rushbo

At the risk of hijacking the thread, I think at this point, we need to hear from the good Captain Beefheart. In his "10 Commandments 0f Guitar", coming in at #8 is: 8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument “You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.” I'm pretty sure this applies to the bass, too. Would you argue with Captain Beefheart? I mean, he died 11 years ago, but would you?

Sensible advice. However, there was a time in the mid-90's where I spent more money on cat food than man food, so bulk buying strings, even at a good price per set, was out of the question. Generally, I had to boil the strings to do the gig to get the money to buy the strings for the gig...

Four knobs? That's making me feel anxious just thinking about it... When I had a board with individual stomp boxes, I had a dedicated compression pedal (an Aphex Punch Factory.) It sounded fine. As did my bass without the compression pedal turned on, so it went in the Great Rushbo FX Purge of 2015. The only time I use compression now (as part of a patch on my elderly but amazing Zoom B3) is on the one tune of the set which I slap. I think it makes a difference in smoothing out my less-than-amazing slappage. Or maybe its just a placebo... In short, try one and see if it works for you. As a wise man once said, "ask 100 bassists for advice and you'll get 150 opinions."

As a formerly impoverished musician, I've boiled a few sets of strings in my time. It's a temporary fix as the boiling cleans out the gunk which may be deadening the tone, but can't reverse the effects of constant tension on the string. I found that the rejuvenation worked for a gig or two, which might be useful if you're skint or you can't get to your local music shop to get new ones. It's great to be in a position to buy a new set of strings at the first signs of zing-loss, but if you're having to fund your purchases with pocket money, or you have other slightly more pressing concerns (i.e. putting food on the table and paying for electricity, gas etc), little hacks like this can help you eek out your disposable income until payday. No pans from the Rushbo kitchen were ever harmed during the process. A diligent scrub with fairy liquid and/or a spin in the dishwasher kept the saucepans sanitary. Unless of course, I'm harbouring some deadly bacteria and will be struck down with some appalling Rotosound gunk related illness further down the line. I'll keep you posted.

Very nice indeed - thanks for sharing that.

If that man was you, and you bought a £5.99 FoS compilation from a record shop on Harborne High Street, Birmingham around 1996 then I owe you an apology and a beer. (But i don't agree with you about NWoBHM, but I guess that's what this thread is all about.)

Well played Bagman -that took a minute or two to land.

Maybe as an experiment, in the midst of this gentleman weeping hot, fat tears of joy as he held the music that had enhanced his life and possibly soundtracked a number of his significant life events, I should have said, "Sorry mate, that music is sh!t." I'm sure he would have agreed with me and we'd have a good ol' laugh at the whole thing. Or I'd end up picking up my teeth with a broken arm.

I played drums in a band for a few years, when the band I played bass for was going through a quiet phase. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned a lot about how music works, but unfortunately the main lesson I learned was that unless I put in A LOT of effort to improve, I was never going to be anything better than a C+ drummer. And the world is already awash with C+ drummers. It was great fun and I really enjoyed the physicality of playing the drums. I didn't enjoy lugging endless bulky kit around, however... The band made a (self produced) album and a couple of EPs, some of which I can listen to without wincing too much. I was never going to be the drummer I wanted to be, so I hung up the sticks, flogged the kit and made more of an effort on the bass. I'm back in my happy place.

This x 1000 Here’s a true story: A guy comes into my record shop and pre-orders a CD. Not a new one – a cheap re-issue. He’s super-excited. On the day of it's release, he’s outside the store when I arrive, almost hyperventilating with excitement. I open up and dutifully trudge to the back of the store (slightly peeved that this guy has delayed my morning coffee by 10 minutes) to retrieve his disc. He rips off the cellophane. His hands are trembling. And then he bursts into tears. Unselfconsciously, a grown man is so happy to purchase this music that he is weeping in front of a sales assistant. Being an Englishman, I have NO CLUE what to do in this situation, so I go to the other end of the counter and avoid eye contact while he gets it out of his system. Eventually (10-15 minutes later) he is composed enough to pay me and leave. The music that reduced him to tears was... ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I have sold thousands of releases by ‘Good’ artists - everyone from Nick Drake to Radiohead, from Bach to Coltrane, but the only person who ever wept for joy on purchasing a recording was the guy who bought ‘The Very Best of a Flock of Seagulls’. I dare you to tell him he's wrong.

"If you know, you know." This manages to be meaningless, elitist and patronising in one enormous slam dunk of stupidity.

Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil is a relatively painless way to finish a bass, as long as you're happy with the "natural" look. You can go from a nice satin to a really deep shine depending on your patience. I've done a few basses this way and I've always been pleased with the outcome.

That is just so...neat.

The sellers chances of selling this bass may be slightly impeded by the fact that directly under the ad, in the "more like this/sponsored links" section is an ad for a brand new version of the instrument for £50 less than their asking price.

Blimey. If I heard that on an audio recording, I'd have put money on that being an upright. Full disclosure - I am an unrepentant Rockin' P Bass guy and consequently unused to the dulcet tones of a proper bass, and a bit deaf. That said - that was great. Fantastic playing too.

I've used daisy chains in the past, but I often suffered with unwanted noise issues. This may have been to do with them, my patch leads or one of my more dubious pedals, but since I've been using a Harley Benton PowerPlant Junior and decent connecting cables (Warwick flat cables), all is good. I power my vintage Zoom B3 multi FX, my Sennheiser wireless receiver and a Behringer BDI flawlessly with the HB power supply. It's a slightly more expensive option (£37 with p and p) but for durability and peace of mind, I think it's worth it.

Whilst trawling the FaceBook Marketplace for God -knows-what, I happened upon this. In case you can't read the faux-mother-of-pearl logo, it's a Roberts "Savage" bass. About two hours after pressing the button, a very nice man delivered it and scarpered. It was a nice bass - it played well and sounded OK. The pickups needed rewiring (which was mentioned in the "For Sale" ad) but other than that, it was AOK. Sadly, the honeymoon effect kicked in pretty quickly and the more I looked at it, the more I knew I was never going to play the bloody thing. Not even in my Roxy Music tribute band. I managed to find a buyer for it who was thrilled with its distinctive look. I hope he's still thrilled now.

What an absolutely brilliant live shot.

If you show a six year old a picture of a P bass for ten seconds, then give them a crayon and ask them to draw what they have seen from memory, you'd get a design like this. I'm sure someone loves this, but that someone ain't me.

I would disagree with almost everything here, but when expressed with such passion and eloquence, I could almost be persuaded. Almost. Regarding fret dots, when they come up with some midi/bluetooth/magical device that connects your fretboard to some discreet earbuds which scream the chord changes into your ear whilst playing, I'll be first in the queue. Whenever I see one of those clever fretless players, nimbly navigating an unlined fingerboard I feel jealous and a little nauseous. I still need a few signposts, even after the best part of forty years of playing in pop groups. I'm pretty laissez faire about whatever a bassist chooses to twang upon. However: Pointy headstocks on anything other than a Flying V; and More than four control knobs on the body of an instrument should really be punishable by a fine, a slapped wrist and an ASBO. If you need a Haynes manual to work out why your bass sounds like a dinosaur with sinus issues, rather than, for example, James Jamerson, I'd consider downsizing.

Almost the opposite - he ate so many burritos he could barely move. He practically had to be put in a wheelbarrow at the end of the meal.

I eat as little as possible prior to a gig, following an incident at an all you can eat Mexican restaurant, some time in the early nineties. My bandmates availed themselves of the tasty treats on offer with great gusto, meaning that they were all bloated, tired and borderline nauseous for the show. The van ride home was no picnic, either... Post gig curries were responsible for there being a bit more Rushbo than I'd have liked, and having lost a chunk of weight, I'm now a bit more conscious about what I eat, especially late at night My post gig "feast" might be a bowl of cereal or, if I'm feeling saucy, cheese on toast. All accompanied by a mug of tea and some terrible TV.

I'm generally not a fan of headless basses, but that looks lush.

Truth x