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Not a one hit wonder as such but i'm in a band who, decades before I joined, had one huge worldwide No:1 hit song back in 1982. There were a few more hit records for a few years till the band broke up. Some years later they reformed, and I was recruited as a session guitarist for a few years then got asked to join the band. A few years after that we parted company amicably, then in 2012 after depping on bass for them on a couple of gigs, i rejoined as their bass player and have been "Passing the Dutchie" with them ever since. We have not had any hits whilst i have been playing with them, though we have released an album which was started during my absence and when I returned I got to play bass on one of the tracks which was recorded at one of our gigs. In fact if memory serves me right it is the only non synth bass track on the album. The track is a cover of "I Shot the Sheriff" and the album is called When Reggae Was King.

Have been looking for one of these for a while and picked up this Navy Metallic Sunburst one in mint condition with the protective plastic still on the truss rod and cavity covers. Really pleased to find one in this condition.

This Maruszczyk “Jazznik” 6 I commissioned arrived with me today. A terrific instrument, it’s really just as good as a lot of the Fodera 6s I’ve owned.

You want to speak to the singer? Sorry, they're just packing up the van at the moment.

"HELLO GLYNDEBOURNE, LEMME HEAR YOU MAKE SOME F***ING NOISE!"

I am starting this thread to see if we can get a 'pay it forward' kind of thing going on with a flight / hard case I have been given. I am about to send a bass through a courier and mentioned this to a friend and he told me he had a old spare flight/hard case in the loft he was going to bin. He offered it to me and I am going to be sending a bass to @Happypants using this case. I thought it could then be used by some one else who may need a more secure way of posting a bass. I will post some pics of it (inside and out) - hopefully it will have some use. It will be making its way to Orpington (SE London way) so will be free to anyone who can collect it from there. I did envisage it becoming a Basschat box - used by members to ship basses around the country - I may be somewhat deluded by this! Any thoughts on this? Am I deluded? Can someone ask a mod if there is a better place for me to post this? Thanks

I picked this one up off of Reverb yesterday. It arrived today and only needed a bit of adjusting. I’m super impressed by how nicely it plays. Mwah for days. The Nordstrand electronics are about as versatile as they get. This is my first Clement bass and I am very impressed. Great craftsmanship. 👍🏻 Nordstrand Dual Coils Nordstrand 3b-5b Pre Series/Parallel/Single Coil Switches Hipshot Hardware Mahogany Body Spalted Maple Top 5 Piece Neck of Maple and ??? Lined Ebony Board

Good evening everybody, I hope that you’re ready to laugh and be buoyed up by our big act’s uplifting exuberance, please welcome to the stage… Roger Waters.

“Hope you enjoyed the show folks?! We’re passing a hat round now, please show your generosity by putting in whatever exposure you can give.”

"Right before we start tonight, we have an extra bonus for you. Our bass player is going to talk through all the gear he'll be using for tonight's show. This shouldn't take more than 20 minutes, 30 tops."

Or Spandau Ballet as they were better known 👍

"Wow, that guy's bass looks and sounds awesome, but I don't recognise the headstock!" "Me neither. I think the logo is... drawn on with sharpie? And the tuners are mounted in this supercool fan pattern! I want one."

"Thanks Mick (Mason) We really appreciate the payment in advance"..

Sound man to bass player, “I’ve set aside 15 minutes to dial in your sound.”

"Hello Glastonbury are your ready to rock? A few announcements before the main act. The bingo starts at 9.30 and this week's prize is a fantastic £132.85p. The Committee meets on Thursday to discuss the new roof, please attend as it's your club. There have been some complaints about the state of the toilet; please clean up after you. The ladies committee cake sale will take place on the 13th. If you have any plates or paper serviettes you can spare, please give them to Gladys. And now, the main act. Playing hits from the 50's to the 90s, here's Arthur Gimble and his Rockin' Rebels....."

Please welcome this humble band that is always appreciative of its audience, Royal Blood.

"This next song is an excellent one that we all love, our bass player wrote it..."

Faron Young is one of my favourite songs ever. The entire album, Steve McQueen, is beautiful.

Let’s start by saying this bass is nothing like what I originally ordered. And that it’s all Mike’s fault… I originally had this wonderful idea of a 32” P bass, 4 string, black body with bwb scratchplate, maple neck and board. Simple, like the Roger Waters sig give or take. Spec agreed, deposit paid. Mike then shared a photo of a 5 string Zoot Funkmeister in white, tort scratchplate, maple neck. I fell in love, and one thing led to another… and here we are. The very first Zoot bass with 5 strings and a 32” scale. I’ve owned a fair few 5 strings over the years and I’m not the most technically proficient bassist so they always challenge me in a different way to a 4 string. When we shifted to the new spec I realised I’d have three 5ers in my slightly OTT collection. I was honestly a little concerned how this would slot in. Needless to say, that concern was totally unfounded. From the first play this bass felt natural, like an extension of me. The neck is sublime, a lovely satin feel, slim carve, super comfortable from 1st to 24th fret. The body sits perfectly on the strap and on the lap; it is balanced perfectly so there’s no neck or body dive when it’s resting on my right leg and that makes it a doddle to play sitting down as I’m not fighting it. An interesting aside, my ACG Finn 5 (also a glorious 5er in its own right) sits slightly more to the right than this, so the first fret ends up a little closer to my body on that, especially when seated, but that does give it a slight tendency to try to wander off my leg! Keeping with the Finn comparison briefly, with that bass I wanted a tight (16.5mm) string spacing to keep the compact feel. I was aiming for 17mm with this but we were limited by the 5 string P pickups available, so we’re close to 18mm. The difference is noticeable but doesn’t affect playability for me and makes my horrendous slap technique easier to navigate! So, this plays great thanks to a superb neck, a comfortable body shape and practically perfect balance. How does it sound? Well, it has a Badass bridge, Aguilar pickup and top quality construction, so of course it sounds great. It sounds exactly like a P should. Mike added a series/parallel switch so I have a few more tones available than the standard passive P, and I can go from old school plummy thump to bright and zingy. I have 5 musical projects in the go at the moment (because why not); in one of those I tend to have the tone control almost fully wound off, and in another it tends to go to about halfway on. That’s it; using a different right hand position or technique I can control the rest with my fingers. “But this is a 32” scale; what about the bottom B?” I hear you cry. Well it’s fantastic. I’ve had three 32” fivers and none have had bad bottom B strings to be honest - ultimately if the bass is well made and the neck is stiff with a solid body join then you’ll be fine. Being a Zoot you are guaranteed both of those things. I picked it up from Mike in December 2022, drove home, put my bass rig in the car and went straight to a gig, where I played this all night. I know a lot of people who would balk at that idea - got to get to know the instrument first etc - but this just felt perfect from the get-go so it was an easy decision. It was admired by band and punters alike, and in my excitement I managed to give it its first battlescars in the form of two small dents on the lower horn. Dents. Not paint chips, just dents. Testament to Mike’s finishing skills methinks! I now own two Zoot Funkmeister 32” basses, a 4 string “jazz” (I use speech marks as it has Nordstrand Big Splits so it’s a slightly left-field Jazz bass) and this 5 string P. I am delighted with both and if I were ever to get some more money and want to expand my collection again, I would have no hesitation going to Mike. He is a very collaborative builder and will gladly advise on your ideas, offering his own experiences and insight to ensure the bass comes out as perfectly as possible. His books are currently closed due to such high demand, which is excellent for Mike and for my bank balance 😃 The specs: Zoot Funkmeister P5 32” scale Idigbo body 3-piece maple neck with black stringers Maple fingerboard White body and matched headstock Tort scratchplate Aguilar AG5P-60CL pickup Passive volume, tone, series/parallel switch Badass bridge Hipshot tuners Newtone strings Some pictures (mostly Mike’s because my photography skills suck):

Been at this one for a while, but it's nearly done so thought I'd share the story so far. I bought this '86-'87 MIJ P Bass from here a fair few years ago and it's been my favourite live bass ever since. It was stripped and stained by the previous owner (who admitted himself it wasn't a pro job), with the P pickup wired straight to the jack. I rewired it with a blend/volume/tone using what was already in the bass, and it's been totally reliable at least some of the time since. I used to love the DGAF aesthetic it had, but that feeling faded over time and I started lusting after a shell pink bass. So, having refinished a body once before, hating it and vowing never to do it again, I bought some nitro cans from Manchester Guitar Tech and got to work. First step: disassembly. It's a four-piece basswood body with a ton of dents and dings. I decided early on I wanted to retain that character and keep the body matched to the neck, so I wouldn't be filling any holes. The original owner mentioned it had previously been finished in black nitro, which was still hanging out in the cavities. I didn't know how the nitro I'd bought would take to whatever wood stain was already on there, so I opted to strip it before starting anything else. This was an effort. I know consumer-grade paint stripper isn't what it used to be (and for good reason), but I used an entire can and got maybe 30% off with some serious scraping. I took most of the rest off with sandpaper, but it was impossible to get it out of the ends of the grain where it had soaked in. Done. Stripping it did manage to take off a lot of the black nitro in the cavities, revealing that it was originally sunburst. Good bit of archaeology. Next up was paint. I made a jig out of a bit of scrap wood I had in the shed, and clamped it to my roadbike's maintenance stand. Everything I read said there was no reason to grain fill basswood (if that sounds like some foreshadowing, that's because it is), so I went straight to spraying it with most of a can of sanding sealer. This went on nicely and I started feeling like I was going to smash this; sanding it back down afterwards revealed what felt like a lovely smooth surface. I then went on to primer, and that looked decent but started revealing some issues. Now, what refinishing requires foremost is patience. I am not a patient man. Once the primer was on and drying, I started noticing a little grain showing through from the cut of wood used on the bass side of the body. I decided it didn't look too bad at this stage and figured it'd fill out with the colour and clear coats, so no worries. I just wanted to slap some pink on this bad boy. Here's what I had after I'd laid down a can of colour. You can see very visible grain on the forearm cut, something that seemed to become only more prominent the more colour I added. There was more on the belly cut, and some on the upper horn. I realised at this moment that I should have been more patient. I should have paid more attention at the primer stage, and probably stripped, grain filled and started again after the first coat of primer was put on. However, alongside impatience, one of my other superpowers is not knowing when to stop. So, I kept going onto the clear coat stage, bullheadedly assuming I could make it better by doing the exact same thing I'd done to make it worse. I ended up using two full cans of clear. During the second day of spraying, a total of two bugs flew in front of the spray nozzle and got propelled into the finish at considerable speed. At this point I was finding this project funny because so much seemed to be going wrong, so I didn't bother removing them. I hear they're good for tone anyway. Here I am regretting my life choices. The hardest part for me was waiting for opportunities to spray since I don't have anywhere to do it inside. Besides timing it between my job and my toddler napping, there had to be zero rain, low humidity, minimal wind, and nobody in neighbouring gardens. Again, I'm not a patient man so this was a challenge. Done. I have to say, I don't think I'd work with nitro again. I see the appeal because it goes on easily and wears very nicely, but it's bad for your lungs, your wallet and the planet. I'd happily refinish a bass again, but I'd probably experiment with other options next time. Next came waiting for 30 days before flat sanding and buffing. At this point I'd decided I'd spent a lot of money only to get a finish I wasn't going to be very happy with, but I was still excited to get it assembled and have one of my favourite basses back. Speaking of assembly, during the refin process I'd been gathering some parts. I wanted to rework the electronics and keep them to three holes so I could use a stock scratchplate, opting for a stacked volume control covering both pickups and a separate tone control. I already had a chrome Fender knob for the tone pot, so the hardest part was finding a stacked volume pot that could be used with a concentric knob I'd found that closely matched the Fender one. Luckily AliExpress and eBay sorted me. Almost of the other parts were reused from the original build. The exception was the scratchplate. I was originally going to go with standard white, but after watching an awful lot of Miami Vice after my second baby was born a few months ago I opted for an anodised gold one I had sitting in a picture frame upstairs. In my head it would fit tidily into this scene: What could be cooler? First though, I had to flat sand and polish. I forgot to take any pictures of this process, but I essentially wet sanded for a bit with 800 grit, before moving into 1200 grit. Unfortunately I burned through in a couple of places, but it's so inconspicuous I'm not worried. I then cycled to Halfords and got a bottle of Farecla G3, and started polishing with an old t shirt. This is when I got excited. Look at this. After all the balls-ups and doubling-down on those balls-ups, it buffed out to a super glossy finish. But what about the wood grain showing through on the forearm cut? It sanded out! I couldn't believe it. The belly cut and upper horn are the same. Admittedly the finish isn't 100% perfect (there are two bugs pummelled into it after all), but it's ten times better than I thought it might be after seeing the colour first go on. So, now it was time to start assembly and see my Miam-P Vice dreams come to life. First mock-up. I had some cream covers for a separate build, and I actually think they look way better than the black. However, I'm struggling to find a matched PJ set (or even a cream bridge J for that matter), so I'm sticking with black for now. And assembled. To me this is as cool as it gets, and I hadn't actually seen another bass in this colour combo before. So, feeling terribly original I proudly sent this picture to a few of my guitar-playing mates... ...and one of them said Fender had got there first. I still like mine better.

Howdy all You know me to be in general a big fan of @stevie's work, and he kindly sent me the newest addition to the LFSys FRFR stable, the 1x 10" Monza cab, to try out. (https://www.lfsys.co.uk/bassguitarproducts) I'll start with some pics of it next to my LFSys 'Silverstone' 1x12" - actually the very first Basschat Mk3 FRFR 1x12", but with updated crossover and horn a la the SIlverstone cab from the LFSys range. Pardon the wear; it's been out and about plenty. In short, it's a peach of a cabinet which I think can be the first 10" with a real claim to compete with a loud drummer. It is good for pub/club gigs; it handled rehearsals well with a loud drummer in a small enclosed space. I tested it out for a week or so in a few settings with my Berg Mk1 B Amp. I'll try to summarise the main points for me. Every instrument I played through it sounded very natural, like playing through studio monitors. It has a solid but non-boomy bottom end and utterly clear midrange/treble. It sounds the same as my Silverstone in the mids and highs (same horn/compression driver explains this), though the Silverstone has a bigger low low end (the Monza has a tailored low end response to prevent boominess at high volume). It can be heard very clearly standing directly in front of it, nearly on top of it, and well off axis. The driver can take a substantial amount of low end EQ, and even outright misuse, if the user happens to be foolish (slapping with big bass boost). It takes a low B well. The finish is top notch and it looks great. The handle is set flush with the to p, so can accommodate any head. 11kg is a good weight for a 1 cab solution. I don't have experience of the Barefaced 110T to compare it to, but I did have a BF 110 without the tweeter. I would say it's louder than the Barefaced 110 and has much clearer high end, unsurprisingly. Although it's heavier - 11kg vs 7kg. The only other small 10 I've owned which could compare in terms of frequency range was the old Acme 1x10, and this is is much much louder. The main difference I hear between this and the 12" cabs in the LFSys range is that the low end is slightly different for all of them. The Silverstone 12" has the biggest low end, then the Monza 10", and then the Monaco 12" is the tightest (but still good). All of the cabs in the range share the same mid and high end frequency characteristics - totally clear FRFR sound. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them if you EQ'd the low end similarly, which you can. I don't have any negatives to say about the cabinet. It's a premium product at a premium price, with top end components ands crossover. It is truly boutique. Stevie is going to organise that this unit is sent around to other folks for them to try it out. I'd say fill yer boots, it sounds great!!!

I will fight you!!

Yeah but I think most people who have had dealings would prefer it to be these two...

It's a valiant effort regardless of how it actually turns out. Kudos to you, sir.

Foam Centre Glasgow, good bloke!

I play this sometimes ,but this is probably one of the best covers I’ve heard by msblue of Meditation, she’s added some notes of her own which sound great, I’m not familiar with the song but she’s got a Rage against the Machine one too which is good

Musical Youth!!

Promoter: That was great. Here's another £200.

Sorry to hear that anyone has lost money and thanks for all the good advice. Not directly related to this scam but worth mentioning while security is on people’s minds, check that your phone doesn’t show the contents of incoming messages on the lock screen. There were reports in the news of a spate of thefts where people had phones and bank cards stolen from their locker while they were at the gym, then their bank accounts were cleaned out. The way this worked was the thief got the bank account details from the card and used them to set up the app for that bank on their own phone, which the bank verified by sending a code in a text message which the thief could see arriving on the locked phone. On iPhone you want to set Settings>Notifications>Show Previews to ‘When Unlocked, not ‘Always’.

I'm still going to swap the pickup for an Aguilar 60s wind. The 'Berg pickup has a lot of lows and highs but not as much mids as a traditional P has and I have to EQ it quite a lot. So I'll swap it over when I get a moment. It was the first time I've tried the Tonehammer amp model in the Helix... unfortunately now I want the real amp too!

Recessed handle! Good move....👍

Indeed it does. I am that bass player. They created a job for me there so I could be a full time Pretty Thing (oh, the irony). 145 Wardour Street was the studio and we recorded the track there (as we did the rest of the album that followed). Mark St John was the 'owner' and he also played on the track (he's in the video too). Which band were you?

Standing barefoot on Lego. Catching your old chap in your trouser zip. umm…

Here's a bump - it's Paddy's birthday today. Martin is doing a nationwide solo tour in Oct/Nov performing his favourites from the Sprout catalogue (quite a lot to choose from). Paddy is still suffering from Meniere's I gather. What a fantastic band....and Martin's a Stingray man no less

Got my additional 5 string need sorted by picking up this mighty fine BTB1905 Premium off eBay. Through experience, have become a huge fan of Ibby Premium’s & now have three.

Last weekend's gig was a great reminder that your brain is capable of letting you down at the most inauspicious of moments without warning. Playing a party gig, quite big and swanky, outdoor proper stage, sound system and engineer, separate dancefloor area for the DJ, fully catered and about 500 people. First number was going to be Sunshine of Your Love as it's a good starter for 10 to get us warmed up, no tricky bits and just gets us settled in. The host gives a big announcement to kick off proceedings and introduces the band with great fanfare (he knows us, so he was quite enthusiastic), all eyes turn to our guitarist for the starting riff.... try one, wrong key, we laugh, try two, wrong riff, not so funny, try three, complete garbage, now not funny.... so, started the riff on the bass, band joins in, guitarist remembers riff, all is well. Easiest riff of the gig but as the guitarist said afterwards, for some reason he had a brain fart with a complete disconnect between brain and fingers. The rest of the gig went really well, so not long before we got into our stride and put the start behind us. Amusingly, I was recording the gig on a new Zoom Q2n 4k I''ve just bought (this was its first outing), so much to the embarrassment of the guitarist we now have the worst start to a gig in glorious 4K! Happily things like this don't happen too often but I'm sure others here must have had some excruciating moments like this!

I hope it gets released somewhere, it'll go nicely with the Shell Pink limelight I have on order! I know what you mean about the shading though, I've seen a custom shop road worn J that is just perfect, but the Flea J is too mild and some of the other models are a little too vibrant. Lobster has just posted a quick unboxing...... Have to say that it's not helping with the GAS and that green looks great too. Sounds like Squier are on to a winner with this one.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Rock Against Racism are proud to introduce our special guest... Eric Clapton!"

I remember them well

@Steve BrowningOh wow, that's amazing, 34 years later and we meet again 😁 The name of my band was Home Again and we were in the studio for a week and recorded about 4 or 5 tracks. Sadly the experience for us was not a good one. It was all booked and paid for by the drummers uncle who worked in the offices above the studio. I think it was a firm of accountants. When it came to paying, the uncle did a runner, literally disappeared off the face of the earth. So we were left with the bill. Being a bunch of naive 18 year olds, we had no money or no idea what to do but Mark eventually went after our singer and his parents to recover costs which caused the band huge tension and we eventually split up. The recording session itself was brilliant and I remember you and I and the girl that worked there hung out most of the time in the upstairs part that looked out over the high street. You were bringing a different vintage bass in each day for me to play. I remember a white Jazz which I loved, a sunburst Precision and was there maybe a 51 Precision? You were going to sell one to me but sadly I had no money at the time. I have a whole bunch of photos from the week so I can post them up in a bit. Sadly, I never got a copy of the recording but I did hear it and it sounded awesome.

The hacking isn't done by some character in his bedroom. It's done by organisations with server farms, and whole call centres full of staff dedicated to making scam calls and setting up fake Facebook profiles and pages. It's not one man with one computer trying one password after the other to see which one it is.

So here it is... Number 23 of 72 - A Ball Family Reserve USA Music Man Bongo 6. It is ridiculously good. I was VERY sceptical as to whether I'd made a good or bad choice buying this, but DANG, it's a monster. The tone is like nothing I've played before, (and I've owned a Bongo 6 before!) it cuts like a hot knife through the mix, the pallette of tones is exceptionally good and really easy to dial in. The neck is probably the nicest neck I've felt, and it's not half bad to look at! It's on another level this beast... I totally agree the aesthetics are very much Marmite, but I think I might just be on the 'love' side of that arguement! I'm very pleasantly surprised by this bass. I was expecting it to be a great bass, as well it should be for the RRP, but I wasn't quite expecting it to be a phenomenal bass...

If you're seriously concerned, deffo the above. Get someone who knows hands to look at it. Even before the current state of affairs and waiting lists, however, I rather doubt you'd be getting to see anyone that knowledgeable in the two weeks before your next gig, so for the time being plan on it being what we all hope, just a one-off or a bit unfit. Do exercises and warmups before playing (actually a good plan for us all, especially as years advance) and analyse just what's going on with your hands and arms while you are playing. Can't do any harm, and you might help yourself in the long term. A mate of mine carries a hair dryer to actually warm his hands up pre-gig. Sounds unusual but works brilliantly for him. I hope it simply doesn't reoccur!