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Played my first Bandeoke last night. Horrible name, but great fun. Better audience reaction than most gigs I've played, genuine sense of togetherness between the muggles and the musicians. Drummer I'd not met before was just great, guitarist has years of function stuff under his belt, which I don't. 300+ songs on the list for Joe public to choose from, no I didn't know them all but had the chords loaded onto a tablet so no problem there. Used my Behringer head and Harley Benton musicman style bass, a bunch of effects which I stomped on pretty randomly. Just great fun start to finish.

It might be of minimal interest to in excess of 99.999% of the world's population, but last night 60% of my old Sixth Form goth band regrouped and played some of the old songs from back in 1990. The three of us hadn't played them in almost 32yrs and it was a blast. I absolutely loved it. A local open mic gig and it really was a firm favourite. Plus, it's nice to gig away from the bass and play my mandolin for a change.

At the next gig you can make, turn up with a bass guitar and go all 'Billy Sheehan' on them to see how much fun you can have with them. That way the decision to stay or not will probably be taken out your hands!

My Sterling is pretty black.

Finally got some good light in my house

I went out three days ago, to try out some short scale basses. This is my second proper foray into using the more diminutive scaled bass. After many years of long scaling, I got myself an American Performer Mustang and used it as my main gigging bass, for a year or so. Then I slipped back to the familiar and returned to the Jazz bass. More recently I fancied a lighter , smaller bass, for playing at home. I was toying with the idea of a Hofner Club or Violin, or some other kind of semi. Then I saw a lot of great solid bodied short scalers. Anyway, I decided to go out and try some, making my way over to Promenade Music, as they had 3 short scalers in stock. The one that really grabbed my attention was a Sandberg California II Lionel Short Scale. A kind of stylish, mini P-bass, in vintage white. But on close scrutiny I realised it was aged. Not heavy relicing, just clever pitting and small marks that genuinely made it look like an old bass. But as I really dislike any form of fake ageing or relicing, it put me right of this rather tasty bass. That left a Hagstrom Viking, which had overly high action, so was put down almost immediately and a bass I wasn't that keen on trying, a Sterling by Music Man Stingray S.S. The reason being, I've owned 4 full sized US EBMM Stingrays and although really loving them, always found the tone, rather too aggressive for the bands I have played in. Nevertheless, I did pick the little 'Ray up, for an unplugged play and it has to be said, it is so spot on. Diminutive and a little toy like, after Jazz bass playing but it was just so solid and vibrant. Damn it, I didn't want another Stingray. So I left that shop and headed to another, to try out a Gibson SG Standard Bass. Now I really loved the sound of this. That big old Mudbucker was awesome, with or without the bridge mini HB. Overall a rather great bass, with one enormous flaw. I expect you will know what I am talking about. Neck dive. OMG, let go of the neck, for a split second and it so wants to obey gravity, rapidly sliding toward the floor. I know there are a multitude of ways to try and combat this balance issue but I didn't have it in me to take the problem on. So I went home to think again and carry on trawling the 'net. Eventually I had to admit to myself, I really fancied that mini 'Ray. So today I returned to Prom, to have a really good go. I plugged the little darling into an Eich 1x12 combo and was soon away with the bass playing faeries. It sounded bloody good. Now this bass, unlike the other Stingrays, is passive. But it has a couple of clever tricks up it's sleeve. One being a push/push volume knob, that gives a nice little increase in output. The second being a 3-way, rotary knob, pickup selector. With one pickup? Yes, this gives the mighty, single pickup, three different wirings. Series, true single-coil and parallel. I know the middle position is true S/C and sounds awesome. I think the first position is parallel, which sounds equally as great, being a tad thicker. The 3rd, I think, is Series and is the traditional Stingray tone. This I preferred, with the tone control rolled back. Anyway, with it's ease of play, great feel and superb tones, this relatively low cost bass, is kicking up a storm at home and I'm thinking of taking it to the next rehearsal. I have to give a special mention the the Eich combo, I played through. What a cracking, smallish combo. Very high quality sound. Whilst there today, I asked the shop tech to lower the action on the Hagstrom Viking bass, so I could have another go. He did so. TBH, I didn't really like the way the bass played but I loved the pick ups. Thick and warm, with a ton of depth.

What can't the band hear you? If they can't hear you, why should they care whether you are there or not!! Sort your gear out and make the bass integral to the sound of the band.

FYI new CHB-1 is 3.45kg vs the old model that was 4.1kg

You’ve never been to the basschat HQ caravan have you?

I've just picked up this bass today and it has more mojo than I know what to do with! It's an ESP stamped 3 piece ash body with an ESP stamped neck, ESP stamped neck plate, vintage BadAss II, vintage Fender stamped tuners and an equally vintage DiMarzio pickup. I'm guessing this was from back in the days when ESP were Electric Sound Products and just made parts, rather than whole instruments. I used to have an ESP parts catalogue (this would have been in about '87) but I don't know when it was from. Does anyone else have anything like this? I'd love to see it if you do because it doesn't seem very easy to find any info.

Forget their thoughts, if you enjoy it stick around. If you’re not enjoying it, coupled with their thoughts I’d say time to go.

Fantastic gig with the punk band at the Thistle Bike Rally in a Hotel literally 1.5miles from my house. Shame my car got blocked in on 3 sides in car park and i had to get the organisers to chase up the owners. Band was on top form tonight. Few minor mistakes ....... by everyone but not noticeable by audience. Dancers on the floor from the first song. Great PA and Sound Engineer who loved the tone i was getting from my Sandberg Marlowe and the Mesa bass rig. Another bass player came up to me at the end and said the bass sounded so sweet and every note was clear but deep. We also got offered another bike rally in May but we need to check the calendar and another possible gig in July from it. All in all its been a great night. I'm happy tonight. Next gig on Sunday afternoon with the Glam Rock band. Dave

Another one from me, here I am playing on the new single from UK death metallers De Profundis, again with my fretless Ibanez Gary Willis signature bass:

That sounds like man maths to me!

Rickenbacker 4003, chrome on black doesn't get any better than that!

If you were not available for said gigs its hardly their fault. Acoustic bands seem to get away with almost anyone missing, except vocals. If you enjoy the music then stay, if you don't enjoy the music, leave. It's all about the music for me, as long as the other band mates are not complete idiots.

I used to have problems with the band not being able to hear me. Then I bought a 1500w amp... 😁

I think the flange on the discombobulater has been incorrectly fitted perpendicular to the rotation of washer on the shaft.

This is only going to cost me £149 because I was looking to spend £250 on a used JHS Color Box v1 - WIN!

If you can find one then the DHA VT2 is a two channel valve overdrive. Glorious.

I didn’t see those, I’m gonna have to watch it again now 😁

Yes, there’s some nice yachts in the background for sure

I followed the activity link and thought this was the reggae forum 🤣😂

A bit of a reshuffle and a simpler layout thanks to new purchase from @Old Horse Murphy Dave Hall VT1 std Bass, I’m a sucker for tubes. Run through a Crown XLS 2502 amp. Then the Bag End 210/410 stack,it sounds juicy. GAS subsiding…

Forgot to post this…currently 4th in line, but it’s a lovely thing and glad I’ve got one. 1990’s (poss 94) BB1500a also seen with older “brother” bb1600 (1986)

Not correct - i think the giggle pin has fallen out of the larf shaft causing the twin back sprocket to spin freely

Dear Bass lovers, some pictures of the the progress on the new EVO -X5 Bass … EVO5 Bass Bridge installed 😎

Pretty happy with these two amazing basses.

We thought it would be fun to do those old songs on folk instruments. Plus, there is some mandolin on stuff by The Mission so it isn't *that* much of a stretch. We have the acoustic side like this and then the more conventional electric stuff with a drum machine, sequenced keys etc.

I’ve mentioned this before… I work on the pain/pleasure ratio. 51% pain: 49% pleasure… time to go.

City of Tiny Lights Zappa

Give it a couple of seconds whirring, then refresh the page. Works for me.

Last night... It was like a school disco. Huge room with a smattering of people sat around the edges for the whole first half. Luckily some people arrived about halfway through and had up til ten o'clock on paydays worth of Dutch courage to dance and sing along for the second half. In the first half I suffered from "what sounds good at home doesn't work live" and had some very muddy settings on my Jack Casady on a few songs, which was a bit of a shame but I couldn't hear myself for most the first half. Made a fair few mistakes in the first half but an experienced ex soundman friend of mine watching said the only way he knew was from the apologetic looks being exchanged on stage. Had a chat with the sound engineer, switched to my Stingray in the second half and was much happier with sound and performance all round. Also, it was my first gig with a wireless so I joined the singer and guitarist for a boogie on the dancefloor, leaving the drummer on stage all alone, which was fun.

Home from the gig and buzzing. Helix never even got fired up and the Bass Box just acquitted itself with honour. I managed to immediately get a tone every bit as good as my best efforts in all this time with the LT and it's now going to be used on a regular basis. I still think that the Helix is an amazing bit of gear and it's only the weight and effort of carting it around in its flight case that I need to dodge now (arthritis - boo) and the ABB is going to do a job for me. Happy boy - and thanks to Jimfist for advice.

The Walking Bass? 😉

My mate had it in his workshop when I dropped one of my necks off and he happened to mention that it was for sale. You know how that goes!

Ok so have received the bass, overall I am pretty happy so far, some shortcomings but that is exactly what you would expect at this price and they are all things that can be sorted in one way or another The nut is a cheapo, I may replace it but I love the fact that it is cream coloured, that is awesome so I am thinking maybe I will get some fine sandpaper and just smooth the edges a bit on it instead, some fret tarnish which is not a big deal and some T-Cut will sort that out, the pickguard is super cheap looking but not a big deal as I was looking to replace that anyway. The pickup has some tarnish on the pickup poles, anyway to remove or cover this without damaging the magnets?(from what I have heard this pickup is alnico5) I lowered the action to Fender spec and there is some fret buzz on frets 1 and 2 on the E string but not anywhere else on the neck so I am thinking that the frets probably need dressing, I might just slap a heavier E string on there to reduce the string excursion until I have the cash to get the frets dressed. Looking forward to giving the neck the Kiwi polish treatment, what colour do people usually use? Also is it limited to just Kiwi shoe polish? I have seen this which if it works looks like it might actually be a better colour Cherry Blossom shoe polish - light tan I read somewhere about some of the PB-50's having the ground wire under the pickguard, thankfully on mine it is under the control plate, looks really good with the pickguard off so I might just have a see through pickguard made for the sake of having something to put the pickguard screws into to hide the screw holes where the white pickguard was I was looking at no load pots and found that it has been suggested that they don't work as volume pots only as tone pots so I have instead ordered some 1meg pots for some extra brightness, am hoping my soldering has improved enough to not bodge it up