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And here is the obligatory gig photo from Sunday:

A few Basschatters got together for a mini-bass bash today. It was fun. Here's some of what was there, starting with Howard the Bass Doc's iconic 1963 Precision.

Just bought this. Arrives tomorrow. Excited!

I think in those circumstances I almost certainly wouldn't have sold it to him, and reported him to ebay for abuse. And the hospital!

Hey all, just wanted to say a massive thanks for all these suggestions... some really great ones here! I'm in contact with a lot of these players already or have worked with them in the past, so for the most part it'll be pretty simple for me to set something up ... except for... PINO!... Well... at least for now, lol. He's a suuuuper private guy (hence why he hasn't done anything in an interview format like this for a loooong time... last thing I've seen was that old BBC thing). That said, I've got a few irons in the fire, so its not impossible... just a patience thing. Anywho... thanks again for all the ideas (and keep em' coming if you have any more!)... and if do manage to land the Pino interview, I'll report back Scott

...and here's some more general pics. Warwickhunt: Ghostrider, Bassoctopus Ghostrider Warwickhunt: Dave Wilson (Aye, that one) Bassoctopus Howard the Bass Doc

I very recently acquired a fantastic 20th anniversary series ABM 600. Using it mainly for my heavy rock covers band. What a great head, especially when twined with my Super Twin cab. I also not long ago picked up an Ashdown Studio 12 combo (for my jam nights). A few days later I saw on eBay that someone was selling a studio 12 combo (minus the amp) so I took a punt on it. Yesterday I finally I got around to fixing it. Added a dual speakon jack socket, moved the feet and grill badge as I need it turned 90 degrees for the combo to sit squarely on top. So now have a modular combo rig too. It stands even taller than the 600/super twin set up.

And then she looked at me with those big brown eyes and said…………

Mum *spits into fire* - Sinatra, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, John Denver, Julian Bream, Prokofiev, Mahler. Dad *eats broken glass* - Neil Diamond, Bread, Eagles, Dr Hook, Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt. Brother - (huge amount of influences so I'll only put the ones that remain on my playlists) David Bowie, Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Tubular Bells, Roxy Music, Sparks, Steely Dan. Then Punk came along and I decided it was my time, my music and as Punk was, actually, quite narrow minded and intolerant of anything outside of itself, I stopped listening to anything outside of the genre. Also, in that self-obsessed, belligerent, way of the first wave of Punk, I also dismissed anything before punk as boring irrelevant hippy nonsense, it wasn't until New Wave came along and freed me up again that I started broadening (albeit only slightly) my musical horizons. It wasn't really until my forties I started turning some of those bands green again and realised how much great stuff I'd missed out on. As much as the revolution of Punk was absolutely necessary and, eventually, in the shape of New Wave led to some utterly amazing music, it was initially a severely applied tourniquet from which only a few truly interesting bands emerged. It took me decades to recover from the total reboot of Punk, I'd not have wanted to be a teenager at any other time but I also wish I'd gone through it with a tad more wisdom. It's difficult to appreciate music played by your parents when they were abusive and, essentially, a pair of horrible bastards, because that music always remains kind of tainted but I'm learning to appreciate some of it more and more in spite of them. I am, as ever, rambling.

Mani - Stone Roses. Brilliant melodic lines and pretty much the pinnacle of the entire Madchester / Indie scene.

Loving my small board ❤️ Printed a sticker I designed for my DIY pick tin and filled up the empty space under the Pitchblack X mini. Decided to move on from the Strobo as it takes too much space

I'd also suggest the Crowther Audio Prunes and Custard - it only does a couple of sounds, but it can sound amazingly synthy. No tracking or latency and because you can blend in some clean mix, and because of the way the filter reacts, you can accentuate certain parts of baselines which poke through the synth sound. It's so natural to play and hugely responsive to touch.. play super light and it's a warm 'whomp', dig in and it splutters. Quick demo here

Some more pictures from today. FullSizeRender.MOV

I’ve heard they make quite good balloons?

I've had a brief message exchange with kiwi and ped about (perhaps) setting up a sub-forum here to ease the inevitable questions when you're playing a new venue. I'm playing a few new venues in the next two or three months; there's just no information about where to park, loading in etc. My suggestion would be simply to have an area with subdivisions (England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland/Isle of Man/Channel Islands) and within this Counties (Avon/Bedfordshire etc.) and then towns therein. I know we're never going to be able to hit every venue in every town, but there's certainly going to be venues where several of us will have played previously. The idea being to provide a definitive listing of venues, primary contacts, ease of load-in, local parking, venue type (club/theatre/toilet), capacity, music style etc. In my head, it should heavily moderated...this wouldn't be a place for long discussions about your gigging experience or slagging off the venue, just the fundamentals. It might help getting you gigs at these places too. Any interest? Paul

This is a very difficult question to answer because as a child there was no pop/rock music as we know it today. Up to the age of 11, i.e. 1946 to 1957 all I heard was:- Summer – Hotel Dance Band Winter - BBC Light Programme - Two Way Family Favourites, Billy Cotton Bandshow, Uncle Mac’s Childrens Favourites, etc. In 1957 we moved, my parents bought a radiogram and had some LPs of Gilbert and Sullivan and some Musicals but nothing that interested me. (Note: I eventually modified the radiogram to became the basis of my first bass amp) I started to listen to Radio Luxembourg. By the 3rd year at school one of the form used to bring his Dansette and play records at break time - Duane Eddy, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Buddy Holly, Del Shannon, The Ventures, etc. There was a slow growth of, what was starting to be called, “pop music” on BBC Light Programme - Saturday Club BBC TV - Juke Box Jury ITV - Thank Your Lucky Stars But that was about it so it so a tape recorder was essential. Early 60s it was Cliff, The Shadows, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps, Helen Shapiro, John Leyton, Billy Fury, etc. The weekly NME was a great source of information, new artists/band and tour dates. Went to see Little Richard in concert and was converted by the Fender Precision in Sounds Incorporated. I had to have a bass. At the end of 1962 everything changed with the rise of The Beatles and the other Mersey groups. Compared to what had come before it was a revelation. By 1965 the broadcasters had eventually got their act together with “Top of the Pops” and the wonderful “Ready, Steady Go”. Yes I go back, listen to and play along with music from my youth but not my childhood, and I’m not embarrassed to admit that I like a lot of early Cliff and The Drifters/Shadows. There is just something about that early British Rock ‘N’ Roll that gets me. Given the opportunity I would just love to get out and play it again.

My main bass, a just 28.6" scale Ibanez GSRM20 neck + GSRM20B body Mikro Bass, strung up with Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings, threaded through the cut off ball ends of old bass strings, to not fall through the bridge, of the gauges .080 - .062 - .046 - .036, tuned to F# standard tuning, that is 2 half steps above regular 4 string bass E standard tuning (left shot is how it looks currently, right how it looked previously, the latter just included because it's a much better shot of the bass, to give a better impression of how it really looks : My pedal board setup, which is a pedal based "amp-less" setup, is currently under reconstruction, but this is how I plan for it to look when done : The small board containing all my "always on" pedals, the actual pedal based "amp-less" setup part of this arrangement, bar for the Zoom MS-70 CDR on the big board, which is also an "always on" pedal, that beside working as a multiband parametric equalizer got the last of those 2 band parametric EQ models in the signal chain of the always on patch set up as follows: [Freq=12kHz Q=1 Cut=-18dB ; Freq=20kHz Q=0.5 Cut=-20dB], approximately mimicking a -12dB/Oct LPF set at 3.6kHz, essentially functioning as a simple faux, EQ based, cab sim. The TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini is used exclusively for a 1 octave up effect, delivered by a customized Toneprint, to mimic an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings. Some of the pedals in my setup was missing from the online pedal planer app I used to make above graphics, so this is what the numbered pedals really are supposed to be : :-: Xotic EP Booster (forgot to number that pedal) = Mosky XP Bosster (clone of the Xotic EP Booster V1) :=: The 2 Joyo Gate of Kahn pedals (forgot to number those pedals too) = Joyo Orange Juice (Orange amp style drive) :1: Artec SE-EQ8 Graphic Eq (8 band graphic equalizer) :2: EHX Black Finger (tube driven optical compressor, actually primarily functioning as a tube preamp stage, though I do have a bit of subtle compression dialed in as well) :3: ART Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp and DI) :4: Zoom G1on (primarily functioning as a pre drive reverb unit, though also used for a few non reverb effect patches) :5: Zoom B1Xon (primarily functioning as a post drive reverb unit, though also used for a few non reverb effect patches) :6: Danelectro FAB Metal :7: Monarch MFL-22 Stereo Flanger (basically a rebrand of the Arion SFL-1 Stereo Flanger) :8: Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, used in Turbo RAT mode) Also forgot to include the HoTone Trem, tremolo pedal, which would go after the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz on the big board, in effects loop B of the Boss LS-2, and physically it would be placed after, that is to the right of, the EHX Freeze on the middle ledge of the board. My amp, a 160W SS Peavey Solo Special 112, of which I only use the poweramp section, going into its Effects Return input, and having the build in 12" speaker disconnected and instead hooked up to a passive FRFR PA speaker, the The Box PA 502, which features a 15" woofer/mids driver + 1.7" high mids/high frequency tweeter (think the crossover is at about 2kHz) :

Lidl headphones are often excellent. I endorse the OP and sidestep the rest.

This thread is a paradox. Asking recommendations for an amp without a fan means as soon as one is recommended it has a fan.

This is the final boss transformation of my Bronco before I lended it to a friend’s daughter

I'm sat in my kitchen right now listening to Brother's In Arms, the great album from Dire Straits & this got me thinking. I was only a kid when Mark & co were tearing up MTV but this particular album is so ingrained in my subconscious that I can't help smiling & tapping a foot whenever I hear it. My love is born out of sheer exposure as a kid. I was fortunate enough in that my parents had a great & varied taste in music & our house always had something great coming from the speakers. So just for fun, what were you listening to as a kid that has stayed with you into maturity? (I use the term maturity very loosely 😁)

Another shameless post of me, Betsy & Guy. A great bass, a great guy and a great read.

My Dad isn't so much into music, although he did like the Shadows. Like many kids before and since, the first time I heard Apache was an almost religious experience, one that had me reaching for my first guitar and kicking off a musical 'career' that has lasted over 4 decades. My Mum was more into it. She'd listen to the Beatles, the Who (she actually knew Keith Moon fairly well and dated Roger Daltrey before he was really famous), the Stones, the Zombies, the Animals and more modern stuff like ELO, Status Quo and Roxy Music, and it's probably exposure to that that gave me my love of rock music in all its forms and the blues too. For me rock isn't just music, its a lifestyle, a passion, a religion.

@obbm, @Frank Blank, great posts thank you! I used to fantasise about growing up in one of the "great musical eras" & what it must've been like. It wasn't until later in life that I realised I did come of age in a "great musical era", the 90s!

My dad was a pro musician playing bass and played with cleo lane amongst others he also ran a driving school to keep him going when needed lol. He had a massive vinyl collection and a quadraphonic hi-fi that my mum was too scared to touch. The records ranged from Bert Camfort to Deep Purple and he had a hammond drawbar organ in lounge which he belted out all sorts of instrumental versions of songs in the (1970s) charts. Like the op Dire Straits was an early influence but all sorts really. There was always music on and I loved it. We always argued about the timing of the riff on Black is Black when he played it on keys. I still say he played it wrong. RIP.

Putter Little Love In Your Heart - Al Green

If relief is AOK and minimal check the nut slot heights. Get the fret rocker out... any high frets will ruin a low action. If fret rocker shows high frets then a spot or full fret level is indicated.

You can borrow it if you like, I'm not really in a rush to sell it and might not bother actually... let me have your address and I'll send it over

I had this embuggerance with a flight cased acoustic I'd taken as a trade. Strictly collection only including meet up option. No shipping under any circs , do not bid unless you'll collect etc etc. Bloke from London bought it - straight away he paid and asked when I would be posting it. I said not happening , you should have read the description correctly etc etc. Now it gets good..... Bloke called me a racist. Said I was only being horrible to him because he was Asian ( as if I can tell his background from a username - plus how does he know my heritage isn't the same as his ) and that he wasn't able to read the description properly because he didn't properly understand English - and that I should have taken that into account. At this point I googled his name as ebay had sent me his details - turns out he was a consultant at a London hospital. A Doc working in London that can't understand English but can communicate perfectly well enough to accuse me of all sorts ??!!! Anyway - I wanted his money and he was the only bidder at my slightly inflated starting price so I just sent it to him , leaving me a few quid down. Plus I was rattled with the racist thing. Hopefully it arrived in little pieces and his wedding veg has since dropped off.

Now that is a very tasty upgrade, it looks fantastic and I'm sure it sounds great. I really like the individual string bridges and the subtle three position Pup switch neatly mounted between the V & T controls. Well done.

Not just eBay, Shpock, Gumtree similar. Can you deliver? Is one of the questions.. Over the weekend I sold two Squier guitars on Gumtree I wanted to sell them for a couple of years now to finance a project guitar, but was in no rush selling them, the ads had pictures of every dent, scratch and this was also mentioned in the description. When one seller turned up yesterday, I pointed these out minor tear and wear. I also provided a new set of strings, still in original unsealed packaging, also in the description. He wasn't aware. Obviously he didn't read the add but it seems that he looked at the main photo only. He said, does it come with an amp? I said you can have an amp but that will be extra so and so. Anyway, I felt generous and felt bit sorry for the youngster so reduced the price at door step. Saturday,sold the other Squier, i put it on hold for someone for a week, they collected it but the questions were never ending. I also gave them a discount at the door step. Both were happy. I think one with locking tuners I put on and new strings they got a bargain. Not music related, but I put a perfectly working washing machine on Gumtree on Friday for sale, very cheap. It sat in the utility room unused for a year, we thought we use it as a back up...don't know why..never did.within 2 hours it was collected. I gave it out for free even helped loading it in a car. It was my intention to just give it away, and the buyer was shocked as he desperately needed a washing machine. I didn't want to advertise for free knowing it would end up in scrap.

Meh the Mesa cab was alright... it was the ridiculous H&H 1x15 next to it that could be used to anchor a zeppelin (sorry, 'weather balloon'). The HH was so heavy it induced medical injuries just by looking at it, in at least 3 of the bass players present! Eh @cd_david 🤒

So I bought the very bass in May '22. It is indeed a tad heavy, but the tone and ergonomy overall are very convincing, especially for a 5er. This is my 4th 5 string P attempt and the only one that has been working. It's been working so well that I have ordered a PJ some 3 months later (it has arrived 2 weeks ago). The white P, I've used exclusively as my #1 for the entire season (in a rock setting) on some 30 live shows. Now the PJ is 4.2 kg and nicer to touch/feel (nitro relic vs. poly). Ive put labella deep talking flats on the white P - again impressive tone and the low B still working very well (dont take that for granted with low B at all; typically its quite the opposite and one can end up with a very long thumbrest). I have owned Vlcek, Sadowsky, Ken Smith BSR 5, MM, Fender. I'm right at home with my Xotic collection. I dont think I will need anything else anytime soon.

Hurtsfall supported Byronic Sex & Exile at The Angel in Nottingham last night. Got a small but very enthusiastic audience out on a Sunday night for two fairly niche acts, but we made some new fans and it looks as though we'll be playing the final night of this year's Goth City festival in July as a result. Sound wasn't quite as good on stage as last time we played The Angel, nothing that we couldn't cope with though. BS&E were fairly quiet FoH so I'm wondering if there has been a policy of turning the bands down since our last gig here. No photos on Facebook yet, but I could see people taking them, so I'm sure there will one or two up in the next couple of days. Next up it's three weekends of gigs with In Isolation during March followed by Hurtsfall on "Goth Friday" in April. Busy times...

Arn't all those creams meant to be Anti-Ageing... to make an old set sound like new...

Hey, thanks for posting! 🙌 ... this is the first in a series of this format and we had ZERO idea whether peeps would dig it or not. Thankfully, it's looking like they do We've actually already filmed another one w/ Henrik Linder, and also one w/ Rob Mullarkey and Richard Spaven... those will be released over the next few weeks over on the YouTube channel. Cheers, Scott

I watched the video and liked it so much that I ordered his book 😀

I'm another 'amp-less, get my tone from a preamp and go through the pa' type. I have the best bass sound I've ever had, no backline to worry about. it is so liberating!

That's a killer.

I'd have had a wicked hot curry, then used the sound hole of the acoustic as a lavatory before sending it off...

Depending on the preamp, some will give you a whole universe of tonal outcome options from your merely decent amp. If you're talking about pedals you're generally getting foot switching as well. Then there's the other reason, dirty old GAS.

I Let Love In ～ Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

For some of us older gits who stumble into Basschat, Mo Foster has a few good stories to tell. Anthony Jackson. Abe Laboriel.

@devinebass Mick Quinn - Supergrass. proper sleeper - he’s a phenomenal bassist