BillyBass

The Loco-motion by Little Eva

I have two practise set ups at home. In one room I have a Fender Rumble 15, which I almost always use with headphones, and often the aux in comes in handy too. It doesn't sound great but its a practise set up, it's good enough for that. In another room I have a one10 cabinet and a small head, in my case its the Trace Elliot Elf and the Barefaced one10. This sounds much better and both bits could be used for gigging, should that be necessary. This rig isn't too loud at all and with all the EQ flat, it doesn't get boomy in the room its in. Both set ups work well for their intended purposes. The Fender Rumble has a headphone out and Aux in, which are important for practising. The Trace Elliot Elf has the headphone out but no Aux in. I have to use the aux in on a pre amp pedal for this function if I need it. The Markbass and Ashdown would be a great little rig but the Markbass has neither headphone out nor aux in, so bear that in mind. A different small head with both these features may be more suitable for a mini practise rig. I would always go for a separate head and cab because the separate parts could be swapped out for something else if necessary, like keeping the head but using a second or larger cabinet for a live performance. And if your amp dies, you just need to change the head, not the whole thing.

I tried one in Peach guitars in Essex. I can't remember which model it was but it was black and was a fingerprint magnet. I was put off by how light it was, it felt like a toy. I know many people with back issues would have loved it though.

There is a Gretsch in the photo?

Absolutely gorgeous! Congrats.

NBD, yesterday. I bought this beauty from @playbass. A Yamaha BB434 I spent a couple of hours practising with it this morning and used in our regular Friday afternoon rehearsal session. I've read loads of comments about BBs in this thread and others, and I found my experience of the bass is similar to many others. This is what I have noticed so far. Sustain! A note will ring and ring and ring on for ever. Muting is necessary with the BB where with other basses the note will die out after a bar or two by itself. Is this due to having the strings through the body? My other basses are all strung at the bridge. I've read that the J pup at the bridge is weak. Not really. It is weak compared to the split coil neck pup but not necessarily to other single coil J pups. I will have to do a comparison with my Jazz bass. The sound of the bridge pup is typically single coil at the bridge pup, and it gives that burpy Jaco sound. The split coil neck pup is what you would expect of a split coil in the same position as a precision bass. It is similar to a precision bass sound. The neck pup either alone or with the bridge pup sounds great. It is quite hot for a passive pick up and is hotter than the bridge pup, as I mentioned above. The neck seems not have been treated with oil or lacquer or anything but I'm sure it has. It's a good size and weight. Not heavy but not too light that it feels like a toy. This is my preference, I really don't like basses to be too light. Overall, this is a great all round bass, which I think will be very useful in my covers band.

I just bought a Yamaha BB434 from Edward. Everything went smoothly, he got in touch straightaway, we organised a time for me to drive over and, though my wallet is a few quid lighter, I am now the owner of a near immaculate BB. Nice bloke to deal with too. Thanks Edward

What I meant was that I do better by taking breaks and going back to a song rather than sitting down for 2 hours or more trying to learn a song. If I am struggling with a particular aspect of a song, e.g. 24 Hours by Joy Division is not a difficult song but I struggled with the timing in the bits where there is quaver length open D just before the start of the next bar. I had a cup of tea, looked at a bit of bass porn on the internet and went back to the song and got it. For me, practising for too long in a session leaves me tired and less able to perform well, and I often realise this only after taking a break.

I find that as a general rule, when I am struggling with a particular song or part of a song, I need to take a break and then come back to it. Sometimes all I need is an hour away from the bass and then when I start another session, it all clicks into place quite easily. For me, relentlessly grinding away at a song is often a waste of time; taking breaks every now and again helps.

I have a 2019 Tidepool blue Jazz with a maple neck. Lovely bass, no issues with the hardware. Just assume a Fender Player won't be shielded and if you don't like the pickups you can always stick in some others.

Has anyone got/tried one of these? I'm wondering whether something like this could do a good impersonation of a valve amp?

I also own one. Like @andy67 above, I like the Ampeg tone so I'm keeping mine. I also have a TC Spectradrive which has compressor tone prints; the few I have tried aren't as good as the Ampeg, to my ears.

Music lessons at my grammar school in the 1970s were a complete waste of time. The teacher paid attention to the (mainly middle class) kids that were learning instruments but not the rest of us. He was a miserable git that inspired no one to get involved in what should have been the most enjoyable and fruitful subject in the curriculum. Just like what I have read in other posts in this thread, to him anything that wasn't classical music was not music at all. My parents being working class Londoners didn't push me to learn an instrument, they had been brought up in the war, when food wasn't guaranteed so playing musical instruments was a different world.

A couple of months ago I ordered an Ashdown Norman Watt-Roy pre amp, the gold one from PMT. It was on a clearance deal, for £250 odd, about £80 cheaper than usual. I also ordered a pedal board at the same time. The pre amp and pedal board came on time but the pedal was scratched, had no included power supply and was missing a foot (if new, the feet are in a plastic bag, not already stuck on). The pedal board came without the velcro. I called them top to complain and a very apologetic PMT employee offered me a pack of strings by way of an apology and said they would take the pre amp back and send me a new one, and the missing velcro. I chased them up the following day to ensure I received a new pre amp and it tuned out the 4 Norman watt-Roy pre amps they had in stock were all ex display and they couldn't guarantee the one I would receive was without flaws. I was offered a refund, which I took, but still wanted the velcro. They assured me it would arrive; it did, but only about half as much as should have come with the board. An £80 reduction for an ex-display pre amp is still a good discount and if they had stated on their website that the items were ex-display I would not have been disappointed should I have ordered one. But they didn't, they implied they were all brand spanking new. And only sending half the required velcro after I chased them up was ridiculous! The courier fees they paid would have cost more than the velcro. I didn't chase them up again, I just ordered some velcro from Amazon. PMT were very courteous and apologetic when I complained but this good side of their service is let down by some of the plonkers that send stuff out. I would be happy to buy stuff from one of their shops but I won't order from their website again, and I look on their discounted items as probably B stock or ex-display.

I answered an ad on Bandonkers during lockdown and have joined a drummer and guitarist/singer. Well, sort of joined; the drummer and me meet up once a week at a rehearsal studio for a 3 hour session but the guitarist only wants to meet online as he has some vulnerable family members. The drummer and myself have been going through a set of covers and we are adding to this each week. In some ways not having the guitarist there isn't a bad thing as it is giving the rhythm section a chance to gel, but it would better to have us all there. The guitarist and me were going to meet in a park with acoustic instruments but the weather took a turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago and so this hasn't worked out.

I beg your pardon. I didn't think that was an earth lead.

@stewblack The connector block you have used in your last photo will become loose over time. The vibration from the driver will loosen the terminals. If the wires that go from the connector block are solid core (from the photo it appears you have used a bit of twin and earth, discarding the blue sheathed neural core?) then push fits would be ideal, connect and forget. If the conductors are stranded then push fits would be difficult, but normal Wago style lever connectors would work. https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Manufacturers/Wago_Connectors/Wago/index.html When not playing bass I'm a spark. P.S. I won't say anything about your incorrect colour sheathing.

If anyone visits your home and sees it, just tell them its for when you practise the bass with headphones. if you leave a bass nearby you might get away with it.

Our drummer lives south of the river in Brixton, so a rehearsal studio next to a tube station is perfect and the Holloway tube studio also have their own parking spaces, so great for us that drive. I looked at the Mill Hill place's website during lockdown. but perhaps, just like the Muswell Hill studio, the grime doesn't show up very well on a computer screen. I've never been to the Mill Hill place so I shouldn't comment.

Drummer and myself just had a session in a rehearsal studio next to Holloway tube station (our guitarist has some vulnerable family members so isn’t joining us yet). ‘Storm Rehearsal studios’. The place was very clean, they clean the rooms after each session. They opened up this week and are struggling as very few customers are walking through their doors So I am giving them a plug. They have Ampeg, Marshall and Blackstar amps; there was a lovely SVT & 8x10 in my room. Last week we couldn’t go to Storm rehearsal studios as they hadn’t opened so we went to a place in Muswell Hill, N10,. This place shall remain nameless but there is only one place in N10 so google it if you are interested. The place was disgusting, hadn’t been cleaned in ages, so we won’t be going back there again. If anyone lives in north London and wants to use a rehearsal studio, Storm is a good place.

I've bought a new MarkBass head and 8 pedals since lockdown started. I had too much time on my hands to look at various websites selling gear. No regrets though, I like Gas. And now the rehearsal studios around North London are starting to open and I have a weekly session with a drummer so there are songs to practise and less time to peruse Andertons

The Subspace is a knob twiddlers dream. You can get any sort of dirt you like out of it, from glitchy or clean fuzz to lightly overdriven tube warmth to distortion. Hamstead Soundworks supply a booklet with a few different settings which produce a variety of dirt to suit one's palette and also suggest a starting point on the knobs, from where you can experiment. If you want a particular sound you will get it on this pedal. It also has a nice clean tone too and could be an always on pedal. If you need fuzz for one song and distortion for the next then you either have to knob twiddle between songs or get another pedal. It would be absolutely perfect if it was a Cog effects style 2 or 3 pedal in one but you can't have everything. The Spectradrive has compressor and dirt toneprint options but nothing else, no tuner. I got it for the headphone out and aux in to practise at home with (the Zoom B1-four not being available) and thought it might be useful as a pre amp too. And I also bought Strymon and MXR power supplies and a Little Marcus 500w special edition head, my Elf was going back to Peavey for repair so I had to buy another head while waiting for it to be returned😉.

My wife is less than impressed! Since lockdown started I've bought a TC electronic ditto X2 jam, TC Electronic Spectradrive, Ampeg Opto Comp, SFX microthumpinator and some fun stuff: Jam pedals Ripplyfall bass, Hampstead Soundworks Subspace and I 'won' an Aguilar Octamizer on eBay on Wednesday. I have to pick up my Elf from GuitarGuitar in Camden over the weekend, after a repair, and I'll buy a Polytune 3 while I'm there.

The Zoom B1 four has been out of stock at Andertons, Guitarguitar, GAK, Thomann etc, not sure about the rest of their catalogue. I don't think other pedal prices have gone up. I've spent over a grand on pedals during the lockdown. Lots of spare time during lockdown to peruse bass gear websites, stay in for deliveries and let GAS take over😟

Thanks for replying all of you. All I want is just one teeny weeny T-47 but maybe I'll try something else.