solo4652

On 28/04/2024 at 10:05, chris_b said:

The great thing about these stands . . . . you don't have to worry about the weight of the bass!!! You can buy any bass you want!

Yes! As I've just posted, I've been playing my No.2 bass which is a G&L Fallout since I made the stand. The G&L is a bit of a beast, and I'd all but stopped playing it. I've now re-introduced myself to it and can appreciate it for the sort of bass it is, rather than moan about it because of its weight.

Thanks. The Lakland HB30 hollowbody is my No. 1 bass. I've had it for 7 years and nothing has come remotely close to replacing it. It will be with me until I stop playing bass. No.2 bass is a G&L Fallout. Heavy thing, and I'd all but stopped playing it because of my neck and arm problems. The bass stand has re-introduced the G&L to me - I can now play the G&L and appreciate it for its own charms. Wider, deeper neck than the Lakland, and more difficult to get the action as low as I like. Altogether a more physical instrument to play. 

4 hours ago, Rosie C said:

 

I note that @solo4652 doesn't want to alter the bass, but for anyone else who doesn't mind a bit of engineering and modification, this is how I did my EUB. The stand was off-the-shelf and has a lot of adjustment.

 

 

Very neat.

25 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

UJ type stand fitting - Tom Drum?screwed on thru or welded to the Neck Plate.

I'll look at that - thanks. I don't really want to alter the bass at all. As it is, it's simply a matter of un-looping the bass from the stand top, and the bass then goes back in the gig bag, no bother. With the new black stand, and a replacement black strop against a black t-shirt, the whole thing would be virtually invisible.

6 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

May I ask why are you hidden away in a corner of the very back, behind the keyboard player?

 

But since you are why couldn't you just sit down on a chair and play?

 

 

Because there isn't enough room for me to be further forward, I suppose. Besides, guitarist, lead singer and keys player are more interesting to audiences than I am. I used to stand in front of keys player, but she wanted to dance more and interact with the audience, so we swapped.  For a full discussion regarding pros and cons of sitting down, see this thread: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/492024-playing-gigs-sitting-down-popfunk-covers-band-acceptable/      For me, I don't want to sit down while playing for a dance-oriented pop/funk band. 

Update.  Have now completed two rehearslas and two gigs with the stand. Very pleased with it, and can't really see me going back to shoulder strap anytime soon. The MK1 model was cobbled together from a silver cymbals stand I borrowed from our drummer. This worked well. I've now replaced it with an all-black new cymbals stand from Gear4music so I could wear black trousers to help disguise the stand on stage. Key points:

 - It's easy to find a good hanging position for the bass because of all the adjustments available with a cymbals stand. Fairly quickly I found a position that was very close to what I was used to with a shoulder strap.

 - Slight downside is the upright tube of the stand coming between me and the bass. This is less of a problem with MK 2 stand which is slimmer than MK1. Soon get used to it.

 - I'm finding I'm naturally adopting a slightly revised playing position without setting out to do so. Bass is a little higher, and I've moved it to my right (I'm right handed) thus bringing my left hand a bit closer in to my body. This is simply a mater of taking half a pace to my left as I stand behind the stand.

 - Initial concerns that a silver stand might look a bit odd on stage haven't materialised. See photos. MK2 black stand may not have been needed.

 - Initial concerns that I would end up with two stands on stage (including music stand) haven't materialised so far. I did consider clamping a boom onto the bass stand to carry my notes, but that would take up just as much room on stage, I reckon.

 - Initia conerns that I'd be rooted to the same spot on stage by the bass stand haven't been a problem. I'm pretty static anyway, and I can move away from the stand at various points in songs when I'm not playing for a few bars.

So, all-in-all, a success. No weight at all on my neck and shoulder has been a huge relief. Total outlay for MK2 stand is £40. 

7 hours ago, police squad said:

that made me laugh so hard, it hurts🤣

 

I might need to lie down at this afternoons gig, my back isnt in a good place today.

I can't let the pub down, so more drugs

Would this help at all?

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/492156-diy-walk-up-performer-stand-design-input-and-suggestions-please/

3 minutes ago, pete.young said:

Excellent job, well done.

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. 

On 11/04/2024 at 17:04, Paul S said:

I googled 'Playing Guitar Stand' and it looks like there are a couple of off the peg stands aside from mbrace.  K&M, for example, but BAX shop do one for under £50.

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:

6 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

 

I developed neck/back pain playing bass during lockdown - playing all day when I was suddenly home a lot. Initially I bought a Hofner violin bass which was super light. But I yearned for my jazz bass and different straps didn't help. In the end I sat down with my friendly local guitar technician to look at the weight. We identified:

• the steel clover leaf style tuners were really heavy, but could be replaced with alloy/nylon units
• the sexy high-mass bridge really wasn't helping and could be replaced with a bent plate type
• wood could be machined from underneath the fingerboard

We removed around 1.5lbs in weight - with a lot of that coming off the end of the neck so it helped weight distribution. Of course this is just a cheap Squier whose value is more emotional to me than financial. I maybe wouldn't do it to a valuable instrument, but it completely changed this instrument.

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!

54 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

I have one of those. I used it a lot after some hernia surgery.

 

Where did you buy it? I can't seem to find any UK suppliers.

 

:

 

 

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?

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Here's a good one in reverse. I auditioned for a classic rock cover band. This was years ago. They double booked my audition with another guy. I was able to watch his audition. A young guy, he didn't know any of the songs  I nailed all three.

 

They went with the other guy. He was a friend of the guitarist. He didn't last long. Turns out the guy had no transportation to get to gigs.

 

They called me back and offered me the job  You can imagine where I told them to shove their offer .

 

The lesson, never audition for bands auditioning friends or relatives. 

 

Daryl

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.