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The last year has been ... difficult! Fire destroying my flat, a back injury meaning that I am no longer able to work as an ICU bedside nurse and 'artistic differences' with a band I'd played in for 7 years. The support here on BC has been, well, I've no words! Thank you! xx My flat is scheduled to be restored by 11-Sep, 13 months after the fire! The builders have said that they are going to be able to cover the cost of a carpet which is amazing. The insurance are going to pay for me moving back (which is surprisingly expensive even tho it is just about 100m oer the road!) as well as the professional exit clean from my temporary rental. And this morning, I interview for a clinical Research Nurse (Cardiology) role and heard this afternoon that I have been offered the position, a big change ... but the "office hours" and lack of need to do a lot of moving of patients are just the ticket for my physical capabilities; but there are loads of things to learn and a lot of patient contact so my mind and my heart will still be fed! And the new band is slowly but surely moving forwards! S'manth x

Had a blast playing only the second gig in the band's history last night; it was my work's summer party, which meant that I was as nervous as I've ever been before a gig because if there's one environment you really don't want to suck in it's this. Fortunately we played pretty well (although somehow I got lost in the guitar solo of Whiskey In The Jar - I know, right?) and went down a storm - they were dancing on the tables by the first chorus of the second song! If it looks like we're playing in a cowshed it's because we were playing in a cowshed. Weirdly the sound was pretty good, so I'll take that as a win. They want us back for the same gig next summer. Onwards and upwards! Cheers, JRK

Back on the horse after a sad week, this one was for Chico 🐈 It was a cracking gig last night at the Butchers Arms in Inverurie. Started off slow with about 10 folk but it built up over the night and the place was pretty rammed at the end. In this week's episode of "there's always one", I can give you two! Comment of the night - lady when told that we can't just play anything she asks - "well, you're not a very good band then, are you?". Then there was the woman who wouldn't leave the singer alone - kept putting her arms around him, trying to kiss him, trying to steal the mic - whilst he's trying to sing the effin' song, what a pest! This is not "rock and roll" - we're all married! Perils of performing at floor level, and why having a frontman (or woman) to hide behind and soak up this kind of nonsense is very useful Played my Sire D5 at its first live outing and I am delighted with it. Got some nice growl and clank out of it. Quiet as a mouse (no buzz/hum), good as gold, happy to gig it anytime. I have heard some say that the pickup is low output. Well, that's what the gain and volume controls on your amp are for, yes? I thought it needed a little help in the low end, it's very mid focussed (which actually makes it a great live bass) but I did give the low EQ a bit of a boost also. Wilsons in Aberdeen tonight - lather, rinse, repeat!

No regrets here either. At 70, I'm thankful I can get up, put my gear together and drive to a gig. My point is ,at my age good health beats out everything. It can be taken away from us in the blink of an eye. Blue

As many of you might be aware I've been holding off for a new Mesa TT800 for the past few yrs now but couldn't resist this Ampeg SVT7 Pro on sale here by our very own @Berserker at a really good price. Having owned an SVT4 Pro few yrs back and loved the tone but it was an older one that had too many issues for me to rely on I thought i would give Ampeg another try. Have to say i've been using it at home now for a couple of weeks and WOW it certainly does impress. It has that typical Ampeg SVT Pro tone, deep, clear and simple to use. I can set up my normal tone with the basic EQ and when i need that deep lower tone i hit the LO button and when i need a more Ric style tone i hit both LO and HI buttons and the great thing is the overall volume doesn't change very much at all. This would save me having to use my Roland mfx unit. (i just need to get an envelope filter for Virginia Plain) Built in compressor seems to do a decent job too. Doesn't kill the low end. Amp master volume is still very low at home probably 8-9 o'clock with an 8 ohm cab. My other amps i would have a bit louder than this with same cab when using at home. I have no direct neighbours to worry about and have triple glazing Have a gig with my Glam covers band tomorrow afternoon with just a vocal PA and using backline in a club that holds circa 150. Will see how it fairs tomorrow. If all is good i think my amp GAS might be well and truly sorted and i'll leave the Mesa. Dave

Oh come on, clearly you can recognise Rachel from 'Friends'

Morning Hasbro Ken ～ Cat Stevens

If I could advise my 18 year old (shortly to turn pro) self, I'd tell me to focus on my singing, carry on playing double bass and get better at being a front man. All things I didn't do and have held me back over the decades.

I get the whole meeting up with musicians with musical tastes closer to mine. Thing is, I have to be gigging, I'm one of the few that needs the money. A band with my musical tastes probably wouldn't get many gigs. Friends have told me: " Daryl ,your already in the best band for you" Blue

So apparently, Fender is going to announce a new Vintera series later this year. With this time: -Competition stripe Mustangs -LPB Jazz -Telecaster Bass -VI And: the reintroduction of rosewood instead of pao ferro. https://guitarbomb.com/2023/07/22/leak-fender-vintera-ii-series-is-back-with-rosewood-fretboards/

Cold wet and windy at Rock’n’Ribs in Wincanton today, thankfully being on the Country stage meant we had cover for our enthusiastic audience. Set delayed and slightly curtailed thanks to the wind and rain buggering up the stage but we had a blast. Tartan Heart Belladrum next weekend, hope the rain holds off for that 😄

The Telecaster bass 😛 Do I need it? No. Do I want it? 200% Yes!

Well, that was a swing and a miss! Mark

Sitting on Haddock of the bay - Otis Redding

I do this cautiously knowing that I put myself at risk any time I walk down a dark alley. Those of us who attend any of the local Bass Bashes will probably have seen this, some people may even have played it. Many of us may have spoken to its creator, Jezza or @Jabba_the_gut about parting with one of his creations but he being the perfectionist that he is it seemed virtually impossible to acquire one. I was lucky enough to be in the right place when @Owen decided to move this on. After all, it wouldn't be right to have two, would it. Parcelforce did their best to delay delivery but I was able to collect from my local depot on Thursday evening. Home, I managed to break the A string tuning it up, great start - haven't done this in years. Finally managed to plug it in and play. Wow...for a 27" bass it really does sound amazing. Lots of usable tones, great build quality (as you'd expect from Jezza) , lovely, lovely smooth neck. Played only on the knee so far so can't comment on balance - can't believe it will suffer from neck dive though. Initially I was frustrated by the lack of neck markings till I realised that, with a flick of the switch, the Lumanix LEDs come to life providing the markers. The seller, @Owensent the bass strung with custom roundwounds and a set of tapewounds in the gigbag which will eventually find their way back on. I didn't realise how used you get to the scale when you play standard length bass. This, being 27", contrived to outsmart me so a few hours of practice on the micro bass required before I can feel confident and adept with it . Needless to say I look forward to those hours. Thanks to Jezza for creating the bass, thanks to @Owen for his moment of madness when he agreed to sell. Previous thread:

No Particular Plaice To Go - Chuck Berry

Didn’t the Thin Lizzy version have no bass on it, or have I dream that? 😆

Hmm...

It's a horrible rainy day here so I thought I'd do a comparison of my 63 (on the left) and 64 J's. I cannot hear an output level difference between them. The 63 is wearing stainless vs nickel strings on the 64 which is evident in the slightly brighter tone of the 63. The headstock of the 63 is 14mm thick against 15mm on the 64. Otherwise the neck profiles feel the same. The body contouring of the 63 is cut very slightly deeper and feels relatively light weight for a J which is confirmed by my bathroom scales by approx half a pound at 9lb vs 9.4lbs for the 64. If these were fitted with the same strings I doubt I could tell them apart blindfolded.

Well done. Was this pic taken when you got lost in Whisky guitar solo as they're all looking at you. Dave

I have foolishly embarked on starting up a band. My brother has given me the bare bones of a pa (mixer, amp, cabs) so I will be in charge of the sound at last!

Thanks. Window-installation foam and felt.

Here's my "eclectic" board: first "finished" version, though there's some tidying up to do. Board: Harley Benton Spaceship 40 with the 40-B battery PSU. The PSU is built in to the board: I'm surprised they don't advertise these boards more, but they just happened to release a short promo video yesterday. There are wider 60cm and 80cm versions too. It uses an external 24V universal PSU. Signal Chain: Peterson StroboStomp Mini tuner; you can't beat a strobotuner in my opinion. Orange KongPressor (top right): it's an opto compressor, running on 12V, and I actually find it quite mild and "non-obvious" until I do things like play around with pickup levels. The "Chime" control is a gentle EQ for fine-tuning, doesn't affect tone in general; MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, bought from @sumorabbit last week, arriving yesterday. So I'm still figuring it out, but like what I hear so far. JHS 3 Series Phaser: from a local shop here, I was kind-of surprised they had one. Can be obnoxious if I want, but in general I have the blend dialled back a bit and feedback switch off, so it's more about gentle movement and I like it a lot. T-Rex Diva Drive: also new, a bit of a punt on bass; possibly the cheapest overdrive with a mix control, it also has a low voice EQ switch. Having it after the compressor might be a mistake, since I feel like I want a more dynamic drive attack. More tuning required. Tone City Matcha Cream: a fairly blunt instrument. A cheap Green Russian Big Muff clone, I'm told. You lose bass if you have the tone control near the top. Some interesting interactions with the other pedals. Boss MD-200: this is me trying to figure out what kinds of modulation I like, since I've hardly used any besides phaser. It looks like I'm only in to subtle modulation, and the MD-200 does far more than I need. I like the Overtone function for pseudo 8-string, but if I have e.g. fuzz and/or phaser going too, it's a wall of sound. That too-big Akai pedal is currently set to control effect depth. I don't know if I'll keep this long-term. TC SpectraDrive: my oldest pedal, this will be the "finalizer" as required for the application. At the moment I'm only using the stereo Aux In from the MD-200 and then to headphones. I can use it as a limiter / amp sim / DI, or bypass it if going in to a house amp. Known Issues: Gain structure needs work. I probably have the output volume on the KongPressor too low at this point, affecting how the octaver and the drive stages behave. No delay or reverb yet: does it need any? I don't know. Cab sim needed? I know stereo bass is not really a thing in live settings: it's ear candy on headphones for now, but I shouldn't get too used to it.

Unfortunately that is the way and one of the major pedalboards with flexability - trying to get what you want. When I started, you could only get pedals, and they were expensive so you didn't get many, so you made do with what you had, and made what you had do what you wanted - you also experimented more because you had to. Now with modern multifx you know you can basically get every sound you want if only you found the right one. Choice is the enemy here. I say one of the best ways of getting your sound could be to do the same. I haven't got many pedalboards on my dwarf (I have 3 - 2 are for specific songs and 1 is for everything else), I have others to play around on. Pick a number of effects - like one distortion, one echo, one chorus, one other effect, connect them up and just force yourself to get the sound you want in your head by fiddling with those for a period of time, even if there is a temptation to change them. stick all the knobs from the effects on the front panel and see what you can get. Move them round, change the order. As for order, that makes more sense when you think about the signal itself, like if you have an envelope effect, do you want to reduce the envelope (like with an overdrive or compressor) before you use the envelope? probably not. Do you want to distort a modulated signal, or do you want to modulate a distorted signal - they sound very different. There is no real science to this, its just how it sounds to you and only you are going to know what works, but you can't do it with all the effects on the dwarf, there are too many, just do it with the restricted set. Then finally when you know what you are not getting, start changing the pedals one at a time until you get what you want. As to your specific statements: 1) input gains - set them as high as they can go without overloading anything when you go crazy. Thats the easy way 2) The only way is to try it at gigging level - when you turn a fuzz one the level is going to change, and the perceived level will change, but also the eq - it depends on your equipment how loud that is. Keep the level on a front panel control until you know it (in fact I keep those levels on a front panel control) 3) ordering, compressor at the front / back. Where on a guitar I would always put it on the front, there are equally valid reasons for both sides - again, try it see what works, and why it works. There are no right ways (although I guess there can be wrong ways!) Not very helpful I know, but these things are so personal that its hard to say.

Specifically on the issue of driving, what I can attest to - certainly in London - is that getting a driving licence is just not a priority for young people. They can't afford a car, they have widespread public transport, they don't see the need. It's NOT a male/female thing as far as I can see; my son's friends are as short on driving as my daughter's. I find it quite bizarre. I steered both my kids (didja see what I did there? huh? didja?) towards learning to drive as early as possible, then bought them each a banger as soon as they passed their tests. Both of them have found car ownership a career essential and extremely valuable socially. Their friends, who for years largely relied on them to provide the transport, never seemed to 'get' just how dependent their lack of a licence made them.

Sounds like it's had a bump during shipping, maybe. Hopefully an easy fix.

Having been there in November a few years ago, I can understand why.

step this way my friend 😄 at least 4 , possibly 5 of these are Warwick’s and all but one (or two or three, I’m weak) will be up for sale.

My Yamaha BB734a seems to play 20 or so wrong notes at every gig i play. I've tried taking the strings off and putting them on again, but the issue remains I'm stumped as to what it could be......

I found this reply post amusing on the OP Twitter thread... "There’s two types of scat. There's nonsense-singing by singers , and then there’s ‘jazz noises’: the involuntary Tourette’s-type vocalisations made by piano or bass players when deep in the throes of instrumental improvisation. The latter tends to be the more interesting sort."

Believe me and the other people on here with a fully working , fully functioning R400, this amp is plenty loud enough.

I thought they came with a new bass.

This is very true. What I didn't make clear was my sister and her son (who owned the ferrets) are both vets. Over the years there have been cats, dogs, Lincolnshire Longwool Sheep, ducks, Alpacas, an owl, chinchillas...oh...ferrets...and the funniest of the lot was Cyril the Squirrel.

Not the end of the world, but the f hole on the right looks much better. The one on the left looks like an afterthought from someone not very familiar with f holes or aesthetics. Not a fan of either one on a bass that traditionally doesn't have one, Jazz or Precision, but I do like f holes on some basses. A week's pay says my Imola blows it out of the water for a much better price, too.

Would love a PM16, but its just another thing to buy / carry!

Bought a brass rod from B&Q on my way home from work. Only sanded to 80 grit so far but I think we're onto a winner.

My rig of choice, playing last night at the Wesival Festival held at the West End Centre in Aldershot. Barefaced Two10 and MarkBass Little Mark IV. Sounded great although I wished I'd used my Warwick Gnome head instead.