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i did exactly this with a 90s thrash band I was in. We got back together 23 years later and did one gig. All our old punters came and we sold the venue out, played a blinder, had a gas, got paid and got it all on video for the Grandkids. Now, the important thing is not to take that one excellent evening and extrapolate that out into a fantasy of reforming, touring again or anything else, just do one night, hopefully smash it and then go back to tending your herbaceous border, if you let the event ignite your egos then you've had it.

Mark Bass Little Bass with a Retrovibe over wound Rickenbacker Pup upgrade. Lovley little bass, 38mm nut with a super slim neck. Sounds brilliant, very surprised with the bite and fatness. Probably do a few more mods in the new year. Pickguard, bridge, knobs, V & T pot values and try a few capacitor values. Just a bit different to the Bronco .

Very posh Do* last night at the Radisson Hotel (ex-Free Trade Hall) in Manchester last night; a national solicitor's company, so I had a bath before I went, and dressed tastefully (for once)...didn't get time for a soundcheck, and no time to set up monitoring, so all I heard was floofy sub-bass, but played most of it on muscle memory, and of course no-one else noticed. It sounded good out front, though, and that's what matters, and the punters danced all night. Done for midnightish, home after dropping the drummer off (he's a fantastic pro (reading) drummer, a talented producer and music-tech guru (his day job is teaching Logic), but he doesn't have a car, so swings and roundabouts...) about 01:45. The alarm for work this morning was a bit gritty, but the money was four times a pub, so... Off now till the 20th, when I'll be up at Weasel Dust Central in Burnley, fending off the chemically-altered denizens of the place and stopping them turning the tops round on their stands (the new Funniest Thing In Burnley). Oh, the rich tapestry of experience... * BL went to the bar, no draught, so he got two 330ml bottles of lager. £12.40. In Manchester, for Buddha's sake...we both photographed them, in a vain effort to get more out of his £12.40...didn't help...

For all my moaning about my original Ibby SR1305 Premium, I've been missing it after I sold it. So, something very similar, but more towards the "Dark (wood) Side". Thanks to Guitar Guitar I now have this SR1355B-DUF Premium in Dual Mocha Burst Flat. It's the same old, same old for me Nordy Big Singles, same 3 band EQ with passive switch, and 3 way Mid frequency switch, but no gold tuners or bridge (which I only think work on some finishes, so yay me !) The matt finish is different for Ibanez. Very warm to the touch. Everything is as it should be, though I'll possibly drop the string height. Incidentally, FYI Ibanez now seem to supply Premium SR's with a reasonable Gigbag, rather than the soft/hard case of yore. I'm well pleased

So, I have been pondering a Bronco upgrade project for a while and when I saw the release of the Mark Bass Yellow line basses I decided to proceed with the short scale Bronco-a-Like bass. Mark Bass Little Bass. Over the years I have enjoyed tinkering and building Bitsa basses but the one bass tone I have never deemed necessary was a Rickenbacker sound. The Pup on the MB Little bass was a typical single coil 6 pole piece guitar Pup which didn’t excite me at all. I previously spotted an over wound Rick replacement Pup on the Retrovibe site, and it seemed to fit the bill. Once the pickguard was removed the body routing for the Pup was very generous and all I needed was a small increase in the length of the rout to accommodate the Humbucking Pup. The aperture for the Pup in the pickguard was to be honest a bit sloppy and I will probably get a replacement from Brian in the New Year. Once it all went together, I was very surprised at the Rickenbacker tone that this little bass and Pup produced. Bold, bright, fat and surprisingly smooth with the tone all the way down. I very nice project. I will probably tinker with the V&T pot values and the tone capacitor value when I get the new pickguard in the new year. Opinions anyone??

Pickguard arrived yesterday, and here are the final results - I'm done tinkering with this now, it's as perfect as I can be arsed making it!

In Sixth Form (1989), we all wanted to be Sisters of Mercy. My first gigging band was the appallingly titled "Whores in Reverence" who made a live debut as the band in a Sixth Form pantomime production of Cinderella. We did a fairly woeful version of Bauhaus' classic "Bela Lugosi's Dead". Things got better and we wound up playing a handful of shows around various local village halls for most of 1990. Of course it all came crashing down because I was committing the hideous crime of spending too much time with my then girlfriend and wearing a not-on-message Hanoi Rocks t-shirt. They all started a new band without me but I think we moved past it. Two of the guys I stayed very close with and the other two weaved in and out of my life but with absolutely no ill feeling. It was always good to see them whenever paths crossed. The guitarist and I tried doing a band in 2004 but he'd just had his first born so it never really got off the ground. Another member had me as best man at his wedding in 2010 and I returned the favour in 2016. In 2020, the guitarist and I acknowledged our love for the darker 80s sounds and decided to have a jam when restrictions eased. By the time we got that jam, we'd built up quite a list. Before we knew it, we were writing originals, playing open mic nights and building momentum. We signed a little indie deal and have put out two albums, an EP and made numerous videos. Over a 35yr friendship Nick and I have never had a cross word. I am sure we know our weaknesses as people but also know how to act around one another. It's easier with age. The twist was that whilst the original singer is AWOL, last seen in Thailand about 10yrs ago, the other two were openly big fans of what we are doing. With one down on the South Coast and the other in Atlanta, GA, I wasn't sure I could ever get 80% of the old band together. With a lot of organisation, we finally managed a reunion as Reverence 80. Having played all over Europe, once in the US, the legendary Marquee Club and numerous other iconic venues, I have to say that little village pub gig remains my favourite show I have ever done. We're keen to get Mike and Greg to play on our next release. On the 35th anniversary of our first show, Nick and I re-visited "Bela Lugosi's Dead" this week. I wish we could have played it like that in '89!

We did exactly this in late 2008. We disbanded in about 1991 for what we thought was the final time. Our guitarist put together an album from old demos that he rerecorded with his brother, some of his friends and our singer in 2002 and released it under our name. A few of these were pressed on CD and sold slowly. An American fan maintained a web presence for us by keeping sadloversandgiants.co.uk alive. In 2008 we got a message via the website from an Italian promoter wondering if we had considered gigging in Italy. There was also a message from a Greek promoter asking us to play there. We hadn't really spoken with each other for many years. The singer and the drummer had kept in touch, the guitarist had become a global superstar DJ and the keyboard player had moved to Santa Monica USA. Despite this we reformed the band with a different keyboard player and have been active ever since. It's so much better this time around - we only play a few gigs a year but get together many weekends - we spend most of our time together in restaurants, stuffing our faces. We have played all over Europe and in the USA and put out an album in 2018. We are recording another now. There's no pressure this time round and it's a lot of fun. Edit: I forgot to mention that in 2002 or was it 2003 the singer, guitarist and drummer got together without me but with another bass player from the band's history (both before and after my first time around) for a one off gig in Rome. Apparently the bass player got very drunk and pissed off the guitarist which put an end to that incarnation.

I played massive gigs with £400 basses. In the end, none of it matters much. Play the music you like on the instruments you love and forget all the rest.

I think Mark D Philips is selling this one on eBay.

Are you on a mission from God and likely to order dry white toast ? seriously, I didn’t have an old band as we lived at the outer edges of the back of what was some way farther away than Beyond, but I really wish that I had had one i know a drummer who described his teenage years as non stop gigging every night and I thought “you lucky b’stard”

Micro board for my Pbass. The IR box was a suprise; 32 IR capability, adjustable EQ using the app, headphone and XLR out, and I paid about £20 new.

I'm going to keep this, in part because despite the problems it's an incredible piece of engineering and I won't find another anytime soon, in part because I don't want the hassle of dealing with a shitty seller (and BTW Reverb have handled this very poorly), and in part because I'm going to enjoy fixing it. While the financially sensible thing to do is to get the circuit repaired, given I'm not convinced the bass was all that well maintained, I don't think I'll feel fully happy unless a new circuit is installed. I was hoping that Status might be able to supply/build a replica of the original but having been initially quite responsive they've gone very quiet which is frustrating. So I'm guessing there are a few options from here. Re the earlier comment about size, check this out.....

Del Amitri at the Sheffield Leadmill in about three hours time.

The school year I was in was probably quite unusual in that just about everyone was in a band, or at least played an instrument. One of my friends contacted me shortly after leaving school in around 1978 (he had by then changed his name to Mr X) asking if my brother (a great drummer) and I wanted to join his new band. We had one rehearsal at his mum’s house which culminated in a huge argument because my brother and I “had added flourishes” to the songs that he couldn’t live with. Neither of us had any idea we were adding flourishes or even what the flourishes were, but the 2 hour old band folded. The first band I had been thrown out of. Undeterred, Mr X gathered more compliant musicians from our school days and finally created his punk band The Stereotypes. They got label interest, recorded one four track EP, performed a debut gig, had a huge argument about a guitar solo and the band folded. Fast forward a few decades to 2011, there had been renewed interest in the band from the label mainly because the EP had become a collector’s item - mostly due to its rarity. The band reformed, recorded an album, performed one gig, had a huge argument and the band folded once more. In 2021 Mr X called me: would I be interested in re-joining The Stereotypes that my brother and I had been thrown out of in 1978? Of course I joined (what could go wrong?) and along with the original singer from our school, a guitarist we were at school with and a new drummer The Stereotypes are back in business. We’ve played four gigs and so far have had no arguments, huge or otherwise, as I type this, the band has not folded…….

Yeah I hear you. I've got some high end basses and I've played some even higher, but my favourites have nothing to do with their label or their price. Others say differently and that's their prerogative, but how a bass feels in my hands, how it balances on a strap, how it sounds and how it talks to me are the only things that matter. The label and the price are utterly irrelevant.

I was in an originals band, back in the 80s, and in 2019 I got a message on Facebook that the rest of the band wanted a reunion. My initial thoughts were that we weren't that good back then, so why get back together? Who would bother to turn up to see four, 50 something guys, make a fool of ourselves? Was I supposed to put money up front to book a venue? The others hadn't being playing continuously since the 80s, like I had, would they be able to hack it musically? The drummer lives in the North of Scotland, when would he get time to rehearse? I was sure it would be a total pointless exercise but, due to the boundless enthusiasm of the others, I felt I would be a party pooper if I didn't say yes. ......and then along came COVID Phew!!!!

It's familiar to me too: --- I've spent so many hours on the band this week and I really can't afford to "OK mate shall I do this?" Would you? Thanks mate that'd be really helpful, and remember to phone the Flange and Pony to ask about the backline. "No worries mate, will do" -- 2 weeks later -- Did you manage to do the thing yet? "Ah, sorry not yet. I'll do it tonight" No worries. Don't forget to phone the ... "Yup, you said that already. I'll do it" -- 2 days before the gig -- Did you remember to do the thing? "Ah cr*p, I totally forgot. I started to do it, but I couldn't remember the name of the pub, and then my mum came round to give me feedback on my parenting skills and I kind of got caught up in that." It's ok. I'll take care of it. Has anyone got the number for the Flange?

I`d actually been thinking about this earlier this year, thinking a one-off would be quite a laugh. Sadly the guy whose band it was passed of pancreatic cancer so it won`t happen - he was the singer/song-writer so no point doing it without him. So to anyone thinking about this , do it when/if you can, if it doesn`t go well then just don`t do it again.

My 80s band is in the process of releasing our first album... We lasted a couple of years in Leeds, then 2 members went on to quite big success, and another 2 went on to far larger success. But back in 1998 or so one of the large success ones was getting married and came up with the idea of a Weeds reunion. We played 5 songs in an OKish fashion then decided to occasionally do a gig, and eventually (like earlier this year!) record an album. However, as we lived in Sheffield, Shropshire, Manchester, Limerick and the South of France we recorded our bits separately, and got it mixed by A Famous DJ Type. That's coming out Feb/March and is a half hour of Funky Goodness or Unbearable Racket, depending on your taste. And last weekend, South Of France Boy and I got together to record backing, bass and guitar 1 for the Difficult Second Album, ready to send off to Ireland for vox, to Manchester for WallOfSound Guitar and to Sheffield for the BigBeats.

Agreed. Despite being active in the buying and selling forums I’ve only used the same 2 basses for gigs over the last 5 years - one I’ve owned for 25 years. What’s more important than cost is the time you spend getting to know your instrument I reckon. It has taken me 4 months to finally get a sound I like from my new double bass, for example.

No point buying anything but a special bass (i.e. one you can’t put together simply yourself), bitsas built from Basschat/ebay/Reverb parts win on price and quality over factory basses a lot of the time, keeping a keen eye open for used components by Warmoth, Allparts, Mighty Mite, Gotoh, means you can build some cracking instruments 👍

The Fish Fingers I paid £3.99 for in 2018 have gone off, go figure.

The Sparks Brothers documentary is worth a watch, one of the best music documentaries I've seen. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8610436/

Kasuga? If so, one of the best 70s/80s Japanese manufacturers by a long, long way. On topic, I used to make a few quid buying old guitars & basses for pennies, tidying them up & selling them on. In 2003 or thereabouts, I picked this up for £60, thinking I'd hose it down & maybe flip it for £150 or so. Tuned it up & it was the best-playing bass I'd ever had in my hands, bar none. Still is. It's had a few upgrades & a bit of bling over the years but still probably only owes me £120 or so, all in. It's the one I'd save in a fire - you can stuff your four-figure basses.

I did put a clear on My Z3 ..sorry I’ve hijacked the z7 thread with a z3 ..😀

Just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who commented on here. @lemmywinks - cheers for the links, the part worked an absolute treat. So simple to solder in and the board went back nicely. It's working like new! Cheers all. Now. ..... Who wants to buy a small Hartke kickback 120w amp! Lol!

This is one of my favourites 😬

I was in an originals rock band in the late 80s. We were very big locally, all young kids were our fans. Tight trousers, hair, pointy headstocks and double bass drums. We eventually split but did get together and rehearse with the view to doing a couple of gigs Then the guitarist ran off with the drummers wife

Awesome!!! Thanks @Reggaebass @BassAgent @SumOne for the education!

I did this for a one off gig. It was a blast. Drummer and both guitarists were in a band and I'd just returned from a long stint away. We rehearsed a couple of times and played our 'best of'. It went down well and was fun, but there was no suggestion it become any more than the one off.

We`d heard you lot were trouble Daryl, but bringing your own blizzard, well that`s just taking it too far! 🥶 🥶 🥶

In my last band which was very well organised the singer/guitarist used to do pretty much everything in terms of the gigs/recording sessions/online media etc. I`d look after travel stuff such as planning journey times/routes and booking transport/hotels etc, and the drummer dealt with the merch (which was considerable, think he got the short straw). I think it`s a case of finding someones skill-set then pressing go, or in some cases determining there is no skill-set amongst you for what is required - in which instance then get someone in for that/those tasks. If we had all swapped round with the singer not sorting gigs rather than the 300 plus we did whilst I was in it we`d probably have done 10 - neither myself nor the drummer being in that mould, so identify skills and encourage them.

Wow this is incredibly familiar. "I've spent so many hours on the band this week and I really can't afford to" OK mate shall I do this? "No, I need to handle that"

Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be

I've owned quite a few good, cheap basses, I recommend them all the time, but I'd be lying if I said any of them were in the same league as either of these.

People in hair metal bands tend to have hair. Fat, bald, and nearing the free bus pass doesn't really work 😟

Snagged one! It's a Thunderbird, it does Thunderbird-y things (except neck dive, which is apparently a Thunderbird-y thing). Only had a quick razz in the headphones but it sounds good to me! It's a hard so-and-so to photograph for the camera in my mobile, it only shows the true sparkle when it's pulling focus and I catch it in the act thus: Sod it, have a video. 07_thunderbird 64 purple moving.mp4

This seems appropriate… https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDZoWA1ol_4/?igsh=NGMycmF2eHhqNTlj Apologies to those who don’t have IG.

The Anvil documentary

Picked up the bass after turning forty. As a kid, I had some guitar under my belt and bass lessons from an aspiring pro, but left music wholly behind me for twenty years. Big fan of the noisy end of the rock spectrum but broad tastes. I bought my first bass in lockdown, ostensibly to help out a friend with a sudden absence in his band, but it was an excuse for scratching an itch I've always had for the superior stringed instrument. A few years down the line I'm a regular player, 5-string pervert, and playing the best I can in a pub covers band. Even tried writing my own material again! Midlife crisis or what.

I am on record on here as being (self-confessed) as shallow as a puddle when it comes to looks: for example, I don't care how good Foderas are, I'll never own one, because I can't stand the looks...

Ride the riddim!

I met the drummer and 'singer' in the 90s having not spoken to them for over 10 years. The drummer is now professional and the singer hasn't sung since we broke up. I'm still in contact with the guitarist and have played quite a bit with him. I used the drummer as a dep on a couple of gigs. I don't think that's got any legs. One of the guitarists I used to play with contacted me to play in the band he originally played in. Seems the bass player still had the same issues that caused the band to break up originally, and they'd resurfaced when they'd tried to get together again. I rehearsed for a few weeks with them and played 3 gigs. The gigs were superb and I think they found another (more local) bass player to join shortly after. I think elements of the band still play together in one form or another.

The closest I've come it was when I was in The Terrortones, where we had our own label and management company (Jailhouse Morgue) which was run by our singer as part of his day job. Very few people who dealt with us when booking the band, actually realised that our manager and Mr Venom were one and the same person as they seemed so different on-line and on the phone compared with how we were on stage. I can recall being asked on numerous occasions if "Will" was at the gig...

Pretty much every Burns model.

Never happens. And if it does, it's never as good as you remember. Leave it in the past. A time before being constantly video'd, reviewed and critic'ed, and remember it as a great time.

Bad News Tour (1983)...