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So the brown note is (very likely) a myth, but if anyone's feeling particularly mischevious, I am assured that the same effect can be achieved by pressing a certain nerve ending on the body. I used to know a karate instructor who took a voracious interest in the Eastern philosophies around the martial arts (mainly, we suspect, as a means to further his similarly-enthusiastic-and-possibly-not-entirely-healthy interest in Asian ladies...), and his studies had led him to a lot of theories and teachings about pressure points. Apparently he spent an afternoon with his brother (also a martial arts enthusiast) working through the points described in one book. Upon testing one point, his brother had told him to stop quite urgently, because he could suddenly feel his sphincters relaxing. He steadfastly refused to tell us where it was...

Totally unpredictable! Sometimes you can play a supposedly great venue which has an excellent reputation, and it just doesn't work out. Could be the band members, the audience, the equipment... On the other hand, you can end up playing somewhere that nobody really wants to play, maybe on a bad night (weather-wise, or a clash with some big event...) and everything just comes together to make an outstanding time! For me, it is not about money (although that is not to say that I don't want or need to be paid!), but the enjoyment comes from the buzz. Where does the buzz come from? Well, usually rapport with your bandmates and playing the songs well, a receptive audience who are genuinely enjoying themselves, a good sounding room with plenty of feedback (of the right kind!), an appreciative venue owner/manager, good lighting, the correct temperature.... I could go on, but it is very difficult to quantify. Mostly, I think, it is about the audience. The problem is, if you turn up expecting all that - it rarely happens. Most of my "great" gigs have been surprises!

Well technically it’s NTMBASHBD (New To Me But Actually Second Hand Bass Day). Alright, this was Wednesday but as close as damn it. I posted a while back asking for recommendations for a short scale lined fretless bass, @ikay was kind enough to point out that two fretless Rob Allen Mouse (should this be mice) basses were for sale on here. I feel very lucky to have purchased one of these from the scholar and gentleman @WishIcouldplay. Anyway, I had never tried an RA Mouse before, never seen one or heard one (apart from online, obv.) but I love the look of them from pics so With a pocket full of wonga I headed off to try it out. Just seeing it on its stand was enough, what a beautiful thing. I tried it as in slid one note up a tone on the G and I was in love. I dropped in on my musical collaborator on the way home and played our latest song using it, glorious. Yesterday I got home from work about 6 and went straight to the study, plugged it in and started noodling, when I looked up again I was surprised to see it was dark, a look at the clock, 10:44! I have never owned a hand made instrument before, what a thing, it’s like playing a work of art, bass lines and tunes are falling out of it, I am actually smitten... ...now I need a fretted one.

I am not a big fan of Moondance.

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At The Drive In's performance of One Armed Scissor on Jules seems to have disappeared off YouTube, which is a shame as its brilliant

A good gig is the band playing well and the audience enjoying it. A GREAT gig is when the magic happens. That all too rare night when everyone in the band is "On" and the musicians are almost telepathic. When everything you touch turns to musical gold and the components of the band fit together like a Swiss watch. When even one or two of the songs you have played for years, and are not that fussed about, just take off. The audience picks up on this and you can feel the energy flowing back onto the stage, adding more fuel to the bands fire and lifting things even higher. It can be in the local pub or the local arena, whatever, the feeling is the same, emotion and energy. That is a great gig.

Right, the Dunlop Flatwounds are on! Thought I’d give the fretboard a bit of a clean between string sets but it didn’t seem to need it. Really loving the added low mid thump the flats are giving me at every pickup setting. And of course they’re nice and easy on the fingers compared to the Roto Steels - not that the Rotos were particularly harsh but you get smooth comfort for free with flats, obviously. The tension isn’t vastly different from the Rotos and they have a decent amount of high end, giving me a nice clank when switching the preamp to active with the treble boosted. Very, very nice. So, at present my bass lineup is: Sandberg VM5 with Dunlop Stainless Steel Flats MTD Super 5 with Dunlop Superbright Nickel Rounds Sanberg Electra VS4 with LaBella 750N Black Nylon Tapes A lovely trifecta of tone machines!

Discovered a great big hole, and the exposed edge of the photo flame paper. I made a video about that too... ...and today I lacquered the neck with amber tint nitrocellulose, sprayed the scratchplate white, and ordered the headstock decal.

True, they had to quickly run out and buy a rock music record to cover the dreary wailing noise, good point

No, and no. Simply because the vast proportion of the sound of a bass (5 string or otherwise) which we enjoy lies well above 30-40hz in the frequency spectrum. Have a listen to the following videos and let us know if you still think the liberal addition of this to your bass guitar sound is of benefit to you in any playing situation. Take note that they are sine waves, meaning these tones have pretty much zero harmonic content or overtones. Note how, despite the volume of your speakers/headphones being set at a perfectly enjoyable and audible level for listening to other things (music, videos etc), these sine wave tones are relatively much more difficult to hear. “Why is that?” I hear you cry. I invite you to reread the thread and again take note of the several BCers who have attempted in vain to make clear the necessity of overtones relative to the fundamental in making notes audible. Especially the lowest notes. Yes, as a 5 string bassist we are losing something by not playing through a rig which can handle 30hz at gig volume. We’re losing a portion of our sound which not only makes mixing us more difficult but at the same time fails to increase our ability to be heard.

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This is what I'm using with my Wal. Front pickup on 10, bridge pickup pulled and on 7.

For me, a great gig is one where the band is working well together and the audience 'gets is'. My first gig with the Grateful Dudes last Easter was a good example, everything slotted together well on stage, plenty of Dead-style jamming, audience dancing like dervishes, people queuing to buy shirts and shake our hands, that was a great gig. The 4 hour drive home was less great, but didn't take away the buss the gig left me with.

I would not worry about that. It's merely a pad switch. The label seems to imply active = higher output, which is simply not true. Active and passive basses come in all sorts of outputs and there's no hard rule about it. For example, my Stingray is not particularly high output, it matches a passive Precision / Jazz quite well... G&L L2000 in passive mode is one of the loudest things on Earth,, louder than any active bass I've ever owned. Neodymium Entwistle pickups make any passive bass scream... etc. Of course, if you boost the low end control to max on active basses, you're probably going to overload a normal input... In other words, it's not active/passive... but down to individual designs and what you do with them too. I always try the passive option first, and only if it overloads the input I switch to 'active' input. Engaging the 'active' input never sounds as nice, if the amp can take your bass in the 'passive' input, in my experience. I prefer amps with simply an input gain control (many these days)... then you simply adjust the input gain to suit.

I'm doing this remembering repairing kit back in the very early 70's, well 1970 actually. My memory may be a bit iffy at that distance. Compression is something valve amps do naturally partly down to the valves themselves but also due to the saturation of the output transformer. Basically they just peter out as the output rises giving a nice soft sounding distortion as they over loaded. Guitarists used this to create all the sounds of early rock music. Combined with the feedback you get at ridiculously high levels it also gave them a lot of sustain to play with. Everyone forgets that most of these amps were pretty unreliable and a band running four valve amps on stage plus often valve PA amps was experiencing a lot of technical failures. Plus back problems from carrying the amps. Having 20 KT88's on stage was a nightmare to be honest. Transistor amps were coming in by then WEM (not much more reliable) and later HH for PA followed by early guitar and bass versions. They were certainly cheaper and quickly became more reliable but transistor amps really distort unpleasantly when overloaded so we looked for a way of getting that gentle overload that the old amps gave. Compression was what was needed so compression on instrument amps started as an effect to give 'valve sound' The first compressors I encountered used ordinary car bulbs to compress the sound. At high power they get hot and their resistance goes up, put the signal through a bulb pick it up with a photocell and bingo, compression. The next stage was a voltage controlled amplifier. Take the output and use it to control the volume or gain of the amp and you get compression. These were often adapted from tape recorder automatic volume circuits and used FET's as the controlling element. By about 1974 integrated circuits took over thousands of components in a single package. You could get undistorted compression at will but you wouldn't do that complexity with valves. So you wouldn't simulate valve sound with valves for obvious reasons. They still make optical compressors as an effect but with VCA's you can get completely controllable compression which is largely done digitally nowadays anyway. Valve based computer anyone? If anyone is interested https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-what-optical-compression

That sums it up pretty much perfectly

Well, I haven't any specific plans, but I am pretty sure I will do by the time I finished! It is very enjoyable to do so it would seem unlikely that there wouldn't be.

No wall, but ready to hit the road in my trusted transit ( long base, double wheel btw) Happy days

I don't - holding a grudge is an important thing in life

Gentlemen, I can't help but admire your brickwork! I'm 2nd left circa 1994.

I am really enjoying the Wal tone on this video I did what just appeared on YouTube. It was di'd so this is the 'studio' sound.

Never seen the words 'stunning' and 'Bongo' in the same sentence before. However that does look rather pretty. The headstock shape does still remind me of Peppa Pig's head, though.

Ha! 1st thing I spotted too!

I would always try to give John Peel the benefit of the doubt with his myriad and eclectic discoveries, but what he saw in that song baffles me to this day.

Respectfulness is nice - I'll vouch for mine, whilst seconding the "that's bollocks" line. Having said that, about 50% of our current set is indeed pre-1985 - which is about when our singer was born so not sure of the relevance, really. I guess an underlying point, though, is that the band who've been peddling the same set for decades evidently have a singer who's learned the songs (though it may have taken him 30 years). It kind of relates to the old memes about "rehearsals aren't there for learning the songs, do that at home before you get there". Similarly, gigs certainly aren't for learning the words - you should be well past that stage by the time you're setting up down the pub.

Got Muse at their peak.

Love the finish, which is why my Maruschyk elwood is pretty much the same (apart from red), mat red with the black grain lines, in between songs i generally trace the lines while I am waiting for them to stop faffing (or the guitarist tuning between songs in gigs, can trace a lot of lines in that time).

SkinTrade. We had single of the week in RAW magazine, appeared on ITV but people had stopped making this sort of music around '91 / '92. We were still a couple of years behind the times. Good times. Sadly, I'm the only one who kept playing.

Ha! We also had a LWB Transit van photo, although it was a post-gig shot, our van was nicknamed 'Old Sh*tter' Before then I had a LWB Tranny of my own which in a previous life was an AA recovery van. It came to a sad end when parked outside my house one day and a bloke who had fallen asleep at the wheel of his car crashed straight into the front of it.

A good gig can be any of these in any combination but a great gig starts with. . . . a good band comprising good musicians, then. . . I played well, the band played well, the promoter and the audience loved it, there were no fights, the band are happy, I'm happy and the most important bit, we get rebooked and someone sees us and offers us a gig somewhere else. Oh yes, and we got paid. It's always a bonus when one of the other guys in the band ask me to join one of their side projects. Tick most of these boxes and it could be a great gig, tick them all and it definitely was a great gig.

Yep, can't beat a pleasant surprise. Played a pub in Bognor Regis - really no what to compare Bognor to for you @blue but it is a rundown seaside town that doesn't have a great reputation. Got to the pub - it was a strange Sunday early evening gig - 7 to 9. Pub had about 5 punters in. Joe Longthorne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Longthorne) was playing on the jukebox, and three people at the bar were discussing the merits of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin. We were due to play some blues-rock, having made our set a little heavier from what it originally was. Discussed this with the singer, and we decided to keep volume down, and kick off with a couple of lighter songs. Played the first song, and, from out of nowhere, the pub had filled up. Raucous applause for the first number, so we launched into the full set. People dancing from the second number, and the most amazing response we've ever had. Played the place once more - not quite as good, but still a great gig. Unfortunately the pub was yet another victim of the greedy Pub Co syndrome, and closed as the managers couldn't agree new lease terms.

I'm just gonna leave this here...

Agreed, you can never predict a great gig. You never know when it's going to happen, when the band, the crowd all come together. Yes, it's always a surprise for me when it happens. Blue

one where experience outweighs expectations (which is why I never have any expectations these days and am therefore rarely disappointed!)

But that’s what the server’s for!

Are you therefore telling us that your mighty Markbass combo is unable to handle the low B on your 5 string basses? 🤔🧐

First off, I adore the first bjork clip, that got me into her in a big way- seemed so unreal and interesting. Second, it’s a great shop window for unusual and off the beaten track stuff which is interesting but sometimes you just want some balls to the wall rock n roll. Jo Wiley remembers this episode the way I do, I think it was overloaded with rock, wolfmother and another I can’t recall, and the Foos come on at the end and go, enough’s enough, have some of this. Love it.

My little band, Illegal Tender. I like this picture.

How ironic would it have been if you had been playing “Achey Breaky Heart”?

I take a Y cable from the midi out. One side goes to the Strymon Big Sky and changes patches for me, either by a patch change on Helix or a snapshot on Helix. The other midi cable goes to my iPad interface and foot switches on Helix operate record, toggle and clear on the looper app I use. Midi channel 1 goes to iPad and channel 2 to Big Sky. So useful I also use a neat trick to play different steps of harmony on the Dual Pitch on Helix. I have setup four foot switches to change the harmony to 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th. Just play one note with the Ebow and hey presto.

I like the rustic look of this and like the idea of the rope look. Personally if I were going for the aged/rustic look I'd think about a burnished finish to maximise the grain effect. You could go the whole hog and find branches which could be used for a fully organic look.

This whole tribute act argument bores me to death, what's the problem? If you don't like it move on to something you do like; if I stopped to add comment to everything I didn't like I'd be typing for the rest of my like and never get off page one, the sooner you grow up and get on with life the better. We're all different, accept it, don't make yourself look inadequate by trashing everything you don't like. Like it or lump it, the market for bands is driven by audience demand, if they don't want to see it they won't pay and hence you don't get the booking. The universal truth for any group of musicians is; if you want to get on you have to give the audience want to hear what you have to offer or make the audience want to hear what you have to offer and no amount of whining or whinging will ever change that Very sorry about that, one of the few things that annoy me are people who like to put others down in any way, why not try and make them smile for a change?

I attempt to have gear that is a good match and sounds right when flat. Then I only need minor tweaks after that. Extreme EQing and many changes usually means I've bought the wrong gear.

I was a founding member, and spent 26 years, with a KISS tribute band. We wore the full outfits and boots (custom made and VERY expensive), had custom guitars made (and existing guitars customised) and took the musical/vocal/arrangement accuracy very seriously. To me, that's what makes a 'tribute' band, rather than a 'cover' band. I even went as far as to learn firebreathing and we filled our performances with the expected pyrotechnics too.... It all paid off though... We were the first KISS tribute to perform all over Europe & Scandinavia and played numerous international fan conventions too. Over the years we played with, played for and/or appeared with almost all original and latter members of KISS as well as appearing on both of Gene Simmons worldwide TV shows. We performed for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Def Leppard, headlined festivals and launched products (Volvo etc). We also performed at music 'trade shows', played Halloween at the Cafe De Paris in Monaco and toured Japan with The Bootleg Beatles, Counterfeit Stones, T-Rextasy and Royal Family (Queen show), gaining endorsements from Washburn, Ibanez, Cort and Spector along the way.... We even discovered that KISS were keeping up date with our performances and later found that a mid song breakdown/arrangement I had created had been adopted by KISS themselves in their live show! It was very hard work, but great fun and gave me life experiences that will stay with me forever. I also spent spare time in originals bands and cover bands over the years so have seen both sides.... Tribute haters gonna hate...... usually from their bedrooms...... but I guarantee I worked 10 times harder during every 2hr tribute show than haters ever have onstage....

Songs I really dislike? Dire Straits - Walk of Life Cher - Believe (one of the worst songs I've ever heard) Pretty much anything from the old Stock Aitken and Waterman stable in the late 80s. Fortunately I've never been asked to play any of those songs. In terms of songs I've had to play thru gritted teeth, anything by Oasis (I particularly hate Wonderwall and Cigarettes and Alcohol). But drunken punters go mad for it, and my previous guitar player loved them. No thanks.