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Any excuse...

Framed live - the audience look stunned

I decided to upgrade my Burns SSJ and just picked up this Squier Bass VI. As you can see I have already swapped out the pickguard and I have some flats en route in the post as I can see. The Squier set up is much better and my early impression is that this bass is a killer.

I'm depping (well, more or less continuously) for a new band, and in Good Times (which goes on awhile, as the BL/Singist/Geetard plays sax, too, so he switches to that later on), he likes to single out the players for a solo. He did this without warning at the first gig, so I heel-muted on the open E and the A, kept the groove going, and picked up my pint in my left hand and downed it...he loved it, and tho I'll need a pint handy for that song at future gigs, it's got me out of learning anything too tricky...

Two gigs this weekend. Friday was the first outing for newly reformed 'The Long Road', playing songs of the Eagles. At the last minute it was revealed by the guy who organised (one of the singer/geetards) it that it was a showcase with two agents attending. We weren't ready for that. We were a 6 piece on a tiny stage, no lights of our own and with a small audience. We played well for a first live outing, but not well enough (IMHO) to showcase what we are really capable of as the band hadn't tightened up. The crowd loved it. Difficult to judge what the agents thought as the feedback was filtered through the organiser, who tends to select comments to suit his own opinions. We enjoyed, there is potential to go forward and the money wasn't bad for a 6 piece. Last night was a semi regular dep with Getting Even, the same singer/geetard as above (he's a mate and we've worked together for years) and a female singer. They occasionally need a third body to fulfill contracts booked as a trio after their original guitarist let them down. It pays for my GAS and I've learnt not to get concerned about the mechanics. I just turn up and play and it's a useful opportunity to try out new pedals etc. The singer guitarist uses a laptop for his backing tracks, the singer uses her phone for tracks and lyrics. Last night the laptop crashed at the start of the 2nd set and the phone stopped working after one song of the same set. No back up options so we played bass 'n' guitar (it'll be a thing before long) versions of cabaret classics. Sound was grim - the acoustic guitar was booming and there was no need for bass on many songs - in fact we chatted about me playing guitar for these gigs as it gives us more flexibility. Despite the negatives I enjoyed both gigs.

We love getting asked to play at Wembley Boxpark, although it can be quite a tough crowd, at times, as folk are eating and drinking with their mates and not necessarily wanting to engage with the band. Our singer, Ami, never fails to give 100% at every gig and she really helps to energise the rest of us when we're not getting that from an audience. I guess it can be all too easy to lose sight of how fortunate it is to have great bandmates, and it's lovely that she's still so passionate about the band which she's been fronting since 2016. Here's a little clip from last night:

Used this last night (apologies for crap pic, quick snap taken before packing down). My first time gigging the Source Audio pedals. I've had them forever but I'm nearly there with these two. Despite hours spent levelling the volume most were still way too loud, but I'll get there. It's the issue of bedroom levels versus gig levels. But I have some good sounds and I can call them up via the midi thingy. I actually cannibalised my SA board and my Joyo mini pedal board for this set up. It was a wrench, but silly to have these boards just because they're nice to look at!

40th birthday party in a horribly echoey golf club function Ron. Good crowd though, was great fun.

For the 5 mins that i've played it through the cheap o Thomann practice amp i have at home - all i can say is WOW Get to put it to the real test tomorrow at the studio though the Barefaced 212T and Eich powerhouse T-900 Cant wait !!! (image from The Bass Gallery website as i don't have a suitable place / lighting to do it justice at home)

Just landed - I've been after a black and maple one for ages but the series 1 (with scratch plate) versions are quite hard to find compared to the series 2 models. I ordered a custom scratch plate from TinyTone who were great and pretty quick too. BC member @wright/watt had a spare excess plate which he kindly sent me so it was used as a template. The black plate arrived the same day as the bass! The bass is really interesting and I can see how Vigier have taken their idiosyncratic left of field approach to a bass which is more traditional in terms of shape and feel. It still has those Vigier staple touches such as the supercar shape, unique electronics and graphite 10/90 neck without a truss rod. As soon as it arrived I took the strings off (it's been a while since I've had a quick release bridge on anything so that was easy) and gave it a clean, changed the plate (bit of a mission given how the pickups are attached to the plate using bolts) and knobs. Chucked some Elixir 40-95s on it (the 10/90 neck is designed to be dead straight with this gauge string) and I've been getting to know it this afternoon. First of al lit's very light. Seller said 3.3kgs which I can believe. It's made from two pieces of ash with a very thin coat of paint - the grain texture is visible below. The neck has a satin feel and having settled after its ride here it's got almost zero relief. The pickups are two Benedetti single coils which I'm quite familiar with, having had them in various versions in a number of Vigier instruments. They can be a little noisy, so here there's a hum cancelling circuit which is adjustable through a hole in the scratch plate. It works pretty well, and hum is vastly reduced and consistent throughout the pickup pan range. Since installing a mesh router in my office I can get hum at certain angles but generally it's quieter than a standard jazz bass, certainly with the pickups soloed. The controls are vol, pan, bass +/- 10db and treble +/- 10db. Weirdly the controls aren't centre dented which threw me at first. Honestly there's so much sizzle onto I find a neutral setting is bass on 0 and treble on -10. With pickups roughly centred there's a 60s spacing jazz bass with a bit more bite and a thoroughly growly bottom end. The highs are a little more focused and less 'open' than my Celinder, and my fave found is slight front pickup bias which gives a nice Rickenbacker style clank. I think the front pickup might need to go a little lower, but owing to the design I will have to use some washers behind the bolts - that'll mean removing the pick guard screws again which I can't face this evening! The bridge is nice, a little tarnished (actually the whole bass has marks, bumps and wear on it which I really don't mind) with an interesting system - intonation is a bit of a faff because you have to move the saddle with the string slackened and it's tricky to get right. There’s no saddle screw/spring which looks nice though. Once set everything bolts into place nice and securely. What else to say.. well what was nice was that I emailed Patrice Vigier a while back asking about the Excess range (I've never had one despite being a vigier fam for 20 odd years) and took the opportunity to congratulate him on his retirement. He said 'It's all been possible because of musicians like you' which I thought was nice. Good vibes. Just some quick snaps for now!

Go with the pedals. You'll spend a ton of time trying to get one of the multi-fx modelers to do exactly what the Bass Butler & Drop pedals do. That is the strength of dedicated pedals that do specific things very well, whereas the strength of multi-fx modelers is that they can do a TON of things pretty well. This is not to say that the HX Stomp, for example, can't get you something very close (and only you could know), but it's a matter of time spent programming and testing. Even if your budget were tripled so that you could entertain a high end modeler, there's the down side of time spent with the programming. So IMO, based on what you're saying, spend the proper coin on the dedicated pedals and get down to making music ASAP. This coming from someone who is a pretty hardcore multi-fx modeler user. Get what the gear that you know will deliver the goods. Good luck!

Yeah I' love to see what else he'd bring to market if he carried on. @Cosmo Valdemar yeah sure I'll definitely record something in the next week or so. I always like to record a new bass to compare how it sounds from a third person pov! I think that teal/mirror bass was sold on here actually a while back. I agree that the scratch plate really suits the bass. The series II are far more common and have a slightly fatter body and some interesting finishes. I think they're the same electronically, except the Roger Glover sig, and the latter ones have Delano pickups instead of the Benedetti single coils, which I have always thought are fantastic in every bass I've had with them - and as far as I know unique to Vigier (although I've seen traditional P and J Benedetti pickups in basses by other small builders in Europe) The hum cancelling in this bass is pretty useful actually. Rather than having stacked single coil pickups, the hum eliminator works so that even when panning between pickups there's no difference in noise. That means is's hard to tell when the pickups are exactly 50/50 but also means you can use each individually with no buzz.

The top is actually printed paper. Which might count as wood since it's made from it? What about the ink though? Tone ink? Tone toner?

Last night was a standard Cheltenham acoustic race gig, endless aggressive peaky blinders wannabes bellowing for Oasis all night, meh. It’s hell but pays and there’s a crash barrier to keep the idiots at bay. Friday was a band gig, standard stuff, 50th birthday private job, ‘‘twas fine apart from the stage acted like a big drum amplifier. The guitarist was deafened. I, on IEMs, was not best thing I’ve ever done move to in ears. IMG_0601.MOV

The invisibility suit is working well, then!

So my Mark bass LM Vintage 1000 (which I loved) has gone the journey. Nothing wrong soundwise, but the input jack fitting crumbled and apparently the part had to come from Italy! Rather than wait a month for repair, Andertons agreed to do an exchange 👍 Enter... Orange Little Bass Thing! Possibly even more of a eureka moment than the mark bass was! Less bloated on the low end, arguably closer to a tube sound than the MB (which had a tube pre), more immediate sounding with a tonne of weight to the note, and the compressor really adds to the heft. It just felt so easy to dial in a great tone, with minimal adjustments. It's rated 500W, but volume was massive with the dial at 9 o clock, so either the MB was a bit generous with its numbers or this is hugely more efficient. Only issues with it are notched controls rather than continuous... Not sure why that'd be it a thing but it'll take some adjusting to. Also, if I was a bass>cable>amp guy, I'd have that compressor dimed, as it's absolutely magic! But half of my set is played with a solo'd octaver quite high in the mix, and I think it was a bit agressively compressing the notes on D and G above 12th when engaged. Rather than knock heads off as they normally would, they just vanished. I had it set at about 1 o clock, so I'll have to check that out next gig. It has a big impact on overall volume, so not something I want to fiddle with mid gig. As it was nearly £300 cheaper than the MB, I also got a sansamp VT DI for ampless gig and desk feed. Sounds great through headphones, but the Little Bass Thing did all the heavy lifting last night, so time will tell on that... Anyhoo... What a great little amp, for what feels like a bargain considering the quality of tone!

Back view.

Brick House by The Commodores

Tonight's practice,

I'm sure many here are familiar with Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" having been introduced to it through Emerson, Lake and Palmer. There are two basic versions - the original piano suite and that suite orchestrated (by Ravel) for a full orchestra. And of course, our beloved ELP created their own masterpiece from it. Because what I'm going to suggest is playing electric bass along with a recording, the piano version works better than the orchestral version - there is no low frequency clash with the double basses. Not every electric bass guitarist is interested in classical music or playing his or her bass guitar along with a classical recording. If you are someone who's open to doing that, maybe for the first time - I have just the piece. "The Old Castle" is about 5 minutes into "Pictures", occurring after the second promenade. It is very unique in that its bassline remains on G# for the entire piece. You'll pick up the rhythm quickly - it's a slow 6/8 time. The payoff here is the amazing complexity of melody and harmony created over this simple G# pedal note. You can use any recording, but I would highly recommend the 'live' version (34 min) by Alice Sara Ott. She's brilliant. Link - If you decide to take this on, you will be playing with one of Alice's left-hand fingers! Because of course, she has to keep that G# going. Again, it may surprise you, as it did me, the incredibly beautiful melodic and harmonic development happening here. Mussorgsky was a genius. Just tap that G# on your bass and sit back and listen to what's going on above you and that root note.

Or maybe get a company to custom build one.

To be fair, that's a bit like saying 'if you've got a bass, do you even need another one?' 😀

Another gig on the outskirts of Huddersfield last night, we really are world famous in Huddersfield. A nice cricket club, had a great night, lots of dancing, great compliments and happy punters. It was also a small landmark for me being my 200th gig with this band....ironic in a way as I went in as a dap for 8 gigs and just never left. Now as it’s that time of the year it’s time to learn the Christmas songs 🎅

My Peavey Milestone 4 is plywood with a maple mech and rosewood fingerboard. I have often gigged it when my main bass needs adjusting and there is no time before a gig. No one, especially me has complained about the sound. IMHO, the contribution of the body to the sound is minimal. Most important is electronics (pups and controls plus preamp, if fitted). Then it’s the strings, the. The neck, then the body. The bridge has very little impact, the machine heads nothing except if they don’t stay in tune.

"Stewblack the Steeplejack" Got a good ring to it!

Some say that Class D amps can’t be repaired , but as long as you can find a good qualified tech you’re fine. Good to hear it’s running normally and wasn’t an expensive fix.

Ive rediscovered the Sensational Alex Harvey band. Absolutely phenomenal live. Great musicians, incredibly theatrical with a dark, sinister undertone. Saw them supporting Slade in Sheffield in the early 70's and l was hooked.....and 50 years later lm still hooked. Chris Glen is a very solid and underestimated bass player and as for Zal....just sensational. Check them out if you've never heard of them.

Nope. These were part of the Fender Fotoflame series. The top is a print. On paper. Not even a veneer.

Now I’ve had it a few days and really got to ‘know’ it I’m super happy with the bass. The action is ridiculous - I like a super low G string and this goes so low that there’s barely any gap, with no untoward rattle or choking. The neck is really thin front to back (one advantage of having no truss rod) and the bass is super light. Sounds wise, the pickups are 60s spacing but the neck sounds really similar to a full graphite construction it lends a delicious top end and snap to the sound. I’ve had the 10/90 before in a five string passion but I’m not really a five player so I didn’t have that long. I think the bass is actually a perfect blend of elements from my favourite basses over the years (this is my 31st, not much in comparison to some of you!) I’ll take some decent pics later.

First time out gigging this head and first time for both BB2s although I’ve gigged a single one lots. It was only for show really and was probably overkill. The recent addition of a Schroeder 1212L to the arsenal means one of these cabs might pop up in the for sale section soon!! Anyway, it looked real cool!

No problems with the weight in the evening. Used a 4" strap and the balance is so good it didn't feel heavy at all. Fabulous sound, beautiful neck, really nice to play

And this evening...

Flying to Finland stupid o’clock Monday morning so yet to work out when I can collect but… I would like my business trip to go by quite fast please 😀

I had a truly staggering experience today. A friend of mine is selling a few basses for a colleague, and one of them is an August 1960 Jazz Bass. So I said "please don't sell it before I've played it". So today I had some coffee and a few minutes on this amazing instrument. It has had a refret (and a new nut), the pickguard has been removed for many years now so it doesn't fit anymore, but otherwise...boy o boy what a bass. One of the best Jazzes I've ever played, I think. I wish I could afford it.

On in 4 minutes

I wouldn't say this is a solo though. This is a composition. About Jaco being overrated, I have to admit I had that feeling for years, but I now changed my mind. In the last years I actually listened to his work (solo, with Pat Metheny, with Weather Reports, with Joni Mitchell, studio and live) and I have to admit he's incredible! But that is totally subjective though, a lot of people don't and won't like him and that's absolutely OK. The thing that I realised about him though is that to me he's not a bassist in the strict sense of the word. He's a musician that uses bass to express himself. Most of his bass lines are counterpointy more that "proper basslines". A lot of melodic lines (something a sax player would play), tons of 3rd, 7th and 9th. Take "Birdland" by Weather Report for example. This absolutely unique and I like it. That said, there are tracks where I believe this doesn't really work. For example on his "Come on, come over", the main bassline (not the super funky 16th in the chorus that are awesome) to me sounds like a part for brass instruments (that in fact at some point double that). Every time I start listening to that track (that I like), I feel like it's missing the bass. To me there's a void that Jaco's bass doesn't fill, rhythmically, harmonically and in terms of frequencies. Just my 2 cents.

Peavey millennium?

Come away Ossie, they 'ain't worth it.

I'm very much a believer that in terms of tone, pickup position is the number 1 factor, followed by pickup type and electronics. Everything else, including body and neck materials has far less impact on overall tone than those three. I strongly suspect that you could mold a P bass out of concrete and as long as it had the split P pickup in the correct place and the usual passive tone and volume it would still sound very much like a P Bass. Might weigh less than plywood too.