Leaderboard

Maybe guff, but maybe not. . . . . . I remember the days when you needed a carnet when you travelled abroad with your gear. And the joy on some customs men's faces when you drove up to their post at Dover. They could wave you through, or just as easily make you unload the whole van onto the road and justify every piece of gear against the documentation. The one thing that is certainly not guff. . . . we may or may not be going back to the bad old days, but gigging in Europe will be a much more difficult process that it has been.

We don't all just stand at the back, y'know!

I was having a Hoover up this morning and took a quick pic of one end of my practice room 🙂

...with my first band of 40+ years ago. Started out as a WMC band playing an odd set of country, 50’s & 60’s songs as 16/17 year olds with an ‘older’ bandleader - I joined on bass having replied to an ad for a guitarist as he was retiring as he was too old (he was 30!!) but by the time I got to the audition he’d realised that was BS, but they didn’t have a bass player so did I fancy the job? We did that for while and then as a three piece after he left and we carried on playing clubs, though we had to have a driver for gigs as none of us was old enough to drive. Started writing our own stuff in a punky vein and built up a good following and full gig list on the south coast - I used to have a gig flyer that covered three months and had around sixty dates, which would probably kill me now. Then ‘stuff’ happened and I carried on with the drummer and later vocalist addition but lost touch with the guitarist for some time. Cut to a couple of months back when our old ‘manager’ (ok mate who drove the van and desk) got in touch and we had a meet up in a pub to chew over old times - usual “...and do you remember when...” conversation that band mates have 🙂 Old/ancient copies of songs were shared by Dropbox, keys agreed, and all agreed that maybe we wouldn’t play them quite that fast now, and today we met up in a studio to bash through what we could remember and record what happened. Also a chance to get the cone on my new BF OneTen, picked up yesterday and lovely & easily able to keep up with a Blackstar 20 rig. Despite not having played together as a three piece for 40 years it was still bloody tight. The recordings will be interesting to hear. Despite being ‘punks’ the eclectic range of influences was interesting, Bill Nelson/Bebop Deluxe, Wishbone Ash, XTC, Wilko Johnson, Hendrix/Trower, shades of Motörhead, and many more.

I bought this fabulous combo from a friend, when he got rid of some surplus studio equipment, and got it WAY too cheap. EBS Neo Gorm 212.

Well guys this bass is incredible. Everything I hoped for, expected from an ACG and more. I honestly can't really argue that I "need" any more basses now. Should I be happy or sad about that... Pic for attention... Eude

Q: How many BassChatters does It take to change a lightbulb? A: It takes: Four to say they'd be all over it if only it was a 5 string lightbulb ... Six to ask how much the lightbulb weighs Fourteen to say all you really need is a Precision lightbulb Nine to say they used to have a lightbulb just like that, but it was an original '63 and how they regretted selling it Three to say how great the service is at Bass Direct and how if they were in the market for a lightbulb, that's where they'd go Seven to wonder how the lightbulb would sound if it had different capacitors Eleven to say that the bulbs are less bright with flats but that's how they like it Fifteen to say they have not changed their lightbulbs in over a decade ... Oh, and one to actually change the bulb .... 🙂

Some solders, supplied in the form of bars, contains enough tin to emit a sound called a "tin cry". It is a faint noise that the alloy makes as it is stressed such as during a sharp bending action. Interesting that.

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Only ever had two problems with stuff bought from Thomann, a clip on tuner which arrived broken and more recently a pedal which just suddenly packed up. Today I received a replacement for the pedal, no quibbles, just like the last time, two emails and a replacement was shipped to me. Customer service? Yup, no complaints here.

One, five; one, five; one, five. Hmm, maybe that’s just country music Basschatters (paraphrasing an old joke).

Kamasi Washington’s bassist Miles Mosley can only be described as playing Uprighteous bass! Testify!

Generally speaking the main act at Thekla is on by 9pm, sometimes earlier. Support act normally around 1945. For a busy gig it's worth getting there earlyish if you want a good spot at the front as it's quite narrow and not ideal if you're at the back by the bar. Enjoy!

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKHSE/bulletins/211f52e

Thought I'd post back and say how happy I am so far with the BB800. Really looking forward to gigging with this little rig next month.

I’ve never ever put any credibility into those opinions/statements. ”mij Fenders are brilliant” - some are, I’ve played some Japanese fender dogs, and by the same token some amazing and terrible MIM ones. Same goes for USA built. we once got 8 new 2008 jazz basses in at once and 5 were great, 2 were underwhelming, and I sent one back - just horrific. I don’t believe that geography has a bearing on wether or not a bass is any good. That’s before you take into account what each individual player wants. but if it helps, I owned several Japanese BB’s and some Taiwanese ones at the same time. There was nothing between them, quality wise. I kept the 414, which is Indonesian. And “lesser”. Sits proudly with a jazz bass and Modulus which if I bought new now I’d have to spend £10,000 to replace between them. Think it’s cost me £150 in total.

It is a satisfying material to work with if you follow a few simple rules. Most of these are to do with it being a notch sensitive material. In other words it will easily start to crack wherever there is a sharp nick or inside corner to concentrate stresses within the material. As Maude says, careful choice of sawblade pitch in tpi (Teeth Per Inch) relative to the thickness of the material and rate of cut should produce good results even with a hacksaw. Sometimes however, trial and error is the way to go with more complex cuts. Be prepared to do the same piece over from scratch if it goes bang (usually just as you're finishing it in my humble experience).

There’s always room for one more bass. Always.

I had a 1963 Philips tungsten filament bulb - with it's original box! Had proper bayonet fitting, original price sticker (1/6d) and everything. It didn't work, so I foolishly threw it away. Just think what it would be worth now. 😥

I hadn't looked closely enough to see those as well!

I've got a wooden reel of about 200' of lead solder that my Grandad liberated from EMI Ruislip when he retired in 1961. Not bragging, just saying.

One to threaten a lawsuit if your lightbulb looks similar to mine.

Is the lightbulb any good for metal and how much will it cost to post it to Outer Mongolia please?

Found a pic of my first board, Feb 2015. Life was simpler then

I've always found them absolutely superb too. It's very rare these days to find a company that's an absolute pleasure to do business with.

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I had no idea how useful the ART DTi was until I owned one. I use it all the time now. It converts one connection to another (xlr, phono and jack) and any combination. It has two discrete channels, which is handy for stereo use or for using on two signal paths (or more since it can be used as a splitter), and its 1:1 gain. https://www.thomann.de/gb/art_dti.htm

Anyone checked out the new custom shop G&L model? Double split pick-ups with series/parallel on the neck and vintage G&L style Seems like a neat set of controls to me - plenty of different tones and not too much fuss over loads of switches/knobs First saw them on their Instagram, but there's also a couple of videos up now:

I just realised, the bassline in the lesson from part one: Is this: Knew I recognised it from somewhere... 😛

These 2 gems are new finds for me and it dont get much better ..

See you at nine!

Blimey, he was good...

PS love the pics btw, Dave and the way you've used a low f-stop to get that shallow depth of field with just the rig in focus. Nice!!

Darn - that actually is one handsome rig! And having 400 watts (at 8 ohms) on tap will give the F112 the deep power drink that it thrives on.

That's really interesting. I switched from Aguilar to Tecamp specifically because the Tecamp had some character to it and gives out a great 80's tone (I play in an 80s covers band) - the Aguilar seemed too neutral to me, horses for courses I guess....

Is this different enough? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002D00O6

That looks very much like one an old mate of mine had. He bought it new from a catalogue in the late 80's.

Beautiful! https://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/bass-guitars/4-string/music-man-bfr-stringray-sierra-fretless.htm No further comments!

What key are you playing it in?

One to argue that tungsten watts are brighter than led watts?

Pretty much all my basses bar 1 are relic, fake or natural I’m not bothered as long as it plays beautifully. Totally get that it’s a marmite thing and absolutely no right answer. But they are cool in my eyes. This is my latest addition, cool AF 😍

I had a pair of the PJB headphones that broke after 2 years and 3 months, they sent a brand new pair straight away. I never spoke to a person, as far as I can tell it was all automated. Couldn't have been happier! I've also got several of their own brand products: the well-regarded 50s style P bass, a few di boxes, the Six Mix, they're all great. I'm considering they're 1x12" pa cabs at the moment because I've never not been happy with their stuff.

I know this is too obvious for some, but it needs posting...

Subs are essential for a realistic balanced sound i.m.o. we have 2 of the Alto 1250 watt ones , they are bloody heavy and bloody well worth it.

Just got a new black grill for my Barefaced two10 to match the Ampeg. This is the little set up. The big one is a six10. Im tempted to add the two together just for fun.. although I doubt I can lift the head that high!

Decided to add Fieblings to my Encore fretboard today, came out just how I wanted so quite chuffed. Whilst it was all apart, added some 3M carbon to the face of the headstock to match the pick guard and finished off with some new flatwounds which I have never experienced before. Sounds really nice! Makes it a mellow alternative and a different playing experience to my Steiny. Encore is deffo a keeper for me. I know the appearance wont be for everyone but its unique to me!

I just picked this up for £65. Indian-made E83 from the 80’s/90’s. Fender-style headstock, block string tree, hardwood body. Great neck, with a beautiful flame through the maple. The rosewood on the fretboard is really high quality, beautiful and dark. Frets are almost perfect and the ends are smooth enough. It’s a very heavy bass. I took the neck off, and sanded the paint back in the neck pocket, finding that the body is made of a dark hardwood. Not similar to the sanded one photographed earlier, but a more even and darker brown, almost like rosewood. The pots, input jack, and wiring have been upgraded. I’m just deciding what else to do with it. I was thinking of sanding it back to the bare wood, doing an oil/wax finish, and putting a tort scratch plate on there. Not sure how consistently the three pieces of wood will match on the body though. It’s a lottery with these, I guess. There’s only one way to find out and, once you do, it’s too late to turn back. I had been thinking about changing the pups for a set of SD Quarter Pounders but, to be perfectly honest, the stock pickups sound great, so I’d probably leave them be, and just keep it as it is (but with a tort guard and vintage-style brass bridge saddles). Hmmmm? Decisions Decisions ... Either way, this is every bit a P-Bass, in tone and feel. The essential vibe is totally intact. Absolutely no need to have spent any more. I love it 🙂