Leaderboard

OK, so he wasn't a Jack Bruce but I saw Hendrix in local clubs a couple of times and if a Jack Bruce style player was on bass that band would have been the biggest mess ever, and no one would be fondly remembering any of them. Just like Adam Clayton, Dusty Hill and many others, Noel Redding was exactly right for the band he was in. His job was to hold it all together and give the others a solid platform for their frantic playing styles. And after all, someone in the band has got to be playing the songs. . . . so it might as well be the bass player!

We're old fashioned here. It's either CD's or steam driven radio in this house.

Entitled "20 Iconic Bass Guitars", I'm thinking of making this available to BC members as a print in either A3 or A2 sizes providing I get enough interest... This image you're looking at is printed on bog standard A4 and really need to be seen in a bigger format, but you probably get the idea. Any criticism welcome...

Well, last year I reached a bit of a milestone in work - 30 years! So to mark the occasion, in a moment of madness, I decided "to hell with it" and ordered myself a Limelight bass One of my fave colour combos (if not, my fave) is Fiesta Red, with rosewood board and tort plate (of course) Since having my old Squier P bass converted into a P/J, I've become a real fan of this pickup configuration A few years back, fellow South Walian pal FuNkShUi was selling a Limelight P, in Fiesta Red, and it had a Jazz style neck I tend to prefer Jazz width necks, or at least I don't mind P width necks.... but don't like them to be too deep.... So that was my order - a P/J Precision, fiesta red, with Jazz width nut. I missed out on FuNkShUi's bass back then, as I had to sell a bass before I could buy another A week later, the MM I was selling had sold (to another BC member) - but the Limelight had gone, and I had been kicking myself ever since Mark at Limelight has done a superb job. I asked him for a medium-light level of "distressing". I know not everyone is a fan of Relicing - I don't care.... it's MY bass I think it looks lovely. A quick noodle, and it feels amazing! Sounds lovely through my small practice amp too. Can't wait to plug it into a larger amp and crank the volume up Since the new CITES rules , Mark had a bit more trouble than usual sourcing the Rosewood fretboard neck - however, I wasn't in a huge rush, so I told Mark not to worry .... my new bass has been worth the wait. I'm a happy boy - but am currently in work, and can't wait to get home, to try my new bass (Pics courtesy of Mark at Limelight)

Let's not leave out the lefties.

Mark Boyle, the lighting man on the tour, recalls the night Martin Luther King was killed, after which Jimi played an improvised lament, he describes as harrowing. It's about 1/3 down on this page. http://www.boylefamily.co.uk/boyle/texts/beyond.html

Maybe we're all spoilt with the Internet nowadays if there's folks complaining about seeing a bass for sale 500 miles away and the seller not wanting to post it. Perhaps go back to pre internet days bass hunting techniques, when all this gear was still for sale around the country but you just didn't see the adverts, so you didn't want it. You had to scan local papers or the stock a local shop carried, if you were lucky enough to have an instrument shop that carried basses local. Down here in Cornwall there was/still is very little. Personally I prefer it the way it is now. Even if 50% of sellers didn't want to post I've still got the opportunity to purchase a vast amount of instruments from around the country/world that just wasn't readily available 20 years ago. Nobody used to post basses because nobody outside of say a 30 mile radius would see the advert. We all coped back then and I think things are slightly better now

Things are only obvious if you know them! I actually lean my whole hand across all the strings when I am picking, from my little finger down to my hand, so it actually mutes all the strings, to vary the mute I just play further back so my hand reduces and then stops muting by sliding over the bridge. So if I am playing a d, it will line up with the very bottom of my litte finger, so the side of my hand rather than the finger itself.

I've never know what the reference to "butter" means, but all the expensive basses I've owned in the last 20 years have either been Pleked when made or fret stoned and set up for me by Martin at the Gallery so, it's true, all those basses have played "like a dream". A couple of cheaper basses were set up by me and when I moved them on they were playing far, far better than when they were sold to me. So from a "nightmare" to a little bit "dreamy", at least. I try to put all the info into my adverts but some don't put in enough. I still add "non smoking home" in my adverts. I remember the old days when basses, amps and cabs, from smokers, came into our non smoking home and the terrible stink that was so hard to get rid of and made our home smell so bad! Plus the awful smell of tobacco clinging to everything from the gigs!

Dinosaur in my 40s here, still don’t use iTunes or stream (apart from YouTube). I like having the vinyl or cd, I like looking at the covers, reading the lyrics and info, looking at the pics etc.

Me too, above and beyond - I'm not even a customer and I'm being offered support on a product that they didn't even build. Superb.

If you ever need any help with the V4 just give us a shout

What?? You mean I haven't contributed to this thread yet? Or did I? This is my dream bass. It took lots of dreams actually. More emails and long telephone calls into the evening, Ten years later and as seen here she has had a complete refinish, some new hardware and a few updates ready for another ten years of service. Everything about this bass has been measured to fit as it were. Some of teh features are now standard order options over at Shuker Guitars.

Oh go on then.... Sadly its not a batwing, but its a lovely '81 model.

yep mate a Jerzy Drozd

He was only a young lad....i only had the one lesson....i personally worked hard on feel and technique and received some positive feedback about my sound...i remember an instance i was playing a gig with a Squier Jazz and tatty old Carlsbro Viper 90w Combo and a fellow Bassist said how do you get such a great sound from cheapo gear.....he told me he was going home to burn his thousand pound Musicman and grands worth of Ampeg stack lol....i said it was in my fingers...i'll be the first to admit I'm no great shakes but i keep it smooth and simple

I bought some La Bella on my honeymoon in 2010. I've taken them off my bass twice and both times after several months have been dissatisfied with my tone until I realise the bass misses those strings deeply.

this is my.......... dream bass

Me too! But I'm prepared to accept that it might just end up being a case of it being different, a opposed to better. Time will tell... 😀

Awesome. I'd take one home with me!

Surely as we get older and high cholesterol looms, we should be buying basses that play like a non-dairy spread? Or possibly something made from olive oil? Then you could advertise your bass as 'Top Benecol' or similar. Still bullplop - just different bullplop.

Dont hold it with a death grip - nice and relaxed is the key. Then you'll never drop it. Turn your amp up and pluck the strings less hard.

Hi Dave I gigged the Big Block 750/Berg AE212 rig last night and it was great! First impressions are that it has much more punchy and mids driven tone than my Ampeg V4BH head, with some lovely - almost aggressive - valve distortion to it as well that works really well in the band as we do a lot of rock tunes (think Foos, Zep, U2, Muse).. It also has more than enough power for me, and what's more, there was a real authority to it that's hard to describe in words, but I definitely felt it. Overall, I really liked and enjoyed using it and the band certainly did too, but I need to gig it a couple more times to get a better idea of it's capabilities, i think. Cheers Nik

Just for info, there are plenty of picks that aren't shiny and slippy. I play exclusively with Dunlop Ultex (the larger Taco shaped ones), which are not slippy and have a lovely springy feel.

You need to go anti clockwise.

None of my basses play like butter thankfully. I play in a mod band and often sport a tonic suit. The mixture of heat a dairy based spreads would be a disaster.

I used to be a pick player as for me it suited the music and was the most natural way to play. Today I play both fingers and pick. The picking hand should be the most automatic process possible and follow the feel of the bass line and song. You don't limit yourself to up/down/up/down as the most efficient process, that's just utter rubbish. It should be what the bass line dictates. As an example, this is an old video (2008) of me playing pick to one of my own songs. The intro is all down strokes, it's the only way it works to give the desired effect. Then the verse is up and down and a mix of both, again, because it's what works. Its all about flow rather than technique. There is also no conection to what the fretting hand is doing. They are both seperate processes. The other thing to notice is if you listen with the volume off, my movement of my picking hand is consistent. This is what I mean by it being an automatic process. My wrist or arm is not changing or moving in different ways. I guess its similar to constantly strumming a guitar. Finally, most of the movement/strokes is in the wrist. So much so that my wrist used to lay against the top of my bass and rub the skin away on my wrist.

I see Jah Wobble is signed up. As much as I enjoyed his slot last time, i would have preferred someone different as it was only a couple years ago. I am feeling a little underwhelmed by the artists so far.

Those that “play themselves”?

Some achievement considering he died in 1951!

Love it. We need more honest descriptions like this one!

Embarrassed by the sheer number of those that have passed through my hands and how few I still have. Nice project!

If anyone is opening the current issue of Guitar Interactive Magazine (out today) you’ll hear lots of my Shuker bass featuring fresh D’Addario strings! Pro Steels this time. I love the NYXL strings, but I can’t say enough about the whole range. Literally something for everyone.

I quite like the Devo look of this bass, but does it come with a yellow overall ?

I have a set of D'addario XL Nickel's on this bass, and really digging them, I dont normally get on great with Nickel strings as I'm so used to Steel, but very comfy with this set!

I have the 4 Stroke sitting on an Aguilar DB410 (8ohm). Together they are a beast. Ballsy and assertive is spot on. They move a lot of air!

You're not alone in this. I'm in Portugal and if everybody sold their gear collection only i wouldn't have had the things i did. I'm a trusting guy in nature, fortunately never got scammed but i lost the count on the amount of times i had to go through long message exchanges with sellers to convince them to ship internationally their items. If i'm selling and somebody asks me to ship i'll have no problem with that unless it's a rare and fragile Ming vase with 1000+ years old... I don't mind going through the trouble of bom-proof packing something to survive the apocalypse of a courier travel but many people think that it only takes one layer of bubble wrap and a thin cardboard to protect their items (it doesn't!). I know that if i agree to ship i'll have far more chances of getting my item sold at asking price. I'll do my homework allways and try to have as many info on the buyer/seller as possible. Feedback info is allways a good indicator, i don't do business with nigerian princes unless they have a basschat account with positive feedback comments form members that i recognize as frequent on the site. The major problems here are e-bay/etc. and the easy way to get scammed by another , the general lack of knowlege on how to proper protect your parcel for shipping and mainly the pure layziness of those who can't be bothered to get a bit of bubblewrap and some cardboard (free most times if you know where to look) to increase the chances of a good, fast sale. If somebody is so affraid to sell their gear that it has to be done in those terms then he/she deserves to be stuck with it without selling or be forced to sell at a bigger loss to the only local offer...

3 is the minimum.

Or is it couriers accept no responsibility for any damage caused by them. So the risk is too great.

Don't you rush now....

[url="https://flic.kr/p/C6VKEu"][/url] My Maruszczyk Elwood 4p in Black burst. It's a 30" scale and weighs in at a delightfully pleasing 3.47Kg Although it's not really a 4p anymore because I added an East J-Tone pre-amp. It sounded awesome before the change, now it's awesomer. I hope this post works as I need to find a way to host then post my music photographs all over again. Fingers crossed...