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For me weekly practice covers lots of ground. Developing a style together, understanding how each other plays, learning each others likely flip ups and how to cover for them, working on backing vocals, fun and social aspect, practicing without the backing track as a crutch or prompt, playing around with arrangements, working on song endings, testing your gigging kit, getting your finger stamina up, probably loads more reasons too. I see lots of advantages to it and would prefer this to ad hoc meeting up to polish before a gig.

Righty! We counted the cash and we’ve raised £186 that’s been donated nordoff robbins (in the mother’s name of course).

I feel like the luckiest man on the planet

Chuffed...well done to Stratosphere 2 days from America to here!! Roll on The Weekend

And they're pretty much spot-on. Hall can't really be faulted in terms of his company's operational strategy. It's one of many possible approaches that will produce different outcomes and if he's happy with the outcome he's chosen then fair play. It's also true that he enjoys quite good relations with individuals and publications who are satisfied with his products and his approach to business. On the other hand, Hall can be unacceptably rude and dismissive to those with whom he is at variance, even to customers with genuine cause for complaint. Moreover, some have at times pointed out that the basis for some of his litigation might be without foundation. I recall his abusive treatment of an individual on the Rick Resource who during the Janglebox affair had correctly and politely observed out that - under US law - one may copyright a circuit diagram but one cannot copyright a circuit. For me, the defining moment came a few years ago when Hall tried to bully not only BassChat but also the Admin here with whom he was in personal correspondence. Hall basically got a bloody nose then trotted off to a Ric-friendly forum and presented events in such a way as to place himself in a good light with his obsequious sycophants. So, Hall may possibly be an astute businessman but he is also, in my undoubtedly biased opinion*, not only a gaping prolapsed rectum but also a waste of useful cubic footage that might more profitably be occupied by a hot drinks vending machine. * Basically: My BassChat, right or wrong.

I spent a lot of time yesterday sitting in waiting rooms for one appointment after another. As I had time to kill, I spent a lot of time on the RIC, RRF and TB forums, searching for posts made by Mr Hall. I did this to supplement the opinion of the man that I've formed from this and other threads on here. Now, I've had no direct dealings with John Hall and certainly not the direct and aggressive interactions that Nik and others have had. I also recognise that some contentious material may have been deleted from forums so i am not looking at the total picture. And i haven't read every single post the man has ever written - there are thousands of them. But I've read enough to build a picture and the impression that I get is of a man who has inherited a small (about 200 employees) family business and who is passionate about preserving the legacy that was handed to him. I suspect he's not the easiest person to work for. I am sure that the factory production process could be more efficient. And, for sure, the products he makes have "character" (to put it kindly). But the reality is that over the years of his tenure he has maintained a profitable, debt-free company which makes a niche product for which people are prepared to a) wait and b) pay a premium. To do this, he's flown in the face of the generally accepted "best practice" of the last thirty years. He has resisted the temptation to devalue his brand by moving some of his production to the Far East. He has made small, incremental changes to his product range rather than continually chase new markets and growth at all costs. He came through the worst recession of recent times with a profitable company and a larger workforce than he had when it started. He protects his brand passionately and in doing so has avoided the fate of Fender and Gibson who saw their products' value being undermined by hundreds of clones of varying quality. I've never met the man so i don't know if I'd like him or not as an individual. I suspect not. I think there are certainly character flaws and the apparent copying of the treble bezel appears to be a huge error of judgement at best, if not completely and idiotically hypocritical. As an analogy, if Fender are the guitar equivalent of VW/Audi and Gibson are like Fiat/Chrysler then Rickenbacker remind me a lot of Chapman-era Lotus. A small company led by a flawed but dedicated individual producing a flawed but charismatic product that has a small but passionate customer base. In a world of global mega-corporations all in thrall to their investors and the demand for continuous, unsustainable growth, there is room for companies like Rickenbacker - even if their CEO is a bit of an a*se at times. (All of the above is personal opinion based on the reading i did yesterday. Others will have more knowledge than I do and yet others have had direct (and sometimes contentious) interaction with Mr Hall and i don't wish to contradict or undermine them in any way. These are just my opinions, nothing more)

We rehearse every week, irrespective of gigs, writing new material etc. For one we just love the band so it’s not a chore, we enjoy it, but secondly it gives us that tightness to our performance that many praise us on. And lastly, purely from a personal point, as a non-natural singer, I need to be rehearsing my vocals with the band every week, I shudder at the thought of what would come out if I didn’t. And with our music it’s not possibly to rehearse said (poor) vox at home, they’re too loud for that.

I did this in January last year, I needed head space and more time. Thought I was actually going to stop playing and sold a lot of gear. Just before Christmas the singer from the previous band got in touch and wanted to work on some of my ideas. Just about to do some recording, got a great new band with the singer from the old band and I’m having a great time. Like any relationship breakdown, there are plenty more fish. Give yourself some time and then find something you enjoy, not something which is taxing.

Others, I am not the first, Have been by John Hall's comp'ny cursed: If in the breathless night I too Shiver now, 'tis nothing new. There is, however, in the first draft, a note pencilled in the margin which would seem to support the 'separating the man from the machine' thoughts above. It reads: 'Though I'd happily torch Shrewsbury to get my hands on a minty Mapleglo 4001 with chequered binding'

Les ‘built in’ and more ‘stuck on with foam tape’ 😂

At your service! 23” is far to long for me 😂

HX Stomp ordered and arriving tomorrow. I can't wait for the weekend.

Where I'm up to. Got through 2 cans of clear laquer, slowly building (over 3 days). Then a few days to harden off and fine cut flat and smooth, then polish (T Cut, Steve said was OK and I had some around). I was forced to take some time as the p'ups from Thomann are due today (about 2 weeks, because Thomann gave UPS an incomplete address then tried to blame me). I'm happy with this now. Took a closer look at my '97 P which is factory original, and the finish on that is not super-flat, I mean it's really good but not a mirror. Colour in these shots may look a bit flat, but the light is blue sky and very hard, so it tends to flatten the metallic effect it seems. 3rd shot with plate etc is closest. Look forward to finishing this as it is a truly cracking Jazz - I think the graphite reinforced neck and the Badass may be contributing (the graphite neck in particular) to making this the best Jazz I have owned, and as good as any I recall playing (noting I owned a '67 transition for years, and a few others besides). Thanks for help and tips @rubis and @Manton Customs, and Steve at Manchester GT, who made it sound easy enough for me to have a go. and isn't Lake Placid Blue just the best. Suits me: cool, deep, dark... and fishy.

Bands - easier to start than keep together. 'Same as it ever was' , to quote a certain well-known tunesmith.

Just a thought but I am fairly regularly excited by bass FS posts only to find that the object of my lust has one too many strings (and 5 players I'm sure find the same thing). Would there be any merit, do we think, in splitting FS threads in '4 strings FS' and '5+ strings FS' (for example? If there's no great appetite elsewhere then it's obviously not an issue others less OCD than myself share!

Open Discussion There are quite a few new BC members that can add to this discussion. Share any stories or thoughts or ideas from both sides of the fence. What are your do's and dont's? The pic, that's 1955 my mom is holding my hand taking me to my first gig. Blue

By Ricky4000

I like to think of myself as the A E Housman of my generation. Reviews 'Charbing, utterdy charbing' - Melvyn Bragg 'Perfervid but in a good way' - JK Rowling 'Gripping stuff' - Lee Child

You're really far too kind. TBPH, it was a framework designed to lend support to my proposition that he's an utter cockwomble.

Surely half of the fun is scrolling through and seeing what’s out there? ...even if it’s window shopping for some of us 🤣

to remove the sticky Tru oil/ gun oil finish obviously use 0000 wool, but after that I was buffing it with a non lint cloth and the micro fibre that came with my sunglasses. Top amateur tip - I found wrapping a tennis ball inside the cloth gave a great taut surface and also an easy grip to buff away!

To those who may be interested to know, Michael Pedulla has announced his retirement after 45 years in the business of building bass guitars. An announcement was made today via the www.pedulla.com website. I speak for the bass community as a whole in saying that to have been regarded as Mike has, being one of the best luthiers in the world for such a period of time and with so many changes to the industry, is commendable. Personally, I hope he enjoys his well-earned retirement. I would like to extend my thanks personally to Mike and Christine Pedulla for all the hard work they've put in over the years and for bringing us such tremendous instruments. I first played a Pedulla bass at the age of 17 or 18, whilst working at the Marriott hotel in Gosforth. I've told this story many times but the upshot was that I decided there and then that I had to own a Pentabuzz at some point and I finally got there in 2017, a decade later. I have never played another fretless as good as this. Truly, bass nirvana for me.

I absolutely love Leo Moracchioli. I've spent many an evening watching his covers back to back. I actually think he's an extremely talented and knowledgeable musician, to work out, play all the instruments, record, mix and film and edit a fresh cover video every week is pretty clever imo. He also manages not to take himself too seriously which makes him extremely likeable to me. Some of the stuff he does is superb. Although the one above is not a particularly good example. I have to say, although he seems well liked on here, Scott Devine's click bait YouTube content irritates the tits off me. Although I'm happy to accept one man's trash is another man's treasure, but I'd genuinely rather listen to the shark video above than his endless jazz waffling. Admittedly the guy in the original post is definitely top 3. If not number one.

I don't think that the forum necessarily needs to be split, but I think that there should be more enforced use of the existing tagging system. If every single post had to either have a "4 string", "5 string", "6 string" etc tag before it could be submitted, then it would be very easy to filter to the ones you're interested in. At the moment, the fact that only 10% of posts have any tags at all makes it more or less useless. If there were a new automated rule that all listings had to have at least a certain number of tags (3? 5?) then it would be so much more useful. S.P.

PRS works on a 100% or sample basis of broadcasters depending on size/reach or advertising revenue. The main national BBC and independent stations report 100% of their performances whereas BBC local and independent local stations are often sampled e.g. 3 day a month and those works paid out. There is no difference between oldies and new tracks in their value. The value per track is calculated according to license fee or advertising revenue and is the same for every track of a similar duration.

Do remember that you’re auditioning them as much as they’re auditioning you.

This sounds like the 'narrative arc' of many bands that I've been in. Take time to enjoy your new family - before you know it your house will be full of grumpy teenagers, and it'll be time to get that three-piece on the road.

Some of the church bassists on this site will know the song "Lord I lift your name on high" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COQ6cni_TG8 ) . We sing it a bit quicker than that YouTube version (which isn't great, sorry) , and frequently with the bass line to "Summer Nights" from "Grease" running through. I'm sure I've heard Johnny B Goode in the past, and I suddenly realised a while back that one of our worship leaders has been starting a particular song with the intro to "Substitute" by The Who for years and I'm the first person to notice. Anyone else involved in smuggling pop bass lines into their worship? Or indeed from any one genre to another? (Bill Bailey reckons orchestral bassoonists always just play "How Deep is your Love" by The Bee Gees regardless of what the concert is.)

Evening chaps and chapesses! Picked up a MIJ Jag body colour partially taken down, and I have taken the project on..... sanded all the way back to pretty much 1500 grit from 80 Bit of Amber Stain.... then some rub n buff gold.... gave it a bit more depth of colour. Gun oil with wet sanding and then buffing and take a little sheen off.... Neck not prepped yet, but this will go on it... Neck will get a Matt Gun oil doing - Neck is walnut with Tigerwood finger board There you go!

Indeed, I hope I can make it look pretty and intentional, but that should be oké. I'll be working on that tomorrow. That being said, except for the soldering I think I should be able to finnish tomorrow. Hopefully I can get my friend with the solderingiron to help me this or next weekend and then I'll finally be done. I've been busy putting on the pedals to check cable-lengths etc. and I think I have to order a couple extra. The future-proof-ness of the board makes it a bit roomier, and the fact that my expressionpedal will be on the right (it used to be on the left because of the pedal order, but on the right I have better control...) but it has to go in the most left in and out of the switcher makes that I need longer cables. So I guess I'll do that now, so that when it's ready I don't have to wait around for that... Ofcourse I couldn't resist a mock-up... As you can see there's (intentionally) room for more. When I've managed to save some more money I wanna buy an octaver and maybe a nice delay. I can put at least two more pedals under the hood and as you can see at least one more on top so that should be alright. I also want to buy a nice DI to put under the hood, hence the XLR out on the side. Edit: Picture is darker than I thought, so for now only the pedals... I promise I will make real pictures with a real camera once it's all done! 😇

As mentioned by a few folks already, certainly no intention of making a profit on gear, dont think ive ever let anything go for more than 3/4 of new price before. It's more a case of at this price point there shouldn't be a need to swap parts out (I also had to swap a tuner as it was loose from new, pmt sorted this for me though, I just had to fit it). These pick ups seem to work for a lot of people, but they seem very "marmite" to be the standard stock pick ups. Things never sound the same in the shop as they do in the mix 🤷‍♂️

The Midas touch.....

Getting this thread back on track thought i would post my fav Yamaha. Liking this a lot. My brother had the fretless version of it and sold it without telling me or i would have had it.

Simple to cure... Just use a soft headed mallet next time instead of a hammer.

I just can't get enough of this sort of bass playing! love the bass tone. Henrik Linder does get rather too muso for me in some instances, but I love his playing with Dirty Loops, which is very song focussed.

We have a gig booked that night, when it was booked the venue said "You'll be starting later than usual due to the football." We're hoping that by the time we play the "audience" will be suitbaly lashed up and in a mood to party

Tell you what I love listening back to rehearsals too since we’ve started taking a zoom handy recorder

I enjoy the social element too - I like getting together, we all know our parts - but I’ve always enjoyed the fun aspects too.

Remember it doesn’t necessarily have to be a full band that rehearses. You could get together with just the drums and guitar, maybe the vocalist?

This rectum: Also, yeah, clickbaity titles... One of my subscription channels posted a video a while back explaining how youtube had changed their algorithms so basically if you didn't have "NUCLEAR EXPLOSION FAIL LOL" urls, the chances of you getting views is like, none...

Bl***y clickbait, I hate it. Aaaarrrgghhhh!!! – I RUINED my $300,000 1954 Precision with this one simple mistake! How to play your best bass lines ever with this cheap kitchen gadget !!! Top Ten bass mistakes that even the Pros make !!! Unboxing my new 17 string bass ?? Whoops !! Learn this one simple bass fingering pattern to make sure you get the chicks at every gig !!!! I play my bass with my massive spanner!! You won't believe this!! Watch what happens !!! etc, etc..... 😨

I was the opposite - I'd been in a well known tribute for 26 years and I knew when I looked across the stage and saw the rest of the band going through the motions and backstabbing each other it was time to go. Best thing I ever did - felt like a giant weight lifted and relieved I'll never have to deal with at least 2 of the 3 other members ever again! Some people just suck your energy and enthusiasm for anything and are more trouble than they're worth. Funny thing is that, despite replacing me, 2 more of them have now seen the light and left as well.... I've now put together a new project that is 10 times better musically & vocally and MUCH more satisfying and professional. Things WILL get better, just take a break and then go for it with a clearer idea of what you want!

I learned my lesson long ago, about buying with my eyes instead of my ears ,and it’s cost me a lot of money , before I buy anything now, I do my research and try to “try before I buy “ to avoid disappointment 🙂

Sounds like you need some time out and focus on more important things in your life. Enjoy the early days as much as you can, they grow up quick! I find most things happen and pan out for a reason most of the time. Good luck!

I think a lot of these “ thoughts” are not particularly based on fact, more on hunches/half truths/ancient wisdom etc. If you all have a reasonably accurate tuner, the differences between tuners will be smaller than the inaccuracy of the operators themselves.