rushbo

Buy it now: £875.

A very honest appraisal by the seller, tho'...

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1509643890' post='3400578'] This is what I wore in a very early 90s very indie band... [/quote] Oh my. Is your backdrop made from Stilton?

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1509306494' post='3397967'] Ha! I'm glad it's not just me then. "Jamming?". Get thee behind me satan [/quote] One of my favourite bands of all time - Big Star - never ever jammed. Not because they couldn't, they just associated it with the Blues based, corporate, "big" rock and roll sound that they were trying to get away from.

Going slightly off topic, but.... A few years ago, I heard a fascinating radio documentary about the history of Jethro Tull, presented by Ian Anderson. In the early-mid seventies, members of other bands routinely asked the guys in JT if they wanted to "jam". Every time, the Tullsters would refuse. Not because they thought they were above the other musicians, or were too cool, or just couldn't be bothered - the real reason was they literally couldn't "jam". The only material they knew was the Jethro Tull set and nothing else. Does that alter the quality of those classic era Tull albums, or those live shows? No. When Boz Burrell joined King Crimson, Robert Fripp had to teach him how to play the bass. He did OK, I'm sure you'll agree. I'm a huge Beatles fan and a staunch defender of Ringo. When people trot out the rather dreary "Ringo was crap, wasn't he?" line. I'll ask for a specific example of a "bad" Ringo drum part. I've yet to get a decent response. You could do the same with Adam Clayton, Alan Lancaster or Cliff Williams. They make the band sound better by providing a solid foundation for the guitarists and vocalists. Is Vic Wootten a better bass player than Adam Clayton? I think so. Adam Clayton would probably agree. Would Vic Wootten be a good fit in U2? I'm not so sure.

One of my favourite bands ever and blessed with a couple of outstanding bassists in Mike Tilka and Dave Myles. All their albums have just been reissued in a boxed set with some rare stuff thrown in. Not cheap (thanks Brexit!) but it looks gorgeous. CD and Vinyl. All their albums are excellent and if you're a fan of rock and roll that dips towards the left field, you'll love 'em. There are some great live recordings kicking about too, if you know where to look (cough cough...)

I'm a bit of a Zoom fanboy and a proud owner of the Zoom B3. I had the B1on for a while - the sounds were great, but they can be a bit fiddly for live use. If all I needed it for was recording or practicing at home, then I'd still have it, but I sold it on in favour of the B3 which I love. For live use, the B3 is unbeatable, as long as you're not switching between a huge palette of effects in every song. I play in an old school R&B band and an Americana band, so as long as I have easy access to a drive, fuzz, chorus, compression etc, I'm happy. My fave Zoom Multi FX was the B9.1ut which was superb, but it was just a little bit too big for the kind of places we play - especially with a lead singer/guitarist with size 13 feet! I have a mini pedal board for live use with the B3, my SmoothHound reciever and a two gang power extension with a short, female IEC attached. I just plug in a standard "kettle" lead (i hate having those rather flimsy, (9V leads trailing on stage) and I'm off. A superquick set up and both devices have their own, dedicated PSU with a nice, small footprint.

[quote name='totorbass' timestamp='1507882590' post='3388477'] Great to bring to a picnic. [/quote] I agree. There should be more colour options for amps, cabs and combos. I saw a pink fur covered combo once. That's more like it.

It was Lennon on bass for "The Long and Winding Road" Not his finest moment.

It looks like a huge presentation box of shortbread.

Black basses should ONLY have tort plates. But you know what they say...ask ten bassists a question and you'll get fifteen opinions. If it looks good to you, then it's groovy. It looks good to me, too.

A brilliant band. Charlie Tumahai was a real talent...those funky, flowing, melodic lines... Mr Nelson is still cranking out the good stuff. Sadly, health issues mean that his live appearances are few and far between, which is a shame as he plays as good as ever. He's not a fan of tribute bands though...on FaceBook a few years ago, I. suggested that it wouldn't be a terrible idea for a tribute band to cover the BBD catalogue at gigs, so people could get their "Ships in the Night" fix, leaving him to produce his lovely solo albums. Suffice to say, Mr Nelson and I didn't agree on that point. At all. I'd still go and see one though.

I had the five string version of this ( in black ). At £120, this is a serious bargain. Collection only from Bristol. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/yamaha-attitude-bass/172850142829?_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D46150%26meid%3D07e520be6dec40b793e8169ef0d0943d%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26sd%3D152698394158&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

It's also a Freshman guitar, too, according to the headstock. But it is red.

Would I swap my Genz Benz rig for any of the "Classic" stuff I had in the past? Nope. As much as I love the idea of having an old, road-worn bass, I can't justify the huge expense and anyway, I love the sounds I can get out of my bitsa, P-Basses.

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1505588376' post='3373064'] "Is this the future of music?" Yes it is. Rock music is a minority interest. Jazz fans can be counted in thousands globally. A bass guitar is about as sexy as a tuba to the average 16 year old. No youngsters are getting any traction: the phenomenal Hadrien Feraud and Mohini Dey are astounding players but get no significant exposure for music (as opposed to gear endorsements). Old world heroes are gone and forgotten: Jaco, Jack Bruce, Chris Squire, Greg Lake, John Wetton, John Entwistle... It's all gone. Electric bass guitar will be functionally gone in the next generation (7 years) except for retro appeal in a break in a EDM DJ set. We are the last generation. [/quote] I've spent the last 18 years in music education and I can't agree with this. I run a team of peripatetic music staff who give instrumental lessons at our school. In the last few years, I've seen a decline in students wanting "classical" instrument lessons (brass, woodwind etc) which may be down to the change in our intake, but piano/keyboards, guitar, bass and drums have stayed steady. Drum lessons have, (whisper it) increased in popularity. Yikes. The kids I teach (media students mostly) listen to a range of stuff from Arianna Grande to Metallica, with a healthy dose of J and K Pop thrown in. Lots of them listen to EDM, but there's still an audience for music created by people playing instruments rather than programming. The two best-selling albums of the year so far are by Ed Sheeran and Rag 'n' Bone Man - quite "traditional" sounding artists. I have no doubt that the way young people approach practical music making will change over time and there may come a day when the instrumentation that we hold dear will become as marginalised as crumhorns and sackbuts, but I think we're good for quite a few years yet.

Here's mine - The Peoples Republic of Mercia - Hot rockin', old school R&B from the Midlands. http://www.promercia.com/ I put it together on Wix, which i can thoroughly recommend - not the cheapest, but the templates are easily customised and their mobile optimisation is really good. The merch is listed on the page on a cool widget from Ecwid which is free for less than ten items. We've got some gigs through the site, along with the FB page, so it's paid for itself a few times over. I like curating it, too - I can make sure no "unflattering" shots of the debonair bassist ever get uploaded (cough...)

I've got a Hotcovers padded cover for my Genz Benz Contour combo. It's ace. It gets regular use and it's holding up really well. Highly recommended.

"Munro smashed up a flat and said he was run over by a guest on an electric wheelchair and hit twice on the head with a bottle of Jack Daniels during Mr McLennan’s 18th birthday party." I've read that sentence about 50 times now and every time I read, I laugh.

Maybe it's the angle of the camera, but the "G" string is barely on the fretboard...

[quote name='Osiris' timestamp='1501621246' post='3346053'] This probably won't go down too well with the recent resurgence in TE popularity, but having owned an SMX rig for several years I found it to be gutless and under powered and almost impossible to get a good sound out of. I bought a new 250 watt SMX combo and extension cab in the early 90's and used it for several years and in that time I pretty much grew to hate everything about it. There's been a lot of talk on here recently about how Trace watts are so much louder than everyone else's. But with 250 watts and two 15" speakers, I always felt like the rig was struggling to keep up with other people I was playing with. The SMX amps had loads of different controls but I just couldn't get a sound that I really liked from it. The pre-amp tube didn't seem to introduce any tonal colour and no matter what I did with the graphic, it still sounded toppy and was unable to deliver the mids and low end with any conviction. On the plus side, it looked great and the dual band compression circuit was really good. I'm not out to rattle any cages here as I know there's plenty of Trace fans still about, but my own experience is very much at odds with the highly regarded reputation that Trace gear has. Maybe mine was just a duff one? Who knows. [/quote] That was pretty much my experience too.

I had a GP7 Combo for a short while. It was incredibly heavy and I was never happy with the sound. Quite distressing really as I'd wanted one for years, but my lovely old Peavey combo just refused to die - when it finally did, I grabbed the TE. Be careful what you wish for, said a wise man. After a brief flirtation with a Peavey Nitrobass head and 4x10 cab and then a revolting Ashdown combo, I settled on a Genz Benz contour combo. Lightweight and gorgeous, unlike me.