Silvia Bluejay

Pics or it didn't happen...

95cm = 37.5" The low B is a Thomastik Spirocore from a 3/4 DB set. Umut installed the other 4 strings from the half size Spirocore set which doesn't come with a low B, and decided to use the same type of string rather than have a different low B. So he took the longer B string and installed it like that.

Umut delivered the bass personally to us in London, and stayed the night after attending a Junkyard Dogs gig at a rather rowdy pub in Hemel. He'll have tales to tell his wife and friends back home! This was taken at our place in the morning.

Hubby's a busy man, so I've been tasked with posting a few pics, before it all becomes utterly obsolete. 😉 It's a unique, 5-string semi-acoustic bass that Umut Dal created for Jack to his own specification. It has a stereo output and two pickups (piezo and magnetic) which can be blended into an amp through a splitter cable. These images are from my own 'propa photoshewt'. Jack prefers the natural, non-photoshopped look, but I found that I needed to get rid of as many of the harsh shadows as possible, at least from the background. Many, many more photos HERE.

Yes, almost immediately after my course finished, GuitarX changed its name to Guitar/Bass/DrumTech and then, later, left Acton for (IIRC) Fulham. ICMP and BIMM both evolved from that a few years later, but are now separate and independent, and have been for a long time.

My info is less up to date than @ambient's, because I did a bass course over a decade ago, when BIMM was still GuitarX (!) and based in Acton, a short walk from my home in Chiswick. In their case, too, even thrn, the course would take you through all modern genres as you go along. Worth going to an open day for both, perhaps?

Have you checked these out? BIMM - diploma BIMM - degree

Seeing that the neck has dead spots, wouldn't it be advisable to have an adjustable nut like those on Warwicks? I think they can be bought on their own. At least, that way, it's possible to adjust the action at the nut in conjunction with that at the saddles and by tweaking the truss rod.

And here are Happy Jack, MacDaddy and the XLR belt in action. Only eagle-eyed, sober members of the audience would have noticed something weird... 😎

LOL! It will soon become trendy to use an XLR as a belt, and you've seen it here first. Mark my words. 😉 The bloke on the left is @MacDaddy, who, like the rest of us, was p*ssing himself with laughter. That was after Rick the frontman and I ROFLed at @Happy Jack showing us some crack while adjusting the kick drum mic. We asked him to do something about his trousers, but TBH we didn't quite expect that! 😄

Spot on, Steve. Thanks.

Alexander Claas was at this year's LBGS. The exhibitors are in alphabetical order in this blog entry - scroll down to Claas.

The above, x1,000.

Only 'proper' music venues have PA and lights. Pubs and similar, where most cover bands play, don't, and expect the bands to provide the equipment as part of the deal.

Doesn't work when you're playing in pubs and have to carry the PA, the lights, etc. as well as your own rig.

Nik, that pic shows your bass face in the presence of The Mouse! The first pic is of you clearly not getting into it yet.

The long-awaited blog is finally HERE!

What Owen really meant was that that's an offer to kill for, and that everybody would be more than interested to see the bass!

Argh, the cricket bats sound and look horrid. As far as I'm concerned they're best left in the 1980s. One way around the 'boobs getting in the way' problem is, of course, to either strap your bass so it sits round your knees (very punk!), or really high up (as Tal's does in that photo), so it simply leans against your chest rather than prodding it with its horn. My preference is a happy medium, which I find comfortable to my wrists, elbows and fingers, and I'm not going to change it for the sake of playing a bass that happens to be the wrong shape. I have a Warwick Fortress which I love, but I tend to play it mostly while sitting down - because its horn is long enough to interfere when I'm standing...

Posting on behalf of a friend. Emnibis, an Alt Rock Band from Coulsdon, Surrey / South London, are looking for a bass player in their early 20s. Check their Facebook page and look below for more details.

Only problem, Thumbs are seriously, ridiculously, excessively heavy. At least all of those I lifted at the Warwick Custom Shop, when I visited (twice), were.