Leaderboard

I've only got a couple of instances. Here's the earliest one.... My first ever 'proper' gig back when i was about 16 was an unusual one. It was at the very back end of the punk era so didn't seem to be quite such a shambles as it would nowadays - artistic improvisation and being pretty different was still encouraged. But we really were dreadful..... We had somehow snagged a support slot to a jangly/indie style band at the local main music venue (The Square in Harlow if anyone has ever played it) and needed to play for 45 minutes. Problem was that we only had 5 songs and about 20 minutes of material. I was ready to bail out of it but was persuaded by the guitarist/singer that we could stretch the songs a bit and he would fill out the gaps in between to help. We decided to dress up a to try and make a bit of an impact and Drosso (the singer/guitarist) informed us that he was going to make a grand entrance after the bass and drums had jammed around for a few minutes. I turned up a bit late (dressed in a tails suit and with Dave Vanian style white/black make up on) and literally walked on to the stage, plugged in and the drummer kicked the pair of us into action. Drosso came running up the stairs onto the stage a few seconds later. He was dressed in thigh high cavalier boots, a g string with his knackers hanging out, Sgt Pepper jacket and had a hollowed out teddy bears head over his head. We stretched out the first song for about 10 minutes. When we had finished the song Drosso reached behind his amp and grabbed a bucket he had stashed there earlier (I hadn't seen any of the prep work so this was all totally new to me). He then threw its contents straight over everyone in the front couple of rows. It was full of liver, fish guts and general entrails from the butcher shop. The crowd were not massively impressed and we spent an uncomfortable 30 more minutes playing total rubbish with Drosso generally abusing and taking the wee wee out of the crowd (all cardigans and chinese slippers) whilst they all glared at us waiting for us to finish. We reached the big climax and as we hit the last note Drosso triggered the 4 big flashbombs that he had set up (and not told anyone about) behind the gear at the back of the stage. It was like being on stage with Motley Crue! Except you don't get curtains at the back of the stage at a Crue gig. Which then caught fire and necessitated the evacuation of the venue.... Fortunately we didn't burn the whole place down. We just about escaped with our lives but were never invited back

Last night's gig.......the iconic Nottingham venue Rock City for Beat the Streets. It was flippin awesome......particularly as Bowie played there in 1997. Might be a bit of a come down playing the Dog and Duck next. Our 15 minutes of fame...well 30 minutes in fact

Hi Chaps, Following on from my post in Introductions, and asking about lightweight setups. Today an amp popped up on Facebook Marketplace only 10 minutes away from me in Lancaster. I had been looking at buying a new Markbass CMD 121P, but this was too good to resist. It's been gigged quite a bit, the cab was covered in white cat hair 😂, and it appears the cat liked to exercise it's claws in the cab covering. But it sounded great, works fine, and the price was right. A bit of de-hairing, trimming the plucks and a bit of cleaning and it came together nicely. I now have my first rig! Tomorrow, before noon, my first decent bass (vintage Precision) is arriving too! It feels like Christmas! I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has a similar setup, amp settings etc, as I'm going to have to get used to dialing this in. Cheers, Rob

This just popped into my head after reading some of the latest updates. Myself and @stingrayPete1977were at a local blues jam at one of my local bars. It wasn't great - no, seriously, it was terrible. We only used to go to get a drink and catch up (and inappropriately slap our way through Mustang Sally if the opportunity arose (it was always the closing song of the evening)). It would seem that there really was only a "stock set list" that was limited to the following songs. Tore Down Stormy Monday Hey Joe I Shot The Sheriff *generic blues noise with no vocalist. Mustang Sally Seriously, that was about it. Didn't help that there was literally only 2 or 3 vocalists - and they had a repertoire of 1 or 2 from the above There were some notable folk (for all the wrong reasons). They included some of my faves - organiser (bass player) who brought all the gear, dubious organisational skills and very short temper. Lets call him Tony. - harmonica player (who was played over absolutely everything) - a guy that would turn everything into reggae - and usually got up to play Hey Joe, just after the previous jammers had played it - drummer guy who wasn't a great player was terrible. He owned a massive drum kit. Think stadium rack kit with probably over ten toms... double kick drum set up... Lets call him Jim. - a guy that came down with different pedals, amps etc each week... played a Strat, and whatever he played through, it sounded like "him". Lets call him Willy. - a lady singer - lets call her Fearne. (Fearne is clearly with Jim but not with Jim if you ask either of them). Anyway, myself and Pete are having a drink in the "viewing area"... and an argument breaks out on stage where Tony and Jim are absolutely screaming and shouting at each. I can't really remember why - but I have the feeling it was over Fearne. Not that there was any romantic link or anything like that, I just think Tony was protective of singers (and lack of them) at his jam. Maybe Pete will remember better than I can. Anyway, the next sequence of events still come up it our conversations now and again to this day... Argument escalates and the the c word starts making its debut. Jim starts pulling on Tony's ponytail and that was the final straw for Tony. Tony reaches down and picks up the bass drum above his head, scattering Jims drums everywhere... and then throws it offstage. On it's journey earthwards, it flies past Willy's guitar (which is on a guitar stand off to the side of the front of the stage), clipping just the top E string, snapping it instantaneously. Guitar remains motionless on the stand. Willy of course jumps up into action and gets involved and the whole thing just erupts into chaos. Of course, myself and Pete did what everybody else would do in such situations, continue drinking having a little chuckle between ourselves. And before you say anything... (I appreciate that it may seem far fetched) that missing of the guitar and just clipping the top E string... lord only knows what chances of that would be. One half a mm the other way and the whole guitar would have been part of the action. Local amateur jams. Brilliant.

Latest additions

Buy a lined Fretless, then close your eyes. Hey Presto: Unlined Fretless!

I just heard this song on the radio and the bassline was so annoying I just had to vent my spleen, and what better place than here on BC? Anyone else got any examples of basslines that really get on your tits?

The aged burgundy one with the toggle switches is a ”normal” 2020 XJ-1T. V/V/T knob config. The switches adjust the mid and high frequency centres, respectively. Push/pull on the 1st volume knob goes from active/passive and the push/pull on the 2nd volume knob puts the pickups into series wiring. The gold one without the switches is a 2021 XJ-1T Lite with V/B/T knob config. The Lite models don’t have the preamp frequency switches but otherwise the preamp is the same. The bodies on the Lite models are apparently slimmed down slightly to help bring the weight down. The Gold Lite is bang on 9lbs, the Burgundy XJ is just under 10lbs. Both basses are made in Japan. Fit and finish is flawless! I’ve never tried the cheaper “XJ-Pro” series basses - none of the finish options took my fancy but by all accounts they were good basses. Discontinued now though…they didn’t last long!

After completely falling in love with my G&L CLF L-2000 I decided I'd like to try a few different styles and having sold a few basses recently, I wanted to try G&L's P Basses. After speaking to a few dealers I was able to secure a SB-1 and a LB-100 on approval. The SB-1 arrived earlier today. First impressions are, well, wow. Build quality is brilliant as expected, it weighs just over 8 and a half pounds and the Pickup is some thing else and it easily overpowers my Stingray 5. That said, it's very versatile and still retains that warm P Bass sound, just more of it. I was interested to see the body shape of the SB basses in person as they looked a bit incongruous to me, so a chance to compare one to my P basses was useful. You can definitely tell they're related and the difference is subtle (a bit like the Lakland DJ4 vs. Jazz Bass shape). It certainly looks right to me, if a little different. I don't even mind the headstock design too much! Playability is excellent and the whole bass is really top notch. From what I understand, the LB-100 is more of the traditional P Bass but I look forward to trying it when it arrives (hopefully) Wednesday. If it's anything like the SB-1 in terms of playability and build quality I may well be selling something else shortly!

Full rig for this evening in the boot of a mini. QSC K110, Sadowsky and Vong pedalboard, and Kala Ubass. Thumpy goodness and almost flute levels of cartage.

After some research and deep thinking I decided to build a cab based on the old B15 double baffle cabinets. It was a fun project and Im quite happy with the result. Maybe Ill make another and another and another... I used 18mm poplar plywood. A celestion bl15-300x driver. F2853817-D0AD-464F-9699-E634F06E1D10.heic C58BFCBF-7878-4511-86E8-9F310DD8A065.heic BCFDAEED-230C-4445-A0D0-F64BBB7D0015.heic 3FC65FB3-2FF4-4FB6-B238-4E6DD59E8198.heic B667B803-3423-4736-B17F-E1A8F24949F2.heic D76A355B-D18E-43B6-8D71-8A5F765657B4.heic

Rust in peace covers sorted

I made a scratchplate for My SB-2, got the bass unloved for only £120, best buy of my life!. Now also own a tribby Kiloton (same body as the SB-2) and a JB. JB is waaaaaaaay heavier than the other two. MFD pickups ...DAMMMMN. as with most of us on here i have other basses and coming back to the sb-2 is startling every time. Love 'em.

It's not for everyone, but the more you do it the more you get used to it. It's like anything where you push yourself out of your comfort zone. And very rewarding. The key is to remember that no one is expecting you to be note perfect, it's live music and unless you're absolutely useless, most people won't remember any duff moments.

Something along the lines of these outfits, but a bit extra:

I have the upmost respect for anyone who does dep gigs. I couldn't do it if my life depended on it. I can barely remember our own original songs.

I'd want money to be even seen with it.

Surely that's only built to play a single, particular Fleetwood Mac song?

Another own goal... I was in an originals band, the guitarist was also the vocalist, he wasn't convinced his vocals were the best so we thought we'd get someone in. The vocalist we chose had a great voice but we weren't sure it was right for the music, so a few gigs were booked as a tryout. By the time of the 'incident' I was getting fed up as the new vocalist would always turn up late after everything was setup and disappear as soon as we'd finish. We were playing at a small pub, the song in question had the lyric 'you call out my name' just before the middle 8, at which point I 'inadvertently' blurted out 'w*nker' at the top of my voice just as the band dynamics went quiet. The vocalist instantly turned around and came at me, I'm trying to fend him off with my bass whilst still playing, the band keep playing but have joined the audience in that they've turned around to face the debacle at the back of the stage and are laughing. I wasn't sure how long I could keep up my defence when the vocalist, in the spirit of the show must go on, went back the mic. After the show I expected more of the same but he did his usual disappearing act but this time for good, which did solve this issue of whether he was going to stay in the band. Of course, once the band realised he wasn't coming back he became the greatest vocalist ever and apparently it was all my fault we were now not going to reach the dizzying heights of fame!

Just to expand on this idea, how about the the theme from Jaws that speeds up as it approaches a detected person? 🦈

OK. Gap Year. Stick with it. It's good. This was a memorable gig for all the most cringe of reasons. So... this was down in Cornwall on a massive private estate in the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be for the wedding of the son of a Lord (I won't divulge names as he's quite trackable). Working through some of the events of the day - 1. We were asked to get changed in the servants quarters in the house. We were told that "Tarquin" would let us in and show us to the room where we can get changed. As the good lord told us - "Tarquin. Philippino bloke... but awfully nice. He'll show you the way." I don't think Tarquin was Tarquin's real name - and I don't know why a he would be anything but awfully nice... but there you go. 2. We went off to get changed and whilst in the toilets, a tin box was noticed on top of the back of the toilet cistern. It was inscribed with William and Cathrine. After some keen googling, I found out that it was a cake tin from the Royal Wedding. That was the first indication that these folks were connected as up until this name, we only had the name of the events organiser. For anybody interested, the tin looked like this: 3. We went through the hallway (on the way to our holding room with the hired help) and the place was full of the family with their more famous family members... including one who probably wasn't sweating in the photograph and a picture of the lord with Charlie boy. As the evening progressed, we realised that we were in the company of some quite notable people... and our "warm up" act (who was providing the music during pre dinner drinks) would appear to be somebody of pop royalty (I'm shocked that they didn't just get her band to play). Anyway, that's probably a story for another day... Carrying on... 4. The marquee was built onto a hillside - a platform had been built on stilts to have the marquee on the level - but give the infinity views out the side of the marquee. Pretty impressive stuff. This marquee was absolutely massive - with large lounging areas, separate bars, the main eating area, indoor fountains... just think of something completely over the top and multiply it by ten. The band area was a separate "surprise unveiling" - in that it looked like (from the inside of the marquee) it was just the side of the marquee... but it then opened up into a.. err.. nightclub in a marquee. So this brings us to our first notable incident. We were running on a generator - presumably the same one that was powering the whole of the marquee. There was a lot to power - and probably of note was the huge chandelier and hanging illuminated pinata (but more on that later). As we soundcheck, there was what I could only describe what felt and sounded like a bomb going off. The whole ground shook and the sound was just louder than anything I'd ever heard. Everything inside power wise, was dead. We went out to the generator was located, and there we found that the top of the generator had been blown clean off. Cue the electricians (whole team of them) trying to get phone signal to source another generator. To be fair, they sorted it pretty quickly. They'd got a make shift generator running and then another lorry turned up with whatever was needed to restore power. I had thought that would be the end of events... but turned out, that was only the start of the fun. 5. We went to the catering tent - and jeez, you have seen nothing like it on this planet... Curiously enough, despite the immense catering facilities, outside the marquee, there were two complete stoners (like, obviously stoned) cooking up some dubious looking meat in a dubious, patently unsafe oven, out in the open for all to see... with their rust bucket of a van parked next to them. Clearly there was something not quite right... so being a member of the band (which gives you the right to speak to folk, right?), I struck up a conversation. Turns out these chancers were cooking the meat for one of the main courses - which I seem to recall was something rare and oxen like. I asked them how they got the gig... and apparently, the client had been ringing around catering people to see if anybody knew how to cook this thing. It would seem nobody else would go near it... but this pair told me that they had said "yes, do it all the time, no problem". I looked at him... and he pre-empting me, he responded, "yes, we've never cooked it before, but I mean, how hard can it be?". You could see and feel the tension between the catering crew and the stoners... who by the end of the night couldn't stand due to their alcohol consumption. Hilarious. From a bystanders point of view. And no, I didn't partake in the food. Come to think of it though, I can't actually recall eating anything. Probably had a bag of crisps in the van. 6. We'd all sound checked and was waiting in the house ready for "the call" after the speeches. It was delayed... and delayed... and delayed. The speeches hadn't even happened... so I went out to investigate. Turns out that the best man had told the groom not to marry the bride whilst waiting at the altar as she was only after his money. She clearly was... just after the money. He - socially awkward, dweeby, pretty ugly (trying not to be too unkind here) guy... her, super model looks but not the err... supporting pedigree shall we say. It was clear who her guests were and who the grooms were. Anyway, turns out, one of the brides friends had overheard this and told the bride. Naturally, the bride went off the hook at the groom shortly after the matrimonial vows had been exchanged. Unbeknown to us, the whole day was running late as the bride and groom had vanished and spent the day arguing in the grounds. The wedding breakfast had mostly gone ahead without the bride and groom being present. 7. Eventually, about 11 o'clock (that's PM), the speeches happened. There had been some cooling off by this point and the best man got up to do his speech. Lets just say, he started the speech with (and I paraphrase here), "it all started as an unlucky chance meeting on a gap year in Ghana where the "happy" couple met. He then proceeded to rip into the bride. The father of the bride then ripped the mic out of the best mans drunken hands and kicked him out of the marquee. Then started another half hour of chaos and guest awkwardness. The father of the groom came across to me and apologised and said he would still try and make the first dance go ahead. 8. The first dance. Probably the most memorable first dance I have ever had the (dis)pleasure of seeing. About quarter to midnight, the "nightclub" was revealed. Bride and groom were dragged onto the dance floor (literally) and told to dance as they were causing embarrassment. (I found this so funny - like the most embarrassing thing for the family at this point was the reluctance to have a first dance?! ). We played "You're Too Good To Be True". I remember this sequence of events like they were only yesterday - a - band starts b - bride and groom do nothing c - singer prompts - "this is your time to shine x and y" d - nothing e - father of groom appears with a sword f - groom puts his hands awkwardly on brides hips g - bride removes grooms hands from her hips h - bride is standing there, groom is dancing in front of her like an awkward Alan Partridge. i - father of groom gives sword to groom j - father of groom whispers in groom ear k - groom jabs heart pinata with sword l - confetti falls on the happy couple, causing the bride to roll her eyes and storm off stage m - we finished song with groom just quivering in the middle of the dancefloor, the guests having remained absolutely quiet and motionless (even whilst the band was doing the baa daa baa daa!! bit...) n - the singer turns around and asks what we should do next, we just shrug - the dancefloor is now empty and some of the guests are dispersing o - father of groom comes over to band and mimics the hand to the neck movement (cut it there) p - he speaks to me - "you're only contracted to midnight and I dont think anybody is in the mood for music anyway" q - we start packing up at about 5 minutes to midnight in absolute silence. No music, no talking, nobody in the marquee was talking. I don't think the band spoke to each other until we were all back in the van. r - father of groom gives me an envelope "for our troubles". (I should have mentioned we had already been paid up front anyway... so I think this was embarrassment money) s- we drive out the venue, having packed up, past the bride and groom who were arguing at the gate which was at the perimeter of the field we were in. We wound down the window and thanked them before wishing them a very happy life together. So yeah. that was a memorable one. I've never been paid so much for 4 minutes of playing. (If you are wondering, my rate that night for playing was £150/minute)

The obvious Ikea-style solution is to flat-pack your basses. Just saying ...

I use a double sliding door wardrobe that we bought from John Lewis. The top shelf height in each half is perfect for standing my flight cases upright. On the left side I also keep my flight cased pedal board and 2x RH750 heads. On the right hand side I’m able to store both my 210 cabs under the shelf the basses stand on. The only modification I made was to use a spare shelf as reinforcement under the bass shelf in each side supported with 4 brackets each.

I wouldn't call them lightweight, but they don't feel excessively heavy to me either. My tobacco sunburst one comes in at around 9lb using the bathroom scales method, and although I've not weighed it, I'm pretty certain that my alpine white one will be about the same, but it's asleep in its case at the moment. One caveat is that I replaced the tuners with a set of Gotoh res-o-lite GB640 on each, which may have reduced the weight by a fraction. There's nothing wrong with the stock wilkinsons; the Gotohs look ultra cool and complete the 60s vibe for me. They are great basses and sound as good as they look.

I have the 12" combo with horn and its cray loud and punchy. I don't even bother taking out my full fat SVT and 410. You will be using this for years, its a great rig, good choice.

Your mum sounds like a wise woman.

Fender P Fender J Spector NS2 Steinberger XL Musicman Stingray Rickenbacker 4001 Gibson Thunderbird Wal Custom Pedulla fretless

Whatever I feel like on the day, night...when/whatever. Even if I wear a long sleeve shirt though, I always roll the sleeves up a couple of turns because I don't like my cuffs flapping against my bass...but then I always wear my shirts like that, even when I'm not playing.

Wilkes used to put 'percussive' plates on their fretless basses.

Will let it rip tonight at rehearsal, but at loud home volumes the result is… punchy. I love it!!!

If you ever want to hate on a bass player... give them a dep gig. "Yeah, just standard stuff, no sweat". Just don't tell them it's jazz standards.

I decided today that I'd fettle my old Godin fretless as I've not played it for a while due to the fact I had a few issues with it: 1. overpowering E string. 2. treble side slightly high at bridge. 3. bad static/crackle when adjusting the sliders. 4. intermittent fault on the output. Whipped the bridge/piezo out and someone has previously fitted a nasty shim... removed and that fixed 1 & 2. Took out the preamp / EQ and cleaned the slider tracks with anti-static spray and a cotton bud (very dirty)... fixed 3. Took off the output plate/jack and hey presto a chunk of tin foil trapped in between the contacts! No idea how that got in there or why but it isn't in any more. Glad I dived in and did that as the bass plays and sounds lovely. Moral of the story; don't put off till tomorrow!

That reminds me of gig we did in small pub in the 80s. There was no stage and we were just set up at one end of the room. Fairly early on in the set an oldish drunken punter was already on his feet dancing in the space in front of us, but he was gradually encroaching into our space. As he started get too close for comfort the guitarist gave me the nod, went forward got behind him and got on his knees. Meanwhile I was right in front of the guy mirroring some of his moves and he was loving it, right up until the point where I backed him up into the prone guitarist, and over he went. The rest of the audience could see what was coming and thought it was hilarious. Looking back I suppose we could have ended up injuring him but fortunately he was so drunk I don’t think he knew, or cared. It seemed like a good ruse at the time.

I was scrolling through my transcription list the other day because I thought I had already done this one but apparently not 😵. Here we have the complete performance of Jeff Berlin's 'Freight Train Shuffle' from his 1986 album, 'Pump It'. It's mostly quite playable although the reading is a challenge as it is all over the neck and that solo is a bit chopsy (is that a word?) to read cold. I will finish the title track later this week and then we have another 'full album' available. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/freight-train-shuffle-jeff-berlin/

There's the Ashdown Grail, which comes in short flavour. These were designed with Dan Lakin, so probably pretty darned good basses >> https://ashdownmusic.com/products/the-grail-short-scale

Which Danelectro models have you had experience with? I'm only familiar with longhorn but always thought it looked too fragile although I've never seen one in the flesh nor played one. Thanks Colonel, but unfortunately it looks like Bassassin's damming opinion has ruled that out already 😕 and that's before getting into the lack of knowledge, tools and inclination to undertake any major surgery such as routing due to pathological incompetence on my part! A mate of mine had one of the 34" scale J&D jazzes a few years ago and it was a fantastic thing to play, really comfortable and looked great too, it was the seafoam green one with black hardware. I think he may have upgraded the pickups but my opinion of it was it being a cracking bass. But I think I've got caught up in that I need to spend a lot of money to get something decent mentality which I know from experience isn't always the case. For example, I have one of the cheap and cheerful Ibanez Talman short scales and it is one of my favourite basses that I've ever played in more than 35 years. It looks like the unfortunate result of a Fender Jaguar having had a gang bang with several of the Mr. Men but it's a solid, well built and highly resonant bass, plus I love the chunky neck profile. It's had around £50 worth of upgrades to replace the hardware as the original fittings were low quality albeit functional, but then again this is a bass that only costs £150 new. But the flipside of that argument is that a more expensive bass will likely be good to go as is rather than require some tweaks and upgrades.

Oh, and forgot to say the moral of this particular story; the best bass to fend off an attack from an irate vocalist is of course... a Fender.

Nope. Low-end, plywood starter junk only suitable for dewy-eyed nostalgists to hang on the wall. I know of which I speak - my first bass in 1978 was one of these (same but with two sh!t pickups) and it damn near put me off playing at all. Now - if this came with a maple board I'd have bought one ages ago. £109: https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/J-D-Bass-guitar-JB-Mini-BK-Black/art-BAS0007167-000 Other colours are available but you'll have to wait 'til June for the pretty transparent blue.

Even if you don't like his music, James Blunt is one of the most entertaining people on twitter. There are comedians who don't deal with hecklers as well as he does.

Some time in 2006 I had a gig with the motown band I was in at a bar on site at RAF base in Northcote, NE London. A band that @Beedster stepped in to replace me after I moved on. It was a 20 minute drive from Shepherds Bush and I managed to get to the gig about half an hour before we went on. Everything under control. My girlfriend at the time even decided to tag along just to hear the band as well. So I started the unloading process...speakers...amp...cables....and... No 1979 Musicman Stingray. I turned to my gf and asked in slightly concerned tones Me: 'F***! Where's my bass?!' Her: 'You didn't pack it?' Me: 'You carried it out for me, remember? You were in the car when I closed the car boot so I assumed you packed it. Where did you leave it?!' Her: 'I left it leaning against the fence next to the car ready for you to put in the car.' Me: '!?*!!%#@!' There in followed a twenty minute mercy dash back to my flat only to find nothing outside. I frenetically searched the apartment and was about to give up when there was a knock at the door. I sloped down the stairs to find my Russian neighbour two doors down from me, holding my bass. Apparently he'd caught a shifty looking couple walking off with it. He pulled them up and they claimed someone had left it out for recycling but thankfully my neighbour knew it wasn't the kind of bass that someone recycles I nearly cried with relief but there was no time. Back in the car for another dash up the A40 back to the gig and I made it...ten minutes late, sweating like a pig but with bass in hand.

I’ve always liked the melodica, inspired really by Augustus Pablo but I’ve never got around to buying one, I’m watching a vintage one on eBay at the moment, I play a bit of piano so I’m hoping that will help although the melodica is in a different position, apart from that it’s only bass for me 🙂