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HNY...Our band Fynnius Fogg is 50 years old (same members) how did that happen? ...the secret is lots of basses & gear keeps you young!

Nothing to shout about, I know, but in 1978, I was working on Cruise ships around the Caribbean. We (onboard musicians) often, when ashore in Miami, would drink with American musicians in local bars. They played and introduced music to us to listen to, which we then picked up from local shops to bring home. Or on occasion, even better, New York record stores. One of the albums, was the one in question, 'Streamline'. You know nothing about me so please, do not question my honesty when I'm just trying to converse musically with you. Because of the Web, listening to music is instant these days. Back then, it wasn't. If you were over in the States, or you mates came back with records, you got to hear less chart orientated American music a little earlier. Probably earlier than people (like yourself) who marched up and down Denmark Street or, danced around sparkly handbags with their mates, wearing Platforms and Flares, during Discotheque competitions in 1978, Enjoy the New Year celebrations, Ol' Bean... 👍

I decided to evade the GAS 2022 challenge on a technicality, and ordered this yesterday PM, ETA next Wed.

Welcome to Basschat You'll have gathered that this has been discussed a lot in these pages so it might be worth using the search facility to find some of the older threads. Equally we forget sometimes that we were all new here once so I'll attempt a quick answer. The gist of this is that size is only one of the things that contributes to the 'sound' of a speaker. It's important, but only a small part of what makes the overall sound. Not all 15's sound the same by a very long way and neither do all 10's. It's not even true that bigger speakers have more bass than small ones; my 5" hi-fi cabs go lower than my 12" bass speakers. So, it's not a very informative debate, most of your answers will be of the 'I've got an xxxxx speaker and I love it it's a 10/12/15 so that's the size I like. The best advice is to approach speaker buying with an open mind and listen to as many speakers as you can, then choose the one you like irrespective of the size of the driver/s.

We were a 4 piece pop PYE record band in the 70's (when you were payed properly! and could afford to import some great semipro kit) in the 90's switched to fundraising ...in 2019 FF recieved the Queens award for voluntary service and became a 3 piece (G B & D) the keyboard player retired... we now perform simple pop covers..2 x 1hr 15min sets, (silent stage no backline or monitors) and finish @ 10:30....Coco & bed...ha...planning 23 to 25 gigs this year (if allowed) https://www.facebook.com/groups/156699317688562

Use the search function on Basschat as to 10 / 12 / 15 and 'sound/tone' because this thread is going to feel distinctly confusing very soon!

Your cables continue to speak for you!

Hollow-less and semi fretted?

Favourite purchase of the year, is by far this Hohner B Bass.... absolute steal, and a joy to play. Bargain of the year is the TC BG250 behind it..... £40.... and it sounds fabulous.

Nooooooooooo!!! 😱

I went left field in the end.... This was drawn to my attention and BINGO!!

Afternoon and HNY. This is a long one - for good reason - and a copy/repost from elsewhere here. Seems an apt question to put to the masses. Anyhow, wife put the radio on, first track for 2022 is/was the final 30 seconds of Le Freak by Chic. There's a story that springs to mind every time I hear this song, although I'd actually also say with some certainty that, like Stairway To Heaven, I've never heard it all the way through. Back when all this was fields and I was in my teens, I played in a punk band called The Crime; I was in the 6th form at Strodes College, Egham, Surrey. Strodes was ex-grammar, the only grammar school kids there though were about 40 of Egham's most gifted, the 6th form were a few hundred oiks. I'd been approached by a couple of kids from the 5th year asking if I was the bass player they'd heard about ('I don't know, am I?'), at which point they told me they were playing the college's Valentine's disco three days time and could I play with them. I declined, they asked me again later in the day, so I said yes, jammed with them the next day and did the gig the next night (Friday). The Friday night arrived, I borrowed some khaki combats from my dad and tore up an old t-shirt; the main hall was rammed, the front half about 150 people dancing to music supplied by a local disco guy everyone knew as Fat Malcolm. Back of the hall and outside maybe 200+ punks. (I spoke to a mate earlier, he said there were loads outside too.) A few minutes before our allotted showtime, we were already on stage, standing behind these big curtains (45 minutes of covers by 999, Pistols, Rich Kids etc.); Fat Malcolm is playing Le Freak and making a Tony Blackburn style comment about, 'This is Chic and Le Freak, after this live music from The Criiiiime!'. Everything was live on stage as the chaos started. I distinctly remember our singer shouting, 'We're already 'ere ain't we?' into a live mic, a power-chord ringing out and the drummer trying to climb up a fairly high riser after throwing the curtain opening switch (he was later berated by staff for unauthorized use of electronic equipment). I peered through a crack in the curtain and witnessed the punk guys rushing to the stage, while the disco-dancers hi-jinked it to the to the back of the hall. I glanced over to Fat Malcolm who was desperately trying to get the lids on his disco-twin decks while all manner of stuff was being thrown (and spat) at both him and us. The stylus on one of the decks was skating across Le Freak under a hail of bottles and phlegm. I was laughing uncontrollably for 45 minutes; I knew right then that this was, after barely playing two years, my happy place and I'd always find happiness in music, whatever the genre. I remember little of the gig aside from the sea of punks pogoing, gobbing and stage diving, wads of phlegm covering the stage and the singer. At one point someone threw a Party Seven can (full of wee) that rose spinning and spraying. Arching away, it sailed past me and hit the drummer full in the chest, knocking him off his riser. We didn't miss a note. So there you are. While I've never actually heard Le Freak all the way through, but just a few bars of it remind me of this.

i met Huw, great guy ,, do not tell me where he lives ,, coz i will just grab that bass off him , one time ;D lol so ,, i did by a bass guys ,, no longer have it ,, drum roll ,, it had everything i wanted , not fender , at all in shape twin octave, that was well machined / made very stanley clarke looking alway remember it having 2 pick ups not 1 tho ,,,, & a decent price for a beginner The Dan Armstrong Sliding Pick up ,, The Red Imperial Players 1st Bass

I don’t plan on adding any cheese to it… I might play a bit of cheese on it!! I gave it a 1200 grit wet and dry sanding with oil yesterday and it’s currently curing so little action at the moment I’m afraid. Should be another update in a day or two

Glen Matlock played a Rick, some of the time at least. I think Sid might've used a Precision, but more for hitting punters than playing. Re the funkage, it wasn't my scene during the era @Bean9seventyis relating, but I did become a massive MK/L42 fan/copyist from about '83/4 and remember he was such a regular interviewee in the old Making Music freesheet that it became known colloquially as Mark King Music. The point is, many of the anecdotes in this thread were related by the man himself in those interviews so me (and probably one or two other BCers) are familiar with the fact he was a drummer from the IoW who blagged a job selling basses in Macaris, & that he got his first JayDee because he couldn't afford an Alembic but an s/h JayDee turned up in the shop, and it looked a bit like an Alembic. Apropos of nothing - I did buy a Washburn B20 from Macaris during the time he would've been working there, and it might or might not have been him wot sold me it. The point however, is that I sold that bass a couple of years later because the position of the neck pickup right up against the end of the fretboard made it nigh-on impossible to play Mr Pink on. And that's the circle of life, or something.

I wonder where your bass is? Is it near your ankles? The position of the bass influences the bend of your wrist etc. This can have a bearing.

Hi Phil, Thanks for letting me know how it goes here and your thoughts on speakers. I’ll search here and dig some stuff up instead. Just seems hard to find info as there are millions of threads and results when searching, most of them irrelevant, but I’ve only just arrived 😬

I made it too!

Your Italian style, flair, and panache, is obviously wasted on Basschat! 🇮🇹

So 2022 starts off with deja vu, and not in a good way. Getting sucked in this time I am not. 🙄

Yeuch. I blame Fender for starting the rot. 😉

Keep the votes coming, guys ... 😂😂😂

Blasphemy!!!!!!

Not sure about anyone else, but I made it.

Mingus - Blues and Roots Prince - The Rainbow Children Meshell Ndegeocello - Peace Beyond Passion Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

My Tribute LB-100 arrived yesterday. Too many whiskies to give it a proper go yet, but I did pop it on the bathroom scales as promised @bigthumb 3.9kg = 8lb 10oz Bathroom scales mind, so probably not the most accurate measure, but that's what I have for you.

Try playing for about 10mins at a time each day as it will let you absorb what you are learning better but more importantly will let your wrists and fingers build up strength then you can gradually build up how long you play

@Happy Jack You're hard work was appreciated. Many thanks. All the best to you and @Silvia Bluejayin 2022.

Bass chats very own Rolling Stones

This subject has been done to death over and over, but I'll answer with no tongue in cheek. I need as small a cabinet(s) as possible for my live shows, both for transport and aesthetic reasons. I became a convert to using 8" speakers after making a DIY cab when I played double bass. I've since gone smaller and use phil Jones equipment with 5" and 4" speakers and can't really imagine using anything else now. If I had the guarantee of enough of the right shows this year my top tip (for myself) would be to augment my Phil Jones Double4's with a Cub Pro BG120 combo and C4 extension cabinet.

@Bean9seventy I think there are three strands of people discovering this jazz funk explosion of music (which was alongside disco) in the late 70s. 1) Specialist DJs and the pro dancers/ solo dancers at specific dance clubs and events - including the weekender gatherings etc etc - DJs would use 12” singles and often rare or new ones. Many bass chatters seem to ignore this important area of, to an extent, underground, Street activity. 2) Jazz funk and jazz rock fans who bought albums, generally not singles. A growing group of people owing to cross over albums from the likes of Weather Report. 3) The traditional night clubs were using a combination of hit disco and more obscure 12” stuff - the DJs in the night clubs probably picked up on this due to attendance at 1) and knowledge of 2). However tracks like Do What You Want To Do by T Connection were played regularly at the standard night clubs I went to at the time (they were great - high volume, thunderous Stanley Clarke-like bass). Most open minded musicians were influenced by this music, including playing slap and pop (although I initially developed a percussive fingerstyle approach to it - similar to what Stan Sergeant uses now). I was in camp 2 and 3, and also a bass player, who started with rock, slid into jazz rock and with a tendency towards R and B - so embraced all this fabulous bass work with open arms. I also started buying 12” singles in the late 70s to be the ‘club mix’ which invariably had more instrumental solos and breakdowns. It is also true that you would be unlikely to get past an audition on bass guitar without playing some slap in the early 80s. Anyone using a Precision with flats (there weren’t any in my experience, and hardly any playing any form of Fender bass) would be considered very much yesterday’s men - they may get work with in 60s tribute (very much for the older audiences at that time - much had yet to become acceptable vintage and nostalgia, and like Fender custom colour instruments, very much naff apart from dedicated collectors). We have to wait for the mid 90s Oasis type stuff for vintage to suddenly and gradually become the norm.

Ok, who pulled the scab off this?

I thought I was doing well playing with the same guys for 12 years! I keep telling them that we've lasted longer than The Beatles - you've lasted longer than most modern music ...

Matter of taste, peeps, matter of taste. 😉

He doesn’t have the TIM.

TOP TIP: If you're going to jump off the front of the stage to dance with the audience during your last song, make sure you don't misjudge the height of the stage and end up flat on your àrse. It's not a good look and is quite embarrassing. Errm, so I'm told.

I went through this with some Jazz Bass knobs and got it wrong, twice! The first thing to establish is what are the pots you’ve had fitted. More specifically, the diameter of the shaft and are they solid or split shaft. If split shaft, how many splines? If you count the splines on each side you should add 1 per side to account for the spline which would have been where the gap is. Once you know the spec, it should be easier to find the right knobs.

I stayed in touch with Thumper after his Finnbass demise.

Nothing to risk my 2022 clean sheet there. Winner. 🤣

Decent progress today. It's safer to start from scratch in terms of the tuner positioning to ensure that the string runs from the nut to the tuners are going to be straight. After doing the geometry, always a good idea to physically position the tuners to make sure that is 'looks right' and also that nothing is going to clash between each unit: Then - to replicate the recess that Lull put in for the tuner washers, that's the first size of Forstner bit to use: Then simply line up the central prong of the smaller bit to drill the through-holes: Also, the first rough cut for the fretboard ebony extension to at least give me initial string clearance for my first trial fit of the neck: And this allowed me to fit the Licenced tuners: And finally, a slice off the heel to get it to broadly the right thickness. I was pleased with the accuracy of the cut as, for hard maple, this is at about the limit for my hobby-grade bandsaw: And taking that slice off allowed me to - in made-to-measure suit terminology - do the 'first fit'. It's actually pretty close for a first fit Tomorrow I will cut the nut (more of a spacer than a full nut on a fretless - the slots will take the strings to within a gnat's of the surface of the fretboard) and then I can bring the strings to tension and see how much I need to tweak the angle of the heel so that the action is correct under tension whichever neck is on without having to adjust the saddle heights (even though, as discussed earlier, the intonation probably will need to be tweaked due to the different strings that will be fitted).

2 from the stranger end... Both contain some awesome playing!

Well well well, impatience rears it's ugly head. In an ideal world this, as mentioned above, would get another couple of coats of lacquer. But I'm home and want to finish it. I flatted as much as I dared and then infilled any little low spots with superglue. Superglue polishes up nicely and it was mainly along the borders between differing woods that needed filling. In certain light you can just see the difference between lacquer and superglue, but as it's over woodgrain, not a solid colour, it's very difficult to see unless you know what you're looking for. A, you can barely see it. B, it's an old Kay that was free. C, I need to stop being so fussy. 😁 Now the body/neck is done I need to do something to stabilise those pickup casings. More superglue I expect, or some black resin, depends what I've got at home. I've got a Wilkinson bridge with brass ferrules in my parts box which will suit and a set of gold speed knobs. I'm sure I've got enough spare looms to be able to renew the wiring and pots as well. The TRC and nut have been polished and lacquered. Just the neck and frets to sort then. Horrible indoor lighting photos.

bit of a story... A drummer invites me for a session a couple of weeks ago but i catch a cold so we agree to postpone. So we finally get together last Friday at the conservatory and he brings me to a room with two big cases with double basses inside. I don’t even take them out, they both look decent, i just strum both and choose one. We get to playing and i like the feel and the sound so i have a look and it turns out it was made by the great German master luthier Hoerst Gruenert. And i remember meeting Mr.G almost 20 years ago at a bass workshop in Graz where he exhibited some of his basses and even made some repairs for people on the spot. I liked his basses but they were way to expensive for my student pocket. So i enjoy the bass and the session is good, nice players, fun tunes. Over the weekend i have a look at the Gruenert webpage and fantasize and i also remember seeing 2 Gruenert basses on the webpage of a local luthier. I check again, a used 4 and a used 5 string for sale at 18,5k… Comes monday i’m browsing the local secondhand webmarket, a bass pops up with 3 bad photos, 2 of them of the Lion head top of the bass. Description says it’s a 1979 Gruenert. There’s no price set, just option to bid with no reserve price. And it’s less than an hour away. I write to the seller asking for better photos, more details and get a reply saying he’s not the owner, he’s just selling. The owner passed away recently, the family is selling off his gear. The first bidder says 500. By the end of the day three people are bidding, it goes up to 1,5k. I’m not beeding, i’m checking and waiting. Tuesday morning i wake up sick with a bad cold. But i nevertheless call Mr. Gruenert at his workshop in Penzberg Germany, he confirms that he did and still does Lion head top on his basses, might really be his, flamed maple sounds right... I get another answer from the seller and he uploads good photos. It’s the real thing, it has the insignia on the back and inside, all the marks. We agree to meet on Thursday afternoon. The bids go up and are around 2k in the evening. I wake up Wednesday morning even more sick. I manage to organize a car from a friend so I could drive up as i don’t feel like taking the trains. The bidding goes on and is almost at 3k at the end of the day. Thursday morning... one bidder dropped out, two left. One at 1200 (?), the other at 3150. I collect the car, pack my family and drive out. We get to the place, the seller opens the case and there it is. A Gruenert, no doubt. It's been used and played and has some scars and a small opening between the lower rib and back, nothing major except… a major crack on the top going from the bottom up. It looks like it’s been there for a while, it will need attention sooner or later. But otherwise the bass looks, feels and sounds great, no rattling, pure sonic beauty arco and pizz. There’s dust on the soundpost so it hasn’t been worked on in a long time which means it’s stable. That crack on the top is somehow a plus, because it makes a great point for price negotiation. It is a problem but it has a solution, has been proven over hundreds of years. The bidding stopped at 3.3k he says. A short negotiation follows after which he takes out a french bow, a bow case, a DPA mic and points out to the quality case/bag and bass buggie transportation wheels. He’d rather sell it all as a package as he doesn’t want to deal with multiple sales and buyers. I don’t need those things except for the case maybe so i can bring it home (forgot to take my case...). The advertised item was the bass alone without the extras. A even shorter negotiation follows and i’m packing the bass and the rest of the stuff and putting it in the car! Christmas really came early! I don’t mind making a great deal, but in my eyes this has destiny written all over it. I'm also a bit superstitious so maybe i shouldn't be writing this but i'm extremely happy and wanted to share the story with fellow BCers. There's a great Gruenert in the house and i’m going to play it now. Happy holidays all!