rushbo

That's so... smooth. Not the kind of thing I'd normally look twice at, but that is rather lovely. 36mm at the nut is a little on the dinky side, but as I have delicate, girlish hands, I could cope. Thanks for sharing that.

I was never too fussed about strings and never really sought out one particular brand, or even a particular string gauge. That was until I stumbled across these bad boys: I know they're not ultra-light, but they're certainly way skinnier than the 40/45 gauge strings I'd used previously. I find they've got plenty of low end, they're easy on the fingers and are so easy to play. Not stupidly expensive either. Highly recommended - well, by me, anyway!

Currently in stock at Fair Deal Music - a shop about 20mins from Rushbo HQ: I would happily gig with that any day of the week.

Swapping a bridge over is fairly simple on a Fender. As long as you make sure you get a compatible bit of hardware (ie five screw-holes correctly aligned) and the right screwdriver, it's a straightforward job. I've had a few bridges in my time (cue; "what did you do in the war, granddad?" jibes) and I didn't feel they changed the sound of the instrument profoundly at all. Aesthetically, they made a difference, but in terms of tone - not so much. I have a Badass II on a Fender bass, which is OK, but it's a big ol' lump of metal to have on a bass. One of my main gigging basses has a Schaller 3D bridge installed and it's superb. It's not got a huge footprint, and having the option to alter the string spacing can be a real boon. My bridge of choice on a budget is the Wilkinson WBBC bridge with brass saddles. It's a drop-in Fender bridge replacement, it looks great, does the job brilliantly and you don't need to sell vital organs to be able to afford one.

Blimey. "Grab yourself a bargain" says the seller. Or, you could get a Jazz bass copy from FaceBook Marketplace, pop down to HobbyCraft and get a glue gun and lots of shiny things and order a custom, mirror scratchplate. Hey presto! A very similar outcome for well under the starting price of this piece. And you get to play with a glue gun, which is always fun.

This was probably a very amusing idea which really shouldn't have been more than that. There's such a disconnection between the vocal delivery and the lyric that it just sounds like a prolonged joke. The arrangement is nice, and with a cello or a viola playing the melody line it might have worked, but to me, that sounded pretty bad. As a reciprocal arrangement, maybe someone should ask BlackBerry Smoke to do a version of The Flower Duet from Lakme.

"If you know, you know." I'm a wimpy, liberal, white collar, art school dropout, but when I see that phrase used in ads, I feel like I would be able to deal swift, devious and painful retribution to the perpetrator.

I was very much in the "seventies good-eighties bad" camp when it came to Roxy Music. That came to a grinding halt when I was asked to write a piece on the "Avalon" album for an online magazine. The band that recorded that record is a completely different one (in approach and ethos) to the one that recorded "Roxy Music" in 1972, and once you appreciate that, you can start to enjoy "Avalon" for what it is. My favourite Roxy album will always be their debut, but "Avalon" is a great piece of work. Just in case you're interested, this is how I tried to defend the indefensible... https://www.popmatters.com/roxy-music-swan-song-avalon

Sadly, I've not notated any of line bass parts, other than putting together a very basic chord chart.

Well, as bassist in Roxy Magic, a well established Roxy Music tribute band, I feel I should chime in here... Roxy had a series of great bassists, most notably John Wetton and Alan Spenner of course, but check out the bass playing on their debut album. Graham Simpson's playing is killer all the way through, in that lovely fluid, early seventies style. "Roxy Music" turned fifty last year, and we did side one of that album (plus "Virginia Plain." of course) at most of our live shows in 2022 to celebrate. I loved playing a version of Simpson's bassline on "2HB," which is a bit of a forgotten gem. John Porter's no slouch either. His bass playing on "For Your Pleasure," especially on "Do the Strand" is outstanding.

Four responses and yet no one has cracked the "Running in the (Royal) Family" joke yet? Shame on you BassChat.

Purchased some lovely tapewound strings for my Beatlebass from Mark. They came quickly with good comms all the way. Do I now sound like Paul McCartney? No. But I can't blame that on the strings... Buy and sell with confidence.

I think this is a pretty good analogy. Whenever I've played any super-duper, high-end basses, for the most part, I've been impressed, but the difference in build quality and shininess couldn't justify the financial outlay - for me, anyway. My modus operandi is that I'll buy an inexpensive but decent bass and then over time, replace some parts and do some tweaking until I have a bass which absolutely matches my needs. These hybrid instruments I put together have next to no resale value, but that's not the point. I love them and they inspire me to play. Musicians buy instruments for many reasons, with tonal quality not always being at the top of the list. Because a bassist is professional/semi-professional/high profile, there is an expectation that they'll play an instrument that somehow matches their perceived status. I worked in the jewellery trade for a couple of years and my old boss drove a Rolls Royce which he loathed and complained about it bitterly. When I naively suggested that he got rid of it, he replied that if he replaced it with a cheaper yet more reliable car, it would appear to be a retrograde step, meaning that he's fallen on hard times. If your £12,000 Fodera Richard Bona Imperial 5 inspires you to play at your absolute best (and you can afford it!) then that is the bass for you. If that second-hand Harley Benton P Bass that your dad bought for you for Christmas is your pride and joy, then hang on to it. You can hammer a nail into a wall with a hammer or a rock. As long as you can hang a picture on that nail, you've done the job.

Hopefully the daft hat will divert attention from the shoddy left hand technique.

Perfect for the forthcoming Rammstein/Gordon Ramsey co-headlining stadium tour. You can now move effortlessly from setting the drum riser alight to chopping the parsley for a delicate butter sauce, without the fear of tripping over a lead or a misplaced spurtle. Kudos, Lekato.

I used a capo on a tune which had a repeating octave/disco bassline in F, so the stretch became a little uncomfortable after a few bars. The capo worked really well, but now I've decided that it sounds better playing it in the octave above, with the root shifted to the 8th fret of the 'A' string, so I can do a "disco-octave-walk" up to it. Of course, a five string would have been the solution, but any instrument with more than four strings makes me agitated.

As a (mainly) P bass guy, that's not my thing at all, but the body shape is rather pleasing IMO. The headstock is a health and safety nightmare, but I'd imagine the sort of hardrockin' bassperson who ends up with this instrument, will care not one jot for risk assessments. I've played a few Dean basses and I briefly owned a Jeff Berlin model- all nice instruments to play. It looks like a tidy instrument and at £130, I'd say that was good value for money. Someone's gonna love that. It's the straplocks that offend me the most about this bass...

What are the chances of a gig in the Midlands? Pretty please and thankyou.

My word, that looks yummy. However... Reviews of the enhanced series were a bit mixed. Has anyone had any experience of these in the real world. I'm looking at you stewblack...

Two DFA knobs...

The easiest/laziest and potentially most useful solution for the pots would be to put the ones you've taken off back on, but leave them unconnected. That way, it's completely reversible if you have a change of heart. A bonus of this method would be that whenever a pesky sound engineer or band member starts yelling at you because "you're too loud and too bassy" you can twiddle with both useless knobs, safe in the knowledge that your carefully crafted tone will remain unmolested.

I love stuff like this - it soothes my OCD. I wish I could justify grabbing one of these, but my humble PowerPlant Jr is doing a sterling job of powering my teenytiny selection of toys on my board. Looking at the bits you've just bought, am I right in thinking that with a few wooden/metal strips of an appropriate thickness and a couple of adjustable feet/legs, you could turn it into a perfectly serviceable, DIY pedalboard?