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If you don't feel like reading, just pass this one by. Nothing is simple anymore. Montreal, 1971, Shed 25. Owned by a football player (Montreal Alouettes) down by the docks (where the large storage sheds were numbered). At night, the area was so dark you had to be careful carrying gear. There was nothing else around but a small restaurant 5 or 6 blocks away where you had to swim through the snow drift as you went down several steps with red and green neon lights flashing in the snow. I remember fueling up on cheap scotch, fried eggs and two cups of coffee. The waitress was Muriel with the nice smile. An establishment feeding beer daily to longshoremen and motorcycle gangs. Long torn down. We were 15/16 and it was our blues band with blues harp: Messin' With The Kid, Jumpin' Jack Flash/Johnny Winter and Johnny B Goode. Don't even tell your parents about it. By day it was the hangout of the notorious Dubois Freres Gang. Lucky for us they never were around at night. The women wore nothing and were very young. It was all new to me then. They used to rush us when we came in saying, "Ooh! Les Musiciens! Gadze! Gadze!" There were actually very sweet. The older ones were much more street savy. The customers were all old enough to be daddies, but their tips probably fed them. This was when Montreal had been long established as an open city and just before the modesty laws were instituted. First time we saw bouncers in action. Some drunk decided to argue football with the owner. They took him outside. They came back in without him. We got nosey between sets and witnessed more blood on cement than we imagined possible from one guy. We were going to ask for more money. Another night I sensed something while playing, only to see this hand twice the size of mine playing along the neck with me. Everyone was laughing. I felt like Pee-Wee Herman in the bikers bar. I was glad when he finally sat down. It was the Outlaws having a beer stop. The old guys driving the little sidewalk sized snow plows would drive like speed demons down their routes and then stop in for a couple of hours to have a few beer and sell pot. Then we had to play for women who were auditioning their dance routine. We'd play Help Me Baby and Green Onions. They liked it. It was mind boggling for a teenager. I can still smell the tobacco and beer stained carpet if I think on this too long. I don't think this routine exists anywhere today, except maybe Calcutta or the Barbary Coast. We split $40 for each night, six nights a week and stopped after three weeks as we all had day jobs. That's my lurid little tale of musical debauchery. Now tell us what the cute lady is doing with the price tag around her neck...?.

Our old singer had a habit of running up mid song and taking my hat off me..... annoying but she thought it was funny, until one gig I’d turned around and was facing the drummer and she tried it as I turned back around... not quite a black eye by the end of the gig but close. Thankfully my bass was ok. 😂😂

Well apart from a string tree it's finished and I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out........... 😀

Grrrrr……………….😣

A white or chrome cover, a lipstick or bronco type PU would have been nicer IMO.

On the subject of t-shirts, mine's not bass clef but definitely bass (and me 😁) on my long sleeved tee.

You could always try a collaboration with this guy: https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/hear-goes-nothing-t1126047.html Now you be sure to keep us all posted, y'hear?

It sounds like he is a control freak , if the band is a multiple album selling outfit earning you a great living, then he is also a great guy to play with , if you are pub covers band, he is a knob

BOOM! Got the job!!!! Band is called Fraudio btw. Absolutely stoked and in need of a beer or two. Now begins the hard work!

Hi, I'm currently studying music at uni and am in the middle of a business module. As part of this module we have to create a musical brand and work out how to market it through market research and other forms of marketing theory. I've chosen to go down the route of a session bassist, as this is what I aspire to do in the future and therefore am collecting market research for this. I know we're all mainly bassists here, but it would be much appreciated if you could fill in the survey, particularly anyone with experience of producing, songwriting or leading a band. The questions are pretty basic and it should only take a few minutes. If you think I have left anything important out, please let me know! Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TJ7MPS2 Many thanks!

I often think some covers bands aren't genre specific enough, a lot of people who go to gigs regularly are loyal to their genre, Mod, Ska and punk are popular in my area, you can please some of the people all the time, you can't please all the people all the time

Black scratchplates rule. You are all wrong with your fake toilet seats and horse brass preferences.

Have you tried messaging @KiOgon (John) he's usually pretty prompt replying.

never ashamed of anywhere I've played, but plenty of pubs that I wouldn't ever drink in. Not the rough ones - that's most of my drinking life - but the awful, Stella Artois & John Smiths serving town centre pubs who have an entertainment budget to spend on bands, or awful dance around your handbag type bars, Weirdly all of those were played in a punk covers band, and we got repeat bookings at some of them

Oh and this was the first outing for the famous UPS Saga bass! Sounds pretty damn sexy I think.

This isn't technically true. Some session bassists are brands (Will Lee, Pino Palladino etc.) but they develop their brand through years of playing and exposure, not because they simply tell people they're great.

Hey Blue, I understand your pain. I also didn't want anyone to see me when I played one of those basses!

Hiya, I'm not really trying to make the case for the gt1b, each to their own etc. Just thought folk might like to know about the assignable pedals. That said, I'll try to answer these questions as I've had the gt1b myself. 1) at a gig or rehearsal I don't think you'd want to be messing around with assigning switches. I think you'd want to set that up at home. That doesn't prevent you tweaking effects units 'on the fly' though. 2) sound and tone etc are subjective but to these ears the effects sound very good. The amp models and overdrives were really good in particular I would be very happy to gig or record with them. But, as ever, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 3) Is there an OC-2 in there? Almost. The octave is an OC2 clone and, again, I thought it sounded pretty good. I was using the -1 sound and liked it as an OC2 sound-alike. I didn't use the -2 sound so can't comment on that, or on the other synth sounds which I didn't use. In general, I think you'd set up your 'board' at home and then tweak it easily at the gig / jam. That is very doable. I still think the best multi for on stage tweakability is the Boss ME80b, which is an oldie but a goodie! In the end I couldn't quite get a driven OC2 sound that I liked from it, (despite liking the octave and overdrives individually!) . I also prefer the simplicity of analogue units with a single knob or maybe two. ... the gt1b sounds great though.

The best at different things can come at different times in our lives. My best as a university lecturer was about 15 years ago, and I recognised that and gave it up 10 years ago. I will almost certainly never be as good a bass player as I was a lecturer, but my best as a bass player is yet to come. With care and practice and a following wind I won't live to "cessation". I don't want to.

Here's my twin Stingrays....and my real twins 😍 They're my babies, all four of them.

Not a bass - my first-ever 6-string guitar was a quite decent Columbus SG copy which I had in 1980. Aside from a bolt-neck & fake humbuckers, it was a pretty reasonable facsimile of the original, down to having a very slender, volute-free neck/headstock junction. Can't quite remember how it happened but it probably involved the enthusiastic execution of inept powerchords, playing along with Motorhead or somesuch, and a surprise meeting of Columbus headstock and bedroom wall. I do remember a sudden loss of string tension and very rapid de-tuning. And then the "plop" as the newly-liberated headstock hit the floor. I lacked the skills to correctly repair my newly decapitated guitar - but I didn't lack imagination: I've still got it now.

I bought this Precision bass just over 3 years ago I think. It's originally a Squier VM and had satin finished maple neck/fretboard. Not long ago I'd had it up for sale as I'd sort of 'gone off of it'. However, I bought a Mexican Blacktop P bass neck for it. It's now my number 1 bass. The new neck has lacquer finish, which I prefer, and the much nicer looking spaghetti style Fender logo on the headstock. I went the whole way and got an F neck plate as well I shouldn't like this bass at all as I've never been one for natural finishes, but this is now such a lovely bass. It feels nice, and with some flatwounds on it, it sounds gorgeous. They're not the best photos, but here we go...

Adam Clayton managed two gigs in a row once without a new signature model for the third gig, does that count?

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may the 4's be with you

The LBGS has been moved from its customary slot in March to the last weekend in September (TBC), so it looks like we'll have to wait a few extra months for our next one. There are lots of other changes and improvements which will be officially announced shortly - I'll keep you posted when I know more. We'll have to make sure not to set the date of the South East bash on that weekend! 😮

Yes folks, it's official! Flushed by our previous successes in '17 and '18, we're going for the hat-trick. The location will be the same (The Memorial Hall TA2 8JY just outside Cheddon Fitzpaine village), the format the same or similar (suggestions for improvements welcomed from previous bashers), the price is £10 including all you can eat and drink. YOU KNOW ABOUT THE CATERING - if not from experience then by reputation (this is really a gourmet blow-out with a Bass Bash tagged on as an afterthought). This post is just to get the ball rolling with a date for your diaries - watch this space for more details! In the meantime, if you've already decided you're coming cos you know how good it is, just let me know and I'll start the list. Yippeeee - something to look forward to during the cold and miserable winter months 😍

Thank you x

Welcome!

Sounds good. Shame you can't fit a 100mm port in there, but you should find the 75mm one an improvement on what you have. I wouldn't recommend you keep the small port, but you can always experiment and it's your choice. To get the tuning frequency for the port arrangement you have now, I split the difference between your original port tuning and what a 75mm hole would give you. I wouldn't bet my life on it though.

That was my very first thought.

Plus.... The promise of continuing support and updates is a big reason I turned on to helix.

I found it online and thought since it looked like me and I play DB I just had to have it. It is the stikman( sic) bass player t-shirt design from zazzle.com. Here's the actual design...

Not last night by any means, but one of the more impressive rooms we've played in...yep, that's Concorde 🙂

Hi Damian

Ask yourself if you really think a Chinese, budget made hi-fi amp with phono connectors is A) going to put out 1000w RMS and B) sound as good as your Crown.

A bit of patience isn't a bad idea when you have a saw in your hand, Doug.😀 Anyway, I'll try to explain what's going on, although none of this is 100% reliable as I don't have the cabinet here and I'm relying on the accuracy of your 37 litres measurement. When I checked the tuning of your cab with the 50mm port, it worked out at around 42Hz. That's normally too low, and I expect the port wasn't doing very much at all - even ignoring the fact that it would be compressing very early. By cutting an 80mm hole, you have tuned the cabinet higher, to just over 60Hz by my rough reckoning. That would normally be too high, as it would seriously reduce power handling at the lowest frequencies, but the combination of greater port area allowing the ports to do their job more efficiently and the higher tuning frequency means that the ports will now actually be producing useable sound. So you should be hearing a difference, as you clearly have done. When your plastic port arrives and before you seal up the55mm hole - and make sure it's sealed solid - you could compare the cab with the 55mm port and with the 75mm port by blocking each one in turn with a t-shirt or similar, and having a listen. You should then be able to hear the difference between the old and the modified cab. I had the impression originally that there wasn't much free space on the baffle. So my question now is - would there be room on the baffle for a 100mm port in place of the 75mm one? But please don't go sawing any more holes until we measure what you have now. For that we need a frequency sweep generator and some rice. Although maybe you've now had enough DIY.....

Could be the next David Bowie, you never know. Or could be a David Brent. As to what next, when my current band fizzles out, I'll look for another one, start my own, write and play instrumental music, accompany singers at open mics, learn new stuff, basically keep on truckin...

This is really interesting. I hope you don't mind me making some points... (This comes from spending time as a music lecturer when we would set assignments like this). I think you're confusing your own career aspirations with the demands of the assignment. A session bassist themselves isn't a brand, but a company that provides session bassists - or deps - could be a brand. 'Deps on demand' or something like that could be a good model. You could test the market on how much people would be willing to pay for a stand in. Say a gig pays a band £1000 but the bass player has gone. What do you do? This situation you could jump in and provide a service that ensures the gig goes on, keeps the client happy and the band earning. Looking at your survey, you're already collecting useful information. Apologies if this is seen as critical, it's certainly not meant to be.

Araldite or a couple of dabs of silicone? EDIT. Or a couple of bits of blu tack. Frank.

So I'm not the only one who wears a bass-clef t-shirt while playing bass? Nice bass 🙂

ugh...

What music is your fave style? Find a scene of originals on that circuit, and get known. When we started our originals punk band our expectations weren`t that much at all, Tues night multi-band gigs playing to just the other bands, no money etc. Way different, there`s a good punk scene and we`ve managed to put out 3 albums, played 8 different countries so far (ok, England is one of them), done festivals etc. So find that scene, talk to the bands, keep an eye on them on Facebook, when an opening appears go for it. I`ve had more fun, and achieved more in this band than in all of my others put together.