Paul S

Worth considering Aguilar AG4P-60. They give a lush, warm, vintage tone.

Speaking of Hush, this cover is rather spendid imo

Atlantis. Never played there, think we'd have gone down well.

During lockdown I stepped down from a Bon Jovi tribute band for a cocktail of reasons that resulted in my heart just not being in it. So I'm in just one band now, a blues/rock trio covering stuff from Hendrix, Cream, ZZ Top, Jeff Healey, Freddie King etc. Most usually we 'interpret' songs our own way. There's some rumblings about chucking in the odd original but I'm not convinced. We're not busy, nor do we want to be - this year we have 9 gigs in the diary, two now done. Coming up is a support slot for a pro touring blues band, a slot at the Dereham Blues Festival and the rest pub gigs. Hopefully we'll also get a slot at the Ipswich Maritime festival this year but that has yet to be announced. I've been in quite a few bands over the years but this one resonates with my soul more than any other, playing music I love that I grew up with and is part of my DNA

Enjoyed that!

That would make more sense.

I was going to post this very thing. Best straps I have worn.

I can think of many words to describe Gene Simmons but 'Sleek' isn't one of them.

Yes, it is always a pleasure to read your disparaging negativity with perfect punctuation sucking the joy out of everything you post on. 😂

🙏 bless you.

😂 I've not actually heard that before. Nicked!

That can't be right... if she was your ex-wife, you must have presumably met her before when you got married. Unless it was an arranged marriage or something. [/pedantry]

Had a gig at Ye Olde Smack in Old Leigh, played there before. The quaint old fishing village of Old Leigh was totally rammed when we got there - a sunny easter weekend - and the pub is one of those ramshackle old places that has random spaces and very low ceilings. A mixed night. Plus - the load in is pretty easy, the space cleared and available from 6:30pm. Minus - the area for the band is inbetween two areas of the pub and punters continually use it as a short cut to get to the bar. Including one drunk girl while we were actually playing, having to pick her way in between all the gear. Minus - it is almost impossible to get a good sound 'on stage' the low ceilings and room configuration just gives a weird muffly reverb effect. Plus - it sounded good further out into the pub. Plus - sound check (SRV's Mary Had a Little Lamb) got a huge cheer. Given the genre - blues rock - surprised to see loads of people were up dancing from the start and everything went down well. Even Red House Plus - at half time I popped into the gents and overheard a couple of chaps saying how good the band was. Minus - a big drunken idiot kept shouting 'Play Wonderwall' in between every song. Minus - most of the people who liked us left at 10:30pm so we played a lot of our best stuff to a handful of people who were not really interested. Plus - guitarist Alan had got into his stride by then so played like he was at Wembley Arena. Minus - all the people who said they were going to come along didn't. Plus - break down and load out was quick and incident-free. Plus - I was in bed by midnight. We are playinig there again in September, I expect it to be the same mixed affair.

Surprisingly, given my general deficiencies in so many other aspects of bass playing, I can swap between various basses without any issues. 30", 32" or 34" scale, 4 string or 5 string, fretted or fretless, EUB. I'm equally bad on all of them The only thing that did my head in for a while was the headless cricket bat style - small body but 2 octvave neck - I was initially compensating for a lack of headstock by playing a couple of frets up, didn't seem right hanging off the end like that. Got used to it in the end.

I was fitting a new set of TI Flats to a newly acquired short scale bass. It did occur to me that I was cutting off rather a lot of the end of the string but I carried on regardless. About 2 and a half strings in I realised I was trimming down a long scale set, the short scale set - bought especially for the bass - were still in the packet on my desk.

A rare local gig for me, should be kicking off around 8.45pm. The rockier side of blues - Hendrix, Cream, ZZ Top, Jeff Healey - if you like that sort of thing. Bring ear plugs To quote @Clarky

I sold it four years ago and have been pestering the life out of the guy I sold it to fairly regularly ever since. I imagine his next step will be a solicitor's letter One came up for sale on eBay a couple of years ago but it was substantially heavier than my old one so I passed it by. And those are the only two I have ever seen. The proportions are much like the Yamaha SG guitars, rather than the Gibson EBs or SGs, which I prefer. The tone was incredible. Medium scale.... Argh! 🥴

Like this one? SB-35. Selling this remains my biggest regret as I am unlikely to ever get another.

This is the biggie for me. These days pretty much anything else I can compromise on if the pros outweigh the cons but if it is too heavy then game over.

Puts a new spin on getting GAS for a heavy bass, maybe?

For you, if that is the case, you are a lucky man and long may it continue. For me, and many on here, the weight of a bass in the single most important factor. Only once I have established a bass is light enough can I consider all the other things but if it is too heavy it is discarded out of hand. Wide straps, duo straps, balance on the strap, core excercise etc etc all help to a point - beyond which weight is the one and only thing that matters. Various people have various issues - back, shoulder - for me it is a raft of lower back problems. These days if I wear a bass that weighs more than 8.5lbs for more than a couple of hours I pay for it for several days afterwards. It just isn't worth it.

If you were to trawl through these pages you'd find that Dunc and I have sold, bought, resold the same gear back and forth many times over the years. But this is the first time we have traded - this very same Shergold Marathon for my '71 Encore short scale EB-3, with a cash adjustment Duncs way. He sent me the Marathon in an indestructible hard case, I sent him the Encore back in the same case the following week. Nice when a plan comes together! Cheers, Dunc - always a pleasure .

Last time I used a piece of foam copper pipe lagging - cut a bit from a length I had spare. Still works.

I saw the Zombies locally a few years ago (5? 6?). Rod Argent went on a full 5 minute rant about having written 'God Gave Rock n Roll To You', not Kiss. You'd have thought that Kiss having placed the song into the international play list, and all the subsequent associated royalties, might have tempered his bitterness but clearly not. Then Jim Rodford, who was peering out from behind a Status headless, played 'Hold Your Head Up' wrong. Instead of dum dum dum staccato dah-dah legato he reversed it to dum-dum-dum legato dah dah staccato. Seemed odd to fiddle with an iconic bass line like that. Blunstone was in good voice, though.