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The BBOT bridges are rubbish, which is why hardly any classic basslines have been recorded using one.

This arrived today! I can’t believe that I haven’t gone down the Bass Collection route before. They are stunning basses. I am a convert. I have been very tempted in the past - from positive posts on here and seeing bassists like Bedders from Madness playing the Profile bass, etc. I knew that they were highly rated and now I understand why. Went for the Betsy as it’s a beauty - burgundy mist with a matching headstock. It was well packaged and in a really neat Bass Collection gig bag. Really neat. And, I kid you not, it was in tune when I took it out of the box! It's well set up with a good action and EMG pickups sound great. The build quality is excellent. When I have played it a bit I will update this in more detail. Unlike my Squier Matt Freeman Precision and my Flea Jazz bass (both brilliant bassists in their own right), I got this as I really like Guy Pratt’s playing and his, erm, his Betsy bass. The other two I bought as they were great basses rather than me being a fan of the players – although I appreciate their playing. Now, can Bass Collection now do a Herbie Flowers signature bass or a Klaus Voormann one? Whilst I wait I might check out their Profile, and the fretless Jazz, and the option to customise… Thought it would make sense to add the more detailed review here: Neck The neck is really comfortable and in shape and feel is not too dissimilar to the Flea. They are both based on 60s basses – a ’64 (Betsy) and a ’61 (Flea) – with the Betsy having a Super Slim Sixties’ Profile. I’m not usually a fan of satin necks as all of my guitars and basses, by complete chance, have had either glossy necks or painted ones. However, I really like this one. It is smooth to the touch and easy to play. It feels right. The frets are well dressed and there are no sharp ends. It is easy to play. The frets are medium and are larger than the vintage-style thinner ones on the Flea. The Macassar Ebony fingerboard looks lovely and I prefer it to the lighter Pau Ferro on some basses at the moment. Hardware The four bolt engraved chrome neck plate has the new Bass Centre logo on it, which is a nice touch. The vintage control knobs have screws to attach them rather than pull on/off ones. The bridge, like the Flea bass, has a traditional roller bridge and the tuners are more substantial than my Matt Freeman P Bass. Body The body is rather lovely. It’s a burgundy mist (pink) with matching headstock. The fit between the body and neck is perfect. No gaps here. The paint job is great and I think I can just see the wood grain. Really like the headstock that has ‘Betsy’ and Guy Pratt’s signature on it. The headstock is fairly close to the Flea bass compared to some of the other BC basses. It’s a good weight – about the same as the Flea. The body on the Betsy seems a bit more substantial, a little bit thicker? Pickups and Strings Now here’s the interesting bit. I rather like both the strings (Bass Centre Elites Stadium Series Roundwound Standard Gauge .045 - .065 - .085 - .105) and the EMG Pickups. I usually use flatwounds or nylon tapewounds and only roundwounds if playing in the pit band of a musical if needed. (I have the Flea to play 50s/60s music - ideal for 'Hairspray' and 'West Side Story' - and the Betsy for more contemporary musicals like 'Billy Eliot' and 'Our House'. Likewise, when playing in our band - the two basses cover both contemporary and non-contemporary songs.) This is a bit of a game changer. The strings and the EMGs (powered by a 9 volt battery under the control plate – just like the real Betsy) are really consistent and I haven’t yet heard any buzzing. Are EMGs noise cancelling? Not sure. Anyone help here, as I've never had a bass with EMGs or with a battery? Price The cost of the Betsy is £595. The Flea bass is nearly twice the price. I am glad and lucky to have both but would be more than happy if I just had the Betsy as it is a really well made and fantastically sounding bass in its own right. What next? On the basis of how good this bass is I am now sorely tempted to go with a fretless Jive after playing the Betsy for a few days.

New (1984) Alembic Day Spoiler in black Cliff Burton style livery. Very battered but now benefiting from judicious application of black nail varnish and a good polish of the brass bits!

Just found this by accident, and of course it's Tears For Fears Curt Smith and daughter Diva doing a lockdown rendition of Mad World. She's very competent , and a very appropriate track right now

My new Black and Rosewood P has arrived! Utterly stunning and sounds exactly like you think just from looking at it..! I don’t know how Mark does it but he does! I have a charcoal frost P also on order.. watch this space....

You ARE loud enough if your sound engineer is a bass player...

Love my Sandberg SL. 6lbs 7ozs. No neck dive at all thanks to Sandberg now producing the lightest tuners on the market. Black Label pups sound awesome with tons of EQ options from the 2 band active EQ. It can do the passive thing too if the battery dies. Add that to Sandberg's excellent build quality and you have a beast of a bass!

I’m abit late on this, but I really recommend this one. Regularly reference this as a starting point, which eventually I aim to do less and less, using it as a sort of tool to help me understand the fretboard really. Its been sweet in recent times too, for example my mate will send me a clip of a riff he’s working on and he’s like ‘key of whatever’ and il have a little read up to see what I can work with and just have noodle, see what lines I can conjure up with it. Really useful way of understanding the fretboard, I reckon so anyway. It’s a hefty book. It’s got all the scales in every key and where you can play different variations of them across the whole neck, same with all the arpeggios, each laid out on mini fretboard diagrams up to the 17th fret, colour coded the lot it’s a beaut! I picked it up for like 12 quid off amazon, it’s an extremely useful tool to have. Keep it in my gigbag all the time now. https://www.halleonard.com/product/201827/bass-fretboard-atlas

Feel free to follow my youtube channel im only 15 so im not great but i try my best 🤷‍♀️

Stealth build bass. Swamp ash body, Custom Shop '62 pups, Badass II and Status P neck.

Just home from picking up my second BB1000ma. Toggle switch non functional. Therefore reasonable in price. Lucky day! Bought it to refinish it completely. Just can't decide the colour...

1984 Alembic Spoiler arrived at Clarky mansions today

Newly arrived, battered 1984 Alembic Spoiler. Get your Cliff (Burt)on!

Surely it should be Everybody was Kung Fu Riesling...

Just in case anyone is interested Mark sent me some pictures of a white over candy apple red precision he has made for stock, I was originally talking to him about making me a similar bass but with white blocks and he was struggling to access a neck. He e mailed me the pictures in case I would be interested it’s a stunning bass ,but at present with the fact it’s unlikely we’ll be gigging before the end of the year and the fact I already have 2 precision’s I really can’t justify another. Thought i’d Post just for your perusal and on the off chance someone is looking for a precision, i’ve had 3 basses off Mark and they more than hold their own with any other bass I’ve owned. If anyone is interested I have some more photos just drop me a message

'Why do you need more than one bass?' asked an ex mrs Spiders when she caught me furtively lurking outside a guitar store?Why do you need more than one pair of shoes? I replied. Back of the net!

^^^ This. (Ezbass then goes off and looks at new basses and FX online and tries to keep drool off the keyboard*.) * Yes, I need help 😂

Yeah, I’ve had that for about 15 years now and it’s seen off everything especially with the synth built in so it can do perfect (to my ears) impressions of J, P, MM styles too. But I like that it has a unique sound of its own, it’s one of a kind and sounds so even and plays so well it’s almost digital! I used to think I’d also need a 5, a fretless and so forth but in reality when I was playing something else, especially something easily recognisable like a Jazz, I kind of felt like I was copying a sound rather than playing MY sound on things if you see what I mean. There’s an album by Gov’t Mule where each track has a different bass player and it’s really good to see how an instantly recognisable ‘signature’ sound can be used in different contexts and still sound great. Flea plays on a fusion blues kind of tune with his Modulus and it sounds amazing, whereas my first thought might be ‘oh I need a P for that tune’ I guess when you’ve had a bass long enough and used it live, at home, in studios and all sorts you just get to know it so well that you just feel at home on it and know how it’ll sound in every situation.

‘What sort of stuff do you play, mate.’’ ’Jazz from 1940 to 1980’. (sniff) ‘ Oh, covers then’.

Wifey got me a beat buddy mini 2 for Christmas and I use it quite a lot for practice. The drum sets used are real and there is a bit of swing in them, not like a full on paralytic drummer but a lot more natural than a standard drum machine. If you are good with all that Midi computer stuff you might appreciate the more expensive model, which you can download different drum sets to, like 'John Bonham' for instance. I just wanted a drum machine in a pedal form and I have no idea what 'Midi syncing' is. I have just ordered the TC Electronic Ditto X2 jam looper. According to one long thread on the Singular Sound forum, this works with the Beat Buddy, without being Midi synced. Andertons will deliver this on Friday and I'll let you know how I get on. Apparently you can loop your bass or guitar in time with a Beat Buddy drum track without having to step on the pedal exactly at the right moment, the X2 jam looper can keep in time by itself, or with a little assistance from you.

Hi Everyone. I made an attempt at playing Wrathchild by IRON MAIDEN. Not gonna lie, I found this quite tricky to learn. It's pretty relentless, and there are lots of fast runs and fills. I hope you enjoy.

I've always enjoyed the Count Basie Orchestra on triangle.

If I was interested in playing music I'd likely easily define a good all rounder and stick to it. As my primary hobby is sending and receiving carboard boxes, clearly the unitary approach won't suffice.

Honestly, using his thumb to fret with, the boy's a fool. I have to say, the basses he brought along to the studio were impressively filthy ...

See here. I almost bought a B-stock 200 recently, but decided I have too many medium scales and if I get another it would be the 205. Just waiting for a secondhand one to come along.

GR Bass Aero112H arrived today, adds nicely to the 210....just need some gigs now😁 Total weight of both cabs is 40lbs.

Yep. Agree 100%. Now people will say yeah but once you give it a good setup it will be fine. Not always true. Some necks are just messed up. Some sit in around with some much relief that they "take a set" and never come back to a good position. I'm picky, I'll admit that. I can tell if my action changes by 1/64th. I want low low low action. I want to play a touch screen lol. For example I considers Fender's recommended action/relief to be sky high.

I've got this album in my Amazon Music Slits playlist. Return Of The Giant Slits, indeed! Reminds me of the artist who creates wine labels for Washington State wines. I met him once, and asked him "why Kung Fu Girl" Riesling? His answer? "Because girls and riesling kick a$$!"

One of my all time favourite bass lines...

I think in real, quantifiable terms, some people think they look better.

Well this wasn't supposed to happen...! I got some quotes via email for the neck work and decided to flog the bass to someone who can do it as a labour of love. It just didn't seem viable to spend the money on it. I got a buyer but he pulled out before I could ship the bass. I relisted it. Then I was going to get my Stingray set up so I took it along just to see... And I must have caught the chap in a very good mood. The neck is repaired and a bone nut installed now. The frets are levelled and it's all set up ready to go. The price for the work was fantastic. I just need a replacement pup and may as well do the wiring all out too while there. So somehow I've gone from giving up on a lost cause to being within a pickup delivery and some solder of having a 1984 Aria SB Elite-i. I think it just shows that it's a bit unfair to get repair quotes just from photos, it needs to be seen and felt in the hand by the luthier.

Back onto the amp, I am really interested to see how the 'Global Gain' and 'O/D symetry' works in practice/practical use. I can hear a difference from the video but it is very subtle. I think I would need to physically try the amp to really appreciate it. However, I really the idea of the feature. It would appear from my initial read of the specs that the hi/low gain, 'Low' and 'Bright' presets) apply to both channels, rather than being able independently assign them to a specific channel. If so, I actually prefer this as having separate presets for each each channel would make the front panel of the amp very busy and create a bit of option paralysis on my front. Also, I like that there is a tube in the front end of the Subway channel as well which is a nice touch. My only other comment is that I would have liked for the footswitch to include the ability to switch from 'Low gain' to 'High gain' on the Boogie channel to enable the player to change from a nearly clean bloomy setting on the 'low' setting to more of an overdrive on the 'high' setting). If the low/hi gain setting is more subtle than a obvious 'clean to overdrive' change though isn't really a big issue. In practice I would probably just use a separate overdrive/boost on top of whatever core tone I wanted out of either channel, or even use the Subway channel as the 'clean' channel and the Boogie channel as the 'dirty' channel. I really like the amp and feature set overall. Probably my favourite feature set of the current Mesa bass line.

This is the only one I think that I miss. It's called Jade Dragon, a pre-LX Spector Euro 5 with full maple wings with an emerald green finish (of which not many Specors were produced) I was giving up bass playing at the time and sold most of my related possessions including this one. Fortunately I'm still in contact with the buyer and if he ever wants to sell I'm the first in line.

I reckon I could probably get away with one bass for the rest of my days. And I'd be happy if it was the bass I've just bought, a MIJ Squier Bullet. I only have two sounds anyway - flats played near the neck and flats played near the bridge. Three sounds if you count playing with a pick. At one time I had 5 basses (USA Fender Bullet, a Squier Mustang, an infuriating Shaftesbury Tele style bass, a little Tanglewood EF-18 from a charity shop, and an unbranded short scale acoustic bass) but I sounded pretty much the same on all of them. Could have been the flats, but more than likely it's my lack of proper technique. That's my signature sound: lack of proper technique 😂 and I only need one bass for that!

I love this feed. The G.A.S is very real here haha. I keep telling myself - “nah I’ve found My unicorn now & I ’ll keep onto this forever”. A nice Fender Jazz - exactly like I wanted. Japan import, not owned by every man and his dog locally, ‘62 reissue, nice eye popping Japan market colour - Happy days. Not super expensive but definitely on his way there for me anyway. Just before the threshold of having to explain to my misses that ‘it’s the one I really really really want’ you know? 😬🤣 ... but then green is my favourite colour 😅 so with that my top 3 G.A.S list has to start with this one: Like you @meterman this one’s not 4 string related (good choice by the way!) but I’m quite into my music production and I’ve always wanted one of these bad boys to get mental with some patch leads on. Finally is this little beauty, which I might be able to work a good angle on when we decorate the living room, fresh carpet and paint and that you know? “You know what darling, this one would look so subtle tucked in the corner there, really finish the room off it would, look lovely on our nice new carpet” 😅🤣 Wish me luck on that one.

Here is my contribution to the June 2020 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Leonard Smalls..! It started off as a search for inspiration, as I had no 'handle' on it. As a bit of a change, I turned on my keyboard, dialled away the 'acoustic piano' I usually play, and stumbled upon an 'electric guitar' setting. Using this, I picked out a riff I had in my head. Hmm... Potential, maybe, but my piano is in my modelling 'den', and not connected to my PC. No worries, I have a Fostex hard-disk 8-track recorder; I'll dig that out. Once I'd worked out again how it works (s'been a long time, and I'm old..!), I got the riff down. No click, metronome nor beat, just raw keys. Downstairs to my pica-studio, to export the result into Reaper. Hmm... It's a bit 'ropey', compared to the metronome. I spend some time fiddling about with the files, chopping bits up here and there, but decide, eventually, to ask Our Eldest to play the riff instead. Once I'd set up the gear required to do that, I thought to try it out to get the sound I wanted. Might as well record it, whilst I'm at it. Three takes later (one track, doubled track and one 'extras' track...), no need to trouble the lad; it's done and dusted. Stick a bass on (well, two, while I'm in the mood...) and a drum track, scrub the original 'keys' guitar and it's finished..! Drums programmed with Superior 3, two mystery basses and three 'live' takes of my Xavier guitar, through a Boss compressor pedal, Boss Fender Deluxe pedal and a Germanium Big Muff pedal. All mixed in Reaper, with the usual post-production mastering with Ozone. I'm not sure if my 'inspiration' hits the spot, but it was more fun to do than I'd thought at first, so... Result..! Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy. Edit : Best played rather on the 'loud' end of the phonic spectrum, but not so much as to damage your hearing, please. Good speakers (monitors...) are preferable; ear-buds probably less good, unless they're super-duper ones.

One of my lockdown projects was Stevie Wonder songs. I've charted most of Music Of My Mind and Talking Book, all of Songs In The Key Of Life and Hotter Than July and some of Innervisions, Fullfillingness and Square Circle. There are some great songs, brilliant arrangements and plenty of riffs that just make you smile. Once you get into SW you discover he has favourite chord sequences which are used pretty regularly. When you spot them it makes working the songs out a little easier.

He’s a great player but I find his presentation style a bit like Roger Moore playing 007.

Sandberg bargain alert! Very tempted but just can't afford it 😅

Live home video of my americana band! Had serious fun recording this. Pre order of the new album starts Friday at violethourband.com

I've been using Warman pickups for ages. Don't let the low prices sway you, they're wonderful pickups: https://www.warmanguitars.co.uk/product-category/pickups/bass-pickups/

Yes. But I have two.

NOT missing the following: 1. Me: Soundcheck? Band: Nah, use our first number. 2. (Usually drunk, mostly female) punter: Can you play X, Y or Z? Me: Ask the band. Punter: The band? Oh. I thought *you* played the setlist [on the tablet] 3. (Generally male) punter, usually while we're grappling with DB feedback: That's a big cello. BUT, I AM missing the following 1. Venue/pub manager to band: That was great, guys, perfectly balanced sound and volume. @Happy Jack to manager: Thank our sound engineer for that... 2. Random punter(s) to me while I'm checking the sound levels in the crowd: I'm in a band, would you like to work with us as a sound engineer?

I'm possibly at the point where I'd happily play nothing but Valerie for an hour straight. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, as they say.

I've heard plenty of music compiled by NI (no intelligence) No Limits by 2 Unlimited being the first track that springs to mind.