Leaderboard

Well, it was in 2011 that due to a relationship breakdown and mid-life crisis I decided to learn to play the bass aged 53. Since then I have been on an amazing musical journey. I make no apologies for using the cheesy old word 'journey', because that is what it has been! I booked in for lessons with a wonderful teacher called Mark Shilvock who inspired and encouraged me from day 1. Within 6 months I had joined my first (dreadful!) band. Since then I have been through various bands, and jammed at open mics and blues clubs with varying degrees of success. Kept my eyes and ears open for any opportunity and never said no to anything. For example, I played in a rather dubious Rolling Stones covers band for a while, but this got me an invitation to dep with a somewhat better Stones trib band that actually went out for money!! So when I retired from my day job in 2018, I spent the whole of that summer playing with the Stones trib band and earning a bit of cash to substitute my meagre pension. Meanwhile also playing for another band that did early 60's covers and occasionally did the odd wedding or retirement home gig (prefect demographic for what we did). Just before lockdown I had been invited to join another band that did mainly originals. This was a bit of a departure for me. We did a couple of small, unpaid gigs and then lockdown struck. I felt very discouraged for a while and didn't touch my bass for months. The only positive thing about this was that the mild arthritis in my hands vastly improved and various pains and strange lumps on my knuckles disappeared! Anyway, due to the persistence of the band leader of the originals band, I resumed practising and now we are booked in to do some recording in the first week of June. This will be a new experience for me. I'm really looking forward to it, and not as nervous as I might have been a couple of years ago. With all that has happened over the past year, I realise it's not worth worrying what the sound engineer might think of you, even if he did play with a famous band before they were famous 🙂 And of course I am so glad I joined Basschat as soon as I started learning bass. I have met so many inspiring and helpful people at bass bashes and the London Bass Guitar Show. And interacted with helpful and humourous people on here that I have never met IRL. I couldn't possibly thank them all as the list would be too long and I'd be bound to miss out someone important. So just to name check two. KevB, my 'bass mentor', who has become a genuine friend. And the late lamented BarneyG43 - lovely Colin who is no longer with us, but who was always encouraging, a great bass player and a huge personality. Finally, to anyone starting out, whatever their age, I would just say - stick with it, you are in for a hell of a ride!! 🙂

Softly, softly catchee monkey... Creeping up on the back carve. I've checked once again all of the carve vs chamber depths and am fairly certain I'm safe from any unexpected breakthoughs Rough carve not quite finished but probably one more session will do it ready for scraping - and by then, the Superquad will be here and I can start on the top . As I predicted, the carve has morphed and I've added some extra modest waist carves which I think will suit the look :

So anyway, from the ridiculous to the sublime.... The first P Bass was packed off from whence it came and the very next day I had a meeting in Cardiff and happened (ahem) to find myself arriving about an hour early, so a visit to PMT was in order. PMT isn't usually my first port of call, especially for online orders but I've always found the guys in Bristol particularly accommodating and have been on tot eh Cardiff store a few times. I always find the store a bit lacking in the Bass department but I knew they had another American Professional in stock in my favoured colour scheme. After playing on it for five minutes I really really liked it but was still very wary given the issues with the first bass. Fortunately, Gavin who was looking after me was game enough to see if the truss rod would adjust properly and was then kind enough to let me adjust the saddles to get closer to the sort of action I prefer. After 15 minutes or so of fettling I fell in love with it and decided it was coming home with me. I love the colour (Mystic Surf Green), I love the neck and the dark rosewood fingerboard and it plays beautifully. What's more, it's very light too. It couldn't be more different to the first one I tried and really is in my opinion a vast step up from some of the more recent US Fenders over the last 10 years or so. My thanks to PMT too and especially Gavin who really went the extra mile for me.

Lots of router work today! Great way to spend my day off work 😬! Got the rout for the pickup / ramp cover and bridge done to their final depths, their screw housings all exist in the wings so this was a simple cut. Need to clean these up to get rid of the router marks. Bender appeared before I routed him away 😉! I got the tapers rough cutted in with a 2mm tolerance per side which I'll clean up with a router later, also broke the handle of my bench vice! 😩! Clean break though, easy fix! I don't quite know how I want to sort the blend between the neck and headstock yet and it's volute so I decided to rout the profile of the headstock down a few mm to see it and mark out the rider positions... I think it'll help when I'm carving! Thats enough for today though! Heading to the coast with the missus and the dog for some well earned fish and chips!

I've been accumulating bits and pieces over the past couple of years and I'm getting to a point where an idea is emerging... This build will be a bit later in the years as I've got a couple of others to do first but the plan is for the following: 5 string Headless Delano xtender pickups East/ACG EQ02 filter preamp Series/parallel switching on pickups Poplar burl top Maple or swamp ash body (tbd) Ebony fretboard Neck (tbd) To be continued.....

You probably don't remember these then...

I couldn't think why this looked familiar: Then I remembered

The thing you have remember is that for most musicians, unless it is their main source of income, playing in a band comes a long way down the list of priorities such as family, work, sport, sitting in front of the TV, and IME many simply view it as something that fills an otherwise empty evening once a week. You can't expect these people to have any kind of serious commitment - especially for a covers band where it simply regarded as a bit of fun and hopefully some beer money.

And why not? It’s a really good film.

I also think theres too much contact nowadays with smartphones. Pre 2005, when you just used to meet on a wednesday night or at a gig once or twice a month, everything ran smoothly and you looked forward to it. No distractions, no arguing. Nowadays, with texts, whatsapp, facebook, you cant get away from it and its every day dealings with pointless things that run everyone up the wrong way. Sometimes to breaking point. Hence they leave.

LBGS 2015 if you were wondering

Got the Adagio's on my GSR200... as a first try of flats, Nice... As mentoned, warm, smooth and medium tension. Bargain... offer £13... I got another set for the SR600 but have swaped back to the Roto Solo Bass Pressure wounds on that for a bit - so i got both. Some more 'Flat' blah blah here...

No sweat....the bill's in the post

Totally agree. These are very decent flatwounds, sound good and are very reasonably priced, ideal for first time flatwounds imho. Medium tension too, so they won't feel like you're playing steel rods. They won't sound or feel as nice as higher priced flatwounds, but an excellent starting point.

If you just want a decent sat at a reasonable price I’d recommend these, they are very good for the money 👍

Any cheap precision + 1 pair of Jazz pickups + 1 new scratchplate + 15 minutes with a router? Expect the Bass Doc could knock one of those together for you in quick time.

I’m just driving through Wanstead flats on my way to the Olympic park with this on

That's you in the corner....

my musical taste is extremely narrow. I only like what I consider to be good music.

I think with the current Covid-19 situation things are much more heightened. My super busy main band has been almost radio silence for over a year and quieter bands have gotten busier / creative during lockdowns. I guess everyone is fighting their own battles from those who have been furloughed through to those who worked throughout in public facing. Line-ups can be a challenge at the best of times, and sadly these aren't even the best of times.

I don’t know why you beat yourself up so much. I’m a pretty poor bass player. I was just about acceptable as a bass player in a pub punk band and haven’t improved much since. Now I am in my 50’s I am starting to try and learn to play better. Time and enthusiasm are not always on my side. I like the instrument and enjoy taking them apart and refurbishing them as much as playing them. I don’t really care what anyone else thinks. The small things in life need to bring pleasure as the big events just don’t happen often enough. PS @Reggaebass suggestion is excellent. I struggle with timing and Reggae and Ska are great with helping with this. Stir It Up or Rudy ( a message to you) for example are genius in their simplicity and who can fail to have a smile on their face when playing along?

I've never used flats but fancy trying some out on my P Bass for a warmer vintage thump. I know there are loads which string type threads and equal numbers of opinions... but what would you recommend as a first, nothing too expensive, middle ground just to try? Thanks!

Last night I got to use my recently purchased Ampeg B200r at rehearsal last night with my 81 Tokai P Bass with black nylons. Sounded fantastic. Lovely fat, gritty old school tone. Just as a bass should be 😀😀😀 I can see me letting the Barefaced Supertwin and Ashdown ABM500 go (will get another if I ever join a super loud rock band again). Will gig with it in a few weeks time and make the final decision then. Nice when a purchase exceeds your expectations!

Assuming, that is, that I can physically handle it... An REM tribute is mooted, should be a bit of fun!

Happy days, 'shell, and enjoy your recording session

...and we value your contributions...

Fresh set of batteries in the Shuker, because (I can barely believe I'm saying this) I've actually got a full band rehearsal tomorrow

I'm going to spoil everyone’s JC for them, because once seen it can't be unseen. Have a look at the headstock and ask yourself who 'Slack Casady' is? 😉

I don’t have Sky but I’ll see if I can track that episode down. Jimmy Webb wrote so many great songs, everyone usually remembers the hits but there’s so much more to him than the hits. Bacharach and David were another pair who often wrote really affecting songs. Big hits but with some quite complex arrangements and melodic and rhythmic twists and turns. “A House Is Not A Home”, “Message To Michael”, “I Say A Little Prayer” etc. Love that grand style of pop songwriting.

Does your wife know this..?

I made the mistake of buying fender flats to try, if you like hi tension you will like them, I didn’t 🙂

Brenda Russel. I love her live version of 'Piano In The Dark'.

Got to echo everything that @Reggaebasshas said about Colin, aka @moley6knipe.. I've just bought some strings, a strap and some straplocks and my transaction with Colin went as smooth as the playing action on a shiny maple neck with some TI Flats on it! 😁 A pleasure to deal with you Colin and thanks for everything.. 👍😊 Cheers Nik

I imagine he doubled his money (maybe a little less after paying Joe...whatever the deal is). But that's business, no less shallow than any other bass brand building a bass and then selling it at profit to fans of that brand. Si

Dunlops for me. Tension is important to enjoyment and its a very personal thing. Some are really stiff and unbending, others are floppy. Personally I can't do Thomastik Infeld - too floppy, others love them. It's worth asking a good dealer like Strings Direct for their thoughts on tension. A big tip if you're new to flats. Some breeds seem impossibly sticky and un-smooth when first used. This goes in a short while if you keep using them and they'll go silky smooth. If you don't know this it's all too easy to give up in annoyance. Just give them a couple of days.

Fender 9050s or D'Addario Chromes are always a good starting point. GHS Precision Flats or La Bella DTB for something a little darker.

There's one for sale in the FS section right at the top, £275. Nothing to do with me..... go go go go @warwickhunt Si

Dillinger Escape Plan are clearly the best band from NJ!

I'll answer this 😊 You can use both an expression pedal and a tap tempo when you plug into an a/b selector with all trs jacks. Brightonion just made me one and it works perfectly!

My latest idea with @eude is to find a way to mate the OriginAL preamp with an ABM power amp/PSU in a more compact housing, like the old Eden WT400/550 heads. We reckon Ashdown could clean up with something like that.

Here is my entry for this month Inspiration? Seeing pigeons go round and round in circles reminded me of the discussions on certain, ahem, internet forums and the feeling that they aren't fully in control of their thoughts. So I took a synth and let the synth take over to an extent using the auto arpeggio function. Like @xgsjx I ended up with 80s synth pop. Bits of it remind me of the Pet Shop Boys which would be a good tie in but that's incidental and I didn't set out to recreate that sound. For those interested its actually not that many tracks - but most are multi layered parts in Xpand 2, including the drum The only exception is the Prophet 5 sound which is Dexed. No real instruments were harmed in the making of this track. All in Cubase although if I'd set out to create this I'd probably have used Live10.