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So, the Operational Assurance team I work on at PRS has just nailed one of our (now ex-)colleagues for financial fraud and sent him to prison for 2 years! Result Naughty boy.... he won't do that again, but it proves that my team do their job well 😉 https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/exopera-house-horn-player-stole-185000-in-royalties-for-home-revamp-a4287026.html

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We haven't really had any issues with control knobs being broken on the FlyRigs and dUg pedal etc. People have reported losing the knobs sometimes. The new PSA 2.0 is a pretty cool pedal, of course I'm a bit biased. I've messed with a proto here and at home and want to experiment with the midi aspect of the pedal when I get a chance.

I managed to snap up this VM5 the other week... I've never had a more playable 5 string and it's lighter than any 4 I've owned! Also spotted our friend Mark (Limelight/Classic & Cool Guitars) has got some new 'Stealth' VMs coming in that I thought looked pretty cool! Another VM4 on the way too... I've developed a slight habit!

Best? My RMI Boomslang Jive bass guitar. It caught my eye on eBay back in the Spring and it’s become my main gig bass. Punchy, aggressive Jazz Bass tones, faultlessly designed and built, and very light - I could wear it all night. That fact that it cost me just £190 topped off what is my favourite acquisition of the year. Worst? The Fender Downtown Express preamp that I bought, gigged once and returned. There was nothing wrong with it - the reviews and the YouTube demos impressed me but in practise I just didn’t like how it sounded. Disappointing.

Wait, so you got a bass with 3 knobs and one pup and he got a bass with 2 pups, 5 knobs AND some cash whilst leaving you thinking he's a bloody great bloke? 😁

That's got to be a simple one... it's on my set list for a start.

Best without question - my Dingwall Super PJ5. It’s so good that I’m very seriously considering placing a custom order with Dingwall for a Super J5 next year. My worst is probably the Future Impact pedal I owned briefly but didn’t get any use out of. This is zero reflection on the pedal itself which can create some excellent sounds - I simply didn’t put any time aside to get to grips with it and then life happened, requiring me to raise some funds. It fell onto the chopping block and a willing buyer snapped it up. I may well own one again, especially after the release of the latest firmware.

Best Brilliant seller, just love the thing. worst would absolutely own another in a heartbeat and it was a lovely bass (after a lot of work) The Guy I bought it from was vile and the experience totally cocked it up for me. Sold it at a loss.

Happy to get the ball rolling... My best purchase for the second year running has been a bass. I'm actually only one bass (net) up this year but there's been quite a churn in the Krow 'bassment' with 7 in and 6 out during the course of this year. A bit of close run thing between two basses for me, but I'm not going to go with the one that cost the most despite it being a wonderful piece of craftsmanship with a crystal clear tone, but the one that I can't put down and just love the look and feel of despite it having a 35" scale when I am much more used to 34", a 2-band EQ, when I much prefer 3-band and a lovely quilted maple top when I've never until now been into such a finish! I guess it's turned a number of preconceptions about basses on their head for me. And, ohhh, that punchy growl... My worst didn't hang around too long before it got moved on. I was told, in no uncertain terms, by a bunch of previous owners whose voices I really should have listened to that this particular pedal was pants. But I wanted to try it out for myself, ah the folly of age: my fellow BC'ers were not wrong in the meh-ness of this little wonder, which promises a lot but delivers so many of them so very disappointingly!

In Trance as Mission by Simple Minds. Another excellent Derek Forbes moment...

A crystal emblazoned jack for your custom lead. What everybody needs.

@GisserD Confession time... I've recently become a Sandberg Artist, and they knew what I was looking for, so the VM5 sort of got lost on the way to Bass Direct and ended up in my rack

Here's my recently acquired '62 RI, in the very tasty Candy Apple Red. Got it here from a fellow-mwmber - he had the stack pots fitted using a complete loom from 920D who do some really fine components. One of 3 Jazzes I have, this one has D'Addario rounds on (the other 2 with flats). It's so shiny and mint I dare not gig with it. I'll get a pic of the other 2 (a 2013 USA Standard and a '99 USA fretless)

Indeed, and you'd better have a red carpet handy. Let me know when and where and I'll let my driver know. Ideally the venue will have helicopter landing if possible.

Death Disco (or other Jah classics) - PIL

Time Is Tight, Green Onions - Booket T and the MG's Cocaine, Same Old Blues - JJ Cale Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Ball Of Confusion, My Girl - The Temptations

Why don't we just club together buy one and pass it on each month? After all we usually end up trading or selling everything with each other eventually 🤓

"Glory Box" by Portishead is one which particularly comes to mind. We do this with one of my bands and it's actually quite difficult to keep from tripping out when playing the same repeating riff for an entire song.

Here is Jet playing Nivram on a Musicman Stingray.

Can I just fix this item on the list... 3. @wrinkleygit, Jabba’s Semi Hollow Fretless (which will be in @Frank Blank’s corner probably whilst he has a punch up with @wrinkleygit that @Jabba_the_gut tries unsuccessfully to break up but is finally resolved when lunch is dished up which scuppers @Frank Blank’s plan to steal @wrinkleygit’s Jabba built fretless because @Frank Blank has eaten so many roast spuds he can no longer fit the bass inside his resolutely unfashionable dungarees which were specifically designed to enable the nefarious deed). ‘72 Gibson EB0, SWR Working Mans 10 combo & 1x10 ext cab & a set of h’phones. Both basses strung with Labella flats

I think that some people do try to work out what the lyrics mean, and others are just happy for the words to fit the tune. BJ and Cameron probably just said that they liked these bands 'cos they thought it'd make them sound cool, rather missing the socialist message behind the words.

Well, close enough to turquoise anyway! Nothing fancy here, just a Fender Player series Jazz in Tidepool, absolutely fell in love seeing the colour on a P bass in store, so I had to have a J in it. Excuse the crud photo, I was home late and more concerned with playing than photographing 😁 Quick setup done as the action was a bit high for me, but the relief seems spot on from the factory. On a related note, the pickups seem to be a bit low and aren't raising when loosening off the screws... I assume they probably just need a bit more foam sticking underneath, as the screws keep coming up but the pickups dont?

A) Yes 😂Well obviously I’d keep the Status! B) see below

Walking Dancing In the Moonlight - Thin Lizzy

Nice easy one here with a good feel 🙂

I bet these cabs would be a great basis for a Helix + power amp setup either with guitar or (of course) bass. In other news, my cab building journey has finally begun - although in a slightly disjointed way. I had managed to buy some poplar ply from Mike Walsh (Zoot bass) - who has stopped building the Purple Chili cabs to allow him to focus on building basses. He had a sheet or so of poplar ply left over, and sold me the ply with the basic cuts done for me. I moved house this year and have now (finally) got a lovely shed (albeit without lights and power yet) - but other priorities keep getting in the way (redecorating, rebuilding etc) that for some inexplicable reason according to other members of the household (ahem) should take precedence. Anyway, Mike has taken pity on me, and has offered to put the cabs together for me. I should stress that he is doing this as a favour to me - he is NOT going to make any of these cabs commercially, and doesn't have much left in the way of the poplar ply anyway. Stevie's flatpack kits are a much more sensible way to go! Mike has some odds and ends of hardware left as well, so there may be a couple of cosmetic differences (connector plate, different feet etc), but the important stuff (port, drivers, wadding etc) will be to Stevie's spec. The ply is going to be 12mm in the main (as that is what he had left), though with the baffle done in 15mm. I'd originally intended to do it in 12mm but with a 12mm baltic birch baffle, but since there was a bit of 15mm poplar available, then that will be used. Of course this also means that the dimensions of the panels will need slight adjustments. I had always intended to build a pair of cabs, but one is going to be without tweeter. Stevie has recommended that when used together, the tweeterless cab should have a low pass added at around 500Hz, so there is little or no interference between the two boxes. We'll see what happens there when we get further along the road.

Had a quick look and didn’t see any threads... whats an ideal gift for the musician in your life? And no! I don’t mean a new bass or combo £££££s something that says I really put some thought into this (or read this forum for hints) what would you like? Something you maybe wouldn’t buy yourself, but something if it was given to you as a gift, you’d really enjoy. preferably music ( bass, guitar, drums, keys, vocals) related I’ll start it off, The Markbass “basskeeper” smaller, lighter than your typical stage guitar stand and can fit in your case... only £17 from Richtone music on eBay....cheap as chips but worth its weight in gold. http://markbass.it/product-detail/bass-keeper/

Walking on the Moon - The Police. There is a chorus line but it's as easy as the verse line. Deceptively difficult to pull off well though.

And a thing made manifest. nearly there. Preorders available and downloads are happening. It’s actually selling! https://clairefoxx.bandcamp.com/releases

TU-2, Okto-Nøjs, EHX Bass Clone, EBS Fuzzmo / Chowny Fuzzster, Palmer Bass Deepressor. Probably Dammit! Forgot the Microthumpinator. TU-2, Microthumpinator, Okto-Nøjs, EBS Fuzzmo, Palmer Bass Deepressor.

Nope - definitely bringing my video camera though 🙂

As a 12 year old, I was given a guitar by an older cousin who I looked up to but who, with hindsight, I now realise had no idea what he was talking about (he cannot play anything). It was a piece of crap (strung with nylon AND steel strings). He lived a long way away and I rarely saw him or his brothers so I was on my own and had to figure the thing out myself. As a had no-one to help me, I found could not figure out guitar chords but could figure out bass parts. The earliest bassline I can recall playing (on the low strings on the nasty guitar I had) is a children's tv theme that I cannot name (although I can still play it). By the time I had control of my own destiny, I wanted a bass guitar and, when I started work in September 1980, bought a Hondo II Precision copy from my Mum's catalogue (I remember it being £125) and the rest is history. I was playing in a NWOBHM band and recording a Friday Rock Show session for Radio One in March 1981 so I must have taken to it reasonably quickly! After that, my first bass heroes were Squire and Steve Harris and then, in quick succession and as I became more 'woke', Jaco, Jeff Berlin, Jimmy Johnson and Percy Jones. The double bass players came later and their influence was less all-consuming. I do remember early efforts at transcribing lines by Roger Glover, Geezer Butler, Phil Lynott, Geddy Lee and others I cannot recall. I miss that period of discovery, when our lack of experience means that everything is new and exciting.

Nah, turns out it was a misprint. Hope that @Billy Apple had a nice couple of weeks in Crewe!

New cable came in the post this morning so I've had a bit of a play with it with an Ampeg PF20 and bass. First thing I noticed is how efficient it is compared to the cabinet I use most, which is an old 1516 diesel cabinet. It goes deafeningly loud with volume about half way up. Second thing I noticed is that there is much less hum coming through than with the other cabinet - Ive always found the Ampeg a bit poor in the hum department, but its much better with the this cab. I don't know why this would be. Maybe I was using a better socket. Next I noticed I needed to file my nails; there is a LOT of high frequency information available if you want it. Its very clear and natural though. Bass was hard to judge, as the room didnt like low frequencies very much. The floor was shaking at quite low volumes. It clearly goes very low if you want it to. It seems to respond very quickly and predictably to tone controls as well - the PF20 is definitely a good match to it. And I really I can't imagine many situations where you'd need more power. High efficiency is a nice and unexpected bonus, I think lots of low powered amps will give you all the volume you need with this cabinet. Impressed so far. I'll try it with an electric piano when my daughter comes in from school - thats what I built it for really

Once In a Lifetime by Talking Heads, the bass stays pretty much the same riff/2 notes throughout, whereas the guitars/vocals/drums make the verses & choruses different.

Warhead - Uk Subs, an example of a song being about the bass line but fairly easy to play

Ha. Then imagine the look on the face of this very young female attendant in the record shop back in '69 or thereabouts, when this nerdy looking 12-year-old me, after having listened to one side of Yes' eponymous album answered her question: "Did you like that record?" with a disappointed: "Nah. They sing too much..."

...and you’ll be going home in it son. 😆

I use the foam part of a washing up scouring pad (remove the rough green part). Works a treat, the right height and density.

Age is irrelevant. What you need to decide is whether you want to be in a band, if so what you want out of a band and what level of commitment you can give it. I'm 43, run my own company, have a wife and daughter and my wife is currently 8 months pregnant. This year I joined a really busy function band and have played over 100 weddings all over the uk including gigs in Cornwall and one in Aberdeen. I can make it work and I'm enjoying it. I had to accept that in joining such a band I had to commit 110% . I don't get to choose which gigs I want to do. Everything that comes in has to be honoured. I had to balance loss of family time, loss of sleep and juggling gigs plus a busy work life with the enjoyment of playing live and the significant additional income that will allow my wife to have a long maternity leave. Just think about what you want out of a band then decide if you can make it balance. Forget age.

Many people don't listen to lyrics - for when example brides request 'band of gold' to be played at their wedding reception