rushbo

For anything longer than a 30-40 minute set, I'll always take a "spare" bass - as we generally play two sets, I'll often use one bass in set one and the other in set two. I don't take a spare amp as I have DI outputs on my BDI 21 and my Zoom B3 in the event of my Genz Benz going pfft. I always carry spare instrument leads and power leads. One of my "old faithful" instrument cables started playing up at a soundcheck on Saturday night, but was swapped out before the gig. All the spare and "useful" stuff - extension leads, SM58 etc lives in a backpack which goes to almost every show I play. It's got me, or one of my bandmates out of trouble on many occasions. I'd hate to have to halt or delay a show because of something which could be easily put right with a bit of forward planning.

The off kilter scratchplate makes it look worse than it actually is. You could probably turn that into a nice bass, but the asking price is ridiculous. The only "vintage" parts have been severely modified (or butchered, spending on your opinion...) so to ask the best part of £250 for it seems bonkers. If it was £50 on Facebook Marketplace, I might be tempted, but as I paid £130 for a nearly new Harley Benton JP-45OP late last year, the seller may need to think again about the pricing.

In a similar vein: https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/diy-essentials/3m-duct-tape/p58613

Another vote for this - mine has had a pretty hard life and it's still going strong. It's also just under £76 (incl postage) if you buy it from G4M direct: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Dual-Bass-Guitar-Gig-Bag-by-Gear4music/1II6?origin=product-ads&gclid=Cj0KCQiArsefBhCbARIsAP98hXSkmsMp8TsEsDmaBgfBVbWOT1FFtFb70l2uDucAl-LmaDadQ818bVkaAisWEALw_wcB

I'm a diehard Zoom fan. A slightly modified B3 is the core of my pedalboard and I've no intention of changing anytime soon. My needs are fairly minimal and the B3 has always delivered. I've also had a 506, a B1XON and a B2. I wasn't quite so keen on the 506, but the others have always sounded great to me. The casing on every plastic bodied Zoom pedal I've ever used has been very durable, but the metal housing of the B3 will probably survive The Apocalypse. I also use a Behringer BDI21 which has taken quite a beating over the last few years and always comes up smiling. Every time Zoom release a new bass Multi FX, I get a bit excited, but after reading the spec and re-assessing my needs, my humble B3 trumps them all - for my needs, anyway. I would suggest that people who are a bit sniffy about Zoom pedals might be listening with their eyes rather than their ears.

Herbie Flowers Glen Matlock

What a brilliant story!

ooohh, that's clever. The superglue would be more resilient, too.

Another vote for a partial refund, here. Those chips should glue back on pretty well. I've always found that black poly is a pretty "forgiving" finish when it come to repair. Add to that the fact that the damage will be covered by your strap means that you'll probably be the only person who'll ever notice it. I'm sure I'll be shot down in flames, but I've covered many chips and dinks in black instruments with some carefully applied, black nail polish.

Very lovely indeed. It actually looks like play wear and not the usual "take it into a field and shoot it with a pellet gun" relic finish. Kudos sir.

I tend to replace blend pots on my basses with a three way switch, as I find this way easier than fiddling with a pot (even with a detente) for live work. I'm not too fussy about how nuanced i want my tone to be. You might lose a bit of flexibility, but with a switch, its way easier to change sounds quickly and you've got a strong, visual signal too.

Nice, bold, clear graphics. I wish they'd have carried over the design from the Filter, Fuzz, Octave and Compression pedals onto the remainder as I think that works really well. A little bit of (almost) seventies retro to brighten up your board!

(Thread Hijack) I had to re-read that sentence 4 times. On reads 1-3, it made absolutely no sense at all and just looked like insane gibberish. However, on the final read, the penny dropped and I became enlightened. Not only do I now know why there's a difference between a splined and a solid shaft, I've also got a very useful life hack for bass guitar maintenance. Thank you Mr. ThePlug. That is probably going to be the highlight of my day.

A nice shot from Saturday night's gig with Roxy Magic at the lovely Buttermarket in Shrewsbury. Nice to have Brian Eno singing along in the back projection!

I'm a big fan of the P/J configuration - I have 4 instruments that use that format. On three of them, I've modded them with a three way switch in place of one of the volume pots. For live work, I prefer the ease and speed of throwing a switch, rather than dialling in something on a rotary pot. You may lose a bit of tonal nuance, but this set-up works for me.

I had a BC Rich Warlock in custard yellow in the mid eighties. It sounded great, but not really the thing for playing REM/Americana stuff on. The look of that sort of instrument and all it's pointy brethren is so nailed to the glam rock/metal genre that they look really incongruous anywhere else. However, a nice BC Rich Mockingbird in a natural finish is on my bucket list...

I've been using the Sennheiser XSW-D Pedalboard Set for quite some time - probably 50+ gigs and many hours of rehearsal. It's been faultless. I used a SmoothHound for a while which was great, but I liked the idea of combining the pedalboard receiver with a tuner to save space. It's not the cheapest set-up, but spare transmitters are available in the UK and the build quality is excellent.

I'm rescutating this zombie thread as I've done exactly the same! Sadly, Fretmeister's original pictures are long gone, but using the ice cream stick idea as my starting point, I came up with these: Nope, they're not skinny shoebrushes... The wooden part is from a bit of leftover edging - something like this. The original plan was to make three with different sorts of foam on each, but the superglue I used to attach the "washing up" sponge I tried to use, practically melted it... maybe I'll use two sided tape for that type of foam in the future. The two that survive work really well - one is made with fairly dense foam (the sort that you might find in a fitted case for a drill or similar) and the other one is more spongey. The spongey one gives a slightly better tone - to my ears anyway. The denser foam needed to have slightly wider slots as the notes were choking a little. The hardest part for me was cutting the foam neatly. Maybe I should have watched more episodes of "Blue Peter" as a kid. I rounded the edges of the wooden part a bit and gave it a rub with some wax. I gave it a little handle so I'd know which end is which, although it doesn't seem to make much difference. Neither will get me a job on "The Repair Shop," but they cost me nothing to make and took about half an hour from having the idea to sticking the finished thing on my bass. Now I can get a nice "Carol Kaye" sound quickly and easily. And it looks quite cool.

In my experience, when it comes to building a budget bitsa, it's the neck that is the crucial factor. As long as the body is sturdy enough to accept a bridge and is a colour, shape and condition that you're happy with, all is good. I'm sure that more learned BCers will be along to discuss tonewoods, but it's never been an issue for me in terms of choosing parts. Make sure the neck pocket is wide enough for the neck, otherwise that can open up a whole world of pain. On the other hand, one of my main gigging basses has a 2mm gap between the body and the neck of one side of the pocket. It's been like that for about 10 years, with no discernable issues.

I was the long term bass dep for Brum based R&B band that did a load of shows with Wilko Johnson, the current version of Dr Feelgood, Eddie and the Hotrods etc. Often, when it was my turn to man the merch table, I'd get people asking me to sign CDs. I'd always say " no problem, but I don't actually play on any of these albums!" No one seemed that bothered and I ended up signing them anyway. As a result, I wonder how many people searched Wikipedia for a bassist called "Rushbo (Dep)."

Hi, I've gone back to using medium-light picks, so someone else can get the "benefit" of a bunch of heavy (.88mm+) plectrums, with a few other sizes and shapes thrown in. Yours for a small donation to Birmingham Childrens Hospital, ta.

It's probably just my dumb bad luck, but every Rickenbacker bass I have ever had in my hands has (IMO) played like a dog. In 1986, I was besotted with REM and with my pockets bursting with about two months wages, I spent nearly a whole day in Musical Exchanges in Brum, trying to convince myself I liked one of the 7-8 Rickys they had in stock. I couldn't. I left with an Ibanez Roadstar 850. The Ricky would have been a better investment, but I doubt I'd have had much fun playing it.

I call plagiarism, sir! That's (almost) my board! You've got a hell of a lot of options there, haven't you? And Warwick Rockboards are brilliant, aren't they? I love my B3 and unless it goes "bang," I can't see myself changing anytime soon. The BDI adds a bit of dirt for when I'm feeling saucy. I'd recommend the Ashbass B3 mod as it's fairly simple to do (as long as you've got a soldering iron...) and means that you can scroll through patches really quickly. The switches are housed in the orange pedal on my board. The other pedal is a page turner for my Ipad cheat sheet program. Not necessary, but very useful. What's the HB Wireless system like? I was considering that, until a Sennheiser one came up on here at a great price, so I went for that.