Al Krow

Ooof!! That does look tasty! Damn I knew this thread was going to be a bad idea 😂

I've had a pretty modest year on the bass gear front - ended up selling significantly more than I spent driven by clearing out my amps and cabs for PA related kit now that I'm no longer using backline. The bit of kit that's given me perhaps the most joy has been a pair of NU-X C-5RC 5.8 GHz wireless bugs which have excellent range, had no interference / drop out issues that I was getting with my 2.4 GHz kit and cost me <£100 used and come in a handy charging case with useful space for a couple of picks! My worst was entirely my own fault! Finally deciding to drag myself into this century, I bought a mic stand mounted tablet to use instead of a music stand and paper crib notes. Worked a treat, but when a mate had said she hoped we would "smash it!" referring to the gig on Saturday night, well clearly one of the inebriated audience took her literally knocking over the mic stand, shearing the tablet holder and cracking the tablet on its first outing. Ouch! Tbf - total schoolboy error on my part not putting a screen protector on before the gig. Anyway expensive(!) lesson learned! It's replacement is half the price and came already fitted with a screen protector 😅

Following on from the same topic we've successfully run since 2018 - a chance for some useful hints and tips with Black Friday and Xmas goodies still ahead, and, of course, nothing to stop us changing our minds between now and year end! As with previous years, the only "house rules" are that it's bass gear and something you bought (or at least arrived) in 2023. Here's the last thread in the series I posted in 2021 as a reminder of some of the goodies we bought then. (I think someone else kindly did the honours in 2022) And definitely post your GAS inducing pics please!

I'd have given that post a ❤️ if that was an option, Paul! It's just great hearing you and @Rich sharing such positive stories about your bands.

Sounds like the band has got itself to a really good place in terms of potential bookings - nice one! Whereabouts are you guys based? If some of you want to do (a lot) more than 10 gigs, could you consider getting a dep in to cover?

Thought we were going to be 100 BC'ers and done, but we've had another twenty add their votes since then 😊. These are the ones who have received more than 10 votes apiece from 120 of us :

Who would recommend dropping from the list (from the 5 or fewer votes crowd) next time around?

Btw great shout adding Rutger! Out of interest why this bass line rather than perhaps something like his awesome bass line to Dancing Queen? I kinda feel he's a spiritual successor to Carol Kaye - any merit in that thought?

Oooh...Macca has just slipped to third 😊

Yeah fair enough. Full price of a Helix Stomp XL is around £600. If that also comes with a USB cable, I'll concede the point.

Maybe wrong, but I'm not sure any of the Helix in the comparable price range to the SY-300 does though? Yours was a £1k+ product. I agree with @Woodinblack the more important thing is the right power supply - can't use it without one. For me, a USB cable costs a few quid and is not worth stressing about, particularly when you've just bagged a bargain? And the even more important thing is if the SY-300 is actually any good / going to be usable live?

But there's definitely some love - Les Claypool, MM and Flea have all got 7 votes apiece. I think most of us would take our hats off to pretty much everyone in that list of 30 even if they didn't quite make it into our top 3.

Interestingly Mixcraft has been described as being the "closest you will get to Garage Band on a Windows system". It's < £100 and allows video editing too. I take @Happy Jack's point. But I think we shouldn't devalue our time either, so if a particular daw is say £40 cheaper but its UI is much less intuitive and takes a lot more time/effort to get used to, then I'd want to take that into account when evaluating cost and value.

Sold Frank an octave pedal. It's always a pleasure dealing with him: top bloke and very smooth transaction.

With exactly 100 votes in, the BC verdict on our favourite bass players is as follows:

We will be in touch, please leave your contact details after the tone. No need to call back if you don't hear from us.

Appreciate that's frustrating although, trying to remember, and I'm not sure if any of my pedals which have needed USB type-B cables to connect have actually been supplied with them in the box.

I mean, should I be feeling quite so smug that my three choices (Jamerson, Entwistle and Geddy Lee) have all made it into the top 10? Or does it merely confirm what a boring / conventional bass player I am who needs to get out more? 😅

Absolutely! Although also doubling up as a really useful survey of the views of musicians who know and appreciate bass probably better than anyone else. I think if we asked the public at large, most would probably not even heard of James Jamerson? They would obviously know Paul McCartney but I bet half of them wouldn't know he played bass, haha! Plus also I think you can only replace the names of the bottom few and not the votes already cast against them, so ideally the most popular choices need to be listed from the start. If I/we run this again next year, we can maybe replace the least popular in this poll with some of the suggestions folk have made along the way.

Bumping this old but excellent thread 😊 Nice little article from Music Radar - pretty up to date (Sept 2023): 5 underrated DAWs that aren't Logic, Ableton or Pro Tools, and why you should consider switching | MusicRadar

Guess I've got the same question as @JohnDaBass ie can you hear quite a difference between the B1-4 and B2-4 in terms of sound quality?

With 75 85 95 esteemed BC'ers already having cast their votes, seems like there's a definite "Top 5": 1. James Jamerson 2. Paul McCartney 3. Pino Palladino Bernard Edwards 4. Bernard Edwards Pino Palladino 5. John Entwistle With a chasing pack of: 6. Chris Squire 7. Duck Dunn 8. Carol Kaye 7= Geddy Lee 9. John Paul Jones 10= Jaco Pastorius 10. Geddy Lee 9= Carol Kaye 10= Jack Bruce 9= Geezer Butler

I love working with drummers who have electronic kits. Can pretty much choose any kit they want and can get the FoH very nicely balanced.

Cos we've 30 slots only alas. Which of the greats would you drop to make way for them?