uk_lefty

The Desert Penguins will play a set of high energy rock covers in a free entry gig at the Horn! A venue we love to play, always a great crowd, always a high energy performance. Any BC'ers please say Hi! I'll be the one playing bass.

Played a wedding on Saturday night... I was almost dreading it. I was a bit exhausted with the busy schedule this new band has and wasn't looking forward to the gigs. We had a minor disaster in that three of us drove one hour east to Chelmsford to find the wedding venue locked and not set up for a wedding. The singer was setting up for the gig in Hemel Hempstead when he realised he hadn't updated the rest of us on a change in venue. Cue an hour and a half driving west and the fastest set up EVER. No hard feelings, these things happen, on the bright side we realised if we don't faff about the set up can be done lightning quick. The gig itself was really good fun. We played in a small space and at a low volume. We had a good set for a wedding too, some party songs mixed in with the usual rock covers, and a different ending to what we usually do. A few new songs tried out. We had a blast. It restored some enthusiasm and I am buzzing for Friday's rock gig in a proper rock venue!

Well two and a bit years later I've regretted moving on the BEAM and bought a Positive Grid Spark... From Basskitcase once more!!! Only realised when coming to do the feedback. Top notch transaction once more!

Yup. They all sounded good too though, it wasn't purely a looks thing... Hohner B2A was bought mainly for looks but the passive tone with EMGs was excellent. Only moved it because I found the string spacing a bit too tight and I was acquiring more basses than I felt I should have had. Washburn Status for a proper 80s style bass to front an 80s band with... Actually canned the project six months ago and the look didn't fit with the new band. Epiphone Jack Casady. Love the look, it's a stunner. But also I wanted to try a semi hollow for ages and it gets great reviews. My band also wants to do acoustic sets and I don't really want an acoustic bass. I've used the JC at a few "electric" gigs anyway, it's a great bass. It complements the other basses I have too giving me a really good range of tones available across four basses.

Sounds like my last gig. Booked on for someone's birthday at a family friendly do in the afternoon. Kids running around everywhere. We got asked to announce could parents please get kids off the dancefloor so the adults can dance. It didn't really work, it just emptied the dancefloor for ten minutes. Birthday boy showed up for the last two songs and for us to sing happy birthday to him.

It's not quite that problem in this band. The singer has kids same age as mine and the drummer has an older teenager so they get it. It's just the pressures of all other stuff like work and family that go on around gigging.

I'm coming round to the "I hate gigging" part now! I joined a new band at the end of last year and had to get up to speed on their setlist quickly. They have over twenty gigs booked this year. In January we were turning away gigs, my old band did ten gigs in a good year and some of those were for free. Having got to mid March and played mostly the same material for all the gigs from December to early March I almost dread seeing new gigs come into the diary. I've got a busy day job, two small children, and I like playing music. However, getting all the gigs and earning through it (though half the earnings go towards band funds) I am feeling a bit "meh" about the whole thing. The setlist is good, great for a party, but not challenging for me as a bass player. It's ok, sometimes the simple ones are the best, but it's not exciting me to learn new stuff. I need a big meaty, present, bass tone, nothing nuanced or intricate, so that makes me feel a bit like it's all "Wham, bam" etc. I'll get through this summer and see how it goes. I like my bandmates, we don't travel very far, but the pressure it puts on the rest of life without the fulfillment is starting to weigh on me already. I recently went through a patch of cutting stuff out of my life that was causing me stress and/ or not making me happy, hence leaving the old band and binning a project I'd started. I'm now thinking I might have to leave this. It's fun, but it's hard work! Part of me wants to be creating something of my own rather than smashing out four chord covers. But then I don't want to be just sat on my own writing naval gazing rubbish...

I chose to buy a Sire V9 instead of any other jazz bass this month. I could have had a US Fender jazz, I love the dark night colour, but just couldn't do it. The Sire offers so much more and I less than 1/3 of the cost.

In the Bass Guitars section of you search for vinyl wrapping you'll see some interesting stuff that will do what you want and probably have a better result.

You mean add a Mr Lozz P bass to the design, surely?! 😂👍

I had a set of Fender tapes that got used across a few different basses for years. They sound fantastic on a P bass. From a little vigorous pick playing I did slightly scuff one of the strings. Absolutely nothing to worry about though, those strings were still going strong on my Jack Casady until recently.

I've changed tuners before for both aesthetic and functional reasons. But I won't buy a brand new bass and add tuners etc to the shopping cart. Like with all things you could get some with dud components but I never got the whole "Sire tuners are rubbish" in their 1st generation of basses, they were fine for me. But I am not bothered about neck dive, I just don't get it and how this would affect playing when you've got your hand on the actual neck so it can't dive anywhere, but for people who are bothered by that then lighter tuners are probably helping them a little.

Hofner all the way. The tone is limited but it's a great tone. And the coolest female bass player, Tina Weymouth, used one for a while.

My tuppence worth... Go second hand and see what you like the sound and usability of. Boss multis are great IMO (GT versions, not ME versions though they could work for you), I used Zoom for years when they were dreadful by modern standards but they've come on leaps and bounds. The pre-Helix line 6 stuff is good... You've got loads of choice. It's about what sound you like and what is the easiest for you to use. When you settle on what you like you could look to upgrade from there with a better idea of what you want.

I've already sniffed out the fretless options... Just such amazing value for money.

4.5kg almost exactly for this alder bodied fiver. I used a luggage weighing thingy I've got so trusting it to be good enough for accuracy.

I can't weigh it right now and wouldn't like to guess really. My ash bodied fiver was definitely a heavy bass, this one (alder body) has surprised me in that it's not as heavy as I would have expected, definitely lighter than the ash fiver I used to have. Sorry I can't be more specific right now, it's just not something that I worry about, though appreciate it's a big issue for a lot of others.

I loved the Sire V7 fiver I had a few years back and only sold it out of feeling guilty at spending a lot on a US Stingray. I love jazz basses but maple fretboards don't work for me, I also think the Sire preamp is fantastic. I was looking for a four string but it was somehow cheaper to get the fiver off Thomann. It arrived less than an hour ago. It looks great, the picture I've taken doesn't do it justice. The sound is very pokey, very jazz bass, excellent. I tried a US Jazz recently and felt let down a bit, active Sire jazzes are for me just so much more flexible, and still very rich in their sound. The rolled fretboard edges are nice, you know they there though it's not something I'd now insist on with any other bass. The ebony fretboard looks very dry and might need some oil. The battery compartment is NOT quick release which I'm not happy about. However, can't wait to unleash it. Wedding gig coming up a week on Saturday and this bass will be the one used.

Agree 100% I think it looks fantastic and I love the double jazz pup. I've just bought a bass this week but if this was available to me it would have been a contender. They just don't do them for left handers, typical Fender.

I think I've just seen the perfect bass for me. I've never quite liked the appearance of most ACGs before but that is stunning in every way and I love the description as "very fretless". That's just a cut above.

Regardless of whether it is any good or not I fully agree with you. It won't last, they'll be cheap on eBay for the next ten years then they'll suddenly become semi collectible and sell for about the same as they cost new right now. Forum searches in ten years time will find this and hail me as the David Dickinson of basses.

Never. Never!! "Borrow" some disco lights on a whirly thing and think it would be cool to have the mains plug sat almost in an extension lead ready for you to press it down with your foot at the end of the intro to the first song and send coloured lights swirling round everywhere like a budget Jean Michelle Jarre show. It will most probably look cheesy, but it 100% will result in your instrument cable being drawn into the whirly mechanism and being yanked out of your bass, making you look like a bellend. Kicking the lights to death doesn't help get your cable back either or continue the song. I learned this lesson so you don't have to.

Good point!

I was thinking something similar recently... I'm going to try sticking some of the soft velcro stuff to one side of a pick to see if I can maintain the speed of the attack but soften the tone a bit.... If that makes sense.

These guys are great. I got a rear routed lefty PJ bass body made of Ash from them for an excellent price. It took five weeks to arrive but it wasn't something you can get just anywhere. I'd recommend talking to them at least. I also tried getting weird and wonderful stuff from eBay suppliers overseas and despite them having exactly what I wanted and me ordering exactly what I wanted, what arrived was different and then there were annoying snags like the machine head holes not being lined up straight with each other. They knocked money off but that's not the point, I had an unusable neck to the wrong specs so having it half price or whatever didn't solve anything.