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A week ago this little one man enterprise in the Netherlands caught my eye: Brooks Bass Guitars. https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/ The guy is truly into Gibson basses, which has never been my cup of tea. He even wrote a book about Gibson basses. Anyway, Rob builds his own versions of Gibson bass models, but with a twist. I totally fell in love with his EB-TB bass, a fusion of the first model EB0 (like a Les Paul Special) and the Thunderbird. Absolutely gorgeous! I just had to order one, based on the design alone. So - now it is ordered. It will look like this: Classic but yet not. Classy!

Luckily, I can nap on a rail in full sunlight if I'm tired (or in front of a blaring TV, which might occasionally happen...allegedly), but yeah, I have a very dark bedroom... On that, years ago a friend of mine had moved into a new (shared) house, and his bedroom was at the back overlooking some woods; there were blackout blinds already fitted, and he set his radio alarm for 5am (it was Winter, too), because he had an early shift. It turned out instead of the alarm tone, he'd set it for the radio, so he was awoken to the ethereal sound of Enya, in an unfamiliar place, in total darkness...he said 'I just lay there, blinking, not seeing anything but black, with a choir of voices around me...for about a minute I thought I'd died in the night...' 😁

Just got back from Alex James’ farm, following a wicked mid/afternoon set with Katy Hurt at the Big Feastival. We had a blast, and apart from a complete mind fart on the last chorus of the last song I think I played OK 😀 Started with a reasonably sparse crowd (pic below) but it felt like most people who walked past stopped and stayed for the whole set which was delightful Bass was my glorious Zoot P5, onstage duties handled by my Elf and a single Barefaced Two10. Marvellous!

A lot of you know I’ve gone a bit mad with boutique pedals. As I head toward married life I’ve been rejigging how I approach them and, as a result, I’m selling a lot of them, making boards with others, and collecting a few like a gear-hoarding magpie. Since I moved at the start of the year, all but five or six pedals (and my minis board - currently partially deconstructed) have been in boxes waiting for a board. As part of the overall rejigging I’ve realised that nothing is so sacred I have to leave it in its box. As a result, I’ve finally built a Broughton board (and one Southampton pedal that Josh Broughton worked on). I plan on putting other boards together over the next few months but this is currently my only fully-wired up board. Signal chain is right to left bottom row, then right to left top row. Knobs do not reflect settings; I’m just clumsy when I wire up.

I loved him in Deep Purple.

If it came via Skynet, you know it would be back. 🤭

My worst was unloading my brother, he wasn’t progressing as a guitarist as the rest of the (admittedly green) band were, he couldn’t commit to gigs for months on end because of his full time job. We had a gig for my other brother (house warming/big birthday thing) who lives next door to my parents. So we (rest of the band) thought it would be a good place to end things, mistakenly as it turns out, but a quiet word was had by me afterwards! Where I was thinking that he would be in a place of support, and would understand that our gigs couldn’t be booked because of his work, and that was too much for a developing band to shoulder… He did a huge flounce and the rest of the family turned against me, quite nasty really! Being fair, my reading of the best place to do things was off… And I’ve apologised about that… But his reading of the band dynamics was off, and realistically should have stepped aside months previously. Though we are civil again, I lost the friendship of both brothers and to some degree my parents… was it worth it for a ”pub” band??? I guess it doesn’t matter… It’s already happened 😬

Update. Thread closure. It's gone. Piano dealer in Cambridge took it away (very neatly and efficiently) for free.

I usually wear this gear when setting up for a gig in my home town of Paisley. Better to be safe.

I always wear gloves when carefully setting up my DI box and IEMs.

I picked up a lovely old 1984 Westone Thunder Jet yesterday. It's in need of some tlc as it looks like it's had quite a life. None standard knobs or bridge. New, more accurate, bridge is on the way. I've got some brass Thunder I style knobs on the way, but I am watching an auction for original ones. The pots are in dire need of a clean, or replacing. The logo has gone, I'll get one made, and the truss rod cover is worn, so I'll sort that too. I'll need to investigate why one machine head is wonky, and they're quite tight to turn. Fortunately they're not branded so replacements are easy to find. I've been after a Thunder Jet for a while now and I wanted a little project to keep my occupied while some work being done to the house means my music room is out of action. Through a preamp pedal and headphones this bass sounds amazing, the pickup has a lot of output. Westone were right to name them Hard Puncher. I might give the body a light refinishing, just enough to return it to a more flat finish it came with, but not enough to look new. If anyone out there has a Thunder Jet can you tell me if the logo is white or that flat gold colour Westone used. Cheers

Ah Vienetta - Ultravox

Thanks! If we could just pretend I didn’t obsessively keep altering the positions for 45 minutes that would be great.

I have a pair of late ‘70s Japanese doublenecks (guitar neck / bass neck) which were made in the same factory as the Ibanez models of the era but rebadged with a different name on the headstock for the UK market. One of them says Antoria and the other says CMJ.

Yes it did! 😀 For anyone interested, this is what eventually arrived... Probably the finest guitar Alan of ACG has created. Would of been a tragedy if it got lost in the post.

There’s a providence bass chorus in the sale section… that’s supposed to be one of the best for bass I think. (I’ve got a bass boost chorus which is pretty good)

I've been playing my BB414 lately and I am liking it more. It just feels good. And it sounds amazing. I have used it in a couple of recordings and people loved it. Anyway, I am posting a pick because it's orange and it can be seen from the distance and I find it funny. Sounds cool, plays awesome and it's sexy.

A classic illustration of why you should never play in bands with relatives or partners. Too much spill-over into your personal life if you fall out.

I've subsequently used it on furniture that was dented when moving house. On the 'does it work on a sealed finish' question, the first move is to try. If it doesn't work, there is a further option for this technique. When I bought my used Rob Allen, there was a ding in the the neck, which is finished in nitro. Rather than just ahead on an expensive instrument, I contacted Rob Allen and he said that if the finish was unbroken, a small score with a razor blade would open up the finish for the steam treatment. It turns out that the finish was broken anyway and the dent lifted and is still fine to this day.

Latex gloves are essential when murdering the guitarist, to avoid leaving fingerprints. Depending on the method of dispatch, a full biohazard suit may be preferable for bludgeoning and stabbing, whereas simple strangulation whether manual or by ligature should only need the gloves.

I was extremely fortunate to work with Mr Jim Mullen sometime ago while I was in Gary Boyle's band. An amazing musician (as is Gary) & an all around top guy. We've remained friends & follow each other on Facebook through our various music projects.

That's absolutely Epic...top, top quality "resignation" 🤣

Way back in my youth I left a band by climbing out of the toilet window and running away. I know it sounds odd, pathetic or both, but that's what happened. I'd formed the band with a guitarist "friend" and we recruited a drummer and bass player / singer (well, he was a guitarist but everyone knows that if you can play guitar you can play bass, right?) and got some songs together, played some gigs, recorded some material etc etc. It was all good fun and I really enjoyed it. Then the "friend" began touting us to labels and one or two of them showed some interest, albeit in a very initial sense. That was it - the flavour of the band changed and the "friend" and the bass player started demanding that we wrote more commercial songs and that each song we wrote had to be a potential single etc etc. It went from a fun band playing some cool alternative rock to a job playing horrid, anodyne, radio-friendly dreck, and despite my protests they were firm that this is what we were doing, and that was that. So, I ran away after climbing through the bog window, and when I left I took all my gear (not only my guitars, but the bass and amp that the singer used, the PA etc etc) and that was the end of my time in that band. They continued for about another year with a few line-up changes but didn't get anywhere. The real kicker for me was that we'd recorded an EP of four songs, three of which I'd written, and when it was released, post-bog window, the only credit I got on it was "additional studio guitars", and they'd turned my guitar parts down anyway, the buggers. The "friend" ended up buggering off back to Canada after having stolen, embezzled, defrauded and unpaid a small fortune.

Possibly, but it depends on what he was wondering off to do with the two female backing vox...

Ritchie Blackhands?

Hey gang! Short version: Got a '71 P. It's in amazing condition*. B neck, 8.8lbs, balanced, resonant. It's a stunner. Long version: It's had one owner before me - an ex-pat Glaswegian, and professional bass player, who bought it new from a shop in Hamilton, Bermuda(!) in 1971. He was the resident bassist in the house band at the Princess Hotel on the island, and gigged it for decades. I suspect he may have used it to back some massive stars over the years, as it was a big venue on the circuit (no provenance of this, unfortunately). He returned to Argyll in his twilight years where it remained in its case, until he sadly passed away last year at a ripe old age after living a remarkable life. His family decided to sell it on, and I'm the lucky recipient. As you can see, it's incredibly clean. From talking to his family, it sounds like it never really left the hotel. Also in the case was a manual (with the purchase date, store name and price - $315 - handwritten on it), some REALLY old guitar cables, his strap and a back of old tortoiseshell picks. There's a mark on the back of the neck from a guitar stand, which I think will come off. There's also a sticker on the back with the hotel details on it.. I think I might leave this on, but I'm not sure. One of the tuner screws has been replaced. In addition to that, it looks like it may have had a refret at some point but I won't know for sure until I've taken it to be looked over by the legend that is Dave Wilson. Dave will also be looking at the mystery of why the bridge appears to have been moved to the 'E' side very slightly - I really can't see a reason why. If there isn't one, I'll ask him to shift it back. He's also going to pop the pickguard off to check the wiring, pots and pickups are original. It's been used so much, maybe something has been replaced, but hopefully nothing major. All-in-all, I'm VERY happy with it. It's getting gigged tomorrow night before it goes to Dave's. 🙂

@Merton - brilliant!! Good work… I checked out her stuff when you joined up, she’s great! Nice gig to land

Hi folks! It has been a while! I wasn't all that bothered this month but I suddenly felt the urge this afternoon. Another quickie, Blackstar BEAM for guitar and bass, drums played with mallets for a change. Listen to Another Blue World.wav by Jules Moss on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/hsZKm

Banana Splits - The Dickies

Sundae girl. Blondie

How many of us wear gloves while setting up at gigs? Never gave it a thought until about 15 years ago I met a guitarist who said I should be wearing them to load in. Since then I've had numerous finger and hand nips from hands between speaker cabs and door frames, and the awful moment when the speaker or lighting stand slides down while your still trying to get the pin in having pushed the pole up with the speaker/lights already on it. 😆 None of them stopped me playing but each time I've done it, I've thought - idiot! Anyway - a pair now reside permanently in the boot of my car although I seem to be at the tip more regularly than gigs at the moment. £2-3 well spent at the local hardware store.

Here is my entry. I ran out of time and it's not exactly polished but it's been so long since I did anything that I thought it would be a shame to miss the deadline again. The song title refers to Age Related Macular Degeneration - a progressive eye disease that my father suffered from which leads to loss of central vision. I was also diagnosed with the condition but have since been given the all clear as the problem with my eyes is apparently quite a long way from the central vision area and is not progressing. The retinal scan that the opticians offer these days will pick up the problem if you have it although it was quite embarrassing sitting there with the Moorfields A&E consultant as he rang my optician to tell her she didn't know what she was doing with the scan. Recorded in Cubase Elements 11 using Amplitube SVX bass amp simulator, Marshall simulations for the guitars and MT Powerdrums. Apologies for my screechy vocals!

He makes some really nice looking stuff and occasionally posts build threads here. Here's a thread of his "grabbird" build. I'd love to try some of his basses out!

I’m sure that for a brief period in about ‘94 (not sure for how long) it depended what the model was as to where the ‘Made in Japan’ was printed. From memory, the Vintage models had the spaghetti logo on the headstock and the ‘Made in Japan’ was above the s/n on the reverse of the dusty end of the neck. Standard/Contemporary models had the transition logo on the headstock with ‘Made in Japan’ also on face of the headstock. So, not sure whether it was a similar kind of thing with the CIJs in the mid 00s for a bit?

Squier 40th Anniversary Precision sounds like a no brainer to me. Loving mine - just restrung with DRs and sounds awesome.

Not sure Stradivarius is a good analogy. Making the best instrument that mimics a cat being strangled is a low bar 😂 .

There is a middle-way. I'm currently studying for a music degree at the Open University - it's distance learning, and can be done part-time (16 hours per week) over six years. I happen to be a "mature" student, but I think it would have worked well for me when I was younger.

The dep was to cover for his bassist who was on holiday. I left to pursue drums which I'd packed in years ago..It was perfectly amicable, in fact they tried to hang on to me. So at rehearsals he was hugely welcoming and chatty. However he and his wife go back a long way with my recent long term ex and I turned up at gig with my new woman in tow...Maybe it finally dawned on him that he felt some weird conflict....

Haha...should have said one was his daughter the other her friend. But I've known him for years on and off, real friendly guy....There you go.

I like to think that was my musical pinnacle. I've not managed to top it yet.

No maple here but still looks special with black hardware. Sold it way back when and I've regretted it ever since.

Told you it would change

I've never left a band on bad terms and only once did we have to ask someone to leave a band I was in. In such a tight community it should be obvious to all concerned that things aren't working and so the act of leaving/being asked to leave shouldn't really be a surprise. As has been said above, issues caught early enough can be addressed and as long as that is done in an adult manner, things should work out without the handbag moments, even if someone has to go. The only time we had a problem was with a bassist (I was the guitarist in the band) who couldn't see how his attitude of challenging everything and being late to rehearsals and gigs was a problem. The icing on the cake was when he refused to go back on to play an extended encore at a club gig and sat in the dressing room while we played another 30 minutes to a great crowd. He was asked to leave the following day and there was a hissy fit over returning my bass guitar to me (he didn't have his own) which was sorted with a visit to his house by the band. I hated every minute of it. The only positive from that episode was that having played bass for the encore, I played bass more often with that band and ended up being the full time bassist. And ultimately that led me here. 😃

Contacts, not degrees, get you better paid gigs.