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You could make your own show up. Go onto youtube and pick a video from an ancient bluesman, a 'challenging' modern-ish band, somebody who won a BBC jazz award three years ago and a burke playing spoons in an ethnic hat. OK ? Now flick between them and a vid of Joolz on boogie woogie piano, over and over again. Play Joooolz at the same time as one of the vids....it won't fit, but that never stops Joooooooolz. Turn the bass waaay down and you'll not notice the difference. Not that I watch it of course, it's shiite.

If someone told me which frets to use I'd get in my car, go round to his house and park across the entrance to his driveway. Then I'd shag his missus and when he came home I'd tell him what I'd done and ask him which annoyed him more, the driveway thing or the missus thing. Whichever thing upset him the most, I'd do it again then I'd resign from the band on the proviso that I'd fulfil any future commitments until they'd found a replacement for me. It's only fair.

Yes. I've seen poor Dave also get the riding crop across the jacksie during "Hunting Girl". If that was the end of his derrière-based-bass-activities, he'd probably be happy. Unfortunately, this also happened...

I've got boogie woogie piano and shite bands withdrawal symptoms 😭

There's a joke about fingering technique to be made but I shan't.

Is that what you get now instead of the NME's current favourite landfill indie haircut band? Not watched it for about 4 years - my, how times change. Used to force myself to sit through it as it was the only live music on TV. In recent years I appear to have exhausted my supply of giveafuk.

Exactly so; context is everything. If the late Mr James Brown had asked me to play something a certain way I'd be 'Yessir, Mr Brown, Sir'. In other circumstances, not so much, though on one occasion a drummer politely pointed out a flaw in my rendition of a certain line. He was correct and I amended my performance accordingly. A gentleman does not tell another gentleman which position the second gentleman's wife prefers. The Duke of Edinburgh told me that.

You're playing a cover. Play it like the original and add your OWN suitable flourishes if they work and your band situation (i.e. not a note for note tribute) allows for it. Ignore the guitard.... or tell him what YOU want HIM to play in other songs. You'll soon see how well that goes down

Mine wouldn't be able to reach far enough up their own ar535 to play suggested frets.

And so to the finishing. Those of you who have followed previous threads will know that, after trying allsorts, I prefer good old-fashioned Ronseal Hardglaze polyurethane varnish for my gloss finishes. I say old-fashioned - it actually is a new formulation to reduce some of the volatiles and that has given me some issues. Suffice to say that I don't find the new formulation conducive to wipe-on application. It really doesn't like the % of thinners I would normally add for doing it that way. The way that seems to work best for me is max 10% white spirit and then a cheapo artists fan brush from Hobbycraft: I don't grain fill as such and I don't use conventional sanding sealers. If you remember, I use a tru-oil slurry and buff approach to serve both of those purposes. As always, I'm not saying that's what should be used, just that it consistently works best for me. Of course, it does need to be fully dry (a week minimum) before the final sand and then the first light coat of the slightly-thinned varnish. This is after the first coat: I'll see how it goes, but I should be able to do a coat a day - morning for the back and sides and evening for the top - with a few two-day drying and scotchbrite sanding sessions in between. The second coat of the back of sides has been done first thing and is in the cellar drying as I type

I play an unlined fretless. Not because I’m any good, but just to avoid such scenarios. 🤓

Good idea, Skank. It might also be worth pointing out to him what position the wife prefered.

My gracious patron Although I am resigned to being described as - variously - a bass player, bassist or bass guitarist please be aware that my official title is Throbmonger by Royal Appointment to HM Queen Silvia of Sweden. She was a canny lass in her day, too, I can tell you.

I intend no disrespect to my good friend the learned Professor @ahpook when I tentatively venture to point out that the correct spelling is 'berk'. Berk is a contraction of Berkshire (pronounced as in 'work' rather than 'bark') the county name being here a component of the word formation Berkshire Hunt, a passing reference to a long-established aggregation of fox hunting types but in this instance employed more specifically as an example of Cockernee rhyming slang. Berk = Berkshire Hunt = a pejorative term or insult which rhymes with '-unt'.

Yep... Serious answers are also welcome 🙂

Let the covers band run - see if any paying gigs come in but leave it on the backburner and don't pay it much mind.... Dump the originals band #1 and concentrate on the 2nd originals band. Keep searching for a busier and more fun covers band to join. You can then dump the other covers band if you feel the need. Job done :)

The only real answer to that is personal perception. If you feel like it's no longer constructive, then it isn't.

I know that this thread has mostly run its course, but something occurred to me that is utterly key to this whole debate: Test your spares periodically. Every now and then, use your backup bass/lead/amp/etc at a rehearsal just to make sure that they're all working. Spares that don't work are just useless extra weight you're carrying. S.P.

Well after much debate we’ve consolidated these tracks into an “EP” format. We’re scheduled in for a few festivals next summer and will hopefully be lining up a few shows between now and Christmas. Very happy with this stuff, all from the first 10 or so tracks we came up with - the follow up will be soon as we’ve found our feet a little more and have been writing a lot. Enjoy x

If anyone's interested (which I suspect no-one is, but as usual I'll bang on anyway, sod the lot of you ) this is an East German-made Musima, probably mid-80s. Identifiable from the combination of the protruding truss adjuster, and the odd use of rather classy Gotoh Resolite tuners. Loads of Musimas seem to have been sold unbranded, which as this one shows, makes them a prime candidate for the application of fakey stickers. Dunno if the gen-u-wine Fender screw makes it worth the £77 it's currently bid at.

I just thought I'd mention here that Olympia flatwounds are on ebay for £12.99, but I just made an offer of £10, just to see, and it was automatically accepted, I don't really need them but they'll get used. So if you want to try flats on the cheap then see how low an offer you can get away with, or just offer a tenner and they're yours. 😎 https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F332486029353

My first new bass in about 3 years. I'm not into relics and I don't like the Foo Fighters. Fender should just make a stock version of this bass. I wanted a P-bass with a rosewood board and this one is a nicer colour than the stock Mexican offerings and has a decent bridge and Seymour Duncans. The Nitro finish means that it doesn't feel like bass has been plastic coated and the fake road wear means that I won't care when the real thing happens. Definitely a stage bass. I've never owned a precision but this sounds exactly how I expected it to. Once I get some Nickel wound strings on it and lower the action a bit, it will be perfect. The 'A' neck is nowhere close to any Jazz that I've ever played (despite some internet review claims), but a bit chunkier than my Stingray, albeit sightly narrower at the nut. What's to say? It looks like a Fender, has a big 70s Fender logo and plays like a Fender. Big beefy precision tone and I'm looking forward to cranking it up at the next practice.

Had a rehearsal yesterday with my band and we were playing a well known Bowie song and I came into the rehearsal with a specific idea of how i am going to play the song, and with a very melodic bass part for the song, anyway our singer/guitarist before I have even started playing the songstarts to tell me a fill that I should add in to the song at a specific point in the song. I decide to listen to his suggestion, he then starts telling me what frets I should be using to do the fill to make it easier,fair enough so I run through it to appease him as he is so determined that I need to play this fill. Anyway I quickly realise not only was my original idea better but that the fill that he wanted would clash with my idea so as soon as we start playing the song I reverted back to my original idea. I am not against other people giving input in a band situation and if they do and there idea is good then I will take it on board and use there idea and have done a number of times in my current band but I am also a big believer that sometimes you have to let band members use there own judgement and taste on what fits a song. Anyhow this prompted the question when does it stop being constructive and become just being given orders of what to do?

That headstock logo is almost as unappealing as the Bass Collection headstock logo.

It's slightly more interesting than the MIJ copies in that it's actually an East German-made Musima - easy to ID from the external heel-end truss adjustment and the curious use of rather high-quality Gotoh Resolite tuners. Here's a somewhat more broken one in Estonia: https://www.osta.ee/en/retro-elektrikitarr-musima-action-bass-35-95632552.html And here's one on UK Ebay, unconvincingly pretending to be a 70s Jazz! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/used-70s-original-electric-bass-guitar-fender-jazz-neck/312771076085 Kingfisher will have been a local importer rebrand - in fact most of these Musimas (Musimae?) turn up unbranded. There were also matching Strat versions too, seen several at my local car boot over the years. As far as the neck's concerned - it might be sortable, with a bit of brute force and a few washers. Get the neck off, manually bend it (brace the head on the floor, bend it back against your knee) and then see if the adjuster will tighten. If not, you should be able to get the adjuster nut off & bung a washer or two under it to give the nut a few more turns. This is an old P copy I had, being (successfully) persuaded to abandon its tendency to forward-bow. Strings are slacked off and it's clamped at the body end, bent back over the neck rest, and out of shot, the head's clamped to the bench to tension the whole thing. Left it like that for 3 days then cranked the truss rod to hold it straight. Sorted! Don't be afraid to flex a neck - it'll bend way further than you expect without breaking. Probably...

3 for me usually , but there was something really nice about opening the box to my brand new custom sandberg, knowing only the staff had played it 🙂

On the plus side, it'll soon be time for the Hootenanny! Ruby Tuner and KT Tunstall....again......probably..... Get to see that very annoying bloke walking around with his clock face. Nearly a typo.....!😉

If you're a band member then all ideas from other members are suggestions to be taken on board or ignored as seen fit, if the person asking is paying you directly then that's different.

You live and learn! *James Naughtie likes this*

I have a Supertwin. I'm also in Northants. You're welcome to try it out!

I think its the show thats being critiqued not individual musicians.

Yeah, I'm basically with SP work out what you want from each of the bands, and assess whether you honestly think they will be able to provide it for you. And is there any more that you could be doing to fix it? Because, pointing no fingers, I've sat in enough rehearsal rooms with band members complaining about this and that that they think the band should be doing more of, who then do absolutely nothing about it, instead waiting for the magic gig fairy to come along and find them the higher profile paying bookings that they think they deserve There's nothing wrong in quitting a band if it's not what you want, so don't feel guilty. What I would suggest is that if you want to leave on good terms (and you may not) is that before you simply text everybody to say you're out, let them all know what you're unhappy about, and see whether they will actually change. And don't believe them when they all say that they will change, because talk is very, very cheap. Set some goals and deadlines and if they haven't met them they can't say they weren't warned.

You need a limiter not a compressor. Common misconception, often put forward by people who know better in the name of keeping it simple, is that a limiter is just a compressor with a high ratio. This is not actually the entire story. A Compressor typically effectively measures volume over a space of time, taking the average volume over that time. This isn't some clever thing done by the electronics, so much as a by-product of the circuit design. An optical compressor is the easiest one for people to imagine this happening in, the electrical energy in the signal lights a lamp (literally) the lamp glow is picked up by a light sensitive device (various types exist). This effectively produces resistance the more light hits it, damping down the level going out of the compressor. Clearly this build up of energy in two devices takes some very measurable time - less obviously the resistance rises and falls in a curve, it is not at all linear to the amount of light hitting the light sensitive component. This is why an optical compressor is a useless limiter, not because you couldnt crank up that damping effect to make it near infinity to one, ie a brickwall limiter. So a limiter (like an 1176) must be super fast. The 1176 is a FET circuit, very very fast (attack times between 20 and 800 micro seconds), also very likely to colour the signal. In the case of the 1176 this colouring is a very nice thing, some engineers have been known to run signal through one without the compression even doing anything. If you set up a limiter at 20:1, with a very very fast attack (careful, too fast and you will get distortion on the leading edge of the transient) with a fast release, then lower the threshold to just clip 3dB off the top of the loudest notes (ie halving the transient volume effective) then you will be far better protected against peaking the desk input. Of course, if its a decent desk you can instead just turn the gain down a tad and do the limiting/compression there....

I only ordered my SY-1 a few days ago - fully in the knowledge that the next UK shipment is not due util the end of October... And I'm already bloody annoyed it isn't here yet! I've got rehearsal on saturday and I want to annoy them!

I'm not sure I can live without knowing if this was resolved. I'm tempted to ask Jon directly hahaha

The bass always wins.

Did we all not do the I hate later with Jools thing to death about 6months ago? Just re read it and save us all a load of grief. Please.

I like to watch it to see how many Precision players there are per show. Plus, methinks you're all being a bit harsh. True, Jools can't interview for toffees and he does have some spectacularly awful acts from time to time. But hey, since Old Grey Whistle Test - what has there been? Bring back Whispering Bob. Davo

IMO they look like a Skegnesse rip-off.

I record it and still watch, although it's usually only 10 seconds worth then fast forward. Why do they have so many beardy American bands on?

A sighting has been confirmed.......

Just watched a YouTube demo of the SY-1 by a bloke from the Sweetwater music shop who had made an elementary but catastrophic clothing error...

Here's my dogs. Ben is our old gentleman Lab who we got as a rescue just before his 8th birthday and is now coming up to his 13th. It was 5 years ago last week that we got him. He has a Dentastix in his gob in that photo - he doesn't just have the biggest doggy grin. My wife is now on the board at the rescue home we got him from. Posie is our Cocker Spaniel who we've had since a puppy. She's almost 8 years old now but still as manic as a puppy - but sharp as a tack. Nothing gets past her, not even my cack handed upholstery techniques.