bassbiscuits

Does sound terrible in fairness.

Vintage basses can be quirky. While some have brilliant elements they also have their own characteristics, whether to their age, their life up to this point or the material/build quality of that particular era. So I would say; think closely about what you do like about this bass and what you don’t like. Decide whether those things could be better met by another bass before modding this one to try to achieve that. As others have said, a 78 P does a very good job of being a 78 P. If that’s not the sound/look etc you’re after, then there are other alternatives. FWIW I’ve owned a 1970 sunburst P for the last 30 years. I don’t love everything about how it plays or looks but it does what it does. Personally I wouldn’t dream of swapping stuff on it unless it desperately needed fixing. I have other basses that cover other sonic and aesthetic ground and I leave the old P as it is. But that’s just my two cents worth.

My La Bella flatwounds were secondhand when I got them about six years ago, so I don’t know their age. They still sound good to me though.

Hope it all goes well and you do him proud.

Good mix of tribute gigs, solo acoustic gigs, dep gigs and blues band gigs over the summer for me. But I’m also keeping time aside to actually relax and go on holiday with my wife and kids too. It’s been a real slog over the last year or so and my family deserve me back for a bit!

Just received a Cioks DC5 power supply from Ian. Easy transaction, arrived really quickly, exactly as described. Top man.

I can just about manage Rhythm Stick, if there’s an R in the month and with a fair wind etc etc….

I think Weather Report “Heavy Weather” defeated me about 25 years ago when I bought it. I managed to learn Birdland pretty accurately but Teen Town utterly lost me. In the days before YouTube and other online resources, it was beyond the scope of listening and working out by ear or stop/starting my CD player. Haven’t tried since.

The Darkness on Thursday night at Leicester De Montfort Hall. Absolutely epic. Just pure entertainment and loud rock all rolled into one. Awesome.

The Darkness tonight in Leicester DMH.

Nice one. I’ll get my top operatives onto it…

That racing stripe looks ace. How does one go about getting hold of such a thing?

I love my Yamaha BB604 but I’d love the option of more colours beyond the fairly dull choice of factory black, natural or red wine sunburst Yamaha colours. Lake Placid Blue, Inca Silver or antique white maybe?

I use IEMs in two of my bands but also always use my bass rig onstage. The IEMs are great for getting a decent mix of everything else on stage (including any clicks, tracks etc) but for me there’s no substitute for the feel of real live bass onstage either.

Good gig with the Andy Wales Band at Leicester’s Dos Hermanos Bar. Second time we’ve played there and word seems to have got around as it was pretty busy. First band gig I’ve done since Christmas so I felt a bit off match fitness (hands tiring by halfway through the second half but powering on thru on adrenaline etc - we’ve all been there surely.) Ready for bed now. Edit for gear: Yamaha BB604, Little Mark II head, Markbass STD102F cab, various pedals.

Simon Jones- SGL Guitars. He used to be my go-to repairman when we both lived near each other in Wales some years ago. He’s very good. Drop him a line. http://sglguitars.mysite.com

I’ve had a couple of those double straps and never really got on with them. Instead they just seemed to pull my head forward, which wasn’t ideal.

Haven’t Franz Ferdinand just released a new album too? I think they’re still pretty active rather than being a nostalgia act.

The princely sum of £30 all in.

Courtesy of FB marketplace this weekend I picked up a Yamaha FG Junior JR2 3/4 size acoustic guitar, with its fairly decent padded gigbag and a fender wall hanger thrown in. It’s in pretty much unused condition - I lemon oiled the fretboard, gave it all a good wipe down and restrung it. The action could go down a little and the frets feel like they need a polish but with a good set up I’ll have a very decent little guitar for not much money. Also fits in the car boot nicely which means I won’t have to choose between taking my kids or my guitar whenever I go camping. Happy days.

Aha. The manual points out that: “Guitarists will be pleased to know that two of ZEDi-10FX's mono channels feature Guitar DI high impedance inputs, allowing guitars to be plugged straight into the mixer without the hassle and expense of carrying separate DI boxes.” Theres a push button with a pic of a guitar on it on the channels Im using. If I don’t press it you cant hear enough signal to use. If I do press it you get this massive hum. I’ll try using my DI pedal in the chain and not using the “guitar button.” Also wondered if 3/4 from tuner into XLR of mixer channel would get around it. hmm.