rushbo

I'd agree whole-heartedly with this. I've rescued a few sets of old/cheap/knackered machine heads with a little patience and some White Lithium Grease. I take the tuners to bits, clean off any crapola from the gears with an old toothbrush then give them a clean with some Brasso (and occasionally steel wool.) A squirt of the aforementioned grease works wonders and has saved some perfectly good tuners from the bin for a minimal financial outlay.

In almost 40 years of gigging, I've never got much further than 200-300 seater venues, but I have had a lot of fun. Some of the more noteworthy venues I've played at are: The Cavern Dingwalls Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham The Falcon, Camden JBs, Dudley Hummingbird, Birmingham Robin II, Bilston Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Glastonbury (Town Hall!) My dream gig was always to play at the Birmingham Odeon, but sadly it was converted to a generic multiplex cinema a few years back.

Yep, it's a common tactic. As long as the seller hasn't nicked any unique details from your ad (ie witty anecdotes about Norman Watt-Roy pointing at your bass and laughing) and has just copied the way you've described the technical and generic characteristics of the instrument, I don't see a problem. Anyone who's used the "Have one to sell? Sell it yourself" function on eBay will have done a similar thing. FaceBook Marketplace should be approached with caution in my opinion. I was caught out a few months ago on a fairly cheap (sub £20) item and since then I've been more careful. The "copied text" thing is a bit of a red flag, but if you check the seller's profile you can get a rough idea if they're genuine or not. In the immortal words of Oscar Wilde [citation needed} “Talent borrows. Genius Steals!” To be fair, he was probably talking about the best way to knot a cravat rather than scamming an unsuspecting bassist out of a few quid for a Big Muff pedal that doesn't exist...

I've done a few fretted-fretless conversions and while I've never used CA glue, my favourite method is to use two-part epoxy putty. I moisten the area around the fretwire, heat the fret with a soldering iron and tease up the bottom of the fret with a craft knife. Then, I carefully remove the fret with pliers. If I had one those snazzy fret-pull dealios. I'd use that, though. On the last one I did, I used black putty to make the lines stand out. It's not a difficult job - the most labour-intensive part is masking off the slots so you don't end up spending ages sanding off rock-sold epoxy from your bass neck. When the epoxy in the slots has cured, I coat the fingerboard with 8-9 thin coats of clear epoxy, after first making a wall of masking tape on both sides of the neck to avoid drips. It's fun and actually rather therapeutic. The same cannot be said for my actual fretless playing, however...

I made a Nordy-esque mute a year or two back. The sponge was from some packing material which I glued to an offcut of wood trim. I added a couple of little magnets so I can put it on my mic stand when it's not in use.

What: "Let's Stick Together" Bryan Ferry Who: Roxy Magic Where: Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath, Brummagem When: 22 06 24 With: Bitsa PJ through my old faithful Genz Benz Contour 500

Tonight, I'm gonna party like it's 2008...

I've been using Grolschlocks* for about 15 years with no issues. However... I've bought several sets of the "rubber washer" type locks from various places (incl. Fender) and found that without fail, they go hard, brittle and tear or crack after a while. On the other hand, the Grolsch ones stay supple and resilient after years and years of use - including taking straps on and off multiple times. I bought a bag of 100 from eBay in 2009-ish. I've still got loads left. I love 'em. *TM: neepheid 2024

Audacity will do all of that - would a version of that loaded onto a tablet help? You'd need some doohickey to combine the signal from your bass and the mp3's but with a tablet, you'd get internet functionality too.

Roxy Magic, the UK's leading/only Roxy Music tribute band played a storming gig at The Hare and Hounds in Birmingham on Saturday night. It was a hometown show for half the band, so that made it extra special. It was also our guitarists' birthday, so he threw a few more shapes than usual. The room was packed with sweaty and enthusiastic punters and the band had more fun than is medically recommended. I've peeled a couple of fan-filmed videos from FaceBook to demonstrate how little shame and coordination men of a certain age can have. There's a couple of nice shots of my Squier-Fender bitsa and too many shots of my undignified mugging for the crowd. I've included "Virginia Plain" as it's one of the only tunes where I actually get to deploy the pedalboard - the gnarly fuzz at the top of the tune and the boosted cavernous reverb after the guitar solo. Blink and you'll miss 'em.

Well played sir. Well played.

The first bass I ever owned was a Hondo II Ricky copy. It was ace and I wish I still had it. I wanted to see how everything fitted together, so after peering under the scratchplate, I plucked up the courage to whip off the neck. Lo and behold, there was a 2p piece in the pocket, acting as a shim. It did the job.

I found a bunch of old band-related stuff in the loft about a year ago and amongst all the detritus was this set list with a pithy little aide-mémoire attached. I've partially redacted it for the more sensitive members of the forum...

After seeing the name on a zillion tour itineraries, I finally got to play at Dingwalls in London on Saturday with Roxy Magic. It's not a venue I associate with tribute bands and I was worried that we'd battled our way into the dark and twisted heart of the metropolis for the obligatory micro-crowd. Not so. A buzzing room, stuffed full of Roxy Music diehards, it seemed. To add a little bit of WTF-ness, the sound engineer turned out to be Phil Manzanera's guitar tech, so our poor old guitarist was nervous, to say the least. It was loads of fun, soured ever so slightly by the epic trek back to The Black Country. A cup of tea and a couple of slices of toast and marmalade and I was more than ready for bed, tired but happy.

This is just the thing for my lobster-themed Math-Rock band.

That's lovely!

I do really like the look of these basses - and great to see an old school B3 in use!

It needs a bit of TLC, but these are lovely basses. I had one (briefly) in the early 2000's, but my teeny-tiny hands and my inability to navigate a neck with an extra string meant that I parted with it. For reasons unknown, it looks as if the original decal has been semi-removed. The "ghost" of it remains. There's a chunk of wood missing on the rear, but a bit of filler and some black nail varnish and bobs-yer-uncle. Decent case, too. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305580291313?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150526101527%26meid%3Dc7245bca7e4e4872950daa1319d64c66%26pid%3D100417%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D8%26b%3D1%26sd%3D166773268879%26itm%3D305580291313%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D1%26algv%3DDefaultOrganic%26brand%3DYamaha&_trksid=p1.c100417.m3734&mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=e90001.m161560.l174179&plmtId=700009&mesgId=3041&mkcid=8&ch=osgood&bu=43115034828&trkId=6005e960-b13c-3f4d-88a5-1e8db60e651b&cnvId=700003&recoId=305580291313&recoPos=5

That's bloody lovely, that is.

Most of my basses have been "creatively damaged" in some way. This is the main offender. It started off as a purple Indonesian Squier PJ, which I stripped and repainted pillar box red. I swapped out the neck for a left-handed Mexi Jazz model and added some stick on blocks, which looked much less silver in the picture on eBay listing... The BBOT bridge was replaced by a lovely Schaller 3D and I added a three way toggle switch. I changed the pups to Entwistle's because they're ace. I think the tuners are Gotoh's, from the eighties. I came across this "end of line" neck plate on eBay, I have no idea why someone would think this was a viable product, but i had to have it:

I saw them support WASP in Brum a lifetime ago. They wiped the floor with them. I was on their mailing list for years and was the happy recipient of stickers, photographs, Christmas cards and even an old demo tape. They were great and terrific fun to see live. When Rocky yelled "I wanna lick custard off your nipples!" during "C0ck Rock Shock," I laughed so hard, I hurt myself a bit. I loved Wrathchild.

Another vote for Constantine Isslamow ...but I'm surprised no one has mentioned Danny Sapko. He's a great player and combines self-deprecation with humour. He's got his own shtick, but he balances it nicely with some gorgeous bass work.

Has anyone mentioned John Deacon yet? The bass break in "Liar" from the first Queen album was the first time a bass part really hit home with me.

Another great and underrated player.

Most of my teen bass heroes have been covered, but it was this guy who hit me the hardest: The mighty (and ludicrously underrated) Graham Gouldman of 10cc