la bam

What do I value about my local music shop? The Miserable ignoring of customers when they walk in. The useless stock levels of anything bass wise. The lies that they have things in stock, but turns out it's in their warehouse, but wont deal with it because you need to order online. Their sky high prices. The absolute miserable attitude to being helpful to you whilst you are trying to give them your money. The complete arrogant attitude when you walk in and the look an aristocrat gives to a street walker. As you can tell, I don't like mine. And it's a big chain store. And 5 mins walk from my house. I gave it another chance recently and having been greeted with a grunt, and then told by the assistant still eating his dinner that the only bass strings they stock are daddrio xl and they're £40, I walked out, not to return again for another 5 years.

I always try to be positive, but my word, THAT video is everything I don't get about bass playing / players. Each to their own though. It's all good if you like it. Just not for me.

For me, it's always been about the song. Everything is the song. So I really really don't get 4 minutes of just bass, banging, slapping and confusing everything - at the detriment of the song. I don't get people playing full songs just on bass. There's so many more better full range instruments for soloing on.

Hi all, I'm thinking of getting a 'real' US stingray in the future. But with so many variants, and no doubt so many modded ones and indeed fakes, what should I look out for to determine its a genuine US stingray? I'm fine with fenders, precisions, jazzes, but stingrays are new to me and to be honest a bit of a minefield. Cheers

I had one of the V4s. Loved it. Did plenty of gigs with it. Never had an issue.

Best advice I can offer if you're having to Di and you're using the venues sound guy (or someone front outside the band) is to completely trust the sound guy to the point you almost don't care. The sound guy will know his desk and pa better than anyone, and the room if he works there regularly so he'll get the best sound for the band from where the audience are. To do that give him the absolute best, clean non eqd sound you can. You need 100% trust though. There's nothing worse than worrying about how you sound out front when you're playing, and nothing worse for a sound guy than a band member trying to do his job for him from a position where they can't even hear what it sounds like in the mix. If the sound guy is someone in the band, then same rules apply, but you can have some input into how it sounds, but be prepared to sculpt a new sound. In short, if you really need Diing to PA, your on sound stage will not always/ever equate to a good bass sound at the back of the room. Only my opinion though, other people's experience may be different.

Have you seen these listed on thomann now? There's even a mint and burgundy.

Had a (so called) singer turn up once. He had had 2 months to learn 6 songs. Discussions etc on WhatsApp. He turned up an hour and a half late to the audition. Then proceeded to say he hadn't really bothered to learn the songs in case we didn't think his voice would go with the band. So he didn't bother. He then impromptu asked us to (magically know, learn and immediately play) 6 songs from different artists so he could show us what he could do. We gave it a go - and he was then terrible. Then he left after we'd gone through 3 songs and an hour before we were supposed to finish. Said he was busy and had to get home to watch a TV show. Unbelievably he said to give him a ring and he'd be down for next rehearsal next week and walked out like mick jagger....

I had a bf 210 at one stage. Well, I had two. Some people swear by them, but they just weren't for me. Best advice is buy one second hand, if you don't like it, sell it on for the same price. To be fair any modern 210 should keep up with any band if everything eq wise is set up properly.

Only my version, but in sound terms "hi fi" means crystal clear. I used to equate it to..... My old 'hot chocolate greatest hits' album from the 70s, to my Queen A Kind of Magic CD from the 80s. Probably a bit like comparing a fingerstyle 60s bass line through a svt 810 to a guy playing a load of slap bass. I don't know why....

I'm sure I've seen a rare 810 vba cab for sale somewhere recently too, Facebook, Ebay or somewhere like that. Great Amps! Enjoy.

There's SO much good stuff for sale at the moment. Its a shame we can't all get our stuff to someone like Dood to review before selling. It'd be great to see all the reviews, great for the reviewers social media presence etc and great for potential buyers to see and sellers to sell their gear. Just an idea..

Hi all, Has anyone tried the boss katana 210? How does it feel and fit live in a band at rehearsal etc?

My 2 basses now for gigging in 3 tribute bands and one wedding band.... A Harley Benton MM84a and... Another Harley Benton Mm84a. I love them basses. As for snobbiness..... "why do you play that Harley Benton?" "because it'll only cost £80 to replace when I accidentally drop it on your custom shop Fender tele..."