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It's been a hell of a weekend. It was my birthday Friday and I was offered a place at ACM to study musicianship with Bass, so my boyfriend bought me a new bass as a Happy Birthday/Congratulations present! My very first Fender! A Jazz 'American professional II'. I'm in love

Heard this on 6music this morning. I've liked Prefab for years but never heard this tremendous bass performance before. The bass is really forward in the mix and I just love the unmistakable Stingray tone. I particularly like the double-stop slides. GASing for a Musicman now...😫

As a congratulations/birthday present my boyfriend took me to PMT in Birmingham and bought me a bass!! Say hello to my new Fender Jazz 'American professional II'

And all in Here it is, waiting for the glue in the final 3 to 4 that I've put in to cure enough to allow me to clip all the ends flush with the sides of the board:

Been a while since I’ve done “bb on the stairs” - think the last time was the 714bs… wonder where that ended up…

Had my audition. The guy who was doing mine was lovely, but of course as soon as he started recording my performance piece I went into panic mode and started sweating all over lol. Apparently there was a bit of lag but he said he could tell that what I was playing was right from my hand positions as he knew the track well honestly himself. In the end he only got need to do the one piece and didn't ask me to do a separate piece to show groove, timing etc as said he was really happy with what I played and that I did really well. Long story short, I got in! Looks like the next couple of years are going to be a fast track to bass awesomeness

I’ve been lusting after this burgundy mist Sei from the first time I saw it about 3 years ago. Finally got round to purchasing it and couldn’t be happier. Almost perfect spec for me 33.5” scale, a P that sounds great solo’d or mixed with the bridge humbucker (which can also be really snarly solo’d), sounds just fine in passive mode, super slim striped maple neck, lovely fingerboard, very low action, through neck with beautifully carved neck to body alignment, bound body, back-angled headstock and even has nice subtle white LEDs on the top of the neck. Sits beautifully on the wall next to my other Sei too 😉

Which UK number one single contains the best bass line. I will kick us off with Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Norman Watt-Roy. Also, take a drink when someone tells us it's all 'subjective'. Another drink when we're invited to debate what the word 'best' means. And finish the bottle when someone tells us it's 'impossible'.

Wherever I Lay My Hat should get a look in. Won't top HMWYRS though.

“Groove is in the Heart” - Dee-Lite 👍

Strikes me as an anti-extremism direction rather than anti-Islam in general. I guess it depends on interpretation. I can see this as exactly the sort of thing that would make the fundamentalists utterly furious, in the same way that a sitcom about, for example, a gay vicar would drive the Westboro Baptist Church loons batsht with rage. Anything that annoys these sort of extremist people is a good thing in my books. I have yet to watch this, but I'm definitely going to.

You’ve twice tried to push this in an anti-Muslim direction, and it’s worked neither time. It’s a good show about a band who happen to be of a different ethnicity. It looks like a lot of fun. Perhaps watch the show and let us know what you think!

I feel rather guilty posting this after reading @Woodinblack's tale of spineless tw@s. We had our first post-lockdown rehearsal last Thursday and the vibe came back with a vengeance. Our normal rehearsal venue is a college studio. We couldn't get a rehearsal studio - they were all rightly earmarked for music students - but we did manage to bag the auditorium. We were all rather nervous - although we'd done a fair bit of online stuff, we hadn't played ensemble for the best part of fifteen months. There was a fair bit of tension in the air, especially as everyone apart from the singists had to wear masks. The singists were enclosed by perspex screens. And just to add to the personal stress, the first song was Town Called Malice, which muggins here had to start. Worse, my Eden Metro, which had conked out on our last gig, was having its first outing since I'd had it repaired. If it put a foot wrong, I was determined to chuck the amp section off the Forth Road Bridge and reduce it to a 210 cab. A deathly silence fell and five pairs of eyes zeroed in on me like eighteen-inch guns on a battleship. Oh God, why did I ever go near a bass guitar? There was nothing else for it. Off I went, praying for the earth to swallow me up. Riff, riff... and the drums and guitar came in... riff, riff and I hit the low F#... "Better stop dreaming of the quiet life, it's the one you'll never know..." Oh wow. It all came back in an instant. A huge grin spread across my face and I knew I was back where I belonged. No, it didn't all go swimmingly. We all hit more bum notes than a farting contest and I have a lot of homework to do. But when we finished and loaded out, I was walking on air. And the Metro? I'll leave the verdict to the college sound engineer. "Christ," he said, "that's a killer bass amp!" It's good to be back. Rock on! 🤘

And I’m quite pleased. I work away from home so treated myself to something for my other flat. I already have an ELF and love it with my Markbass traveler. So I got another along with a Trace Elliot 2x8. Next to the Mark bass it sounds and feels like an executive toy; crisp, crystal clear and, while it lacks the earth shaking characteristics of the Markbass, the volume and lower frequencies are impressive but it wouldn’t be my first choice up against a large drum kit. Looks good though! And the two work together well though the traveler does drown the 2x8 a little.

I am about to get hold of a guitar body and a neck which belongs to a lifelong friend that needs making into a solid body electric guitar. It's a long story but I will. make it short. The body and neck were bought by his late father in the mid/late 1970's with the idea of my friend making his own guitar. But that never happened and now I have got hold of the parts without him knowing and want to complete the instrument and give it to him. I don't have the skills to build it and I don't want to spend a fortune for a custom builder like Jaydee etc to finish it as my mate has not played the guitar since the 70's. I am looking for someone local to Birmingham who would be able to take the body and neck and make a complete guitar from it. It does not need to be a high end guitar with high end pickups, basically it just needs to work and be built to a good standard as it will no doubt just be hung on the wall of his home as a sentimental item. The body from memory is mahogany and styled as a somewhere between a Gibson SG and a Yamaha SG but with a slab cut. The neck i think is a stratocaster style neck but without a fretboard or hardware. Any one local who is interested in taking this on please PM me and we can exchange numbers and have a chat about what can be done and costs timescales etc. His birthday is in August so would be good to get it done by the end of that month if possible. Thanks.

There's no way that dude had a career in 80's children's TV and isn't now in prison

Think it's closer to this ?

Reminds me of this

It's been a bit of a bitty day today so in between 'normal life' stuff, I was able to do some more bits with this - particularly some specific bits I needed to remember. One of those is that it was previously fretless...with rounded fretboard edges. And that's different to how you make a fretted board. With the latter, you fit the frets to a radiussed, square-edged, fretboard so the frets follow the radius to the very ends. You then round the wood edges in between the frets. But with a fretless, there are no frets and so you round the whole length of the edges. So when you fret a fretless, you have a rounded board at the ends of each fret. Blurred photo, but can you see the resulting gaps here where the fretboard radius tightens at the edges? : Well - even though the tang slots will be filled with rosewood-coloured epoxy and could fill the edges, you will still end up with sharp fret-ends, either from the start or after some playing. But I can't just whack the ends because that will loosen the frets! And so out comes the radius block again and, with that clamped to the frets to keep them fully secure - and inset the right amount so you don't affect the radius where the strings are going to be - then you can whack them with a hammer So you end up with this: And now you can happily clip the overhang: And, after sanding the ends flush, this is ready now for the tang-slot filling and the proper fret-end rounding. You can see here just how big that gap would have been if I hadn't taken that extra step: And here's the board ready for the next step...probably get back to it middle of the coming week:

"You're The One That I Want" - John Travolta And Olivia Newton John. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e__Pp4FxsjU

Reading back over this and other threads there are loads of things - jack wiring, pot wiring come loose, cold solder rears it’s ugly head etc. Most things can be fixed, but (again it’s personal for everyone) despite me being happy to do a complete Re-wire, I have a double gig bag which is not too much more hassle than a single one, so taking a second, quick change and diagnose and fix the problem later seems the easier option imho, and if never required, well I have just gotten stronger in the process.

The electrician has done the first fix and I've been busy with the lining. The Tate have already shown an interest in my latest installation.

Kill the witch! Kill the witch!

Worked on the “horned one”

Having moved out of my old house 6 months ago and the majority of my belongings going into storage, I have finally been reunited with all of my stuff (way too much stuff it seems, not the bass stuff you understand ). Anyway, I cleaned the fretboard of my new JMJ Mustang with my never ending supply of lemon oil and the ‘board now looks lovely. I also restrung with a spare set of old EB cobalt flats (long scale); it sounds so good. The bodies on my other basses now seem big and cumbersome by comparison to the Mustang and just don’t have the same tonal gravitas. The JMJ is looking more and more like a keeper.

To be fair, you can see their point.

Welcome home 🤗

Well...it reached number 1 in Canada

Here’s Bovell with an old Matumbi song

You probably remember him from Matumbi, among others 🙂

Mr t-h, that has to be one of the best tunes ever, I never tire of hearing it ☝️

What's that ? ...You want to play bass guitar you say....

Oops..! I thought that was her ID..! I must get my glasses checked again. ...

The 'Spoons had their first rehearsal in 14 months this week. I cheated and had a sighter session with my drummer the week before. It went pretty well, a few rusty bits and not as tight as we usually are but I forgot less than I thought I would. All in all, it's great to be back. Got a mate's wedding to play in October but dunno what's going to happen with gigs this year yet. Cover band likely to get started again week after next - a lot of swotting to do before I tackle that! Just great to be playing with other people again, I've really missed it.

I wish they'd block the FS sections here

Martin McAloon was a seriously underrated creative bass player - Prefab Sprout were a superb band with Paddy McAloon's beautifully crafted songs. I always felt their rather silly name never did them any favours, but their music still sounds refreshingly good 40 or so years after it was released. 😊

This isn’t a 3 piece - but believe me having seen him live his bass tone is huge - to me this is a great example of space in a bassline and appropriate noodling when required as well as being an awesome rock song. Its not till you see him play it you realise the extras, odd ghost/mute notes Glenn puts in. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPiB9XRBK8O/?utm_medium=copy_link

Interesting debate. Apart from string breaks, what malfunctions has anyone had during a gig, that has required the use of a back up bass? The worst I’ve had is string breaks, and I do always check my bass on a regular bassis for condition and set up. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I do tend to look after my bass, and would fix anything I could think of likely to fail. I’d need a back up brain, back up car, back up band mates, back up venue, back up punters, back up passport, back up headliner, back up a few hours not to hit the rider early, back up directions, back up sound engineer, etc., as these are just a snippet of the things that have failed me at gigs …. but one thing that has been rock solid is my bass.

If you are serious about playing Blues and want to be prepared for a Blues jam night then you need to know about the 8-bar Blues chord progressions. There are more variations in the 8-bar than the 12-bar Blues, although both progressions both mainly use chords 1, 4 & 5. So you need to know the particular songs that follow the 8-bar format. Popular songs that use the 8-bar progression are ‘Worried Life Blues’ and ‘Key To The Highway.’ Find out all you need to know in my latest Youtube lesson. This week's free PDF contains the important 8-bar chord sequences that you need to know and also recommendations for songs to listen to. You can pick up the PDF using the link under the video. Hope this is helpful for you if you are learning Blues progressions.

Artwork was done using Inkscape, printed onto water slide decal paper. It’s a plain box, cleaned. Bit of lacquer on the box and the decal. Then when the decal is slid on lacquer applied over the top.

And finally finished. I had a hairy moment after installing the EMG wiring harness where the bridge pickup was dead but after a bit of trial and error I realised I'd forgotten to connect the wires at the back of the pickup itself. I also managed to completely strip the four pickup screws on the bridge pickup by using the wrong sized screwdriver but being too eager (lazy) to retrieve the right one, so I need to order some more replacements. Other than that and for once, one of my builds has turned out better than I anticipated and pretty-much problem free.

It is indeed! Well, the slatwalls are in my study anyway It was all part of a plan to run the business from the study (it’s a soundproofed, brick built, building with dedicated power supply, heating, 500mbps internet etc). Vic was going to run it as a demo unit 3-4 days a week or by appointment and I’d manage the web site and finances. Unfortunately the loss of our Victor in the run-up to establishing it really knocked me back and I’ve not had the enthusiasm to reboot it. Was about to get going last autumn but got offered a freelance consultancy project on a 12 month contract just 10 days after ‘restoration’ stuff started. The consulting gig pays about the same in a week as I could earn from Bassgear in a month - in fact, it’s actually more like more in 2 days vs what little we used to take out of the business. About 6 of the basses are BG owned plus a small selection of, never used, MarkBass amps, some ATS and a few boxes of strings 🤦‍♂️ Maybe I’ll start by selling some ex-BG stuff before the private ones. Will see how much time I have spare. Just in the process of putting a 2nd band together so that’ll get ‘in the way’ a bit 😂