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Andy is a top guy and I never expected to see the bass again after 2 years - to say it made my week would be an understatement! My lesson learned is always unload the car post practice and gig regardless of whether you're knackered and it's chucking it down and get insured..... the other guitar, an ACG, was returned in similar circumstances a year ago by a great guy in Hebden Bridge As Andy says bass players are a fantastic community of like minded souls - my faith in human nature is reaffirmed! Cheers Justin

Hi everyone, I'm posting this story because it reinforces what a close-nit community that we musicians, and in particular, bass players are. Some of you might have noticed recently I advertised on basschat a lovely Paul Everson Caiman bass for sale. I acquired the bass through a trade about a year ago with a guy who advertised it on Facebook. We met in a service station. I swapped a very nice 4 string Shuker bass for the Everson, had a nice chat with the fella who bought it and returned home. Whilst we were talking the lad confessed to me that he had found the Everson Bass in one of those second hand chain stores that have 'cash' in the title. He knew next to nothing about basses but had liked the look of it and bought it. He then tracked down Paul Everson on Facebook to get some info about the bass. I loved the bass. It appeared to have been treated quite badly. The electrics were shot and it was covered in a weird thick dust. I had it cleaned, sorted and set up and quickly picked up another Everson that appeared on Facebook. That was around a year ago. I recently decided to sell the caiman. Id always had a little niggle in the back of my head about 'Cash _________' and wondered if I'd been a little naieve in my trust. So to put my mind at ease I contacted Paul (Everson) who told me he had sold the bass through the great British bass lounge. I then contacted Drew who was running the lounge and asked them both if any Everson basses had been reported stolen. They both did some digging and came back with a resounding no. Drew had a record of a sale to a lad called 'Justin' who lived near Bradford (I'm in Macclesfield). So back to present day. After advertising said bass on Facebook and BC I received a message from a lad called Justin who explained to me that this was his bass and that he'd had it stolen in early 2016. I immediately phoned him and we discussed at length what to do. Now the dilemma. Justin hadn't been insured and had lost the bass along with a whole heap of equipment. He had been scouring the Facebook sites to try and recover the bass for the last 2 years. I had essentially swapped a 900 quid Shuker with it. The lad who had bought the bass oringally had moved the Shuker on. We were all victims of crime and it was a difficult puzzle to unravel. Justin had contacted Yorkshire police for advice and they had said it was a civil matter. Anyway the final result is that we met the following week and Justin got his bass back. It was a great end to a saga and needless to say Justin was chuffed! Just a big shout out to Paul Everson and Drew for caring enough about this story to help me with my clumsy detective work and a big shout out to Matthew who contacted me on behalf of (current) BBL. The photo below is of Justin (on the left) recieving his beloved bass back! Moral of the story. Cash ___________ are a store I like even less now and Bass players are awesome folk. Andy

The OP made a comment in reference to politics, but it does bring up some interesting parallels. On one hand you have uninformed opinion based on 'belief' and a lack of ability to comprehend simple facts (about compression), and proudly shouting about it. Meanwhile on the other you have a rational explanation (of compression) from people who know what they're talking about, which gets completely ignored. It's an interesting reflection of divisions that exist elsewhere.

3 to 5 coats in and things are looking satiny

I think from a legal perspective you’re okay with that statement unless it’s leopard print

Only just received this 92 thumb.

I can only see your fingers

Sure it's overkill if you only play at home, but if said 800 watt amp is still cool to the touch at bedroom levels, then there's no reason why the cooling system couldn't be designed to be as silent as possible up to a certain temperature threshold, only kicking in the loud fan when it's really needed. I need to store my amp and cab in my room regardless, so I use it for low volume practice instead of having to buy a separate practice amp that takes up more room and doesn't sound as good!

Oh man I laughed so hard at that, a worthy choice for quote of the week methinks!

Saw this one for sale in Chichester on Gumtree. Under @Elfrasho's budget and looks like a lot of bass for the money but more importantly has a slimline neck...

Please lay off the politics and religion, folks. Ta. 👍

I thought of adding some inlayed swifts instead of the dots but then figured life is too short...

well, I changed my mind. I'm keeping it. It's just too nice to play. The Yamahas have an interesting look and sound good but they've never felt "right" when I tried them.

Why would you say such a thing!!!!! The example looks nice......

One Control pedals are built by magic elves. I don't know how else to explain how they can cram in so much into a 1590A enclosure and still have room for a 9V battery!

Ive said it for years - change the names of these pedals from 'compressors' to something like 'sound balancer' and people would get it more and know what theyre aiming for. Ps i know sound balancer is a terrible name, but you know what i mean. The name compressor immediately gives the image of squashing and squeezing the tone, which it doesnt need to be used for.

Just teamed up with a great vocalist who is also a voice coach. She proudly claimed she could teach anyone to sing and I couldn't resist. No band I've ever been in would let me near a microphone unless there was a fire and we needed to clear the room. I sing like a cow with a throat infection giving birth to a tumble dryer. However she has taken up the challenge. All of the work so far has been around understanding my body, breathing properly, hissing and humming. Not a word has passed my lips in three lessons and I am amazed to find the process fascinating. I'm actually excited to continue and while I still doubt her chances of getting a noise from me which wouldn't startle passers by and cause the dogs to hide, I am enjoying finding out just how a real singer goes about their business. Turns out that they actually practice every bit as hard as we do. The voice really is an instrument which requires work. Who knew? My respect for vocalists will of course never be more than marginally higher than that with which I esteem guitarists, but I do feel slightly less contempt for them.

You should probably just think that

same way that a flirty new girl at work makes you horny for your wife again wait, what?

To this... The new board is already full, so I think (hope?) that should mean this is now going to be a pretty 'final' incarnation. For a little while anyway! (I suspect @Skol303 may be surprised to see a particular type of pedal on both boards; a direct consequence of too much tilting at windmills )

I tried out a number and plumped for on an Aguilar AAG700. Does "vintage warmth" rather well, but can give you clean when you want it. Doesn't do outright dirt, but I don't want that anyway.

I recently received this little pedal in the post and last weekend managed to give it a run out at a gig. First thing I noticed, before even plugging in, was the excellent build quality. There are plenty of these micro pedals on the market and it seems that most of them are at the more affordable end but this feels very much a premium product. The controls in particular have a nice resistance when you turn them but are still very smooth indeed. I also love the rich metallic green colour with the gold lettering. Another difference from almost all the other micro pedals on the market is that this actually allows you to run it off a 9v battery should you want to where everyone else's only seem to allow them to be run plugged into a mains supply. Somehow One Control have managed to cram all the circuitry into just the top 1/3 of this tiny little enclosure. Now I've seen and heard demo clips on YouTube of this pedal so I already had a fairly high expectation of how it would sound. When I plugged it in at home after receiving it to test it out though it wasn’t really what I expected at all. Just to explain, a big feature of this pedal is that the designer claims it doesn't require a blend to retain the low end that is normally lost when overdriving bass as the inherent EQ'd sound of the pedal is designed to compensate for this already. Should you want more lows though there is a trim pot on the side (fortunately accessible without having to open the pedal up) that allows you to boost the lows even further. As soon as I clicked the pedal on I thought the speaker was going to leap out the front of my little practice amp there was just so much low end. Rather than the warm but articulate overdrive I was expecting this was a thick, Subby, synth-like and almost fuzzy sound – even with the treble on full. Fortunately though it seems the trim pot was already set on full and after turning it right down it was a little closer to what I was expecting. After a bit of experimentation and very subtle tweaking of the trim pot I soon found a sound that kept all the lows intact but without over-blowing the bottom end. Once that was set I had a bit of a play about with the main controls and was very pleased to find that the full range of both the treble and drive controls yielded a good variety of very usable sounds. The treble control seems to act like a tone control on a bass/guitar so cut only rather than any kind of treble boost but this makes sense as excessive highs can often sound fizzy with bass distortions (typical wasp in a tin can sound). As I generally like a bright and articulate bass sound though I ended up keeping the treble on full. Drive sounded great all the way from a very subtle break up when digging in at the low settings through to a much fuller, distorted overdrive on full but I found a nice sweet spot for what I was looking for at around the 12:30 point. There I was getting a nice smooth drive with really strong harmonics giving good note definition and a full, warm, rounded low end but all with a nice, subtly aggressive bite. All well and good at home but – as is always the case with all things bass tone related - it's all about how it sits in the mix. So, after having played around at home to find a sound I thought would work with the band I took it to last week's gig to put it through its paces. I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint. No problem with the lack of a blend control here – it sat loud, proud and fat in amongst the 2 guitarists drums and vocals with no problem at all. I also found it played very nicely alongside my other drive pedals when I wanted to push it over the edge by layering it up during big song endings etc. Overall though it just has a really sweet, creamy sound which is exactly what I've been looking for and it still sounds fantastic in a band situation. These things are always subjective obviously but personally I love this pedal!

If you are used to EBS and have been happy with the sound go and try the big Reidmar head. I had one for a couple of years and it sadly got stolen. I had the lower powered head they made originally and it was massively loud and kicked like a mule, I never had to push it with my EBS 410. I replaced it with a Aguilar Tonehammer just because I fancied a change, and that has been an incredibly solid and reliable head. You can give it a vintage vibe or go super clean with it, it’s a great head and very light. If you have a good chunk to spend I would take look at the Vanderkley Spartan too.

It looks like it's a good thing he's gone. People with temperament like that are a liability. I'm not the calmest person, but even I would not leave a band hanging. It looks like you've got it covered for the upcoming gig... do it that way and try to get a replacement for the future. I'd personally never go back to playing with that drummer. You need people you can rely on, and accept criticism when is due.

Yes, they are annoying... in fact it would be a good thing to have auto tone-changes for guitars, it might stop 'em from wasting time between songs. We have a multi-instrumentalist (banjo, balalaika, mandolin, guitar, violin... etc) who understandably takes time to change instruments between songs. Rather that though, than she play some kind of mad synth guitar with a modelling amp... wouldn't really nail the alt-hipster vibe...

Nope, it's a bass player thing to customise your bass!

Me too

+1 for what Pete said the Genzler Magellan is a very flexible amp with two switchable channels. If you want a broad range of tones from modern to olde school the Mesa Subway D800 fits the bill and if you'v got a few more pennies to spare the Mesa Subway D800 + adds variable HPF and great mid control. If you prefer home grown amps the Ashdown RM 500 or RM 800 gets lots of love around here!

Great story & a 'most excellent human being' award for Andy.

I'd convinced myself that I preferred a flatter radius after posting my BB1025 so much until I tried a Musician Caprice, loved the neck, and only discovered later that it was a 7.5" radius! I certainly wouldn't go to the hassle of modding a bass for a flatter radius... Interestingly the radius of the BB1025 is 23 5/8", and 10" for the BB1024. That's quite a difference - maybe just get the 5 string!

I had a MS-60B and found it a bit too, I dunno...one-button-y? The B3's a bit easier for me to work on a gig...and with a few more practical options, too... I have a very short attention span when it comes to the zillion possibilities of pedals

@Al Krow i know you like to challenge things, and have gone toe to toe with Alex Claber on physics of cabs, sound dispersion etc........... But did you know one of your spats that you were going toe to toe with on compression onTalkbass is Frank Appleton who is a CEO of FEA labs, and may know a thing or 3 about compression. Yep those guys could be way off the mark in what they are saying........

Pleasantly I had an opposite experience last night - I've been getting increasingly fed up with the others in the band having lower standards and saying we'd "nailed" a song as soon as we could mostly play the right notes at the right times, always at the same pace and volume, and because there was no communication - none of us were even looking at each other while we were playing. I thought we sounded clumsy and boring, but the others seemed to think it was good enough. I've had words about it, gently, a few times to no effect, and last night I was ready to say if they didn't raise their game I'd be off out of it. What I actually did was to pick one song that was crying for a dramatic change in dynamics in the middle, and asked them to give me a short bass solo at that point - just the main riff played twice high and staccato, and then twice low and slower with sustain. Nothing fancy - but because it was my solo, the others didn't have to worry about making the change with me, they just had to pick up the slower beat when they came back in after it. And they had to watch me so I could cue them. As soon as we tried it, they got the point, and we ended the night with everyone happily agreeing that we'd taken a step up and would continue that way. Very glad I didn't throw my toys out of the pram. And credit to the others for understanding and agreeing quickly and positively.

Compress to impress!

@NancyJohnson philistine

Stockholm Syndrome - Muse, play it with the tribute. Not particularly difficult, but it is straight 16ths pretty much during verse 1 and 2 without any breaks between the two. Not a song I want to start the gig with...... need a few songs to warm up

An ex demo Protec Contego for £69 delivered here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Protec-CTG233-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Gig-Bag-Padded-Shock-Frame-Black/273082121499?hash=item3f94f67d1b:g:OG0AAOSwATxakEQg Worth spending the extra money IMO.

Just use it more? The more you listen to your preferred music, the more accurate the algorithm will get.

If you email Adrian he usually replies pretty quickly. I'm certain he'd help any way he could.

This sort of mismanagement isn't confined to younger bands. Some of the oldies I play with are as poor in their organisational and communication skills as this. I find throwing the toys out even when perfectly entitled to do so rarely get any results, never makes a good impression and never makes me feel any better. I usually put it down to experience, moan like hell to the wife and move on. IMO never leave on bad terms, always be the professional one and leave a positive vibe behind you. Sometimes people will remember this and it could be you who gets the phone call when an ex band member is looking for a bass player. Edit. . .. hey Cat, we're on the same page.

The angling of the drivers doesn't make it 'not... a true array'. It's actually an old concept, intended to broaden high frequency dispersion that otherwise beams due to using HF drivers that are too large. It's not as effective as using a two-way line, with midbass drivers large enough to comfortably reach 100Hz or lower, and tweeters to prevent high frequency beaming. Bose used that configuration as a cost cutting measure, allowing use of the same drivers they employ in many of their home audio speakers. Bose double cubes allow aiming of the drivers in two directions for the same reason, to broaden HF dispersion beyond the limitations of the driver. The Bose array is for all intents and purposes a stack of those double cubes.

"Well, I'm glad he's gone. These sweets are a bit sticky, though..." "The raisins are worse..."

Looking back over 40 years-worth of drummers it's clear that the softly-softly approach is a complete waste of energy. However nicely one puts it, drummers always get the hump. This being the case, I have eschewed diplomacy and now adopt a more robust approach e.g. 'Play it like that again and I'll f**king kill you stone dead on the spot. Savvy?' OK, they still quit the band but it saves time on all the pussyfooting around.

When I'm looking to try out a new bass, I rarely go to music shops. I buy most of my gear used from the internet, and for me it has been a great way to try out many different basses. I've probably owned over 30 throughout the past 15 years, from cheap beater basses to used high-end custom instruments. It has really helped me define what I like in a bass, but at the same time I've found that I can get along with many types of bass. Various scale lengths, all kinds of neck profiles from ultra thin to baseball bat, and many pickup configurations. I have since found several definite keepers, but the chase is still on