Leaderboard

Found this gem. The previous owner was the first owner who bought it new in 1973 and took pretty good care of it. The frets are fine, the finish has one bad spot where it hit a nail in the case it was kept in, otherwise in very good nick. The hardware is super clean, the color has aged very nicely and it sounds and plays great. Really like this.

It was a cold wet evening and Leicester City were playing an FA Cup tie on ITV (we woz robbed!) which probably all contributed to it being a little slower than normal in the Railway Countesthorpe tonight. However the people that were there were enthusiastic, and the fewer bodies allowed this rather good photo to be grabbed by one of the crowd (which I then stole from Faceache)... Friday gigs are always a bit tougher for a weekend warrior like me after a day's work. The guitarist had been rehearsing all day for an upcoming tour with Martin Turner, so we were both pretty done in by the end of the night. We have tomorrow night off though, so the whole band, WAGs and kids are going to see the new Led Zep film and grab a bite to eat afterwards The Sire again plus the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500. I also gave my black DMs an outing

I'm now 73 and my back problems started when I was twenty, I was in and out of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middx during that time, surgery was suggested but I was warned that it was risky and if it went wrong, then I could spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, so I decided against it, and over the years I had various procedures on my back which were all extremely painful, and all of them only temporary fixes, this resulted in lots of time off work, and eventually early retirement. Five months ago, the pain really kicked in again and because I couldn't get an appointment to see a doctor, the surgery advised me to call 111 who in turn advised me to go to A&E which I did, I was kept in overnight and then transferred to an Orthopaedic Hospital the next day, I was told that surgery was needed and this time I decided to agree to it, the following morning I was in the operating theatre. When I came round I was pain free, and three weeks later I'm still feeling great, so because I don't want to risk injuring my back again, I've now decided to stop gigging and just play and record at home because if I gig, I will have to lift heavy equipment which will put my back at risk. I've enjoyed gigging over the years but as I've struggled to find a suitable band in recent times, I think it won't be too hard for me to get used to not gigging any more. I'm not going to sell off everything, but I've put a couple of my higher end basses up for sale, I will keep a couple for home use and anything else I might need, but I will gradually shift all the gear that is no longer needed. I'm now looking forward to enjoying what time I have left pain free (hopefully). 🙂

A couple of minor niggles to sort but I'm otherwise very happy to own something very close to one of my favourite designs. First rehearsal with it tonight and hopefully it'll be out for our next gig on the 22nd 😀😀😀😀

Tadaaaaaa

Can't believe I went from 2 to 4 vintage Fenders in two years.

My gig was 5 minutes from my condo. On the way home I missed my turn at the high school. 15 minutes later I'm lost driving on a back countryside road. Now you understand why you see " I'll be picked up" in most of my gig reviews. Lol Daryl

And she truly lives! Pretty damn happy with the results. Plays nicely, pretty light, nice punchy sound (once I'd sorted the pickups being out of phase).

Pretty shameful showing from some long-time BCers here. Bass4Real hasn't been a member very long and some of the responses on here have been unfriendly to outright hostile. We can do a lot better.

Nipped across to not-very-sunny Zurich to play at an Americana festival. Had a great few days. I've worked with Peter for a long time, but this is his other band and I'd never met them before. Just had time to top-and-tail at the soundcheck, and off we go. They're a hugely talented bunch.

I too can't have just one of something. I would like a Unicorn to go with my Flyte, though.

IMO the leader Western World, or any Head of State, publicly insulting someone's wife makes me cringe and shake my head. Trumps disgusting, ill-mannered behaviour should not be accepted or normalized in any way.

With any band there is aways the inspirational figure in the band, who is usually the frontperson songwriter, and then there's the rest of the band members. These days, with so little money coming from sales and publishing, there's just not enough money to feed the drummer, bassist, guitarist, cowbell player, as well as the frontperson/songwriter. So if you are a new act, you'll see a 'band' as just more mouths to feed. Why bother with a permanent band, just hire session players when you need to record or gig, if and when you need them. It's the brutal reality of the music business today. Sad but true.

Arrived at Bideford Bay Holiday Camp for a Blues Festival. The band was Stray but billed as Del Bromhams Blues Devils. Rather than check out our cabins we decided to play first and sort it later. By the time we’d played it was pitch black and we drove around the holiday camp in the peeing rain looking in vain for our accommodation. We parked up and one of the roadies volunteered to go on foot to find the cabins. So off he and his helper trotted. Once they were clear of the bus, Del put on his best upper class royal accent and said “Hmnn just as well we have staff!”. Cue immediate eruptions of guffaws! Anyway, we eventually found our cabins only to find that the electricity was metered pay as you go with tokens that could be brought from reception which was now shut. With just a tiny bit of power left we had to eke it out the best we could until we set off next day. The glamour of being in a touring band eh?!

I have a 3-6 acoustic gig tomorrow at The Ziegler Winery. Very nice upscale well appointed room. This one is at least an hour commute one way. I'll be picked up at 12:30 and I'll get home around 8:00. Daryl

Treating my bass to fresh strings and doing a setup. My assistant isn't helping much.

🥰

"the charts" are a vehicle for the labels to push their products. It's NOTHING to do with good music.

Oooh - I love a Magnum. They've definitely got smaller over the years though.......

Well, in the 60s, most music was manufactured boy bands as that is what people wanted. Before that it was solo singers with hits written by songwriters, or in the states, sanitised rock/blues music. The singles charts was always about what sold, it has never been different, just what sells is different. There are still loads of groups, go on whatever your music service is and you will find them. Album charts are a bit less mainstream based - ie, in the top 30 as I look today there are 2 fleetwood mac albums, abba, linkin park, Oasis (proving that tastes are no better than they used to be), arctic monkeys. nah - stuff is the same

If your aim is to be rich and famous, your music is likely to be shite anyway. If you want to be a great musician or play great music, you're probably focussing on your music and technique, not drumming up Insta followers.

Music moves on. People lamenting the death of bands as a music and cultural force are those who’d believe music peaked in the 60s and 70s. Theres plenty of good stuff out there. Put down the 483rd Pink Floyd reissue and embrace it!

First off look at what your current bass isn’t doing for you, then the question is do any of those mentioned solve that. If so then put the miles in if possible to try them out.

I am inclined to agree with this. Ozzy said as much himself in the infamous interview from Decline of Western Civilisation, that Sharon's intervention as band manager spoke for itself. The band were so caught up in drugs and fame, they were an easy target for unscrupulous industry players to rip off. A familiar story from many bands of the time with young members barely out of school suddenly making millions in an environment that would make anyone's head spin. She made unpopular decisions with her head not her heart that ultimately protected the band's interests - and she stood by those decisions no matter what. The mark of any successful business (wo)man. You might also be interested to know that a few years ago, I was employed in a business that took us in and out of the Osborne's home in Buckinghamshire. Ozzy and Sharon's bedroom has two ensuite bathrooms - one for her and a seperate one for him. I expect that insisting on not sharing a bathroom with Ozzy is part of the glue that holds the Osbournes together!

Right then, enough of these lovely basses, let's have something pretty much universally hated. The kind of bass a lot of folks had as their first bass, and ceremoniously destroyed when they got their first 'proper' bass. A Kay KJB-1B. I was bored so bought this little survivor and treated it to a refinish inspired by those terrible plastic fan operated organs of the 70's. A lesson in just because you can, doesn't mean you should. All the above is in jest, this Kay is now a funky little bass that plays well (after some intense adjustments) and sounds surprisingly good.

The following is a true story. I put the details in to an AI (not ChatGPT!) and told it to write the post in the manner of a raconteur. Here's what it came up with: The night was electric, the air thick with the rumble of engines and the scent of beer-soaked revelry. Our band had just wrapped up our set at a biker rally, the kind of gig where leather jackets outnumber smiles, and the headlining act was ready to take the stage. We were tight with them, so we stuck around to watch the chaos unfold. The bassist of the headlining band—a man who lived like his strings, taut and unpredictable—had won a bottle of Jack Daniels in a raffle earlier that evening. With a swagger only a bassist could muster, he brought it on stage. By the second or third song, half the bottle was gone, a feat impressive even by biker rally standards. This was on top of an all-day beer marathon that would have felled lesser mortals. Then came the moment: mid-set, still cradling his bass (thankfully wireless), he wandered off stage. At first, we thought it was some avant-garde performance art. But no—he plopped himself into a front-row seat, clutching that £20 bottle of Jack like it was Excalibur, and promptly passed out cold. Attempts to wake him were futile; he was in a whiskey-induced slumber so deep it might as well have been mythological. The kicker? While he clung to that bottle for dear life, his £2000+ Rickenbacker bass—a gleaming piece of rock history—was left unattended. I had to step in, pick up his instrument, and finish the gig for him while he snored away in blissful ignorance. It was rock 'n' roll distilled into one perfect moment: absurdity, camaraderie, and a touch of chaos. And yes, we made sure he got his bass back—eventually.

Finally got some pics

Already both of those things my friend

You could go home fat and broke!

When people like Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll can get platinum records, it's fair to say the human race deserves extinction. If you're not familiar with these "artists" Machine Gun Kelly comes across as a rich kid meth head wannabe gangster playing bad country music infused with bad rap. Jelly Roll is like Adele but for dudes with a tool belt

Thanks for the heads up, but I had to replace it all kinda "now now now" and I had the good fortune of stumbling upon a killer local second hand deal on a Markbass Mini CMD121P IV. Hopefully that's me sorted for at least the next dozen years

Make sure you know where the stick is going. 😀

Added the Cog effects Hellraiser to my main board. It's a wicked drive, but I also love the megalith and MBD3 it's replaced....I think they'll end up on the small board....but I also have a pork and pickle inbound as well....

There's loads of bands. You just have to go out and find 'em! We're playing Rebellion this year, there's well over 300 bands playing ranging from 60+ OG punks to spotty 18 year olds. And that's just one punk fest - check all the others, there's a few more than plenty! As for charts, we haven't even registered our songs - you have to pay extra!

RJD always did short sets though.......and before someone kicks off, I'm only 5'5"😉

the Beatles had great songwriters, that's the difference, if you're going to compare todays successful artists with those of yesterday year Elvis would be nearer the mark

My BAND is called RaNDoM CapITaLS. Weer all old aje pensionerz. We rite are own songz and moan a lot about YOUNG PEOPLE having NO sens of MUSIC hisStory. Know one wonts to sine us up and giv us a lode of munny. Itz SO unFaiR.

The OP appears to be a cut and paste that once dropped into the forum has split all of the text up. Rick Beato has a point. The major companies still control the charts and the independents hardly get a look in, unless they are really organised and build up sales in advance that all count in one week when the product becomes available and ships. Too many young people today (certainly not all of them, though) are going down the road of accepting what they are sold, have little sense of music history and are content to listen to the warblings of Beyonce etc. Where are the bands? They are still hacking away at it with diminishing returns.

I've got my enclosure, beautifully packed... Of course, now I've got it it looks far too small, despite me knowing the dimensions of the two things going in it 😉

The drummer used to have difficulty getting the countoff tempo correct in the heat of a big gig. I would have to wave him off if he was too far adrift. This time he counted it off double time and foxed me. Trouble ensued as the deps we use had the opportunity to pretend they weren't familiar and show off by playing it double time. Then the singer comes in, looking like a deer in the headlights but sounding like a member of The Chipmunks, trying to get all the words out instead of walking off. We finished hardly any slower than we started, shrugged, and carried on. To his credit the drummer bought a tablet for keeping it all under control from that day forward.

Yeh I second this re: the Octamizer, it doesn’t really do OC2 but what it does do is its own distinct versions of it really I’ve just got this amazingly useful octave from Fteletronica in Italy, it’s a super subtle octave that just thickens things up for solos/choruses etc - so useful live! I had been using the Octamizer to do this, but this Sub Octave does the job perfectly - tracks all the way down to Low D on a 5 as well! (Apologies for the crappy photo). Highly recommend

As per my panicked thread in the repairs section. Looks like the hum has gone by removing the soldered ground for the pickup casings at the pot cases. The pickup cases are still showing as grounded so I wonder if grounding them at the pots was creating some sort of strange ground loop? Who knows, electronics is witchcraft

Not quite a gig, but was in Germany with students at a jazz festival. I was the Rhythm Section Instructor for the top jazz band Long days but good fun with a bunch of great young musicians.

Arrived!!

The bass on the left was built by me 10 years ago. I used Gibson lo-z guitar pickups plus the original wiring loom. The bass on the right is my favorite bass; the 1969 Gibson Les Paul Bass. Here's a few more pics:

I think this press photo speaks volumes as to how much Ozzy punters can expect to see.

must admit Trump can make me laugh, on declaring he wouldn't deport Prince Harry, Trump said on Friday. 'I'll leave him alone. He's got enough problems with his wife. She's terrible.' 🤣

Why has the OP been typed as some kind of incomprehensible prose poem?

If you want the oc2 sound on the cheap I highly recommend the Sonicake Octaver