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Afternoon all, Some of you may well remember my post from 2018 (I can't believe it's four years ago...) found here: Well, I finally created a follow-up and I'm rather pleased with it. If you're a precision bass type of guy (or girl) then this should be right up your rue. Let me know what you all think - constructive criticism welcomed of course.... This will probably end up as a run of prints as before, if there's enough interest that is. Cheers!

Mike Lull 54P in a fetching shade of seafoam green. Formerly of @walshyand @busccini, now residing chez Clarky and had its first gig last night

Played at a pub in Brighton last night, short set of original material. Really well organised evening, PA and back line provided. Bass amp was a small Ampeg which was very snarly and a bit underpowered but lovely being able to turn up with just my bass. The band on before us were very impressive, all younger than my kids 😬 After our set a punter came over and said it was good to see us still playing “at our age”. I’m not 60 for another few months!

It was indeed co-designed with the company that BMW also use, and yes the first Bongo basses were offered in colours that referred to those offered by BMW at the time. ( To be fair, over the years I've had a fair few basses that seemed to have been co-designed with whoever came up with the Austin Allegro, but that's a whole other story...😟)

Just got in from my latest, an after-show gig at The Bear in Northampton. On at 1am - yes you read that right - for a 45min set. Made a change to be leaving home at 10pm to go to a gig. Went well, played well and a good crowd who had poured out of The Roadmender at 12:30. Given the late hour and potential drunkenness of the crowd I used my Mex Precision rather than US, and it was fine, sounded good and stayed in tune nicely. Only downside was M1 J15 was closed so had a bit of BBC a detour to get back on it via Milton Keynes. So 2 gigs in with this band now and am really enjoying it.

The thrill of audience enthusiasm for something you've created is quite powerful.

@AndyTravis well having tried the bass I got for Andy I just had to get one and as luck had it a bassist in Co Durham had 2 and this tangerine one was going begging so here she is..

Ok I’ll whip this bad boy out. My 1963 Fender P in Lake Placid Blue. It absolutely sings💙

Converted my 4003s5 into a 4000s5 (or probably a 4000/5 given the 4000 was always unbound?) and am very happy with the result. Still has the very effective and great sounding (but stupid looking) Dorito pickup but now looks a lot cooler. Also I like resting my hand on a pickup cover. Just posting this in case anyone has been put off the new 5 string Rick because of the weird look.

Pictures of the next stages.

Gotta love an @Andyjr1515 build thread. Always lots to learn!

I guess this is related to a question posed by someone I know on Facebook recently: ‘do you consider yourself an artist or an entertainer?’ I started off by playing original music with various bands, I then began playing in covers bands, and left original music behind. I did stints on cruise ships, and played in theatre pit bands. It was during my music degree course - that I’d enrolled on to get better at playing covers - that I realised I much preferred creating original music. Apart from the occasional jazz gig, it’s all I do now. I’ve moved into teaching music, I’m currently training to be a lecturer in music at BCU. I simply get far more pleasure and a greater sense of achievement from creating something original than I ever did playing sex on fire at Rob and Julie’s wedding reception. The only thing I would like to do more of from my past life, is musical theatre, I really did enjoy that. We’re all different though, as long as you derive pleasure from your musical pursuits, that’s all that matters.

Even cheap tuners can be improved and it's realy easy on Open Types. I take 'em apart and give the worms 'n cogs a wire woolin' to remove any rough edges of plating... reassemble with a dab of coppa slip, which is a little abrasive and give em a few good turns, to help em mesh. then clean that off and apply a dab of vaseline. Quick 5 min job on each machine head can realy improve the feel. Sealed types get a little squirt of spray grease in the tuner stem shaft gap... And a lot of tuning issues can be down to sticky nuts!.. So some pencil lead applied to the nut slots...

I'm not going to go into specifics, but last weekend I was asked whether I'd like to take up bass duties in a band fronted by someone from a band I adored in the 80s/90s. I saw them maybe a dozen times...Hammersmith Odeon was probably the biggest place, but they played bigger. They were on TV a lot, loads of albums/singles. I'm a little conflicted here, on the one side there's the positives (playing, creating etc.), on the negative it's two hours each way to the studio (other side of London from me), I'm not entirely sure what the timetable is (gigging/recording), so I need to firm this stuff up. I'm not even sure I want to do another band.

Doug Keyser from Watchtower. That band forged an entirely unique sound in the early 80's and he was the heart of it. At ease with immensely technical material, he knew the bass was keeping it grounded and moving. I recall seeing a picture of him playing a G&L SB2 around the time of Control And Resistance. He was a massive influence on almost every Metal band who veered towards a more adventurous approach to songwriting in the late 80's, in particular the likes of Roger Patterson and Tony Choy.

There is a loft space above my garage so when I sorted the workshop I put a reasonable sized loft hatch in. It's really handy when it drops down... And, with the door open today with it being so sunny, I had a visitor

That all sounds good then..... my days of clanking the strings like JJ Burnel are over, so it seems they'll be fine. I love the feel and tone, even smoother than TI flats, but still with enough brightness to cut through. My mate in the record shop downstairs said it sounded fantastic through the ceiling.

Looks good. I have your previous prints on my wall! How about some women? Suzie quatro, Carol Kaye?

I did it the other way round, put my water in a Newqey Brown bottle to try and look more down wid it

I've heard that sort of attitude can get you banned from here!

If on stage in a touring musical show make your Gin and tonic in a sparkling water bottle. Then you look healthy and professional.

The hardest thing is coming up with original music that is so good that other lesser mortals want to do covers of it. Playing original material is one thing. Playing original material that has genuine widespread appeal to people other than those that created it is another matter entirely. It's the musical equivalent of making it as a Premier League footballer. Many are called but few are chosen. I used to love creating bass parts when I played in bands doing original material and imminently sharing our genius with the rest of the world. Now that I am of an age where I have come to terms with the idea that the world might have to miss out I really enjoy playing covers. Playing covers can really bring your playing on because you have a template in the original version that you have to recreate effectively. It can also be a creative process if you are doing a version of the song rather than staying faithful to the original. So in short, I really enjoy playing both!🙂

In my original stint playing in bands, it was all originals bands (apart from one Ramones trib who did a handful of gigs). That was 'pre-children'. When the kids got older, I started doing live music again... first open mics (mix of covers and originals) then formed a covers band. Main reason for covers was easier to get gigs... I didn't think there was any option for the older musician to get originals gigs. However I have since seen from some BC members that it is in fact possible. I have an outlet for original music in home recording. To answer the OP question... for me originals are easier. I consider myself quite able to write songs or parts for songs, but I don't have a great ear or chops so not good out copying what someone else is doing. Although there's lots of help out there now for covers.... tab, vids etc so my ears are less of an issue.

I've never played originals and have never had the urge. I get a great deal of pleasure from learning new songs and playing them to an audience. I've also never understood the musical snobbery that some people have regarding playing covers vs originals. After all the Beatles, Stones, Chili Peppers all played covers. It's all music after all. No one gets their panties in a twist when an orchestra "covers" some long dead composers music do they?

I think more work goes into writing and rehearsing an original set than regurgitating a selection of music which already exists. I've played in both original and cover bands, in the last 30+ years. My stints in cover bands were always when standing in, helping out mates with cover bands while they searched for replacement members. I don't find playing covers stimulating at all. The money helps but there is no artistic fulfilment in it, for me at least. I appreciate how pretentious this sounds. I much prefer the attention to detail of originals and am happy to live or die on the strength of our music. My attitude is that if we're happy to cut one of our songs from the set to make space for a song written by someone else, then we need to write better music. The type of music I tend to play tends to be quite extreme - of quite selective appeal, if I may - so the adulation of punters is never something I ever became accustomed to and never feel it's missing in my life 😉 I'd rather play to a largely empty room and be met with indifference, but be proud of the music, than play Sweet Caroline to a bunch of singing and dancing oul ones. The creative process is the where the satisfaction lies, for me. It's definitely not where the money is, however.

I prefer creating to reproducing.

Put a set of Gotoh Resolite GB640 tuning keys on any bass and I would be very surprised if you couldn't notice a difference. They are the most accurate, silky smooth tuning keys I've ever had the pleasure of using. The GB350's are ace as well. Rock solid and highly recommended.

These are lovely basses. I got the orange one that was doing the rounds recently; love the neck on it, weight is just right, balanced perfectly. Please excuse the kids toys and general chaos!

Looks nice stuff Today was a bit of experimenting. Because we are leaving a full overhang on the neck, there wasn't a lot of offcut - just the two ends I used to screw the board to the radiussing jig. Happily, I'd already radiused one of the ends when I was checking out how well the double sided tape worked. So I tried my conventional fretting technique. Started with a light file of the slot edges with a triangular needle file: Then, after detanging the ends, ran a teeny bead of titebond along the tangs followed by a whack both sides and a whack in the middle with my fretting hammer: The glue squeeze-out doubles as an indicator of whether the fret is fully seated. If not, it is a few more whacks! Then I clamp a radius block on while I (usually) move on to the next slot: Looks OK to me...

Three that immediately spring to mind are Gabe Nelson (Cake), Stuart Morrow (New Model Army) and Billy Gould (Faith No More). Stuart Morrow is absolutely fantastic.

https://blog.music-man.com/featured-category/the-history-of-the-bongo-bass-a-collaboration-with-bmws-designworks/

Great to see you back up and running again, the Telebass is always on hand as my practice tool and the Fretless gets its first gig of the year in a couple of weeks, looking forward to see how Franks turns out .

If my experience (with my own daughter) is anything to go by, the most important factor is how enthusiastic she is about actually picking up the bass and playing it. Ideally you need a bass that SHE thinks looks cool and sounds great, and that SHE feels comfortable playing. And seeing as there's at least a 50/50 chance that she'll lose interest after a while, you need a bass that won't lose too much value over a few months, so deffo buy pre-owned. 🙄

The bloke who lives opposite my mum has one of those cars in a metallic emerald green colour. Very 1970s. That would also make a great colour for a Bongo.

When the band learn a new song, make it very clear which version of it you're learning. Nothing worse than you learning the radio-edit single version, and your drummist learning the DJ Bongo acid house drug induced trance edit.

I think it’s harder to win over an audience with original material, even if they’re into the style you play.

I do both. I find covers harder, as people can tell when you make mistakes. With originals I can always feign that I 'meant it' 😀

Set aside a few hours in a village hall with 'not great' acoustics and do a 'tech session' together. We did this when we got a Behringer digital mixer and it really helped us learn how to use all the functions. Makes sound checking in normal venues a breeze now.

Getting there!