Leaderboard

Appreciate this might not be for everyone, but if anyone fancies some bank holiday viewing, my little gothic duo recently made a short 20 minute film with a very old friend (Haunting the Atom) about growing up in a small town, discovering bands (Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division etc) and getting into bands ourselves. Months of planning went into this (complicated by my Mum passing a few days prior to filming, after a very long illness). Essentially it is a live performance in an old Saxon Church, interspersed with some talk of our roots.An album of the same name is also streaming everywhere worldwide from today. I normally play bass on the original stuff but as we swap out instrumentation, the bass doesn't appear until later. Check it out, I am sure many of you will relate to some of this - even if you like different style of music. It is beautifully shot.

Just got in from a Spacewasters gig at The Barn in Portsmouth. Went very well, the new 5-piece lineup settling in nicely. Stage sound and sound out front were good, and bonus, not too loud as not a very big place. Good crowd too, and we were asked to do 2 extra songs by the people running the gig as we had gone down so well. I used my JMJ Mustang Bass into my Ashdown RM500 v2, with that connected to the headliners Marshall VBC412. I also used my Nux wireless kit which worked a treat.

My 1982 BB2000. I got this 1st April 23 and absolutely love it. Such a stunning instrument.

Having read this thread so far I strongly recommend you guys don’t see my band…..

If you look at my avatar, you will see my Fender Aerodyne. It is one of the first ones made in 2003. I love this bass. it just looks beautiful. I have often thought about buying the P version. It is in the image below alongside another bass that I sold. I love the clean lines, no pickguard, just the front mounted jack socket and three knobs. I have made two mods, the machine heads wree changed for Goton Res-o-LItes and the pickuos were changed to a pair of Di Marzios. I am not so keen on the later models, especially the ones with the Jazz type metal control plate. So browsing on G4M as you do, I found this: Apart from the colour of the fingerboard, I love the look. Is it worth a £150 punt?

I picked up this MC-980 a couple of weeks ago to go with my 924. I’ve been after this particular bass for around 30 years after missing it by literally minutes at a local second hand music shop in the early 90s. I knew the guy who had bought it but I couldn’t prise it out of his hands. He sold it a few years later to another friend of a friend so I knew where it was again. I messaged him out the blue last week and he gave in. I spent the afternoon giving it a thorough deep clean as it hadn’t been used in years. The nut needed replacing as he swapped the strings over so the drones were under the main strings. I restrung it correctly and swapped the saddles back but had to get a nut sorted last week along with a good fret dress. I’m absolutely over the moon with it, I’ve had a Ric 4003/8s, A Spector 8 prototype and a Couple of Chinese cheap brand ones but this one kept niggling away in my head.

Spector MM5 2017 and 1992 Overwater Custom Fusion 4

@Chienmortbb took over ABBM's stock and has been supplying Basschat customers since OBBM retired. His cables are second to none.

Don’t you worry. I’m still the final boss of BB’s. 😉

Ever since selling my Alusonic Django bass I've had severe regrets, and, unfortunately, I just can't afford to get another one, so I've been looking around for a cheaper way of getting something made out of metal. I found Paul Miller of Molindar Ltd in Scotland who makes aluminium bodies for guitars and basses at a very fair price. My second thought was that I didn't wan't a Fender shaped bass (I play a Ricky 4004L and Gibson non-reverse T'bird - both converted to 5 string), so it had to fit in with these. Paul makes a Gretsch Billy Bo Thunderbird shaped guitar body, so I've asked him to make a 5 string bass this shape instead. First things first was to source the parts needed, so I found a 2002 Epiphone (Korea) thunderbird neck, an extra schaller tuner to convert to 5 string (I already had four). A 5 string Ibanez AGB2005 tun-o-matic bridge, a Lace Alumitone pickup, a Kiogan wiring loom and a couple of Gretsch metal knobs. These have all been sent up to Paul so he could fit the body to the neck and pickup. I'm not sure what finish I'm going to go with though. Should I just leave the body rough? Polish it to a shine? Get it chrome plated? Get it chrome plated then acid etched to look rusted up? Any help gratefully received. Photos below and I'll post more when it's finished.

Ive seen this band sooooooo many times I cant remember. The Jazz Cafe in London stand out to me and my sister as the best to be honest. They never disappoint as the musicians they/Bluey have are just so incredibly talented. A couple of records on this album that are just smoking imo.. Me and my sister in the late 90s used to think they were very trendy, then we realised they went way past trends. Who's doesn't like Francis Hylton on an Atelier Z jazz bass laying down a groove. Just wonderful guitar solos on both. I love alot of different music but the mighty Incognito tick so many boxes for me. But thats just me

T'other has forced me to promise not to buy any more guitars. So I'm building them, she never stated anything about making my own, I should have been a lawyer I'll look at it but I really, really shouldn't.

I see you bought @obbm one. Dave's a great guy and you'll get an awesome little head that will have been well looked after. Enjoy and let us know how you get on.

It does the opposite for me - a wonderful joyous record, that was so important for being the first time many people in the UK were aware of ska/bluebeat. Great feel, I love it.

Bloody hell, that Tears in heaven is superb. Charles is so musical, and plays with great sensitivity. He is absolutely a master of bass, if anyone chooses to dislike his stuff then fine, they have the right to that but you can't really deny that he is an incredible musician.

Looking forward to getting your thoughts on it!

I have a Sandberg basic 5 that I believe has the first maple fingerboard that Sandberg made, as I asked for it, through the (now extinct) shop that had a dealership. It was custom made... I love the shape & feel of this bass, even though the neck is quite wide ... I was used to playing a Music Man Stingray 5 before.... It was lighter and perfect for for my needs at the time, I was gigging in different countries and was flying often... I did find the stock pickup a little bland.. & swapped it for an Aguilar MM .. which is definitely warmer sounding... My tech guy thinks Sandberg are nothing special, but an obvious marketing success.. I like my basic 5 but it's not my go to bass these days.. cute though!

Here she is in all her glory. Will take some more photos tomorrow when the light is better. Stingray Classic from 2011. Lake Tahoe Blue with an ebony fretboard and birdseye maple neck. Stunning instrument. Beautiful condition. Only issue is the nut seems cut a little high on the E string. Maybe it’s just me, I’m only used to P basses. This thing is solidly built and the finish is amazing. Was thinking about a Stingray Special with blue body and ebony neck, but when this popped up at bassbros I had to have it. delighted. Plugged in to my Ampeg SGT DI and it’s sounding mighty.

No. but it is an increasingly obsolete view. He, and others like him, have musical careers. They are getting paid to play. That it is not to your taste is irrelevant. That they are getting paid by advertising revenue rather than getting 2% of physical media sales is also irrelevant. He is not releasing music on 78 speed vinyl, he's releasing it on youtube and he has built an audience over years of hard work. And it is hard work. It's coming up with 4 or 5 new vids a week. Planning it, filming it, editing it. Dealing with copyright issues, etc etc. And that ignores the investment of the time needed to be able to play as well as he does. He's probably putting in more than 40 hours a week on it. That's a lot more than most musicians do, or even attempt to do. Complaining about modern ideas is a weird thing. We are on this forum because we play an instrument that has only been around for about 70 years and was laughed at when it was invented. I suspect that when Bottesini asked for a 4 string double bass rather than the traditional 3 string one the response was "Why? What's the point?" as well. Things move on. People like him do not affect the traditionalists ability to get pub gigs, or record what a traditionalist gatekeeper has decided is valid musical expression, or any of what has gone before. It's just something new to go into the pot. And like or not - he's inspiring people to play. 99.9% of them will never reach his ability. But they are playing and increasing sales of kit and making manufacturers invest in more product ideas etc etc. For some reason I had this view that bassists were somehow more rational than guitarists - many guitar forums are filled with people complaining that many new young guitarists say they were inspired to play by Ed Sheeran! Who GAF how they decided to pick up an instrument? The important bit is that they did! As for the amazingly dim sounding "I bet he can't play in a band" type argument.... ye gods that's a poor argument to present. Loads of the flashiest players spend most of their day doing sessions for other people. Just holding down the bottom end, playing roots. Marcus Miller does it. Billy Sheehan does it. There is zero reason to think that someone who can play like CB cannot play what a song needs. I used to play Classical Thump and Colorado Bulldog etc. And I had no problem joining a 25 member jazz big band and just playing what was written. I loved it just as much.

It's in Japan - £1,320, includes shipping. A mate of mine has one of these; I played it for two gigs in Italy about three years ago. The colour is stunning, way nicer than the current crop of Dupont colours being used. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326063652799?itmmeta=01HT5JK29FXPV84PKKTH2R2MR0&hash=item4beae87fbf:g:EPcAAOSw-nRl~h0k&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4KiZwWpnXTyHbL51JdsNlcjvk31BkNY3Idusgw6ewVO%2BJaAcv2Ce7rIIwjqIHvHfizV%2Bva2RZjHYFjnXHlw4CqB7d0OTkwxQ8wkIS6RPUWrNZbOs3d6EgYjJz%2BGKK%2BZ4ufI3IPAdH6ymdsgBMY50u%2BOR4yhxqQVNnnadympcz32NqBcbsJS3dnm8KlNl37GwvCG6XuNzYUNftMXejsGB7%2FTVU7NR9NdpyoG1jCbzFR2qQ6LKTn70go46SMegfICWrj9h7gOwLb4sEb7mf5LowbdyXejT0rXbIS8fVozbKt4n|tkp%3ABk9SR_CkzLLRYw

Played the Rising Sun in Reading last week and got to use my SVT-CL. What a sound!

Thanks. I think I've found someone literally 20 minutes from me. I've just messaged them so will hopefully find out next week. Photos to follow.

Why, what happened yesterday?

I have no particular expertise in this area, however I would be wary of a neck where the end of the truss rod is sunk in like that. My limited understanding of what might be happening makes me wonder whether there is an issue with the anchor at the other end, such as the wood holding it compressing under the tension. It might be perfectly okay, but it would irk me if it was on one of my guitars or basses.

I do enjoy my obbm speaker cable. I call it the anaconda

Hope all you playing this Easter have a great time of worship!!

Yeah, saw the FB post, cheers. Have to confess I wouldn't consider myself a Goth in any way, shape or form, but I do like the music so it's a pleasure to support an endeavour like this. More power to you! 👍

🙏 Not sure if you saw the social media post but there was a small delay with the pressing. All the envelopes are done up and I should be getting CDs out as soon as they arrive. They are currently with Royal Mail. That’s really cool that you ordered one.

Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis - a yobby shout-along for shouty yobs to shout along to in a yobby manner.

Imposter alert!!!

Just to finish off this thread - if for no other reason than to post a pedalboard pic! This is what I've ended up with. Sounds really good and overall I'm very happy (the compressor especially) - but - I can't let go of the part of me that feels this preamp/wireless tied to an HX Effects would have been the perfect hybrid rig for me. Just couldn't find a power supply to do the job. So this is the board for the Sweden tour in a few weeks!

Most of the songs I really don’t like are due to me having overplayed them in poor-quality covers bands over many years. While I’ve never liked Wonderwall (or indeed Oasis in general), the experience of dragging that sound out probably a few hundred times onstage for drunken punters to hug and sway to has traumatised me for life. It’s at the level of “turn it off as fast as possible,” if I ever hear it.

I've been cranking the thing up. Blimey! Epic. I'm really impressed with the output, clarity, transparency etc. It's completely silent too; no interference from dimmer switches (like the A/O 900). I suppose the real test would be when I get in a room with people, but if it's no good for that, then I'll just use it at home. It's stupid cheap; at £68 it's less than a night out at the pub and a kebab. What's not to like?

At a recent gig, the second guitarist's mic (for BVs) was feeding back rather readily. I noticed that although it was behind the FOH speaker, due to his pedalboard he'd got it angled at coming on for 45 degrees towards that side - he was quite close to the speaker too. At mid-session interval I got him to adjust the mic position so it was pointing about 45 degrees away instead (cardioid mic) and that reduced the feedback issue considerably. I'm not sure that would have come to mind as a possible cause had the issue of cardioid and hypercardioid polar patterns not come up in here recently.

+1 I used to really love it, but at some point I got sick to death of it seemingly being every 3rd song you hear wherever you go in December. If it comes on while I'm listening to the radio I'll kill the volume before the first bar is over.

Ladies and gentlemen... Shakira!!!! https://bassmagazine.com/shakira-plays-bass-during-surprise-times-square-performance

Well it arrived about half-hour ago and I've had a quick noodle. I jacked it into a Darkglass 1x12 and put the GED2112 into the front of it. Spector Euro X. First impressions, well made, weighty. Volumewise there's obviously going to be some parity with how hot the input signal is...did a brief bit of tweaking with the GED and the amp and rolled up the volume. It's certainly got some oomph, even at about 25% volume. I'm very surprised at how good it appears to be. Three small tone controls on the top, there's a pleasant indent at the noon position, so you're hoping this is the transparent point. Quite please, to be honest. Surprised, even. £68.00. Belter.

for me its the line in the intro to war pigs