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On the 22nd December 1989, I narrowly scraped into the 80s with my first live performance. It was a less than impressive slot as the band that played the Sixth Form Pantomime in our school production of Cinderella... I'm not sure if she'd have wanted her shoe back after that racket! Fast forward through thirty years and I've definitely had a lot of fun sharing some great, and occasionally not so great stages, with some amazing friends, meeting many of my best mates and generally having a blast. Not sure if I have another thirty years in me but I guess the fun is in the finding out. And 2020 is already looking pretty good for the first few months. Rock on! *Fun fact but the top 3 photos were the same bass, a Fender Precision MIJ 57RI from 1989 that lasted until I went online and discovered GAS. The bottom right photo is a Fender Precision MIJ 57RI from 2016 that shows how life sometimes goes full circle!

'....But apart from forgetting to put a truss rod in the Esquire and the intrinsic tuning stability problems caused by the Strat's trem system design, and taking into account the fundamental redesign of the pickup and significant changes to the body shape of the Precision between '51 and '57..... Leo got it right first time'

Purple knobs for Xmas.... early delivery from Santa. Easy to fit. Look great. 😈

Played a blinder at the Jenny Lind in Hastings. In 7 years that was the best gig my band have played, masses of love from the punters, lots to the bar from punters too apparently. One of the regulars came up afterwards and said, "That was incredible, you guys are just surgical, in a really good way". The bar played all of Osaka Monaurail's Riptide album while we setup. If you aren't up on your Japanese funk, let's just say something really serious to live up to.... Apparently we did and then some. Still buzzing 🤩🤩🤩

How about "Is It Good For Metal?" or "My Favourite Waste Of TIM" or "Proud To Be A Clown Whore"..?

We used to have some Polo shirts and we did a limited run of T shirts too - however the place that did the embroidery and drop shipping went bust. I looked for another company that could make and ship for a reasonable cost but never found anywhere. Add to that the fact that some went missing which I had to chase, people didn't always like the fit, people preferred a different logo etc etc... all quite a mission at the end of the day. There was zero profit, too. If you've got a permanent marker and a plain T shirt then help yourself, you have my permission

When I got divorced the judge said my ex-wife was entitled to 20% of my earnings from music. I replied "so how much will she owe me?"

Me too. I've always been a fat b@stard.

Well I've taken the plunge and ordered the cheapest 6 string available on the planet. 😂 I'd previously dismissed it as being "too cheap" and assumed it would be just a useless plank, but then I read the reviews on Thomann, and watched a few videos on YouTube, and this thing just seems too good to be true. (Seriously! Check out the reviews for yourselves) So I ended up ordering it as much out of curiosity as anything else. A brand new 6 string bass, which (if the dozens of reviews are to be believed) is not only useable, but actually quite good. Light weight (for a 6 anyway), with a fast neck, good build quality, decent tones, and extremely playable. For....... Are you ready for this?......... Are you sitting down?.......... £135!!!!!! 😱 How is that even possible? I mean, granted it's ugly, but if this thing even gives me an idea about playing a six string at that price I'll be happy. I look forward to reviewing this one when it arrives. https://m.thomann.de/intl/harley_benton_b_650_black_progressive_series.htm?i11l=en_GB%3ABG.EUR%3ABGN

Just use your Smith.

Too right you don't! I've got bags of Grateful Dudes T shirts upstairs getting in the way of my basses!

I still have my polo shirt and orange/grey t shirt. I also had the black/grey baseball shirt, but I wore it into the ground; I miss it. That bass has gone too.

‘Closet’ classic! There were some rickenbacker designs at one stage. They’ll be where the big money lies!

Just pulled off. Really easy Dave 👍🏻 I just put a pic under them when I screwed them on so the push function still works. Took 5 minutes.

I’ll stick my old knacker of a Ripper here, just because!

This wasn't really planned but here's any early Christmas present to myself. Super J 5 3X Passive. First time ive got my hands on a Super Series Dingwall and im really rather happy it with it!

File it under Places We Won’t Play I hate these types of venue, not their fault as often nothing they can do about it but it just makes gigging that touch harder and less enjoyable.

I've used a couple of types, mostly just the Schaller ones, for years. But then I realised that the humble rubber washer was doing the job better for me, actually. The Schaller ones sometimes they'd work out loose. Not a big deal if you check regularly, but between that and the rattle etc... I was not a huge fan. The rubber washers are quick to fit and work very very very well.

I had to put up my refreshed picture with the Elf addition and added wall art to match

My understanding is that if you measure from the nut to the 12th fret and double it, the result is your scale length. On a related topic, I have read that it is good practice to only have the silk wrapped around the tuning peg and that having the thick part of the string wrapped around the peg can cause the string to break. In the case of fender style headstocks on 34 inch scale basses it seems that most long scale strings are too long, meaning the thick part of the string wraps around the post. Do people use medium scale length strings or are these too short? Not meaning to hijack, I thought this was relevant here Happy Christmas!!

That's unfair, some rickenbackers sound ok!

So Mark Gooday and Dan Lakin have been doing some basses together it seems... they look nice, sort of D.Lakin:Lakland vibes.

Hey guys picked up a '67 bassmaster mark II and man am I impressed with this thing! It was just re cap'd, re tubed and the output transformer was re built. Everything is original (except for the capacitors). For a 90 watt amp this thing is loud as hell and when you patch the 2 channels together you can get some pretty awesome overdriven tube distortion. Anyways here's some pics of the bad boy.

They'd still be arguing what to have on the shirt.

Probably a Talkbasser being ironic

And channelling that Ed Sheeran look too 🙂

I saw someone in New York with one of these on 🙂

Here you go, Dave, £15.00 each and a couple quid for the post.

I like the look of the silver & black Jaguar lookalike - would match my Ashdown RM gear nicely.

Pushing into them with a 410 and then saying "thanks" usually does the trick. Like most bully-boys - and geese for some reason - they back down when it`s taken straight to them.

Nah - not my opinion it's muddy (which I equate to being mushy and inarticulate) that was a verbatim viewpoint shared by a couple of TBers, whose comments seemed to be interesting (to me anyway) in that they were vaguely based on "the science". I simply relayed them warts and all. My point / experience is that the low B notes don't cut through in the mix with my Yammy P or PJ but that they definitely do on solo'd bridge J. As you said earlier this works for me. I'm merely sharing this and putting it up for debate, in case it's of use to any fellow BCers. This is NOT something EQ can easily solve IMO, 3 band or otherwise. But the right pups does sound like a solution here. And Nordy P5s, mentioned earlier, strike me as being ones that could work well given my very positive experience with Nord Big Singles on my Ibby SR Premiums I'd need to record the band playing that number live for you to hear what I mean by "meaty crunch" but any such recording would be 3rd hand by definition, after it's been through the limitations of my recording gear and your play back, and given that my videocam is being passed onto one of my offspring for Xmas could be a while...

I'd have a basschat T shirt if one ever was made. I've even got an idea for the wording: "Basschat. It's like Guitarchat, but better."

Why, oh why do we get just another round of fenders. Sorry to say that I expected something more and novel. Great amps should equal great and original design in basses, too.

This, people always mistake a thick and supporting tone as ‘muddy’. I’ve never owned a ‘muddy’ Precision, and the B on my Fender P5 is great. Each to their own huh Si

Yes I'd go for short scale P body with PJ pick-ups.

Alpher Mako Elite 5 Alpher Mako Elite 4 Covers all basses😂

Anywhere that the band feels comfortable and the engineer understands what you want without it needing to be spelled out.

The Royal Horseguards Hotel, near Northumberland Avenue. Nowhere to legallly park, load in down a narrow set of concrete stairs into the basement, through the kitchen (whilst they were doing a live table service) dodging portuguese waiters, up 2 floors in a cranky goods lift with those slide-across doors (also being used for the food service) and into the venue. Load out much easier, the Liberal Club which also forms part of the building had closed so we were allowed to load out down the huge front staircase.

most gigs

It will be good value if you focus on why you bought it. Forget any short-comings or dislikes, just learn how playing a 6 string bass works and the adjustments you have to make to your technique and open the door to a whole new area of playing . With that in mind I'm sure this will be a great bass for you. And even on a new bass, a good set up will make it play even better.

My 'packages' has been as follows Hondo II Precision copy Aria SB600 & Hondo II (which I had ripped the frets out of by now) Aria SB600 and Wal Custom Fretless four string Wal Custom Fretless Wal Custom Fretless and Washburn Status copy Wal Custom Fretless Wal Custom Fretless and Status Energy 6 string Wal Custom Fretless and Status Energy 5 string (swapped on here) Wal Custom Fretless Wal Custom Fretless and Harley Benton 7 string Wal Custom Fretless, Harley Benton 7 string and Harley Benton acoustic bass The truth is, however, that, since buying the Wal in 1986, everything else has been a toy that I have played with to 'try' something rather than contributing anything substantive to my 'arsenal'. The Wal has been 'the' bass for 33 years and I have no intention of changing it. My only 'GAS' is for a decent 5-string fretted bass. A Wal would be perfect but is financially unjustifiable for me. I can do almost anything on the fretless and the only thing I cannot do is get a decent slap or tapping sound and the truth is that, whilst I see the players mastering these techniques and think I should deal with them, once I am past the wow factor, I actually don't like much of the music played using those techniques. There are loads of recordings I have done with the Wal in loads of different genres and people only know it is a fretless if they are told or if I consciously whip out the 'mwah' for a moment.

My weight did go up in my 30s but having cancer made me look at my life and get myself back in shape. I weigh the same at nearly 47 as I did at 22.

For me, it’s never been as good as it is now. I currently own: 1. Dingwall Super PJ5 2. Dingwall Super P5 3. Wingbass PJ Custom 5 4. Sandberg Electra VS4 5. MTD Kingston Super 5 I’m looking to sell the MTD and, if all goes to plan, order a Dingwall Super J in the new year. Then I’ll have reached terminal velocity as far as my bass collection goes!

Proof, if it were needed, that standing with your legs apart instantly makes you cooler.

I started giving this some thought, then realised I don't really care and it’s none of my business. Here’s Tom with the weather.

Oh stinky poo, it's not me is it? 😳 😄