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"Has no bum notes"? Hand it over pal, I'll find 'em.

Well the tag line is: NEVER PLAY A FENDER THE SAME WAY AGAIN.

NBD today after seeing it on Facebook shared by @cd_david in a super cool little music shop. Man it’s good! Originally sunburst but refinished in Oly White in 1973 when the J pup was added. Owned locally since then by a pro theatre musician. Always had flats on so frets are almost brand new. Bar that everything is original and man it sounds well! Looking forward to gigging this next year 🤘 Shots with and without the covers 😍

Did the physiotherapy/specialist thing. Good and bad news. The bad: my back is injured from a combination of posture, “general use”, bass playing and genetics (my upper back does not have a fully normal curve). Good news: it is manageable and controllable by exercise, better posture and putting less strain on my back. So got a good exercise routine and posture tips, which will help alleviate. I was advised to consider lighter weight instruments and broad straps to minimise strain from my bass playing. All in all pretty good news, although it will take several weeks for the back to improve. Need to think about the lightweight comment.... my favourite basses (Status Electro, Yammy BBP, Ray and Bogarts) are all between 9 and 10.5 lbs. I do not look forward to swapping them for 7/8 lbs basses unless I have to so hopefully exercise will be enough.

Even more off topic, a Sherlock Holmes Cover Band would surely do 'Baker Street'?

Whether they are the average, mutts nutts, or sprinkled in Leo’s fairy workshop sawdust, I think we can all agree that for £150 - that is a steal

Progress.....but still a bit of tweaking needed.....

I am a weak. After kissing an awful lot of frogs I finally found my prince in the shape of a Maruszczyk Jake 5 built to my spec. Black/black/figured maple neck, weighs 8lbs, sounds just exactly like the P bass sound I have in my head. It's bloomin' luvverly. My back up is an EBMM Sterling 5 that I have fiddled with (now passive with the same Delano P pup as the Jake, also bloomin luvverly). So I sold all my other basses, 4 and 5 string, because those two can cover all scenarios and are a bloomin' luvverly pair, the only basses I'll ever need. I was a model of restraint Well, apart from a JV Squier Precision, that is, which I decided to hang on to as it is rather special. Then I joined a new band - a blues/rock trio. First couple of outings I used the Jake. And it was bloomin' luvverly. Then I thought 'that JV Precision will sound awesome' so I used it and it did. Then I thought 'a short scale would be just the job' and got hold of a Squier VM Mustang (having actually sold one not that long ago) and, yes, it was just the job and I remembered how much I like playing short scales. Then I saw the new Gibson Les Paul DC and thought that would be spot on perfect for the blues band. And it is - my new go-to, I just adore playing it. But that seems to have opened the floodgates and suddenly I find I am in some sort of short/medium scale, double cutaway frenzy and bought 3 other cheapos which are all vying for position as back up to the Gibson. While all the time the Jake, which is bloomin' luvverly, sits in its case until such time as my, now infrequent, 5 string gigs come along. I could, and should, use the Jake for everything but once my head was turned that sent me back onto the slippery slope I thought I had put behind me. So, yes, I am weak. But do I care? Not in the least 😂

A legend in their own lunchtimes.

Those of us of a certain vintage will relate. Our drummers only 45 and can see without readers so she likes to take the micky.

Having played bass for a number of bands I know that the bass player and the drummer generally get little recognition , guitar players and vocalists tend to get a lot more recognition. This got me thinking about how strange this situation is as drummers have to be the best at their instrument in a band, you can have a weak guitarist in a band or a weak bass player (and I could name some well known bands where this is the case)and as long as the material is not overly complex you can convey the songs reasonably well, on the other hand if you have a drummer that is weak the songs can fall apart very quickly. What this is leading to is that the band I am playing with, our drummer is leaving and it has really brought this home to me, he is a phenomenal drummer, easily the best I have played with, always on the ball, never loses tempo and we really gel as a rhythm section, he has a crazy Keith moon kind of drumming style and we both play off of each other, I was reminded very quickly of this when we played some songs at an open mic the other day without him, I played the bass parts I usually play which play off of the drum rhythm heavily and they were just not working with what the drummer we were playing with was playing and it all sounded rather clumsy. In short if you have a good drummer, look after them they are worth the effort

Pretty underwhelming. And a quick visit to snakechat.co.uk confirms that cobras aren't even blue.

Will give you 150 quid for it

Can we report Fender for "fake news" on this one? They regularly market their refreshes as ground breaking, brand new, better than ever before, and all they are ever really offering is a few new colours, and if you're lucky a pickup combination they haven't offered for 9 months. I am SO bored with this stuff, I appreciate that's just my opinion, but surely most of you find these announcements massively underwhelming? Eude

Does that happen to include any of Monk Montgomery's, e.g. "Bass Odyssey"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4ZiFt6hSRQ

So, what is so great about The Beatles?

Cripes! Is it that time of year again already? Think I'll start another 'what's so great about The Beatles?' thread.

Hearing that record prompted me to quit the band I was in and get lessons. It had a profound effect on me. For me, there is electric bass pre-Jaco and electric bass post-Jaco. And I love Bright Size Life with Pat Methany too. Mental to think Methany was only 21 at the time that was recorded.

You don't necessarily need pork-based products wrapped round your nether regions to look like an eejit - I find there's slightly less smelly ways 😁 (BTW, I bought this outfit in 1990 in Portobello Road, and it a) still fits and b) hasn't disintegrated due to toxic sweat overload... And apologies for sticking up yet more daft pics of yours-misanthropically)

I've finally managed to clear some time to upgrade to v3 and have a play through the presets now, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I didn't want any preconceptions about the patches, so played through them all a couple of times without knowing the names or what they were going for etc, and while there are a few interesting patches, my clear favourites were 21, 23 and 26. I then had a look at the list online and realised they're 3 of the original Deep Impact sounds! The vast majority of sounds on the pedal, while interesting to play around with at home, I think a lot of people would struggle to find a use for live - especially those who are in the market for a bass synth pedal. Imo there are nowhere, near enough 'synth bass' patches. I want to be able to play synth bass lines on my bass that sound good enough to not have to buy a keyboard synth. There seems to be 50 or 60 very similar 'lead pad' tones, plus another 20 or so novelty patches which I guess show off some of the limits of what sounds the pedal is capable of making. To me it just feels like there's been too much desire to show off what a crazy range of tones and effects it can produce, and not enough effort put into producing and showcasing solid and convincing synth bass sounds. I know there's the editor to allow you to create whatever patches you desire, but having no experience with synth whatsoever it's all a bit overwhelming, and I just would have liked some more 'usable'/'traditional synth bass?' tones. Overall its a very very capable unit, I think I'm just disappointed that it's going to require so much work from my extremely novice position to get some usable sounds for what I need it to do. I'd have much preferred 10 great synth bass presets than 99 presets with the odd few scattered in amongst them.

I used to have a Wal that Dave used to own - he knows his gear...

Enjoyed that so I'll dig a bit more. Here's the sort of playing wooten should stick to...

Damned good singer, Bonnet!

I do wish you hadn't mentioned that. My finger is now stuck in my left ear and I sound like a 19th-century East Anglian farm worker. "Ner hawlidayer, ner hawlidayer, ner vurst wunnova yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer"

That's got a regular slot. That and my reggae 'interpretation' of The Sound of Music musical. Gets 'em every time!

You want to do a ska version of Copacabana. 😃

It made my wife leave the room so it still has a visceral impact!

Terrific album indeed by a terrific underrated electric bass player. The first electric bass player, in fact : always musical and so complex sometimes. Wes was great, but we too often forget Monk and Buddy who were great musicians too. Right place, wrong time.

Jaco wasn't in 'em!🤣

Covering Dave Thomas' Band I captured this. Probably my favourite to date, but soft focus - either my hands, slow shutter speed or the AF issue mentioned above.

Ah - the wonderful Percy Jones. I think my ears fell off when I first heard this in 1980.

For a more accessible Jaco, try to find his collaborations with Brian Melvin - jazz street and Nightfood are great albums of listenable jazz. I get the bass virtuoso comments though. I have about 2 feet of CD shelving taken up with bassists' 'solo' albums - jaco, marcus, wooten, clarke, lawson, entwhistle, Berlin, feraud, strandberg, hellborg, bona, nitti and so on. Very few of them have had a second playing and sit gathering dust because, for the most part, they're a boring as sin. However, stick any one of these players in a decent band and they invariably shine.

Fender is changing headstock design to resemble a dollar sign?

I've got it - they're replacing the entire bass range with the Bass V - you'll never play a Fender the same way again because the top 5 frets are missing

You can do cheese covers that (probably) nobody else plays... We bloody love playing kc and the sunshine band 'give it up' the roof comes off any venue. It's a boring bass line but it's enjoyable getting everyone singing along with a song they can remember fondly. We have to do Sex on Fire, it's pretty much the law isn't it??! I was dead against it but it's never failed to go down well, excuse the terminology. I do feel I need a more musical and creative outlet though. Playing three or four chord basic riffs is OK but within the covers it's not always possible to play the way I want to. I trying to set up a separate band in the new year to do something more challenging, less successful and lower paid. I just need more hours in a day, more days in a week, my kids to sleep more, and I will have the time to do more than daydream about it!

Steve Jobs paraphrasing Henry Ford True, but Ford held deeply antisemitic views which met with Hitler's approval. In 1938 Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Hitler cited Ford's book The International Jew as inspirational while Heinrich Himmler described Ford as 'one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters'. Ford formally repudiated his antisemitic writings in 1942, a month after Pearl Harbour and 27 days after Hitler declared war on the USA, two events which had no influence on his thinking, obvs. German consul Fritz Hailer pins Nazi medal on Ford

That was you, just now! 😆

He doesn’t do a thing for me, but then again neither do any of the other bass virtuosos that people get excited about. I respect the talent and the dedication, but it just leaves me cold. I look at bass as a supporting instrument that serves the song.

I could not wait any longer and bought a legacy in an US-online store. Here I have written down my impressions after about 5 weeks of use. KLICK Sorry, unfortunately only in German.

There's the thing, y'see. What's a band to do now that pretty much everyone dresses casual all the time, even - or especially - if they work in an office? One either looks the same as the audience or one must wear a dress made out of bacon, just to stand out. True story: One time we were on a multi-band bill with an originals outfit whose set was based on their self-recorded concept album about the ghastliness of society in general and capitalism in particular. To emphasise the oppressive uniformity inherent in the system these guys all dressed up in M&S suits and ties and lace-up black shoes. As the band went onstage a wag in the audience cried out 'Have you come here straight from work?' and the landlord sidled up to me and said 'Christ, you'd think they'd put in a effort and make a show. They look like a bunch of f**king accountants'. Which was, of course, the band's aim but which ran aground on the reef of popular incomprehension. As these things do.

I've never really got into the self-titled Jaco CD, but I do like his playing on Joni Mitchell's albums

The famous, yes the world famous Red rick, lives in my loft and no I would not recommend anyone play it. Very bad things happen to anyone who fks with that bass. Mark, otherwise known as he 3 fingered bass player...😨

I've just turned 62 and have done the best I can with lightweight gear so the load in/out is as easy as it can be. Doesn't stop me helping the other guys in with their heavy stuff, mind. Will I ever learn? One of the things that isn't so easy any more is getting down on one knee and back up again - it's a long way up! I always ache next day but the worst thing is entirely of my own making. My neck is always really stiff - because I nod my head furiously when I play. Not the cool, downwards, heavy rock style nod but a kind of weird looking upward flick of my head. I can't help it, it just happens naturally. I sometimes think I must look like I have suddenly been plugged into the mains the way my head moves about. 😅

Cheers Mr 'Bag! Summerfields was UK importer for Ibanez during the notorious 70s copy era, and it seems as part of the deal they sourced their own CSL brand from Ibanez owner, Hoshino Gakki. Ibanez has only ever been a brand name, not a manufacturer, and I think the CSL Dan Armstrong copies very likely are the same instruments as Ibanez, and as Fleabag says, made by Fujigen. Later CSLs were rebrands of Hoshino's Cimar range & don't look like Fgn builds to me. Looks like most of the Japanese factories in the mid-70s had their own version of the acrylic Armstrong - there's a long & interesting (if you like that sort of thing) article about them on the Dan Armstrong info site: http://www.danarmstrong.org/copies.html Regarding acrylic basses in general, a few years back I lobbed this together - body came from a cheapo thing branded AXL and everything else from the parts box: Absolute back-breaker, and unfortunately the neck turned out to be like a bendy tree trunk. Would be the very definition of a wall-hanger, assuming I wanted huge lumps of plaster & brickwork ripped out of said wall.

Hmm... £3.7M at current bullion rates, eh..? They're gonna miss me when I'm gone..! ...