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Not last night but Thursday night we played at Don’t Panic in Essen, Germany, a venue owned by our record company Sunny Bastards. We set off at 5am, hoping to get to our hotel at 3pm which is the usual state of affairs when we play there however this time it wasn’t to be. Due to really rotten traffic we had to go straight to the venue, arriving at 7pm so had spent 13hrs travelling. Just before the gig the owner was looking a bit concerned as we were a little tired to say the least, however once we were on - at 10:30 so a very long day - his concern dropped and we played a blinder. The audience don’t care how long your day has been or how tired you are, you’re there for them and have a duty to play your best show and we delivered. Was an hours set and the crowd were up for it, to the point where I mentioned tongue in cheek “try not to kill each other” though there was more than a slight element of truth in it as it was more than a bit rough down the front. So back to the hotel at 1:30am, on the road at 7:45am, back home at 6:45pm shattered but knowing we did a great gig, and more than covered our costs of van/ferry/hotels/fuel. Result!

Just posted a pic of this in a different thread. This bass - a CSL-branded Jazz copy from 1980-ish - was a £60 pawn shop blag back when I was making a few bob buying & selling old MIJ basses & guitars. Bought it to tidy up & flip, but it turned out to be simply the nicest-playing bass I have ever picked up - just feels completely "right". Original pickups were weak so I popped in a pair of DiMarzio Model Js. Bridge, stack knobs & scratchplate were really just for fun, nothing wrong with the originals. This has been my go-to bass for probably 15 years or so now, and the one I'd keep if all the others had to go.

I agree.. Think we need to lighten up around here though - a live music show on TV that gives musicians a chance to showcase what they do and reach potential new audiences is essential if we want to keep developing musical talent.. Slowthai is just the sort of artist who's music and performance gets a reaction.. Just like The Stooges, Sex Pistols, Public Enemy etc, etc did in their fay. I wouldn't sit and listen to it personally, but it's relevant to his audience and that's what counts. I liked a lot of the other stuff on the show too; Little Simz's band were brilliant - really heavy grooves and bass lines - right up my street! And Elbow can do no wrong AFAIC. Just my 2p worth of course.. 😊

+1 sometimes, for a bunch of musicians, this place is quick to slag off and slow to listen and say anything positive.

Stuck the legs on with those things mentioned earlier, the insert nuts - they work well So now, apart from the grille on the front, its done, I have plugged it in, I have played it and all is good!

HazBeen, if you're only 45 and you have no significant medical issue (slipped disk, etc.) then looking for mechanical solutions is probably not the best option. If your current woes are caused by poor posture (as in my case, aggravated by having flat feet) then finding complicated structures that will allow you to continue to have poor posture is just going to lead to bigger problems downstream. And yes, I did that too, so I'm talking from experience. If you search Basschat hard enough, you'll probably find my posts about experimenting with 'clever' straps and back-support systems back in 2007/08. Given my own history, obviously I'm going to recommend starting with an assessment by a good Pilates practitioner - do some research first and choose someone with loads of experience and (preferably) an osteopath qualification too. That said, there are other health professionals, such as physiotherapists, who could do the same thing. You'll make your own decision. The important thing is to nail down right at the start what the actual problem is. In my case it was all about posture and poor core strength and the answer turned out to be a regular Pilates class and an exercise regime. All of this hit me like a landslide around the time I hit 50 and was playing fewer than a dozen gigs a year. I'm now pushing 63, playing over 70 gigs a year - half of them high energy rockabilly - and in better shape than I was 12 years ago. My early years of back problems also left me with a very expensive predilection for uber-lightweight gear and that hasn't gone away, but the weight of the bass is no longer the sole deciding factor. PM me if you'd like to go into any of this in more detail.

I was always a pretty big strong guy, did loads of weights, could carry my old Trace 4x10 in one hand no problem. Then aged about 35 one of the discs in my neck went. Long story short, several more went in my spine over the years. My last MRI showed scoliosis (which I may have had from birth and which had never been noted) and spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal, which can become very serious). In addition I have joint hyper mobility, which means my joints sublux (partially dislocate) all the time. Something as simple as rolling over in bed can mean my shoulders sublux, or kneeling down means a knee goes. Sometimes my wrists go when I’m playing, and occasionally even my fingers, mid-song. The last two years I’ve been back in the gym because I could no longer stand what I’d become, but I have to be very careful what exercises I do. Someone above mentioned squats and deadlifts; I can no longer do either. You probably wouldn’t know there was anything wrong with me by looking and I’m still reasonably muscular, but nothing really works properly anymore. I used to fight it and try and do the normal stuff I used to do, but over the years I’ve learnt the foolishness of that. I never play standing for more than a few minutes now (usually to pop out front at soundchecks); thankfully as an acoustic band it doesn’t really matter. I can certainly see a time when I have to go very light bass-wise and probably headless too, simply to make things easy to carry. You may not really wish to go light, but if it becomes a necessity, I wouldn’t advise fighting it. Besides, there are great sounding lightweight basses out there. BTW, I’m just short of 56.

A couple of recent builds from me!

I was on the M25 a few weeks ago when I noticed Van Morrison coming up behind me. Then I realised that I was seeing a reversed image in the rear view mirror and it was actually a Morrisons Van.

Ahhhh, that's probably why he once said this in an interview for Smash Hits: 🤣

NFBDR- New Fun Bass Day Review Well as I found myself back on a budget , and conceded defeat to advancing age not being fully compatible with the weight of Les Paul style basses, and having owned the fabulous Gretsch Junior Jet short scale, but not now able to work in that price bracket for the foreseeable, I found myself asking some pretty deep and meaningful questions, for example: " I need a bass, I will actually die without a bass, but which one for under £200 ?", "Should I stay long scale, and be a real bass player or risk being the laughing stock of the bass playing world by going for another shorty?" "Should I take a risk of catching herpes from a used, possibly stolen but decent bass, with the slight bonus of maybe finding a small bag of weed hidden in the control cavity, from Cash Converters?" "What colour should I go for? What would make me potentially look really cool … Sunburst, Black, Natural etc etc?" So armed with my virtual £200.00 I decided that as I was already halfway to the dark side after stints with short and medium scale and loved the playability, I opted to go for short scale with the intention of staying there ,so went for a look around proper online guitar shops to see what's on offer as I decided I didn't want to catch an infection from Cash Converters or eBay on this occaision. I had seen the Bronco before but not given it much consideration at the time, and to be honest there's a real lack of choice out there currently... The Ibanez Talman looks like it's been designed late on a Friday afternoon after a lunchtime booze up then sent to the far east to be put together by underpaid Asian elephants.... forget that. There was also the Dean Evo Xm, which I had for a short while but it went back as there was just too much wrong with it, including a really narrow 38mm nut which is not my favourite. A real shame cos it has the les paul vibe and a pretty decent sounding instrument. I saw Jackson minions , Ibanez micro things, possibly something else , but I really liked the look of the Bronco bass and reviews seemed to be generally favourable, so opted naturally for a black one as they only come in black or bright red, and red Fenders remind me of Hank Marvin and the Shadows which is just not cool for an ageing has-been mid 40's Rockstar! So I found the cheapest price which currently is GAK at £149.00 inc next day delivery, so that's where I purchased from. It arrived yesterday as promised in a Box with F logos and Squier branding. No other fancy packaging, just the instrument wrapped up with a couple of warning labels saying if I touch it I risk getting cancer or something, and a free set of allen keys to add to my already large collection of allen keys. Pulled out the little Bronco noting it's very reasonable weight, and then spending a few minutes admiring it's little glossy black coat, and generally handsome appearence. As I generally go for very light gauge bass strings , I liked the fact it comes fitted with what I will assume are Fender 40-95's so that was good. Not really much in the way of floppiness on the E string, or any other string for that matter. It has a really nice shape to the compact body , balances well, I like the stubby little horns, and it has a nice comfortable, though little anaemic looking maple neck. It has the Squier bronco bass logo in black on the headstock with "by Fender" underneath. On the back it says "made in Indonesia". The scratch plate is a simple 1 ply white, with a couple of decent feeling chrome knobs for volume and tone. After reading some of the negative comments about these like the crap tuners , crap bridge, crap strat pickup, crap body wood, crap electrics, not as good as my vintage $5000 Fender Musicmaster etc etc I realised I was on Talkbass, so I completley disregarded what I read. To address those concerns, I actually think the tuners are really pretty good and seem quite solid. The tops remind me of Schaller M4's nice and chunky. It's good to see mini tuners as opposed to the big clunky Fender things for a change. The bridge is actually really nice, doesn't feel like a piece of cheese. I love the shape of it, it actually intonates almost spot on despite the 2 strings per saddle setup, and if there was one criticism it would be the slightly bigger gap between the A and D strings. Maybe due to the design of this style of bridge? I can live with the quirk. I can't comment on the electrics or quality as of yet. First things first, I sat with it unplugged to get a general feel and give it a tweak or 2 before plugging in. I can say it sets up incredibly well. I have the strings almost sat on the fret board with no buzz, the truss rod needed the tiniest of turns to get it just so. The intonation was pretty much spot on as is with no adjustment needed. Plugging in, to be fair I wasn't expecting much for the money, but to say it has a strat guitar pickup in it, it sounds pretty damn good. Nice sharp punchy tone, not masses of low end, and does seem sensitive to where you are placing your fingers, something I seem to notice more on this bass than with others. Output *is* a little on the low side but tonally absolutely fine (through quality headphones) as far as could be expected at this price. I already have spent a few quid on a hot rail pickup or rather warm rail which I will try out when it gets here. As mentioned the neck is lovely. 40 mm nut width , and oddly it has 19 frets (?!). It's a shame that it doesn't have a vintage tint but I guess 'coz of budget and stuff..... something that could be attended to if needed at some point. It is comfortable to hold and just has that fun "short scale playability", and to me this is what a bass should be regardless of personal ability or at what level...if it ain't fun then what's the point of bothering. I can bang out a variety of rock/ hard rock/ metal classics on it, putting in very little physical effort, everything from 70's to modern stuff. It just sounds fab, and if I manage to join another band this will be the bass to do it on. No acheing back, no stretching 3 miles to reach the end of the fretboard, has a guitar-like coolness to it etc etc. While not quite having the same instant wow factor as the Gretsch did, it's also not in that price range, and for what I paid, I am actually even more impressed because of that in a way. Aside from trying a different pickup and possibly changing the pickguard for a 3 ply from that bloke on ebay who sells them, there really isn't much else that I feel needs to be done. Obviously time will tell on that score, but from the outset, it's all good. Definitely one I will recommend for anyone wanting to see what all the fuss is with SS basses. Thanks for reading my waffle !

Easy to forget how good she was. No lip synch, no auto tune back then. She came from the church and a bonafide gospel singer from a teenager. Just huge power and control in her voice.

What instrument, pedal, amp or any other piece of your kit has turned out to be an unexpected keeper? I was musing on this one at last night's gig after once again eschewing more prestigious amps, preferring instead to take my venerable Behringer BX4500H. This really has proved to be the hidden gem in my collection. The eq is hugely flexible, the 'shape' control in particular gives many usable options. Their undeserved reputation for unreliability is given the lie too. This beauty has run and run for decades now and outlasted other more famous brands I've owned. Another stick Behringer are beaten with is their wattage claims (let's not get into that here it's surely been done to death) but the 450w they claim on this amp sounds, if anything, quite conservative. It's a powerful beast. So, what unconsidered trifles do you want to champion? Zoom B1on better than your Helix? Harley Benton jazz knock your 72 Fender out of the park? Come on let's here it for the bargain basement, the rough diamonds, the secret love of your bass life.

Hell of a voice but all the yodeling and vocal gymnastics put me off. Most times, for me, less is more.

Tapewound off ... Padouk fingerboard

Reclining in luxury, my Special and 4H

I have several fives ranging from the exotic (early Steinberger L-2 5) to the popular (1991 Musicman StingRay 5 and a 1997 Fender Roscoe Beck 5) and they are all great. But when I used a five exclusively I went with a 2000 Modulus Quantum 5. It came with the odd Bartolini NS3TMB preamp that featured the +9/-9 volt design that proved problematic. After many years of constant use, I returned to four string basses for the most part. Last spring I decided to reacquaint myself with the five string, again turning to my old Modulus. True to form, the preamp abruptly failed, rare for a Bartolini but not for this particular design. Turning to our local repair gurus at The Guitar Factory in Orlando, they replaced the old preamp with a modern Bartolini as the old design is long discontinued (though Bartolini probably would have built me one if I really wanted it). These guys like to tinker, having worked with Michael Tobias when he started out in Florida, so they added a pull pot to the mid-range knob allowing a shift to a lower frequency when engaged. I love this modification! When engaged it becomes a low-mid control. If turned down, the low end cleans up and loses mud while leaving the deep lows intact. When boosted this bass is a monster able to cut an overly frisky piano player's left hand down to size. Why this bass? I think it is the composite neck. I have always liked what the composite necks provide, punchy tone, even note strength and great sustain with minimal dead spots. There may be better fives out there but for me, this old Modulus works best for me. The additional tone options make it even better. But I really must dust those book shelves.

Have you considered getting a pair of these?

I've just turned 62 and have done the best I can with lightweight gear so the load in/out is as easy as it can be. Doesn't stop me helping the other guys in with their heavy stuff, mind. Will I ever learn? One of the things that isn't so easy any more is getting down on one knee and back up again - it's a long way up! I always ache next day but the worst thing is entirely of my own making. My neck is always really stiff - because I nod my head furiously when I play. Not the cool, downwards, heavy rock style nod but a kind of weird looking upward flick of my head. I can't help it, it just happens naturally. I sometimes think I must look like I have suddenly been plugged into the mains the way my head moves about. 😅

And you can always try one of these, unbelievably light

Quite so. At age 14 my school music teacher pulled his annual private scam of drafting some of us into the school orchestra. This involved him renting various clapped out POS instruments out to us for a fiver a term each, all of which money went into his own pocket. I got a violin with strings so far off the board you could have used it for a cheese slicer. Naturally, I struggled. My parents were convinced that lessons were the answer so off I plodded. It did nothing for my technique but I developed a wretched set of calluses and a profound hatred for the violin. In the end I flatly refused to continue and there was a bit of a scene at school. Shame, really. It was the 1970's and with a violin I could have been a folk-rock muso and had my pick of those pale, ethereal girls who used to wear purple loons and stick a finger in their ear and warble away about faerie queens and shït like that. In such small ways are our lives changed forever.

I bought a really nice playing and sounding MIJ Precision from Basschat, about a year ago. But I felt like a bit of a change. So I bought a very nice Fender, Japanese, Rosewood, Precision neck, from Ebay. I removed the original maple neck from my MIJ Precision and fitted the new one. But however I fiddled with the EQ on my amp, it just didn't sound as good as it did with the old maple neck on it. I blamed the difference in sound on my imagination but eventually swopped the necks back again and instantly the bass came to life and sounded so, so much better. It appears that some necks and bodies are just destined to be together?

I'm not sure today's event qualifies as a "gig" but, hey, it was great! I play in our church band and today we had a church "away day". We didn't go far - from Carlisle to Keswick in the English Lake District. Door to door it is less than 30 miles. My drive took me up over the northern fells where sheep graze and wander across the road. I had to stop at one point to let a brood of peacocks wander across! The autumn colours were in full bloom and there was not a breath of wind as I drove along the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake into the small town of Keswick and our venue. Around 50 church members attended the event with just four of us providing the music. Our band leader played semi-acoustic guitar, the drummer just used a cajon, I played bass and we had one female singer. The day started with tea/coffee and pastries. We then played six songs interspersed with Bible teaching and more tea/coffee and cakes! We had all taken packed lunches and after eating some of us went for a walk along the shores of Derwent Water under a canopy of golden leaves. On return there was tea/coffee and more cake! While we were out some people stayed in the hall and watched a re-run of the England v South Africa rugby final. We then retired to another room and watched Toy Story 4 - brilliant. Then it was back to the main hall for a bulk order of fish and chips from a local "chippy", more cake, then home. That is what I call a gig!!

That would be my Ibanez Talman TMB100 bass. These can be had for about £150 brand new and if you didn't know that you'd think you were playing a bass costing wto or three times that. The PJ pickups are excellent, the preamp is powerful and very useful and it weighs 8lbs! I now gig mine regularly even though I have several far, far more expensive basses. Frank.

New music room🤩

Manufacturers usually sell at RRP, something dealers never do. In defence of Ashdown there are areas in the country (like mine) where the dealers do not stock Ashdown and Ashdown really do take care of their customers. So while I agree with your general point, I don't think it is totally valid with Ashdown.

+1 for the short-scale (30") Jag. I've also owned an Ibanez Mikro and TMB30. The Mikro is impressive for what it is but with around a 28" scale felt like a toy. The TMB30 was a mess in terms of quality and was immediately returned/exchanged for the Jag. I used the Jag as a back-up for a while and it proved more than adequate on the couple of gigs when I had to use it. Btw, all I play is short-scale basses and to regard them as in any way less worthy than a standard 34" scale instrument or 'not for grown-ups' is a big mistake. They will deliver most of the sounds their longer-scale alternatives can do plus some that the big uns can't. Of course, if all you want are the distinctive and delightful tones of a classic P-bass, then that's what you need to play - provided you can.

A bit more Bowie - 'China Girl' transcribed in full: David Bowie - China Girl Bass Transcription PDF There are tons of bass books out there that tell you what to practise, but very few that detail how to go about it in the best way, so I wrote one... Better Bass Practice eBook

Looks the same to me

What's really revealing about the interview, is at the end Morrison reveals he's been channelling @Teebs all along:

This is excellent, yesterday I did a quick mock up of something similar. If you can let the bass rest on your hips that will reduce the strain on your back. Now I know the concept works! Cheers for sharing!

Nice bass! Here is a simple solution for your "dusty bookshelf situation": place the books at the outer edge of the shelves; then you won't see the dust.

Whit? Wha...? A medium scale Jaguar is coming? TAKE MY MONEY!!

My son has a Fender Princeton , which is about 12 watts and does that clean fender-y sound very nicely.

Go all Whiplash on them and scream that's not my tempo and throw a chair at the drummer....

Just back from a session, I alternated standing and sitting down. Wasn’t pretty but my back feels not too bad. I am only 45 so hopefully I can still put off going lightweight only for a few years. 1 hour swimming planned for the am.

Good God man, the last gig I played was around 1993. I'm still carefully planning my come-back. It ain't easy to find a top quality Grace Jones tribute act within a third of a mile of my location, and without a current bass player... plus I'd have to learn the set... 😬 edit: Actually, I can already play 'Private Life' all the way through. More or less.

Are you going for the Joe Dart look? Seriously, I wonder if that guy's going to suffer for his head-bobbing traits later in life.

That's one to take away...

The end result. Its pretty much a brand new JRetro Deluxe with all stuff/box letter etc expected from a new one. Im pretty blown away.

No no no. I tried that and it sounded a bit Chinese. 😬

Harry, take a look at Alexander Technique and even yoga. Posture and pain is a big problem for bass players, human bodies weren't designed to stand pretty still for hours on end with a boat anchor around our necks. One or other - and sometimes simple weight training (squats and deadlifts) - have done the trick for a few musos I know. Good luck mate. C

I've just decided on my next project. Not sure whether to rackmount it or put it in a stomp though.

A 15 year old girl is not a child and at that age will be pretty close to reaching full adult height. If you had a problem with your swing, the least sensible thing you could do would be to buy a new set of golf clubs. You would go to the Pro's shop and book some lessons to sort out your swing, and while he was at it, anything else he could find that was wrong with your game.