Mudpup

Thx muchly Rich!

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Part of my retirement from the long term band plan is to have a go at learning to play a 5 string properly without the distraction of having to play a 4 string every weekend. I've tried a couple of times before...the first one was when I swapped my old 2 band Stingray for a beatiful USA G&L L2500 a few years ago. It was lovely, built like a tank and sounded great to me. I spent a month having a go at home on it and then tried it at a gig. Got through the first set sort of ok but then chickened out and swapped back to my 4 string as I kept doing the mental fluff that is forgetting the B string wasn't actually the E string 😂. Being mainly a pick player it seems harder to adjust (If I play finger style it seems to work a bit easier for me) Attempt number 2 was earlier this year. Ongoing back issues had me trying to find a superlight bass that I could afford and liked. Tried an Ibanez EHB1505 headless in a shop and liked the sound. Didn't want to splosh that sort of cash though and 4 string versions are quite rare. A few months later the cheaper EHB1005 version popped up locally on here so I grabbed it and had another go. Great bass, lovely and light but I couldn't get on with the super flat fretboard radius and kept tripping over my fingers. It felt a bit cheap to me too. The knobs and general build mainly. Sold it. So I'm idly pooching about on the web looking at combo's to replace the gig rig and tripped over something on the Andertons site by accident. Something I never would have looked at before. But it seemed a bit of a bargain so I did more research. Hardly anyone seems to have one which also appeals to me (I like underdogs and left of centre stuff generally). The stuff I found online seemed to be quite interesting and it sounded great to me so I hit the button on it and it arrived last week. It's a Markbass Gloxy GV5 in black with a maple board. A super jazz 5 string with a VVT tone and a Mark Bass 3 band active eq all in a Precision body and possibly with the most ridiculous name ever. Classic colour scheme and a bit stealth in terms of features. It was reduced from £770 to £385 inc a decent gig bag which seems a great price to me. I've had a Sire jazz in the past and I suppose it's the natural competitor to this bass but the build quality on the Mark Bass is way better and gettting on towards my old G&L I think. I'm a week in to it and I think it's going to stick (but I've said that before...). Haven't weighed it yet but it feels light to me. They come with a basswood or alder body and mine is alder. It was well set up when it arrived but I've got the action down to stupid low and it plays really easily. Loving it so far. No pics yet but here's a pretty good demo of it in the wrong colour with a bloke who actually knows how to play

Remember it will be older Trace Elliott watts though....handle with care!

In: Laney Digbeth preamp Out: VT Bass Di preamp In and out: Ibanez EHB1005 Shaking it all about: MarkBass Gloxy GV5 (see Bargain PSA/NBD post) That's not a bad result by my admittedly poor standards I have no chance in 2025......I'll be selling my gigging amp and cabs and having a rethink/shuffle

Should be fine. You'll need the correct speaker connection cable. The cab is probably a speakon input - the amp may be a jack output. You shouldn't have an issue finding a jack to speakon lead. Just don't cheap out on it too much.

Those little Digbeth preamps are a brilliant bit of kit!

I picked up one of these Markbass Gloxy 5 strings in black and maple. A super jazz with a P bass body. It's part of my retirement from the band plan to learn to play a 5 string (the 3rd attempt)

Check out the bass solo at about 2.25 in. It made my eyes go funny until I could figure out what was happening!

I discovered Haley Reinhart and subsequently Post Modern Jukebox. Totally not my normal bag of fish but oh my word, what a singer! (And the second video is of PMJ with Morgan James singing one of my faves)

Apparently I was irreplaceable when I handed in my notice back in July - the other guys decided to fold the band rather than find a replacement. Devasting good looks and unbridled talent would be hard to replace I thought. Or maybe it was because I got all the gigs, did all the social media, sorted all the lighting out and stopped the drummer killing the singer and guitarist... 🙂

Just ask Alex for a replacement speaker - It'll be a lottery putting something else in there. And as fretmeister says above you'll lose all the resale value in the cab if you wanted to move it on.

I used to have a mooch on TB mainly becasue there was a decent Spector group on there and a few guys going on the same amp/bass journey as me. Loads of real hillbillies on there though and the recent facelift totally ruined it in my opinion. Its very clunky now and I can't be bottomed with it anymore.

That is bootyfull!

This ⏏️

You're in Redonizm Greg? Looks like Rekovered are in on Friday at the Cow the night before you. They'll pull a big crowd there. Hope there's some money left for the locals to come out in the Saturday for you.

The regulars are a lovely bunch. It's like the Star Wars Cantina Bar in a good way! Saturdays are usually pretty good anytime there. Fridays can be a bit hit or miss depending on who's playing at Papillon up the road. If it's a good band there they sometimes head off at half time and split the evening. Or start at the Pap and finish at the Cow.

I think Carlos Fandango was just a bit confused as to which one he should use. He's was fishtailing for about 100 yards before he drove into everyone else. Left, right, left, right, left, oh poop!

All the best buddy. Thanks for your contributions to the site and make sure you check in now and again!

I played my final gig with Yellowhouse last night at a packed out Cow and Telescope in Southend. That's me now taking at least 6 months off now to get over the last year and concentrate on family and personal stuff without weekend gigs and doing all the booking and social media getting in the way. I lost my dad a few months back, my mother in law 2 months before that and my closest uncle at Xmas last year. It's been a difficult year for many reasons and I want to totally switch off from band commitments. I handed my notice in to the guys in July and they wanted to fold the band rather than replace me so we cancelled all the gigs apart from 6 of our favourites. The gig was awesome. We filled the place and they were ready to party! People travelled to Southend from all over the place in the storm to say goodbye. We had some from the West Midlands, Guildford, Margate. Some friends and family turned up unexpectedly as well. I was truly humbled by it and the love from the locals was overwhelming. I have a little tendon issue which flared up in the last 4 songs which was fun - it means I can't actually lift my fretting index finger off the board. It just locks down solid and I can't lift it off. You sort of stare at it willing it to move and it doesn't. So that was fun trying to work round it but I got through it ok. And then to add to the excitement some d##khead in a whizz bang BMW M5 decided to floor it outside the pub on the wet road as we were loading out. He narrowly missed us but managed to hit 5 other cars and nearly ended up in the 24hr shop that I was walking towards to get some milk shake and choccies for the trip home. You've probably seen my typical gig pics and videos so here's some of Carlos Fandango instead...

I think maybe funk is fairly repetitive in general? It's hitting a groove and seeing where it goes a lot of the time. Some of their songs take a huge left turn in timing in the middle bits but there's a lot of material to go through to find them. They remind me of a lighter version of Stevie Salas Colorcode which was a band I used to like a long time ago.

I'm playing my last ever gig tonight and I'm having a moochy morning - a bit of tea and toast, a lie in watching You Tube on the laptop and then shortly I'll restring the bass and get prepped for what looks like to be a cracking final apearance in Southend, Essex And then I found this lot.... what tha actual f### have I been missing! Flat out funk, the tightest band I think I have ever seen having a total blast playing together and a monster of a bass player with a killer sound on every video you'll ever see of them (someone at Sire needs to sign him up btw...) It either wants to make you give up completely or keep on playing - I'm not sure which yet. Oh and they played up the road from me a few days ago. Aargh! Anyone else like them?

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