Rayman

In case you didn’t know (many already do), I highly highly recommend putting “Thrust Bearings” onto your tuning screws….. it massively improves the tuning accuracy and ease of use.

Man already know, but in case you don’t, it cost a couple of quid, and is a game changer.

18 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

Hmmm, I'm the worlds worst at sharing my feelings, although I'm finally learning with age not to just suck it up, but occasionally unload and express how I'm feeling/my various frustrations/concerns/worries etc.

 

Just my thoughts, we all cope differently.

 

Hope you have a great Christmas break 🙂

Trouble is with elderly parents, the child has to grow up and take over the responsibilities, as the parents regress into a childlike state…. both mine did anyway, maybe it isn’t the same for everyone. Also my brother didn’t cope well with it all. So I definitely felt like I had to toughen up and support everyone, even though I was the youngest. Similar with my mate in many ways, I definitely became his big brother as best as I could. You’re right though, you still have to think about your own state of mind, and talk to loved ones about the whole thing, something I’m crap at. I definitely hold it all in. 

I hear you. Yes, it’s a sign of our age I guess. All the best to you matey.

My mum died from Dementia Jan 2nd, and it basically kicked off an extremely traumatic 2025. I had a knee replacement in Feb, which was way harder that I thought it would be. My best pal declined rapidly after a two year battle with cancer and lost the fight in October. We buried him in November. Our drummers wife had a heart attack. Their little granddaughter found her on the floor, and remarkably the emergency services saved her, but she’s been left with severe brain trauma and is a shadow of what she was. But she’s alive thankfully.

I dunno man, this year…. I for one will be glad to see the back of it. 
 

As always, stuff like this makes you think…. do the stuff you want to do, be with the ones you love, live every day to the max…. You know. 

10 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Nice bass, mate, but not really fair to compare it to a 'ray - it's passive for a start.  Most ATKs are active with a 3 band EQ.  Different pickup too - according to the Ibanez wiki (not saying it's gospel, like) the ATK100 has a regular dual coil humbucker, most other ones made around this time had a triple coil (a dual coil with a phantom coil), or later a quad coil (double humbucker).

Ahh understood, I didn’t know that. Obviously I knew this one was passive, but I didn’t know the other models were all active. Interesting, I’d like to try one now. This ATK100 is more akin to the MM Joe Dart 1, I would think, it’s definitely that kind of vibe. Anyway back to the OP, definitely interested in trying one. 

I have a MIJ ATK100. Absolutely great bass, very old school, very light and currently wearing flats, lovely thing. Low output, and honestly nothing at all like a Stingray. No idea if the 200 or other models are different in terms of that, and mine is the most basic version, but it definitely doesn’t sound like a ‘ray. Really great bass though, and definitely has its own vibe going on.

So I bought one of these wondering what all the hype was about….. I’m still wondering to be honest?

It’s decent for guitar I guess, but bass? The presets are ok at best, and I’ve come up with a couple of my own modulation variations, but I’m a bit underwhelmed by it so far? 
 

I’m old, and haven’t really delved into NAMs and IRs etc…. (I actually didn’t know what that meant), so I’m wondering weather this thing might not be my bag…. maybe some Xmas experimenting might make it grow on me. 

We played there last week, absolutely superb venue!!

I brought out the Meteora last night for our last one of the year, via my regular gigging amp head now, a highly portable TCBQ500 into a house cab. Great sound on stage on off, great job by the sound man. Super loud and nice and clear too.
 

Good crowd and a great little venue, awesome parking and access, backstage area and kitchen, definitely looking forward to coming back. The Meteora is such a fantastic bass, I need to use it more.

Yep, I went to their “factory” unit in Knutsford in Cheshire many years back. Interesting visit, not a big outfit at all, much like Ashdown in Essex, another surprisingly small facility, although Ashdown are looking to expand into surrounding factory units last I heard.

Our old bass player used Ohm for years via an Aria ZZ bass, decent sound I seem to remember, although it was 40yrs ago.

I’ll jump in on this too. I’m 61, and I’m still fronting an original heavy rock band, the same band I joined in 1982. Were recording a new album and it’s sounding absolutely awesome, very pleased with it, and live were better than ever. My voice is still holding up, and young people who come to see us love the stuff, it’s old school, like their dads listen to, and it goes down pretty well. THAT SAID…….. a month ago, my best pal lost his battle with cancer. He was 59 and an amazing metal guitarist. I helped lower him into the ground to the sound of “Where were you?” By Jeff Beck. In January, my mum died. No great surprise, but still, you know. In February our drummers wife had a heart attack and died for 10 minutes. Somehow, they revived her and she survived, but unfortunately with severe brain damage, so he has his hands full looking after her. The band, keeps him sane.

My point. If you’re young and you’re reading this, be all you can be. Take nothing for granted, don’t waste time being miserable, do the things that make you happy, with the people that make you happy, play music, love music, all music, and most of all, KICK ASS. If you’re old and reading this, all of the above also applies to you, x2. 
 

F*** getting old. 

I like him too, but I wish he’d just wind it in a bit. The crass punkesque attire is a bit irritating, but, it gets him noticed, so job done there I guess. I like the fact that he isn’t a virtuoso, there’s too many of them on YT already. 

Nice…. Interested to see how that went. I’m big time into fretless at the moment, just not sure I could pull off a whole set on one.

Strings are so important, it’s pretty obvious really, but you play the strings not the bass. The strings are the interface you interact with, so it’s so important to have strings that feel and sound right. Personally I love well worn in strings, maybe a year or two, but when they really die off I don’t like that dull tone. Equally I don’t like brand new zingy strings either, definitely somewhere in the middle, but it’s very subjective, horses for courses. 

I did have a spare set of old 80s BB tuners from my Yamaha days, but I don’t think I still have them. I will double check.

So I bought a Ditto mini looper from Juan Alderete. I’m a fan and wanted a looper, so I bought it from him. Anyway with one thing and another I only just got around to booting it up, and hey presto, the last loop he was working on with his fretless bass is still on there! It was a bit weird hearing it to be honest, I mean he’s not dead or anything but it’s very cool to have one of his loops. So do I keep it? Can you save them?

Such great basses, and my gigging basses of choice for some years was two of these, the band still talk about them today. Mine were not heavy, and were very versatile. Underrated basses these, and worth the asking price all day long.

On 11/11/2025 at 12:56, cetera said:

I was considering it, but too big a venue. If it was Hammy-O or Brixton Academy I'd consider it...

This.

Another vote for a V7, 5er in my case. With 20+ basses to choose from, the V7 is still my #1 play at home bass. Absolutely lovely to play and it’ll do anything totally. Mine was ridiculously inexpensive used, and I wouldn’t be without it. 

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Yep that’s what happens with originals. In our early days in Knock Off we got on some strange bills, and sometimes there was just stunned silence at our set. 

Yeah we had stunned silence a couple of times in the past. I remember playing the Nottingham Palais to a couple of thousand people, and literally at the end of the songs it was silent 😆, very odd situation. I’ve been spat at, had ashtrays thrown at me…. Etc etc, all many years ago now thankfully.

8 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

I share highlights of our gigs, the good with the bad.

 

Sometimes things go wrong and you just can't put your finger on it. " The audience wasn't into it" It hurts it's certainly happened to us, and more than once.

 

Sounds like a good discussion.  "What Can You Do When The Crowd Ain't Into It ? I have a few thoughts on when and why it happens.

 

Daryl

Yeah, we’re pretty lucky most of the time, playing original heavy rock to audiences who often don’t know the songs, we go down pretty well a lot of the time. However sometimes it just doesn’t click, and on a wet Tuesday night the folks that came to see what was on just didn’t seem to be into us. Cest la vie! The band before us went down pretty well, playing kind of indie rock, and they were great, but our 80s style heavy rock just didn’t do it for them. All part of the fun, and I’ll take indifference over hostility every time! lol, because we’ve had both down the years! Thankfully the days of having stuff thrown are long gone! 😆

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. 
 

Anything with “Yamaha” on it is fabulous. From my old BB3000S to an RBX175 I had, and a whole bunch of others in between, everything they make is great. One of my current favourites is an RBX A2 5, which is absolutely superb. I recorded with it last week and sounded immense, great low B. 

I have one somewhere, but I upgraded the electrics to Vol/Vol/Tone CTS etc. I have a feeling that it was Volume, Blend, Tone originally. Sorry that isn’t a definitive answer. 

Easily my best acquisition was this Hohner fretless jazz, used, from a BCer, I’ve upgraded the electrics to CTS etc and put a Fender high mass bridge on it, everything is as it was. The pickups are awesome, stock I presume, and the neck is lovely….

Its for a specific album track we’re recording, and I haven’t put it down since.

The worst thing I bought was an Ibanez SR506 that doesn’t work, but possibly my own fault to be fair. It’ll be the first project of 2026.