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I went to my son’s school Christmas concert this week. His school has a very strong musical emphasis and as such has a superb music department. The concert showcases all the different departments, whether it’s a string quartet, jazz band, choir and many others. These boys are aged 8-10. Most interesting to me were the three rock bands that played. Considering how young the kids are the performances were amazing. Band 1 played Born To Be Wild, Band 2 played Rolling In The Deep (complete with expletive, which cracked me up) and Band 3 played We Are The Champions. One little lad played bass with all three - his Squier Precision looked massive on him but he played well, simple stuff but solid. Which is a great place to start. When I was 10 I was still tuning my nylon acoustic down til the strings went floppy and pretending to be Paul Simonon. I was impressed!

I started by drilling with a forstner bit to get the basic datum: Then chiselled out the excess and squared the back end: Then fitted the inserts. The centre space where there wasn't a cutaway is a bit narrower than the four original cutaways. Having said that, not the squarest or most even job but 70% of this is going to be covered by the bridge - and it's all going to be stained black with the rest of the body anyway Then a quick block-plane and sand and this is basically how it will look, albeit everything trans-black: I will now do the full sanding down to eliminate any dings and dints but can't do anything else until the super-slick UK customs and parcel machinery (literally) delivers the goods

Don't get all this excitement about musicians stopping the show. I've done it loads of times, usually with the comment, "We'll be back in about 15 minutes".

Actually that reminded me of a time a now sadly departed friend of mine used that line and continued.... "Wait is that your girlfriend?" "Yes" "No deal." Punter stormed off in a right huff!

This would be a perfect subject for a reputable guitar improver to convert to a four string for someone with a perchant for giant foam hands

I’ve almost finished this for my daughter I thought it was a 3/4 but it’s actually a full size squier it should be fine size wise The original plan was to spray the body Glittery Purple etc but she was looking at my basses the other week and said I really like that wooden one and the black one (my Warwick copy and 5 string RB) but I can’t decide which one I like best I said if I had a purple one that would be your favourite and she replied NO! so alarm bells started ringing so I had a re think so I decided I’d blend her two favourites and came up with this which I think is looking good and I hope she likes it if not I’ll keep it instead!! I forgot to take a pic of the back but it’s Natural like the front with a black cavity cover...........😀

My usual offer to anyone who wants to try out a Stomp then you are welcome to try mine. I chose, and am sticking with, the Stomp simply because I play a range of acoustic basses and need various tones for different basses and songs, the amp and cab sims are particularly useful with my Rob Allen Mouse, I can get some lovely double bass sounding tones. I play through a QSC K.12.2 so the Stomp gives me a multitude of EQ shaping possibilities but all without deviating that much from the natural sound of the basses themselves. I often play in small venues and folk clubs and can often just use the Stomp as my entire rig. Seriously the Stomp and the QSC have completely revolutionised my outlook on playing and writing with the bass. Pukka.

Another Jazz with chrome covers, this time a 2019 American Professional with daddario flats and d-tuner. Taken just now at tonight's venue in Aberdeen

This is my Ken Smith BT Custom VI that I bought from The Bass Centre in Wapping in 1994. A year later I bought a copy of The Bass Book and got a nice surprise when I saw a photo of it inside. I've spent thousands of hours playing it over the past 25 years and have enjoyed every minute. It's an amazing bass.

Lettuce - new to me. Just....wow......

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All very good, but if the OP is like me, it means you never play anything but the one instrument that is out of the case, ever. I have forgotten I owned instruments simply because they were, very protected, in their hard cases. I like guitar racks. I use the Warwick 7-guitar ones. I bought the first one back in... 2000-2002 or so, and it's still in great condition. So are the guitars. Dust is a thing, that's true, but maybe you can use it as a gauge to measure which guitars are obvious candidates to be sold on

Well, after taking already 3 times as long as it took the neck to cross the whole of the US on multiple flights and then across the Atlantic to UK, there is just a hint now that it might make the last 150 miles before Christmas. Then I am expecting 20% VAT, 15%ish Customs and, probably a £30 handling charge by Parcelforce for the privilege of them passing the payment across to HM Gov. Well come Brexit, when presumably this will be the norm for buying stuff from Europe too, then brace yourselves folks! But - it does mean that I can start the prep for finishing the body. No point in actually starting the staining, etc, because the pocket and heel may yet need modifying, but I can get it to the stage where that is ready to be done. One of the jobs is to fill those odd cutouts that are below the original Rascal bridge. Trouble is, they are going to poke out in front of the new bridge. I could use filler, but, with a stained finish that is going to show - and not in a good way. So I'm going to add some walnut inserts: I'll add a middle one too to turn the angled line into a 'feature': I'll see you in a few hours

Hx Stomp arrived yesterday. Only had 20 minutes with it so far... I don't remember the last time I was so impressed with something straight out of the box!

I did hit someone who was spitting at us in the face straight on with the headstock of my bass many years ago. Back in my early 20s I had the energy, strength, anger and ability to do that sort of stuff (as in lift a bass guitar higher than waist height). Nowadays I’d probably criticise their curtains or something equally severe.

Here is our first release which has a kind of Iggy & The Stooges vibe. Our other material mixes country-punk and a bit of a Pogues flavour too https://thechokeholds.com/soundcloud

I always thought that it was Paul playing bass on this. But Having seen the Let It Be movie recently, It was George Harrison playing the bass part on a telecaster while Macca plays the chords on an acoustic guitar. Here is the bass part as recorded on a tele. Not a bad bassline.

Absolutely! I used to be proud of myself in music school for being able to name really odd time signatures instantly, much quicker than my fellow students (I had to take pride in that really as I was crap at the rest of it's academia due to not being able to focus for long. I got bored REALLY easily.) Years later I realised that it matters not a jot what you can count, if you can verbalise it it makes much more sense. The old 'if you can say it you can play it'. If you're not reading charts then to hell with it! The music will flow better and be more organic if you're not summing up the math the whole time. I find it really interesting just listening to others in conversation. Not to what they're saying but how what they're saying is rhythmically phrased. You can get some cracking and strange groove ideas from this kind of thing, and it's all around us all the time! 👍 I realise it's this kind of thing and thinking that Frank Zappa was on to DECADES ago. 👏👏👏🤘

My cunning plan is to have this connecting my pedal board, such as it is, with the amp leaving me with the Boss between bass and board and NO LEADS to trip over! I haven't tried it yet and can envisage all sorts of things going wrong - may have to start half a beat ahead of the others to be time...

A few things on but particularly looking forward to some reggae... The Abyssinians in Brighton Sun 31 May 2020 ...as I haven’t seen Steel Pulse since June 17th 1978 thought I best catch up with them... Steel Pulse, Brighton Concord 2, May 20th 2020 ...just noticed Squarepusher is playing at the Concord 2 on the 14th May 2020 so albeit very far from reggae that’s in the bag too.

I've found that the charge lasted for two two-hour rehearsals. No noticeable change in tone or volume but very slight latency issue. If, without playing a line, you just do one sharp pop you can hear the string slap the frets a fraction before the amplified note. I don't slap and only play a few octave pops in the Specials tunes and I don't think it will be an issue live, certainly not an issue with my normal playing in rehearsal. Works well on electric and doublebass. I'm going to gig with them tomorrow and see how it goes, I'll have a lead laying by my pedal just in case. 🙂

Not really, I do all gigs... from big functions to tiny country pubs. If anything, IEMs make even more sense on small gigs where the rooms are just generally not geared up to be sound friendly at all. The concept is this - make as little noise as you can on stage. This means there is less to bleed into the vocal mics. The biggest issues you get with bands is that the cymbals tend to bleed into the vocal mics... there's only so much you can do about that... but it doesn't help if there guitar and bass flooding through those mics too. All this does is mess up the mix out front and dramatically increase the change of feedback. Then everybody complains that they can't hear. They tend to turn up... which makes the problems worse. People slowly accept that... So out come the wedges.... which helps to a certain extent... but adds more sources of noise to the stage. That bounces around, again messing up the mix but also, bounces back into the open mics... and again... increases the chance of feedback. So in short, no wedges and IEMs instead, means less sound bouncing around. Electric kit reduces stage volumes and also the number of open mics. Of course not everybody wants to go down the electric kit, so the other option is small kit (my drummer uses a 16 inch kick) and dark cymbals. Bass and drums wise (and vocals for that matter) - if you are using IEMs, you don't need to hear your backline. So run it really low and put it through the PA and let that do the work. In fact, if you can't hear your backline, theres no point in having it... consider a modeller so you can have a silent stage altogether. All of this gives you less things to mess up the front of sound... and gives a better spread of sound... so no more hot spots where if you stand on axis with a guitar cab you are deafened by guitar... yet if you take 2 steps to the side you can't hear it. Micing up the drums for IEM use really isn't an issue. As I say above, it's a kick drum mic and a overhead. They don't even need to be sent out front... they could be sent to just your IEMs. Also, IEMs dont work like ear plugs. With a decent set of IEMs it's like having your fingers in your ears. The way to think of how they should work is like this - if you want to hear it, you have to put it into the desk and send it to your IEMs. If you don't you won't hear it. Therefore, if you want to hear the audience... point a mic at them that you feed into your monitor feed. Of course, you don't put that through the front of house speakers... but in your IEMs it gives you a sense of the room back... if thats what you want.

Not all flats are the same, not all rounds are the same, some flats give you zing, some rounds give you no zing after 15seconds of airing.

I can just imagine it. A stare that said "Just try doing that again. Please." ...along with Rollins.

Nah.

I've bought all three of your books so far.I have loved each of them in equal measure. I am sure That I will buy the new one when it comes out too!

My stock response. "Can I have a go on your guitar?" "Only if I can have a go on your girlfriend." Does the trick.

I've gigged loads for the last 20 years and very rarely seen lockable storage big enough for a bass within a dressing room, if ever actually

Side 1 of Tubular Bells, not that I've learnt it.

My 1971 Fender precision bass was bought in 1981 and I have the receipt. It is however worth ten times what I paid for it. Which figure would you pay out on?

What if he doesn't want to be called 'So'?

I'll be getting my order in for the follow up. 1st one was a great read and the 2nd sounds like its gonna be just as much fun. Dave

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22 years ago already... no alarms, no surprises, just a classic album with this beautiful composition on it. Radiohead - Exit Music (For a Film) | Bass Transcription | Colin Greenwood

These days, you have your Helices, Kempers and various others that give you a very very good sound, straight from guitar to desk. Recording guitars have never been easier. Kids today don't know how good they have it, even if the better units are definitely pricey. Today I was tidying up and found my old Behringer V-Amp2. I'm pretty sure I bought mine in 2001... it's nearly 20 years old! But it's not half bad. I was surprised to still like some of the amplifier simulations it's got as much as I remembered. There's a newer version out but I'm not sure how much better it'll be. I remember struggling a lot to get a half decent sound from electric guitars into my old multitrack recordings. I was either living in student dorms or in flats, sharing, and cranking up an electric guitar just wasn't something I could often do at home. Especially if you tend to get inspired at 2-3am like I did. My first attempt to address this was with a Zoom 2020. They cost £229 in 1994. I still remember that because it was a LOT of money for me in those days. The headphone out claimed to have speaker emulation. It was dire. Better than nothing, but dire. I then managed to get a Boss GX700. It was over £400, a little rack unit. This one actually didn't sound bad. It had all the effects I could ever want and then some, you could route them in different ways, combine them, do all kinds of stuff. It was a great orange box of wonders, especially in 1997. Still expensive, but there wasn't much that was any better that was affordable to little people like me. Then, over the next few years, something changed. First it was Line6, I think. The mighty POD. It made my GX700 sound pretty prehistorical, emulation-wise, although as an FX unit the GX700 remained much better and I would still be happy to use one as the effects were... well, typical Boss: most may never be the best of the best, but they do the job very adequately. Then came the Johnson J-Station, the Behringer V-Amp, a bit later Vox brought out the ToneLab... Zoom started including much improved emulations in any FX unit... and I lost track. I lost track because I found one unit that I was pretty happy with for my purposes. I tried everything that I could, and at one point I even owned simultaneously the J-Station, Vox ToneLab, V-Amp and a borrowed POD. The J-Station was pretty cool. It had a certain quality that the others didn't. It felt more realistic, but I also felt it was a bit muddy. So, realistic as in "real mic'd amps, just not mic'd very well". Still... it took me a while to sell it because I felt it was special and some of its models were very good. The ToneLab was not very good. Beautiful unit, many physical knobs, which were welcome, but... nah. I preferred the POD and the V-Amp. And after a bit of a-B comparisons, I settled on the V-Amp. The fact that it was the cheapest unit was a happy coincidence. Behringer has been criticised, rightfully, for copying other manufacturers' designs left and right, however, their V-Amp was a pretty cool unit that showed a degree of innovation. Soundwise they were as good or better than anything else you could buy those days. I actually liked them better. They also came up with a user interface that made a lot more sense and was friendlier than anything else anybody else was doing at the time. Lots of physical knobs,easy and intuitive to edit... and LEDS THAT ALLOWED YOU TO SEE WHAT EACH KNOB WAS SET AT. At last! Someone got it!!! That feature alone was enough to make me want to keep the V-Amp over its competitors. It was funny when Line6 brought out their "pocket POD" which also used LEDs in the same way, soon after. So Behringer being copied? I ended up with rack units for both the guitar and bass V-Amp2 which I used in my little home "studio". Pretty versatile, good sounding and cheap units. Then I stopped recording, sold most things, and kept the V-Amp2. It needed a little battery to make it work properly again [*] but here it is... and it sounds great. I'm about to move house and I was planning to set up something to do some recording in the new place, so I'm tidying up, getting rid off things I don't use anymore etc. But this little V-Amp is going to be back in business again [*] There is an internal battery, much like the ones in PCs, which is not described in the manual. When it gets old, it resets the unit, it loses the presets, and frankly it sounds pretty bad. I remember seeing comments about these things malfunctioning and sounding horrible and people just dumping them. Then I found out about the battery and I managed to tell about it at least to another two people who were about to dump theirs, and a battery change is all they needed. Crazy. How could they forget something like that in their manual?

So long as you've been playing them for a while in rehearsals you should be fine. I made the mistake of changing my fretless to flats a week before a gig and they hadn't settled in, nor had I got used to a totally different feel, so the numbers I used it on were rubbish. I persevered though and haven't taken them off in over ten years.

With a complete and sincere lack of sarcasm or smart-arsedness, the simple answer is that you need to get rid of the flats! Horrible things🤮

With an SS amp the rated impedance is minimum, with valve it's maximum. Using a 2.67 ohm load with a valve amp you'd probably be better off with the 4 ohm tap, but you're not going to have a problem with the 2 ohm tap. Using an 8 ohm load on the 2 ohm tap would be a different story.

I managed to convince the band to use IEM’s and everyone loves them, we play in small pubs and it has lowered our stage volume and we can all hear each other . We use KZ10 pros at £27 each and I have recently ordered some customs from my experience

Great communications, a lovely product at a good price, good packaging - A1 service! thanks Gareth.

Purchased a Kiogon wiring loom from Gareth - nice & straightforward transaction - thanks Gareth