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I seem to recall that Andy Fraser used to play for Free and he did OK out of it.

Unwrapped a suspicious parcel only to find lurking inside, surprise surprise, another bass guitar 🤦🏼‍♂️ Seriously, somebody stop me. Every time I scrape together a few quid I tell myself to save it for a rainy day. Then find myself in a dark alley trembling and twitching as I hand it all over for just one more score. This week I have become the proud owner of a Washburn Scavenger. I have a few weak areas in my feeble defences, of which, early 80s MIJ basses is one. This is a doozy. Really lovely finish, great shape (I think so anyway) and it sounds wonderful. No neck dive at all. There can't be any really. Not unless the neck was another three feet longer and constructed from cast iron. This is a heavy piece of wood. No problem on a comfort strap, I played it all evening and even my dodgy shoulder is fine. It's also string through, which I've not had before. Tell me, does this mean flats are a no no? I know @Bassassin knows a fair bit about these. Any info gratefully received.

For the herringbone purfling, the gaffa tape it is, @MacDaddy Or at least the masking tape. And not an iron in sight - yet! Before I glue the binding, I first have to rout the slot for the end graft - and before I do that I need to decide what I'm going to do for the end graft - and I have to make sure that the corners of the binding slot are absolutely square and that the sides of the binding slot are absolutely flush with the herringbone. I do that with a tiny square wood block with some emery cloth stuck to it, a very sharp chisel and check all is OK all the way round with an offcut of the binding: Next job is sorting the end-graft and then I can get the iron out and glue the binding Oh...and as @Si600 is bound to ask what an end graft is...it's this bit at the back!

Yes I would, if it was a relatively local venue and one which I played at regularly. I'd be happy to help out a venue which had treated me well in the past if it helped them get back on their feet and in a position to book (and pay) performers again.

The thing is, for all of us who are willing to do it for free, we’re setting a very dodgy precedent which could result in those who either do it til time for a living, or who need the gig money to supplement their income no longer being able to do so. In effect by keeping the venue going we may be preventing a fellow musician from earning. Difficult.

Discussing playing for free is as good a way of getting the Basschat blood pressure up as suggesting kit share.

When there are so many variables in the construction of an electric bass which contribute to the final sound, it baffles me why some people obsess over the sonic signature of fingerboard wood as though it’s the be-all and end-all. A luthier building a bass is arguably more likely to use a particular section of rosewood because it has a visually appealing grain pattern than for how it sounds. The best looking grain doesn’t necessarily equate to the “best” sound. And there’s no real way of knowing how it’ll sound until you put the damn thing on the bass anyway. Since wood is an organic material with natural variances, It’s possible to find a particular sample of rosewood which is sonically brighter than a particular sample of maple. It is something of an imperfect science, given the cocktail of contributing factors. I just choose whichever wood looks best on that particular model of bass and get on with it. After all, you can’t exactly change the fingerboard on your bass once it’s built (well, you can, but at great effort and expense.) Call me a heathen but I’m of the opinion that simply changing your strings has way more of an audible effect on tone than whether your bass has a maple or rosewood fingerboard - or any other wood for that matter. And then you get into pickups and circuitry, active preamp characteristics, capacitor values, VVT vs VBT on a 2 pickup bass, selector switches vs blend pots in terms of how they load the pickups, high mass vs lower mass bridges, nut material, nut only vs zero fret, fret material, headless vs headed. The list goes on. For what it’s worth, I used to prefer the “clean” look of maple boards but now much prefer my basses to have darker fingerboard woods like rosewood/wenge/ebony, simply because I prefer the visual contrast against the strings and frets - makes it easier for me to glance down and know where I am faster, especially in certain lighting conditions. Might sound weird to some but hey, it gives me some degree of comfort!

Having been 'resting', as the luvvies say, since NYE 2018, tomorrow sees first rehearsal witha new band. I've depped for them before, so less pressure than there might be, but still a little nerve-wracking after all this time. Long day of practice tomorrow! Would have been today too, but other work got in the way. Excited!

The obvious response is something like: "Will you play for free?" "No, but we'll play if you cover our costs." "How much is that?" "About twice what you normally pay."

TBH I can't think of a situation where an ultra-clean, dry tone would work. It should remain the domain of bassists who iron their jeans.

I play original music so, overall, I have played at a loss for 30 years. Playing for free would be a step up in the world 😂 I would play for free for now because I enjoy playing, provided there were no expenses and, perhaps, the venue could throw in some goodies to sweeten it a smidge. The situation would be fluid, however, and no long term commitments would be made. Once the venue is doing well, the band should do well too.

I think I have a fairly well established reputation (both here and on TalkBass) for being open and honest on topics where I can be. I am posting this in response to several PM's and e-mails I have received over the past week from some of you, so rather than responding individually I am making the assumption that these are common questions to many of you even if you didn't PM me. International distribution is a VERY complicated thing. For example, I'm responsible for the technical and regulatory side of international safety and EMC compliance. I spend considerable time and effort (which translates to cost for the company) to sort through and follow the laws and rules governing each country (or in the case of the EU, the region). Even though there has been a lot of talk and efforts over the years about bringing all of these rules under a single unified umbrella, in practice that really hasn't happened. Coming up in December, there is an entirely new set of safety standards (UL/cUL/EN/IEC-62368) that all products imported into the EU must comply with. Initially it was promoted as being an easier, less time consuming and less expensive way to bring everybody together for safety compliance but in practice it has been the opposite. It has almost doubled the work for design/compliance engineers as well as the test labs themselves. Add to this the fact that many regions that initially signed onto the new standard and the agreed upon transition dates have begun to back away from their commitments and will require new products to be certified to the older (60065) standard. Since the two standards require different analysis and testing procedures, this means that now we need to maintain two costly certifications per product! All of the Subway amps, for example, are now fully dual certified to both the 60065 AND 62368 standards. Who pays for these costs? Ultimately the customer does. Maintaining customer support, service centers and service agents is another costly aspect to sales (where customer service is better than the bare minimum). This includes training technicians, providing service documentation, multi-language paperwork, and transporting/stocking of parts necessary for service and warehousing product for sale. I understand the frustration regarding distributors like Westside, but at the same time they have done a good job supporting the product. Every service tech that I have dealt with at Westside was in fact very good and well qualified. It's been part of the cost of providing customer support. With the changing of the way global is being done, we have shifted as well, though admittedly it took quite some time. Hopefully this will make our products more attractive to the rest of the world. There are bound to be some learning curve experiences, please bear with us as we take this step forward. Covid-19 has made this more difficult due to many of us (still) working remotely, but once I receive the information and links to service centers in the EU and UK, I will post this information. Warranties will continue on uninterrupted, region by region, since each region shares a different set of governing rules it's necessary to respect the rules and different requirements of each region. I hope this helps you understand the changes.

Several glasses of it makes me round and punchy

I have played for free and I'd do it again, but if someone else is making money out of my playing, then I won't be playing for free.

Here's the thing. You don't know what a bass sounds like til it's built in it's entirety. As soon as you add in electrics, the material type is even of less importance. Like most things that people become obsessive about, it's all boils down to hoodoo.

Still need to drill the new holes for the tuners but I couldn't resist putting it together. I am so happy with the way this is looking 👌😁

Can we all just calm down a bit, please? So many threads are becoming slanging matches from out of nowhere. I like to follow threads that I’ve contributed to, but so many recently have descended into madness. It makes me sad. 😢

Would it make any difference if the question was: 'Would you play for a reduced fee to support a friendly venue who can't make their usual way of promoting live music financially viable in the current climate (social distancing, etc)', instead of 'would you play for free'??

On an acoustic there is a balance in shaving body woods down to minimal thickness to enhance resonance against having enough material to be structurally strong. On electrics you take a big slab of wood and cut it to a shape that looks nice. That's why so much is spent trying to amplify an acoustic to try and keep as much of the natural acoustic tone as possible. It's much easier to just stick magnetic pickup on a doublebass and not have to worry about feedback, body noise, etc, but it then usually sounds far more like an electric so most don't do it. The fact it sounds more like an electric and you lose the acoustic qualities surely means you have taken the woods qualities and construction out of the equation. As an aside, out of all of my solid bodied basses, the one that sounds the brightest and has the longest sustain and clarity when played unplugged is my absolute piece of poo, plywood body and neck 70s Kay Les Paul-a-like. It has a darker wood fretboard (I'm sure it's not rosewood) and is brighter than any maple neck I've got. So from those findings, if you want sustain and brightness you need to be looking at plywood body and necks, not fancy woods multi-laminates, just good old cheap ply.

Oh dear god that's ugly.

No. I have played for free in the past - mostly charity gigs, but charity gigs often take the p155, so I don’t anymore.

We play for free anyway, so no change for us.

As long as they are not paying any other supplier of goods and services on the same night. EDIT - Also the venue is likely to use the same excuse for about 5 years after a vaccine is available.

Many of the greatest bass tones we've ever heard (instrumental, song, whatever) have bass tracks which are similarly 'afflicted'. I reckon if you got the stems of some of the more recent super-technical recordings, the bass might be super precise and hi-fi, but chances are they don't sound anywhere near as good in the mix.

This is probably my favourite bass part ever. My attempt isn’t perfect but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out...

Some of the SR4 Fretless issued last winter were like that (but not all - I did have my eye on one at the time). Thank the Lord!! There are only 85 worldwide - wouldn't pay for too many to order one 😏 😂 @hiram.k.hackenbacker yes an interesting and possibly predictable reaction - several ladies have asked to have their photo taken with my coral red Stingray Classic - one of them is left handed and held it the wrong way up...... 😬 I don't know if you know but they have some SLO neck profile Stingray Specials available (only in the US), along with lefties as well. Im seriously contemplating the Stingray pink champagne sparkle 😍

For those that don't believe there can never be enough proof, for those that do no proof is required!

It's beyond foul. It combines what to me are the two biggest insults to the eyes in bass design - that massive, bulbous single-cut hump and the twee fake fiddle aesthetic, complete with "traditional" f-hole. Surprised the headstock ended up being so restrained, although it realistically wouldn't look out of place on a £160 bass, never mind a £6750 (HOW MUCH???) one. Quite surprised at the sheer horridness of this - would agree Marleaux' styling's probably all a bit marmite when we're conditioned into thinking Leo nailed it in 1951 (and that weird thing he made in 1960 was a bit too damn risky) - but I've always found most Marleaux designs striking in a good way. This - the more I look at it, the more it makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Love it. Beautiful finish - I'm a sucker for that antique violin thing. They sound lovely too.

I'm still working on it - sounding like a swarm of horny space whales having a laser orgy may be of debatable usefulness, but it IS a lot of fun.

But if you limit it to the number of usable sounds, it's doable in one standard Earth month my sources tell me.

Love me a nice punchy and round glass of Chateauneuf du Pape.

This. There's a few pubs we've been playing regularly for 10 years, 3 or 4 times a year and the landlords have become friends. They wouldn't ask us to play for free unless they really were desperate and for those select few I'd happily help out this year at least whilst everyone has their backs to the wall.

The brightest sounding of all my basses is the one with the newest strings on it.

Cuh. Pure mud 😄

Had it been sunburst i would have taken the plunge!!......some relic guitars are quite frankly laughable but john's work, to me is stunning, equaling if not surpassing fender custom shop.

The number of distinct sounds available to you exceed both the number of stars in the known universe and trying them all out would take longer than the age of the Earth...

The thing is that acoustic and electric instruments are made in completely different ways and the woods are chosen and treated completely differently because of this. On a solid electric instrument, the wood used does make a difference but its one very small part of a wide range of variables, and pretty much insignificant compared with the effect that wood choices have on the sound of an acoustic instrument. And while there are luthiers who claim that the type of wood used is massively important to the sound of a solid instrument there are also those (like Carl Thompson) who say that's impossible to tell what this contribution is going to be until the instrument is finished, so you might as well just pick woods that look good and not worry about their "tone".

I'VE TWEETED THIS THREAD AGAIN!!!

Watch it drummers, you are like boyfriends. Easily replaced by a plastic object a few inches long with batteries.

Sounds like we analyse sound as we do a good wine

The money is always there. It just depends who gets it. Play for free - the band doesnt get it, but the promoter, landlord, bar staff, brewery, beer suppliers, etc will. Despite what theyll tell you.

Trust me, the food more than compensates.

We have made a band decision to offer all of our regular gigs a single "expenses only" gig on a date to be mutually agreed to try and pay a bit forward and help support them. We aren't reliant on the money and do it for fun really but appreciate a lot of people are pro and we wouldn't undermine the payment side of things. We would expect other gigs to be at the going rate per venue. We just want to cover a bit of petrol on the night but also have a monthly storage bill to pay (hence having some control over the date - it wont necessarily be the first gig back at each venue as we want to spread it out a bit)

How could you tell? Was every other part of all the basses in question absolutely identical? If not how do you know for sure it was the fretboard wood alone that was contributing to difference in sound/tone.