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Sorry bit of a long reply - I appreciate the replies. This is insane - seeing a thread grow like this from such a dull question - it's like I planted magic beans - it's spun out of orbit a few times but... to be expected I guess. It was a serious question - I spend a lot of time wondering about things and I've never quite been able to put my finger on why a site that I've been on since early 2008 has never (imho) really flourished - but finding basschat has given me something to compare it with. I don't want to name the other site as the owner and mods are doing a "pretty good (*)" job and are investing time and effort in it (and the owner/admin is forking out to keep the site up too). I drifted off it quite a few years ago and but came back to a couple of years ago but it's still got the similar problems (imho) that bothered me then even though it has changed in a some obvious respects - it is actually powered by the same software platform as basschat so it looks uncannily "similar" to basschat but the visual appearance and structural differences, I think, are important. I went on a web traffic comparison site (https://www.similarweb.com/) to see if there really might be a difference in activity and you can see the difference is huge:- BassChat Global rank ~135,000, Arts & Entertainment/music rank ~1800 The site has been getting 370,000-300,000 page views per month over the last 6 months and of that traffic About 60% are users that login directly to the site and 40% get there via a search and a fraction of a 1% gets there via social media. The other site Global rank ~1,300,000, Arts & Entertainment/music rank ~16,000 The site either isn't hooked up to Google analytics to make any traffic data available or it's just very low but About 25% are users that login directly to the site and 67% get there via a search and 5% get there via social media But the question is - percentage of what figure!? I think basschat is way more active - just looking at the list of logged in users. I think the internet dream is failing in some respects - the impersonal "firing shots in the dark" social media looms large over the world of special interest user forums these days. I worked as an electronics & software development engineer for most of my life and can remember being in a a group of engineers going up to a local uni to a lecture on the internet - the focus was on usenet groups, the Mosaic browser, Yahoo! (who maintained a page with an ever growing list of links to a other web pages) and Archie was a primitive search engine. The differences between basschat and the other site as I see are - Basschat has a far higher percentage of its users logging in or logged in to view pages - however you interpret all these figures it speaks volumes about engagement and the community aspect (well that's what I think) but I was interested in why. I suppose it's obvious to say moderation style must be a factor - and I think it is and maybe it's the demographic in terms of age, geographical location and degree of focus - I think basschat is a lot narrower in its range of interest and aims than the other site so that I think helps draw together a more cohesive community anyway. The other site could, I think, divide itself in two - at least in terms of clearing up the user interface (which is an issue imho) for the two main groups of users (as I might want to see it - I think you have the amateur and the pro oriented musicians - there's an overlap but they often don't have the same concerns - gigging, contracts, production process and physical product issues, marketing, promotion, etc) The other site is a .com not a .co.uk site and I think this makes a difference - a .com domain is likely to be higher up the list of search results for people in the US and elsewhere, i.e. outside the UK, for people looking for a musicians forum. The other site has a definite international feel to it which I don't think helps it - there is less cohesiveness as a consequence and time zones also interfere with real-time comms sometimes - but having said that, I have great contacts there in the US, Japan, Australia The user interface isn't half as well organised as basschat - if I compare the main landing pages - basschat has a simple vertical list of forums with some (not too many) top level structure (The Local, Gear, Performance, Guitar Chat and some (a decent number of) sub forums under each (Under "The Local" Introduction, General Discussion, Off Topic...) - you can see a lot on that first page and it doesn't take much scrolling down to see pretty much everything on offer on the site. Just that top level structure putting "the community" aspect at the top is so right. This is a familiar structure that you see in a lot of open source forums phpBB, Simple Machines Forum, myBB - it's common, it's basic and it seems to work fine. The other site has customised the interface using features in the wrong way imho - it doesn’t use a simple nested (main heading with subtopics underneath) vertical list - it uses several rows of "playing cards" - each card has an image on it symbolising the main forum heading and on the card, under the image, is a list of links to sub forums) - unfortunately, because of the real estate this uses up, this means you have to scroll down a lot to see everything and it's just not easy to pick out and read the sub forums. The ordering of the forums and the organisation of the sub forums is all over the place and is the main reason it's confusing to navigate around - I have put my point privately a couple of times about a year back but nothing really changes. Personally - I think these features - the playing card layout would work fine on a site selling clothes for instance so you’d have playing cards with symbolic images for shoes, bags, blouses, trousers, etc - anyway - basschat visually and organisationally just makes so much more sense - I wonder if there was ever much experimentation with the basschat site layout of whether they just went with what was probably the default, the vertical list and stuck with it. (*) moderation. This must be the hardest thing to get right - just getting anyone to do it is hard enough let alone finding the right people. The mods on the other site are active in their own right on the site and spend a lot of time welcoming new signups and responding - and there always seem to be a lot of new sign ups but subsequent engagement is weirdly low. I've not encountered any real issues with the mods other than one mod ticking me off privately for "mentioning another site" a couple of times (this was about a year ago) - it felt like Chinese style democracy in action - I think it's ridiculous - the site mentioned is only active (hugely so) for about 2 months of the year and only overlaps with a very reduced set of interests covered by this other site.I got the impression so far that basschat isn't going to be so touchy about that kind of thing. Basschat is more gear oriented - the other site is very weak in that respect unfortunately (and inexplicably), but it's stronger on the music creation side of things. Socially it's pretty inactive - at any one time you're lucky to find a handful of people logged in but the site must have many thousands of users - it's been around a long time. I think the international user base is partly to blame - time zone issues as well as differences in culture. Also the other site seems to be to be preoccupied with musicians leaning towards the professional rather than the amateur end of the spectrum - with two main groups of users coming from and heading in different directions the site is like a crossroads without any traffic lights - confusing for everyone - mainly the bedroom/kitchen/open mic level musicians like myself who don't harbour any unrealistic expectations. Anyway - I'm going to pile my belongings into a shopping trolley and wheel everything round to basschat.

New to me today - a limited edition FSR Player series bass in this groovy colour. Arrived thru post with slack strings, from PMT online, but was quick to set up and intonate. Plays wonderfully

Thanks for taking a few pics whilst you were at Jon's today @Muzz

Take 1 x rack of basses, 1 x old wardrobe, 1 x dull afternoon, a selection of hand tools and several cups of coffee.

Meryl Streep: And the coveted 2019 BassChat award for Least Heeded Advice goes to ... (opens envelope excessively slowly, drags out tension, pin drops) Streep: LeftyBassman!!! (Camera cuts to celebs whooping and cheering. Elderly gent totters to feet, waves at crowd. Runner-up TimR sobs into his napkin).

I didn't think I was ready the first time... but then I found I could do better than I had thought, and I improved MUCH MUCH MUCH faster once I was in a band. Do it!

My opinion on compressors is the same as my opinion on a*sholes .... They are both useful for getting rid of excess volume.

Stole the pickup screws from my Geddy Lee. Scratch plate and control cover done. Second hand EMG’s..... I have no neck pickup volume and tone control but the bridge pickup sounds awesome, I’ll chase down the problem tomorrow...

I know some players who regularly make massive foot cups when playing live, shall I give them a bell?

I recently finished reading "Watching the English", which is a serious anthropological study of English culture disguised as an entertaining pop culture book. Looking at many aspects of life the author tries to identify essential English traits, and there are longish discourses on pubs, special interest groups, and male friendships. There is no claim that good traits or bad traits are exclusively English, but she does try to work.out what the combination and proportions are. BassChat works because it's like a proper but very friendly local pub full of blokes with the same interest. Very quickly if you understand the culture you are welcome, and if you don't then you aren't shunned, you're still welcome unless you're offensive.That culture includes being helpful, gentle teasing as part of bonding (stop sniggering), occasional willingness to share important stuff, accepting that it's not winning an argument here that counts it's getting the wittiest answer in, and a few other unwritten rules that I suggest you read the book to find out. It is almost a textbook example of the better traits of national character.The mods are the equivalent of the bar staff. I think the Bass Bashes help a lot as well. I have only been to one so far, but having met some of these folks they are now real people, not just strange avatars. The only other forum I have found vaguely comparable is the Sound On Sound forum, which is also fantastic. However it is more focussed on the topic in hand and less likely to get sidetracked. By soup, for example.

Just snaffled this 48 y/o beauty. Weighs just over 7 pounds, which is fabulous for my back/shoulders. Just need to sell a couple of basses to pay for it now!

Spent an hour trying these side by side. Both made in Mexico. First using a small Markbass combo. They both sounded good, the deluxe maybe marginally brighter. The bridge pickup on the Flea sounded muted - even compared to the sound of my Squier Jazz in my head. Controls on the Flea more intuitive than the confusing four knobs on the Deluxe. Then on a Rumble 100 - weighs 18lbs!!! - which sorted the sound of the Flea completely. perhaps the vintage pickups just want a more vintage sounding amp? This was with both amps on a near 12-o'clock setting. 'Feel wise' and the Flea was in a completely different universe. The Fender Deluxe was a couple of steps below my 2001 Indonesian Squier - it was nice enough but not inspiring. I did find it surprisingly easy to slap on though, but it wasn't 'left hand friendly'. Came away with the flea 🙂

AC Guitars still make a filter per pickup system. While EQ01 is not currently available for sale I use the DFM (Dual Filter Modular) in my own instruments which is the fourth generation ACG dual filter preamp. There will also be a limited run of EQ02 preamps in the not to distant future.

Picked up my HX Effects from PMT Oxford earlier today. I've run through the firmware updates and had a quick play, first impressions are really positive - quality of some of the patches I've tried are excellent (Octave, Overdrive, Fuzz, Chorus).

I've only ever experienced Devin Townsend in the context of metal and/or space opera. Here he's teamed up with someone and they've produced some sort of folky, trippy, but somehow haunting thing that I'm not sure I can adequately define... but I like it!

This track is tha shiz but can't help being reminded of the novelty musical duo “Flight of the Conchords" every time the chorus hits in... Shaza!! Just listen to those bass licks... + That Dylan got some CHOPS!!! Massive props to Richie for his finger style.... SWEET!!! Almost tempts one over to the darker side o' six flimsy strings...

Thanks @Bassassin 👍 I paid quite a bit less - right place, right time I guess. The plan was to not like it and punt it on but it plays amazingly, and fits well with my love of all things 80s Washburn. The S1000 is having a new string retainer made, hence the wonky strings...

Quite like their amps too. I have five 🤣

Richie Kotzen: more guitar chops than most and a voice like Chris Cornell - it's just not fair.

Damn it I’ve been rumbled!! The other month I just thought I want to learn something new so I thought let’s try and learn about electronics so I started reading about Ohms law and Kirchoffs laws which seemed nice and straight forward but then I started trying to learn about sine waves and sound modulation using electronics and that went way over my head the formulae and the maths involved was just too hard!! so I saw an overdrive pcb going for really cheap so I thought why not give it a go!! I’m working out what I need and how much to build a tube amp head so that will be a future project..........,

I think it's for slicing eggs.

Ah, my good friend, JC. He's always “touched me down inside"...

Excellent album!

There's a built-in compressor on my Eden WTDI pedal, which I use sparingly at open mic night. For 'proper' gigs, I use one of these: Ingersoll-Rand IR175. Sorry! I meant one of these: Palmer Bass Deepressor. Really good & solid as a rock!

It the bass line is anything like the average rock song probably no more than two.

It doesn't get much better than "Christmas is 4 Ever" by Bootsy!

I don't use a compressor in the signal chain - mine is very simple, bass --> amp. (BUT read on....) EVERYTHING is, or can be, a compressor. The pre-amp, the power amp, the speaker cone, the PA system, etc etc. You'd need to be fully aware of how loud/quiet you're playing (as in, how light or hard you're hitting the strings etc) and to control it, to avoid the unwanted compression that any piece of equipment might impose, if you wanted to avoid it. You probably want to avoid the PA's active speakers imposing it, for example....but that's someone else's job. Also, an important element of gain/overdrive/distortion IS the compression which is imposed onto the signal too - in a deliberate helpful way. Personally for me, the music I play has massively wide dynamics involved, so I need to be able to have that all come through so compression is not desired. But on a tiny fraction of occasions where I've wanted it, I use a BOSS CS3. Since I don't really use it, I can't really recommend it over others, especially since I haven't tried others (except some distortion/overdrive stuff).

great album (though the recipient I gave a copy to in the Secret Santa at work a couple of years ago disagrees)

The more members in a band the more difficult it is to please everyone. Factor in the name really needs to be in some way relevant to the style of music and the situation takes on the intricacies of a NATO summit. Our solution? We all came up with three names each that we liked, If everyone could not agree on one of those names they all went into a hat, and the first one drawn out was it. Sorted.

As this doesn't seem to be very serious, please add Boney M Christmas album to your list. Local radios started playing some songs already on October. It is just too much...

"Plague of Locusts" "Crucifiction" "Flood" "Bronze Age Fairy Tales"

Just realised I never updated this! I have now done 2 gigs on bass with Rebel Heroes Bowie Tribute. The third will be tomorrow night at the Cornerhouse in Frome.

Awesome! Now you just need to do the same again with a different wardrobe, for the cases! 😝

Oh dear, I meant to add to my earlier post that: PLEASE NOTE that the views expressed above are solely those of the user (abuser) of the HX unit and should not be relied upon: any buying or selling of HX multifxs resulting are made entirely at the risk of individual so doing. 😁

I seem to have accidentally ordered and HX Effects and listed all my pedals for sale ;/

I began using Ashdown based purely on comments like those of the op. Legendary service to customers.

Herebe us handsome chappies

Compared to other sites there's a lot more diversity on this site. I'm a Yankee and everyone here is more than nice to me. I also think because there's more guys on this site that are in gigging bands makes the threads more engaging. This is a great site. Blue

I'll chime in first, with my unscientific observations: The site is well designed and uses a very intuitive interface. Try using Thefretboard site and see how frustrating a poor interface can be. Fair bit of chat suggesting here that bassist seem to be more 'reasonable' compared to other instrumentalists. I'd like to think this is the case! The mods do a very good job of responding to feedback, scammers and threads going off the rails. I don't know the stats, but I'd say there is a good core of people who chip in more than most and are happy to help folks.

Hmmm, looks great But you must have either thrown all your clothes out.... Or thrown them into a pile on the floor... Where your bass stand used to be