Leaderboard

An update. I’ve been off the bass for a wee bit (just a break) and a few weeks back decided to start practising again. Once lockdown is over there’s a whole series of jams and gigs to do, so I figured it was time to start up again. I’m usually a creature of habit.. but this time I picked up the Shuker to start with. It’s the only bass I’ve played for the last few weeks. I look at other basses, but no. It’s actually better than it was. Solid, stable, more sustain and more tone. I have no idea why. It’s now officially the best bass I’ve ever played. I have even looked at the 64 Precision and thought “I should probably sell you”. I know, right?

40 years of pub gigging experience (inc 62 gigs in 2019). x1 punch up in the pub which stopped the gig (band not involved and paid in full). x1 threat of physical violence to me... by a drugged up bouncer (I packed gear back in the car and told management what I thought of their staff). x2 roll up to gig and told it was off/alternative band (despite contacting venue week before and sending posters). Loads of gigs with pants access/egress/parking (inc carrying gear hoisted above head height to get through packed dance floors etc). Countless issues with dodgy electrics/tripping and delayed starts ("Sorry lads, would you mind doing your first set at 23:00 instead of 20:00?") or playing to just the bar staff. All of the above offset with 100's (1000's) of great gigs with appreciative audiences/management, reasonable/good pay, excellent craic and dare I say; playing with like minded superb musicians! The day the negatives outweigh the positives, I stop pub gigging but for now... can we have it back please.

I think, if someone likes one of your comments, or uses one of the other amusing emojis, you get a Watt. Its kind of a measure of your popularity......or not, in my case, been here for years, hardly a flicker.

AFAIK Foxton used an Ibanez faker for the band's earliest gigs and the sessions for the first single and subsequent album. After the release of In The City the band secured an endorsement deal with Wing Music and Foxton acquired a real Ric, relegating the faker to back-up status. Foxton believed the Ric lacked low end and at one time considered having a P pick-up fitted,. In the end he simply swapped over to a Precision using it for the All Mod Cons album. The Ibanez later sold for about £12k at auction with a set-list still taped to the body, including songs which appeared on the second album The black Precision later went up for auction in 2009 and re-appeared in 2016. I cannot find the sale prices achieved.

I remember a few years ago watching one of Bruno Tauzin’s videos where he used quite a few chords, it sounds really cool 🙂

Weddings! I’ve witnessed more fights at these ‘joyous occasions’ than pubs.

For me it's more a case of which pubs are too much hassle, whether it be the clientele, the landlord/lady, load in etc. If the pub is a good one , then generally I'll enjoy the gig and consider it, worthwhile.

I've got an itch to scratch. It breaks down into several sub-itches. I want to do a scratch build I want to own a multi-scale five string bass I want the B to be 34 inch and the G 32inch I want LED side markers I've got enough Sapele left from another project to put towards a headless neck-through I have a hefty chunk of white timber to identify from a kind neighbour who's done the lockdown garage-reshuffle I've been promised a rather nice pre-amp from a kind member I've got an onboard headphone practice module with Aux-in and Phones out. Thanks Owen. I've got a test bed for pups and electronics in the form of a bass I built from a kit a couple of years ago I'm bored It's a start and being honest with myself, it could take as long as @owen's project. I welcome opinions and discussion in order to draw out my ideas. Then I can make a plan. This supersedes the idea of a "dream bass" that I previously wrote about. That one was highly impractical and employed unnecessarily exotic notions such as a white enamelled mild steel fingerboard and gold plated hardware on a gold-leaf flecked white body... I'd have had to come on stage playing it from the saddle of a snow-white unicorn for the full effect to be realised because otherwise - I am just not pretty enough to carry it off. This one is more about the sound it's going to make than how it looks.

I've sweat it out for a few days, changed my mind many a time, .......but i finally pulled the trigger, just hope they live up to hype

I've sat back and mulled this over for a couple of days. I remembered I brought some leftover basecoats home from work before lockdown as I had a Vespa engine cover to do a custom paint job on for our guitarist, so I had a few more colour options at hand. I really like that Luke Blue and I had a graphite grey and some blue, but the blue has a green pearl edge to it and the resulting mix has too much of a green/gold look to it and I fear it's a bit 'old man's Honda' for what I had in mind. The grey on it's own is OK but definitely nothing like like Luke Blue. I still like the idea of black but it is very 'safe'. So after some careful thought, red it is. 😆 I don't particularly like red basses but I've got a very nice dark red metallic here which I quite like, and the chrome, black and the maple neck should work well with it. Then whislt browsing the forum last night I re-read @Andyjr1515s thread about reducing the weight of a Harley Benton jazz as I had thought about taking some weight out of this one, not because it's heavy but because with the bigger pickup magnets, bridge and adding a great big metal control plate this bass is gaining weight. Whilst reading I saw the neck was the same as mine, and Andy stained the bass red. Hmm red, black and maple, the same as I was considering, and it looked good. So I've kind of made my mind up to go for the proper stingray look in red. That meant partially filling the precision cavity between the control plate and scratchplate. I cut some wood to fit and hammered and glued it in place, rembering to leave a 'tunnel' for the pickup wire to run though. The next day I took out the excess with a forstner bit and while I was there, drawing inspiration from Andy's thread, I took a lot out from under the scratchplate, I left a little island to support the centre of the plate. I tidied the edges with a chisel but I don't see the need to get the router out to smooth the cavity floor as I've nowhere to clamp it and holding the body between my legs while freehand routing doesn't appeal. I smoothed over the wood fillet and unnecessary screwholes with some filler and sanded down. Then gave the body another coat of primer. I realise all this making my mind up live on air so to speak must be getting boring, but I think I'm pretty much there, maybe. 😉 Here's the body after wood fillet, filling and weight reduction (the body was originally red), then in primer. A quick rub tomorrow and it'll be ready for paint.

I learned to do this a while ago. I just know that you'll like it @Reggaebass!? I can't do the singing part though... 😬

Bug Crusher board complete. Very pleased with the layout of this. Now to drill the enclosure!

-

As is playing with someone who is not a drummer but is sitting behind the kit. There have been times when I would have happily paid someone to come in.

I routed the j bridge pup in today, and lots of hand sanding. Coming together. I am thinking of doing the neck in spalted beech as well? Whether it will be strong enough i dont really know! Maybe a couple of graphite rods? Think I will go with a matte black pick guard.

If I end up stuck at home for too long, I might have start listening to music well outside my comfort zone - perhaps live Grateful Dead recordings from the late 80s and early 90s instead of the late 60s and whole of the 70s that are my usual choice.

Finished wiring in the Red 3-Leaf 3 band preamp. I just need to steal some batteries to check it works!

He must be running out of stuff to randomly stick onto his basses - this is the first time I've seen one with matching control knobs

There are lots of options for collaboration. One of our bands uses BandLab to record the songs, then iMovie for the basic video. Another has used Acapella, but it isn't as poweful. The whole service gets edited together with either Lightworks or Filmora, depending on who is doing it. This was todays, the BandLab song is from about 16mins in. No bass 😞 What is worth mentioning is the sheer time it takes to do. After all the sections are recorded, we reckon the editing, adding words to other peoples videos, trims and fades, words on songs, images if there is no video for a song, recheck etc etc, takes 2 of us betwen 7-10 hours each per week. Which is why I have barely touched the bass.

Peggy and Mattacks great unit on a great variety of sessions. Even god help us the Barron Knights.

The gap between the scratchplate and the neck is only a few mil so I could put some black tape on the body first to disguise it. Or just fit the pickup a few mil closer to the neck. It then won't be in exactly the right place but can it make that m difference? My other thinking with moving the pickup slightly is that I always favour a neck pickup on two pickup basses, and without having an active circuit to boost the bass or mids then maybe moving it slightly will actual be beneficial, whilst hopefully still retaining a proper Stingray tone. On my Variax, the basses it models that only have a single pickup have the ability to virtually move the pickup between the bridge and neck with the pickup blend knob. They still retain their core tone but sound fuller or thinner depending on placement, yes it's virtual modelling but the theory's there. The 3+1 thing really doesn't bother me. I quite like the fact it's a Jazz neck. The body won't look 'right' as a Ray because the actual shape is wrong. The Ray's lower bout goes further towards the lower horn than the P, hence why the control plate won't sit in the correct place. I'm embracing the fact it's a mix of basses. I might even put a magpie logo on the headstock as it's a collection of shiny bits I've found lying around.

OK, so I've had a play today as I had a bass part to record. Used the bassman sim which sounded cool to me with my G&L JB. also plugged my mic in through a an xlr to jack cable and dabbled through a few of the pre amps which are needed and the output is very low otherwise. I found the DI+ worked best but could do with a built in auto tune for my voice! I'm sure a proper singer would have other views but I can see it woking for what I need. Will post some clips when I've got them sorted.

I love the music from Noggin The Nog.

Finally, my 1977 LE. I hope to replace the chrome tuners and bridge soon. I already have the golden tuners and I am waiting for the golden bridge to arrive soon too.

What don’t I like about it? I just preferred the MXR in the side by side. Maybe the eq was more suited or the drive was ‘better’ for what I was doing at the time? One of the things with describing what I don’t like is that you might be drawn to all the things I dislike. Describing these things in terms such and meaty lows or full mids could be overblown lows or boxy mids to the next person. It’s like on a jazz bass. I think you and I have different sounds we gravitate to. I have a preference on where I like my mid range and on my amp I know boosting certain frequencies works for me to reinforce lows mids without boosting lows which I find boosting lows becomes too much. When using drive I have a preference for my mids much higher but still below or around 2kHz. Looking back maybe the BDDI was lacking something there in the low mids or too high in the highs? You’re asking me to give notes on a pedal comparison from 10yrs ago and I wasn’t really taking notes I just knew in a head to head the MXR worked better for me. You’re in that stage of pedal buying where you have a bunch of them side by side and as such are maybe more into hearing the differences. I’m just at a stage where I know what I gravitate to. For instance I don’t think a super wide frequency response can like the F112 would work for me live as I like the cab to add its own thing and don’t need 18-20kHz response 4-6kHz is plenty for the bass or certainly my style.

Two hundred and fifty quid? What planet are these people on? I wouldn't have it for free as it looks like it'd be a bugger to burn, wouldn't produce much heat, and that's the only use I can see for it.

Quite the opposite; don't practise for six hours a day..! The quickest way is to take it steady. Do a decent stint, then leave it (or practise something else...), then come back to it after a break. Make each session a little longer each week and you'll be up to speed in no time. The fastest way is to do it slowly, in increments. You might try trawling t'web to obtain a big bucket of Patience; that's the key ingredient here. Good luck with it (and there's nowt wrong with chords, or even {gasp..! } music..! being played on a bass..! Yes, even a sixer..! )

And here's the one we did last week. Every Praise by Hezekiah Walker... when we do this live at church I do like throwing in a bit of envelope filter for a more funky, Bootsy-esque tone to the bass line! This one is straight - playing the 1985 Wal Custom Mk1 for this one...

Here is my contribution to the May 2020 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: BobBass4K..! An ambient track this time, composition inspired by the thought of the fractal nature of the branches and twigs in the photo. A slow build-up, using fractally-generated themes, intertwining in apparently hapless fashion, but all interlinked, combining natural earthiness with algorithmic rigor. Somewhat hypnotic; it kept me up until the early hours refining it. Was it worth it..? Hmm... All instruments are Kontakt (Contra-bassoon, horns, Emotional Piano, archtop guitar, percussion...), excepting the Superior 3 drums (a first, for me...). Very little Fx or mastering 'pixie dust', as the quality of the instruments speak for themselves, I think. Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

I quite like it, it forces you to think about the basses role as providing the rythem more than usual

All in the fingers I suppose 😅😅

Yeah, same with us. We sometimes struggle to fill certain slots but have learned to account for it - playing without a drummer is quite the experience!

Up until the Warwick deal recently, Metros were made in Japan. The Metroline is effectively made by the Japanese custom shop, just with limited options and non/chambered bodies. The MetroExpress is production line, but also Japan. The NYCs are chambered and have more custom options. In terms of quality, they’re basically identical as Roger says. The logo thing I think changed over time. The same way they went from Sadowsky Guitars to Sadowsky Metroline.

I figured It'd be an interesting change of pace, something a little dark and sinister. A little context - I took this while walking home in a state of mild inebriation at about 2am, and had absolutely no recollection of taking it until I was going through my pictures a couple of months later, whereupon it scared the bejesus out of me and I moved it to the "album covers?" folder.

A gem.

I'd rather play a pub than a posh wedding!

Just my opinion, but I think it helps to be smart about how you set up and take down and what equipment you bring. Most pubs are terrible for load ins of big heavy equipment. So only take what you need for that venue - dont lug everything you have into and out of there. You wont need it and you'll have to carry it all in, find somewhere to put it, and carry it all out and back into storage again. Take a suitable PA, and a few spares. Spend time working out the most economical way of setting up and make sure everyone has a job to do. Also, think of your set up. What do you have - how can it be made easier to set up - how much faster can you do it? If you have pedals etc why not put them on a pedal board, all you need to do is connect 2 cables and you're done. Guitarists are usually the worst for this - individually unpacking every pedal individually, then separately powering up and connecting each one. I've seen guitarist take nearly 45 mins just setting up their own equipment! The amount of bands you see lugging huge PA in, then a million difficult to carry boxes including a million cables, then a whole host of amps, pedals, 4 ways, kettle leads, separate lights etc etc is frightening. It may seem like nothing, but honestly doing this makes doing pub gigs so much easier. You wont get as stressed getting in, you wont get as stressed setting up or taking down, and your escape out of their will be easier. The whole thing becomes quicker, tidier and more fun. I found it was never the gig itself, just badly planned set ups that ruined it. Oh, and get a couple of heavy duty hand trucks - worth their weight in gold.

To paraphrase Pete Thorn (can't find the video right now), the three elements of a good gig (in the ongoing sense) are: The music The money The craic (or 'the hang' as he puts it) If you have all 3, you're golden. Any 2 is good, because they compensate for the shortcomings in the other one. But just one is rarely enough. Assess your pub band experience against these criteria - what does it score on a scale of 0 to 3?

Just go mad. Go big or go home 😉

only ever seen two punch ups in ten years (due to the age of the punters!) and they were nowhere near the band. The hassle of the setup and takedown is something you have to accept (I hate it but there you go). I love the beer money, it lets me buy all my gear and GAS. TBH I haven't missed gigging over the last 2 months (and the 8 gigs we lost) but I always say that but actually enjoy it on the night. I would say think about it carefully as if you join the band then change your mind after a couple of gigs you'd be letting the lads down.

It depends. Do you enjoy it? Yes. Do you need the money? Yes. I can't think of any other reasons than the above.

Looking really good

This statement is indubitably correct. There really is no way Marmite can be considered rank.

Great idea! Kind of fell into it by accident earlier today. Figured it was finally time to give Mark Sandman a good listen, so I just queued up all of the Morphine albums into a playlist on Amazon Music HD. Really happy I did! Por ejemplo