Leaderboard

Monday night was a Christmas concert with the youth orchestra that my teacher runs. Like the concert in June he asked several adults to play with the kids, mostly to fill out the low end and I was one of the people he asked. It was a great evening with a very enthusiastic audience of family members and friends. About 35 kids from 6 to 19 were in the orchestra with the youngest only playing on the simpler pieces. In the photo you can see the other bassist (15 years old) as well as amps and drums that are not usually in this orchestra but were necessary for "Wish Liszt" by the Trans Siberian Railway and it was a very challenging piece for me and several other adults but the kids breezed through it. Some more traditional orchestral works and a fun version of "Boomwhacker Christmas" that the audience and orchestra members loved filled out the programme. Lots of practicing for me but my bowing technique is getting better and I hope to play with them again, it's great fun but a bit intimidating playing with kids who are 71 years younger than I am and can play better than the old man on the bass.😊

Arrived today from the USA...not to be used before Christmas ....ha

Just played at two of the annual Great Ormond Street Christmas parties. Met Lewis Hamilton’s W14 and, far more excitingly, Emma Bunton. The actual playing bit? Can’t remember. I met Emma Bunton 🥰

First fit, neck needs the shim with a ramp. action is high with the old wedge that was in there so I’ll make a smaller one. Christmas tree adds extra mojo.

Nothing fancy. Just thought it was time for me to wish each and every person on the forum a fine Christmas. "God bless us, every one." Transmission ends.

As of earlier today, just scored me this beaut that i didn't need. Why oh why oh why do i keep shovelling money at basses. Time to see a mind mechanic. It is stunning though.

I finally indulged myself in the last 4 months by building a board that is over the top and entirely unnecessary, but I love it! Particularly when I'm in an experimental mood. Bottom right to top left signal flow, but upper row is designed so that I can either run it all into the front of the amp, or run the tremolo,delay,verb and slicer through the FX loop on the amp, and the bottom row into the preamp. Pedal choice? Peterson tuner, anniversary edition picked up mint off eBay, into Walrus Mira compressor, then DOD Meatbox (guilty pleasure pedal) into the amazing Fallout Cloud fuzz from Thorpyfx (it sounds soooo good on bass!). Then Jam Waterfall bass chorus and Walrus Polychrome Flanger. Modulation goodness all round! Top row starts with JHS 3 Series Harmonic Trem - for me this is a bit of a one trick pony, I have a particular trem effect I like and that's where it stays! Historically I like the Boss TR-2, but the JHS gives you volume control, which is the clincher for me. Then comes the delay to end all delays - the Rose! Oh boy, I've barely scratched the surface! Many future voyages of discovery to be enjoyed... After this the Catalinbread Talisman Plate Reverb. I don't use it alot, but it sometimes adds some ambient 'sauce' and the HPF means my 5 string doesn't play havoc with it. Finally another purely fun choice - the SL-2 slicer. One additional feature that is fun to play with is that the Slicer has a creditable tremolo setting, so with a trem pedal either side of the verb, I can, without changing the board, play tremolo into verb and vice versa. Point to note - its a purely mono signal path that I don't intend to record with, it's just for fun and noodling into the Laney Nexus head and PJB compact 4 at home. I'm having a ball this Christmas...neighbours are not so sure 😂

Finished my back-up/‘fly board’ last night: Tuner -> Fuzzdog Tall Font -> MXR Octave -> Corona Chorus -> CAPO All powered by a Cioks SOL on a Pedaltrain Nano. Sounds great, and a purposefully smaller package (less pedals tbf) than my main Noble board. Si

erm, erm.... I erm meant.... Cheap as in.... C ustom H andmade E xpensive A merican P recision (not a Harley Benton.... honestly guvnor.....)

Same here, in my youth I tried to make it, did a UK tour and swiftly realised it was my hobby and what I did for enjoyment, didn`t want to make it my day job so quit that band and took a few years off playing. No idea if I would have ever made it (tho given percentages probably not) but I`m convinced I made the right decision as music has similarly been my escape and since quitting the booze my main source of enjoyment.

I totally agree. Once it becomes work, the enjoyment often suffers and it's no longer something to look forward to. My other hobby is photography and although I have done some paid work in the past, I deliberately avoided making it 'work' so that I could use it as an escape from my day job.

Like so many of us I have quit, sold all my gear and decided I was done with band life. Without a band I saw little point in playing the bass ! Then after a few years break you get the urge to play again Around the age of mid fifties I said I would be done with bands by the time I reach 60 ( just seemed beyond that I would be too old ) Im now 63 and play in the best band for fun I’ve ever experienced and it’s the people I’m fortunate to be with make it what it is. While I have good health I will carry on and review it when I’m 66 !!

Also made a few pics of the bass without the pickguard

so, after searching the internet for inspiration and missing out on a couple of choices for something different to stretch me a bit from my usual Fender J/P 4 string choices I was about to buy a Gibson Thunderbird, I like to look of them, I play like Nikki Sixx, and my back is fragile… so it all made perfect sense to me. Then I spotted the obvious… long scale, 4 strings, somewhat traditional….. urgh…. I had failed my main brief of “something to stretch me a bit”. Like a 5er/fanfret/shorty etc.. I had looked at so many basses that I was starting to fosters myself off. So. My plan was simple. 1. Drink some beers. 2. Open the iPad. 3. Don’t pretend to be deep, be your shallow self and look at things you think look nice. 4. buy it within 60minutes. narrowly skirting a mustang shorty (which I still might buy) and an Ibanez with 5 strings, fan frets, 7 knobs and an equal number of random letters and numbers for a name, I bumped back into a Sire I’d seen a couple of weeks ago locally. From what I can gather, there’s a “spread” of opinions here on Sire basses. So, I ignored them, and tried one myself… liked it. But it was a 4 string. Back home I browsed for a one second hand, then moved to new ones… and found one for a good price. Initially looking for a blue Sire Version 2 Updated M7 Alder 5 String but found one in Brown Sunburst that caught my eye. So bought it. It arrives Friday. 😬 looks like this….

Got mine last week. It fills in the gaps of the Origin Black Panel with some of its features, including the post pre loop which I wish the Origin had. Both sound great but in different ways, the Black Panel is tube-like and has a pillowy compression to it which is undeniably great for vintage tones, and the Capo is more direct, faster transients and the added gain stage on the B side is really useful. The ability to sculpt the mid frequencies is something the Black Panel lacks somewhat with it being more a Fender tone stack, again just very different tonally. It’s probably a bit mad to have both but I’d struggle to choose between them. Everything runs into the Capo on the board apart from the Cali which is last and goes into the post effects loop. I played a Noble a few weeks back, great piece of kit but really there wouldn’t be much I couldn’t get out of this combo now and not widely dissimilar tones.

Just pondering how many 'bass-journeys' will begin next Monday morning and how many will remember this in the years/decades to come. Is that a tear that's making the screen go blurry? Probably a bit of grit in my eye. If anyone out there is planning on giving a loved one a present of a bass this Christmas, may I say a sincere, 'good for you', and wish the recipient a lifetime of pleasure from your gift.

I think that it depends on the right (plucking) hand techniques applied. When I pluck with my fingers I use what is sometimes called floating thumb technique when I rest my thumb on the lower (pitched) string next to the one I play and my wrist and arm is in a straight line moving back and forth over the strings as I skip them during plaing (hope it makes sense). So I don't see much benefit with the angled bridge for me but as I never tried a Torzal maybe I'd be in a surprise if I did. But for those players who -like double bass players - anchor their thumb on the edge of the pickup and stay there regardless which string they are playing and bending their wrist more as they move farther away (meaning playing higher strings) the angled bridge is reducing the need for said bend. It is purely a speculation on my side, nothing more. Also Torzal do make fanned fret basses so that might be the ultimate mindfuNk for some 😄

I'd be hard pushed to decide if Warwick or Musicman had the most baffling range of basses but it just goes to demonstrate you can be a huge multi-million Euro/$ company and still fail to employ someone in marketing with 1 iota of common/musical sense.

I switched from WD40 to UB40 and clean my electrics with red red wine.

Well, I suppose I should stick my tuppence worth in, seeing as I started it. I'm personally not too fussed for any of this new stuff and will be unlikely to buy any of them - that's principally because they're inspired by basses that don't hold any interest for me. But that doesn't mean I can't see the market potential for these, at the right price. I think they'll do very well in the situation we find ourselves in, where EBMM have turned into a bunch of greedy so-and-sos and hiked up the prices of their SUB/Sterling stuff to frankly eye-watering levels and the Foderas are unobtanium for most mere mortals. All I can say with certainty is that if they put the same effort and time into these new ones as they did with my D5 then they'll tend to be excellent instruments and I wish them every success.

Girlfriend In A Comma ～ The Smïths

In response to the first post, I get it. I’ve just come out the other side. A new job away from gigging, a whole host of personal stuff: divorce, house sale, navigating “co-parenting”, then a new relationship, and a new baby had really, REALLY, sucked the fun out of the thing I enjoyed most over the past 5 or so years. It become as royal PITA and learning songs and gigging was a huge burden. I sold all my gear, unfollowed every bass related Instagram and YouTube channel and lived happily without it all. I’d seen friends bands, even been to a jam night, but the spark wasn’t there. It took a year away and going to see Level 42 to give me the interest again and now I’m happily gigging in a couple of bands again. I still don’t burn with passion for it like I used to, but it’s not my job anymore. It’s just a thing I can do for a break from life and to be creative.

Looks like they can't be shared, not on my profile. Here's a couple. Love playing teh EH as Barry takes great pics 🤣

And here's the inevitable video demo

New scratchplate day. Decided that all black was better than tort (did a mock-up with some card). Big shout out to Guitars Electric in Wolverhampton again https://www.guitarselectric.co.uk who sent it it out yesterday using a 24 hour service, even though I didn’t select that option.

Do you mean you were just lending me the Variax?

And that on the pic is I believe a rare 35" version. They did some 435 IH sigs, I know as I almost bought one (proper 35" with the IH logo on the back of the headstock) Still kicking myself for missing that, ugh

There's this...

That P bass is very nice and putting me in the mood for a decent sunburst P bass. Dave

Is he on any illegal medication ? How to kill a bands atmosphere. I even grudge stopping for a 15min break in the middle of our sets. Dave

Definitely the best thing this year was a pair off wristbands…..having arthritis in the base of my thumbs helps a great deal I only use the one on my fretting hand but it’s a god send. The worst or disappointed more like was the preamp in my Stingray Special it just didn’t have any balls BUT John East came to the rescue with his 3 band eq that’s based around a late 70’s eq when the mid/boost is in the detent position….clever stuff.

If it's a decent payer, why not?

You have let all of us into your little secret - It will still be a cheap bass, under all that flashy paint 😀

Totally agree. I also have an EUB and EB but when I play DB I feel like a "real" bass player and as said above I play differently and play lines that I wouldn't even consider on EB and would not feel right on EUB, hard to explain but that's the way it is. Except when I am playing with a youth orchestra that needs a few adults to fill out the low end I always use an amp with my DB and just consider hauling all that stuff around to be part of the "double bass experience". At 77 I'm lucky to be in good shape so carrying gear is no problem and I plan to continue as long as I can and I started weekly lessons last year and am really enjoying working with the bow, which of course is one more thing to carry. 😊

Chuck Norris with a Thunderbird … (Stolen from a FB post that appeared on my timeline, so please excuse the text, it's not mine.) Mark

Shirley you could have got one with fanned frets?

Good one, Tim According to legend, Americans spend billions on funding sponsored research projects at major research universities. The British just use jokes. I very stupidly spend hundreds of dollars on the technology that I am using for this post. If I were a Russian troll, I would be able to do it with a pencil. That one is definitely true, Douglas. Ever since he did it, no one has been turned to stone. Pretty compelling evidence. I should probably stop inhaling WD-40.

I'd send it back , damn things got a twisted neck

Hello everyone. Sad to be saying that my dad has passed away. He died on Sunday 17th December around 1pm - just in time for a coffee. It's been a really tough few years. I want everyone who said something on this thread to know it's been really important for me to hear these kind words, stories and memories. I had to no doubt he was a kind, inspirational and talented person. Liked by so many. I want you all to know that he was a wonderful dad who taught me so much about the world, life and of course bass guitar. If you're in any doubt as to how you might remember him in any way in light of this news, perhaps you'll find something in his Desert Island Discs, curated by him: I also kept track of any music that was discussed or mentioned during his stay at the care home: And finally, he recorded a gig back in 1991 at the Tower Hotel in London. It was mixed recently and I'm hoping to have it mastered soon and pressed to vinyl. Nothing commercial, just a very special keepsake. The tracks are SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/matthewcanty1988/sets/tower-hotel-1991-vinyl I'm celebrating with music.

That was before they were all lovingly cleaned by me, obvs.

A new bass needs to be pristine, untouched by man (or woman), not even by the guy who built it. My dream is to one day buy a Fender Custom Shop instrument and never even open the outer packaging. Just be happy in the knowledge that I have it and happily can go about knocking more dings into my frankenbass.

P is a bitsa I assembled from parts in 90s. LaBella LTFs and USA Epic Custom pickup. Fat as a fat thing. Aria Pro is modded with Hipshot Ultralites, 3 band eq (was passive) and an awesome B string. Upright is 1989 German solid top with Duece bridge and Zac Victor piezo. I bought this new. Genz Benz Streamliner 600 amp. The absolute best head I have ever played. All knobs except master at 12 o'clock and suits any room. Ashdown Studio 15 cab converted from combo to just speaker cab, fitted with Eminence Deltalite neo 15".

Replacement from guitarguitar arrived at the weekend. This one is spot on. The neck and pickup on these really are great. I quite fancy getting one in vintage white now!

I’ve had a G&L kind of year - 2 new USAs and a second hand Tribute. All great. The L2000 is my favourite. Absolutely love it.

I was at a mates house in the 1980’s and he had VHS video of Duran Duran . It was the song The Reflex , I just watched John Taylor strutting up and down the stage with 1000’s of women screaming at him ( for him? ) That was the precise moment I knew i had to be a bass player . ( Still waiting for the hoardes of women , though )