gjones

If I can't get a seat up front, or it's standing with a big crowd, I can't be arsed. I'm not a fanboy, I don't go to a gig to swoon over my heroes. And I don't hang around if the sound is sh*t.

I have a Frankenfender P bass with a 1980's, Mighty Mite pickup, stuck in a Squier body, attached to an old P bass neck. I've not been able to put it down since I put it together a few months ago. I play it in my Ska band and it sounds epic. It also sounds great recorded. I thought I hated Precisions, what happened?

[quote name='Diablo' timestamp='1395616176' post='2404485'] Ah, I was not so clear on that. It still works, but smells like burning electrical devise. I never really liked the sound so much, it sounded "twangy" if that is the technical term. Not juicy lows, just not-very-nice sounding mids and highs. [/quote] That might be the speakers that are giving you a bass light sound, not the amp. In my experience (from switching cabs and amps) the cab has more of an effect on the sound of your bass that the amp. Which means you may buy a brand new amp, and it'll sound just as middy though the Laney speakers. But if you want to recycle your cab it's pretty easy. I checked the manual on Laney's website and your speakers have a combined impedance of 8 ohms. I fitted a speakon connector in an old combo I had, so I could use it as an extension speaker. It was pretty simple and a speakon connector is cheap, at about £4 on ebay.

I ended up starting a new job last week and had to break the news to my band, that they were going to have to do the UK tour without me. That was a difficult conversation . Luckily they managed to get a dep. Thurs they were in London, Fri Nottingham, Sat Halifax, Sun Harrogate. Next week they do it all over again (without me). They're back in Edinburgh this Saturday so I'll be able to play that one........unless they prefer the new guy over me.

I wonder what the story of this is. If you don't play an instrument, why keep it in the back of a cupboard? It looks like a 62 reissue, and looking at the age of the case it's likely to be one of the early eighties US ones rather than a Japanese. 6 days to go and already at £399.

Join the club. Bass is notoriously difficult to get a good sound for. Just ask any live sound engineer. It's because the sound of the bass guitar depends as much on the room as it does on your gear. If it's really sending you around the bend, my advice is to get a wireless system and stand out front while adjusting the EQ on your J Retro. You will probably find that the EQ settings that sound best from 30 ft away, sound crap while you're standing next to your bass but that's bass guitar for you. And in the end you want the best sound out front, not necessarily onstage.

I personally don't have that problem, but can understand why some may feel that way. Live music in Edinburgh sell stuff on commission and I think Mev Taylor Music do too. It may be worth your while seeing if they would sell it for you?

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1394838701' post='2395958'] I'm typing this from the Balmoral Hotel. For anyone coming up from a southerly direction along the M6/M74, I should warn you that there are quite a lot of roadworks. For some reason, someone was letting off fireworks a bit earlier, and at 9:20 a pair of local lovers could be heard under our window screaming romantically at each other such endearments as "what the f*** are you going on about" and "why don't you just f*** off". Had haggis, neeps and tatties a little earlier and it was jolly nice. That's a lovely giant wicker man they've got in the back garden of the hotel. [/quote] People are constantly setting of fireworks in Edinburgh. If it's not for the festival it's for Hogmanay.

It sounds absolutely gorgeous.

It's a scientifically proven fact, that the more expensive the bass you play, the better your playing gets.

Hi my name is Gareth..........and I'm a bassaholic. I joined Basschat and, after being a one bass man for 15 years, ended up with 9 basses. I felt obliged to play them in rotation to justify owning them. But eventually realised I was favouring my Jazz and Precision so sold the rest. What I learned was, a Jazz with a J-Retro can do just about anything you need a bass to do and you don't really need anything else. But I do miss that Stingray......

The mystery deepens. The logo is on his bass in this picture http://www.photoforbeginners.com/image/9607/steve_harris

I use a single 4 ohm speaker cab with mine for the full 550 watts. Or if I wanted I could use both speakons, to connect two 8 ohm cabs in parallel, which would also bring the impedance down to 4 ohms and allow me to utilise the full 550 watts.

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1394445211' post='2391284'] I think I might be in a bit of a rut with my blues playing. I play at a jam once a week and hugely enjoy it. The first couple of months I improved massively but now I'm just not sure what to work on. Any ideas? The one thing I struggle with is the odd occasion once every couple of weeks when I get a solo. To be honest that is not my primary concern though, I just want to be the guy that sits in the pocket, gives a great groove and highlights the soloists properly. Constructive criticism is welcome from these vids. Standard walking type stuff [media]http://youtu.be/7Yc9WhvL-ew[/media] Messin with the kid [media]http://youtu.be/yNfuFGudtOw[/media] Funky shuffle [media]http://youtu.be/3iZmX0cX9ig[/media] Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to get to a great standard (and the blues is what I really want to excel at). [/quote] Roscoe Beck's Blues lesson videos are fantastic. If you can find his 'Blues Foundations' video on DVD you'll be set for anything those guitarists throw at you. I've been playing blues for years and he gave me lots of great ideas. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-bxHMnbYI0[/media]

I'm VERY impressed. It looks great.

[quote name='Diablo' timestamp='1394314650' post='2390291'] It is Mrs Diablo's birthday in a couple of weeks and she has serious GAS for a National Style O. My problem is I can never bring myself to buy modern copies of old models, I'd rather save and buy the real deal. Now if you talk National, then it has to be a Style-O, and if a Style O, then it has to be a mid 30's surely? Brothers In Arms is the over-riding desire here and that is not going to go away. So, I don't know that much about 6 strings, and even less about Nationals. What do I need to look for, where to buy, anyone got one for sale etc? There is one at Notom that I cannot get out of my head. I was there a fortnight ago and really liked it, but the price is perhaps on the sharp end of sharp? [url="http://notomguitars.com/collections/resonators/products/1934-national-style-o"]http://notomguitars....ational-style-o[/url] It is actually up for £500 less in the shop, but I've struggled to find a reference to prices for these. Fender Bass guitars are quite numerous to find, but it seems not mid 30's National Style O's! Any advice, info or looks for/avoids most welcome. Cheers, Rich [/quote] Snakehips Facebook site where you can message him. https://www.facebook.com/richard.odonnell.104?fref=ts

Snakehips is your man. If he and his pal, Professor Scratchy, don't know then it's not worth knowing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-TwUUbUk3Q

David Hood is recording the new Waterboys album, in Nashville with Mike Scott & co, at this very moment https://twitter.com/MickPuck

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1394192635' post='2388933'] Grolsch bottle washers on all my basses. never had a problem. Like this bloke: And this one [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFgFFNXahcg[/media] [/quote] And Eric Clapton too. The Schaller type big clunky straplocks wore a nice big hole in my gigbag, so I go for Grolsch bottle washers or the dunlop cheapos. By the way fender do their own version of the Grolsch washers and they cost pennies. http://www.guitarbitz.com/guitar-parts-c29/strap-buttons-c39/fender-strap-blocks-p2122?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=fender-strap-blocks-0990819000&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&gclid=CJDJ-tvogL0CFSUUwwodYr0A2w#2207

The world has changed for smaller festivals. There just isn't the money around any more. One of the Blues bands I play for used to tour around the UK and Europe in the 90s and was regularly getting four figure fees for playing festivals. These days you're lucky to get half that and are expected to play mostly for the kudos of playing an international festival. Funding, via sponsership money and grants from The Arts Council etc have dried up. So if you can only pay peanuts, only monkeys will come and play at your festival.

It might help to lower your action so there's less effort involved.

In fact, he's such a great singer and songwriter with such obvious Motown influences, it would have been great if the old Motown 'Funk Brothers' houseband could have got their hands on some of his stuff. That would have been amazing to hear. But sadly, most of them are pushing up daisies now.

Good old (young) Paolo. From the release of his first single I was sure there was loads more classics to come from him. The snippets I've heard from his new album sound great.

The most realistic hi fi sound I ever heard, was after I'd smoked a big doobie and sat and listened to a blues compilation on a cheap cassette, through a £20 Woolworths music centre, sometime in 1995. Maaaaan It sounded like John Lee Hooker and the band were in the room, dude.