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new bass day!! On Sunday i shal be taking delivery of this beauty im entirely in love with my Sandy TM5 and im hoping this will cure my precision gas once and for all.

The Mrs just showed me this on Reddit, so I found it on YouChoob to share.

I don't move much either. Unless the invisible bear shows up. Blue

New wife for your 50th. What is this 2 bass nonsense?

I'd just replace the string(s)... but make sure the band plays a song while you do that without bass. THEN when you come in, everybody will realise that YOU, THE BASS PLAYER, is the most important member of the band

I wanted to get a bass from my past from when I started learning to play, & the brand of basses that held a sentimental meaning to me for my 50th last August. I grew up in a town in North Wales which had one guitar shop & was a Peavey dealer & also that my, late Father had bought me a 79 T-40 for my 21st back in 1988 so made my mind up for me. So last July I found a 1992 Peavey Foundation on eBay and even though it had the Super Ferrite pickups like the 80's models, the body & headstock shape just were not the same but I bought it anyway. Fast forward to this February and with help from kodiakblair found a 1986 Peavey Foundation in, good condition from a fellow BC member dave.c which ticked all the boxes. An 80's bass from when I was 19 and the thought of turning 50 was a life time away, I miss the 80's plus as bassists I honestly thought we had it better then than now.

About fifteen years ago, I spotted an ad in our local rag: "Experienced lead guitarist and singer (been playing guitar for 15 years in all styles) looking for others to jam with and maybe form a band". TBH I was a bit scared to call the guy (let's call him Dave), seeing as he was clearly far more experienced than me (I hadn't been in a band since school, but then Jimmie quit and Jodie got married....). Still, he sounded ok on the phone, so I arranged to go round to his place the next evening for a jam. When I turned up, the door was answered by a tall freaky guy, who just stared at me. Eventually Dave appeared behind him and said "it's ok John, he's here to see me". We went downstairs to the living room, and started messing about with a few songs. It turned out that far from being an experienced LG, Dave could just about manage a minor pentatonic scale if he looked at his fingers, whilst his singing was really best left in the shower. Also, there was something about him that I couldn't quite square - he was certainly too shy to ever be a frontman, and he sometimes seemed to be in another world entirely, and then struggled to finish his sentences. John, meanwhile, took up position in one of the armchairs, and stared at me continuously. Eventually John got up to go to the loo, and I decided to make my excuses and leave. Dave said, oh, don't mind him - he's got schizophrenia, so it means he's not good with new people. It's just this house is owned by the council for the six of us to live in. We have a care worker during the day, but in the evenings he only comes round if we press the alarm button.......

A few days after the first Gulf War ended, I was doing CSE forces shows in Kuwait & Saudi Arabia. While having pre gig refreshments about a 1/2 mile from the gig (Kuwait), we heard a rather loud explosion. A sergeant marched into the mess, then informed us that the show wouldn't go on. He shouted out at the top of his military voice, with a sh*t eating grin, that the Stage and all the hired equipment had gone up in smoke. Amazingly & stupidly, the Stage had been erected near an ammunition dump, which indeed, had gone up in smoke....You could tell by the look on the face of the Sergeant, that us wimpy musicians, should have gone up with the stage as well. The turn was an Impressionist called Bobby Davro, who minus the band, then offered to tell gags to the troops for some kind of entertainment (no mic - shouting at the top of his voice). He went down a (Desert) storm for making the effort, while we got smashed on some home made wine some French SF's troops had given us. (So, not a complete disaster)

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That is pretty well the shape I want, now Make some holes for the machine heads. I have some but not sure if I have the surrounds for them

BTW folks, heard word from Tech21 on 'that other forum' that the XLR 'is darker' than the main output, as per Dug's specs. Whether this means there is no speaker sim at all on the main out, or just a brighter one, remains to be seen! Just for those folk sending the XLR to the desk and the main out to your FRFR wotsits, you won't get exactly the same tone out of each.

Actually, now you mention it, it might have been in the Meadows and not actually in Clifton. I think the thing those venues had was a) respect for the performer b) the need to put on a show and not gaze at your shoes, scratch your derrière or argue amongst yourselves between numbers

Pahahahahahahahahahahahahahah... *cough* *splutter* *cough* Ahem... Pahahahahahahahahahahahahahah... Nice bass though!

Oi you lot! Get back on topic! I want my dUg pedal!! wa-wa-wa-wa-wa

Thanks all for the kind words & feedback! Looks like it was worth while after all

I use both octaves for very different reasons. the broughton is very much a synth tone generator. its a great sounding OC-2 esque, amazing tracking synth pedal. The aggie serves a different purpose all together.... Its more of a blended octave down copy of the input signal...but the original signal has a lot of the lows reduced, and the octave down has them more pronounced. The GR2 is used almost exclusively with the 2nd mastotron in its loop. Its the core of so many of my sounds because it just sounds fantastic. For funky fingerstyle the Mini Mu is my go to filter as its the fattest/quackiest ive come across yet! the manta is used if i need something more complex for dubstep style `wabs` for example. The bananana hasnt been incorporated into any of my songs at the moment so diddnt make the board. yet!

Nottingham 1973 This is a band audition tale... At my first" day release " at college ( I was an apprentice plumber) I met two guys that wanted to form a band, we arranged to meet at the rhythm guitarist's garage on the following Sunday. It went well enough we just needed a drummer. I volunteered my mate who had driven me and my gear to the audition.....he had never played drums and didn't have a kit but as the rhythm guitarist's father was a resident drummer at a local working men's club, we could use his kit and rehearse in a the fabulous function room that wasn't used on a Sunday afternoons. Sounds like a recipe for disaster yes? ...not a bit of it ,Dave took to drumming like a duck to water, Six weeks after his first go he had bought a kit of his own and we did our first gig...Market Harborough Working men's club, 3x 20 mins sets, with our armoury of 12 covers...and we got paid £29.00, ok we did have a few requests to "play this song again" to get through, but no one complained. This was in the days when even a rubbish band like ours gigged at least twice if not three times a weekend; a half decent band could gig five times a weekend and pick up midweek gigs. We pottered along for six months but the (almost inept) lead guitarist/lead singer just didn't improve, in fact he got all "rock star "on us and kept missing practice without letting us know and turning up drunk for gigs. We decided to replace him, unfortunately everything came to a head at the Friday night gig of a three gig weekend and the Saturday night gig, at a pub in Chesterfield, was an audition for a new agent. Being young and brave we didn't cancel, we phoned around and got a friend, who was in a much better band than us ( they were having a weekend off), who was much more experienced than us, to come and fill in for the weekend. We ran through some songs on Saturday afternoon and everything sounded much better than before, although we needed to juggle the set list to suit his knowledge of songs and hurriedly learned a few of his favourites. When we did the gig things went very badly wrong (what a surprise :-) ) the new guy just point blank refused to turn his guitar up and wouldn't sing close enough to the mic to be heard...we missed all the cues fumbled through a few songs and after the first set decided that he was being a p*ll*ck and told him we would manage without him, we re- arranged the sets ,leaving our best stuff for the last set, and gamely went for it. During the break before the last set the landlord came up to us and paid us saying "here you are lads, don't bother going on again" We packed away in shame and drove home in silence. The new agent never spoke to us and we cancelled the Sunday gig. Rock and Roll chaps......Rock and Roll. Edited to add.... I now tell my kids and friends who complain about me "singing" along to the radio etc... "Hey I have been paid to sing and I have been paid not to sing....what have you done? "

I've used black, white and copper nylons from La Bella. Absolutely superb strings. Smooth, low tension but high gauge so you can really dig in. Last a lifetime. The white nylons remain my string of choice for fretless.

Yep, this is so true. And, at an audition, NEVER tell the keyboard player he's playing a wrong chord - even if it's clearly wrong. You'll never get the gig - you're a threat. And always look for the positives in any of the players in the band you're auditioning for - a couple of gentle favourable comments can work wonders. "Hey, Mr drummer, I like the way you didn't speed up in that number" Wow, that guitar solo was REALLY loud - I love it when my ears bleed like that!"

Wow. Didn’t realise they made these. I had a Battering Ram 2.6 (effectively the same pedal, minus EQ) and had it not been for it’s awkward size and shape I may well have kept it. Very cool pedal and bucket loads of bottom end in the overdrive I found. In fact, it held more low end than any other overdrive I’ve owned, before or since

It's a Wounded Paw Battering Ram Q. https://www.woundedpawaudio.ca/fx/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=29&zenid=99a32393a9736460d2ca46ea79dfc03f I don't even like fuzz pedals and this is genius. Truly. Genius. The parametric EQ is great. The distortion in parallel with the fuzz and octave up fuzz is brilliant. Very flexible and just great. In that respect better than Darkglass, but the sound is very different.

t's not going to happen. I'm still trying to get the band to play songs that were written this century. I don't think any of them know what in-ears are.

...in Dobbly, presumably

I was interested to read elsewhere in this parish of drummers who use metronomes in practice and on stage. These are of course gigging musicians. I hesitate to use the term professional since its meaning has been severely diluted in recent years and it does not serve well for this topic. To me it makes sense for the drummer to use it as opposed to the bassist but since both roles are crucial for the rhythmic drive of a band, others may have an alternative view. I am referring mainly to the use of metronomes (as opposed to the click) when performing. I assume that no bassists do this on stage. Correct me if I am wrong please. ***** At home, I am very weak willed when it comes to practice with a metronome. I have a few of them. Most of them are bundled with tuners in pocket sized devices powered by battery. To access either the tuner or the metronome functions I have to press and hold a button for a few seconds. Further, I have to cycle the time signature options and if I miss the one I am looking for, I have to go around again. This is so off-putting that I seldom bother unless I have a specific reason. The result is that I don't spend enough of my practice time with a metronome. It's shameful of me to be so neglectful. This morning I have taken my grandfather's (latterly my father's) clockwork metronome off the shelf and I will put it in my practice area for easy access. Standing alone and with no other responsibilities than to keep time, I am optimistic that I will use it more than the others. My tuner need only work as a tuner and its nested functions can rest in peace forever. There are no wires or batteries, just a winder for the mainspring in the mechanism. I have removed the excuses that bundled devices allow me to get out of jail with, so to speak. I am optimistic that I will get more use from this metronome than the others. It's also a lovely bit of kit if all I ever do is look at it. Wish me luck. PS: I'd love to see one like mine being used by a drummer even if it is out of sight of the audience. Then again I would like to see a world united by peace and the pursuit of a Winter home in a new solar system. Silly me.

Not sure if this has happened to any of you but last week I attended a gig and the bass players amp died during the second set. As a fellow bass player was in need, I popped out to the car and brought in my head and cab (Markbass and Barefaced). The band and pub were very pleased to say the very least. Last night I had a gig there and usually only bring one bass but some Jedi force told me to bring a spare. Just as I hit the first note on the second song the D string broke! WTF.! I have a spare. Phew! Quick change over. All is well but had to play 2 sets on the heaviest flatwound Labellas. Aching forearms and tired fingers today. So pleased I had a back up plan. First time in 30 years it has happened. Anybody else got any stories?

I just had to have a bloody go on the configurator tonight didn't I....... 6 numbers Camelot - that's all I need....... you can do it!! 😆

If you own a Trace then I’d recommmend one of these. One careful American owner.

`Twas a no brainer for me, I had the lovely chaps at Alpher build me a Cobia 5 string (still the only one in the world), my choice of everything and the serial number is my birth date, cool as you like!!

Probably need at least 3 passports to play a bass with that finish

I actually have my b2 with me at every gig - only used it on one audition but paid for itself then!

Ditto.... in fact I've just kicked a couple of people out of auditions for that line. If you can't be bothered learning the songs for an audition there's no chance you'll be committed learning songs for the band.

Jim's Ukulele Songbook at: http://ozbcoz.com/ Downloadable pdfs of maybe 2000+ songs with chords for ukes (inc. baritone), guitar, tenor guitar, banjo, mandolin...etc. Also, online, you can transpose songs to any key you like and download a pdf of that. My first call for most songs. Fantastic free resource.

Nonsense, that's 'mojo'. Leave it as it is, or you'll reduce the value.

plain black or brown tort I tort I saw a meow meow cat.......realy? we can't say p u s s y cat?

Just received an MXR M85 Distortion Pedal from Peter. Everything was as described and he and I kept in touch throughout. Good chap to deal with. Thanks Peter.

Perhaps best not to let him have access to a tambourine then.

Big take away here for newbies looking for a band. When you ask them to provide you with 3 to 4 songs to audition and they can't. Blue

I think I've got the pickup out of one of those in a bitsa. It would probably be good for metal, if I played metal.

Tru, dat. Back in the day some engineers would have me turn down to the point where my Ampeg SVT-CL and 8X10 were basically a very large stage monitor. Cracking sound out front, though.

Bass cabs... and especially guitar cabs colour the sound considerably. You have to consider the sound coming out of the modeller to be a recording of your instrument as it would appear on the CD. You wouldn't plug your CD player into guitar amp and expect it to sound as good as a hifi. This is the same... the FRFR takes away any further colouring. If you do want the colouring of the cab, you run a model of the amp without any speaker emulation or IR and let the non FRFR cab add that colouring back in.

Make sure that you try changing your £1000 bass for your £50 Sue Ryder too... and ask the audience again.

You don’t need the iLok itself, just the iLok License Manager software. As a ProTools user, I get the hate for the iLok but sadly also it’s the only way to legitimately run ProTools, unless there are workarounds out there I haven’t bothered looking up. EDIT: I downloaded the trial and it’s awesome. Instead of running a parallel channel with a bunch of plugins trying to mimic the B7K metal tone, I can drop one instance of the Neural plugin on my bass channel and get the sound I’m looking for. Sounds just like the pedals I’ve heard in tons and tons of videos. I’ve never owned a Darkglass pedal, but I’ll likely buy the plugin for £99.

Put the video up on here, we can give it marks out of ten.👍

Sunbeams are the only strings I use nowadays.

I just recently purchased a Barefaced two 10 and it just has a really warm low end thump. I just love its portability and construction, you just know its higher end. I use a Trace Elliott 500W and an Ashdown CTM-100. I found that with the more expensive barefaced cab, the CTM-100 holds its own a lot better in the mix. I just think the Barefaced cab is really efficient. Previously I had a pair of Genz Benz focus cabs and they were really excellent cabs for the money, you just need more watts going in is all. As regards Amplification, I've owned an Orange terror bass, and an Ampeg PF350 before, good amps, but I've ended up with a Trace Elliott AH-500. These are relatively cheap at the moment second hand as they're not exactly lightweight amps compared to lighter class-d ones but they just cant be beat IMO.

I'm a touring sound engineer and also run a production company that supplies fancy-pants function band agencies with systems and engineers, and I can confirm that this is an utterly daft setup you're running. If the only reason he can manage is that you don't have enough monitor mixes on your desk, sell one of the two pairs of tops and your current desk, buy one of the raft of relatively inexpensive tablet-based digital mixers that are now available and have plenty aux outs (or a used Allen & Heath MixWizard, if you're of the strictly old-school analogue persuasion, as that'll fit in a standard 19" rack width and do six aux outs). Ten years of band-leading doesn't automatically mean he's got any idea at all about sound reinforcement.

But all that means is that they have 10 years of setting things up in a less than ideal manner. Low frequencies on stage leaking into the open mics, phasing isssues etc...