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This poem was in the order of service at a memorial service for a young Bass player I knew, taken too young. I appreciate that not everyone shares the poems view on bassists "place" in a band, but the sentiment was definitely shared by the young lad.🙂 Thought I'd share it.

Here's my JJ4 California Hardcore Aged 2011 model, it has the older ABM bridge, Delanos and 2 band active its a complete dream to play, sounds amazing ...

I came across this a few weeks back when i was looking for a VM5.... It made me melt a little inside when i decided on the surf green. i still dream about this bass!

I was wondering when someone would come along and - in an excess of feeling - step firmly upon on the tribute band landmine. It's always fun when that happens. The thing about tribute bands is that they are merely a variation on the time-honoured practice of musicians playing other peoples' songs. Indeed, until the Rutles came along pretty much the entire industry was predicated on the idea that songwriters wrote songs and musicians performed them and seldom the twain did meet. To my uncertain recollection the greatest popular singer of all time (Frank Sinatra) wrote (and subsequently performed) only one song in his career. If it was good enough for Francis Albert, it's good enough for me. In any event, the point is moot when it comes to bass players; apart from ten or so household names nearly all bassists have to dutifully play what they're given by The Talent, even when - as in the case of most 'originals' hobby bands - The Talent is a technically incompetent dullard with an Epiphone Lester and Himmler's way with a tune. All of which is is to say that my ranked musical preferences for a local Friday night out would be: 1. A tribute band 2. A covers band 3. Red hot needles in the eyes 4. An 'originals' band

When we set up to play in a pub, the people who are there have chosen to be there. They could have gone somewhere else, but this is where they want to be. Some (a few, a very small number) are there specifically to see us, some are there to check out the music because it's a music pub, and some are there for all sorts of other random reasons. Once we start playing, those punters who don't like rock music will leave. Those punters who don't like our particular brand of rock music will also leave, but not so quickly. Meanwhile, those punters who DO like what we're doing will be texting or phoning their mates and saying "great band on tonight, you should come down here". By the time we play our last set, the people in the pub will have self-selected to be only those who actually like what we're doing, and who will respond to the music ... dance maybe, or sing along, or at least applaud after each song. The gig is far more involving for the band, far more fun for everyone, far more likely to bring repeat bookings. ************************************************************************************ When we set up to play in a club (Social, WMC, whatever), the people who are there are always there. Most of them cannot imagine going somewhere else on a Saturday night, and if they do their friends will ask where they were. They are there for the venue and to see their friends, and the music is almost incidental. They sit there with their arms folded, staring at us, and daring us to entertain them. It's THEIR club and we are the intruders. Once we start playing, those members who don't like rock music will complain. Those members who don't like our particular brand of rock music will also complain, but not so quickly. Meanwhile, those members who DO like what we're doing will NOT be texting or phoning their mates and saying "great band on tonight, you should come down here", because the club is Members Only. After the first set, one of the members (almost invariably a guitarist, allegedly) will buttonhole a bandmate and explain in enormous detail what we are 'doing wrong', advise the lead guitarist and the drummer to play louder because no one can hear them, and then disappear into the smoker's paradise for the rest of the evening. After the second set, there will be a 30-minute hiatus while everyone pretends they've joined the Jarrow Hunger March of 1936 so that they can get excited about the Meat Raffle. Have these people never heard of Sainsburys? By the time we play our last set, most of the people in the club will be sitting grim-faced and glowering their sense of entitlement at us, waiting for us to finish so that they can return to playing Abba on the jukebox (last Saturday it was Phil Collins!). Those who actually enjoy what we are doing and want to dance will be intimidated off the dancefloor by the drunken poseurs trying to throw shapes while playing air guitar, and stumbling into the PA. The club gigs are well-paid and the venues are usually excellent ... big stage, loads of power, built-in lightshow, etc. But in truth if I never play another club I won't miss it. Silvie and I do all the gig-getting for my main band, and we have already decided not to bother with clubs at all for 2019. Life's too short.

We do What's Going On - Marvin Gaye and Let's Stay Together - Al Green near the beginning of our first set and they always go down well

She’s here!! Obligatory family shot: Have just been having a play for the past half hour or so, going through the available tones and I’m very very happy. Classic Precision growl with the split coil, more trebly bark from the bridge humbucker and blending them together kind of smooths out the characteristics of both for a less aggressive sound, at least to my ears. 2-band preamp with a treble knob which functions as a tone control in passive mode. All basses should have this IMO. So far I’ve got the preamp set identically to my Electra VS4 - treble up about 2/3 of the way and a very slight bass boost in active. Switch to passive and everything mellows out by default. Lovely. Previous owner strung it with new Rotosound Swing Stainless Steels 45-130 which I’ve never tried before but I like them well enough. I’ve got a fresh pack of Dunlop Flats which have gone churlishly unused for over a month so I’m considering putting them on. Action is perfectly playable but just a touch higher than I’d like so I’ll be lowering that at some point either today or tomorrow. The neck is somewhere between a satin and gloss finish, but more on the glossy side of the spectrum. May have to get that taken down a bit but so far it’s not nearly as obnoxious as a typical “true gloss”. There’s a scratch on the back near the neck bolts which I knew before buying. A slight downer but who’s seeing the back anyway?? What a back though: And there we have it. All in all I got a bit of a bargain for an incredibly well built, unique bass. I’ll be going on tour for a year with a theatre show from July and I can only take one bass with me. This is definitely the one. Now my MTD is feeling a bit of sibling jealousy .

Wicked tunes...if these don't get people dancin' you may want to check their pulses...

That's really hard to say after several beverages.

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My Kindle library now has Weekend Rockstars in it. 😎🎸

To celebrate it needs Rage against the machine blurting at massive volume on it. None of your smooth love bass lines

I haven't really touched any of my other basses since getting it (I think it might be the one)

I was so excited about this pedal when it was first announced........ then saw the form factor and then tried a GED2112 that I didn't get on with so eventually lost interest. I've always had a "want to love them more" relationship with Tech 21. Love the ethos and approach, like the VT Bass, never really got the bass driver or RBI . After seeing the responses on this thread I ordered one for Andertons on Saturday and it arrived yesterday (nice one Andertons) I don't know if its the marketing or photos on the website but the form factor is in fact excellent - the pedal is a compact sling in a gig back pocket and go. Not 100% sold on the knobs but time will tell. and....... It does all the things out of the box that I want in an overdrive/pre pedal and more..... sure it's a baked in tone but what a tone and it really is touch sensitive. Agree about the clean channel but in certain situations it's going to be an always on pedal. It's my favourite Tech 21 product by a million miles..... it's pricey sure but it will take a compressor, tuner and overdrive pedal out of my signal chain and I can go direct to the PA without a DI Box. Very excited about using this in a live environment.

Oops, that's what happens when you don't read the whole post :-/ I'll get me coat.

If it's in the right key and tempo you'll be fine. Good luck.

So hiya! I'm from north Wales, been playing since 1974 but don't let that fool you into thinking I'm any good, you'll be sorely mistaken but I still enjoy it so what the hell. I play in a Banshees cover band that gigs on a very occasional basis, we hardly push ourselves but again it's a lot of fun I have a couple of Gibson Tbirds, a Fenderbird and a Fender Jazz at the moment. I also make guitars for a hobby, I've been doing it for years now, that's a lot of fun too So in a nutshell that's me, lazy, rubbish and likes to have fun, even at my age

How true. The Academy of Ancient Music are bad enough with their baroque re-treads (shudder) but the London Mozart Players take the absolute biscuit for nonsensical sadness.

I play as 'Jeff Leopard' in an 80s era tribute called THAT 80S ROCK SHOW Best fun I've had since I actually did it in the 80s and had real hair ! Always well received as we cover all the classics from the era taste forgot lol <https://youtu.be/_run9Gik-aU>

The Manta's waveforms are all LFOs, AKA Low Frequency Oscillators, essentially a control signal to modulate, AKA wobble, your signal. Synths feature LFOs too but they use higher frequency oscillators - sine, square, sawtooth, etc shaped waves to produce the basis of the entire sound. A sine is a pure note, different shapes have more harmonic content going on. If you were to add together hundreds of different sine waves of just the right frequencies, you could make the overall waveform look like a square or triangle. That's why a sawtooth waveform sounds much harsher, and also the reason why fuzz sounds like it does - turning your standard sine wave into a square wave, your ear picks up all of these different frequencies that weren't there before.

Nice that. Most excellent grain & colour scheme.

Very sorry to hear about your friend That is a beautiful poem, thank you for sharing it

Just bought an Ampeg PF500 and matching carry case today from Dave. Top fella. Met me halfway at a lovely spot and even did me a little deal. Buy with confidence. He also makes excellent leads & cables too!

A Zodiac on that well known auction site at present with a start price of £60! Is that a bargain or what.

Very easy transaction with Paul today. Very punctual at the allotted meeting point, a quick chat and the deal was done. Thank you Paul

Just discovered esr.co.uk from a link on the Fuzzdog website - seems really well stocked, and if their postage is as fast as Fuzzdog's then I might be onto a winner. In other news I got a Wah enclosure from the 'bay for a tenner this morning; dug out n old 500mH inductor that I had kicking around and will be embarking on treadle-pedalled shenanigans later this week...

But in London I still think that the relative handful of genuinely good music pubs are the best call. Saturday night was an almost perfect illustration of my theory regarding the audience self-selecting. We started off playing to an empty dancefloor in a huge but only quarter-filled pub. We finished like this:

Ah mate, Purps is sounding a treat! Nice playing too I’m glad it’s getting gigged, rather just sitting in my cupboard until I want to jam along to Califonicstion LP!!! —-lump in throat—

The Commitments did some good covers, worth a look.

Yup. All gone. Silver one because it was too heavy. Blue one because of 2 things - my Marleaux has the best B on planet earth so I always gigged that, and because a mate kept begging me to sell it to him. White - because I'm a massive fecking idiot and need a slap.

Nice - Mindcrime/Empire is possibly one of the best bass tones ever. Even on feeble car speakers it sounds awesome - such grind!

Spent more time fiddling with pedal last night and found some awesome tones! Currently I'm running it into the front of my old GK400RB and/or GK800RB head and getting some huge, solid low end/sparkling grinding top end tones out of it. I even nailed the Eddie Jackson (Queensryche) Mindcrime/Empire era bass tone that has always been my fave. Of course, the Spector and GK I'm using helped with the authenticity The heavily compressed, highly distorted tones are fun but I can see myself using it 95% of the time on lighter settings. Lovely stuff!

Many thanks that's a very helpful and well written review.

Hi and welcome Why not after you’ve rebated and glued the binding just use a trim flush cutter to remove the last 0.2mm Just an idea??

ha ha, there's a challenge here., though I agree Morrissey is extremely irksome in both voice and manner. For me even more irritating is Craig David., his over-chiselled facial hair and his contribution to this tripe

After you made that huge list giving your opinion on the show.

What you really need is a switch that covers : Bridge Bridge Mid Mid Mid Neck Neck Bridge Neck All On Have fun wiring it!

Great result, and a nice looking bass too!

A high end germanium diode rat clone.... in a painted satin matte finish...... people would hit the roof

Tsk, tsk, how unprofessional Shelly

Well..., I loved the tone at home but they were too dark on a gig with my Quilter BB800 (and too small for my Markbass TTE801!) Also I could never rely on them to carry a room. They're very loud but in certain rooms they "run out of breath" like in carpeted acoustically dead rooms IME. I'm sure others will disagree but that was my experience.

SO tempted to change your profile to 'removed by crack anti-fraud bass team' Typical eBay behaviour - bet it only lets you leave positive feedback for him?! On one hand don't worry about the negative point, doubt anyone with any sense holds much stock in those nowadays - on the other hand, why bother with it at all. I use it for flogging random stuff but for anything I'm passionate about, eBay looms large like a threat to my satisfaction and enjoyment of said hobbies.

Just put the first coat of gloss on...... I had to move the bridge on my last build so I thought I’d gloss it at the same time

Forum rules don't allow rickenbackers in the bc marketplace because the bods at rickenbacker are a bit mad.

Hi, This is my home grown pedal. Old Yamaha pedals from Ebay £25.00 Novation Bass Station 1 £120 Ebay Arduino and some bits. Here's a page I got the idea from and my code updates: http://midihacker.com/category/bass-pedal/ Regards, Doug

Bit late with this - sorry! Last year I bought a Mesa Boogie amp from Dave. Couple of weeks ago he came upon the manual so offered to post it to me. I took advantage of this and ordered a speaker cable whilst he was going to the post. Once again, top chap!

The guy on eBay is selling for about the same price or more than a non D-marked model from Thomann. I'd call that deliberately dishonest.