Leaderboard

So I have a 1963 precision which I love to bits, however I was concerned about taking her to gigs, not that’s its irreplaceable but I’d hate to see her sprayed Matt black and sold for £250 at cash converters if it ever got stolen. I had a Tony Franklin fretless precision a while ago, and it was a superb bass, played extremely well and the build was top notch. I just had no need for it. I’d seen the fretted model in pictures but they seem to be like rocking horse sh!t, so when I saw one pop up at Bass Bros I got myself down there sharpish. I’m playing in a psych rock band now and the precision is a great fit, but occasionally I wanted a little more growl and bite so the three way toggle switch and jazz pick up (I know this sound from the fretless) would be ideal. I wasn’t disappointed. For those that have owned/played a Franklin signature you know where I’m coming from, they easily match the stuff coming from the custom shop. For those that haven’t, I’d highly recommend you find someone who has one and try it, it will start your search. The action is low, I play in drop D and it handles it well, I was disappointed there wasn’t a dtuner on it like the fretless, but I can fix this. Anyway it has surpassed my expectations so much the 63 will be up for sale soon, this meets all my requirements.

We had a trip to Telford yesterday to play at a "punk and alternative all-dayer". Our other bass player had to bring his kit, but I had a lovely TC electronics head and 2x 2x10 cabs to play through that the venue had provided; Parker into Helix into that sounded great, a proper meaty slap tone that cut through beautifully. We played well, weren't booed off or even beaten up, was accosted in the toilets by a chap who though we were great which is always nice when you're having a piddle. I was stopped a few more times by folks who enjoyed us... But strangely, we had the smallest crowd! As soon as the hardcore growlers started the room was rammed but our far more melodic punkyfunky stylings were much less popular. Each to their own I spose! However, there was a most excellent Indian restaurant 100m away which did Paneer Chilli so I was very happy. Not only that but I discovered a B road route back that took us 61 minutes for the 50 mile drive... Next week we've got a Dingle To Dottingham, supporting the incomparable Soap Girls (!) at the Old Cold Store. Edited to add photie!

LAST NIGHT! Katie O'Brien's 'Irish' bar in Leicester with the 3 piece version of Azura. We've played here before and had a cracking night *and* it was our first gig for a few weeks so we were looking forward to it. We were anticipating a mad one as Leicester Rovers had just won the Big Soccerball Challenge or something, lots of football shirts in there when we arrived. Not massively full, but it was only half six. Load in is a bit of a pain, down a dark, slippery, murder-y alleyway, there was a solo acoustic guy on so we had to unpack the stuff 'backstge' (in the corridor to the kitchen and the staff smoking area - glamorous!) and stand around nursing a lime & soda while he played. Set up was pretty easy (using the house PA speakers) and the place was filling up nicely. First set went down a treat, we played really well and enjoyed ourselves. Couple of flubs, nothing too heinous. Second and third sets were even better, the crowd was out for a good night and got well into it, packed dancefloor all singing along. We had a couple of new songs in the set which kept us on our toes and the DJ played a couple that we happened to know so we decided to chuck them in as well. It wasn't as rammed as we were expecting, but nicely full and a decent crowd. I sang lead on a couple which is always gratifying (for me, not for the audience). Played the Jazz for a change -> small board -> amp board -> MB 802. Wore the 'other' leopard print Converse, foot fans! Lots of compliments afterwards including from the manager, so we're looking forward to a rebooking. Home about 1 for a Thatcher's Vintage (8.3% ABV) A good night out!

Don't frequent these parts too much now I'm a multi effects guy, but thought I'd share the current board! All mounted to a Rockboard Tres 3.1, patched through a Mod 3 module. A little jump patch lead let's me quickly switch from wireless to wired as needed. The Chunk OS is the new toy (it's PHENOMENAL!!) and is patched into a QC effects loop, where it works brilliantly. Also, because input gain of the loop can be set per scene on the QC, it effectively means the input gain of the OS is programmable, which is really useful when OS patches can be so sensitive to input dB.

Just got home from our now monthly gig at The Sun Inn in Beverley. Usual request style gig with my acoustic duo, and some great tunes asked for including ‘A town called malice’, ‘Shotgun’ and a bizarre Pulp Fiction medley comprising ‘Miserlou’ segueing into ‘You never can tell’! At one point they had the door locked to prevent any more people coming in, and also ran out of glasses - the place was absolutely rammed. Although a great crowd of people, it is one of those gigs that is very full on - we do three 40 minute sets and with so many people it is impossible to play all their requests. Still, plenty of good comments afterwards, and the landlord was pleased with the turnout too. ( Picture below is from last week at Scarborough, just sent to me by a punter).

Last night we headlined the Off The Rails event in Leamington Spa. We only got an hour to play, considering we usually play for 3 it felt like it was over before it began, but really awesome night. New things learned though, playing in arches with lots of walls and chambers and...well arches meant the sound went everywhere, P Bass sounded incredible as usual.

Our 2nd gig of the year Sunday, 8 days after our 1st! This was the 1st event for the month long Salisbury Live and as we were the 1st band on we've billed it as us kicking the whole thing off but in reality we knew it wouldn't be busy. The switch from an outside event to an inside gig probably did us a favour as there was about 40 people in the room with a few more punters in another room and outside. The performance from our POV was great. Our drummer's 2nd gig and there was a nice pace to the songs, not rushed. Jon, our singer was hopping and strutting about, it was definitely what I would expect from a Felis Leo show. A few positive comments which helps, I like the random stranger ones 👍🏻 I didn't stay too long but the two tribute bands who played later were Slady and the Smiths Ltd. No gigs now until late July ☹️ Picture courtesy of the band after us, 3mo. I'm suitably obscured by Chris our lead guitarist.

Perhaps I should have gotten round to posting this thread sooner. Indeed, just having a Warwick Dolphin in my collection at home is grounds for celebration. I had waited, however, to get it set up and get used to it. More on that in a bit... Now, I wouldn't normally preface every NBD thread with a backstory. Or would I? Perhaps I would, because these days I don't really buy a bass unless it's something I really, really want or have wanted for years. Maybe this leads to less 'wildcard' revelations but all the same, I have never been disappointed by taking a more selective approach to buying. I keep saying I'll get back to selling or trading but so far, I keep getting things I can't bear to let go. I've wanted a Dolphin since I was about 15. I've long been a Warwick fan and I've had Thumbs and Streamers in the past. There is room in my collection for a few more, I dare say, so watch this space. My affection for Warwick goes back to the turn of the millennium, when I was first getting into Talkbass and discovering the world of boutique basses along with a world outside of rock and metal. However, I was very familiar with that world at the time and Warwick were very visible in that field. If you were anyone in the nu metal game, you probably had a Warwick bass and a great tone to go with it. I remember the Dana B. Goods Warwick website (indeed, I'm sure that they owned 'www.warwick.com' and enquiries would take you to their site rather than Warwick.de). In short, Warwick were everywhere and I loved them. Nothing sounded like a Warwick, particularly the 'dark' wood models (bubinga Corvettes, ovankgol and walnut Thumbs, boire and ovankgol Dolphins etc). I had consigned myself to never seeing a Dolphin in person, never mind owning one. The one I ended up buying was in fact, the first I've ever laid eyes on. The moment of seeing those unique and unusual proportions in person will stay with me forever, a bit like seeing the leaning tower of Pisa or whatever - you know them innately, by exposure, but seeing them in person is an experience on another level. So there I was at work in late March on a night shift, idling away. I'd seen the advert here for the Dolphin in the classifieds and considered it but thought restraint was more satisfying than indulgence. In that moment though, I decided that spending a little dough on something I'd wanted for two decades was a fair trade. Communications were made and a deal was done. The bass came looking, plainly speaking, like a new instrument, save for the frets. Like most Warwick bell brass frets, they need occasional attention to polish them up. But the wood was as smooth and satin as any Warwick I've touched and the gold hardware completely unblemished. The action was sky high and the strings were absolutely dead so despite getting the bass in my hands, there wasn't much to report on getting it home. I played it for about ten minutes and felt it had a huge potential, then put it back in the Warwick flight case and put it away. On another note, should nuclear war ever start I'll be hiding inside that case. I trapped my fingers between it and the car's B pillar when I brought it home and howled in pain. I accidentally stubbed my toe on it putting it into my car once and felt like I'd kicked a boulder. Built to last, it is. A visit to the greatly-esteemed Bass Doc, Howard Satterly, finally had the Dolphin ready to play. Strung with some EBMM stainless steels in .45 and with frets polished and the action brought down to a realistic level. An instrument of this level deserves a professional setup and will receive any necessary tweaks by my own fair hand in future. But man, does it play nicely now. Getting it home and plugging it in, I could finally give the full appraisal. The weight is surprisingly light. This is no Thumb and whilst I have no means of measuring it, it is lighter than my Spector NS-5CR and my Pedulla Pentabuzz. The rhomboid body gives it an offset position over the body, such that the bridge is almost offset from your midriff. It doesn't quite hang in a jazz bass position but it's not far off. If the central position and long reach to first inherent in the Warwick Thumb is not to your taste, you would probably prefer this. Seated, it's a joy to play in a classical position over the left knee. I never do this with my other basses but I could find some mileage here, since it seems to encourage a very right hand position that produces a very clean and articulate sound. The sound is absolutely classic Warwick, hi-fi and crisp with a distinct growl in the low midrange. The humbucker back pickup sounds absolutely great and so far, I've been running it solo. With both pickups on full, the sound is so rich with bottom end that my neighbours have been banging on the wall in a show of appreciation. There is little to none of the 'tone suck' that some basses experience when running both pickups on full. The coil tap for the back pickup is also super cool, as running both coils gives a big, juicy sound. Splitting them gives a more classic jazz bass style honk, and you fan further accentuate this by pulling the other pot up to run the bass in passive. I've mainly been playing it through my Markbass Jeff Berlin CMD-151P so far, occasionally running it through a Samsamp GED-2112. However, I've found it most satisfying just running straight into the Markbass and getting some very sweet hi-fi sounds as a result. Well, all I can do now is put the miles on it and see how my opinion of it moves. So far, it has been absolutely and unwaveringly positive and I've been having a total blast with it. A Thumb or Streamer could yet find it's way into my collection, but I feel as though the crown jewel has already been located.

One for today - 1999 Warwick Streamer for £300. Was advertised as a Rockbass.

IME it depends on what you are playing. For covers this is almost definitely the case. However if you are playing songs that you have written yourself and you are playing to the right audience - i.e. one that has come to see bands in the same genre as yours then you can pretty much play what what you want. It is harder work at the start because you have to build up a following from pretty much nothing, but if you are entertaining, it can be done.

TODAY! My third outing of the weekend, depping on Sousaphone for a local wind band. You wait ages for a wind band concert, then two come along at once. They're like buses - big, noisy, unwieldy and no-one likes them. Full on suited and booted (Midnight Blue DMs) affair, I even wore a dicky bow! The band are really good, really high standard, I did OK considering I was sightreading. Usual wind band stuff, including three pieces I played last week. The highlight was fitting into my suit trousers and still being able to breathe.

Bought a lovely little Musicmaster from @Paul S last week. Promised Mrs Turgh I’d let one of the others go. The JV will be with me til the end. The Musicmaster is delightful. Can’t decide between the Toby (sounds fantastic plugged in) or the Matsumoku “Thing” (spent a lot of time sanding, has a lovely neck).

After a bit of thought, my next project is a headless bass. I was kindly given some headless bass parts by a Basschatter, I'll not mention who it unless they want me to. The original V1 3d printed bass is basically finished apart from the finish which is currently progressing at the cube root of sweet F. A. Every time time I test a finish out, it looks worse than when I started, so thats progressing very slowly. A body (plastic not human) is sitting in the garage having a lot of sanding done to it. So I thought about the next thing to do, and decided that the headless bass can't be that difficult (stop laughing at the back there). Even though I spent a long time thinking about the bass guitar I still made loads and loads of mistakes so the headless bass has exactly zero parts carried over. The design is completely different and nothing apart from the bolt hole sizes are carried over. The V1 bass guitar could be described as outside design-in whereas the headless bass is designed from the middle-out. The shape of the guitar isn't fixed at this time, but is likely to be fender jazz ish but that could change quickly. The core of the design is the aluminium backbone of which everything hangs. This is the change in design philosophy. Its like a monocoque car chassis on which things such as wheels and suspension are hung. Doesn't sound like a big change but it is So it could be a Fender Jazz (slighly lengthed to handle the headless bridge) or a Thunderbird Or something really weird These are the first bits printed up as a proof of concept The intention is to have the bridge, bridge plate, neck plate and heal plate at least printed by end of this week, which will be tight, but lets see. The headless bridge adds about 30mm extra behind the bridge, hence the design needs tweaking a little. The upside is that I now can easily create SVG files for the outline as I spent some time understanding outline tracing and upgraded my Affinity Designer to V2.

We're in Nottingham next Saturday supporting the inimitable Soap Girls...

One of my less frequent bands is a prog cover band nowadays doing mainly Floyd, Yes & Genesis. In the past we also did Porcupine Tree, UK & Spock’s Beard, which confused many 🤣 Fun gig to do, though the Floyd covers are a bit of a nothing for bass (IMO). It is a very few and far between gig - two + years between last March and the previous gig. The last gig was self promoted and had just under 100 paying customers through the door. Went pretty well as well. Photos of the set up for that including McMillen 12Step bass pedals through a soft synth on my iPad and acoustic on a playing stand. Probably the most demanding from that set was Firth of Fifth, Roundabout or Spirit of Radio and a lot of the ‘standard’ prog covers feel like it’s just pedalling a single note whilst stuff shifts around on keys and guitar. Volunteer Club in my sig is a proggy project with one of the guitarists in my main band. I was lucky and got the S2 during lockdown and just before Rob announced his retirement. The S2 was a constant at South East Bass Bashes for years and I eventually bought it from Barney when I was in need of a 5 string quickly to use whilst I had an insurance repair carried out on my old L2500. It looks a mess and was cheap, but plays well and sounds great so is always in

Decent gig tonight in Blackwood. Took my Thunder 1 and used it for the first set. Was a biker pub so the blues rock went down well. We knew dj on later, and about 20 minutes after we finished the jukebox got cut off a short way into a Metallica song, and awful club music started. By the timecwe finished packing up the clientele were almost completely different. I wore my Ryuk/Deathnote t-shirt I got sent from the USA which always gets more compliments than my playing!

I see you like the sound in "passive" mode. I guess you know it's not really passive, the pickups themselves are active and all pulling that switch up does is turn off the onboard EQ ... should be the same as turning the EQ knobs to neutral as you're still sending a buffered and actively mixed signal to the amp. Or am I wrong? I find the whole sound a bit "thin" unless I crank up the EQ knobs a bit. Ps: looks just like my ovangkol one (2001) so I'm guessing not boire. Might have a wenge neck tho ( don't know if that alters the sound, but it looks nice). Here's mine

The current version of my bass board. This serves as my whole live rig, with IEMs having a separate signal chain that ends at the rolls pm50. I then have a custom signal/IEM cable. The IEM line also doubles as a signal chain for feeding my two Headrush frfr112s if I’m at a festival and don’t want to run on in ears. what’s odd about this set up I guess is the sheer amount of preamps! The nux acts as a front end and hpf, the sadowsky is really for my jazz bass, but it stays on mostly for everything. The mooer clean boost is for my GMR which is lower output and the sparrow is on the IEM feed to tone tweak headphones or my Headrush set up. The boom ave is there purely because I happen to enjoy the octaver on it and I like to be able to quickly add it over patches on the zoom that don’t already have it. whilst the zoom B9 is a bit of an antique these days, I find I just love the thing and always keep at least one spare one, as they are getting on a bit now and I’ve killed a few, but it really is my core tone (heard in the Rio cover below) with just a touch of the Walter woods amp model through an SWR 4x10 cab sim. The zoom ms60b beefs up the amp emulation in my IEMs to give me more of a live feel while providing dual outputs the Headrush(s). FOH DI is from the zoom, pre the ms60 and sparrow. But there are multiple Di options for a blend channel. The cheap eq is linked to the loop switch purely for a bass cut in a royal blood song. Linked below. it’s an odd set up, but works for me. I’m currently mulling a switch to helix, but don’t want to lose my big synth sound that I use in a few tunes like the cover of Blinding lights linked below (bass had to redone and is slightly out of sync, but you get the idea) I’m unsure if it’s possible to create this sound in a helix

It's not a style or genre, it's a term that describes music influenced by the artist's or listener's idea of what American music is; The Band, Little Feat, Black Crowes, Wood Brothers, all fit into the Americana mould but all play very different styles of music. So not a style or genre, more a concept or idea 👍

I should have been more clear. If the input device, like an active electric bass, provides 0dBv then the OdB mark would be the right position for the pot. If it provides -50dBv, as might be the case with a mic, then the -50dB mark would be the right position. This may help: https://radio.co/blog/differences-between-mic-level-and-line-level

I was going to say the same thing. Unless you need the cash, just put it aside for 6 months and if you still don’t want it then you know it won’t become a regret.

I'd enjoy being in a tribute to Gong or Soft Machine (early stuff only). 😁

I'll echo what folk are saying about David and his basses; it's all true he really is a gent and the basses are great 😀 My first Retrovibes were a white Evo and a red Zygote, that was in 2014. A 5 string Vantage soon followed then it was an RV-4, next a Super - P came my way. All came nicely set up , looked great and were fun to play. As to the man himself, he's a gem 🙂 When I was hunting for certain Vintage bass, David spotted one and passed on the link. Once a Retrovibe beanie turned up unannounced, simply because David had ordered a batch/ knew I'm bald as a coot and that Scottish weather is 'changeable' 😄 The Super-P arrived with a series/parallel/tap mini switch, those weren't spec but our man knew I played T-40's and thought I'd appreciate the option 😎

Little update - added a preamp for my fretless ABG to hopefully tame it at volume.

Slight derail - does anybody else keep a record of what they buy and sell? I’ve only done this for the last few years, but it’s amazing how much you can forget what you paid for something and what you sold things for too. Handy for when you come to part with things so you can set a fair selling price. ( Also useful when dealing with your tax return! ) Back OT, I try to break even with stuff - buy s/h at a reasonable price and then if I don’t get on with it then hopefully won’t lose much either. However, fads/trends often come along to scupper this but that’s just how the market goes I guess, same as anything else really. Recent hikes in s/h ( and new ) stuff has definitely slowed me down in buying things though - in my mind a tidy Mexican Precision is worth around £350/£400, whereas they now seem to be more like £500/£550 or more. Sold a couple of Stingrays a few years ago before they hit the current s/h price of around £1250 - £1400, but still got back around what I paid for them.

I’ve thought long and hard about the 63 for months, it’s a once in a lifetime bass, but for noodling at home it’s just not right. My recording days are over or I’d keep it, it’s such a nice tone, the pickups are still hot but so mellow and rich. It should be out with someone who can get the most out of it.

I'm old so done a load of auditions. main thing the 'auditionee' forgets is... its also us auditioning ... THEM. Been to a few where half way thu I'll stop the band and politely say... sorry guys not for me and leave. They, as individual muisicians are no better than you...so if the singer, drummer or whatever is not up to snuff, I wont waste anymore of anybodys time... it's a good thing to remember.

I suppose, although I'm no aficionado, it's a catch all, umbrella term for country, bluegrass, blues, jazz, etc without having the snobby "that's New Orleans Jazz not Appalachian Mountain Bluegrass" catagorising. One of the bands I play in does Mod(60s & rivival), Ska(1st & 2nd wave) and Northern Soul, there is also a crossover from punk where ska was prevalent. We could do with a similar catch all term as I usually just say "the Mod band" but you can get the odd '"The Clash aren't Mod", or similar comments. Unfortunately, catagories are annoying and useful in equal quantities.

I play in an old-time Appalacian band called East Creek Union. We've played at Red Rooster, the sadly defunct Orwell Bluegrass festival and Folk East. This year we're doing Maverick. Red Rooster in particular has a very wide ranging definition of "Americana" encompassing old-time, bluegrass, country, blues, rockablilly, new orleans style street jazz, country rock and people like Pokey Lafarge who dont' really fit into any category. I like going to Red Rooster, I hear a lot of acts there I wouldn't otherwise come across. The UK America Music Association who I believe are invoved in booking acts for Red Rooster and maybe other festivals too. We certainly can't get a sniff despite having played there in the past. They have slots at certain events for members to apply. I was thinking about joining, but I don't like the T's and C's which require you to sign up to a Continuous Payment Authoritty (CPA), I'm not keen on that idea.

Why would anyone blindly follow a QR code, especially for something important? You have absolutely no idea where you are going to end up. Security 101 - don't use QR codes!

Pickup covers and knobs finished.

Last night’s tryout rehearsal went pretty well. Turns out 4 of the band had recently baled from an existing party band run by an anus. WhatsApp group set up and more rehearsals to be booked for January, by which time we’ll all have had a chance to get stuck into the set list. It’s not what you know eh…