Leaderboard

I'd estimate that 57% of BC threads are about: * One or more of my band mates are idiots and I hate them. Should (i) I talk to them about it (ii) leave the band (iii) kill them with a chainsaw? * There's no money in gigging anymore and even if there were my stupid front man keeps signing us up for charity gigs 200 miles away * Last time we played no one turned up and even if they do turn up they just ignore us * Look at this Musicians Wanted ad: the snarky little bastards are specifying 'must be under 30'. *Anyone else feel like selling all their bass gear and building a model railway in the shed? I rest my case. The thing I like about Mr Navigator is that despite being Canadian (and therefore by nationality a sunny optimist) its only taken him 14 days on BassChat to succumb to the British disease of gloomy defeatism and ingrained negativity. IMO, he's fitting right in: The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined, the Maple Leaf Forever.

Depends, some of the thrash bands I’ve been in required the selling of souls before the first rehearsal. I too voted remain.

There's the deal-breaker for me; tutus don't suit me any more.

Succumbed to GAS, not once but twice in quick succession... First up - Washburn Status S1000 secondhand from Rich Tone Music. 9.5/10 condition for a 30(?) year old bass - couple of dings on the body and that's about it. Washburn wood and real Status hardware. Phenolic fingerboard and overall sounds really good. Electronics are slightly weird. Neck pot is balance, middle pot is (notched) volume and bridge pot is active tone that appears to affect bass and treble (not spent much time looking up the details, but like what it does) Not the lightest - weighs in at 4.25kg (more than my EBMM Sterling which is only 4kg). Second, brand new Steinberger Spirit XT-2 in Hot Rod Yellow. Anyone who has seen certain other of my questions knows I like yellow basses - add that to my love of cricket bat basses and this was a no-brainer. Been through a few Hohner B2A, B2s and the like as well as a couple of 2015/16 (I think) Spirit XTs. The Hohners are always good, but the last XT-2 I bought was a complete dog that went back to the shop the same day - bad frets, poorly shaped body with with very square shoulders and bad radiusing of the edges, bad finish and... yeah, was really disappointed. This one is a 2018 re-release from Gibson and it's actually pretty good. Shape is correct, edges are nicely radiused and fit and finish is way beyond the last one. Only minus is a dodgy bit of finish on the heel, but nothing to cry about. Setup though... needs some work - action is very high, fingerboard is also very dry and could use some lemon oil. Pups are a bit weak but that could be somewhat down to the action. My intention is drop an EMG 2-band EQ into it at some point (and probably also replace the pups with real EMGs), but overall, very happy. (And edit to add in the Sterling which is relatively new to me and makes me happy as a clam... born 20th September 2013 (according to EBMM) - Pacific Blue Burst with the Maple neck.)

Bolt-on or Through-neck..?

At a gig a few weeks back our drummer’s wife did a Facebook live stream of one of our songs. As we start the song the guy just in front of the camera turns round to his friend and says, fairly audibly “Guitarist and drummer are good”. “What?” comes the reply. “I SAID, GUITARIST AND DRUMMER ARE GOOD. NOT SURE ABOUT THE REST...”.

20 innit...

And jimmy cliff

Methinks you have taken the pot pun to new depths of mirth... You should have quit while you were a head... (A couple walk into a bar carrying a suitcase. They sit down, open the suit case, take out a living human head and place it on the bar. “This is our son Marvin,” they tell the bartender. “He was born without a body. Today Marvin is 21 years old and we’ve come to celebrate, so drinks are on the house!” After the bartender served everyone one and they sang Happy Birthday, the mother carefully poured Marvin’s drink into his mouth. Suddenly, to everyone’s amazement, Marvin began to grow a full torso complete with arms and hands. “This is incredible” said Marvin, “Look, I’ve got arms and hands. I’m so excited, I’m going to buy another round of drinks for everyone!” Then Marvin said, “Look everybody I can now handle my own drink”! He lifted his glass and poured the second drink into his mouth. At that, he began to grow legs and feet; he was now a normal looking young man. As soon as his new feet appeared, he jumped to the floor and started dancing around the bar and ran out into the street where a huge lorry roared by, flattening him into the pavement, and killing him dead. His parents began to cry and the bartender looked down sadly at poor Marvin's crumpled frame and commented, “You know... He should have quit while he was a head.”)

I find a pair of light pink ballet shoes are just the ticket when tiptoeing across the endless carpet of animal faeces that threatens to overwhelm the major urban conurbations in Europe.

You don’t????

Fair enough, BreadBin.

I like my tea like I like my women. I pick them up in Asda.

Why not? I certainly would. I started playing bass not long before my 50s. My two bands 5 years later are both playing functions. Last night we made our drummer's dream come true when she was able to play at her own wedding reception in her wedding dress. It was a wonderful night. Life is for living. It doesn't need to end at 60.

Plenty of garden centres round by me to get as many pots as you like.

Not sure I’d want bryan’s DNA on *my* fingerboard

Teacher innit - no work tomorrow 🤨

We are only leaving the EU because their guitards insist on playing synth Europop all the time, and frankly, it’s beginning to grate now. Anyway, pass the tea there old chap

Speak for yourself. I have two. I even had a pair of shoes re-souled recently. I opted for “slightly cynical but romantic to the core” on my docs..

I have learned from this thread. I’m not joining a band in Canada. Not only do they shaft you, but the 3000 odd mile journey to rehearsals would be a killer.

Well, I guess its not hard to see why they wanted the old bass player back

Well, I’m 44 - best I give up next year for fear of being a sad old loser. Oh yeah, that’s right - IDGAF what anyone else thinks

StringNavigator dropping truth like bombs. He's totally nailed it.

Haha i know, every person ive spoken to so far has given me the cocobolo warnings between that and the wenge making every tool it touches as dull as a spoon this is going to be an interesting one. and i know what you mean about glueing it with titebond, the last time i tried it (even with acetone) it turned to powder. ive had some good results with epoxy before, as you say, and with the Gel CA glue that gorilla do also, so one of those will probably be the solution also, here are the designs for the neck inlays, i actually did these a while ago... quite ambitious i know, but i think they'll be effective. theyre off with Bruce wei in vietnam for laser cutting as we speak, so should be arriving soon!

I will be using a dark, thin veneer as the demarcation line for all of the major components. Even with this, I need to be careful that the woods I use are not on any endangered lists that US Customs might get sniffy about. So the veneer I am using might look a bit fancy for something that will never be seen, but it's walnut - not on any lists! Here it is next to the first strip - that will separate the wings and the neck - being glued to the neck blank: Pity the only bit of this below that will be seen is an edge-on 0.6mm strip... And with both sides veneered, the first wing is now being glued: You can see in that shot just how much wood will be removed when I carve the concave scoop down to the neck's surface...

I'm not bustling into the personal life of the OP, but he did openly ask for advice. I'm not one for platitudes as they are particularly worthless to a man who is in charge of his own destiny. I'm only writing the following because I'm retired and can recognise a mid-life crisis before it turns the corner. I've seen it in myself and in my friends. I have to say, you're not a bass player. You're a family man. You made the better choice long ago... There's nothing more sad than an old bass player trying to find a band... I would suggest that if one wastes their time and energy on band-people and their multitude of issues and problems, they will short change their family and jeopardise their real future. At 60, we ain't got long to go. If one has already built a life, the trick then is to maintain current status. People in bands are damaged people... This you can find out for yourself. Becoming a bass player at 60 in 2018 means one will never make money at it and will, quite frankly, be laughed at. Especially if we try to "gig". I've been playing bass and studying music for 50 years. And I'm talented. But there are still a million guitards out there who crave to micro-manage "their" bass players. And these guitards buy basses. They think they can already play bass because they play guitar! I play guitar, too. But I never mention it because the guitards get so jealous when they find out that a bass player can play guitar. Leave this to young people and the Rolling Stones. They spent their entire lives playing music as a professional band. I don't know how their personal lives fared, but at least when they cry, they are comforted by being rich. You don't want to be a poor man crying... Wives don't respect musicians, especially if it's their husband. I was recently used by a band of devious sexagenarians because their bass player attended a one year re-training course. Of course they never told me that... and when he secretly returned they said, "Oh! We're shutting down for a while to re-group." They never called back and are now playing again (for free...) with their old "friend/lodge brother". I surely don't miss these less than mediocre lads, especially after playing a bar where the young patrons, feeling a little short-changed, started screaming/chanting for Zep's "Moby D*ck"! (You know, the big, white whale...) This is just one example of "band people". Folks will say there are also good people playing in bands. Don't listen to them, they are stupid. Or they're band-people. As amateur musicians age, they become worse, as they have to live with failure until they become desperate little men who will hesitate at nothing to gain some weak measure of fame. An old man beginner will not become good enough to earn respect. This becomes more important as we age. One should play their strong suit. Can't read music either? Save the money for old age and family commitments. Don't we want to travel when we retire? All wives resent it. It alienates wives in a way that one will come to regret. Imagine if a wife suddenly took up a musical instrument near retirement age and had no time for cooking, cleaning or coddling... How would the husband feel? That bass is competing for family time. Maybe play along with CD's when bored. A sort of secret pastime, exploring the music of all eras. Forget bands... Charlie brews his own coffee... Jack doesn't...

My fretless is fanned but each fret is fanned in a different direction, that’s what I tell people anyway

Barry is still going strong, but is now based in Bagshot, mostly as a distributor and dealing with online sales. I popped in there a few years ago and had a great chat with him. He said they the Bass Centre simply couldn’t compete with online stores so changed their business model. We talked about the Bass Centre range and he told me about working with Bill Wyman when they built his Tribute Bass. As you can imagine, it was quite a story I told him one of my Bass Centre stories which seemed to please him (“I love hearing people’s Bass Centre stories”) and as we parted he gave me a free set of Elites Flatwounds...lovely guy

Link or it didn't happen 😉 😄.

I didn’t notice the boob. I was looking at the sadowsky... edit - certainly never sounds 3 sizes too big for her. I’m sure she never gives it a second thought...

Bit of a result, one that we really weren't looking forward to in a not particularly popular pub at the bottom of town. Expecting it to be dead and not particularly fun. Turned out to be exactly the opposite - very busy and everyone was up and dancing. At the end they asked us to play on but we are trying to trim the sets down to a reasonable time and everyone was baying for another encore, but we had done a couple, and leave them wanting more. Good night had by all, and not one, but two blokes afterwards came up and said they liked my bass playing. So I guess I am not as scary looking as blue. And one woman asked why we hadn't played pink floyd for a while, which is good as that is one I sing.

Me too!

No. You can register for VAT voluntarily as long as you are in business. The registration threshhold is the compulsory registration figure.

Fortunately I'm on holiday this week and will be at home anyway. My wife would have signed for it anyway if I wasn't home but that would have run the risk of her seeing the total value on the invoice before I got a chance to make it vanish. 🤪 😄😄😄

The perfect wedding gig at the perfect venue. Stunning location. Great food, great audience and the cherry on the cake was that we were on before the food and DJ We ate after the gig and including the 1 hour drive, was home at 10.30. Result.

It's a big decision. If you register as a limited company you will have to submit accounts to companies house every year and file a tax return. If you go VAT registered you will have to add vat to your price for every gig so you will need to add 20% to your fees to cover this. You will need liability insurance and insurance to cover loss or damage to your equipment. If you ask me, unless you are looking at turning over a decent amount £50k + then the cost of all the above will outweigh the benefit. I would be more inclined to stay as you are, let all members self assess for tax and keep it simple. If you want to make it a business then write a bloody good business plan. That will tell you far more about how viable it is than asking here.

I'm used to playing my ER Basses with all sorts of effects and goodies and they sound ace. This afternoon however I have been playing my (new) old Precision bass with nothing but me and amp. It sounds insanely good. I even tried out some of the effects that I am used to using live... nope, P bass just sounds amazing without. Really good. It reminds me of a sound I had in my head when I was younger (my first REAL P bass when I was 18). Happiness.

Maybe. It's just she was one of the best drummers I'd ever encountered either as a player or a punter. Tony Thompson's sense of groove married to Simon Philips technique, yet, when asked, laid down a totally convincing Tommy Ramone. But on the two occasions I could have worked with her she got knocked back by stupid, less talented people because she was a woman. Which would be bad enough except that she was rejected by a couple of SJW's and another woman - who you would think should know better. The only other thing that pi55es me off quite as much was when a 48 year-old, mediocre, munting covers band drummer rejected a brilliant guitarist because he was 60 and supposedly 'too old'. So, would I like to choke the living sh*t out of feeble hypocrites who stop me working with and learning from talented musicians? Damn right I would.

9 years cancer free today! Rock on!

Hey Guys! Just stumbled over this thread and thought I'd chime in a bit about what is unique about my JHB signature bass. After the Warwick 35 years celebration in September 2017, Warwick asked me what would it take for me to come onboard as an endorser. My answer was simple, "You have to make me a bass that I'll want to play forever!" I was imediately flown out to Germany to the Custom Shop and spent 4-days with their head designer going through all the details of what had to be in this model. It has to be said that the Warwick JHB is totally different to any other Warwick bass I have seen and/or played, and when I was at the factory, I played everything they had. The Fortress body shape was chosen for two reasons. Firstly, Warwick did not want to design a completely new body shape, they wanted it to be representative of one of their basses- that was the only restriction. I chose the Fortress because at 24 frets, it was the only body shape they do that balanced properly. The shape was cutomised slightly in that it had a deeper angled curved where the forearm goes across and deep scoops on the inside of both the upper and lower horns. One of the most radical changes made, was the use of a different bridge. Historically, Warwick has always used a 2-peice bridge which is highly adjustable, but I never liked the sound of those 2-peice bridges- too clickly and hi-fi sounding. Instead we used an All Parts 'Omega' bridge which is a copy of the Badass II bridge. Badass went out of business sometime ago and All Parts waited until their patent expired and have done an exact copy- IMO the best sounding bridge ever. This single customisation makes this bass sing head over heels compared to any other Warwick bass I've heard. I love the sound of the Aguilar Super Doubles. I had those in my Fodera, but that was something I switched out as the Fodera came with Seymor Ducans. I also wanted the EM Bass Mute, which is a switchable bass muting system which emulates the palm muting technique. The circuit was designed by me and Warwick did a terrific job in manufacturing that exactly to my personal specs. The body wood is swamp ash which is considerably lighter than the American Ash on the Fodera and has a much more agressive and responsive sound. There's an ultra-thin AAA Flame Maple top. This was crucial as a lot of basses are made with top woods that are too thick which messes with the sound. The neck is also completely different from the garden variety Warwick bass. For starters, it has 19mm spacing which was the first bass they've produced with this spacing. In addition the depth of the neck is super thin and instead of a "C" shape, it's more of an assymetrical shape much like a teardrop, where there's a little more weight at the low strings and less weight at the higher strings. While I was at the Custom Shop, I played the Lee Sklar model. Although I diddn't really like that bass, they used small madolin fretwire which was incredible, so we added that as well to the JHB. The neck is made from Flame Maple, with a Bird's Eye Maple fretboard. This was finished off with a graphite nut. The playabitlity is amazing and all in all Warwick has done a fabulous job in reproducing all of my original ideas about this wonderful instrument. So many people were shocked when they heard I had gone to Warwick, but when I posted the original sound samples people were amazed at how good this bass sounded. Many stating that it was a lot punchier than the Fodera. I did like the Fodera bass, but my JHB bass is so much better. This is the bass I use now. You'll see a lot of guys who have endorsements who will never play the basss they endorse unless they're at a trade show. Not me. From the very outset with Warwick, I said that the only way that I will work with you is that you knock this out of the park and build me something that I'll play forever! They in turn came up with the goods! Bavo Warwick!

An 800w headphone amp? Now that's excessive!

Most Warwick have 36 frets? - is this a serious post or trolling?

We have a few videos around. Usually they start recording half way through the second verse. Guitar solo comes and you get a shot of the back of someone's head, the video'ers feet; some random people dancing. Then they decide to switch to landscape and we all play on our sides for a few bars until they stop videoing half way through the final verse. ... and they still post them online and tag you for good measure

Two questions to ask yourself. Is your life ever perfect? Answer - No. Have you survived that imperfection? Answer - Yes. There you go then.

Hang on now, you have to be careful with your language here. The shape was officially licensed by Warwick, nothing wrong with that! Si

You beat me to it Tony! 😀 Highly recommended and a very nice guy too. A++++++