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We very recently recorded an EP, Railroad - Delivers The Goods (covers, no our own stuff but hey...) which was selected today by the Independent Blues Broadcasters Association as one of their four Pick of the Month albums. Can't tell you how absolutely chuffed we are, especially considering that Catfish and Jimmy Vaughan are two of the others!

Howler Monkeys Are Suing Shakespear's Sister And You Won't Believe Why AP Reporter: 05/17/2019 Updated 01:15 CAT - Guatemala Shakespear's Sister are in hot water. After the re-booted pop stars faced a tsunami of backlash for their 'buttock-clenching TV performance' the tuneless duo have now come under fire from a troop of Guatemalan Howler Monkeys. Lawyers for the monkeys today called a press conference in Guatemala City, accusing Shakespear's Sister of cultural appropriation. Said chief lawyer Inigo Montoya: "Our blameless simian clients are shocked, hurt and appalled at the way Shakespear's Sister have offensively appropriated traditional Howler Monkey howling noises. If it wasn't privilege-driven cultural theft it was mocking monkey-ist bigotry. They can't have it both ways but we can." The Guatemalan lawyer added: "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die". Ends.

I started playing blues on bass in 1978 aged 14 then joined a reggae band at 16 doing Bob Marley and Augustus pablo covers , my amp was a HH ic 100s with twin 15s and this was my bass , which I still have , and it still plays 😀

nothing new, just a B&W shot. 😛

You must have strong elements of taste in your DNA. Thank your parents, I reckon 😉

Thinking of turning one into a mini fretless jazz with stacked knobs..... Will probably keep this one simple with a light matt oil finish and no fancy top.

I’m not sure if you can get build-gas? You can get gas build up 😂 Maybe you can! After drooling over many of your builds I’ve decided to give it a shot! Luckily enough I make furniture/kitchen and shepherd huts (self taught so no real training and still very much learning) so access to wood and machinery isn’t hard so guess I’m lucky there. So I have some black walnut in stock so I’m going to use that for the first 60’s P bass build. I have a allparts 60’s neck already so I’ll use that but I will have a go at making a neck and stuff too. So, I’m after any help or pointers from you guys, you’ve far more experience than I do! Fingers crossed for a probably long learning journey 😂 Couple of pics of glued up blanks, enough for two just in case😬

The part you need but you'll become a TE parts trader in the process: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-Bass-Amp/133050030069?hash=item1efa6657f5:g:Xs8AAOSwkJ5c2Exz MY own Trace Elliot AH500 nuclear weapon.

Hi, BassChatters....I will spell my name right soon! Retired now, but as the former owner of THE GREAT BRITISH BASS LOUNGE (bass guitar retailer) i never felt that it was appropriate to participate in the forum in case it appeared that I was using it as a 'selling platform'. Been playing bass since I was a daft young lad but took a 20-odd year break to concentrate on my main career as an architect. Came back to bass about 10 years ago and, to my great surprise and immense pleasure re-formed NEW ENGLAND (www.newengland-prog.com) with some lost, lost (almost) friends. Being a bass retailer introduced me to many, many views and ideas about bass guitars and bass playing...some sound, some complete bunkum and, at the extreme end, there are certainly people with acute bass-related OCD!!!! Basses aren't very complicated animals (my personal opinion) and, whilst there are many people who know a damn sight more than i do, I do like to go 'myth-busting' when invited to offer an opinion. My greatest pleasure has been helping, where I can, novice and inexperienced players and, as a retailer, making sure that they were tooled up with not the most expensive bass, but the right bass for them. I've also enjoyed showing folk how to set up their bass and not to be frightened of truss rods!!!! Always happy to offer advice and never too proud to ask for some....ww never stop learning!

The Jazz Centre UK might know someone who's interested: http://thejazzcentreuk.co.uk/ 01702 215169 Email: [email protected] The Jazz Centre (UK) Victoria Avenue Southend-on-Sea Essex SS2 6EX

Would you slap a child? No? Then don't slap your bass

Hmmm, the GAS is strong in this one Luke.

No, @leschirons, his loyalty is bought and paid for with about £10k per show. The production company wouldn't be excited about following him around the country on a wild goose chase for a price for "some old guitar". After all, it's not like it was played by Brian May. Plus its not even got 6 strings! Just look how often the bass player is on camera on music shows. Often they even show the lead guitar when the bass is playing a solo! Sorry, I'm very cynical about TV.

"New Rolling Stones tour announced."

While we all love to say what gear we use right now, but where did you start off from? Sadly, no original pictures from that period, but I borrowed £35 off my dad and bought a CBS/Arbiter bass from a small place in Staines, called Adam Music. It was exactly like the one below. I do remember that the EAD were flats and the G was roundwound. I chose Gibson plectrums because Kiss used Gibson. Haha. I'd borrow a WEM Dominator III from a guy who lived a street away from me - there seemed to be a lot of WEM and Watkins gear around; Charlie Watkins had an establishment in Chertsey, a kid from school had assembled a Watkins Rapier from damaged parts and the owner of the Dominator had a white Les Paul styled bass. Ampwise, I'm not 100% certain what my first owned amp was - I bought an unbranded 1x15 locally that I distinctly remember getting it home using a wheelbarrow. Aah, the '70s. It's a toss up between a really nasty H:H head or a Carlsboro StingRay combo; I have a photo somewhere of the StingRay sitting on top of the 1X15, so definitely owned both at the same time. It's all a far cry from the stuff now, but I guess when all we had was Bell Musical Instrument catalogues and monthly Beat Instrumental magazines, we probably didn't really know any better.

If that’s what you want to call it. My point was that anything on aliexpress is not ours

Rare set of unused flatwound strings. Genuine new old stock from before the time everyone realised flatties sound ... <no signal> 👿

47 😁 Got sore fingers!

I went through this in the 80s, slap was everywhere so I thought I'd better learn how to slap if I wanted to be taken seriously as a bass player. Had a few lessons but I could never get to grips with it so gave up trying to slap. A few months later I went to an audition and the guy who was trying out while I waited was giving it the full Mark King treatment Trace rig and a JD on a strap so short the bass was almost under his chin. I went in for my turn and said to the band if you want some one who can do all that stuff then I wont even bother setting up. They offered me the job straight away, they said I was the first one to audition who hadn't gone straight into a slap fest. Since then I've never tried to learn slap and have never been asked if I can do it.

...despite the repercussions.

Glad to hear that the loss of seven inches is not the carnage that might be imagined from such a topic title. Happy NBD!

I have friends that work on bargain hunt, I pointed out once that the logic of the show makes no sense, buy from a shop or fayre at full retail price then put it into a random auction to try and get more for it than they paid in the shop!

Fantastic amps, I love them to bits. Just beware of being lost in the mix with Pre-shape 1 engaged. It sounds great on it's own but you can disappear in a gig setting. Pre-shape 2 adjusted to suit the room with the EQ balance will cut through most situations or you can mix Pre-shape 1 or 2 with the graphic and adjust to taste.

Hi , after the EVO-FX5 prototype, here is the first serial model in progress; still a lot of work to do, but it will be a killer Bass!

These arrived today. The CDs to compliment the vinyl...

I practiced it for a while just to get a few rhythms down, but slap reggae doesn’t really work 😀, but low , by Lenny Kravitz has a good little bit of slap which is fun .🙂

Well she's a heavy old girl, but there's that lovely creamy Trace tone you mentioned, all the headroom I need, the ability to compress the lows without stifling the highs, and (on the 600) the facility to bi-amp and send the low frequency output to the 1x15 cab and the mids / highs to the 2x10. Being shallow of course, the feature I love best is the UV uplighter - flicking it on at the start of a gig is the amp equivalent of wearing spandex......

I played very briefly with a Free tribute band, they had an awful drummer who’s count-ins were never in the tempo of the song. He also had no grasp of even rudimentary rhythm, his idea of a fill wasn’t 8th notes across the kit, just 8 notes.

For Sale : 8 ohm 500 watt FRFR cab. Single 1" driver. Weight 3 oz. Size 2"x2". Castors not included

Fender announce the new Kitchen-Table-Butchery Tribute Series. In honour of the disastrous home-made relic craze of the early 21st Century, Fender is thrilled to present a new line of instruments crudely attacked with belt sanders, food processors, rusty spoons and mouldy tea by our least skilled artisans in an effort to recreate the blatantly artificial wear of days gone by. You, too, can have an instrument which looks like it has never left the house while trying to look like it has lived a hard life on the road. Order now!

I can't slap, but nor can I recreate the national flag of Bhutan using spaghetti, which probably has more practical application.

A few years ago after 20 odd years I found me myself completely bored with bass and stuck in a deep rut. So I decided to finally learn how to slap properly (afer years of bluffing and never quite getting it right) to see if that would give me some new aspect to work at and sort of inspiration/enjoyment back. It did. I watched and worked through a whole lot of YouTube tutorials but it was this particular series I found by far the most useful. Top Tip: It's all in the ghost notes.

Another school of thought is set you amp up to suit the venue. If I recall the Ashdown will have 9 Bands of eq? Ashdown suggest using the three rotary bass mid treble knobs to get the basic tone and use the sliders (pay attention to the eq points on the slider controls) to help make you more present in the overall mix. You should be able to gently nudge more useful frequencies up or down to where they’re working for you. Using your ears not eyes on the eq positions for the room you’re playing is a good start. Sometimes what can look extreme on an eq just sounds right. Live sound is either easy or a nightmare and there often isn’t a ‘one tone for every room’ solution. There’s some great guides online for eq and live sound which list frequencies, what they ‘sound like’ and trouble shooting so terms like muddy, boomy, boxy, etc are defined by their location on the frequency spectrum I.e. 700Hz help poke through a mix and how to resolve issues. It does no harm to keep these sorts of things in your gig bag to guide you through and give context to the eq on your amp. Knowing what each eq slider does is half the battle and makes problem solving much quicker. Anyone else in your band ‘into doing sound’ who could tweak while you play and help with the fine tuning? The bass eq (set with all controls at noon) can then be used to help once your sorted with a good basic amp tone. The trick is each new room will require it’s own specific eq tweaks to help you sound your best. If you’re playing the same venues it’s worth taking a quick photo on your phone and saving it with the name of the venue for reference next time. It’ll speed things up! As for effects. It there’s a tone you really need like a fuzz which is integral to the vibe of the song then those should be priority but a tuner (especially with a mute function) is a no brainer. Anything else is set dependant but a light drive/comp/( maybe eq) can all be useful for adding a nice touch in the mix too for occasional parts or as always on effects. Best move is sort the basic live sound out to where you’re happy and then decide what, if any effects you actually need. Good luck.

Should be a standard "kettle" lead - normally its just a fused plug with a three pin socket at the other end - they're not specific to amps and you'll probably have something suitable in the house (lead from an old PC or monitor?) - if not your local hardware shop should be able to supply one.

FINALLY DONE! It has been a longer project than I anticipated, but we have reached the finnish-line. And I took some pictures with a real camera this time, so you can actually see stuff. Btw, board without pedals was 7kg, board with pedals, powersupplie and cables etc. was 14kg. Not at all lightweight but it's quite okay when you pick it up! I still have one problem to solve but it has nothing to do with the board itself. My Qtron+ doesn't work anymore. The power connection was broken and fixed but the fix does not seem to be very good cause I can't seem to get the light to go on... Only thing left to do is borrow a labelmaker from someone and label my loopswitch and my 'patchbay'!

Good luck! Now, wheres that Love Will Tear Us Apart video too..?

We had a solo support the other night. He was singing rather nicely when suddenly these invisible backing singers joined him with some pitch perfect harmonies. Their timing too was exquisite. I realised at once what was happening and began to try to prize the back of the nearest PA cab to get a look the little elves hidden inside. After the rest of my band had restrained and quieted me they explained that in fact there were no elves merely an effect pedal which enabled the fellow to harmonise with himself! Imagine! Here is where my genius really took hold. I've always envied those bassists who stride to the microphone during a chorus and pick out a perfect third or fifth to the melody. My singing skills are more suited to the kind of football crowd bawling favoured by the likes of Sham 69and others of that ilk. If I secretly routed the singer's microphone through one of these pedals, and had it at my feet I could stamp on it and mime along whenever I felt it appropriate. Brilliant! In fact what could possibly go wrong?

Yes. Slapping a bass is like playing the banjo. A gentleman knows how to, but doesn't.

Caveat vendor. Whilst the Beeb isn't out to do Joe and Janet Public any favours, people only have themselves to blame if they don't get a proper appraisal on any musical instrument, painting, etc before selling it. You don't have to be Einstein to work out that an auction room full of furniture and bric a brac collectors in Stow on the Wold isn't the best place in the world to sell an electric guitar...

I found the Gramma Pad reduces boom on wooden stages. I don't have a thumpinator, but this video of a Zoom HPF seems convincing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW68APOjOkI

A number of decent amps certainly do have a hpf as part of their EQ.

Jedson!

Shame his range of ladies underwear didn't take off, Shatner knickers was never going to work 🤣

My first bass was a short sale Vox like that, but I'm fairly sure it had just one of those pickups. I'd started playing a few months before buying the Vox from a chap down the street for an exorbitant £7.00. I also remember using an old valve tape recorder as an amplifier, but mostly for my mate's guitar, I honestly can't remember my first amp - I remember playing through a Wem Dominator, but can't remember if it was mine or not! Eventually made a 2x15 cab in the school woodwork shop, fitted a couple of Fanes I got from Wilmslow (on the bus!). Powered that with a Selmer Treble and Bass 50, had that for years. I've never found any pictures of my early basses (cameras were for special occasions back then!) and the earliest pic of me with a bass is with a Framus Jazz Bass, I reckon it was taken about 1979, so I had been playing about five years by then.

Considering the guy that presents it, Paul Martin, was a session drummer who'd worked with the Average white band and Dogs D'amour, and still plays apparently , you'd think he'd be a little more savvy on vintage instrument prices. Fair enough, he's a drummer, but you'd imagine he'd at least suggest a valuation from someone in the know so to speak.

TI Jazz flatwounds might get you there - they have a lot of mids and decent clarity, but are not bright in the zingy sense. The tension can be a bit of an acquired taste, but I'm enjoying them.

Cover Band wanted for gig this Friday on Mars, Max budget of £150.