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Tonight’s gig, social club, lounge, typical social club crowd. But tonight I finally had a tone I was happy with both on stage and FOH with both the fretless and the EUB. Spent a bit of time last night tuning my FOH tone and it paid off. Lots of compliments on the mix too so I’m off to my bed a happy lad. Obligatory rig shot 😎

Just back from the Wannasee Festival in Hertfordshire, playing with tribute act Elton Joel. Frankly enormous crowd - cool view from the stage! The rain held off and we blasted thru a windy 45-min set wedged between Elvis and the Bon Jovi Experience. Back of the net 👌. Enjoyed that.

Was back at the Hive in Edinburgh on Thursday there with Wild Hogs. We almost had to pull the gig as our singer was struggling to speak with a sore throat and the drummer had staved his thumb badly, but they both powered through. Was a great night, not a huge crowd, but all very enthusiastic and joined in with a lot of singing and dancing. Past couple of gigs have been like that after a not so great one a couple of months back. Wee break for us now for holidays & Download. Gear pictured - Squier 40th Anniversary Precision, 2 Markbass New York 121s, Warwick Gnome and HX Stomp.

Oh I bloody hope this becomes a real thing that I can buy.

Afternoon charity gig…classic car show in Wisbech at the Five Bells supporting East Anglia Air Ambulance. Cool weather, but a good crowd and the pub staff was excellent. I was really happy with the new cabs…really good even with no PA feed. Trace Elliot GP12smx, Genz Benz Focus 1x12 cabs, Fender Jazz 24.

Thanks for your replies everyone, much appreciated. I contacted Dave at Ashdown and he replied pretty quickly as usual from Ashdown. I thought his reply was worth sharing as he explained how the drive control works on this amp: I would use a JJ ECC83S. Also try using a bit less input gain, this will alter not only the amount but the nature of the drive sound. The drive control on the amp alters the MIX of driven to undriven sound and the gain control alters the amount of drive, less gain = less drive. Matched BassAdder60's recommendation, but tbh I did originally believe the Drive Control altered the amount of drive rather than how much of the driven sound is mixed with the original signal. Darren.

You're right Dave. From my experience (unless you're a big name act with 40/50 years of material to work with and millions of adoring fans) audiences do have a limited attention span and it's best for everyone to acknowledge this when planning setlists. I think for a covers / tribute band 2x60 min sets are more than adequate. I honestly don't see the point in adding songs to the sets and making them so much longer, other than satisfying the ego of some band members who don't know when enough is enough! Also bear in mind that venues like plenty of time to sell more drinks which is probably when the band is having a break / interval. Older audiences like to stretch their legs / go to the loo / grab another beer etc without feeling they're being a nuisance or missing out on some of the band's set. Personally I've always preferred one longer set from a playing point of view - easier to maintain the audience's attention and choose the songs to make the whole thing more cohesive. When my old band played some festivals we found the one set thing a revelation after being used to doing 2x60 minute sets in theatres. ( Unfortunately if we tried to opt for one set, with no support act, in theatres then we would be charged more by the venue to offset their loss on bar takings. )

For anyone who hasn't seen my Sadowsky thread. This is an update of my earlier post of the the pickups only on page one of here. My mate finished it Wednesday, and I played it tonight at rehearsal - will gig it tomorrow night. So it's 3 Nordstand Fat Stacks, still the Sadowsky pre, and pan pot replaced with a five way rotary - ala Strat style (rear, rear+middle, middle, middle+front, front).

If there are plans in the works then I hope it means Grabbers and Rippers are on the way too......

... and we don't do requests. If someone wants us to play a specific song (Dancing Queen, Summer Of 69, Do You Wanna Touch Me) we always say that we play what's in our setlist. End of. Except that this was a private party in a remote village up in the hills (seriously) and they wanted us to play Brown Sugar. So we explained that we'd stopped playing that song around the time of Covid because it was Politically Incorrect. So they explained exactly where we could shove Political Correctness. So we played the song for the first time in well over four years, and obviously with no rehearsal or refresher. Nailed it. 😎 We may do it again ...

They might be the ones that belonged to the chap earlier in this thread who was selling 4 of them at once. I'd love to try a Longhorn but I'm 6'3" and can't help but think it'd look a bit silly on me. I'm fortunate to already own 2 late 90's Danos. A "Commie Red" DC59 and a Hodad in blue sparkle. Both have flats and sound superb.

Couldnt disagree more with everything said negatively about Brown Sugar, and that Jagger, who dont forget was one of the greatest proponents of the Blues, but who has become a puppet of the establishment, is now buckling under the woke political pressure too is appalling, silly man. What, so no one is gonna look at any Picasso anymore? etc etc. Brown Sugar is a stunningly original piece of well written hard hitting rock and the lyrics tell a story. Thats it they tell a story. We have become so caked in this modern idea that nobodys feelings are to be hurt by anything that anyone says that we have become blind to what makes us human.. ie Flawed. Flawed and endlessly capable of all sorts of healthy crap. Yet the modern narrative is to try to pretend that we are not like that, that we must be fluffy, safe, gentle, and ultimately.......dead.

And the calm is restored, along with my faith in the EBS Stanley Clarke. After watching a couple of videos on YouTube by recognised pro recording engineers, and conversing with you lovely people on here, I came to the conclusion that, alongside the aforementioned series/parallel loop issue, I was really running to much additive tone on both the SC and the Ashdown. So I went back to first principles, turned all the tone controls to their zero position, and started from scratch using subtractive rather than additive tone changes, just as I would when mixing FOH. The result, the best tone I’ve had across fretless P and EUB both ‘on stage’ and FOH in a long long time. Still got a rare flash of the post peak LED on the SC, but it was literally that, a rare flash. I’m sitting here typing this feeling slightly stupid. When running FOH sound this is my go to technique, and I seldom need more than a 3db cut to tame any wild frequency. But playing bass, It’s so easy to keep adding and adding more and more tone boosts across the frequency spectrum until all you’ve actually achieved is a very loud obnoxious mush. Going back to first principles has opened up my sound and by subtraction, rather than addition, I’ve retained all of the positives with none of the negatives.

Yep, in order to keep the audience attention we now do gigs with three bands... a Hendrix tribute, a Jimmy Smith tribute and a soul/blues cover band. The fact all three bands have the same musicians in them is just a coincidence. If we put on different wigs for each set I reckon we could charge management 3 times!

Finished the fractal vice. I built whilst doing test prints for how to get a good finish on the headless bass. The vice is OK, I wouldn't describe it as a vice, more a holder. Its good enough for holding things for soldering or painting, but its nowhere near strong enough for holding anything that has a load on it. You could use it for small things in a pillar drill but anything bigger than a 3mm hold might put too much load on it. I note that some toerags have this advertised this on Etsy for £150. I'll happily sell you this for £50 It does work, its a novelty and if I don't like it, I can reclaim all the bolts and lead screw and use them elsewhere.

After the suggestion to do Mr Brightside was shot down by our guitarist claiming it was too difficult, I may have offered to give it a go and that we might swap instruments for a song. [insert name of chosen deity here] help me.

An acquaintance of mine has just spent an extra 600 sheets on an MIA precision over the MIM equivalent. He was most shocked to see the QC signed off by "Pedro", who with a name like that was very likely an employee of the Mexican factory working overtime (they're about 60 miles apart and staff flit betwixt the two for OT.) So the extra money could have bought him 5 or 6 Harley Bentons, but he actually gained nothing more tangible than a geography lesson.

I took the Curtis Novak gold foil equipped Sire D5 to band rehearsal yesterday to see what it was like ‘in the mix’. It was a very ‘woody’ wholesome P bass tone with huge presence and ability to cut though and remain more than just another bass. I was extremely pleased.

A single decent instrument for me. Buy it used and it will keep its re sale value. This is useful if you need to change basses for different projects etc. I don’t get the massive love for Harley Bentons. I totally agree that for their price point you can’t go wrong. I’ve tried a couple and was surprised and impressed, but not so much that the things that made them a budget instrument wouldn’t get on my nerves eventually.

And the winner is... @xgsjx ..! Here, then, is your Winner's Certificate (download and save as pdf file, then proudly print and frame...) ... BC_Chal_Cert_2024_05.pdf ... which looks like this (but bigger, of course..!)...

Ah nice, this is who I work for (for the next two weeks anyway haha). Really glad you’re enjoying it! It’s a bit of a sleeper preamp for bass! Hyper clean, but then add it the Mojo to taste (I loooove cream for that). Tim Lefebvre’s preamp of choice for recording! Si // Cranborne Audio

I've often thought of this. In my experience everyone would do this.... 1. Buy one high end bass. Love it. 1.5 start lusting after 15 Harley Bentons. 2. Sell high end bass. Buy 15 Harley Bentons. Love them. 2.5 start lusting over one high end bass. 3. Sell Harley Bentons and buy one high end bass. ~~~~~~~~ 99. Sell Harley bentons and buy high end bass. 99.5 start lusting after one high end bass. ~~~~~~ I love my Harley bentons. I love how it's almost impossible to lose money on them. I love that you don't have to look after them that much or worry about them at a gig. I love how you can try all different variations of bass guitar without breaking the bank. They also sound great, look great and play great. Nothing stops my lusting after a high end bass again though.....

Normally the requests I get are physically impossible. Have you seen the size of a double bass scroll? Once when I had a gig with an Elvis tribute, a guy came up to us and asked if we would do a request, and could we please play 'Blossom Ar$ehole' . Blank looks all round. "Sorry, we don't know that one" . "You must do. It was one of his greatest ever hits". "Can you sing us the first few bars?" "Weel Blossom Ar$ehole what's wrong with me, I'm itchin like a man on a fuzzy tree ... "

An almost reluctant but inevitably enjoyable NBD. I have a gig coming up in October that I need a 5 string for... I could have probably got away with a 4 tuned DGCF but... I thought it was time to get to grips with this. Of course I went to a nice store in Guildford where I tried all the 5s and the most comfortable and best sounding one was about 2K out of my budget so, after crying, I walked out the store kind of hurt inside and went home to ponder. I found that bass here second hand only 1K out of my budget but I still couldn't justify it... This time with less outside tears but more internal turmoil I went and bought the cheapest-good 5 string I could find in Europe and this morning it arrived. I have to say, I've been feeling pretty good about it so far. The plan is to learn and then, if it is that 5 strings is the way for me go I'll find myself in Guildford again with the holy grail of 5 that I'd tasted that day. Happy learning days Peace 🕊️

Sandberg California V / VS owners. What does your bass weigh? I'm absolutely loving my Cali V (sunburst roadworn & marley blue) basses, especially since stringing with some heavier gauge strings but I find myself wondering how light this range of basses might be and could I find source an even lighter one? I have a couple of Lionel basses which are even lighter (but I find I lose punch and definition in certain higher ranges and yes I've tried upping the gauge on the strings) and I'm aware of the 'Superlight' series but I'm unsure if the different body woods (paulownia) will adversely affect the tone that I'm enjoying from my current 2 basses. For context my RW bass is 8lb 6oz and my JJ pup converted MB bass is 8lb 1oz... is this as light as they get?

60th birthday bash for a pal of our drummer at a posh cricket club in Edinburgh. We started at 9pm, so the guests were nicely lubricated and started dancing almost right away. We played a trick on birthday boy - while everyone was singing Happy Birthday at the interval, we went back on stage and when they'd finished we launched straight into the Altered Images song. It went down very well. I gave this wee Eden rig an outing as the venue was quite small. It was nice and loud, but I think another 112 cab or my 210 would have cut through a bit better. Something to try next time.

How did it go? Well, there was dancing and whooping and clapping, but what it sounded like is a mystery. The venue has its own PA and the management set the levels via a tablet (except the bass, which no one told me to turn up or down) and the PA was too loud for me, painful at times, even with earplugs and I had to strain to hear my rig, which was right behind me (very small performance area). Turning on the VTDI added some top end that helped but I didn’t want a driven signal for all the tunes. Once we stopped playing, the place emptied, so it’s nice to think they stayed for us. Usual incomprehensible conversations with well oiled punters before the last set, I nodded and smiled.

Pub/club venues also like 2x45 as the interval is when they sell another good number of drinks.

I haven’t owned anything other than a small 15w practice combo since the first Covid lockdown, when I thought I was done playing. I got back playing 18 months ago and my sax player very kindly let me use a Trace combo, but sadly it had a Bipolar Bear board and died a few weeks back. So time to step up and buy a new amp! I’ve been through some budget and expensive rigs over the years and the past 18months has thought me that expensive doesn’t always mean good (for me at least). Given the huge amount of positive feedback for Ashdown and their customer service, and this thread, I plumped for a nice secondhand Rootmaster setup. I’m on the lookout for another 2x10 or 15 cab, can’t decide which, but this will do for now. Well made and nice weight, top marks to Ashdown and an absolute bargain.

Actually, I've sort of just gone thru this.... had a custom fretless made and it's so good I don't want to play anything else, so I've got rid of all the mediocre sh!t in my collection.... which means I now only have one bass!

Interesting, so the valve drive control is essentially a blend knob? I'm interested to run the valve drive at max and back off the input gain to see if it gives a clean tubey sound. I was kind of worried I'd degrade the tube quickly if I did that, but from the sounds of it, it would probably last longer as the amount of drive would be less, because my input gain is less

This is easy. Everything can be decided after 1 high end whiskey bottle.

FTFY 😎

Some venues really just don’t have a clue

Tonight's gig cancelled, in a sports pub full of pi**heads, next to the big screen, starting at 8.30, 30 mins after the champions league final starts. That was going to work wasn't it? We bailed out. Venue said "Oh yeah, see your point"🙄

Some Freddie McKay for Saturday..crackin' dub on this one.

Any of the above would likely have me reaching for the wallet. Assuming I can overcome the current mental difficulty I have with spending 1k+ on an Epiphone, should they be priced in line with other recent releases by the company.

Over the years I've had some pretty special basses, Mansons, JayDee, Hamer, Steinberger, Rics. All fabulous bits of kit but I discovered that Precisions were my thing. I've had a fair few of them too. I cant believe the price of new USA or even Mexican Fenders these days but my JMJ is a really lovely bass But I have a HB PB50 and am blown away by it. I rolled the fingerboard edges and that's it. Horses for corses an all that

Quite a boring choice for me I’m afraid - based on the ones I can take everywhere easily, which are affordable, sound great and haven’t once let me down in 15 years of gigging - it’s a Markbass LM3. I’m digging my big wide-version Ashdown ABM500 head - however it is much larger and heavier than the MB and so for purely practical reasons has only made it to one gig with me so far. In terms of amps I don’t have to move by myself, Ampeg SVT every time.

I've posted photos of my pedalboards relatively regularly over the last three months as I've been waiting for a shoulder injury to heal. As of a week ago, all of the boards I own are now fully assembled so I hope you'll permit me another group shot. As you'll see (although a lot of you know already), I am somewhat obsessed by pedals. They are my main interest and I enjoy the process of putting boards together and trying out new pedals. I'll never have more boards assembled at once than I do now (because why would anyone) so I wanted to take a photo for posterity. I've been playing cleaner preamps of late so I intend to assemble a much heavier board soon to sit alongside my main board (in the bottom left), which will involve disassembling three or four of the others. I'd also like at some point to put together Moose and Magic/Dunwich boards so I may take the opportunity after disassembling some of the others. Overall though, my intention now is to start downsizing the number of boards, pedals and power supplies, with a few of my pedals starting to appear in the classifieds already. I'm always keen to chat about pedals and frequently scour the effects thread, but please feel free to chat to me about pedals by message too! From top left to bottom right: Sci-fi > European > Iron Ether > EAE > Minis > Broughton > Grab-and-Go > 3 Leaf Audio > Clean Signal > Main > Practice Compared to my earlier group shot (29 February, I think), I've added the Main board (I was waiting on the DLA-2A), Sci-fi board (I was waiting on a couple of pedals and will be rejigging that slightly soon) and Grab-and-go board, rejigged my 3 Leaf board (to add the LBB), and reassembled my mini board.

It’s a reflection of how far Harley Benton have come that the main talking point about their latest line of budget basses relates to whether or not their dot markers glow brightly enough in the dark. It may only be 200 bucks, it may play and sound great but dammit the neck isn’t bright enough! More expensive basses don’t seem to get the same level of critique (their faults are often glossed over as being well known quirks or design features). To be more serious for a second, I think HB guitars and basses (I only own one but have played a few) are superb vfm. I have a shorty P bass which cost £83 and I keep it at my son’s house. Yes, it’s built to a price but well put together. With a little bit of eq tinkering it is ideal for jamming and in a mix it holds its own (admittedly it sounds a bit lightweight played solo - but as a useable, cheap bass it is ideal). I’m keen to see full reviews of these new basses. A shorty PJ could be right up my street.

Like the guy at the Stevie Wonder concert.Shouts to Stevie "Stevie play a jazz chord" Stevie plays a couple on his keyboard but the guy shouts back "No! A jazz chord Stevie!" Stevie gets exasperated and shouts out "I dont know any more" The guy goes "Sure you do,You know ''A Jazz Chord,to say, I lovvvvvve you"