Leaderboard

It was the first gig of the new blues band last night - The Out and Out Blues band - https://theoutandouts.com/ The Gregson Centre in Lancaster, four bands on, fundraiser for the Gregson and Lancaster Music Co-op. We were first on at 7.30pm and did a 45 minute set. A decent crowd, and very appreciative, we went down very well, and I even got them singing with us at the end, at 8.15pm! The other bands were great too, and there was a lot of comradery amongst the musicians. I used someone else's rig, Mark Bass 1x12 combo with a 2x10 extension cab, with my '73 P Bass. We were very pleased with our performance, and it's probably the best "1st gig" I've ever played. Now we have to work up the rest of the tunes for our first full 2 set gig on the 18th. Rob (edit: now with a pic!)

Trying out the Flattley bass Ivy fuzz. What a beautiful finish. Hold my full judgement until loud band practice

Appreciate this might not be for everyone, but if anyone fancies some bank holiday viewing, my little gothic duo recently made a short 20 minute film with a very old friend (Haunting the Atom) about growing up in a small town, discovering bands (Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division etc) and getting into bands ourselves. Months of planning went into this (complicated by my Mum passing a few days prior to filming, after a very long illness). Essentially it is a live performance in an old Saxon Church, interspersed with some talk of our roots.An album of the same name is also streaming everywhere worldwide from today. I normally play bass on the original stuff but as we swap out instrumentation, the bass doesn't appear until later. Check it out, I am sure many of you will relate to some of this - even if you like different style of music. It is beautifully shot.

My rig this weekend

I did, sure glad to see them back in Europe.

My 1982 BB2000. I got this 1st April 23 and absolutely love it. Such a stunning instrument.

Second gig with the GSS Baby Sumo into Barefaced Two10 with the Noble preamp at the front. Really chuffed with the sound of it. The engineer just mic'd it up too, so he likes it.

I have come to the conclusion that we are a miserable old bunch.

Mesa are finally shipping to the uk again, so I traded my aguilar 112s for a pair of subway 210s. Sounding incredible! Thanks to the Mesa/Gibson team for the hard work getting them back to us!

Here she is in all her glory. Will take some more photos tomorrow when the light is better. Stingray Classic from 2011. Lake Tahoe Blue with an ebony fretboard and birdseye maple neck. Stunning instrument. Beautiful condition. Only issue is the nut seems cut a little high on the E string. Maybe it’s just me, I’m only used to P basses. This thing is solidly built and the finish is amazing. Was thinking about a Stingray Special with blue body and ebony neck, but when this popped up at bassbros I had to have it. delighted. Plugged in to my Ampeg SGT DI and it’s sounding mighty.

I had a spare hour so I pulled this apart today. I wasn't sure about it being black as according to the S D Curlee history page on Birdsong Guitars website they didn't start painting them until later on. Upon stripping I found a 'Bob Barry Guitar Repairs' sticker inside the neck pocket and the tell tale mark where it had been screwed to a holder for painting, so I think it's safe to say that this should've been natural rather than black. The refinish must be nearly 30 years old or more as the addition of the the 1 in the phone area codes happened in '95, making Birmingham 0121 rather than the 021 on the sticker. I'm going to strip the black off and see what the wood is like, then either keep it natural or possibly stain the wood black then lacquer to keep the wood grain as a kind of middle ground as I quite like the black. The pickup and bridge all mount to the neck making it technically a neck through, the full length neck then bolts into a recess in the body using a huge brass 'neck plate' screwed from behind.

Just picked up this absolute beauty. 2004/5 CIJ Mustang (thanks @wayne58) My first ever Japanese Fender bass, heard so much about them. The colour is lovely, I’ve always thought Fiesta Red looked quite pink and was never that keen on it. Does this colour fade over time or something? It looks more orange than red to me, which is great as I’ve always had a thing for orange basses after lusting after the early 2000s Sunset Orange Transparent P bass for a long time. I’m having another go at short scale more out of necessity than anything. Struggling with the weight and finger stretches of a P bass. I love a Precision but it seems to take more effort to play as time goes on, and it really takes its toll on my back, shoulders & neck. This weighs in at a more manageable 3.5Kg / 7.8lbs. I hope I can adjust to playing SS, I’m not sure I gave the only previous Mustang I’ve had (Squier Vintage Modified) enough time in all fairness. Anyway, I’ve raised the action a little (it was very low) and it’s a huge amount of fun to play sat down / lying down, I’m not that used to a Jazz width nut but I really like it. The neck is fantastic and so easy to play. I’ve never liked glossy finish necks much, but this is so fast! May take some adjustment to playing standing but the bass just feels so effortless, it’s almost like cheating! It has what I believe to be LaBella 760F-MUS flats on it. So smooth, but flats aren’t really my thing, even if people rave about these strings. I know this is kind of a Mustang thing, but I’m not sure I can deal with the clacky, dull thud thing. I suspect I’ll try D’Addario EXL170M regular light rounds (45-100), EXL160M medium rounds (50-105) or ECB81M Chromes (45-100) if I want to try brighter flats. I’d like a little more tension, I won’t be needing to bend strings, slap or anything like that. Just pick & fingers. Open to any suggestions!

The binding is on the double denim bass. The curves are about as tight as the maple binding can cope with before breaking. I might even get the next hit of epoxy on tomorrow.

I've mentioned it so thought I'd better post a few photos of my recently acquired lefty Mike Lull PJ4 😊

Jackson bought Charvel in the late 70's, they've been one entity under different logos since then with many shared models, usually Jackson made in USA and Charvel made in Japan. When FMIC bought Jackson, they got the Charvel brand too. When Fender bought Jackson, the market for pointy guitars was on its arse, but for a small core following. The pointy stuff is still not huge business but they're shifting loads of Fender derived designs, under the Charvel name, which would be just too radical, despite the traditional styling, for the average Fender customer.

That Overwater looks great my stingray is the only blue bass I have left in my collection.

Squier 40th anniversary P bass leaning against the rig, with my Maruszczyk Elwood L hiding behind in its gigbag.

Howdy all My current band is getting out a bit more, and our guitarist wants to start busking. Fair enough. He has plumped for a Bose S1 Pro Plus which sounded great with his pedalboard. I was astonished that it could actually do not too bad a job on bass when I plugged into it. Battery powered as well, loud enough, and actually had some first harmonic bassiness going on with it. Not much happening below 65 Hz, but still, great sound considering it's being run on batteries! I did my own research to pick up my own little battery operated bit of fun to match. I found a bunch of different solutions for bass, all of which have compromises somewhere, and I plumped for a secondhand Everse EV8 (£400) as my balancing point. It's tiny and has an 8" woofer with a decent sounding compression driver. https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/everse-8/ It has an F3 of 60Hz, though the graph shows it drops off pretty steeply after that. (Of course it's meant to be crossed over to a sub for most use cases.) After some tinkering, I've set it up with the 'Live' EQ setting so I don't get the huge hump at 80Hz, I've EQ'd it a bit to get rid of the dip at 1.2kHz as best as I can, and I've ruthlessly HPF'd it using the Stomp at about 60Hz as well to maximise my useful output. I am astonished at how loud it is, and very portable at 17 lbs. It sounds really good. It's really quite liberating to not have to worry about power for a cab, and it will power my Helix Stomp too. Note it's not necessary to use the Helix as a preamp - the output from even my passive basses is good enough to give good volume - but it's nice to be able to run effects without plugging into the wall as well. I took it out to a full rehearsal with drums/guitarist/me and it held up well, and after 2 hours was down by 1/3rd of battery power. What a joy. I plugged the guitarist in at the same time as me and the cab held up well to both of us playing through it. Fab. I'll try some busking this weekend or next with my guitarist and see how we do. My drummer might buy a cajon and we could probably mic him into the cab too, if we wanted. It's not got the same depth as my LFSYS Silverstone has - @stevie is still my favourite cab builder - but rather than having to get a Jackery battery power supply and cart it about with my B-Amp and cab, which would probably need a trolley and mean I was carting around 40-50 lbs of amplification gear, I can carry the EV8 in one hand and my bass/helix/other bits of kit in my gig bag on my back. I had no idea battery powered stuff had come so far until I had to look into it recently. Pete

Ive seen this band sooooooo many times I cant remember. The Jazz Cafe in London stand out to me and my sister as the best to be honest. They never disappoint as the musicians they/Bluey have are just so incredibly talented. A couple of records on this album that are just smoking imo.. Me and my sister in the late 90s used to think they were very trendy, then we realised they went way past trends. Who's doesn't like Francis Hylton on an Atelier Z jazz bass laying down a groove. Just wonderful guitar solos on both. I love alot of different music but the mighty Incognito tick so many boxes for me. But thats just me

But I think our understanding of 'they could go to someone else who'll play them and enjoy them', will be the same. Go on, go on, go on. 🤗

My difficulty with these two is. the singlecut is a one of one that was built by a very respected builder. This chance will never come again. The other bass was bought for the biggest gigging year of my life. A year like that won’t come around again and this is the bass in all the photos. Ok, decision made. They’re going nowhere, I need to use them more.

Instruments are to be played. Any that aren't getting played get moved on. I don't have a specific timescale for it, I tend to have infrequent purges when I take a long hard look at the collection and recall how often the basses are getting played. In tandem with my participation in gear abstinence this year I've recently done an evaluation and I think there are 3 out of the 10 that could be moved on to A) make room and B) build up funds for a massive splurge next year. But bottom line is I don't want to be a hoarder - it's a sin in my book for instruments to sit around gathering dust when they could go to someone else who'll play them and enjoy them.

Maybe Alan can help?

Let ermine - Paul McCartney

They were very big in Belgium when I lived there in the 80's. Saw them at the Manhattan, Leuven, and they had such energy live. Peter was playing a Kubicki Factor which sounded glorious and have wanted one ever since. Great voice too.

I Can't Gopher That ～ Darryl Hall & John Noakes

Until you need cash or space. If you don’t need either, then keep them because you never know when you might fall in love with them again.

You could always get an Aria Pro II Laser and a hacksaw?

Day Tripper ～ Carlo?

That's just reminded me of another absolutely dreadful pile of crap - Lip Up Fatty by Bad Manners. Dance floor rammed with people doing imitations of Spotty Dog from the Woodentops.

Played the Rising Sun in Reading last week and got to use my SVT-CL. What a sound!

Just picked up these cabs today so Mesa is definitely available in the uk now!

It's an Aria STB-GT, basically a mashup of a Stingray, a P shape Aerodyne body & a Jazz neck. I managed to blag one for £99 back when it was a current model. I think list was £250-odd back in 2007 or so. The G4M 'version' looks like a steal at £150 - I'm actually relieved there isn't a PJ or JJ version - don't need any more impulse purchases!

The guitar solo on this @ 3.50 is just phenomenal.

My main rig for tomorrow should deliver some deep clear bass for my dep gig with a UB40 Tribute band

Fender Precision Bass, sunburst, m/n, 1976 https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/278741381841522/?media_id=4&ref=share_attachment

It's a good one, the Japan Mustang neck profile is the best IMO. I'm sorry to see it go but I recently got a Wilcock and something had to give. Glad you're liking it Dave.

Print up a load of flyers and hand them out at gigs at that venue over the next few weeks, like the old days.

Sadly I am time and talent poor thanks for the judgment though 😕

I have the one I won’t sell, rbe one I gig with and a backup. Any more than that is superfluous. I’ve had rooms full of them before and it was ultimately pointless. So I keep the main 3. I recently bought a vintage Burns bass for £100 (worth about £1500) and the guy told me I had to keep it and play it not sell it on to make money. So I’ve abided by that. I’ve also bought a new vintage bass so currently have 5.

Pulling Teeth ～ Windollica

YKK. Rush

Wonderwall. I will go out of my way never to play that again. If it comes on the radio I will turn it off. I can’t stand it.