Huge Hands

I have only ever bought 2 basses in a shop in my life, and both were the worst basses I have had and the only ones I have ever moved on. Mainly due to my hatred of being in there and the pressure to play some slap or amazing jazz solo, I have folded at the first one the sales person has tried to foist on me (and probably the only one in my paltry budget at the time).

If you're not sure, I have two Squier "Precisions" which are P bodied but have J pickups, Indonesian made, from mid 2000s, I think. They are 19mm and have necks like cricket bats. I see them come up occasionally on eBay for around £100-£150 - might be worth a try if you don't want to blow a load of cash on something without trying. In my experience, a lot of lower end basses are not as wide as 19mm - my Sire V7 and Harley Benton MB-5 are more like 17.5/18mm ( I have never measured them). Just a thought.

I have been playing my MB-5 that I bought last December (last purchase before Brexit) a lot this month as it may be heavy to some, but it is a lot lighter than my main Sire V7 and my back has been giving me gyp. I love mine as a back up bass and it is still totally stock, apart from a set of cheap flatwounds. My only gripe (if you can call it that) is that it seems to have sustain for days and days which is not good for me so this has been solved with a bit of foam under the strings.. I also miss the single volume control of the V7 but I am really clutching at straws to moan about a bass that IIRC was about £110 delivered at the time.

Try them first without chopping any connections off - you may be pleasantly surprised!

Apologies if I am repeating what someone has already told you, bu the reason your DI box has made the volume drop is because your DI box effectively drops the the level input signal to mic level to allow long runs over XLR (the same as pressing a line pad button on a mixer input). Are you using balanced (stereo) 1/4" jacks from the interface, or unbalanced (mono). The interface having TSR on it could be the same as TRS (tip ring sleeve) which would suggest to me they support balanced jacks. If you are using balanced and are happy to mess around with your cables you could try wiring it back up as interface straight to speakers, then chopping off the ground connection at the XLR end (tape it up so it doesn't catch anything). This should prove/rule out any ground loop theory. Obviously this won't work if you are using unbalanced jacks. Happy to PM if you want any more info.

I'm no expert, but my assumption was that if Joel is gigging 2-3 times a week and fully booked for 2023 (as well as quoting prices in USD), he is more likely to be based in the US and touring there. Anyway, welcome Joel - I remember someone espousing about the virtues of the aluminium driver Hartke combos back in the early 2000's. I got to try one myself and did not like it as I like a more mellow sound and this seemed much more harsh and bright. It seemed to be a one trick pony - I couldn't get a comfortable sound that I like with the one I tried. I then saw one of my heroes Jack Bruce on something like Jools Holland's show in front of a big Hartke rig and I thought it sounded awful - a cranked up version of what I had experienced. Again, not knocking Hartke for others, just agreeing with you and they are not for me. As others have said - I get a personal sense of dread if I walk into a rehearsal room and see one sitting there....

I think I have told this story on here before but around 2004ish I used to play in a blues band (mainly covers of obscure blues music). The last gig they played before I joined was a wedding - a fan of the band's daughter had got married. It turned out he was the head of one of the London district councils, and booked us for his council office Christmas party. I piped up and asked the guys in the band if we "...should a least not throw some bluesy versions of some Christmas songs in there?" The answer was a flat "no" - it would tarnish the band's image blah blah. That was one of the most cringeworthy gigs of my life. Watching the bloke who booked us grooving away at the back of the hall while a load of young office staff just sat and stared at us with the look of "what the f**k is this s**t?" I certainly grabbed the money and ran that night....

I remember looking at the 5 string versions online around the same time and even the website shots looked pretty poor in terms of dodgy finish and weird gaps. I was about to pull the trigger on one too but then backed out. Glad I did by the sounds of things!

As a teenager in the early 90s, my Dad had just bought a CD player for the first time and his cousin, who was doing some building work at our house, decided to buy all the Beatles albums on CD. As he didn't have a CD player himself, he left the discs with us until he got one. This left me with all the albums (including singles compilations) to play to death whilst I was at home on my own. This left me with a great appreciation and love of their music, even though I wouldn't say theirs is my main taste. I found the recent Get Back releases fascinating to watch and devoured all 6 hours with glee! As I have said before, after starting as a drummer, watching Paul play the beginning of "I am the Walrus" in the Magical Mystery Tour film made me realise the bass player was much cooler than the drummer and got me to switch!

I have seen a few people say this over the years but I always found the stand on my NXT to be quite sturdy and often used to pivot it on one tripod leg while playing. Not as free as a endpin on a DB, but enough to have fun with - then much easier and quicker when you want to put it down and pick up your bass guitar!

I have had a NXT5 for about 7 years. I am not sure the difference between this and a WAV but mine looks a fairly similar setup (albeit mine is all black) to the one in the sponge guy's video. I have said this a few times, but with mine, it doesn't always sound that double bassy to me when standing next to it and playing, but when I have heard recordings of me playing it as heard from the audience, it does. I love mine but get @Happy Jack's point about the look. I used to play in a 50's blues band with mine and would get purists scoffing...but also a lot of punters being all "what the hell is that" in a nice curious way, and would be good to see the looks on their faces when it sounded good..

I think my taste in music is quite inclusive and popular. I think it may be me who is a bit isolating in the way that I tend to obsess over favourite tracks and play them repeatedly. Mrs HH refuses to listen to my playlist for this reason (that and the fact that I sing way too loudly and badly along to them!)

20 years ago I worked at one of the big Butlins as a sound engineer. On 60s, 70s, 80s rtc weekends we used to get a lot of examples of this. For me, I don't mind them doing reworkings of songs or clever medleys but I think the essence of the original feel and sound of the act/band should still be there. In my experience, a lot of these bands (especially the 60s ones) would have one "original" member who would be someone like a keyboard player who had joined just after the last hit (when the main songwriter had left and was sunning it up on a beach somewhere). The keyboard player would have then recruited a band of mates who weren't good enough to be in the band the first time round and were all deaf from poor sound over the year so would be painfully loud on stage. Either that or the fading star would introduce their son on bass who would slap through most of the gig or their daughter on vocals who just couldn't sing.....I could go on. However, I feel a bit of a contradiction too as I start to get older and still want to be able to get/play gigs as long as I can play (not that I am legendary or famous in any way, but I assume they feel the same). I know it isn't really relevant, but reading the Rod Stewart stuff reminded me that we used to get two Rod impersonators regularly when I was there. Both looked and sounded nothing like each other, but weirdly they both looked and sounded like Rod! Always made me laugh!

Reminded me of my old ZX Spectrum loading a game......

Thanks, What I was looking for was something that would give me good back support and be very sturdy as I am ashamed to say I am a hefty chap. I am 6'3 and around 145kg so wanted something strong and durable, that I could lean back in if my back was giving me problems because I am sitting at weird angles to help my wounds. I did consider a director's chair., but I dont have the best of experience with folding mechanism chairs as I tend to break them! On top of this, the problem is many folding chairs also have armrests and I don't want those as they will get in the way of the bass. I did have a good look over the weekend and nearly went for a shower chair type thing with removable armrests but have decided to give it a go tonight with what is in the rehearsal hall (plastic school chairs) as I wouldn't have been able to get anything this quick anyway. If I can find a good, not too worn/broken one I might be ok, but I think it might be too low for me. We'll see. Wish me luck!

Hi Lemmy, Thanks for this - it is he sort of leftfield stuff I wouldn't have thought of (I don't do fishing) that I was hoping someone would know about! However, this one is quite expensive for something I should only need for about a year and I'd be worried about accidentally catching my wounds on those poles sticking up, but it is definitely on my shortlist (of this 1 so far)... I will definitely look deeper into the fishing world though. I thought they would be a lot more "sit back" camping chairs type thing where I wouldn't be able to get comfy with the bass, but this one is definitely a possibility.

Thanks for that. I have a specialist hospital supplied cushion called a Valley cushion which works well. It is a supportive sturdy portable chair that I need to put it on that is what I'm looking for. Something that is more adjustable than just a basic classroom chair, but that can be folded/broken down and taken away after each rehearsal. Google seems to suggest there is no such thing but thought someone on here might know of something.

Hello fellow Basschatters, This might be a very odd and specific request, but here goes. I have recently returned from hospital after extensive surgery on....ahem.....my posterior. I usually play in a concert band where everyone sits down and plays. I have a long way to go in my healing process, but I would like to return to rehearsals soon. I certainly won't be able to stand and play for any length of time. We usually sit on plastic classroom style chairs. My issue is that even with my support cushions (which I would take), they are quite low and there is no back support. I do have a Transit van, but don't have the strength to hump big chairs around. I'm basically after a drum stool style folding detachable tripod leg base, but with an office chair type top on to give me a wide base for my support cushions and comfortable sitting position. All of the office chairs I have seen seem to have fixed heavy tripod wheely bases. Due to the support cushions working in a kind f square cushion type way, I don't think a round or moulded drum stool top would work. I am also dismissing most folding audience style chairs as I am quite a heavy chap and again I thik height will be an issue. I'd love a sturdy gas strut like the better drum stools. I just wondered if any of you knew of anything or had used something like I'm looking for? As I realise I have opened myself up for this kind of thing, please feel free to let loose with the piles jokes too. It is not piles, but I'm sure some of them will be funny.

If I remember correctly it was used in a TV advert and then on the back of that got re-released and did really well as a single.

On the Dua Lipa NPR Tiny Desk (Home) concert, IIRC the MD is the bass player and the drums are on track.

I think the thread reflects this as a lot of the suggestions on here are dead or retired! I agree with a lot of names on here and many are my heroes too, but some recent ones (over the last 20 years) I would have are: Thaddeus "Terry" Tribbett Joe Cleveland Robin Mullarkey Michael League

When I was a kid, my dad (who is massively into blues) recorded a BB King concert from the early Days of Channel 4 at the end of a VHS tape. The programme was called BB King at The Forum. I believe it was filmed at the Forum in Ontario, Canada around 1978. When I found it, most of it had been recorded over as my dad wasn't a BB fan, but I certainly became one. His bass player at the time (Russell B Jackson) became a huge influence on me wanting to play bass and I wore the tape out constantly playing this. I have tried to find a copy of it over the years but have just found this on Youtube: I have never seen the first 4 and a half minutes before as that had been recorded over! . EDIT - Just watching it through fully now and this version has loads of chunks missing in the middle which is a shame. Would love to get a full copy some time...

As long as they are vegan chips with ethically sourced salt and vinegar on them....... Oh and my partner has a fish allergy and will only eat the red peppers, not any other colour..... etc etc etc.

Regardless of my opinions of Joe Dart or the bass, I will never have that kind of spare cash, so I won't be getting one. However, I just wanted to give props to Nate Smith in that video - amazing drummer!

I have a V7 and only use it in passive mode as I'm too lazy to keep swapping the batteries. That's only the first two knobs (stacked Vol/tone and blend). As per my user name, I have huge hands and I don't get too mixed up. I find the tiny volume know quite easy to turn under the edge of my hand. In all seriousness though,, I do put batteries in it and it is nice to occasionally switch in the active so I can add some mega bass boost from time to time!