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I suppose it's a bit early in the game to tell them to go fück themselves with a traffic cone

As promised, they arrived late afternoon and I packed those bad boys up like a rabid mammal. They are officially “in the post” for tomorrow so no tracking numbers to have you refreshing and foaming. If it’s not in the post tomorrow then you should see it Saturday. It’s the kind of great system where you can’t track it until it’s delivered, god bless them. so it’s been a long wait, highs and lows, many posts, but you will like them. Ive just had a big go through a Matamp and two orange cabs. Yes my ears are stinging.

Sound like a bunch of bankers to me. Especially the sound guy. Why are they moaning about the size of the bass amp? Unless it`s a SVT and matching 8 x 10, what`s the problem?

The wheel of dUg arrived, and yes, I confirm you WILL sound like dUg now. Unless you happen to like the McCartney setting.

May I suggest the Fender Super Bassman all-valve head currently for sale in the marketplace? If I had the necessary paper tokens I'd be on that like a Weight Watcher on a Greggs Steak Bake. Mmm, Steak Bake... Mmm, Fender Super Bassman... punchier than a Geordie alcoholic. Edit: No offence, Michael.

May I nominate that for the Basschat Word of the Month award? I respectfully suggest for those who like to shorten words that the contraction narseness be adopted from this day forward. Narseness is like niceness only it's applied in an inwardly direction by shoving one's entire head up one's own fundament.

Chuck my tuppence in... I've been running blues jams for many, many years, and there are as many ways to run a jam as there are stars in the sky. Most of the basics have been covered, but a few things to bear in mind from the hosts point of view: We are there to attract punters; musicians and non-musicians into the venue to spend money on alcoholic beverages (and crisps). If alcoholic beverages (and crisps) are not purchased then the chances are the Jam won't be there for long. This is a careful balancing act Musicians want to play. Punters want to be entertained Get the balance wrong and you end up with a room of musos nursing a pint all night, or the house band playing a 3-hour gig for thruppence. What may look like a clique to you, looks to me like my reliables. They turn up every month without fail and without them there probably wouldn't be a jam. If you are new come and say hello Tell me what you like to play Be honest about your ability, if you're a bit unsure say so, I'll get you up with some experienced musos to help you along. Put your name on the list of jam and you WILL get called up Everyone WIll get at least 3 numbers, I can't guarantee when (see the balancing act), see above if you need to leave early, again let me know, I'll accommodate you in the grand scheme of things if I can I run Jams because I love playing with friends I don't get to gig with. I love watching something come together from nothing, from musos that may have never met let alone played with each other. I most certainly don't do it for the kudos or the money. So if you attend a Jam and it seems a bit cliquey, consider the internal political bollocks that may be in play to ensure that the Jam is there the next time you fancy a little no pressure play. Of course, some Jams can be really cliquey, I don't go to them either :-)

In the very early seventies, I had the look. Lots of hair, 27" waist and sprayed on pants ( as in trousers, not Y-fronts) I auditioned for T-Rex (drums) and got a second audition. Unbeknown to me, and all of us at the auditions, Bill had already been approached and had already recorded a few tracks. Anyway, obviously, I didn't get the job. My then wife to be however, still maintains to this day that I lost out because I was too good looking for Marc Bolan to have on stage with him. Well that's her story and I'm making sure she's sticking to it 😂 Probably did me a favour really as I suppose he could've offered me a lift home at some point.

Here's mine. Had a nice opportunity to test drive the appropriately-named Temple Drums from Soundiron and the new Ethera EVI vocal/synth library. Also in here are some amazing instruments from Sound Dust - Cloud Cello, Cloud Bass and Plastic Ghost Piano (which is mixed with a sprinkling of The Giant piano which you may remember from some of my earlier tracks). I went for the story that I saw in the picture - the German U-boat docking next to a mysterious temple as part of Hitler's obsession with the occult. The lone figure gets drawn deeper into the temple's mysteries and never comes back out.

Genzler Magellan, either the 350 or the 800 (just ignore the drive channel, although you're missing a trick if you do ). The clean channel has a massive weight and punch. It's also got on incredibly versatile and simple pre-amp. Just ignore the anti class D brigade, this thing punches like Tyson after 8 pints of Stella

Well mate I phoned saying saying I'd swap my imperfect sunburst they sent me last week for another one as I couldn't be bothered to wait for the Ebony ones to arrive. the guy on the phone said oh wait we've just had a delivery of Ebony ones in (I didn't have one on order) Today this arrived

You might wanna try the Quilter BB800, Little amp with lots of punch!

If it's all in good nick (i.e. no dings or scratches) you're best to key the existing paint surface with a grey scotchbrite pad. Give it a really thourough going over so that there are no shiny spots at all. Using rougher papers or abrasives will lead to scratches showing in the top coat. I bought one of these and repainted it a little while ago:

My one and only Shuker ...weighs a ton !!!

The earliest Trace 4x10 combo's were black Painted/wood finish (MKIII's I think?) Came with either a GP11 or a very basic GP7 Pre-amp. These combo's later got a covering when the MKIV's came along. With the introduction of the revised MKV range, the GP7 was dropped in favour of the now footswitchable GP11 pre-amp, The combo still had the moniker 1110 combo, up to this point a similar sized 1x15 version was available. Then along comes the GP12 Pre-amp in about '88, with the extra 30hz slider, so the Combo became the 1210 & a much smaller size 1x15 combo. The power was increased to 200 watts at 4 ohms as opposed to the previous 150 watts (Think you'd struggle to hear much difference as they were all punchy beasts?). The next in the 1210 series, introduced in the early '90's was the SMX (12 band graphic) & SM (7 band). The SMX series having the twin pre-shape contours & twin hi/low compressors, along with the valve pre-amp option. I think Fans were dropped in the favour of heat-sinks on the amps? A HF Horn was introduced as an option as well.. Trace Elliot then underwent a series of buy-outs, firstly by Kaman & then Gibson & later Peavey. The covering on the combo's changed from a black vinyl to a green carpet fleck, with a slight change to the face of the pre-amps. The controls remained virtually unchanged but I recall the compressor being simplified? That's about all I can remember of the 4x10 combo's?, apart from the fact that they all weighed a ton, They all performed brilliantly as a stand alone combo without the need for an extension cab for the majority of the time? You certainly found out who your friends were when it come to shifting one around if you didn't have a sack-barrow or fitted castors...

I'll just leave this here... https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/legacy/products/bta-400 ;-)

My mate was caught with that when he wanted something from the 'States. He'd got all the address details and delivery charges sorted out and something made him check. When he found out about an additional charge from PP he binned the transaction. He will not buy from North America any more because of the undisclosed additional charges. I bought a bass kit from Australia and was informed on the vendor's webpage of the additional import charges before I committed. In this case I was happy to accept having been given opportunity to consider. Good. Had I only found out while the goods were being held at customs I would have taken it as customs holding my goods hostage. Not good. Additional charges should be made clear at the point of sale in my opinion. It is the world wide web after all. No-one can really fall back on the lame excuse that because they are exporting they can't say what additional charges will be applied. Brexit or no Brexit it makes no difference. If a website can give you prices in your own currency there is no excuse for leaving out the import charge. Whoops. Pardon me for the rant. Thanks for the clip.

Last time I imported a bass from the states I wasn't charged a penny, until over ayers later a letter arrived from TNT with a demand for payment (it was still their first letter). If I had the foresight to move house in the interim I don't know what they'd have done... so there's that!!! Specify TNT and get your affairs in order!!

Thanks! I wanted to try doing recording and syncing the video with audio, which I haven't done before. I'll try and do a better one at some stage because I learned a lot from making that one! I also demonstrated only a few patches on the unit so will perhaps rehearse and plan a more 'professional' vid one weekend!! As you can see/hear, although my initial assumption would be that this bass would be a bit of a travel bass which I'd always use with an octave, it has become a superb sounding and playing bass in it's own right, and I only occasionally use it with an octave; and when I do, it has a really sweet synthy sound that works really well in a mix (which I'll try and demonstrate next time, too!!)

My band run a jam night at Tilwalds in Tyldesley, near Manchester. This is the blurb we post to get people to turn up: Musicians - please share! Putting the call out to all our musician friends. The Three host a regular weekly jam night on Sundays 7.00 - 10.30pm at Tilwalds, Elliott Street, Tyldesley, M29 8FJ. Acoustic players, solo artists, singer / songwriters of all styles and all ages welcomed. In the interests of everyone's safety, please bring your own microphones and guitars. Why not bring your band down to do 3 or 4 songs to a good audience and maybe get a booking at the venue? Bands are always welcome. We will make up numbers if you are someone short on the night. It's your chance to rehearse those new songs in front of an audience and have a few beers, too. Why pay out for a rehearsal room? Want to get up, but don't have a band? If we know the song, we'll play it with you. Tap the landlady up for a gig. TIMES: All acts get 4-5 songs, or 20 minutes (as the number of players allow), then the next act goes on, and so on. If time allows, we will go around the players again. Come on down and make yourselves known to the host band and we will get you up. GEAR: Top quality back-line amps for 2 guitars and bass are provided, drums and full PA for three vocals is in place. ** Please bring your own mics, guitars and basses. ** If you need a capo, please bring your own. If you're bringing a keyboard please arrive just before 7pm then we can get it set up and positioned rather than taking up slot time. The Three will be hosting the jam night every Sunday at Tilwalds. This is a live music event. Every bum note you will hear is generated by a living, breathing human. We do not do backing tracks and neither do you. I hope that we never ever get 'cliquey'. We are reliant on the people who turn up to make it what it is. The host band play for half an hour or so and may do another ten minutes at the end of the night, dependent on how many people have come along to get up and play. In-between that, we just want to keep things moving and get people up.

Hi Torby, That's not good. Can you let us know a few more details and we will have a look at what we can do to get you sorted. Amp Model - Serial Number - Date Purchased - Retailer purchased from -

Anything by ‘scouting for girls’.

... he said, looking like a like a total rock star

Another good clip here, even if it does sound a little bit like the theme tune to Inspector Gadget: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bik1QdqlAPd

Rich Tone music have got Ebony in stock. Mine should be arriving tomorrow!

If there are foldback monitors, get some bass put into them for general stage bass presence, fed from the PA. You'll not be needing an amp at all, then. If all are using in-ear monitoring, get some bass put in there for them (dosed as they require...) That's what they're for. It can't interfere with what they already have any more than having it rumbling through from an amp on stage, which they can't adjust. If they're not happy with that solution, get your own monitoring sorted (in-ears, preferably...), let the sound engi do whatever he needs to do for FOH and on-stage monitoring, and sod anyone else. If they don't want to do things properly, they'll have to put up with it, and that's all. Don't go buying gear for idjits that won't play the game loyally.

Got one today, very impressed, a bit more solid than my current gig bags!

Indeed. The ability to use standard strings is huge for me. Opens up a whole world of possibilities and just generally makes life easier. Really can’t be arsed having to source a specific type of custom string!

Where are the tracking numbers?!! All of us want to click "refresh" every 30 seconds tomorrow for 6 hours..... Ha!!

This seems to be the constant throughout everyone’s advice, luckily I was doing just that, so hearing it from everyone gives me confidence. Because I learned to play by ear I am already naturally adjusting when my intonation is off. I am playing through our songs using the fretless but just as if it were fretted and even when I’m experimenting new stuff on the fretless I am concentrating on my style rather than sliding everything. I’m finding the ‘less is more’ approach definitely works in as much as if you don’t force the bass to do the fretless thing you end up with a lovely sound.

4 Sorry, I’ll get my coat.

Soooooo Am I having the day off tomorrow or not? (Me impatient? Answer me damnit!!! )

Spend a bit of time with an Orange 4 Stroke. Clean and very versatile. An excellent amp.

It was just over £36 which was vat on the cost + postage, and the Parcelforce tax

I made the mistake, many years ago, of assuming a Jam Night was actually involving any sort of jam... So rather than bringing my patent home-made raspberry/blackberry/redcurrant/elderberry concoction I wheeled my 4' high bass cab and rack of amps/effects into the pub. Where I was confronted by an array of Catweazles clutching penny whistles, bodrums etc, while at the mic was someone gently strumming an acoustic guitar and singing "I'm Leaving (on a jet plane)" (EEEK!) The "Jam" leader came up to me and asked what I wanted to play - I said I'd like to have a jam with some free-thinking people who are into making music in order to see where it goes; he said "we normally only have people coming up and doing a couple of folk songs that everybody knows; perhaps you can back one of them?" So I played in the background to a few songs I've never heard, without having been told chords or anything, all the while thinking "perhaps the damson conserve would have gone down a lot better". Now I know that many people's idea of a jam isn't quite the same as mine; it took me 10 years after this to actually find a band in the area!

Man this is awesome! I've followed thi on SoundCloud. 🙌

love this idea! with this thread in mind i stuck a phone in front of me at last nights rehearsal and recorded one of our new songs that we intend to use as the opener to an open air gig on Hove seafront next month. No vocals, and its fairly bass heavy, but whose complaining! The synth part in the intro is uses at various places throughout the song and the signal chain consists of..... Sandberg VM5 passive neck pickup ---> Spectracomp ---> Mastotron gated fuzz ----> Manta filter (11?) ---> TCE corona chorus ---> Genz bens shuttle 9.2----> Barefaced big twin The clean parts are just Spectracomp. Enjoy! learning lessons.mp3

So - an Open Mic then. Just saying.

Phil is a friend of mine (and an incredible bass player which is why his phone rang so much back then - he was very nearly in Pink Floyd but that's another story) and yes, that 1982 summer tour was incredible, best band I've seen to this day. It's all captured on the live album 'Warrior Rock'. The earlier 'Shostring' lineup was very good also. Great exciting music. Sadly the Toyah of today (including her current live band) are no comparison at all to the 79-82 era - when it was all at it's peak - and Toyah was the name of the band.

My Lakland 55-02, first 5 string and played my first gig with it, I don't think I could ever let it go!

Fantastic mate, thanks for asking. Got a busy period (for us) of four in five weeks so good to get the first one out the way we’ll. lots of new and reworked stuff and all went well. we also finally decided on the new PA and monitors we are buying so this project will be on hold until next pay day due to the outgoings for that. At £40 delivered it alsmost seems rude not to have a bash with the one above. So now thinking the T-bird two won’t be a T- bird at all and that may end up being build 3. I have a few weeks to decide. @Andyjr1515 thanks for the heads up on the veneering. It sounds like this may not be the best one to do that on. Now wondering about doing something like a Wenge centre piece or maybe just a obscenely bright colour in true 80s style. Too many choices for someone so weak willed.

And as promised....here's a track - hoping you can easily listen to it - let me know. Not the best live recording ever but you get an overall idea of the track and how the bass sits / works in the track. Suggested talking points (!): 1) What do you reckon to the sound and (I'm not gonna tell you straight off) what do you think I'm using to generate it? 2) What do you think to the actual bass part - does it work with the track / sound & feel more like a synth part? Could it be improved / changed?** **caveat - first gig with these guys and listening back this part (I think) needs some tweaks - at times it is too complex and interferes with vox and (where appropriate) it could with some more variations as well. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.... CLONE Live at Brewdog May 18.mp3

It's never been appealing to me...

I really liked the de Scorpio which was the Dave Ellefson signature and very similar to this model. A very nice instrument all in all

It's easy to confuse the terms 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'. They are not, however, completely interchangeable. Cheap in price does not systematically equate to cheap in quality. The opposite is also true: higher cost is not necessarily higher quality. Just sayin'.

It sounds better than Lemmy. But that's not hard!

I'll have a bash at putting some pictures up.

Bought a TC flashback from Ian. Great com's etc ....fantastic BC'r to deal with :-)

Oh lord! I've been so 'into' the Hyper Gravity, then this comes along... it's little, it is cute, It's toneprint enabled, it says BASS on it. I must have it.