Linus27

I remember quite a few music shops in my area that I bought a lot of things from. My first proper bass came from a little music shope called Nova Guitar Centre on the outskirts of Guildford. The shop was an absolute mess and run by the owner, Tony and his wife Diane who were so lovely, honest and real characters. Both smoked about 40 fags a day but were bonkers and Tony was a genius at setting up basses. He was huge I to his Japanese instruments and sold a lot of Tokai, ESP and Ibanez. I bought my first Tokai Jazz bass from him in the mid 90's and then in 97, my ESP series Jazz which I still have today and is the best bass I've ever owned. Sadly, as Andertons popularity grew, Nova couldn't compete and eventually closed, probably some time in the mid to late 2000's. My very last visit to the shop in 2004 was very unusual though. Tony had got into religion and prophecies. He said to me that in a few months, there is going to be a huge natural disaster. It will be gods way of cleansing the earth, removing a lot of bad and resetting things. It will be so big and obvious that it's a natural disaster that there will be no doubt that's it's not a terrorist attack. He then went on to say that after this has happened, God will turn his attention to the US as he's unhappy with the corruption and greed over there and again, there will be another natural disaster hitting the US and again, there will be no doubt that it's an act of nature and not a terrorist attack. Of course, I thought he was quackers but a few months later, the tsunami hit Indonesia on Boxing Day and then the following year, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. Anyway, also local to me was Andertons and I bought one of my first basses from them, a Washburn Force ABT b20 in crackle red when they were in their original location. They are still local to me so I pop in quite often. Also local to me was Kingfisher Music in Fleet which I used to buy things fro occasionally, usually for going on tour. I'm also someone who used to visit the Bass Centre in Wapping and I absolutely loved going there. It was brilliant. When we signed in 1998, I had it in my contract that I would get £5k to buy new bass gear. I headed straight to the Bass Centre and bought my dream bass, a Teal Stingray with maple neck. I also picked up a Status Energy, a Hartke HA7000 and a Hartke 4x10 and 1x15 with the aluminium speakers. The Stingray was an absolute disaster and never suited me, the Status sounded terrible so I swapped it and the rig was so big and powerful, I only ever toured with the 4x10. However, the Hartke HA7000 is still the best bass amp I've ever owned and used. Also local to me in Camberley, there used to be a music shop on the A30 in the 90's. It burnt down under suspicious circumstances and reopened in Sandhurst.

Satin necks. Matching headstocks on a bass with a maple neck. Amp and Cab overhangs. People who call a bass a guitar. People who call me a guitarist. Single cut basses.

This is my plan so far, get a Metro 20 which should do the trick.

I had a TC Corona Mini chorus along with an EBS, Electro Harmonix, Boss, Behringer and a few others and they have all come and gone. Nothing touches the Harley Benton Chorus, it is incredible and the sound I had in my head. I have also tried the MXR Octave pedals and actually have the octave deluxe version up for sale. Again, the boss one does it for me. As a fretless player, the two most important pedals for me are Chorus and Octave and both of these pedals give me exactly what I am after tonally. I would actually give up everything else before these two pedals The Mini Polytune is a good shout though.

I would also say, very much like his dad who also effortlessly flowed melodically around the fretboard, tastefully and always serving the song.

You are very welcome and I am super happy you appreciated it, thank you John does have quite an extensive back catalogue and he never submitted his performance right for a lot of tracks so there's probably more recordings of him that we are not aware off.

He sure was, I believe he and Rob used to buy lots of things off Ebay and make basses. I tried about 3 or 4 of his basses at The Gallery but nothing that I really wanted. I would love to have owned his black Fender Japan Power Jazz bass he played on some of the Simple Minds stuff. I would love to know what happened to it along with his natural Stingray. This is what Rob posted on Facebook back when John passed. "I’m sorry to say my dad passed away on May 14th 2023. He was an amazing man - genuine, charming and an utterly uplifting presence and it’s really heartbreaking that we won’t get to hang again. He burned brightly and departed elegantly, leaving a deep impression on all he met. John Giblin was also an incredible bassist and I wanted to use this post to pay a small tribute as he played an enormous part in influencing my playing, but his compassion and his character overshadow his music. He spent a lot of time looking after his good friend John Martyn in his final years. Kate Bush has some lovely words to say about John - “Everyone loved John. He was a really beautiful man in every sense of the word. Everybody wanted to work with him because he was such a great talent and everyone wanted to be his friend because he was such a wonderful person. I loved John so very much. He was one of my very dearest and closest friends for over forty years. We were always there for each other. He was very special. I loved working with him, not just because he was such an extraordinary musician but because he was always huge amounts of fun. We would often laugh so much that we had to just give in to it and sit and roar with laughter for a while. He loved to be pushed in a musical context, and it was really exciting to feel him cross that line and find incredibly gorgeous musical phrases that were only there for him. He would really sing. It was such a joy and an inspiration to see where he could take it. We’ve all lost a great man, an unmatchable musician and I’ve lost my very special friend. My world will never be the same again without him.” I only met John in later life but we instantly hit it off. Our views on music and all else were strangely aligned. He remains the only person I totally trusted on matters of bass tone and we enjoyed rummaging through ebay instruments even on our last chat. His style was rooted in soul and pop and he always had impeccable time and a real melodic ear, taking influence from Eberhard Weber as much as Jamerson and Jaco, he acheived the holy grail of establishing a unique voice whilst nailing all the attributes of a tasteful, grounding bass role. Phil Collins would rely on him to make a solid soulful rhythm section, while John Martyn would bring out a fluid and bluesy style coming more from his jazz influences. Peter Gabriel allowed John to stretch out melodically and Babooshka would never have been the masterpiece that it is without the beautiful fretless parts he imparted. Meanwhile check out the unique way he uses a delay pedal to bring a rhythmic excitement on Ghostdancing (live) with Simple Minds or his distinctive tone with british fusion pioneers Brand X. I made a little playlist of some of my favourite tracks. It’s by no means exhaustive, as he was a first call sessioneer for so many top artists. He wasn’t inclined to fill out a PPL form either so many of his works are quite difficult to identify! https://tinyurl.com/29a5d7xy I’m sure I missed some gems, so do let me know... Miss you dad"

A little update to my board which is mostly for fretless. A new addition is the Fender Bassman Driver which just adds a bit of grit. It's an awesome pedal and is perfect to cut through at certain points. The pedalboard is tight for space and not sure what I'm going to do when I get my hands on a MXR Bass Synth pedal. From right to left. 1. TC Electronic Tuner 2. Boss OC5 Octave 3. Fender Bassman Driver 4. Harley Benton CH5 Chorus (Best chorus I've ever had) 5. Walrus Audio Slo Reverb 6. Mooer Ambience A7 Reverb 7. Ampeg Opto Compressor 8. Sansamp BDDI v2 Preamp

I believe he is the son of the late great John Giblin who is probably my favourite bass player.

Absolutely wonderful, beautiful tone and playing.

Good luck Andy, hope it all works out for you which ever way it goes. I hit 56 next year which means I've played bass in bands for 40 years. As I get older, I am becoming more reflective and less enthusiastic about gigging. I'm very happy with the bands I'm in, everyone is great to work with and on the same page but the fire is dying. I started out all those years ago, playing all over the country, building a following and eventually getting a record deal. Every pub and club had music and it was always a packed and enthusiastic night. These days there really is a huge difference with a general lack of interest in bands and music. There are less places to play and the foot fall is so small that it makes you wonder, why bother, it sometimes feels like flogging a dead horse. Even playing Glastonbury this year, I noticed some stages were very quiet and bands were playing to not many people which was depressing to see. Someone said earlier that as we get older, we realise that time is precious and I'm very much feeling that way. I'm fortunate to have lived out my dream and achieved more than most but after 40 years of being a musician, I have nothing left to achieve. I now feel that the years I have left, with good health and relative youth on my side, I want to spend the time I have building new chapters, memories and adventures.

Don't P-Basses have slightly wider frets or have I been believing something wrong that I was told about a long time ago 🤣

I must admit, I do love the look and the sound of a fretless Precision, there's something that is just so right about that combination, like apple pie and custard. However, in my hands, I much prefer playing a fretless Jazz. Not sure if its the smaller frets because I play all over the board, but I am way more comfortable with a fretless Jazz.

Nope totally different 😄 New Year Days bass is a black 70's fretless jazz with blocks and binding on a rosewood neck. The Live Aid bass is a sunburst jazz with maple board.

True, however, it turned out to be a career changing moment for them and considered one of the best performances at Live Aid. After the Live Aid show, all of U2's albums re-entered the charts and broke them into America. So it turned out to be a good thing for them.

Live Aid for me was the start of me taking up bass and getting into music. I had just turned 15 and was aware of music due to my two sisters constantly playing all the big groups of the 80's like Duran Duran, The Police, Level 42, Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet etc. My dad was also into his big band Jazz and my mum was into her singers like Barry Manilow, Val Doonican, The Carpenters etc. So my childhood was full of music constantly playing in every room of the house. I hadn't at that time really gotten into music of my own as I was more into BMX and computer games but I came in from BMX'ing and sat down and by pure accident turned on the TV and saw the U2 set. I was blown away by it but mostly by Adam Clayton, strutting around the stage, with his black DM's, looking super cool, playing this beaten up Jazz bass and at that point I decided, that's what I want to do, I want to do what he's doing, I want some of that. From then on in, I got into music, took up the bass and the rest as they say is history.

After the Live Aid performance, U2 very nearly split up. The rest of the band were furious with Bono for taking over and interacting with the crowd which forced the band to cut the song Pride which was at the time a huge hit for them, especially in the States. They ended up playing a 12 minute version of the song Bad due to Bono going off to interact with the crowd which meant they didn't have time to play their current hit single and the rest of the band felt like they were just passengers during the performance whilst Bono did his thing.

It sure is and I will admit that I am a big U2 fan, or at least up until Achtung Baby. Certainly the music they were releasing throughout the 80's is for me absolutely incredible. There was also a bunch of bands that were universally liked at the time by young people. We all had our favorites but bands like U2, Simple Minds, The Alarm, Big Country were grouped together and then there were others like Echo and The Bunnymen, The Cure, INXS, Tears For Fears and to some extent The Mission were also very much liked by the same groups. Being a huge U2 fan, I was fortunate enough to work with the producer, Mark Wallis when we signed our record deal. He was chosen to produce our debut album and he was the mix engineer on U2's Joshua Tree album. He also produced the B sides on the album. I would spend many an hour discussing U2 with him which was also interesting. The one thing he told me which really stuck with me is something he said about Adam that sadly Adam is criticized for by other bassists. We were talking about Adam just playing 8's on a lot of track but he said there is no other bass player who can do that in time with as much consistency and drive that Adam. If you analyse each note, it is spot on in perfect time. Most other bass players waver in time but Adam is so accurate with his timing, which is why he does it so well. He is the same when playing 16's, for example on Where The Streets Have No Name. He said no other bass player he has worked with is as accurate or in time as Adam Clayton.

That was Greg Carroll who was Bono's mic-lead runner, band roadie and close friend. He was sadly killed exactly a year after Live Aid in Dublin riding a motorbike doing a courier run for the band. The U2 song, One Tree Hill is written about him as well as Victor Jara. When U2 were touring in NZ in 1984, Bono met Greg Carroll who took Bono to One Tree Hill. Greg then became the bands roadie. After his funeral in NZ, Bono was thinking about the funeral and the time be spent with Greg at One Tree Hill which inspired him to write the lyrics to the song.

I use a BC208 Cab with a Warwick Gnome 300 and it sounds incredible. I'm interested in actually trying one of the little TCE heads with it but the Warwick sounds so good, I'm reluctant to make a change.