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But are they valve watts or solid state watts?

I had noticed this trend of late. I just find it all rather naff. It's something of a self-perpetuating nightmare; an algorithim decides clickbait titles are good, so statistics provided to content creators encourage them to use clickbait titles, which produces verification for the algorithm that clickbait titles are great. This is all part of a wider issue of dumbing down. I've mentioned Scott's Bass Lessons before because the decline in quality is most evident there. The videos were usually of good quality with something to say but these days, they're mostly clickbait rubbish, like 'six string basses SUCK and here's why' before saying that they don't really suck. This also speaks to a wider problem with bass education in that it's become so focused on everything but music. 'Here's how to get gigs', 'how to groove', 'two notes that will change EVERYTHING', 'three secrets that will teach you EVERYTHING about walking basslines'. The exponential growth of this rubbish indicates that many bassists will happily consume any amount of dubious material before undertaking proper music based study.

Sorry to have walked into your cabbage patch; it seems I must bow to your superior erudition. That'll larn me to attempt any expansion on a potentially interesting topic. Please forgive the intrusion; it won't happen again.

The NXT stand may be ugly, but it's fully adjustable in terms of height and angle, and the bass is very firmly held by the mechanism. You could even choose to not fully tighten the bass on the stand, if you wanted it to tilt a bit while you're playing it, and it wouldn't fall off, but you would have to remember to tighten the clamp before you leave, or the bass would slowly slide down.

It all depends on the design of the EUB stand. The NS stand works perfectly well for just leaving the bass on, while you're not playing, but you can also play the bass on that stand too. I don't know how secure the bass is on the stand, whilst you're playing it, as I've not played one. I've seen players do so though, and it seems to be fine.... However, The stand for the Stagg EUB is secure enough to leave the bass on, but due to the design it's not possible to access the top half of the finger board I bought a stand when I had my Stagg, and couldn't help thinking the manufacturers had missed a trick here - if they'd designed & built a stand which allowed you to play the bass while it was in-situ, I think they'd sell one to almost everyone who had bought the bass The EUB stand I "made" from the cymbal stand worked really well though - it was really quite steady & I always felt it was secure I also had a KYDD "Carry On" EUB recently. I bought it to try it out really - it was very compact & packed away neatly + quickly That employed a photographers tripod as stand (a Manfrotto, for those interested) which packed down quickly and easily, was very lightweight and always seems really stable & secure BTW I only sold the KYDD as it was 30" scale, and I was struggling to swap between all the different scales! lol If you are looking for a stand for an EUB, I'd seriously look at adapting Cymbal stands and / or Tripods The Drum shop near me (Drum Depot) were really helpful guys, and seemed really interested in the EUB and how they could help me make a decent quality stand for it, at a low price

Voting has now started on November's Composition Challenge. Here's the inspiration for this month's music, chosen by our previous winner, lowdown… …and here are the compositions. Please listen to each and vote for your favourite (just one vote this month!): Dad3353 'Mason And The Beasts' http://soundcloud.com/dad3353/mason-and-the-beasts Mornats 'Beast Vs Beast' http://soundcloud.com/mornats/beast-vs-beast lurksalot 'A Question Of Scale' http://soundcloud.com/lurksalot/a-question-of-scale fingers211 'Big Bullies' http://soundcloud.com/nigel-jewell/big-bullies the boy 'FIGHT A GORILLA (FALL DOWN AND DIE)' http://soundcloud.com/theboysings/fight-a-gorilla-fall-down-and Voting ends at midnight on Thursday 30th November.

Loving the new BC layout, nice work one and all but, can someone please explain what the "watts" thing is please? Some people have none and some, loads. Sorry if the question sounds silly but I can't find out what it is and what it is for. Cheers

Next time answer him in French....

I take it back. I have been watching more of his videos recently and his disdain of Rickenbacker and StewMac is pretty humourous

I think you're on the wrong website... Ha, ha, ha! Oh God, I'm priceless. *Sticks tulip up bum and hides in wardrobe*

I should have infinitesimal watts then by rights. It's my surname! Mods, kindly arrange!! ??

Fifteen obviously.

Should've looked back, their best stuff came before that

A quick search on the world's favourite search engine suggests that this is most likely a late -70's P Bass copy made/imported by Hohner. I found a very similar one listed as being dated to1978 (with a question mark) in an on-line bass guitar museum. With regards parts, I'd dare say most P bass clone parts will fit. It doesn't look like there's a recess carved for the bridge. Could well be able to buy a loaded plate and transfer across from one that plate to yours. I say that because the scratch-plate would likely not have the same holes as the donor.

That’s an odd one that. The type face looks old, but the headstock shape and bridge look newer. I’d hazard a guess at mid 80’s. The only experience I had with a Hohner bass was a boat anchor of a P about 22 years ago. That had the Fender type headstock shape though.

Of the ones I've tried, I like the Cali 76 Compact Bass for general purpose transparent compression, and the Effectrode PC-2A for more of a warm tube preamp style of compressor that works absolute wonders with my acoustic fretless. Ones that didn't make the grade: - EBS Multicomp - the input kept clipping with my bass and playing style. Perhaps the newer Studio Edition has improved things here? - Diamond - lack of a ratio control and some unexplained buzzing when used with my Cioks DC5 power supply meant I had to move this on. - Keeley Bassist - seemed a bit dry and clinical and the attack time was set pretty fast for me - I like the peak to come through a little more before it clamps down. Would make a great limiter though especially as the ratio control goes up to infinity. - RMI Basswitch Dual Band - changed the tone pretty drastically compared to other comps, and the internal 9v-18v puts out a high pitched hum on the power line that gets picked up by other pedals if you don't use isolated power. The Spectracomp looks great if you mainly use one bass and want to set it and forget it. CRAZY amounts of tweakable controls in the editor app, and plenty of Toneprints to get you going, looks like a fun pedal for tweakers. I like to flick between different basses though and prefer something with basic metering and a threshold control for setting on the fly.

No worries I'm glad you like it!

How come no one has mentioned this yet ?

It's brilliant. Really great fun thing to do. I like the interactivity of it all. You guys have built a great place to be. Thank you

In the software as it was installed they called it "reputation" but we thought that it didn't quite fit with how things are here so we just decided to call it something fun and prat about a bit which is much more our speed

They're from people liking your content, just meaningless fun really! PS. Have a watt

This is also a good site for some good info http://www.ovnilab.com/

They are funny though...

mine just arrived

Another excuse for unfettered consumerism. Why do Brits slavishly like to copy every fad that comes out of the US? Anyway, it's no secret that sales events are a scam whereby retailers hike up prices in preceding weeks and then 'slash' them back to their original levels, get rid of obsolete or unpopular lines and buy in shoddy toot specifically for them. After all, despite all the saccharine marketing cow poop about the customer being # 1 blah blah the question everyone should be asking is what's in it for the retailers?

I personally don't like NS EUBs. Great finish and looks (minus the tripod), but the action is too close to that of a bass guitar for my liking. Makes me want to play it like a bass guitar If I play upright, I like it to be like an upright as much as possible, including string height, fingerboard curvature, body contact etc. The basic tone is neither here nor there for me. Every (electric) instrument sounds like itself, it's just a matter of finding the tone that works for you and your music.

Well played stu,good luck with things and whatever happens in the meantime,enjoy the Wal!

Yeah, there's a Sub'n'Up on one of my boards (which also has an OC-2), I only use it for the +1 octave. I also have a COG T-16 and a Line6 M5 (which models the EBS Octave) that I could have thrown into the fray, but this is the OC-2 party really ;). I did have 9 at one point, but it's ultimately a bit silly right, so now I just have one of every iteration, boxed etc, with a couple of extras....which of course is completely not silly. Si

In case anyone stumbles over this thread in the search for featherweight basses: As a little follow-up, over the w/e I tried a few new and used basses vaguely around the same price and found: a thru-neck Peavey Cirrus 4 that was really good and really light (v tempted), a pointy Jackson that was light (and v tempted for 80s nostaglia reasons), Ibanez SR600 (obviously v v light and I was surprised how acceptable I found the narrow skinny neck), a Yamaha RBX that wasn't quite in the same league in terms of weight and playability, a Cort thingy that felt good but a bit lacking in character/appeal, and a Gibson EB4 which was loads lighter than I was expecting and said "Gibson" on it hurrah, but the design and build quality wasn't up to ANY of the others. I don't know if it's because I'm so used to playing 13lbs of bass, but all would have done the job tbh, and it is great how you can get such a choice of fab basses for that kind of money. But even though I was prepared to spend a tad more, I walked out with an SR505. The ONLY drawback with it is the dodgy colour, but I went with it anyway. The 5 because wanted the extra neck substance and was still 1lb lighter (in more ways than 1) than the 1-string-fewer-and-identical-hardware SR600. FWIW the 2nd choice would have been the Peavey. So thanks to everyone who chipped in here, it meant I took seriously some options I'd never have thought of otherwise. And the bonkers weight and quality of the Ibanezes is exactly as everyone says, so I didn't feel there was any compromise.

It Bites

Just found a live version... make of this what you will !

I'm being lazy not posting the actual music but two theme tunes from the mid 80s I loved Airwolf and Miami Vice Miami Vice I still have on 7" single with Crockett's theme on the flip, first introduction to Jan Hammer.

Here is another classic, with a great bass part, skip forward to about 54 seconds to get past the gubbins. More pure cheese... but kinda funky.

Isn't the Nate Mendel P Bass almost like a jazz bass neck? oops - missed the 20 other people saying that - sorry!

Ringo

Now that's just not cricket..

Except LIberace could actually play the piano.

Thanks a lot, I very much appreciate your reply. I've never played anything with a chord like that before, maybe that's partly why I don't understand it if the approach comes in to play for chords like that.

When you discover the "it just works" thing, don't analyse why, just gig the hell out of it.

I'll go and watch a few videos and see what she says. My take is, when I chart stuff out I will always write the full chords rather than something like a bass tab. Firstly, because it helps to have it In case we have to get a dep bass/guitar/keys player. Scales are good to know, and a great reference, but chord tones are more of an accessible way to start making bass lines. For me relating bass lines to chords is better way of understanding harmony and the function of each chord in any given key. It gives more of an ability to target key notes that'll compliment what the others are playing and I can omit notes I know won't work over a chord. If someone gives you a chart with some more unusual chords, say I Will Survive that says: Am Dm G C△ F△ B° Esus4 E it'd be simpler to relate something like a m7b5 to a chord rather than a half diminished scale. Because right away you know which notes you can highlight, and can disregard notes that won't compliment the chord. Plus, you can visualise the shape of that chord, and know where those key notes sit as opposed to having to run through the whole scale to find a 6th or b9 or 11 or whatever the extension to the chord may be She could also be referring to the numbers system!

Welcome Funkfingers. I don't know you from anywhere else but I will always remember you for posting the scariest topic title that I have ever seen!

Generally the Aguilar goes for between £170 / £180, and the shure in-ears sell for £100. So I’m pretty happy with the deal. Basically got the in-ears for free.

That's where it works for me, Marc - at some gigs I switched from one to the other and this makes it much simpler. That plus an A/B box. I think a cymbal stand would probably be more secure - the downside of this is that it feels a little bit lightweight. Then again, it has never been a problem. I also moved the end piece up a touch so I could use normal size strings - now sporting a set of Innovation black rockerbillies, which look and sound vastly better. And pretty much as soon as I had done that we changed the format of the set and I don't play it any more!

I once auditioned for a band where the drummer had a shiny new huge elaborate kit and a shiny new huge electric fan pointed at him. He couldn't play either but he sweated buckets.

It's needed. One member has been seen posting an avatar with an image of Ali G trapping his pink torpedo in a squeeze box! Try to describe that politely to a bass playing Nun with a caning habit.