Messy or not, what's on your (music) work desk right now?

[Chiliwailer]

5 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

I prefer the other comp, the photo comp. 😉

I keep meaning to give that a try… 👍

[bass_dinger]

2 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

So… all these set ups, but not many folk entering the Basschat monthly composition competition, or maybe you used to? 

 

It’s not a serious competition, just making something up based on a photo chosen by the previous months winner.

September’s comp will be pinned in the Recording section sometime on the 1st or 2nd. 

 

I would love to be able to record a composition, but never feel that I have the creativity and talent to do so.

 

However I am intending to create something one day - just so that I can say that I have done it. 

[Marvin]

Desk? Music desk? What is this you speak of?

My basses live in their cases in the corner of the dinning room and ALL my other gear lives under the stairs. 😁

 

[kiat]

On 29/08/2025 at 01:49, tauzero said:

I have a feeling I'm the winner.

 

 

The actual area I generally use for a workbench is the bit of the keyboard drawer between the mouse mat and the edge, although I do occasionally move the keyboard to give me a bit more room. The settee to the right is a two-seater submerged to the same level all the way along. It looks very slightly messier than normal because Mrs Zero's watch is sitting on the keyboard being charged.

Blimey! Wasn't expecting the...errr...creativeness What stuff do you make with all those parts? 

[kiat]

On 29/08/2025 at 10:01, Hellzero said:

Here is my music place, with my desk, sorry for the mess... 🤪😂

 

 

 

 

Cool to see your workdesk. That's a lot of cases! Each with an instrument inside?

 

Those electrical sockets strongly hint continental Europe. The stone wall narrows it down a bit, maybe to one of the romance countries? 

[kiat]

On 29/08/2025 at 09:17, HeadlessBassist said:

I guess I have to be relatively tidy, as I'm working in a very small space. (There's a Skoda Superb Estate outside with a full boot, too!)

 

That's compact! How's the Jazz bass sound through your TC cab, so you have a TC amp too?

 

(I've a BAM200 and an active Lakland JO5 Jazz looking for a light, punchy cab for pub pop/rock/blues gigs)

[Hellzero]

2 minutes ago, kiat said:

Cool to see your workdesk. That's a lot of cases! Each with an instrument inside?

Yes, but you'll have to add the few others downstairs. 😉

 

4 minutes ago, kiat said:

Those electrical sockets strongly hint continental Europe. The stone wall narrows it down a bit, maybe to one of the romance countries? 

Good guess, even if I'm not sure Belgium is considered a romance country, but the place where I live has been the French Forest County (a province, officially) over a very long period and our house is already on the 1604 maps...

[kiat]

On 29/08/2025 at 10:11, BigRedX said:

Here's mine showing the song that I am currently working on:

 

 

This workspace is shared with my day job where I do graphic design for packaging hence the rather tidy nature of everything. 

 

Most of my programming is done with the mouse and QWERTY keyboard and the guitars, basses and controller keyboards normally only come out when I am actually doing recording for the purposes of making something for release to the public.

That's a cool alternative to the electrical/mechanical  maker/soldering gear-focused desks many of us have.

[kiat]

On 29/08/2025 at 10:45, JapanAxe said:

Here's mine as I left it last night before hitting the sack. I do try to keep the desktop clear but small objects gradually accumulate, either because I haven't found a home for them yet or because I haven't got round to restoring them to said home. On this occasion I stayed up re-doing the cabling on the smaller (direct-to-PA) board, which involved swapping a cable from the larger board. They are both for skinny-string guitar btw.

Liking the Daleks How are those Adam monitors? Tidy boards. The only pedal I recognise is the TC tuner on the shelf😜

 

[kiat]

On 29/08/2025 at 11:17, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

There was a gremlin in my last post . 🤦‍♂️

Anyway , I started to go through the mess a few days ago. Then midweek , the heatwave made things unbearable 🥵

It all started with a fight with very large tv and soundbar boxes which I purchased a few months ago . 
Yesterday, I purchased a Mac mini which is connected to the tv in the front room.. Hopefully I can purchase a MacBook on black Friday/ Christmas time . 
This means I can do away with the 2017 iMac , and  have 2 places to record my GarageBand efforts when I’m inspired/ not too lazy ..

You did well to capture all of that in one picture without tidying up 😁 @RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE . Task completed 💪 💯. Work in progress, nothing wrong in that! 

[kiat]

26 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Yes, but you'll have to add the few others downstairs. 😉

 

Wowzas. Full time musician? 

 

26 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

 

Good guess, even if I'm not sure Belgium is considered a romance country, but the place where I live has been the French Forest County (a province, officially) over a very long period and our house is already on the 1604 maps...

I lived in Mons for a few years recently and your place has a familiar feel about it. I wouldn't consider Belgium a romance country though, even Wallonie 😉)

[Geek99]

On 29/08/2025 at 01:49, tauzero said:

I have a feeling I'm the winner.

 

 

The actual area I generally use for a workbench is the bit of the keyboard drawer between the mouse mat and the edge, although I do occasionally move the keyboard to give me a bit more room. The settee to the right is a two-seater submerged to the same level all the way along. It looks very slightly messier than normal because Mrs Zero's watch is sitting on the keyboard being charged.

Microsoft natural keyboard- not seen one of those in donkeys years 

[Hellzero]

8 minutes ago, kiat said:

I lived in Mons for a few years recently and your place has a familiar feel about it. I wouldn't consider Belgium a romance country though, even Wallonie 😉)

Not really the same place: South Belgium very close to Luxemburg and France borders.

 

8 minutes ago, kiat said:

Full time musician? 

Nope, used to be part time, a (very) long time ago, but a lot of people here have a lot of instruments, you know.

[SimonK]

Mine's more a corner with a Cajon to sit on and a laptop perched on a cab!

 

[Bassassin]

5 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

So… all these set ups, but not many folk entering the Basschat monthly composition competition, or maybe you used to? 

 

It’s not a serious competition, just making something up based on a photo chosen by the previous months winner.

September’s comp will be pinned in the Recording section sometime on the 1st or 2nd. 

 

I look at the pics every month in the hope of inspiration, but...

 

My creative process (if you can call it that) is incredibly unspontaneous, slow & laborious, ideas can take months to develop & just as long to record satisfactorily. It's very rare that any composition is 5 minutes or less, and although I dislike them, can't play them & obviously have never used them - unfortunately I can't guarantee no bagpipes.

 

So maybe next month...

[HeadlessBassist]

2 hours ago, kiat said:

That's compact! How's the Jazz bass sound through your TC cab, so you have a TC amp too?

 

(I've a BAM200 and an active Lakland JO5 Jazz looking for a light, punchy cab for pub pop/rock/blues gigs)

 

The tall one on the left is the TC RH750 in a 2x10 enclosure. That usually sits on top of the small 12" TC cab in the middle. (The cab has a spare BH250 head unit plugged into it at the moment.) I have another 12" TC cab in the garage, so I can use the RH750 with the 2x10 enclosure and both 12's if I really need to move some serious air. On the right is a BG250 2x10 combo (with the tool box on top.) Unless you play with the very loudest pub bands, I'd recommend the BG250 2x10 combo. It's got a lot of poke for it's relatively small output. I was actually thinking of selling the BG250 combo, as it's not being used since I got the MarkBass combo.

 

So I also have a MarkBass 2x10 500w tilting combo which is very good, although the sound is very processed and not as sweet as the TC amps (more gritty sounding?) and much lighter to carry (17kg as opposed to 28kg for the big TC, which luckily has a built in wheeled trolley.) All in all, my favorite sound is the big TC RH750 2x10 with one extra 12" cab. It's compact enough and has more than enough power for most situations. It's bloody heavy to haul in and out of the house/car.

 

The Jazz basses sound at their sweetest through either of the TC 2x10s. I actually have three distinct sound presets on the RH750 - 1. Status/Stingray, 2. Jazz Basses, 3. Precision Basses with a couple of notches of the on board compressor added, although I don't have a Precision on the fleet at the moment.

Edited 16 hours ago by HeadlessBassist

[Steve Browning]

The desk is pretty tidy but the rest of the space is a litte compact and bijou.

[Chiliwailer]

9 hours ago, Bassassin said:

 

unfortunately I can't guarantee no bagpipes.

 

So maybe NOT next month...

Fixed for you 😉😜

Hope something works out for you 👍

[JapanAxe]

15 hours ago, kiat said:

Liking the Daleks How are those Adam monitors? Tidy boards. The only pedal I recognise is the TC tuner on the shelf😜

 

Yeah I picked up the Daleks in a bag of little toys from a variety charity shop. They are genuine Dr Who merch. They sit on springs so if I tap my foot when I’m playing, they dance around. They each respond to different BPMs!

 

I’m very happy with the Adams.

 

And yes I have a bit of a thing with pedals - on skinny-string guitar anyway. I keep buying the buggers and I’m long overdue a clear out (watch the Classifieds).

Edited 3 hours ago by JapanAxe
Bloody spell check!

[kiat]

11 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

 

The tall one on the left is the TC RH750 in a 2x10 enclosure. That usually sits on top of the small 12" TC cab in the middle. (The cab has a spare BH250 head unit plugged into it at the moment.) I have another 12" TC cab in the garage, so I can use the RH750 with the 2x10 enclosure and both 12's if I really need to move some serious air. On the right is a BG250 2x10 combo (with the tool box on top.) Unless you play with the very loudest pub bands, I'd recommend the BG250 2x10 combo. It's got a lot of poke for it's relatively small output. I was actually thinking of selling the BG250 combo, as it's not being used since I got the MarkBass combo.

 

So I also have a MarkBass 2x10 500w tilting combo which is very good, although the sound is very processed and not as sweet as the TC amps (more gritty sounding?) and much lighter to carry (17kg as opposed to 28kg for the big TC, which luckily has a built in wheeled trolley.) All in all, my favorite sound is the big TC RH750 2x10 with one extra 12" cab. It's compact enough and has more than enough power for most situations. It's bloody heavy to haul in and out of the house/car.

 

The Jazz basses sound at their sweetest through either of the TC 2x10s. I actually have three distinct sound presets on the RH750 - 1. Status/Stingray, 2. Jazz Basses, 3. Precision Basses with a couple of notches of the on board compressor added, although I don't have a Precision on the fleet at the moment.

 

Cool, great info re your TC gear. I read a post off yours on the RH750 with interest. The BAM200 is prefect for the small gigs and as a backup,  but I need to use it more with the cabs I've got. I need to get hold of a TC cab one of these days to see if the tone/range output using the BAM200 is happiest powering them.

[kiat]

3 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

The desk is pretty tidy but the rest of the space is a litte compact and bijou.

Sweet! Great bass art and history on the wall there 👍. You've got quite a set of bass cases! Mine are a messy group gathered over the years: most of my gigs are local and not bundle in with other's gear. 

Nicely organised desk and bass-space. Been to a wedding recently? 😉

 

Note to self: try the 15 on top, it doesn't look right 😁

[Steve Browning]

Maybe lay it on its side?

 

I was wondering what you meant about a wedding and then figured you mean the white rose buttonhole thingy. That was my daughter's wedding just over a year ago.

Edited 4 hours ago by Steve Browning

[kiat]

26 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Maybe lay it on its side?

I tried that before but it doesn't look right. Sorted now. And lined up by bags. I've more bags than basses 😆🤔.

[Bassassin]

3 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

Fixed for you 😉😜

Hope something works out for you 👍

 

Thanks - it will.

 

It'll take about 4 months to work it out, though...

[kiat]

Ok, time for me to fess up. Upstairs, right now, in my original office/workshop where I do anything, mostly IT and electronics, not DIY or music stuff, except soldering cables and whatnot....

though have done some downstairs in my m̶u̶s̶i̶c̶ ̶r̶o̶o̶m̶ front room which I've taken over to do all my music at home, which is this....

Amazingly my wife has let me get away with this. But she thinks both are messy, however I tidy them up. Maybe not surprisingly our visitors to the front room these days tend to be musicians 😎🎸🥁