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The Zep tribute played a hometown gig (well for me, the singer and the keys player) at Tapestry Arts Centre in Bradford last Friday. A decent turnout and all in all it went really well, which is always good when you're playing in your own backyard. (pics courtesy of Nigel Bain)

Couldn't wait to see what it sounded like so I've put it together temporarily, sorry Paul, have gone with the red tort pickguard for now. Quite pleased with the sound but can't get the action low enough without bottoming out the saddles, maybe the neck needs a shim or something, I like the wide string spacing though, makes it easy to play. I'm going to strip it all down again and may still paint it and am thinking about a J Retro preamp...lots of ideas floating round for this one!

I played twice at an outdoor bluegrass festival last summer and the organizers really know how to run a show. The festival has been running for 30 years and there are three main weekends with music Friday, Saturday and Sunday running from noon to at least 10PM with an hour allotted to each band with big name bands getting a longer slot in the evening. This is a festival where all instruments except bass are played acoustically, no pickups allowed, so everything is direct into mics and the very experienced crew can do a sound check of instruments and vocals in about 10minutes and it is always excellent. When your playing time is almost done a crew member will approach the stage and give a signal with one or two fingers to let you know how many more songs you can play. When you finish you hustle off stage and the next band is coming on as you leave, really well done and they pretty much keep on schedule. This is a well known festival and everyone wants to come back so the bands respect the management and there are never any hassles, one of the very best organized event I have played at. They also have country festivals with more equipment so it takes longer to set up but it is still a very fast turnover. ...yes, I realize that bluegrass bands don't have drum sets, amps, pedal boards, lights and other equipment that are required for other types of music so obviously not all situations are like this but letting bands go on longer than the allotted time is easy to fix.

And it’s finished. Glad to know I can stop the endless pursuit of new shiny pedals and finally focus on learning to play bass 🙏

I’m in the market for a new amp. Eight days ago, after exchanging a couple of messages, I said I would like to buy an amp and to please send payment details so I could pay. No argument over price, full asking. After that, nothing. Two days ago, I messaged another seller here, also saying that I would like to buy their amp, no offers, just send me detail of how to pay. Nothing. I’ve messaged twice about it, and updated the thread to say I’ve PM’d. Basschat tells me they have visited here in the interim. Is there a possibility that they are not receiving my messages? Is there something I’m not doing that I should be doing? Is there a secret blacklist of people that I’ve been added to? Is Suella Braverman an admin here? Rob

Lol Cottle was/is brilliant too; an amazing player with complete dedication to his mastery of bass. I can't believe it's been 7 years since I was able to attend my last SE bash which had Herbie Flowers being supported by Dave Swift and John Bentley playing a lovely rendition of Take a walk on the wild side. Herbie briefly loaned me an Ovation Magnum and Fender Bassman combo back in the early 70s which allowed me to migrate from a 3/4 upright to electric bass igniting my life long passion for bass.

You can say that again... oh, you already did.

Mad isn't it. To my mind, when it is apparent that acts are running over they should pull them off early (ooh matron etc) so that the lost time is absorbed evenly. In this particular case it was pure bloody-mindedness on the part of the dad-rock band who, despite being way over time, still did an encore which included a 5 minute drum solo. The organisers should have been all over them. Hey ho.

Why is it that so many event organisers can't understand that (a) you need time to switch acts (b) if an act overruns this pushes all subsequent acts back (c) it's their job to tell bands when to stop.

I'm not sure if we're in the category, although we've got a violin player and I wear a hat... Anyway, here's one of ours:

Barefaced cabs are not often seen on this side of the pond. One came up locally last summer , a compact 12 , a friend snagged it and I was seriously impressed with it. I’ve been running Berg cabinets with my gig rig , and I liked that Barefaced cab. Herself is fine with me buying basses or amps , but she just thinks of cabs as big black boxes. And believes I already have enough. It looks like I’ve snagged a One 10 cab from a seller in Quebec for a good price. This will be mostly dragged off to rehearsals. So I’m looking for something small that sounds good. It will be getting dragged out for weekly rehearsal. Looking forward to hearing this.

We done a charity one in Newmarket last year. It was the 'promotors' first gig. We got booked and were chatting to him a month before the event: Promotor: "Year it's gonna be a good one, 14 bands" Us: "14?! We didn'tr realise it was a festival!" Promotor: "Well we have the venue from 17:00 - 00:00. Seven hours. Half hour sets. 14 Bands" Despite all of the bands protests it went on as 'planned' We played 3rd out of 14, I believe only 6 bands played. The rest were told to go home. There was a lot of backlash locally about it afterwards...

As long as that's not a frequency response graph. 😱

3 different tone families. The D-800+ is the most neutral of the three, and if you are looking for a simple, straight ahead bass amp, it's the easiest to get along with. The WD-800 is modeled after the old Walkabout , it is native voicing is that tone and also that feel in varying degrees. It also has more extensive EQ and a damping factor selector. The TT-800 is a 2 channel amp and is modeled after the Subway D-800+ voicing on the Subway channel and the Bass 400+ on the Boogie channel. The Boogie channel is pretty significantly voiced, the Subway channel is more neutral. Both the WD and TT use tube preamps.

We had a bit of an odd one on Sunday; it was at the Wrexham Tattoo Show, and while the set went very well and the crowd were enthusiastic, the rest was a disaster, band-wise. The organisers and the venue were great, the punters complimentary about what we did, the sound guys did a top job..... But operationally the band was a car crash! I'll elaborate: Band politics (drummer/life difficulties) Late arrival of the drummer The previous act, some burlesque dancers) over-running A farcical soundcheck in front of the punters which saw three of the band being unable to play from any point that wasn't the beginning of a familiar song (this one really got on my t!ts, because we were trying to save time and ended up wasting it) The guitarist moaning that the engineer had disappeared at the beginning of the set and wasn't available to turn the guitar up in the monitor; said engineer was out front operating the desk from a tablet, as has been routine for about fifteen years.... The set being cut slightly short. Anyway, it was a learning experience and from an audience point of view there were no big problems. After all that we managed to play pretty well and the organisers and punters enjoyed what they heard. Onwards and upwards; we'll learn from our mistakes as a band. Cheers, JRK

Son had mentioned the sound of metal-on-metal, like a lap guitar or slide... Happened upon this a couple of weeks back... Mistreated Harley Benton... Frets have been removed... Freebie... ...and a little crack in the back of the neck by the headstock... superglue-d... 0.3mm x 10cm x 1m Stainless Shim... £5 Aliexpress... Gotta cut down, glue, trim, and dress...

Some companies are starting to release, or at least let customers know about, their black Friday deals. It might be a good idea to put any bargains in this thread, doesn't have to be a bass, it can be anything music related. Personally I would like a cheap and decent beginners electric guitar, just to mess about with and learn as a second instrument. Anyone else looking for a bargain?

My wife's invited a few friends over and TBH, it's not really my cup of tea and would ideally, like to get rid of them by about 9.30 so, was wondering if you're free on the 26th😂

There are some functions on BC that can make it look like people have been on when they haven’t, real test is whether they’ve read your PMs

I’ve had similar here, I messaged about a bass cab and and would they post it, they replied yeah sure, then total silence, I understand people ignoring me 😁, but I thought they might want my money

For some reason nothing happened the first couple of times I hit "submit reply", so I kept trying! Nice to be a record-holder at something 🙂

I made this kind of topic 1,5 mounth ago and end to Boss CEB-3. For me the best what i can get for that money.

GAS wins, flawless victory! Someone just listed a BC-1X on Ebay for £119 including postage only a couple hours ago. IT'S MINE NOW.

I hear Andy's setup tutorials are good enough for anyone, even Guy.

I have massively mixed experiences with digital effects, but comparing the 're-issue' Mutron III+ (digital) with the original really highlighted how little the distinction matters. Despite what people say online, the reissue is capable if getting as near as identical sounds as the original, although it doesn't do the extreme ends of the peak quite so well. In fact I prefer it in many ways, given the extra flexibility from the micro switches inside meaning the 'down' filter is more usable for me. As we all know, it's far too simplistic to say that digital is worse than analogue because there are so many different levels of both; I've had breathtaking digital tech and some which I actively dislike, same goes for analogue. What's definitely true though is that the perception always favours analogue, and the prices/values reflect that - which can be advantageous or not depending on where you sit on the value chain! I'm wondering if people's experience of digital is mostly via multi effects, which are often a compromise at the cheaper end of the scale both in terms of usability and processing power.

I think when its weather related there's not a lot you can do. You could always sue God. Dave

These were my main two, both Gibsons. Bottom one was a very scarce Gothic; maybe 150 globally. Both had Babicz bridges.

I spent ten years playing with a band called Case Hardin who did a lot on the UK Americana scene. I played on three albums, all of which were critically acclaimed. From memory PM was Uncut magazine's Roots album of the month. We got on CBS TV in America and toured the UK a bit. Having left it all behind, I manage to look back fondly without wanting to play that style anymore. I assume the albums are on Spotify still. The last record "Colours Simple" was my favourite and the 8 minute opener "Poets Corner" was a personal favourite.

To paraphrase.... "They make these things called scissors. You apply them to the kind of fabric you would like your jacket to be, cut according to the pattern in the size and shape you would like it to be. Then you apply this oldfangled technology called "needle and thread" to your fabric pieces and hey presto you have a jacket." I hope this helps. And remember..... "Someone who knows how to sew shouldn't now complain about being given helpful advice after they complain about not being able to buy the jacket they want before some other fashionista snaffles it" You're welcome.

I love it! Thank you x

Because Juan Sheet is plenty. This has come about because I happened to have a Deltalite II 2510 knocking about, and fancied building a tweeterless cab a bit smaller than the BC 112 mk3. I also had lots of 68mm pipe left over from the 6" micro cab build. So I worked out a way of getting a 35l or so cab out of one 1220x610 sheet of 12mm ply. Sides are 445 x 305, front and rear panels are also 445 x 305 with the front panel set back 20mm from flush, top and bottom are 330 x 305, all of which dimensions are subject to a bit of tweaking as there's going to be a bit of surplus round the edges due in part to the accuracy of the B&Q saw. Not much to show so far, I'll be making holes tomorrow if the weather permits me to go into the shed without drowning.

A nice hotel in Scarborough (on the East Yorkshire coast) with three friends. Did it last year and was actually okay - decent audience having a gala meal followed by us playing to around 12.30am. Very civilised and no bother, which after too doing many in previous years elsewhere which weren’t is just fine with me! An hour’s drive away, decent pay and an easy set up with just my Fender Rumble 100 combo and Precision bass Lyte to carry in. Small PA provided so happy days. Last year we took our ladies too and we were all looked after with drinks/ food by the hotel manager. I’ll be happy if this year things turn out the same.

Yeah: someone save the message for posterity!

Seems that some people have too much money... If you want to test if your messages are working, PM me and I'll see if I can respond.

Well you need the printer to make £100k a year from it, so…

isn't it just easier to listen to the songs tuned up by 1/2 step - quite a lot of apps will do that

Zoomed out, chrome hardware, but before I fitted the Supertone. Hope that helps piece the picture together.

Well it's certainly different to 'what cab are you using' or 'what wireless system have you got'...! They are black leather hi-tops from 'ecco' (I've just checked the make). I think that I got them from Amazon years ago (however I could be wrong), but you do sometimes see ecco shoe shops in some of the better heeled market towns (like Harrogate around here). I hope that helps...

I bought a lovely Retrovibe 'tribute to a well known brand' from Paul at the weekend. Easy transaction followed by a Basschat classic supermarket carpark exchange! Really nice guy to talk to and a lovely bass to boot. Exactly what buying & selling via the forum should be like 👍

Shoplifters of the world unite. Smiths

Thanks for that. Thats this one https://www.crealityofficial.co.uk/products/creality-cr-m4-3d-printer-creality-uk-3d-printer-store Not cheap at circa £1,000 but just checked and I can print the whole guitar within a 450mm x 450mm print bed. Wonder if I can find a cheap second hand one? Whilst I like the Prusa's, the biggest they do is 360mm x 360mm. Tempted to get one but its a hell of size.

Spotted yesterday morning, ordered yesterday afteroon, arrived this morning. Cheap 5-string fan fret with passive humbuckers. Not spent a huge amount of time with it so far but thought I'd do some first impressions. Paid under £170 for this so, to be honest, didn't have amazingly high expectations. My experience of 5-strings has been everything from grotty 90s Westfield to Status Streamline with a Yamaha, two MTD Kingstons, an Aria and some other stuff in between. I have also briefly owned a Dingwall ABZ 4 so have at least tried the fan fret thing. First thing - this thing is light. Weighs just 3.65kg, which for a fiver isn't bad at all. On a strap it's well balanced with no neck dive and everything is nicely within reach. Scale length is 34.5" to 35.5" (apparently, not measured it...) and the longish top horn means it doesn't feel like a huge reach down to the end. Pickups are vey generic looking humbuckers, it's passive and the controls are VVTT from the neck end. Volumes are progressive, tones - feel pretty "on/off" with not a lot inbetween. Neck isn't too chunky, but not as slim as 5-string Ibanez. Depth is about 23mm at the nut, with the nut being 45mm (not quite sure whether you measure along the nut or perpendicular to the neck on a fan fret...?) Neck is also about 23mm at the 12th fret and 61mm wide. Shape is a gentle C and quite comfortable. Spacing at the bridge is 18mm so doesn't feel too cramped. The monorail bridge pieces are about what you would expect and seem sturdy enough with a good finish. Tuners seem to be good quality - quite smooth and hold tuning fine. I've got a set of Gotoh tuners I might put on it, but not a vital instant upgrade. Overall, the finish is probably an 8.5 out of 10. Paintework on the front is good, but there are scratches near the strap button (rough handling somewhere?) and the finish on the back is smooth but has a weird pattern to it - that may buff out though. Otherwise not much to complain about really. The headstock is good, couple of globs of hardened glue(?) that will probably come off quite easily. Frets and action: frets are all good, a bit dull but no particularly sharp ends and minimal fret buzzing. The action is pretty low. Fretboard wood is, apparently, "Thermally Treated Maple Ply" and you can just about make out the ply if you look real close. Otherwise looks like a decent bit of rosewood, not heavily figured or anything but quite consistent. The only minus neck-wise is the nut. It's not great, when your hand bumps against it it's got a sharp edge on the G side. It's kinda scuffed and is slightly too wide for the fretboard. How does it sound you ask... well, not too bad actually. The multiscale definitely works to this guitar's advantage. Sound is clear and even across the top four strings and the B is pretty close behind - it's slightly, fractionally, more muffled, but that's being pretty picky, and could also be down to only being able to try it through my TCE BG250-208. With a bit of tweaking of pickup heights and maybe a decent set of strings (can't imagine the ones on it are the best available) I think you'd be hard pressed to notice any variation. Sound is typical, modern humbucker sound - with clear highs but not single coil like highs, kept wanting to dial in a bit more treble, but it wasn't there Low end is quite growly and I could see using this at a gig quite happily (if I ever get one...) This is definitely a bass I would be happy to pour some money into for a couple of upgrades. Tuners - yeah probably, as mentioned above. Pickups - they're 38 x 100mm so I think there are off-the-shelf soapbars that might fit (EMG?). A nice three band pre would be a good addition too. OK - it's not a Dingwall!!! But for a tenth the price it's a very nice bass indeed. If you're looking for a cheap way into fan fret and/or 5-strings this really is worth a look. I'll probably keep this one around at least for a while. And to finish... without pictures it didn't happen, etc...

Great pics Pete. Dave

She's Hit ～ The Birthday Party

Kyalami is another cool F1 track name: home of the South African Grand Prix back in the day.

Dense Away - Roxy Music

The acoustic show " She's Right I'm Left" will be back at The Harley Motor Restaurant this Saturday, 5:30-8:00. The Motor has always been good for us. Daryl