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Looks like I will be able to attend this year! I don't usually bring gear, but I was thinking I might bring my new rig this time. It consists of an Ashdown OriginAL head and two Trace Elliot ELF cabs, a 1x10 and a 2x8. It's all very small and lightweight but really packs a punch. If there's still room for more gear I'll add it to the list (along with my trusty MIM Fender P)

Sounds grand to me

Just because a bass is being sold for a high price doesn’t mean the seller isn’t trying to sell it - just means they have a price they would accept for it which they aren’t willing to go below. Not all sale ads are urgent and therefore some people are willing to hold out for the right price. Members are free to PM the seller and attempt to negotiate on price if they wish. Again, it’s up to the seller if they’re willing to go down or not. Also, the value of something in the UK doesn’t always translate directly to the value of something in mainland Europe, for example. Sometimes the exchange rate is a factor. As far as I’m aware, there are no laws dictating what a “realistic” price is for an instrument. If the seller has paid their subscription fee then they have just as much right to sell a bass as anyone else, regardless of price. Surely to strip them of an ad that they’ve paid for would be unfair.

SELECT * FROM Basschat WHERE Location < 50M AND Cost < 500 AND Cost > 500 AND Wear=notroadworn AND Weight < 10lb AND Wood.Neck=Rosewood AND Wood.Cites=NO AND Heft=High AND AND Strings > 3 AND Strings < 6 AND GoodForMetal=No AND Overpriced=NO AND AgeOnForum < 7months

For some time I've been planning to do 'play along' YouTube videos where I do the bass lines that were on the original tracks, starting with Whitesnake, and that's getting a lot closer to coming to fruition. HOWEVER, it seems that Universal Music Group, who own the rights to Whitesnake songs, are the most notorious company for either getting videos taken down or not permitting anything to be earned from them (ad revenue etc), so I'm now debating whether it's workable, or else find a different way of doing it. As far as I know, they use an algorithm which compares the video's audio with tracks in their database, so theoretically if one changes the speed or the key (not very helpful) it might be possible to get round that. On a related matter, a US journalist did a very accurate transcription of the live Fool For Your Loving from Live In The Heart Of The City, and had it accepted, along with an article that I was interviewed for, by US Bass Player magazine. Then the publishers refused to give permission for the transcription to be used, even though I came up with the bass part, not the composers of the song. That was that, then this year the idea was submitted to UK Bass Magazine (who now own Bass Player), but just with short extracts instead of the whole transcription. The extracts were too similar to what I actually played, so now the article might come out, but with no transcribed parts at all, which is a bit pointless.

I'm attempting to make a bass from scrap pianos. This is a prototype short scale bass called T800 because it's telecaster shaped and has an 800mm scale length. Wherever possible I'll be using wood from defunct pianos, mostly poplar with mahogany veneer and oak for the fretboard. As far as I can I will attempt to keep the original finish and use whatever screws I can salvage from the donor pianos.

Here's a new video of a song I wrote a while back. Always curious to get your thoughts on this since I play the Stick from the perspective of a bass player. Hope you like it! Kevin Keith

For some time now I've been keen on the fabulous basses being made by Alan at ACG. The idea of having a bass which was made in your home town was rather appealing, especially when your home town is a tiny wee place like Moffat. The fact that they look amazing and had consistently great reviews also helps. I wouldn't quite have called it GAS, but I was certainly an interested observer. A few years back I had big plans for a 40th birthday commission, but having tried a couple at a Bass Bash, I discovered I really couldn't get to grips with the asymmetric neck carve and flat board. Coupled with the fact that I wasn't playing in a band anymore, and I couldn't honestly justify the outlay. So, back to a watching brief... Until, that is, Alan advertised a couple of stock basses he had, on here recently. Oh dear. A couple of hypothetical "What if..." conversations with the Management; a quick calculation of the finances; and a trip to Moffat under the pretence of visiting my folks so I could try it out... As mentioned in the Gear Abstinence thread, I was kidding no one, least of all myself and was doomed. But in a good way! 😉 I am now the proud owner of an ACG RetroB, J5! - Maple body with an acrylic impregnated spalted maple top, and a Black Walnut accent layer. The spalted maple is just amazing. - 3 piece Wenge/Maple with Wenge headstock and a spalted maple overlay. Fingerboard is the same acrylic impregnated spalted maple as the body and it runs together beautifully. 20" radius board and although it has the asymmetric neck carve, it's a lot subtler than the normal ACG profile. - John East Uni pre-amp, which has such a bewildering array of tones, it'll take me a while to get to grips with. Linky thing to ACG website If anyone has any helpful tips or resources for transitioning from 4 to 5 strings, especially when you haven't played at all for a long while, it would be muh appreciated!

Could be that an item has limited appeal and so hangs around for a long while, not just inflated prices.

The Total Watts bit on my profile now says "69 Excellent" which isn't in the least bit funny.

If I see an ad for a piece of gear that I own, or have owned, I see no harm in putting up a favourable comment if it deserves one. If I’ve had a contrary experience I keep quiet. I see no problem with that.

Things have really picked up out of nowhere with all these acoustic gigs. Well, not really out of nowhere. I have a suspition about why I started getting these acoustic offers. I played Cafe Soeurette Saturday night from 7-10 ,great hours and a nice engaged crowd. I'm playing a Sprecher Micro Brewery gig this Saturday night. I also found out my primary band will be opening for a national headliner at a large country festival this summer. 3 weeks ago I had nothing. Blue

How does it matter the way it's advertised? The owner of whatever item for sale has the right to name their price, and telling them it's too much, publicly, is tacky at best. If someone is advertising something fraudulently, I understand getting involved (although reporting it to the mods is probable a better option), but otherwise, why would you want to contribute anything that potentially causes the seller to lose sales/money? The old "If you don't have anything nice to say, best not to say anything" I think applies very nicely. When you see something on a High St shop that you think is overpriced, do you stand at their door telling everybody who walks in that the shop is charging too much? No, right? It would seem very weird... and the shop owner might want to come out and have an 'energic word' with you...

IMO an absolutely stunning bass! But a couple of REALLY inappropriate comments by one individual. I'm generally a fan of enthusiastic discussion on FS threads but this, for me, is a very good example of where a comment crosses the line:

Event added to Basschat Facebook!

Hello, technical dept - How may I help you today? 😃

My bass & other music related purchases this year are still zero, and I have sold three basses - so I'm still in!

Crikey 😬 For anyone that wants to luxuriate in the finer details of the bassline and drums without Mr Astley, then here is the actual mastertape, just drum and bass tracks - nice!:

Started when I picked up a 2010 Hi-1 Jazz through FB recently. I'd done a bit of research and was interested by the graphite neck in particular (more of why later), the BadAss II bridge, the dot markers because I prefer them to the blocks, and the supposedly thin nitro finish. The one I got was satin black so there's an immediate problem. My '97 Precision is black and it needs to stay that way. So I messaged @rubis about the paint process on his year of birth P. He gave me some useful tips and referred me to Manchester Guitar Tech so I spoke to Steve there just to check what I was in for. I've ordered the stuff I need to do a Lake Placid Blue, with a tiny hint of aging (just 9 years worth, hardly anything but not 'straight out of the paint shop' look). I've taken the bass apart with care. I even used new screwdrivers although I suspect the screws are actually Phillips head. Anyway, all that went fine. Noticed the final couple of winds on front pup were hanging a bit loose - worrying as they are like human hair thickness so considerable care required now and later. I do like seeing all the stamps and other marks in the neck cavity and on the heel - I'll get pics done but the neck and head are both dated late-ish 2010. I know this is the first time the bass has been touched, it still had the clear plastic film on the scratchplate when I got it (and some rounds of a fair vintage !). I plan to get down to the wood on the body (not hard at all as the paint is really thin, as advertised). Once I get to see the wood* I am considering an investment in new pups - maybe Fender vintage Custom Shop, ADVICE and opinions welcome please. I want pure JB sound but gooder Was fairly knocked out with this Hi-1 by the way. The neck is excellent and I'm sure the graphite makes a difference - that common resonance around Bflat - D on the G is gone. It plays and sounds great so probably a keeper. Back soon with progress

I was casually playing along to Aleem - Release Yourself last night, and I found myself really getting into the details of trying to play exactly like an 80s sequencer - trying to get 'machine like' timing, exact note length, dynamics etc. No fills, no little extra bits chucked in! I really enjoyed playing like that, especially the lack of fills and 'decoration'. I can't say I sounded much like a sequencer tbh but nevermind. I think it might be the future for me. I Am A Robot. 🤖 Anyone else enjoy like playing like this?! Sorry if this a daft question.

Thunderbird... I'm probably going to Guitar Guitar this weekend to see what these are like to play. They have a couple of Gibsons and Epiphones in stock... I really don't want to like them. However... Tonestyler... whoa! Love it! This afternoon, the lovely @krispn delivered his Precision with Thunderbird pickup and Tonestyler module (see page 1) to me while I was at work. The bass is a lot prettier in person and I loved it. It's got some kind of flats on, which I don't usually play, but it sounded really good, and the Tonestyler is a zero-gimmick tone control as far as I'm concerned, I'm converted. I played with it by myself, every click made a distinct difference and I really liked a couple of positions around half way (they dial in the midrange 'just so') and another position just before its bassiest tone, where it retained definition but sounded fat fat fat. With a touch of light overdrive, the kind that you don't really hear as distorted, it was glorious. Then I played it along to recorded music, including some of my own stuff from own of my bands. That's where the Tonestyler proved its worth. Or maybe it's just the combination of this bass+pickup+Tonestyler!!! Whatever, it was really good. The Tonestyler covers a wide range, from bright (as bright as flats get) to very dark an dense, and I could easily find a couple of spots that gave me some very distinct tones that I would probably switch between in a live situation. I imagine that with different basses the positions may vary, maybe you can get 3 different sounds using bright roundwound strings? I like passive tone controls, I like to roll off the top end a bit, but often things get a little muddy after that. Here I retained very good definition and the midrange peak seems to move over a certain range which makes me think that it would allow me to find its sweet spot with different basses/pickups. It's not a "here! have 10 sounds!" but more like an improved version of a passive tone control, and on this bass, it *rawks*. Tomorrow I'll get to try it with Urang Matang at rehearsal, with drummer, guitar, two vocals, keyboard, sax and trumpet, playing ska/reggae mostly with a bit of funk. Can't wait!!! @krispn, you are a star!!! Thank you so much! Although... it seems that everytime you lend me something, I end up spending money. We shouldn't do this often

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you....

Well, I’ve only bought strings. They’re just very expensive and come with a free bass .

So here's the thing: it's not your bass. Why should you care how long it hangs around in the for sale? If you were genuinely concerned for the guy you would send him a private message. If you're after the bass and you want to put in a much lower offer, then send him a private message. When someone pointed out in that thread that the OP wasn't looking for price advice, that post got a LOT of likes from your fellow BCers, but you didn't get the hint... So please, get off this particular seller's case. He's selling a lovely bass and the 'market' will decide on what is a fair price. If he wants your advice I'm sure he will ask you for it.

I had one of those on my last ebay deal, someone said 'this sale here went for a lot less than you are selling for', to which he got a response of 'well, he got a bargain then, shame you didn't bid on that'. I don't think that is what he was hoping for.

Ok.... I’ll start off. I can bring : funky Status S2 Fender CS 64 Shuker flea custom Mesa Boogie M6 Carbine Bergantino CN212 assuming anyone wants me to. 😃 @redbandit599 a rather nice dingwall?? @Dood everything you own related to Bass. 😂 especially a B/amp, a gorgeous P Bass and some lovely flip flop basses Just my thoughts....

Not sure you’re being clear there, are you saying it’s worse? 😜

There’s no point in making it compulsory because it would be impossible to enforce. If people want to make selling something more difficult for themselves that’s up to them.. we just provide the platform.

Ah, what a great question. 😎 So, when I went to learn this kind of stuff, I found that it takes a different mindset and approach to it. The bass isn't going to be the only thing quantized to the track. The drums/percussion and even other bits within the track will be quantized. Essentially, the tracks are divided. (for the techie geeks, engineers and nerds amongst us - I wonder if how we refer to subdivisions of bars in sheet music perfectly correlates to binary, hexidecimal etc? 1-2-4-8-16-32 being the denominator to a note subdivision?). In your mind, how do you think a digitally expressed music motif would be played? Under the constraints of the technology of the time, I'd think of these; - Dynamics. They usually stay relatively the same throughout. - Do they drag, push or play dead on in the pocket? Dead on. - If you can read music, look at the sheet as if it's a grid divided into 16th notes (32nds if you're playing the likes of Michael Jackson's 'Speed Demon' 🤣). Whilst it's also a great groove exercise, it's also helpful to see where the bass synchronises with the other instruments on the track. If a track is all digitally composed, they will be exactly on. I can't imagine the tolerance (or 'humanising' as Logic Pro would tell you) to be very much, if at all, in terms of 'pocket'. - On the topic of eliminating 'humanising' in your basslines, I'd recommend some exercises that'll not only help your playing in this realm but they will make your playing so much cleaner in general. If you set your metronome to below 15bpm, leave it running and see if you can hit your notes as accurately as possible to that click. Don't be tempted to embellish or go astray from it. The signs of agitation and frustration are symptomatic of significant improvement. Notice how different your playing is afterwards and be prepared to grin like Cheshire Cat, my low end friend. I call this 'Anti-microflamming'. - If the bass line goes below a standard low 'E', can your 5 string handle it without going 'floppy'? Your ye olde Casios and Yamaha DX-7s never have/had this issue. - A bass mute (I know, Motown, right?) is surprisingly helpful. Pop some foam under the strings and right by the bridge for an experiment. Play along with the tracks you so wish to and see if it helps your playing. I do hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions. If not, my apologies for over indulging here.

Titebond and loads of clamps

I have sold my Future Impact so my Roland UM-One midi to USB interface is surplus to requirements. I have listed it for sale in the 'Other Musically Related Items For Sale' section.

It's a similar-ish shape to my Overwater (I think this is the Deluxe model - I got it in the 1980's). Lovely shape but an absolute pain to get a gig bag for it!! Edit: I got this bass off another kid when I was at school. It had fallen off a stand and taken the head off. I was going to have a go at making a bass back then so I bought it for parts. My dad glued the head back on and it's remained like that since - perfectly usable! I keep threatening to get the finish redone by the guys at Overwater but have never got round to it. Not a bad bass for £60....

Culturally we tend to blame people for their mental health. His mental health appears to be part of the problem of both the backlog and his apparent aggression. It’s tough. Had the guy been fighting cancer for ten years, been in and out of hospital and was able to say ‘it’s the chemo, it makes me aggressive’, things would probably have been different.

Every now and again something pops up that you just want to share...

OK folks, I've said how it is and that's that - nothing more to discuss! Let's not use this thread to highlight times where comments haven't been helpful, because they represent a massive minority and the whole topic is, as far as I'm concerned, a non-issue. Cheers

I've watched that video several times and it just keeps getting better! There's an almost telepathic connection between Scott and the drummer. It certainly isn't noodling as there is a clear structure to it. Thanks to the person who posted that young males would like it - at 68 years old I'll take that! I can listen to most styles of music; from Irish folk to country, pop, jazz and classical. I've spent nearly 50 years in broadcasting so have been exposed to just about every style of music. With the exception of rap - which is singing for people who can't sing - and heavy/thrash/death/whatever metal - which is noise - I can enjoy most forms of music. Scott's video has a great groove and I just wish I could play a tenth as well as he can.

Dunno, Luke. It sounds pretty good to me through my Sennheiser 650s.

FAQ Do I have to use the horn/compression driver? No. The Faital Pro driver extends quite high and is perfectly usable without a tweeter. Simply blank off the cutout for the horn. Use the four screw holes provided and seal the blanking piece with foam (rather than glue). You'll then be able to fit a horn later is you wish. I have a spare 12" driver available. Can I use it in this cab? Although the cab was designed with specific drivers in mind, any 12" speaker described as a "bass guitar speaker" will be good - with or without the horn. Optimum performance is with the specified drivers for obviousl reasons. However, please note that you cannot fit any other compression driver. Is this an FRFR cab? Yes. Use in place of any other FRFR cab. This one has been designed specifically for bass. It will work just as well with a regular bass amp. Two for the price of one. Can I fit a cloth grille? Sure. There is space for a 15mm picture frame batten to fit the grille material of your choice. What finish do you recommend? The easiest finishing option is Tuffcab paint. However, carpet also is fairly easy to fit if you prefer that finish. It's difficult for an amateur to get a good finish with Tolex. Where can I obtain the parts I need? Most of the parts, apart from the compression driver, are available from Blue Aran, including handles, corners, etc. As they don't carry Celestion, you'll have to get the compression driver from Lean. There are a couple of Ebay sellers for some of the components that I'll list in a parts list later. How much is this CNC cab to buy? If we place an order for ten, the cost is £80. Slighty more than half of this is CNC machine time. I've already paid for eight hours of CNC programming, which you can now benefit from. And the crossover? It depends on what components you'd like. To help get some of these cabs out into the real world, I'm prepared to assemble ten crossovers for the cost of the components. The audiophile-type capacitors shown on the previous page are quite pricey. Total component cost is over £50. However, using cheaper but still good capacitors would bring the cost down to half that. I'll include a pair of Speakons and a set of connecting cables with crimped connectors. You'll therefore be able to fit the crossover without having to solder - just push the crimped connectors onto the Speakons and drivers and screw the wires into the connector strip on the crossover board. Any future plans for this design? There will be a complementary cab fitted with a bass driver and crossover for anyone who wants a 2 x 12" configuration. Possibly an Eminence 3012LF (which I already have) or a second Faital. John (Chienmortbb) is looking at the possibility of fitting an ICEPower amp inside the cab to make it active. That's it really. [I'll probably come back and add to this FAQ at a later stage]

It seems to me that people are I'll rise to the bait. I'm quite happy to accept a lot of people don't like that sort of music. Me, I like a bit of Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra or Stanley Clark and George Duke, much of which probably would sound much the same to you. I may be male, but I'm not young... and I'm impressed by the fact it's good melodic playing, not in your face. I aspire to play like that - technically I'm quite capable of doing so but I'm just not inventive enough when it comes to improvising. I can't help feeling that if he'd been pumping out some super-slappy funk or eight to the bar blues some people would be just as quick to criticise.

Comments like 'it does nothing for me' really do nothing for me. Why bother?

I just used the new search engine to try to find out where my avatar had got to. Didn't help. Didn't help a bit.

'It's that old warehouse of Skank's again' is now in my head, sung to this tune...