Leaderboard

Just back in from a Queenage gig. Barring a couple of little niggles that I'm sure the majority would not even have noticed, it went very well indeed. We're still trying to find the right balance in older material which we like doing and the most popular stuff, but given it was only our third gig, things are looking great. There was a lady there who is a member of the Queen fan club. She said that she has seen A LOT of Queen tributes and thought we were excellent. The venue also gave us a cash bonus as we had such a great turnout. Hopefully a return booking will be had next year. All in all, a great night.

I’ll be gigging my Larry tomorrow too! I put a clear scratchplate on cos that grain is too pretty to hide and popped in a EMG GZR too …

My original “twins” - Ash body, maple cap, ebony boards…21 frets (or 21 positions on fretless), Seymour Duncan classic stacks and VVTT controls. Epiphone Jack Casady basses - 20th Anniversary and Ltd Pelham.

They are awesome. I’ll be gigging my gold one tomorrow.

I'm sad to hear this news. Dave was very generous to me at a time when I was low. In addition he was an understanding soul who made me feel that I was not alone. My sympathy goes to his family and close friends. Rest in peace Dave.

Just acquired this lovely Sandberg California V Short Scale.

She lives! The ole dry solder joint and that was all, not bad for 1983 tronics

The anniversary looks very special now I’ve swapped the PG for black, hard to capture the flamed top…

Warwick Fortress 5 with Chromes really like this OC-2 setting with the VCA Comp and Beta V

The new bands first outing from the rehearsal studio was this Tuesday just gone. I'm still very much a novice bassist, this beng my second attempt at playing live. Played four songs at an open mic session at the Junction in Rainford, just north of St Helens, Merseyside. You Really Got Me, Fortunate Son, Black Night, and Paranoid on my trusty 5 string Harley Benton. Great live music pub. Allows us to slowly get used to the transition from Rehearsal to Live!

Please remove if not appropriate, but I have just read the sad news of the passing of fellow bc member Dov65. I’m sure some of us have spoken to or done deals with him over the years, and I personally have found him to be a very generous, kind, and funny bloke and will miss him greatly. I just thought I’d let everyone know who isn’t connected to him via other means.

Noticed a new channel on Freeview yesterday- GIGS. Seems to be showing only live concert films. Only had time to watch Garbage live in Denver last night (with Eric Avery on bass) but there seems to be a full schedule of various genres. The only issue is that its a data channel rather than broadcast (basically the same as streaming) so the ads cut in randomly and inappropriately i.e interrupting the songs, which is a shame. Apologies if this is old news to others, I only saw it on the channel guide last night so its certainly new to my area.

Well after chatting with Nathan of Sushi Box I have gone ahead and ordered one. I will be able to make do with using the bypass toggle switch when needed.

ie inside the enclosure not in your house not garden

I used it last night having had zero time with it to try it out. I used it as a preamp. It was extremely straightforward to dial in a good tone and to adjust it to suit when the band kicked in. Sweepable mids are always useful, and the bass and treble are very responsive. I used it with the dirt on throughout and it's not too in your face, but helped in the mix. The thing is extremely light. Feels like it ought to be way heavier and there's no doubt this contributes to a somewhat cheap feel. But it's a cheap pedal, so there's no harm in it feeling cheap. Is it rugged enough to be toured? I have no idea yet, I'll report back if it fails in any way. Anyway, if like me you buy preamps for a bit of fun, and have no intention of forking out a small fortune for one, this is perfect for you. If you want to support the original brand, and more importantly if you can afford to, then this won't be for you

The speaker power rating is the maximum, not the minimum. For that matter the 600 watt rating is thermal. Chances are it may not handle anywhere near that before reaching its mechanical limit. I'd make sure that something's broken before trying to fix it.

There’s two things… analogue circuits - which you can’t copyright or patent so fair game for behringer/jhs/joyo/demonFX to copy. In diystompboxes / freestompboxes world some things from smaller makers sometimes get left alone, but then there’s a few pedals out there where the diy community mods then get sold back to people as a “boutique” pedal… design and trade dress - which is absolutely protectable under eu/uk/us law- where you take the design and copy it. This isn’t cool and where DemonFX probably overstep the line, but there’s a fine line - as Aldi packaging aping the premium brand is on the right side of the line… counterfit is where the pedal is trying to copy the real thing and be indistinguishable to it - DemonFX aren’t doing that.

Literally took it out of the box and gigged with it. Just finished. Short review? Bloody brilliant.

..........that a standard Jazz Bass won't/can't? Looking at this model with 2xJ-PUPs.

So about a month ago - I decided to sell my Gibson Ripper to fund some house work for my little girl who needs a wet room… you have most likely seen the thread…no further comment…(love you guys). Ive been swapping between the Ripper and My Jack Casady… Both absolutely heroic in their own right. I’ve a potted history with Casady’s - I adore them and with a few minor tweaks, they’re ideal for me. So, resigned to the fact I’d be Gibson-less, I sold some bits and bobs I had in storage and a lovely little peavey bass to buy a gold Casady like my old one - to sit next to my blue one (one flats, one rounds…) But then I spotted an Anniversary model on a facebook marketplace listing which I’ve always loved (although I hated the white pickguard). The seller would not ship - and no matter how I wanted it…I agreed it was a stupid move in a gigbag. My loverboy @walshy stepped in and took the Casady under his wing. After a few weeks of trying to figure out when I could get to Hexham or he could get to Manchester. We managed it. By this point - the wonderful folk of BC had negated the sale of the Gibson by raising funds to help with the project for Iris. So I’ve now got 2 Casady’s and a ripper. Weirdly, the neck profiles are totally different - the blue one has a flatter profile, the Anniversary has a deeper shape. Needs a clean and a set up. The wonderful Earlpilanz on eBay has done me a black pickguard which is in the post. Actually really cheap (£20 all in, mental) At some point, I’ll have to sort some longer straps; the casady sits higher than I have the ripper even on the same straps because of the button position/body depth. but that’s me and gear done - for the next few years while we upgrade the house… Anyhow…fat bottomed girls…you make the rocking world go round…

It'll look way effin' cooler

Nearest I get to sparkly is my CAR Jaguar SS and this beasty:

Here is my contribution to the November 2024 Basschat Composition Challenge, illustrated with a picture chosen by myself (with permission from fellow winners Andy Travis and Upside Downer...). Rock'n'Roll, concert-going, half-pipe racing, whoops'n'bump ramps... Nothing stops this little lady. Rock on..! Double-tracked Xaviere guitar (Helix Vst presets...), and doubled up basses (Verithin and HB-50, both with Helix Vst presets...), drums by Superior Drummer 3. Reaper, naturally, for recording, mixing and rendering, with a dose of Ozone everywhere to fatten in all up and glue it together. Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

True enough! The thing I find amusing though, if you took this thread and went to publish it as a book of advice to bass players, an editor would have a brain spasm trying to make sense of it!

... but then again, being a 'YouTuber' doesn't necessarily qualify them any more than anyone on here. They might well have been spouting nonsense on the internet themselves, potentially they just like the sound of their own opinions presented as fact even more than forum posters!

The official tag line says it best...

I believe the term is 'homage'.

The infamous fifteen hour bump

Dov65

I think if you plugged in a 250W Trace Elliot amp, which is around 160w @8 ohm, it would get very very loud. Try your current amps out before over thinking it.

Hi Mickey. Yes you are correct. That is a Lakland USA 'Bob Glaub' 44-64 which I bought from @three in 2021. I don't really get on with full fat P necks, which appears to be sacrelige to some apparently (including one bass player at the gig last night), but it's an outstanding bass and fits the Queen vibe nicely. As good as the Lakland is, it's really there as a back up to the black Shuker on the other side which I used for the gig. [the black one is actually a JJ Burnel signature, but no-one notices] I've asked Jon to build me a natural looking P to take the place of John Deacon's stripped P (which he later refinished in black). Hopefully that should be ready in 2025. Another year of gear abstinence failure 🤷‍♂️. Cab is obviously a Barefaced Big Twin (Gen 3). The amp is Darkglass Electronics Microtubes 900 v2 Limited Edition 'Euryale'. The pedal board looks unnecessary and it mostly is for this gig. The only things on it I use for Queen is the Shure GLX wireless and the FEA Dual Band Compressor Limiter. The other pedals I use for other bands. I'm too lazy to keep chopping and changing pedals 😂.

Are you after mono or poly? I’d also add the following: Behringer Model D (classic Minimoog stuff and only £166 at the moment, though you’ll need some keys to go with it); Roland SE-02 (Very Minimoog like but with patch memory, PWM, and a few other extra modulation capabilities over the original and a built-in delay and sequencer); Novation Bass Station II; Korg ARP Odyssey; Moog Minitaur (bass mono synth module, sounds amazing though has an upper pitch range limitation of C above middle C); Yamaha Reface CS (digital 8-voice poly with built-in effects, knob per function control, preset-saving possible via mobile/desktop app). Roland JU-06/06A (4-voice digital recreation of the Juno 60/106, nice and easy to program and sounds good); Dreadbox Nymphes (poly) and Typhon (mono); Monologue is great. I did find the AD-only envelopes a bit restrictive but it’s a fun and great-sounding synth with some refinements over the Monologue, particularly in how the sequencer works. Minilogue is also very good. Personally I find 4 voices too restrictive for the chordal stuff I do, but if you’re not doing big extended chords, this is a great synth for the money.

2022 Raspberry Burst and 2023 Smoked Chrome

As @LeftyJ touched upon, it can be an active bass. It also has a series/parallel switch. And, I guess, a kill switch (which can easily unintentionally be activated 😅). These I would say are above what a standard jazz can do. On the things that are different, and perhaps less that a jazz can do: it only has a master volume and a master tone - and switch to turn on or off each pick up. So no VVT and no blending.

It's not strictly a new bass day but I recently received two basses in quite quick succession and I think they're both very worthy of a new bass day post. I've chatted with a few people on here about them (most because they were wondering what was enough to part me from Cog pedals) and I said I would put this post up when I'd spent time with both basses. I've been lucky enough to play some of the basses I've dreamed about over the last few years but one that's been firmly etched on the list of dream basses and one which I never thought I would actually own is a Ritter Roya 5-string. Owing to some fortunate timing and very optimistic book-keeping I was recently able to welcome this beautiful bass, named by Jens Ritter as The Red Line. It has an alder body, poplar burl top, black flamed maple fingerboard and Ritter's parametric preamp and triplebucker pick-ups. The neck is maple, it's built to a 35-inch scale and it's been given an arresting paint job that gives the bass its name (more photos below). The preamp and pick-up combination is extremely flexible so it's hard to say precisely what the signature tone is (it reminds me of a Pope preamp in terms of flexibility) but I've been having a lot of fun seeing what sounds I can dial in. I've tried to write the details in a matter-of-fact way but the result is absolutely mesmerising. The bass was exhibited at Guitar Summit in Mannheim a couple of months ago and it's one of the most beautiful basses I've seen in person (although I expect I'm horribly biased here). I should say too that Jens Ritter was very patient in answering all of my questions too, particularly as I was mithering him just before Guitar Summit. Here are a few more photos of it: Knowing the Ritter was coming was incredibly exciting but I was just as excited a few weeks later when my lovely wife went above and beyond (and beyond again) and surprised me with the most amazing gift for one my my milestone birthdays: a Dingwall AB II that I had been enamoured with since I first saw it (and which may look familiar to some on here). It's an incredibly generous gift and, frankly, I'm going to have to try much harder for birthdays and have my work cut out at Christmas. It has a chambered walnut body, wenge fretboard and, unusually for a Dingwall, an ovangkol neck. It has three FDV pick-ups and a Glockenklang preamp. It was originally built for NAMM but was instead tweaked and sent to George Baldwin (Hilltide). Here he is using it far better than I could ever hope to: I love the rustic colouring and styling of the bass on the modern-ish body and it sounds magical: it's got a deep growl but is very articulate. It's a wonderful bass all round and it's a nice thought that this will forever be the birthday bass. A few more photos: