Leaderboard

Have been playing for three years or so and jam with once a week with a group of infinitely more experienced musicians. Also have been practicing with a 5 piece with a view to start gigging soon. Although I have played a few gigs (mostly successful) and am improving slowly but steadily, I have never had the balls to play at a jam night. Last night I took my drummer along to a local open mic for moral support, and lo and behold, managed to play for half an hour with no problems. Some material I knew, but some the house band guitarist showed me the chords. It helped that there were only a couple of other musicians in the pub so didn't feel intimidated. That was a big deal for me, especially as I'm in my early 50s! Onwards and upwards...

Since the demise of my regular slot in the rock band, I've been dabbling in a bit of mainstream jazz and latin stuff - trying to get a handle on walking bass but not finding anyone to give it a go with me. Actually, I did, but after saying they wanted me to play with them, they then wrote back and said they had no drummer so it was a no go. Hmmm. Anyway I went along to play bass at the local jazz jam. Very low key, low stakes stuff. Turns out that night there was nobody else on bass, so I had to cover the whole evening straight from the chord charts. On the strength of that I got asked to be the 'house band' the following month, do a dep on a gig last Sunday, to be the bass at the next jam and to join a jazz band as bassist. Shows you can fool a lot of the people some of the time. To be fair, I know the repertoire inside out - but as a listener, or a saxophonist. I'm less secure with all the walking bass patterns - I'm sure the low riders in the audience are cringing. But the drummer at the dep gig said how much he enjoyed playing with me - so there's that. I think the point of this is that I got over the imposter syndrome for a moment and made myself just do it.

After a tiresome week in the smoke, I got home to find a large parcel from a well-known music retailer waiting for me. I was impressed with its size - what could it be? A new head? A set of IEMs? A couple of new pedals? A whole spider's web of patch cables? A lifetime's supply of strings? A box this size could contain anything... ah. Well OK, I was expecting it, but talk about OTT packaging!

!! And the Allen key is still bent!! Unbelievable!

I found that website VERY annoying. Just show some stills of the full instruments.

This was my old Triple O, only sold because of my chronic back problems. Incredible bass:

Evening all, Last night, I fulfilled a long held musical goal of mine; namely, I attended a clinic held by Jeff Berlin at GuitarGuitar Glasgow. It was something of a drive to get there from Northumberland, being a 300 mile round trip and faced with torrential rain on the way back, but I would do it all again. I hope that I can collect my thoughts here to advise my fellow bassists on why I found this clinic so enjoyable and informative. First, a small precis in which I will explain how I ended up here. I have played bass since I was 13 years old, though when I was about 24 I hit a short slump and picked up a guitar. I never enjoyed myself like I did on a bass and I felt the urge to go back to playing bass. I had always loved the music and playing of Jeff Berlin and I knew he was a respected teacher, but I knew little of what he taught and advocated. I felt like I needed to really change the way I looked at my own playing and what I could do to improve and I ended up seeking out information on the way that Jeff taught. I felt like my playing had hit a plateau for years ago, and despite transcribing ever-more difficult pieces, I felt like I wasn't getting any better or worse as a player. At the age of 27, I picked up the bass again and began to follow what Jeff would refer to as 'music only' education. Following that, I took strides forward in my playing and improved at a rate that I hadn't done since I was a teenager. It was both a musical liberation and rebirth for me. In time, I came to chat with Jeff online and I took part in his reading course and the conference Q&A sessions that were held for the first to buy into that course (which taught me to read music, perhaps my biggest musical failing). Jeff became a friend and I knew that, if he ever did come to the United Kingdom, I would go and see his clinic or show come hell or high water. So, enough about my own journey to this point. I went to that clinic knowing what to expect, though what I want to do is put you in the shoes of one of the forty of fifty people there who perhaps didn't know exactly what they would hear. Entry to the event was ticketed, but free, and was sponsored by Cort guitars. Jeff was funny and warm, breaking the ice and putting everyone at ease. I could feel the room relax as he started talking and he was the perfect host. Although the venue surprisingly did not have any chairs to hand, we were all happy to remain standing and we did so, utterly captivated for around 90 minutes. Jeff kicked us off with a solo piece, asking the audience to name four notes. He then proceeded to improvise a beautiful piece based on that four note progression and he would refer to that four note phrase on a number of times when he played. When he clicked that chorus pedal on, I could not help but grin. The tone and the playing was sublime. I felt as though magic was happening in front of me. Further on through the clinic, Jeff played 'Runaway Train' from his 2000 album 'In Harmony's Way'. He later treated us to an improvisation on a theme from Beethoven's 9th, which had me floored. However, Jeff did not make his playing the focus of the event. Instead, he invited members of the audience to take a seat next to him and would ask them to play something. What followed was straightforward, honest advice that measurably improved the playing of everyone who came up. As Jeff advised and corrected each player, he would ask us in the audience if we could hear an improvement in the music being played and we all replied positively. I appreciate that it must be nerve wracking to sit in that chair in front of your peers to be critiqued by one of the luminaries of our instrument. Like I said, Jeff is so warm and friendly, so adept at putting the student at ease, that every player quickly settled down and started to improve. In focusing his attention on that player in that moment, Jeff demonstrated the sound academic principles he has so long advocated and how they can reap reward for anyone who follows them. As the members of the audience continued to come up, Jeff held two demonstrations that were paticularly impactful and really had the room engrossed. He invited a lady up from the audience who was not a musician and had her take the Cort Rithimic bass provided for the guests. Jeff had her play an E in straight quarter notes, demonstrating that everyone has a sense of time adequate to become a musician. Jeff improvised a piece over her bass line and there and then, not only did she become a musician but she was backing Jeff Berlin in a clinic to a room full of people! The highlight of the educational side of the clinic for me was when Jeff called up a guy who been playing for 25 years but didn't read music. Jeff called for someone to grab a load of sheet music from his gigbag. It was in fact, package 1 of his five part reading course (he did not mention this in attempt to make a sale but I think he could have done so, as it is a great course). Jeff then asked his guest to identify the notes on the page, if he could, and as they worked them ou together, the guest played two bars of his first etude read from the page. As per a show of hands earlier in the clinic, there were a lot of non-readers and rockers in there. I looked around the room and there were smiles all around me as this guy played slowly, out of time, as he read each note. Every mistake was addressed and corrected and the guest had just read his first music, in front of a crowd of strangers. I am not lying when I say that the room was on tenterhooks between every note and you could have heard a pin drop. The round of applause that followed was utterly heartfelt. I left that clinic feeling better about myself as a player, inspired to continue reading, inspired to continue trying to improve. I am sure everyone there felt that same inspiration as me. This really was a clinic for everyone, as there was no barrier to entry. It wasn't just for academic musicians, jazz or fusion players. There was something for everyone; advice that transcends your level of playing and cuts to core of what is at the foundation of being a good musician. Therefore, I would recommend players of all genres, of all levels of skill and experience, to seek out these clinics where they can. Following the event, my brother and I said hello to Jeff. He recognised me from the chats we had had online and asked me why I hadn't introduced myself sooner. He signed the back of my Cort Rithimic bass and we took some photos. I will post these below. I am holding my Rithimic and my brother is holding his 1991 Ken Smith BT5. My brother is also a big fan of Jeff Berlin and a huge fan and supporter of great music in general, so it was really cool to go on this trip with him. I would like to thank Jeff for putting on a really great clinic and for being a gracious host, Cort guitars for sponsoring this clinic tour and to GuitarGuitar Glasgow for giving us an excellent venue. [

Hey guys, I just thought I'd stick a quite write up of my thoughts on Jeff Berlin's clinic at Guitar Guitar in Glasgow last night. It was a bit of a drive (300 mile round trip!) from Newcastle, but as soon as Jeff said he was doing some clinics in the UK I knew I'd be travelling to wherever it took to see him. He has been a long time musical hero of mine and in particular a hero for my brother, who is perhaps the most vocal Jeff Berlin superfan out there. First a comment on the venue, thanks must be given to Guitar Guitar for hosting the event, which was free, but for the 30-40 odd people who turned up, there was no seating, so we stood through the whole thing. I don't think they even had a seat for Jeff as they had to send someone out to get one which I think came from a nearby bar, but once Jeff saw there was no seating he stood for the duration too. Jeff brought a backing CD, but upon finding out they didn't have a CD player he just asked the audience to shout some notes, which he then built into a chord progression and melody and soloed over the top of it. Make no mistake, Jeff is on the absolute top level of improvisational ability, his phrasing and harmonic dexterity is beyond comprehension. Perhaps the most astounding thing about seeing him play his bass, stood about 3 foot away from him, is how effortless he makes it look. If I could ever attain even 10% of what he can do I'd be happy. There was some quick chat about Cort and Markbass, but Jeff did make clear he's not a salesman and the majority of the night would be spent not pitching products or dazzling with bass tricks, but instead on deconstructing myths about learning. The core message is as Jeff has preached for years; let go of your ego, accept that you might not be the best person to analyse and direct improvement in your playing and get involved in structured, academic musical learning. As he said, if your car is broken and you need it fixed and you pay a mechanic, you don't instruct the mechanic how to do his job, because he is the expert and has trained to diagnose and fix the car. You could fix it yourself (as you would teach yourself bass) and you might make it better, you might not. I suppose you tailor your level of instruction to the level you want to play at - you probably don't need to know jazz harmony if you never aspire to play anything other than rock or blues. In that sense, I suppose Jeff's method, which is really just classic academic musical teaching, something that has been generally missing for electric guitar and bass, isn't for everyone but his methods can make anyone a better player, whatever level you're at and whatever level you aspire to play at. I've been guilty of having this ego in the past, thinking I knew how to direct my own learning and improve and to a degree it has worked for me and while my technical ability is ok, my musical theory knowledge has lagged far behind and I know I have a lot to improve on in that field. I'm guilty of playing, not practice, which is something I must change. Some of the observations from the night - and this isn't knocking anyone, everyone who played was very brave to stand in front of Jeff and a room full of strangers and play. 1. Rock players tend to overplay thinking this adds "emotion" or "feeling", or that they need to "dig in to be heard". This was leading to people picking notes so hard they were knocking the note out of tune. Playing so hard isn't necessary, especially when practicing. Separating "performance" elements from musical practice is important because practice isn't art or performance. Everyone improved their intonation and timing considerably when relaxed their hands and stopped hitting the notes so hard. I've always tried to practice softly, something I picked up in my electric guitar days from guys like Steve Vai, John Petrucci etc, practicing with tension just makes everything harder, it makes your playing sloppy when deftness and dexterity is what you need, not to mention it increases your risk of stress injury. I think it's a revelation for some that you probably don't need anywhere near as much pressure to fret or pick a note as you might think. 2. Time is inherent and there are very few musicians who don't have good, workable time. This was demonstrated by getting a non-metronome user to play along with a metronome while Jeff turned the BPM up and down, then getting a regular metronome user to do the same and there was no difference between them. Then a non-musician was invited up and she played the intro to "Runnin' with the Devil" by Van Halen while Jeff played the guitar chords over the top. She'd never played an instrument before and yet she was able to play in time with no instruction. There was further elaboration about slowing down music to play it with nuance and help your fingers learn it, but a metronome isn't an integral tool in being successful in this, Further preconceptions such as "locking in with the drummer" were explored in more detail, as time is a shared concept in a band and not exclusive to the bassist and drummer - everyone in the band contributes to "locking in". 3. Reading music can widen the horizons of any player who doesn't read. I don't and I know I need to start - I have resolved to do this. A non-reader was invited up and and after Jeff showed him a reference note on the clef, he was reading 8 bar etudes in multiple keys within minutes. So there is a lot more to reading than that, but the point was to show that anyone can start, it doesn't have to be an unapproachable and impregnable subject. I think I've been guilty of this and I will learn to read - I know I've passed on opportunities to learn pieces of music because I couldn't read it and frankly for a lot of the stuff I like, tab isn't available. As such, I developed my ear so I can transcribe lines fairly well, but I know I've overlooked an important aspect of my musical development by not learning to read. 4. Modes and scales shouldn't be the key and exclusive focus of anyone looking to develop in music. Scales and modes are useful tools but if you don't understand the musical structures you're playing them over, you're effectively learning verbs but not learning to form a sentence. I have seen this to be true with guitarists who can play the harmonic minor scale in a few keys and sound very impressive with their bag of tricks, but can't improvise in other scales or play in unfamiliar keys. Scales and modes are a useful tool but not the be-all and end-all of musical learning. There is probably a fair bit more I've missed, but I don''t want this to go on forever. After the event was wrapping up, Jeff was selling some CDs to finance his upcoming "Jeff plays Jack Bruce" project. My brother bought a copy - although he already has a signed copy from Jeff, a signed copy from Steve Vai and Jeff and now a third copy with a personal dedication from Jeff. We waited at the back of the autograph and photo queue so as not to hold everyone up. Jeff and my brother, Chris have corresponded via the net for some time and Chris has been a vocal supporter of Jeff, or as Jeff put it "The most vocal and upstanding supporter" of his. It was like seeing friends meeting again after a time apart and was great to see. Chris got his Cort Rithimic signed and I couldn't resist taking my Ken Smith BT5 along just to get it in the photos. Jeff spent some time talking to use and we got some photos with him, make no mistake that he is one of the warmest and kindest guys I've met, a true gentleman. It's remarkable to see someone who has such an incredible voice on the instrument backed up by virtually unmatched technical ability be so humble. He wants so much for bassists to improve as musicians and get more from their playing. All in all it was a fantastic night, especially to see my brother finally meet Jeff. It was worth it for that alone. I also kind of have a hankering for a Cort Rithmic of my own now too!

Here's some footage from a gig.

Incidentally, I've had two of these and both of them had really weak original pickups and dodgy pots. I sold the first one (in maroon red) because of that - it looked great and the sliding pickup system is astonishingly effective, but the tone was so weedy that I couldn't imagine gigging it. A few years later I stumbled across, of all things, a single Dark Star pickup. I bought it on spec, and then went looking for another The Rail. I found one (in black) and then had Andy Gibson in Denmark Street do a real number on it. He loves working on those things because Dave Swift is an admirer of them too (Andy works on all Dave's basses AFAIK). We ditched the original pickup, pots and wiring, he prepped a piece of ebony to add on to the sliding base so that it was 'squarer', and then mounted the Dark Star on the newly-enlarged slidey bit and did a complete re-wire. The bass now sounds absolutely awesome and lives right here alongside me in my tiny study on the landing ... it's my go-to 4-string bass when I'm learning or practising. On the other side is my go-to 5-string bass and that's a Status Streamline. Judge a bass by the company it keeps ...

Shaping up...

My new pride and joy : the only Noguera Yves Carbonne 8 Fretless right handed...

Well, I didn’t see this on the horizon anytime soon, but RHCP actually played Sikamikanico live in Rio yesterday. It’s a tricky git of a song to get right at the best of times and I can see why they avoided it for so long, but they pulled it off just for Josh as it was his 40th birthday. Happy Birthday JK 🎉🎂🍺. The video and audio in this excerpt is not as good quality as the full gig it’s extracted from.

This is for tomorrow. I am now officially pedal addicted. From not seeing the point to disappearing down an internet rabbit hole studying different options for cable tidying underneath the damn board. But man this is just so much fun! The bass balls and sweet baby are in loop one. Two has the Valeton running pure wet, 1 octave down, volume and selected tones boosted by the GE. Loop three features the Ricochet, American Sound and Zoom which is used to compress or to add an envelope filter. The Tri Parallel Mixer, aka Best Thing Ever allows me to blend everything, play with tone of each loop, and keep my original clean signal. Might use a bit of chorus on a couple of tunes the Zoom can handle that.

First Aid Kit and The Staves, both superb imho. Who doesn’t dig consanguineous harmonies? Talking of which...

A video from last weekend, first gig on the Sandberg... excuse me my looking bored, I was not, but I was struggling due to lack of sleep for several nights and it was after 1am already. In fact the whole band looks a bit stiff compared to our usual, and we were missing one guitar (and sax!)...

I've got one of these AC's. This bass comes factory supplied with treble bezels you install yourself, as I'm sure they knew the buying public would not want two treble pickup covers in their way. At first I was only going to install the rear bezel but decided do both for now to explore the whole playing field comparing it to my regular 4003. The new bridge is a great feature, but the bass came setup and intonated perfectly I didn't have to adjust anything.

London Calling - The Clash Pop Muzik- M Peaches - The Stranglers

Me too, ( apart from the Supertramp and Yes tunes....😄 )

Good Vibrations

A Squier jaguar bass (which has both jazz and precision pickups) with a fender rumble V3 bass amp would be ideal for reggae. The important bit is the strings - you want either nickel roundwound or flatwound strings, and once set up you want to turn the tone knob down.

...or buy second hand from Basschat where you’ll get more bang for your buck and can discuss any purchase with the BC hive mind. Oh and welcome.

Good work - I have used the Bass Ten and also installed the Tele Jazz plate v4 into a bass - it really is very good, and the clicks are great to know where you like a setting

Probably should have done, however that would likely have caused them to crash being associated with me! Just try to pass on slightly biased but balanced opinions, but I do love researching stuff and learning as well as virtually spending money via other people!

Tech 21 boost chorus is fab. Wide range of depth and rate control. Detune control is a laugh too.

I love my boss ce5. Very adjustable and can go from seasick to a nice subtle throb. Also has a low and high filter to apply the chorus appropriately.

"Click Click Click!"

I have bought into Mark Smith's 'Simple Steps to Walking Bass', at Talking Bass https://www.talkingbass.net/product/simple-steps-to-walking-bass/ . This is a compendious learnathon that will take you forward from absolute basic chord structure to learning to walk fluently in great and exhaustive detail. And it's astonishing good value at around £50. Frankly, you get an awful lot of skills and knowledge per pound. Enough to last you months if not years of study. The downside is the amount of stuff. 62 videos! Yer man leaves few stones unturned. And the name. You'd only call this marathon 'Simple Steps...' if you have a first class degree in music and are super brainy - which Smith has and is. Most mortals will go "FFS...'. Plus his high speed excitable and non stop delivery is somewhat wearing after a short while. But then I am doing several hours a day and at least he's more exciting than Ed Freidland. I did get through Ed's course on SBL but only by drinking strong coffee. Overall a tour de force, but you may need the Force to get through it all. Recommended ****

Their Manual says that at 9'oclock the ratio is 2:1, at noon is 4:1 and at 3'oclock is 10:1.

Following several comments on my status update/rant, could I suggest the following be adhered to once an item is sold on BC: 1. As soon as is practicable, edit the title to include SOLD so that potential buyers do not waste their time browsing through the thread and mods know when to lock the thread - it will also save the seller having to answer pointless PMs asking if the item is sold. 2. Sold items are a valuable source of pricing information and specifications for potential sellers and buyers of similar/same items further down the line. So please do not ask for the thread to be removed and do not remove all the details. Unless you have some specific circumstances (tax liabilities, ex-partner trying to get hold of your assets etc!) this serves no purpose whatsoever. Photographs of course are a different matter as these take up your attachment storage space on BC, so its understandable if these are deleted. Thats all folks Yours faithfully, Mildly irritated of Barnes

The TC is good (shout if you want my TC Mini Corona 😉), although I settled on the Providence Anadime. Sounds a bit more '3D' and 'lush' for want of a better description, plus it has a HPF to apply the chorus to only the higher frequencies.

As you have a TC head, well, as a stand alone pedal, I would recommend the TC Dreamscape and toneprints for a pedal with different types of modulations. TC's Corona Chorus is also pretty nice too. For bass, anything that allows blending of the effect in to the dry signal is a thumbs up to begin with. The Toneprints are superb.

Expect this kind of extortion when buying from places like Thomann after a brexit which takes us out of the single market before ped comes to slap my wrists again - I'll just leave that there - thanks leave voters

Vintage JayDee Celest. Just a few exist. Simple instrument with long sustain... http://www.jaydeecustomguitars.co.uk/

New bass day for me - and quite a special one for me personally. I've always loved the 'Smith Sound' and grew up listening to John Patitucci playing his early six string Smith. I recently realised my dreams of owning one when I bought a beautiful BT5 from Basschat last year. However I'm not really a five string player, but I can adapt. Smith basses tend to be 5 or 6 string so there wasn't much choice. But then I saw this. Not only is it a 4 string, but it's a very early one built just two months after I was. It was finished in January 1984. The serial number is 151. Early Smith basses have a few differences from today's models - first of all the brass fittings on the headstock, especially the 'S' logo in a brass disk which I remember seeing on those early Chick Corea vids, whilst my brother watched and analysed every move Dave Weckl made. I got some info from Ken about the bass who said the neck joint is a hidden mortise which I believe was inspired by a damaged double bass from a car accident in the 70s. The preamp is made by Haz Labs; it has volume, balance, treble, bass (not sure of frequencies but the treble control always feels very musical) plus a phase switch which Ken said they subsequently removed because it's not very useful. It's quite unusual to see Smith basses without an exposed centre block like my 5 string - I think some of the Hadrien Feraud models have a solid top like this one. It has a walnut top and maple back with an ebony fingerboard. The whole bass has a very light satin finish which feels great and shows minimal wear except usual playing in. It's been well looked after! I wasn't able to play the bass first so I was kind of nervous but Smith basses are so consistent I needn't have worried - the neck is dead straight and the action was pretty bang on right away. I've got the G string a little higher than my 'strings painted on' Vigier because I find it makes double stops on the G string more pronounced. As usual have the neck with almost zero relief and the other strings very low. Someone described the sound of their Warwick Thumb as 'digital' here the other day; that's quite a good way to describe this. I'll do some sound clips asap to show you. So yeah I'm really pleased. I think that's my bass buying escapades over for a while. Some pics!

Ampeg scroll bass I think.

Not strictly a bass pedal, but I've found Joyo's guitar chorus pedal surprisingly good for fretless bass. Might be a tad toppy for your tastes - it was certainly brighter than the Boss Bass Chorus I also tried when I bought it - but certainly good for a vaguely convincing Pino impression.

'twas!

That's good. I wouldn't have even considered buying one with any football club logos on.

Oof. My sympathies? best wishes? year's free supply of ant-stress pills? /notbeingsarcastic I know that some larger firms can afford trade specialists (such as they are, who's an expert in the unknown?!) but you're basically on your own, because the gov't don't know, and neither do your supplier. It's crackers. Are you just going on as normal and pretending nothing's happening until it does? (to avoid meltdown) Above: that £30k limit obvs is only expected to work one-way and there will be howls of outrage when it turns out that no you can't work part-time in a salon in Torremolinos to keep you busy in your semi-retirement.

Hopefully you won't get fooled again.

Funny, discussing my upcoming activities this morning my daughter said why not suggest a reggae song - everyone likes reggae and the basslines should be easy (she said that not me!) It reminded me how many years ago I saw Steel Pulse; all the way through the bass player drove it along with solid, straightforward rhythmic lines. Then a couple of songs from the end he got a solo and went right off the scale. So don't underestimate reggae bass players!