Leaderboard

I managed after a long time of being skint to get my old Suhr Jazz bass back. There is a BC member that offered to buy this bass for me and he offered that I could pay him back which was such a lovely EPIC gesture!! It really was and it blew me away tbh. But the time wasn't right. His BC name is three and his name is Loz bless him. I don't want to bore anyone as I'm aware everyone is struggling but it's been brutal financially and we struggled to get to the next mortgage/council tax payment for a long long time. But we're now mortgage free so me got some basses a comin.!!. Debora doesn't know this yet.. 😆 Suhr Custom Classic J4 Swamp ash body. Maple neck. Suhr 2 band pre. Aguilar single coils.

Thanks to @Paulhauser for giving me the heads up on this stunning limited edition Spector Euro CST! Ordered and paid for last night and due next week... 1 of only 6 total made in this colour (3 x 4 string & 3 x 5 string). Ash body with Poplar Burl top, Ebony board with Abalone inlays, black hardware, EMG X pickups and DG Legacy preamp.... and that beautiful Purple/Black finish... 💜🖤

Here's me (and the lovely Di) when I paid the swag over this morning! Thanks to everyone!

The Horse and Trumpet in Wigston has a really low ceiling. That makes it seem really loud. I had to back off the lows a bit, but once more the Rumble and Stingish bass sounded great. It was hot! I've put my fan up in the loft for the winter but might have to fetch it back down if it's going to be like that. We had people up dancing from the first song which was great. Lots of great comments too, my favourite being someone who told us that they keep coming to see us because we don't play Oasis, Dakota, Brightside, etc. Hooray!

I'm in one of those dep musicians groups on FB. About a week ago and for the first time ever, I responded to a post asking for a bass player for very local gig at a venue I know. The guitarist sent me a list of 80 songs and I picked about 40 that I knew I could play without having to learn anything new. I turned up at the gig and we rattled through them like we'd played together for years. A not massive, but pleasantly entertaining pub crowd and we went down well. A weirdly liberating experience. Hopefully a gig or two more will come my way as a result. There was a really drunk guy in the audience who kept singing Naive by The Kooks at the top of his voice. It's not a bad song actually. Might have to learn that one.

Last night with Blockbustarz Glam covers band in Eastmuir Masonic Club, Glasgow. From the word go the organiser was brilliant, then the other staff came in as we were setting up and once again they couldn't have been more helpful. Venue was a good size with quite a high stage and just big enough to fit all 5 of us. Quite long with a tall curve ceiling which allowed for amazing acoustics. Sound wise stage was hollow wooden and created quite a boom on stage and i forgot my Gramma pad. Meant i couldn't really hear the definition from the bass and it sounded like more of a drone. Ramped up the mids and dropped the bass EQ slightly and that helped without affecting FOH. (bass and guitars don't go thru PA). Guitarist was having same issue. Playing wise we were good with very few minor things that only the band would notice. Not as busy as they expected but enough to make it a great night with many dressing for the 70's Glam night. Apparently a group of 40 that had said they would be going never showed and the organiser wasn't happy about that. From what we were told they went to another Masonic in Glasgow all dressed for a Glam night and were wondering why no one else was dressed up. So that made us laugh. Everyone was happy with the show with so many great comments afterwards. Have to mention this one because it was so sweet. One "mature" guy of 80 yrs old with his wife of 86 who were both dancing on quite a few songs caught up with us as we were loading the cars and laughing he told us that when Mikey our singer encouraged the dancers he was thinking and i quote "all very well for you youngsters but i was 30 when those songs came out and i was dancing back then but at 80 and 86 i struggle just to walk so dancing isn't as easy as it used to be but we loved it" and thanked us so much for a great night of memories. We all thought that was so nice and very touching. Usual gear Sandberg VM4, Shure wireless, Keeley comp, Handbox WB-100 into BF 212 cab. Something i've not mentioned in my gear because i forgot was the sound effects we use :- Jamman sampler into a GK MB200 just for the pre-amp and DI'd to PA. 40 min drive for me and mostly motorway so that was brilliant. They have told us we will be back but just need to confirm it with a few others. There is a possibility that a few other Masonic's in Glasgow will also be interested too. All good news. Few vids have appeared on FB Dave http://www.facebook.com/alan.duthie.3/videos/1347271517121402?idorvanity=559305587911326 http://www.facebook.com/alan.duthie.3/videos/1896444287937931?idorvanity=559305587911326

Thanks Stub. Herea link to us performing Ohio last year.

My band played one of our two annual freebie gigs at the Globe in Somerton. We do these in return for them letting us use their functions room whenever we need to rehearse. Last night we were in the main pub area and as usual it got pleasantly crowded. Although all 4 of us are gig-hardened, the band is relatively new and it was good to feel that our improvement trend continues. The steps are small now but still satisfying. This turned out to be one of those rare gigs where you leave with such a buzz that you don't care whether you get paid or not. Everyone was up dancing - including the staff in between serving - and the whole place was bouncing. The sound of live music was pulling passers-by in off the street and the place was so full early into the second set that some folks who couldn't get in ended up dancing on the pavement looking in through the window (see pic). This was my first chance to gig my recently-acquired short-scale Wilcock Mullarkey and it delivered everything I had hoped for. Up there with the best in terms of playability, it sits perfectly in our 4-piece mix running through my Ampeg SVT-7 Pro head and LFSys Monaco FR/FR cab, even managing to cut through the powerful lows that our guitarist's new Strat puts out. Another important bit of kit in delivering this 'heft with definition' is the Always On HPF I recently got from Broughton Audio in Canada. My amp delivers 600w into my 600w-rated cab and I got the HPF to protect the driver from potentially damaging low frequencies. Much to my surprise, I find that this tiny box of tricks does as much for my tone-shaping as my bass and amp controls. Shame they don't sell in Europe but luckily I was able to get mine via a contact living in Canada. Fitting in musically and socially with the band, making good equipment choices, learning new stuff, connecting with the punters, improving my own performance level ... there's so much to being a gigging bass-player. I found it intoxicating when I started playing 50 years ago and I still do.

The Black Horse in Whitwick was the first gig in a few weeks and a good job too - we've all had man-flu during the downtime. Luckily I am just about over mine now, but it was pretty grim at the start and then spent ages slowly trailing off. Anyway nothing that a bit of performance adrenaline can't fix. Although I'd created events on Facebook the guitarist/vocalist didn't do any further plugging with a day or two to go like normal, because he wasn't certain we'd be able to play. So it was satisfying that we managed to fill the place on a dark, wet and gloomy Friday night. We played quite a few songs that we don't do often so that made a nice change too. The Stingish bass is becoming a mainstay now - it's just so lovely to play. Boss GT-6B multi-fx into the Big Muff that I'm still playing with (more fuzz, more fuzz!) and thence into the fabulous Rumble v3 500 combo. Some nice compliments too to round off the night. I think we only have one weekend kept free for the rest of the year now - the long run towards NYE has started

And it is worth mentioning that apart from me costing @cetera some money this below cost ME some money and heading my way next week 😉

Fretless Sterling Ray 34... Don't see many of these available. I also think this one was professionally defretted, I can't remember the lefties being available fretless. It has only arrived today but so far my thoughts: the fingerboard feels lovely, I think it's some kind of ebony. The neck profile is a bit slimmer than my US Stingray. Flatwounds sound great on it, I thought I'd need rounds of some kind but there are decent strings on it right now. Bad points: The machine heads feels a bit flimsy, will need to see how it settles. Also the preamp and pickup is nowhere near the league of my US Stingray. More discovery to be made after work

Ongoing neck and back issues forced me to sell both my basses over 8 pounds, leaving me with these two lovelies. A very mojo'd 1978 Shergold Marathon and a CIJ Mustang bass (recently acquired from @Lozz196 and with added black/cream/black scratchplate for a more punk/rock look than the brown tort). Both super light, both ready to gig. Just need to find a band!!!

I have officially joined the club. Here's my new (to me) 1985 BB1100S. My first Yamaha, first vintage bass and my first Japanese made bass and its really very nice. This is the one @Burns-bass shared the link for.

Can i just say, this forum always perks me up! Thanks a load to ALL of you!

Evening kids! Just a quick note to say thank you to everyone who attended. @prowla and I sorted out the fundamentals and after settling out our expenses for hall hire/food, we made a £75.00 profit, which I'll pay into COATs charity when I'm there on Tuesday. Disappointingly, we overran on the presentations, so round two of 'What's That Bass?' was shelved. Next year maybe. As there was a low amount of donations for the raffle, this was parked too. We did see a Behringer pedal got left behind (this was a raffle donation), so if it's OK Paul (@prowla) will pop that up in the classifieds here. All in all, a fun day. Home now. Glass of red incoming! Until 2026, best to all! Paul

Before @cetera jumps in… Big Horizon were fantastic at Pizza Express Live - Holborn in London last night. A lovely evening of Yacht Rock, 70s West Coast pop tinged music. These guys are absolutely top of their game (which explains why the spend most of their time backing megastars on tour). Great set, great playing and what a fabulous voice Iain Hornal has! They did a couple of Jeff Lynne’s tunes (an obscure ELO one - Four Little Diamonds, and Handle With Care by The Traveling Willburys). As Jeff Lynne’s backing band for the last 10 years, they paid tribute to him and the unfortunate way the tour ended with him being too unwell to continue to his big Hyde Park retirement gig. Wonderful evening! Lee Pomeroy was a highlight, of course but watching him mangles my brain because all the strings and fingers are in the wrong place. Fab to see Gary PB and Costas there too!

Peace and harmony for everyone on the planet. Peace of mind; I've not been too much of a burden to the planet. Piece of Christmas pudding this year with the family, lit up by blue brandy flames. Piece of my birthday cake when I reach 100 (coming up faster than one thinks as a teenager...). Piss as I did when I was a teenager.

Well, I'm a plum. I wrote a "I got home for reals this time" message yesterday, then forgot to hit the submit button. D'oh! TL:DR I got home safe

Well, no pictures (was I even there?) - we played in a local pub last night, it wasn't our gig, it was the drummers other bands gig, but their singer got a cold and she didn't want to sing - there maybe more to it then that, but not my issue. Anyway we could all do it so we took it over to not leave the pub without a band (and it is the pub we practice at). Easy enough setup, cramped but we have done it before so know our place, would be easier if the rest of the band didn't stand in the way chatting while I was setting up I thought I would mix things up - so I took the new rickenbacker, which shockingly only has 4 strings (at the moment), the XVive A58 and the XS-1 octave pedal, so testing everything I got recently. The XVive, perfect, no noise, no having to work around the noise the lekato that I had, absolute winner. The ric. Well, its ok, it wasn't cutting through that much, and obviously thee is the lack of string thing. I didn't realise how much I relied on the 5th string, so a few mistakes were made, quite a few on one song, but at least with brick in the wall, I played the whole thing an octave up with the XS-1 an octave down and it sounded pretty spot on. Some of the rest of the gig I played with an octave up, and mix down to give a bit of bite and it worked well. The second hand I went back to the Maruszczyk and it felt more comfortable and easier to get a good sound, I think maybe because the output is higher everything is set up for that, so the ric wasn't cutting it much. Still, it was nice to play, but I may leave it for the other group, where i can use it as a drop D bass, I think the loss of the 5th string is something that adds a complication gigging. Anyway, second half there were more people, more dancing, and everything went more or less ok, so pretty good, and actually ran out of time without realising it. Not a bad night, and we have another gig tonight, might try the same things, and see if I get the same result - maybe increase the input gain of the pedal.

The Hulla band played last night at a hoedown in the village hall where we rehearse, to raise funds to repair and maintain the building. Country and Western isn't my thing so I wasn't enthused by the setlist, and much of it was new to the band so the run up to the gig was a trail of rearranged songs, last minute set list changes and, frustratingly, a key change with 24hrs to go that meant I had to relearn a tricky bassline using open strings instead of the all fretted version. I always struggle with including open strings in a riff for some reason. All in all a good night. Well attended (we sold just under 90 tickets which meant the hall was comfortably full) the bar was popular and the bangers, mash 'n' beans went down very well indeed. From a bass perspective, most of the songs were quite simple but I have developed a liking for Johnny Cash as a result of learning three of his tunes. We tried to include as many line dancing type songs as we'd heard that a large contingent of the audience had been practicing their line dancing for the night. Sure enough, there were about 20 regular dancers for anything vaguely line danceable. Our backdrop was a series of old black and white cowboy movies on a projection screen and there were the inevitable cowboy hats. I used my Squier PJ into a Laney Digbeth preamp on the valve setting, with a touch of drive to add warmth. That went straight into the desk and I monitored using a Behringer P16 and wireless system with earpieces. I've changed the gain structure on the IEM system I use and it has resulted in a much clearer sound in my ears at a much lower level. For a couple of songs I played up the neck using the edge of the neck where it joins the body as a thumb rest. It gave me a nice thick tone for 'These Boots'. Highlight of the night for me was 'Rhinestone Cowboy', which I'd made the effort to learn the full bass part for and it gave me a new respect for the musicians playing on those kinds of songs. Footwear was a pair of ordinary black boots, cowboy boots not being available. Hat was by Amazon. Checked shirt courtesy of a local BHF charity shop.

Nice little venue in Manchester, good sound and engineer, and we played pretty well, but the audience weren’t into it. I wheeled out the Yamaha RBX A2 5, which sounded fantastic, ace low B, so I’ll defo use that again. My TCBQ500 via a house Warwick 4x10 sounded decent, and so easy to walk across town with just the bass and head in a rucksack.

Wasn't feeling the gig. I made the mistake of not eating anything before the gig. This was a multi band gig. We played from 5:00-6:00. Well attended ticketed event , $35.00. Part of the problem was the room . Huge room on the marina ( Lake Michigan)with extremely high ceiling and lots of glass. Great lighting with smoke but the stage sound was not good. The amp provided was SWR cabs a 15" and a 4 10s. I stood right in front of the rig and couldn't hear a thing. Not much coming from my monitor either. Our band leader/ front person stayed engaged and positive with the crowd. Daryl

Travelled far and wide yesterday (or at least half an hour away which is the furthest we have been in a while). Sports and social club but sadly very empty. Easy setup, even if it is a long jog with the stuff from the car, but we had been there before so I took a trolley. Really quite empty but for some reason seemed an OK gig. Still didn't feel great but got through it fine. Same equipment as yesterday, but I guess I was a bit more used to it and I dind't make many mistakes (apart from strangely moondance, just used to the 5) and the sound was a lot better, probably why I enjoyed it more. So there weren't many people but of the people there were, they danced, and they came up and thanked us, and we got a private party for january, so must have done ok! I actually did most of the gig with the XS-1 one octave up and 20% on, and it just gives more bite and an edge on the distortion - more a harmonic boost I guess.

do you ever get the feeling that the best bass you have ever played is whichever one is in your hands at any given moment?

I've been dreaming of picking up the double bass for a long time, but had been writing it off for various reasons. So imagine my surprise when my wife organised this for a big birthday this week! Currently renting for a few months to see if we can live with it, but I now can't imagine a world without DB... it's so addictive and rewarding! It seems playing cello as a kid, and fretless bass for a long time has helped get me started, but there's so much to learn!

Very tight space in the North Bay museum for a seven piece Christmas gig last Saturday night, BL looks unhappy but he booked the gig knowing where we would be set up. We were in an area where there is a big staircase in the room leading to the upstairs area where there were activities for kids so there was a constant stream of people passing us and some even stayed to listen for a while. We played some standards and quite a few Christmas pieces arranged for a small band and it went well, although in the jazz waltz arrangement of Oh Christmas Tree (terrible chart and too long) I was totally lost for about a third of the song while the tenor sax was soloing but I just kept the 3/4 pulse going and finally got back on track. Lots of vendors set up outside the building on a cool night (-4C) so folks came in to warm up and listen for a bit so we always had an audience. I used my Yamaha SLB200 straight into a small Roland amp that handled the keyboard too. Reasonable load in and out and a nice no pressure gig that also served as a rehearsal for a couple of gigs we have coming up before Christmas.

We arrived at our gig in Ulverston last night to discover that we hadn't brought microphones, mic leads or mic stands! We borrowed one off the pub, another from an audience member who lived around the corner, and another off a mate of mine who was playing in a different pub 10 minutes walk away (a Shure Beta 58 too). Tiny pub, cramped performance space, absolutely rammed with people, couldn't move for bodies. Great gig in the end, but I wished I'd taken a bigger bass cab despite the tiny space we were playing in. Rob.

A nice local club gig last night. We’ve just had our annual lay off so this was the first gig in 4 weeks so expected a few cobwebs needed to be blown away. A decent crowd, wasn’t expecting miracles as the club has a patchy attendance for gigs. Was knackered at the end of the night as I’d flown back from Tenerife and not got in till turned 2am….had a well deserved Isle of Jura and the first mince pie of the season when I got in after the gig. Normal MarkBass rig, EBMM shorty Stingray and silver Converse. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1A1h4MPtZ5/?mibextid=UalRPS

A couple of snaps from EUB corner...

Here is my new part bass I finished recently and which make me proud of: Warmoth body, Musikraft neck, nitro paint, Fralin splitcoil. The design, paintwork and the printing I made with the help of my wife. Enjoy it!

My EUB / Guitar set up as of last week, a friend made me a silly offer on the MOOD so there's an empty space at moment, been thinking reverb maybe (after Echobox). Starts at the MINI on the top right and works left, then Onward to Meris X (bottom right). Some pedlas may look a bit wonky, only 3 have velcro at the moment. Its desk top use rather than floor, makes editting easier on the fly. Sounds f***ing awesome!

Got a message from my contact at the Tampereen Musiikki guitar store that they shipped my new Sandberg a couple of days ago, so now I will be furiously clicking the refresh button on the tracking page until it arrives (shipped from Finland to Norway, so I probably won't see it until at least the end of next week). 35" VM5 in Virgin White with a rosewood board. Not a superlight, but still only weighing in at 3.7kg (8.15 lbs). Should be a good one.

My Rics..

Had a fab time at the Bash today and thanks very much to @NancyJohnsonand @prowla for organising! It was great to see some longstanding Basschat friends, and to meet some new ones too! And on that point, hey @Mike Brooks - great to finally meet you in person! 👍😊 As per usual, the Basschat 'chat' was brilliant.. As was some of the gear on display... Thanks to @stevie for demoing his incredible cabs - they really are a little bit special, aren't they... 😁 And thanks also to @police squad for allowing me to check out his Harry White Ricky 4003, which was very cool indeed. 👍 Perhaps the most amazing thing for me though was hearing and watching Andy, aka @Wolverinebass play his 8-string and 12- string basses - they're so, so different and Andy's playing style is so innovative.. 👏👏 Not that I needed another bass, but somehow, an Ibanez Roadster bass, in need of some TLC, found it's way into my car for the journey home.. I'm looking forward to spending a bit of time with that.. Cheers, Paul! 🙏 Anyway, as said, a great event and here's to next year! 😎

… slapped this together for fretted duties this morning at church, going for the classic 1176 into LA2A vibe with a bit of channel strip chucked in (and some goodness from the Sfx unit 👍🏻 I do normally make things a bit neater, but it still worked 🤣🤣

Friday night was my first chance to gig my recently-acquired Wilcock Mullarkey and it delivered everything I had hoped for. Up there with the best in terms of quality and playability, it sits perfectly in our 4-piece mix running through my Ampeg SVT-7 Pro head and LFSys Monaco FR/FR cab, even managing to cut through the powerful lows that our guitarist's new Strat puts out. Can't believe my luck in finding this mint pre-owned example at Bass Direct in my preferred colour and reasonably priced at £1950 for a retail sale. Just by the bye, I'm finding that another important bit of kit in delivering 'heft with definition' is the Always On HPF I recently got from Broughton Audio in Canada. My amp delivers 600w into my 600w-rated cab and I got the HPF to protect the driver from potentially damaging low frequencies. Much to my surprise, this tiny box of tricks does as much for my tone-shaping as my bass and amp controls. I just set everything up as I always did ands then find the frequency floor that gives me the best sound. Shame they don't sell in Europe but luckily I was able to get mine via a contact living in Canada. I know this may seem a bit off topic but I have a feeling that an HPF is especially effective when applied to the signature tones of short-scale basses.

Well, that's me half way home in one piece. Thanks to our wonderful organising committee for putting together an excellent bash. Great to put some faces to names, and I played some fun basses which made me smile, in particular the 12 string Hamer and the teeny tiny Harley Benton micro Jazz. If I'm not gigging - see you next year! Cheers Matt

Thanks, itu. Appreciated. I was contemplating the cheap Thomann fretless Beat Bass, £175, just for trying the project out, fingering-wise. I've already recorded the first three suites on a tenor and cello-banjo, so have experience of CGDA. Cello-banjo:

I joined facebook (about a year or 2 ago) and since have stopped posting here as facebook seems to have consolidated everything I use to do on the web in a single website! It's actually taken the fun out of posting and reading about bass guitars and bassists... It's just all superficial click bait & with little to know substance. I suddenly realised I was just scrolling through endless reels of 1 minute videos designed to grab my lizard brain attention. And the groups are just again, post a flashy pic of a fancy bass and lets all celebrate... zero discussion, good or bad 🙂‍↕️. So I have decided to quit facebook and just use bass forums and X. At least with X there's discussions but not so much about the bass guitar, so that's actually a good thing, it's an untapped market! Anyway, does anyone feel the same or am I just getting old. great to hear you thoughts 🙏

During a break in the proceedings, Andy @Wolverinebass tucks into some chocolate cake while @Sean enjoys a coffee.

My circular saw proved capable of cutting a triple layer sandwich (once I set the cut height right). I used a different cutting pattern as I was cutting a maximum of 610mm - first a cut across at 300mm, then a second and third at 376mm. After that, I stacked the three pieces and cut at 276mm twice, so a total of five cuts. First, I made the sled - I'd glued and screwed a length of batten across the panel, and just cut across using that as a guide. Then I clamped up for the first cut, and found that when I'd just nipped up the fixing bolt for the blade that my definition of nipped up and the instructions definition of nipped up are different. Once rectified, off we went. The first cut is the shallowest. After that first cut, I was able to use the piece I'd just cut off to rest the other side of the circular saw base on. Another cut the same and then I stacked the wood. And at last got to the final cut. I still have to cut out holes in the front and rear.

I picked this up cheap because it's in a bit of a state and I felt sorry for it. It's not a particularly common bass around these parts, so I figured I could get it back to being hale and hearty again. It's pretty dirty - the tuners are green in places and I had to wash my hands after stringing this bad boy back up - boak! But that's just dirt. The main issue with this bass is the neck pickup. The coil windings have been... interrupted shall we say. Thankfully most of the coil is intact, the break is pretty close to the beginning/end of the coil so I'm going to try to unwind it slightly back to good wire then solder it back up and see if that works, failing that I guess I'll need to get it rewound. A wee project for the weeks ahead. Its mostly cleaning and polishing, the pickup to attempt to repair, and maybe some finish repair on a couple of nasty chips in the neck finish. Dunno if it's worth a build diary, so I'll probably just document my progress here. FWIW, the remaining pickup sounded pretty decent in my wee Laney 30W combo in the office here. For all the dings/dents/scuffs/scrapes/lacquer cracks, the bones appear to be solid and it feels quite nice to play. I think with a bit of work this will end up being a fine counterpoint to my BB1200.

Email from COATs:

ok i briefly have the whole lot out of storage together so i took a quick pic! ...so rare to have them all in one room these days on account of the wife..

Home now, it’s great to only live ten minutes from the venue! Thanks Paul & co for organising, I think the venue worked really well with the two rooms. Lots of great gear on display and friendly folks who allowed me to badly try it. I LOVED Mike’s satin finish sunburst Fender MIJ Jazz bass. The talks worked really well, lots of interesting stuff from the chap from Monty’s, the 60s Jazz pickup set sounded killer. The cab demo was an eye opener, you really don’t need a big cab to get a good tone. Chris Child’s interview had great stories and experiences to share. Thanks to Mike Brooks for facilitating. Overall that was a lot of fun!