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I checked with moderator Ped if posting this is okay. Thank you Chris for the green light. The Best sounding bass pickup of all time is the Gibson low impedance stacked humbucker that was used in the Les Paul Bass between 1968 and 1979. At least in my opinion. 😉 I really think they're amazing. Extremely silent. Magnificent dynamic response. Tight low end. Chrystal clear top end. And very versatile. For years I roamed Ebay and Reverb to score them to put in various bass guitars. But last few years they've become as rare as hen's teeth. And when you finally do find one the prices are astronomically high. Many times I tried to find a pickup maker who can replicate it. And many of them said they could. But in the end they all had to admit they couldn't. Until recently! I joined forces with Mike Rose from Gemini Pickups in Wales. I sacrificed an original and carefully dissected it. The pickup revealed its very unusual architecture. And step by step we reverse engineered it. The Brooks Gemini was born! I installed the Brooks Gemini into my Epiphone Jack Casady Signature bass. The bass previously sported an original Gibson lo-z humbucker. Here's the video demo of the Brooks Gemini bass pickup: a faithful replica of the low-impedance stacked humbucker that Gibson used in their Les Paul Bass between 1968 - 1979. Bass played by Dutch rock royalty Ivo Severijns. Straight into the desk. No compressor, No amp, No speaker, No speaker simulator. Just an honest registration of the sound of the pickup. What you see is what you get! Enjoy!

Morning everyone, It's 365 days since Nick passed. I wanted to share my favourite photo of him and thank you all for your support in 2025. He gave us 19710 days of LOVE, LAUGHS and RIFFS ... Shine on brother 💫🎸😇💚🤟

New Tiny Pink Bass Day!!! It's me birfday, innit! And my lovely partner & lifelong co-conspirator in crimes against music knows well enough what will delight and enchant me. And she has nailed it. As most of you will know (there already being an exhaustive thread about these) it's a Cort GB Shortscale - a 30" shorty with a J width neck and single 'bucker, 3 band eq and series/parallel/single coil switching. First impressions - it's incredibly playable - lately I've been playing way more guitar than bass and picking this up feels like no transition at all. The setup's OK - the action will go lower & E string intonation's slightly off - but the fretwork's impeccable, not the slightest buzz & no sharp ends. My previous experience with (admittedly very low-end) short & medium scales had me half-expecting floppy-feeling, dead sounding E & A strings but string tension's spot on, and everything feels right. Plugged in, it's a beast. I've barely scratched the surface with what the EQ & switching will do, but first impressions are that it's stupidly versatile. I love it. And it's so... so... PINK!

Sooooo, spent a fun hour or so the other night taking my 2022 Rickenbacker 4003 apart and checking all the connections, pots etc to figure out why the volume for one of the pickups wasn't working. Put it back together only to find I couldn't get the tone working either. Turned out I was turning the wrong knobs. I've been playing my Gibson EB-2D a fair bit recently, and the volume for the neck pickup is where the tone for the neck pickup is on the Rick. I have now invested in a set of labelled knobs from Rickysounds. This is another reason why I like Precisions.

First gig for 6 months, first gig as a 5 piece and only our 3rd in total for TTFC - a 30th birthday party at The Lescar in Sheffield. Cool place, great acoustics and staff. Went ampless with my Fender jazz 5 into a HX stomp - easy peasy. The birthday girl was the bass player in a previous band with our keys, sax and singer. So the crowd was made up of lots of their mates, a proper home fixture. We played well, I was happy with my end, my improved discipline in practising and staying focused onstage is starting to pay off. Recorded the whole thing, I'll post some stuff once it's all edited down. Birthday girl got up on bass for a couple of times, so I got the chance to listen to my own band and take a few pics. A great room for photography too. We've already got more gigs coming in, very gratifying after an extended period spinning the project up and getting the set sorted.

Off to the Hartshead Moor WMC on Saturday for a 60th birthday bash. We'd done one of those last year and it was essentially a paid rehearsal with nobody up and dancing really until we were near the end of our second set, and when we saw the size of the party we weren't confident, but this lot were a lot livelier, with dancers up in varying amounts from the middle of our first set, and we went down well. It turned out the organiser, the birthday boy's niece, had seen us before, so knew what to expect, and we pretty much nailed everything right up to the drummist ending our last song Two Tribes two bars too early. Fortunately we were all well aware he can never remember when it ends every time so managed to style it out, although it sounded a touch anticlimactic. Went with the Siredowsky and trusty ABM into the Two10S, which was probably overkill given the volume dial didn't get above 9 o'clock, which was also good because apparently the club often gets complaints when bands are too loud so we played quieter than we thought we would, but with the bonus that said drummist comments that he could actually hear all of us for once! 😂 We politely rebuffed the birthday boy's husband's entreaties to let him buy us drinks, but I gratefully accepted the offer to snag a couple of muffins from the buffet on the way out. Home by 10 and actually got to hang out with the missus for a bit, which was nice. (We've played smaller stages but this was the first time our singist had experienced a bass guitar to the head so was grumbling a bit)

Edited with additional photos. Another dep gig last night with my 'new band' (I'm getting to be more regular than their regular bassist) in the smallest venue I've ever played. There are a number of small shops, coffee bars and alcohol bars in Mumbles that appear to have been set up in former domestic housing. This one was in a terrace of 'houses' and was pretty much the living room and dining room knocked into one. We were a 5 piece with keys set up across the narrow width of the room at the back, with keys, electric drums and me against the beer wall (see photo) and the singer and guitarist in front of us. I was at the end that bordered on the narrow space between the end of the bar and the passage to the toilets. Fortunately, I'd been warned about the space and took my EHB1000S. Even so, I felt like a drawbridge all night, having to lift the neck as people went past. By the end of the night, I had two people stood next to me and another three directly in front, effectively blocking the route to the loos. Having been hit in the mouth by my microphone as the stand was jogged by a drunken dancer in the past, I'm never happy when the audience is so close and for the last 30 minutes or so I stopped singing (BVs) and moved the mic stand. Shortly after, it was hit by a drunken punter who had already lost her balance. Had she not been grabbed by her partner, she would have become part of the drum kit. All this said, it was a very friendly audience and there was no hint of ill will or aggression that often happens with such a crowded... er... crowd. From the off the place was bouncing and by the end of the night, all the chairs and most of the tables were occupied by dancers. The owner was dancing on the bar. The set was mainly 90s and 2000s rock covers with a few oldies thrown in. As I have mentioned previously this era of music passed me by at the time so when I first started with this band I had a lot of catching up to do. But there are some great songs that I missed out on first time around. That said, my two favourites in our set are 'Mr Blue Sky' and 'Born to Run'. At the end of the night, after the landlord had climbed down off the bar, we were given extra money over the agreed fee which is, perhaps, the most telling feedback. Once again I was really pleased with my sound, which was nice and punchy without booming. With a keyboard and drums going through the PA the potential for lower mids and bass 'mush' was high but we managed to keep the mix nice and clean. I was using the two TE 1x10" cabs fed by the power amp stage of my Peavey Minimax 600. The signal chain into the FX return was slightly modified because of the lack of space; instead of the floor pedal board, I had pedals on the amp itself (I have velcro strips on it for just such and occasion. The chain was Behringer TU300 tuner/mute > Ampeg classic pre-amp > Sine HPF (set to 40hz) > Behringer DI. We were debating whether to DI the bass but I didn't think the size of the venue warranted it. The option was there just in case. This was the first time I'd tried out my new XVive U45 IEM system. Paired with a set of KZ SAR earbuds, it was plugged in to the headphone out of the mixer and I had a nice vocal/drum/keys mix and some protection from the stage volume. On the feet last night were a pair of black Skechers. I had some nice compliments on my playing and on the sound of the kit. No photos or videos of the band have surfaced but here are a couple I took of the set up pre-gig. This is the width of the 'stage'. Beyond the speaker stand on the right is the entrance to the toilets. I was stood under the speaker with my head just brushing the underside of the cab. Sadly, the beer wall was not our rider. More photos have emerged:

The Diamond - Sutton in Ashfield. A great live music venue with a lovely family feel to the whole thing. It was an early Sunday afternoon gig but there were still 70+ Cheap Trick fans in attendance despite a £10-£12 entry fee. Taxman.mp4

First show of 2026 and we played a micro brewery in Calne, Wiltshire. Super friendly staff and great little space. No real walk up (it was on an industrial estate) but we had 4 or 5 groups of people come especially to see us, which filled up the audience. The only low point was when I made a flippant joke about Red Hot Chilli Peppers (who, whilst not really being a fan, I certainly don’t have an issue with) and it transpired that everyone in the venue liked them! The bar man even put them on the stereo after our set! I never criticise other acts normally so I don’t know why I said it, but we soon clawed it back. No harm done. Afterwards, I was asked why I had six pedals when I only have two feet. A comment that I reflected heavily upon, whilst driving home in my manual car! We played well and I was pleased we pulled as many as we did. A good night.

Standing room only at the Griff and Coton Club in Nuneaton. We were half expecting an empty room, but far from it. It seems we had drawn a few in - we overhead one woman say it's the first time she had been in the place in over 30 years! 😂 A really good crowd. It took a little while to get them dancing, but then they didn't stop. My sound was strange in the first spot, which I put down to the really low ceiling in the "stage" area and fact I wasn't on top of the amp for a change so could hear it better. However then I noticed the knobs for the mids had been knocked up accidentally. I set them back to flat and all was well in Rumble world again. Many compliments and shaking of hands afterwards. The only slight disappointment were the cheese and onion cobs - we've had better.

We played at Artisan Tap in Stoke on Saturday. It was absolutely rammed, "sold out" and then some! Ace night with everyone singing along. We played just the acoustic songs but that was still over 1hr45. Still, the quieter sound means it's an easier gig for me on drums. At one point I noticed the gate on the acoustic guitar fluttering and had to ask the sound engineer to turn it off. To be fair he's always fantastic, but I wonder why anyone would put a gate on an acoustic guitar in a live situation? They want to strum a chord and sustain it, and a gate will always kill that.

My p Basses now 58 p original 64 p original 78 p original Moollon crazy Finish

Just been offered yet another charity (i.e. everyone bar the musicians gets paid) gig. Support a good cause, "exposure", etc, etc. As we're not completely heartless bar stewards and the good cause in question was a reasonable one, we suggested we might be paid expenses, so that, whilst we give our time and effort for free, we don't actually make a loss on the evening. Petrol still needs to be paid for, we'll need a drink or two plus something to eat and so on. Cue pearl clutching on the part of the organiser, "but it's for charity, etc". "We realise that", we replied. "We don't expect to profit. We just don't want to lose money". They were not happy, so we said we'd pass, thanks. What is wrong with these people? Are they wealthy dilettantes who don't have to worry about where the next penny comes from? Do the think everyone else is in the same privileged position as them?

Bloody good gig at the Exchange tonight. Left us all buzzing. It was short notice so unrehearsed for ages. We have a big gig at the Earl Haig in February and two rehearsals to sort new material. After tonight happy we don't have to focus on the existing set.

It turned a few heads, especially the head of R&D who is a design sepcialist

It subtly changes the sound, and gives people yet another thing to endlessly debate the virtues of on an electric bass

Saturday we were at Wilnecote WMC, which is now the home (literally) of Sub Zero. I don't know why, but I seemed constantly mentally off balance when setting up the PA and my rig. Finally got it all together. Took the Poseidon out again today, having restrung it with Elites 40-125. Also started using the Zoom MS-70CDR+ instead of the MS-60B+, as I've mentioned in the open mics thread, as there's more choruses and a better pitch shifter on the 70 than the 60 which means I can pitch shift Sweet Child O' Mine instead of playing it a fret down (I play it with the other band and on open mic nights in D, so playing it in C♯ is going to cause confusion at some point). I think we played pretty well although there were a couple of minor fluffs, and the side dots on the Esh are very small and on a stage without much light from above it's easy to miss your positioning which meant my quota of bum notes was a little higher than normal. Audience was fairly sparse (January and February tends to be) and we didn't get any dancers. Our singer has got a pitch shifter for his guitar which means that the change into Sweet Child O' Mine, our last song, is a lot smoother as he used to have to change guitar for a downtuned one just for that song (the guitarist has a Variax so can pitch shift on the guitar). Gear - Esh Poseidon V -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-70CDR+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. Footwear remains Caravelle memory foam trainers.

The audition went well. Blasted through seven of the ten songs. The usual botche and getting lost once or twice. But generally a positive vibe from the band. They're auditioning one more bass player next week, so a ten day wait for a decision.... Good bunch of guys as well.

Got an audition for a new band tonight... About 70% certain on the ten songs I was given to learn. To be honest, I'm not nervous at all. At nearly 61, if it doesn't work out I'll not be peeved. Not a huge shift in style from my last band. More modern metal then old school death metal which the last lot did. Looking forward to be back playing more than anything 😁

Playing at a local Wassail this evening. I'm right in front of the camera.

So, I may have just wondered over to Bass Direct online. Been wanting another 4 string super light for a while different to my current TT SL for a bit of variety…got the royal approval then this just happened below (under 6lbs)…Monday hopefully! Probably sell my 5 string SL TT - don't want to but I really don't use it…and someone out there will need that beauty.

OK, everyone calm the flip down please. If you want to argue, do it via PMs. Not here. Your luscious, pouting mod team would hate to have to lock the thread, but if it descends into acrimony, it's toast.

In these situations the guys in the bands are the biggest contributors. It's not something I get involved in. You're effectively donating. I used to ask if the bar staff were working free and if the beer profits went to the charity but now I just say, "Sorry, we're booked for a private function." There're plenty of bands that'll play it. And, a good standard response I keep in case I hear "that phrase", is "Yes, I know but we get all the exposure we need at paid gigs".

Right. I work with our local Foodbank and Community Grocery (pay a few quid for a week's worth of food and toiletries etc). First of all, if folk are wandering past free fruit, it's about dignity, not a preference for haribo. A lot of people feel ashamed to take free help, especially publicly. This is why the Community Grocery model has worked really well, alongside Foodbanks, as people have the dignity of paying a small amount. Almost all of the food and supplies for the Community Grocery is donated by supermarkets. Supermarkets also sponsor and make regular large donations of food to Foodbanks, which also saves a lot of food going to waste. They leave baskets out at their stores to make it easier for you to donate food too, if you'd like to. I don't understand why anyone would be angry about that. Frankly this is a problem that shouldn't exist. More people need and use these services then you would think, or stereotype. On the wider issue of charity events, it's not a gig for you, it's a fundraiser. That's the whole point. Don't expect to be paid, but donate your time if you support their cause. Or don't. It's pretty simple.

I literally had a first dip gig with Full Flavour last night and they have these. I was wondering where they were from! BTW - if anyone gigs in the Camberley / Blackwater area, Mr Bumble is a nice venue to play - audience skews slightly older, so the classics go down well - and for a 5-piece we got £75 each, so for a pub gig, that's pretty good. Appreciative audience, good beer, and they have 3 pool tables out back, where apparently if the band stops everybody asks why the music stopped, so there's that! Here's the setlist (ignore the key sigs, we sorted that out later :-D) - indication of what works. The Weekend track (blinding lights) was amazing (no rehearsal, first go!) - the keyboard player I know from the Alanis covers band, and he'd spent some time on the synth sounds for it. I'd found a great Moog patch for the C4 synth pedal which swelled beautifully and brought in the texture with harder playing, and it all sounded amazing. Lovely when that happens. Has anyone dug out the tools and adjusted their bass action halfway through a gig? First set (I didn't get the chance to warm up properly) I realised the action was a little high, and after a quick quarter-turn down on the bottom 3 strings, things were a lot less difficult (I keep the neck really flat on my basses). Always take tools 🙂 Set 1 Let me entertain you 125 E 💯 You should be dancing 125 Gm 💯 Don’t stop me now 151 A 💯 I’m still standing 89 Bb 💯 Video killed the radio star 131 C#/Db 💯 Cosmic Girl 120 B 💯 Angels 150 E 💯 I feel good 142 D 💯 Dancing in the dark 149 C#/Db - write out the structure Superstition 100 E 💯 Baby when you’re gone 125 C 💯 Hard to Handle 104 E 💯 Simply the best 120 F 💯 Blinding lights 171 D#/Bb - write out a structure (not a complex song) Uptown Funk 115 C 💯 Summer of 69 139 D 💯 Set 2 Final Countdown 118 F#/Gb 💯 All right now 120 D 💯 Mama Mia 138 D 💯 Pinball Wizard 123 C - write out the structure and watch for the modulated last verse Don’t stop Believing (Journey) 119 E 💯 Sweet Home Alabama 98 G 💯 Remember us this way 130 C - write out the structure, not too complex Rebel yell 166 E 💯 Man I feel Like a Woman 125 Bb 💯 Don’t stop (FMac) 119 A 💯 Proud Mary 171 D 💯 It’s my life 120 C - write out the structure Highway to Hell 116 F#/Gb 💯 We will rock you 81 D 💯 I love rock and roll 94 E 💯 Bat out of Hell (Introduce band??) 172 F - DEFINITELY write out the structure - LONG SONG Sweet Child of mine 125 F#/Gb 💯 Sweet Caroline (Last tune) 63 B 💯 Extras:-, 500 miles 132 E 💯

OK, enough of all this talk about blues jams (go and create your own thread for that boring nonsense) Dany rules, and this is our new logo!

That seems to imply that we should feel guilty that we are not paid minimum wage and feel obliged to play for nothing. I am reasonably comfortably off and I don't object to playing the occasional charity gig, but, as I point out, I will not actually lose money. I could afford to throw in the cost of a few gallons of petrol, but I won't, because I am already giving my time and effort for nothing. I feel it's disrespectful to expect me to actually pay for the privilege of playing for free. That's just me, of course and YMMV.

Right, let's get @paul_5gate out of the way. The way I read it, I reckon the majority ruling is T2 failure, but still OK for T1. Everyone OK with this ruling?

An early 60s sunburst would be my dream bass. Unfortunately I can’t ever see me owning one. This 62 copy is probably the closest I’m ever going to get to one but I’m more than happy with it.

I’ve done charity gigs. They cost me money, so I expect to be paid. I object to the expectation that it's OK for musicians to give their time for free and no one else is expected to. They don't use that line on the bar, venue or catering companies!! I guess being a musician isn't a real job, so it doesn't matter! Giving your time for free for charity? A neighbour used to be a senior executive in the Red Cross. You wouldn't want to know what his salary was, and pension now is!!!

Started on the second cabinet today. This is a dry run fit, so no glueing. So much faster when you have done one before. The panels were all cut a few weeks ago, though I found one end was at an angle. Suspect the circular saw was poorly setup by some idiot. Rather than cutting the batons in advance, I cut them as I needed and used a mitre saw and block rather than a home made table saw. This was a far better way of working and wasn't much slower. This means I cut to the right size as things may be out by 0.5mm or so. Just under two hours to get to this, I do now have frostbite, but well on the way to getting a second cab, so completely worth losing a finger or so, who needs a little finger for playing bass. Front and rear faces are also cut and fit, but I haven't done the holes for the speakers, handles etc yet. Rob

Oh my! It's here, and it's VERY VERY nice! More to follow...

Prefer it personally, better balance across the strings. Got this one, and another on the way

Point of view from the other side. I'm on the committee for the Necton village charity music festival and have been for four years My job is to find and book the six acts. All the profit from the events is split between three charities. Noone working on the day is paid EXCEPT the bands. The committee chairman would like me to find at least five free bands to increase profits. I refused the first year and someone else did the bookings. The disaster that followed (on a par with a very bad open mic night) made them see sense. Since then, every act gets at least £150 expenses. I'll usually try to get the headliners to drop their fee down to maybe £500 but one, has actually refused payment and just taken the expenses. Our bar is run by the committee and village volunteers do the parking We pay for security, medics tent, the stage, sound system and engineers and the 50Kw gennie. None of the organisers and helpers get paid. Bands also get a free burger each and a drink. I would never expect a band to play for free AND be out of pocket.

I don't mind playing for nothing, i.e. losing money, if the charity is close to home. Alzheimer's or some such. Generally though I'd ask for a bit of petrol money, 20 quid is better than nothing. We did a charity gig some time ago and I was expecting just expenses but they gave us a pretty substantial wedge. I stuck some of it in one of the collecting buckets on my way out the door.

I’ve done a couple of charity gigs recently for the Teenager Cancer Trust. The organisers, a mod/scooter club have asked in advance what our expenses will be and have also made sure we are well watered (beer or soft drinks), plus they provide PA & backline, which makes it much less of a faff. This is ok with me and we don’t have to do it of course. I think expecting folk to play for free, without some sort of expenses is taking the pee.

And, I'm sure I've posted this a few times over the years, going back about 15 years ago a band I was in used to get paid >£1000 or more for doing British Heart Foundation, CF Trust and other big charity fund raisers. The mentality is that if you have quality entertainment the punters will part with more cash.

Musicians. Generally 'kers.

Last night was one of those final rehearsals that was so bad, you just know it’s going to be great on the night!

Tonight's rehearsal stufio had a special Kay holder.