Leaderboard

NBD. A short-scale Squier Jaguar, purchased from our own @Ian Somerville at the lovely Trowell Services on the M1. After giving my HB shorty P to a charity I’d been looking for a backup to my Fender Mustang. Plus, I’ve never had a red bass before.

It has taken me some time - quite some time - but I’ve finally got my hands on one of these. It’s about as close as I’m likely to get to an actual Status T-Bass. This was the bass that first brought me to BassChat as a longtime lurker, before a registered member. I never actually thought I’d get a T-Bass, despite coming very close a couple of years ago, there was one on Fb marketplace, but the seller was very cagey with his answers to my questions, and he just didn’t inspire any buying confidence in me at all, so that one passed. (A decision I’ve regretted for letting the bass go, but I always felt it was the right decision due to bad vibes from the seller.). And here I am today, making this post. I've the bass exactly a week now. Pros : It’s a T-Bass! That headstock (you can’t really want a T-Bass if you don’t like the headstock). The colour (I'm not sure if it's faded white or supposed to be this off-white shade). Cons : It’s a TE, not Status. It’s the 3-piece neck. Just before PoiDH, a super-massive shoutout to @NigeJ and @HeadlessBassist , who both took time out of their lives to go and meet the seller and check/inspect the bass for me. Just prior to Nigel’s viewing it developed an electrical fault - seller said it was due to a battery leakage and provided pic of removed battery box with green residue on it - which is why I needed Richard to go and check it out after the issue was fixed, which he did, tested the signal and all OK. Without these two, I wouldn't have this bass now, so thank you very much gents, your time was very much appreciated. The bass isn't perfect, there's some dings in the finish and a couple of splits in the finish as well, the black marks you see in some of the images in the Flickr album may just buff out, I've got some polish to try and remove those. I've got some Rotosound flats on order as well as some strap lock buttons. I'll revisit this thread once the above have been put on and I've had a go at giving it a cleanup. Enough words, PoiDH below … Plenty more images in this Flickr album. Mark

I just flew from Istanbul to Houston to get a birth year Rickenbacker. I tell myself I did it to see family but that’s a lie.

It's both. The fact that Civil action can be taken for an IP dispute does not prevent there being a criminal offence. Same in all manner of things. Many criminal offences have a linked civil one. "Conversion" is the civil equivalent of "Theft". In a civil matter the result would be an order to pay compensation / loss of income etc. In the criminal one it would be either a fine (payable to the state) or prison. Punching someone in the face is a criminal offence with criminal penalties. It is also causing a Personal Injury that can be sued upon as a civil matter. Pursuing one option does not mean the other cannot be pursued as well. ADDITION: Not to forget that the IP owner - the real composer can take action against GT for IP problems but a purchaser of a song via a streaming service cannot take the same action for IP... because the purchaser doesn't have an interest in the IP. The purchaser has been a victim of deceit = fraud. The real composer has been a victim of theft and an IP issue and has probably been denied income because of it. So - it's a multy-layered thing. But ultimately the evidence against GT suggests that he would fail to successfully defend civil and criminal actions against him...

Quite excited ... a big package arrived from China 8.00 this evening. ... neck, fingerboard, bridge, end spike, tuners, the whole lot to do the bass all in one. What was I expecting? Well £200 spent on the whole shebang - what was advertised as 'ebony fingerboard' and 'nice maple neck'. I was dubious. What did I get ... well amazingly ... a bloody great chunk of what appears to be rather nice ebony. Sure there are some slightly lighter streaks - but really, barely visible. The neck is indeed maple, and even has very faint flaming. Sure it's fairly roughly finished and needs a fair bit of sanding all over, but it's really not bad at all. They have left so much spare wood on the neck heel that it's going to be a fair old job trimming it all down accurately - but better too much than too little I suppose Photos tomorrow.

He doesn't half look smug. IIRC, this is the offence of "Appearing so self-satisfied as to outrage the Public Decency".

I think Charles is a really clever person and he sums up the issues in the video very well. His proposal at the end proves his empathy for the people who have had their music stolen, with some good exposition for them too afterwards. Congratulations to him for that!

From basses on the sofa... only two of these are shorties, but they are all compact.

One trip to Edinburgh later... Okay, I'm still on my way back! Gotta love Competition Burgundy. Thanks Dave!

I can go for the shortest. A squire strat from next door neighbour. It took all of 20 seconds

Passing off other people’s music as your own is basically theft isn’t it? Selling a guitar which had been given to you for exposure but then not given said exposure isn’t illegal but is highly dubious behaviour.

OK.... the two-day installation of the "Bird Scarer" started yesterday... It is an instrument which has been built by a bespoke builder for me... It won't be fully functional until after we've installed all the electronics etc today. I will post more later, but here's a teaser...

There's a real sense that cancel culture has evolved into capitalise culture

My advice is to get out there in the real world. Open-mics, jam nights, local gigs. Talk to strangers. Offer your services to solo performers. Let people know that you’re looking for a band opportunity. Good luck!

I wonder did Janek pay to licence the Gran Turismo image.

I've used joinmyband successfully. Err and unsuccessfully. But if you take the rough with the smooth mostly a happy experience.

An interesting question. I knew I couldn't afford a 'year of birth' bass. I already had the Squier 40th P as my first 'proper' precision (I won't count the kit), and wanted a more 'authentic' vintage experience. I looked at the Squier CV, then the Fender Vintera. Each step up brought a bit more, as well as ramping the cost. But because a lot of my work was delayed through Covid I had a very good year with some big contracts finishing. I could afford it, so I looked around for a chance to try the AVII. A Strings in Treforest had one in stock and their price was the best I could find in the UK, they are fairly local to me and a great place to go. They let me play with it for ages, it sounded great, and I liked it, but the action was a bit high for me and too much neck relief. Their tech took it away for twenty to thirty minutes and set it up for me. After that, it felt great. Retrospectively, it doesn't sound dramatically different to the Squire 40th; basically both have a great vintage sound. The neck on the Squier with its satin finish is nicer to play. But it is a real experience to play and I do love gigging it. The one thing is the clay dots disappear into the amber varnish and rosewood board under some stage lights, which can be disorienting. My partner has a vinyl cutter and made me loads of tiny 1/16" dots I put over them, and they work brilliantly - I haven't rubbed any off yet either, although they are removable. Sound: One day I set up my home rig tweaked it for a good, natural sound and did a lot of A/B tests, and I was sceptical the AVII would sound particularly distinctive. Actually, it sounded incredible, which I felt validated my first impressions. Finish: it was (and still is) immaculate, lots of lovely case candy. The attention to detail is great. A steel sheet under the pickguard, not foil. Vintage style electrics. Lots of modern makers marks. Mimicing but not faking 60s style e.g. dated 2022 but in the vintage style. Reverse tuners, hootenany button, thumb rest, bridge and pup covers. Feel: The C neck is big, but not baseball-bat chunky. It is not super light, but neither is it very heavy, and it balances well. The very glossy neck is a bit sticky, and I fight the urge to flat it a bit. It's hard to express, but to me it feels special and it inspires me to play my best, but it's not as easy to play as my Flea Jazz, the Performer or the Hohner B2 - which are three of the easiest playing instruments I've ever played. Looks: it looks like a nice instrument, but I think relatively few people would realise it is in the early 60s style; at a distance it's only the style of the sunburst that marks it out as such. The G&G hardshell case was listed at about £300, so knock that off the price (£1,925) and it felt like a steal compared to anything from the custom shop. The cases are now £389(!!!) and the basses are £2,179 and don't include a case... so not such a deal. Long and short, I gig it a lot, but it's not the bass I choose when I want an easy time of it. I hope I'm able to put some honest wear on it while I am still able to gig it.

Well first rehearsal done and it felt like the last 5 years hadn’t happened and that I’d never left, sounded great, really tight, and the JMJ really worked - tho I had to use a thinner pick to coax some top end nastiness. Even my backing vox were to standard, which was the area I thought I might be lacking in. Overall am pretty pleased.

I've bought a set - better be decent at this price The most expensive strings I had bought previously were a set of LaBella "Jamerson" 1954 flats at around £50 (which seemed ludicrously expensive) Anyone else ordered a set yet? Or, any thoughts?

Not even when playing Stand by me? 😂

Local gigs, chat with the bands and make yourself known as a bassist available for work.

Just to muddy the waters a bit, I think you also need to consider demographics before you take the plunge on manufacturing physical media. My old Rhythm and Blues band sold a decent amount of CDs at gigs and by mail order- and by decent amount, I mean 300-ish of each CD we made. One of the reasons for that was that our audience of 40-65+ year-olds were still hardwired to buying actual things, rather than streaming or downloading. The band had a BandCamp page with competetively priced downloads in MP3 and WAV formats, but digital sales were minimal. My advice would be to look at your audience. If it's full of bright young things, then streaming, downloads and maybe some boutique vinyl could be the ways forward. Of all the stuff we sold however, it was T Shirts that generated the most revenue and a well designed, sensibly priced shirt or beanie will always be popular.

Just to add, labella LTFs and the TIs aren’t floppy, they are lower tension though than the others mentioned, I also had the fender flats and they are fairly high tension , maybe look at labella 760 FS they are a nice string that still have brightness even when played in

I think he's miming to unknown artists work and passing it off as his own. That's not the same as playing cover versions in a pub, where the original artist is known and is probably getting performing rights payments. Nor is it the same as Mini Vanilli, miming to a bunch of recordings someone else wrote and played, and was paid for knowing that would happen. Not to mention countless musicians who were sneaked in the back door while the band were having a break, to ghost play on recordings, and not even the band realised it wasn't them on the record and probably still don't know to this day.

Around 530km (1060 in total) to trade a Wal for a Wal! From my hometown in the Netherlands to Hull, I booked a minicruise for it. We swapped basses at a parking lot!

https://custom-lynx.co.uk/product/tukrj45-cat5e-tukrj45/ ?

Show me where else the same is true - certainly not in banking fraud, tax avoidance etc - and also tell me who would enforce it?

There's truth in @BabyBlueSound point re opening people's eyes to the fact that fakery is wrong, but the almost hysterical and fever-pitched responses from what is starting to feel like a baying mob are unedifying and I suspect in many cases are at least a little hypocritical. OK, the guy's a con artist, he's not the first in music and he won't be the last. Jeez imagine if the internet had been around when these guys were doing their thing......

I just find the while 'outrage loop' phenomenon fascinating.

Hell yes

As I've ready posted my (embarrassing) felt puppet picture, and it really is about AI generated content (and not a gratuitous excuse to post 'something what I done', honest...), the band generated blisster pack action figures of ourselves which I used to make a poster for our next gig. It still can't generate a Fender with 4 string, our guitarest isn't that fat, and the drummers legs aren't really that short!

This week, the ZeroFive Audio Lowrider and the Sushibox FX Neptunium. Pointless in a different way to my 442 comparison where both pedals were discontinued around 10 years ago, both of these are out of stock (almost constantly), produced in very small batches when they are produced and then subject to import duties and shipping from France or the US. But anyway, maybe this will kill your gas for either of them. Was going to just make a post for this video, but best to have a thread lumping these all together as I think I’ll be making more of them.

Ditto. One of my fave basses, the ATK is 5.22kg and one of my SR 6 strings, just on 5kg. I haven't played a 4 hour set in ages, but I have stood practicing and writing with both on a strap for that long. No, as I still have a 1x15 and a 2x15 from the 80s and 70s respectively, but I like the ease of air movement that larger drivers have. I agree with the earlier comments about dispersion, but for 40y I've gotten around that with multi way cabs as I've preferred a clean wideband speaker that I can EQ to my tastes, not just having it baked in and smothering like an old Ampeg. These days with multiFX and modellers, I can make my cabs sound like just about anything, good enough for me and anyone else except for maybe the one old tone cork sniffer I might run into every few years. The cab currently under construction is a 15 + 8 coax, in 2 boxes so it will fit into the back of my sedan. This adds a little weight to the total, but it's 2 smaller boxes so each are easier to manhandle and the coax can be raised on a stick to ear height. I designed it for what I wanted as there aren't any commercial boxes available, new or S/H that do what I want.

Saturday night was a wedding at a new venue for us in Lincoln. Long old day with travel included. We performed the ceremony, drinks and evening + DJ which is fairly regular package for us. But when we have a few hours travel on these as well they are killer days. Woke at 6am… Left the house at 7.30am and got home at 3.20am. Worked out at around 20hr day (ish). Still, just the one gig this week so not too bad. This can get relatively regular in the Summer so taking it as a nice easy week. All round a really good day. Lovely couple and group of people which were well up for it in the evening and a good sound with no limiter! Good first dance too. ‘Silver’ by The DMA’s which we smashed (if I do say so) Although, we are going through a few weeks of technical frustrations. Struggling quite a bit with something causing an intermittent cut out/ crackle in our IEMs. Thought we’d cracked it but it appeared again for a couple of songs... Sometimes wonder whether we’d be better with corded IEMs but with only 1 aux feed sending to 2 IEMs I don’t know whether this is achievable…? More investigation needed Also struggled with a horrible grounding type issue on my bass in soundcheck. Noise gate and reducing the gain on my pedal seemed to fix it but strange it’s never been an issue before. I’ve gone back to the Zoom B3 after having a few gigs using my new Laney Digbeth pedal. But, I really missed the cab sim within the SVT patch so not sure whether I’ll just stick with the B3 or try and find a way to make the Digbeth work as it does sound great. Anyway, the important bit… Brown Asda boots that I picked up on the way to a gig a few months ago after the guitarist let my Dr Martens fall out of the van on his drive without realising.

Sunday evening gig in a local, with a new guitarist and new drummer. Slimmed down setlist, of which we’d only run through half together on Wednesday afternoon. Vocalist/guitarist and I have gigged together for the last eight years, so fit well together. Drummer and I gigged together for 12 years in the late 80’/90’s, he dep’d with us for one gig in 2022, so I trust him and he’s brilliant. New lead guitarist has some brilliant vocals, especially with the couple of Cult songs he’s brought, gigs with another Band and does his one man show too, so he’s fitted in well. New line up gives us four ( well three and me ) lead vocals and an awful lot of gigging experience. Cant help but think this might be the start of a good thing.

SATURDAY NIGHT! (I know that's not last night) Depping with Manchester Ska Foundation at The Empire in Rochdale. I play with them about once or twice a year, but hadn't for a while so I was looking forward to it. I love playing with these guys as the gigs are always good and they're all cracking musicicans - I really have to raise my game! Early get there (6:45), I had to drive down actual cobbled streets to get to the venue which my crappy Hyundai i10 wasn't happy about! Bit of waiting around as the sound engineers were covering for the usual guy, so there was some confusement about channels, stage boxes, phantom power and such and such... All setup evetually, soundcheck all normal then lots more waiting round as we weren't on until 9:30. (I popped over the road to see the Town Hall, which is "widely recognised as being one of the finest municipal buildings in the country" apparently. It is rather grand.) The place was pretty full when we went on for the first set - a decent mix of people who'd come to see us and random Rochdalians (Rochdalers?) who were in there anyway. We cracked through the first set and sounded great. Highlights were 'My Girl Lollipop' which I absolutely LOVE playing and 'Ghost Town' (one of my favourite songs EVER), especially the trombone solo... Goodness Gracious, that girl can play! Oh, and 'Nite Klub' (Bass Solo!) which I did well on - I got a 👌 from the Sax player after my solo, which I was happy about! 'Hands Off, She's Mine' (The Beat) was a new one for me but I did pretty well (It's pretty straightforward to be fair) I'd done my homework so I was happy with my playing, right up until I completely (and I mean COMPLETELY) buggered up the 'coming back into the slow bit' bit in 'Special Brew'... I wanted the stage to open and swallow me up. I apologised profusely to the band at half time, they laughed and said "You did it better than Al (the usual Bass player) normally does" and blamed the drummer, so no harm done. Quick Lime & Soda and (Strawberry Jam Firerose) vape break and back on for the second set. The place had filled up nicely and the crowd were loving it. Second set highlights were 'House of Fun' (RELENTLESS Bassline! Lots of fun!), 'Too Much Too Young' which is a blast to play, 'Message to Rudy' (there's about four notes in it, so I just went on autopilot and enjoyed myself), 'Our House/Wings of a Dove' Mashup which is pretty complicated (all modesty aside... I'd put a lot of work into that, so I smashed it) and 'One Step Beyond' which always goes down a treat (except I forgot about the 'Swan Lake' keyboard solo in the middle and had to busk it (badly)... cue more laughter from the rest of the band and an amused 'Gotcha!' look from the keys player). We end with 'Night Boat to Cairo' and everyone gets a solo... my solo was... perfunctory at best... (It's over F and Eb minor... can't get my head round it!) but it went down well enough. The band were grateful for me stepping in and I feel lucky to play with them, so everyone was happy. Decent payer, quick packup as we didn't have to take down the PA, twenty minutes back to my dear old Ma's place for a bottle of Henry Weston's Signature Vintage (6.8% ABV). Played the StingRay (I'd taken the P as well, but... couldn't resist the 'Ray) -> Small board (I only used the chorus for the 'Nite Klub' solo) -> 'secret weapons' board (Thumpinator -> VTDI) -> MarkBass 802 -> PA. Shoes were the Black and white leopard print Converse (Peach Pink sparkle don't really go with the whole 'Two Tone' vibe...). An absolutely fantastic night all round. Apart from 'Special Brew'.

What a cracking gig last night. Played with Nine Lives in a wee pub in a wee village (specifcally the Pittendrum Bar in Sandhaven - a small village just along the North Sea coast from Fraserburgh). Funnily enough, we had played in this village a few years back, in their village hall on Hogmanay just before the COVID hit (so 2019, I guess? The "before times"). One of the advantages of playing a small place is that you don't need many folk as long as they're up for a dance or a singalong. There were 20ish folk in but they were a musically omnivorous bunch and seemed to be up for just about anything, which makes our job a bit easier. Anyway, long story short, we had folk up dancing to most of the songs, and a few head bobbers at the bar, so can't really ask for more than that. The pub said that they want to book us again, so that's what you want to hear. Easy load in/out - side door onto the street right next to where we're playing. Really was a fantastic wee gig. Gear was my "cheap night out" basses - Gear4Music bass with Lace Aluma-P then Epiphone Em-bassy with Entwistle PBXN Neodymium, into the usual Markbass modular nonsense. Also because yesterday was May 4th, I geeked out a little. R2-Neep2?

I did a little jam session thing yesterday, second gig in three years and I had no amp so went through the pa and sounded dreadful. There were poets and the usual string of lunatics but watching the tiny crowd watching enjoying themselves was life affirming and I realised that life is not about how I experience things but how WE do so. For that reason, it was a triumph. One lady who was celebrating her 70th birthday yesterday sidled up to me and said she had been volunteering at Rock Festivals for decades and had never heard anyone play bass like I did. She said, '...but I got it. I really did'. Made my little day. 😊

A rugby club up in the valleys on Sunday early evening. Modest attendance but enthusiastic reception for Bendricks Rock. I'd driven to London at 1:30 am, got four hours of non-sleep from 5-9 then drove back for 1pm. About 20 minutes of fitful nap, eat, shower lots of tea, then picked up by vocalist for 50 minute drive. I was amazed that not only did I not eff-up, I had a good gig. Nearly dropped off in the car back. Now I'm going to sleep early, goodnight.

Played at the North Bar in Peterhead last night with Nine Lives. Bit of a weird one. A venue we've never played before. An area so wide, but with paths customers will take across where the cables to the PA speakers have to go, so I spent most of my time sticking cables down with gaffer tape. Really going to have to investigate using wireless bugs to get the signal from the desk to the PA speakers for places like this in future. Rushed setup as a result, and we were a bit late starting. And after all that effort, it was pretty sparsely attended - in the first half we ended up playing to 4 (four) folk plus the bar staff. "Paid rehearsal" came to mind, but thankfully some people came in later on and it was better in the second half. On the plus side, the sound was good, and the SB-2 performed admirably, with the Wunkay seeing out the second half. I do love my G&Ls. MFD FTW. Gear was the fantastic MFD brothers (G&L Tribute SB-2 then Wunkay) into the usual Markbass cubes of low frequency. Please excuse the terrible photos, my phone was having a 'mare focussing, it would seem.

The Hulla band played a 50th birthday party last night in what is becoming a regular venue for us in Port Eynon on Gower. We've played inside and outside the hall, in teepees and marquees there and, for the first gig I played with them, open air outside the fish and chip shop on the sea front back in 2022. That day we were paid in food. 😀 The stage was cramped but I wanted to play my new 5 string Ibanez. I was aware that it might not be possible without repeatedly stroking the guitarist's lower back with my headstock (not a euphemism) and took my headless shortscale Ibanez as an option. But I managed to find a little spot between drums, keys and guitarist that I was able to make my own. I had planned on using the onstage monitors rather than my in ears but the cramped conditions and proximity to the drums and the guitarist's amp meant that I ended up with the IEM. Our sound man had brought the PA subs and during the soundcheck my bass was booming away but once the hall filled up and he'd EQ'd properly, the sound was good. I kept the board to a minimum - Zoom MS60b giving me a noise gate, compressor and tuner and my Ampeg Classic preamp going into a DI box and into the desk. IEMs were through my Behringer P16 via Ultranet from the desk and a pair of KZ ZS10s earphones on which I've replaced the silicon buds with foam ones for much better isolation. Footwear of choice was the lace up black Skechers which have become an intergal part of my sound. This was my first gig playing a 5 string for several years and there were a few string faux pas but nothing the derailed the night and overall I was happy with my performance, and with the 5 string. I love the narrow string spacing and neck, which suits my hands perfectly. As usual, we had a lot of fun on stage and the audience were up and dancing from the first number. Hiding behind the guitarist.

VID-20250503-WA0001.mp4 Played a Salisbury Live gig on Friday at the same venue as @Cat Burrito played last weekend. The room is quite big with a dancefloor in front of a low stage and there are tables and chairs on a gallery area up some steps (this is on the same level as the rest of the club). There were three bands and we were headliners. Our drummer was drumming in the first band and singing in the second band so it was a little weird but we got to see another side of him and both bands were good. There wasn't a lot of audience throughout the evening but enough for it not to be embarrassing and consider it a 'paid rehearsal'. I'd say the fact that there seemed to be very little promotion apart from what the bands put in themselves, the venue is out of town and there's loads going on in Salisbury this weekend contributed to a low turnout. Having said that, the evening was great fun and we got another gig out of it later this year...with a guaranteed audience 👍🏻 Back to my Airwalk Ones (worn out soles but comfy!) Spoke to the other bands' bassist and we had a connection to a local band from the early 90s so that was cool. Short video from the outro to Butterflies (slightly cut short 😬)

My blues band played a new festival last night. Great stage, excellent PA and lighting, and very well run in terms of the sound. The guys were really good at their job. However, it was a brand new festival, I would say intended to be a very big event with thousands in attendance. But....there were not a lot of people there, and they are still desperately trying to sell tickets for the rest of the weekend. I think the organisers are going to take massive bath on this one. We were very grateful to those who did come and see us, especially @rwillett and his partner Zoe (credit to Rob for the photo). '73 P bass, GK Legacy 800 (DI'd), TE Elf 2x8. Rob

Annual Otis Jay Blues Band show at the local Forest Arts Centre, New Milton. Sold 100/130 tickets for a three-band bill - all good clean fun and a joining-in audience to boot. Great to have pro sound and lights. Sandberg VM4, GK MB200 through Barefaced Two10, DI’d of course.