BrunoBass

I've been listening to a playlist I made of songs we're adding to the set in the new year (comprising Temperance Movement, QOTSA, RHCPs etc) but also Drones by Muse (loving the track Reapers), the Phil Spector Christmas album which my little 'un loves, and the latest Kurt Vile album.

There are easier ways of having a 'boys night out' than learning to play an instrument, buying gear, forming a band, keeping said band together, lugging heavy cabs up narrow stairs etc... My band rehearses once a week, we gig roughly 1-2 times a month in bars and we love it. We also love having a beer and a laugh. To coin a phrase it makes for good team building, and allows us to blow off steam. A band, I think, should be like a gang and this part of band membership helps build that esprit de corps. If the drinking becomes more important than the band, then there's a problem. Nothing wrong with it otherwise. .

My band exists purely for fun (ie it's not any of our main incomes) and we all get on great. We regularly socialise and drink together; we even went out for a big Xmas curry, with our partners. If any of us didn't get on the band wouldn't exist. Maybe it'd be different if we were earning proper money (ie more pressure)? I don't know. All I know is I can't imagine making music with someone I had issues with.

[quote name='Chownybass' timestamp='1450948213' post='2937212'] Hi! It's exactly the same spec as the short scale model. But it's 34"... we had to make it a little heavier to solve some neck-dive issues, so now it's perfectly balanced. I am busy editing together a little video demonstration of it, which I'll post in the Affiliates area of the website. It's the same price too (£360), but will come in only 3 colours (Emerald Burst, Sapphire Burst and Tobacco Burst). This final production prototype we've just had is perfect, so we will spool it into production for delivery about March/April time. We'll start taking pre-orders in the new year. (At which point we'll add it to the website and Facebook pages) [/quote] Sounds interesting. And yes, a black option would be great!

Will do, thanks.

I've always really fancied a 4001 or 4003 - I love the look and the sound. However having owned (and subsequently sold) a 360 back in my 6 string strumming days I wasn't knocked out by either the build quality or the fit and finish. Don't get me wrong, on a sub £1000 instrument I would've been impressed but not on a guitar approaching two grand. Anyway, back to basses and despite my previous experience I still really want a Ricky bass. The other night there was a rock covers band paying in town. The bass player had a gorgeous 4003 in Mapleglo which looked stunning and sounded great. At the break I went over to say hi and to say how much I liked his Ricky; he smirked and said it was a fake. I'm no Ricky expert and he pointed out a few aspects of the instrument that demonstrated its fakeness, but to all intents and purposes this was an incredible, authentic looking and sounding copy. He paid around £300 via PayPal from a Chinese website and it arrived a few weeks later, no problems. Anyway, I'm tempted. I can't justify paying £1700 on a new, real 4003 and whilst I understand and appreciate the ethics of buying what amounts to a counterfeit (and incurring the wrath of Mr Hall and Company) I'm considering doing some research and maybe taking a punt.

[quote name='TransistorBassMan' timestamp='1450881243' post='2936666'] I'd like to say that Tony Butler and Louise Howard (Red Guitars) were influences, but unfortunately my playing is nothing like theirs, so they'll go down as inspirations. Paul Gardiner, Jamie Stewart and Simon Gallup are influences who have already been mentioned in this thread. I'd also include Rob Jones (The Bass Thing) from The Wonder Stuff, Nick Chown from The Bolshoi and Jackie Jackson from The Maytals. [/quote] I'd totally forgotten about Lou Howard, I loved her playing. Steeltown and Be With Me were excellent tracks with wonderful basslines. She played a Stingray, if memory serves.

It's our last practise of the year tomorrow night before two weeks off. Bah... I'd rehearse on Christmas Day if my band mates were up for it! Happy Christmas Basschatters ✌🏻

One of the first bass players I really listened too and was influenced by is Mark Bedford from Madness. Pretty much every single Madness ever released had a driving, melodic (and often funky) bass line. I think he's really underrated and if you don't know it, check out a track called The Business - first bass line I every learnt to play!

[quote name='tubbybloke68' timestamp='1343581606' post='1752320'] Hi guys ! Can I just add Colin moulding of XTC , very tuneful , thoughtful player and never gets the credit he deserves in my opinion :-) [/quote] Yes! Sadly underrated musician. Sadly underrated band actually, too.

I've got to be honest - when I was a kid I just thought bass players were cool (clearly I'm the exception to that rule. ..) My parents were massive Beatles fans too and I grew up listening to all their albums, and McCartneys bass playing really stood out to me. My father played too, and had a Hofner Violin bass, so I just kind of gravitated towards it. Plus a lot of the pop music of the time had a strong Jamaican influence (ska/2-Tone, The Police, The Clash etc) where the bass was prominent and that appealed to me too. A lot of people start on guitar and move to bass, but I was a bass player first and only dabbled with guitar much later.

Ha well that's a pretty emphatic no all round then! I had a feeling it wouldn't be possible. Thanks guys for all your advice *Googles phone number of Fender Custom Shop...*

Good evening everyone. My question; has anyone ever tried replacing the neck on a short scale bass with a 'normal' standard scale neck? Please excuse me if this is a stupid question but would it work? The reason for asking is that I love the sound and look of the Fender Modern Player Starcaster but I just don't get on with short scale basses. So I thought why not get a Starcaster body (plenty on eBay) and bolt on a P Bass neck? Is there something in the physicality of scale that might make this unfeasible? Thanks in advance.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1448735640' post='2917789'] Genesis Archives 67-75.* Genesis Archives 75-92 - I'd use Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance hung up to scare birds off my small plantation.* Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns. A-ha - Scoundrel Days. Led Zeppelin II. Level 42 - World Machine. Steve Hackett - Spectral Mornings. David Bowie - Let's Dance. Lord of the Flies - great book and very appropriate. A tooth brush. *Yes I know it's cheating. [/quote] +1 for Scoundrel Days, fantastic album from an underrated and unfairly written-off band.

My board is very simple: just a tuner (Korg Pitchblack), overdrive (Ibanez PhatHed) which is on at a low drive setting on 90% of the time in our set, and a Big Muff Deluxe which I use on a couple of songs. It's all mounted on a Pedaltrain Metro 16 and that's all I need.

I regularly visit the Birmingham and Northampton branch and find customer service at both regularly excellent. I took my son to Brum a couple of years ago to spend his birthday money and the guys couldn't have done more for him. They let him try everything that caught his eye, even stuff that was way out of a 12 year olds budget, without any problem. We left with an Epiphone Les Paul and a Crafter acoustic and they won a customer for life - good on 'em,

I've flirted on and off with compression for years. I think I've finally realised that I can live without it. When I joined my current band I gave it another go, thinking it might even out the sound but I find that using my overdrive pedal on a very low drive setting gives me the even sound I wanted. Maybe I wasn't using / understanding it properly but I have neither the time nor inclination for endless tweaking and fiddling. So my compressor is off the pedalboard and on eBay.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1448141323' post='2913330'] That is bass [/quote] +1 for that. T.M. Stevens I think?

We played at The Bell in Bicester, 2 x 1 hour sets, last night. We were able to get our mate to take us over in his minibus so it was good to have a few beers without having to think about driving home for a change. Easy load in / out, friendly natives and some serious moshing by a bunch of young lads to our heavier songs. We've been opening with Muse's Psycho just lately and last night absolutely nailed it for the first time. Horrible bass sound for me throughout, no matter how much I fiddled with the eq between songs I just couldn't get it sounding how I like - playing on a shallow, hollow wooden stage probably didn't help... Mind you it was the first run out for my new, eBay sourced Ibanez Phat-Hed which I'm really pleased with. Not much of a crowd though, pretty poor for a Friday. We put it down to it being freezing cold, plus it's not quite payday yet. So all in all a reasonably good night. Still suffering with woolly hearing though, so this morning bought some musician ear plugs which should arrive in time for the next gig.

Also, can I add The Thrills, Nottingham Rock City 2004. Terrible. It honestly felt like they'd never played together before. Utterly bewildering.

Two gigs from the Britpop era stand out. Firstly, Manson at the Northampton Roadmender in 1997. Ridiculously loud (literally made me feel like vomiting), corny, unironic rockist posturing and a complete indifference towards their audience. Cast at the Sanctuary in Milton Keynes, just before Xmas 1995. The whole event was just horrible - firstly the venue was this big soulless room more used to hosting raves, and a boozed up football crowd that felt like it might erupt into violence at any minute. The support act were this belligerent bunch of scensters called Don who did about three songs then trashed their gear. Finally Cast came on and the sound was so bad it was just a sheet of noise, the dry ice was so heavy you couldn't see the band. We left after about half the set and felt relieved to have done so.

[quote name='bassbiscuits' timestamp='1448011995' post='2912213'] Amy Winehouse in about 2009. Her band was amazing, but when she finally stumbled onstage about 10 mins into the set, she was absolutely dreadful. Actually Ryan Adams earlier this year was pretty poor too. His entire set was the downest of downbeat, slow-paced stoner country, with him occasionally mumbling incomprehensibly between songs. He cracked a few jokes which no-one got, and then shuffled into the next identically-paced, misery-fest of a tune. Found it really boring. [/quote] I'm a massive Ryan Adams fan and have seen him loads of times, in fact two of the greatest gigs I've ever seen have been him. However I saw him earlier this year too (at Wolves Civic) and was unimpressed. Stodgy sound, boring new material, and other than a mock sword fight with his guitarist, one of those gigs I was willing to hurry up and end so I could go home.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1331629121' post='1575970'] +1 Some of my favourite basslines are played by Stevie Wonder's left hand [/quote] Can I add Madonna's Into The Groove to that? Synth bass, and awesome to boot.

Dave Peacock from Chas and Dave on 'Rabbit'. Seriously, some funky octaves and some tasty little runs. He gave his Precision away on Swap Shop I remember. I sent in about twenty postcards trying to win it!

I was always a fan of the bass line (and nice funky tone) on Same Old Scene and always assumed it be be care of Gary Tibbs. I must admit I've never heard of Alan Spenner so I will investigate further forthwith.