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My 1965 Fender P. All original. I bought it unseen and took a massive sweaty gamble on it but I lucked out. It's everything I hoped it to be and more. It's the last bass I'll ever buy. No, really!!

This is a tough one for me to answer as I’m relatively new to bass. This time last year I possessed a Squier Affinity P Bass and a Fender Rumble 15. My gear has gone from zero to hero in 12 months, with a Fender Roadworn series Jazz, a Markbass rig, a vintage Fender Bassman and a few pedals. But the greatest thing I bought this year, and has had the most impact on me personally must be my vintage 1973 P bass. It’s light, plays wonderfully, sounds immense, and inspires me to play every day. Rob

My Shuker JJ Burnel Signature.

A gig of two halves last night. We were booked to play in deepest darkest Forest of Dean with an 8.30 start. We duly turned up and set up in record time, sound checked and then hung around ready to start. 8.30 came and went and we decided to push it back by 30 minutes as there was basically five people in the bar. We started at 9pm and I don't think the crowd got above 8 people, including the singer's parents. After a short break we started the second set around 10.30 and after the first song the place was rammed and the atmosphere was brilliant. For the first time ever (probably the only time) we actually had a punter give us some money out of his own pocket as a thank you for (his words) "a joyful night" 😊 I got to gig my 72 Jazz for the first time and it was a joy to play. That's us done for 2022 now but it was a great way to see the year out.

For me it was my Buzz Hornet unlined fretless P bass. Superb instrument.

Just Got Paid ～ ZZTop et al Actually a few hours ahead of UKaNIstan and just finished a Christmas gig in Osaka, so the irony is not lost. Merry Christmas to all of you usual suspects, and thanks to all of you for the great humour and friendship that we find here. Kindly pig out on my behalf as I can't find a chicken to roast 🙏🏻. Much love to all 😍 (+🍻 x1,000). M, Osaka.

I’ve had a few in and out but probably my favourite is the jazz elite bought in February

@Jabba_the_gut is building me a matching pair of short scale basses, fretless and fretted. The first one, the fretless, was, by a country mile, my best purchase of 2022, of my entire bass playing life, actually...

Insure Eyes - Peter Gabriel

Finally, getting a Jazz Bass that I click with and can’t fault. Honestly didn’t think that’d ever happen again tbh

The definition of insanity is expecting any thread on BC to stay on topic throughout.

Without doubt the ACG Krell fretless, what a fine bass it is. Honourable mention to the Quad Cortex, in any other year a hands down winner.

I wanted to add another retro styled, short scale bass, to my collection. I already have a Sandberg Lionel and a Guild Starfire 1. I toyed with the idea of a Warwick Rockbass Star bass but decided I wanted to stick to a 30 inch, or there abouts, scale length. I went to try out a DeArmond Starfire 2, that was quite a beauty but needed a lot of fettling and was surprisingly heavy. Next on my radar was a Hofner Verythin bass. Although I have played quite a few Hofners in shops, I don't think I have ever owned one. This Verythin is from the Contemporary series, made in China. I'd really loved the looks of this semi and noticed in videos that it didn't seem to sound as dead and thunky as it's brother violin and club basses. Part of this may be in that it comes strung with roundwounds, not flats. Anyway, yesterday afternoon I finally got one in my hands. And I was quite pleased that a few of my negative preconceptions were incorrect. One was that I'd probably want to remove the scratchplate. Well actually, it looks a lot nicer in person, with a lovely dark creamy hue, that blends very well, with the bass's vintage brown sunburst finish. Secondly, it hung perfectly on a strap, with not the tiniest hint of neck dive. And lastly, despite it's antiquated bridge, the intonation was pretty good. I used my tuner to compare open strings, harmonics and fretted notes, on the 5th, 12th and 17th frets. Much better than I would have thought likely. The finish on this bass is pretty damn good, with no obvious flaws, that I could see, the fretting is smooth, with the neck and body having some nice, creamy binding. Now there are things that the average bass player may not like. The string spacing is a quite narrow and the pickups kind of have their own flavour. They don't have the clarity and punch of the single coils, on my other basses. They are fairly low output. But I did find, that with some experimentation, with the 2 vol and 2 tone controls on this bass and some judicious use of the amp's EQ, some very nice tones can be achieved. This is no rock machine, or slappers delight but it is cool for 60s pop, soul and RnB stuff. I am a finger player but this bass does play and sound very nicely using a plectrum, also. It's not going to be my main bass but really adds something I don't have in my other basses. It comes with, I guess, Hofner roundwound strings and TBH they are very low quality. I'll be replacing them with Elixirs, or maybe go mad and get some flats, ASAP. As this and my Guild Starfire 1 are both modern interpretations of vintage instruments, with semi-hollow bodies, I thought a comparison may be of interest. Both have similar sized bodies and weigh pretty much the same, although the Verythin's body is around a centimetre thinner than the Starfire's 1 1/2 inch depth. The Verythin's headstock is smaller, as are it's vintage tuners. Which obviously helps with the total absence of neck dive. The Verythin's neck is slimmer and appears to be the same width, across the fingerboard, at the nut as it is at the 22nd fret. And access to those higher frets is easier on the Hofner. The down side to this is the narrow string spacing, which many players may not like. The neck profile on the Guild is a fairly flattish, what Fender might call a flat C, whereas the Verythin has a deeper profile, that gives the narrow neck a very nice feel. Both have attractive tailpeices and separate bridges. The Guild's Tune-O-Matic, nickel bridge, is far the better, of the two and is bolted to the body. The Hofner's bridge is mainly of wood and seems to be floating, except that there is a metal rod that connects the bridge to the bass's raised scratchplate. Which seems like a good idea to me, seeing as they have got the intonation sorted so well. On the pickup front, the Guild has a P-bass style, single split-coil pickup. The Verythin has 2 Höfner Staple Top humbucker pickups, situated pretty much as far apart as the bass allows. Obviously the 2 pickups gives far more variety in sounds but the Starfire's pickup is an awesome peice of kit and really you don't need to do much to get a clear, full sound from it. Cosmetically both basses have a well finished, retro look. But the Hofner is far the prettier, with it's flamed maple top, gorgeous scratchplate, stylish headstock and rather different, pearl and red fret markers. But, it is all that 60s styling, design and hardware that make the Verythin a bit of a niche bass. The Starfire 1 has taken a few steps to move into the modern world and would be far more useful as a general purpose bass. It's strong pickup and more contemporary neck and string spacing would make it playable to most modern players. I have rather fallen for the more niche, Hofner Verythin though. It may not make it to a lot of band practices but it will get a lot of home use and be very useful for recording too. Who knows, I might just get those flats and start playing it with a pick.

Bought one just over a year ago , can’t keep my hands off it, in fact I bought a Gretsch baritone because the Squier was so much fun.

Squier Bass Vi I've barely put it down since it arrived, it's just so much fun.

My board continues to move and change. The SY-1 was not being used much so I sold it off and received an HOF mini in trade. There's room back for the AMT Wah. I had a Thomann order so got a green underlight too just because I could.

We're playing The Barley Pop in Germantown, 3:00-6:00. This is our 3rd year playing this gig. Our band leader and husband are hosting an after party at their home. A long night for an "Old Timer" like me. Merry Christmas guys. Play, have fun and get home safely on New Years Eve. Blue

Bought this about a both ago…cash converters. Had an unoriginal neck. It was lovely…but then spotted a nice 70s Reissue P neck. Game on!

For me it is my Squier Bass VI. I customised the pickguard and am looking forward to using it in the studio in a couple of days.

White Punks On Dope The Tubes

Nothing Go Compares 2 U - Sinead

Thanks folks. Finally a bright day, so I got some better pics.

Dear Prudential - Siouxie & the Banshees

A dear friend (and great bassist) who lives in a small Manhattan apartment called me during the summer to ask if I wanted to buy his 1967 Ampeg SB-12. He had realized that, with his bad back, he had only used his lightweight rig for the past several years and he didn’t want the Ampeg to languish in his closet. He offered it to me at a very generous price and, naturally, I said yes. To be honest, this was the best purchase of the last several years.

DRUGS!!!! Oh sorry, it's not the Den of Iniquity thread.

Me personally? Nothing. Mrs. Neepheid bought me a Reverend Triad so it has to be that. What a shame

My Barefaced Two10S, sounds amazing and will save my back a lot of grief.

A newly reopened and renovated pub in Alfreton, Derbyshire. 3 x 30 minute sets.

My first attempt at a fly-rig that’ll fit in a suitcase when I’m d.i’ing & relying on IEM’s Room for another pedal, but got all I need for the current set.. Pedaltrain nano+ sc Microbass 3 OC2 & Unichorus in the effects loop all powered by a ‘Onespot’

Same - only change has been the need to make the letters bigger over the last few years to compensate for middle aged eyesight.

My Zon Legacy, 7lbs of back joy and funk tone to die for 😁

Cheers mate. I bought mine from the states actually, from a dealer in Florida who shall remain nameless because he helped me out by being "generous" with it's shipping value. Like I said, a massive sweaty gamble... (Don't try this at home kids!). I tried to bring him down on what was already a very fair price because, all in, the cost was beyond me. His response was, "hey man I feel for you but I ain't pickin' up the tab for y'all voting brexit. Here's what I'll do..." I've been looking for one for years and although it's the most I've ever paid for a bass, it was the cheapest I'm likely to ever see one in my lifetime. I just closed my eyes, told myself I'm worth it, and pressed Buy Now. It could have gone so so wrong in many ways. I guess the universe decided I needed a break!

RIP Maxi Jazz...

My best bass related purchase this year was a 2012 US Standard Precision in sunburst/rosewood/tort. Saw it on Reverb, and bought it straight away - excellent condition, sounds just like my 2010 P. The pair of them really cover everything I want to do, but I still have three other basses I can't part with!

Supernatural Roadie 2 below plus the 2 pages of poorly judged photos ( I was meant to be a Roadie) of my magazine debut in Bassist Magazine, August 1998 which tells the full story of how I came upon it......

One of these two I guess..

My dad used to nickname that The Burglars Gazette

It's going to be a close call between my Musicman Sterling, which reignited my love for the funky Musicman tones, and rediscovering Slinky strings after years of using D'addarios. They sound so much fuller than the EXLs that I was using. I've tried a few different gauges this year but the Hybrid set is the winner as it allows the E to stay full and taught enough when I drop it down to D

Don't know if it counts but, two pairs of ear plugs. Vic Firth and Concert ear protect. Very useful when drumming or live gigs. And of course a lovely Jackson JS24 dinky guitar from BC.

I have two, possibly three contenders. A Retrovibe Faker and an Epiphone Thunderbird Classic Pro. Both completely different to my beloved precisions but in a good way and have joined the rotation cycle for use at gigs The third is a bitsa '54 Precision that I suspect will usurp many once I have finished fettling.

Bass corner from tonight’s gig. First time I’ve played a “social club” in years, I’d forgotten about the 45 minute break between sets!

I know what you mean about black screws, but get yourself a medium tip black permanent marker and silver screws become black (at least the bits you can see anyway). It sometimes takes a bit of working into the posi head but overall gives a good effect. It's also handy for touching up black screws that are slightly damaged by the screwdriver, I touch up black screws after repairing / modifying all types of gear and it greatly enhances the overall appearance!

Playing guitar with a rock’n’roll band at a pub in central Cardiff. I honestly can’t think of a single thing that could go wrong…

I believe the journey is close to an end. Plugged these in and fired them up to find a very nice sound indeed. Personally I can listen to all genres of music quite happily through these, except classical which seems hollow and lifeless for some reason. Tips for the next person: Black screws. Someone of this parish pointed out they look more professional and now I cannot unsee it when big-bucks cabinets are sold with silver screws. Saying that, the screws to put in the corner protectors were like hens' teeth so I had to settle for either countersunk silver or black button head. You can see flashes of silver in the corners: function beats form every time IMHO The grilles are held on with black gaffer tape, because I didn't like the look of the four grille holding plates: form beats function every time IMHO. If you get decent wood and varnish it the results are killer. No idea why this isn't more of a thing in the professional world. Varnish is yacht varnish from Wilkos. £12 and I used less than half a tin for both cabinets. Next stop is the bc112mk3. Still need to buy a few things for that build but to be honest this pair of cabs is more than I'll ever need. I used one with an ABM600 and it rattled my teeth.

Yes, as well as passive/aggressive notes to myself like "MATT - TUNE BACK TO E FFS" after leaving it in Eb a few times and making the next song sound well fruity until I realised what I had done!

Here is my contribution. Drums are Ez Drums, the rest is played and recorded by me. Guitars played with Squier tele into A/B switch. A signal into into Ibanez TS9, Marshall, microphone cheap Behringer. B signal into Focusrite via Amplitube. Two guitars take, hard right , hard left. Live guitar and Amplitube blended to thicken up the sound. Cry baby pedal used during solo. Also , added Acoustic guitar for colour, guitar 1 standard tuning, guitar 2 Nashville tuning. Bass , Squier p bass into Fender Rumble recorded with AKG mic. Attempted singing recorded with SM58, heavily mixed, I used voice correction (it didn`t help haha) mixed and mastered in Ableton