Leaderboard

What a stupid name! I should clarify - I find the name very amusing because I am the last person who enjoys a bass solo, so to play anything that has "Soloking" on the headstock is ridiculously off the mark! Points for the cheeky, Gibson-esque logo though. Right, now that's out of the way, what have we got? Something which has been heavily inspired by the Fender Roscoe Beck IV - in terms of body shape, pickguard shape and electronics. It's not a full blown rip of it though - the pickups are different, the headstock is different, 21 frets instead of 22, less switching options (no push/pull mids thing and the mini toggles are two way, not three, no detuner). Enough waffle, pics please. So, what to make of all that then? Well I've spent a bit of time with it, but only in headphones and at low practice volumes. There's a lot to like here, especially for £250. If you hadn't told me the price I would have guessed at least £400. There are little touches that I would not expect to find at that price point - Roasted maple neck Sculpted neck heel Better than expected hardware quality - tuners feel good and tune up surprisingly quickly, bridge is decent Strung with D'addario XL strings Pots turn nice and the taper for the volume control is actually useful (tone is a bit all or nothing, but I'm not bothered about that - rarely use the thing) Fit and finish are really good, lovely metallic black with a cream three ply pickguard goes very well together, fretwork is decent with no sharp ends, satin finish on the back of the neck (gloss haters rejoice - I'm not bothered but I know some people are). Soundwise, it's pretty punchy, if a little on the "generic" side - it sounds like... a bass. There's nothing wrong with that, it's very functional and even pleasing, but it doesn't really carve out a voice of its own. You've heard these tones before. The series/single switching makes a useful difference to the tone, single is quite sweet and airy, series beefs up the lows and mids in a satisfying way. I'm not a big fan of bridge pickups as I might have mentioned, but the bridge pickup in series definitely has some useful bark about it and less of that annoying honk that they can exhibit. I'll reserve final judgement on the sound side until I get it in a room with a band. All in all, I'm very impressed. To my eyes at least, this is a damn fine looking instrument, feels great to play, punches way above its weight in terms of VFM. It's so cliché to say it's a steal at £250 but I am left with the slightly naughty frisson of having gotten away with something I shouldn't have. Right, enough of my waffling. Hope you like the pics, and I would definitely recommend this bass to anyone. It would make a fantastic instrument for anyone but in particular would be a stunning intro to bass for a beginner and at £250 it's well within beginner budgets IMO.

Back at the Earl Haig last night with Bluesfire. Front bar for the first time. Got there at 7:15 and it was already busy, thought there must be a band in the concert room... no! Probably just the xmas effect 🤣 Packed in a lot of stuff with lights etc. Sound was great but we had a couple of tech issues... nearly did an instrumental of Susie Q but the mic got sorted half way through. These put me a bit off kilter, and guitarist was tired so I felt we were not up to the standard of our last couple of gigs. But audience was happy, lots of people telling us how much they enjoyed it. Young Alex's other band have just had their layest single on heavy rotation by the BBC (The Rogues) so big things ahead for him, we hope. Icing on the cake, woke up to see this amazing pic by Barry Morris who feeds my rock star delusions.

The Yeastie's one gig of the year at the work's do when down a storm. New guitarist and singer were amazing. Upgrade in cables and digital mixer ironed out previous sound issues. People up and dancing and wanting more. So chuffed it went well.

2nd of our Xmas gigs last night at Methil Ex-Services Club with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band. Another Sold Out gig for us with 170 people in. Looked like a few ladies party nights in plus people down from Dundee to see us too so that was all good fun. All went really well and thoroughly enjoyed it. Have to say its the first time i've ever seen anyone (singer) having to explain how to open a Xmas cracker. I think it was more down to the fact the young lady was well oiled. Xmas songs worked really well and some folks that have seen us a few times said we should leave them in the set thru the year. Feedback was that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves with a few encores and requests to "just keep playing" 1.5hrs drive each way so not horrendous but gusting sidewinds made it a very focused drive home. Invited back during summer again. No vids or pics yet other than singer's pic of stage after soundcheck. 2 more Xmas gigs next weekend and then a Hogmanay gig to finish. Dave

Last gig of the year (and surprise definitely last gig featuring our now former singer) with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen. Decent crowd, busy with Xmas parties and whatnot so quite a few new faces. Lots of folk up for dancing and had some good fun with them, lots of nods, winks, air guitarring, general nonsense. It petered out a bit towards the end as the parties moved on but the regulars stayed and we had fun with them too! Also Gordon the "guitarist" was in attendance to show us up as usual! Great gig, a much more fitting sendoff for our singer (as the previous gig was a bit on the quiet side). But that's definitely it now - we've been having a rotten time finding a replacement but we've got someone hopefully coming for an audition on Tuesday so fingers crossed! Gear revamp too, which went really well. Pedal reshuffle - I've finally grown up and am using a compressor now, an old Yamaha one that I forgot I had and I have replaced my OD with a Joyo Monomyth which gives me EQ, OD and DI in one box. I'm really enjoying the compressor - this isn't revelatory when written down, but my fingers are still in disbelief at the joy of not having to pluck so damn hard to achieve the same net result. Also with its level control I basically have a master volume at my feet, controls some of my more lively basses before it even gets to the amp. Bass was sounding phat and authorative last night, chunky and tight but not obtrusive or obnoxious. I'm sold. Basses used last night - G&L Tribute LB-100 and Reverend Triad.

Last gig of the year for Fine Lines, playing at our local little Theatre, which also doubles as our rehearsal room and tracking studio. We decided to include "Fairytale of New York" which was only suggested after the last rehearsal, so we had to learn our parts individually. We're an originals band, not a covers one, so we didn't have it in our pocket already. It became quickly evident during soundcheck that some people probably hadn't put in quite as much as they should have done and underestimated how deceptively tricky it is (at least for us!) When we came to play it in anger, as the encore, we had a couple of false starts, but managed to style it out by all blaming the keys player 🤣 Once it got going, it went pretty well and the audience seemed to like it. We added two new numbers, which will be on the next album. They both went ok, despite me having some sort of mental breakdown during the introduction to one of them. I was playing the right notes, even in the right order, but I had a moment where I thought everyone else was playing the other song. I went ampless for this one, as I had enough time to get a monitor mix I was happy, so the trio of Origin pedals, plus the Shure wireless took care of DI duty. I used wireless IEMs for this one, again because I had the time to set it up, so now we're down to just drums and keys using wedges and I'm working on the keys player. Anyway, here's a photo.

Another great ska night at my local social club. Everyone else's turn to do the long drive normally I'm the one with the 2 hour round trip. Utterly lovely sound from the SpectorGenzBarefaced trio of doom, as ever. My send/return stomp has developed a fault, so there's a little job for some point before NYE.

Not normally one to show off a new acquisition, but I thought this was unusual enough to make an exception. About ten years ago I owned an Aria semi-acoustic bass that seems to defy all my Googling to find out much about it. It was apparently a "Tab 66" model according to the receipt I still have, but unfortunately it was stolen from the storage locker I had at a rehearsal studio in Walthamstow. I looked into claiming it on my insurance, but factoring in the excess and potential hit I'd take on my renewal I didn't bother. Cut to this year, and I decided I need another semi-acoustic because ... well, they look as cool as f*ck and the other one I own is very fragile. Since I needed it to be my main bass, I ideally wanted a standard 34" scale and that seems to be a bit of a rarity with semi-acoustics. I eventually got the options down to an Epiphone Jack Casady or another Aria, the Tab Classic. As an incurable goth, it had to be in a black finish, so that was the Jack Casady out of the equation. So this is my new bass: The black model seemed to be permanently out of stock in the UK, so I took a chance on buying it online from a German outfit whose name starts with a "Z". It was shipped super quick, although the post Brexit import tax kerfuffle slowed it down a bit when it reached the UK. Still worked out cheaper then buying the red model from anywhere in the UK that had them in stock. As I've come to expect from buying online, the setup on arrival was completely unplayable. The neck was like a banana, action 10mm at the twelfth fret, and bridge jacked up to the point the bolts where about to pop out of their sockets. A nerve wracking session of truss rod tweaks and bridge adjustments later, and it now plays beautifully. It has the rich, woody sound I associate with a semi-acoustic and is perfectly balanced when played standing with no neck dive. The label inside the body only mentions Japan, but I assume it's actually a Chinese made instrument. The body and neck is Maple, while the fretboard is a laminate made by Knoll that feels like Rosewood. The quality is outstanding, the only thing I can fault it on is slightly sharp fret ends which a couple of strokes with a safe edge file sorted out and were probably down to shrinkage in the wood rather than a quality control issue.

A rather last-minute gig for Dirty Roses - the original booking for last night got cancelled as the agency and the pub had both booked a band in, and the pub's booking took precedence. Then on Tuesday we got asked to play at the Old Horse in Lie Sester, and so as not to let our three Christmas songs go to waste, we said yes. A bit of a trek for the guitarists, a bit less so for me and the drummer. Turned out to be a very friendly place, including the outlaw bikers at the back of the room, and larger than we'd expected. Our area was bijou but fitted us nicely (good job there's just the four of us). Not only did we have the bar staff dancing, there was a group of line dancers having their Christmas party and they gave it large for various songs (including, bizarrely, "Should I stay or should I go"). We're hoping to get back in there next year.

This thread reminds me of the old joke: What's made of brass and sounds like Tom Jones? Trombones.

Just arrived back home from our final gig of the year from "The globe" in Glossop. Great gig. Sold out, great audience. Main band were on top form as well. Fantastic way to end the year. Right now it's nearly 3am and I'm flipping knackered. Have a good Christmas everyone and a happy new year. Bring on 2024.

Hey gang. Thanks for all the useful tips. I ended up using an old hifi interconnect of suitable thickness. My soldering skills are not amazing but it seems to have gone ok. Will hook it up to an amp in a bit and tap the PU with a screwdriver to see if I get a signal. I rewired the PU lead too - the previous job was shonky.

Xmas staff do for a haulage company last night at the M1 Junction 23 truck stop nr Loughborough. Entering the venue was like stepping back in time to the 1970s but a good bunch of people and a very easy gig.

Thank you to you all. It's always good to get something of your chest here 🙂 I've told the others in the project/band/whatever that I won't be going any further with it. I'm meeting up with a friend this week that I used to be in a band with. Maybe we'll be able to get something off the ground that's a bit more focused.

Last one of the year for me tonight (Sat 16th). 4 Play 🤨 at Smith’s in Bourne. Good! 9 til 11:20, two sets. Played well, chucked in Can’t Get Enough without rehearsal and it was fine. Fairly quiet but everyone enjoyed it! Tight setup, and struggling for power points (I give in - I’ll bring my box of cables in future, it’s not my band / PA but…). Drummer had an amazing new sparkle green Gretsch. Bloody lovely!

I thought I was done. I have twenty something basses. And then came across a picture of a big orange hollow body Gretsch. Showed it to my wife and she suggested I should get it. I managed to find one near Boston. And the next thing I knew I had just purchased a big orange Gretsch. Here’s a couple of the dealer’s pics. It’s big for medium scale , but I’m loving it.

Your domestic speaker wire will do just fine, or if you'd like a bit of 16/0.2 PVC insulated - which I use most often - PM me and I'll send you a bit or two 😉

I always thought the Dukes of Stratosphear sounded very much like XTC

Finding the one, only to list it 2 months later.

Just came home. It was wet outside. Both ways. Place was small, good sound. Everything was going well, few surprises from the song choices, but managed. People were dancing and happy. They drank a lot. We got good food, others had even wine, I was driving. I noticed one elder lady with a short dress, and red shoes. I complimented her shoes while passed her. I had to go back, and whisper that actually her legs were perfect, too. That blink in her eyes made my eve... most probably hers, too. By the way, never put YMCA and Gimme gimme gimme side by side. Right hand fingers hurt after those swift octaves.

Played under Concord last Friday for a Xmas bash.. Not all companies are struggling. £250k budget for the staff party.

I recently bought a 72 Precision bass. This note had been hidden in the neck cavity. I’m doing some detective work and wondering if the note had been put there by John Entwistle’s long-term guitar tech, Peter Cook. Unfortunately I can’t find any trace of him from the last decade. Anyone know anything about his recent history or location? The guitar in question is almost identical to the ‘68 sunburst precision that John bought from Manny’s with a tortoiseshell pick guard.

Depped on bass last night with Dire Streets at Bingley Little Theatre. A longer-than expected journey and sound-check meant there was little time for secondary activities such as eating, but the gig went very well and all the tech worked. As usual though it took me half a set of actual performance to get used to the sonic environment of IEMs.

I'd give the WD40 variant a go, but I've had the same can of Servisol for probably 20 years, and at this rate it'll outlive me.

Laney Digbeth. The most convincing tube sound out there. It also plays like a tube amp, the more you dig in the more valve like it reacts.

You don't. You've already got a low B string.

A stand. One with a neck support and safety restraint, eg https://richtonemusic.co.uk/stagg-sg-a100bk-tripod-guitar-stand/ Alternatively, if he's likely to come onto Basschat, get him either a 3-guitar or 5-guitar stand.

Getting close now… just need to cut the scratchplate and truss rod cover, fit the nut and solder the earth ground to the loom. The colour is a little patchy, but sort of emulates a well-worn violin 😂

Were any of the others who you'd recruited worth hanging on to, or did they all lack commitment?

I got my Baby Sumo after I bought my HX Stomp to do exactly what you're thinking about. It's been a great power amp. I did think for a while that maybe I should have got the slightly more powerful 1000W Sumo because I was used to having a 900W Genz Benz Streamliner behind me, but over time that hasn't been the issue I thought it might be. But if I was to buy another one it'd be the 1000W Sumo just for the extra headroom.

My '78 Mustang, currently strung with Chromes, though I do go back & forth with Labellas on it. I prefer the chunkier neck on this and the late 70's Mustangs to the MIJ one I had before, and the older Mustangs I've tried.

Thought I’d share this. In April I challenged my band members to write a Christmas cracker. One of them stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. It’s available on all major streaming platforms from today. The video was not well executed. 😂

The bass that probably started it all in 78 (or at least one of the very early reverse P ones) Followed in 79 by the ultimate reverse P (J) bass - Spector's NS-2 (here a Euro Mike Starr from 2015)

I’ve had a G&L kind of year - 2 new USAs and a second hand Tribute. All great. The L2000 is my favourite. Absolutely love it.

Welp, I got another board. For the last year or so I've been using a Schmidt Array 350XDM as my main board, and though it looks very cool and everyone drools over it, its VERY heavy, and I'm hardly using the potential of the Atom, even with my electronically inspired jazz trio. So I'm testing out a pedal train Classic JR. The aim is a reasonable size and weight to allow for the optimum number of pedals to cover all bases, plus some wiggle room size-wise (considered a metro 24 but it wouldn't have allowed for any shuffling). I think this will cover any wedding gig, plus my original stuff, and there's room on the lower half to add a 4th pedal (provided it has top mount jacks), or swap out the C4 for something else as required.

Proper Vicious Lesbians encounter?????

I regret every bass I have lusted after and not bought, and every one I've sold. However I haven't bought a new one since October, so it feels like I've given up. I haven't of course.

Check. Days of the month.... Check. Looks like days of the year is the next logic target. 🙈

Checking the 'for sale' thread every ten minutes, looking for the 'one'!

James Taylor and the James Taylor Quartet. They sound exactly the same. Apart from the extra word 'quartet', of course.

This G&L Custom Shop L2000

This always went down well when we did it. Not hard, just fun.

He’d use whatever was the cheapest.