rushbo

(Nicked from FaceBook) ...pretty accurate, I'd say. Now, where can I get a Danny Devi-Tone pedal from?

I'm not a fan of multiple knobs, switchers, levers and faders on an instrument, but that's a comment for another thread... What makes my OCD go into overdrive, is if I see a knob, or even worse a toggle switch, dangerously close to the "playing area" of the bass. What if it's a self destruct switch! One over aggressive twang and we could all go up in smoke! Or even worse, you might have to re-adjust your pickup blending...

I've seen some instruments, where the back of the neck is so scored, you could use it as a guiro...

(shudders) It might be because my day job is writing about health and safety (oh! the glamour!) that whenever I see a pint of Scruttocks Old Dirigible Pale Ale perched precariously on an amp, it's all I can do to not call the police. Ditto trailing leads all over the floor. A roll of gaffa tape is considerably cheaper than a public liability insurance payout.

I'm a pretty easy going chap and strings not aligning correctly over pickup poles, tuners pointing in all directions, silks of different lengths, etc don't bother me at all. However, when I'm gigging (or even watching a band), if the stage area is messy, it makes my OCD jangle like Peter Parker's SpideySense. Trailing cables, plastic carrier bags on stage, drinks on amps/combos, wonky backdrops, mic leads pulled so tight they'd make a sound like a banjo if you plucked them...ooohhh, I can feel the palpitations coming on just thinking about 'em. So carry on playing your scratchplate-less Jazz bass with irregular string spacing through a mismatched head and cabs - but for the love of Jeebus, pick that bloody carrier bag up!

I don't own any black leads, for that very reason - grubbing around on my hands and knees in the pitch blackness of some god-forsaken "music venue" looking for a black lead in an ugly tangle of black leads got really old, really quickly. I now have a lovely collection of leads in colours so eye searing, a primary school student would think they were "a little outré." But the best part is; now I use a wireless dealio, to the casual observer, I am the dictionary definition of rugged masculinity, while safely gaffa taped to the floor, my rainbow hued cabling screams new millennium, gender fluidity. Sorry, what was the thread about, again?

"Same Old Scene" and "Avalon" are great fun to play.

100% I play in a Roxy Music tribute band (don't judge me...) and something that works massively in my favour, is the "revolving door" attitude Roxy had to bassists, meaning I can claim to be playing versions of basslines played by loads of different players. Sadly, no-one has ever come up to me at a gig to question my note choices, as I have a series of answers rehearsed and ready to go. Generally, my advice would be to be as accurate as you can for "signature" basslines (in my case it would be the start of "Love is the Drug", the fuzz bass at the start of "Virginia Plain" etc) but for everything else, keep it in key and keep the feel, but add a bit of "you" to it. Unless you're The Bootleg Beatles or one of those super-accurate tribute bands, that is... I've played in covers bands for years and taken pretty severe liberties with basslines and I've never once been taken to task. Play the bits that people expect to hear and have some fun with the rest. PS - The penny has finally dropped about the Gary Burton/Vibes comment. Oh you little scamp!

Paul Buchanan of the brilliant Blue Nile. "An ordinary girl / Will make the world alright."

Oh dear... I promised myself I'd never buy another 5 string bass, but: https://www.artistguitars.co.uk/products/artist-vhyb5-vintage-hybrid-v-5-string-p-j-style-b-14217

That's yummy, that is.

My thoughts exactly. Before people discovered how great they are and the prices skyrocketed, I loved buying up cheapo Indonesian Squiers and modding them. A few years ago, 50 or 60 quid would buy you a Squier P or J (or if you were lucky, a P/J) in decent nick and with a couple of mods, you'd have a bass you could take on the world with. You don't need to spend a fortune on instruments, just find one that you love to play.

I've done it a couple of times - once quite badly and once pretty well. I heated the fret with a soldering iron and gently eased it up with a Stanley knife blade, before carefully removing it with regular pliers, once I had the fret clear enough from the neck. I then filled the slot with epoxy and sanded the board smooth. The second attempt was better as I went slower and put a little water on the fret and the board just either side of it. The fret came out easier and with no tang marks or tearouts. That was on an OLP MusicMan - it sounded great, but it finally convinced me that I'm no Mick Karn!

I think most of the Dave Lee Roth era Van Halen albums are about the thirty minute mark. They still feel complete though. Nick Drake's Pink Moon album is just over 28 minutes long, but it's so bleak, I doubt if many people would have been able to listen to much more of it. That may sound like a dig, but it's not meant to be, as it's one of my favourite albums.

Here are some goodies. CAUTION! Some may fall into the OP's "obscure twaddle" category: Husker Du: Zen Arcade Husker Du: Warehouse Songs and Stories Game Theory: Lolita Nation XTC: English Settlement ELO: Out of the Blue Prince: 1999 Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything I may be in the minority, but The White Album and Physical Graffiti are among my favourite albums... funny old world, ain't it? I'm surprised to see London Calling getting a pasting as I think that's ace, too. I'm not a fan of War of the Worlds as it's a bit too close to the dreaded musical theatre for me. Yes are (generally) brilliant, but Topographic Oceans was a bit too much for me. I'll keep trying at it tho.

This is an old story (2013), but I thought I'd share it: I purchased a set of Fender flatwounds online (from Sounds Live who I don't think exist anymore...) and set about putting them on my lovely Mexi Jazz Bass. That’s when the fun started. The ‘D’ snapped at the peg end while I was stringing up, leaving me just enough for one wind around the peg. I’ve never snapped a string whilst tuning, so I thought there may be an issue with it, but I still hadn’t ruled out ‘pilot error’ at this stage. So, I dropped a line to the retailer asking if I could buy a single 'D'. the retailer got back to me, saying they'd got in touch with Fender to sort out a replacement. The following day, I received a courteous and apologetic email from Fender saying that the strings (a full set, not just the dodgy one) were in the post and to make up for any inconvenience, they included a couple of custom shop patch leads. I reckon that’s customer service above and beyond the call of duty.

I love the idea of a pedalboard, but I've never really been happy with one of mine. Although, to be fair, the Rockboard is the first actually "proper" board I've ever owned, having used offcuts of MDF in the past. If you're that way inclined, pedals must be great fun to collect and swap like Panini stickers or Pokemon cards. I really enjoy looking at the expansive boards that some Basschatters share on the forum, but it tends to be in a "rather you than me" way... Right now, I'm happy with my teeny little board and my minimal collection of gizmos. They may be small, but they were very carefully planned. And that's half the fun, isn't it?

Where's the fun in that? Seriously, it was a pretty useful exercise as I wanted to get my pedals in as small a footprint as possible, so it was nice to physically move stuff about. I'd imagine that if you had truckloads of gizmos, one of those template dealios would be just the ticket.

I'm an unapologetic planner. My board is pretty tiny (a Rockboard Tres) but before I bought it, I measured out the surface area of the Rockboard on my workbench, marked it with some masking tape and then cut out paper shapes of the area of each pedal. I dutifully shuffled them about to make sure I could get them on comfortably. (No, I don't live alone in my mother's basement - why do you ask?)

I've just picked up one of these: https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_mixer_stand.htm?sid=174a0a6518ddea26a5234e3bfdcc43ef With a maximum load of 136kg, it should be sturdy enough for most applications... I've gigged with it a couple of times and it held my combo (a Genz Benz Contour) very nicely. I've actually removed the extendable legs as the height was fine already without having to go any higher. Because I'm a bit OCD, I bought some cheapo black cloth to drape over it, so it doesn't look like the combo is perched on a table.