern"