Leaderboard

When we started out - punk/Oi band - we realised that as unknowns we’d have to work at it, take first on the bill gigs for no money just to get the name out there. We literally contacted the venues/promoters who already had say 3 bands on and said we’d do a 30min set as first band on and for no money. Then turned up early, played and were professional, set up/broke down gear quickly, hung around for the whole event. You might have to do 6 months to a year of this but be patient. The other thing is go to gigs of the type of music, speak to the sound man, promoters, owners etc. Sometimes the personal touch works as face to face they can tell that they’re dealing with someone who they feel they can work with.

We (the Grateful Dudes) are on a little trip just now. Four of us met up at Folkestone yesterday morning, travelled through the channel tunnel and then drove for 13 hours to reach the town of Plauen in Germany. It is on what was the GDR, not far from Leipzig and Dresden (and Prague). Interesting drive with the four of us plus gear for six, but not amps or drum kits as they are being supplied. Lot of traffic, frequent hold ups as today is a holiday in most of Europe. Sleeping two to a room in the centre of town, we will go to the venue, the Malzhaus, this afternoon to set up and sound check. The two remaining Dudes will be flying in this evening and hopefully will make it in time for the first of our three evenings playing here at the Playing in the Band festival. Looking forward to meeting the German heads and other musicians that will be here.

Yup - that should work.... I'm chuffed with the joint - one of my better ones I'll get that cut out in the morning and get shaping

On a matter of internet security and passwords: Don't forget that in many situations, your DoB, Mother's maiden name, memorable place etc, etc Don't have to be true. OK for credit checking the bank may need your true info, but too many web sites ask for this same info for registering with them. So, just look at it as another password.

I’m sure the promoters who agreed to it wouldn’t have if the logistics of the venues couldn’t accommodate an extra band. As I’m equally sure that for every gig which we asked this and got on the bill there were probably 10 where we didn’t due to it not being logistically possible. As a band that now headlines (not every gig though ) we’re more than happy to give opportunities to bands just starting out and to not forget we all had to start somewhere.

I spotted that, so I just went and bought it for £20 on Amazon. I'm looking at it as £40 saved... :0) I once happened on a Terry Pratchett book signing at a small independent bookshop in Lancaster*, when I had the brand new book (in hardback) under my arm, having bought it earlier in the day from Waterstones or somewhere. On shuffling into the shop, I picked up a cheapo PTerry paperback (of The Unseen University Challenge) for him to sign...Terry grinned at my plastic Waterstones bag hastily shoved under my coat, took my paperback and wrote "To Muzz...your starter for £3.99..." 😁 * Full disclosure: I saw a queue lining up out the door, and joined it on spec, then asked what was happening afterwards... 🙂

Good to hear you opted for the Entwistle pickup. I keep telling people how good they are - heck they punch so far above their weight, for the price They could double the price and they'd still be great value! Yes, an off-white, creamy aged looking pearloid scratchplate would complete the look for this bass NOTE: Before you open up the pickup slot - your Entwistle pickup should fit into a "standard" pickup cover.... I picked a set up for about 4 quid on eBay.... Try this first, and you may find the magnet poles align better, without the need to file / dremmel your new scratchplate

I have one, but in black. A lot of friends generally regard it as my coolest looking bass. I prefer the weight of my Gibson but the Epiphone has all that chrome hardware, which looks amazing.

Here's my '73 P bass. Owned by me for 29 years and about 2000 gigs. It has been refinished in what looks like oil paint. Originally sunburst but already refinished when I bought it (Boogie Music, Denmark St / Charing cross road 1990) It was up for £450 I think. I traded an Aria SBR-150 and Shure wireless sm-58 plus 50 quid

Some more racks, this time from my control room:

Well the Entwistle PBXN pickup arrived. Wow very impressed with the sound, nice tight lows and very punchy indeed without the slightly boxey honk of the stock SX one that I removed. Wonderful value for 27 quid. Didn't need to rout body perfect fit, but cheap non Fender pickguard needed some minor alteration to get it to fit. Plays well and sounds amazing. Might treat myself to an aged MOP pickguard to give it a more vintage look. But all in all a really cracking P style bass for around £110! Think I will look for another beat up bass to rescue. Thanks again for all your comments advice and suggestions.

These little b****rs cost about $22 a pair to import from British Audio in the US. I need a green one, so I've done a trial 3D printed one, with layers 0.05mm (0.002") high. Unfortunately it's blue, but it looks a lot smoother than the picture with such thin layers, it cold be tidied up a bit and polished. I've ordered some green PLA and I will print another one with 0.025mm layers which is as close to injection moulding as I can get. The white dots appear to be painted on.

I’m IN!!! Just picked up from a fellow Chatter. BB425. Always wanted a BB. Now I *need* a full fat Japanese one. But older model, so that CHROME is there.

That's not just a bass, it's a biography!

Been fancying a dabble with a fan-fret so just ordered up a Dingwall NG2, 4 string in Lamborgini Orange! Will let you know how i get on with it. Mind you, when I had my bass business we had a couple come in and I found them quite intuitive to play.

Here's 2 sets for starters, maybe more when I have a clear-up. All 34" 4 string. 1] GONE. Fender flats - I think 45-105. Quite high tension but I reckon that's the gauge I got. Fitted to a Precision (not through body) so 4 one side. Silks are a bit fluffy but strings almost new. 2] PROB GONE already. D'Addario half-rounds 45-100s. 2 + 2 (off my Mayo fretless). Hardly used. Still available: 3]GONE: La Bella rounds - 45 100 (maybe 105). Off Precision thru-body (so will fit bridge mount too). Again, nearly new. Madness it is I'll check what else I have in the strings out-box. PM address and I will ship UK. Optional donations to NSPCC if concience dictates.

Yes. To be honest, it shouldn't actually need a dowel but there's no harm in having that extra bit of security even if just for peace of mind Andy

Got on well today. MrsAndyjr1515's sister has come to stay for a few days and they have been out all day, no doubt comparing their poor choices of spouses, so I've cracked on pretty much undisturbed all day! For flat faces, once I've run over the face with a plane, I use the chalk/engineers blue trick. I put some school chalk on my dead-flat chisel sharpening diamond stone: Then put it on the face and just move it a couple of mm, leaving me the chalky high spots: Which I then scrape off the chalk and a smidgen of wood underneath the chalk with cabinet scrapers: ..and repeat until the chalk smudge is all over the face. Ditto for the block. Then I added a dowel as a belt-n-braces support: ...and put in a corresponding hole in the block. Then added a generous coating of titebond and clamped: I'll leave that clamped overnight and then should be able to carve the corrected horn end tomorrow That's enough for one day

I've got one of these. Bought it from a guy on this site at the start of the year. It instantly became my "go to" bass. Amazingly slim and fast neck (for my small hands), Gibson Humbucker pickups, Gotoh tuners, Babicz bridge and professionally set up. Sweet! I hope you enjoy yours as much

Big +1 for networking with other bands, especially at the gigs you do get. We got more than a few gigs from other bands telling promoters that we were good for a support slot if they needed another band, and returned the favour. If nothing else, it builds a good community...although the lot I depped with at Christmas ended up on an unwantedly large bill when two different band members each invited mates bands to play the one support slot and telling the venue/promoter to add them on...ended up with three support acts getting half an hour each rather than two getting the 45 minutes they were all expecting. Of course we stuck to our full headline slot and swanned around like rock stars

It would probably contravene some EU Directive to put paint over that beautiful wood And if it doesn't, then it should!

Well, it's taken most of the morning, but this doesn't look bad at all, does it And @TheGreek 's concern whether the main cracks were fixed OK? : Looks pretty good to me. Like in the "if you didn't know where the cracks were, you wouldn't know where the cracks were" sense of the words... Good job, Mick. Stripping this all down to the wood also confirms that there is nothing structural that is of any concern. Next job is probably butchering the donor body for a bit of wood with the right grain pattern to fit and carve at the end of the lower horn . But first I'm going to have a cup of tea and a sandwich Andy

This. I have used a couple of those pickups and replaced the pickup covers for that reason. Easy and cheap.

I'm not an employee of BassDirect but they do have a pretty stellar customer service/reputation and they currently have a BEAUTIFUL 2nd hand MIJ stacked knob Jazz Bass on sale: http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Fender_CIJ_Jazz_70s_Siennaburst.html Could be what you're looking for.

ha, he sounds like like a total nightmare - a dangerous combination of over-inflated ego, arrogance and stupidity. i truly hope he goes deaf before he considers his career is over - what an utter job-knocky

Yep, having a PJ will solve just about any problem, except global warming and Brexit. I'm surprised it took so many, many years before Fender actually made an off-the-shelf one.

-

OK Had a close look at the components that @TheGreek sent to me to assess whether there were likely to be any nasties in there. And, overall, it's pretty good news. Other than I haven't yet checked whether the truss rod adjusts OK, here are the key points in the assessment: This is the body I'm going to be working on: Mick has already done some gluing and clamping on the main cracks at the lower horn side of the neck pocket and that looks pretty structurally sound now: You can see on this shot also the residue of whatever impossibly tough bottom poly coat makers like Ibanez - and clearly from this, SGC also - put on their bodies. It's tough to get off, but it will come off The loose horn tip is actually missing 3mm or so and so I will probably fit and carve a new horn end altogether. I will probably use wood from the donor body Mick also sent: That is also missing its original tip shape, but the timber is likely be the same species so I will cut an oversize piece of wood with the right grain direction, fit it and then carve it to the correct Nanyo shape. What about the mismatch you ask? Well - as I spotted on the donor - the tip always was different. You can see on both the donor one and the recipient one below the join line which would have continued across the horn tip - and is probably what failed with whatever major drop the bass received that broke the other joints. You can see also in this shot the extra few mm missing on the horn: The active electrics will come from the donor body also: I'm certain these are all originals, based on the corrosion on the pot spindles, etc (see front view at the top) but - certainly from tap tests on the two pickup covers - it all works fine, including no obvious crackling from any of the pots...which is, frankly, remarkable. The neck pocket is a beautiful fit. Fender....please note! : Structurally, the pocket looks completely sound where it matters. The damage was to the side of the pocket, and not the main strength-bearing zones. You can see in this shot some more poly undercover in the relief carve: There are other splits which I will secure by wicking very thin CA glue into the gaps, such as this one. The objective is basically to stop it spreading: So far, in summary I cannot see anything at all that would make getting this to full playable condition and it looking decent to boot! I will be spending much of the rest of the day sanding the body down to fresh wood and then re-assess.

Effectively you are an unknown entity so promoters are reluctant to take a chance. It's definitely harder now. Do you do any covers at all? If so I would bill yourself as whatever genre you are and state it is a mix of originals and covers. Then when you do your set that is 95% originals, if it goes down well and people come - you have a foot in the door.

Exactly - nothing about it smelled right, and there was a lot of pressure to give him the bass as soon as possible and not to pay by the methods I had specified. Apparently being able to reverse the PayPal payment didn't help his cause (and I never received any confirmation that it had been sent and was awaiting clearance) and there was also talk about getting the PayPal payment sent from a friend's account in Greece. Maybe he was just inexperienced, but I don't regret telling him cash only

Ok, had a listen and I don't hear a p bass tone as others have suggested though I see why they would have thought that, there is a very specific quality unique to the mids in a p bass and that I am not hearing in the soundclip. Not sure what bass to recommend for that sound but maybe @Reggaebass suggestion of fender 62RI is a good place to start, I am hearing a warm tone with not a lot going on in the upper frequencies so I am thinking something with vintage voiced pickups and the right strings will get you there, I am guessing it is either flatwounds or nickel rounds with some highs rolled off in the clip.

If I had your skill set, I'd deffo leave the grain, it's lovely. A satin finish would be my choice.

If a bookshop arranges an author to come to their store - probably at quite an expense - then I don't see it as unreasonable that customers would be expected to buy the book from the store rather than bring along their own copy.

Wow! Not even Hitler spoke on behalf of a 99.9%.

I knew it was all over and I'd lost the band I formed years before. That last chorus was just shouting, sometimes I'd play through it, sometimes not. Terrible venue, twenty or thirty in, prospect of a two hour ride home. Spur of the moment thing. The bass was already off and it just seemed apt at the time. I have this slow motion vision of it flying through the air and it clattering into the bottom of the drums.

I live on the edge, me. I write cheques. I cross the road, too, sometimes. I just don't care.

Update. Finally had the chance to use my Headrush FRFR-112 at a band rehearsal at the weekend with the Helix LT. Result? Very happy. It was just a 'technical' rehearsal with three of us as one of the guitarist and both vocalists weren't available. So just guitarist, drums and me. The drummer had a new toy he wanted to try out too (roland drum pad and sampler thing). I needed to check the headrush was going to work, so seemed like an ideal opportunity to try these things out without interference. I've mentioned before, we're not a loud band, and I previously used a single markbass 1x12 with a Carvin head running at 300w@8ohms. Before the Helix arrived I had issues with boom and mud I just couldn't dial out. It was much better with the helix's hpf engaged, but now with the headrush, much better. The low end is controlled, still fat and deep enough even at high volume. I had it set a volume I felt I would normally gig at and it was fine - didn't even break a sweat. As an experiment I turned up the wick to a sort of volume I'd never play at, and where my previous rig would get 'woolly'. Again, absolutely fine. The natural roll-off around 50hz really helped. In fact, I was able to turn the hpf on the Helix (which I also had set at 50hz from before) off without negatively affecting the tone. I found I prefer the tone of the Helix amp sims without a cab sim. To my ears, they just seem to kill the tone too much and don't 'feel' right (amp in the room syndrome perhaps). The key is a high cut instead around 3-4khz to simulate a real bass cab roll off. This, for me, more closely represents a DI from an amp going straight to the desk. Hopefully, this will translate nicely to FOH when we try that. FWIW, I also tried my backup preamp, a Valetone Dapper Bass straight into the headrush. Sounded fine. Sure, it's not as refined as the Helix, but it simulates a bass amp with 3 band eq and I'm sure it will get me out of a jam if need be. It may even suffice for the odd small gig with a short set where I need to travel light. Both of the guitarists use a Helix as well, each through a Yamaha DXR10, so I tried my bass through that as well. Not quite as deep but again, will get me out of a jam if the headrush fails. Likewise, my Headrush will be more than adequate to share as a backup to one of the Yamahas. Lastly, as another experiment. I remembered the smaller headrush FRFR-108 rolls of the low end around 70hz, so I set the hpf to that frequency. More than adequate for rehearsal, so I'm almost tempted to pick one up for rehearsals and small low volume gigs.

It must be powerful, it's blown you right out of your shoes! 🤣

Welcome. You've single-handedly lowered the average age on here and raised the average IQ. Nice work. 😀

Check out books by Jamey Aebersold.

I worked on one of these a few weeks back, once it was set up properly it was loverly Fretwork was good and hardware all worked. The only thing that let it down for me was the electronics, if it were mine I would have been swapping out the pots and wiring. Hope you have a great evening, getting to know it.

This morning I finished this build, strung it up and christened it with a blast through "One Step Beyond"...…………...I am a happy lad! I could never justify buying a genuine 1964 bass or even a CS Fender, Limelight basses don't, as far as I can see, seem to offer the laminated fingerboard option, and I am reasonably handy, so why not give it a go? The idea was to build my ideal bass, a sonic blue Precision, and to see if I could make it as close as I could to 1964 spec, in fact to look as if it was made on the day I was born 17th March 1964. Before I go any further, I realise that recently there has been a bit of polarising reaction to relic'd/roadworn/aged (call them what you will) basses, and I completely understand this, in fact up until fairly recently I didn't like them either. But, because this was a hobby build, and not a commercial one, I thought I could pat attention to the 'hidden' details , such as the scratchplate shield and the sunlight fading, and see how far I could take it. Again, I wasn't trying to forge a copy or mislead anyone, so I put in deliberate references to my date of birth, such as the serial number, neck date and the decal on the back of the headstock. This bass is for me, it is my ideal bass, with my favourite parts fitted and it will not be sold. The link to the build diary is here, for those interested enough to want to read further https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/326421-17031964-a-day-of-birth-precision-bass-build/ Sorry about the quality of the photo's by the way, photography is not one of my strong points

It certainly was this difficult 15 years ago, in fact, it was worse. No emails then. No Facebook, no websites only your phone, land line of course and good old Royal Mail who faithfully delivered promo material and demos that were totally ignored. The only way to find gigs was to read the gig pages in the music press or possibly word of mouth then it was off the the library to read the Yellow Pages to try to find addresses. At least now you can easily find venues to be ignored by!