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As many of us have a bit of time on our hands, I thought I'd offer a chunk of Deke Leonard for your enjoyment and delectation. It's from The Twang Dynasty, his take on guitars and guitarists, and this is part of his observations on Eric Clapton. EDIT: BY PUBLIC DEMAND, SCROLL DOWN A BIT AND I'VE ADDED HIS TAKE ON JEFF BECK. The last time our paths crossed was when he kicked me out of the Royal Albert Hall. He was playing a month's residency there. He did it every February for a few years. Concert Sound were doing the PA. Again, I bumped into them at the office of Marshall Arts, and they invited me to tag along. I wasn't fussed about seeing Clapton because I thought his best days were long gone, but it'd be nice to have a night out with the boys. They left my name on the door and I got there early. It was about halfway through the residency so they'd settled into a routine and there was none of the bustle associated with a one-off gig. I gave the stage a once-over. Behind the band's gear was an arc of about fifty chairs that looked suspiciously like an orchestra set-up. The boys were hanging around the mixing desk, set up in the middle of the hall, switching things on. Except for Adrian, who was conducting a tea ceremony. All was right with the world. After some concentrated banter we settled into chat mode. We talked about the upcoming gig. They told me the show would be split into two sections. The first half would be Clapton with his band but during the second half they would be joined by a fifty-piece orchestra to perform ‘The Clapton Concerto'. A shudder ran through my soul. I am always wary when established stars decide to invade other genres. It always ends in tears. Listen, if you can stand it, to McCartney's ‘Liverpool Oratorio'. This is the man who wrote ‘Back In The USSR' – isn't that enough? What more does he have to do to prove it to himself? "How are you mixing the orchestra?" I asked Robert. All the instruments, he told me, would be individually miked-up and fed down to the basement of the Albert Hall where Tim Boyle, Concert Sound's in-house boffin, had a secondary mixing desk. Tim would sub-mix the instruments into blocks according to instrument and feed them back up to Robert on the main desk, so the whole orchestra would be on just five faders (ten cellos on a single fader – yum-flipping-yum). The doors were opened and the audience poured in. The place was soon filled with murmur, chatter and laughter. I love the mood of a hall just before a gig. The buzz of expectation that heralds great events about to take place is stimulating, even if it's somebody else's gig. I sat at the mixing desk and waited for showtime. Clapton's entrance, as you would expect, was greeted with rapturous applause. Andy Fairweather-Low counted the band in and they got down to work. Clapton was dressed in millionaire casual – Armani suit worn over a plain T-shirt, classy shoes and a diamante guitar strap. He was very good but he lacked the blazing conviction of the Yardbirds/John Mayall days. He'd gone all mobile phone, and it seemed a little incongruous to see a man dressed in a ridiculously expensive suit, singing songs of misery and deprivation. Which prompts the question – do rich men have the blues? Well, I hope to find out one day. Some chance. After a twenty minute break, the orchestra, rather self-consciously, shuffled onstage, wearing evening dress. They sat down, plugged in, made a few tuning noises and chatted amongst themselves until Clapton emerged and introduced the ‘Clapton Concerto'. I suppose it wasn't bad for what it was, but it was just as pointless as McCartney's ‘Oratorio'. It lasted, I think, for about forty minutes and I was bored senseless after ten. “I know,” I thought, “I'll go and see Tim Boyle in the basement.” Robert gave me directions and off I went. I entered the bowels of the Albert Hall. Following the directions, I ended up in a large, low-ceilinged room, directly under the auditorium. The room was dimly-lit, the only light coming from the overhead lamp above the mixing desk, where Tim sat in solitary confinement in the centre of the room. Rows and rows of supporting pillars stretched off into the darkness, and along one wall were stacks of chairs piled high. I hadn’t seen Tim for quite a while, so we had some catching up to do. I took one of the chairs, plonked it down next to him and lit a cigarette. We had plenty of time for conversation because, halfway through the residency, the sound was all sorted out and Tim had little to do but make sure it was all working. We had a ‘how the hell have you been?' conversation and then the talk turned to matters technical. Facing him were two large monitor speakers, spewing out the ‘Clapton Concerto', and a patchboard like a telephone exchange with row after row of little red lights. Each light, he told me, was an individual instrument of the orchestra. As the ‘Clapton Concerto' mercifully neared its end, Tim pointed at the patchboard. "Watch this," he said. The piece ended with a long, sustained note, held by the whole orchestra, but before the note ended, the little red lights started to go out, at first sporadically, then substantially. The sound began to thin out. "What's happening?" I said. "They're all unplugging themselves," he said, laughing. "They do it every night. They're getting ready to be first in the race to get to the bar. If Clapton ever sees or hears them do it, he'll go apeshit." "Can't they even wait until the end of the note?" I said. "I'd sack the flipping lot of them." "Which Clapton may very well do," said Tim. After it was all over, I said goodbye to Tim and went back up to the arena. The house lights were up and the crowd had gone except for a few stragglers. The boys were turning everything off. "We'll be a while," said Robert, "so why don't you go backstage and we'll see you there after we've finished." Rather than wander around the labyrinthine Albert Hall corridors, I took a short cut across the stage. I'd been provided with an ‘Access All Areas' pass so I could do that. The route from stage to dressing room at the Albert Hall is centre-stage. You go down a flight of stairs into a central hall, off which run corridors leading to the dressing rooms and the backstage bars. This central hall was sardine-packed with members of the orchestra. I picked my way through them, heading for the bar. As I passed through them, I overheard snippets of conversation. Clapton, apparently, had asked them to wait behind, because wanted to talk to them. They seemed rather concerned. While I was still in the middle of them, they suddenly fell silent as Clapton, now in civvies, walked into the central hall. He didn't look too happy. The orchestra parted like the Red Sea and he walked into the middle of them. They formed a circle around him and I found myself in the front row. Before I could excuse myself and leave, Clapton began to speak. His voice was low and full of menace. "You're supposed to be professional musicians," he said, "but you're behaving like rank amateurs. In future, anybody unplugging their instruments before the end of the set will be sacked. On the spot. No appeal. No extenuating circumstances." By now, his eyes were blazing, and I was tempted to say, "Hear, hear, Eric. Sack the flipin' lot of them." Then he suddenly noticed me. Well, I was the only one not wearing evening dress. He looked me directly in the eyes. "Who the flip are you?" he said. "My name's Deke Leonard," I said, trying to fish my Access All Areas pass out of my jacket pocket. "I'm a guest of the sound crew. They told me to come backstage and wait for them. I just happened to be here when..." "Well, will you please leave," he said, "this is private business." "Of course," I said. I didn't like to push past him into the bar so I made my way back up to the stage. As I picked my way through the orchestra, Clapton, speaking in a measured voice, tore them to shreds. I went back to the mixing desk and told the boys about the bollocking the orchestra were getting. "About time, too," said Robert. "He should sack the flipin' lot of them," said Adrian. "Too good for ’em," said Keri. After the boys had switched everything off, we all went backstage. The central hall was now deserted. There was no sign of the orchestra. Maybe Clapton had killed them? I know I would have. And I'd have told me to bugger off, too. We spent a pleasant, if somewhat raucous, hour at the bar, then we all left. I got to the stage-door at the same time as Clapton. He was deep in conversation with his tour manager (I assumed it was his tour manager because he was wearing about six backstage passes around his neck and carrying a briefcase covered in stickers). Clapton caught my eye. I shrugged and made a that's-the-way-the-cookie-crumbles gesture. He smiled faintly and nodded, before making an into-each-life-a-little-rain-must-fall gesture back.He got into his limousine and I got a tube back to Highbury & Islington. Life in microcosm. Clapton didn't kill the orchestra and he didn't sack them, but, I was later told, they never unplugged their instruments before the end of the set again. Well, it was either that or suffer a savage and sudden drop in income. That focuses, wonderfully, the mind of the jobbing musician. I haven't seen Eric since. We don't keep in touch. But I miss our little chats.

I don't own one any more but always thought Stingrays look great with the 3+1. Nice proportions.

Hi Folks, This last few months I have started dabbling in a bit of Theory nothing intense just trying to better myself, unfortunately my job doesn't permit me to rehearse for a band anymore so haven't played 'live' for a good few years, so rather than give up which I almost did....I started learning a few bits which I could never grasp before, like modes, chord tones, intervals ect….still just scratching the surface but the penny slowly starting to drop (I hope) like chord construction I never knew a chord was made up in intervals of thirds ect….I learnt my basic triad arpeggios years ago but adding the 7th, 9th, 11th ect just count up 3....I was a very late starter about 40 and after 17 years of playing these things are only just registering, took me ages to learn modes could never grasp it initially....I have tried showing or talking to a couple of muso mates but they scoff at me when I say do you know this, that or the other blah, blah, i'm finding it quite interesting but don't want to get to OTT just enough to maybe one day be able to play some interesting walking basslines, still a huge amount to learn but after not picking my Bass up for years I decided about Christmas time to give it one last bash and feel at long last i'm making some progress....good luck to all who might be in the same boat.

Crikey! I don't buy and sell a huge amount of stuff on here these days (although there was a time...), but to me it really is childishly simple: On every item I sell, I impose sale conditions. For example, for big and/or heavy items I don't do couriers. For anybody. Ever. If that makes it harder to sell the item in question then so be it. My sale, my rules. I try always to provide a link to my feedback so that potential buyers can see how I've conducted myself in previous transactions, and am more than happy to be judged by those comments. If folks don't like the conditions I set, they are welcome to look elsewhere. When buying, I'm expecting to see sale conditions for the item I'm interested in. If I want the item and am prepared to work with the sale conditions I make an offer. As has been said already, these are transactions between private individuals. Expecting commercial conditions on private sales is unrealistic. It doesn't work that way. No reason why it should. Getting all marmalade sandwich about it cuts no ice with me I'm afraid. What's hard to understand, really?

I'm sorry, I had to do it

I finally did it! Intense boredom forced me to work out the Sir Duke run. I know it's not a big deal, but I'm a R,5,R,5 guy and this has more notes in it than I would normally play in a month. My upper frets are still in shock.

Apart from fender, this

It just looks cool

Always amazes me I don't see more people playing reverends, this I my go to and it plays a dream. My main gig bass as well.

You make him sound like a fluffer! 😂

I can lend you our guitarist who seems to play ahead of the beat quite often.

This often gets cited in "worst headstock", but to me it's perfectly functional, minimalist, and sculptural

I know this is an old thread, but I did promise to post the link when Matt finally got round to doing a proper video playing his dreadnought. And here it is. As always with these things, best through headphones Assuming you do like it, remember to 'Like' it - pro & semi-pro musicians need all the help we can give them in these unusual times Thanks for looking

Well. Boss RC-1 arrived. Rusty at looping...but...I plan to do more of these.

No apology necessary. Just be careful you don't end up in the famous quotes thread for one of those. Heeheehee.

One of the interesting things about dealing with people who are experienced players but not theory friendly is that they actually do know a lot but do not know the correct labels.

A clear winner!

Black, black, maple:

Perfectly proportioned and well thought out.

Day 3 - I Missed Again

Putting a Reggae playlist together on Spotify. Currently Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey playing.

Well that escalated quickly. Good job I didn't mention the dirty knife

True, but he has a point. At least for me. Give me someone keeping a tight groove going anytime over all that show off stuff that seems to only be there to prove a point. They can all do it of course, but its knowing when to do it, and when not to do the ‘look how many notes I can play slightly out of time with the song using moire notes than my bass actuator has’ bass lines. That noise Jaco made with his bass is one of the most annoying bass tones ive ever heard. Cant listen to him for more than....just cant listen to him at all actually. Obviously just my opinion of course.

A set of Schaller BM`s will do the job nicely if you want to change the tuners. About £70 delivered from Thomman.

Loved it up until the point where he compared Alan Holdsworth to BB King and then I was like...hmmm. Steve Vai talks about Alan Holdsworth as the only player he couldn't get a fix on musically. The ONLY one. So that makes him a guitarist's guitarist I guess in Victor Wooten's context. It doesn't detract from the point Victor was making but I would chosen someone who wasn't respected and revered. Yngwie for example.

I reckon they'll need boiling for a looong time. I was thinking about it myself, but found a shop that had potatoes...

This, for the last six years, since I had her built for my birthday. She's been to every gig and every rehearsal I've played, and she's the first to hand every time.

If they came up with a medicine to treat Covid-19 that was as effective as they are it would have the side effect of putting you into suspended animation every morning for 3 hours when you wake up...

It worked for the person who told me about it. He recorded an album remotely; across a continent with a violinist. I get the impression it was quite complex music. I’m trying it in a few days time with someone I know. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I think today is my last one on Tom's African bass until I get the hardware that he has ordered from the US (and which, I suspect, may be some time coming) so tomorrow I will be gathering together the timbers. The plan is to maximise the number of pieces of timber I already have lying around and other stuff I already have at hand. The guitar will be a through neck with the same basic construction as Pete's red one: I'll make it thinner than Pete's which will make the neck heel even more unobtrusive than this one. The control chamber cover will be matching Sapele in a recess for flush fitting with magnets. Matt will be making his own humbuckers for it and I'll be using as much hardware out of my 'bits box' as I can.

For me at home it's always this little beauty - ACG Border Reiver. Light as a feather, plays like a dream, big sound and no awkward headstock to bang into stuff 🙂 Short scale too! http://

We have a winner. BBM. Here are my two - JV Squier and the Maruszczyk Jake 5 that I spec'd out to match.

Are you suggesting that I increase my collection of Andy Rogers Swifts to 3? That's almost a flock of these rare birds!

In terms of design - all of the below, for me, have real elegance and it would literally boil down to personal preference. Other than the Yammy, each is verging on iconic i.e. you know "that's a Schecter" just from the outline of the headstock. If I had to chose one, it would be the Smith. It combines form (and that is before we look at the reverse of the headstock where the quality of the craftsmanship sets it apart) with function. Little touches such as having the 3 lighter guage strings on one side to balance the weight and tension of the two heavier bottom strings reflects the attention to detail that has gone into the design of the headstock as well as the rest of the bass.

Yeah, there's a lot of unmanned services out there... and the automailers are still happening. I got a great one a few days ago letting me know about last minute get away holidays.

Not a Fender but an ACG P Type My '66 Fender P. With due apologies to all those averse to 3TB & tort

Cue lots of p bass photos..... All matter of opinion I guess, I like my 70s style bitsa: @Cuzzie is a better bass builder than I am a photographer!

This thread reads like everyone has spent too long cooped up inside!

STOP!!!! 😂

Since it arrived just over 3 years ago, unless I have any specific requirement for a high C, this is the one I always reach for whether for a rehearsal, gig, or just messing about. There's just something about it that makes me play, or lets me play, the way I want to.

No. There’s no one I’d sooner punch than Piers Morgan.

Agreed! I picked up a SB-2 last week in sonic blue and haven’t been able to put it down. Does everything I want at a great price. I’m sorely tempted by an LB-100 but gonna have to wait a while if I do get one. pic of SB-2 just for self indulgence. (Really hard to capture the colour)

Six reasons to play guitar instead of bass: Lack of any sense of rhythm. Tab too complicated, prefers things like ' G - C -D'. Weak character, lacking moral fibre. Small hands. Thinks 'advanced musical knowledge' is memorising the blues scale. Small willy.