rushbo

Joking aside, that does look (and sounds) great. Nice bass riff on the demo, too. I'm always slightly wary of gizmos that pack loads of features into a dinky little box, but early signs are good it seems. I'm not in the market for this type of device, but I know a lot of people are and the price point is, er, on point. Whatever will they think of next?

You could probably afford to move in next to Elon Musk if you flogged all your effect gizmos.

There's nothing more satisfying than discovering a nice bass guitar under a few inches of solidified goo.

Mike Mills from REM. You get to play incredible basslines on some of the best songs of the latter half of the twentieth century on a selection of gorgeous instruments.

I thought that was great. Gilmour was a bit squeally, but lots of guitarists were in the 80s. Nothing offended me at all. Not even Tony Franklin's "tribute to Nik Kershaw" hairdo. It was live and rawer than the original, studio recording, but to get to the level of pernicketty perfection of "The Hounds of Love" would have taken a long time. Like, a really long time. I'd take that version over Ms Bush singing over a backing track any date of the week/month/year.

Here's Roxy Magic at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath earlier this year. 283732633_516540653591937_4272530486173656236_n.mp4

I’ve reached a point in life where whenever I see someone with a superdeluxe bass, I cross my arms and say to myself, “OK bub – impress me.” I realise this is just as bad as snobbery, but I’m too far gone to change now (probably.) I’m a lifelong user of cheap/midpriced/bitsa basses and I’ve always managed to coax decent tones out of them. I have had a couple of people comment on the sound from a P Bass I use, which is made from a tangle of odd Squier bits and rebranded with my trademark “Fedner Prescription” decal. I take a certain twisted amusement in watching people backpedalling furiously from, “You can’t beat a Fender” to “I’d never have guessed…” I did once audition for a band and turned up with a fretless. The look on the bandleaders’ face was absolutely priceless. I’d imagine he’d have made a similar grimace if I’d relieved myself into his gigbag.

It appears that I'm lying to you - it's a Tres 3.1! I don't know how much bigger/different it is to a 3.0. I made a blanking plate with an IEC that powers a Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior. The two circular discs cover some marks and holes made by the previous owner. I really like the Rockboard, but I only have a handful of toys on it -if you've got expression pedals etc, it might be a squeeze.

I bought a second hand Rockboard 3.0 about 18 months ago. Absolutely perfect for my needs. Robust, but not massively weighty and came with a great gigbag. I haven't gone down the patchbay route as I made an IEC input myself using a bit of old tort scratchplate material - I'll post a pic if I get a chance. I tried a few boards (including some rather unusual, home-made variants) until I settled for this one. I love it and unless some large and swanky multi-fx catches my eye, I think this is my rig for the duration.

In another life, I was a music teacher and one of my colleagues gave me a great quote which I instantly took to heart: Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong. In my current band, I have an eight bar bass solo. The thought of playing it live, filled me with dread. Then I remembered that old adage. For weeks, every time I picked up the bass, I played that solo a dozen times or so. If I had a moment to spare, I'd play that line. Before I went to sleep, I'd visualise myself playing that line perfectly, going through the notes in my head. The more bored I got playing it, the better I got at playing it. As a consequence, those eight bars are tattooed on my brain. Now, I really enjoy playing it in front of people. The key is to try and not put pressure on yourself. If you don't get it right, move on and try again later. Distract yourself. Practice it with the TV on. It's a pretty labour-intensive way to learn something, but it worked for me.

I'm sure I read somewhere that it's a good idea to add a little bit of non biological washing powder/liquid to the boiling water as it helps to dissolve the finger gunk. Citation needed as they say on Wikipedia.

With a raised hand and a bowed head, I ask for mercy in The Court of Basschat.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I think at this point, we need to hear from the good Captain Beefheart. In his "10 Commandments 0f Guitar", coming in at #8 is: 8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument “You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.” I'm pretty sure this applies to the bass, too. Would you argue with Captain Beefheart? I mean, he died 11 years ago, but would you?

Sensible advice. However, there was a time in the mid-90's where I spent more money on cat food than man food, so bulk buying strings, even at a good price per set, was out of the question. Generally, I had to boil the strings to do the gig to get the money to buy the strings for the gig...

Four knobs? That's making me feel anxious just thinking about it... When I had a board with individual stomp boxes, I had a dedicated compression pedal (an Aphex Punch Factory.) It sounded fine. As did my bass without the compression pedal turned on, so it went in the Great Rushbo FX Purge of 2015. The only time I use compression now (as part of a patch on my elderly but amazing Zoom B3) is on the one tune of the set which I slap. I think it makes a difference in smoothing out my less-than-amazing slappage. Or maybe its just a placebo... In short, try one and see if it works for you. As a wise man once said, "ask 100 bassists for advice and you'll get 150 opinions."

As a formerly impoverished musician, I've boiled a few sets of strings in my time. It's a temporary fix as the boiling cleans out the gunk which may be deadening the tone, but can't reverse the effects of constant tension on the string. I found that the rejuvenation worked for a gig or two, which might be useful if you're skint or you can't get to your local music shop to get new ones. It's great to be in a position to buy a new set of strings at the first signs of zing-loss, but if you're having to fund your purchases with pocket money, or you have other slightly more pressing concerns (i.e. putting food on the table and paying for electricity, gas etc), little hacks like this can help you eek out your disposable income until payday. No pans from the Rushbo kitchen were ever harmed during the process. A diligent scrub with fairy liquid and/or a spin in the dishwasher kept the saucepans sanitary. Unless of course, I'm harbouring some deadly bacteria and will be struck down with some appalling Rotosound gunk related illness further down the line. I'll keep you posted.

Very nice indeed - thanks for sharing that.

If that man was you, and you bought a £5.99 FoS compilation from a record shop on Harborne High Street, Birmingham around 1996 then I owe you an apology and a beer. (But i don't agree with you about NWoBHM, but I guess that's what this thread is all about.)

Well played Bagman -that took a minute or two to land.

Maybe as an experiment, in the midst of this gentleman weeping hot, fat tears of joy as he held the music that had enhanced his life and possibly soundtracked a number of his significant life events, I should have said, "Sorry mate, that music is sh!t." I'm sure he would have agreed with me and we'd have a good ol' laugh at the whole thing. Or I'd end up picking up my teeth with a broken arm.

I played drums in a band for a few years, when the band I played bass for was going through a quiet phase. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned a lot about how music works, but unfortunately the main lesson I learned was that unless I put in A LOT of effort to improve, I was never going to be anything better than a C+ drummer. And the world is already awash with C+ drummers. It was great fun and I really enjoyed the physicality of playing the drums. I didn't enjoy lugging endless bulky kit around, however... The band made a (self produced) album and a couple of EPs, some of which I can listen to without wincing too much. I was never going to be the drummer I wanted to be, so I hung up the sticks, flogged the kit and made more of an effort on the bass. I'm back in my happy place.

This x 1000 Here’s a true story: A guy comes into my record shop and pre-orders a CD. Not a new one – a cheap re-issue. He’s super-excited. On the day of it's release, he’s outside the store when I arrive, almost hyperventilating with excitement. I open up and dutifully trudge to the back of the store (slightly peeved that this guy has delayed my morning coffee by 10 minutes) to retrieve his disc. He rips off the cellophane. His hands are trembling. And then he bursts into tears. Unselfconsciously, a grown man is so happy to purchase this music that he is weeping in front of a sales assistant. Being an Englishman, I have NO CLUE what to do in this situation, so I go to the other end of the counter and avoid eye contact while he gets it out of his system. Eventually (10-15 minutes later) he is composed enough to pay me and leave. The music that reduced him to tears was... ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I have sold thousands of releases by ‘Good’ artists - everyone from Nick Drake to Radiohead, from Bach to Coltrane, but the only person who ever wept for joy on purchasing a recording was the guy who bought ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

"If you know, you know." This manages to be meaningless, elitist and patronising in one enormous slam dunk of stupidity.

Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil is a relatively painless way to finish a bass, as long as you're happy with the "natural" look. You can go from a nice satin to a really deep shine depending on your patience. I've done a few basses this way and I've always been pleased with the outcome.