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The BDI 21 pedal might be the best £20 I’ve spent on bass accessories

In beef dripping

I took a gamble recently with specifying a DiMarzio model P for a P-bass build, mostly based on looks, and so far I love it. It has a bit of a reputation for being dark, but I disagree. It may have a bit less super high freq chime, but it's plenty clear, very focused and somewhat aggressive. I've yet to try it with flats, but so far with rounds it's my fav.

Blockheads this week retired from touring… Great memories… BLOCKHEAD ANNOUNCEMENT AUGUST 2021 Regretfully we have to announce that, due to deteriorating and ongoing health issues affecting key band members, exacerbated by the current crisis, it is no longer possible for the band to continue LIVE work at the intensity and regularity they have been for the past 45 years. Following medical advice we have instructed our agents and promotors that we have no option but to cancel all shows for the foreseeable future. Until such times as these pervading problems can be addressed and resolved we cannot now consider taking the risk of exposing vulnerable BLOCKHEAD immune systems to the rigours and stresses of ‘the road’. You, our fans, have been loyal, supportive and magnificent throughout not only the glory days with Ian but also, more importantly, in the years following his death in March 2000. Your help, encouragement and dedication to Blockhead identity by regularly attending shows and purchasing our merchandise has enabled the band to continue to write, record and perform as a unique and independent entity for 20 years. There will remain a truly special place in our hearts for all Honorary Blockhead Members whose continuous support, from the memberships’ inception to the present day, has been exceptional and inspiring and, without doubt, nurtured the band through difficult times. We have all travelled the decades together. You have watched us, and we have seen you, grow from young and glamorous to older and wiser. By exposing and introducing our music and lyrics to consecutive generations you have established a place for us as influencers in the musical history of the U.K. For this we will be forever grateful, both personally and professionally. BLOCKHEADS LTD, the company under which The Blockheads band has traded since 2001, has been reliant on the revenue generated by regular live appearances for its existence. In light of these unfolding circumstances this is no longer tenable and in order to preserve the integrity of the company, during this hiatus, our immediate future sustainability will now rely on subscription based platforms like PATREON (https://www.patreon.com/theblockheads) where we can deliver to you performances and rarities from our archive and links, chats and invites to all Blockhead associated projects. The band intend to continue to explore ways to play live and reach out to fans by using the technology available and sourcing a dedicated venue/venues from which to operate in a more established setting. Going forward, treatments and recoveries permitting, the band intend to make themselves available for appearances at selected events in 2022. A less hectic and more achievable goal under present circumstances. Thank you for all your messages of concern and support Mick Gallagher … for The Blockheads

I've just ordered vegan strap. Does anyone know how I should cook it?

I have one and and really like it, but for me it was greatly improved by a few simple mods: 1) Added an output level control to match up the volume between effect & bypass, which varies greatly depending on the settings 2) Added an effects loop to allow patching in a fuzz of my choice instead of the built in one 3) Added a footswitch (& indicator LED) to switch between envelope control and the expression pedal input

Strings Direct https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/accessories-c2/straps-c54/vegan-guitar-straps-c841/righton-mojo-series-vegan-guitar-strap-race-yellow-p13126 RightOn make these in a load of different colours https://www.rightonstraps.com/en/mojo-collection-race-black-strap.html?model=1 This is to go with my skinny stringed bullet mustang

My attic man cave, music room, home office. All my gig equipment is stored under the stairs for easy loading.

My new room, in the new house (Fender guitar amp hiding behind the door).

The deed is done! I bought it today. I weakened due to an unexpected cash windfall because I have been underpaid for over 5 years. Yeh! It'll be getting new strings and a setup to my preference next week. Frank.

Very happy (and regular) Behringer user here. I've had all sorts of stuff over the years but the real clincher is the XR18 ... both my bands on stage are entirely built around that unit plus I've used it (successfully) as a recording desk. Biggest (only?) failure so far was - incredibly - last night. It's been so reliable over the last few years that when the PA failed to work it took me ages to actually check the XR18 itself. That was the point at which I discovered that the kettle lead had come loose in the socket, which is mounted on the side of the XR18 and therefore pretty much invisible when inside a rack unit. Doh!

I'm not a massive user of pedals anymore, but I love my BDI 21. I've had my fair share of Behringer stuff and the only thing I didn't get on with was a bass synth pedal. Other than that, it's been good news all the way. In a previous life as a music teacher with less than no money to spend on gear, my choices were limited. I kitted out our rehearsal rooms with Behringer mixers, mics and a few of their multi use combo amps. They survived a hell of a beating and performed really well. If it sounds good, it's reliable and easy to use then it's good gear, regardless of what it says on the label.

Drop tuned to D standard now, and the 50-110 DR Lo-Riders are fretting much more swiftly and positively now. "Borrowed" a nice grippy leather strap from another bass as the one I was using was causing all sorts of problems sliding around. Bingo. Its amazing what difference a few tweaks (and a non-cr@p strap) can make to your playing experience.

So I’m up in Coventry visiting my folks, for the first time in 20 months. I see bass direct post on FB for an Epiphone EB-3. Someone asks for scale length “30” “ is the reply. Now I’ve always wanted an EB-3 and I was sure the Epiphone ones are 34”. This morning I happened to be going to Leamington, a short hop from BD. So I thought I’d pop in to see. Was handed the bass, it certainly felt like 34”. I ask and the guy said “it’s 30”, but lets check” “Oh, it’s 34”!?. Never knew these came in 34” “ Bugger… So, here it is!

They’re cheap because they tend to copy other manufacturer’s designs. Investing in their research and develop department means they’ve bought a new photocopier.

FFS! Martin and I go back about 10 years!! We bought and sold each other so much gear it was a borderline joke. When we had our youngest in hospital (Martin was a hospital Porter), he was there - and brought his left field humour to keep us going - he checked in with Jen and I as well as saying hello to family and the kids. “I’m yer dads mate…I buy all the bass stuff he regrets” 😂 What a bloody awful shame. gutted.

35" scale improved (silent according to the review) 2 band preamp 24 frets laminated 5 piece neck head turning design! Here's a review of the 5 string from their new Marquess model. HB are clearly heading further up-market with their basses and methinks they are going to continue winning new converts as they do so.

It seems that KISS has dropped Dave Lee Roth as the support act for their latest farewell tour. Gene Simmons said that in his prime DLR was the greatest ever rock frontman, but can’t cut it anymore “I prefer to remember Elvis Presley in his prime. Sneering lips, back in Memphis, you know, doing all that. I don’t want to think of bloated naked Elvis on the bathroom floor.” The thing is, as a massive DLR fan, I have to admit that old Gene has a point. On the other hand, have you seen Paul Stanley or heard him try to sing recently? It all seems a bit rich coming from an old, bloated Gene Simmons saying this about Dave on the tenth KISS "this is really the last one" farewell tour.

Thanks, it's called Montreux and my builder gets them from Japan I believe. It is indeed proper translucent celluloid with a bit of the 3D thing going on in good light. It was fairly direct evening light on the photos, in most conditions it looks much darker.

I got given a dead one of these for free… I must get round to fixing that! Cheers for the reminder guys!

I've been looking at the red one. Really quite striking. It's great to know we can choose to use or not use leather.

My favourite is the Aguilar AG4P-60 1960s wind. Very nice.

Only just seen this. As someone who has done minimal buying and selling here I didn't have a lot of direct dealings with Martin but was aware he'd been a moderator for a long time. My condolences to his family and friends both within our community and beyond. RIP MB1

Bit more progress. First, I made a mod to my thickness callipers. They had flat pads and that made it pretty much impossible to check the thickness across the area of the back or sides because the slightest angle would open up the jaws and give a false reading. I had a rummage in my 'general bits' box and found these caps from some old mirror fixing screws: Out with the dremel to cut away the screw, in with the 30 minute epoxy and now the calipers work perfectly And to thinning the back and sides from the supplied 3.5mm to the planned final thickness of 1.9mm. I'm sure there are better ways but, in the absence of a sander thicknesser, this is the best way for me. My little block plane: Then, once it was within 0.1mm or so of the target, smoothed out with the Mirka: Next was bending the first side and end: And, after lots of checking, using the long reach clamps to force the back into the radius- dish shape to glue it and the similarly shaped braces. Finally a reinforcement block for the florentine and we have a self-supporting curved back and the basic components done waiting for some kerfed (slotted) internal linings and the ebony top And, as I'm waiting for the kerfed strip, no excuse, I suppose, for starting the whole process again for the other side

That story doesn’t fill me with confidence as I was asking about the scale length of a bass at BD over the phone yesterday! Congrats on the bass though!

If you want your rig to have a "look" then get a matching gear. If you want your rig to sound the best, all options are on the table. I haven't had a matching rig for 20 years. Mix and match can get fantastic results.

Some time after joining BC and TB, I went to listen all these revered bassists (Jaco, Geddy, Thingy, Wotsit) and immediately realised that a defining feature of a Highly Acclaimed Bassist is playing music which would I would find insufferable even without their eye-catching contributions. Then I put the Sister Sledge back on.

The biggest leap I’ve made in actual keys playing is learning good pentatonic fingerings in all keys. I highly recommend Marius Nordal’s book “Wisdom of the Hand”. I got it and started working out if it at the end of last year and it has absolutely transformed my playing.

For learning what synth parameters do, this site is brilliant: https://learningsynths.ableton.com

I love mine and it has seen off many other excellent filters over the past four or five years or so that I’ve had it. They come up cheaply enough used - £80ish (or even less sometimes).

You’re still more polite than my wife was who looked like she was contemplating the cost of getting me full time care

Good work!

@pedvast improvement from your half-arsed first attempt below (the Stormy is no longer upside down and the Funk-u-lator is now nicely the right way up). You should defo get at least a B- now? The topic is of course post your "pedal board" so you have to lose a few marks for ignoring the title...😁

No @Al Krowthere are others here far more HB savvy than me! However, I will say I don't mind those kind of comments as he's really just trying to describe a step up in quality. If you think the range is poor then he's saying these are good. If you think the rest are great he's saying these are excellent.

This is an interesting watch:

You're in the key of G, and this F chord is the bVII, functioning as the secondary subdominant, or the IV of the IV. One way to think of the F-C is as a IV-I in the temporary tonal centre of C.

they're so cheap it hardly seems worth the effort of buying them used - my Behringer BEQ700 (a copy of the Boss GEB-7) cost £17 new.

I had two mics, a Shure SM58 and a Behringer XM8500. I sold the SM58 as the XM for about 20% of the price was about 90% as good. Imo def not cheap and nasty, to quote @David B they’re cheap and good.

In my experience they are not cheap and nasty but just cheap and good. Never a trendy brand but good bang for your buck. The usual issue that people raise is the plastic casing. Frankly I cannot see how you would damage them unless you drove over them or abused them in some other way. Lightweight plastics in planes, trains and automobiles are lauded but if it is a Behringer pedal they get a slagging.

I always used to play with effects - as the music I loved often had them on - and the sound of clean bass bored me to tears. It was fun to play with all these different sounds and have different options, but I definitely found my clean tone boring. Now I'm a little older, a little wiser, and have a great P bass and Stingray, and honestly? The pedals sound EVEN better!

I suppose I could upload something slightly more recent than my current profile pic, which dates from about 1978. Not exactly a portrait, but I like this picture as it shows me & my good friend and bandmate, Al, having a laugh on stage somewhere. Just in case anyone has trouble telling who is who, I'm the one with the Thunderbird.