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Thanks for all the kind words guys. I'll wait until I see my surgeon again next month and see what he says. I've been here before when I sold all my gear around 10 years ago when I was in agony with the RA but got back into playing after the hospital got it under control. I'm hoping they can perform another miracle this time around.

I'd highly recommend watching this video, which explains all the design decisions made in the evolution of the Jazz bass -

I learned Scottish by watching 'Trainspotting'.

And you got Tony Levin to model it!!

I was born in the Northern Isles but spent most of my adult life in England, so can switch in an out of either accent at will. Obviously I love the Scots, but a tiny minority of mainland Scots have a real chip on their shoulder, so on the rare occasion one gets smug with me thinking I'm English I break into Orkneyjar and remind them who the soft southerner really is.

I can remedy that quick, but wanted to do the bass justice and not show my ugly mug

I got a tattoo of the first bass I bought when I joined BC, then overwritten with each replacement, here’s the result.

I’ve owned two signature basses. Neither were acquired due to any desire to emulate the player whose name was on the headstock. The first was a Fender Duff McKagan which I tried in a store and was blown away by, so I took the plunge. I quite like some of Guns ’n Roses stuff but I’m not a huge fan, and I’m not that keen on Mr McKagan’s tone either. It’s just a great bass in it’s own right. The second is the ubiquitous Geddy Lee Jazz. I love Jazz Basses anyway and own several. This one has a slim, easy neck and an aggressive tone which I like and is perfect for my band. I didn’t know who Mr Lee was until recently, and would struggle to name even a couple of Rush songs. My point being, I judged both instruments on their merits rather than any association with a signatory bass player. They’re great basses and the identity of the player behind them is irrelevant to me.

Nice shim on a bass I saw for sale recently 😁

How was I to know? He could have changed his name to Jazzy4000. Or Used-to-be-Ricky-but-now-not-so-much4000 *Sigh* Where's that sander......?

I do have a wig courtesy of @martthebass, but it appears not everyone is ‘fully committed’ to the wig concept as I first was. I have been in contact with the owner of the pink shirt JD wore on the day who sent me some detailed images of it’s design. I researched getting the shirt recreated, but it wasn’t half as easy as I thought it was going to be, so have had to set that aside. I’m aware that the bass itself is an extravagance given the nature of the gig, but I’m so glad I had it made as it’s an absolute belter plus I finally have a P bass that I actually like.

Taking the approach that playing any old notes fits is not far off Les Dawson territory it doesn’t have to be top-class players that can spot a faker - even a reasonably proficient player is going to expect to hear something idiomatically correct. A faker may have good time and may even hit the odd root note, but, assuming they can be heard well enough (not always guaranteed with an upright bass), there will undoubtedly be lots of very dissonant notes and no structure behind them to make the line work - plus if the faker doesn’t know the song they probably won’t know the (often written, or accepted based on a classic version of the tune) line that goes under the head or any rhythmic hits, trading fours/eights etc. A player who has put a bit more work into learning walking lines will play the root of the chord on the downbeat and either chord tones or scale tones with the odd chromatic passing note. Better players improve upon this by playing a line that makes sense in of itself - it outlines the harmony so all the other players know where they are (bass is a supporting instrument) but adds something to the music. Walking bass can be learned entirely by ear so it’s not snobbish, you don’t actually have to know all the ins and outs of harmony, but you do need to know what shapes work through chord changes (and what those changes sound like). It also depends on the style - an intimate ballad will probably require long root notes, a fast bebop number may require just scale/chord tones (no time to think!) What’s not been mentioned is a strong knowledge and background in the roots of jazz - blues, ragtime etc. There are many standards built on a blues and the bass parts closely reference blues bass lines. Without this a walking line just becomes a clever threading through chord changes rather than music with meaning in its own right. Whilst you can just walk chromatically it quickly becomes tiring on the ear as there is no sense of the overlying harmony and more importantly, no tension and release. If the changes are Am - D7 - Gmaj7 and you play Bb - Eb -Ab all the way through on the bass you won’t be getting called back Look on the positive side - learning to play walking lines well is immensely rewarding and there are few more creative experiences on bass.

Mehrabian's theory... only 7% of the message is communicated via the words used. Tone and body language to the rest!

To be honest, I'm utterly amazed that the phrase..."GIT TAE F**K...!!"...not to mention the tone that it's normally said in, could be taken in any way other than intended...!!!!

Odd, isn't it? I never imagined you wearing glasses......

No tatoos for me. I'm a non-conformist. Frank.

Sorry to hear this so yeah, keep us posted. But only about the first three eh?

It seems to be another loose variation of the OCD, but this one is one of the better sounding out there (not saying it's the closest in sound to an OCD, just that I like its sound best) It covers a lot of ground, from barely distorted, to quite high-gainy, and the 2-band EQ help a lot getting just the right hue. And it's only about £35. In a small enclosure. I love it. One of the nicest pedals I've come across lately.

When I bought my first Fender in 1982 at the age of 18 I didn't have a frame of reference for what a bass should weigh, so it didn't strike me as odd that my new precision was rather heavy compare to the cheap jazz copy I was upgrading from. I still have the Precsion but now I know the weight isn't normal and is due to CBS cutting costs and using the cheapest ash rather than the most suitable lightweight swamp ash. Apart from the non-optimal choice of wood, I've heard a story that CBS also sourced wire for the pickups based on whatever gauge was cheapest rather than what was in the original spec. I had a EMG active pickup in this bass since 1986. I had to suffer a whole summer of working in Bejam to buy this bass so I'll never sell it despite its shortcomings. Who else has a bass from this era? According to my scales my precision weighs a back-breaking 11lb - can anyone beat that?

I've owned 3 fivers and my favourite is probably the cheapest. I had an Overwater Jazz, that I got for half price in a sale. Wonderful bass but it made my fretting hand ache after 15 mins of playing. Later I had an LTD that had a through neck and all sorts of great spec , for not much cash. But my favourite was a Squier Deluxe Dimension Bass. Got it new for under £300 and was so impressed with it's design and build quality. A real pleasure to play and it's active pickup got some very decent tones. I'm a four string player but I like to dabble occasionally.

That was over two weeks ago and I’ve lost nearly a stone in 5 weeks, so I don’t think I can be caused of not trying 😉

This chap.

Can you cross it out? I plays a Jazz bass now. 😄

Dear God! Why on earth would you get a tattoo of a bottle opener? I'd really question your judgement when it comes to tattoos!

It was an orbital sander and a bottle of Scotch at the finish. Got this one instead now......

It's gone now, thank goodness. Just waiting for my ar$e to grow back.

I have a finger 'tache. 👍

Had that at a gig in Shoreditch. Turned out to be the mildly amusing cheeky girl fiddling inconsequential lib dem MP lembit opek.

When I have hit these kind of patches I tend to just put it all away and do something else for a while. I have been through phases over the years when I just play a lot of acoustic guitar and then eventually I feel the urge to play bass again. I haven’t picked my bass up properly in months, no time, no energy and no enthusiasm. Today I got as far as pulling the case out from under the bed and playing a couple of notes. I also have the urge to learn some Vulfpeck so that might be my next challenge as I am done with bands for a while.

One of my great sadness’s about living in England is that folk don’t understand many Scottish expressions. I have to speak VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY. And I’m definitely a lot swearier that most English people I know.

That's a result of rheumatoid arthritis :}.

Dealing with the groupies is the singers job. Dealing with the drunks is the singers job. Hes the front man, we are just the eye candy.

Agreed. Miles more fun playing to a nicely oiled crowd who are up for dancing & singing. The other bits also come with the booze though, so within reason I try to smile and humour them. If you play pubs, you're going to get drunk folk. I'd much rather put up with the associated buffoonery than the soul destroying experience of playing to two bored barmaids and a passing cat.

To be fair, a well tanked crowd are almost always better than a stone cold sober one.........

I’m going to go with ‘different’. The addition of guitars made for added interest for me and also meant I went with guitar playing friends (it was a cool boys’ day out). However, that addition impinged on the bass workshops and performances. Location was OK, it certainly allowed for a post show curry and a mid show beer, but the architecture, although brighter and nice to look at, was acoustically challenging. Will I go again? That will all depend on who’s appearing and better forward planning of the same from the organisers.

Without getting the scales out it feels around the 8.5lbs mark compared to other basses I own. I'm very impressed with it from in regards to playability. The neck is very slim which I really like. Plugged into a pre-amp for recording I'd describe it as 'hi-fi' sounding and I suppose it will come down to how you feel about EMG's which divide some people. I'm very pleased with it.

Mine looked a bit like this -

2 thoroughly enjoyable gigs this weekend. A Halloween birthday party and Wedding. Both very different both excellent with great crowds. Was our drummers first outing with his electric kit so was very different from the usual but sounding great. The punters seemed to love it, as did we 😃

Hi everyone, This is Wolfgang from BITE Guitars. You guys have been sceptical but fair, thanks, I appreciate this. Yes, we do things differently, from the product design to our online configurator to the way we organize production. Whenever you do things differently, it's bound to raise eyebrows and questions. I'd be surprised if it didn't. So here are a few explanations. We are not in it for the quick buck, we do nothing on the cheap and we do not source in China. We try to be as transparent as possible, pls check out "Guitar Building 4.0" on our ABOUT US page. Our production is highly digitalized for consistent quality and still our head of production is a licensed luthier who also builds violins with the craftsmanship of his own hands (in Austria you need several years of training, a craftsman examination and a compulsory license to build guitars). Our basses were developed in cooperation with professionals from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the venerable luthier school in Hallstatt, and scrutinized and tested by the knowledgeable audience of the Guitar Summit's boutique area, notably trade journalists and bass professionals. Response was overwhelming and till this day we havn't had a single quality complaint. How many bass manufacturers employ graduate bass professionals to QC and test slap each instrument? We do anyway. A straight headstock like ours gives maximum firmness for output and sustain (unlike an angled one). As for straight headstocks, we all have grown to appreciate the 4-left tuner arrangement as industry standard. So why does BITE arrange its tuners 2-left-2-right? 4-left is a pretty crowded party. All 4-left shapes differ slightly between manufacturers for trademark reasons. There are clearly beautiful 4-left shapes out there, but elbowing our way into the 4-left crowd just didn't seem right to us, we wanted to create something of our own. Our headstock is almost an inch shorter than the ubiquitous 4-left headstock. Since our bodies are also a little reduced in size, the overall proportion between body and headstock is right. This counterweight is important for eliminating dead spots. In addition, our necks have a D-profile that players generally find pleasant and relaxing and that also adds strength along the entire neck and thus contributes to consistently strong output across the whole fretboard. Another reason for our headstock shape could be called contingency product planning. You don't want to go through trademark registration every time you add a product variation. Our headstock leaves enough space for adding a fifth or even a sixth machine head and also to flip it and reposition the logo for a left-handed version. To put our headstock in perspective, here's a video of Overdriver Duo (Brazilian sensation with over 2bn clicks and counting). It shows their Jawbone PJ from various angles. We are talking custom bass. Over a billion choices in custom quality, a fast and visualized online configurator, immediate ordering, worldwide direct shipping, zero tropical wood, high output pickups, etc. This is completely new terrritory in many aspects. It's impossible to offer all of this at entry level prices. Yes, but we meanwhile offer our pickups also with plain white and plain black covers. Why did we brand them in the first place? They are a proprietary development. We had Germany's foremost scientific pickup experts contributing, GITEC president Prof. Manfred Zollner, GITEC board member Tillmann Zwicker and renowned pickup physicist Helmuth Lemme. We finally achieved what we had in mind: passive pickups with a record output but still a clearly articulated growl that cuts through the mix even with tone rolled off, no muffled mud. Hear it for yourself in Nathan Navarro's review. For technical reasons and for easy use we focus our configurator on the most popular choices. We can do a lot more than that, ranging from special body finishes, including oil & wax, all the way to implementing special wiring ideas. Those are things that need a little interaction between you and us and require individual pricing, that's why we offer them separately in our SECRET MENU.

That's enough about Gallagher, what about the Amyls?

Never ever play in pubs with flat roofs.

Has to be my fretless five string Kramer. It's not worth much at all, but I got it for my 18th. It still gets gigged nearly seventeen years on, here it is enjoying a sunny June afternoon depping in with a friend's band. You know when you've had a bass so long whenever you pick it up playing is just effortless... For long periods of time this was my only bass. Others have come and gone but I wouldn't swap this for anything. It's been gigged in every band I've been in, whether it looks the part or not!

56 years between them but both incredible............