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I'm going to review the Bass Guitar Show attendees instead and give you some perspective from what the show was like as an exhibitor. WHAT a LOVELY bunch of people you all are. For those who took the time and effort to come out to see us, thank you very much. Very much enjoyed meeting everybody. Everybody was positive, polite and game for trying out our stuff. I was really nice to see the familiar faces and old friends. And make some new ones. @romeo2 it was good to see you again. Glad you like the new stuff. I'll try and politely address some of the negativity around the show, and where criticism is rightly and wrongly being directed. I'll agree the show is noisy. But we are talking about a product(s) that make noise. It's LITERALLY what they do. I agree that the quiet periods were not enforced very well, and that the sound police were a bit toothless. I will be raising this very strongly with the show organisers. The management of space wasn't great either, and if there were performances in the booth it backed up into the aisles making it difficult to get to all the stands. I am also raising this with the show organisers. To mitigate the noise, we had closed headphones for those that couldn't hear. If you want a diverse array of stuff gathered in one place. Where you are welcomed and encouraged to put your hands on them and try them out. Where you can talk directly to the product makers - and not just sales staff, who are quite happy for you to buy anything. Where there is a community of like minded individuals and where you can actively support small and local builders and makers - it is the place to go. It is NOT cheap exhibiting. For a smaller company like ours - it's probably just shy of a few thousand pounds. Plus hotels, travel, facilities etc. We do NOT make our money back at the show. Yes - it's a marketing expense. But also it's also for you guys. The venue is certainly nicer. From a sound point of view, the open space makes it less oppressive. It's nice and light. And it's certainly more photogenic. From a selfish logistics perspective it is a bastard to get to in a van. For those complaining of no bargains - we were offering 15%-20% off instruments on the day. As well as organising discounts for show attendees who want to buy afterwards. Rather than having a moan, if you ACTUALLY attended the show, and you feel there is anything we - as exhibitors - can do to improve things for you. Let me know. Other than that I know Sylvia is feeding stuff back to the show organisers. It was EXHAUSTING - but a lot of fun. If the show organisers can assure me they'll do more to tackle the things that annoy me, I'll certainly be back next year. Look forward to seeing you guys at the Birmingham Guitar Show and Manchester Bass Show in Feb and March.

Recently traded my G&L for this lovely 2014 American Standard P Bass - I've been playing bass for about 15 years and have always had a stable of at least 3 basses and yet this is my first proper P Bass! Even in bass shops I've never really tried one as I always thought they were boring and were always going to be available. This is the epitome of "does what it says on the tin" type of bass. Does the wooly old school thump and the proper grind with the tone all the way up. I can definitely see why they are so popular for bands/recording, they just sound right! The neck has just about the right amount of finish on it for me - not a fan of heavy gloss and but this has a light gloss that makes it feel like it's protected but doesn't get sticky. Only thing is the strings - forgot to ask what they were but they are very clanky so could be steels. Might change them for something more refined. I was originally trying to sell my G&L so this may be up for sale in the very near future but I'll enjoy it for a month or so Anyway, pictures!

Well, finally sorted the Attitude bridge on the orange bass...took much longer than planned as I wanted a luthier to do it for me but got all sorts of “nah shove a badass on it” or “it’ll be £140 to do that”. Some patience and a half hour later...

I was 14 years old when I heard this, and I’m still playing it now 🙂

Er hmmm. Can I just remind folk that some people are willing to pay EXTRA money for that 'crapped* on' look! Apparently like fake [insert anything you like] it adds that elusive "mojo" and makes your audience regard you as some sort of minor god.

Managed to get time to do a bit on this build cavities are all routed out Just need to re-shape the head stock then give the body a bit of a sand over then a few coats of danish oil Here’s a mock up so far........... I'm hoping that when I danish oil the body it will go almost the same colour as the neck............😀

Also known as customers giving feedback 😄

Having done exhibitions myself in the past (including at the BDC) I can testify to this. It’s a great feeling meeting folks who are actually interested in what you’re selling and have made the effort to come and have a look. But being on your feet all day, trying to say the same thing hundreds of times in a different way, takes it out of you. Noise at any trade exhibition tends to high (people are just noisy on their own never mind if the product being sold makes a sound too) and the old ears get fatigued too, that said, it wasn’t until mid afternoon that I found it started to become oppressive, an improvement on Olympia. The BDC is very bright, which is a good thing, but it is also acoustically challenged with its marvellous roof. However, there is office space and the like on the top and ground floors which could be utilised as demo areas in the future, should the organisers decide to use this venue again. The idea of bringing your own headphone amp that you’re familiar with is something I’d consider in the future, although this won’t help for amps and cabs of course, but demo rooms could sort that. Finally, it may seem that a lot of people are moaning but, for the most part, Brits can be quite curmudgeonly and an honest critique may come over as negative, especially when we forget to praise the things that we liked. However, if we don’t point out the short comings, things won’t improve and folks will eventually stop coming.

New Bass Neck Day So, I’ve three of my fave US 2013-16 Series Precisions, all with maple fretboards. And I was really gassing for a white/black/rosewood Precision a la Vicious Sidney, which is my fave colour scheme. None seemed to be turning up that were within price range or collection distance. So I bought a new US Fender neck. Slightly slimmer depth wise than my others but that’s no biggie, it has medium jumbo frets, tuners fit straight into it from the maple one I’m replacing it with. Pretty chuffed I have to admit.

...To be replaced the very next day with the last one of these available in Europe (well according the Ibby rep.), following Ibby ceasing production of these earlier this year. I had the good fortune to source from a German online store at an end of line price. Wasn't sure I was going to like the colour, but has turned out to be very lovely 'in the wood'. And whilst I'm not usually drawn to some of the 'sparklier' elements on basses, the abalone fret inlays are a really nice touch. Excited about the new material that this will hopefully help me to access on bass, assisted by it's relatively uniform and half way to a bass VI string 14mm spacing.

Again not a bass album as such but Hooky's work on " Closer" certainly had some effect on me...I actually had that before "Unknown Pleasures" ( and, strangely, some time before I ever heard LWTUA or Transmission as well...), knew I was hearing something special even then

£500- £1000 + = "laminate construction " £50- £500 = "plywood" 😉

I think it`s a great film, am not too knowledgeable about specifics and timelines but from a viewing point I think it`s excellent, and not just a little bit sad. I think Rami Malek was amazing in the role.

At least, on the scheme of things, bass sits in the "middle" of ease of playing vs ease of reading. For example: French Horn. Fiendishly hard to play well, yes you can make fart noises but anything musical needs years of dedication and hundreds of hours of practice. Even an apparently simple line as notated, is difficult to play. So the reading really is a bit of a non-issue here. Compare with piano. Dead easy to make a noise on, compared to the French horn. A cat, or 5 year old child, can play the lowest note and the highest note and all those in between. And a beginner will soon be learning both hands at once and chords etc etc etc. The notation is clearly more complex than the French Horn, for a start there's 2 clefs, 2 or more notes at once, etc etc. Fortunately, it is convention to learn to read music to play piano. Compare with electric guitar. Very little resources around to learn to read, very little standard notation music published, the same issues with polyphony as the piano (except, sensibly, it sticks to one clef and stave), it would be a nightmare to try learn to read on electric guitar. In fact most people don't, and I don't blame them! At least bass is somewhere in between the extremes presented.

A quick update after a lot more testing and a band rehearsal. I have measured the distance between the central woofer dome and the rear of the grille and I now have 37-38mm of space. That should be plenty for the woofer excursion. If it hits the grill, the driver is going to die...or is already dead... I sat down with my test setup and a comparison cab. The One10 is about half the size of the BC 112, lol. It’s actually not a bad cab to compare to. Long throw driver, well braced, rated for 250W though apparently will take up to 500W with clean sounds. So it’s a potent little driver, albeit a 10”. I maxed out the volume available from the One10 with the amp set optimally flat and the Gain at 3 o’clock and the Master at 12 o’clock. At that point I could distort the woofer with note accents. The One10 gives a very satisfying low end, easily comparable to the BC 112, but only up to a certain volume. I’ll call it jazz gig volume. It’s very good, but there are limits. it also takes a huge amount of bass boost before it farts out. Veiled top end, but enough, just. The cab clearly adds more colouration to the sound as it gets louder. It’s a nice colour and it really suits bass. It’s a great cab. Swapped over to the BC 112, leaving the amp set optimally flat. Gain at 3 o’clock and Master at 12 o’clock, as before. The upper mids and treble sparkle and the clarity is great. As expected, really. Cranked in max bass boost on the amp and the cab tolerated it at this level. Impressive for such abuse. Put bass back to flat on the amp and turned up. Could get the woofer to fart out with accents with Gain at 3 o’clock and the Master at 3 o’clock. It was stupendously loud; the wall and window shaking volume I described previously that will drown out any drummer and will definitely keep up with a full band. It remains clear at volume. Slapping at that point caused a click noise which I suspect might have been the voice coil hitting the back plate, or just a very unpleasant transient. It didn’t sound natural so I stopped doing that. (If it was the woofer travelling beyond Xdamage it would have been wrecked. It obviously wasn’t...lol...). Adding any bass boost at this point also caused woofer distortion. I am confident that this is the mechanical limits of how far the cabinet can go. I won’t go near this again; the amp can give a lot more but it will kill the cab. I started adding an HPF but had to stop to pick up the kids. Took the cab out to a very moderate volume keys/sax jazz rehearsal. Carrying it around was easy. Had to turn down the bass frequencies at the amp; otherwise I just plugged and played. Great sounds all night. The band loved it and the keys player may want to build his own after we tried the keys through it and it sounded amazing. I may have retired my One10 from the moderate volume jazz stuff. I have concluded two things. 1. The setting of volume knobs on the amp is not a good indicator of the power getting delivered. Basically this amp is very powerful and can distort woofers at settings far less than maximum. Not a surprise. 2. The BC 112 is a very capable cab. The BC cab reminds me a bit of the Faital-loaded Berg CN112. The same smoothness of the mids, mainly. However that cab was a little bass-shy; the BC 112 has more lows (more like the BF BB2). And the high end is smoother sounding than the CN112 as well, and extends higher also. I’m probably only going to bother with an HPF for loud gigs or rehearsals. In my ordinary use it doesn’t look like it will be necessary.

Update: I now have all the cab kits and they look lovely! The Celestion compression drivers will be with me on Friday, by which time I should have some of the crossovers ready. Anyone wanting to collect is welcome to do so at the weekend. I'm going to start sending boxes of goodies out next Monday. It'll take me a few days to pack everybody's orders up. I just hope the local supermarkets and stores have enough spare cardboard boxes.

I have never been to the show and I was thinking of attending this year but was put off by negative comments about past shows. Having read the post-show comments I think I will attend the next one because it easy to sit here clicking across the web making decisions based on feedback and or whinging but there is nothing like personal experience to make up one's mind, that sounds blimmin' obvious but I think it is particularly salient since the Internet arrived. This thread has made me realise that I personally make far too many decisions based on what folk say online, I'm not saying online advice/opinions aren't valid or extremely helpful (I mean just being a member of Basschat has utterly transformed my bass playing world!) but I've avoided the BGS for reasons that, on deeper thought, I can't recall and I think I really I should go and see and form my own opinion based on the experience. I was the same about the Bass Bashes, I heard a couple of negative comments (not on here I hasten to add) and given those and my misanthropic leanings I just assumed a Bass Bash wouldn't be for me, a not very good player with a couple of basses. How wrong was I, I love a bass bash! I sit there with my FRFR rig often unable to hear myself and I don't care, it's great to meet and hang out with other Bass Chatters and even get your dream bass built by a dude you've only met a couple of times! So, next year I'm going to this Bass Guitar show just like last year I went to my first Bash and had my preconceptions upended by great people and a lovely day... ...I've kind of lost my thread. No gathering together of enthusiasts can be tailored to suit each individual and as such we should accept that some compromise has to be made, take what you can from the event. Although I wasn't an attendee I do know one way in which this event could be improved and that's to get the wonderful and gorgeous catering team in from the Great Big SW Bass Bash to do a food stall at the show, attendance would rocket and it is so difficult to whinge with a huge scone stuck in your gob.

65 baby

78 beast

Yep to the Rattus Norvegicus, and most Rush stuff, lots of bass driving the songs. Slightly more subtly, Lizzy's stuff is a favourite, too. Solo bass albums? I've bought a few and got rid: a bass solo'ed is like a comedian explaining comedy: instructional, and occasionally interesting, but not the point.

Can I just throw something into the noise debate, because I'm finding this all a bit tiring... I do some work for Markbass/MSL (as a pro musician, not employee), and was on the Markbass stand all weekend. Interestingly in the Exhibitor Manual for the show, there is no specified noise level, just a reference to noisy/quiet times. I took my brand new and freshly certified calibrated db meter with me to the show (not a £25 ebay chinese jobby, a proper one... and before say you did the same with your phone, no mobile phone app can measure accurately over 90db, because of the limitations of the phone's microphone), and I left it logging for some long periods. The noise levels measured at our stand rarely exceeded 97db, even when someone was slapping away (its a thing... get over it). That's nowhere near a standard concert volume, but is about as loud as a band should ever need to be at a wedding/function, but across the day the levels tended to average at between 70-88db. Thats about the same volume as the vehicle noise standing at the traffic lights down the road at Pentonville Road. OK, the frequency of the noise and sometimes percussive nature of it will contribute to ear fatigue, but I didn't feel the need to resort to my ACS moulds (thank you #hearformusicians) at any point during the weekend. We also discouraged any jamming this year, and didn't have any ad-hoc performances on the stand. Yeah sure it got louder than 100db at times, but that was very rare, and usually due to an ad-hoc performance at someones stand, and the coincidence of half a dozen or so people trying something out at the same time and resorting to the volume knob to try and hear themselves... Everybody contributing, no single guilty party, and generally initiated by the visitors, not the guys manning the stands. Regarding the show itself, I am beginning to struggle with what sort of show you actually want or expect? There were definitely some other bigger brands missing, but they were either never, or rarely, there even when the show was at Olympia anyway. There were fewer smaller builders there, but they'll have their own reasons for that, and make no mistake, if people don't turn up and actually buy stuff it can be hard to justify, because believe it or not, directly or indirectly thats the only point of exhibiting! ...Who knew? Personally, I prefer the room, but didn't appreciate the extra 1 hour across London slog in the van before and after the show, but apart from exhibitor issues, those are my only thoughts on the weekend. On another point, can I also say, if you didn't even go, why on earth are you posting negative comments here? Thats not contributing to the debate in any way. ...and those of you who missed Cody Wright playing with Eric Gales to close the show performances (you probably didn't go because Eric is a guitarist not a bass player, and you just wanted a bass show...), you missed an absolute treat of the tightest improvisation and very best musicianship...

The most important thing is the reason why they wouldn't consider going, I think. IMO they're still valid comments.

I think weight has a part to play, just like everything else. I think it's often a by-product created in pursuit of rigidity, which I think is one of the main factors influencing the way a bass vibrates and reacts. Traditionally that can be achieved through lots of laminates (my Alembic had 11!), heavier woods that are stiffer or new materials like carbon necks, which of course are quite light. Nowadays I don't think there's a need for a rigid bass to be heavy and although I generally play in the studio sitting down I still prefer a mid weight bass just because from a technical standpoint I don't think unnecessary weight is acceptable. For me it's all about a rigid neck and a softer body wood to give that 'weight' to the sound, so it feels like you're slapping a suspension bridge cable rather than a piece of twine affixed to a dowel.

I’ve been doing an even worse job than usual of lurking!! But huge thanks to @Andyjr1515 for the setups and the mods..! Am excited to put the Squier to work @Sibob so cool you were at PLASA!!! And hilarious to be recognised by my modded bass Cheeky advert.. If any basschat crew are around I’m playing a (very!) small show with Nyah in Hackney Downs tomorrow: https://www.facebook.com/events/1334421266721824/ Cheers y’all! Tom

This is just such a great musical album with all players being in topform but for me as a bassplayer Jeff Berlin stood out even more.

Well I love the Bee Gees and Heart too....

The Yes Album. I had never heard bass sound like that, played like that, and such an important part of the composition. Back in the day it was a revelation, to me at least.

UB40 split and became two, as if one wasn’t already too many.

Possibly, but it might be true that most people who could read on ANY instrument, learnt on a previous instrument, if people typically learnt to read music on their first instrument then went on to play another. I think the majority of musicians I know can play, or did play in the past, another instrument. Piano seems a popular initial one. Unfortunately, the French Horn stuff is based on experience.......top tip, if you want to stay sane, DON'T try to learn the French Horn.

Yeah I was shocked by that too as I only started playing 40s after bass gear started shutting down and weren’t getting any more strings in stock. It’s just a different kind of low end to my ear. I think it may actually be that there’s a little less fundamental in the 40s making the low end “puffier” and bloom more, more like a an optical compressor sound (which is a big part of my setup). But I am now desperately searching for weird words to describe the difference so it’s all in the realms of personal experience haha 😂

But if the reason why they don't fancy it is because of the whinging then it becomes a vicious circle, so I see where the comment comes from. No substitute for first hand experience.

That's exactly what I'm planning to do, draw the old schematic and keep it just in case, thanks for commenting 👍

I reckon so - it’s now just a dummy knob. Everything has to be pretty much unsoldered and then re-done for your new project, and then leave it there as a dummy knob. Save the picture and or draw the schematic should you wish to change back at some point and good luck, sounds like it will be great

None of them strictly ‘bass albums' but certainly the most influential in a bass sense for me...

-

Extenuating circumstance. Blue

Looks like a '54 Precision reissue. What's going on with that G string though?

I attended yesterday with Hamster & Darren Redick (from Planet Rock). I much preferred the venue, easier to walk around and more space to see the stands etc.... but the vendor/distributor/manufacturer attendance did seem small. As others have mentioned - no Gibson, Yamaha, Roland, Line 6, Sandberg, Rotosound etc which was disappointing. Even Promenade Music's usual 'second hand' stall seemed smaller. I'm guessing that stand prices for the weekend were higher than before.... The overall volume level was slightly more more manageable due to the cavernous ceiling height - I could actually talk to stallholders (WITHOUT breathing in their ears!) - but again the 'quiet times' were completely ignored. Really - what is the point if noone is going to enforce it?!? I can only imagine the hearing exhaustion that people working there must be experiencing this morning. My highlights - the excellent Spectors (of course), the white Anaconda Ultra J bass, the Bass Collection 'Betsy', the 'vibrating' strap pack for sale on the Bass Direct stand and the new fab new GK Legacy heads. Meeting lots of friends, fellow players and acquaintances was a bonus as well as the splendid Devin Townsend who was cool Best bit? The networking opportunities mean I may just have secured myself another gear endorsement!

I had previously gone to several bass shows, typically taking along at least a car/van full of degree students with me. The show's coincidence with the busy start of a new academic year combined with an afternoon gig on the Saturday meant that I was unable to attend, so I gave it a miss this year. I was dubious anyway with the guitar/bass amalgamation, so hopefully the points highlighted above will be resolved / improved for next year's show. Personally, I hope that the date will change too, preferably back to the Spring (fingers crossed).

Is the radiator in use? I wouldn't want to keep the instruments right above it.

I've recently seen Martin Turner, Ex Wishbone Ash live. Outstanding band. I wouldn't go to see Wishbone Ash with Andy Powell though but that's for a different thread.

From one "face" to another... I think the credit card thing is standard practice for a free trial. It's annoying, I know, but it's par for the course. You just have to be sensible enough to cancel the agreement within the time and you'll not be charged. I agree about the competitions but you can just ignore them. Ditto all the emails - they can be annoying but I'd sooner have spam about basses than erectile dysfunction. Moving swiftly on.... We need to balance this with the fact that SBL contains a lot of really great content - all free with absolutely no catch. I've no doubt that with some self-discipline you could educate yourself to a prolific standard with the free stuff that Scott and others like him put out. As I lack this self discipline, I too get tempted occasionally. I almost signed up for the recent "practice accelerator" but had an honest chat with myself and had to admit that I probably could not commit the time, just at the moment. I was spammed cross-eyed over that one ("just three seconds left to sign up" etc.) but I guess it's his living and I think he's a fantastic teacher with a really natural, unassuming personality. Doubtless this conceals a terrifying, cynical, magnate (alnico?) running an empire of bass-based-evil from a hollowed-out volcano somewhere near Leeds but I can live with that. "Ahhh... Mr Bond. I see here that you have not met your practice targets for slap triplets for the month. I am very disappointed."

Can we please keep the Brexit stuff out of this thread? It's got nothing to do with the new single or the band's musical trajectory, it causes trouble and no one's got anything new to say. "Leavers" and "Remainers" alike: if you want to bang on about politics, please: either go somewhere else and do it or wrap your heads round the sentiment below: