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Will be there on the Saturday. Be good to catch up with people over some mildly over-priced coffee.

Hello BassChat! Charlie here from The Gallery... Since BassChat is where you're all hanging out these days we thought we'd join in on the fun and start our own thread! We'll be keeping you up to date with new stock, shop news and all that jazz. This is also another way for you to reach us with any enquiries! If you've never heard of us, this is who we are and what we're about: We're a bass specialist shop situated in Camden, London. The Gallery opened in 1993 and since then has been London's largest bass-only store. We have a huge selection of basses, amps, effects and accessories (new, pre-owned and vintage!). The basement (bassment?) of the shop is home to Sei Bass, which comprises of top luthiers Martin Petersen & John Chapman. They build wonderful custom bass guitars and offer a long list of workshop services. Below are a few pictures of our shop plus a couple of photos of Sei Basses so you can get an idea of what we do... That's it from me for now but I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me on BC from now on! Love, Charlie & The Bass Gallery crew.

Just a quick heads up on this one folks and sorry if it has already been posted.. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ernie-Ball-MusicMan-Sting-Ray-Bass-Guitar-in-MusicMan-Hard-Case-UK-SELLER/352279781214?hash=item520582df5e:g:phcAAOSwFnxaWe0Z I mailed the seller regarding the photos of the bass as it looks as though the frets had been removed.....seller replied "this is a fretless bass" that was it! They're not telling lies but they haven't been exactly forthcoming. Just beggars belief as some poor sod may buy this without realising the frets had been ripped out!! Rant over...

An easy way of distinguishing this is to play a piano recording through your speaker. You'll hear immediately what the cab is doing to the signal. It may sound odd, but IMO playing bass through your bass cab is not necessarily the best test.

So what's the score if the singer wants to sing a number slowly, and it turns the song into a pig's ear..? Go with the singer's choice..? Surely not..?

To expand briefly on my much-maligned laconic comment, I would just explain that the cost of producing a 3-way loudspeaker system with a high quality midrange driver and HF unit is much higher than the configuration of a single or twin driver with an optional small tweeter favoured by Barefaced and many others. Although it's fairly obvious that the drive units in a 3-way system cost more, many people don't appreciate that the crossover in a system like some of the early Barefaced models and the current Fearful range is a very high-cost item - not to mention quite difficult to design properly.

True

Tears of a Clown and What's Going On.

Things may be a bit different here in France as we always get fed before the gig, even if it's just a small bar that doesn't do food themselves. They'll buy in a pizza for the band. So no need to eat during the gig, but I wouldn't anyway as it's just plain rude. As for drink, we always get a free tab but as we all have to drive, we're on water. Being the main vocalist, I see nothing wrong in having a bottle of water on hand. And the same for the rest of the band, as it can get pretty warm here in summer...! As to TV, can't say we've ever been in a position to watch it during a gig. But we did have a regular gig at a bar that had a 50" TV right above the stage. They insisted on playing YouTube concerts (minus the sound) while we played our set and it annoyed the hell out of me. But they paid us well...! So one night, our lead guitarist finished a rather splendid solo and the crowd suddenly went ape... Looking at the stage, cheering, clapping and stamping their feet. I thought, well if they enjoyed it that much, I'll give him another solo after the next chorus...! It was then I noticed the bar owner sprinting across the room, diving over the drummer and between our amps, then flapping wildly at the TV trying to turn it off. I glanced up at the screen and found that some wag had got hold of the remote control and switched to a full on porn channel. But my man still got his solo in....

Except, as all gigging musicians will know, it never is just a "few hours work". If you add up the practice and rehearsal time, the travelling time and expenses and staff costs (all bands got ripped off by their "management" back then), then the true cost of being in a band and gigging emerges. Then you see how little the bands actually got to put in their pockets.

Agreed that a clean blend option would have been a useful addition on some of the models although I don't know how many of the models that they are emulating have clean blends? Having said that, Zoom have added clean blends to some of their drive sounds where the original pedals they are emulating didn't have them, so it can be done. Metering is useful too, I guess, although I always prefer to use my ears and dial in my compression sounds in the context of the band mix. I also find the M-Comp (my personal fave on the MS-60B) quick and easy to dial in for the punchy sound that I like Yes, the TCE SpectraComp is a thing of joy, it is paradoxically the simplest and most complex pedal compressor pedal available . I gig mine regularly love it. On those gigs where it's standing room only and I have no space for my pedal board, I use the MS-60B on top of my amp as a tuner and compressor. I just use the one, always on sound, so the limited form factor for chopping and changing patches all night isn't an issue for me. And although the SpectraComp performs 'better' IMO (possibly down to having a small amount of clean signal blended it along with a slight push in the higher frequencies?) (and depending on how you want to actually quantify 'better') the Zoom still holds its own in a live situation with a quality bass and rig.

some musicians should be committed

I used pound the strings like a ruddy jack hammer, Steve Harris style. I was always a heavy player with heavy strings, and it was a bit of a workout doing gigs, especially being the singer too. Then I watched Gary Willis play. Effortless technique and beautiful tone. He looked like he might doze off mid song it was that easy. Now I'm with the Billy Gibbons school of thought. Make it easy for yourself. Lighter strings, lighter touch.... just turn your amp up!

On behalf of myself, Michael G and our Product Engineer Simon Austen, just putting a marker down that your friendly neighbourhood Basschat sponsor Gillett Guitars will be there on stand A0. We'll have our Contour Bass range, a couple of Ashdown amps (UK manufacturers only on our stand ), our bass buddy Freddie Draper, and an itinerant keyboard player to make it all feel like the cocktail lounge on the QE2. Very much looking forward to meeting fellow members of the Basschat gang over the weekend! Scrumpymike, aka Gillett Guitars Sales & Marketing Manager

Another reason I like P basses... as said above, they are very simple but instantly give you 'that' sound in a mix. So you can forget all about the 'tonequest', forget about GAS and get on with the business of actually playing the bloody thing. Which is why I don't much care for on-board preamps, active basses* and over-complicated amps - too much of a distraction. *Spectors excepted, obvs.

Even worse when the perp is the drummer! At least singers can be jollied along a bit by the rest of the band, whereas it's usually just down to the bassist to try and sort the tempos out if the drummer is at fault. I speak from bitter experience....

I have a Jazz neck on one of my Precisions. Some might argue that it changes the tone, but I’d say it has more of an impact on the way I play... which then changes the tone.

Burlesque by Family. And that tone - Wetton nailed it beyond the call of duty For younger members who dont know the band / track

Reef’s ‘Naked’, appropriate title for such a sparse bassline. It works perfectly for the song, but I hated playing this when my band had it in the set, bored me silly,

@Bluewine errrrrr Meshell N’degecello, Ida Nelson,Yolanda Charles, Nicole Row, Esperenza spalding, Kim deal, suzi Quattro . Think you need to open your eyes and ears a bit more mate

I use 1 x15" & 1 x12" Ashdown cabs with upgraded Sica speakers & a ABM 1000 nice portable Rig & handles My Shuker F#--G easily .

If you could send me a pattern, I'm sure I can find the wool.

I should have also said you have more lovely basses than one can shake a stick at: I visited your shop a few years ago and was totally overwhelmed!

Can you, and I have no idea if this is possible, carve the front and then use the router on that radius to ensure that you don't break through when you do the back carve? Or just cut all the way through and veneer it. Like a Yamaha SLG200 with a lid

The good thing about your backside is that it seems to understand that all humans are different. More power to your backside Sir.

Relatively speaking ALL flats are inexpensive considering how long they last versus roundwounds.

Far from my usual listening, and a bit 'rough around the edges', being 'live', but I found this to be excellent; thanks for posting.

If you are close-mic'ing pick the driver furthest from any ports. If both drivers are the same distance then off-axis mic as far away from the ports as possible.

...and it isn't Tina playing the line either. Both bassists make that work for me. The tune would be nothing without that line.

I think it's more that the cab is producing the actual sound of the basses including frequencies that would normally be attenuated in a traditional bass amp and cab.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss produced one of my favourite albums, Raising Sand...

Pedant misery guts! lol ;D stop ruining the fun!!

I'm glad you didn't go all Ringo like that 'click' quote he's known for. I am the walrus BTW and the eggman will be along shortly after he has collected all of the eggs from his flock of golden geese. It's not easy sitting on a cornflake you know. I may try Weetabix next time. I played with @PaulWarning and Wendy one night. Wendy on drums, Paul on guitar and vox, me on bass. He did advise me that it was intended as a punk performance. The BPM on The Letter was enough to make my fingertips smoke but the beat was consistent and relentless and fun. I prefer that to slowing a song down. It drags.

What an amazing performance!

I thought that Bill was a member on here. I think I know what he would say from other posts of his on his own forum in that a 2x10 is not meant for bottom end and you would need to match this cab with one of his Tuba designs or equivalent.

I wonder how much of those "fees" were actually paid! There is a story that the organisers tried not to pay The Who. The band insisted on cash up front so the organisers had to get the cash from a local bank before The Who would play.

Mark sold me some Shaller Tuners which were packed so securely I had to call in 'Oceans Eleven' to get into the box! All good, trade with confidence, and looking at this thread. virtually every BC member would appear to have!

A better approach is to look at a chord progression rather than each chord in isolation - hopefully at least 3 chords. If the music genuinely only uses 1 or 2 chords for that section, then there will (by definition) be more choices of scales which "fit" (note, I've not said 'right' or 'wrong' - there is no right or wrong as such, although some will sound much more pleasant than others!!!) If the music has more than 3 chords, (and even if it has less....) there's always a chance of the chords not being diatonic, thus there's some kind of modulation, or use of harmonic minor, or other explanation for the non-diatonic chord (like the use of a Neapolitan 6, or an Augmented 6th chord, or other interesting stuff - or 'just' a modulation). So its not really possible to say with any certainty "3 chords means you can fit a scale to them, 4 chords means you can't" - it really depends on the chords in question and the musical context. But the basics are well-defined - the chord(s) have the notes of the scale in them, which 'fits'. If you look at (a lot of) music, you'll see the same progressions pop up again and again - for example a I IV V, or a ii V I, or a I vi VI V or a variation thereof. So after a while you'll see possibly 2 of these chords and know what scale is most likely to fit, and also what other chords might follow or precede the ones you looked at. I'd say you need to have a reasonable understanding of popular chord progressions, to be able to make sense of it all.

Our ears can get ‘fatigued’ when tweaking tone controls so when we go back to a ‘flat’ setting it’s nearky a relief and can sound great after a prolonged period of time tweaking. Solid advice is to start at noon and make small changes but remember if you’re playing with your band in a particular room twist the tone controls until it sounds good and balanced with the band not to where the knobs look correct. Sounding cohesive as a unit is the goal.

Tony Levin's gorgeous double stopped bassline on Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up". http://youtu.be/pIsf8EEeTFc

I'd have to agree, but I'm enjoying other basses. And it's not likely we'll really have to choose just one bass, thank God...

I'm with the OP - I've never found a P that I liked. Jazzes I can sort of live with but despite nearly every bass player in the world using a P I can't get it. I think some of it must be psychological - playing bass is "different" (not being a geeetareest) so playing a P like everybody else seems to go against my general principle. Leaves more for you fellas I suppose...

For me this: says only that the chord symbol C7(b5) defines 4 notes, wich is nothing unusual. All 4 tone chords define 4 tones. All 6 tone chords (like C7(#11) define 6 tones. Wich scale to play when the chord is played depends strongly on the tonal context. But in many cases the WT/HT scale can be played when a C7(b5) is sounding. Assume the sheet shows a G7 chord and the tune is written completley in c-major. The first scale choice will be c-mixolydian, because that is the 5th mode of the g-major scale and the G7 is the 5th chord of the g major scale. Now assume the tune is written completley in c-minor. Then the first choice to play over G7 would be the phrygian-dominant scale, wich is the 5th mode of the harmonic minor scale . Chords don't imply scales. The choice of the appropriate scale to play depends on the chord sounding and the actual tonal context ( and: taste, not to forget).

have you had part of the word "amputated" removed also ? I don't think "amputed" is a word

Not the usual sort of thing that I post, but as it's January I've been thinking a lot about how to get the most out of practising and realised that there's not much point putting in the hours if you can't focus in the first place: There's a more detailed rundown of all the books, apps and strategies mentioned in the video HERE The site has had a facelift and been transferred to a new server, so things should be looking better and running more smoothly than before. New transcriptions on the way next week...

it may seem a bit weird, but probably not worth a rant. People are very different - even among bass players! - and whatever gets the job done is OK with me. If I heard some very tasty playing that was 'thumb work', it wouldn't bother me. Yes, or 'thumb rest' if fitted above the strings in the 1973-on position. However, over the years I've lost serious money in Tug Bars.

Steve is a real star. I bought a cabinet off him and it was a totally hassle free transaction. The cab was in perfect condition as he said it would be and he kept me informed about delivery etc, and wrapped it so it was bomb proof. 10/10. You can feel safe to deal with him with absolute confidence, and sleep easy to boot! Cheers, Tom