TrevorR

Don’t you mean Bwian Wawlden?

True, but I've always found that stainless steel or nickel rounds always sounded pretty sub par on either an acoustic bass or guitar - much worse on a 6 string guitar. Bronze, phos bronze of flats/tapes always just worked/sounded much better to me. So not NEED but much prefer. YMMV, of course.

My trick was always to bend the bit of the string where the bare wire goes round the ball end at a 45 degree angle so that the ball end didn't get trapped on the bottom of the bridge peg and ping it out.

Saw the vid on this earlier... top of my wish list, methinks! If it works half as well as that implies it’ll be a lot of fun!

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got way past my Stuart-goofing-about threshold 20 mins into last week’s so Tina’s laid back approach was a breath of fresh air. Yes, there were omissions but it’s worth remembering a few things... It was a programme about BASS in music, not bass guitar and so I enjoyed the d’n’b bits (maybe BECAUSE it’s music I don’t listen to). It’s a mainstream programme on a mainstream channel. It wasn’t primarily aimed at bass geeks and to have made that show would have alienated the casual watcher. You can only fit so much into an hour... Wonder what next week’s programme on guitar will be like? I’m guessing... Charlie Christian - Les Paul - Leo Fender - Briefly Elvis/Scotty as a lead into - Beatles - Brief cross reference to Paul Simon/Bob Dylan via The Byrds and a British 60s folkie - Hendrix - Marshall Amps - Zep/Who/other loud bands montage - Punk - Van Halen - Smiths - Ed Sheeran

Oh but in so many ways, no. They aren’t. But just in case I’ll throw this one in as a backup. Owned it for 37 years (in fact exactly as long as I’ve been playing bass) so it also probably counts as a “keeper”

My first thought was, “Well, at least it wasn’t Gibson who bought them...”

What, kinda like this? Since I don’t play 5 strings or fretless these two would do me quite nicely. And have done since 1993 and 2001 respectively!

That SB700 was my first ever bass too. And yes, it weighs a ton but balances perfectly! Still, it meant that when I picked up my Wals back in pre-Internet days I never worried about their weight... I just thought all basses weighed 10lbs and that was perfectly normal!

Is that pedal for guitar or bass? I can’t tell from the box...

Still love my ‘700!

Those oval bridge plates on Laklands. Can’t get past them. I know it’s their visual signature so it would never happen but give me one with a regular rectangular bridge and I’d be all over it!

Our local Poundland says in its windows that it's doing it's "BIGGEST EVER SALE! - Many items at 50p!" That made me smile as I walked past! It's a hard time to be a shop at the moment. the BBC News Review of the Year programme on "The REtail Year" was an interesting, if slightly depressing, watch... https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bw98j2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bw98j2/review-2018-the-retail-year

I love, love, love Trace Elliot! I'd still have my trusty Series 6 1215 combo if it hadn't gone to that great gig in the sky some years ago. However, if you're planning on lugging gear to gigs as a short-medium term aim then investing in some lightweight, Class D, neodymium magnet gear might be advisable - those old TEs are WEIGHTY compared to the modern stuff like MarkBass, GK and the like.

Green tinted AND glow in the dark! Well, under UV anyway! Hi there Kirstie... also from the BPU of BookFace... Good to see you here too!

I'd add in Joe Pass' Virtuoso 1 & 2 albums even though they patently don't meet the criteria (they are solo guitar albums - no bass, double OR electric!). Or put another way, ideal jazz standard bass karaoke albums to play along with and see how your emerging skills are getting on... 😉

Some amazing suggestions so far. As a practical note. For a newbie there are some amazing compilations out there going dead cheap because the age of many of these classics makes their licensing cheap and easy. A quick skim of Amazon and iTunes threw up these... https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-jazz-album/1113064945 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-very-best-of-jazz-50-unforgettable-tracks-remastered/539446930 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-no-1-latin-jazz-album-ever/552348564 https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-1-Jazz-Album-Various-Artists/dp/B000024U2A There’s a lifetime of learning and jazz appreciation in just those! And change from 30 odd quid! Plus a good way to find out what styles of jazz float your boat!

The entire Reeve story. Courtesy of Flat Eric... still not worth 2 grand, though. http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-reeve-guitar-story.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/04/reeve-brian-may-and-more-reeve-guitars.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/04/val-reeve-continues.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/04/reeve-guitars-continued.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/05/reeve-brian-may-red-special.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/07/reeve-guitar-gallery.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-visit-to-val-reeve.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/10/derrick-taylor-roachford-reeve.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/11/reeve-headless-bass-finished.html

Built in the same year as some Wals... must be worth at least 2k, then. Good grief! £200 maybe given it’s a pretty much unknown brand!

My first real gig too... 1981 with Snowy. St Austell Coliseum. A few months before Renegade came out. Cracking gig! Still my favourite band all these years later.

Great band. And adding the fantastic Dave Bainbridge, formerly of Iona, on guitar has done them no harm at all!

I’ve got to that age we’re I suspect that my brain is almost full up with music good and not so good. So it’s very rare these days that I come across new music in and genre that makes me go “Wow!” like so many bands did for my in my teens and twenties. However, just this last couple of months I’ve come across a few different bands that tickled my ear like in the good old days and made me sit up and get into them in a big way. A chum leant me Greta Van Fleet’s album. Considering I find Led Zep very dull these days and simply don’t listen to them any more these guys really impressed me with their sheer energy! OK, they’re are more Zeppish than Zep ever were but still... I do like a bit of souly Acid Jazz type music so this review CD from Richard Hawley’s cousin and the ex-Weller drummer really floated my boat... love the Bond theme vibe on this one... More acid jazz... heard this band on the PA at a Pret A Manger and just had to Shazam them... I think that The New Mastersounds are my New Favourite Band! And now for something completely different. Another review CD by Sinnober blew me away. All About Eve meets CSNY round at early Fairport Convention’s house... lovely swirly music.

I do enjoy Rick Beato’s videos. Pretty well informed, well argued, interesting topics... always worth a listen. So what better way for him to start the New Year than with a “Top 20 Bass Sounds” video. Some great players and lines on there and some stellar sounding basses. He asks about which tones he’s forgotten. I guess my nomination would be this one... always loved the bass tone on this track. He chooses a totally classic Chris Squire line but I must say I’ve always had a soft spot for this Yes track. Love both the bass tone and the bass line. The hair cut not so much...

Silvia’s second bullet point was never going to take us in a helpful direction. Apropos of nothing and notwithstanding that gender is irrelevant, three (actually make that four) other bassists whose playing I have always enjoyed are: Sheryl Crow - simple but solid. Claire Kenney - Cropped up on TotP so many times and she played a lovely Aria SB too back in the late 80s and early 90s which counted as extra brownie points for me Carrie Melbourne - when she wasn’t playing for the gawd awful Babylon Zoo. Good stick player too. Took over from Lol Cottle in Mike Oldfield’s band IIRC Jo Wadeson - some great playing with Thea Gilmore and the Waterboys. Really tuneful and powerful playing both on record and live. And to amply demonstrate how irrelevant gender is in a bass discussion, Jennifer Maidman. Great back in the day with T-Rex, Gerry Rafferty, Paul Brady and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and now funking it up with the revamped Kokomo.

If you want to see real terror, get a classically trained pianist (who isn’t also a rock/jazz player). Give them a chord chart and say, “12 bar blues in A, just feel the changes with us.” Also works when giving guitarists sheet music.