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Hi Everyone, My name is Andy and I'm the singer at the front of that picture and I can categorically say that I am most definitely NOT working with him and he will be no where near my show that night !! There are no circumstances on this earth that would have me willingly work with him again..... I don't know where the Booker got that picture from, it dates back 2018. I've asked him to remove it.

From an exhibitor perspective we are obviously not thrilled. I spent the money and booked this show in 2020. So I don't resent the spend - it's long gone. The organisers have taken on board feedback and I've been passing on the feedback from here to them as well. They've committed to making the show a success and made me an offer I can't really argue with for exhibiting again next year. I think they will have to work extra hard to win people back round. But I don't think it's impossible. For those that came to see us and have a play on our basses - Thank you! It was good to see you. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the new stuff. If you played one - spread the good word.

A bit late posting but my Friday might gig went well. It was a fusion of jazz/funk/reggae. Went down really well. I hate untidy stages but we had PA issues which ate into our allocated time so we had to start on time without chance to move out bags and cases

Everywhere I looked this afternoon, spread across the work top, bits still hanging off the basses and one dtuner I got on special from hipshot, the last one they had (it was discontinued awhile ago) which had gone missing so most of my spare part/handy bits drawers were out too. I love playing a bit of fretless but I’m still ‘fettling’ my ear so I mainly play fretted and the mk1 is just to nice to be a practice bass. My lovely mk1 is fretless And my pro is fretted Bright spark idea, I’ll swap them over, strings off, 8 screws out and in, strings on, job done! It’ll only take half an hour… You may have noticed the first flaw in my plan, the mk1 has chrome hardware while the pro has gold. Next I found the mk1 had been shimmed by Wal a small shim which I promptly lost. On the bright side The dtuner turned up so on that went too I’m still looking for a chrome EB4 dtuner for the mk1 so if you have one lying around pm me 😄 In what world could I have ever thought it would be a quick tune up and off I go. Fretless neck on the Pro and I had the lowest action I could possibly get. Not an issue, on the fretless I keep the neck straight and the action with a hint of buzz. Just a slight tweak to the saddles and… the intonation is out. Still (again in what world) the Mk1 should be fine. The mk1 action had me scrabbling around for the shim and with a moment of clarity it came to me, it’s stuck to the fretless neck isn’t it! Fretless off 😞 nope, fretless back on. I did find it, where I’d left it on the toilet window sill, I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t decided on a pee break to settle myself (first day on the nicotine patches, they’re not that good.) The action was still high but the saddles were near the top so I managed to get it to where I like it. Intonation: FUBAR. So… 5 hours later I’m having a beer. Did I enjoy my day? Yes I did it was a Bass Day sort of. I now have this The Pro still sounds great fretless maybe a little to Zingy but the strings will wear in or I can tame it with flats. The Mk1 with DR Pure Blues on the other hand is monstrous. I purchased a Trace Elliot V-Type preamp yesterday from @ahpook (thanks again mark) It has a ‘Deep’ switch, it moves bowels! It’s not often I crank things up at home, but by god, today I deserved it 😂🤣

Proudly UK made basses at the show in Liverpool this weekend. Also pleased to say that our new production partner is Crimson Guitars, who will be making our basses to our specification and price point. SWB-1 / Pro / Deluxe pricing will be out soon too.

I definitely didn't need another bass - let alone another P bass. But this came up for sale on here, and I decided to go for it. These top-notch basses were made in Mexico, alongside the Roadworn series. I once owned a RW P-bass, and always wished it was this colour - fiesta red 😀 after owning a Squier CV in this colour, it became my favourite. Anyhow, just playing it now - it's super build quality and feels and sounds lovely. The neck is a tad wider than I'm used to, but fairly shallow front-to-back and I'm finding it pretty comfy to play. I may swap the pickguard for a red-tort one - as that would be my fave colour combo.

You didn't buy a Sansamp pedal off him did you Andy? 😉

Looks better already!

Those brands who did attend and stick it out deserve a huge pat on the back and thanks for all the effort they've put in as I know those pitches were not cheap! So, from me, it's a huge thank you!

Just go for it, you only live once. I am in constant penance to my Pentabuzz after my foolhardy mission to sell it. All it took was a year in which I didn't play much fretless and I former some daft idea to sell it (for £1500, IIRC!). I'd gone as far as to box it up ready for shipping to a buyer but I had told him that I couldn't give an accurate weight as I didn't have a means of weighing it. Stating it's 'a bit heavy but not that heavy' was probably as accurate as I could manage. I polished it, recorded one last video to show it in working order and sealed the box up ready to get the shipping instructions. I went out to get dinner and whilst I was out I got a message from the buyer saying he was pulling out; he'd looked up some weights from other Pentabuzzes for sale and decided it would be too much for him. I was disappointed but decided I'd just relist the bass. As I sat waiting for my dinner to come I put my headphones on and listened to the demo video I had just recorded. As soon as I got home I felt like such an idiot (how close I had come to selling off something I'd dreamed of owning since I was a teenager). In an act of finality I ripped the box to bits and binned it and put the bass back in the place in my bedroom that it has always lived. I think I've enjoyed it all the more since then, it gets played every couple of days now.

All done now 🙌

So, this afternoon I've been running through the setlist of a band I'm depping with tonight, and came across this gem, which I can't remember ever playing before. A reminder of what a great song this is, and what a brilliant bassline ! 🙂 Wikipedia tells me the bass player was Paul Arnold at this time. Enjoy.

And there you have it!

Last rehearsal with drummer using full kit. For small outdoor gigs and jams without a full drum kit the amp is usually omitted.

Easy. My £60 CSL Jazz, picked up from a pawn shop in 2004-ish with the intention of running it under the tap & flipping it for a quick profit. Nicest bass I've ever played, simple as that. It's had a few shiny bits stuck on it, but even when I gave it a quick go in the shop, with strings from 4 different sets & one pickup not working, I knew it was something special.

Realising the flippancy of my initial comment, I guess my current favourite is this. It's great for recording, it's very easy to play and just makes me want to play better, if that makes sense.

I prefer Glowtech.

For me it’s this old girl from 1970. Bought it 28 years ago when I was a young whippersnapper at university (sold my pointy Charvel bass to get it dammit!). Been thru a lot together in that time. I don’t have lots of basses, just a few that work nicely for me. When i plug this in it reminds me why I have it.

Couple of ACGs on the sofa.

A second rate version. IMO.

Sale ing. Rod stewart

I agree 100%. I remember when Ox died, and the 'Oo announced their intention to carry on with the tour they were on... I felt this to be the wrong decision, and pretty disrespectful to boot, and said so on another music forum (I forget which one). I received a furious response from one American gentleman who said that I was callous to think that way, because if the tour was cancelled it would cost the insurers, merchandise people and hotdog sellers money. For me, that response pretty much summed up everything that's wrong with the music business.

Just picked up a Surf Green one on Friday. Sorted out the slightly loose volume control ( knob prised off, tighten nut, knob pushed back on) and all is fine. Lots of fun, especially with the Mute pushed in! I've got huge hands but have no issues with the neck even though I have a Telecaster Bass with a neck twice the width ( slight exaggeration!). Anyone know the size of the allen key for the bridge saddle grub screws? Have been through every allen key I've amassed playing Bass for nearly 50 years and none fit....

This is a very subjective thing, no doubt. I'm aware of plenty of players who are using various drop-shifting effects and find them perfectly acceptable, using pedals that I've rejected for that purpose, again, based on my personal taste. As mentioned before, I've rejected pitch shifting (as an alternative to plugging in a second drop-tuned bass) from gear that costs 2x, 3x, 4x more than the B6, including dedicated pitch shifters, so not to worry. Others may agree or disagree, which is always going to be the case (YMMV). Let's put it this way: if the B6 actually did live up to my ideal expectations for drop-tune pitch shifting, it would light the bass world on fire for that feature alone. IMO that's just unrealistic. Thus, I'm not suggesting that this diminishes the value of the B6 overall as a multi-fx modeler. I'm simply lumping it in with pretty much every other pitch shifter I've ever tried for this purpose. I do, in fact, find the pitch shifting to be fine within a limited scope (round tones with little top end and soft attack). Unfortunately, I rarely find myself working exclusively within a limited scope of tones that also require drop tuning. Others may tonally live exactly in this place, so they might be perfectly happy. If I find some time, I may post some links to audio clips that tell the story of what I hear.

I’m a fan of so much music from that time period, yet somehow The Zombies got past me. Recently started listening to them after listing to an interview on The Rockenteurs podcast, and they’re so great.

First gig this year yesterday afternoon - part of a seven band line up for an afternoon/early evening in Oxford with Franklin's Tower, an Oxford based Grateful Dead covers band. Several bands couldn't make it, some due to Covid, so we were able to play a decent set length. Seemed to go well, the audience enjoyed it and so did the band.

23 years and counting with this bass, which was about 20 years old when I got it. I have other basses but this one is still the reference point. Lacquer on the neck has really started to peel off in the last 5-6 years (and is worse now than in the pic which is now 2-3 years old). I'm in two minds to get it re-lacquered or just let a tech give it a satin finish. Either way, it isn't going anywhere even though I don't really gig it much anymore.

#1 - Washburn B-200

I see in the source code that his info form links to [email protected] I would try at [email protected] Those addresses might be linked to one another, but I'm not sure. Ellio is a great and very helpful guy, but he can be a bit absentminded, especially since a biking accident he suffered years back. If that doesn't work, he is active on Facebook regularly. His page is very quiet (last post was January 15th), but his personal profile most certainly is not. And if that still doesn't work, I suggest you contact the Bass Connection store I linked to above. The store owner Edwin van Huik is a friend of his.

Thanks, @Bassfinger, for my two first guesses in Wordle tomorrow: BLUNT and STONE. 😉 It has to be mentioned that some years ago, Rod Argent or Colin Blunstone laughed heartily when fans after Zombies gigs asked them why in the world they chose to play a Santana song. 😃 For me, maybe wrongly, the Zombies heritage was taken care of not by Rod Argent or Chris White but with Colin Blunstone's solo albums, especially "One Year" and "Ennismore", though IMHO also "Journey" had many great songs. Both Argent and White wrote songs for Blunstone. One of the most special Blunstone songs was a cover of Tim Hardin's "Misty Roses", with a stunning string quartet (or quintet?) arrangement by Christopher Gunning, which took the hit right out of it and put in music instead. 😃 I lack the discipline to abstain from posting it:

My old band (female-fronted metal) had a singer that always had a tendency to sing at a very high pitch, but we really wanted to get away from the classic gothic metal flow and adopt a more poppy and modern approach, so we wanted her to sing an octave lower. It turned out not to match her range very well in standard tuning. One of our guitarists already played a 7-string, and both the previous bass player and me played a 5-string bass, and playing at a lower pitch really helped getting the whole band to sound more like we had in mind. It wasn't long before our other guitarist also bought his first 7-string, and it worked wonders for our sound as a whole.

IMG_9946.MOV Here is that infamous bass at the studio on Friday. He’d had it fretted a while ago but I restored it. (I should know better about my LH thumb position! I play a lot of guitar these days…) It needs some finesse, longer strings should have been used and the action is a bit challenging. 😂

After playing this fab new bass pretty much most of yesterday afternoon (and much of the evening, to the dismay of Mrs S) I thought I'd add some thoughts on the bass here. EDIT: I even picked this bass up this morning, before breakfast & heading out to work! The neck is indeed, a tad wider than I'd normally prefer. It's a shade wider and slightly deeper than my Squier early CV Precision (which I also love to bits). However, I have been getting used to this. I do sometimes wonder whether bigger necked basses might be a problem, if I ever suffer with arthritis. Of course, I hope I never suffer from this. I did used to get some aching in my left hand a while back. But this may have been down to my bad technique on an upright bass with a really chunky neck? Or perhaps it was due to bad posture / use of a computer mouse? Who knows, and hopefully that won't return. On with the positive factors re this bass. It's absolutely amazing, in terms of build quality. Though the neck is chunky(ish) the finish feels absolutely silky smooth. Of course I love the colour and look of the bass. But the sound is something else. It's snappy and punchy, but also the lows are really deep and rich sounding. More so than any other Precision I've played or owned - and that has been quite a few! Indeed, this one is better even than my old Roadworn Precision, which I always wished had been Fiesta Red and not sunburst (no problem with SB Precisions - I just wanted that one to be this colour lol). It's better than the nice Oly White US one I owned some years back, heck it's better than my old JV or the CV I still have (may sound controversial to some - but that's just how it seems to me). I am blown away at just how deep and rich those low notes are and how the mids and top end sounds are so full of "bite". I can't wait for Thursday nights' full band rehearsal I'm just wondering whether it's the fact that the neck on this bass is a tad chunkier that is helping produce this lovely sound? I'm sure there will be BC'ers who agree, and those who disagree with this thought. I'm even thinking of doing a temporary neck-swap with my CV - Just to see what happens. Maybe it's the solid maple neck that's contributing to the sound? But again, I've owned maple necked & fretboard basses before, and haven't particularly noticed that much difference. I've now ordered a red-Tort plate for it. I've grown used to the gold plate on this bass, but I just know I'm going to prefer a Tort one - not everyone's choice, but an absolute classic IMO Currently in work, and wishing the hours away until I can get home and pick up this bass the minute I get through the door

I don't think I can add much to what has already been said, I had a weekend ticket but had done the bass and guitar bit in a very short time, I got a chance to speak to Sheldon Dingwall which was great and as people have mentioned Bass direct had a well laid out stand but my heart went out to them and the other exhibitors, I did pop back in on the Sunday morning but it was almost depressing the lack of people and the room was unwelcoming. The drum show however was vibrant and had an energy about it that really was an amplifier to the differences. I would not blame any of the exhibitors not going to another one. I also had tickets for Leyland Sklar, he was the reason that tipped me over to go to the show in the first place, it was only nearer the date that I learned he wasn't going to be there and not from the people I brought the tickets from, glad I got to see Liverpool but I would not rush back to this show in a hurry.

Did somebody say black/black/maple?

Saline - Rod Stewart

You need to remind them we’re not in the EU anymore 😜

Depped for a Madness tribute near Southampton last night. Was in a big social club with a predictably mixed audience of all ages. Sight read the whole thing, mostly successfully, only second time I've ever done this live. Bugera Veyron T, Barefaced, Bass Centre P. Great fun.

But does it sound too good to be true any more clearly afterwards? 🙂

I think mine has to be this. I’ve gone through everything from P to J to graphite to super high end then back to P again. My others will always be ‘go to’ for certain things but as a grab and go which does most things well and even sounds acceptable on the things it doesn’t, it’s this G&L P. Partly it makes a great #1 because the P bass is such a great leveller and in lots of ways it puts everything else into context. Like Paul’s bass above, the neck has gone super dark caramel and in itself is really nicely figured and very worn in. I love the body which is a slightly skimmed down profile, it feels like a logical evolution of the P. Despite a single pickup it has a lot of flexibility sound wise, with more power on tap than anything else I have owned, passive or active. It’s actually too loud for some pedals! The flats on this just turned 3 and they give lots of growl with a nice bit of rasp when you dig in.