Leaderboard

I returned today, to one of my old, favoured bass places, Promenade Music in Morecambe. Used to go there every few weeks but hadn't been for 2 years. Anyway, Gary's still working there and is a great bloke for loads of friendly, knowledgable chat and a cup of tea. Had a hankering for another 4-stringer and after some discussion, we more or less narrowed it down to 3 basses. A Marleaux Consat Custom 4 (used), a Fender Flea Signature Active Jazz Bass, in Satin Inca Silver and a Musicman Stingray Special, in Chopper Blue. The Marleaux is a superb bass, with a classy, hand made feel and quality woods. The only part that didn't impress me was the pre amp, it just didn't seem to deliver, to my ears. I was a bit dubious about the Flea Jazz but I have to say, I think it is a great bass. I reckon Flea told Fender to take a JB and make as much like a Stingray as they could. And they've done a bloody good job, IMO. Very solid and resonant, really well built and a rather good pickup. The only changes I'd make would be a 3 band EQ, instead of 2 and a slightly wider string spacing at the bridge end. I would have been very happy to bring it home with me but as the title suggests, the winner was the Stingray Special. Now I already have a standard 2014, EBMM Stingray, with a single HB and 3 EQ, that I reckon is great. So why get this as well, other than the usual excuse of permanent GAS? To me, there enough differences between the 2 Stingrays to give enough of a different playing experience. The Special has a slightly different pickup, with Neodymium magnets and an 18 volt pre amp, to deliver even more bassy goodness. The gorgeous, roasted maple neck feels a tad narrower, with slightly more rounding off, of the rosewood fingerboard's edges and lovely stainless steel frets. The tuners are definitely nicer, with a more 3D ergonomic, comfy feel to them and the body is rounded at the neck heel to improve one's upper fret playing experience. Also, overall the bass is a little lighter. So does all this make the Special better than my old Stingray? Probably yes but I do so enjoy my older model, it's not going to be left on it's stand. I really like the Chopper Blue coloured body, with the pearloid white pickguard, black pickup and chrome hardware. This is a pretty bass and definitely feels like it's got all the iconic, classic aspects you have to have in a Stingray. Yet it's subtle improvements feel like a natural evolution, with no revolution needed, thankyou. I'd test driven this beauty through a rig very similar to my own and so am looking forward to the next band rehearsal. Specifications: Model: StingRay Special Size: 13-1/2" wide, 1-5/8" thick, 44-7/8" long (34.3 cm wide, 4.1 cm thick, 114.0 cm long) Body Wood: Select Hardwoods Body Finish: High gloss polyester Bridge: Vintage Music Man® top loaded chrome plated, steel bridge plate with vintage nickel plated steel saddles Scale Length: 34" (86.4 cm) Neck Radius: 11" (27.9 cm) Headstock Size: Only 8-3/4" (22.2 cm) long Frets: 22 - High profile, wide, Stainless Steel Neck Width: 1-5/8" (41.3 mm) at nut 2-1/2" (63.5 mm) at last fret Neck Wood: Select roasted maple neck Fingerboard: Fretted - Rosewood Neck Finish: Gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend Neck Colors: Standard – Natural with finished headstock Tuning Machines: Custom Music Man, lightweight with tapered string posts and ergonomic clover design Truss Rod: Adjustable wheel - no component or string removal Neck Attachment: 5 bolts - perfect alignment with no shifting; Sculpted neck joint allows smooth access to higher frets Electronic Shielding: black plated aluminum control cover Controls: 3-band active preamp with 18 volts of headroom; vol, treble, mid, bass Pickups: Standard - Single Humbucking with Neodymium magnets.

Its going to be 1972 everywhere in the UK by the time he gets here

I thought this was another 'show us your rig' thread......😇

Basically, doffing one's kecks and flaunting one's trouser trout is something that a tiny minority of male singer / front-men were wont to do back in the late 60's - early '70s. Indeed, among big-name performers I can think only of Mr Mr Pop and Mr Jim Morrison who embraced this approach, though lesser or local luminaries will doubtless have followed suit in homage or in imitation. (As an aside, it should be noted that Mr Fee Waybill of The Tubes was accustomed to wear a fake penis, this peeping coyly from his shorts). We should remember that the 1960's was a decade where going 'sky-clad' was very much a thing among young people, in part because to do so symbolised a rejection of bourgeois values. Nowadays, of course, young radicals never take their clothes off, for fear of triggering other young people. Indeed, it would seem that today's adolescents and young adults consider sexual intercourse to be a hate crime. But I digress. Going butt-nekkid in front of an audience is something that almost never happens these days and in olden times it was pretty much only the singer who did it*. Back then the rest of the band customarily remained fully clothed (though I am open to correction) possibly for aesthetic reasons though - more likely - to accentuate the singer's nudity. Nobody attended a Doors or a Stooges concert in the hope that Ray Manzarek or James Williamson would haul his winkle out and in the event that other band-members had brogged off I would have expected both Mr Pop and The Lizard King to have given them a swift punch up the throat. To be honest, most audiences today would be surprised if the singer took off his clothes but bewildered if the bass player did so. 'Why has the chap with the big guitar dropped his strides?' they'd cry. 'It just doesn't make any sense'. * Apart from the dancer Stacia out of Hawkwind

And finally ready to return: Machine heads refitted and nut lowered ( @Sibob may want to tweak them when he resets it but it is at a level where those tweaks should be pretty minor). Because the nut / nut slot is lower, I've chiselled a dropaway angle behind it to ensure the strings have a clear run to the machine heads: It'll be in Monday's post back to @Sibob . No doubt we'll all find out if it's done the trick or not soon

A few bands ago, in a trio-plus-vocalist, I was teamed with a very good drummer who was also very inventive. We did "Sultans of Swing" - the original, of course, has keys and a second guitar as well as the lead guitar. After we'd rehearsed it a few times, rather than upping things when the first solo came round, the drummer dropped back. I realised what he was doing and followed him, so we were really underplaying below the first solo which suddenly didn't sound empty. The second solo got full tilt boogie which worked well, but probably wouldn't have without that alternative dynamic on the first one. It wouldn't work on a guitar solo using searing distortion, but fitted nicely with the slightly overdriven Knofler tone.

A conflict of interest will occur sometime in the future, it’s what happens when musicians play in more than one band.

Just listening to Lemon Jelly’s excellent album Lost Horizons for the first time in many years, so good. Several tracks are joyous, not an epithet I can attribute to much music I listen to...

I did a few dep gigs for a blues singer a few years ago. He was well into his 50s, short and very overweight. Imagine my horror when halfway through the encore, he appeared from the rear of the stage totally nude. Not a pretty sight, though surprisingly, the ladies in the audience loved it.

You make an excellent point, Mr W. I am sure that various bass players have disrobed before an audience. It's just that advancing years have taken their toll and I can't remember much before last Tuesday.

I've seen the Chilli Peppers during their only a sock phase... I've also played a gig in naught but a codpiece fashioned from a heavy duty rubber glove... But the band that does much more than take the biscuit is Rockbitch. I've never seen a few thousand bikers, patch club members and Hell's Angels look so scared!

Let’s not forget the young lady who used to dance in the buff at old Hawkwind gigs. Her name was Stacia.

I've learned loads of songs over the last six months. I find Ultimate guitar easy because it allows you to quickly change between versions (some songs have eight or more tabs, they can't ALL be right). There are several types, the best are pretty accurate and give an idea of the rhythm. Some just give you little more than a set of riffs and a few are people 'interpretation'. Many have minor mistakes, most have bad fingering choices, and a proportion are just totally wrong. At the moment we are trying to build a setlist of about 40 songs, so lots of playing songs on YouTube and trying to sight read the tab (it can be done and makes me even more convinced I'm dyslexic when it come to the dots!) The worst songs are the really complex ones that don't have a clear bass-melody to stick in your head. For complex ones I find Troy's bass covers on youtube are good: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQPqVw7y59QuPZdQ6QkuXKQ You can slow down 50% and play along to the sub-bass to learn hard bits 🙂 I find there are two separate things to learn, which rarely go at the same speed: learning the technical bits and learning the song, ideally you want to be good enough so that if dropped in at a random point you can join in quickly (i.e. if you get lost playing with others you can recover and make it seem like you put in a jazzy little fill...)

Last year my girlfriend gave me a rather fetching pair of tiger skin pants as a joke present. I play guitar in a glam punk band and wear a tiger skin suit. She dared me to wear them for a gig, not being able to resist a challenge I went for it. I'd also taken to running to keep fit and the thought of my impending exposure made me keep to my exercise regime in order to look my best. At the gig I played most of the set fully clothed and when the singer and I left the stage to change for the encore I stripped to my underpants and walked back on stage to shocked gasps (and some laughter) from the audience. The encore was only two songs but when almost naked it did seem to last an eternity and once I'd smashed my guitar (it's a special one that I can smash and rebuild) I felt very exposed. I can't say I would do it again but it's certainly something I can tell the grandchildren.

A number of the Phil Jones amps are dual input. A cheaper option which may be "good enough" could be to use a decent 2 channel mixer in front of the amp to save yourself the cost of a new rig?

I’m thinking of tasking @Jabba_the_gut to build his basses with a tit chamfer, I’m sure it would be a money spinner.

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I don't mind either way though if I was ordering my dream fretless I'd probably have lines at the edges only, Alain Caron style. Overall, my preference is for lines as I like them for a very quick visual reference though I can do without. My first fretless was unlined. A large part of the game for me is the feel of each fretless bass. Even on a lined bass, you'll soon play without even really considering the lines as your innate sense of muscle memory and intonation takes over. Once your hands are 'tuned in', you're ready to motor. I certainly don't subscribe to the stuffy attitude that unlined is superior despite having first learned that way (I even had a lovely unlined fretless Alembic Epic years ago). Gary Willis plays with lines and I've never met an internet critic that could play like he does.

Another reason to play flats ...

So right. When we started out the drummer was in another band. We got a great offer to support a well known band, playing early. But he had a gig with his covers band the same evening. Now we would have been on at 7:30 - 8, his covers band would have started at 9:30. It was a 30min drive between venues. But the other band refused to set everything up, saying they all needed to be there for that, so we didn’t get to do the gig. Now there is the argument that he was in the covers band long before we formed, so in reality it was us diluting the covers band, and not long after he did leave as he couldn’t stay in 2 regular gigging bands full time.

What would be amazing is five toneprints. Any you want, any combination. Swoon.

Hope I love them. Never had one and there’s one incoming! 😆

Also, Lionize - who are protege's of Clutch - have a new album coming out soon with Jean-Paul Gaster on drums. If I could play with any drummer it'd be him - he's such an expressive player, with so much groove

It's a less sophisticated unit than the FI that lets a bassist, who doesn't want to have to spend hours and days deep diving into PC editing, get some very usable sounds quickly. Where the FI wins: overall more capable and more tweak-able synth engine midi enabled ability to provide 99 presets Where the SY-1 wins: flawless tracking all the way down to a low B (and not requiring a staccato / muted style to avoid glitching) immediacy of dials (no need for an app/midi/PC) to access some great synth sounds £175 vs £329 (new) arpeggiator polyphonic straightforward parallel loop capability ability to use an expression pedal smaller footprint So for me it was a no-brainer in going for the SY-1, which I'm loving, and I'm not missing my FI at all. For others, the pros / cons may push them to getting an FI.

I loaned the little vtbass to a mate who has a full ampeg rig, complete with 8x10 fridge. His response was “it rocks!”. I will take that as a vote of approval.

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

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

My tame luthier student went and tapped all the polepieces with a allen key and there was equal volume across everything so I gave skater student a spare E string and we shall see what happens. Thanks all..

Firstly this is general advice and not specifically aimed at this cab. Really low frequencies muddy the sound and use vast amounts of amplifier power as well as over exerting the bass driver. So Don't use any sort of low bass boost such as an octaver Don't use too much bass control on the amp. Don't use too much bass on any onboard pre-amp (does not apply to passive basses). The best way is to use an HPF. Some amps have an HPF built in but there are some good external ones available. In my opinion you need one the operates about 30-35Hz and with a 24dB per octave slope. One often mentioned is the Thumpinator. My only worry is that there are no specs on any of the models. However they do seem to work. FDeck on the other site, has a few designs and they are very versatile. Some multi effects units have them but the slope is usually too small. I think maybe I should do a separate thread on HPFs. As a rule of thumb, any needed frequencies will move the cone too fast for you to see. So if you see large s;ow come moveent, that is the stuff we want to avoid.

We’ll know Monday Tuesday night 😂 Si

Today I welcomed into my fold a brand new Fender Duff McKagan Signature Deluxe bass guitar. I’ve been thinking about getting a PJ configuration bass for a while. I had one a while back and it filled the gaps very nicely in my rock covers trio. I saw the Duff in a store last week and thought it looked awesome. Lots of online research, followed by a return visit to try it out and the deal was done. It’s a beauty, finished in a lovely pearlescent champagne colour. It’s not quite white, but it’s close enough to tick my Paul Simonon fanboy boxes. I’m not usually a fan of black hardware but it looks great on this bass. You can find all the specs online if you’re interested. The neck is substantial but not overly chunky. Nut width is 41mm I’d guess, it feels similar to my EBMM Stingray. Despite the Jazz Bass Special name on the headstock it’s definitely got more Precision DNA in it than Jazz. Despite being a Signature instrument there is no trace of Duff’s name anywhere on it, only a ‘skull’ motif pressed into the neck plate. It’s slightly neck heavy, more noticeable when playing seated but strapped on it balances well. I love the fact that I have master volume and master tone (that’s how I’ve always had my J basses re-wired) and a pickup selector. All three positions give very individual, useable tones. The secret weapon is the TBX tone control which I’m looking forward to experimenting with. Very useful to me is the factory fitted Hipshot D-tuner. It’s not properly set up though so it will need fine tuning, which I hear is a bit of a faff... The set up was ok: intonation and action all good, although the relaxed tension on the E when the Hipshot is engaged results in a lot of buzz, so that will need tweaking too. General fit and finish is excellent, as you’d expect from a £1000+ bass. It comes with a Fender gig bag which they describe as ‘deluxe’: it’s anything but - thin and fairly useless, so I’ll be using one of the excellent Mayones gig bags I own, which are very heavy duty. It’s definitely a ‘rock’ bass, and as the man himself plays almost exclusively with a pick it’s easy to get a punchy rock tone by doing likewise, with both pickups on. But I think the Duff is more versatile than that. The Seymour Duncan J pickup in isolation is honky and funky but not thin and weedy, and the P pickup in isolation is warm and full, especially played finger style. I like it very much. I’m looking forward to giving it a proper high volume workout tomorrow at rehearsal. Nice!

Confused.....is your post ironic???

Agreed! And would also fall into the significant category. I've updated my earlier post

I have a ticket but don't know if I can be arsed. British Rail want me to take a bus for half the 2 1/2 hour journey, and it doesn't look as good as last year when Scott wheeled in loadsa stars like Henrik Linder and Rich Brown. Try as I might I can't see much more than Cody and John Pattitucci, who is obv a god but is he worth 2 1/2 hours on a BR bus? Think I'll just chuck the ticket unless someone can persuade me I've turned over two pages at once on the programme.

Well spotted! The bass came with black strap buttons but I always fit Schaller strap locks to my basses. I had some chrome ones lying around, and I was going to buy black ones, but then I thought ‘no one’s going to see them once the strap’s attached!’ so I fitted the chrome ones.

You must have been on the spinach to lift a Peavey 410 on your own 😁

I've been using a J-Tone for a couple of years now and I like it - it gives a good, even, usable tone and it's far less sensitive to placement than the Rev Solo II that I was using before. It sounds more refined IMO than the BassMax as well. I'd agree with @Beer of the Bass that it lacks a bit of definition, although I actually spent some time working with the EQ on my amp and it's a lot better in this regard. I'm thinking of getting a KNA DB-1 to see if it has a touch more 'refinement' than the J-Tone but either way, I'd recommend the J-Tone as a good reliable (and inexpensive) piece of gear.

I oppose streaming services, despite their inevitability i’m content to be unknown and exist outside of Spotify/Tidal/Apple/Google and Amazon (and all the attention grab stuff most bands seem to require and want to indulge in). I’m happy being smol and in control. It’s about £1600-£1700 all in with everything except recording (which I do at home) for a single. But oh it’s a thing that didn’t even require a computer to record or make the cover art on. That purity may disappear once it hits the mastering ppl but that’s out of my reach. i might include a random badge, “I hate Claire Fox” (I added the extra x to differentiate myself from a more well-known pile of human sludge) and/or “Antisocial Justice Worrier”. Like I said I’m more interested in recreating the essence of the late 70s than considering this an “investment” or as a moneymaking venture — I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose money and I’m okay with that. I’m making a double a sided petulant scream into the void.

My main band know I play a few gigs with other bands and if the calendar says I'm not available when they're offered a gig, I'm not available. Admittedly, they'll ask if my gig can be changed but if I say no, then they either try to get the client to change the date, or turn it down. I've played plenty of 100€ per man gigs and had to turn down 300€ per man with our main band but, I will always honour the gig that I've taken on first. Even, if it's a freebie charity gig. The OP's singer has acted more than fairly in asking in the first place and the OP is being totally reasonable about it all. The drummer however, sounds a bit immature. It's not cheating and he should be told that he can't dictate what others do in their spare time.

Nice - what construction cable is that for the Low F#?

Well just before we all rush out and trade our Yammys for Sire V7s(!) here's a second clip of my BB 1025 in action a couple of week's back. It was actually recorded for Dave's benefit 'cos he was interested in finding out whether the Fearless F112 cab had as much / greater clarity than my BF SC in a band mix (the earlier clip from the same gig was posted on the 12" cab thread). Signal chain was very simple: purely passive BB1025 --> amp (DG M900 on clean) --> F112 cab. No pedals or compression in between. I'll let you be the judge (usual recommendation of listening through headphones) whether you think the BB 1025 cuts through or not. @lee650 - hey buddy, further to our chat about 1025 tone, this is the post with a clip of mine in action.