Leaderboard

Following on from Thursday night's open mic, Mein Host had asked me if I'd like to play bass for his duo at a local pub, the Market Vaults, on Friday (last night). I said yes, and a set list arrived on Friday lunchtime. A few of the songs I knew, most of them I'd at least heard a few times before, and one or two I wasn't at all familiar with, so spent a while copying chord sheets from Ultimate Guitar and having a quick play through some of the songs. Headed into town on the evening and all the car parks were rammed - managed to park a few minutes walk away. Fortunately I was only carrying the 6" cab, TC BAM200 amp, gigbag, and Sei headless fretless, so I coped. The Market Vaults is a long thin pub, and we were at the back. Immediately to the right of the stovepipe PA is the passageway to the toilets, so the photo shows the entire available performance area - I sit to play, so I was sitting on the bench on the left with my amp just by me and the monitor right behind me, and just enough space between tables to put my tablet stand in. The gig itself went well. A couple of fluffs (not all by me) and I hadn't got the chords written down right for Crazy, plus for some reason I hadn't got the final draft of my chordsheets on the tablet so I had to remember a couple of the songs. And afterwards I was asked if I'd like to do more gigs with them (I said yes). Edit: Using Sei Original 5 headless fretless -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-70CDR+ -> TC BAM200 -> BC house jam micro cab. Footwear - the usual Caravelle memory foam trainers, which was a bit of a risk with snow forecast.

I bought a Monaco a few months ago on here and last night was the first gig I've had since playing bass. It's a venue we play a few times a year, so I'm familiar with how my bass rig usually sounds there. It's a social club and we're a band of drums, bass, two guitars, keys and a singer. There's a raised stage in the corner and I'm right in the corner behind the keyboard amp and one of the guitar amps. The PA is vocal only, so all the instruments heard front of house are coming directly from the back line. We never sound check, so it's a case of suck-it-and-see. I'm using the cab with an Ashdown RM800 evoiii and a few pedals. Origin Effects compressor and the Origin Effects DCX bass for some extremely slight grit. I used a MusicMan Stingray Special for this gig. Right from the first song I was impressed by the separation and clarity of the sound coming from my rig. I've not experienced that with my other cabs. I was standing right next to the cab and could hear it perfectly. I enjoyed to overall sound so much that I didn't touch any settings on the amp or pedals throughout the whole 2 hour gig which is unusual as I usually tweak a couple of things as I go. I was worried about whether I was too loud, but it's impossible to tell what it sounds like out front without a soundcheck. I wasn't sure if the clarity of the bass sound was giving me the impression that it was louder than it usually is. So I just stuck with that volume and enjoyed myself! I am very impressed. A fellow bassist said it sounded great and was asking about the cab. He said he was thinking of buying one, so I gave him the website address.

Our 2nd gig with our new guitarist. He did incredibly well. We've somewhat dropped him in the deep end with the number of songs to learn in a short time. There weren't that many people there but considering it was blowing a gale it was a decent turnout. Got loads of compliments. 2 ladies who'd been at a party in London the evening before said we were far better than the band at that event...which had charged £25k. I think we're under charging 🤣🤣🤣

It’s been a long time since I posted a board! Shure GLDX16+ into a Quad Cortex Mini, powered by a battery. Testing this evening went from 100% down to 70 odd in about 3hrs 11 mins before I switched it all off. That would be more than enough for a practice or gig. Whether I’m brave enough for that remains to be seen! 😂

OK.. we're into the Arena now. Tonight was a soundcheck, and a cursory run-through the set. Tomorrow we'll be going into more depth, checking cues etc. Here's some pics:

Fast paced, fun video reviewing why the 80's were so special for bass players. The gear, the players, the innovations and SO MUCH more! This video provides a wide overview of the experience in the U.S. with LOTS of U.K. crossover - Mark King, Pino Palladino, Wal, Status, Trace Elliot, The Bass Centre, etc. Enjoy the memories!

Only one of them an original 80's (Ivory, '84)

Not a lot of 'touring', mostly just stints of maybe 4 days at a time travelling in a converted 17-seater minibus... and that got boring very rapidly. With not much to do, lots of waiting around, and usually free beer... I started understanding why many of the bands I followed as a kid had stories of drugs and general debauchery. Probably just to keep from going insane. I guess it can be more interesting when you wake up in Paris one day and Rome the next, rather than driving from Nuneaton to Kidderminster, then Folkestone, back to Coventry and run to Newcastle. Sleeping arrangements varied from Travelodge style hotels to somebody's floor/sofa or the van. When the minibus beshiteth on us and broke down (several times) it added an extra layer of crap. Don't get me wrong, it was a great experience... but not one I need to repeat, unless the £££ level is an order of magnitude larger.

Not half, I’d gig for a year for £25k

I recently picked up this book in a charity shop for a few pounds and it’s really great. We’ll put together, insightful and funny. You can get in on eBay for a few quid. Would recommend.

My experience of my first tour was the same Len, was early 90s for me, reinforced my thoughts that music was my hobby, something I did for fun, and didn’t want it as a job. I did a few European tours with Knock Off from 2015 - 19. Aside from the fact that the tours imo were poorly organised, being centred more around which town centre we could walk around all day than being based upon making the gigging as easy as possible I didn’t find it too bad. Again the organisation of finishing a gig then driving 3hrs to the next hotel I found a bind, especially when seeing other bands drive 20mins to their hotels. Was a big factor in me leaving.

Nice one AL. I’ll get us rolling. My time ‘on the road’ didn’t last long. I quickly realised I didn’t have the resilience and passion necessary. Bearing in mind this was the late seventies, the things that did it for me were; poor quality food at inconvenient/unhealthy times, uncomfortable travel and bad sleeping arrangements. I did about six months and then bottled-out for a career in engineering. After that I was happy to keep music as a hobby. For me, the T&Cs of music as a full-time weren’t worth it. I do admire all those who have what it takes to do it. Ironically, later in my career in chemical engineering I ended-up working overseas on various projects. However, I did have a company Gold Amex card and my own choice of hotels. A mate of mine always says, if the life of a touring musician was promoted as a punishment Amnesty International would be all over it.

Aye... sorry, everyone. Being in an Eagles tribute band will do that to you. I need that bridge pickup for some of the tunes. That's a 2017 American Standard, and it's blummin' lovely! OK - that's four days of rehearsals over... I'm knackered, but so far, so good. It's a great batch of songs, but inevitably the trickiest tune of the lot has had a late-in-the-day key change. As a non-reader, it keeps things spicy. We're in to the Arena tomorrow night to check lines & monitors, and have a couple of run-throughs before a day of full production rehearsals on Saturday. There's 13 in the band: Drummer (founder member of Lindisfarne), Keys (Ex-Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton), Keys / Violin / MD (Ex-Sting), Guitar #1 (Ex-Tygers of Pan Tang), Guitar #2 (Ex Arctic Monkeys / Last Shadow Puppets), 4x Brass (Including The 1975's sax player), 3x BVs (including the lady who sang 'I'll Do Anything for Love' with Meat Loaf) ...and little 'ol me. I'm on double-duty - I'm also responsible for the content on the video screens, which is nice as I get to make sure the visuals closely match the music. I'm looking forward to it all coming together. There was a segment about the show on the One Show on the BBC this evening if anyone's interested. Here's some more pics!

Hi Everyone - I'm certainly one of those bassists who kicked myself for not buying a Rickenbacker 4005 when they were initially available. I started in music retail in 1980 and worked for a Rickenbacker dealer, and had always had an interest in one of these wide-bodied basses. Little did I know at the time that Rickenbacker actually had some NOS models from the 60's still in inventory. The bass was discontinued in 1984. In hindsight, it's actually a good thing I didn't buy one at the time as I'm certain I would have ended up selling it - not because it wasn't a great bass, but because it would take me decades as a player to really appreciate this instrument. So truth be told, the first time I had a 4005 in my hands was about 20 years ago. It was a Mapleglo '66 that I played at the Guitar Center in Hollywood. Man, the shallow neck was fantastic! The bass played like butter, and was strung with flats (as it should have been.) The killer feel haunted me for years and it certainly became a quest for me to own one. As we're all aware, Rickenbacker reissued the 4005 as the 4005V ("V" for Vintage) in 2024 in 3 finishes - Fireglo, Mapleglo and Jetglo. However, I became aware very early on that Rickenbacker had made 2 in custom finishes - this was confirmed when Eddie's Guitars posted a Rickenbacker Factory Tour video early that year: The custom finishes were British Racing Green and Satin Autumnglo. Rickenbacker had done some special runs of models in BRG over the years (and made a few other custom instruments in this finish as well,) but to see a 4005V in that finish was amazing - I fell in love with it immediately! It would be several months before either of these basses would be available for purchase, but I was determined to continue the pursuit. In July 2024, the bass was eventually sold to a dealer and I purchased it immediately. The 4005V has the same wonderful shallow neck feel just like the original models built in the 60's. The basses come strung with round wound strings which (in my opinion) are a mismatch for these basses - their true character is revealed when strung with flats. I immediately removed the rounds and restrung with a set of TI flats which not only sound amazing, they have the low tension feel like the strings which originally came stock on new Rics. To me, this bass was screaming for gold plates: I'm happy to report I've been gigging with the bass ever since, and it fits wonderfully in the mix with my band. This is certainly not a bass for everyone or every type of music, but if you're interested I wholeheartedly recommend it.😀

New Old Joy Division Bass Day. Just received this 1977 (?) Hondo Ricken-faker, the model made famous by Peter Hook in Joy Division days (before he switched to Shergold Marathon 6 string and Yamaha basses). A few screws missing and signs of age but plays/sounds great and, importantly for me, weighs just 8.2 pounds. Sits nicely next to my Shergold Marathon bass, the Joy Division nerd that I am.

Traveling up to Glasgow from Birmingham for a gig being the daft boys we were we had stopped and bought pea shooters and the dried peas to go with them, probably don't exist any more, but on the M6 we started shooting peas at lorries we passed only to get pulled by the police and charged with " discharging a missile on the queen's highway" got away with it but needless to say it didn't happen again.

My weekly practice with my originals band is most Thursdays. On the weeks we can’t all meet, me and the guitarist meet at home and work up song ideas. I record them as voice memos on my phone. Over the last few weeks we’ve been working thru the better ideas in there and turning out some great sounding songs that we’d more or less forgotten about but which are now coming together really quickly. Excellent!

OK, it's an aquarium hood, but I've not long cut all the pieces out of 8mm ply. Got fed up with the slowness with the saw dragging and remembered the trick my dad taught me when I was a pre-pubescent teenager. I rubbed candle wax on the saw. I roughly tripled the rate of progress. Kicked myself for not bothering earlier, 'it's only thin ply'. A waxed rip saw is faster than a jigsaw and not too far off a circular saw - and you can see what you are doing well enough to follow a straight line.

… my fretted board, I thought the Fliptop would knock the Grizzly off, but it knocked off a HP/LP filter instead as I have a Sfx Microthumpinator on the utility end board anyhow! Now I have a clean and three levels of grit should I need to ‘ramp it up’ a bit at church 🤣 … I’ve currently got a Novation BB2 going into the second channel of the Red Pander 3 way mixer. I’ll shortly be putting together a board that has a tap tempo tremolo on it, should be great for that! 3rd channel will be for a fretless at some point also.

Absolutely love the Handbox WB100, very glad I didn’t sell while I was between musical endeavours.

What happens on tour stays on tour... I did a full year on the road over 97/98 with a charity/fund raising/gospel band linked to https://www.mercyships.org.uk mainly in Europe but also South Africa and Ghana. It was fun especially for an 18/19 year old. Started off as a roadie/sound engineer but then got promoted to bass. Learned a few things: 1) No amount of hard work/practice will put you in the same league as naturally talented pro musicians with a good ear (and when you find them just play what they tell you) 2) Gear breaks/goes missing all the time so the simplest set up that ideally someone else has paid for works best 3) Make good use of caffeine especially if you are voluntold to drive the van 4) Music is a fun hobby but too much hard work for not enough reward to do full time

Only quoting this bit because it raises an interesting question which your post does go on to mention. Everything goes to pot once the marketers get hold of every bit of printed and broadcast material. It's the governments fault. To a large extent it's the voters fault and to a greater extent it's the non voters fault. Anyone who ever proudly says 'I don't vote, they are all the same' it's definitely their fault. Companies are over claiming figures massively and across the board, they routinely measure their amps output power then simply multiply the figure by four. Literally just that, times four, no science, no measurement just barefaced lie. To be fair some even admit it. In the small print you'll see "**calculated figure". Frequency responses are now given +/- 10db rather than the +/-3db used decades ago and sometimes even less honestly. The problem is that once one company does it everyone eventually has to. Who would buy a 500W PA speaker from RCF when they can get a 2000W one from Yamaha. And that's the thing; for years you could buy really cheap 'party speakers' from the likes of Maplin advertising 1,000W PMPO which we all knew weren't serious speakers, but people who wanted to party could buy something good value for money and claim they had a 2,000W system. Then firms like Alto and Samson started to use the same PMPO figures and ate into the market. "I know it's only an Alto but is sounds OK and it's 2,000W so it's got to be as good as a 500W Yamaha" In the end Yamaha and others cracked and started using the 'calculated power' fiction and everybody else had to fall into line or let their sales fall. I notice that even Wharfedale have cracked and FBT are quoting the silly 4x power figures and then giving the maximum output figures of their PA in real money. So why is this the governments fault? Because there are laws in this country, and the rest of Europe to prevent advertising lies, to protect the public but the laws aren't enforced. The penalties for dishonest advertising aren't particularly severe but all of the funding for public protection has been slashed by politicians of all the ruling parties in the name of cutting spending and goverment red tape. The refgulators have almost no power over the sectors they are reglating and everything gets a little more s**t. Literally in the case of the water companies and some of the hospitality venues. Meanwhile with the loss of interest in politics and membership the parties are all now dependent upon 'donations' from rich individuals, lobbyists and the companies they are supposed to be regulating for our benefit. We go on voting for parties that promise tax cuts and cuts to the nanny state so now all the major parties promise to do just that. (whether they do or not you can judge for yourselves, there's not a lot of advertising standards in politics any more,though they aren't all the same in how brazen or even plausible their lies are. We also seem to enjoy being lied to, you can work out an amplifier or a speakers power if you know a bit of simple physics and can be bothered to do the sums. I could name dozens of people on BassChat who do this routinely several of whom have already posted in this thread. The trouble is that people love to say they bought a 2,000W bass amp and that their PA is 10,000W just as much as they like to say they voted for the party that will fix the £16billion worth of potholes, cntinue the triple lock and promise to cut taxes and borrowing at the same time.

Not exactly in the studio, but I bought myself a second hand M1 Pro MacBook Pro with 32gb of RAM a few weeks ago. Such an upgrade from my old mid-2012 version! I can't seem to run out of plugins to try out different mixing ideas which is really nice. I've re-mixed one of the songs from our first EP to something I'm much more pleased with generally. It's like a blanket has been lifted off. The aim is to secretly redo both the first and second EPs in secret and then present them to the band as an album. Generally, it's something I'd like to get more into as well.

I did my first singing open mic last night. Not sang in public since I was wearing shorts and did "Where is love?" from Oliver in the school play. I did two songs of my own, "Blues ain't no good to me" and "Another lonely man". Sadly I didn't do "Where is love?" in my best Aled Jones voice as various structural body arrangements shortly after the school play, meant I could no longer hit the higher notes or quite a few of the lower notes either. Never sung with a microphone, never sung whilst playing a guitar and never in front of a crowd. So popped my cherry a number of times there. Thankfully they were gentle and of the six people who did things I was the only one with original material so that was a slight bonus. People were very nice afterward. A Sennheiser E935 is now winging it's way to me. Not making that mistake with a mic again and will practise an awful lot more. I didn't bomb but I did learnt a lot. Rob

I have now had an email from Wellers saying it's still in transit back to the consignee and I should hear back early next week about getting it back. I won't be convinced until I actually receive it. I'll do an update next week. Interparcel and Parcel/Force are doing a criminal investigation into its disappearance, as are the Police. I'm not going to give up o this and will continue to make as much fuss about it as possible. The fact is, when I dropped it off at my local Post office, I had it bleeped and got an drop off receipt, but the tacking didn't automatically update. it never did. i think a PF employee spotted this and decided they could steal it and sell it - just my though.....

My small pedalboard:

OK...... I'm still on a HUGE high so please bear with me if I'm little over-effusive... On Saturday night my brand new Doobie Brothers tribute show 'The Doobie Experience' played it's DEBUT show. It was at the lovely Shoreham Ropetackle Arts Centre and quite honestly we really couldn't have had a better evening, in every way! First of all, on arrival, we found out it was all but sold out (200 tickets!) with people having to stand all around the edge of the seated area! Then, we were meeting our own dedicated sound man for the first time and were thrilled at how good he made us sound, out front and in our IEMs! It turned out I'd worked with him a couple of times previously (with the Spandau/Duran show I'd depped in) so I knew he would nail it! He'll be with us now on most of our shows and has all the settings saved! Best of all though, the actual show was AMAZING - we played great (just a few tweaks will need to be made going forward), the sound was fantastic and the audience loved us! We actually had people actually queuing to shake our hands and thank us afterwards! It's those kind of nights that really make everything worthwhile. I can't wait to do more! Gear-wise I kept it more traditional (no Spectors! ) and played my Fender FSR PJ bass through my old GK400RB head and LFsys Monaco cab. Only effects were Chorus (1 song) and Phaser (1 song), both care of my Zoom B3. IEMs were KZ-ZS10's and my Sennheiser G4 system. Here are a few short phone clips from the night that show the different Doobie-styles we covered: Rockin' Down The Highway: Another Park Another Sunday: One Step Closer: China Grove: What A Fool Believes: Sweet Maxine: It Keeps You Runnin: Long Train Runnin': Takin' It To The Streets:

Dress rehearsal for next weeks gig, so all using our own gear. Shuker 3 -> Swiff Audio wireless -> TC Electronics BH800 -> Tech Sound Systems 2x12 (modified). I had trouble with my sound all evening. Couldn't get it right it was always too toppy or clanky, or not bassy enough. The only thing that has changed is that my strings are now DR Neons (Christmas gift). I finally got it right on the last song. Flat EQ but with the bass boosted to 4 o'clock. Spectracomp tone print on full.

It's not just the postage you're paying for, though. It's the expertise of the person putting the pickups in the envelope. And then there's insurance, of course.

Done a bit more fiddling, it seems if from a restart I open the editor first, then plug in the midi adapter, then the FI it seems happy. Fingers crossed it keeps working! Done some more playing (as in actual bass playing) and it really does work and sound great.

These days unless your band is pretty well known and has record label or management financial backing, most "tours" are a series of weekend gigs spread out over a month or so. I did two conventional tour with The Terrortones organised by someone who wanted to be our manager. The weekend gigs were fine although we could have probably organised them all ourselves and got the same result. The mid-week gigs not so good. One of the tours was supporting a German Rockabilly band who despite being excellent were completely unknown in the UK. Apart from the last gig on a Saturday night where The Meteors also played and which was packed, the only people in the audience for the other gigs had come specifically to see us. For the other tour, we were supposed to have a decent local band in a compatible genre as support for each gig, however the support bands were either non-existent or had zero following which pretty much defeated the object of having them. Needless to say we told the organiser of the tours that we didn't required his management services. Also it was hardly a Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle. We drove home each night after playing apart from one weekend where we had three gigs in South Wales and stayed at Mr Venom's parents house.

I used Danny's bass hunter service to source a rare-ish MIJ bass. I found him to be a brilliant chap to deal with. Lots of transparent communication throughout with a couple of options to choose from in the end. He gives his honest opinion on instruments found which is refreshing. When he received my bass, he even made a youtube demo video to show me the bass, his thoughts, and the set up he'd given it The overall cost all in from him to me was less than I was expecting too. Plus he's a professional working bassist in Japan so he really does know his stuff. Recommended 👍

They always do… plus, I like the sound of my cab. The mix is 50/50.

Touring, like everything else to do with bands, is what you make it. There are always ups and downs, but if you're serious about playing in a band, think you've got something for an audience and if you've chosen the right guys, you'll make it work. As Charlie Watts said when the Stones were celebrating their 25th anniversary, "5 years playing and 20 years hanging around!" IMO the end justifies the means. 8 hours driving to a gig and 8 hours driving back again depends on the gig. A good gig and it's worth it. A bad gig and you put it behind you and look forwards to the next one. If you can't do that become an accountant etc.

Thanks for the powersoft pointer, however i did consider one before finding the Synq but they are full rack depth and i'm looking for a replacement for my shallow rack setup. As for the Blue Aran i will contact them this week. Thanks guys.

I was lucky enough to snaffle a ‘new old stock’ Peli case on eBay for mine. I think it was a Storm IM3410.

£25k for a band aint too shabby. We all need to move to London for gigs i reckon. Dave

Here's hoping that the bass gets back to where it started off from and that it can be taken by someone reliable to where it needs to be.

Hi Misdee - Thank you SO much for your kind comments! I appreciate you making the trip to our original location in Calabasas (we were there from October '86-July '88 when we moved to Studio City.) Yeah, I really lucked out with the BRG - I agree it looks great - it's such a freakin' classy color, and you're right, it looks better on some models rather than others. It was great to meet people from all over the world, and was a privilege. I imagine your accent was easy for me at the time working with Brits every day! Are you still gigging? If yes, what are you using? Chris

Even high quality brands have to deal with physics.

Ziricote & Sapele Stingray – Currently Behaving Itself The ziricote drop top on the sapele Musicman build is now fully routed, drilled and shaped. Yes, I did point a router at expensive, dramatic ziricote. Yes, my blood pressure went up. No, nothing exploded. Pickup cavity, control cavity, neck pocket, ferrules – all in. It behaved far better than I deserved. It’s been hand-sanded and treated to Liberon finishing oil and the grain has absolutely gone full “look at me”. The ziricote is dark and moody, all swirls and drama. The sapele back is sitting there like the sensible mate in the group chat, warm and classy. It’s now hanging up to cure properly before the next stage. Once the oil’s hardened off it’ll get shellac, then gloss nitro. Because if you’re going to do dramatic, you may as well go full theatre lighting. Neck-wise, this one’s getting a gloss yellow maple Jazz neck. Proper vintage tint. Against the dark ziricote it’s going to look like it drinks espresso and judges lesser basses. This one’s shaping up to be classy with just enough menace. No rushing it. Let it cure, build the finish properly, and avoid any “character building” mistakes. More soon once the shellac goes on and I inevitably start overthinking something.

Well, the Kania is gone already. It was a wonderful instrument to play. So nice, that it made me long for a 5str fretless. Had it up for trade in the Netherlands and got some offers. Most of them where very expensive basses that needed me to dig up my savings. But this guy offered me his Martin Keith for my Kania and my 12 string guitar. I've never spend so much for one instrument. But the moment I had this Martin Keith bass in my hands it felt so very nice and there was so much resonance in its body and it was so easy to play. I'm a guitarist, so it helps me a lot when a bass is easy to play. And it doesn't way that much, so it's pretty easy on the shoulders. I contacted mr Keith for some info, and here is what he could tell me (nice guy he is); Built as an exhibit instrument for NAMM in 2011. Maple neck with katalox (royal mexican ebony) fretboard, 34.5 inch (876mm) scale. Mahogany body with spalted maple top. (Body thickness 52mm. His current basses are 42mm thick.) Citron HB pickup with passive volume control. Polyester finish. So I'm very enthousiastic exploring fretless bass more and more. Love that sound. I'm not sure what strings it has at the moment. Feels a bit like half rounds.

Blimey that takes me back - Eric's was such a small intimate venue, it was being in someone's living room! (a very dark, very sweaty one...) I was right at the front of the stage but don't recognise the back of my head. Amazing gig; the energy of the band and the raw angst coming off Ian Curtis was absolutely electrifying. Nice to see the old members notice too: OMD were pretty much the "house band" at the Uni Students Union back then - Echo & the Bunnymen, Wah Heat! and The Teardrop Explodes were frequently there too. Great days. Funnily enough was clearing out some stuff the other day and found my old membership card. Sorry for going off topic - I've never personally had great experiences with Hondos, but this is clearly a pretty special one to have.