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To my utter amazement it's not metaphorically, no. We're doing 18 EU and UK dates as baby support for Pink this summer; UK dates are two nights in Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool, and two nights at Wembley. I'm as baffled as everyone else to be honest but pretty sure our agent is getting a pay-rise this year.

I think Lee Sklar has the answer...

As mentioned earlier, I think the bassline should serve the song. Sometimes root notes are all that is needed. One of the worst sins a bass player can commit ( in my opinion, of course, others are available and equally valid) is to overplay. So I'll happily play anything in the spirit of the arrangement we've come up with, even if it's simple and repetitive. I just relax and think of myself as playing tuned percussion

I bought this; Just awaiting delivery...... Replacing my OLP

He sounds bloody awful most of the time, why would anybody want this? [runs away]

Following on from the end of last year's tour - this Saturday sees the biggest gig of my playing career. Not bad for an old duffer! We'll be on the Introducing Stage at the Great British Rock & Blues Festival in Skegness. Anywhere between 600 and 1,000 proper die-hard music fans there for the likes of 9 Below Zero, FM, Saxon and many others. Good fun this original music lark!

Over 65 only? Even when I’m 64?

Not a funky green colour, and no matching headstock either, but a seriously good bass nonetheless!!

It's quite difficult to make a '72 Jazz sound awful, too...

Long top horns generally mean decent balancing on the strap. I always regard the button somewhere between 12th and 13th fret as being in the Goldilocks zone. As @eude says, a long bottom horn helps if playing over the knee.

We'll be covering approx 6000 road miles in just over four weeks and there will be a huge amount of downtime apart from the twenty minutes a day we're onstage so I was planning to take a laptop and do some writing anyway, but I'll keep a gig diary of sorts on here if anyone would be interested in the more performance-related aspects of that kind of show.

We'll be avin' a party for yer dahna Queen Vic when yer gets aht. Big cake, stripper n'orl.

Are you guys actually bass players? Call Me The Breeze and every thing else by JJ Cale, has great, simple and effective bass lines that push the song along perfectly. Never Met A Girl Like You, anything by U2, Status Quo or ZZ Top and many others. . . all simple bass lines that are nothing by themselves but are exactly right in their place. If the bass line is good for the song then it's a good bass line.

i think it's about time we started getting excited about this... They have started releasing pictures and a bass demo on their instagram, and it looks like they are going with the small one series format. Id have preferred a large format, but if the depth/range of their other pedals is anything to go by, its going to be awesome!

Just want to say how great it was dealing with Bass Direct a couple of weeks ago. I had a hankering for a new bit of kit but was literally drowning in old gear that I never had the time to get sold. After sending some pics I had trade in prices for everything and a day later hit the road from the South Coast to get it all gone! Decent prices given and I drove away very happy with my new acquisition! So if you are in the market for a MarkBass rig for all gig sizes, Darkglass effect, Phil Jones Earbox, cute and great sounding Ampeg mini stack or even a lovely Takemine acoustic then visit their site and do a deal - I thoroughly recommend the effort! Thanks guys!

I am glad to find another bass forum. The world is getting smaller and just because we are not located in the same country, I look forward to research, discussions, buying and selling, etc. I am a more "mature" (older) player with pro touring experience. I grew up in the Chicago area and made a career for 10 years playing on radio/tv jingles and being a staff bass player at theaters for the Broadway shows that would perform in Chicago. I accepted an offer to go on the road touring with Andrew Lloyd Webber's concert tour and after that went on to tour with CATS (9 years), Phantom of the Opera (1 year), Shoji Tabuchi show in Branson (2 years) and finally Les Miserables (8 years) all continuously with no breaks. I also did my share of bar bands, wedding and corporate bands. I graduated from Indiana University as a music major. Currently I am performing at a dinner theater (6 shows a week) in the Phoenix area (Mesa, Arizona).

Beatles? I only ever listen to the Quarrymen.

There’s a fender Bassman 100t in the for sales that look great. 100w all tube head not too heavy, modern tech vintage tones! If I had the cash I’d buy this immediately! Enough ‘volume’ to get the power amp valves working just where you’d want them.

Depending on how diy electronics you are, the following website looks useful. TR1 and TR2 are TO92 packaged BF423 about 12p each. Lots of good pics and even better ,big pcb tracks and full size components. Repair heaven https://www.circuitsonline.net/forum/view/121282/1?query=doe+hand&mode=or Output mosfets can be found, they seem pricey or modern alternatives https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/parts/9502-j50-k135-mosfet-replacments.html https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ECF10P20-ECF10N20-BUZ900-BUZ905-PAIR-TRANSISTOR-TO-3-SOLD-IN-PAIR-/192263936928 it will be £45 to £50 for two pairs. Sorted, this will be an amp for life let me know if you want to send it to a good home....

I’m already a fat c*nt meant the priory didn’t i? stupid c*nt too.

That's got to be the most hideous mismatched colour body/scratchplate combo I've ever seen

Yeah, never been a fan of his bass tone. Sounds good up the neck but on the low notes it's just a horrible mid range fart. Still compared to his singing it sounds glorious.

Bit off topic but here's how a proper P with J pickups should look and sound, Jeff Andrews likes this configuration. I'm not sure what the green one is that he's playing right now (looks like an Alleva headstock maybe?), but in the video he plays a battered old Fender. I'm not a big fan of the fusion stuff he was known for but I love his playing and tone.

I think you can be "into the Beatles" at any age. Blue

Just a quick update regarding the Basswitch Sonic Spark. It arrived yesterday and i had a play around last night, only on headphones though. To my ears its close to the VPF filter on Markbass heads, but its also sweepable so the dip can be moved. Also similar to a BDDI i guess, without real EQ controls or the set dip in the mids. Adding in the overtones/harmonics then warms it all up a bit. Both work independent, but the Enhance is also effected by how the Tone is set. dialling back in the original signal allows for more mid control. Quite cool for a 4 knob box. There is no over the top colouring, its not trying too hard to replicate an Ampeg amp, but there is definitely an added depth and width to the tone, and the harmonics seem to let the notes poke through without sounding harsh and bright. My COG 66 seems to love it, it sounds lot more meaty using my usual settings. It can get close to how i use my BDDI if i want it to, but i think id need more EQ options to use ti like that. Its a very powerful output. This being the case i have my Spectradrive at the end of the chain to tame things if they get out of hand. At least, thats how i perceive it. Next week ill get to use it with my rig, but i can already tell its going to be a keeper. Its not a major effect, just something that will sit there on all the time. Definitely taken over from the BDDI for now.

That's great news @Mykesbass ! Hope you have a great time. I'll be at the festival too with my band The Achievers at Jak's stage on the Sat. eve. Really looking forward to it! Jack

Bought a Stingray HH secondhand.....!

The ad describing it as "very little use" might have put a few people off...

Playing Champagne Supernova bores me rigid......but.....as the last song of the night it usually evokes a mass sing-along and goes down really well, making it much more bearable.

Hi, Having worked a bit during the last weeks, here is the result...

"However, I am not sure there are many Beatles Fans on BC." You'll probably find there are a lot more than you think. Posters most likely think it's cool to knock successful bands. I'm only 58 this year but was still aware of the beatles at an early age. My earliest memory of listening to music was hearing 'All you need is love' while in the back of the removal wagon in 1967

Anyone who walks into a gig can tell the bass player is using Markbass from the back of the room. That's good marketing. As good as the colour of Orange amps, the blue bits on Acoustic cabs, the stripes of Peavey and Trace Elliot's UV light. Every mark bass rig I've heard, mostly combo's, but some stacks, has sounded good. My LM2 was a great sounding amp. I'm surprised they are going into the instrument market, but Peavey made it work, so I guess, if they have done their homework, they could be a success. They're probably not at the boutique end of the scale, but if they are challenging at the SIre end they might carve out a chunk of the market. If MB came out with a range of "Fender" basses they'd be slagged off. They didn't and they get slagged off anyway! I'll wait to comment until I see real reviews of what they sound and play like.

Lush... relax, and breathe it in!

Yes. A bumble bee.

At least they can be arsed to have UK retailers. Not every Polish maker some folk rave about has been bothered to do that, have they? 😂

The basslines that set my teeth on edge are not the repetitive ones - which as said often do exactly what they should do in the mix - but the fussy ones which get in the way. I suspect it's bass players who really want to play guitar but drew the short straw on "we need a bass player" without understanding what that means. No recordings that I can think of, but I've heard a few at fringe venues at blues festivals. Come to think of it, the two worst I can remember both had very flashy, obviously expensive gear. That might not be a coincidence.

People who disparage plodding bass lines should be sentenced to ten years of root / 5 in a Country band fronted by a malodorous, moustachioed pervert who hails from Shepherds' Bush but peppers his everyday conversation with 'Y'all this' and Y'all that'.

TBH the Bona Bass looks OK sideways but not great standing up. Still, don't understand the negativity here, variety is the spice of life and all... just don't buy one?! Sometimes I find basses that look nice are horrible in the hand' or vice versa. The most offensive though is another P bass, ffs... but I guess session pros will need one

Haven’t Mark Bass shamelessly nicked their look from Tonka?

I generally don't mind - and am happy to play - simple lines. It only bothers me when they detract from the song. U2 for example: people slag Clayton's lines, but they work fine. It's march-y anthemic stuff.

Will probably look a bit like this:

Well, I wouldn’t lean it against that stack!

I just couldn`t deal with that, OCD Rules & Regs, chapter 5, paragraph 12 state mahoosive overhang on amps/cabs shall not be permitted.

killer horn section

^ This in spades. On Basschat we're very much blurring the lines between work and play / profession and hobby. And I imagine that in our day jobs, most of us do what is asked of us by our clients. We might make suggestions and rescue clients if they're truly heading for calamity, of course. But we otherwise do what we're paid to do, within reason. Session musicians are no exception. And how many of us here are professional session musicians? Exactly. Also just to add, there is far more objectionable content on YouTube than Scott's Bass Lessons. To me, he always comes across as a nice bloke and I feel we should be supporting such champions of our oft-ignored instrument, as they are in short supply.

If you love it, then play it. End of.