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I've just completed another bass part ex / sale with Martin from Wales - we had lots of communication both ways throughout the process and have been exchanging a few texts since about the basses we swapped. And it got me thinking as I was writing his feedback and looking at the three pages of feedback I've got....basically (bar one specific example - exception that proves the rule?!) I've had nothing but overwhelmingly positive experiences ( a LOT of them!) with people I've never met. Often involving quite a lot of money / expensive instruments and therefore trust of this unknown person. It's a great community of people who really do give bass players an excellent name. I'm sure other forums for different instruments may be the same (I'm not on any so can't really comment) but this really is a lovely group of people on here and I"m chuffed to call myself a bass player knowing that there's a lot of lovely people out there who also call themselves bassplayers! All good!

Nice to hear this, glad you all like our little community. It’s been a pleasure to run and has been a massive part of my life.

I used to get grief many years ago when I lived with my ex girlfriend about the combo amp that lived in the corner of the living room of our small one bedroom flat. I had nowhere else to put it really but eventually managed to find room to accommodate it in the cupboard under the stairs (which involved building a shoe rack to put on the triangular shaped wall above it). Imagine my joy when I came home one night to find a running machine occupying the space in the living room where my amp had been...

If you're going to talk like that, at least have the decency to use 'your' rather than you're and put EVERYTHING IN SHOUTY BLOCK CAPS. Looks far more comically unhinged that way.

Bought and sold stuff here for years, never had a bad exchange, everyone's polite and the couple of people I've met have been friendly and honest fellows to a man. Only problem I've encountered is the lack of interest in some of the dodgy kit I've advertised sometimes...!

Watching The Selector on the BBC Iplayer at the Biggest Weekend in Coventry. The bassist is playing a Squier Classic Vibe Precision, how cool is that! No gear snobbery there. Good bassist too, although I think Pauline Black is the only original member.

Phew it's been a hot one today! Not happy I have a blister on my thumb! How you ask? I'll tell you how Started off routing a shoulder at the level of the top of the binding to give myself a clean edge to work to while shaping the tops, yes shaping at last WOOHOO!! After that I drew a rough contour map of the general curves I expected to get, after that well it was shaping time. I used a thing called an Arbourtech, a rather nasty carving attachment that fits onto a grinder, this is a method I do not recommend, it can reduce your guitar body to firewood in less time than it takes to blink. So why am I using one, I've had a lot of practice with it but even then it's a worrying procedure. After rough carving I used some small thumb planes (blister!! ) to just get it somewhere like a shape at the back, the front couldn't be done until the angle for the neck/fretboard had been cut. For that I just made a jig, basically a sloping bit of MDF at 4.5 degrees with a hole in it to access the top of the body. There was some spare wood the jig didn't reach so I whipped those off with a drawknife, a bit like a massive spokeshave then took a bench plane to flatten it. Finally I took the thumb planes and some tiny spokeshaves and tuned the shape to something that looked right, it's sort of an intuitive process, try it you'll see. After that I was tired so I still need to tune the shape on the second body but I'm happy with the first, that just needs the neck fitting and sorting any snags before sanding etc. Oh and I also checked the neck blanks for any movement, admittedly they are still blanks and any movement would be unlikely but if there is any movement at this stage then the blank is firewood. There was none but some of you may be interested to know how I checked. To see if there is any twist on a narrow board you used a gadget called a pair of winding sticks, these are basically two parallel wooden straight edges with two inlays on each one with a pair of black (Ebony) and one with a pair of white (in my case Ivory veneers from a piano), as luck would have it I couldn't find them so I used a pair of 12" rules one balanced at either end from which you can sight down to see any twist (wind) exaggerated by the length of the winding sticks. Handy thing to know

I'm a lifetime member of Scott's Bass Academy. Yes, some of the people in the forum ("Campus" as they call it) are a PITA. Much of the chat is all very... well... But I don't regret having open access to an incredible and growing number of lessons FAR out stripping ANYTHING on Youtube. The SBL paid-for lessons are much better than any Scott ever gave for free. You also have opportunity, once a month (?) to be at a live video-chat session with guest speakers, who are often teachers of bass at the Berkeley School of Music. No, no regrets here. Go grab a 14-day trial membership and try it for yourself. You have nothing to lose. If you don't like it Scott WILL give you your money back. https://scottsbasslessons.com/ IIRC the first year was about £100. Topping up, at the 12 month stage, to "LIfetime" was another £200. Compare that to 1-to-1 lessons with a mediocre teacher at £26 an hour? 10 lessons inc travel costs?

I personally prefer having the jack on the front for the very reason that it gives me the option of sitting or standing. I don't have an issue with the look of it either actually. I've just commissioned my first Fodera build - it's costing a fair amount but I'm obviously comfortable otherwise I wouldn't have proceeded. I play 6ers and my tastes are generally quite conservative/boring - I find they're one of the few builders who make extended range basses that I like the look of - I've gone for an Emperor 6 by the way.

aging hasbeen getting some publicity.* nothing to see here, move along. * I say this as a fan of The Who

Mooer'd right up mate...😊

Or marry another bass player! 😄

Have you tried offering to help carry the stuff to the car, you know, don't leave it all for her to do? I mean, don't strain yourself, obviously ...

Over the moon at how well the two cabs compliment each other. The 102p is very tight and punchy while the combo's 12 inch driver is rich, fat and equally punchy. My amp buying days are over! Many thanks to Wunjo's on Denmark Street who put up with my madness.

Yeah, I got that.

Guns n roses, Van Halen , Rolling Stones and Aerosmith all did great albums long past then

Have to point out that my comments were made in jest to my wife. She is in no way a controlling type of person and would readily let me put bass things on display ........... if it made sense which of course it wouldn't Only kidding Dave

Fair point, and I’m not that great

Hey Friend, If you're talking about my two band preamp, it will most likely end up being branded as Marco Bass under a licensing arrangement. It does use a standard sort of passive treble rolloff control in both passive and active modes, and the active section does bass and mids rather than bass and treble. My personal favorite that I use in my daily driver bass omits the passive treble, since I typically never turn those things down at all anyway. And as always, I should reiterate that I have no hardware to sell, I am just an aspiring freelance designer looking to transition from long time hobbiest/DIY'er to maybe making enough to buy a few pints one day.

For me.. and it seems a lot of us...it comes down to set up. I bought a Mexican jazz off here which I completely overhauled to Candy tangerine (its in build diaries) thanks to a great initial..and subsequent set up by me...Its superb. Based on my experience of how good this is I went to Dawsons to try US 5 strings to match...tried 5...hated 5. Sticky necks...too much Poly...poor quality and totally uninspiring ...i was actually quite upset!!... I also have a 4003 Rickenbacker which I want to love so much as my wife bought it for me as one of those bucket list things..i waited 20 years to own one. But every bit of finish is sharp...the C shape baseball bat neck was unplayable until I stripped all the laquor off the back... It is a blue one and all of the paint bled into the laquor over the white bindings...then the laquor started flaking off...so have removed it from the neck..the whole thing is soooo poor we even took it in to get it verified as real (internet purchase....never ever again) where it was confirmed as real and then I was blamed for the laquor for not cleaning my hands when playing...sweat thing apparently...what BS! The neckshapes are better on the new ones imo...problem is..using Ric o sound bi amped it sounds bloody amazing...but will never gig it. Too much like hard work. They say never meet your heroes...

I had both. I really miss the Roadworn S/B Jazz the most though - wish I hadn't traded it - but in a moment of madness, I was trying to reduce the number of basses I own... I preferred the 60's S/B Roadworn, mainly because, for me, the neck felt "just right". The Flea Jazz neck is a tad thinner, but still very nice Personally, I'm used to the VVT control arrangement, and I wasn't so keen on the stacked knob controls on the Flea Some people much prefer them, but I found VVT a bit quicker to get the sound I wanted In terms of sound, they both sound great, but my sunburst RW Jazz had the pickups replaced with some lovely 70's / 80's vintage DiMarzio's and they were great The Flea sounded good though too. Oh, the Flea felt a bit lighter weight - in case that's important to you (though I never weighed them precisely) Re the Flea bass colour - it's pink, but it's a very pale, faded pink, and not so in-your-face Whichever of these you get, you'll have an amazing bass, I'm sure of that. To my mind, the differences are minor (apart from colour, of course) Fender Roadworn series basses are amazing - they really feel "played in". Good luck with your purchase

I'd like to be - I find his free stuff useful - but I've never managed to justify to myself the expense. It's (as far as I know) about $170 a year. I don't like the way it's almost impossible to find the price on the web site either 😉

5 pages already talking about a guy who's just released a new album, looks like his work here is done. From the TV advert it sounds poop to me and they've even crammed in "featuring Pete 'I was researching for my book' Townshend on guitar" into it, considering the other two members of the who are dead that'll be a who album then! Lol.

Yip... Always been nothing but great people I've dealt with either in person or by post... The feedback part does seem to get forgotten tho.

Walking bass lines are indeed a great way to start playing jazz. Ed Friesland's book has been mentioned, and while it is a great book, personally I think it's best to delve into it as a follow up to the book below. For a complete beginner to walking bass I much prefer "Walking Jazz Lines for Bass" by Jay Hungerford. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walking-Jazz-Lines-Bass-Hungerford/dp/0786659963 Also here is a complete set of lessons on WB by Dave Marks. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dave+marks+walking+bass+lesson

Had a difficult day today, will explain in a bit. Started off where I left off yesterday and finished routing the pickup pockets. Then I moved on to making a jig to rout the bridge pieces which is where I had bother, no idea why but could I get the shape of the tailpiece right?? Three goes it took me before I got there, after that it was just a simple rout and that was done. I drilled through from the bridge, bridge pickup and tail piece for wiring; the neck pickup I got very lucky in that the front of the rout (which was angled remember) just nicked the rout underneath for the switch wiring so I can feed the pickup wire straight through there. I'd had a belly full after all that so I went and sat in the garden and had a nice cup of tea Some shiny bits just for fun

I love the pre amp in the Sire basses.

I'm not even qualified to play bass. Yet I do.

I'm with BRX in the James Randi camp here (without the cash, sadly ) - show me the actual, repeatable, provable science, and I'll believe it. Electronics, pickup placement, strings, design (in the extreme) yeah, everything else? What BRX said...

I'd definitely agree with that summing up...... You have to respect Roger Daltry for his status in the genre and role in one of rocks greatest bands, but it was a very subjective and sweeping statement for him to make. On the basis that Led Zeppelin are generally regarded as the greatest rock band ever, probably most of their fans would say they had peaked by 1971 - though my personal favourite album of theirs is Presence (1976). And you'd have to say that Robert Plant has evolved as a musician more successfully over recent decades than Roger D

Yes he's completely wrong - actually horrendously wrong - maybe his memory's gone a little - just a few post 1971 tracks:- 1) Kashmir - Led Zeppelin - in fact the whole album Physical Graffiti 2) Schools Out - Alice Cooper - just seen it on bbc4 - what a killer bass part - totally blues rock 3) Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Band 4) Anything by Bad Company 5) Anything by AC/DC Ok some of the blues rockers from the late 60s had changed somewhat - indeed Fleetwood Mac is a good example but there's any amount of good post 1971 rock music. I was thinking Black Dog - Led Zeppelin as an archetypal classic rock track - but Led Zeppelin 4 was released in December 1971 so he's just about right there. Who's Next is a great album btw!!

Indeed. Daltrey: “I remember my teenage years and they’re the hardest years of your life for so many reasons,” he says. “You’re just starting to think about going out and really enjoying yourself, then a doctor tells you, ‘Sorry, you’ve got this.’ It must be a terrible blow.” “And when a teenager gets cancer, it affects so many people . . . their families, their mates, their class at school.” As for being a 'chav', it's true that Daltrey worked as a sheet metal cutter before The Who took off. But like many young working class people of the 50's and 60's Daltrey wasn't prepared knuckle under to an establishment clique of bourgeois snobs who relished keeping the less fortunate in their place. It's all different now, of course.

Christ you guys are going to struggle if we have an 'R&B' thread.

Ok I do know it’s been a while ive finished grain filling finally and I’m sanding off the residue one trick I’ve learned is to wipe white spirit over to show the grain and highlight spots that need more filler or sanding. Monday is final sanding and sanding sealer

John Paul Jones?

. . . . and another 30% if they moved production to China, but why would they want to do that? Their business model works. The company appears to be very successful in making high quality hand made custom bass guitars. They probably have a waiting list of several years so why change anything? The original question is naive. Why do Montblanc pens cost more than a Bic, why do Bentleys cost more than Dacias and why did Abramovich pay £340,000,000 for his boat when he could have been messing about on the water in a Bestway Lite-Rapide X2 for £140? I understand that people can love McDonalds rather than steak but why would McDonalds lovers think they have a point in questioning the existence of steak and the people who want to eat it?

as promised.... The playing is a bit sloppy but the tone is there even at 5am this morning! signal is.... Fender Jazz elite 5 (Active, Flat EQ)-> GB shuttle 9.2 (flat EQ, low boost) DI out -> Scarlet 8i6 > Ableton (no processing) elite demo.mp3

I've never heard a bad word about the older Eden gear in fact I had a WT550 for quite a while and it is the best amp I have ever owned. Plug it in, switch it on and "Boom", it was all there, tone in spades. Only sold it as it was a bit heavy. I then bought a WTX500 and was a bit underwhelmed. The tone was there but it just didn't have the "welly" of the WT500. I don't know much about the later gear but Eden is now owned by Marshall and I don't know what influence they have on the product line. Comparing old school watts with present day Class D watts is like chalk and cheese. An old 150W Trace Elliot or Peavey etc. is likely to sound much louder than the Eden. To get double the loudness of a particular setup you need 10 times the power output. Even if you were comparing like with like the difference between 150 and 225 Watts is inaudible. I don't know about the deal you have been offered but a quick look seems to suggest they are around £600 which is £100 dearer than a Fender Rumble 500. The Rumble is in a different league and has a massive following on here and you can hook up an additional speaker to it, (albeit an 8 Ohm one). The other alternative, if you like the Eden sound is buy one of the new Terra Nova heads and use your 4 Ohm cab. At the end of the day it is your money and you can spend it as you like but the Eden Combo will not do what you outlined above.

Another - with a wall - this one taken in Athens

Damn, nice gig. Rag & Bone man has a great voice.