solo4652

Would this help at all? https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/492156-diy-walk-up-performer-stand-design-input-and-suggestions-please/

Thanks for the video link - that was really helpful.

Here's the first attempt. I borrowed a cymbal stand and used the top clamp to secure a rope strop attached to the bass. Lots of padding on the stand to protect the bass, but also to cant the bottom of the bass away from me a little, so I could see the frets and strings. Whole thing feels pretty secure. A bit of tinkering with stand height, strop length, padding thickness meant I was quickly able to achieve a playing position very close to what I was used to with a normal strap. Interestingly, I seemed to settle on a position with the bass a little further to my right, with the upper strap pin on a line between my left ear and my adam's apple. This meant my left arm and hand were closer to my body. I hadn't planned that - it just naturaaly happened after playing a few songs. Certainly feels different from playing with a strap, but initial impressions are pretty favourable. I played 10 songs without too many bum notes and felt appreciably less tired afterwards. Longer term, I might consider a black stand and black strop and wear a black shirt to disguise the whole thing - we'll see.

When I was 12, my mum decided she'd like a musical child. For some reason, I was chosen. There were no music lessons at my all-boys grammar school, so she arranged for some private guitar lessons with the music teacher from the girls grammar school. Mum bought me a classical guitar. Everything except one song I learned was classical - etude in C minor by Francesco Tarrega type stuff. I just learned the pieces as you press this string here and pluck it, then this string here and pluck it without any idea of what I was doing. Clueless. I did learn Albatross, which was the teacher's nod towards pop. Heady stuff. I quit after two years. I still have my classical guitar. It lives in the back of my wardrobe and has not been played for over 50 years. When I was 50, I decided to learn a musical instrument, I chose bass because I'd played guitar all those years ago - it was the only instrument I had any knowledge of. And, basses had 4 strings not 6. And, you only played 1 note at a time, rather than complex "chords". Because of my days with the classical guitar, I naturally played bass with my fingers, not a pick. This was the single most important carry-over from classical guitar to bass. That, and remembering that you tuned strings with each other at fret 5. Nothing else at all. Taught myself bass from playing along to songs and from internet lessons. I'm 67 now and still have no idea about music theory, but manage to play fairly well in a busy pub covers band.

That video is an excellent find. Thanks for that.

This one? https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/guitar-stands/dimavery-acoustic-and-electric-guitar-performance-stand?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17858053119&utm_term=&adgroup=&creative=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI16-_ms26hQMVRJBQBh2uJQqUEAQYAiABEgLqzPD_BwE I did see that but there are two problems: 1 - it's designed for an acoustic guitar, so the clamps are wide. You have to pad them for a bass, which would mean the bass could easily topple out. Also the rear clamp may well interfere with the knobs on the bass. 2 - The curved cradle beneath the bass may well cover the jack socket - it would on my bass that has the jack socket on the lower edge.

There will be a strap to secure the bass to the backboard, if that's what you mean. Strap attaches to usual strap pins on bass and feeds through holes in backboard, then fastens across the back, as per the original Mbrace design.

Possible way of securing back plate to a mic stand or cymbal stand with no boom. A length of plastic pipe is cable-tied to rear of back board. An arc of holes is drilled through the back board for the lower cable tie, to allow for some tilt angle adjustment at initial experimenting stage. Plastic pipe than drops over at strong mic or cymbal stand without need for a boom. As seen from player's viewpoint, from the rear:

Blimey! That's pretty radical! My No.1 bass is a Lakland semi-hollow short scale with light-weight tuners. It's already one of the lightest basses you can get at 3.3 Kgs. I don't want to make any alterations to it at all - it's too valuable for that, I reckon.

Persistent neck and shoulder woes mean I've decided to try to make a walk up performer stand that fully supports the bass, thus taking all the weight off my shoulder. There is/was the Mbrace, but it's no longer made: https://www.imuso.co.uk/itm/mbrace-stage-guitar-stand I've made am Mbrace-like back plate from MDF and covered the front face where the bass will be with carpet. Don't laugh - I know it's a bit thick and heavy, but it's the only suitable material I had. Besides, it's a prototype and will surely be hacked about and drilled. I'll cut some slots at the ends for an old bass strap to feed through and tie across the back. This should hopefully produce a secure back plate to carry the bass. Next issue is how should I mount the back plate, complete with bass, onto some sort of stand? I was thinking about a cymbal boom stand, with the back plate positioned over the cymbal stand/boom junction, so as to get the full 3-plane adjstment from the boom clamp. The back-plate could be fixed to the boom with cable ties or bolts. I did consider a mic boom stand, but decided it wouldn't be strong enough. An alternative might be a boom-less cymbal stand with the back plate fixed on to the vertical pole with cable ties or bolts, but you wouldn't get the adjstment afforded by the boom. Drummer in my band has a garage full of old stands and he has very kindly offered to lend me anything that might work to cobble together a working prototype. I'm going round in a couple of days time. I'll stop there. All design suggestions gratefully accepted!

Loads of interesting stuff here! Today, I made a super-thick pad to go under my already-wide shoulder strap. I thought it would help cushion the weight, but it hasn't Worth a try. I've decided to make a walk up performer stand so I can have no weight at all on my neck and shoulder. @chris_b suggested the Mbrace https://www.imuso.co.uk/itm/mbrace-stage-guitar-stand but it's no longer made. I'm reluctant to play sitting down. I always play standing up - at home, at rehearsal and at gigs. It's what my muscle-memories expect. Also, as some here have suggested, I tend to think that playing sitting down in a pop-funk dance band wouldn't look right or give the right performance vibe So, I'm going to have a go at making something like the Mbrace. I'll start a new thread. All design inputs and ideas welcome!

https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/guitar-stands/dimavery-acoustic-and-electric-guitar-performance-stand?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17865987110&utm_term=&adgroup=&creative=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyZC9qbeyhQMVipFQBh3SVQyOEAQYASABEgI_5vD_BwE https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_gsp_1000.htm

My neck and shoulder woes continue. I'm struggling to play a full gig. I've been experimenting with different straps (including waist straps) to get some weight off my shoulder, with limited success. With practice, I could probably adjust to playing sitting down, but I've never liked to see a bassist do that in a lively pop/funk pub covers band. Looks out of place to my eyes. OK in a jazz crew, but not in pub dance band. What does the BC community think about this, please?

How about one of these hooks on the rear of the bass which hooks over a padded tool belt? Keep the usual shoulder strap for reassurance. https://www.screwfix.com/p/command-white-self-adhesive-jumbo-hook/598HP?tc=JQ6&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw6zl18uPhQMVFEdBAh07CwmxEAQYCCABEgLYX_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Many years ago, I started a thread on the subject of designing some sort of waist strap to take the weight off my shoulder. I bought a padded tool belt from Screwfix and stitched the end of an old strap to it. This then looped over a strap pin that I fixed to the rear of the bass using one of the neck plate bolts. I retained the usual neck strap as a back up. This sort of worked but the bass swung around quite a bit, and I eventually abandoned ther idea. I'm revisiting it now because of a recurrence of my neck and shoulder issues. I'm looking for a fail-safe way of attaching the bass to a padded waist belt that does not require any drilling or modification of the bass at all. Any ideas?

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/106941824/waist-guitar-strap-for-solid-body-guitar Anybody use one of these for bass? Any good?

That happened to me. I turned up for an audition with an established band. There was a guy sitting in the corner listening and making notes. Audition went well and I got offered the job. Three rehearsals later, the band said they'd offered the job to the keys player's best mate - the guy who was sitting in the corner at my audition. "Sorry - we didn't see it coming. He's a really good friend of ours". Sod you then. Bye. Three weeks later - I get invited back because "bass player has decided that he's not good enough." I'm sure you'll be able to work out the general gist of my reply.

Just want to ad a comment about the Basschat community. I sold the bass via the Wanted section here, and I offered to pay the courier charges. I emailed the buyer to explain that the bass would be a few days late reaching him because of the various courier screw-ups. Immediately, my buyer offered to send me some extra money to cover any extra courier charges, even though we'd agreed that I would pay for the courier. Obviously, I declined his generous offer. Once again, the B/C Community does the honourable thing and comes up trumps.

Another band, another drummer audition. Beforehand, guy asked what was provided at rehearsal rooms. "Just a basic kit - you'll need to bring your own cymbals, stands, seat and any other favourite equipment you particularly like". Guy turns up with two drum sticks and nothing else. Turned out he didn't actually own any drums, cymbals, stands, seat - just two drum sticks.

We were looking for a drummer. This guy turns up with his kit, an oxygen cylinder and a face mask. He was OK with slower songs, but had to increase his oxygen flow for faster numbers. After about 8 songs, he announced that he'd virtually run out of oxygen, so had to stop playing. Clearly, he wasn't in the best of health, and it was quite sad to see somebody really struggling with something they were desperate to hang onto.

Let's call it a communication breakdown between P2G and Evri. A plague on both thier houses.

Shocking customer service from Parcel2go/Evri. I carefully boxed up a short-scale bass I'd sold, re-entering the weight and dimensions of the parcel 3 times into the Parcel2go broker website. Each time, the Evri drop-off service came up as being suitable. Not once did the booking system alert me to the fact the parcel would not fit into the locker. At the drop-off lockers, it was immediately apparent the parcel was too big. Back home I contacted P2G to complain. They suggested the parcel was re-booked onto an Evri collection service the next day, Courier never arrived. I contacted P2G to complain. Unbelievably, they suggested I use Evri's drop off locker service! They insisted that the parcel would fit the lockers. "I can assure you that it won't - I was there" I asked P2G to rebook the parcel onto another courier's drop off service. Thay refused to pay the difference in cost, expecting me to stump up the difference. "Why should I pay for your incompetence and shocking customer service?" At this point I gave up, lodged a formal complaint and asked for a full refund. I booked the parcel onto another courier's drop-off service through another parcel broker. That's the first and last time I'll use Evri.

Drummer's new mixer is one of these; https://www.studiospares.com/studiomatser-club-xs-16-16-channel-mixer-860080.htm That's not a "digital stage box", is it? Pardon my ignorance..

@Phil Starr Thank you - that's a helpful and thoughtful response. Actually, from my perspective, the real issue is not money. It's striving for low-faff simplicity. The band already takes ages to set up, with pedal boards (not mine), patch leads, radio mics, drum mics. Often there's a loose connection somewhere, or a piece of equipment doesn't "talk" to some other piece. Stage-space is becoming more and more limited. Recently, the drummer had a major moan about having to transport and store the existing PA system (which he owns), complaining that the rest of the band could do more to help with load-in, set-up, load-out. I stand off to one side shaking my head. The drummer is a bit of a gear-head. He seems to enjoy building IEM PA systems. His last one was for an acoustic duo. He played cajon alongside an acoustic guitarist/singer. I went to one of their gigs and it took them 45 minutes to set up. IEM's for an acoustic duo!? Really? He's already got himself tooled up with a new desk, new drum mics, loads of leads for our band's new IEM system - it's what he does even though, from my viewpoint from the touchline, I wonder whether it's over-egging the pudding. Emperor's new clothes, and all that.