YellowLedBetterBass

2025 has been a weird one. I started the year as the rhythm guitarist in a mildly successful covers band. That band went on to fold in late Feb/early March, and then reform in May with a few new members. We'd auditioned bassists but they were all terrible, and in a "if you want a job done right" move, I went over to playing bass - something I haven't done in a band for a decade. Thus, my best purchases have all been purpose-bought bass gigging equipment. First of all (and probably least interestingly) a wired IEM set up using a pair of KZ ZSN Pro 10s and a Behringer P2. Then came the first bass I'd bought in about 7 years. A cheapy, a shorty. Something to bridge the gap in feel and size between an electric guitar (as id been playing for 5 years) to standard size electric bass. I present my Squier Bronco: After this, and having played it for 4 paid gigs, I couldn't help myself when I saw this come up for a very reasonable price on reverb. A 2010 Mexican Standard P Bass, something I can say might be a forever bass, I absolutely love it. Overall, a pretty busy year. Not pictured are a Tonex One (which I'd used as ampless solution first for guitar, now for bass), a Boss ME-50B, and a TC Electronic 250w 1x15 combo. Oh, and a Behringer XR18 mixer, which I see as more of a band purchase than a personal purchase. And as for the band, we've been busier now than we ever were. I think "breaking up" and removing those whose hearts weren't in it was the best thing that could've happened to it. The group we've got assembled now are much more talented, focussed, and having a whole lot more fun than the last lot were.

We have 4 of these and just stand them wherever there's space, they work a treat. No specialised stands or anything, just put them on the floor or on an amp or something. Worth every penny.

Very good gig tonight. Very successful in every sense - 19 new followers on the Instagram, swathes of posts and stories and the owner of the bar (before we'd even finished, mind) emailing us offering us 9 dates over the next year. Crazy stuff. Rig was the new (to me) fender MIM standard P bass (I'll do a NBD on it, maybe), over Swiff Audio 5.8ghz into the TC Electronic BG250 combo. No pedals, no nothing. Simple as anything set up, and I got compliments from bar staff and audience members on how clear and punchy the bass was. *footwear were the same pair of puma suedes I always wear.

This is their Coaster series - their cheapest basses and guitars. Apparently not bad but not great either. I did try a Tele style one before and it was fine - no better and no worse than your average Squier bullet or similar.

So it's just a reskin of the original Tonex One? I'm hoping so! I can see the parallel wet/dry thing being useful, but beyond that I'm really not interested in any of the added "features", as I tend to find a lot of the user created captures are better than IKs stuff anyway.

I'm torn between a Yamaha BB234 and Sire P5 as my first ever "P Style" bass. Does anyone have any recommendations for which I should be going for?

If you know, you know. Considering you joined here 3hrs ago and are already asking this question, I doubt people will respond as you're likely to be confused for a certain Mr Hall

Played an open mic last night in Sutton Coldfield. Just the five tunes but we were given the "feature band" slot. Felt like less of an open mic at times and more of a "battle of the bands" situation given the quality of all of the bands on. Was really fun though. Bass was my modded Squier Bronco, and that was plugged (via fancy wireless) into an Aguilar Tone Hammer 700 head and 2 112 cabs underneath (as house amps go, that was the best I've ever used for sure). Footwear was Puma Suedes.

Absolutely horrid experience for the first half of ours tonight. Was set up in a tiny corner of a pub, using our own PA and having to lug it around tables of people sat eating dinner. Tiny stage where I could either bump my right elbow on the crash cymbal or the headstock of my bass into the singers back. Venue was completely unequipped to have bands on, even down to them not having a single plug socket anywhere near the "stage" area. Still we plowed through - even with people still sat eating half way through our first set and not a single member of the "audience" (who I suspect were there for their dinner and had no idea a band was on tonight) seeming like they cared. One blast of In Bloom later and suddenly the 60+ year olds weren't so keen on eating their meat and mash. I don't even know if people loved it or hated it - I think general ambivalence was the mood. The bar manager was happy though - he reckoned they'd put about £2500 more behind the bar than the average Saturday, so that's something. It was very much a case of having to be professional and make the best of the situation. I'm not in any rush to play at that venue again though truth be told. I think when they said they wanted bands on, they really meant they wanted an acoustic act to play background music while people tucked into their carvery or whatever.

You mean to say the audiences are evolving and they're going to start being able to notice what notes I'm playing, so every mistake I make will be clearly audible? Oh god no.

Had our first gig with the new lineup last night to a packed venue with close to 150 people in this tiny room. And we absolutely smashed it. I went DI for the bass - Tonex One into cheap generic passive DI box into FOH, and wired IEM packs. Struggled to sleep overnight from the adrenaline, but that's about normal for me after a gig.

Tonight was the penultimate rehearsal with the new lineup before our first gig together. If we play like that on stage at the weekend, the punters will be in for a treat Mixed all the levels right on the XR18 for a good room sound, and everyone was happy with their individual in ear mixes. I was especially pleased with my Tonex One sounds, having gone back to Amalgams Bassman amp+DI captures from their Tonex One pack. It's the exact same captures I used for guitar but it sounded mega on bass too, so maybe the answer for me if I go back to using a proper amp for guitar is to just buy a bassman and have it cover both guitar and bass.

Yeah he's taking his own Sansamp just in case no one else has a DI box. It's serving the same role as a "house amp" would do. I'll be taking the Tonex One and a passive DI box. FWIW, I am actually pretty happy I'm not having to take an amp - from memory this venue sounds pretty good and has great bass response, and last time I played there (I was on rhythm guitar at the time), my Marshall DSL40CR and chonky pedalboard were a nightmare to get up and down the 3 flights of narrow twisty stairs. Now I can just take one gig bag with my bass, IEMs, Tonex One and some cables and I'm done.

I have been asked by the soundman at our next gig to not take a bass amp and the basses for all three bands are going to be DI'ed in with either his Sansamp or our own DI boxes.

It's loaded on top of a passive DI box, only a cheapo Gear4Music one. I do pack a 9v supply usually but in this instance I just had my laptop charger to hand so was using that instead.

Yeah it is 2 whole months later now

Actual rosewood fretboard too I think. They're going to be hard to resist at that sort of money.

Fantastic rehearsal last night. Sounding as good with the new lineup as we ever did with the old lineup, which is really good considering this current lineup has only been together about 8 weeks.

I put this massive board together out of all of the bits I actually use during an average rehearsal. Covers everything I need. I've got it set up so in A/B mode it swaps between a slightly driven SVT and a very distorted SVT. Then for stomp box mode I've got it loaded with a Darkglass Microtubes capture and a Sansamp Bass Driver capture, and I'll test those two captures out and go with whatever I prefer on the day. My setup doesn't need to be any more complex than that.

Rewatching some of the sets yesterday and today. I think my favourites have been Inhaler (that P Bass tone was incredible) and Biffy Clyro. Both bands I liked sort of but was never a massive fan as such, but I will definitely make an effort to see both of them again.

Are there any short scale P Basses that actually sound like a P Bass out there? After Glasto this weekend and seeing so many people using them (especially Inhalers bassist who sounded fantastic with that Ampeg behind him), I really fancy a P bass.

Got the mixer in yesterday afternoon. It wasn't supposed to arrive until Wednesday, but sure enough, Gear4Music somehow managed to get it to me less than 36 hours after I bought it online. Tried the Behringer X Air app on android, absolute crap. Tried MX Mix, marginally better. Tried Mixing Station, and now won't be going back to either of the other two apps. Just been able to plug some guitars, a mic and my bass in so far, trying to hash out the input gain levels for our band by using the same gear as will be used by them. So far, a lot easier to use than people seemed to suggest.

I've just put Maccabees on. Good to see them back together. They were one of the first bands I ever saw live in my early teens, and have always been one of my favourites. Was gutted when they split up.

Doherty did an interview not long ago - he's moved to the South of France and, his words, replaced his heroin addiction with a cheese addiction.