Leaderboard

In late 2011, Prince Rogers Nelson walked into Capitol Guitars, a modest music store in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dressed in dark shades and an overcoat, he browsed quietly, barely speaking. The staff recognized him instantly but chose to respect his silence. He pointed at a few guitars, asked about the tonal difference between maple and mahogany, and then paused when the owner mentioned a recent conversation with a local teacher. The teacher had said that students at Anwatin Middle School in Minneapolis were losing access to their music program due to severe budget cuts. Prince nodded slightly and left without purchasing anything. Three days later, a delivery truck arrived at Capitol Guitars. Prince had returned but not to shop. Instead, he gave the owner a handwritten list and a simple instruction: “Everything on this list, pack it and deliver it to Anwatin.” The list included guitars, drum sets, violins, keyboards, amps, microphones, and recording equipment. When the owner asked if the instruments should be marked with a donor name or message, Prince replied, “No names. No credit. Just send love.” The delivery created confusion at the school. Teachers and administrators at Anwatin Middle School had no advance notice, and the delivery slip listed only a phone number that led to a private voicemail. Music teacher Kenneth Simms opened the shipment, stunned by the quality and quantity of the instruments. He assumed it was a mistake. It took several days of asking around and comparing handwriting on the note that came with the shipment before a staff member connected it to Prince, who had visited the store days earlier. When a friend later asked him about it, Prince said, “That’s between me and the kids. Not for headlines.” He declined to make any public statement or appear at the school. According to Minneapolis-based journalist Jon Bream from "Star Tribune", even the school district wasn’t formally notified. They only learned about the donor’s identity after teachers pieced the story together. Those close to Prince knew his silent generosity wasn’t a one-time impulse. During his early years growing up on the north side of Minneapolis, he often spoke about the importance of music education. His mother, Mattie Shaw, was a jazz singer and heavily involved in the local music scene. Prince once said in a 1999 interview with "Ebony", “If I hadn’t had access to a piano when I was seven, I don’t know who I would’ve become. Music wasn’t a hobby, it was a lifeline.” Former bandmate Sheila E. recalled in her 2014 memoir "The Beat of My Own Drum" how Prince frequently funded youth centers and music camps without telling anyone. “He believed in giving kids a chance to create,” she wrote. “He didn’t want applause. He wanted them to play.” At Anwatin, the new instruments transformed the energy of the school. Simms recalled how students began coming to class early just to practice. A hallway that once echoed with silence after the final bell now hummed with guitar riffs, drumbeats, and laughter. “We didn’t just get instruments,” Simms told "MinnPost" in 2012, “we got hope.” Store owner Alan Geller, who kept the receipt from Prince’s bulk order tucked in his office drawer, shared later that the musician didn’t even ask for a discount. “He said, ‘Charge full price. They deserve the best.’” For Prince, who had often used his wealth to quietly support causes tied to youth empowerment, the act wasn’t about visibility. His friend Van Jones later commented during an interview with "CNN", “He believed that if you help a kid find their rhythm, they might avoid chaos. He never needed a stage for that.” The donation never became a national headline. There were no photo ops or ceremonies. But in a city where music had once saved a young boy from the streets, it was returned, quietly, to the next generation. Prince gave them music when theirs had been taken away and never asked for anything in return.

Pictures say all that needs to be said, it's taken me a while to get here, but I suspect that of all the fretless Precisions I've owned (P, PJ, PP, PM) and all of the board materials I've used with them - rosewood, ebony, maple, graphite - this is by a long way the sweetest. Classic Vibe body, PUP, and circuit (the PUP as I'd been told would be the case, is very very good indeed), paired with a stunning Warmoth neck. First rehearsal tonight

Hi folks Just wanted to share the joy of this exceptional ACG bass handmade by Alan Cringean. I picked this up from Alan yesterday and it’s absolutely stunning. This particular model is a prototype and I’m sure Alan would be more than happy to build another if this is ur thing. From top to bottom the quality of the build is fantastic. The way Alan shapes his necks are always super comfortable to play and this is no exception. It balances perfectly either seated or on a strap. I’m really into filter preamps now and this one is fitted with the ACG EQ 01 by John East. Fine tuning your tone is excellent with the EQ01. Like every ACG I have played ( I have nine!) the quality, the workmanship and the versatility is in abundance. If you’re looking for a custom build at the highest level then speak to Alan. He’s an amazing luthier as well as a thoroughly nice chap. Specs down below. Cheers Stuart Body Olive Top Wood Purpleheart Accent Veneer Alder Body Neck Acrylic Impregnated Birdseye Maple Fingerboard 5 Piece Ash/Purpleheart Neck Luminlay Side Dots Details Set-neck Construction 33″ Scale Length 24 Frets 5 String 45mm Nut Width Satin Lacquer Finish Electronics ACG RFB bridge pickup and ACG FB neck pickup East Uni-Pre 4K Preamp Hardware Hipshot B Type Bridge Gotoh GB350 Resolite Tuners Black Hardware Dunlop Dual Design Straplocks ACG/Newtone Custom Strings

This has been on the cards pretty much since I first discovered ACG 11 odd years ago. It was @eude’s Finn 4 which first drew me to @skelf’s basses and very soon after that I saw a Holly-topped Finn. I’ve been hooked since the first bass I bought, and for a long time had a Holly-topped Finn in my wishlist. It almost became a reality about 5 years ago but I never got beyond the “annoying Alan” phase. Fast forward to last year, an ebony Finn which Alan shared on socials made me hatch a cunning plan for a yin/yang pair of basses - one holly, one ebony. Specs were developed, plans were hatched, then I had to be sensible and drop one of the two. Naturally I kept the holly plan as it has been on the list since day one, and the shape changed from Finn to RetroB. Thus this spec was born and a deposit was paid last July. Today the 5 string bass of my dreams was delivered. She sounds as good as she looks, and I’m over the moon 😎 So, the specs: Limba body, bloodwood accent, holly top 3pc Ash neck with ultra slim profile, ebony fingerboard with bloodwood blocks, 30” radius 3+2 headstock with holly facing and limba rear veneer 50mm RFB in bridge, 50mm OPB in neck Passive vol/tone/blend with coil select switch for RFB Black hardware 17mm bridge spacing (Hipshot A) Gotoh resolute tuners Honestly couldn’t be happier at this point, I am looking forward to getting her out in the wild with Katy Hurt next month 🤠 First 3 pics are from my “unboxing”, the rest are Alan’s:

Played 2nd on the bill in a 4 band/artists gig in Alderbury (village close to Salisbury). It was a fundraiser for a Salisbury Live event in June called Picnic in the Park. It was a social club and a good mix of locals, band members, friends and family in there, pretty busy and a good atmosphere. Our drummer did his solo act before we went on, he sings and plays guitar in his own band. Our set went well, some of those that have seen us before said we get better every time they see us... I guess the songs are becoming more familiar 😂 I enjoyed the night, the last band played covers but threw in a few curve balls that I enjoyed (I am the resurrection, who covers that?! Brilliant!). For the shoe fetish crew - a pair of scruffy Lee Copper Converse fakes. Normally I wear my Airwalks but wanted a change. As an aside, my 87 yr old dad watched me lace up a shoe today and told me off. Apparently they taught him how to lace up his boots during National Service so that you could cut the laces with a knife easily and get your boots off quickly if you needed to...every day is a school day 😁

Just got home from my Spacewasters gig at The Hope & Anchor, Islington. 4 band bill, in an 80 capacity venue, luckily a dedicated storage area for gear. We headlined and played well, though it was soooooo hot down there, even setting up had us all sweating out half a stone. Didn’t bother with a soundcheck but the sound man was very good and kept the volume to reasonable levels. I played my black Fender JMJ Mustang into my Behringer BDI21, DI taken from that to FOH, and then into a small 100 watt Ashdown combo of some sorts for stage volume which was plenty. Due to my plantar fasciitis rather than DMs I wore my Skechers trainers. Edit - Review now online, in punktuationmag: The Spacewasters are approaching their 25th anniversary, and over the years, they’ve become really damn good musicians. Maybe that’s not a very punk thing to say, but as their guitarists sprinkle frenzied solo magic on the likes of ‘Leave Me Alone’ and ‘Devil’s Bones’, we have to be thankful that they’ve chosen to channel their talents not into tedious 20 minute jazz-prog suites, but into shit-kickin’ street-level punk rock n’ roll. Add the larger than life presence (and sense of humour) of frontman Mick, and you have a recipe for one hell of a good time. Check out their new album ‘The 7-Legged Groove Machine’, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and it does it very well.

Local Social Club in Sunderland called Steels on Saturday night, a bass playing mate sent me this pic. Big club but had a full house with a great crowd in 👍🏼

The Jam Night I usually go to has moved back to its original venue (McCafferty’s in Epsom). We weren’t really able to attract a following at what was the new venue - various reasons I guess. Certainly there was never much of an atmosphere there. I think the original venue probably saw their takings drop by more than they were paying the band and certainly by more than the £50 pay cut they were trying to get the band to take. I’m pleased we’ve moved back as McCafferty’s is a much better music venue (and it’s walking distance from my house 😀). It’s a while since we’ve had anyone take any video of us. My daughter who was the main videographer has moved to Derby. My wife didn’t attend the new venue as often. Anyway back to the old venue so my wife came, and a mate and his wife came for the 1st time. They both took some video. We played ok, without nailing any of the songs. As it’s the 1st one back at McCafferty’s I decided on a compilation video.

Apparently, Pete told Zak he was only researching alternative drummers for a book.

At The Cricketers in Westcliff on Easter Sunday. Our "long-awaited" debut at this venue. I've wanted to get in here for a while - it's one of the good ones on the local circuit. Someone who used to work at another local pub where we play approached us to play at this venue as "he knew what we can do" and convinced his boss to book us. It turns out we didn't disappoint! It was a little quieter than I had hoped for, but Easter Sunday evening is an odd one. But the people there were up for a proper party and stayed till the end. The chap who booked us told us his boss was very happy. He also said he's looking at putting on a cover band event at their music venue next door that they also run (locals will know this as the former "Club Riga" venue bar - which was quite a popular venue for originals and tribute bands. I even saw Michael Schenker and Blaze Bailey play in there several years ago). Anyway, he said they've just got it up and running again and want to put on a cover bands event with the best bands in the area and has invited us to join the roster... which is nice. A couple of other people involved in local bands told us they really enjoyed our set and performance, too. I was very happy with our performance considering we were a man down (guitarist on holiday), which meant the other guitarist wasn't able to double on keys, which restricted our set choice a little. We also had a dep drummer as our usual drummer was watching West End show with his family and wouldn't have made it back in time to set up. He actually showed up to watch halfway through the evening, so we dragged him up for a song. As such, me and the sole guitarist had to work a little harder and creatively. I got to use my "Eliminate the guitarist" Helix preset for a few songs, which blends in an octave-up driven guitar tone as well as power chords with my standard bass tone. Sounded great to my ears, and filled a hole during a couple of solos.

I just took delivery of a Harley benton PB50. I'm doing a 50s Rock'n'Roll show and have used my HB Beatbass up till now. It's fine soundwise, but the 14mm string spacing, while doable is overall a bit meh. Also, while looking at the media stuff running on the screens behind us, I noticed that, when not playing upright, they were all playing (surpise, surprise) 50s p-basses. The clue is in the name, right? Also, I wanted more of the brash 50s youth look (cars with fins n'all that) than vintage p-bass. The irony of the fact that I am in my late 50s and no longer a youth is of no relevance here 🤨 Soooooo, that's how I justified this purchase to myself. I swapped out the delivered roundwounds for HB Flats, did a bit of work on the action and Bob's your aunty's live in lover. It's loads of fun. Can't wait to do the show on Friday

60th birthday party for the sound engineers wife last night, and the Hulla band were asked to play a short acoustic set in the marquee in the garden. Sacrifices were made to the rain and wind gods and it was dry and warm. We played without drums and after a trial run the week before it was obvious that my acoustic bass couldn't cut through in the mix so I went with my Ibanez AGBV200 through a little Vox practice amp. As the MC was our sound man, the mix was good. It was meant to be a surprise so the instruments were hidden away in vans, behind hedges etc until we all gathered in the tent, much to the delight of the birthday girl. We did about 30 minutes and had everyone (around 50 or so) up and dancing from the start. One of the reasons I love playing with this band is that we always enjoy the gigs, and the kinds of audiences we play to are there to enjoy as well, so we rarely get the drunken idiots mentioned elsewhere in this thread. (I've experience them in other bands and 100% sympathise with you). No photos have emerged yet, probably because the party went on way after we'd finished. 😀 Footwear - black Skechers lace-ups. Here's one I took of my kit.

I'm lost for words. So sad and a real loss. May I be so bold as to quote the final line of a beautiful post to Sam by @Dad3353 in the depression topic, a line which I think would echo all of our thoughts... "Thank you for your participation on this Forum; we are all the better for it."

A twofer for the Glam Lads this week, played to a group from Mencap Gateway on Thursday night, we love doing this and the clients always love the show. We normally only do one per year but we’ve already agreed a return in December. Last night was a private party in a local WMC, we normally avoid private jobs as they rarely work for us but the couple who booked us have been to a few gigs and convinced us. Surprisingly it was a great night with enthusiastic dancers all the way through both spots. Resting these aching bones now until next Saturday for a more normal gig at the Pen Nook in Deepcar north side of Sheffield. Oh….red, white and blue sparkle Converse.

I've been on the hunt for a big Acoustic rig for a long time, something like a 360 or 370 head into the matching cabinet with an 18" speaker in the weird, back facing configuration. They seem to be as rare as hen's teeth in Europe, so I've been using an Acoustic 136 combo as my main amp for a while now. Then the successor to those two big Acoustic rigs popped up on this forum. So now I'm the proud owner of a massive, impractical but wonderful sounding Acoustic 320/408 combo thanks to @Skinner. The 408 has four 15" speakers, and it's another of Acoustic's unusual configurations - two conventionally mounted, forward facing speakers, plus two mounted horizontally to face each other in the middle portion of the cab. The beast had it's first full rehearsal this week, and the most interesting thing is how much bottom end the cabinet chucks out. It seems to generate some unusually low frequencies that are audible and sit perfectly under the two lead guitar sounds in our post punk/new wave influenced outfit. Meanwhile, it also puts out the middly clank sound of a Rickenbacker that sits in a tonal gap that the lead guitars also don't occupy. First gig with it at London's Lexington next week - all I have to do is work out how on earth I'm going to transport it to the venue!

@SamIAm - a sad loss. She had enough character to leap off of the pages of this forum, and become a real personality - honest, warm, engaging, funny. And not embarrassed to be in a ukulele band.

...and as it was a rainy afternoon got the drawers done. Not my best piece of woodwork - I may end up re-doing the drawers as while they do work there are a lot of rough edges. Also ended up riveting the bottom and back sections to the sides as screws were not working in the HDF. Also not happy with the lime green paint so have bought some fluorescent tape instead. Now just waiting for the tape and of course the black light to turn up...

So Ive put this together for the U2 tribute Body was ex Chris Cross Neck from Aliexpress Pickup Tonerider Cts pots, orange drop cap I've literally screwed it together and tuned it up Sounds like a P bass Ive even wired it up myself and it works

It's a bit like Amazon's recommendation engine: "Ah I see you bought a new TV. I guess that means you like buying TVs, so now I'm only going to recommend you TVs for the next few months"

Black Bear Tewkesbury. Large venue, absolutely rammed. Previous sound complaint issues have meant an in-house FBT PA which you ‘plug in to’. Fine in concept, but it’s underpowered for the job it’s trying to do. Result = all the tricks in the book to get sufficient vocal volume over the top of the acoustic drums and the hundreds on people. Just about…phew. IEMs all round took away the feedback problem the support band had wrestled with. The real problem was the arse at 11:15. Pissed, arrogant and obviously thick. We are playing, and you are gesturing that you want to speak to the singer and then me. Mouthing back that we can’t hear you, (IEMs) and that you should just gently bugger off. And what did he want of a band who’d been playing classic rock all night? Wonderwall. I must confess, I told the door staff that he’d been aggressive- he was ejected. Please forgive me. 😘

I'm 62. Apparently 60 is the age where bits start to wear out or fall off... We played the Exchange last night, valleys pub very appreciative of the sort of classic rock we play. Virtually empty when we started but a good few people came in when we started playing. Were they lurking outside? It eas never as busy as usual (had people gone to town/events gorcEaster?) But at least they were appreciative. Two new tunes were Uprising and New Sensation. Got a great sound using Joyo XVI (octaver), mojo mojo and 1980s Ibanez Chorus for Uprising. i used the brassmaster for one or two tracks, it sounds ott on its own but when we are all playing it seems to mellow. Big wait for our next gig so we were discussing a strategy for bookings. With us all in two bands, we need to double check the diary then contact all our previous venues ... plus we plan to self promote a ticketed two-band night. Chesp tickets to ensure decent numbers.

I recently joined an Alanis Morissette tribute act, Jagged Little Alanis. First full set was last weekend at the Essex Arms in Brentwood - great little venue. The amazing fella who did sound videos everything. Here’s me trying to be Flea 🙄

An interesting one last night, the 'occasional' blues band playing as the opener in a three band bill in a pub! The headliner was a goth band, with an original indy type band in the middle. Essentially the gig was everything we would normally avoid - too many bands with nothing in common, playing in a pub with not enough space for not much money. Originally we thought that we were being offered a normal pub gig to cover another band pulling out, but it transpired that we were part of a multi band bank holiday event. Anyway, the blues band doesn't play enough gigs (due to a couple of members being very busy with other bands), so it was nice to play live together again - Facebook had just informed us that our last gig was a year ago! The gig was pretty good, we sounded as if the last show was a week ago and went down really well. All the people involved were great, even if there was a bit of a clash of genres. Every band used my cab, which wasn't what I originally intended. In another thread, some people were saying that they never let anyone else touch their bass. I'm usually pretty relaxed about that (to a point), as you have to be a bit of a d1ck to damage a FSO type bass. I'm more bothered about other people using amps, as you can do damage if you don't know what you're doing with absolutely no ill intent, as the girl playing bass for the goth band nearly did at the soundcheck when she plugged her amp into my Berg cab while my amp was already running and then wondered why it wasn't working! I quickly unplugged my amp (a MB LM3) and then adjusted the gain on her TE Elf so that everything was OK. I took my amp off after our slot and let the middle band use the Elf, just in case!

I never got my name in lights but more than happy with chalk! We had our headline at The Vic in Swindon. We’d been weeks in rehearsal and our soundcheck had us struck by the curse of backing tracks. For some reason we had a virtually non-existent kick drum and barely audible count ins, coupled with ear bleedingly loud keyboard washes! Rather than try and dissect the problem, we hastily rewrote the set to come up with a stripped back set. The Rickenbacker sounded immense through my Blackstar U700 head and 4x10. That head continues to excel in all situations. The crowd walked a line between modest but respectable (original goth music in Swindon on a school night perhaps isn’t the easiest of sells). Despite the initial woes of soundcheck, a fantastic night. I was even complimented on my singing voice - something I have been working hard on for the last couple of years 🎉

I've not been very active on here for a number of years so didn't know Sam. However, I've just read the depression thread and it's heart breaking. Whatever the cause of her passing to be that unwell mentally is awful and must have been terrifying for her. It's very upsetting. Rest in peace Sam

Oh hey — Reverb here. 👋 Just to clarify, Reverb is not being purchased by Fender. Two new investors—Creator Partners + Servco—have entered an agreement to purchase Reverb. I think the confusion probably stems from the fact that Servco has a long history with Fender stretching back to the '50s, and is now a majority owner of Fender. Once the deal closes, although we'll share a common investor with Fender, Reverb will be a privately-held, independently operated company. You can read more on our blog. Cheers!

Sod it. Live once.

No changes to my board for a while now (OK I turned the tuner around), except I occasionally 'guest' a pedal in the Meatball loop. Do you all like my massive Tubescreamer pillow? 😆

Thought I’d lower the tone of all these super nice NBDs with a lowly Toby! Played the perfect Toby Pro in 1996 or so, but couldn’t afford it. Bought a lovely example from @AndyTravis a while ago, but didn’t gel with it like that one back in the 90’s. Sort of forgot about this Deluxe I bought off fleabay about 15 years ago. Leant it to my wife’s cousin years ago, but as he wasn’t using it he returned it to me. A little bit dusty and unloved, but a quick polish and a tweak of the truss rod has it sorted. Will need to investigate the electronics as battery that expired 11 years ago had leaked! Might pull out the preamp and wire it passive, too. I don’t know loads about actives, so any comment on the at plan are welcome.

Late night wiring of my “Essentials” board. Saw a nicely priced 3leaf Audio “Youre Doom” in Ebay. Couldn’t let it pass!

I noticed there weren't any videos online yet documenting the changes to the Octabvre design, so i made a quick and dirty video to show the sounds.

Got this beast on loan:

That is so sad, like so many I was chatting via pm with Sam. She was going to build one of the first of the new BassChat 8" cabs. I have a kit of parts here packed and ready to go and was increasingly concerned when she suddenly stopped communicating. Now we know why. I'd like to think whatever happened was sudden and quick while she was still planning for the future with new builds and new adventures. She will be missed and she touched a lot of us it seems.

Behold - the finished cab drawers (and the other two cabs are very grateful for the speaker donation):

....and that's the project done (decided I could live with the wonky drawers)! Probably make a nice home for random pedals and leads - I'm actually tempted to take it with me to gigs as a way of storing things coz it looks so cool!

Rejoined the BB club yesterday - £799 in Guitar Guitar in the new ‘Crimson Red’, I’d have preferred the Sunburst but it’s preferable to Matt Black and I can live with it. I bought it about 4:30pm as the only one in stock was the Newcastle store which I’m near, so I picked it up and gigged it that night. It sounded excellent, more than happy with it - although I almost bought a BBP35, but I do prefer the option of an active bass

All going ahead though a 2 year wait, counting down the days already.

We have a 5-8 acoustic gig tomorrow night at The Ziegler Winery. 1 hour commute. Classy place. Daryl

I own 2 x J5s from Overwater. Both 35 scale's and an absolute dream to play.

I had a notification from bandmix in the 'someone looking at your profile', so I looked them up (I have a free account, can't send messages) and they were looking for a bass player. This year with my current band we have managed 1 or 2 practices as the guitarist always has some reason to cancel, and only a few gigs, also a little bored that it takes us an age to learn the simplest of things, so though I would look for a side project, so I looked up this band and found them advertising on JMB. Contacted them and agreed to meet up this thursday (actually last thursday but that was cancelled as there was a legit emergency for someone). Met up at a village hall. A very different way of practicing than I am used to, all have microphones and stereo in ears, no amplifiers at all, all though the mixer, the sound was great. 2 guitarists, drummer wasn't there (played along to the drum recordings), singer. Went through a whole host of songs that I have mostly not played before, heavier stuff with some muse etc thrown in, really enjoyable leaning 10 new songs in a couple of weeks and getting them down not too bad, they seemed happy anyway and asked me back. Going to go back and see how things work out with it - maybe just playing around and getting set lists ready for the moment, but nice to have a break and completely different styles of music to play. The in ear thing made stuff so good as did only having to turn up with a bass and the Boss me90b

I'm bloody fortunate to play in a band that rehearses an album for 3-months, gigs it once, and then moves on to the next. It's great fun, it's challenging, and for someone who's really easily bored, it's a great way to be constantly engaged with a band. So, we're doing Odelay by Beck at the moment, gig in June. It's an interesting departure for me coming from a mostly rock/funk/blues background to be playing such an eclectic and informal album. Odelay's often cited as his best album but I felt that musically it wasn't quite where I'd always placed Beck - although I realised that as an artist he'd pretty much passed me by for 30 or so years - so having a day to myself set out to do some wider listening. f*** me! I'm honestly quite blown away by the sheer creativity, diversity, and musicality of his work. As a bass player (I use the term loosely), I'm drawn not only to some extremely well crafted bass lines but also to some wonderful bass tone, the below being a great example... ...but over and above the well known tracks (Devil's Haircut, Where It's At etc), there's also a whole load of crazy in there, although also including great bass playing and tone (alongside some lovely impersonation/plagiarism, Prince and Kravitz get on down), the fretless and and upright in this is sublime.... I'm gonna be spending quite a lot of time working on some of his basslines, once I've mastered the Odelay tracks

I've bought 2 wenge necks off Ebay. Both only needed minor fret work & that only cost me $25 NZ per neck. Great necks. And I've bought 1 Maple neck off Ali Express. Just needed similar work on the frets. So, all three have been good purchases for me & I'd happily buy again from either place. Here are pictures of all three necks on my made at home parts basses.

Will they be renaming it to Deluxe Reverb or Twin Reverb now?

Wanna hear something funny. I just saw this. Like 30 minutes ago. Read like the first 3 post. Ordered it. It arrives tomorrow. So... pedal board number 6?