Leaderboard

A few finishing touches, mics, effects, wall hangers, pictures, WiFi, fridge, kettle etc. Had a proper loud mini-practice today, purposefully to hear what the volume will be like at the house 200ft away - with the windows and doors to the studio closed, and if you then stand outside the back door of my house, you can barely hear anything - if you're in the house with the doors closed you can't hear it at all. Good for the neighbours! Inside the room it is absolutely deafening at the 'test' volume we played at, we won't play at that volume during usual practice, but it is good to know that we can play VERY loud and still not bother the neighbours at all! We now have exceptionally strong WiFi down there too thanks to a WiFi powerline adapter (a fantastic bit of kit!) You plug one adapter into a wall socket by your router and connect it to the router with a ethernet cable, then the second adapter (which transmits WiFi) plugs into a wall socket in the studio, it uses the 16mm power supply we have moled underground to carry internet to the studio and then the adapter in the studio transmits the WiFi via the plug in adapter. Cost me just under £90 for the set up include a 5 way ethernet port that I've connected to the router. So now the RING alarm system is working, as is chromecast for the TV and as are the WiFi enabled radiators! Basically, that's it 100% done. 😁 Not bad considering we broke ground 8 weeks ago!

Rather than piggybacking onto the threads of others, I thought I really ought to create my own about my own musical journey. For bass, I'm in the local Rock School franchise playing with the adult learners group. I have a lesson one week and the jam session alternate weeks. Bit of a hiatus with lessons due to tutor being on paternity leave... but he's back this week. I already know all about GAS - you're talking to someone who is into astronomy, hi-fi, photography... before we get to music and I have two viols, 2 cellos, 4 saxes, and currently 4 (soon to be 5) basses... I've been able to read music (bass and treble clef) since I was about 12. The viols mean I have to read alto and octave treble clef; cello means I have to read tenor clef as well.I've got G6 theory and I'd like to get G8 done. I started singing lessons in my 30s and have sung in various sizes of choir since then. I have performed in probably several hundred concerts over the years. Some have been major concerts in big concert halls. I've performed at Philharmonic Hall (Liverpool), Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Royal Albert Hall (London). I've also sung in about two dozen of the UK's cathedrals. I'm not in a choir at the moment as I'm retraining to sing tenor instead of baritone - I hope to join a group in the autumn. I started cello and sax in 2011. I joined local community music groups straightaway as I know how important playing with others is. I'm working on G6 for sax and my teacher says I'm around G7 on cello. Currently, I play cello in two orchestras. For sax I'm struggling to find a wind band near enough that meets on a usuable day that doesn't conflict with other things. I do play sax in a small ensemble which I run, but it only meets once a month. Although I bought my Fender back in 2016, I really struggled to find a teacher I got on with and it was only just before lockdown hit that I found someone I got on with. It's not that I'm difficult (honest! 🤣) but a lot of people who put themselves out to teach beginner bass players find I start asking questions they can't answer... The pic is me and my cello a couple of weeks ago at my first concert since late 2019... The orchestral part of the programme was the suite from Peer Gynt (Grieg) and a medley from Lady be Good (Gershwin). A bit different from the Blitzkrieg Bop at Rock School...

This is "Carrie" my 82 JV Squire Jazz in Olympic white. I've owned this bass for 29 years,and it literally been around the world with me. When I was at Music college in Newcastle back in 1993 I used to pass a little second hand guitar shop in the West End. One day I was passing and looked in the window and saw this absolutely gorgeous bass, with its white/tortoise combo, and I had to try it. So I went in an plugged it in, and instantly fell in love. I bartered a deal to swap it for a Hohner fretless bass and an MIJ Fender Stratocaster, with £15 my way (the bass was £160 😂) I went in the following day with my instruments and SHOCK HORROR!! The owner sold it to someone else for cash 😡🤬 so I had to carry two basses and a guitar with me all day. I was currently using an Ibanez Musician so not the end of the world. Well about 4/5 months later, I'm walking past and that Bass is in the window again, only this time it's been absolutely butchered. The Tort scratchplate had been replaced with a cheap almost home made white one, and worse still the lovely original Squire logo had been sanded off, leaving a horrible piece of ruined finish where the owner tried to put a fender sticker🙄 but it was the same bass. I went in and did a deal (£120) and it was mine, I fell deeply in love with it. I had the Bass Doc in Newcastle source an old tortoise Pick Guard and he put a 60s fender logo on and refinished the headstock (couldn't get an original Squire logo). I foolishly in my younger days,modded it,in my attempts to sound more like Marcus Miller 😂🤣 so had a badass bridge and EMGS in for a while,as well as a few different preamps. I foolishly traded the original bridge and pickups and tuners. I fairly recently restored this back to stock, with a CTS jazz loom/Gotoh reliced vintage bridge and Gotoh lollipops. I also had Nordstrand NP4's added years ago. I try not to use it so much now, due to sentimental value, but this bass,is very much a big part of me and I'll never sell it, every scratch/ding was put on by me. I'm considering having it refinished for my 50th in a couple of years,with a matched headstock 😁

There's a band booked in to our local venue who play the music of Red Hot Chilli Peppers on bagpipes. I have two opinions on that, one controversial and one not. Red Hot Chilli Peppers haven't made a good song since blood sugar sex magic Bagpipes cannot improve any music or event or situation. Any situation where a bagpipe is playing could be improved by removing the bagpipe. My mates bagpipes were blown up by the bomb squad after he left them in the centre of Bath one night while drunk. Some say it was the best sound they ever made.

The Definitive Guide To The Doctor Who Theme Music. https://www.dwtheme.com/ There is a menu on the page top left, I had to hit page refresh to replay some of the embedded samples on Firefox browser, of course the bass parts are the coolest. It is good that Delia Derbyshire finally got credit for this creation.

@Beedster Inevitably it has ended up at my gaff, thanks to @alyctes Should have bought it in the first place. Unlined ebony P width neck, zenith… 😂😂

It's not about technical ability, it's his note choices and phrasing, and often melodic basslines which could define the harmony.

Joni Mitchell's voice irritates the beJesus out of me.

Introduction I've been playing at playing bass for a few years, but recently kicked it up a notch and moved from UBASS to my current MCR-1 Short Scale. I really like it ... but ... there are some things I would like to be different ... none of them can be achieved by modding Ponty so I started looking for a bass that ticked my boxes; which are: Short overall length (33 inches or less). I play in a ukulele band and I do not want my bass to appear out of place (Does my bass look big in this band?) Plus a smaller bass is lighter (I've a bad back), easier to handle/transport and probably less dangerous to my band mates ... 5 Strings - Specifically a BEADG tuning. Hmmm ... to avoid the low B feeling/sounding like a piece of wet spaghetti it seems that a scale scale length of 31 inches or more is needed (Looking at various high quality short scale bass makers e.g. Birdsong) ... but how to fit that in a 33 inch bass? Headless 0 fret Having searched a lot I could not find anyone brilliant (insane!?) enough to be making this kind of thing and so the EBB5 Eclectic - design draws on ideas from all over Bespoke - custom build B - bass guitar 5 - 5 strings She shall be called Flo (It's a tide thing). And this will be her story ... S'manth edit: Building Flo turned into a building protoype build of Twiggy (5 string, fretless made from a 2x4 I happened to have lying around). After a delightful outcome I'm about to embark on Flo, learning from my mistakes and some successes with Twiggy ... new build diary here Flo - A second generation EBB5 bass

Hi guys, I have a second Jaydee on order... will confirm the model but it will be fully binded & sea foam green pearl colour. A few thoughts on my first Jaydee that i received in January: Being a Mark King fan since the first time i saw Level 42 on Top Of The Pops in the 80s, I always desired that distinctive Jaydee look & sound through out the nearly 30 years i have been playing bass now. So 3 years ago i put in an order for a blue series 3 Jaydee.. yep 3 years! When the bass arrived the first thing i notice was the beautiful craftsmanship & attention to detail, the construction was flawless. The neck was solid and super stable, so much so that i could get the most ridiculously low action. The paintwork was gorgeous, it actually changes colour depending how the light hits it, I would definitely recommend a pearl style colour if you like this effect. The negatives: Picking up the bass i did notice at first that it seemed a little heavier than my other basses which are all chosen for their lightness. This did bug me a bit (more on this later). On playing the bass for the first time sitting down, I found it a bit weird to balance on my knee as the shape of the contour pushes the bass backwards compared to say a Fender sitting position. Also, generally playing the bass after playing Fender Jazz basses for years, felt a bit strange, I couldn't get used to the tone controls, and the tone wasn't like my Jazz bass ...... 3 months later, negatives turn into positives: I soon got use to the slight weight increase, since lock down i had done virtually no exercise, after a few barbell curls I stopped to even noticing the slight weight difference. I soon got used to the shape of the bass in a sitting position, i experimented positioning the bass in between my legs (it actually helps your right hand finger style technique in the position) but also in my normal - resting just on my right leg position. One thing that has surprised me is how amazing these basses play and sound but - it didn't happen out of the base case, it took a few months to get use to the Jaydee sound and playability. Now, I can't even play as fast or articulate on my Jazz bass! Also, Jaydee basses are meant to be played mostly with the back pickup on, yep even for slap! But if you select both pickups you can get that Marcus Miller smooth slap sound as well. Also, It can handle an amazing Jaco style growling mid tone, perfect for staccato funk or reeling off bebop licks. By far this is my favourite bass I have owned, and iv'e owned quite a few. To conclude, my experience with Jaydee basses is that they are really professional basses for pro bass players. You have to make a few adjustments if you're coming from a Fender style instrument & probably need to play it in for a few weeks / months but once you do there's no looking back! I'd love to hear your similar stories & thoughts on your Jaydee bass experiences.

Absolutely this ^. I can't be doing with any nonsense about 'real players' who 'just know' where to place their fingers. Just because such people may exist doesn't mean that I must copy them. If I thought like that then (God help us all, will no one think of the children?) I'd have to learn to slap, tap and sweep and my bass would become just another novelty act. Incidentally, I suspect there are far fewer of these people than most believe. Visiting one of the country's top DB luthiers to get some work done on a bass, I noticed the orchestral DBs arrayed in a row waiting for set-ups and other maintenance. Most had delicate pencil marks where I use Tippex, but the idea was the same ... if your initial note is close enough to what you wanted then you can get away with it. Most of the time.

Shaking The Trio - Peter Gabriel

I couldn`t give a toss who Carly Simon is singing about in the song "Your so vain."

Colour Complete Finally got it done, sanded back the black, two red stains, a metallic grain filler, some wipe on lacquer and we'll call it good. I am very happy with the deepness of the red and the way it shines in a strong light. Just got to let it all cure now . . . . Colour Complete

Headless basses are brilliant. Cut the weight by about a kilo, bass balances better, tuning is more stable, you don't put the headstock through the light fittings every time you take it on and off, and you only stick the end of it in the singer's ear if you really mean to. And they should have at least five strings, four strings are rubbish. The fact that Fender have never made a five-string headless bass is evidence that they are a really good idea.

The ACGs are gorgeous ... as are those that @Andyjr1515 creates ... and the ones I've seen that @Jabba_the_gut made are fab! I like to think Flo will have some ... interesting features ... I'm trying to put together a visual design and for insights from those who done it before! S'manth x

I'm not sure if this is strictly classified as a musical opinion, but I don't like headless basses or guitars. They just don't look right.

It's due to the nature of my voice - not something you would usually do. When I started having lessons back in the early 90s I was told I was a light baritone. I've always been able to hit tops Ds, Es quite hard and no real problems getting to F and F#. My voice was reasonably resonant down to the C on the 2nd space of the bass clef, and even OK down to A, by bottom F#/F we're on or off with no control over them. If I did intensive singing like a week's summer school, I'd be able to sing down to Eb. If I did a music workshop and got asked to dep as a 2nd tenor (baritones often are) my voice would tire quickly. In 2019 I had an assessment on a specialist course with a well-known vocal coach that trains opera singers. He put me through a lot of exercises and told me that baritones don't sing Ds and Es the way I do, nor F, F#, G, G#.... he had me singing up to top C and told me I was really a 1st tenor. So, why did I tire trying to sing the lower 2nd tenor part? Because I was trying to sing it as a baritone and 'push' with too much weight in the voice and this brings in all sorts of muscles and locks on the voice which tire it. Why was I assessed as a baritone? Men's voices don't fully settle until around age 35 and I was 33 and my voice was probably had not completely settled. So I found a local (well 35 miles away) teacher. He's an operatic tenor, who originally trained as a baritone at RNCM and encountered the same issue as me, just rather younger as he's only in his 40s now. So i've been learning to unlock my upper voice and to 'let go' of the way I used to sing as a baritone. It involves getting rid of a lot of learnt involuntary habits.

Thank You (forlettime be mice elf) - sly and the family stone

Very good points there, I`m in agreement, whilst I`d say my fave genres are punk & rock there`s a good amount amongst those that I`m not keen on, and similarly many of my fave songs are from neither, so I`d say really I`m a fan of songs, irrespective of genre.

Excellent. Watching with interest Also, @Jabba_the_gut has some great experience at getting crazy short bass strings not feeling or sounding like a piece of wet spaghetti. Hopefully he'll drop by from time to time

Heinz Baked Beans ～ The Who?

Trampa.mp4 Working sufficiently well for band practice Wednesday, tho I still need to print a bottom cover for the enclosure before then and get it Velcroed to my pedalboard (That's why I had to hold it down for the video). The item in the top right is a USB battery bank that is powering the Trampa; I'd like to be able to drive the Ant, the Stomp and Trampa using one of these so I am not tied to mains power. Next At 21s in the video the name of the switch pressed shows up well. This is the type of label I want displayed adjacent to every switch in a scribble strip fashion (Like my mockup image) This will require a change to the wiring to add in the missing OLED panels as well as getting the software to support them. Add in a battery charging module as well as an internal battery. The LEDs work (as can be seen during startup) however I cannot see how to configure them in the way I want at present; software modification required. The Pedalino s/w that Trampa is currently running, whilst really rather cool, has some features I am unlikely to ever need and is lacking some features I do. As I mentioned before, I have a couple of other projects in mind that will allow tighter integration with the Stomp (Like HX Edit can); I'm playing with Patchbox with a view to building some sort of synth, recorder, looper, drum machine, sound F/X thing and it would be nice from a design perspective to have a uniform user interface across all of these modules. As such I am likely to develop new software to run Trampa and its siblings.

We were just finishing my first ever gig, at a youth club, and the singer said, "We'd now like to do the last number". All the lights came on and the caretaker was walking up the room saying, "I wouldn't bother mate. They've all gone home!".

This Pedulla MVP-5 has been my #1 since I received it in 2014. It just sits well on my hands. Excellent craftsmanship! 👍

John Entwistle again. Let's just say the whole of 'The Real Me' is a bass solo. 😉 I know, I know!

To be fair, If I was in a trench and heard a bagpipe it would terrify me, you would think. if they can inflict that on their own WTF will they do to me if they catch me? But joking aside, the bravery to go over the top with bagpipes, knowing the positive difference it will make, and knowing you will be target number 1 is beyond belief. I could never have enough respect for those brave lads who did that.

I am pleasantly surprised at the responses, I half expected ridicule but there are some great contributions. Thank you.

Not exactly…

Just happened upon a few videos of a very modded JMJ. Me likey!

Thanks. I will have look / play as regards to your questions. I played the Jaguar properly for the first time on Sunday. It was a little weird to begin with adjusting to the finger positions of a shorty, but soon I was really enjoying it. I think it was getting used to a jazz width nut & slimmer neck AND playing a shorty all at the same time after years of playing P basses that had me really having to concentrate! I can't say the fret buzz bothered me when plugged in, when I was using a pick (.73 Dunlop nylon) I was doing so with a light touch and I have to say it was a lot of fun to play. Along with the shorter fret reach, the best thing was the lighter weight - this thing weighs 7.2lbs / 3.2Kg! Also I have read that neck dive is a common Jaguar problem - I guess the hi-mass bridge helps, but it feels perfectly balanced. I certainly don't need lightweight tuners to help balance it. If I ever do change the tuners, it will be for greater tuning accuracy / cosmetic reasons, not balancing ones. It's too early to say if I'll ever go all in on shorties, but I really enjoy playing the Jaguar, it felt so effortless after the initial change. The other thing I had to get used to was the P/J setup, as I've never had one before. I'd read elsewhere that there is a volume dip issue with these when both pickup volumes are fully cranked, that it feels like power is being drained from the P one. I certainly noticed this, along with the J hum as it was turned up. Ended up with just a little J mixed in. Not crazy about having 2 volume knobs though, and had a scratchy tone pot, so have a KiOgon VBT (Vol-Blend-Tone ) pre-wired solderless loom with upgraded jack on the way. May look into replacing just the J pickup with a noiseless one, or going for a full P/J set sometime. At least with the loom, it will be easy to change them as I don't do soldering. Anyway, the short scale Squier VM Jaguar is a great bass for the money and a lot of fun to play.

Almost no bass cabs (despite what the manufacturers figures may claim) will produce fundamentals under 50Hz at any significant volume.

I find I have to be really careful with string muting while tuning on my 5 string Warwick Corvette, my other 5 string is absolutely fine and has no issues. I think for what ever reason the Warwick is way more sensitive to sympathetic vibrations or something so it helps to mute or use harmonics on the 12th fret for tuning the B string.

Also very interested to see how this develops @eude and I (and many others to be fair) own ACGs with 32" or shorter scale lengths with excellent bottom B strings :0 For me Newtone and LaBella seem to have the medium and short scale string science sorted; that along with the construction of the neck and neck/body join are the key things I think.

River Deep - Plantain High ～ Ike & Tina Turner

Subscribed to this over the weekend. After 37 years of playing, there were a few eye openers for me in the very first video. Looks like a good investment, but I’ll keep you updated.

Get yourself this; absolutely spot on transcriptions: https://playbasslines.sellfy.store/p/abba-for-bass/

St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast - FZ

I think it's there for the purpose of standard adherence to the 'must state a price' rule in classified offerings. What people do with it is another thing. Beats me what can be achieved by inflating a trade value, even less when it's also for sale at a lower price.

Things sent to test us - rather stupidly I left it perched between two chairs while I went to find some string to finalise the bridge placement. The dog then knocked it off 🤦🏻‍♂️ leaving a large, unsightly - and most importantly unsaveable - gouge between the pickups. My own fault really. Couldn't bring myself to take a picture! Ummed and ahhed about letting in a piece of contrasting wood and making a feature out of it, in the end I knocked up another pickup cover to cover both routes, and routed the cavity for it - rather happy with the outcome!

Now this is something worthy of an OMG! If that was a Buzz, I'd have to change my undercrackers.

Jaco's solo on Ian Hunter's All American Alien Boy track is pretty cool (starts about 1:19). Another point in it's favour is that it is very much a solo in the context of a rock and roll song, rather than just a showcase for Jaco's chops!

John Entwistle on The Who's "My Generation" Mic drop.