Leaderboard

Still got the final shaping to finish, but grabbed a spare moment to do a few of the smaller jobs. I cut some swifts: Cut the control chamber cover from another offcut of the top wood: And fitted the tuners and bridge to pop on some strings, just tightened enough to straighten them, so that I can work out the exact positions of the PJ pickups before the scary bit of cutting the chambers: I will be sinking the bridge in so that the plate is flush with the top as I did with @Len_derby 's - but that and the pickup routs will wait a day or so while I make a bit more progress on @eude 's 6-er

good evening chaps, update went to rehearsal tonight,did not take any gear and was the last to arrive, normally I am first as I like to have a noodle just to get myself up and running, so when I walked in they all just looked oh dear, anyway,I said I need a few minutes from everyone and they all stopped, after explaining myself for a few minutes saying exactly how I feel and all the other things I said on here, everyone to be fair listened to all my points and agreed things were wrong,and that it would change,the guitarist got a bit arsey until he realised that the guys agreed with me,at which point he backed down and said he was sorry and had everyones best interests at heart, then said we need to speak more as a band regards all aspects of the music, how would I want to go forward,to which I said they need to have a conversation with me not there to discuss all my points, at that point I left and came home, picked up the fretless and played some john martyn nice thankyou all again for the advice it did help

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46383617 What exactly do they imagine they are protecting it from, I wonder? "Other cultural traditions which made the list included a Spanish riding school in Vienna, a Mongolian camel-coaxing ritual and Czech puppetry." - If I told them once, I told them a hundred times, put reggae music first, then the Czech puppet show.

Fixed.

Does this mean that soldiers in blue berets are going to be dispatched to escort fat middle aged white blokes off stage for playing UB40 covers badly?

Boy George had lost his big hat.

Done and shipped to Hamburg. Big Ferrules! I procrastinated for a week before destroying a perfectly good finish. I'd done relics but on factory finishes and it was before I seriously started building. It was fun for a change but probably not something I'll do again.

Bedders has a great style, and usually pretty high in the mix. When we played The 100 Club Madness had been there the night before and their names were on the coat hangers - I simply had to hang my Harrington on Bedders’ coat hanger!

Are you looking for songs that will keep your band booked? Or bass lines that will keep you ‘challenged’? The overlap is minimal! Lol Si

Update This is not a cure for sticky flats, it was a shocking idea, my balls remained fresh and fragrant throughout the gig, however my fingers felt like they were playing sand paper all night, knacker lacquer is not for bass strings..... it’s for knackers....

I'm not aware of being able to apply more than one MIDI note to a footswitch, someone correct me if I'm wrong. There are ways round that though. I have a patch that I use to play the root and whatever additional pitch I select with it, all at the same time. Plays a two note chord from one note. Great with the Ebow. That uses the 'dual pitch' effect. Very easy to set up. I have it set to play the root with 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th. I don't know if that's what you mean. Anyway here's a vid of it in practice.

I really can't stand this kind of carry on. Mind blowingly unnecessary. They all seem to follow a pattern - simply ruin a track with meaningless orchestral flourishes where they detect there should be an accent. Taking old rock and roll, it's doing to it exactly what rock and roll wasn't! To me, it's like taking the Mona Lisa and drawing a dirty great 'tache on it, or worse! 🧔

oh well, I'm off to see Katrina (she, of The Waves) on Friday. A small theatre, walking (on sunshine) distance from my house

I was at uni with an Italian guy who was aghast the first time he witnessed someone making a cup of instant coffee.

Is it just me, or is Gibson's entire guitar range essentially just the same pickup configuration mounted on a different slab? I've had this conversation over on Guitarchat, where there seems to be some consensus that LPs somehow sound different from SGs with the same pickups, but nobody challenged the idea that nearly all their guitars are basically a neck humbucker and bridge humbucker with a 3-way switch. Very little variation, apart from the occasional triple-humbucker novelty. At least if you're collecting Fenders, the electronics are different between a Strat, Tele, Jag, Jazzmaster, etc. Apart from looks, why would I bother buying a Flying V if it's electronically the same as an SG? It seems a little ironic that there's more obvious variation in their bass pickup configurations (see T-birds, "SG" basses, Rippers - and surely the Grabber's sliding pickup was ahead of its time?). Such a shame that their refusal to build more five-strings just makes them look like dinosaurs who refuse to accept that fives are actually quite commonplace these days. The more recent EB designs seemed like a step in the right direction, and if Mike Lull can stick a low B on a Thunderbird shape, what's stopping Gibson? Monkey Steve (see above) can't be the only potential customer this has cost them!

The hat was doing another gig elsewhere. It's actually more famous than George.

I quite like the “penny” finish...

How important?!?!?!?!? As the song said - 'If you have to ask, you'll never know'. Yes, I am that bass player that stands BEFORE the bride at the buffet.

This is all very posh. I play pubs not functions or weddings. The only time I've been fed was at a rough pub in Linwood (struggling, de-industrialised place outside Glasgow) where it was a teenager's funeral. Halfway through the night they put a board over the pool table and covered it in boxes from the chip shop - sausages, random kebab meat, spare ribs, pizza and about half a ton of chips. They told us to tuck in and we did. Second set was snoozy and greasy, but we were happy. Later that night two middle aged women started knocking lumps out of each other. We just played on, and loaded out later through a haze of blue lights - the police had the place surrounded as a precaution at chucking-out time.

Depends whether they cater for vegans.

To me, it's everything. More important than the money, the job or the music. But on a serious note, I've yet to play that type of gig where the hosts haven't invited us to mingle and tuck in to some grub in between sets. It's a nice surprise and not something we'd ever take as a given. A stacked plate at half time makes us feel like part of the occasion rather than hookers with musical instruments. It gives us hope in humanity and raises our game to new heights in the second set.

I am but a simple man, I didn't understand a word of that or how it would serve to protect the integrity of a musical genre.

What an amazing looking amp this will sound absolutely - Ah, wait. Class D. Will be crap then. When is this sort of thinking going to go away? Stop listening with your eyes, people.

Well, that's at least three of us not fans of the relic look...🤨 😣 But, there's no denying you've done a great job to make that bass look well used, really nicely done, and some interesting techniques 👍

We went over to his home town in Italy (Lecce) last year to do some gigs, and I'll never forget the look of head-shaking disappointment on his face when I suggested one afternoon we pop into McDonalds for a quick bite...we didn't go in... 😕🙂

You name it, he doesn't like it...and we've played some very very well-catered weddings...the last but one we played was at a very nice hotel somewhere in Leicestershire, and the food was from the restaurant...I thought lobster and truffle ravioli might raise an eyebrow, but nope...

Typical Fender, the instruments are out in shops before there is any official acknowledgement that they officially exist, they really are a useless bunch. In such a big corporation with such a huge amount of resources, why cant they find someone to update their website. The original link I found has disappeared but I have pinched this from a chap on Talkbass: "I asked about more details on the Yosemite pickups, he said that they don't have all the marketing info together since this series isn't supposed to be released until January. Retailers have been selling them when they're not supposed to and they're trying to get it all together faster, the customer relations dept hasn't even seen them yet" Here's the specs: Colors: (0198600300)3-Color Sunburst (Rosewood Fingerboard) (0198600380) Arctic White (Rosewood Fingerboard) (0198602302) Satin Lake Placid Blue (Maple Fingerboard) (00198602384) Penny (Maple Fingerboard) Gloss Polyurethane, Satin Polyurethane (302) Body: Alder Neck: Maple, Modern “C”, Neck Finish:Satin Polyurethane Fingerboard: Maple or Rosewood, 9.5” (241 mm) FRETS: 20, Jumbo Scale Length: 34” (864 mm) Nut: Synthetic Bone, 1.625” (41.3 mm) Hardware: Nickel/Chrome Machine Heads: Fender® “F” Light-Weight Vintage-Paddle Keys with Tapered Shafts Bridge: 4-Saddle Vintage-Style with Steel Saddles Pickguard: 3-Ply Black/White/Black Pickups: Yosemite™ Single-Coil Jazz Bass (Bridge), Yosemite™ Split Sin-gle-Coil Precision Bass (Middle) Pickup Switching: N/A Controls: Volume 1. (Middle Pickup) Volume 2. (Bridge Pickup), Master Greasebucket™ Tone Circuit (Rolls Off Highs without Adding Bass) Strings: Fender® USA Bass 7250M, NPS (.045-.105 Gauges) Case: Deluxe Gig Bag, P/N 0991522000 MARKETING COPY: Born in Corona, California, the American Performer Precision Bass delivers the exceptional tone and feel you expect from an authentic Fender—along with new, player-oriented features that make it even more inspiring to play. The American Performer Precision Bass includes the Yosemite™ split-coil Precision Bass middle pickup and a growling Yosemite single-coil Jazz Bass bridge pickup, designed for rich, expressive tones. With flat-staggered pole pieces to increase output and a shellac potting that lets the coils breathe while controlling feedback, Yosemite pickups produce dynamic sounds ideal for any musical situation. The American Performer Precision Bass also features Greasebucket™ tone circuitry that lets you shape your highs without adding bass, preserving your sound. The “Modern C”-shaped neck sports a 9.5”-radius fingerboard that’s comfortable for almost any playing style, along with 20 jumbo frets, allowing you to easily express yourself musically.

Me too! Entwistle was responsible for my love of flash and technique, but Bedders and John Deacon planted the seed, without me realising it at the time.

I’ve played one stage where having that setup on one edge would have lifted the other edge up!

This is pointless nonsense. There are as many styles of Reggae as there are people playing it. Music is fixed when it is recorded. When it is played live it changes. Musical forms, styles and genres don't stop progressing and evolving just because a bunch of politicians want to make a statement.

I did. I bought an EB5 when they were reduced to £400 - It was a good bass, but not for me as the string spacing was too much. At £400 it was a good price. I have an Epiphone Thunderbird too, the through neck with the Gibson pickups. If the Gibson one had been a £100-200 or so more, maybe I would have bought that, but it wasn't, it was way over double. Thats a lot for a badge. But I saw Placebo - and they played a load of them.

It was having an affair with Jamiroquai

Does anybody actually buy Gibson basses. I can't remember the last time I saw someone playing one...

Who did you order it through? I love the configurator and was thinking about ordering something along the lines of this but wasn't sure who to order through, bassdirect maybe? Not a glamour shot by any means, but this is the guitar has set me on my current Sandberg lust... My VT4.

Our guitarist used to work most Sundays after he got divorced, if we played a function on a Saturday or any day for that matter really he used to take a packed lunch from the buffet, he even had a roll of tin foil in his kit bag! From every venue he did this he took a plate and another plate on top then wrapped it all in foil, in the end he had to start throwing the plates away as his cupboards were too full at home. If there was a hog roast he'd wrap two full buns in his foil and put them in the back of his Fender Twin to keep warm for after the gig. He even slept for free at the hotel one night as they used to give us a room key to the nearest room to the function room as a store for empty cases etc!

Despite my being part of the half-century+ demographic, one of the bands I've seen this month (twice, in fact!) is Lifesigns, who are relatively new - their first album was released in 2013 and they've only been gigging since 2014. Not sure though if they count, being not-exactly youngsters themselves - their bassist (the delightfully batsh!t Random Jon Poole) is their youngest member at 49! I do think though, a perfect example of the irrelevance of age in music & creative arts, IMO Lifesigns are by far the best new(ish) band I've heard in years, and quite joyous (not to mention hilarious) live.

So he’s a knob then

The lead guitarist probably thinks that his is an important , integral part of the song...….he is wrong. I played in a band where the lead guitarist left and we just carried on playing gigs. We even carried on covering All Right Now...with no lead break. Nobody ever made any comment ...they just all sang along with the chorus as usual and we continued to get re-booked. In short…..ignore him.😜

Rory Gallagher's battered strat?

Excellent - another @Jimothey build!

So hard to say, I've had an old German for nearly 20 years and done very little to it other than a soundpost tweak every few years however old basses can be a nightmare, my mate's bass has a sunken front and sounds like it might be a write off and he's put best part of 2k in repairs into it in the last 5 years Sorry not a very helpful answer I know but I'd say get any potential purchase looked over by someone knowledgeable