Muzz

The Apollo in Manchester to see Greta Van Fleet, supported by the Marcus King Band. A very, very good gig all round - MK and his 7-piece band were outstanding, a band with lots of gears, like a cross between Grand Funk Railroad, Skynyrd and a Baptist Revival meeting at Muscle Shoals...top points to the two-man horn section, who multitasked with aplomb (trumpet with one hand and tambo in the other?)...and that Greta Van Fleet...maaaaannnn, that's one of the best voices I've ever heard in there - it soars like very little else...there was the feel of an event, a theatre to it (a white stage, with 10ft side spots) which lifted the place, I've seldom heard an audience singing like that...oh, and the overall sound was pretty good, too; not quite so much for MK, but I suppose a 7-piece support band aren't gonna get more attention than the 4-piece (singer/bass/guitar/drums) headliners from the desk...at least the Cannon Kick was absent...

Chambered by worms, according to the maker...ohhhh nooooo, now we have Toneworms?

So everything else is small except the headstock? Makes sense... 😀

Is it just me, or is the headstock on the first bass monumentally huge?

That's gonna raise some eyebrows with the 5-0, tho, surely? 'Yes Boss, bloke shot through the head, no obvious motives...tho he's left his bass in his will to someone he met on the internet...' 'Oh, really? Fire up the Quattro...'

I can +1 the Babicz bridge (albeit on a Thunderbird(ish)) - I'm not bothered about hiding its modernity, and the flexibility of adjustment is more than worth it. I've always like EBs, but that neck-adjacent mudbucker position has always put me off - that one with the pup nearer the bridge looks a lot more like my thing...

You mean his Spotify Playlist Shuffle? They don't half put a shift in these days, DJs... 😕🙂

Have you ever been to a big festival? The last thing you want on a sunny Sunday afternoon when your energy levels have kinda dipped, that hangover-burger hasn't settled right and the khazis all look like the Somme is to be shouted at by some edgy fecker under flashing lights...possibly later on, once it's gone dark and you've come round a bit...

Ohhh, audience, schmaudience...99% of the time the bass could be a bucket with a stick in it*, despite what we like to tell ourselves... 😁 * A maple stick and a galvanised bucket, obv, before anyone comes at me with any Tonestick schtick...

On that 'experience' thing, I watched the Elbow set and have come to the conclusion that, like them or not, they're the perfect sunny Glasto late afternoon act...

Not while John Halls' company is still in business... 😀

Weddings, usually...especially when you give the DJ your setlist and ask him not to overlap...and then the last three songs he plays before you go on are in your first set...pfffffttt...

Those new Fender bridges are really, really good, even better for £35. I put one on my BB414 and I love it, it'd be my go-to for any bridge replacement these days...even if it does say 'FENDER' on it in rather large letters...I almost phoned Jon Shuker and asked him to put one on my incoming JJB P, but then I thought that might be pushing things a bit too far... 😕 🙂

I've had three and a half (I'm counting a USA Sub as the half here, possibly unfairly...maybe 3.75?), great basses, and, not unlike other folk above, I love everything about them, apart from the way I sound playing them*...everyone else sounds great, I just don't. I kept selling and buying them (when they were about £650-800), hoping for some kind of epiphany or 'the right one', but no, they were all consistently great basses. Just not for me. Then they started topping a grand, so I gave up, too... If I had enough spare money, tho, I'd buy a Starry Night like a shot... * When were in the studio about ten years ago recording an album (long-since sunk into oblivion, natch), I took my Bitsa P and a Stingray. The BL/Singist/Geetard loved the Stingray, and insisted I use it on one of the first tracks. When he went to the pub for lunch, I stayed behind, re-recorded my track on the Bitsa, and swore the engineer to silence. Later in the afternoon he raved about how good the Stingray sounded, and how I should use it for all the other songs...

Well, at least Diana Ross is consistent - she was dreadful three weeks ago, she was dreadful today. Good band, tho...

Hahahaaa...ohhh, been there, done that...thankfully (mostly) before anyone else noticed... 🙂 Cab sounds great...

Ahhh, grey foam...is that tonefoam? I feel another pointlessly bickery thread coming on... 😀

Just for something topical (and I've mentioned this on the Glasto thread), the bassist from Khruangbin playing an SX Jazz copy...dunno how much they are recently, but I paid less then a ton for an SX (delivered from the States), and it wasn't bad at all...

Yep, probably the best voice at Glasto this weekend, very very good. I also enjoyed Khruangbin, and in a crossover with the Bass Snobbery thread, possibly the cheapest bass at the festival...liked the bassist from Inhaler's sound; yeah, it was a Precision through an SVT (just for a change), but it sounded bob on to me...in contrast, there were a couple of Ricks in the clips I watched, but none that actually sounded like one...

Flicked through a few (Bobby Plant and Co I thought were needlessly fey), but Supergrass were pretty damn good, especially in front of a fairly bemused-looking crowd, most of whom appeared slightly distracted, like they were wondering where the nearest non-medieval khazis were, or whether or not they'd left anything valuable in their tent...the bass sounded pretty good, tho I'm not convinced he needed four of them for that one sound. Still, as they say, if you've got em (and roadies to carry em), use em... The Pyramid Stage is also memorable as one of the last remaining native habitats of the 810 and biiiig valve head...if I ever get to play there, remind me to buy one. And a roadie, obv...

I'm sort of in between bands at the moment, and it's something I'm trying actively to do (keep moving), because I'd like lots of paid gigs...

Was chatting with SWMBO about it (as we do every year); she went in 87 (I never did; it was Donington or nowt for me), when it was £21 to get in, and her and her friends parked their van just up the hill from the Pyramid Stage. She's always fancied going back, but I've pointed out that it'd be a very, very different experience, and not just because she wouldn't be 22 and stoned for the entire weekend...

I've stacked my Compact (Gen1) with my Super Twin on a couple of occasions (as much for the look as anything, it was that kinda band), and raising the 12s up higher made them much clearer onstage. They might hit 135db, but who would ever run them that loud? My car will do 120 or so, but it's never been there... There's a lot of amps out there will do 2.67 ohms (Mesa Boogies, anything Class D with the right 800/900 power section, etc), so a 4+8 is a feasible modular combination...and I always wear attenuators onstage - it's not the bass amp that'll deafen you, there's the cymbals, for starters (and geetards with 1x12 combos pointing the wrong way, in my direct experience)...

I'd contact Alex at Barefaced, he'll give you the very best advice on this. It may well work - the 15" Compact and 12" Midget were originally recommended as a pair together...

Still waiting for mine (Jazz neck (actually slimmer)), too - no dots, either...it's only been 2 1/2 years...then again, we did have a bit of a global pandemic in between...