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Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas V courtesy of Andertons

Two Wal mk1’s. The fretless in particular is very special to me. Bought for my 21st in 1983 by my Dad, who unfortunately passed away just two months later. Obvious sentimental value but the fact that it’s a truly wonderful thing helps immensely. I’m 60 this year and this bass feels and plays as good if not better that it did 38yrs ago.

Clever playing. In fact he's excellent and it's just an experiment, so i'm not gonna slag him. I cant see me bothering though

Love this. Her voice is fantastic.

He doesn't trigger me. I just think he's a reprehensible prîck.

Picked this up today for a very modest sum of money. Didn’t go to buy it, it just kinda happened and was added to a deal. I must say, even with crappy old strings on it sure sounds nice!

… so I’m going to consolidate my many boards into a ‘Home only’ board for looping stuff etc and a ‘live board’ each for church and then Funk/Motown stuff. Just picked up a used Pedaltrain JR Max for a great price also 👍🏼. My current crop: … the new board: … and what it’ll hopefully look like with one more pedal purchase (Fredric Effects BugCrusher at some point):

My solution was to stop trying to use Jazz basses. Sorry.

People generally don't like the success of others. It's quite an ugly human trait really.

Wow. Off to sulkily pluck “another one bites the dust” and pretend I didn’t hear that acrobatic madness.

Really enjoyable! An enclosed, heated rooftop bar "battle of the bands" in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We were the old guys playing with a bunch of much younger bands. Our singer entered us in the contest on a lark. We played rings around the other bands and then the judges chose the band that had three very attractive young women in it. So it goes!! It doesn't matter; We had a lot of fun. The venue's management and staff, the sound crew, the video crew and, especially, the members of other bands were all really, really nice with no exceptions. It was a very fun crowd and a nice scene to fall into. Hopefully we'll play with some of these folks again.

I drove down to Andertons this morning rather than Guitarguitar as they seemed to have more choice. I tried the Charvel first it it was lovely. It sounded good, felt good and looked good. I tried a Sire V7 after that and it was fine but the Charvel had turned my head. I was interested in trying a fender Player Plus but they didn't have any in the little bass room. There were some Dingwalls but my missus would have killed me if I'd spent that much. I'm not a great fan of Ibanez stuff so I didn't bother with the Ibanez 5 string they had. So I bought the Charvel. My first impressions with the world of 5 strings are: I like having 2 octaves right there without having to run down to the dusty end. The B string doesn't sound as good as the other strings, though it doesn't sound bad. I will try some of the ideas re strings that @TheLowDown suggested but I have just brought it home and started noodling, I haven't set it up yet.

Take the Jack socket out, bend the pins in. 2 screws, 30 second and job done. Better than waiting days, or even weeks for a new bass that might have the same problem.

Ah, but if you don’t like Stadium Arcadium, you don’t like Red Hot Chili Peppers!

The new family portrait, with the newest member on the far left.

That screams Lace Helix bass to me Or am I missing something here?

Or not. Just watch. It's compelling. I suppose this experiment - with a bit if jiggery-pocket - would apply to any stringed instrument that requires pickups.

Sanding's less likely to damage the lacquer on the headstock sides, although it's more time consuming. Mask off bits you're not sanding so they don't get scratched. Re-lacquering is straightforward using decent rattlecan spray, although again, it's time-consuming - you have to build up lots of thin coats, (I'd say at least 10) allowing drying between each. Then leave it 10 days to a fortnight to cure before using something like T-Cut to flat the lacquer & get a proper gloss. Also bear in mind that the wood under the headstock paint may well be paler than the fretboard if they've cheated a bit with the roasted neck!

Whelkome home. Peters and Lee

First dibs if you wish to move it on please 😍

I'm not big on the club thing, but I've owned three Ibanez Riadster basses; back in the 80' an original Roadster (happy memories), then another one (awful) and I picked up one as a project (neck, body, bridge, machines) last year. It's had a stripback and respray, new guts. It's wired into the switch and then the volume, so three of the knobs are just there to fill the holes. Sounds fine to my ears.

Well, I picked it up earlier and just having a mooch around and looking at the functionality at the moment. First impressions of the unit itself are good - really solidly made and looks / feels quality. I was worried it might be really plasticky against the metal housing of the HX units but it appears robust enough to withstand some abuse. Touchscreen is great and will no doubt make navigation much more focussed. It’s lighter and more slimline than I anticipated and it think it’s going to be a great tool to have at my feet and for dealing with the things I’m going to need it for. I’ll have a play through it tomorrow but just want to learn the menus first.

The sound of the prawn cocktail starter was louder than the band.

Yes, it is just a bit of fun and, from a philosophical perspective, it is crucial that some people break the rules as there would not be the need for a rule without any rule breaking otherwise. Breaking the rule is a requirement for the rule to exist in the first place. Think about it.

The Wanted section in the Marketplace is what you're after: https://www.basschat.co.uk/forum/22-items-wanted-no-trades/

Nige is one of my FB friends too. We chat occasionally. I wish I lived nearer That London so I could go see his band. Another legendary name is Major Minor. He wasn't here all that long but his contribution was amazing... his awesome 'Boot Camp' series is one of the best learning resources I have ever seen.

One million posts in Off Topic already?! Clearly some of you have nothing better to do.

Nope, I’m good. there’s a blue Spector in the marketplace and I’m keeping my wallet shut - now that’s dedication

I bought Mother's Milk when it came out, and Fishbone's - Truth and Soul came out around the same time. By comparison, the Chilli Peppers just sounded like a pale imitation, with shouty tuneless vocals over slap lines with nothing of interest to say. Hearing Anthony Kiedis trying to sing after all these years is quite painful.

And on things KC, here's a short of Gizmodrome doing Elephant Talk. Mark King tapping away! https://youtu.be/Hl1OrgFh2EU

You are entitled to your opinion and I thank you for pointing out that your contribution is an opinion. Can I offer some additional entries? I think that side to side adjustment built into saddles is a reasonable improvement - either by having the saddle on a thread like the Schaller 3D bridge or a sliding, lockable arrangement like the Hipshot A style. Also, G&L's Saddle Lock bridge is a good thing - set the saddles for intonation then lock them in place with the grub screw - kind of makes the grooves you speak of unnecessary. Also the rounded sides to that bridge make palm muting very comfortable. There are more "out there" ideas that I respect, like the "wedge" bridge on the Gibson Victory bass which instead of having two grub screws through the saddle for height adjustment had the saddle move against an opposing wedge shape - move the wedge back/forward and it lifts/lowers the saddle as it pushes against it or moves away from it. I always thought that was pretty clever.

I think the expression is 'argument against', unless you're click baiting in which case I offer you the raspberry.

Too many to mention. Many, many pro players are far more able than you would realise from listening to what they do with the bands they make their names with. A few are mentioned above. There are countless others. A question. You are offered the bass chair in a successful outfit, playing relatively simple music that is massively popular. You can pretty well play the stuff in your sleep. Do you: 1. Say "Yes, please" and play the music to the best of your ability, enjoy the experience, fame and travel, etc, live in a nice house, drive a nice car (or cars), use the freedom from having to work 24/7 just to survive to play the music that really floats your boat in your spare time (not needing to worry whether anyone likes it or if it will sell), spend plenty of time with your family and give them the life you want them to have and retire to live in comfort after a relatively short working life? 2. Say "No thanks. It's not enough of a challenge" and continue to plug away for 50+ hours a week at the day job (which you can't stand, but, hey, we've all got to survive) whilst juggling your time to fit your musical endeavours around it, turn up at work feeling like cr@p because you got home at 4 am from last night's gig, squeeze practice and rehearsal into what little spare time you have, use up all your annual leave to do the odd bit of "touring" where you play to small numbers of people who think it's a shame you aren't better known and appreciated, worry about the bills and argue with your partner because the kids (who you don't see nearly as much as you should or would like to) need stuff you can't afford because you've just bought that expensive gear you have to have and work until you drop? I know which option I'd have gone for had I been offered the choice.

I'd never get rid of my GB Spitfire.

This was me in the late 80s 😁

I recall hearing on a podcast a while back that a player like Marcus Miller doesn’t get the majority of his work because of his brilliant chops but because he turns up on time, is nice to people and plays only the notes the song demands.

My big breakthrough with playing fast for extended periods came when I realised that if I turned the amp up I could just brush the strings with my fingertips so I'm hitting the top of the string with much less force than my previous techinque where I was plucking the side of the string. If that makes any sense.