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Well, I thought they were good mates but then the buggers gave me an early birthday present at rehearsal last night!

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I don’t even know what we’re playing till I hear the first bar.

People I know.

I was thinking that too. Someone should start a Glenn Hughes thread and we can all pile into that one.

If they're not tanked up I do indulge some people. Like the bar staff where the girl is explaining to the others what a Fretless is because her dad plays, so I handed the bass over the bar for them to look at, that really shocked them in to behaving and not trying to make innuendo out of "smooth tones" etc. But if they're hammered and "my mate is better than you" they get my Northern accent. You won't like when I speak Northern.

Supported The Exploited on Saturday night in Belfast. Absolutely fantastic night, they were totally on fire! Big brawl broke out at one point which was a shame and the PA packed in briefly but otherwise amazing stuff. Felt like I was 15 again when Wattie signed my original copy of Punk’s Not Dead!

OR "Can I have a go on your girlfriend?"

I read all of this and thank my lucky stars I’m in an originals band. The only people we get on stage are the ones who’ve been thrown there by the rest of the audience.

Black Friday deal saw me parting with my credit card for a new one. BUT omfg. Lovely brown hard case, holding a bass that was so covered in dust, a fingerboard that was so dry it was pink. Pink dust everywhere that looked like the paint had not adhered to the corners or crevices and a loose jack socket. spoke to the dealer, who said it had come direct from Gibson, and the security label was intact when it arrived so I believe them . secured a further discount on the price, dusted it off, oiled the fingerboard, tightened up the socket, and its wonderful to play . Im surprised ( despite hearing lots of nasty comments about Gibson) that they allowed this sort of lack of final inspection lack of quality.

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!!!

Thanks, it was 3 hrs of of stuff I knew stuff I'd vaguely heard of and stuff I'd never heard of, Intense and a load of fun. Loads to look up and learn at least the root notes of. Lovely bunch of people, it'll definitely become one of my regular evenings.

I got my ABM head a couple of years ago in a trade on a whim (it's the chrome fronted rack mount version - I guess I'm a bit of a magpie). I'd had an Ashdown head about 15 years ago that developed a fault which the store I bought it from failed to get sorted so I just gave up on it. If I'd have know at the time about the level of customer service that I'd have got by taking it directly to Ashdown if have saved myself a lot of money going through other amps over the years. Anyway, my current ABM head was a revelation - powerful, punchy and I don't know about anyone else's but mine is 100% wool free. I recently got myself some Ashdown cabs to go with the head and a little Five Fifteen AAA head as a backup and honestly can't see myself using any other make of amp in future.

Nah. Mutual online appreciation of each other’s awkwardness is enough socialising for this week.

128 presets dude. People pay £375 for a Darkglass pedal that does dirty or clean. Let that sink in. A 128 channel preamp. It's not new technology, but it makes other things that claim to be "versatile" look like they should have a sign showing where the coal goes.

I've been playing bass for about 45 years (minus a few breaks here and there along the way) and have never used any effects pedals. My Ashdown amps have sub-octave and compression built in, but I never use them. I'm not against effects, but view it is just more stuff to buy, store, plug in, etc. which I don't have a need for. No band I have played has ever asked me to use effects to change the sound of my bass, so I must be on the right track.

And I found some pics of how the bass arrived with me, the only thing removed was the cloth bag that the bass arrived in... they must really trust their couriers!

Just watched that: Glenn is astonishing; "Sit down, Bruce: the bassist's got this..." 😁

Hi @james_027 Like many people here, my older Yamaha BB seems fine with a one piece neck, 4 bolt neck join and top loading bbot bridge! I'd not really be concerned about the structural side of things (as you say, that's what you get on most of the multi-thousand dollar Fender custom shop basses) but it's more a question of whether the laminated neck, and through body stringing give a "better" sound to your ears. The biggest difference (for me) would be the pickups. The 2 series have ceramic magnets while the 4 have alnico5 magnets. Received wisdom would imply that the 4 series pickups are a bit more subtle and vintage voiced. As always, it's a bit more complicated than that. One player's "vintage mojo" is another players "weak and characterless", one players "brash and unsubtle" is another's "punchy and agressive" etc. Bear in mind that, unlike previous BBs, these new ones feature standard-sized pickups so upgrades will be possible further down the line if you feel there's something missing. Needless to say that Yamaha make great sounding pickups anyway! I guess this isn't helping. It's 5am and I can't sleep so I thought I'd put some thoughts out there. I don't think you can go wrong with either choice and a great deal on either is what might sway it for me. I particularly like the yellow natural 2 series look but the teal 4 series is pretty saucy too. I daresay some of the Big Beasts of the BB thread will be along with far more informed guidance soon enough.

She plays incredibly well, I’m for sure selling my Geddy Lee, maybe even my MIM Pbass... I have to hunt down my stash of capacitors for the tone fix, and I’m seriously considering replacing one of the volume pots with a blend knob. I did find my thicker Kydex for the pickguard, but I don’t think I need it. The next project is starting with 2 sets of Pbass pickups....

I’ve joined the club 🤦🏻‍♂️ What have I done.....

I love their configurator!

The singer in one local band is a powerlifter and ex-doorman. On more than one occasion, a tanked-up stage invader has been launched back over the monitors... great to see, and greeted with a roar of approval by other punters. Life in Penzance!

Its a bit like kids playing guitar in music shops on Saturday morning. If you don't own a guitar, then that prospect is filled with excitement and wonder. If you do own a guitar (and amp etc), then you can sit down and play it at any time at home, right? So the mystique is gone. Therefore, anyone who asks to play something at a gig, almost by definition, can't.

ABM 6x10, ABM Mini 4x8 and ABM Mini 15.

At the risk of turning this into a pervy old man thread I’m more of a Oti fan myself...

Carl is epic... heard him with Matt Schofield a few years ago, the album they did together is awesome!

This

And another pedal (tuner) despatched from the Travis trove. Excellent communication, packaged to survive and rapid arrival. The B string on my 5er can now be tuned. Many thanks.

He has a fantastic voice.

Thanks for the replies - I think the Aguilar AG-4P 60s are the way to go. That configurator is driving me mad- I've already built 3 "dream" basses on it! Best re-mortgage the house

Medusa. That is all

It’s coming in 3.01. See the videos I posted earlier in this thread. Also, I am working on FI-specific MC6 MKII banks (again see the soundcloud links earlier in this thread) which I’ll be making available when they are perfected. I’ve made banks for preset scrolling, bank scrolling, active/bypass, tuner on/off (another v3.01 feature) and a page for selecting which expression message gets assigned to the pedal. I ordered a Bright Onion auxiliary switch yesterday and I intend to put page toggling and bank selection and a couple of other things on the external switches if possible to make things smoother.

@BrunoBass Seems there were a few decent gigs on in Brum last night. As well as Billy Bragg and Frank, Ride were playing too!

I can't say that I've ever had a member of the public approach me at any point during a performance to request a “go" on my bass guitar... I almost feel as though I'm “missing out"... I wonder if it might have something to do with my attire...

My other half and I have been toying with mastering Canon Rock and trotting along to an open mic, just to do exactly that 😉

I’m sorry but all their songs found a bit samey to me

There you go! An icon, and the coolest furry sentient being in music (Tom Jones excepted of course).

This build might take a while as I'm not really sure what I'm doing but the three main points I'm aiming for, in reverse order are, something that looks good, something that sounds good and last, but certainly not least, not to die! Oh yeah, and if I do you can all blame @rubis as it was his B15 build thread that got my idle mind thinking. 😉 The back story; I was having a clear out and found an old Dynacord amp with the front and back plates and all the knobs missing at the bottom of a chest. It had been given to me years ago and I'd pulled it apart to give it a clean as, from memory, something was noisy. The stripped parts had long since been thrown out and the newly discovered amp was about to go to the tip. At the last minute I thought I'll just put it to one side as it's an old valve amp and who knows, it could be alright. In my shed/workshop I also have my old home built (rediculous) bass rig, a bi-amped set up with a pair of 15" celestions as the bottom end that is just in the way and will most likely never be used again due to size, a pre-amp/crossover, stereo graphic EQ and stereo power amp in a rack with a 2x10 for the high end and two 1x15s for the bottom, it used to have a 4x12 for the high end but that's just silly, right? 😁 Anyway it has virtually no resale value but has to go. So I have this gear in the way when I read Rubis' thread about his Ampeg-esque cab build a light bulb came on. I've always loved the Ashdown Drophead with the Little Bastard head, and the classic Ampeg fliptop, in fact any fliptop but have absolutely no use for one so could never justify buying one just because they're pretty. Then it dawns on me, I have an old valve amp and some lovely sounding celestions. I give the amp the once over inside and all seems OK and plug it into one of the 15" cabs, plug in a Precision and it sounds pretty good, albeit at low volume. So my mind's made up, I'm going to build a fliptop and re-house the amps internals to have the cool (or should that be hot?) bits on display and put it all in a new cabinet, it will hopefully be a nice combo to keep that doesn't take up much storage and won't cost very much, mainly just my time. The amp is a Dynacord Imperator which manages 80watts by putting 750volts through it's pair of EL34 valves, which would normally only produce 50watts. The amp query thread is here if anyone's interested, This is what I started with, and after some careful de-soldering, chassis cutting and most importantly labelling wires, this is where I'm at. I'm planning to build something along the lines of the classic look of the exposed transformers at either end with the valves in the middle all above a housing with the controls on. I'm no electrician, but I'm not stupid either, but as long as everything is wired back to where it came from, what can go wrong. It's only 750 volts after all. 🤪 Both the amp and speaker, from quick research, seem to be early 70s so it's nice to pair them being a similar vintage. Anyway enough rambling, I just thought if I start this thread then I'll have more incentive to carry on, I'm in no hurry so this may take a while though.

great story

Teachers are as prone to prejudice as anyone. The problem is that they are in a position to influence/affect others with those prejudices. Re comments above about using the stronger hand on the fretboard, I've always understood that the stronger hand should be the one that creates the rhythm/timing. If you're right handed, try holding a solid rhythm with your left. Not easy (unless you play drums/percussion and have already trained both your hands).

Some interesting themes here. I came from an 'unmusical family' according to my parents. I struggled at school but music was a favourite lesson. I remember doing a musical aptitude test in year 9 and coming out near the top. Mr Harris had a trombone that needed a fiver deposit to secure but my folks said no. (My parents said no a lot). So the itch was always there. A life in the RN meant being very unsettled and occupied. When I left and became a copper in Plymouth I was on my beat looking in Manson's in College Avenue. Ralph sold me a Hohner Jack and the rest followed on. I thought that bass would be easier than guitar (our rhythm guitarist makes me realise that it's not the case). The point I take from this is that all we can ever do is now. Those most successful are those that apply themselves in the now. The now becomes the past with a purpose.

No wonder he asked you to play. You guys are on it!