TrevorR

Good ish… I was quoted 18-24 months for mine. Which is why I just went back to Wunjos and got the one they had hanging on the wall and which I’d played and loved!!! Not an SL, of course, though.

I’ll be honest… I’ve never played a Sandberg that I didn’t love the feel of. So I completely understand what you’re saying about the neck and it feeling so effortless there is nothing to distract you from your playing. Since I got my VM4 at the start of the year none of my other basses have had a look in!

Rats, he’s gigging oop north with DS:UK all weekend.

Might Dan Veall be free and willing? He’s one of the more sensible and authoritative bass ‘Toobers’…

Paul, a chum of mine runs https://www.elitestringworks.com I could see if he’d be interested in coming along to do set ups and other straightforward tech work at the event. We had a friend of Nicks do that some years ago and it went down well.

I’ll be off to Wemberley in August to see Blackpink on parental chaperone duties.Hmmm… can’t wait. Friday at the O2 Arena watching the Doobie Brothers was much preferable and a fabulous evening. Proper quality country rock, yacht rock and blue eyed soul. Treat to have Michael McDonald back in the fold too. Lad had a great time so there’s hope for him yet 🤞.

Prefer Saturday 8th but can do Sunday 9th.

Maybe avoid half term weekends? 25/26 October and 1/2 November. But that’s not really a deal breaker. Otherwise no preference.

I’m a bit surprised. There’s nothing about either bass that would make them over massively bassy. P-basses are pretty much the standard bass in terms of tone. You might find this review of the hybrid useful to compare to what you were hearing in the shop. Could it have been an amp setting thing or just not being used to hearing bass outside of a mix? Your recording doesn’t sound that different from a proper bass tone - and remember EQ settings will be important both on a bass amp or on a recording. I reckon that either bass would probably work really well and give you a great sound. I do like the Japanese basses - really good quality, especially for the price. I don’t know the other one. The difference that does it might just be which ever one feels right to you - personally I suspect the Hybrid’s neck might be a bit too chunky for me but others might love it.

Yup!

Wasn’t around on Basschat in 2011 so here goes… First Bass Owned: Aria SB700 (still have it) 'Go To' Bass: Currently my new Sandberg VM4 'Your' Bass: My 1985 Mk1 Wal Custom (my main bass since ~1992ish)

Oh no no no… bass first, of course!

I’m in. Sure that we could get Barry along to tell anecdotes about his time at Wapping and Farringdon. He has lots of stories! With Lol and Guy he timed out at the last bash! #1 - Paul @NancyJohnson #2 - Paul #2 @prowla #3 - Martin @Merton #4 - Matt @Wombat #5 - Andy @Wolverinebass #6 - Stevie @stevie #7 - Lozz @Lozz196 #8 - Matt @neepheid #9 - @bassace97 #10 - Robert @bass_dinger #11 - Christopher @chyc #12 - jaco @Geek99 ** #13 - Alan @WalMan #14 - Trevor @TrevorR I also have a couple of non-Basschat “vouch-forable“ bass chums who might also want to come if they are free on whatever date.

Count me in too!

Jeff's health must come first but I really am absolutely gutted that tomorrow's concert has been cancelled. ELO have basically been my favourite band since Telephone Line came out. This was my last and only chance to see the man performing live. A mixture of personal circumstances, long term family illnesses and other things have always precluded us seeing ELO every other time they have toured since the comeback a decade ago. Doubly upsetting that it also means missing two more of my all time favourite artists, The Doobie Brothers and Steve Winwood - neither of whom I have ever seen before (for much the same reasons as ELO). At least I’ve managed to snag three decent enough tickets for the Doobies at their O2 gig next Saturday. Takes the sting off a bit… but only a bit. Get well soon Jeff and enjoy a well earned retirement. 😥

Oooooh, lovely!

Aaaah, so that’s what that is… cool. Beyond the limits of my feeble, aged musical brain, though. Though, TBH, I didn’t really see what that synth bass added to the arrangement that you couldn’t have achieved just as well by switching to a clean bass tone and playing sustained notes. Never seen the attraction of doubling on synth bass. In my old church, when we did EDM type worship songs a bass and some well chosen OD, filter and modulation pedals worked perfectly well for me. I guess that a Sub-Phatty has never been lurking in my future…

Yes, I watched some of her vids where you can hear her talkback feed. A lot of US churches I see bass cams from seem to simply programme the songs into Ableton (or similar) and just follow the robot voice and click track. It’s clear from those vids that she’s actively MDing a live band, calling repeats and transitions, calling dynamics, controlling some sort of tech with those buttons to her left… all very impressive. And so it’s music with the ability to flow as needed rather than just follow the pre-programmed, rigid karaoke track. Watched one where the voice was more audible than on the Revelation Song video above and she was giving instructions along similar lines of, “…repeat that section… …again… …OK, take it to the one chord and hold… …build… …c’mon, build… …chorus, two, three, four…” I love the organic nature of that band leading and the flexibility it gives to work a tight arrangement but allow some spontaneity. And yes, only 24 years old 😮

That is a great bass tone. Lovely and clanky! Darned good playing. I must confess I was fascinated by all her MDing chat through the video - would have loved to,have heard what was going on across the talkback channel.

That’s pretty much my approach. Set the EQ on the bass at flat, dial in a standard “core tone” on the amp and then tweak slightly from there on the bass EQ as necessary using the minimum amount of cut or boost to achieve the desired sound. If I’m honest, on a 2 or 3 band EQ it’s rare for the tone knobs to be boosted at all or if they are only to around 2 at most on a “-5-0-+5” cut and boost control. Hard to think of a circumstance where I’d boost or cut all the way. I think most of my on the fly tone shaping is probably done with the pickup blend control and changing how/where I pluck the strings. Nice to have the EQ there for times when it’s needed. I never get sucked into endless EQ fiddling but end up with 3 or 4 particular fave tone settings for different types of song across a set. A punchy/rocky one, a mellow one, a funky one… I’ve also never felt the need for sweepable mid controls in a bass - too much room for error and dialling in a bad tone. A simple, well designed, fixed centre mid control gives me more than enough of a “punch” control in 99.9% of circumstances.

This resurrection inspired me to have a browse on Google Maps for the Addlestone ABC. Earliest it goes back to is 2008 when the building was already boarded up. Now redeveloped into some flats. Down near the station was The Guitar Gallery an independent little shop where I got my Wal Pro 2E back around 2001 after 18 months haggling the owner down to a sensible price! Now a letting agents.

I couldn’t have written that better myself. That’s my philosophy exactly. All of my basses get played out because I love playing all of them and I’ve always taken good care of them as you have. For example, this was my gigging set up for a decade playing in pub, function and wedding bands… Never had a qualm about taking my Wals out and they never had any mishaps with due care and attention. OK, for an open air gig in dodgy weather I might take my Frankenjazz instead, or I might take it just coz I fancy playing it. My most sentimental bass is my Aria SB700 - my first bass bought new as an 18th birthday pressie by my Mum and Dad. I’ll never part with it but, again, I’ll happily play it out (like at this 80s theme night from last year…)

Indeed. Though there is nothing quite like the sound of a proper grand!

Well, that was a fun time (NB genuine mode not sarcasm mode - realised it could be read both ways). In the end the guitar player and drummer couldn’t come - though another drummer stood in at the last minute. So it was just piano, bass drums and vocalists. I’ve always believed in just adapting your arrangements to what musos you have available, so that was perfectly fine. There was a nice “house” Warwick combo to use so it really was plug & play. It was a nice service we had the following songs prepped: Open the eyes of my heart Here for you A thousand hallelujahs Our Father (communion) Hallelujah anyway Praise We also had In Jesus Name prepped which was to be the response song before communion but the service was running long so we didn’t use it. It was fun playing in a stripped down format and the acoustics were such that it sounded good on stage with just a tine vocal-only monitor. Here’s a piccie of the office: The bass sounded nice on the stream as well which was encouraging too. It really is nice to be back playing in worship. Not sure when the next one will be. Looking forward to it, though!

It really is a bit of a brain-melt moment when you’re browsing through Amazon Prime for something to watch and you happen across a Jeff Beck live video with the guy you who hosts your jam night playing in the band - the amazing Nicolas Meier on guitar! Mind blowing stuff!