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I just got an email from Source Audio telling me that some of my presets are going to be on the Featured Presets page!

A). I’m in this fir the enjoyment, not financial gain.

And trimmed. Next job is levelling, recrowning and polishing the frets and resetting the nut. And then...well then I think it's done

He's playing some sort of PJ with a front loaded preamp - the front cover is of the Marcus Miller style. It's got a very lively and punchy sound in places - maybe result of the active circuit and a compressor. The sound on Give Me What You Got is certainly typical of an SR5 (possibly ceramic). Bear in mind he's a virtuoso player. Im concious that it's rarely worth arguing with other people's opinions, but for me, the Stingray is shown across the board to be a versatile bass - if you want to lay back and groove, there's no better fat bass tone - if you want to step out occasionally, you can do that, if you want to play slap solos then the sound is great, if you want to play solo chordal work you can do that (though a Bongo may be better at that). It's sound could be described as iconic. Not sure why anyone would class a bass of that type as over-rated. If you prefer a Precision then fine - for my money they're not as versatile and you'll struggle to do some of the things I mentioned well (lots of people don't want to anyway). But none of that makes the Stingray an overrated bass. You may also notice Stan plays with the bass strung the other way round - I didn't see a problem with him pushing the B off the board - arguably far easier to do, with certain technique variation than the normal arrangement with the G there.

Time-clock noted at 10 36pm on 13-09-19

Cheers guys, it’s blue, with black hardware (other than the tuners). it took me less than an hour to find out about them and track one down secondhand for £700. A real bargain. It’s also only 8lbs so great for long gigs/old people lol. Unlike some there doesn’t seem to be large chunks of wood missing, and I love the look of this one. Its a bass I really will never sell.

Haha - you're clearly suffering from a bit LOT of confusion as part of your mid-life crisis?! Surely mid-life crisis = more gear not less? (Well that's how I sold it to Mrs Krow, anyway 😂)

Frets all done. Just have to reset the nut, pop back the tuners and this can be shipped back to @Sibob

Current large (non Helix) board....

Did someone say Stingray through Ampeg? Keb Mo again - I love this sound and my SR5 sounds exactly like that!! Though not the playing!! https://youtu.be/ygUV3e9nY9s

I replaced the stock bridge, which I wasn’t totally happy with, with a Gotoh high mass bridge. Thought you’d be interested to see this @PlasmaZombies Easy fit, all the screw holes lined up perfectly. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade as far as I’m concerned; the notes have more clarity and attach than with the old bridge. I’m not bothered about increased sustain particularly but the new bridge has improved that too. It looks great as well 😉

We've been rumbled, lads! Scarper!

I finally decide to ask the question ...what's this "guest posting all the time?" that I can't see, and I find you lot were enjoying yourselves tremendously ages ago ...Selfish Bastards!😡 I mean it's ok for me to join in with the boring Political crap but have fun at Teebs using up emojis...NO ...that's a secret....Raymondo isn't fit to have such pleasure..well... I found it ...HA!

Why does quitting the band mean selling the gear? If you like playing bass, just play and record at home. Unless you're bit fussed about the instrument and only see it as means to perform live of course, in which case if you've lost the love for being in a band and you don't love the instrument then by all means, sell the gear, I suppose.

Any musician worth his salt and with time on his hands is often in more than one band. Just remember the rule re: booking clashes.... "First in the diary".

From what I can see, at £500 it makes you significantly poorer, but marginally taller.

Welcome to my world ... and that of 90% of everyone else on here. 😂

That means that you don't have enough room for the next bass you want to buy. They say space is infinite - not in my flat it isn't

I was playing my BBN4ii earlier - lovely neck - felt effortless.

Wonderful voice. I sooo love the drumming. and the bass playing. And especially that little hook from the guitar at 1.20.

Indeed! It's got half a chance. The fretboard is now completely flat with the trussrod loose so the full movement is now available to counteract the string tension. But fingers crossed anyway

Also the newsletter!

Yep me too. Admittedly we used to do the Specials take on it but I would go nuts whenever we played it.

Thanks again @funkle for putting the cab through hell so we don't have too!!

Don’t forget the dressing up in a French maid’s outfit with roller skates...

This is probably one of my favourite ska basslines , really good fun to play 🙂

Tony Butler will be joining us on Sunday 22nd at the Chowny stand at the UK Guitar Show at 11:00 for a meet and greet if you're a Big Country or Tony Butler fan. Then at 13:15-14:00 he will be doing a talk in the Tone Zone where he will talk about his new signature bass among other subjects (interviewed by Joel McIver from Bass Guitar Magazine) Please come and say Hi.

Agree, if trying to establish yourself do exactly that to the biggest audiences possible. Take the hit financially for a while, once the name is out there the bigger fees and greater merch sales come in. It’s how we’ve worked from the start and we’ve progressed it fairly well.

I agree with this, if you are a full time band you can probably cope with not having all the above because time is on your side. If you are essentially a hobbyist (like me, although we gig pretty regularly 2 or 3 a month) then all those 'rock 'n' roll' traits soon become pretty boring and get in the way. You literally have less time for idiots. I'd say my band ticks those boxes and although we still have the usual diary issues etc. it's the 'easiest' band I've been in - save the drama for the gigs I reckon 🙂

Of all the music I love to play this is my favourite. Thank you.

You might not see the Spark or Mojomojo as they're analog pedals. They could try to approximate them though, they do have the Spectradrive and Tubetone algorithms after all. I would have expected to see TC try out standalone digital drive, amp/cab sim and filter pedals at some point before they tried their hand at a multi-fx. Interesting to see what they come up with though!

Actually the best strategy is to do what The Terrortones did. Organise gigs in your home town. Put on reasonably well known bands who are doing a similar style of music to your band and who will play for less than £150, and get your band to open for them. Do this on a regular basis - every 4 to 6 weeks, make it into a decent evening with DJs playing appropriate music between the bands, promote the hell out of it. You'll learn lots from watching the more established bands go about their business (both what's good and what to avoid) and unless your band is dreadfully dull you should start building a decent local following. It also looks good on your band's "CV" for getting decent out of town gigs, when you've got a long list of impressive support gigs.

A brand new stand turned up in the post this morning - the design of the grip that had failed has changed, so there was clearly a design issue. Nevertheless, exemplary customer service from Hercules/Stringsandthings... 👍

I use both chambered body Maruszczyk and low density body Sandbergs (but as 4s not 5s) for my main gigging basses. The gloss finish on my Jake L4p+ is more to my taste as I like things to stay looking new and I’ve actually already managed to put a little ding in the paper-thin finish on the super-light, but I’m kinda strangely at peace with the fact that I literally cannot keep something like that looking pristine forever if I’m going to make full use of it; it’s going to age a little bit in spite of my best efforts. The Maruszczyk was cheaper by about £500 as you say (though it’s passive so the lack of a preamp accounts for some of that), but the Sandbergs have something about them that made me buy a second one! That said, given the sounds I’m getting from the 4s that I own, I can’t see any reason why a 5 from either company would be lacking ...but at the same time I wouldn’t expect it to sound like my actual 5s which are Spectors and therefore have a sound all of their own which could easily, for some, define the term ‘gutsy’.

The nearest thing I got to play bass was back in the late 90s when my old Who mate the Ox (John Entwistle) and his then girlfriend Lisa Pritchett-Johnson (who used to go out with Joe Walsh) rented out Kilsheelin House in Clonmel, County Tipperary in Ireland. With characteristic aplomb John immediately christened the place 'Castle Ox'. He had retreated there with our sound engineer Bob Pridden to start writing his book on Keith Moon....a book which Pete had said that if John had lived to a hundred he would still never quite finish. I had amassed a huge amount of facts and anecdotal evidence on Moon and the Who for my co-authored book The Who Concert File. John had been a great help to me taking landline calls from dodgy street corner phone boxes in Cork to his splendid residence at Quarwood. So, we're in Clonmel....'Castle Ox'...we're going out on the fosters...and characteristically John has found it necessary to include among his vast overspill of luggage for a month's stay...three or four bass guitars! One of which is delicately leaning against the wall of the great hall in 'Castle Ox'. It's like a woman undressed or a grand piano with the lid open...I can't resist it. The bass is strapless. I pick it up and clumsily try to find the riff for my song Happy Jack. John stared at me and said in a threatening tone..'Jack, drop that bass and you'll be paying for it for the rest of your working life..' I leaned the 1963 Fender Precision back against the wall with applied delicacy and looked back at it lovingly as we exited the grand hall and headed for a country pub. Lisa was driving. John didn't know how to.

I looked at the various PJB kit when I wanted very lightweight gear. In the end when I added up the weights the combos were heavier than a Class D head and a barefaced One10, and many of the smaller heads still had a good DI to use.

I don't think you should have quit bands and music. Quit bad situations and the wrong people. Blue

Not all satin finishes are created equal. The same applies for gloss. @dave_bass5 I think I may have posted a few pages back about preferring the Fender Am Pro Precision V neck to the Yamaha P35 neck. I fully stick by that with the addition that I also prefer my BB735a neck to the P35 neck. And I think it might be entirely down to the difference in finish - they’re both satin in a general sense but each executed differently, with the result being that the 735 feels noticeably better (for me)

A couple of other things I used with that setup: An Option Knob to be able to change modes with my foot (well, it was cheaper than a MIDI setup!): Also, feeding the fake guitar into a TC Mimiq stereo doubler sounds amazing. Not too useful if you're just using a single guitar amp, but if going to the PA, recording, or just listening in headphones, it really helps separate it and make it sound like a double tracked guitar.

They are solid body. No chambering or weight relief.

The woods in the super light models are lower density, and that is according to sandberg themselves. It's how these models are so lightweight, and why they can't offer high gloss finishes, because the paint just won't take to the wood well due to the low density.

If anyone gives a damn, Steven Wilson has sprinkled his magic pixie dust on XTC's psychedelia alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear material. Psurroundabout Ride sees it's release on CD&BluRay in less than a month. A smattering of bonus materials and All The Dukes' material in 5.1 psurround as well.

Make sure that you and the drummer have a big sound without anything else - depends on the material of course - but that usually means having a bit of grind and overdrive in your basic tone (+1 for the Soul Food) The trad 'fat bass' sound isn't that good for this and (IMHO) needs to be in a mix with other instruments. Then the guitar builds on what is already decent. We always sound check drums and bass together to sound full before adding in guitars. Worth the effort - much prefer playing in one guitar bands 🙂

My motto is when something is no longer enjoyable then its either time to make a change or to walk away. The reason's why it not enjoyable any more can be many a thing, be it your own mentality, the fire is no longer in your belly, its stale , you've just had enough or the people are tossers, the music is crap, the musicians are not very good, the situation is tonic or something else. The key is to recognize this and either change it or walk away, doing nothing is not going make things any better and you will just waste time and get more worked up and stressed about the situation.

I think 5 string basses are easier to play to be honest! You can keep the same shapes and fingerings in a larger number of positions, though I don't think about that so much nowadays - it's all natural. I never regret having the 5th string there, but sometimes regret not having it on a 4 string. In terms of versatility between modern and vintage I'd go for a Sadowsky Metro Express, Fender 5 string jazz with active electronics, or a Yamaha BB 735 series, for both those modern and vintage sounds in one bass. Any of those will do anything you need in any situation (though I know Fender are what you've said you want to move away from).

Salut Rehsart

Question is, will gigs have PA support? Also you said ‘maybe’ gigs - be a shame to buy stuff and then no gigs happen. Why not use it as an excuse to get them to play at sensible volume, also saving your ears while you arrange and get it together, and if it comes off and looks like it will be a go-er then splash out