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Finished my gig tonight at the commonwealth games closing ceremony. First stadium gig and biggest audience especially if you count the live tv audience. not a great photo but.

A better photo from BBC WM

As the title suggests, this should probably be in feedback, but it's too nice and life affirming a story so here goes..... I sold a couple of items to one of our long-standing elder statesmen @Oldman a while back. We haggled over prices a little and money went back and forth. Eventually we agreed things and I mentioned to him that I was taking my young 'uns Ella and Katie into town to spend the cash he'd sent. All done Today a card arrived addressed to me. The girls had their birthdays recently and I assumed that it was a late card and that I knew who it was from, so I passed it to them and said "This is for you girls". They both ripped apart the envelop and showed me two gift vouchers with their names on and I said "Is it from .....?" to which they replied "It's got something to do with an old man Daddy". We read the card together and given we were having a bit of a crap morning (it's a very first world problem we're currently dealing with BTW but nonetheless a crap morning), as a family we all sat down and said 'Wow, that has made our month" The internet's a funny place, we build sometimes good and sometimes problematic relationships with people we've never met (I've done both), but all too often it's at arm's length and lacks real emotional clout. Brian @Oldman, thank you so much for this, it made us smile and reaffirmed our faith that the world is a great place, and reminded my daughters that kindness is a really important thing 👍 Chris

I have mine hung like this… Not one of those basses remains with me though!

BBC video evidence of the dutchie returning home to Birmingham.

Love this!

For mass produced basses made on a cnc machine, I agree it's taking the p*ss. Instead, find a luthier, get something special made and you'll still have change in your pocket. My custom walnut jazz costs way less than a Fender and couldn't be happier.

I'm getting old and prefer support from below, these days.

Awaiting the first person to ask 'What's a blackboard?'

A pair of quilts

Yep raising a family is an expensive business. It does however provide a lot of joy and add meaning to life. It won’t suit everyone but it’s not something I would have wanted to miss out on.

"The music industry is weighted against artists, with even successful pop stars seeing "pitiful returns" from streaming, a committee of MPs has said. They are calling for a "complete reset" of the market, with musicians given a "fair share" of the £736.5 million that UK record labels earn from streaming. In a report, they said royalties should be split 50/50, instead of the current rate, where artists receive about 16%. The findings came after a six-month inquiry into music streaming. "While streaming has brought significant profits to the recorded music industry, the talent behind it - performers, songwriters and composers - are losing out," said Julian Knight, MP, who chairs parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee. "Only a complete reset of streaming that enshrines in law their rights to a fair share of the earnings will do." full bbc report here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57838473

I am new to short scale basses but about a year ago my curiosity got the better of me and I bought an Epiphone EB0 s/h from a guy in Brighton so I could find out what a short scale was like to play. Well, I loved playing my EB0 sitting down, I didn't find the short scale at all difficult to adjust to, in fact quite the opposite, but when I played it standing up it was so heavy, and it always wanted to tip away from me so I could not see the frets. I managed just two short gigs with it, and one of those was sitting down. During this year I have used the EB0 at home sometimes to rehearse or learn new songs, but it I decided that if I was ever going to play short scale at a gig, it would have to be much lighter. I have now found the answer to the weight problem, without radically departing from the SG shape of the EB0. It is a Mike Watt signature Wattplower, made by Reverend . It weighs just over 3 kgs. and although passive, the tone control offers a huge range of sounds from muddy thud to outrageous twang, with lots of usable tones in between the two extremes. I am not ready to give up my 34" basses yet, but I am looking forward to finding out where this bass will fit in to the range of music I play.

Last weekend was Rebellion Festival. We played the Pavilion Stage at 3pm on Saturday and it was packed Then the "almost acoustic stage" on Sunday. Great weekend! I'm depping for Paul Henshaw at Cropredy Fringe tonight then back with Headsticks at Lakefest on Friday

I bought a Harley Benton GuitarBass (pretty much a Fender Bass VI clone, but with a fixed TOM style bridge, and a much larger (flatter), almost 14" (350mm), fretboard radius) recently, a few months back, and I absolutely love it. Has become my main instrument of choice. Unbelievably high quality for the money. I have it strung with custom made Newtone nickle plated hex steel core roundwound guitar strings, gauge .080 - .060 - .045 - .034 - .027 - 020 (these gauges chosen for a close approximation to perfectly balanced tension across the strings, which I personally prefer), tuned to G1 standard tuning, as in G1 - C2 - F2 - A#2 - D3 - G3, that is 9 half steps below regular guitar E2 standard tuning, or 3 half steps above regular bass E1 standard tuning. Which I personally found to give the perfect balance between still being able to go deep enough to fill out the role/sonic space of a bass instrument, but exactly tuned high enough so that you pretty much can do complex chords at it's entire range without it getting unreasonably muddy. This is an instrument that really shines for melodic work, being less unwieldy and bombastic, as well as having a wider frequency span/range (except for 6 string bass of course), than a bass, but sounding way more substantial, full and rich than a guitar, and the true single coil, and by the way genuinely great sounding, pickups of this particular instrument, combined with the thicker strings compared to a guitar (thicker strings will have a wider dynamic response/range, as well as they will also respond much better and more naturally to more percussive playing/expressions), results in it having an extremely wide dynamic and expressive range, being unusually sensitive, but very naturally/directly responsive, to your picking dynamics and playing in general, making it amazingly articulate and really allowing for some incredibly detailed nuances that would otherwise be lost if played on a regular bass or guitar, which is one of the main reasons why I love playing this instrument so much, that it really does seem to sound exactly the way you play it, as if there is a very direct and natural correlation between your hand/finger movements and then what actually comes out, down to the tiniest details. That is of course unless you apply heavy distortion or compression, though I've found that a very subtle compression with a low compression rate (I have mine set to 2.5:1, and I would suggest not going any higher, that is 2 to 2.5 ought to work optimally), just the right, relatively high, threshold, and just long enough attack time to let the full transient of the attack through, as well as some light dynamical and touch sensitive overdrive, and ideally in the order: low gain touch sensitive dynamic overdrive -> subtle light compression, so that the overdrive pedal gets the absolute full dynamic range of the instrument to work with, actually can enhance this aspect/quality (the natural sensitivity and direct dynamic response to your picking) even further, How this works more specifically is the overdrive enhancing the effect of the bite of the attack gradually increasing the harder you pick, while the compression enhances the effect of the snap of the attack gradually getting more and more prominent the harder you pick. Typical true single coil pickups will react dynamically to how much force you apply to your picking, not only in terms of volume, but also in terms of tone, such that softer picking will have less high frequency content, making it sound more mellow, but then with more and more high frequency content gradually being added the harder you pick, making it sound gradually more and more aggressive the harder you pick, an effect which is much much less apparent and not having anywhere near the same range of expression either with your typical humbucker pickup, which predominantly will just react in terms of volume to your picking, but this too again with a much more narrow dynamic range compared to your typical true single coil pickup, overall making humbucker pickups in general sound much more compressed and much much less naturally and directly responding to your picking strength and technique/style. But while I do really think melodic work is where this sort of instrument really shines and works at its absolute optimal potential, it can of course be used for more traditional bass like lines, or chord strumming, like you would a guitar, as well. Though with the reservation that one should keep in mind that fast complex strumming patterns of full chords really does not tend work out very well on this instrument, whereas arpeggios/finger picking chords on the other hand works even extremely well. Here's how my Harley Benton GuitarBass looks (including some artistic PhotoShop shenanigans):

This might be a radical opinion, but... Do you really need another bass? What wrong with the one(s) you already have?

Also the US dollar has appreciated massively vs £ since 2008. $1600 might have translated to £850 back then but today its worth about £1300.

Flo - 8 August 2022 So a few things occurred today. Battery Life Indicator I'd emailed John East, who said he may have one still lying in the dark recesses of his stock (My words not his) so I may luck out. Failing that, I found a circuit for something that looks like it would do the job. https://www.homemade-circuits.com/low-battery-indicator-circuit-using-two/ It claims just a 1.5mA drain so not too shabby. Side Fret Markers I've decided to use LEDs as the side dots for fret markers, a set of Neopixel type LEDs and a small microcontroller will let me change brightness and colour as desired ... just need to throw together a circuit. Power draw is not too high but I'll likely run it from a seperate battery so as not to get any chance of crosstalk with the signal chain. And the best till last ... David Dyke & Team - luthiersuppliers.co.uk I Spoke with David last week about getting some wood, what a lovely chap! In our discussion it transpired they are based just 25 miles from where I live and David generously invited me down to see the workshop and pick my wood. So this morning I had a drive through the lovely East Sussex countryside. I was struck firstly by the delightful smell of the lovely gardens surrounding the hall and then blown away by the gorgeous aroma of all the wood, all of it treated so as to be ready for building instruments. The beauty of the workshop was breathtaking. David himself planed my block of maple down to make things a bit easier for me. planing.mp4 And I received much (much) advice about trussrods, carbon rods and general knowledge from the team of expert luthiers. Everyone was so welcoming and knowledgable and the workshop was an Aladdin's cave of exquisite-ness. Without a doubt I shall be returning if (Well, probably when!) I make my next instrument ... I cannot recommend them too highly! And the goodies I came away with ... Maple Core for neck/body. Dual action trussrod Two 4x4mm carbon fibre rods Two sections of beautifully contrasting wood for the skunk stripes for the trussrod & carbon rods A combination bottom strap pin/jack (Not pictured) Next step is meticulous planning and construction of templates along with many questions about the best order to tackle construction. S'manth x (Permission was given to capture images for my build diary)

Nothing to do with noise, but in the mid 80s when I was living with my parents, a neighbour accosted me as I was leaving for work to complain that our cat had been 'going' in her garden. I didn't know how to respond to this so I said I would "have a word with her." The neighbour seemed to be happy with this response and never mentioned it again, even though I never actually discussed the matter with the cat.

I've been on a bit of a hanging mission today... Anyone else a keen user of wall hangers? I've used them for years with no ill effects! I think it generally keeps them safer and I've never (yet!) had anything fall off despite all of the ones in the photos being hung of plasterboard walls (using special wall-plugs). We have a 'Basses on the Settee' thread, but I'd like to see how hung people are!

Great bass player, great singer, lovely person. Seen her in several documentaries and interviews, she manages to combine superb talent with great humility.

Here's mine......I've left space for one more....

I've always looked at losses made on selling basses as rent. In much the same way as I look back on the places I stayed before I got on the property ladder as simply places I stayed, basses I no longer own are just basses I got to play.

The “Retro” range is the series with 10” drivers in… If you have two One10s already I can’t see you being happier with earlier Gen cabs, at least not the ones with 12” drivers. They were very aggressive in the mids (in my experience) - the Gen 3 driver is a lot smoother to my ears. You may like the Gen 1 / 2 Compact though, a single 15” driver in a box not far off the old Trace 1153 cab size. They were light, loud and nicely balanced to my ears.

It’s also worth mentioning that very inexpensive basses are now generally speaking way better quality than 20-30 years ago. I remember trying a Chinese squier back in the late 90s and it was firewood, as were many sub-£200 basses back then.

Sure this must have been posted before but this is lovely

Same for me with my jazz elite, it’s by far one of the best jazzes I’ve had and I’ve had lots, I’m actually looking at another one in a different colour

It's beautiful and I can only recommend pimping it black. I love my black volume knobs, black schallers, and I replaced the pickguard with a matt single ply too, who needs that white edge! In time, I'll get a black bridge too, the problematic part on my talman is the metallic plate around the output, these are shaped uniquely... it's "embedded" or "sunken", not even sure what's the right word for this jack output:

Working basses not shown

Good decision IMO. It would bug me for sure!

Down at the doctors. Dr Feelgood

What’s the Cary Grant quote? “They say money talks. All it’s ever said to me is goodbye”

One might say that moaning is the purpose of this forum Not sure you can compare cost of a bar of chocolate over 57 years with cost of a big ticket bass over 14. However you are right that they’re certainly isolated in doing so - many bass brands have gone up by a similar amount in that time. Scarcity of good instrument grade lumber that’s light enough not to result in a boat anchor bass is one of the biggest issues. Whatever the cause, it’s likely Fender is laying off people not because they don’t make a profit out of these instruments, but they’re simply not selling enough (and probably wouldn’t even if they were £1500 retail instead of £2K). It’s notable how few shops in the UK have any non-custom shop US Fenders in stock, so it suggest supply chain problems are still very much an issue.

If you want a Fender, buy a s/h MIJ or CIJ. Prices are very reasonable for an instrument with exceptional (and consistent) build quality. Have to say I wouldn't be looking at anything else.

You must've had steel walls to support that T40!!!

Can confirm shell pink short scales are a fun project 😁

Wonderful stuff in these uncertain times.

Nice story, what a gentleman 👍

Going to be hard to beat that lot - but here are my five Fenders which is my complete bass collection.

Arguably! I had a "neighbour" (he's 400m away, on the other side of the valley!) complain about band rehearsals we were doing in our garage - it was once a week from 630pm - 8-30pm. So I told him I'd sound proof the garage and could he let me know if it was any better. So we built a box in there, he wasn't happy, so we moved into our garden room - this is double glazed, brick-built and insulated. We also moved rehearsals to Sunday afternoon, 3-5pm which coincided with his incessant chain-sawing. Didn't hear anything, assumed all was fine (it was audible 20 yards outside the house but by no means loud). Then we got a letter from the council detailing the noise complaint. I told them the story so far - but it appeared we'd been noisy again for 1/2 an hour, I think we'd had to open a window due to it being boiling. I told the council we wouldn't open the window again, and that we'd stick to those hours. And also I told them TW@ttyBollox had a name for being a whinger; he'd complained about his next-door neighbours "burning noxious rubbish" - turned out it was a kids bonfire party on 5th November. So we got three more letters saying that they were setting up monitoring equipment. Then Covid and lockdown came along; during one of the breaks our then reduced band (drummer had left) recorded a couple of on-line charity gigs using EZ drummer. Lockdown started again, I noticed one of the bass tracks could do with re-recording, so I played back the band through the PA and re-recorded my bass parts - this had to be at decent volume as bass had to match. Imagine my surprise when the police turned up to investigate an alleged breach of covid regulations, and their surprise to find me on my own playing along to a backing. How we laughed! After all the lockdowns had ended we starting rehearsing again. Just as we'd finished 2 chaps turned up, said they were from the council and that monitoring was finished, and they'd just listened from the other side of the valley. They explained that while it was faintly audible, it was by no means a nuisance ( a lot quieter than the b road below) and that Complain-Man had been told he was being deeply unreasonable, and that we had shown ourselves to be just the opposite. Council said that "unless something changed substantially" they wouldn't act on any more of his complaints. About anything. So it goes to show, there's miserable gits everywhere!

It's potentially a great material, rigid and light. I've been eying up some of the bamboo laminates for a while as a potential cab material. Just need to find it as a sheet material, making a cab from Lidl's chopping boards has even been under consideration as a proof of concept.

To dig up an old thread, for one thing and another, I hadn't got a chance of using the Evox 8 until yesterday. I used it a practice, and it worked out well because I forgot my bass speakers (who does that? Me apparently), Worked well in practice, but we were in a bowling alley that the new guy is redoing so he ripped off the floor and wall coverings, so it was a concrete box, echo chamber. We had two gigs last weekend, PA on one of them, pa provided in the second. Got to the first one and the singer me me (good news bad news, you brought the pa for nothing), so I got to transport it around! This week, the first one was a pa provided, the second was a local club so the first time I have used it. Didn't have much time to set up, it was the second gig, I was really knackered by the time I arrived, I didn't even bother with the mix. So I had the RCF Evox one side, the Alto 212ts and behringer 12" sub the other. Went out the front, wow, was it clear, it was not something we had heard before. Did the first half of the gig before realising that the bass amp was way down from the gig earlier, and the mixer had the bass way up in the PA (from the practice), so I was almost entirely through the PA. At the end of the gig the guy who runs the bar said it was the clearest and best we have sounded (he also said that we seemed to have amazing energy considering the first gig, I didn't mention I was drifting off 3 songs in!).The singer couldn't say enough good things about it, although he sang further back as he could hear himself so well (in fact, maybe too well). Honestly, if I had another Evox 8, I don't think I would bother with the bass amp any more.

Rickenbacker getting in on the short scale act after a long absence, albeit it seems a one off custom jobbie