bassbiscuits

Bought a Boss ODB3 pedal from Dave. All good - smooth transaction and arrived in a couple of days. Can't fault him.

Yeah I sympathise Spongebob. I left my regular band in April last year, one of the reasons being that it had stagnated into a generic pub rock thing with little in the way of new material, and songs chosen by the band leader on the basis of being easy rather than being good. I found myself on stage one night thinking "Is this it?" Once your heart's not in it anymore, it's hard to fake it and carry on, even if it is paid regular work. Leaving that band freed up enough time for me to say yes to other musical stuff instead - I'm now gigging with a original trio, doing regular solo acoustic gigs and bits of depping work. It's enough for me at the moment.

Just sold a Comfort Strapp to Rik. All good - prompt payment, good comms etc. Smooth transaction all round.

True. It's horses for courses. I have a couple of Hiscox Liteflite cases stashed away which i use for the rare occasions where I've had to fly with instruments etc or chuck them in a van full of gear. But for regular local gigs where it's just my kit in the car, its gig bags all the way.

I've got a Fusion gig bag and a couple of Ritter ones - they do perfectly well for me. I did have one of those semi rigid Protec Contego ones that came with my Lull and which was brilliant in fairness tho the handle broke on it. I did briefly have the Gator ProGo equivalent which seemed really good (it was shipped to me in error tho so I helpfully sent it back). I'd probably get one of them next if I needed a step up from the normal gig bag.

I have a little Blackstar ID practice amp, which i connect to both my bass and my ipad/ipod. Then listen thru headphones. Works a treat and gives you all the tone shaping and effects from the Blackstar amp too.

Glad you found the right bass for you - looks like a beauty.

I've got two Little Mark heads (a LM2 and an LM3) and I love them. But I've never really got on with the cabs - much prefer the sound of my Aguilar GS410, even though it's a much bigger, heavier cab. Then again, I've heard lots of people using Markbass cabs and sounding great. I'm very tempted by their lighter weight now I'm whizzing towards my mid-40s....

That's stunningly bad.

There are Tokais and Tokais.... Japanese made Tokai stuff from the 80s (ish) was very well respected. More recent Chinese-made Tokai stuff is altogether more low-budget.

My Taiwanese-made Yamaha BB604 cost me £200 s/h on here. Bought it as a cheapy spare, but it punches well above its weight. Really good build quality, high output and versatile range of sounds. In terms of value for money it's the best bass I've got and it's not going anywhere.

Ginger Wildheart in Leicester in March. I don't get out much...

Two great ones that spring to mind. Depping on bass for a cool blues guitarist/singer called Aynsley Lister at the Suwalki Blues Festival, in Poland, in 2016 - big stage in a park, awesome onstage sound, probably 1,500 to 2,000 people turned out to watch us, and we got treated like royalty all weekend by the promoters, which was amazing ha ha! Also remember doing a lovely wedding gig at a farm in Mid Wales with my band in summer 2015 - a sort of marquee made from interconnected teepees in a field, with cocktail bar etc in it, which was all lit up and night and had a real little festival atmosphere on a hot summer night. I was on lead guitar and vocals, and everyone was right up for it as the climax of the day's celebrations. The energy was incredible, as was the hog roast and real ale on tap, and the band played brilliantly. Remember utterly buzzing listening to Tom Petty on the long night drive home back to the East Midlands afterwards.

I'm mainly gigging solo at the moment, so I try to add in between 4-6 new songs every set (though don't always succeed!) But I also make sure i mix up the order of the remaining ones too, so i'm not always using the same opening song etc. One of the bands I was in seemed to play the same set for years and it bored me silly. I imagine punters felt the same!

Sounds like a good price. I had a E Series 57 reissue strat a long time ago and it was a great guitar.

Basses: Sunburst 1970 P bass, red Yamaha BB604 or gold Epi Jack Casady (an older Peerless-made Korean one) Strings - La Bellas (P) TI flats (Epi) and currently D'Addario NYXLs on the Yamaha. Amps - Markbass LM3 running either a Schroeder 1210 or an Aguilar GS410. Pedals - just a Korg Pitchblack tuner and a pair of leads. Sennheiser or Shure SM58 mics, and a pair of Earpeace rubber earplugs. Good to go!

Wow those Bill Lawrence ones sound cool! Nice one.

Can I just say I think your butterfly wallpaper is awesome too!