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But is it PedAnt or PedEnt?

I imagine it’s the auto cucumber on mobile phones that changes it!

`Twas a no brainer for me, I had the lovely chaps at Alpher build me a Cobia 5 string (still the only one in the world), my choice of everything and the serial number is my birth date, cool as you like!!

I saw them at Colston Hall in 2007. Orlando was really knocking on by that point, he had to be helped onto stage, someone held his bass as the other draped him over it, where he proceeded to play beautifully for two hours. My wife and I then went back to the hotel and had the night ruined by a drunken Irish stag do throwing plant pots down the corridors all night. When we went down to breakfast they were all being arrested and I tucked into the free coffee. We had finished eating when my wife said to me ‘I think we’re sharing breakfast with some special people’ Thinking she was referring to the drunken idiots I looked up to see the Buena Vista guys queuing up for a full English. Amped up on no sleep and four coffees I promptly charged over to Orlando and they all instantly crowded round him, but seeing that I only wanted to shake his hand they all relaxed. It was a bizarre way to meet a hero, but every time I hear that hear his playing wondering just how on Earth he did it I’m grateful to a bunch of yobbos who spent the night shouting they were the IRA.

I bought an acoustic Control Corporation 406 (2x15) on eBay. It looks considerably healthier in the listing than in real life. However after a 590 mile round trip that started with the idea of just re grilling it, turned into a complete restoration. I’ve done a couple of 406s and many other cabs so wasn’t too daunted by the idea. I stripped the tolex to find some water damage on the base and it was still slightly damp so I let it air dry for a little over a week. In the meantime ordered the tolex and grill cloth and took the handle and castor brackets to be blasted and powder coated. Once dry I sanded the old glue and bits of tolex off. Then filled the rough and damaged parts with 2 pack filler. Sanded again, painted the baffle and re grilled or. Today I Set about re Tolexing the cab and to my delight it was as painless as the stripping was. All tolex on and the cab reassembled inside of a day. The only thing I need to complete it is some new chrome corners.

Here's an old gig pic. Anyone got any idea who's playing? The guy on double neck guitar? That's Pino Palladino!!!

New wife for your 50th. What is this 2 bass nonsense?

Searchable library of 16,000 sound effects in WAV format. BBC copyright but available for personal, educational or research purposes http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/

The guy in the dark top? Underneath the falling PA? That would be me then ...

That is pretty well the shape I want, now Make some holes for the machine heads. I have some but not sure if I have the surrounds for them

Hey folks! Ok, so ages ago I promised (and let the side down) that I would re-do my TC Electronic Sub n' Up patches and share the settings with you. Well, ok so it didn't happen and I ended up finishing recording the biggest album of the year instead* So, in an attempt to pull my finger out (and take six months to complete this task) I want to see if we can emulate the sounds of some of our favourite Octave pedals using the stonking Sub'n'Up pedal and it's deeply delving TonePrint Editor app. Here's what I need: The sound of a dry bass recorded through the octave pedal of choice direct in to an interface (no amp please). Preferably with a P bass or J bass with all controls all the way open. I want to hear dry only and wet only sounds and a 50/50 mix. Wav files would be ideal but 320k MP3 of course would be a smaller file size. I'll then see what I can rustle up this end - and hopefully if I do finally get a new camera, a nice video to go with it too, like my bass chat review vids. What do you all think? @Al Krow I know you've been very patient! Dooooooood. *give it another 8 months, maybe!

Or hook the front feet of your amp over the front of the cab.

Not mine but this always make me laugh (from 1:10)

I put a couple of inch high rubber feet on the top of my cab near the rear edge, which my amp rests against.

Just testing whether our swear filter falls for the "Scunthorpe effect". Apparently quite a lot of them do. My mother once spotted a church calendar marking the saint's day of St Michael and All Angles. She insisted that made him the patron saint of geometry. I knew a law student whose spell-checker changed statutes to statues. I can't be the only one of us who's been described as playing base.

G-flat

Thanks for the heads up. Will be in front of the TV for that. Never has a bad bass player either. Bumped into Rand Hope-Taylor in the gallery the other day. Top bloke and absolute gent.

Last weekend

I've owned both, and still own the ACG when the Wals are long gone. One is different from the other, not necessarily better. I much prefer the asymmetric neck on the ACG over the fat profile of a Wal. The tonal palette are each unique - you can't get a ACG to sound like a Wal, not sure that you can the other way round either. Most of the Wals look alike (made from your Gran's old wardrobe) while I've yet to see two ACGs that do. Alan seems to pick all the most exquisite pieces of timber from his supplier. Alan will build you whatever you want, Wal will build you a Wal. Alan will charge you a couple of grand for a unique piece, while Wal will charge you close to five for one of their standard models. Alan will probably have yours finished for your birthday, Wal might put you on the list but it's unlikely that the wood will have been cut.

Give it a few days , kind of bump

Winner of the 'Furthest distance travelled' award at the recent South West Bass Bash...

Just off ebay, company called Sherwingroup. We have a wood yard near us, where there are some beautiful pieces of wood for a bit more money, but I thought I would start as cheap as possible before butchering something expensive, so this was much cheaper, and although they didn't have the length I wanted, I contacted them to ask and they said to order from ebay and they would make sure it was long enough as I didn't need it as wide anyway. Its tulipwood, which is apparently known for not having much of a grain, but this one does actually look ok

Just sold some stingray parts to Ovi. An all round good egg, swift payment and no problems for me. Please deal with confidence.

Lie Chester Square in London is unpronounceable!

BBC4 seem to be having a Latin evening tonight. At 9pm there is 'Buena Vista Social Club', which if you haven't seen it is a wonderful film, directed by Wim Wenders and featuring some amazing Cuban musicians including bassist Orlando Lopez. Ry Cooder was involved in the production too, and plays on some songs.

Love it on sales sites where there are 'symbels', bass speaker 150 watts (actually a whole combo), 38 watt practice amp (read it on the back as power consumption, actually a 15 watt job), and the odd food mixer....

Don’t get me started on Morrischick basses.

Since my all valve amp head is stored at the rehearsal studio, I decided to get a cheap solid state amp for use at home. I've always loved the look of the Acoustic Control stuff from the 1970s, so I bought a model 140. Despite being the amps of choice for many top flight bassists back in the late 60s and 70s, they sell for very low prices these days. I guess it's the valve versus solid state thing, where many assume a completely solid state amp is not going to have any character or sound too quiet. Well, this beast is not only full of character, it's also unbelievably loud. It's supposed to be used with a 4ohm load for peak output, so I initially set it up to use two 16ohm 18" speaker cabs to get an 8 ohm load. It was so staggeringly loud that I'm now using it with one cab for a 16ohm load and even then the volume is only at 10% before it's loud enough to shake the walls of my music room. Not bad for an amp that supposed to only be rated for 120 watts!

Heres a few..... herald30 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr Britannia 6 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr Untitled by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr herald23 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr herald47 by Jon Ashbee, on Flickr

A wonderful film it is. I went to see them at Warwick Uni in 1998, it was a special gig.

Mine a few years ago before I sold them.

No prob at all!

Your fingers will love tapewounds.

Here you go: https://1drv.ms/f/s!ApKsVfvGwYkOiqcUT79WoDBsenS1pQ Couple of bonus clips, my Yamaha BB playing notes down to the low B, and a bit of Super Sharp Shooter as I can never resist playing a bit of D&B when an octaver is plugged in!

A pre-CBS precision is my holy grail. My friend's refinished '64 is the finest bass I've ever laid hands on. Maybe a Celinder P given the 2nd best bass I ever played was a Celinder Jazz (the Skarbee Celinder that was owned by a few guys on here over the years but has gone into hiding more recently). Having owned a Wal (and played a few more) I'd suggest you speak to Alan at ACG... Much more flexible in terms of available options and, to me at least, a much more pleasing end result.

A Squier. No question. Frankly any type of Squier. Just so long as it's a Squier. Of 231 BC poll respondents, 93.51% said that you could do pretty much anything with a Squier. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of these important facts on my 50th and had to make do and mend with a Sandberg. I guess if I hadn't come across this ground breaking piece of research about Squiers, I might still be tempted by a Yamaha BBNE2 (black or white but probably not the limited edition grey). But no longer, only a Squier will now do...and frankly I don't even care even if it's been relic'd. At heart it will still be a Squier.

I've used black, white and copper nylons from La Bella. Absolutely superb strings. Smooth, low tension but high gauge so you can really dig in. Last a lifetime. The white nylons remain my string of choice for fretless.

Well, they arrived today and took all of 10 minutes to fit straight out of the packet. Several first impressions: the black look is so much better than the off-white/cream look of standard Thunderguts. They don't need pre-stretching when you wind them onto the machine heads. Just load 'em up like normal strings - I had to shorten the E string otherwise you get two many winds and it looks all wrong plus it lifted clear off the nut. Took a couple inches off and that fixed it. The other strings were fine, full length. They are nice and smooth - at least as good as the Pahoehoe strings, I think, maybe even better. The tone so far seems really good. They've only been on a few hours (and it is the hottest day of the year so far) so it's too early to judge how they'll settle in. Unlike the standards, the E & A strings do actually seem to slide over the nut when you wind them up. Current on Amazon.co.uk at £22.40 inc. delivery, so a bargain price. My impression so far is that Aquila have a winner here. I'll report later after things settle and I've gigged with them.

For some reason guitarists really do like MarkBass gear, I think the bright colour confuses them.

Park Royal HHH is the guitarist who placed the advert. This is an established 3-piece that has been playing around London and the Home Counties for many years. Their long-standing bass player is retiring to the South Coast later in the year so they're getting ready for that by recruiting his replacement. This isn't technically an audition. HHH has already come to see me play (and sing) with the other pub rock band I play in, he knows exactly how capable I am, and he wants me to dep for two gigs he has coming up later in the month where the current bass player can't make it. Those two gigs will effectively be my 'real' audition. HHH has been very professional indeed. I've been supplied with full set lists for the two gigs, plus good-quality mp3s of the band playing all those 36 songs live, and he's been quick to give me very comprehensive answers to any questions I've asked. It's all looking good. With 36 songs to get gig-ready from a standing start I've invested a lot of home practice time. By the time I get to the studio I'm pretty ready. There are a few songs where I don't feel 100% confident but in the main I'm pretty happy. The session goes well, but there are some worrying straws in the wind. First, By God but they're LOUD! We're in a small rehearsal room and they have the PA, drums and amps cranked up to volume levels that I've rarely even gigged at. Second, HHH has really very fixed views on how each song's bass part should go, and it usually comes down to straight eights played with a pick. He doesn't want me to play fingerstyle, he's "not a big fan of arpeggios" (that's an actual quote) and he doesn't much like shuffle beats. Now I'm not used to being told how to play bass by a guitarist, but with so little time and so much material I decide not to argue about it. There'll be time enough later. Third? Oh yes, there's a third. HHH and the drummer have played together for 40 years. The two of them are like [cliche alert] an old married couple. They're virtually telepathic, complete each other's sentences, and will never be able to form a balanced band with an incoming bass player. Oh dear. Two days later the band is playing an Irish pub in Finchley with their current bass player. My wife and I go along to check them out. An old drummer I used to play with is a local so we call him and invite him to join us. The three of us sit there watching, and I am struck by how many of the songs have the lead vocals taken by the bass player. HHH has mentioned how important my BVs will be, but not that he himself is not actually the lead vocalist most of the time. Meanwhile a strange expression has come over Mick's face. He yells a couple of questions in my ear and then starts laughing. At the break he explains to us that he was in a band with HHH a few years back. "He's a complete bastard, and utterly mental" he says. "Absolute control freak, totally ruthless - just watch yourself". Then he leaves, still laughing. HHH comes over to ask me what Mick has just said about him. I tell him the truth. He laughs and seems quite unaffected by it. Our first gig together is a social club north of London on the Friday night. The band's PA is strictly 1980s ... two huge, heavy tops mounted on stands built (apparently) from scaffolding poles, and all of that on stage with us where it takes up perhaps a third of the frontage. I ask why we don't put the stands on the floor in front of the stage and get put in my place quite sharply with a load of bollocks about health & safety. The drummer brings in his shells, then his traps case, then his cymbals case, then his second traps case, then his second cymbals case. He's brought in enough kit to outfit three rehearsal rooms. He starts building a truly magnificent rig, including three floor toms, five rack toms and at least eight cymbals of varying sizes and shapes. A third PA stand with a large top now materialises at the back of the stage to the right of the drummer, apparently for (very loud) on-stage monitoring. This contributes to the drummer drifting his kit over to his left, thus pushing me against the wall where I'm standing under one of the PA tops. All sorts of alarm bells are ringing by now. My wife sets up her recording gear - she videos all the gigs my bands play. HHH sees this and delivers a lecture to the effect that nothing, nothing at all gets online unless he approves it. Hmmmm. We play the gig. My playing is fine. Not brilliant, but I'm always where I'm supposed to be and it will all sound fine to the audience. I drop a few minor clangers, as you might expect, but that's nothing compared to the list of cockups by HHH. He is clearly very uncomfortable at having to do all the lead vocals and that's spilling over into his guitar playing, which is all over the place. After the gig, the band breaks down and loads out in almost complete silence. Not a good sign. The next night we play another social club, this time south of London. The gig is virtually a carbon copy of Friday in every respect. On Sunday morning I'm in the queue at Sainsbury when my mobile rings. It's HHH. He tells me that I'm hopeless, my bass playing is "going backwards fast", it's just not going to work out, and they're going back to their previous bass player. He's clearly forgotten that I have a complete video recording of both gigs and he doesn't. I think we both know where the blame really lies. On looking at the footage carefully, I realise that the drummer never actually plays most of that enormous kit. It's just there for show. Frankly, I consider this one a bullet dodged. It was always going to end in tears.

It's Chown. Not Chowny. And Stephen. Not Steve. ;-) That aside - don't count on a reliable source of the long scale Semi-Acoustic cases. We got them from the factory in China, and we've moved production for the 2018 stuff to India. So I find myself in a position of being unable to supply cases for my own guitars. Awkward.

Just sold a bass body to Ovi. A great Basschatter all round, absolutely no problems here. Deal with confidence as they say.

Fixed that for you