Boodang

And talking of aluminium necks, a Travis Bean would be nice. Saw one for sale recently and couldn’t believe the price!

Maybe one the basses on my wishlist that’s more achievable than some others then.

Awesome! I’m drooling.

Carl Thompson, but mostly because no one would sell once they own one of his basses. Described by one reviewer as the Stradivarius of the bass world.

I think that’s mostly because they’ve all been turned into standard lamps. I remember reading a review on one, they don’t have truss rods so it was only playable under certain atmospheric conditions. So you could only play the gig if it wasn’t too hot or too cold. I’ve always thought about buying one in a lovely purpleheart, standing it in the corner of room and turn it into a bass guitar art lamp.

Kramer aluminium neck. Again a very basic utilitarian look to the bodies but there was something about the necks that made me want one.

SD Curlee basses. Don’t know why but always had a thing for them even if they did look like they’d been hand carved with a rusty pen knife.

Iceni Zoot bass fretless. Had a resin fretboard, absolutely gorgeous. Kind of like the Zon basses but made in Essex I think.

Overwater ‘C’ bass. Played one at a show, if I remember rightly a 36” scale tuned to low C. Another bass I regret not buying when I had the chance.

Ovation Magnum I or II. Love or hate it body shape, unique pickups, as used by Jah Wobble.

The delta metal fretless neck thru as well (rather than the current ‘money saving’ bolt ons). I was at the bass centre in Wapping many moons ago and had one in my hands but instead bought a Warwick, which, while not a bad bass, is not a Vigier. I do regret not buying it and now almost impossible to find.

I don’t about vintage more like something you find in an archeological dig! The copycat is awesome tho!

I had this where after decades of playing I’d reached the end with bass… but not music. I took up drums. Then about ten years later bass entered my life again and I play in bands doing both. so maybe a change of instrument is in order?!

Unlike muting strings there’s a lot of energy and there’s varying degrees of sympathetic buzz. Sometimes a finger on the reso head will be enough but if the bass player hits the right frequency then even holding the snare wires at one end won’t stop it buzzing at the other and the only options are to release the snare tension or put your finger under the snare wires.

I’m a drummer (as well as a bassist) and unwanted snare wire buzz is something that I’m acutely aware of in band situations. For a lot of intros / endings I reach under the snare drum to mute. But also I pay a lot of attention to the tunings of the snare heads as well as the snare tension, particularly when it comes to avoiding this issue. Oh, one thing for your drummer to try, on the snare reso head, try loosening the lugs slightly either side of the snare bed which should help reduce sympathetic buzz.

That's a shame and puts you in a difficult position. Audience feedback sounds like the only thing that might make a difference but that's awkward, you can hardly canvas the crowd on the night like a focus group.

I'm a drummer as well as a bassist and I absolutely hate the hand grenade kick sound out of the PA. So, I'm that band member that does the sound engineering at gigs.... but only because no one else wants to do it. I hate juggling bass/drum duties with mixing, it takes my focus away from playing but hey, what can you do hire a sound guy, like we can afford that. Anyway, one way to do deal with it, and what we do, is record the gig. I do it two fold, from the desk and with a field recorder in the room to get the audience perspective. As a band we play it back to analyse our performance and see what needs tweaking, that includes the PA mix which the band are quite particular about.

One of my fav albums, along with Bright Size Life and certainly my preferred Jacob period. Sounds like a really interesting band, will definitely have to check them out.

Brit Club beer festival. Got some great British ales and Belgium beers in. These pics taking just as we set up, but did get about 200 people once it got going. Setting sun straight into stage area with everything, including us, getting really hot. Bizarrely fried my Aguilar tlc pedal which gave up the ghost. I put on 5 bands, I was in four of them. Made sure the last band was the one I wasn’t in so I could enjoy a few ales before having to pack up. Everyone played well, started off with chilled vibes playing the likes of Bill Withers, then Hendrix/blues, punk/new wave, a 80s/90s cover, and finally my mates metal band at the end. Oh, and used my new (to me) Zoom L20 for the FoH and monitoring and worked a treat. So easy to get a good sound. All told, a great day but after playing for four hours and a 12 hour day of setting up and packing everything away I’m having a very lazy day’s rest.

I had a lull recently with bass playing inspiration. The thing that got me going was composing solo bass pieces but the real driver was that I created a SoundCloud account so that the music didn't just stay in the shed but is actually heard... albeit by about half a dozen people. I'm still working in it but knowing that complete strangers are going to listen, and judge, your output makes me put extra effort into it. Good luck with the treatment, hope it all goes well.

Thanks... it's a Treehouse nesting bop kit. Considering the small size it has a big sound. The BD is particularly punchy.

Sorry, thought I was on the drummerworld forum!! My mind is going but what the hell, it's posted now! Please feel free to delete tho... unless you find it vaguely interesting.

Recently I bought a nesting drum kit but as it turns out there are advantages to having a bass drum where the front unclips reso head intact. I prefer an unported reso head which would normally be an issue when it comes to internal mic'ing but when you can take the front off the drum in seconds it's so much easier. Plus, I had three holes made in the drum, one for the snare holder, one for the tom and one for the ride. As it turns out I only use two so there's one spare for the mic cable. I think in future I'll get my bass drums made this way as it sounds great but is easy to set up for recording/live.

Ah, if only I'd thought of that, we might still be playing... although I doubt more profitable!

I started an Eberhard Weber tribute band doing his solo work, took three bass players to take his place. Did one gig, everybody said what the actual F was that and the project hasn't seen the light of day since. Took a year to learn the songs and get them down properly but the effort was worth it from a musical growth perspective if nothing else (certainly wasn't a financial success!).