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It’s finished! It’s beautiful! I can’t wait to ruin the hi gloss paint with my greasy finger marks!

Come on now, we've all had a few drinks, let's not spoil it for the bride and groom.

Lovely gig with a lovely bunch of people (most of whom can really play their instruments and sing) in a lovely music bar. I walked in (sans bass), and the lady behind the bar looked at me and said "You must be the bass player, would you like a beer?" My kind of bar

I must admit the music leaves me a bit cold, too. I love funky playing but it’s like Vulf try and be SO retro/hipster that it puts me off. That and he’s better than me and that’s not fair.

Thought I'd share this with you. An Ebow on a fretless bass through lots of effects. Somehow it doesn't really sound like a fretless bass.

I bet we'd find you've got a hex core if we took a cross section through you.

When I used to have an office job, many years ago, whereas everyone else had photographs of their children on their desks, I had pictures of my basses. I kinda did it on purpose at first to see if anyone would notice.. but they kinda looked cool, so I left them there.

Ok to have lot of grind, but make sure you don't increase the heft too much

Amazing what you can do with crayons these days....

Here's a shot of the back of the headstock.

Haha! Excellent topic. We're a two-bassists household, so we have a lot of bass gear! I can often be seen going around the house dusting those basses that are on stands, as opposed to in cases. Sometimes I wipe them down with a damp cloth, if they're particularly grubby! I include fingerboards and the 'underside' of the strings. I have a large makeup brush (I don't 'do' makeup, anyway) to dust pickups, bridges and headstock tuners. I keep an eye on the state of my basses' fingerboards and oil them when necessary, even if I'm not changing the strings. Same with cleaning the frets. On the basses I use most, I regularly check action/truss rod, saddle height, nut height (on the Warwicks) and intonation. I have been known to be OCD enough to tighten a tuner's screw if that tuner is slightly looser than the others. I have changed hardware on a couple of basses, and turned an electric upright from righty to lefty, but I don't feel confident enough to change pickups, or to do heavy duty cosmetic work such as sanding down the lacquer and changing the body colour. I'm @Happy Jack's strings and general setup tech... 😎

🤣🤣 Darrin Huff Scroll Bass

Blimey, I haven't listened to the Bozos since school days. Off to Spotify! 😁

Thanks for the comments about the poster. TBH it was just a question of being in the right place at the right time. It was part of an exhibition at the Greenwich Mural Workshop in the 80s, that must have taken the V&A's fancy. I had several other posters in the exhibition but none of them were taken. And now something even weirder. One of the bands I play with wrote a song about the Trappist-1 system and made a video to go with it that got sent to various scientific bodies involved with the discovery. As a result our singer is currently in Liege presenting the video and talking about writing the song, and has just posted footage of the video playing to the other serious academics at the conference, including a couple of seconds of me throwing some serious bass poses...

The nerd room at Ez Towers.

I just knew the Dave Grohl fact would be in there! 😛

My daughter genuinely thought that the Bass Clef was my own symbol. She still calls it "your symbol" even now.

If the pickups have the normal high-density foam under them, two things can happen: - the foam can lose its spring - the foam can stick a bit to the bottom of the chamber or pickup or sometimes the chamber is a touch tight Either way, take all the screws out, then rock the cover back and forwards or side to side. Then do the same while trying to lift. It should gradually ease free. I've also used the windscreen sucker off my old sat nav holder in the past...

When I got to get change out of my pocket in the shops, I have to dig through the plectrums to find the right coins.

I think the answer is in the question. If you decide to go ahead it would be fun to try. If you have both cabs and an amp happy to drive into 2ohms, why wouldn't you try it out? If the cabs both have identical drivers then the sound won't be that different, you'll lose a little of the mid/highs off axis but you've already lost a little by using an 8x10 so it probably won't be a dramatic change. If you mix cabs with different drivers in then the sound outcome is less predictable, you may like it more or maybe less. I'd think volume won't be an issue anyway other than the possibility of damage to your hearing, I don't suppose you ever drive your 8x10 flat out, but of course you are going to try it Buying a 6x10 as a smaller rig is 'interesting'. The footprint on stage is going to be the same and it's only a small saving in weight. If you want to buy just to have the look of a vast rig or because you really do want more volume then another matching 8 would be a better bet if you are planning to use the two cabs together a lot but that's a personal choice of course. If we are honest most of us will try bass through every cab that passes our way given half a chance.

He doesn't tap dance, but is actually telepathic. Shame, I heard he was in line for the lead in 'Scanners: The Musical"

I've found one of the Mickey Mouse Tele endorsees...

And your/his point is? A good musician plays for the music. Sometimes all you need is your instrument. Sometimes you need a load of sound shaping devices. Knowing when and where to use them is one of the things that sets a good musician above an average one.

Good interview. I heard an interview with Wilko Johnson a while back. When he was asked if he used pedals he answered: "What do you think I am, a cyclist???"

Full interview

Did an hour's practice this morning with some backing tracks. Definitely sounds different to the TI. Thicker sounding. Feel is also very different - the La Bellas are smoother. The E string seems a bit wooly compared to the others at the moment but I seem to remember in the mists of time that after a week or so they will wear in and be very similar. And anyway I tend to turn the Tone control down to at least 50% for this sort of music so there's no clank even on the higher strings. Tension / suppleness is very different too. I am liking them.

Someone else has pointed this out to me farther up the thread. Explains why I was so blown away by how authentic a 'facsimile' it was. What still surprises me is there's no fuss made about the presence of the tube on the amp itself. These days manufacturers have tiny windows cut into the fascia so we can watch the little thing glow. Or at the very least a picture of a valve and the word tube somewhere prominently displayed. Makes me like Ashdown even more.

Nicely put. I’m not too-cool-for-school and can really appreciate the technical side of it, just emotionally doesn’t hit me. If he’s inspiring people to play (and isn’t Flea) then good for him, and for all bass players.

BTW this is in my Harley Benton amp i changed the speaker on a while back... First experiment: take the front off, shove a pillow in there. Result: less honky mids, but a bit dull. Took it out again. Heard neighbours crashing about, decided to watch the Handmaid's tale instead.

This is my 58 precision sorry about the pics I'll put up better ones later.

Seriously now... I can understand wearing a Vulf tee... but a Joe Dart tee? That's some niche uber bass geekery. I can picture it now. "Hey, nice tee. Who's Joe Dart?" "A bass player." "Riiiggghhhht."

Second prize two T-shirts 😈

I'm always nervous about posting my shoddy technique!

Oh, now see, you're demonstrating some impressive bass geekism there! I used to just say that my insides look like a stick of Brighton Rock, just saying bass down the middle.. Hex Core Spine? Now that sums it up better!

Over here(France) Open mic nights are quite plentiful but they are, exactly what it should be, open to all, regardless of ability. This of course can be disappointing, boring and even funny at times but alternatively, surprising and brilliant. The thing is, there are folks out there who are just starting out and need to build confidence and/or ability and eventually, get to know others on the music scene and possibly learn how to play with others. No doubt, there have been many occasions where someone's confidence has been shattered by the smirking from fellow "clquey" musos. French audiences, I've found, treat anyone and everyone with the utmost respect if they're prepared to get up there and have a go. That, in my view is how it should be hence, I stay well away from jam nights where it's the same pals every week only wanting to play with whom they're comfortable with. A lot of players have conveniently forgotten how much nerve it actually takes to get up on stage and "go public" for the first time.

Hey Ahah yeah, I know! It's not often something found stated in this forum After accepting at an early age that changing instruments doesn't change the way I play, all I'm left GASsing for is aesthethic pleasure. That, combined with the fact that in my eyes 'beautiful basses' are like Ken Smiths, Foderas and Marleauxs, also means that fortunately my wallet pretty much NEVER allows me to satisfy my GAS. Which then turns into frustration. So I reckon that this 'ability' for me to GAS every few years is my mind's defensive response to the brash reality of the fact I can't afford the gear I'd like Considering that ALL the basses that EVER SERIOUSLY gave me GAS in my whole life were (and except for the Contra which is a recent - as in few years ago - all the other desires date like 15 years back haha): -Yamaha TRB JP2 (owned for lots of years, then sold for the...) -Ken Smith BlackTiger 6 (the subject of this adulation topic) -Fodera Emperor 6 Elite (Figured Koa or Walnut) -Marleaux Contra 6 (Old Violin finish) Considering that a new Contra 6 is 7-8k (second hand they're pretty impossible to find) and the Fodera (second hand if I find the one I like) will likely be around 6-8k, I'll never own neither, considering that by the time I'll be able to afford either, inflation will have taken care of my actual possibility of doing so, considering I'm not going to sell this Smith for either of these So then on one hand, I very marginally care about the 'tone' of an instrument unless it's really complete crap, I've realised years ago I sound like me everywhere (which is not...good...ahahah), in the past 10 years pretty much any bass above 500£ will deliver a solid tone and durable construction, so after that it's really sugar on top. Bit faster neck, better builds or woods etc...so in my case, effectively I only look at whether it feels good in my hand and pleases my eye. For what pleasing my ears is concerned, unfortunately my rig only helps so far...my fingers are to blame! That's really a great demo of the 'Smith sound'. Well done whoever it is!

Then where was the smilie?

A)Led fretboard or not No LED B)Maple or Wengé fretboard Maple fretboard C)Single headless pieces or whole bridge Whole bridge D)Brass or steel string clamp at headstock Brass string clamp E)Active or passive Passive F)3 band or 3 band parametric 3 Band G)Oil finish or polyurethane Poly finish H)Scale length- 25 or 28 inch 28” minimum I)Bolt on or neck through Either (neck thru for prestige bass, bolt on for workhorse) J)Truss rod or just carbon support rods Truss rod K)Out jack on top or side Side jack (not fussy tho) L)Extended fretboard to act as ramp or not No ramp

https://reverb.com/item/25361058-sandberg-tm5-custom-sybil-the-original-patchwork-bass

http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Hipshot,_Xtenders.html probably the BT10 will do it for you buddy D tuners are the nuts

Get one of those pull-up banners with a SVT and 8x10 printed on it.

My goodness me. You would imagine they'd plaster the presence of that little blighter all over the place. Maybe even a window so we could watch it glow.

Really? You wouldn't be kidding an old man now would you? It makes no mention anywhere on the outside that it has a tube in it.

Off on a tangent, I know, but - pizza. If I am ever in shouting distance of Herne Bay I will try to manufacture a reason to stay for dinner. Bizarrely, given its location and demographic, Herne Bay has the best Italian restaurant I have ever been to in England. Run by a family of Italians, a wood fired pizza oven in the middle of the ground floor so you can see your pizza being made and cooked. I thanked the owner for making me the best pizza I had tasted in England and he proudly boasted that they had been awarded an accolade by a visiting deputation of pizza cognoscenti from Naples - the pizza equivalent of a Michelin star - the only pizza restaurant in England to receive such a thing.