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It's worth considering how doing things that require mental and physical effort help keep you active and healthy. Swapping gig shoes for cosy slippers may not be the best idea - smaller social circle, fewer new experiences (don't undervalue novelty, even if it's just going to a different venue or meeting new bar staff, let alone learning new songs).

Accept that you're human. Works for me. Haven't been fired. No-one has ever come up to me at a gig and said "see you missed a note at 1:43 in that song". Mistakes are fleeting moments in a show or a song. Don't dwell. Practice the song after if it really bothers you.

Just need to wire it up now

I’m sorry to hear of your health concerns, and hope you manage to overcome them ASAP. Please don’t let one d*ckhead spoil doing what you love though - surely other band members must be aware of his shortcomings and give him his marching orders. A break whilst you find another drummer may be good for you and all concerned?

I'm really happy with my 70's Fenders. I have been around vintage guitars and amps for almost 40 years now, and there's just something about them that attracts me. They're not all good, but the good ones are great to play, and sound great too. I don't worry about taking them on gigs, I'm 60 next birthday, and they will definitely go on beyond me to the next generation. They do bring me joy (especially through a vintage GK RB series amp) Rob

Over-inflated market meets under-inflated economy I've been grappling (yes I'm that sad) with the instrumental/emotional dichotomy of late, in part driven by being forced to use a £300 bitsa Precision that I quite literally had to put together the same day at a rehearsal last week and finding it not unequal to my '73, in part due to playing a full Status Graphite instrument and getting a taste for what a bass really can be in terms of engineering and technology (and that's not Fender by a long shot), and in part trying to be a decent Dad and not tie up shit loads of money in stuff that doesn't really matter. And once again I can't help feeling we're all antique collectors

By definition, 'problems' have 'solutions'. If there's no solution, it's not a problem, it's a 'fact', and one doesn't resolve facts, one accepts them. It's a fact that, try as one might, on occasion, there will be missed, duff, wrong notes. This is normal. One practices to reduce these to a minimum (and sometimes there are none..!). Striving to improve things is fine, and laudable. Obtaining perfection is not the objective; just 'as best as possible' is fine. Do not treat this 'fact' as a 'problem'; there is no 'solution', by definition. You're doing fine if you at least recognise that there are occasional mistakes. Carry on.

My attitude is that you're either committed to being in a band or you aren't. If not then walk away and let the band replace you and get on with it. I'm quite lucky that in both bands we all have to drive to get to gigs so there's no drink involved. Dave

Plant it and grow a Rick tree ?

😳 That's an exceptionally wide nut! Mark

These were already out in the room before I commented on this thread. Yes, I'm bonkers. On the wall, '73 Jazz, '73 Precision. On the floor, '70 Precision, '78 Precision. I've been playing the '78 tonight in prep for gigs this week and next. Not sure if it will be the one yet, the '73 P seems to be getting the most action at the moment. Rob

if it doesn’t bring you joy, or have any use, get rid of it. I did that with all my unwanted and unused gear. Lost a few quid but mentally much happier.

Out of rhythm is much, much worse than wrong note. So I think the main thing in terms of approach to playing is to get in the groove, dance around a bit so that you're engaging with the rhythm with your whole body, and concentrate more on what the drummer's playing than on what you're playing. Then let your fingers take care of themselves.

NICE https://www.wunjoguitars.com/products/s-h-1972-fender-jazz-bass-three-tone-sunburst

When I was gigging with a band, we used to quite often miss entire verses. We got good at it though, me and the drummer could pick up pretty quickly when the singer/guitarist went to the wrong section. We all missed notes or played the wrong part occasionally. No one in the audience ever notices. It's all good. I've seen some of the biggest rock and metal bands in the world completely screw up songs and have to start again. They make a joke about it, make fun of the person who messed up and its all fine. Perfection is boring anyway

Why do you think orchestras have so many musicians? 😁

If this mate can do metal flake finishes then I think we need to know who they are.

Today, I'm going to be talking about how you can destroy your extruder head with nothing more than a slightly greasy build plate. I did a print run a few days ago using PETG on a Prusa Mk4. PETG is slightly more difficult to print than PLA as it uses higher temperatures (240 vs 200) and it needs a satin steel sheet to print on, rather than a smooth steel plate for PLA. PETG will stick very, very well to a smooth plate, so you always use a hot (90C) textured plate to print on. Once you know that, PETG is fine to print on. Did a quick print overnight and came back to finding this lump of plastic hanging from the extruder Mmm... lovely. It was supposed to be part of a 3d guitar, but clearly went wrong as it appeared not to have stuck to the plate. It actually ended up wrapped around the bottom of the extruder and filled just about every nook and cranny and was stuck everywhere. The problem now is that the extruder surrounds are all printed in PETG so this is now one big f"£$%^&*()ing mess. Heated the nozzle up to 250C and managed to prize the above off but it was everywhere else and the heat of the nozzle wasn't enough. Tried to use a heat gun and ended up pulling most of the bottom of the extruder off as it was basically just one large lump of plastic now. You should NOT be able to see the bottom chrome bar through the extruder. The photo makes the damage look a little worse around the middle of the extruder. However you can see the nuts exposed, the linear bearings and all of this should be hidden. The next problem is that new parts are needed and can be printed. That's one great thing about Prusa is that most of the parts can be downloaded and can be thrown onto a printer. I don't believe Bambu, who make great printers BTW, can do this. Thankfully I have a second Mk4 and once I'd worked out the two parts needed, three hours of printing got me two new parts. The problem now is that you have to completely dismantle the printer head as the larger green item above is the extruder chassis that everything hangs off. <sigh>. Pretty big job. I spent a few hours yesterday gradually dismantling it and then starting the rebuild. The major issue is getting the tension on the bearings just right, which involves getting screw tension just right. I then have to put the belts on and use a tuner to get the belt tension to 82Hz. 82Hz is pretty close to E on a six string, so will try this with a cheap clip on tuner first Hope to get this done tonight, but an awful lot of effort for a print not sticking to the build plate. Rob

Thanks, I will - it's certainly something I'll keep in mind.

ok this time I was switching it up for the streaming I’ve started doing ( crude plug) but the boostopia is great!! And the pickle is just that!!

https://guitarbomb.com/unleash-brassy-beast-behringer-bass-brassmaster-fuzz/ Nice!

Took my new pedal out for coffee It was too pretty to leave at home.

Niche, but if anyone is doing a music theory degree it may be useful! Left by a friend of my wife's who returned to their home country after university, some minor water damage and a few pencil annotations but still in excellent condition. Free to collect from Glasgow G51 or post should be about £3.50.

I completely agree with this. While the 1970s were famously a questionable period for Fender’s QC, I’ve also encountered several pre-CBS basses that were total dogs. I’ve also owned a number of pre-CBS Jazz Basses and 1960s American reissues over the years, but they’ve always been the first to go when compared to my two 1970s Jazz Basses. My favourite is my 1975 Jazz which, despite its insane weight, has the most incredible deep, gnarly tone and a neck that feels amazing. Every time I pick it up, I feel inspired, and it’s been my go-to for all the biggest gigs I’ve played. I do worry about whether I’ll still be able to stand with it when I’m older, but I know I’ll never part with it. It has everything a great Jazz Bass should have.

This thread has landed at exactly the right moment for me. It’s reassuring to know others get it wrong. I had a band rehearsal yesterday and I couldn’t do anything right. I couldn’t keep up with the pace of some songs, I hit wrong notes (worse than missing a note), I forgot stuff, I couldn’t get the bass to stay in tune; on it went. It came to a climax/anti-climax in “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” when I did the B flat major scale run down wrong (ended on A) and as for the two little three note chromatic run downs, I just couldn’t get the timing right. It threw me into a complete depression about my playing, fearing that age was causing a decline in my abilities and I was contemplating suggesting they get another bassist today (after 5 years in this band). Anyway this has cheered me up. I think I’ll postpone any self-destructive decisions until I’m absolutely sure I’m crap! 😀

small but fierce maximum blue sparkle ... well except for thre black bits (MXR mini brick mounted underneath for those who desireth that information)

@ped - can I just say this is a bit of a moot point for you? why, because you literally only have massive pedals... And the biggest flanger I can think of, literally is a flange with no name. and avoids the problem

Earlpilanz on EBay worth a look

I was wondering who would be the first one to use that joke.... @SpondonBassed you have won a free colon inspection. please report to your nearest NHS hospital....

Caveat: This is just my experience and it might be ear shape dependent. I had some ACS earplugs made while I was at uni for a discount. I didn't have a bite block and the resulting moulds didn't seal properly. Everytime I opened my mouth, it broke any seal I managed to get. Infuriating but I didn't do anything about it and just guessed they weren't that good. A couple of years later, I tried making my own custom tips for IEMs with two part setting silicone*. I had better results when I kept my mouth open duing the setting. This year, I've had ACS earplugs made and used a bite block and they're great. *The steps were: Take some from each pot and mix them up - I think one pack did two sets because you're sticking the IEM in there Jam it in your ear as deep as you can Stick in the IEM Let it set Remove the whole thing Let it fully cure, I usually waited 24 hours Attempt to drill a hole from the exit of the IEM to your ear canal (I just held a 2/3mm drill bit in my hands) Not always 100% successful, but when they were, it was delightful. I was properly isolated from everything. Each pair lasted about 6 months of daily use.

Thanks Phil - went very well and the pre-prep work put in on the A&H CQ18T seemed to pay a lot of dividends. Allocating two of the buttons to mute FoH and IEMs took away the stress of a lack of physical faders in the event of an unexpected volume spike. I took the old analogue desk to the gig as a back-up but it stayed in its case. I had set up the new desk with a basic mix based on what everyone had been saying they wanted in their IEMs when using our analogue desk i.e. a little boost to their vox & instruments to make them easily heard in the mix. Similarly the individual EQ settings on each of the channel strips was based on previous experience of what worked well. Loved the flexibility on little things that make this a relative joy to use e.g. being able to set frequency for each channel at which the HPF kicks in. No one asked for any changes to their personal mix on the night - the only request was to turn down the IEM volume at soundcheck - understandably so, as I'd based the vol settings on my home use and rather than us playing at gig volumes (albeit relatively modest gig volumes as it was a pub restaurant). Then able to save the new settings with the press of a button! The crew loved the benefit of having a personal tailored mix (rather than just two tailored and the rest getting FoH with the analogue desk). The clarity in all our IEMs seemed to be significantly better too. Those two things were very much the rationale for upgrading from a decent budget analogue desk to a well featured mid-range digital desk. The many additional capabilities of the desk compared to what we previously had, including the ability to adjust settings on the fly from the floor using a tablet, will be icing on the cake. @Pirellithecat hope that gives you an in idea of my initial impressions and I'm already feeling that this was the best bit of kit I've bought this year! Two more gigs, this time at Xmas parties, tonight and tomorrow to try this out with slightly differing line-ups for each. After which I'll likely not be feeling the need to take a back-up desk with me - although I'm guessing some of you guys would recommend doing that as good practice regardless?

Maybe I'm a bit of a wrongun, but having ear impressions taken makes me go all gooey :P. Love it.

That's such a shame that this drummer is ruining what is a great night of fun with like minded musicians. Hope your health improves quickly and things work out. No point in suggesting things at this stage but keep us all posted how things develop. Fingers crossed for you @ahpook. Have a great Christmas and all the very best for 2025. Dave

for the uninitiated you may have to have a brief description of some of these pedals! something like "I just replaced my Flacid Jawbone muff variant with this new Zookeepers Zany Zebra pedal, it's a Rat pedal with. an LFO made by Shinto monks in Japan who just happen to have a large stock of NOS LM308." or something

Convert the headless Rickenbacker copy that you made into a headed one?

From everything I've seen, Lydon's been an insufferable arse for years, so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the other blokes never even gave him a call about the original benefit shows, doubt he'd have been up for anything that didn't benefit him. Throwing his support, little though it may be, behind Trump and Farage really just seals the deal that Lydon needs to be put out to pasture. Frank Carter has always been a great frontman, back in the Gallows days and more recently with the Rattlesnakes, so him smashing it with Pistols isn't a surprise at all.

Someone had to... But it is a classic!