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Hi all you lovely Bass players on this thread. Thanks for all the lovely things said about Nigel on here - h would be tickled I'm sure. My name is Ron Hughes (bumnote2) and I was the guitar player (dirty word I know for some of you!!!) in Nigel's band 'Hat-Trick' that lasted from 1998 to 2016. Last gig 31st December 2016. Nigel's funeral was held on 20th of June 2023 - and as funerals go - a very nice occasion. Lots of his musician friends in attendance (you may have even been there?) and he had a great send off. The Family have asked me to look at selling on some of Nigel's beloved basses (he had quite a few!!) so I'll be posting adds and pics on this site as soon as I can gather all the information required. Among his collection is a 1964 Fender P Bass - refinished in Fiesta Red - which was his go to instrument of choice (L series serial number - we think a Kent Armstrong rewound PBass pickup - tortoise shell pick guard) sounds awesome!! This was the bass NIgel was playing when we first met in 1975 - bloody hell was it that long ago??? It was painted in a particular poor coat of 'Valspar Black!!' but still sounded the business through an HH head and Fender Dual Showman cabinet with 2 x JBL's. He also many G&L's and Lackland basses too. R.I.P. Nigel - miss you every day. Watch this space.

Well not you, obviously. You seem to be in the minority so far. Well, given that it's a} a country music venue and b} in Oklahoma, it would be pretty much off my list even if it was paying $1000 an hour. But thanks for the advice anyway.

Ive got two left from a lrger collection of vintage Ibanez A 1972 2651B and an 92 Musician M888 "bean" bass I actually have them both up for sale locally

My new to me '05 Ltd Ed buttercream. Beautiful condition, spent most of its life in its case, still had the cellophane attached to the pickguard. nice weight too.

That's not a solder blob. Your bass has manifested the spirit of Phil Lynott. Fit a mirror pickguard immediately!

If that's the result of work you were paying for, the person doing the work should fix it to your satisfaction for free. If that means a total re-spray of the body so be it. If that was my bass, and body was otherwise flawless I'd want it returned to the state it was before the any work had been started.

A first-time Sandberg owner here. Been a lifelong Fender man and still love the Precision. Just bought a California TT4 fretless (from italiancross here) and I am very impressed indeed. I do get quite excited about details and have a slight OCD tendency... bear this in mind! SO - love body shape: a slightly reduced Jazz (which I always felt was a tads big), the weight and balance with Euro ash body (tads over 4Kg), the build, detailing, hardware... everything really. The neck/body joint is insanely accurate. The cast bridge and string tree, the tension adjust on the tuners, 6-bolt neck, thick slab of rosewood fingerboard, the silky pots and their own lovely chrome knobs.... it just goes on. And then you spot the body is 2 piece BOOKMATCHED straight down the centre. That is special and takes a maker that really cares to do that. Obviously I don't have a fretted equivalent to compare but my impression is the p'ups are nice and fat - plenty of mids in there and some decent punch. It's the passive version (I prefer passive anyway) but bridge sounds fatter than a Jazz and hence more useful to me on a fretless. Just put some D'Addario Chrome flats on - I like those and EB Cobalt flats on fretless - mainly for the mids - sounding very good indeed striaght into my PJB Briefcase. Sustain is really good and I'm not finding any resonance-induced flat spot anywhere - they're a common issue and stand out more on fretless I think. I've come to this party late in life but it's a bloody good party! (pics have old strings on - suspected to ba Adagios)

I remember the Link Bingo from The Piper Club on Newland Ave, Hull, ....it was a bit of a student hangout on a Sunday lunchtime back in the early 90s,....why they tolerated us students, I've no idea, must have been all the 20p life memberships that got paid every week, repeatedly...anyway, woe betide anyone who spoke during the bingo, you'd be outside in no time.... It was Phoenix Nights on steroids! Drums and Hammond backing up Debbie from Doncaster who in the words on the compere "had come to take her clothes off for you, but remember, lads, no touching", then Brian, a 60 year old regular with the thickest milk bottle glasses, would get up and perform amongst others, 2 Unlimited's There's No Limits again to the sounds of resident drum and organ duo. All that came flooding back when playing a social club in Wigan only a couple of years back, furniture dating back to the 70s, half time bingo and a meat raffle. When a band member's wife asked at the bar, what sort of wine they had, the answer was "Both, red and white".....happy days!

Hello everyone. Thanks for the updates: lots of interesting opinions and insights! I know some history to the piano we have. It is metal framed and was made in London at the turn of the last century. I have no idea what it's worth, but the good news is it's in sufficiently good nick and holds its tuning that a local village primary school are going to take it gratis. I'm happy with that

I think it’s good to be aware of how our musical colleagues are being treated around the world. Whilst pay to play is nothing new this is the first time I’ve heard of pay to be put on a list to possibly play, the greater awareness we have of rubbish like this the better.

Had this old Roadstar II and it was a great sounding P-bass; didn't really appreciate the P-sound when I had it so I sold it Messy pic but it's all I have at the moment.

One of the bands I play in has a BL who just doesn't want to stop playing (unless the landlord steps in) - if a single drunk shouts 'More!' after four encores, he wants to carry on...usually said drunk wanders off during the song anyway and you're left playing to an increasingly tired crowd, who are worrying about Last Orders and getting a taxi ordered... It happened a couple of weeks ago, after the fifth encore I put my bass down and went to the bog...that usually does it...

Here's my most recent addition - a 5-string Central. This thing is a StingRay killer! 😎

...5,6,7,8

Most encores i've done are 2 no matter how much an audience shout for more. Normally just one but on the very rare occasion at venues we know and play regularly with both bands we will do an extra song. At that particular venue they run a rock night club upstairs so we usually ask the owner / manager for permission to do any more than one encore. Any more than 2 is generally a bit poor taste in my opinion. Dave

It's country music, the artist is supposed to be broke and miserable.

Ibby Blazer, I think. Pickup would have been a Super P4 hex-pole DiMarzio clone, which tend to be pretty pokey. Same as the P unit in my '82 RS924 Roadster, which is the best-sounding P/J bass I've had. The J unit's silly-hot, clocks around 12k, if I remember.

So the herd continues to grow….. I picked this up for peanuts, honestly expecting it to be majorly goosed, but it really isn’t at all. Nice clean bass, needs fretboard conditioning and straightening, and probably flats or even tapes. The previous owner dug into it pretty hard, but I’m going to give it a much more gentle future, and maybe fit a ramp. Made in Korea at the Un Sung factory, Grover tuners…. decent little bass, never had a Dean before. Anyway, best start working on my intonation eh?

Technically, it's NBAAMA (New Bass About A Month Ago), but it's my first ever bass, and my first jump into music making, so I'm still excited. I don't have the experience to make any sensible comparisons, but I'm very happy with it. I tried a few in the store and this one seemed best to me, at least partly because I liked the shape and colour. They set me up with a Fender Rumble 15 amp too, which also seems to do everything I want so far. In the short term, the plan is to play along with my 12yo as she learns the drums. When she forms a band with younger, cooler people, I'll re-evaluate.

Broken Row, OK? No doubt one of those towns where a virgin is a girl who can run faster than her brothers and cousins.

what3words has it in Quebec!

Surely this is the problem of the guy you were paying to work on your bass?

After being told by a new social convener in a Glasgow social club back in the day that he would not be booking us again and we should forget any future bookings we decided to take a bit of revenge (we were young...and drunk) After we packed up we took all the bingo balls from the machine and chucked them on to the M8 on the way home. I seem to remember that the clubs PA amp got some lager poured in the air vent......I know!! Shocking! Pity as it was a decent club and the band always went down well! After writing this I also seem to remember the said convener giving us a bit of lip then being attacked by the drummer! Oh dear.........

Well if it's all so irrelevant and meaningless, why did you bother commenting in the first place? Simply cross this thread off your list and move on.

Status graphite not making graphite basses! I’m going to be cynical here and say the new basses are cheaper to make and thus more profitable.

“are finalising details regarding a paid membership option”, which they claimed “will come with loads of extra benefits both before, during and after performances on the Hochatown Saloon stage”. I think I`d only cough up if the extra benefits were the type that Motley Crue used to get.

This process pretty much works for me to learn a new song for a covers band. Most points already covered in this topic thread. - Firstly, agree with the band which version of the song is being played. This saves a whole load of frustration, irritation and wasted time later on. - Use Audacity to strip the MP3 file off the Youtube video. -Do some ironing and play the song in the background so it starts to work its way into your memory banks. Doesn't have to be ironing. Could be gardening, driving, whatever. - When you've got an overall appreciation of the song tempo, structure, vibe, find a good cover of it on YouTube. Usually plenty to choose from. - Look up tabs on Ultimate guitar, or something similar. Be wary - some tabs are OK, some aren't. Be midful of tabs written for capo use, or non-standard tuning - not always obvious. - I then write my own tab. This is a key part of the learning process for me because it makes me really listen to the song. Also I have my own way of writing tabs. - Play, repeat, tweak tabs. - Go to rehearsal and listen to everybody's excuses to explain why they're not as prepared as I am.

Here's my lovely old Blazer, next to another elderly cousin. It's a Precision Bass, only more so.

You might be onto something there G😉 I did own one first time around in 79/80, a Blazer 800 in two tone sunburst, slab body and one piece maple neck. It was my first ever new bass after a string of used planks i'd owned. The fit, finish and quality was immense. It felt like and was a proper quality instrument and sounded brilliant through my Marshall Superbass half stack. The Fenders of the time looked rough by comparison. Seems such a long time ago and the photo shows that! Not sure if I'd buy a re-issue if that ever happened. Ibanez still make great instruments but nothing like they were in their heyday. A slightly better photo of it just before it was sold on circa 2010.

A band I was in during the early 80’s did a fair amount of working men’s club gigs. One of the band used to remove one ball from the bingo machine on our gigs, and put it into the subsequent one. Many clubs would leave the bingo machine unattended near the dressing room/cupboard so it was often an easy manoeuvre. Unfortunately we never got to witness the mayhem that would have ensued. 😆

And here's mine.

it does look cool but really hoping it’s not 1500!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvz2rTYrtgV/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== apparently coming soon Mexican 30” wide range humbucker plus another one alder body

The Conservative - The Orions

I've had to learn about 33 songs for a dep, I get a rehearsal Sunday and the first two gigs are two weeks tomorrow. So I can relate how I learned them: 1 - got song titles and keys, (and eventually any particular versions - e.g. Gary Clark Jr.'s Come Together, not the Beatles) off the band. 2 - Made sure all songs are in my ever-growing Word document that has my edited down (and often corrected) tab for every song reduced to its bare bones so most fit on one page (I'm not going for note for not accuracy for three performances). Use this process to get familiar with any 'new' songs. 3 - Make a document that lists each song and its key, with a YouTube link underneath. 4 - Learn how to play each song, with the stress on doing it right and avoiding repeating mistakes (give up and come back later rather than reinforce errors). 5 - Make a new list (got this down to two pages) with whatever mnemonic, riff, key etc. I need as a security blanket for each song. 6 - Practice songs, only looking at the mnemonic if I have to and the tab if I REALLY get stuck. Focus on the harder ones, but every so often play the whole list. For what it's worth, I find song structures are often hardest to learn at first, this is overcome by the repetition as you become more familiar with the original. Any tricky riffs/rhythms - try practising, then sleeping on it.

Not quite the complete picture. Add shipping and then calculate the VAT and import duty on that figure. Bottom line is anything bought in the EU from the UK is now 25% more expensive than market value and vice-versa.

and a quick thing about oiling fingerboards. I personally think the thing about lemon oil ('and only, ever') is 'rather overdone'. I spend a lot of time making furniture and have to mess with many finishes. I've been known to use oils and blends of many and various - I won't name some but I once used Tru-Oil on a fingerboard (of an Appachian dulcimer actually) which is probably illegal. Thing is not all oils are the same. Tru-Oil is an extreme example but is a polymerised blend and goes off rock hard, just cut it right back with 0000 steel wool. Even boiled linseed goes off hard, most oils do. So this softening thing... not my experience. And lemon oil has better uses like delicate skin (IMveryHO).

^ This

Looks great now. Not like the Pau Ferro on my basses tbh. I think ebony? On the string theme, I have some lightly used TI flats cut for 2 over 2 that are languishing in my drawer. They do have red silks though.

Yep, this one is active, nicely shielded cavity, neat and tidy electronics, sounds absolutely fab. Very very impressive, for a apparently modest instrument, that also cost me a ton. It’s a hundred quid well spent, and who knows where it’ll lead me. Possibly a fretless journey like you maybe….

we try and keep the 2 encores in the main set as popular/well known hits that majority of people will know and sing & dance two. Once it gets past that, then the extra encores are spares/under rehearsed songs which don't always hit the mark - they are not in the main set for a reason! We are a new band, only 7 gigs in, so still finding our way as to what works best for us and the venues round here.

Yep, Vigier did a similar thing a few years back. They've been making neck thru basses since the start then it's bolt on necks only. Supposedly for sonic reasons which means it took them over 30 years of making basses to realise they'd been doing it wrong all that time!

Decided to pimp my nearly 19-year-old RD600 and boy am I happy with the results. Put in an Aguilar noiseless J4 neck pickup and MM4 pickup, OBP-3 with active/passive switch, mid/range control (push/pull), stacked treble/bass, and added passive tone control. The latter was honestly not a bad choice at all - sounds amazing and the passive control adds a lot, making it great both active/passive mode. Just waiting for my new stacked knob (the other size didn't fit on volume/tone)

In the days when I played in a covers band, after initially starting out learning the bass parts exactly as they were on the record, I discovered that for a lot of songs this was a complete waste of time, as the recorded bass part was a combination of bass guitar, extra rhythm guitar, and keyboard left hand, and often the bass guitar part on its own was insufficient to drive the song along and fill out the bottom end of the arrangement at the same time. Once I'd realised that, I'd just learn the riffs/tunes and the chord structure , and work out what I needed to play based on what was already there in our arrangement, and what was obviously missing. You do need to be in a covers band that practices between gigs to do this, as I know many don't see the need to do this.

Looks like I’m in a minority here, but I have found that it’s best to never write anything down or have any notes for learning a new band set. I had never believed this would work until I went for a lesson with an internationally renowned jazz guitarist and tutor. We sat down, I got out my instrument, and then a pad and pen, and was told immediately to put the pad away. If I wrote things down then “the paper would become the knowledge”. He said that if I came away with only 10% of what we went through lodged in my head then that would be the best result. Since then, I have just relied on my brain, exclusively, when learning new material. I recently joined a nine piece band being formed from scratch. On our first meeting, we had ten tunes to go over which we’d be given in advance. I was the only one in the room with no notes, but it went fine and I’m still there. Jazz jams are a different thing entirely mind you, if everyone has a lead sheet then at least you all know what’s supposed to be happening. Rob

I have two gigs as a dep on 26 August, then a big gig for our blues band on the 27. Bank holiday I get to relax in the audience with Son of Man, Phil Campbell and Hawkwind.

One of the first basses I ever encountered was a friend's Ibanez Musician. Didn't know at the time what a good bass or a bad bass was, but I do remember it being a weighty beast. Pretty sure it was one of these:

Agreed!!! This is the longest I have kept an amp head because I really do like it (tones and functionality). But shockingly shite knobs!!!😡 They literally break like biscuits!! Hence my posts to help others with this crap….