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But are they valve watts or solid state watts?

I had noticed this trend of late. I just find it all rather naff. It's something of a self-perpetuating nightmare; an algorithim decides clickbait titles are good, so statistics provided to content creators encourage them to use clickbait titles, which produces verification for the algorithm that clickbait titles are great. This is all part of a wider issue of dumbing down. I've mentioned Scott's Bass Lessons before because the decline in quality is most evident there. The videos were usually of good quality with something to say but these days, they're mostly clickbait rubbish, like 'six string basses SUCK and here's why' before saying that they don't really suck. This also speaks to a wider problem with bass education in that it's become so focused on everything but music. 'Here's how to get gigs', 'how to groove', 'two notes that will change EVERYTHING', 'three secrets that will teach you EVERYTHING about walking basslines'. The exponential growth of this rubbish indicates that many bassists will happily consume any amount of dubious material before undertaking proper music based study.

Sorry to have walked into your cabbage patch; it seems I must bow to your superior erudition. That'll larn me to attempt any expansion on a potentially interesting topic. Please forgive the intrusion; it won't happen again.

The NXT stand may be ugly, but it's fully adjustable in terms of height and angle, and the bass is very firmly held by the mechanism. You could even choose to not fully tighten the bass on the stand, if you wanted it to tilt a bit while you're playing it, and it wouldn't fall off, but you would have to remember to tighten the clamp before you leave, or the bass would slowly slide down.

It all depends on the design of the EUB stand. The NS stand works perfectly well for just leaving the bass on, while you're not playing, but you can also play the bass on that stand too. I don't know how secure the bass is on the stand, whilst you're playing it, as I've not played one. I've seen players do so though, and it seems to be fine.... However, The stand for the Stagg EUB is secure enough to leave the bass on, but due to the design it's not possible to access the top half of the finger board I bought a stand when I had my Stagg, and couldn't help thinking the manufacturers had missed a trick here - if they'd designed & built a stand which allowed you to play the bass while it was in-situ, I think they'd sell one to almost everyone who had bought the bass The EUB stand I "made" from the cymbal stand worked really well though - it was really quite steady & I always felt it was secure I also had a KYDD "Carry On" EUB recently. I bought it to try it out really - it was very compact & packed away neatly + quickly That employed a photographers tripod as stand (a Manfrotto, for those interested) which packed down quickly and easily, was very lightweight and always seems really stable & secure BTW I only sold the KYDD as it was 30" scale, and I was struggling to swap between all the different scales! lol If you are looking for a stand for an EUB, I'd seriously look at adapting Cymbal stands and / or Tripods The Drum shop near me (Drum Depot) were really helpful guys, and seemed really interested in the EUB and how they could help me make a decent quality stand for it, at a low price

Hello! I have been using basschat as a source of information for some time now. I decided to register because of the yellow-note on the home page I started playing bass in the 1980s. I did not care much about brands and stuff at that time, I was too busy playing and writing music, just as it should be! But I remember a Samick Jazz and a crappy Precision-type thing, among others. Then in the 1990s I got a Fender Jazz MIM fretless, which I traded for an Ibanez SR800 fretless, which I feel is built much better. Then I stopped playing for about 10 years. A few years back I picked it up again. Now I have the SR800FL and a Fernandes FRB100, plus several cheap basses I have bought here and there for testing parts and modding. I tried playing jazz, but I just can't . Also tried Death Metal, which is fun. But I think my style lies somewhere in the middle, if it means anything. Thank you for keeping up this site!

Voting has now started on November's Composition Challenge. Here's the inspiration for this month's music, chosen by our previous winner, lowdown… …and here are the compositions. Please listen to each and vote for your favourite (just one vote this month!): Dad3353 'Mason And The Beasts' http://soundcloud.com/dad3353/mason-and-the-beasts Mornats 'Beast Vs Beast' http://soundcloud.com/mornats/beast-vs-beast lurksalot 'A Question Of Scale' http://soundcloud.com/lurksalot/a-question-of-scale fingers211 'Big Bullies' http://soundcloud.com/nigel-jewell/big-bullies the boy 'FIGHT A GORILLA (FALL DOWN AND DIE)' http://soundcloud.com/theboysings/fight-a-gorilla-fall-down-and Voting ends at midnight on Thursday 30th November.

Loving the new BC layout, nice work one and all but, can someone please explain what the "watts" thing is please? Some people have none and some, loads. Sorry if the question sounds silly but I can't find out what it is and what it is for. Cheers

Next time answer him in French....

I take it back. I have been watching more of his videos recently and his disdain of Rickenbacker and StewMac is pretty humourous

On the Smoothound front, I've found that it wedges nicely under the handle of a Barefaced cab ...

Should've looked back, their best stuff came before that

A quick search on the world's favourite search engine suggests that this is most likely a late -70's P Bass copy made/imported by Hohner. I found a very similar one listed as being dated to1978 (with a question mark) in an on-line bass guitar museum. With regards parts, I'd dare say most P bass clone parts will fit. It doesn't look like there's a recess carved for the bridge. Could well be able to buy a loaded plate and transfer across from one that plate to yours. I say that because the scratch-plate would likely not have the same holes as the donor.

The bassline to 'all these things that I've done' doesn't really have any tricky or complex parts in it but it is a banger to play, just a great tune. If you're struggling to play it with your fingers, then make sure you know the notes and slow the tricky parts right down, even if you have to practice out of time to get the plucking pattern exactly right. You can then speed it up using a click track (but do not become a slave to the beat, correct your mistakes and go out of time if you need to to make sure you have the notes and the plucking pattern just right). I would also recommend playing closer to the bridge with a lighter touch, where the added tension at the string will help you to quickly detach after plucking. Provided your amp is loud enough, you should practically be able to glide your fingers over the strings with a minute and very light plucking action. This is the key to fast, accurate right hand work. Ultimately, it's a case of building some endurance and dexterity to play the part, which will soon be within your grasp.

Seen out in the wild this weekend... (Not quite finished setting up yet but enough to be safe 'on the road')

Of the ones I've tried, I like the Cali 76 Compact Bass for general purpose transparent compression, and the Effectrode PC-2A for more of a warm tube preamp style of compressor that works absolute wonders with my acoustic fretless. Ones that didn't make the grade: - EBS Multicomp - the input kept clipping with my bass and playing style. Perhaps the newer Studio Edition has improved things here? - Diamond - lack of a ratio control and some unexplained buzzing when used with my Cioks DC5 power supply meant I had to move this on. - Keeley Bassist - seemed a bit dry and clinical and the attack time was set pretty fast for me - I like the peak to come through a little more before it clamps down. Would make a great limiter though especially as the ratio control goes up to infinity. - RMI Basswitch Dual Band - changed the tone pretty drastically compared to other comps, and the internal 9v-18v puts out a high pitched hum on the power line that gets picked up by other pedals if you don't use isolated power. The Spectracomp looks great if you mainly use one bass and want to set it and forget it. CRAZY amounts of tweakable controls in the editor app, and plenty of Toneprints to get you going, looks like a fun pedal for tweakers. I like to flick between different basses though and prefer something with basic metering and a threshold control for setting on the fly.

No worries I'm glad you like it!

It's brilliant. Really great fun thing to do. I like the interactivity of it all. You guys have built a great place to be. Thank you

A few years ago I found myself living next door to an 'erudite' musician. A brass player, a teacher, a composer; as a conductor he's done the Proms for years, works regularly with major international orchestras. We had a few conversations about music which I found enlightening from my very limited perspective. This chap had a way of explaining things which made things very easy to understand yet I never felt like he was talking down to me or using his knowledge as a tool to buff his self image at my expense. The thing that sticks in my mind was when he scored a gig with the Berlin Phil. He came round to tell me, bringing his unaffected delight and a couple of bottles of wine for us. Such a nice man.

I'm sure you've the best intentions, but to be honest not publishing any details just makes it look like you're concerned it's been nicked and worried someone will be able to identify it ... Then you'll have to give it back. I'd be trying to find out if it was legit ASAP by putting all the info out there. Although I obviously wouldn't be handing it over to anyone without extensive proof that it belonged to them. Anyway hopefully it all works out and you've got yourself a wonderful bass, none better in my book

Another excuse for unfettered consumerism. Why do Brits slavishly like to copy every fad that comes out of the US? Anyway, it's no secret that sales events are a scam whereby retailers hike up prices in preceding weeks and then 'slash' them back to their original levels, get rid of obsolete or unpopular lines and buy in shoddy toot specifically for them. After all, despite all the saccharine marketing cow poop about the customer being # 1 blah blah the question everyone should be asking is what's in it for the retailers?

In case anyone stumbles over this thread in the search for featherweight basses: As a little follow-up, over the w/e I tried a few new and used basses vaguely around the same price and found: a thru-neck Peavey Cirrus 4 that was really good and really light (v tempted), a pointy Jackson that was light (and v tempted for 80s nostaglia reasons), Ibanez SR600 (obviously v v light and I was surprised how acceptable I found the narrow skinny neck), a Yamaha RBX that wasn't quite in the same league in terms of weight and playability, a Cort thingy that felt good but a bit lacking in character/appeal, and a Gibson EB4 which was loads lighter than I was expecting and said "Gibson" on it hurrah, but the design and build quality wasn't up to ANY of the others. I don't know if it's because I'm so used to playing 13lbs of bass, but all would have done the job tbh, and it is great how you can get such a choice of fab basses for that kind of money. But even though I was prepared to spend a tad more, I walked out with an SR505. The ONLY drawback with it is the dodgy colour, but I went with it anyway. The 5 because wanted the extra neck substance and was still 1lb lighter (in more ways than 1) than the 1-string-fewer-and-identical-hardware SR600. FWIW the 2nd choice would have been the Peavey. So thanks to everyone who chipped in here, it meant I took seriously some options I'd never have thought of otherwise. And the bonkers weight and quality of the Ibanezes is exactly as everyone says, so I didn't feel there was any compromise.

Just found a live version... make of this what you will !

I'm being lazy not posting the actual music but two theme tunes from the mid 80s I loved Airwolf and Miami Vice Miami Vice I still have on 7" single with Crockett's theme on the flip, first introduction to Jan Hammer.

Absolutely. (Big Dylan fan here, btw.)

Another one from the 70's:

Now that's just not cricket..

It makes loads of difference! You don't have to carry an amp for one, the stage is quieter for two and you get to hear exactly (well, as close as possible) how your bass sounds in FOH. Subjectively, I find that it's a lot more consistent for me now, I spend less time fighting boomy rooms or awkward resonances.

Except LIberace could actually play the piano.

I know that many members think that Gibson can't build basses, and having in the past owned a '66 EB2 which played like a dog I might have agreed, but the EB described here as a "monstrosity " is very well built. Take a look at the top of the neck with its volute and the amazing Babiscz bridge. Who ever designed this put some thought into it. You may not like the body shape (which isn't so different from Fender's Dimension) but it works. The slightly extended upper rear bout tucks under the arm perfectly and I suspect contributes to the excellent balance countering possible neck dive as its so light. May be critics should try out an instrument before slagging it?

Thanks a lot, I very much appreciate your reply. I've never played anything with a chord like that before, maybe that's partly why I don't understand it if the approach comes in to play for chords like that.

Plug in and play, I don't have this thing called 'your sound'.

When you discover the "it just works" thing, don't analyse why, just gig the hell out of it.

This is fundamentally untrue on a number of levels (and I think you probably know that). The only time this might apply, is if you consider it in the context of the music industry prior to the internet (why would anyone do that, it's silly), or whilst having an incredibly blinkered/narrow view of YouTube contributors......and indeed the number of very talented artists today who very much earn a healthy living. Richard Bona recently did an interview where he admitted that he made $2million dollars in publishing since leaving his recording/publishing company (the old system)....go figure huh. Si

Four but I'd love to bring this out for an encore

That's where it works for me, Marc - at some gigs I switched from one to the other and this makes it much simpler. That plus an A/B box. I think a cymbal stand would probably be more secure - the downside of this is that it feels a little bit lightweight. Then again, it has never been a problem. I also moved the end piece up a touch so I could use normal size strings - now sporting a set of Innovation black rockerbillies, which look and sound vastly better. And pretty much as soon as I had done that we changed the format of the set and I don't play it any more!

I once auditioned for a band where the drummer had a shiny new huge elaborate kit and a shiny new huge electric fan pointed at him. He couldn't play either but he sweated buckets.

Such a happy bunch ! I'm happy with my £20 price reduction I can look forward to spending that extra £20 on Cyber Monday !

Here you go. Really easy waist strap/gut support to take the weight off your neck and shoulder.

That is a blinder of a bass, and not doing anything to help my Mustang/Musicmaster GAS either. Knowing where you got it from, I would say there is very very little chance in it not being original. That is a very cool refin, and you have a very unique bass there. Enjoy!!

Unfortunately it has long changed hands and stopped hosting music. It's still a nice gastropub in leafy West London, though. Yours truly was behind the camera, marveling at the speed of Jack's disaster recovery action! @Al Krow I'm reasonably sure the wireless system wasn't a Smoothhound - that one came later, Jack was using a different one at the time, IIRC