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First time in Arbroath with BLOCKBUSTARZ last night in Royal British Legion. Sold out again which is always a great morale booster. Audience were up for it from the first song. Lots of people turned up in Glam gear too which is always great to see from the stage. It was so enjoyable we had a contest for best dancer and best glam dresser who both won one of our T shirts. A few others we gave out our new pin badges. Was very warm even with our fans on but air-con units above the stage were firing out warm air all night. We had a smaller upstairs function room to get changed in which was good too. Lot better than a small cupboard sized room that some venues have given us in the past. 4 blokes and a female singer doesn't work in cramped spaces My usual gear, Sandberg VM4 into Ampeg SVT7 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Shure wireless unit. Stage a bit boomy even with gramma board it was a bit noticeable. Had to turn the bass EQ down a bit on the amp to clean it up but no big deal. They want to book us for 3 nights in 2025 incl a Xmas gig. Bit of a drive tho 2.5hrs on way there and 3hrs on way home. On way home the roads were quiet but they closed the main M90 right after the Queensferry bridge crossing meaning i had to take a detour. Wasn't home till 4am so by the time i unloaded the car with my bass gear and the 3 way 15" PA cabs it was 4:30am and then a coffee to wind down getting to bed at 5am and back up with a cat banging cupboard doors at 8am. Bit tired this morning to say the least. Probably one of the most enjoyable gigs we've played. Just great fun all night. One or two wee hiccups but nothing we couldn't cover. Dave

Last Night: Bloxwich hockey club's end of season awards/prizegiving/dinner/pissup at Old Wyrley Hall in Walsall (I think?) with Down to the Floor - 5 piece girl-fronted modern popular music beat combo. Britney, Beyonce, Dua Lipa, Arianna Grande, Rhianna, Girls Aloud, Spice Girls, Whitney type stuff. Load in at 5 so we're set up, soundchecked and out of the way before the awards and speeches. The stage is about the size of a postage stamp (a normal one, not one of the big commemorative ones) so there was barely room for my size 12s and the New Improved Enormous Pedalboard (NIEPB). The Bass amp was on the other side of the stage and I had to fold my stand up between sets, it was that small. I had a bit of a mare setting up as the Bass amp (not mine) decided to commit suicide (luckily I had mine with me) AND my midi controller decided it didn't want to play nicely, so I took ages to set up and had to soundcheck without IEMs and hope it would all be fine. Soundcheck done (sort of) and with some time to kill, a couple of us went to the drummer's gaff and watched most of Pretty Woman with his Mrs (Spoiler Alert: Julia Roberts is pretty and also a woman. Richard Gere is also in it (He's not a woman, as far as I am aware. I wouldn't call him 'pretty' either, but I believe he is generally considered to be quite handsome (if you like that sort of thing))). Back to the venue for 9ish, sat around and kicked our heels (and had the singer paint my nails a fetching shade of purple) while the prizegiving and roistering continued, went on about 10:30 to a room full of incredibly excited and heavily refreshed hockey players - imagine rugby players but without the restraint, decorum or dignity. They absolutely loved it, the dancefloor was packed from the first note, we played really well despite being wedged onto a tiny stage - I was so close to the drummer, I could smell his earwax. We had our first choice singer, she's fantastic - she's always nervous about Love on Top (the song), but she smashed it - including the four key changes and the whistle register stuff. Highlights were Toxic, which we nailed (a relief after we totally flubbed it last time) and Crazy in Love/Crazy mashup which is our collective favourite now we've nailed the arrangment (It's easy enough: 6, 4, 2, 8, 8, (4), 8, 10, Crazy, 6, 4, loads, (*4), ending). Two 45 minute sets, finished about half midnight... they would have had us playing til 3 AM, they were loving it that much. The organisers loved us, they want us back next year (again) and have promised a bigger venue (again). Played the 'Ray 5 -> New Improved Enormous Pedalboard (NIEPB) -> MB 802 (with PA support - I'd love to hear the OC-2 and C4 synth bassline on 'How will I know?' through those subs) Foot fans: White DMs with purple laces (to match the white shirt with purple tie and purple fingernails - you think I just throw these outfits together?!) Packed up (the drummer can now officially carry his entire kit including cymbals and hardware in one trip), home about 2 for last nights curry and a Westons reserve (8.2% ABV). Great night.

I was at the Dog and Duck last night when I saw Charles Berthoud sitting in with a blues band. It was terrible - he kept playing so many notes and was slapping and tapping over everything. He was also playing a class D amplifier that had no heft. Nobody in the crowd was dancing due to the lack of groove. Eventually the band got sick of him and invited a Basschat greybeard onto the stage to sit in. From the moment he plugged his (modified) Harley Benton into his vintage '80s Trace Elliot everything changed. The power and heft of his whole notes and the tasteful use of minor pentatonic shapes (no matter whether over a major or minor tonality) had everybody up on the dancefloor grooving away. I later saw Charles outside pacing up and down nervously and chain smoking, a bit like when Clapton saw Hendrix for the first time. True story. There's a lesson for us all there I think.

A return to the Apple and Parrott in Torquay last night. Our drummer couldn't make it as he had tickets for Mr Big, so we drafted in our previous drummer, my son, who still deps for us. It was party central and plenty of people up for dancing and a good time. In house PA and engineer always gives a great FOH sounds, although the stage sound can be a bit odd, but was sorted for set 2. It's a great vibe there which we can feed off. Lots of great compliments from people afterwards, including one guy who admired my playing and my Stingray. It was a late finish, but at least no PA to breakdown. Looking forward to the next one. My usual set up, Stingray 2eq, Ashdown RM 500-Evo II, BF 210 on gramma pad due to raised stage.

Played the cart and horses, Stratford, again last night. Really like the venue and sound. Bits that kept the night 'interesting' was 2 out of 3 bass cabs died during checks/ first band...really odd...and we didn't get to the bottom of it. We also had a ground loop problem during line check that was fixed through more luck than judgement I think. Anyway, performed reasonably, played pretty well, everyone seemed to have fun ✌️

I got my first 5-string bass in the very early '90s (I still have it) I got my second one for Christmas, 2021 (I'm never getting rid of this). I then joined Basschat and I now have 8 of them. This place. *walks away shaking his head* Mark

The gig itself was OK, loads of mmistakes, but seemed to go down well, however, we found out that the singer is in another band, which takes his count up to three bands and a solo, singer/songwriter/cover act around the local pub circuit. Our guitarist is less than happy, and we ended up having a band discussion prior to the gig, but he's a singer, therefore he's an egotistical, self-centred narcissist.

The cello had an outing last night - so the gig was a bit different to most here... orchestra in a church in Carlisle with two operatic soloist. And yes, orchestras have similar issues with sound as bands, even though we're unamplified. Our issues is that church acoustics are almost always awful, overly resonant and leads to mushy sound, particularly in the bass department.... where have I heard that before? Decent audience. Only one on the very tricky opera arias had significant 'moments'

The Rock Formation returned to The Ashton Club in Bicester last night. Delayed start due to the football but all seemed to enjoy themselves. Dep drummer had a new kit which sounded good. We messed up All these things by The Killers somehow which is odd as it's always in our set list. Don't think the well oiled punters noticed though!

I got my first real five-string Bought it at the five and dime Played it 'til my fingers bled Was the spring of 1996 It doesn't have quite the same ring to it 😎

https://app.suno.ai/song/94a8b4db-a105-4bb3-87c4-83ae1dfd2eb5 OK...the lyrics are a bit cheesy but the melodies are surprisingly catchy. I worry for the music industry though if this is still early days.

I found this oddly therapeutic to watch! Come in, sit down, pull up a chair …

I must have missed the memo but I'm not sure "what bands actually need in a bass player" means and can be quantified in such a generalised manner. Each band has different needs and I'm sure that swapping Stanley Clarke and Adam Clayton into each others bands wouldn't be what was needed. Horses for courses and all that. Not sure what you mean by "self-promoting PITA" either? Any company or person making a sustainable career should promote themselves. That is how they build their market and get more work. What PITA bread has to do with this I don't know! 🤷‍♀️🤣 5 secs on Google gave me THIS. I'm sure its a pretty abridged version of his musical career as his many appearances at the "Dog & Duck" probably don't make as good a selling point as "touring and recording as a sideman on a dozen records and tours" does for the reader. YMMV

Hopefully a future update will allow us to force play this whenever a member has the tab open

Just my own opinion, but isn’t Mr Berthould, genius technician as he may be, a self-promoting PITA and the antithesis of what bands actually need in a bass player?

4 strings for me, but with an extra 2 frets for a low D.

In the past a band I played in got around the problem of having a guitarist who thought he could be multiple bands by booking gigs for every Friday and Saturday as far into the future as possible. When his other bands realised that he wouldn't be available to play for them for the next 3-4 months they quickly dispensed with his services.

It was gig time last night - concert of operatic music. Instrumental items included Wagners prleude to Act 3 of Lohengrin, suite from Carmen by Bizet, the waltz and polonaise from Eugène Onegin by Tchaikovsky, ballet suite from Faust by Gounod. Two soloists singing various items including the Flower Duet (think BA adverts...). Someone caught me at it...

Talkbass: Some people worry about minutiae, that should spend a lot more time playing. Like @BigRedX says, show me the ramp! Just shim it with a bit of card

Interesting one last night... The Horn in St Albans doing a 00's night. I get on well with the soundman, he's a former bass player and knows his stuff. I told him I might like to go DI pedal into the PA and no amp, he persuaded me to keep using the amp and I'm glad I did, fantastic sound. Gig-wise it was one of those where all the songs we never mess up we really messed up! Lots went wrong, I missed loads of cues, guitarist did also, drummer did... Singer broke two guitar strings... But, the place absolutely rocked. We were recording the gig and we don't really want to listen to it, very few songs were performed without fault, but we had a good time.

I only started playing 5ers seriously about 18 months ago. I think I have 10

A few months ago, I watched a video of a guy designing and building a guitar/bass with a spinning round neck. He surprisingly got it to work! Now Charles Berthoud has got his hands on it. Not everyone's cup of tea, but you have to admire his ability to play his style on almost any stringed instrument.

Wax finish will liven it up somewhat but it needs a bit more. Not too struck on the Cabronita look. Hand cut this pearloid scratchplate a few years back. Did a quick trim to suit the rounded heel, I think it holds promise 🙂

Did you climb back in through the same toilet window? The world needs to know 😆.

Snapped this morning - fretless and fretted US Stingrays, with some bonues Trace Elliot - so good I used the thumbnail on my profile!

@CharlesBerthoud‧ 1.78M subscribers‧425 videos https://www.charlesberthoud.com/about.html I think he probably does all right for himself and he strikes me as a very accomplished musician.

thats it, im upping my game 🙂 still a good clip

Karl Wallinger, who sadly died recently, massively under acknowledged artist. I absolutely love Private Revolution, even it reminds me of an ex, who introduced me to World Party. Andy Partridge, XTC. Another genius who should get way more recognition.

You can join us in the next month in April composition challenge

I may be able to make this as it's about 50 miles away - it might clash with another commitment, need to check. If I can attend, I'll bring the ACG and Manton

You know how earworms stick around in your head for ages and ages after hearing them? Well, that didn't

Did the wet haddock help? Just shim the neck. Sometimes basses are supplied with a shim. Ski jump? Go skiiing then. End of thread.

I did that "quick reply to the thread title" thing and it made me chuckle. Sorry. "What to look for in a real US stingray?" - well, one thing you won't need to look hard for - the lining of your wallet after you purchase one! Sorry, I have nothing further to add, and I never, not once promised to be useful. We now return you to your regular, unscheduled programmes.

I switched from a four to a five six years ago and I can't see myself ever going back. Once I'd got the hang of extending box shapes across the fretboard and re-positioned the starting notes for scales, everything just fell into place. I did go down the rabbit hole of thinking I had to play across the fretboard for every song I was learning though, and it took a wee while to break that habit. Five-string fingering very often makes things easier, but sometimes it makes things harder. Depends on the song. The only time I play a four these days is when I'm teaching the Girls Rock School Edinburgh bass class, as that's designed for rookies - it's more of a confidence-building environment for women than an attempt to discover the next Suzi Quatro - so four-string basses and tabs are the order of the day.

I had a 5 string for a while , trouble with turning up at a gig / open mic / jam night with a 5 string is there is the automatic assumption that you are some kind of sh*t hot bass god , rather than a weekend warrior with an extra string . Sold it , happy with 4 .

A simplified version of my board based on our current set needs. Channel 1 on the tri mixer is just the octamizer, channel 2 is the WA mutation phasor followed by the grape phaser ( I discovered the two together sound super funky. The grape is very mid heavy with faster mod rates and the mutation is more bass heavy and slower), channel 3 is the fuzz followed by the fwonkbeta (together it’s devastating). Channel 1 & 3 thru a double 18 bin will make you evacuate your bowels! Think Gary Numan polymoog on steroids. HoF at the end, also because the toneprint I use has reverb and chorus… nice bonus. Then off to FoH with a Radial stagebug. Oh, and spectracomp uses the Captain East toneprint which is the best comp I’ve heard.

Very sad to read this, I had no idea about his 11yr battle…. I only met him once, in 2021, but it stood out. I agreed to buy a green Stingray Special 5 from him and we agreed to meet a month or so later when I was on holiday in the Forest of Dean. When I got there, he had two Stingray Special 5s with him. “I thought you might want to try them both in case you liked the other one better” he said. Amazing generosity. I did like the other one better, bought it and that thoughtfulness stayed with me. Thinking of his wife and family.

Peavey Standard 260 Series Preamp: 2-Channel Preamp: Channel 1 "Effects" and Channel 2 "Normal". A rotary switch can be used to choose channel 1 or 2, or channel 1 and 2 parallel or in series

Here's a looooooong but interesting review of "ski jump problems" on Talkbass where a number of luthiers / repair people have tried to gather actual data and critically analyse all potential failure modes. The top and bottom I take from it is that it seems that the "ski jump" usually is the neck bending in the area around the 14th to 16th fret where the transition from the heel (rectangle profile) to the neck (circular profile) occurs due to the cross section of the neck (and therefore stiffness) is reduced by approx. 25%. We tend to think that the bend is in the heel area (at the last frets) as that is where the strings choke out. They also talk about the effect of adding shims and concluded that fitting a shim doesn't cause the ski-jump as the neck bending they identified was not in the heel area but slighly towards the nut in the transition area. YMMV

I'm disputing it. I've never encountered it in over 50 years of owning and playing guitars and basses No-one has risen to my challenge earlier in the thread to produce actual evidence of their own instrument that exhibits this and furthermore has adversely affected the performance of said instrument. I call bullshit.

I just took delivery of my Masterbuilt Alusonic J-Supreme. These are outstanding basses and definitely worth checking out! It has a great modern hifi sound and doesn’t need lots of tweaking with the 3 band eq. You guys have the luxury of going to Bass Direct to check them out, but I took a chance and totally relied on many discussions with Polly the owner of Alusonic to get the custom spec I needed. I’m going to sell my Sadowskys to finance another!

Most likely - yes. But I think this is down to algorithms on YouTube/Social Media that he has to play like this to get likes and clicks. He is probably a rock solid bass player if you need him to be, but that's not going to wow the internet and make him money.

Game on, I reckon. FWIW I "did" physics at school to CSYS level (6th year Scottish qualification - overlap with 1st year Uni course), so I probably can't contribute scientifically to this discussion, but I could probably tell you how fast the wet haddock someone's about to get smacked upside the head with was travelling when it hit them.

Same here. I'll use the B string for the occasional low D as a fill note when playing to a G chord, and for a beefier sound when I want it. I had a fretless 5 for a while in the 90s, didn't particularly get on with it, and couldn't find a 5 with a neck that I liked anywhere near as much as the slim and shallow neck on my '87 Thumb until I happened to buy an Antoniotsai bass purely on a whim from Vietnam. It so happened that I also bought a Squier 5 at the same time, a Super Special or something, P body with J pickups. The Antoniotsai came and the Squier went straight away. That was 2007 and after a bigamous period of a year or so, I went fully 5. Now I still have the Thumb 4 (and a fretless equivalent) and an acoustic 4, the other 20+ are 5s or 6s (plus a 7, 10, and 12). I take the 4s out now and again to open mics, which keeps me on my toes. I completely agree with @lozkerr that just because you can use 5-string fingering doesn't mean you must. In fact, playing Oasis's "Don't look back in anger", I find myself alternating between 4 and 5 fingering, partly in order to stay awake.

A lot of musicians and the general public to this day, have not acknowledged, or are even aware of the achievements of John 'JR' Robinson. He was also responsible for one of the most iconic drum intros in pop history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robinson_(drummer)

I'd like to think that saved someone's life in a flood.

I'm out. After managing to hold off for a few weeks, I have caved in and purchased the rather nice Guild Starfire that has been sitting in the 'Basses for Sale' section. I'm still one up for the year however since two basses have gone out the door. Now, Please can someone invest in my 16 channel soundcraft mixer, or my Furch dreadnought and I'll be able to tell the family that I'm financially quits for the month? Otherwise I may have to lie...