rushbo

Born and bred in Brum, but I now live in Halesowen, which is just about in the Black Country. After 20 years of living here, I think I've almost been accepted by most of the locals... Birmingham is ace and the accent is lovely and very hard to lose- just ask Jeff Lynne! I'm not sure if Brum is good for Metal in 2021, but it certainly was in the 70s and 80s. (Side note... any Brum based Basschaters remember a band called Money?)

Anybody fancy a bit of Post-Punk whimsy?

I'm sorry you've had a catalogue of bad experiences at the hands of people who repair/maintain guitars and basses. Although I've had no experience of the Bass Gallery, I've used 4-5 luthiers across the Midlands and only once had less than great service. The only time I could find a fault with any work I had done, it was rectified quickly and well, following a good natured and polite phone call. Did you send the instrument back to the Bass Gallery? Were your issues eventually addressed? I think what has prompted the tone of some of the replies to your initial post was that it seemed to be very combative - especially as it wasn't immediately clear that you've had consistently unsatisfactory service from many luthiers. It's hard to feel sympathy or empathy for someone, when they're being called "psychopaths". Not every person who tweaks a truss rod for money is a charlatan or a cowboy. Many do great work. Some, however, probably don't. Who would have thought the topic would become so emotive!? Can we all play nicely please? All this shouting will give everyone a headache.

I'm genuinely curious - was this your first and only interaction with a luthier (at the Bass Gallery?), or is this just another in a long sequence of less-than-satisfactory experiences? I'm not trying to be provocative, I'm just interested to know what could cause you to feel so negative towards the profession.

What a brilliant era for Bill... The Red Noise album "Sound on Sound" blew my mind in '79 and it still does today. He still makes great music now, but "Sound on Sound" is a desert island disc for me.

I auditioned for the Primitives, sometime in the nineties. I didnt get the gig, but i had some fun. The guitarist was lovely. Oh, and i got to play "Crash."

Here's a guilty pleasure of mine... And here's a cover of it, from the brilliant and sadly missed Scott Miller:

Hellzero wins the internet. There's one too many strings and way too many knobs 'n' switches for my tiny brain to cope with, but dang, that's pretty! The body shape is gorgeous. That's lovely work AceBass.

Smart - that's way lighter than mine was. I hope it works out for you.

I had a MIJ "Crafted In Japan" P bass a few years ago. It was a lovely sounding instrument and played beautifully, but it was very heavy. It may be me just being a big wuss, but it was the only bass I've ever sold because of the weight. This particular one might be as light as a daisy, but I think it would be a good idea to pop around to the seller and have a quick twang on it first. It does look gorgeous tho...

The Mighty Mike Watt and fIREHOSE:

The rules of the game are, as long as your "practice" rig is different to your "gigging" setup, all is good. Saying that, I have two observations: 1. If that is your practice rig, your gigging gear must be big enough to have its own postcode! 2. Does your local Noise Abatement Team invite you to their Christmas party?

Why do you think the dog looks so nervous..?

I was in a Free/Bad Company tribute band a few years back and my admiration for Andy Fraser shot through the roof when I had to work out his parts. His basslines are brilliant - often simple but always funky and with such great feel and tone.

I don't use many FX, but one song in my band's set has multiple changes and numerous button presses - I've spent more time perfecting my tap dancing on that tune than working on the rest of the repertoire!

Practice is that part of the day when you rehearse your mistakes, so when you make them in public, they're really appalling.

A post in the effects section started me thinking about what Basschatters use at home for practice. I'll set the bar nice and low with my Ion Tailgater... This is, quite possibly, the finest 14 watt, rechargeable battery powered, pocket sized mini PA and iPod dock that you could buy from Maplins for £70. What it lacks in fidelity it makes up for in portability. Joking aside, it sounds pretty decent and it's lasted about ten years of regular use with no issues. My wife is a peripatetic primary school music teacher and she uses the BlueTooth version of this as it's light enough to carry from school to school but loud enough to fill a classroom. And it's great for busking, too. What's your home rig look like? Mesa stack? Vox Amplug? Let's have a look!

I've been a victim of this a few times... The effect settings and patches that you've spent hours dialing in, and sound great through your practice rig, turn to mush when you play them at gig volume with the band. In preparation for my band's forthcoming shows (?!?), I took my gigging rig to a local rehearsal room and played through all my FX at a decent volume, against some backing tracks. I found I had to do quite a lot of tweaking to the FX parameters to get them to sound as I had originally intended. If you have the luxury of being able to practice at some considerable volume through your stage set-up, I'd urge you to do it as it gives you a much better indication of what you, your band and the punters will hear, the next time you're gigging.

You won't regret it! Don't forget to post some pics when it's done. Good luck!

(Warning: I am a bit of a Zoom fanboy). I think a Zoom B3/B3n would be a great place to start. For less than the price of a couple of pedals (if you buy one used...) you can get a whole world of interesting noises. And if you get a B3, you also get an XLR out, too. They're pretty straightforward to use and you could easily audition the effects on the Zoom, before you take the plunge and buy individual stomp boxes. Or just stick with the Zoom. I'm not a massive user of pedals, so the B3 was a no-brainer for me and I've had one on my board for years. It's ace.

Good man! I ended up using these instructions as they were a little clearer: https://www.instructables.com/DIY-footswitch-for-zoom-B3-and-zoom-G3/ I also didn't put the output jack on the outer casing - I used the battery compartment. I never use the unit with batteries, so it seemed the logical thing to do and I've removed the battery lead, too. This is what it looks like: I then taped the lead to the underside of the removable back plate and made a small hole in the outer casing for the lead to slip through -like this: The fun part was making the housing for it. My mate did most of the soldering, so in his honour, I named it after him. I used two of these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313026870409?ul_noapp=true Two of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00U88T2IA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and a 50cm 3.5mm stereo jack aux cable (straight to right angle). Good luck!

Fortunately, the B3 is pretty roomy! I was able to use the battery compartment house the cable. Soldering the new lead in was a bit fiddly, but it wasn't as tricky as I thought. I'm delighted with it.

No, no replies, I'm afraid. Everyone just junked their B3s in favour of a B3n! I did the mod and it worked really well - i did try to use the wrong switches at first, but once I'd fixed that, all was good.

"Free Hand" is ace. You may be interested to know that they were were always referred to as "Giant Genital" in the music retail industry...