Leaderboard

So, for a while I have been eyeing up the new ocean turquoise Gretsch junior jet ii bass, not having a lot of disposable income my wife had offered a couple of times to go halves with me on the cost of one but I had always declined. Anyway the other day my wife told me that she had a delivery and asked if I would sign for it when the courier turned up. Anyway the courier turned up I signed for the delivery and then my wife told me to open the box, I thought maybe it was a new computer chair or something, I opened the box and my eyes lit up when I saw a Gretsch box inside the box, I was over the moon. Anyway it is a great bass, the photo doesn't do it justice, in person it is much prettier and the colour is much nicer, it sounds great too and if someone told me this bass sold for twice what this sells for i wouldn't question it at all

First gig of year for us! What with a change in vocalists and 2nd guitar, it’s not been a productive start but we’re up and running now. New guitarist is quite versatile (1st guitar off stage at this point in the gig enjoying his new wireless freedom!) and a change to female lead vocals has meant a more ‘lounge’ oriented set but it went down well. Played at an embassy club, there’s not much of a live scene here in Islamabad so you always get an enthusiastic crowd as they’re just grateful someone is playing, so you’re never quite sure if they’re applauding your musical performance or just the fact you turned up!

After finishing my first build based on parts from GuitarBuild.co.uk (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/478420-guitarbuildcouk-bass) I decided that I really wanted to do another one - and it's now done - with pictures below. The Spec: Body is lightweight White Limba - it's a softer wood than I had anticipated, it's going to dent quite easily, but I'm generally pretty careful... though have already managed to put one dink in it. Neck is walnut with separate walnut fretboard and abalone dots (I had them do abalone dots on the side too and should have gone with white as they're not as visible as they probably need to be... oh well) Tuners are Hipshot Licensed Ultralights and the bridge is a Hipshot Fender-fit A-style. Pickups are EMG 40TWX (yeah, I know, they're supposed to go in a five string but thought slightly wider would look better and the price was the same - I checked with EMG that they'd be OK with a 4-string and since they're bar magnets in there rather than individual pole pieces it works out fine). The pickups are switchable single-coils/humbuckers with push/pull volume knobs (and active tone control). When the pickups are in single-coil mode, the coils are in the 70s jazz bass position. It's wired up so that you have to pull the volume knobs up to engage the humbuckers, so it's normally just a slightly souped up jazz bass, and then you can kick in some extra thickness. Sound is pretty much what I was looking for. It's not as mid-forward as the previous build but can get some growl going by dialing back the neck pickup a touch. With just the neck pickup on it does a passable P-bass impression, and with just the humbucker on at the bridge it sounds quite aggressive, though not as cutting as a proper Stingray pickup in the right position. Overall - very happy with how it's turned out. Finish is about eight layers of Wudtone clear, it's come up somewhere between satin and gloss, and on the neck I ended up using a scouring pad to get it back towards more or a matte finish. It weighs in at just 3.5kg and there's no neck dive - probably helped by the ultralights at one end and the brass A-style bridge at the other. The Build: As on the previous build, Jasmine and Phil at GuitarBuild.co.uk were wonderful. The routs for the pickups were custom and I sent in one pickup plus the wiring harness so that they could make everything fit - including making sure it was possible to get the rather thick cable through into the control cavity. Attention to detail is great on the bodies and necks they make - the pickup rout even had an indent to account for the connector on the bottom of the pickups - it's kinda chunky. The Photos:

FREEZING night in Wrexham, taking part in the Metal For The Masses competition…. lots of fun though, and delighted to be through to the semi final. The Greco Thunderbird was awesome, and the TC head into an Ashdown 8x10 sounded great. I’m literally just about warming up now! It was COLD!! 🥶

My band 'Shreds.' played at The Outpost in Liverpool last night. This was our first time playing in Liverpool, and we were headlining a show that had three other bands on the bill. The fam came along with me to watch the show, and my son is always happy to help sell merch (he sold 4 t-shirts!). We arrived well in advance and were greeted with an incredibly competent and friendly sound guy who said he's been working there for 14 years. We normally play LOUD, but this was a small room and he asked both the guitarist and I to trust him and turn our amps down a bit, so we did. We had a setlist of 20 songs, three of which were new. During the soundcheck we managed to 'rehearse' each of the new songs. Things sounded just fine to me during the soundcheck. I think that about 40 people showed up and when it was our turn to play, I soon realized that I could not hear myself very well on stage. I backed up against the bass cabinet, which helped somewhat, however it wasn't quite loud enough for me. I usually have problems hearing our guitarist on stage, but now both guitar and vox seemed super loud through the monitors. I probably should have commented to the sound guy, but I was afraid of losing the guitar feed in my monitor so I just carried on. The show started 30 minutes late, there were some technical issues with vox during one of the other bands' set, and the bands before us seemed to burn a lot of time by talking to the crowd. Once we got up on stage, we were told that we'd have to cut our set short. So, the three songs that I worked so hard to perfect on bass this past week were tossed out! Oh well, at least I learned them in preparation for the next show! They did sound really good during the soundcheck, which was attended by the fam and a couple of the other bands.

Had a great gig with the Inevitable Teaspoons last night at Krakatoa in Aberdeen. Sound was a bit of a 'mare, we were late starting because the regular sound guy was off ill so it was the venue owner with a newbie assistant trying to chase the bugs out of the system - some annoying feedback coming from somewhere, took a while to track down the offending mic. But the crowd were patient and they were (hopefully) rewarded with a decent set. I felt really relaxed in my own performance, the sort of good feeling you get when you can have a laugh with the drummer if either of us does something a little odd instead of worried scowls. Played my Reverend Triad, and it got some questions (chiefly "what is your bass?" - happy to inform, 'mon the Reverend!). Rather more bizarre after we finished and I came off stage I got stopped by a guy at the bar who said very nice things about my playing, and paid me the very specific compliment of comparing me to Leland Sklar (!) - and he wasn't talking about my beard because that's a no contest - I'm only similar to Leland Sklar in that respect in the sense that I have a beard at all! He complimented me specifically on my fingerstyle and was talking himself down because he "only" plays pick. I was quick to point out that it's just a different technique, neither one is "better" than the other and mentioned that I can't play pick for toffee. Anyway, was kinda blown away by that very bass-specific compliment that I'm not sure what I did to earn, but I'll bloody well take it!

Very brief... first gig for Bendricks Rock. Incredible, best audience reception I've seen in a venue thst I've been going to slmost weekly for the ladt two years. The classic rock and indie rock mix went down really well with loafs of dancing. Yes loads of first gig flubs, but the audience either didn't notice or didn't care. Really buzzing. Photos to follow! P.s. one guitarist locked himself out of his car, so he's downstairs waiting on the rac 🤣

We've just had two weekends of not gigging (except for the weekly Sunday jam night that we host). The pub in Bolton that we played at made us set up in an inadequate little alcove last time, but this time they moved a few tables and let us set up in the spot we are used to. It's amazing how quickly some rust creeps in, even though we're usually out all the time. Our guitarist flubbed a line of lyrics in Purple haze and just came out with something phonetic to keep the tune going. It was hilarious. I played part of a bass line in the wrong key partway though one song, as my mind was totally elsewhere. I gave my bass a look as if it was the bass' fault and some people laughed at that. A nice, relaxed evening and not too far from my house.

First time in Shotts Bon Accord Club last night with Glam covers band. 175 tickets sold. Decent sized venue with a large stage that was quite high at chest height. No chance of fans clambering onto the stage to tear of my clothes. To be fair that doesn't happen at gigs without stages but its nice to dream of younger days. Dancers from about the 2nd song in, lots of phones taking vids, lots of ladies in Glam gear which is always nice to see. Bus load came over from another club we played and told us they would be following us around the local gigs we do which was fantastic news. We had a wonderful female singer doing a support slot for us and we invited her up for our last song, an extended version of Shang-a-Lang with a bit of Scottish themed intro to the BCR bass and drums. Always fills the floor and gets a fantastic reception as our encore. Committee guy at the end said the feedback was some of the best he'd had about any act in the club so that was good as at times they weren't the most enthusiastic sounding audience we've had but whenever the singers ask if we are doing alright so far it was a rapturous applause and cheering. Weird. They're looking to get us re-booked possibly around Xmas but we only have one free night available so here's hoping. No pics as yet. Dave

Particularly great stage sound last night…. Which is unusual for us, because we normally turn up and use the house drum shells and bass cabs, whatever they are…. but my TC BQ500 into the Ashdown 8x10 was ace…. and nice and loud.

A few pics, some are video grabs so apologies for the quality!

Somewhere out on the internet there's a drum forum, a singers forum, a keyboard forum... Where every single one of us is getting a virtual kicking...

That's sexual assault. If a man had done that he'd be in serious trouble.

With a name like that, I'm surprised they've not been sued by Rickenbacker.

Back around '78, we auditioned a singer as our geetarist at the time was going through a 'strong, silent' phase and decided to give up singing to practise his playing more (whatever!) At the time, we were playing standard pub-rock fare from The Stones, Eric C, Roxy Music, blah, blah. One local hero was a big noise in the cabaret and working men's club circuit and thought he was the next Tony Christie/Elvis. So, we rent a rehearsal space, send out a set list with half a dozen well-know 'standards (for that time) and await the arrival of the great man himself. We, in the band, all resembled drop-outs from Lynyrd Skynyrd at that time, and he rocks up looking like John Revolta (shirt collar outside wide-lapelled jacket, etc.). He firstly needed to spray something into his throat, as this allowed him to 'expand his range', and then he went through a vocal warm up of about ten minutes of scales. By the time all this had been accomplished, the guitarist was giving me looks to let me know he was going to crumple with restricted laughter, and to say not a word. Meanwhile, Mr Fabulous is now bu**ering about with the PA amp, attempting to find echo, reverb, treble and lord knows what else. This 'search' for settings unleashed feedback, rumbles, parping whoops, and sounds Ron Grainer would have been proud of. Perhaps, 25 minutes into the audition, Perry Combover was ready to rock and first up was Brown Sugar by the Stones. 1,2,3,4. Intro goes well. He proceeds to hit the wrong note as he joins in. Not only was he in the wrong key; he was singing the chorus. You simply must accept at this point, that he was approaching the number very much in the style of Harry Secombe, as 'Mr Bumble' in 'Oliver'. It was akin to Leonard Cohen auditioning for Greenday. Possible because he was unable to breathe, our guitarist was on his knees, pretending to be doing something with his amp-controls. Seeing this, I decided to face the wall, but to plough-on regardless. Suffice to say, I planted the top of my head flat against the wall, to provide some measure of pain, in the hope it might stop me having convulsions of mirth - I swear I couldn't see, for tears of laughter running down my face, and daren't breathe in case I atrophied. After what seemed like the 'director's cut'/'festival version' of the song -which passed for me in slow-motion, allowing me to re-live my entire life to that point - we road-crashed to a halt. The drummer looked like he had been tasered, and all blink-reflexes were gone; the guitarist was a sort of crimson-peuce colour and probably now boasted a new world record in holding breath, long enough to impress a south-seas pearl diver. I was, as I recall, almost managing to stand with a ninety degree bend from the waist, being held up olny by the pressure of my head on the supporting wall. "Well guys," quoth the great man,"that sounded pretty good to me, but I don't think you've got the solo quite right somehow!"

Inauspicious start to last night's gig when we arrived to find the thugball was on the telly and there were a dozen or more Villa fans in our bit of room. It finally finished and we started loading in, trying to move through the thick as pigshit thugball fans who stood in our way with glazed expressions, completely unresponsive to being asked to move. Then Mrs Zero and the drummer's wife wanted to sit at a table close to us but a miserable old git repelled them. Still, eventually we managed to get set up and the gig itself went well, with just the one car crash when everything went wrong in "Place your hands" (we did manage to get to the end). I think our second 45 minute set finished up at 75 minutes. The gaffer loved us and wants to get us back - just hope the agency sorts us out some more gigs there outside the football season.

you heard about the bass player that locked his keys in the car … took him two hours to get the drummer out

I have been thinking a while to install a set of wall hangers and keep my basses there instead of the rack stands. Not that I thought they are better or such but I have a suitable ( = empty) wall in my home office and this way I can see them in their full beauty. Ordered a dozen or so hangers from Th, put them on a board that was lying around since the last garden remodelling and installed them on the wall. There's going to be another on the wall facing this, albeit only for 4 basses. I'll paint it as I just kept the wood as it is since I wasn't sure if I get every measurements and placements right (both the hangers and on the wall) so I can cover extra holes and such later with the stain+ clear coat. But seems like first time is the charm and everything fits and placed just the way it's logiacal and comfortable. Anyway, I put my Spectors there and also realized I never took a group shot of them so here they are 😉 🙂

I would say the feeling of watching the guitarist trying to get in their locked car probably would beat it for me

Something terrible has happened... ... I have a space on my pedalboard! After receiving the GC Pro and doing a big reshuffle, I decided to take my expression pedal off the board (I always use one, which has always been on the board, and have another two which I use and and off, mainly for recording). The revelation of having the space can mean only one thing... it must be filled by one large, or two small pedals. Aghhhhhhh. Given that the only thing I was truly lusting over was a WMD Protostar, and the chances of finding one are VERY low... oh what a terrible position to be in

If you're in communication with them about a rebooking I'd take the opportunity to tell them exactly why you won't be coming back. Venues need to offer much better support to entertainers than you received.

This bb414 is the gift that keeps on giving. Now strung with ti flats and I can’t BELIEVE how awesome it sounds. Setup adjusted and it’s just killer!

The official word for not being able to hold a beat is Discolexic.

This is truly a classic thread… Stop me if I have told this one before… In 1980 I had a band modelled on the Pretenders, whom I had seen and fallen in love with. Our Chrissie was an Australian girl who ended up being deported I believe - anyway she left us looking for a replacement. We auditioned four girls at Alaska Studios in Waterloo, London. Among them was a lass fresh down from Scotland who was so shy she wouldn’t emerge from the corner of the room at first. Also she had a rather obnoxious boyfriend, as I recall. So we passed. Months later I saw Eddi Reader on TV backing the Gang of Four, and later still duetting with Annie Lennox in Eurythmics. Bloomin ‘eck! Bet she has had many a sleepless night regretting my decision😂

Thanks. I’ve often considered myself fortunate to be able to play in some amazing buildings over the last few years, and their history always fascinates me. Theatres have been my main places of work, and although new ones are often impressive it’s the older ones that are the most interesting. Since handing in my notice with the band last year, I’ve played at many of my ‘old favourites’ whilst thinking I won’t be returning to them. 😕 Still, all good things etc…..

Lads... So pleased with this one. Been looking for a small all tube solution for home. I was close to pulling the trigger on the new fender adam clayton, but i read some not great reviews. Really wanted the ampeg but never thought I'd find one in ireland. Did a random search on the local classifieds and this ine popped up. 20 watts is exactly what i need. This won't leave the house for the most part. It sounds perfect. Full and fat. Even my wife who wouldnt know a difference said it sounded thick. Absolutely love it! Now trying to decide of i get the matching 2x10 or 1x15 fliptop series cabs.

You’re still a better man than me. Honestly, we would’ve sold that bass 3/4 times over if we’d got the damn stingray cloner machine to work in time. Very very envious - very happy for you Andy, and it’s got a great player as a new owner and a bloody lovely bloke to boot. Have a great birthday. I’ve just got home - was wonderful to meet so many Basschat alumni - we had the best time ever (even though i suffered all day due to the Tequila incident at the hotel bar last night). It was a great show - rumours abound that a shift more towards bass next year. I’ll be there as a punter or as Paul’s “Debbie”. @walshy has just stopped at Leeds. Fair play - I don’t envy him. Now to unload my car. Thank you to everyone who came to see us. My favourite was Mark (Mojo) - “HAVE YER GOT ANY ORANGE YAMAHA BEE BEE’s ON THIS STAND” - I howled laughing and crapped me kecks at the same time.

As monitoring is everything to the band we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands. So when we have a foh engineer, we feed two di’s, one to the foh desk and another to our own stage box which feeds our iem’s which we are in control of. We even get the stage monitors turned off because we don’t need them, which also helps keep feedback issues at bay. It’s definitely made a difference to the our playing. BTW love it that your son is selling merch! Does he also play?

Indeed, women shouldn't get away with that sort of thing either

This was the pic I showed to Herself. She immediately said “get it”. And when it arrived thought it might well be the most beautiful bass she’d seen. I found this in Boston so it wound up being a little more than expected by the time it landed here in Halifax , but no regrets. I had been looking at these for about ten years , they never were offered here in Canada.

Some of the 31 stringed things that lurk around the house/studio...

Well, I finally cut a deal with Bassbros recently after being a bit of a voyeur for some time. The deal was struck with Will over the course of several WhatsApp messages-and I had to prompt him a couple of times-but otherwise I reckon they over delivered. I received a fair trade-in and my new bass arrived exactly as described on a day of my choosing, perfectly set-up with new strings of my choice. I'll be back.

Having too much fun on stand 33 with @walshy and @AndyTravis I played about 8 Pbasses from ‘63 to ‘72, all different, all magnificent!

Brewdog, until they pay their workers a living wage. And it's really painful to me to do this... https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/business/finance-strategy/row-brewing-as-brewdog-backtracks-on-wage-pledge

Gotsta have a matching strap!

Stoner rock: Bringing the "go big or go home" vibes, let's start with Kyuss and the superb Demon Cleaner. From the sublime to the ridiculous (but fun), with Monster Magnet's Space Lord And let's finish with the mighty Clutch, and Electric Worry.

I'm going to miss the mini histories of the places you play. I love reading them. I used to play miner's halls and various iterations of working men's clubs in the Welsh Valleys and I loved the old architecture and fixtures/fittings inside. They told a story and I could imagine the places as they used to be in the heyday of the mining industry in those parts.

A good few years a go a band I was in (all early twenties at the time) were looking for a new drummer. Popped an advert out saying rock band playing originals. Stating location, age etc. got a lovely message back from someone who was very interested named all the band we liked (lots of grunge bands). Owns own studio and has all the equipment so don’t worry about bringing a thing. we think brilliant we’ll bring just guitars and bass get all of us in our diddy hatchback. so we turn up to this fellas house in the middle of nowhere, knock on the door. The door is opened by an elderly gentlemen (70s ish) in his slippers, we ask if the lads in, he then tells us that is him. We all look at each other and you can see us all thinking well if he’s brilliant is age a deal breaker? He shows us through to this studio.. which is his conservatory. With a drum kit, a 10 watt guitar amp and no bass amp. Nothin more nothing less. He proceeds to let us hear a some of his previous records he’s played on with some big artists. turns out these records he’s played on are acoustic versions of songs he has recorded himself drumming to but he is adamant he was there in the studio with Clapton, Gilmour etc. needless to say we scarpered at the first opportunity.

Phew what a weekend! Shattered but what a blast! Thanks to everyone who stopped by and played some pretty cool basses. That’s what it’s all about! Great to finally put faces to usernames and man we have some killer players amongst us! Huge thanks to the splendid @AndyTraviswho made the weekend an absolute blast. We will do this again, although I must brush up on my disco/funk chops before the next one. Right, I’ve basses to unload and put to bed. Thanks again all 👏👏👏

Well. I lasted 24 hours.

tool for each job.

Terl said hi. Lovely to play with him this morning.

Good luck at the semis!

I wasn't sure where to put this but I remember @Al Krow speculating about whether you could put a full backline through something as compact as a couple of 10's. Well last night on a mad impulse we did a gig leaving my usual PA (couple of RCF 745's) behind. The pub 'stage' we were playing is really deep and narrow and there is a huge RSJ reducing the ceiling height just where you would want to put the speakers. Two huge 15's would mean guitarist and I would effectively be hidden from the audience so I took a couple of RCF310's which I only normally use with my duo. Crucially I took a sub. So the set up was the 310's, a really old Wharfedale EVP15" compact active sub, an RCF M18 digital mixer, eDrums, bass, guitar, 3 vox fully mixed and everyone with in-ears. The first thing was this was really loud, the pub isn't huge but it was packed with maybe 100 people in two awkward rooms. We had so much headroom left. The drums sounded magnificent with this set up, lovely splashy cymbals, crisp kick drum sound and the floor toms were seismic. I won't pretend we didn't have problems, we didn't have much time to set up and the sub was in a corner and I couldn't really get to it to keep making fine adjustments in a crowded pub, it was probably too loud compared with the tops and I ended up trimming the bottom octave on the graphic by around 5db we were getting a bit of bass resonance on stage too and our guitarist who doesn't sort his in-ears properly was complaining of too much bass. That is the issue with subs, they really do swamp the stage area if they are too close. although theoretically they can go anywhere practical considerations mean placement is an issue. In an ideal world I'd have set up the balance between the sub and tops at a rehearsal but sometimes you have to improvise. Interestingly the set up was no more difficult than usual. The sub weighs a ton (somewhere between 30-40kg in reality) I could have used a trolley but I picked it up. The sub and two 10's took up less space in the car than the two 15" tops. In the pub the footprint of the sub is less than the speaker stand and lifting the two 10's onto their poles was a breeze compared with hefting up the two 15's. 19kg is a lot of speaker to lift above your head. Running the long cables out to the sub then on to the tops somehow seemed tidier than two long cables to either side of the stage, certainly no more difficult. Drums certailnly benefitted from the subs, vocal quality from the RCF 310's has always been fine, integration of the horn and 10" speaekr has been done well. The 4" horn drive means the 745's are outstanding for vocals so there might have been a bit of a loss there but I'd like to A/B the two systems. It wsn't shabby last night. the bar staff said it sounded 'exceptional' and it's been a regular music pub for 25 years+ so I'm happy with that. So a couple of 10's with a sub? Is it a viable system? I would say so absolutely. The ART310's are rated as 127db max (knock off 6db for over claiming) as opposed to 133db (same over-claiming) for the 15's but you really can push the 310's with the subs removing the bass. The sub was filling the room with bass and really not working hard, a single sub would fill most of the pubs in the country for our brand of pop-rock covers band so yes I think this set up would blow most of the stick and a sub line systems out of the water both for sound and volume and be a good match for most single point source 1x12+horn cabs. I note that the RCF ART708 8" cab also claims 127db so you could even go 8" plus a sub. Other brands are available of course.

It's odd how you get thinking about auditions. I'd completely forgot about this east European guitarist we tried out; he was younger than us and was temping in the warehouse where I worked. We decided to not go the route of booking a room, so we tried him out in the extension of my house; stripped down session. He arrived on foot just carrying a guitar (no bag) and a little practice amp. He'd clearly made zero effort to learn any of the material I'd given him and I believe his expectation was that we'd become his backing band. He was also a terrible player and quite terrifying in equal parts. You remember Alexei Sayle's character in The Young Ones? That's what he sounded like when he talked and well, that started the drummer laughing. Every statement ended in 'yes'. He'd go, 'We do one of mine songs now, it's about the Russian Mafia in Stalingrad, yes?' and he'd play a breakneck fast two chord thing with him shouting out sweary vocals about gang members killing each other and disposing of the bodies in furnaces. That was one of the more happy songs. Drummer is laughing. Singer is laughing. I'm trying not to laugh and offer encouragement. He knows exactly where I live. I'm trying to formulate an exit strategy. We stop for coffee. He asks whether I have anything stronger. I watched him down about 1/4 pint of bourbon like it was orange squash on a hot day and then ask if we have vodka. Before long, it was thankfully over. He's going, 'This was great. We must do this again soon, yes? You on the drums, play faster next time, yes?'. Drummer says he's going to be working away for a bit (phew), but singer does not play along however and says it was great and we should do it again soon. B*stard. Thankfully the guy got fired and I never saw him again.