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Obviously there are the usual contenders like Peaches, Rhythm Stick, Dancing In the Moonlight etc, but many of mine will have come from Chris Squire. We've already had Close to the Edge (or part of it), so I'll throw in this:

Ok let's have another crack at this in a less flippant manner. I was engaged at the age of 18, and had a mortgage at 19. By the age of 20, while most of my friends were out partying, going on holiday, buying flash cars etc, I was working upwards of 80 hours a week just to try and survive. My family had moved away from our home town so I had no support network. I was exhausted, severely depressed and just trying to survive. I didn't have time for playing, or even listening to music, and had long since sold all my equipment to pay bills and keep my car on the road just to get to work. Three years later this really came to a head when I split with my fiance, lost my house, and came very close to suicide, all at the ripe old age of 23. Now I'm 43. Extremely happily married for the last 10 years (actually been together for 17) and we've worked extremely hard to get where we are now against all the odds. Including a back injury which put me out of action for 2 years just when I was getting back on my feet, the loss of my second home as a knock on effect from that, more financial problems than I could list, and hardly surprisingly, given the situation, my own ongoing battle with depression. I finally got out of the rat race 3 years ago and moved to Bulgaria. We've just moved into our very own home after spending the past 3 years working our fingers to the bone renovating it. It's hard to explain how much this means as most people take a home for granted. But I've spent most of my life working 60+ hours a week just to pay someone else rent, and for a few years had to live in caravans and motor homes because I couldn't even afford to do that. Now we have a beautiful home that's all ours, no mortgage, no rent, and more importantly no one can take it away. I've just started playing bass again because it's the first time I've had the time to do it since I was 17. I'm not a great (or probably even good) player. I still don't have the money for flashy equipment, but to have the time and freedom to play again is just amazing. I've just started playing in a band for the first time since I left school. So while some people yearn after their youth. You can keep it, because for me everything after about 18 was a living hell. I'm happy to be in my 40's. In fact, I've literally never been happier.

Dialing in the beast.

another 'memorable' gig I just remembered, back in 1981 when we'd just started playing (I use the term loosely) we had a benefit gig for some unemployment rally, I think they were recreating the Jarrow Hunger March, anyway, our singer decided to stir things up by saying "We're glad Bobby Sands is dead" or something like that, unaware that there were some Irish Republicans in the crowd, we were quickly shown the back door as we came off stage and I can still see the drummer running up the road with all his (small) kit stuffed into the bass drum. I wasn't far behind and the singer had long gone

That covers about 33.3 % of the gigs I've ever played, apart from two gigs where nobody ignored us because there was nobody there to ignore us. Of these two zero audience gigs one took place in a 500 capacity dance hall at Hangar Lane. Fantastic natural slap echo from the back wall so not entirely a wasted evening. The other was a pub in North London where the landlord fed us dinner and two band members got food poisoning from his dodgy chicken. The worst gig ever was a working man's club near Daventry where I had a trapped nerve in my back and I was off my face on codeine and beer, the front man preceded our full band set by doing karaoke renditions of songs like 'Born Free', the pensioner guitarist went f**king crazy in all the quiet bits, the drummer mistakenly played a country shuffle beat under Route 66 and between every friggin' song a punchy, aggressive, drunken Neanderthal kept trying to get his spotty daughter up with us to 'sing along'. I thought to use the elevation granted by a four foot high stage to kick the annoying bastard in the head but the others stopped me because they were 'regulars' at this club. Afterwards I just wanted to burn the place down and everyone in it. I'm better now.

This is something that has come out of a bit of a challenge that came up in another thread. @Bassmingo has a nice Squier and described the neck as "classic ski jump". Well, I've fixed a few of those so I said, "That's fixable" etc, etc... So as a result the neck arrived here today. After unpacking it seems the truss rod works fine. I can get it straight and to back-bow with the truss rod. What's not so clever is the twist in the neck. The twist must be something like 4-5 degrees. Well, have to say, I know How these can be fixed, but I've never done one yet. So here we go. As it is @Bassmingo was expecting this neck is a write-off, so nothing to loose here. Conveniently I've got a nice chunk of kitchen worktop as a bench for this. So I've clamped the neck to the worktop. Put a block under the neck, near the nut, and after fitting a tuner head I've connected a string to apply the twisting tension.

Just got back home from P.M.T. Leeds with my new US Elite Jazz & I am so pleased with it,I can't stop grinning. It was a tough call between the black & the natural Ash bass,took me over an hour to make my mind up,but I made the right choice - I think. It's my 50th birthday bass but just over a year late 😁

Always this:

I’ll throw my Elwood L into the mix.

There are not many bass lines that can match (Imo) this absolute classic. it seems very simple to the ones posted before, but I think its a bass line that make people tap there feet more. And isn't that what a bass line should do.? I think the former posted above are more bass performances than a solid bassline.

Ok, just bought one of these as been thinking of going wireless for a while, but didn`t want to have a unit that has to be plugged in to the mains as sometimes sourcing another plug socket on the hoof can be challenging. Enter the Boss WL20, two little units, one in your bass, one in your amp/tuner/DI/whatever, and you`re good to go. 50ft line of sight range, 2.3ms latency, automatically scans 14 frequencies and selects the best one just by connecting the two together, so no fiddly settings etc. This is the main reason I went for this one over the cheaper Xvive U2 as with that one you have to pair the two units and with my rotten middle-aged eyesight seeing small setting controls in dimly lit venues is another challenge, and one I don`t wish to accept. Plus Boss, well pretty much an industry standard. Ok the batteries apparently have a shelf-life of two years and can`t be changed so it`s buy another kit in two years time, but at £160 for two years use, well for me that works out to approx. £2 per gig on 40 gigs per year, less than the cost of a diet coke in most venues. I`ll update with my findings on the actual use but a mate of mine has one and I`ve seen him use it and it`s worked fine for his band.

+1 for Sennheiser. Decent sized ones will give better low end, and most have replaceable foam and cables.

Speaking of Zender, this is one of mine (and one of several of his):

Dido's Lament , from Henry Purcell's opera Dido And Aeneas Hit the charts in 1689 Edited to add : - Or any Lament Bass . Wikipedia has a list of more examples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lament_bass

Very nice! Think you made the right decision on colour. Dare I say natural looking ash finishes to me can look a little dated. Classic black looks alot fresher and has a certain classy look.

A good set of Sennheiser's will last for years.

A bit more Jamiroquai. Jamiroquai's first album was actually a bit of a turning point in my musical tastes. Before that I was mainly listening to rock and metal, this helped me to realise that there was so much more out there. Plus the bass was phenomenal.

Bruce's always stand out for me. and some JJ. This one was always a way to test my new stereo systems

Ive decided its going to be a bright yellow with the black plate ala Dingwall, should stand out a bit 🤣

I used to play in a soul/disco band with brass etc and it was a reasonable sound. Our guitarist and sort of promoter and general gig-getter is harmless but a shameful liar when it comes to getting gigs and would feed venues all kinds of nonsense unbeknownst to the rest of us. He booked us out as a “top northern soul band” at a venue and they had promoted the whole night as a Northern Soul event so it wasn’t a good start. There were maybe 25 people in a very big bar/venue and you could hear everyone moaning between songs that we were playing Chic and sister sledge etc as well as the obvious Commitments type soul songs and the organiser wasn’t happy either. To add to the horror, we had a new-ish drummer who was in his 60’s and taught drums. Rehearsals had gone well but when it came to the gig he didn’t know the tempo or rhythm for any of the songs. Before each song I had to remind him and seeing as I was on joint lead vocals it wasn’t conducive to swift song changes. To my utter embarrassment on several occasions I had to stop him after the whole band had started because he was playing way too fast or basically rock beats under disco. On one occasion I had sang him the start of the song, he said he remembered and played it completely the wrong beat. I stopped him again and played the beat and tempo out to him, on my leg and he said “I’ve got it” and then played the exact same WRONG beat he had just been doing. I tried him once more as it was normally our best tune and he still fudged it so we moved on. I just wanted there to be a sniper in the back of the room to just put me out of misery right there and then.

Many people on BC understand not only some of the traits, but really everything you've written, my friend. You're a hero, and I don't write that flippantly. Yes, humour is a life saver indeed. We see that again and again. Depression and bad luck survivors tend to have humour in spades. I wish you all the best! Bert

This morning I gave the tuning head another small turn or 3. The first small turns were quite easy to turn. The tuning head still isn't quite grounded on the worktop. I then got the clothes iron out again and gave it another heat up through a cloth. Looking at the progress, it's looking like it's getting pretty flat. I'm expecting the frets will need levelling, but It's looking a lot better than it was yesterday, not that I'd want to take the clamps off yet.

Pino's playing on this is wonderful:

Never enough mention of Jack Casady in topics of this sort, so here, for balance, is a tiny glimpse of his talents ...

This always gets mentioned whenever this question is asked. Probably because it's perfect.

What's the betting JPJ never played Lemon Song exactly the same twice!!?

Just remembered about this! Cutting it fine 😅 I'll be along with an array of lefty gear as per usual! Gear I'll be bringing: - Sire V7 (as always), Warwick Corvette, my new Overwater Hybrid Custom! - A Down size on the rig with Aguilar TH500 and PJB C4 I'll most likely have my Warwick combo (CCL 210) with me too which I've bought on previous years but I'm now trying to sell it. Special 1 day only BC price of £180 (have been listing it as £210) Look forward to seeing y'all!

This ones not actually mine but the guitarist i play with.. Late 70s or early 80s and the band were a kinda hippy prog affair all very peace and love and right on [think Neil from the young ones x 5] they are booked to play a pub in Beds [ i think Luton ] ,unknown to them they share a name with a hardcore racist skinhead band [i think it was something to do with Swedish mythology] well before they even got to play a note the disappointed racists decided to kill all hippy's ,guitarist says they were petrified and trying to hide behind the gear at the back of the stage the bass player had already taken a slap, at this point seemingly from out of nowhere entered a load of enraged rastas who proceeded to beat the crap out of the now retreating skinheads ... it turns out a local soundsystem were having a get together next door and came to the rescue ... although it could of been the worst gig it turned out to be the best in many ways 😁

Played a really weird bar in Teignmouth, actually the basement room of a dodgy hotel, the landlady is a real eccentric, used to be a high ranking barrister in London, now a bit of an aggressive p1sshead. Only people who listen to us are her, the barman with no teeth and her "boyfriend", a real chancer who sat with a large albino lizard on his head (really). She got arrested the following week for trying to set a former (disgruntled) employees house on fire, the Hotel is now closed. https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/teignmouth-hotelier-dubbed-female-basil-862735#

That sounds like all my gigs!

Thanks. It's extremely difficult to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it, whereas those who have will instantly recognize at least some of the traits in themselves. Luckily, and perhaps amazingly, through it all I somehow managed to keep my sense of humour. I'm sure that has saved my life on several occasions.

Knowing how utterly debilitating depression can be I have nothing but respect for your determination and dedication. To get yourself where you are is tough enough, to do it in the teeth of such a viscous illness is unimaginably difficult.

Mirror scratch plate on a black bass.. Nice.

So you rehearsed it in a couple of keys and performed it in a couple of keys. Perfect. Another job well done!

Fixed. Sorry to be a Spelling Nzi.

Just purchased this ashdown combo + 210t deep cab, got it for an absolute bargain price, yep I'm really pleased with the sound of ashdown !!!

Made the mistake earlier of listening to/watching Vulfpeck's "Dean Town" again earlier. F**k it. I give up.

Great bass playing.

I would almost dare any band to start jamming to this and keep it under 10 minutes.

Sarf Lundon wedding - I'd not packed the loudspeaker leads (!) so used some odd bits of cable at the venue = atrocious sound. Atmosphere somewhat tense between the guests & after about half an hour some geezer comes up & asks how much I'm getting paid. He stumps up the readies & advises me to leave as 'it's abaht to get a bit ruff in 'ere' I left before the fight (just). 😎

Mine is a wedding gig too. We're not a wedding band by any sense of the term. Typical story. The wedding couple were fans of the band and booked us. They never considered their guest we're not fans of us or live music. The event was held in the basement of a Church, the guests sat at card tables. Not a high end event. We were completely ignored. It was like the band was inaudible and invisible. We served no purpose being there. Nobody and I mean nobody even spoke to us. Longest 4 hours of my life. Blue

The wedding many years ago. I don't know what events took place beforehand, but our trio very nearly outnumbered the guests! Another wedding, the brother of the groom hospitalised his dad by giving him a good kicking. We were locked in the venue for about 2 hours while police investigated the crime scene and we didn't get paid for about 2 months afterwards. We don't do weddings any more

Well those were work in progress pics. I think it turned out a little better in the end. But considering the break was not just one clean snap and had multiple places that needed attention I was pleased. Especially as the break was right over where the truss rod acts! If it was a painted or heavily lacquered finish the repair would be completely invisible. Anyhow glad I could help. And get a very good action to boot.

Well my neck has been fixed! and good. Setup with a low action, plays perfectly. I would just like to thanks Twincam for all his hard work in saving this neck, I'm blown away with his expertise, highly recommend him. Thanks Aidan.

Not mine anymore but it's blue ('ish)

Worst gig, you say..? Well, I've got a few to choose from... An old Manic Street Preachers type band I played with many years ago, was tricked into playing a bikers wake. Various chapters spent the night glaring angrily at each other and completely ignoring the band. The only reason they weren't knocking lumps out of each other was because they'd agreed on a truce up until midnight. We crammed an hour-long set into 50 minutes, got off stage at 11.50 and literally threw all our gear into the van and sped off. We'd been travelling about 6-7 minutes when we saw about half a dozen cop cars speeding towards the venue... Or there was the gig in Bolton where we travelled from Brum in the snow to play to about six people. Uncharacteristically, I got blind drunk and played a chunk of the set lying on a bannister rail at the top of some stairs with a 30 ft drop to my right. After the gig, we were interviewed by the music guy from the local paper. Unfortunately, I picked up his tape recorder, started singing Judas Priest songs into it, then slammed it onto the beer-soaked table, thus breaking it. I'm not sure if he ever printed the piece... Or the wedding gig where the two families absolutely hated each other. No one danced apart from the bride and groom (who were lovely). Instead, every few minutes, a group from one side of the room would march across the dance floor and have a little scuffle with some "opposing" guests before skulking back to their side of the room. As we were packing up, the police were called to stop a fight between an incredibly drunk and belligerent lady and an equally over-refreshed guy in a wheelchair. Pretty evenly matched, I'd say. We do it because we love it, right? Right?

We had one in Liverpool in the early 90s, two bands, promoter/manager blowing smoke up our behinds etc. Thing was he quite literally did nothing to promote it, not even a flyer. Consistently nobody turned up, and I mean nobody ! Free practice with a lighting rig if nothing else !

Compare and contrast with the Jessye Norman offering on 'Tube. Often, less is more..! Thanks for posting; Good Stuff; class.

I do love this one... And this one too... The fabulous Johnny Gus on bass. Finally there is this cracker too...