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Ok, so this is a NBD post but there's a bit of a story to go with it. I've had the bass a couple of months but I wanted to make sure I was keeping it before posting about it. Anyways, I'll do my best to keep it brief. For as long as I can remember I've known that I'm a bit different, life has been a constant struggle & to be honest, just down right cruel at times but this is not about seeking sympathy or anything. My favourite saying had become "I can't wait for this planet to stop spinning so I can get off". With that said, my one true constant love has always been music & even on the darkest of days music has been there, a steadfast companion as loyal as they come. After spending almost a decade trying to figure myself out with no help from the NHS the answers finally came from my employers occupational health dept. They steered me in the right direction & along with the diagnoses came the discovery of my own spirituality (ok, I know most will leave this post now so thank you for reading this far). It was a relief & I binned off all the self help books but as an avid reader this left a hole in my spare time. So digging around my bookshelf for something to get stuck into I found my copy of "the music lesson". I had read Victor's book years ago & to be honest I thought it was pants. But with fresh eyes I had another go at it & began to think about my place in music as a musician. I discovered a few things, firstly, I had become a collector of basses, nothing at all wrong with that but it was never my intention & secondly, I didn't know what my "sound/style" was. I had gotten very good at imitating other people but there was no individuality in my playing. I wasn't "moving" myself so how could I possibly be "moving" the audience with my playing. I just wasn't grooving man! So after much thought I decided to sell on my beautiful basses because as gorgeous as they are & as lucky as I was to have them none of them were "the one". Off they went to members here & on a total whim in the early hours one morning I stumbled across this wonderful 90s Tobias & brought it. I know it's a Gibson model & purists might turn up their noses but it's actually a fine instrument, or at least it will be. When it came it needed a good set up & the dual truss rods gave me some grief but I stuck with it & got the neck nice & straight only to discover this particular bass also came with plenty of high frets. Awesome. Off it went to the shop I use to have them leveled & I asked my mate Rob to give it a nice low action as I wanted to force myself to play with a lighter touch. I've kept a Lakland 5 string because it was a gift from my wife & it's always useful to have a 5 but for the last two months or so this is the only bass I've played, or even wanted to play. I'm more inspired to play bass now than I've ever been & this bass really draws me up the dusty end. I'm not in a band at the minute so all my time is spent improvising & playing what's in my head with little thought & it feels liberating. It's like I've cut out there middle man & I'm really starting to discover my own sound. The only thing left to do is fit the East bass/treble stack eq that I have because I think the active contour it has standard really limits the Bartolini pickups. So, long story short, the last few years & challenges that they brought have led me to this bass & the musical self discovery I'm experiencing now. I'm a "one bass kinda guy" now & I really like it. If you read this far thank you! I'm sure you deserve to see a picture of my awesome bass 😁

She's Right I'm Left Acoustic gig tonight at Revere's in Delafield . Classy place and high end clientle. Blue

Bit late with this one, as ive been doing a little light cosmetic Modding. I recently bought this Black 83 SQ Squire Precision from the always fantastic ead. I've owned a white JV jazz for the last 30 years and always wanted a Precision counterpart, but they've gone fairly expensive. These were made at the same time as the JV's but at a lower price point as they weren't vintage reissues, but a standard style P bass for the time (pretty much a 70s style). The quality is on par with my JV it's fairly light for a 40 year old MIJ, it came with a fairly chunky fender style bridge, which looked very shiny compared to the nice mojod tuners. I had a Gotoh Reliced vintage Bridge which I fitted as well as some reliced Barrel knobs. I've also replaced the original black pickguard with what I believe is a Bass Doc burgundy Tort(sourced by our own Walshy), which has been nicely reliced so in keeping with the bass (NOTE- despite being an MIJ bass, I have fitted two USA spec pickguards, so it is a true 70s spec) The neck was also lightly sanded, it felt so nice, I took the neck off my JV jazz and lightly sanded it with wire wool (0000) abdcits lovely and matt now. It had also been upgraded with a CTS Kiagon loom and a fender original 62 pickup, it sounds very warm and smooth, I'm very smitten with this bass😍 it came with some lovely TI flats, which as much as I love I find flats don't cut through live (for me anyway) so I've put a set of fairly new DR Pure Blues, which actually have a very warm abd smooth midrange and sound very nice when worn in. Such a great bass and such high quality for a supposed "budget" instrument, I think they just used much nicer woods I those days.

Just a shout out to Dave Green and everyone at Ashdown. I took my (tired) EVO II 500 in for a service, pots and fans…. lovey, down to earth, friendly place, proper old school Amp shop. Made me feel all nostalgic for big heavy bass amps, like the old days. Proper job.

Arrived at The Bell in the picturesque Wiltshire village of Great Cheverell (are you ready to rock Great Cheverell, said literally nobody ever) for my Goth duo's little stint at the Open Mic. We met early for a quick run through at my musical other half's 85yr old Mum's place. It looked like Mrs. Kersch's home in Derry (It reference!) where we drank lukewarm iced coffee out of wine glasses ("lovely hospitality Mrs. Fletcher") and showed Nick's Mum how to send an email from her phone (I don't mock, it'll come to me before I know it!). Funny how a 50yr old friend reverts to a teenager when Mum is about! Worst load in ever and a very posh NIMBY came out to talk in a loud patronising voice about protected verges - Nick's Skoda, not my impeccable parking three counties away! No pictures of the show but I did send a quick selfie to my good lady to let her know that I had safely travelled the hour journey... and as pictures maketh the post on this thread, um, enjoy?!? Thankfully it was a mandolin gig for me, so no heavy amp or cumbersome bass guitar to load in. We opened and closed the night. I sang the female vocal part of the Human League's Don't You Want Me to a room full of brilliant singers, who politely nodded and no doubt blessed me for "having a go". Then we followed this by the usual "no it's not a guitar" and "I'm actually a bass player" type conversations with people who were seeing us for the first time. Actually thought we played quite well and we seemed to be fairly well received. One chap spoke to us in detail about the bands we covered, recommended loads of venues that we should play (there seemed to be a story involving a fight at every one!) and then insisted on me finding him to add on Facebook. I did and 19hrs later he's still not accepted me. Not sure what that was about!? 😸 footnote - I wasn't really working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you. I was probably just lurking around the classifieds on Basschat!

Anthrax gig: Can everybody please remain seated. Maiden gig: The bass was inaudible Metallica gig: Lars flipping nailed it

Body’s dry now this Osmo oil is good stuff…expensive tho 23 odd quid for a 750 tin. I’ve got plenty left so if anybody fancied some give me a shout….anyway here’s the control covers. Away to give body another coat….by the way it’s 1101 oil I used

My Lionel got the pickup change I wanted to do. Aguilar AG 4P-60. 1960s recreation. The stock pickup was closer to a SD QP to my ears - too much bass and treble and not enough mids for a P. This solves that for me. Also installed a @KiOgon solderless loom to go with it to complete the vintage tone package. Sounds more pleasing to my ears now. There was nothing at all wrong with the stock pickup, it was just not the sound I was looking for. Aguilars are a bit spendy, but I've got one in another bass and I really like it, so I didn't want to end up buying something else and then still wanting the Aggy and end up spending more. I have a rehearsal on Saturday to give it a proper run.

I'd like to thank the tables and chairs that have been supporting us during our gig.

Ponderous Tories ～ Yes

If you've not noticed any issues I wouldn't worry about it 🤷‍♀️

We’ve been using in ears exclusively for the last 3 years and I’ve used one of these instead of an amp probably done over 200 gigs without any issues whatsoever. There are undoubtedly better and much more expensive Options out there but for the price these are reliable and great value. My intention was originally to use it as a short term solution in case I couldn’t get use to in ears , but honestly never seen a reason to upgrade cheers Steve

Oh look, every single member of the main act stayed to watch our entire set and didn't just p!ss off to the pub the moment they'd finished soundcheck.

Vintage car show gig on Saturday. Blue

Just a heads up if anyone's interested - I was mulling over whether I should try some flats on my (ever so lovely) EBMM short scale Stingray just to see how it would sound, when I discovered that Ernie Ball will soon be launching short scale Cobalt flats, and Amazon currently have them on pre-order for about £33. Looks to be a very decent price - at least when compared to what long scale Cobalts usually go for (and the inevitable short-scale premium that will no doubt get added on top). There are two sets of gauges, 45-105 and 50-110, both about the same price. They sound great on this much-too-short demo:

I love Sandberg basses, love Rammstein, my favourite colour is black, so I had to get the Oli Riedel signature. I don’t have any opinions either way, and don’t own any other signature gear, but I do love this bass.

Hold the Lime - Toto

Hi Pete, Its just arrived, I'll go plug it in in a minute. Thanks again, really appreciate it.

I own an Alembic Stanley Clarke Deluxe. I had absolutely no concerns that my playing would start to emulate that of Stanley, and it genuinely hasn't.

Things you wont hear at a gig?..a Pbass with flats 😉

Jazz Ciggys do not agree with me. Ime the guys it does agree with play way too many 'jazz' notes while believing they have temporarily been reincarnated as Jimmy Hendrix.

"Hi! I'm Eric Clapton and I'd like to welcome you all to our testimonial Rock Against Racism gig!"

Without doubt one of the best after sales service anywhere.

AMAZING gig on Saturday night at the JamJar in Bristol. God it was hotter than Hades in there -- that stupid Aussie hat I'm wearing was soaked through by the end -- but the crowd was fantastic, danced their arrses off and sang themselves hoarse, and we were on good form. A good crowd always lifts your game. I wish they were all like this. WhatsApp Video 2023-06-11 at 16.23.03.mp4

My son has been teaching himself to play guitar and has my ancient Vox VT15 so he prefers to play through my Fender mustang GTX100 which sounds infinitely better. I've been thinking of getting him the smaller version, the GTX50 so he can get the same sounds in his room. I was browsing Andertons secondhand section on their website yesterday and saw a GTX50 at a price that was too good to click past. When I got to the checkout I realised I could get an additional £12 off by using the loyalty points earned when I bought my Squier CV LPB Bass VI. Result! I can't wait to see his little face when I surprise him with it (he's 21 btw)

Think it's a Gibson LPB-1 circa 1990

Brand New Cardiac - The Clash

Yup - and for the same reason

Our singer has really pushed/harassed me into doing more backing vocals. When I joined the band I couldnt sing and play at the same time. If I'm being honest I still can't! Certainly not on the fly. I need to know exactly what I'm singing, it would appear I have very limited mental bandwidth so if I have to play, sing AND think about what to say I'm gonna stop breathing or fall over or something. I have improved massively though, there's certain lines where I'm doing something reasonably complex and singing/shouting and I'm now doing it almost naturally. I think my voice is ok, but nervous about saying so so backing vocals will do for me for now! I will say practice, practice, practice makes it though. Even if you think it's impossible now just keep plugging away and you will get somewhere. Maybe not geddy lee levels but still somewhere.

Pretty essential to do BVs in the band I'm in, all four of us chip in to give full harmonies where we can. When I first started doing BVs a few decades back I hated it and it really detracted from my bass playing but now I'm generally ok though some numbers still fox me and I step back where I know it'll throw me out. I have done the odd song as lead vox but I find I'm only ok on certain songs where it meshes ok with the bass even after years at it.

"For our next number, we offer a new composition of ten minutes duration. I have been asked by Boab Black, Entertainments Convener of The Committee, to warn you that this number WILL be interrupted by the bingo, when the the band's black boxes will be unceremoniously un-plugged from the wall, as the drummer is temporarily crucified to ensure sacrosanct silence in-case Wee Aggie misses a line. The band will, of course, be amply compensated for this public humiliation and artistic vandalism, and hope 'legs eleven' is good to you this night and evermore. Thank you. Ah, one, ah two, a one, two, three, four ..."

I Feel Priti (Patel) - My Fair Lady soundtrack

Eventually we will again too!

Oh look, every single member of the support band stayed to watch our entire set.

I think that's the worst bass tone I've ever heard! It sounds like the speakers are broken. It goes to show that there's no such thing as the perfect tone as everyone will perceive it differently.

Something more mellow to start the work day:

Quite fancy that, daft really.

Time to look for bigger venue?

Yup, always found that to be the case with the folks at Ashdown

Well, a brand new Spectracomp is £111 and has one knob, the Drawmer has 16 knobs. So per knob the drawmer is better value for money!

So I’ve somehow ended up with 5 short scales but they are great basses for travel. All of mine fit in guitar bags. Getting this Friday