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Just snaffled this 48 y/o beauty. Weighs just over 7 pounds, which is fabulous for my back/shoulders. Just need to sell a couple of basses to pay for it now!

It seems you didn't get my retirement memo, Rich. All wet work and deniable black flag ops are now in the capable hands of @lozkerr and her team of Albanian gangsters. (10% extra for the sonic disrupter). God, yes, the trouble we've had in the past with threads about straps. Blood up the walls, mods being carried out on stretchers. I hesitate even now to mention the word 'strap'. Just too divisive.

...and then the end result. I'm pretty happy with it. Definitely could have more finesse (but i'm no DIYer!) but looks far better in the room disguised as a bass cab, hides away all the bass stuff i have lying around and didn't cost too much! Hopefully a useful little idea to spark some inspiration for anyone looking for a neat storage idea that looks the part too!

Why is BC successful? * The owners have got their heads screwed on and they're basically nice people, ditto the mods * The forum's been going for years and years so everyone pretty much knows what to expect and how to comport themselves. * There are loads of sub-forums there's something for everyone * Fairly busy For Sale marketplace with interesting inventory at usually fair prices * The prevailing attitude is 'Whatever floats your boat'. Dogmatic intransigence (though not unknown) raises eyebrows * Fondness for puns (particularly fish, cheese)

Selflessness makes it work. And the ability to mute the very, very few agenda driven types who are so in love with what works for them they can't see why it shouldn't work for EVERYONE. Even they, I like to believe, sincerely want to help other people by sharing the truth they've discovered. The rest give so freely of their knowledge and experience it makes BC a joy to be here. Apart from introducing me to a seemingly unending way to spend money BC has introduced me to some amazingly helpful people. Just today I passed on two broken amplifiers to a guy I met at the Bash last year knowing he will sort them. My cables are made either by our own @obbm or with bits he supplied, the cabs and amps and basses I use I discovered here and almost exclusively bought here. I discovered my bass tutor here and that was the most important thing I've ever done. Even after playing bass since the early 80s I discovered the joy of being taught what I didn't know. I'm reading and writing music thanks to him and the great work of @TKenrick given freely here. Sure people will get hot under the collar about things that, in the scheme of things, don't matter. God knows I can get defensive about brands I like - which is utterly ridiculous - but when I've struggled with life folk here have offered real life, real world help, kind words, and genuine support. An online forum which enriches my life - what's not to like?

1/ One of my customers is just learning to play guitar, he's in his mid 50s. His guitar tutor asked what his aim was and the chap said he just wanted to play one gig. The guitar tutor replied that he'd need a better guitar. The guitar in question is an Epiphone Les Paul copy. It's in good condition and very playable. My customer asked me what I thought, I said I thought his tutor was talking out of his rear exhaust pipe. 2/ The music teacher at my son's school told my son that bass players don't play with plectrums, so he should only use fingers when he was playing the bass at school. My son told me this so I suggested next time he 'plays' bass at school and the subject of plectrums comes up he just says Bobby Vega or Carol Kaye. I then told my son, who is learning to play guitar, that anyone who wants to be a well rounded player should try to get to grips with all techniques on their instrument. Being deadly serious, I don't think people, who regard themselves as Music Teachers, and make such nonsense statements should be teaching at all. They're doing a disservice to those they are supposed to be teaching. It may seem minor, however, such narrow minded ridiculousness...well, it boils my waste water!!!

My newly arrived '71 Mustang

You forgot: * General good behaviour thanks to the ever-present threat of being lured to a deserted warehouse and shot in the face.

First time out together... I think it's love

great story

I'm reading, I'm following - I'll reply a bit later - I kid you not when I say I have to make some soup before my wife gets in from work.Honestly - it was a serious question about something that baffles me. Signing up for different musician related forums over the years has been akin to venturing into an unknown cave and flicking the torch on to find a great empty cavern - finding basschat is startling - like finding a cave where the roof is covered in bats!

I was a massive fan of my main band in the 90s. They reformed about 5 years ago and a few friends sent me messages to say I should audition to join the new rhythm section. I didn't because I was too busy but then went to see them with a mutual friend last October. I knew they were using bass deps so having enjoyed the show I spoke to them with a view to adding my name to the dep list. I thought I might get ONE local dep gig but I got emailed through a list of tour dates. "I can't do all that" I thought but I looked into it and figured I could offer to do ONE tour. I joined with the permanent new drummer but after the second rehearsal I was told that I wasn't a dep and was the new main bass man. It's been a struggle with work etc but has wound up being my busiest year and musically 31yrs later, I've never been so happy.

On the whole BC is a great bunch of folks with a common interest, which doesn't include denigrating that interest. Yes there is the odd spat in Off Topic, but this is normally settled down as it it is dealt with quickly and efficiently by the admins and mod (tugs forelock/doffs hat as sign of respect ). What never ceases to amaze me is not only the depth of knowledge of EVERYTHING (bass playing, plumbing, contract killing, you name it) but the empathy shown to others when things aren't going well (I refer you to the depression thread for a prime example). I visit here many times a day and BC has become an intrinsic part of my life, I'm so happy I found it. Now back to work you lot, or you'll get a lick of the cat I tell 'ee! * *Tiddles isn't keen on the experience either, but we need to have some form of incentive.

I've not been able to post since but I did two gigs supporting New Model Army last week Tuesday we played at The Live Rooms in Chester. There was something seriously wrong with the PA, no idea how they managed to take so long to fix it, but it meant our soundcheck was just a very brief line check. This normally wouldn't bother me but the rest of the band (who are big NMA fans) had got me nervous for the first time in ages! It was sold out too so a pretty important gig. Anyway, the sound was crap on stage, and probably out front, but it didn't matter at all. The crowd loved us! Wednesday we played the Boiler Shop in Newcastle. This is such a cool venue. A huge old warehouse with loads of history, done up in a very modern fashion. Brilliant soundcheck and we played really well. We've been asked to support on another date next year so that'll be cool

It mainly works because most of us are too old to understand how to use the more popular social media platforms... 😐

Before I discovered Basschat I would never had put the words “decent people" & “bassist" together but I guess this site is simply a magnet for the most genuine of bass players out there!!! Every post that I have read from this site either shows great comradery, fantastic support, a HUGE depth of musical knowledge or something that leads me to question why they are allowing the inmates of St Helen's institute for the mentally insane to have access to the World Wide Web?...

We get a lot of queries on basschat about how to join a band etc and thought it might be interesting to see how people who are in bands got to join them. Did you meet your bandmates the traditional way, at school and go from there? Was it an invite through a mate? Answer an ad from the board in the rehearsal studio? Answer an ad in melody maker or its modern equivalent? After a drunken session in the pub? My story: I blame my Mum! - I'd been playing (badly) with a band in London but been forced to move to live with my Mum just outside Watford. It was 1985. I'd left the London band as commuting into the smoke was just too difficult. I was fed up. One day my Mum had a copy of the local paper, the Watford Observer, wherein there was an article about a local band . That band were looking for a bass player to record their next album. My Mum suggested I give them a ring. I suggested to my Mum that I didn't have the skills necessary. She told me to stop moping around and forced me to call them. I got an audition. The singer dropped a cassette of some material around my house and asked me to learn as much as I could in about 4 days. I managed to learn about one song LOL but went along to the audition. It was a bit of a disaster if I'm honest but I got a call about 3 months later asking me back! I went and, apart from a couple of years where I left to play keyboards in a sister band, I've been here ever since (OK so we did split up for a while but I was the 1st bassman to be called on reformation in 2009) What's your story?

*sigh* And it was all going so well...... Why couldn't we stick to safe subjects? Like contract killing, human experimentation and body disposal? Eh? Oh no.....you had to go and lob that grenade in....

Aww , you've been and gawn and done it now!!! Look out, she's gonna blow!!!!

Just got this beaut back from Dave Coates Audio in the North East today and I'm absolutely blown away... The neck pick up is a custom built super shallow pick up and is route free. It's as solid as it gets and works with the aguilar MM pick up tremendously! (The aguilar replaces the original EMG MMHZ, which I believed was an MMTW until he took it out and saw the sticker 🤷‍♂️) He's also taken the tone pump out and fitted a passive circuit... I approached Dave to see if he could route a space for a neck pick up, but he thought he could make a super shallow pick up that would avoid any damage to the bass... he wasn't wrong, and my mind is blown 🤯

Dear friends, finally finished! The New EVO-FX5 Handmade in Luxembourg #rinaldisbass

First band was mates from school - we began about 2 years after we'd left sixth form. This morphed into band #2 - 2 original members from school - me & singer / guitarist, plus drummer from a local band who'd supported us, another old school person on guitar and another guitarist we poached from a support band we liked! ...10 year ish gap... Band #3 (current, fledgling) - the 'house band' from the open mic night I run at my local bar - 1 drummer & 1 singer / guitarist.

computer code my money's on computer code

Oh great, you just had to bring that up. It's taken me 18 months of counselling to get to a stage where I could even think the S-word without hyperventilating, and now that's all down the drain. Back to square one. Thanks a bunch.

I'm more a No Hit No Wonder...

Maybe you're joking, but that very aspect always stands out to me on here: virtually no need to use it. Been on fora for keyboard players (from synth to pipe organ), guitarists and drummers, and those fora were invariably insufferable without heavy use of the ignore button. Not so here. Born as a keyboardist, I do think the bassist thing has something to do with it, but probably also the Britishness thing. Not that bassists and Brits are "better", but to me there is something with their style when disagreeing - something we call "roundness" in Norway. Dunno if that translates well, but guess you get it.

Add to that the dreaded 3/ Oh you are left-handed? Nah, just learn right-handed, it's always difficult at the start anyway, and there are more right-handed models available on the market. [More or less the equivalent of: 'Oh, you are gay? Nah, only sleep with the opposite sex from now on, it'll make your life easier']

Hello All. First picked up the bass last summer. Put it back down again. Picked it back up the right way around. Did my first gig (I say gig, we did a five song set to about 40 people in a small room in a working man's club) just over a week ago. When it was over I felt simultaneously relieved to have got through it and dying to do it again. I'm currently using a very budget set-up consisting of a Revelation PJ and a Rumble 25, which I'm pretty happy with for now, at least until the inevitable world tour requires me to buy a bigger amp. Thanks for having me.

All well and good but I couldn't hide my slight disappointment to see that you've changed your distinctive look since the profile photo. Was expecting something more along the lines of...

A local multi-instrumentalist guy I'd never met (but should have done, as we were in the same social circles) put up a post on the local FB musician finder page that he was looking to get back into playing drums, and does anyone fancy a jam? I replied yes, we had a great jam, chatted about what we were into, and who we could get into the band guitar-wise. We both came up with the same name, and that guitarist had just finished with another band and had a female singer in tow from said band. We're still together 3 years later writing our own stuff, gigging and loving it. No egos, no wanting to be a star, everybody gets input, and we all get on very well. Never thought I'd see the day....

Last words from the magistrate as I left the courtroom Happy days.

See this kind of baiting would have once upon a time got me up in arms, but I don't see why anyone else here would benefit from reading a point scoring political row between two strangers. Even if one of them was as charming and eloquent as me. So I let it float past.

Here's mine!

Nice pic but shows off the lack of matching headstock even more.

This is the one I am using now. Very happy with the sound!

No defensiveness there, just stating the fact. That sort of nonsense gets spouted far too often at left-handed players without taking into account that it could equally be applied the other way round.

just compiled this and thaught id share...

Why do you all ignore me ? Wait a minute, I can write whatever I want as nobody will read it, even the mods as the "Ignore Button" is directly linked to my pseudo, whoever you choose to ignore. So here we go : the worst band in the world and linked to a province by the first digit in the title of a perfect film with an American accent which is a good idea and I'll meet you at the front of your relatives or two other than you can have a very sensitive nose with the bass comp on your computer games to play. Signed and deciphered : @Teebs

What makes this site work? It turns out that there’s a limit to the amount of internet porn that even I can watch. Got to fill the rest of the day somehow.....

The "Ignore User" button.

Well, I'm left handed and play right handed. When I first joined this forum I explained that it went back to when I was trying to learn to play the classical guitar. I had never played guitar before and my teacher told me to try right handed as classical guitars are braced to have the strings fitted in that way. He also pointed out that you don't find left handed pianos (although someone did post a photo on here of one!) or trombones etc. Plus, as I had nothing to unlearn, it wouldn't make much difference to how I progressed. I'm glad I took his advice. I cannot even attempt to play a bass as a lefty or even hold it correctly. I do everything else left handed (except using a knife and fork). Playing as a right hander has not affected my playing - I'm just rubbish anyway! Back to the plot about daft things some people say. I was chatting to someone at church on Sunday and I said that I would have to go and check my bass before the service as it was near a radiator and it may need re-tuning. Her amazed reply was, "Do you have to tune a bass?" I'm sure it was a genuine question and not a comment on my playing!

I just joined the site to shift some stolen bass gear but it turns out these guys are a bit of “alright"...

My great-niece wanted to learn guitar. She's left-handed and left-footed at everything. I told my niece to get her a lefty guitar. Left-handed guitar arrives. Great-niece insists on playing it right-handed. 😞

Basschat hasn't been the same since The Big Beef Chief was banned ...

I've bought several BC-members works, but always in physical form. I've never bought anything in 'streaming' form, mainly 'cos I'm old and set in my ways.

Indeed so. I didn't take what you said as aggresive at all. It's exactly what I would have said if you hadn't. A simple statement of fact, and something that just needs thinking through a bit is all. The other important point that I like to make at about this juncture is that handedness isn't an either/or (as several examples above illustrate). Almost nobody is either lefthanded or righthanded. It's a continuum. Think of it as a horizontal line. Few if any are at either end; most are somewhere vaguely either side of the mid-point. What it means in practice is that most people can do many things with either hand at need but have a preference one way or the other for any given activity. The more you prefer to do things in a lefthanded way (especially things that demand very fine control such as writing or drawing), the more lefthanded you are (and vice versa). If anybody is interested, this article covers the topic pretty well.