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So here's a story for you. I am a music teacher at a secondary school here in Amsterdam. About five minutes walking from the school is a pawn shop, which occasionally sells guitars, mostly cheap knockoffs and old Cimars, Sigmas and the likes. I was checking out the Dutch marketplace website for acoustic guitars and there was a Fender guitar which I wanted to get (nylon strings but a slim neck, perfect for my students). And then I saw it: they were selling a G&L SB-2 for a little over €200. I thought: wow, a Tribute SB-2 for 200? That's a great deal. So I walked to the store and checked out the bass. It wasn't a Tribute. It was a 90's era USA SB-2! The neck was very hollow but not warped and it had some stickers on it. I even got a discount because it's damaged (it has some damage on the finish). This is how I got it: After a good clean, new strings, new pickguard screws and the likes, it now looks like this: I have to wait what the neck will do overnight. Hopefully it'll settle a little bit so it's more playable, but the whole bass works, the pots are silent and that MFD split coil is freakin' loud! Now, there's one more question: how can I date it? I've had the neck off and I can read "Jun 13 xxxxx" but the xxxxx is unreadable for me, I also can't read the date in the neck pocket.

It's one of the only things I can cook that doesn't involve pasta. Ok I'll tell you. Carbonara should never be made with cream. No. The sauce is made of EGGS, pecarino cheese and a splash of water from cooking the pasta. And cubes of bacon. That's it. I don't think I have any other egg recipes, sorry.

If this was me my neighbours would be admiring my lovely new patio, and asking if the wife was on holiday... 😁😈👍

My GAS for this thing still burns. Just come across this rather good demo - it’s in Russian but has English captions. Shows a nice breadth of playing styles and in context with other instruments too. P.s. the Schecter looks way better than the Fender!

From meetings in car parks, lay-bys and railway stations, buying and trading, everyone I've met has been great and honest good guys to deal with. By post and courier I've found the same, even sending a flight case out to guys so they could send a bass to me, worked every time. Also had basschatters visit my home, all have been great to meet, always friendly and plenty to chat about, time always goes too quick. Of course I've made and sold a lot of wiring looms too, with only a couple of problems, which were amicably sorted, when I look at the numbers on my feedback it's hard to believe - over 400 replies and 50,000 views last time I looked! Great place and good people, big thanks to @ped , @Bilbo and all the mods that give up their time and help to keep this all going. Thanks to all those who have bought my kits too, this is the only place I sell - to basschatters - I couldn't stand the hassle of ebay!! Cheerz, John

I've been in more than one band where we didn't bother getting a singer, just let the guy who wrote the songs do it to save us the hassle of dealing with the ego. Even if they weren't particularly gifted singers it was still more fun. Then I found my current singer. No discernible ego, none. Regards her voice as an instrument, looks after it, has learned how it works by paying for coaching, rehearses hard every day, carries the gear, owns her own gear, books gigs, in fact works her backside off getting gigs, runs the social media, sets up and packs down, soundchecks the band, drives herself and others to gigs, doesn't see herself as any more important than anyone else in the band, learns her parts, never blows out a rehearsal, first time I met her was in the car park outside the rehearsal room and she carried my bass from the car for me. Oh and she is literally the best singer I've ever worked with, magical voice. I've said it before, no you can't, hands off, she's a keeper.

I used to love doing "She sells sanctuary" for the same reason - dead simple bass line but lots of energy. And "With or without you" was a great exercise in passion.

Well, it would be if I hadn't been futzing around here. Eggs ended up totally hard boiled and I'd already cut the bread into soldiers. So I mashed up the egg, put it on the bread and it looked like a kids' party circa 1965, where's the red lemonade, Mum? Last time I'm doing anything public-spirited. They can all go f**k themselves next time

I mentioned it on the How was your gig? Thread a few weeks ago, but a band supporting the lot I was depping for at Christmas did something very similar I’d been told about the singer/rhythm guitarist’s over inflated ego before but never seen it in action. He did not disappoint. four band bill, we’re headlining so we get a full soundcheck. There’s no time for anybody else to get a proper soundcheck so everybody else is getting a quick line check during the 15 minute change over and then into their first number. first two bands play, the sound is excellent - one of the best sound guys I’ve ever worked with, no fuss, just made everybody sound brilliant. the the main support get their turn. The singer wants a full soundcheck for his guitar. no mate, just do a line check, you need to start your set no, he wants a proper soundcheck for his guitar so that he can properly adjust it all to make sure that he gets “his” sound, and he’s quite happy to tell the band not to play until he gets it all of this in front of the crowd sadly the sound man was too nice to just call his bluff and tell him to leave the stage, so, already into their half hour slot, he gets his full check, then plays half a song to make sure that he’s happy with the overall sound and monitors on stage. He gives the sound man notes about which khz he should be adjusting Then they can start their set. prectictably they overrun, and start a song just as they were supposed to be leaving the stage, and knowing that there is a hard curfew at the end of our set. Our BL loudly makes it known what his opinion is of this, and at the end of that song the sound man kills the sound for everything except the he mics, leaving a very disgruntled singer on stage complaining that he’s been told that they have to stop now, like nobody told him when they had to finish complete indifference from the crowd, all of who have paid to see us and know that there’s a hard curfew and we’re going to struggle to get on stage on time (actually it wasn’t that hard so we did get our full set)

I've had a Sei (albeit a rather odd one) and several Shukers, and the good news is there won't be anything to choose from them in build quality, they're both superb luthiers. The main issue will be how much you really know about what you want, because I'm sure you'll get what you ask for. Whether that's what you want/need/can live with is another matter. For the record, I've had an ACG, too (actually two), and they were superbly built instruments but, like you, visually they don't do it for me. Jon has some basses at his place, and I can recommend a visit, the drive through the High Peak is great, and he's on the least industrial industrial estate on the planet... 🙂

According to the Hipshot dimensions schematic (link below) the main gear housing (the bit with the cog) is the same for all USA ultralite versions so in theory it should be possible to interchange the key/shaft/worm component. The different keys are shown on the second page. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1574/0577/files/206.PDF?5066948558007359183 Note that the USA model has different dimensions to the Licensed model so you won't be able to swap components between the two. Dimensions for the Licensed model are here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1574/0577/files/206K.PDF?147414096911308745

Just an update on an escalating situation in my house...

Interesting thread. I have a Sandberg VT4, it's my goto bass and I love it for comfort and playability . But I have been questioning how much I like the core tone compared to my Fender PJ or Mayones J. With those I can leave EQ pretty flat on my preamp and be happy but I find the Sandberg needs quite a lot of adjustments. I wouldn't say the Delano are dead, but I do find they do lack low end ooomf. I'm considering swapping them out for an Aguilar PJ set - maybe I just prefer a more vintage tone. I'll look into the black labels too.

I’ve bought a couple of basses from ebay.de and Kleinanzeigen over the years. Never had a problem with either transaction in fact one was unbelievable. The seller insisted on shipping it to me before any payment. He only had a padded case so I arranged for a SKB bass safe - found used but as new , cheap on German Amazon and using Prime had it sent free to the seller in Germany. He then packed the bass in gig bag in the SKB and then into its packaging box and sent to me in the U.K. at his cost He wouldn’t accept any payment until I'd had the bass a week and was completely happy with it. Talk about trusting and it wasn’t a cheap bass £1200 ish if I recall.

So I went up to Bass Direct on Sunday. Tried out the Glockenklang Steamhammer, Mesa-Boogie d800 and the Trickfish .5k side by side through a Barefaced Big Baby II. I had tried the Darkglass m900 in GAK on Friday. To cut a long story short the Trickfish makes the rest of them just utterly redundant to my ear. Just a way better tonal starting point. I don't think this amp is flat with everything set to noon by any means. But whatever, it just sounds brilliant. All the bells and whistles on those other amps don't mean a thing, because at the end of the day the core Trickfish tone is just better. So it has a 700w ICE power section and I think that may be enough, but to be sure I am going back a week tomorrow to test a 1k they are getting in with my Big Twin. If the .5k is enough I will get that, if I think I need the extra power reserve to be able to leave the amp idling and achieve war volume, I'll go for the 1k.

Relating to the other thread - you don't play the keyboards by any chance do you?

Vocalists. Bloody vocalists. That is all.

My wife sometimes doesn't like me being out every weekend but accepts that it is my hobby, my enjoyment and my release. I don't smoke, drink or take drugs. I don't spend my weekends watching football. We still have plenty of time together and I always book time out of the band diary for holidays as it can become a pain when you book a week off at work only for gigs to appear in the diary and we can't go anywhere. My work-life balance is just as important when it comes to the band as it is when it comes to my day job

2019 lineup, L-R: - ACG Krell E-Type 6 headless - Lakland Skyline 55-01 w/US Bartolini Dual Coils & NTMB Pre - Bass Collection Jive fretless - Lakland US 44-64 - 1971 Fender Precision - Lakland US 44-94 passive P/J - Fender Mustang

I've just completed another bass part ex / sale with Martin from Wales - we had lots of communication both ways throughout the process and have been exchanging a few texts since about the basses we swapped. And it got me thinking as I was writing his feedback and looking at the three pages of feedback I've got....basically (bar one specific example - exception that proves the rule?!) I've had nothing but overwhelmingly positive experiences ( a LOT of them!) with people I've never met. Often involving quite a lot of money / expensive instruments and therefore trust of this unknown person. It's a great community of people who really do give bass players an excellent name. I'm sure other forums for different instruments may be the same (I'm not on any so can't really comment) but this really is a lovely group of people on here and I"m chuffed to call myself a bass player knowing that there's a lot of lovely people out there who also call themselves bassplayers! All good!

Yep. its a mistake to think that people aren't enjoying it just because they're not jumping around like maniacs!

@Andyjr1515 Hi I use 2K metallic color mixed by a friend of mine who normally do custom cars paint work.... It works perfect for me as I'm not the best painter ...

For my two penn'orth on the subject... I do enjoy cooking chopped chorizo in a pan to the point the oil leaks from them, throw in some onion and chilli too... Then scramble some eggs in it. Delicious. Top with fresh basil or rocket and get it down yer neck.

Yes. Happened to me a few times. We used to play losing my religion. We had played it for years. I knew it back to front. Then one night I could t remember how it went. I had to ask the guitarist what the first line in the lyrics. He told me, but I had forgotten the whole thing. It was a disaster. I had to pretend we had a tuning issue. Things is, I worried about it so much that it happened next time. Same song. Then again next time. My band mates were getting cheesed off. I had to sit down and learn it again! I think we dropped it not long after. It can just hit you. Something you know so well and it’s just blank.

We're in the Welsh Borders - our town is only just that, with maybe 2000 residents. There's 2 pubs that do occasional music, and that consists almost exclusively of covers bands and "open mic" nights, with one of them having a proper wild night every quarter involving a "Lady DJ". There's another very small town about 8 miles away with one of its pubs having covers bands and very occasional pub blues. Then our nearest "larger" towns, Ludlow and Bishops Castle have between them perhaps 4 venues that put on music, they're covers, blues or easy listening jazz. So not much doing for a funk-punk-rock originals band that sound somewhere between Primus, Penetration and Public Image! We've tried putting on a rock night at our local community centre - which is quite large at about 500 capacity. Despite asking everyone we knew, putting up posters for miles around etc we got about 60 punters at £3 each (for 4 bands!), which only just covered the PA, but not the bouncers the committee insisted we hired. So now we have to travel further afield if we want gigs; Shrewsbury, Hereford are an hour away and the very modest fee we get covers the fuel and a pint or 2 each... Worcester and Whitchurch are about 1.5 hours away - the fee just about covers travel... Any further and we might make a loss! However, even if we were being paid the rates covers bands are getting (say £250?) there's no way that would give us a reasonable income. If we could play 4 nights a week (!), assuming £50 expenses each gig we'd make £200 each or £800/month. If each of those gigs meant we were there for 4 hours, plus 2 hours travelling that 24 hours work for £200, that's £8.33/hour without taking into account rehearsal time or any gear costs! Which means none of us could afford to give up our day jobs in order to be a musician, unless we hit The Big Time... But it does mean that we can play what we want as the money is now largely irrelevant.

Here's my small pedalboard which contains everything I need [sfx] Micro Thumpinator TC Electronic Spectracomp Tech 21 VT Bass TC Electronic Spark mini booster powered from a caline CP-02

Just don't get bored too quickly as I've got to pay for a neck respray on a Sterling (with Mr Shuker) and would have to sell a Rickenbacker (not an easy task these days lol).

I had a ramp on the shuker 6 string I had made. It's a brilliant device, and so simple. Having played the bass both with and without it, it was a much better experience with it. It's been described as a natural compressor, which I think hits the nail on the head. Certainly evened out my ropey right hand technique!

I always leave feedback for everyone, although not everyone leaves feedback in return, I still think its a nice thing to do.

21 days.... 😎 ⏱

exactly this. Best example from experience was a gig on old band of mine played at a music pub in Brixton, probably 25 years ago. The gig was in a large music room with a stage, it wasn't our usual catchment area, and when we started it was literally just our girlfriends, the bar staff and two random blokes at the bar. Turns out one of the blokes was a music journalist, who was very impressed and gave us a steer on suitable venues and some general tips. We also got a load of people drifting in from the main pub once we were a couple of songs in. Worst example, a singer with a great voice in a band from a couple of years ago, but who had a terrible stage presence. If the venue was half empty then he'd take it out on the crowd that had actually showed up, and put in a half arsed performance. Never did us any favours with the punters or the venues

This is why you always give every gig 101%. No matter how bad a gig is there is always the possibility that someone, who can help the band (or you), is listening. I was asked to join a good band once because the band leader, who had dropped in for a beer, was impressed that I was giving it my all to a couple of disinterested punters.

I am suspecting that maybe she might have had more to do with the writing of that than him. And who would blame her with a bowel of porridge!

If the OP can't close the thread can we at least change the title to "Anderton's off topic egg thread". To be fair I've never had a bad egg from Anderton's.

Sounds like a band I would not want to be in. No give, no take, no learning.😖

I'm being a friend when I say that I feel I should stop you from doing this! ⚠️

When I first bought a bass I went for a Jazz because I read on various forum posts people saying that the Jazz can be made to pretty much sound like a P but a P can't be made to sound like a Jazz. Now that I've had both for a while I know that it's absolutely not true that the J can sound like a P - it always sounds completely different regardless of settings. So, whichever one you prefer (if you can't have both), I just feel it will be helpful to anyone coming across this thread in future to know not to go for a J expecting it to be the best of both worlds.

The covers band I'm in is never going to sound like the original - lineup is guitar/vox, keyboards, bass, percussion (bongoes and cajon). Added to that, our guitarist can strum only a limited number of chords - he can't play bar chords and can't fingerpick. Keyboardist is brilliant but not used to playing with a bassist, so we're gradually sorting that out (good-naturedly, I may say). We keep close to the original arrangements and play songs which aren't going to expose the obvious absences of lead guitar and drummer too much, which does mean that keys and me take on somewhat different roles to the originals. So we're not learning note for note, but it's more like a disassembly and reassembly operating within our constraints than not learning it right.

Some of us don't have that option. If I played music I like I'd be broke and unable to pay my bills. Blue

They're here, thanks to @Lozz196 Just placed them, no holes yet...

If we could somehiw link this to brexit and how has causef the declining standards in the high street, this thread would be closed in a jiffy.

even more interesting.

...its a 'Ricky-backer'!

Told to me by a guitarist who played with a singer from the 60's, who had number 1 hits. This guy was an alcoholic and always got whizzed before the gig. One night he excelled himself and drank his supply and the green room dry. The band used to play the first number without him and then played him on. To get to the stage he had to walk down a flight of stairs. He got about half way before he started to fall. He was hanging on to the bannisters and doing a partially controlled tumble down the final flight. As he staggered down stage to the mic stand the band noticed (in horror) that during this entrance he'd plopped himself and a massive brown stain was spreading all over the back of his white trousers.

I use both, horses for courses. Precision with flats, Jazz with rounds. I find the Jazz with rounds sounds nicer at home, but the Precision is great live with the big band I play with....it has a bit more depth than the jazz. Both brilliant in their own right.

Blimey. I'm guessing he didn't go on to a wildly successful solo career after the band split? This isn't quite on the same scale, but despite several weeks off after the Xmas period, the keyboard player in a function band I play with announced that he didn't want to rehearse any more, apart from a couple of times just before gigs to refresh his memory, as he put it. As the band only just took on a new guitarist, the rest of us tried to point out that wasn't practical, especially as the said keyboard player was not up to speed himself, regularly going blank in the middle of songs, despite being in the band for over a year. He then proceeded to lecture the rest of us via WhatsApp about how much work he had put in, and how it was totally unreasonable to expect someone of his musical calibre to spend his hard-earned money on rehearsal if there wasn't an imminent gig to offset said outlay. No other bands he knew of worked like this, he went on, and as he gained his "musical satisfaction" elsewhere, he didn't need to "rehearse for fun" like the rest of us! In response, we took a slightly firmer position than perhaps he might have expected, pointing out that we would rehearse anyway, get another keyboard player to come down and help out, and that if the dep knew the set, we were far more likely to call him first when gigs went in the book. There then followed furious back-pedalling (again via WhatsApp) from Dr Dentures about how much we needed him to help with organisation, video editing, and "general musicality". I'm not sure how he thought that last point was going to win any friends, but suffice to say it went down like a cup of cold sick. He followed it up by warning that "an all-or-nothing approach would be making it hard for ourselves going forward"! Bloody keyboard players. They know they're hard to come by, so too often act like prima donnas. Bass players don't seem to suffer from this sort of bizarre egotism to anything like the same degree. Maybe I should form a band of only bass players... I know it's been done already, but it would be good for my mental health...

I like Flakes, especially in ice-cream ala 99. I've never tried a fantasist.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences both buying and selling on here. The cumulative value of the gear that I’ve bought and sold via BC is well in the 4-figure zone. Sure, I know a couple of folk who’ve had less than smooth experiences but such cases are definitely the exception, not the rule. So much love for this community! Big thanks to @ped and the team for keeping it up and running!