Leaderboard

Finish has just been completed.

Well after an evening of glue sniffing and the like, I bit the bullet, pulled everything together to see how it worked. Nothing worked for a while until I realised that the metal control plate acts as an earth and as I hadn't used it, plastic wasn't the solution. A quick application of copper tape on the back of the control panel solved that little issue. The pickups actually look good and work well. Not set anything up beyond screwing it together and tuning it. Plugged it into GarageBand and it sounded fine, plugged into a NUX micro headphone amp and sounded fine. Plays OK, zero neck dive. The neck is great, the Hipshot tuners work well and it's a good guitar. Not tried to compare it to my Fender Jazz or Mustang, but good first effort. Will now try and set it up properly. The last photo was coz I left the camera in black and white mode. It is a very black guitar.

I'm afraid I don't have a fancy flyer this time, but my little goth / alternative duo are doing an acoustic support this Thursday at The Beehive in Swindon, supporting Dallas based roots-rocker Tommy Hale. Free entry and we're on 8.15pm / 8.30pm sort of time.

You can talk without being able to write. Likewise you don't need to understand the rules of grammar in order to express yourself. But, know the rules and you'll be expressing yourself in more interesting ways. What you write and say is always enhanced by the extent of your vocabulary and your knowledge of grammar. Same with music. Understanding theory reduces your limitations. You'd think the old blues guys knew no theory, but they did know the relationship between 1, 4 and 5 chords and 8, 12, 24 bar sequences, minor and major, 7th chords before a change to the 4 chord, so they did know enough theory to make their music work. Knowing more and knowing why is always a good thing.

We (The Spacewasters) have a few, not too many and quite well spaced apart which suits me well, the next being at The 100 Club in Oxford St tomorrow night supporting The Polecats and King Kurt. This will be the 4th gig this year and all have been well attended so originals on the punky/psychobilly scene still going good.

I have given up. I will never top this timescale. I recognise greatness when I see it. Feel my defeated spirit

Back on "The Rock" at Starr Sports this weekend. We usually get a decent crowd here, but it's the only venue I know of that I need to wear earplugs to load in an set up. The non-stop sports commentary is so loud an eq'd just in the right place to burrow deep inside your brain!

Ah, this is really sad. I missed this when it broke and only noticed the post yesterday evening. I first had contact with Nick on here, when we did a convoluted trade involving one of my family members acting as courier - it all went fine and he was a gent to deal with. It then transpired I'd unknowingly met Nick (in his capacity as OHM) on many occasions - we used to work for the same firm, and first met playing cricket for that firm. It was only when Nick complained he'd broken his finger keeping wicket and might struggle playing his gig that evening that we made the connection! I was then lucky enough to play drums with him on several occasions - highlights included winning the Bristol 'legal battle of the bands' (bands from local law firms, not an officially-sanctioned contest!) and then after I left the firm, being roped by Nick back into playing with a band comprised of partners at their annual conference. That involved a glitzy hotel in the City, full hired-in professional backline, and a room and food too. We'd spoken on-and-off about putting something else together for years but we'd never quite managed to get it to stick. I hadn't spoken to him for a while though and didn't realise he was unwell. Terribly sad for his family and friends - he'll be sadly missed.

Erm. TC Nether - Having owned multiple OC-2’s I started looking for another. Damn they’re expensive for what they are…gone are the days of a £55 Taiwanese OC-2. Anyhow - this does the same job…within reason. Really like it actually. The Zero Fret - Dod Bi-Fet pre clone with built in Fuzz (2 stages of fuzz)… Honestly, the mightiest bass fuzz I’ve heard; does well for warm fluffy drive as a pre…also works beautifully for guitar. Hopefully @walshy forgets that I have it… Korg Pitchblack - Decent tuner came up cheaply and completes the board. Missing is the Dunlop volume pedal - it’s massive and won’t go on the board so I forgot to photograph it. Cheap PSU, no mad big draw on any of the pedals so this will do for £35.

So given I appear to be developing arthritis in the knuckle on the thumb on my left (fretting) hand I’ve noticed playing my JMJ Mustangs a tad painful at times. So tried out my backup Squier CV60s Mustang a lot over the weekend, found the slimmer Jazz width neck much better for this so today picked up a Made In Japan Fender Mustang to be my main gigging bass. Have to put a set of Elixirs on it as it currently has Labella Mustang Flats which aren’t my thing. First impressions are a really nice bass with a very comfortable to play neck.

Well… they had a b-stock for £228. With delivery. I bought it!

Here is my Ibby. A 1993 SR1306pd. Been playing it alot lately, it absolutely sings and is such a joy to play. Bought it last year. The preamp had been replaced with a Bartolini NTMB/918, but it's still got the original J6 pickups.

Yes thanks 😊

What I like about it most is that someone who knows has done all that tedious tweaking stuff. There are VERY few areas in life where I realise that my skillset trumps other people's. (Don't worry for me, I have an exceptional relationship with myself). With tweaking parameters and all that jazz, if proper grown ups have done ones where I can scroll through 30 and find one which makes a noise I like then it is happy days as far as I am concerned. And life is way too short to squeeze out that extra 3% which I will never hear once the Guitarmageddon kicks in.

We were supposed to finish at 11pm but the 'one more song' brigade persuaded the singer to keep going until just before midnight. I packed up my gear while pretending that I could hear what one of of the drunken punters was shouting at me (I'd been deafened by the guitar amp on our tiny pub 'stage' in a window recess) by nodding and agreeing with him about everything; he looked surprised - he was probably telling me that I was a truly 'king terrible bass player. As the gents was swimming in p33 I crept out into the car park, found a dark corner and pi55ed into the bushes - alas, it was up a slope and my efforts flowed back down to kiss my shoes good night... Said cheerio to the other guys, loaded up, fired up the Jeep, turned on a Peter F Hamilton sci-fi audio book, cracked a can of Red Bull and munched a Yorkie bar - enough caffeine and sugar to see me through the 55 mile drive home in the rain without falling asleep at the wheel (I did that once, crashing the Transit on Bodmin Moor at 2am after a Penzance gig with my London band., not a good end to a 20 hour day..) Got home at 1:45am totally wired, cup of tea and Marmite on toast, sat with cat on lap in lounge watching DVD of 'Apocalypse Now' until 3:30am with subtitles so as not wake Mrs G ; fell asleep then was woken again at 5:30 when said cat wanted his first breakfast and litter box clearing out - life can be so exciting, rock'n'roll all the way!

Yes. Theory is just a model. The dog knows from it's experience and the model of the world it has whether it can jump across a stream. It's not until he puts the theory to the test and jumps that he knows it's right. The only issue is there's a lot of snobbery (and inverted snobbery) around musical theory which puts people in separate camps and disuaudes a lot of people from looking at 'complicated' theory. If you know the names of the strings - you know some theory and if you know what an octave is and the fret board, you know some more. If you know a song has 4 beats in a bar and some notes are 1 beat long and other 2 or 4 or half's and quarters you know more. And I'd say that's the bare minimum to be able to play bass.

I personally think that most the tone from a guitar or bass comes from the TONEWOOD, I’ve done extensive RESEARCH on the internets so don’t have the TIM to argue with uneducated people about that. What I would do is combine the BEST of all worlds to create a amazing axe - the body would have layers of ash, alder and mahogany letting me access all the major guitar tones - and then I would want in layers a 5A* burl top, then 5A*flame maple then with 5A* quilt top - expensive but worth it by having all the tone woods it gives you. ALL THE TONES the fretboard I haven’t decided on but think maple under the D and G strings, wenge under the A and then Brazilian rosewood under the B and E string

I don’t think so. Also, I saw that Thomann just updated their EU site to reflect what they have due to arrive.

I had this strap made for my Lego bass. Annoyingly the maker isn't on Amazon anymore, otherwise there's another couple of designs I'd have them make up 😡

I took delivery of my Monza a couple of weeks ago. It came straight out with me for a band rehearsal and then I did not get a chance to play through it properly again until earlier this evening. Here are my thoughts/opinions: The band comprises drums, guitar, bass, keys and two vocalists; we rehearse in a large meeting room that has pretty good acoustics due to a suspended ceiling. I would say we play at 4/5ths of a gig level. The Monza was quite astonishing. The cab it replaces is a Markbass 2x10 which I love for its warmth and character, the Monza is everything others have said - clean, clear, detailed but definitely not coloured. Stevie advised me to 'give it some wellie' so I did just that and could not believe how much air the thing was moving and how well I could hear myself as I moved around the room. This echoes what others have found with their Monzas. I had another play at home tonight at reasonable volume and I have to say that this cab is very classy. Although 'clean' sounding, it is by no means sterile nor does it ever get stressed as you push it. You can certainly tell that the components are of a very high standard. I would go as far as to say that they are good value for money!

Guinness at the gig. Early finish. Dropped my stuff in my partner's house. Went to the Ex Servicemen's club to met her and friends. VoG Bass bitter. Spoons. Strongbow, Jack Daniels. More Jack. Round of fireball shots. The 'Fag'. Jack. Two rounds of baby guinness. Not sure anything happened on Sunday...

Low risk I'd say. I was kindly gifted a HB B-550FL BK Progressive Series after my fire and it is lovely. Not light (and sadly I've found 34inch scale length too much for me) but well built, nicely finished, good pups (with active/passive mode) and it is lovely in terms of feel and tone. Thomann have a great simple return policy (Tho I've always found it near impossible to find a local dropoff point for their free return delivery service). Sam x

Wot, one of these?

I think it's when you get into stuff that's quite niche that you have problems. He says in 2 progressive metal bands. When you're in a wide genre, great. If you kind of skirt round it a bit more or are a small percentage of it, not so much.

Is there money involved if I play it...?

We've got loads! Our gig list is here but there are loads more that haven't been announced yet https://headsticks.co.uk/gigs EDIT: There have been a few cancellations due to low ticket sales. That seemed to start last year. Nervy promoters in my opinion as every gig that's gone ahead seems well attended to me

We've got 4 consecutive weekend gigs from 20th April (Malvern, Hereford, Wellington, Nottingham - all decent supports), 1 in June (multi band Not the Vicars Tea Party, Gloucester), then 2 in July (Ludlow and Hereford, both good supports again), small festival in Pwhelli in September and a headline in November in Hereford (again!). Most of them are on the punk circuit, though at Pwhelli we're the only originals band on and Ludlow is supporting a ska band. Expecting more as well though I don't want to over-do it! But only 1 is within a half-hour of home...

They would be these strings I have here. In my house. Please dispatch your Wal in a prompt manner. Lovely bass. One of my pals had the exact same bass, but all he used was the Rotosound Swing bass 66. It sounded great.

Me too I love Sabbath but Geezers playing on Heaven and Hell is top drawer.

To add to a couple of the earlier comments, I reckon my playing has improved loads through depping. Playing stuff you wouldn’t normally learn, meeting other musicians and making contacts with them etc. It works brilliantly for me.

I think, in the example of a Dog knowing how to walk, the point is that a Dog doesn't formally study the theory of how it is creating movement and it can't explain about energy and muscle groups and the physics of gravity and movement. It has learned by doing. Sure, it is useful for some people to formally study these things in-depth and knowledge is always a good thing, but you don't usually need to study in that level of detail to achieve your objective. It's semantics whether the Dog knows the theory of walking or not, but in science a Theory is quite a specific formal thing "supported by evidence: a principle formed as an attempt to explain things that have already been substantiated by data." You can apply Laws of Motion & Gravity and conservation of Energy and the Theory of General Relativity and use data and evidence to explain how the Dog walks, but generally speaking - in scientific terms, you wouldn't say the Dog understands the theory of what it's doing - it doesn't comprehend how it works, just that it works. In the same way, to play (or write) 'Creep' you don't need to know if chords are Secondary Dominant or Chromatic Mediant. In all likelihood, Radiohead didn't know in-depth theory of it, they listened to the Pixies and Bowie songs with the chord progressions and learned by doing, and they in turn had listened to the Elvis song that had used it, and that was influenced by the Ink Spots, who listened to the Shep Fields song - who probably heard it somewhere else. I wouldn't be suprised if none of them (and whoever originally did it) knew or spent time considering the theory of whether they are using a Secondary Dominant or Chromatic Mediant, they noodled about and made a chord a minor and thought it sounded good. Personally though, I'd say some formal understanding of music theory goes a long way and is pretty much essential, it makes playing a lot easier if you know something about timings, notes, chords, triads etc, you could figure it all out by listening/doing but you'd save yourself a lot of time and effort to just do a bit of formal learning. But for me, when it comes to more advanced music theory, learning about things like the difference between Secondary Dominant and Chromatic Mediant, personally, I think my time is better spent playing with bands and listeing to music to learn by doing. I don't think that's snobbery, I think most of those artists that recorded songs with that chord progression would probably say the same thing.

I love it-ah

A smartphone, possibly recessed into the back of the headstock, for checking the Funny Meme thread on BC while the guitarist faffs about with his pedals.

I once turned up to see one of my favourite local bands (whom I have depped with on bass a few times) and the guitarist was taken ill. They couldn't get their regular guitarist dep, so I did it. The singer couldn't believe it, that I knew all the songs on guitar. This was 30 years ago now, I eventually joined them full time, 10 years later. The worst dep I did, I thought I could wing it. Quite an eclectic set but I am very good at busking, unfortunately the guitarist/singer was pretty rubbish and the songs I knew he played badly, so it was a bit of a car crash. I should have put more work in. Best dep was for a Jam tribute called Total Jam. Mates of mine but I had 2 weeks to learn 30 odd jam songs, some of which I had never heard. I really worked my butt off for this one and delivered really well. I learnt some great Jam tunes as well and even sang David Watts (as Bruce does). I've depped with them a few times since

Reading this I went and double checked my Vintera 70's tele bass. I never noticed any issues with the tone or volume pots on mine. Not as responsive as a split - P for sure, but I get what I would expect in variations in volume/tone using the knobs. It's a fairly dark pickup for sure, but has a mellow bite when fully open. Hope you get yours sorted. I'm a big fan of these Mexican basses. I have four now A flea, Player plus, the 70's Tele and just picked up the Vintera ii 60's P. I can't knock any of them for craftsmanship, fit and finish. In some cases better than some American versions. I have had to do my own tweaks to get them how I like them, basic stuff, truss rod, string height and intonation, but after that I have been happy with them. People complain about the high prices on these and I agree somewhat, but hasn't everything sky-rocketed in price lately? I still think you get a good bass for your money in these middle tier Mexican range.

Yes, I would agree that having good ears is by far the most important factor. But, if you have a working knowledge of musical theory then it makes playing by ear much more powerful and straightforward, not to mention making it much easier / quicker to learn new songs, etc. For example, I play in a Led Zep tribute band, and when I had to learn the San Francisco section of the live version of Dazed and Confused, there is a lot of nice but pretty busy bass playing that sounds quite complex at first. However, when you realise that he is playing over a repeated Em > C lydian phrase, then it is a lot easier to work out what he is playing and to work out what the right part should be. But if you don't know what a lydian mode is, then you could take forever learning it and still not get it right! By the way, I have had next to no formal musical training and still get the names of the modes wrong sometimes (I double-checked that I had got correct mode before I typed the above paragraph), but it is understanding and applying the concept that is important.

Since the prostate was whipped out 15 years ago I’ve almost always sat down to gig. Initially it was a tall bar stool but now I use an Eich active drum throne with the kick drum fed into it. A sort of kick up the backside. I certainly feel more comfortable and never had a problem as the keyboard player also sits.

I feel every gigging bass should also have a compartment in the back with a magnetic cover. Inside would be the truss rod tool, allen keys, a little spanner for tightening up the loose hex nut on the guitar player's jack socket, Rizla and filters for the drummer, emergency tramadol: all the essentials.

Done a fair bit of depping. I think it’s a healthy thing for me. It always makes me reflect on what I am doing…and why. Cues, learnt behaviour, assumed signals; it all gets chucked back at you. Most recent was 6 piece function band a a military black tie dinner. 4 deps, 2 had never played with any of the other musicians. It was a little bit squeaky bottom, but you realise pretty soon that there is a pot of material that 95% of musos have somewhere in their head…

A bridge with Kubicki style wheels around which you spool fresh string. Instead of removing strings to change them, you just spool more out of the bridge and clamp the fresh section behind the nut, then snip off the excess of old string.

Thankfully, we are blessed to have kind souls among us who will quote us, make a minor edit to our text and say "Fixed!" in a patronising way which is never, ever as irritating as a painful rectal itch.