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NBD Gibson Les Paul DC Tribute. Drove to Southampton to pick this lovely bass up last Thursday from a real Gentleman Basschatter. Sounds and plays wonderfully. My deteriorating arthritis in my left hand has forced me to play short scale basses exclusively. But joyfully.

You’re never too old! I picked up a bass for the very first time in Nov/Dec 2021 at the age of 56. Practiced at home every day, got bad GAS, bought amps and basses, then thought I should venture out. My first outing was to a local monthly jam in October 2022, and I didn’t take a bass, too scared, I lurked in the background and sussed it out. It’s a jam where there’s a setlist/book on a table to choose tunes from, and copies on stage for everyone to look at. There’s a lot of tunes in it. I took a pic of the front page list and vowed to return the following month with at least three I could play. The next time I went, I took my bass and did play on two tunes with the other musicians. Over the next few months, and keeping attending the jam, I found myself in a band with the house drummer and some other musicians from the jam, and we play gigs every month or so, sometimes two gigs, for actual money! We get along very well, and I would now call them friends. This all gave me loads of confidence, and allowed me to stretch out musically and become a better player. A few months ago I answered an ad on JMB for a bass player for a nine piece band with horn section. I auditioned and landed the job. That band is the most challenging musical experience I have ever had, really complicated stuff, but I would say that I’m swimming not drowning. A journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. Rob

The Jr is easily one of my favourite basses.

This popped up in my inbox earlier. I thought the new price was quite good...

For those of you who thought it was me, sorry to disappoint.

Over the last few days (laid up/knee), I've been reading Liam Newton's rather excellent biography of 10cc; 10cc: The Worst Band In The World and in keeping with the Supertramp thread, I've been immersing myself in their back catalogue while reading. I'm enjoying this immensely. My brother is ten years older than me and as a kid fed me with cassettes of his purchases, the first 10cc album was in there, still buried deep in my conscience. More than aware of the do-wop and powerpop stylings the like of Johnny Don't Do It, Donna and Rubber Bullets, I've dipped into the catalogue beyond that previously (Sheet Music, Original Soundtrack etc.) and I'm more than aware of their singles. It's a phenomenal story, from Graham Gouldman's pre-10cc career (in his mid-teens he was writing for The Hollies, The Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits and Wayne Fontana), Eric Stewart's work with The Mindbenders and setting up Strawberry Studios in Manchester (with the fledgling 10cc effectively becoming the house band and providing music for a lot of Jonathan King's UK Records projects/gimmick singles). Did I mention Neil Sedaka? My heart pines for times when music was like this; I grew up on a steady diet of Sweet, Sparks, Mott The Hoople. I honestly wish I'd paid more attention to 10cc. There's a rather splendid BBC documentary from 2015 up on You Tube - link below - that's well worth the watch if you need a primer before exploring:

I had my first show last night with my new Shure GLXD16+. I had the transmitter just clipped to my back pocket as my levy’s pouch hadn’t arrived in time. I must say that the Shure is absolutely worth the money, the unit is absolutely solid with 0 issues for me last night, the tuner is brilliant and easy to see on stage. Would recommend the unit to everyone. We did a 45 minute set and the battery is still displaying as full, the battery has around 12-14 hours life apparently so I won’t really need to charge it again for quite a while! The unit syncs itself instantly so no waiting around awkwardly for it to sync. No noticeable delay/latency whatsoever. Amazing unit, If you’re on the fence, buy one!

Scott's Bass Lessons - during which he educates fish. Scots Bass Lessons - same format as usual but wearing a kilt.

Scott’s Baldness Lessons. Where he weans people off the ridiculous habit of wearing hats indoors.

So, earlier this year I found myself in a position where I was offered an exclusive artist endorsement contract with Hartke Systems. I had recently played through a Hartke rig at a festival and was really impressed with the tone. Obviously, being a fan of the amps I bit their hand off and a couple of weeks ago my rig of choice turned up at the doorstep. I opted for the LH1000 and the new HL410 and couldn't be more happier with the new setup. I absolutely love the tone I'm getting, the LH1000s simplicity and warmth combines perfectly with the clarity and punch of the HL410. The hybrid speaker cones give me the perfect amount of high end that I've never experienced with other cabs. They had their first outing last weekend at Lattitude and Leopalloza Festival and filled the stage with glorious low end! I apologise if posts about equipment from companies you endorse aren't allowed but I'm just so pleased and my mind is blown I'm getting this support from the company.

Having read all of your replies, advice and experiences and loads of other stuff online, listened and watched quite a few videos - which are always a mixed bag depending on how they were recorded, I’d narrowed my choice down to two. Both were fretless 4 strings, because there really doesn’t seem to be many 5’s available and I didn’t want to stretch to or wait for a Kala California. They’re both 23” though I did wonder about a couple of 25” scale models. I’m going to be travelling about the country tomorrow so was trying to squeeze in an extra stop to attempt to grab one of the ones I’d found (finding anywhere that stocks these things is a bit of a task in itself) Whilst planning this I had another look on one of the major retailers sites and had a bit of luck….. I’d ruled out this option as I couldn’t find anywhere that stocked the particular bass I was interested in. After a bit of last minute faffing about it’s been ordered and should be with me in a couple of days. Pics to follow 🙂

Wrong answers only please.

I'll take one tomorrow. The light has gone today.

Contours were added in ‘69 with the introduction of the ‘competition’ Mustang (stripes)

Evri breath you take - The Police

I know, I know! I have such a soft spot (between my ears maybe?) for Gibson basses that I didn't want to complete the full character assassination of the brand 😉

It works a treat in our set, but then again we are a ska band...

Is there an oportunity to haggle on that a bit, see if you can get it down to a tenner - I mean the paint is coming off!

Absolutely 100% correct. It's just the best one out there imo, not the cheapest, but the best.

I'd just add that open mic/jam nights don't have to be about intimidating improvisation from the word go - you can start by learning a few 'staples' and asking the hosts if you can sit in with them if they know them (and even if they don't*)...it's a good way to start, and you'll make some good connections... * I co-host a good jam night with some great musicians, so I'm on the hop a good deal, but that's largely accommodating people who want to get up and say 'Do you know...?', so it's out with the iPad if we don't and often the person getting up knows it better than us...

The VG system in that case was designed due to Rolands dislike of people who didn't wear shoes. The edges are purposely sharpened for that reason!

Blinkers kept me in a blues rock band for years until it folded. Then one of the band suggested playing a set of Abba/funk/disco stuff and I gave it a go. What a revelation - songs that I would never normally listen to other than on the radio were so much more fun to play. Interesting and challenging basslines, great songs and some good gigs. I'm still not a die hard fan of Abba/funk/disco music in general, but I'm glad I widened my horizons.

Coming on BC suggesting that 45 years of age is in some way old is a brave move! You should probably head over to BasschatJnr.com which carers for the under 50’s 👍

NOOOOOOOOOO!!! If you're trying to get back into playing, do not under any circumstances try to start a new band. You will be entering a world of pain, frustration, communication breakdowns, hypocrisy, and total lack of commitment. It will put you off for life. Let some other poor bugger go through all that and set up a new band. Then go and join it.

Had a change, I wanted to go back to my smaller board as it’s festival season (shlep season!) This still allows me to run a separate chain to my IEMs with amp sim etc (or to my Headrush cabs) and then send my main signal to FOH. The EQ on the right is for a few notes in a royal blood song.

Back in '72 I was with a London-based covers band (Sweeny) on sax. We worked exclusively through agents and got some interesting support act gigs although none anywhere near London! One of these involved a trip to Scunthorpe Baths Hall to support 10cc - nice guys to chat to and a stonking set from them with Donna, The Dean and I, Rubber Bullets and many more done to perfection; we were very impressed with them having two drummers - one to cover when lead vocals plus drumming were just too much to do properly, also they had a brand-new Merc 600 van. Ours was a dodgy old transit....

I think I can’t be the only person wanting to see a frontal shot of that.

The Jr is quite different from most Gibson basses , they simply dropped a single humbucker in the classic sweet spot. So it behaves like a short scale set neck Pbass might. I love the two knob simplicity. I’m an old Pbass guy. They are great little basses. It does have a cheap finish. And many do not care for the bridge. I have always been able to set a 3point exactly where I want to , but I have replaced three of them with Hipshots. I just think they look better (if I can be allowed to be that shallow) , but they’re much easier to palm mute , and certainly much more precise to adjust. I still have left a 3point on an older Rumblekat. They are said to be no longer in production and yet they remain on the Gibson website. And I hope they will do more runs of them.

SWR Interstellar Overdrive tce 1140 parametric FI (I would have enough time to tame it) IE Xerograph Deluxe (or Onkart Gromt) envelope +1 tce HyperGravity three band compressor OK, the first two aren't pedals. Then SWR could be Spruce effects Old growth fuzz, and 1140 could be IE Divaricator (X-over). Order: Xero - SWR - FI - 1140 - HG envelope - X-over (fuzz in the loop) - FI - comp The order is this, because I like how envelope reacts to my playing. OD/dist/fuzz loves to be in the front line, just like the envelope. Comp is last and it will take care of the overall level (if needed). Anything else can be between those already mentioned. Oh dear, do I have to build one more set?

Who?!

Not in my case, to be honest I think it takes away the Mustangness if it's replaced with the standard Fender BBOT.

They certainly seem to be good valves and as far as I'm aware they're rebranded Sovtek which is very much a tried and tested product. I had a full compliment of EHX in an Ashton BV300 I owned for a while and as I recall, the big bottles are the reason I later bought them for the V4. Zero failure of any of them over the years. I've also got some JJ types on the go too - there's some long plate '83s, an '81 and 6L6GC in the Bassman, long plate '83s and KT77 in Beavis (scratch built 60w hot rod Marshall type) and the V4 has four short plate '83s. My SVT has it's original 'from the factory' valves which are JJ pre and EHX power tubes too. The best sounding 12AX7 / ECC83 I've used are the '80s Siemens 'slab plate' examples but the JJ and EHX are great valves in their own right. Glad you're happy with your EHX, Mr B. 😃 I love it too - it really does sound as good as it looks. ❤️

I have have owned a few Luither made basses and the quality of Alan's work is outstanding. I'm still getting used to playing a fretless again but I love picking this bass up

Just ordered an extra cable for my Shure GLXD16+ in 75cm length with right angle lead

Meat is Murder - The Smiths

Tomorrow (Fri 28th July) space-rock band Litmus will be playing at Kozfest in Axminster. 20.00-21.00.

The way I now look at it is you pay a good price for amps, basses, pedals then cut costs buying a less quality wireless. Im confident it’s worth it !

She did an album with sly and Robbie which is worth a listen if you haven’t heard it , very good

It's genuine and definitely not pieced together any more than other Fenders of that period. All Fender guitars were made up from parts made at different times. The vintage year is traditionally determined by the youngest dated component such as the neck, body or pots. Fender would buy bulk pots and serial number plates and they would be picked from stock bins relatively randomly so there is a fair degree of date tolerance when it comes to serial numbers. IMO a genuine period case would've added at least £500, maybe a fair bit more, to the price. I don't think the strap buttons are significant as a reliced modern pair would be indistinguishable from the originals.

"The future of SBL will be on a pay per view website and for your enjoyment I will be wearing nothing other than one glove"

“Scott’s Big Lasagnas” Massive multi-layered pasta dishes to be eaten whilst wearing gloves.As long as I don’t have to listen to slap bass while I’m eating I’m already interested 😛

Next gig for us, Thursday 3rd August at Rebellion Fest in Blackpool. We'll be hoping to accompany the dancers on Strictly at the same venue at some point in the future...

Aside from playing golf I've nothing else to do. 😄