Leaderboard

Right, so.. songs. Apologies for the length / unnecessary detail, but I need to get it out of my system. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / With a Little Help from My Friends An absolute blast to play, and hell of an opener, with Billy (show anchor) and the Auf Wiedersehen Pet cast. I played these on the Limelight P. Flats, pick, palm mute, and the bright switch on my otherwise completely flat HB R-400 - the tone was spot-on. We spent a bit of time on this earlier in the week to refine the brass parts 'cos they weren't quite right initially. 'With a Little Help...' is in a different key, so the transition between the two isn't quite as per the record. We also rehearsed a dead stop in the middle of the song ('..turn out the light.') at which point the entire Arena went dark for a few seconds, before coming back in on a build-up.. while still dark. If you didn't know where your next note was, you'd never find it in the dark, so we had to pre-empt it. Missed it at the first show so had to guess I was at the right place on the neck. Thank bejesus I was right, otherwise it could have been.. 'jazzy'. Jimmy N. is very focussed on what he wants to hear, so we spent a lot of time tweaking the arrangements on his tunes. All for the better, though. Constant Craving Jill Halfpenny sang this wonderfully. It's a song I was aware of, but hadn't listened to very closely. I assumed it was a three-chord R5 fest. I was wrong. It's quite an odd arrangement, with a specific lilt. We worked hard on the dynamic between verse and chorus otherwise it could have felt a bit linear in a big hall. It worked well, and we had a fantastic guest accordionist to help us out. Got My Mojo Woking Still on the P with flats - we didn't sweat too much over the arrangement for this. We just let it do what it wants to do. Such a good groove, and the years of playing tunes like this with Lonnie D's son paid off. It sounded immense with the brass, harp, Alan Clark's rollicking piano and big BV's. So much fun. Ain't No Doubt Jesus H. Christ. At least they didn't change the key. It's a great song, but I'm sure Guy Pratt wrote this deliberately to give lesser bass players anxiety attacks. I spent hours on this, thinking.. 'that's it. I've nailed(sic) it' only to go back for another listen a few days later and realised I've misheard it somewhere. I guess it's good to be challenged. And it was a challenge. First thing.. effects or no? It sounds like an octave thingy on there, at least on old live clips. In the end, I was paranoid about tracking etc. (I don't know enough about effects to rely on them with any confidence) so I did without, and relied on the big fat burp of the bridge humbucker on my Maruszczyk. Incredible for a passive bass. Sounded fine. Second thing... the section that starts 'There won't be somebody else, I love you...'. What the heck is going on there? How do even begin to play it? I don't have a Jazz with a neck like a pencil! I just had to work at it, more than I've worked on any bass park ever before. Provided the song is at the proper tempo or thereabouts, I'll be fine. The minute it starts to creep, I'm screwed. Third thing... Jimmy thought it would be good to start the song off with.. the bass. At the octave. He'd say 'it all started with a bass riff!' at which point Alan would count Ray & I in, and I'd play the into riff an octave up. I never go up there if I can help it, but since he asked... Fourth thing... the Director wanted to capture me playing the intro. Which meant that I had to turn away from the MD and the drummer to face a camera to my left, whilst listening for Jimmy's cue, looking over my right shoulder to watch for the MD's count, and making sure I play a bass part in time.. whilst not looking at what I'm playing. Ohhh... kay. ..it was fine. ha ha. Going Back The Carole King classic, arranged very ethereally, with a beautiful vocal, dry ice and a dance routine in the middle. Gorgeous, and didn't need much work other than.. what notes should we not play..? Flashdance... What a Feeling Another song I know, but hadn't paid much attention to. It's fab. We did it as the record - I copped the bass synth part, and didn't worry about the lack of a low B. Loads of octave pops on the Jake, all the knobs wide-open. At one point before rehearsals it was suggested I could play four on the floor roots to drive it along, but I took the synth part at the rehearsal, and it was fine. There was quite an industrial 'northern' dance troupe sequence before it, at which point the dancers throw off their overalls to reveal proper 80s fitness gear. Lorraine emerges down the walk way, and sings to roof off. It's going to look amazing on the DVD. Signed, Sealed, Delivered As the record. Back to the Limelight, leaving loads of space in the bass part. I really worked hard not to overplay. This really swang with the brass. Owner of a Lonely Heart Like Ain't No Doubt, I knew this was going to be a bit of a challenge 'cos Trevor Horn was singing it, and a ) he produced the original, b ) he plays the bass on it at his own gigs and c ) the arrangement is absolutely crackers. We had to get it right 'cos our time without Trevor pre-show was going to be minimal. It was agreed that the samples would be triggered by Pete (keys #2). Unfortunately the samples provided were in the wrong key, he & I had to spend time (whenever we got any!) re-pitching them, and putting them back into the sample trigger (see my post elsewhere on BC 'Can anyone help me with this Akai thingy??'). A bit of trial-and-error, but we got there. The middle breakdown - with the offbeat accents - was a challenge, but it came together towards the end of rehearsals. It's a great song to play (Maruszczyk wide open, w/pick), and one of the only songs I know where the chorus is softer than the verse. Let's Work Together Like 'Mojo', this basically sorted itself out. Great fun. Midnight Train to Georgia Bit of a key change on this one, so I couldn't play the original line exactly. Got close, though, and it sounded great with the brass and BVs. We had to time the ending of it to coincide with the punchline of a sketch, so it was all eyes on the stage & MD. Somebody to Love Joe McElderry, man. What a voice. We did this as per his own abridged arrangement, which misses out the middle eight. Again, we had to rehearse this without him so it had to be spot-on for the production rehearsal... which it was. The intro of him, piano and BVs was gorgeous, and it sounded massive when it kicked in. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) As the original recording, and an absolute blast of drums and sprangy guitars. Playing root notes has never been so much fun, and that key change part-way through. Wonderful. Again, Limelight, flats, pick, palm-muting and bright switch. Run For Home The traditional show-closer, and contender for Geordie national anthem... we can play this with our eyes closed. Everyone joins us on stage for a singalong. ...and that's it. Two shows, each pushing four hours each(!), 14,000 punters, 200+ cast and crew, a maze of tech, logistics and choreography, hard-as-nails stage management.. and no notable problems. Apart from Johnny Vegas going SERIOUSLY off-piste in the matinee. ha ha. Back to real life now.

Yeah.. you're talking to the king of root-fifth (at least the king of it in my street... maybe) so when it was mentioned I did raise an eyebrow. In fact, I tweeted this earlier today and got a reply: https://twitter.com/jollybeggars/status/1231880713080889344

For those of you who have just joined the thread, here is a quick summary of the story so far: "I really don't like Aja. It's crap." "No it's not." "Yes it is." "No it's not." "Yes it is." "No it's not." "Yes it is." "No it's not." "Yes it is." "No it's not." "Yes it is." "No it's not. Steely Dan are brilliant." "No they aren't." "Yes they are." "No they aren't." "Yes they are." "No they aren't." "Yes they are." "No they aren't." "Yes they are." "No they aren't." "Yes they are." (cont'd p.94)

Here's a clip from rehearsals of the show opener...

Jazz East at The Alex in Felixstowe. A band called Q3 which normally features Tiago Coimbra on bass. Tiago has played with Spontaneous and Hiromi’s Explosion Trio. He has studied with Oscar Stagnaro, Anthony Vitti, Bruce Gertz, Matthew Garrison, Abraham Laboriel, Walter Beasley, Ed Tomassi and Kenwood Dennard and works with various bands including the Gavin Harrison and 05Ric Band, soul singer Myles Sanko and Resolution 88. I got one rehearsal in with the band and the gig was fairly together so I got a buzz out of that. it was mostly original material and almost all altered chords - literally no II-V-Is or cycles of fifths to be seen. I just held on for the ride. Got some positive feedback from three bass players in the audience so that was nice too. I asked not to solo as I think the material was too hard for me and I would have screwed it up but they 'forced' me to do one on Michael Brecker's 'Midnight Voyage'. Nobody laughed. I hate it when they laugh.

I've been having a bit of fun with a logo for the front of this cab, but first let me explain how the name Rubis came about. When I began my first guitar build a few years ago now, our two kids (now teenagers) were just toddlers really, and while they were 'helping' one day I said that we'd have to think of a name for our guitar company, and without hesitation the reply was Rubis…….their names are Ruby and Lewis, and so it seemed a perfectly sensible choice. So I was looking at the Ampeg script on the front of the B15 cabs and thought I could play around with it. I got one of these on Ebay, they're made of plastic and perfect for messing with I then began chopping and filing to try to make it say Rubis. The only problem I had was making a convincing letter 's'. I tried cutting a little sliver of the chrome effect finish to fill in a gap that shouldn't be there, but it didn't look right. So in the end, we decided to leave the repair out, it looks neater without it, not perfect, but better.

I cut mine, but always bend the string and cut just after the bend. I seem to remember watching some video on YT that advised to do it this way to avoid the string going dead - something to do with stopping the core from slipping IIRC.

So after playing Fender basses for 40-odd years I decided to give my back a rest and look for something lighter. After months of waiting, a Yamaha RBX-A2 came up on eBay which I bought and loved, then a second really tatty one came up which I got for £135. I don't have much guitar tweaking experience beyond the odd pickup swap, but on the basis that I had little to lose I decided to have a tinker. This poor bass was quite badly abused although the neck only had 2 dents which I drop filled with Superglue. I filled a much bigger ding on the body edge with epoxy putty. Then I decided to try vinyl wrapping it with a carbon fibre look. I’d never done that before and I’m pleased how it came out, although how long it will last is anyone’s guess. Has anyone else vinyl wrapped a bass? The Yamaha is flat topped which makes it easier, I can’t imagine how you’d wrap a curvy Fender. I couldn’t avoid the odd tiny crease at the edges around the horns, so I covered the edges with car pinstriping tape, which seems to work well and should help to stop the edges lifting. Photos attached. For a £135 bass I don’t think it looks bad, and it plays and sounds great. If anyone’s interested I’ll report back in a few weeks, after a few pub gigs, as to how its bearing up.

So here she is, my creation: an upright bass made from a wheelbarrow (for ultimate portability!) - they said I was mad! This instrument when finished will have a 43" scale length and will wear weedwacker (rockabilly) strings. Note about this pic: This is not final positioning of the head-stock, just clamped to get a rough idea. Full album is available here for your perusal: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jQTKj1hzPv8G117XA

Music was the only thing I was ever really any good at. It was all I really wanted to do, I did A levels intending to be a vet, but my heart wasn’t in it though. Gigs just took over. Then I started teaching. Then 8 years ago I decided I wanted to teach music at a higher level, and get better as a musician, so I auditioned for ICMP and got a place on their BMus, which lead to me then going on to do a masters, now a PhD.

And any of you with a plant based dietary preference would have been delighted with the grub the year I went - so never fear. I have booked myself out that day, no gigs - just bass, good company and good scram.

When I started playing guitar aged 16 I wanted a Fender Jaguar, probably because of Kurt Cobain, Brian Molko and John Frusciante. Then I took to playing bass and forgot about them, until Fender released the bass version in 2006, but I couldn't afford one at the time. And I didn't really like the red with matching headstock which was the only one I ever saw come up for sale. Early last year I hunted down an Olympic white 2015 US version, and it's been my favourite bass since. This week I saw a MIJ version for sale, I had to have it, and I picked it up today! 2008, never giggled, in great condition. Now I have twins, with the added benefit of being able to choose between the P and the J sound!

IME even trying to make a full-time living out of music is completely and utterly incompatible with having a traditional job. It's no wonder that pretty much the first step in The KLF's "The Manual" on how to have a hit record is to give up your day job. It might have been written slightly tongue-in-cheek but there's more than a grain of truth in what they say. It's not enough to be a good musician or songwriter, what sets those who are successful apart from those who are not, is the sheer amount of hard work they put in to the the business side of things. In order to do that you need both the time and energy (as well as the understanding why it is important) and generally speaking most day jobs will completely get in the way of this. And it may be that you need to be in the right place at the right time, but you do that by making sure you are able to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, when the right place and time come along your are there and not at your day job (or too knackered to be there because of it).

Black Friday.

It was bloody freezing. So we all wrapped up for the production rehearsals, and it was bloody boiling 😄

To pedantic, opinionated I can't actually grasp the subjectivity/objectivity dichotomy hell in a pointless handcart, that's where its going.

I've shared a room with you when we went to the London Bass Show a few years back - I certainly won't be anywhere near the vicinity when you have a turn out!

Wakey wakey mate. We need an update 😀.

this looks interesting a tune bass missing tuss cover,I was tempted to buy it but something else has come up. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bass-guitar-used/193353235442

I cut mine, about 2" beyond the tuning post. Gives 2 or 3 turns. Maybe Martin's point was that the windings might undo a little if you cut the strings. I've seen that written, but it's never happened to me.

Hey there, I’m not a new member (I joined in 2014) but I haven’t signed in for 6 years! Not sure if I introduced myself back then, so doing so now! 🙂 I’ve been playing bass for almost 40 years, never really aligning myself with any particular genre. I have very eclectic taste and draw on this to create original music born out of improvisation, mostly using solo bass and technology. Current gear comprises: Basses: Rickenbacker 4003, Anaconda Crusher CX5, Squier VI (Classic Vibe), GoldTone MicroBass and 3 x franken-basses I’ve built from parts - (a fretted jazz bass, fretless jazz bass and a P bass). Amplification: Ashdown ABM500 EVOIII with 4x10” (CURRENTLY FOR SALE!), Ampeg BA110. Tech: MacBook Pro running Ableton Live, Amplitube running various Ampeg amps and FX, Jam Origin Midi Guitar & Midi Bass, Absynth5 and other soft-synths, misc. live looping software, Behringer FCB1010 foot controller, iPad running TouchAble, Zoom B3, Behringer Ultra Vibrato (cheapo but love this pedal!), HOF reverb. Looking forward to chatting! Russ

I had a nervous breakdown around 2003, and my wife suggested I didn’t go back and made teaching and performing the ‘job’ still doing it today. I teach in 5 schools, with a healthy number of private students, and I play in 3 bands- 1 original recording band, a tribute, and a covers band. as well as doing dep work where needed

Cheers @Reggaebass @Powertripper where are you based? There may be some kindly folk near you who will either have a build going to watch or can help with a build. My first build I went massively in the deep end and just did it, and that was a graphite neck on a nice USA alder body! Honestly I sat in wait for a body on eBay, gumtree, Facebook that spoke to me, got it in and started to work! I’ve refurbed cracked bodies (got one for postage only!) refinished others. What can be good are people who have tried to take on a project and got bored, then you can jump in and finish their work off. Kiogon is good, but I wanted to solder, you can practice on any old thing just soldering to see what works to get skills up so that when you really need to do it, it’s a breeze - I like the smell of solder. I think just have a clear goal in mind - if you want a P, do a P and pop things together, that’s what I did a couple of. Then I routed a jazz bass to fit Rickenbacker pick ups in once I got more confident. Tried wood staining and refinishing and relicing, I now have a blank P body bass where I can decide my own pick up placement, and will eventually make my own shape from wood. Good tools are a must and can be bought second hand some of them. I recommend a Pillar drill decent ones for about £100 can be got, it’s a godsend especially for drilling holes in a neck, FET some callipers for measuring, helps with neck pocket work. A dremel is not a bad tool for various things. Inhave sold a couple bitsa’s for cost price (not including my time) but most things I did as I wanted a specific sound, electronics hardware combo, but scour adverts for bits and bobs and it will come. for example on eBay there is a decent Fender Jap Jazz body for about 165, pop a neck - very good bass. There are also cheaper bodies to do more messing about with. There are mine, the graphite neck bitsa was my first, honestly it’s not meant as a self promotion pat on my back, but I am happy to talk about any part of what I did, you can pm me, or talk on here no bother. The Build thread is invaluable for tips and you have guys like @Jabba_the_gut and @Andyjr1515who are phenomenal actual builders

If I had badly cut nuts I'd call an ambulance!

Oh, sorry - another post to sing the praises of the crew, many of which I know well. Some of these guys started last Sunday, and have pulled colossal shifts since. They're so committed, but face it all with humour and focus. I feel like a bit of a fraud prancing about with a bass complaining 'cos it's a bit cold. By the time I'd packed my bits up at the end of the night (30 minutes), half the rig and staging had already been struck. It's an incredible thing to watch.

Actually pretty good - two dep gigs back to back with a Gypsy-Jazz outfit. Fast tunes and I'm a bit out of practice but managed to keep it all together. All acoustic (no amps etc) = lovely to play and everyone has to listen properly to each other.

Aside from the quality of the photos one of things I have really enjoyed about this diary is the humility and self-deprocating humour with which you have written it. No swagger or boast for a gig that, I'd wager, most of us would give our right hands to play ( ?). Which is probably why you got it. Absolutely well done (but well deserved).

When I moved to France, way 'back then', I gave up my IT job in the UK, and was immediately snapped up by a touring band as a drummer. I did this, full time, for a couple of years, then continued with a tech job in a music shop, before marrying and buying a house.I moved back into IT, but continued depping, or functions etc. most week-ends. It was never the music that really paid the bills; just a bit of 'beurre dans les épinards' as they say. In total, I'd say that I've probably maybe broken even between what I've paid, over the decades, in instruments, amps, PA's, hefty transport an' all, and my income from playing. Not good enough to hit 'the big time', and certainly lacking in naked greed and opportunism. No regrets; it's been a Good Life.

yep, I will admit that it went back to Thomann (and back to Bugera) for a new main power board, as it was cutting out occasionally at high input levels but they fixed under warranty without quibble and it has been faultless since. I use mine on an upright bass with a K&K rockabilly pickup and preamp setup, previously through a Hartke 410 hydrive but now mainly through an elbee 210. it moves some serious air!

Unless the strings come with instructions to not cut I always trim them down to about 13cm,, which allows for approx 3 winds.

I'm informed that only old people turn their phones sideways 🙂 Great playing - you should be very proud of yourself. Though as you play bass not lead guitar, and you're from the North not London, I expect you to just be well-chuffed 😉

I was at Cory Wong in Bristol last night...astoundingly funky!

As a long-time user of Newtone strings, and having had several conversations with them on this subject, I can tell you that the information on the Newtone website and their string packaging is incomplete and only designed for use with instruments fitted with guitar-style machine heads with holes rather than slots for the string. 1. So if you have an instrument with machine heads where the string passes through a hole in the post, it's not a problem. You pull through as much string as you require, tune to pitch and once the string tuning has settled you can safely cut off the excess where it pokes out of the hole. This is the best way to deal with strings with this design of machine head. 2. Even so, for machine heads with slotted posts (most bass guitar designs and some "vintage" guitar machine heads) the windings slippage problem should only happen on strings with round cores that extend the full length of the string. Therefore if you are using strings with a hex core or square profile ends to the core (so long as you don't cut the strings so short that you are cutting through the round portion of the core) then cutting to length first will be fine. This is the advice that Newtone will give you if you specifically ask them about cutting their hex-core strings first before fitting. 3. With round core strings and slotted posts, the way around this problem is to bend the string at 90° first and them cut off the excess. If you are really paranoid about the windings unravelling you could do this on all your strings, but IME even if you cut first and bend afterwards the time between cutting a bending is only a few seconds and it's unlikely that the windings will de-tension all the way down to the speaking length of the string in that time, unless there is something fundamentally wrong with the construction. 4. Ideally the fewer turns of string you have around the machine head post the better tuning stability will be. The ideal amount is 2 complete turns which is enough to prevent the string slipping when tensioned to tune. I've found that 80 or 90mm past the centre of the post (depending on its diameter) is exactly right. The more string you wind around the post the longer it will take for the string to achieve tuning stability. 5. Unfortunately if you have a bass with a non-angled headstock, for those strings that don't pass under string retainers/trees, you will need more string length to get the correct break angle over the nut. This why I don't like non-angled headstocks, not only do some of the strings take longer to settle into tune, but every string that doesn't pass under a retainer requires a different amount moving to get the correct break angle. If you cut a different amount when you fit your next set of strings then you change the compliance and therefore the feel of the string. Of course string retainers add their own tuning problems.

Sorry, I thought you were looking to swap. I could do you something like this, but on a bigger rock...

Measure 5-6" past the capstan, bend the string with a 90 degree angle and then snip it leaving around an inch on the bend. I put that into the capstan, wind the remaining string around the capstan and tune to pitch. I always make sure the winds are tight and neat and push them down has far has I can on the capstan to get a better break angle at the nut. I tug the strings to break them in but only if they're hexcore. Tugging is not advised on roundcore.

I'm assuming some people cut the strings to length before winding them onto the tuners. I've always cut them after winding them, and getting them into tune.

On Fenders I find with nearly all manufacturers I have to trim the E and A strings, too long to fit all of it. Can often get all D and Gs on though. Never had any problems with trimming back a bit.

Check out this beautiful concerto on a (traditional) 3-string double bass composed by Bottesini (a double-bassist pioneer in his time and one of my heroes): https://youtu.be/QgZ_-f7pVk4

It's not that I got bored of stock Rickenbackers, but...