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I just received spam from MS promising me "the comfiest PJs ever". Should I click on it, or will it aggravate my GAS?

Well that was worth doing. Absolutely rock solid! Phew... Still quite a bit to do, but I think we're on the home straight

Why would anyone do that ? I'd let my missus audtion as a singer for any band she wanted to. The fact that she can't sing a note and her voice would hospitalise small children is neither here nor there. My only wish is that it was a band full of Millwall fans and they'd suffer irrevocable ear damage in the process.

Well the pickups ended up being delayed again from Bass Direct so they’ve kindly refunded me and I’ve found some in Holland which are on their way over. Meanwhile Mike and I have sorted the scratch plate design and Mike’s started on the neck and fingerboard:

The only thing I'd add is that you should ring ahead imo, I've seen people on here slag them off after arriving out the blue to be stood around as other people were trying stuff out, which is fine but you can't expect a small shop demoing expensive stuff to customers that have effectively made an appointment to be snubbed when you walk in imo. They'll also confirm what you want is in stock and have it ready for you too, so either call ahead or be patient that's all I'm saying.

I've just spent the morning getting to know my shiny new stomp. I have never used any Helix prior to today and am really happy with it. the ease of use is brilliant! After 20mins I was editing and creating new blocks. Really happy with the responsiveness of the editing dynamics.

Deluded flakes. 1) Some will say they want to be in a band then take it no further; 2) some will join a band and take it no further; 3) some will join a band, rehearse, do the occasional gig and take it no further; 4) some will get fairly close (potential deal, touring, sacrifices and commitments looming) before taking it no further; 5) some will wait until they're actually in a successful band, get FOS (Fear Of Success) then take it no further. You've experienced 1), which at least has the merit of wasting the least amount of time.

Speak for yourself, some of us are of a certain age and I was well into JW (James Gang) well before The Eagles. James Gang debut album 1969. Eagles debut album 1972.

I give you Mind Bomb by The The. I had my head turned by Infected after Channel 4 showed a late-night film in 1986 documenting each track and was blown away - I then had to wait three years for Mind Bomb. Unapologetically political throughout, lyrically I don't think Matt Johnson was ever better - covering the perils of organised religion (Islam fundamentalism vs. Christianity), bitter breakdown of relationships, and "the politics of greed" amongst other cheery topics. It features Johhny Marr, Danny Thompson, a great performance by Sinead O'Connor on one track and wonderful bass playing by the 'overlooked and highly recommended' James Eller throughout. It even manages to include a pastiche on Sweet's Ballroom Blitz and replace the opening "Steve", "Andy" and "Mick" line with "Jesus", "Buddha", "Muhammad" - one for the older viewers! Not really a 'Sunday morning album', it's one of those albums that is best digested in a solitary fashion, played from start to finish in the order Mr Johnson intended and through headphones for the full solitary effect. Here's the opening track, Good Morning Beautiful; So, anyone else got any recommendations that fall under the 'overlooked and highly recommended' category that you feel should be embraced by the knowing souls on here?

Some people don't spend all their time buying and selling on eBay. Also IME people don't seem to bother quite so much with feedback for private sales these days as they did in the past. I only joined eBay because I'd seen something I wanted to buy and it wasn't available elsewhere. After that I didn't buy anything else for almost a year. I didn't start selling for another 3 or 4 years after that, and I don't think I've bought or sold anything on eBay for at least a year now. If I wanted to pull a scam I'd sign up and build myself a decent history (and feedback score) buying small cheap items from commercial sellers first.

Hi, I've been playing for 35 years, I use a Genz benz amp and 2 1x12 600w cabs, I mainly play a blue 40th anniversary euro lx spector but I have a black stain euro lx too, 2 x musicman 5s one in stealth and one maple, Fender jazz custom shop nos 64 in fiesta red, overwater original series in green, aria sb1000 in oak and a Flea bass, I'm looking forward to taking part in this great site Cheers Derek

That is a nice JV Precision as well, people do not realise how good a bass they are so I end up seeing them going for a bit less than the list price. No one is right or wrong, but I agree don’t give it away. Market is defo slower regardless of seasons greetings

I also need to like the band to like the bass player. Paul McCartney, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Victor Wooten, Stanley Clark, Jaco, Billy Sheehan, and others I've forgotten. It wouldn't bother me if they never played or recorded again and their entire back catalogue was deleted. Now cast me out 😁

Exactly. I like songs and music. I don't think I'd like Rush just because they had Paul Simonon on bass for instance. Although that would be funny.

I'm of the opinion that the bass is a part of the music, and can't be separated from it. Geddy Lee is a fine example - while I can logically and dispassionately acknowledge that what he's doing is technically very good, there's no way I would ever describe myself as "enjoying" it. I am not ashamed of this. S.P.

Today I picked up my new guitar and thought I’d share some of the details. This is a review come biog so bear with me I started playing guitar aged 14 and only picked up the bass when our band found ourselves short a few years later. We gigged a tribute act (oasis) for several years in the 90s and then branched into originals. I had a lot of guitar knowledge but little bass playing knowledge, although not necessarily needed (?!?) for 90s mainstream guitar tunes. 18 months ago our band decided to reform and a MIM fender jazz came my way. As soon as I started playing I was hooked and could not believe the amount of resource available these days compared to even 10 years ago. Youtube is awash with talented teachers i.e. SBL, daric bennett, mark @ talking bass etc; whilst I’ve had modes down for a long time they really took me from being a guitar come bassist to someone who really focused in on chord tones, arpeggios etc. In 2017 An upgrade was due and to my surprise I ended up buying a guitar cheaper than my MIM Jazz - along came the Marcus Miller sure v7 vintage. An amazing bass which was incredibly easy to play. I gigged it for a year and in the end what made it great became its main issue for me... the 5 tone knobs (2 of them doubling up making a total of 7 tone knobs) just left me feeling a need for simplicity. A trip to my local guitar shop a few months back and I found my dream guitar... a fender bass precision American original. I’d been looking out (possibly) for a 70s, or earlier, precision as I became hooked on the tone and the two knobs! The original series ticked a lot of boxes and the lake placid blue with a tort pick guard, for me, is the best colour combo possible - smitten Here it is! I’m blown away by the pick ups, different to standard precision’s, and the overall feel of the guitar. It’s bigger, growlier, harder to play, but oh so damn amazing. It is taking some getting used to I.e. reverse tuners, clay dots, wider spacing on strings, neck dimensions, Phillips head truss rod etc, but my days of trying to play as fast as possible have been replaced with trying to play as smart as possible. It’s a joy

All very exciting mate! Lovely specs. I have to admit, I'm a big fan of Black Limba too, here's my Finn SC Classic 6er... Eude

There's always going to cork sniffers who feel superior because their latest handmade-by-craftsmen pedal cost £600 and there's always going to be cheapskates that feel superior because their ebay special is just as good and costs £19.99. The reality is that most of us are somewhere in the middle. I think there's enough people buying pedals to keep a lot of pedal companies in business.

Its a little known fact that the 'M' & the 'S' in M&S stand for Musicman & Stingray.

@paul_c2 I don't plan to play in a band but who knows - for now I'll just play with Chic, Bootsy and some other guys Didn't buy the cheapest stuff out there. So for a beginner I think I'm fine for now

I guess Frank Sinatra outshone the Tommy Dorsey Band?

Can't really comment on the DW model but I bought a Euro 5 LX a week ago having never played (or even tried) a Spector Euro before. I really bought it on the reviews I read and the hype that they're great basses. I really didn't know what to expect. I was super impressed with the build quality for starters. Absolutely perfect. Picking it up it was slightly heavier than what I'm used to but the supremely comfortable neck - certainly for any 5 string I've ever played more than made up for it. The sound was what has now made me a Spector convert and I can't see me entertaining the idea of buying any other bass apart from Spector. The Tone-Pump gets a pretty bad rap and it appears to be the Marmite of bass pre-amps but I love it. Yes it's loud but as mentioned, the trim pot means it can be adjusted to suit. Problem solved. I'd be really surprised if you didn't like it.

Admittedly you need matching trousers. Tight, tight Lycra trousers.

Wish I had an 80s hair-rock band in which I could prance around with this...

Might be worth investigating a mixer controlled by a tablet, allowing you to do both/either.

I think that's a bit of a generalisation - possibly true for the really small combos of around 10W-20W. Once you get into something around the 30W-50W range, then a decent sound (at a volume level suitable for home practice) can be achieved. I think its true to say that an amp has a "happy" volume range, beyond or below which in theory it can go but it loses a bit of its nice tone. Thus, a very large amp would probably not sound great at very low volumes, where a smaller one does better.

X32 Rack, RCF 735x2 with a suitcase of XLR cables (do not skimp here, expect to pay at least £20 for a 6m XLR, preferably something like Vandamme, Klotz, Sommer - handmade, as tag machine soldered XLRs will fail), a pair of hotcovers for the cabs, a rack case for the X32, a few DIs (look at Orchid Electronics), a couple of stands, some Behringer P2 wired inear packs all for under 3k should get you quite a formidable, portable wedding rig - with the provision for stereo IEMs too! Those tops will happily have bass and kick through them, as well as the rest of the band. No need for subs unless you stepping up to play some big venues. Just those tops will do 95% of wedding venues without a sweat. Dont forget lots of power leads with lots of sockets on too. You didn't mention mics, but a set of AKG Session Ones (factor in two stands for overheads) for the drums are great, as are D5s for vocals.

Is that her ginger wig?

I've just seen it, I spotted the Ernie Ball Classic Stingray instead of a proper pre EB straight away. Same for the Fender Custom shop logo on the rear of the bass head stock at the Live Aid concert. Nerdy.

That depends on your age and musical preferences surely. I was a JW fan long before I discovered The Eagles.

My existing band is mid slow down due to lead guitarist/ vocalist just having had a baby (well his wife did). So drummer and myself have started a new venture, rhythm guitarist has played with us in the past, lead guitarist is well known to,us (I work with his wife) and his other band have supported us in the past, vocalist is mate of the rhythm guitarist and did acoustic set with us at a charity gig last year. First meeting was amazing, five people, no egos, all agree on amount of gigs we want and agreed half a set to get up and running with in no time at all. First rehearsal will be early next month and it’s exciting to be at the start of a new band again. Only thing we couldn’t work out was a band name, why does that always seem to be the hardest bit to nail?

Ok, The Filmore House gig was cool. Small rural party bar. Nice people come there to relax ,party and get loaded and they love live bands. I arrived at 7:00 and couldn't even find a parking space and eventually had to park illegally. Overall it was a fun gig, the band sounded great last night. Very "old school" rock bar gig. Such a nice crowd. It was an 8:00-12:00 gig, the BL didn't call for a break until 10:15. So playing 2 hours plus without a break was a little weird. At one point I thought it was 1972. I had a fun night guys. Blue

A singer friend of mine and myself were starting a new project, writing songs together. We would meet at mine to write and record a bit of guitar and bass. I was playing guitar but I wanted to stick to bass, so we auditioned guitarists. This guy comes in, and within seconds we realise he can't even play. He was having trouble shaping chords with is fingers... and you could see he was feeling very nervous and embarrased. Singer is giving me this look like "we're done here"... but I felt sorry for him, so I took one of my guitars and showed him something simple to play, and I played another guitar and singer sang a bit... then moved to bass... and over all I taught him 3-4 little things and we played for another 30 minutes or so. Then he left, apologising for his lack of preparation and he laughed at how silly he was for thinking he could do it. Then he says he had only been learning guitar for 2 weeks... I emailed him a couple of days later to see how he was. We laughed. He was a cool guy, he just jumps into things with lots of enthusiasm and not enough preparation sometimes We became friends, I encouraged him and eventually he went on to form his own band. I played a couple of gigs with him as a dep, recorded a bit, I went to his wedding... so yeah, cool audition ha! stinky poo guitarist at the time, but I ended up with one of the coolest friends I've got.

time for a very frightening part... cutting the binding channel... and then binding it! on that second picture it looks hugs, but in reality its about 3mm, which is just about right for the 3 layers of banding ill be using. te be honest, this part was fairly painless, the cocobolo machines pretty well so long as your router bits are nice and sharp. as you can see, the binding channel is fairly deep, and once the binding is installed it will leave about 4mm of the cocobolo top over the top. the plan is then to carve the top down to the binding, so that the body has a nice subtle shape on the top. The first layer of the binding, you can see how much of the cocobolo is going to be carved away... and aslo how close in coclour the tulipwood is without finish on it. in relaity, the cocobolo will darken a bit more once a finish is applied, so there will be a nice contrast. the second layer (the ebony) went on a hell of a lot smoother than the first... its only .6mm thick and the grain runs along it so its pretty resistant to splitting along the tighter curves. and finally... all 3 layers are on! theres a steep learning curve to doing binding, but overall im fairly pleased. i think itll look good once the top is carved and the binding is scraped. but if you think it was nerve wracking doing it on the body... this damn near gave me a heart attack. i couldnt quite put my finger on why... but i wasn't quite 100% happy with how the fretboard looked. i'd placed the inlays about 2mm away from the edge, so that if i wanted to i could bind the fretboard after the fact, and thats what i decided to do. and honestly... im super gald that i did. i love the way the padauk binding looks now that its sanded back. and the inslay survived the whole operation intact. it looks more like a picture in a frame now, and i like that a lot! its starting to look like a bass! ill be glueing the back in place today and then im more than a little nervous about carving the top next week. its slowly getting there....

Taking bass tart to a new level....matching strap!!

Well, without going so far as to condone unwarranted 'nose-thumbing', Richard Thompson continued, and continues to continue, delivering high quality stuff since going solo from Fairport Convention, where he excelled. Worth producing stuff under his own name..? Absolutely. I'd also mention the duo Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, both extremely proficient and important artists as Hot Tuna since the end of Jefferson Airplane.

This is an '88 Washburn B80, Neon Pink / Blue Crackle finish, rare as hens teeth and very little info about them unfortunately. The 'Stephens Extended Cutaway' is just plain sexy ....

It’s a reference to off the wall topics where the usual comment would be “is it any good for metal?”

I can listen to and enjoy just about anything if the bass is good enough. ABBA being an example that springs immediately to mind. Musically they're not my cup of tea at all but the bass on some of their tracks is absolutely outstanding.

Thankyou cetera, I agree they are amazing basses Derek

I did, but decided to stick with the uni pre - I have one on the shuker and it’s just what I was looking for. I guess I’m sticking with what I know for this one. Course, I could always swap it out for a DFM later on

We are a 9- to 11-piece with QSC PA which is 2 x K8 and 2 x KSub. The KSub have wheels so it's not so bad and you can use them as carts to push the rest of the gear around. The mixer is a Mackie digital wifi one. The bandleader mixes FOH with an iPad, and each individual musician does their own monitor mix with a phone or tablet. We have a few more QSC K for monitors, or use in-ears. I can't imagine it working very well without a digital desk. We have so many cables! We have a wheeled flightcase trunk just for XLR and power cables...

Yeah Mark'll let you try any bass you fancy even if he thinks you probably won't buy. I've had a go on Ken Smiths and Pedullas and no way had i any intention of buying one. The price tags are way too hefty for me. Indeed three is a crowd in there but as you'll be given headphones it doesn't matter

You're not alone in liking a thin neck

It's funny, I don't have massive hands, yet I've managed OK on 6ers since I first tried them. When I was at Art School, one of my class mates, who was 6 foot 4 and had massive flapping hands, could barely get his hand round the neck of the 6er I had at the time. I think your hands just get used to it, the muscles adapt, stretch and get stronger. It also means anything smaller, 5s or 4s feel comically small when you go back to them... If 16.5mm spacing wasn't available, it wouldn't stop me playing 6 string basses, I'd just have to get used to whatever was around 😎 Eude

Don't stress too much about it, that will only hinder your learning. Learn what you can in the time you have got, what you can't improvise! Many originals bands do just that live onstage. I've found that listening to a track (whilst not playing along) is good for me, I actually listen to it and get a feel, rather than wonder where my fingers etc are going next. Takes some effort 'not' to pick the bass up though! Good Luck.

The original track here was an exam piece for my MA. It was later used by Birmingham's Barber Institute of Fine Arts to accompany a painting of the crucifixion by Odilon Redon in their 'Sounding Images' exhibition. Here's it's been reworked slightly. There's absolutely no real bass here; I do realise it's a bass players forum. There is however ebowed high F on a 7 string bass in places. A vibrating string produces a sound that just can't be replicated any other way. https://quietestrecords.bandcamp.com/track/a-further-work-in-red