Leaderboard

That would be me. Bought an early 80's LP Std about 1987. At first I thought it was great, then I slowly came to see its very many deficiencies. The only upside to that guitar was that one day a fretboard marker popped out so I looked up local luthiers in the phone book. 'Hang on... Tony Zemaitis lives round here?' Dropped it in for a repair, admired a lovely Zemaitis acoustic on the wall. 'Have a go,' says he, so I did. It sounded amazing and I said so. 'Yeah,' says Zemaitis. 'The owner's picking it up next week'. And that's how I got to play (one of) George Harrison's Zemaitis guitars.

You can't build a 6 skinner on a cd case, never mind a download! 😈

Nearly there... need to move the band gear in on Thursday and shuffle some stuff around to maximise space but it's almost good to go! Final pictures at the weekend!

I got back in Sunday after a whirlwind two days away for this gig. What an experience!! Left home at 5am Friday and arrived in Amsterdam early afternoon. Taking guitars and cymbals on the Eurostar was so easy, far better than flying IMO. We arrived, had some food and a few drinks and eventually got ready for the gig. We walked into the venue, which was packed, and there was a band on stage (they do two bands each night Thursday to Sunday I think) and they were good. A countryish band with great backing vocals. The crowd enjoyed it.... We are nothing like that. After a v quick setup we were on. We spread out our set into four parts to fit the running order and to manage the churn of audience as people go bar to bar. Each of the four forty five min sets was a mini whole gig setlist with a "big one" at the end. We moved the order around a bit and played for over an hour in the first set to minimise breaks. My hands felt like sausages and I fluffed a few lines here and there but no clangers in the first forty odd mins. The place was full and the crowd were energetic, singing and dancing. We powered through and the place was heaving. In the second set I can't remember which song started it but bouncing around turned to gentle shoving and then a sort of mosh pit formed. A few songs later and I saw something I didn't like one bit, a lady was shoved by the back of her head, and stopped playing and had to say something over the mic. The band continued and I joined back in a few bars later. We gave a bit of a warning out on behaviour and shoving people who probably don't want to be shoved about. That sorted things and we continued. The energy in the place was amazing, loads of people genuinely there for the live music and bouncing around, singing along to every song. Overall it was an incredible experience. I never thought I'd end up doing something like this. Playing pubs can be great fun, but playing full music venues in a foreign capital city was just something else! The staff and the soundman loved the set, I think we will be going back!

Morning. Just wanted to drop a +1 review of BassBros on here. I bought a '75 AVRI jazz bass from Will on Saturday and the process couldn't have been better. Great communication throughout the week to arrange the appointment, and when I got there, the basses I had mentioned I was interested in were laid out ready to try through a really nice TC / Vanderklay rig. Will was really kind, warm and accommodating, making cups of tea, having a proper chat about what we loved about jazz basses. I tried three different AVRIs out, two in natural and one in 3TSB, and I left a very happy customer having bought the latter - picture below I immediately went off a gigged it twice through the weekend, and I'm very happy with it! Couldn't recommend BassBros enough to anybody wanting to purchase their next instrument. Nice one Will!

New bass day! This is a 1975 USA American Vintage Re-Issue, made in 1999. I don't really know too much about the specifications that they used to make basses to in 1975, all I know is that this one feels really, really good! It's got the classic bullet truss rod, three-bolt neck attachment, 70s pickup spacings, and finished in this lovely three tone sunburst with a rosewood neck and mother of pearl block inlays. The best bass I ever played was a mid-70s jazz bass, and this one (whilst not 100% there) gets really close to the magic of the vintage one I played. I bought it Sat, and immediately went and gigged it that night with the original band (The Achievers - R&B, Americana, Blues etc), and then last night with a function band at a wedding. Both excellent experiences! Decent weight, nearly 5KG, so good but not compared to the originals. It's strung with flatwounds too! I know - curious for a jazz... I got this from Will at Bass Bros on Saturday, and the service I received there was excellent - can't recommend them enough. Pics below. Cheers for looking

As an old 70s punk can I just say we didn’t mind.

I'd taken a punt and ordered some fretwire based on looking closely at stock photos of various Wals but the timing of @NickA 's post was spot on. I can always use fretwire and so if what I'd ordered wasn't right, there was still time to order the right stuff. And so popped over to Nick's this afternoon and...what I've ordered is actually right! Many thanks to @NickA for stepping in

I’ve earned a living from being a gigging bass player for 30 years. Am now in my mid 60’s and will continue for a while yet, assuming my health allows.

...plus I got a free consultation with the country's top Wal fettler. 😁

Oh and while I'm at it Rock'n'roll shouldn't be recorded with Dobly...... 😉

I don't agree that vinayl sounds better than cd's Yes, I'd rather hold a record sleeve than a CD case, but I'd rather listen to a CD.

Darkglass for dirt and DI, HX Stomp for everything else. Flexible and compact, which is what I'm always striving for.

It's Not My Party ～ Lesley Gore

No mean feet.

Just in time with my entry 'Time Portal'. The image made me think of a swirly time and space portal from those old 60s and 70s TV shows so here's a slightly-skewed-in-places tune with a few echoey bits thrown in for a wobbly 'Woah, time travel, eh?' feel. But what is time? “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so” said Ford Prefect to Arthur Dent as the Earth was about to be demolished in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fair enough. Who am I to argue? Epiphone guitar, unbranded guitar in open G tuning, violin bass, Yamaha keyboard, Vivlex echo pedal, Zoom effects pedal, Roland cube amp, drums programmed with Hydrogen drums. Audacity and Wavepad remain my recording chums.

In 2007 I bought a Les Paul Studio. I asked to try all of the ones in the shop out from the same range - they had three. One sang, one spoke evenly, one vomited on the floor. I bought the singer, but it was hard to believe how 3 identical guitars, all set up pretty much the same could differ so much.

Can you get down to a shop? It doesn’t matter what works for others, more what she likes the look of and feels comfortable.

Red Rat - Wrigley's

You can’t go far wrong with a P or J, but personally I’d look for the best deal I could find on an Ibanez SR - ideally an SR500 or better. They’re well made, sound versatile, really comfortable to play and you could argue they have a bit of an 80s vibe.

Long Shod Kick de Bucket ～ The Pioneers

I hated punk in the 70s. Still do

It's a myth that old stuff sounds better. Whether that's items which were actually made a long time ago, or new stuff made with obsolete tech, like tube amps. I think the reason people think this is because with a lot of such gear, you can just plug it in, and it will sound good, but with modern gear, the same sounds are there, you just have more options. Eg - old instruments which sound super warm and organic - that's because a load of high frequencies are being attenuated, you could get the same results with a modern sounding bright instrument and a good enough EQ. Tube amps - whatever magic is in there is emulatable, and not even just digitally, which is cheating. I'm confident that given a good enough ear, and judicious use of the right effects (mostly compression, distortion and EQ) and you could get that sound from any nasty sounding solid state amp. The flat, dead sound of a modern class d amp when it's first plugged in is just because it doesn't already have a load of frequencies sucked out in a characterful way - it's up to you to shape the sound.

Puff the magic dragon - Peter, Paul and Mary

No real reason to post other than I'm very excited about this opportunity. I joined a band just before Christmas who have a linkup with a bar in Amsterdam that they e played in before. They couldn't do it through covid but now we are booked in for a monster four hour set on Fri 20th May. We are well rehearsed, well prepared and ready to go! Really looking forward to it. Have never been to the Netherlands at all so to go there for a gig is a bit surreal.

I used to, along with studio work. Sometimes it was a bit stressful if there were lean times, but I’d got into the habit of putting earnings away to tide myself over. The pandemic saw off all my 2020 live work, then emigration and health issues seem to finished off my gigging for good. Never say never and all that, but I’d be surprised if I got back into it again now. But from 1984 till xmas 2019 wasn’t a bad run, and I reckon I was pretty lucky to have fluked it for as long as I did.

Flying with an instrument can be a drag. There's often no need to rent/hire. Last time I went to the US, I bought a used Squier - loads of them around - when I got there and sold it when I left. Got most of my money back - less a set of strings - when I did so.

I've made a living as a musician since I left school. I've never had another job.

Hanging Around ～ The Wotchmen

In moving to France, for some years my sole income was from playing drums, in a variety band, depping and functions. Then I married, bought a (ruined...) cottage and got a real job (technicien in a music shop...). I kept on with the gigs, but now had a salary as well. Happy daze.

I'd tell you, but don't know what to measure. Pop across to my house and you can measure mine yourself. Only across Derby. 🙂

This, but with five strings:

I’ll bet that’s one great sounding cab

Title should read ‘Peavey 1820 is a house’ 😂 Looks amazing 🤩

That looks epic!

Same here, though as I'm highly unlikely to ever qualify for an official signature model, reckon I'll just have to stick with my MIJ '51 P Reissue (with Evan Webb / Webbteca phenolic saddles for that extra retro touch).

Ugh SAP/Concur - as a now retired employee of a large company that was how we claimed our expenses. It was horrendous. One of the clunkiest and user hostile systems I've encountered. We decided it was a conspiracy to deter us from submitting expense claims...

A quick update - I think the NYXLs are now my round of choice! Fantastic tone and feel!

My favourite reggae bassline, without a doubt.