kwmlondon

Bloody hell this is good value… I don’t want or need a cab but this is a stupid good deal…

3 hours ago, Musicman666 said:

 

curt smith is bass player for tff....how can this be possibly be a surprise?

I’d never seen them live and he’s not pictured with a bass in the videos I’d seen. 

21 hours ago, lonestar said:

Wilton Felder

Trumpet player with The Crusaders played the classic Jackson 5 I want you back bass part

That is one of the loveliest basslines in Motown. Technically got a lot going on, but so melodic and catchy it's easy to miss what a tour-de-force it is of playing. Amazing stuff.

1 hour ago, Maude said:

I'm in the UK but I was only jesting. 

 

Seriously now, I don't think I'd buy one set as although £20.70 is still a good price, two pairs puts them in Olympia territory at £16.70 which, as you say, is more like it. You can get the Olympia ones for £15 and they're actually very good. 

If placing a Thomann order then adding a couple of set's of the HB flats is a great idea. 

Hmmmmm. Tempted… my guitarist has a gritty bass that would love a new set of strings. I’d like to treat him… 

5 hours ago, Maude said:

The trouble with buying these is that I'd have to pop a new bass in the order to get free shipping. 

You in the US or UK? It's only £8 postage which is fine if you buy a couple of sets. US... no idea!

55 minutes ago, Elfrasho said:

 

Aye, I suspect 99% of guitarists could play bass to a certain level so it's not a complete surprise to see some of them give it a pop!

 

 

I recon Elvis is probably the most surprising one here. Maybe he just liked the look of it, but he seemed to enjoy being pictured with a precision.

I think people forget that Keithe Richards was/is a hellva bass player

25 minutes ago, Dazed said:

Yes, recently saw this on a tv music channel. Never had a clue. Considerable talent, singing playing and dancing simultaneously. I can barely do any individually 😄

 

 

You went straight for disco royalty!!!! Great choice!

Did you know Chaka Khan played bass from time-to-time when she was in Rufus? Also played drums. I remember and interview with Dave Swift where he said he was super-careful to nail the basslines 100% accurately for her as she was a bassist herself, but I've never been able to find any footage or a recording!

Okay. I have this thing where I always get quite excited when someone I never know was a bassist turns out to have form on the old four-string. I'm going to kick off with Demis Roussos. Yes. Forever And Ever, him from Abigail's Party. Described once as “a fully-laden banquet table beneath which a frightened lady appeared to be bleating for deliverance”

Well, I knew he was the singer in Aphrodite's Child but I'd never really clocked that he was the bassist and I'm going to stick my head above the parapet and say 666 is one of the best prog albums ever recorded. And Roussos was the bass player! 

So... have you been caught out by surprise? I've got a couple in mind...

1 hour ago, PaulThePlug said:

I'm a fan of Adagio and Olympia strings... I have Budget Rounds and Flats on Bass and Guitar, Acoustic and Electric... As all my Bass and Guitars are cheapies..

I really like Olympia. A bit less tension than LaBella's and not as pingy. Very nice. And cheap!

19 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Thanks. In Isolation have a gig booked at The Fidler's Elbow in December. Come along and say "hello". I'll be using my CAR Gus.

I may well do. I'm following this thread so post date up nearer the time and I'll try and get up that way. 

On 08/07/2023 at 10:16, BigRedX said:

I don't get this romanticising of wear. And I'm sure that if Gibson and Fender had known just how rough the "rock n roll lifestyle" would be on the finishes of their instruments they'd have picked something more hard wearing than nitro in the first place.

 

And at what point does wear get in the way of the playability of an instrument and when it does what should you do about it?

 

Case in point my Red Gus G3 Bass will be 25 years old next year. That will probably make it "vintage". It stated off as one of the display/demo models that Simon took to various musical instrument shows and trade fairs, and at some point after the end of 2001 it was sold to the person who owned it before me. For the next 5 or so years it must have had a very hard life because when I bought it, second hand, early in 2008 both the bass and the Hiscox case it came in were severely worn. The purple/green flip paint finish had chipped off in multiple places including the back of the neck which made it somewhat uncomfortable to play. Some parts were missing and others had been replaced with non-standard items.

 

Having decided that overall the bass was a keeper, I got in touch with Simon at GusGuitars to find out what my options were. Due to the way the flip paint works it would be impossible to retouch the worn areas, and the only options would be to leave it as it was an try and smooth out the chips on the neck to make them less uncomfortable, or strip it back to the primer coat and apply a new finish. Since I wasn't particularly taken by the colour (this was the main reason why I didn't buy the bass when it was "new" back in 2001) I decided to have it refinished in Candy Apple Red and at the same time have the whole bass refurbished, which included new chrome for all the metalwork and re-profiling the aluminium horns that were somewhat out of shape. (How on earth had that happened?) When I got the bass back apart from still having the same old worn case and some slight wear to the frets it looked like a brand new instrument. For the past 15 years this has mostly been my main bass and has done well over 100 gigs, and while it has picked up a ding or two, it is not showing a fraction of the wear it displayed when I first got it.

 

Has the refinish and refurbishment affected the value? In this case it has probably made it worth slightly more. Having the work done by the person who made the bass originally probably helps. What might count against it, is that being the first 5-string bass Gus made the instrument in it's original condition is well-documented on the Gus website, and of course it not longer exists in that state...

 

I think Gus basses are some of the most beautiful instruments ever made. Never seen one in the flesh.

17 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I don't think that is necessarily true.

Some people take a bass week after week to a gig, throw it in the back of the car in a  bag, play it, drop it, throw it around then put it back in the bag, lob it back in the car, get home, throw it in the corner. Its an object, they don't care.

Some people take a bass week after a week to a gig, keep it in a case, take it out when they need it, play it, wipe it down afterwards, put it back in the case, take it home and store it. It has value to them and they want to look after it.

 

I have picked up guitars that were a couple of years old that look like they were used to dig a patio, and ones that are over 20 years ago that looked like they came out of the factory yesterday. Its more to do with how they were looked after.

 

The oldest guitars are only 70 years old, there are playable good condition musical instruments that are 4/500 years old.

I know what you mean, but when a neck is worn, that's not down to lack of care, that's years and years of a hand playing it. There's a difference between battered and uncared for and worn through regular use and I just find myself drawn towards an instrument that's been played a lot. It may even be romantic nonsense - I am only human!

Well, I have this thing about vintage instruments - if it's old e.g. 70s, 80s, if it's not got loads of wear then I'm not really going to want to pick it up myself. I'm always going to be drawn to the most beaten-up and worn-out basses in the shop because those are the ones that people have taken to gig after gig, week after week. You don't do that with a crappy instrument, you move it on and get a better one. Whenever I see a pristine 70s Jazz or Precision I feel no desire to play it because nobody else has wanted to play it.

Where have all the Fenders gone?

Well, loads will have been "modded" over the years and bits lost or destroyed. I'd say a high percentage of Fender necks will have warped and been replaced - one of the things about Fenders (the best IMO) is that you can swap things around. Most are probably sitting in someone's bedroom where they get picked up occasionally but the owner won't want to get rid of them because they spent years gigging with them and will never part with something so personally valuable.

4 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

As you say the CMD121 makes a wonderful amount of noise for its size, but once you add in that NY121 you`ll really be amazed.

Yeah, should be fun! 

Last night I did a rehearsal with my CMD 121P for the first time and we were all blown away by how good it is. I had to wind it up to about half way to balance the drummer but it had no problem keeping up with the three of us and I use a Dingwall 5 string so some lows in there. Weirdly, when I'm playing I can find it a bit tough to assess the tone, but maybe that's down to the earplug, anyway - when the drummer had a go on the Dingwall/Markbass setup and I was just listening I was floored by how good it sounded.

Deep, snappy, punchy but a few degrees off HiFi, just enough for it to be colouring the sound and in a lovely way. I've also got a Darkglass Adam that I use for distortion and compression but didn't have it last night. 

I stuck the amp on a little portable wheely thing and walked to the rehearsal with bass and amp, it's about 20-25 mins and I was shocked by being able to take a whole gig-level setup without needing the car. If you'd told me this was possible when I was young I'd not have believed you. 

I do have an NY121 cab too but I keep it at a friend's place for when I'm rehearsing there, if I ever need that extra for a gig I can put the two together - looking forward to trying that one day!

On 02/07/2023 at 13:25, kwmlondon said:

Bought a Markbass CMD 121P from Bruce and am very happy. The whole process was great, the item is exactly as expected and the communication was as good as you could hope for. Would have liked to have stayed a bit longer to chat when I picked up the amp but I was on a really tight schedule. Many thanks!

Update it’s FANTASTIC!!! Many positive comments at the rehersal…

Wait, wasn't this a jazz bass? What happened to that? This looks nice tho...

Sold Paul an EBS 212 and the whole process was spot-on. Great communication. We had a bit of a faff trying to find each other in Camberwell but we did it! Hope the cab is a perfect partner for tye Handbox valve head… nice rig! Thanks. Kim

Bought a Markbass CMD 121P from Bruce and am very happy. The whole process was great, the item is exactly as expected and the communication was as good as you could hope for. Would have liked to have stayed a bit longer to chat when I picked up the amp but I was on a really tight schedule. Many thanks!

1 hour ago, TeresaFR said:

I live in a city, there's literally a live music venue that semi-regularly puts on the sort of gigs I play at, just ten minutes walk away.

Yeah, I walked to an open mic a couple of weeks ago but then that's the trade-off for putting up with all the down sides of living in London! Suits me but not for all...

1 hour ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

Unfortunately I think you might find it financially unviable unless you can borrow something and make do. ☹️

Yep. If we end up doing something outdoors I'll look into hiring a high-capacity 240v battery pack. We could run everything off one of those, no noise or anything. I've got access to petrol generators but they're all pretty noisy so not ideal but would have to do at a pinch. Could just put it out of the way.

55 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

How will everyone else be powering their equipment? 

 

If it's an organised event surely there will be some sort of generator or power supply?

 

Decent deep cycle batteries aren't cheap. It seems like a lot of outlay for one event. 

No, nothing organised just a bit of a play along. I have no idea about inverters but if it means heavy investment in kit I won’t bother. Would rather hire a battery PA system or something. Really helpful comments though. Much appreciated. 

My guitarist has been talking about doing a gig at an open-air event which I like the sound of, but am wondering about how I'd power my bass amp. I've got a class D Markbass LMII and a spare 12v battery but does anyone have any experience of running an amp off an invertor for a couple of hours? I'll try to do the maths when I get home but if anyone's done something like this it'd be really useful to know. Cheers!

2 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

People forget sometimes that our hearing isn't linear. Doubling the power always increases the sound levels by exactly the same amount, 3 decibels. So going from 1W to 2W you'll get 3dB, from 500W you still need to double so you need an extra 500W to get the same 3db increase. 3db isn't much either, just going up a notch. to double the sound you need 10x the power so that 40W Fender is equal to half of a 400W amp.

 

You obviously know your stuff, backing off the bass reduces the power demand a lot maybe a 1/4 if you put in a 6db cut and adding in the low mids gives the audience the impression of bass. An extra little hack is to push the tiny combo hard back against the wall or even better into a corner. Each surface will reflect and reinforce the bass and make it sound like a much bigger amp.

 

For an open mic I use a single 6" cab not much bigger than a handbag, volume has never been an issue so long as I can get into that corner

Cheers, yes, and if it had been just me and guitar it'd have been fine but keeping up with a drummer is a real challenge with a practise amp. Did it though, and without any 'orrible farty distortion! Moving stuff around wasn't really an option anyway, but good tip - will bear in mind if it comes up again.