Leaderboard

This arrived about an hour ago. Keeper. Just put flats on it. Amazing tone, sustain, intonation, playability- yep 👍 well done Yamaha taking it to studio tomorrow- first gig Saturday

The Abbey regularly run music events, usually of a classical bent but also pop, poetry, bugles of The Rifles, etc. etc.. Our drummer (who lives near Shrewsbury) negotiated and persuaded the Abbey to try our Blues show. The business manager who is into music had seen us in another Shrewsbury venue so knew what they were getting. The money side was a complex arrangement of costs, equal shares and then door split, about 290 tickets sold, we organised the online tickets. The sound was challenging. Usually we are playing to about 100+ audiences, pa takes vocals only, we play to the volume of the sax and trumpet, i.e. deliberately lowish volume. The PA was at its limit in the Abbey, they also took feeds off vocals, guitar and the horns which went into small satellite speakers throughout the building. The delays due to the speaker separation and the reverb from the roof and altar behind us were very noticeable. Really tight stops in numbers ended up being `blurred`. If we did it again, we would hire in a sound engineer who knows the venue and has the kit to manage delays. We chose no to at the time since the whole venture was a bit of a financial unknown. The Abbey were more than happy with the number of tickets sold, significantly more than the target. We now have the (nice) problem of choosing RCF 945s or 932s since the `war chest` has been topped up. On a personal note, it was the largest audience I have played to since 1982. I only dropped two noticeable clangers and played my way out of them. In another number some solid bass playing dug our irons out of the fire. Live music, stuff happens or doesn't . A good night at the office.

After being unceremoniously fired from my nascent pop rock band it was nice to play a no-pressure, little gig for an old friend. Slightly awkward as the rhythm guitarist from this band is still in the pop rock band that fired me, but there's not too many hard feelings between us as it's the singer who's the problem. Well, he'll tell you that I'm the problem, so fair enough. The guitarist in my old hard rock band (that still gigs very occasionally) was turning 50 and he had assembled pretty much every musician he'd ever been in a band with to play a couple of songs each at his birthday party. Guitarists, eh? "What should I do for may party? Make everybody watch me play, because I'm GREAT!" The hard rock band did 5 or 6 numbers, but we were joined by said birthday boy's 15 year old son on drums as our old drummer is incommunicado these days. I also played with another band of his where the singer couldn't make it so the bass player stepped on to lead vocals, only to find that some songs were tricky to play and sing at the same time, so I filled in on bass for 3 songs there too. Good fun, nice to play a show again as I currently don't have a band, although one is in the works. Rig was a Warwick Thumb, into my HX Stomp and we used my QSC wedge as backline as it was also the keys and edrums 'amp' for stage volume. Weird to play a gig where not everyone has in ears these days, but the keyboardist hadn't played in 20 years and the drummer is a literal child, so I guess sometimes you have to do things the old fashioned way! Videos from soundcheck/messing around. I don't know why they're so bad, my wife has a great phone and does social media for a living, but it really struggled with the lights for some reason.

Sunday at Shrewsbury Abbey. Getting something approaching a good sound was a challenge, a negative reverb feature would have helped considerably. Apart from my cables, the kit is all BC supplies (SG bass, Ashdown EVO combo), no effects just as it is. Hands got cold in the first set despite the heating (hmm) being on, being gentlemen of age we all found the temperature challenging. Aptly started with "Burning Hell" and ended with "John the Revelator" into "Let the good times roll". Pretty well filled the Abbey so a good result. Playing pic to follow.

0750 this morning in my garden... Just stopped now.

A couple of months ago, my eldest son was just starting his BTEC music course at high school, but didn't at that point play an instrument, so he needed to choose something..... Being a super cool kid, he obviously chose bass! 😅👌🥳❤️ He's just turned 15, what a great age to start! (I was 14) I was going to sell this cool little Ibanez GAXB150, but I gifted it to him instead. 😉 Some of his best pals are on the course too, and they've got a band going already, and have been super committed, and working hard to get where they want to be. They've even got their first performance at school next week! He's loving old school thrash metal, so we're off to see Anthrax this week too! 🤘😎 Happy times!

⅞, for example... 😁

I'm hoping my boy will have a passion for music too. Whatever he chooses to be passionate about, I'll support him. But obviously music would be great! He's already got his own little drum kit that he loves, fairly competent using the pedal and sticks... not bad for a 20 month old!

Had a great gig with STRAY at The Stables in Milton Keynes. We put ourselves under a bit of pressure with four numbers we’d hardly ever played or hadn’t played at all. I used my new BF Supertwin (thanks @JGSpector and GK MB500 plus a full in ear mix - the back line was for my other band members! Was the best gig we’ve played there and the second set in particular was smoking’! (IMHO!) A couple of acousticcy numbers gave me the rare chance to air my Epiphone Rumblekat which was nice. All filmed for posterity as well!

As I mentioned in the DIY Effects thread, I've recently purchased an Aion FS-50B kit from Musikding - The kit is based on the pretty awesome sounding amp used by players like Bob Weston from Shellac and David Wm Sims from The Jesus Lizard. It's a 50watt solid state amp from the late 70s/early 80s I believe, and has a pretty big following in alternative music, especially for recording. The Tronographic Rusty Box pedal is based on the same amp and used to great effect by Adam Devonshire in the Bristolian behemoth that is Idles. Think snarly, mid heavy growl but thick and chunky and you're in the right ballpark. It took couple of weeks for the kit to arrive from Germany, and when it did arrive it was sans enclosure - I had a card in the box saying it was on backorder. A bit annoying seeing as I had to chase the guys from Musikding up to see if the kit had been posted (They say allow up to 7 working days for the kit to be marked as shipped but I didn't hear anything for 8 days so dropped them an email which seemed to get the ball rolling). Hopefully it won't be long before the enclosure arrives 🤞 Kit looks decent, all quality parts with the PCB being a really nice matte finish, all components organised into bags and the hookup wire has been recut and part stripped so it should be easy to hookup once I get the enclosure. 1. Ready to rock and roll! I printed the instructions out from the pdf, everything is really comprehensive. 2. The PCB comes with a perforated link that you can snap apart if needed, hopefully I'll be able to keep it all in one piece within the enclosure and just run the jumper wires for power and signal to the main part to the power/switch part. 3. All nicely organised - FYI all pots have plastic covers which helps avoid any accidental grounding to the soldered side of the PCB 4. I always start adding parts from smallest to largest, so it's resistors up first! 5. Even though all values are labelled, I still double check them with a multimeter just to be sure as I've been caught out with this in the past. Thankfully these were all spot on. 6. It also helps my brain if I check the values off the list when I've soldered them in. I tend to solder 3-5 parts at the same time but depends - If there's loads of the same value I'll do all of them together. 7. Working through them all... 8. With added inductors (These look like larger resistors in the bottom left) and diodes - only 3 small ones in this circuit. 9. Capacitor time! Again working from smallest to largest, I tend to add ceramic/film caps first then electrolytics at the end 10. Once they're in, it's time for transistors and ICs. I pretty much always socket transistors and always socket the ICs - It's a lot easier to swap them at a later date if needed but more importantly they're really sensitive to heat and it can be easy to cook a transistor. So sockets in first. I also added the big ass power supply chip (TEC 2-0923) in the bottom left of the smaller board. Never used on of these before, but it's a one stop shop for converting 9V DC to 15V DC. 11. All ready for the trannies! 12. That's the board pretty much as far as I can go without the enclosure - I tend to add the pots and switches to the enclosure and then add the PCB to that before soldering all in place, it makes it much easier than soldering them to the board then finding out they're misaligned!

Thanks for the various likes and comments everyone. Much appreciated! A bit more done. Its going back together nicely. So far... Neck back on. Bridge fitted. The various metal plates back in position New jack plate fitted. Old strap button holes plugged with toothpicks & glue. I'm waiting on new covers for the pickups. Someone up the thread suggested cream/white and I like that idea. I'm also waiting for pickup screws and a step drill bit to ream out the tuner holes.The new Grovers are a fair bit more substantial than the original own brand Hondo ones. I hope to have it finished by the end of the month, if all the various bits arrive.

Tried is at rehearsal yesterday its a keeper I think the key is to not get carried away with a million presets the Bassman 300 clean is very Mike Dirnt and it'd damn loud. Not the wats mean a lot buts its 400w at @ohm (internal) 800w with ext which I can't see needing. Editing is easy without the app. Footpedal is tough and it's a one hand carry. Pub gig this Sat rock and metal covers a proper test further reports to follow. Stealth

Thank you! The top knob was pushed on too far, I pulled it up a little and loosened it now it works fine.

Sounds to me like the Sumo is very insensitive requiring you to drive the Preamp into distortion. The GSS website is appalling. No mention of input sensitivity, no online user manual, no real spec at all. Also don't believe the Class D denyers. They have probably worked out so much to carry their SVTs that their thought processes have been distorted🤣

I think beauty in basslines comes from a sense of melody - not just defining the chords and rhythm by moving through the root notes, but finding a tuneful line that is compatible with, but different from, the main melody of the song. It's counterpoint, basically, so a study of that would be a good starting point. My perception is that to feel beautiful, the bass needs to define a more complex chordal form - getting some seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths in there as well as the 1-4-5. That means understanding harmony to some extent. I think a study of basslines that feel beautiful would also pick up the use of ornaments and incidentals - extra little details that highlight parts of a melody and adjust the harmony temporarily.

I want to try posca pens, I've done paint then transfer paper, vinyl stickers and more recently metal stamping. Also want to try proper UV printing

Managed to pick up a boxed barely-touched Novation Mininova for an excellent price. They're smaller keys, but more of them, and it's polyphonic just in case I fancy doing something daring, like learn to play keys properly

My daughter plays bass. She took on my first bass when I upgraded. Over the last four years, she's got far better than me. Her alternative rock band have played a ton of gigs this year after winning a battle of the bands competition. She's just started a commercial music degree at Bath uni so now playing lots every day.

For me, playing in a band was all about the sound of the whole band as one. I'd get my moments to shine but if I was concerned about expressing my emotions I'd have chosen to play guitar. The bass is about putting in the groove and making people move.

I was away with Mrs Norris last week visiting her brother before he retires from foreign parts. I don't know if I picked up something on the plane back, but have had a worsening cold ever since we set foot back in Blighty. So Saturday I felt like death warmed up. Not quite bad enough to call the gig off, but definitely lacking in energy. It was actually a pretty decent gig. We got them up dancing, which hasn't happened there before. The landlord was very pleased. I had put a new set of D'Addario Pro Steels on my Sire P7-5 for the first time in two years. It sounded great (Boss GT-6B into my Fender Rumble v3 500 combo) - nice to have a bit of twang again. No photos because I felt like cr*p and couldn't wait to get home to bed. So then I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better, but couldn't speak! The cold, phlegm, etc. has moved onto my vocal chords, so all I could do was whisper and squeak. This afternoon was planned to be an "acoustic" gig, as it's a small pub and could easily be far too loud otherwise. With my vocals not working it was an extra stripped-down gig - literally just my Stagg EUB straight into the Rumble and a clip-on tuner. It was actually great fun and we tackled a lot of random requests from the crowd (Hotel California, Ziggy Stardust to name a couple). The EUB is fun to play - lots of silly phrases and slides to put off the guitar/vocalist. Oh, and the landlady booked us because it was her one year anniversary of taking over the pub, even though we only played there a few weeks ago and have another in the book for next month. It's always nice to be the landlady's favourite band 😁

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've done quite a bit to the bass. I decided to leave the finish as is, so I gave it a bit of a buffing which left it nicely battle scarred. Its been rewired and the cavity shielded as you can see from the pics. I wish I could say I was this good at soldering, but I'm not. I paid someone to do it. The neck has been stripped, sanded and tru- oiled, I've also put new frets in (currently in the process of de sharpening the fret ends, which is thereaputic). I clear coated the fingerboard, not that you can see it here for the masking tape. I also handily managed to dot some superglue on it (the fingerboard) at various points during the refret, so there will need to be a bit more sanding and clearcoating done, I think. One quite nice touch, I needed to make the fret slots a little bit deeper, and I found an old fret saw of my fathers (who was a very handy amateur carpenter) which acomplished the task nicely. The old man has been dead for nearly forty years, but I like to think he was smiling at me from somewhere whilst I was doing this... What else...I've bought a set of SD Curlee accurate Grover machine heads and I found an old Gotoh P bass bridge in my bits box which will fit the bass nicely. I need to get a step drill to ream out the tuner holes. The original Hondo tuners were in pretty bad shape, one was entirely knackered, and the other three were pretty ropey forty years ago when they were put on the bass, so best replaced.

Let us know how you get on with it, it's top of my 2025 wish list currently.

I bought a cover for my combo from Roqsolid. It's been excellent and kept the amp in excellent condition over the years. They don't specifically list a cover for the Rumble head as far as I can see, but do offer custom covers with a range of options like extra pockets for leads, pockets to insert stiffener boards, etc. They are a UK company. It might be worth giving them a call

Or you could use firm neoprene-type foam under the pickups and not bother with springs.

Context is everything. The reason Jamerson's line on "What's Going On" works so well has so much to do with everything that surrounds it. Gaye's brilliant, emotional delivery, the gorgeous arrangement, the poignancy of the lyric and the strength of the song all highlight the nuances in what the Bassist is doing. As other contributors to this thread have already mentioned, the Bass is first and foremost a structural instrument. In a Rock context, it has a clear purpose - to bridge the gap between rhythm and melody - and it can be tricky to express an emotion when you're working within those parameters. If you're looking for some good examples of expressive playing, I'd recommend the "Hejira" album by Joni Mitchell. On this record, Jaco Pastorius manages to both support the song and play beautifully and lyrically. You could also listen to what Eberhard Weber is doing on Jan Garbarek's "It's OK to Listen to the Grey Voice" record. It's not rock or pop, but it's a masterclass in expressive musicianship that doesn't get in the way of the lead instrument.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience Experience 👍

Yeah that whole Ghandi thing went too far, wandering around in flip flops, haggling in local music shops and so on.

No, he only paid a fiver for it.

I recall that the drivers in my cabinet might not have been that efficient, so, for gigging I was nearing the limits of what the stack could dish out when needing the extra volume. I also think that as a teen I had a bit to learn about EQ'ing - but boy did it sound good!

It's all subjective.

Just? There is no just when it comes to supporting others.

Postman pat just dropped off a hard to get Broughton locust Star. https://www.broughtonaudio.com/product-page/locust-star Ooofff it's absolute 🔥. I'm one of those that always feel like I need blends with dirt... Nope, it's a perfect sounding and feeling Rat. No low end loss and can even add clear non muddy low. The range knob is where the magic is at, a bit like the sansamp character and Darkglass "Era" knob. Highly recommend

Never underestimate the lure of the low-end, get them whilst they`re young.

Tiny pub lounge with the Blues band. Not that one. Busiest it got was 13 punters. At the interval that had reduced to one old guy at the bar. Two bar staff and one of them put his coat on and left. At the end of the night the remaining lonely bar maid (can I still say that?) said it's the same scenario most weeks. Ever the professionals we played our full set, got paid and went home.

I played a short solo spot in a relaxed multi-act gig to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. I've never performed on my own before and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was joined for one number by the guitarist from the band I'm in - fair play to him he was there just to watch and I asked him to join me on the spot. Most of the rest of the band were there, either as punters or doing short spots of their own. I find it much harder to play in front of people I know so that didn't help the nerves. My guitar performance was not as good as I would have liked but I was happy with my vocals and even happier when people joined in, laughed at my attempts at humour and gave me a rousing cheer at the end! I was told it was strictly acoustic and yet everyone else there had little amps. I managed to borrow one from one of the other acts as the on-stage microphones ("they'll pick up everything on stage so you won't need an amp") weren't working and, in any case, I wasn't on the stage as it was being prepared for the choir coming on after me. No photos, probably for the good. I was using my Crafter semi-acoustic 6 string plugged into a small Fender acoustic amp. Edit: Photos have emerged!

LAST NIGHT! The Cantina Band at The Vaults (Real Ale Bar (dog friendly)) Knowle. AGAIN. Great load in, park up next to the door behind the stage [sic], set up all good, I got to tell a new joke to the lads (too rude to repeat on a family forum such as what this one is), dep drummer (chap from my other band), singer and guitarists WAGs were in attendance, all good. The guitarist had also brought his two young daughters (last time they came, the landlady asked him to kind of keep them out of sight as they're probably too young to be in a pub, she then proceeded to get them dancing on a table, filmed it and shared it on the pub's social media. She's bonkers, but in a good way). After the unscheduled fun of two weeks ago, I was expecting the usual ambivalent punters and dispiriting reception and sure enough there weren't many there, but for some reason we all *really* enjoyed ourselves. Possibly because we were playing to a handful of friends and family so there was lots of audience interaction (basically good-natured heckling) so we ended up having a right laugh. It was the drummers birthday (28! My StingRay is older than him!) so he was presented with a cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday which he wasn't expecting and totally blew him away. Very heartwarming. The guitarist's youngest joined us to sing the last song, which was lovely - she's a budding guitarist so I hope we haven't put her off being in a band. I joined the landlady at the bar for Sex on Fire (the song!) which went down a treat, we got three encores (I think the WAGs enjoyed watching us sweat). Used the StringRay for a change (I usually use the Sterling with this lot - I definitely noticed the 'Ray sounds a lot smoother than the Sterling, especially through the many distortions) -> small board (now with pedal toppers! (which obscure the LEDs on some of the pedals 🤨)) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI (set to ROCK)) -> MB CMD121. Still getting used to using a pleccy but it does sound good on the punk numbers, especially through the Bass Soul Food. Paid, packed up, home about 1 for a pint of Aldi vintage cider. A good night!

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.

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.