Paul S

Down the Dustpipe - various, Status Quo will do.

My blues band played for the BBC for nothing but 'lunch and exposure' and it actually did us the world of good At the start of 2019 we were a brand new band, had our first rehearsal in January. Our first gig in March, I think. Our guitarist sent one of our rehearsal recordings to a guy from BBC Radio Suffolk, Stephen Foster, and invited him to come along to our second gig. To my amazement he did. To my further amazement, he really liked us and invited us to play at the Ipswich Maritime Festival that summer. No money but food, big BBC stage right on the quayside. What that gave us was a chance to perform on a big stage with a huge sound system in front of lots of people. The guitarist's son recorded some of it on his iPad and that ended up giving us the best live demo that a new band could have asked for. And it opened the door onto the blues festival scene in Suffolk this year, which is pretty lively (but of course everything was cancelled). Nevertheless we got many gigs on the back of the recordings nd will no doubt get many more once it gets going again.

Lovely! Was that the Gumtree one? Buffed up nicely, in any case

If it were me and I was young with a strong back - or even old with a strong back - I'd get myself a Trace Elliot rig. Just like the one I had when I was younger with a strong back, in fact. I always preferred Trace Elliot to Ashdown, myself. I like green.

Screaming For Vengeance - Judas Priest

Yes, being a died in the wool tight wad I bought the cheapest one, the Behringer UM-2. For windows you need to download the driver from the Behringer website but that is easy enough and it works just fine. I even managed to record some stuff for the first time. If I did it again I'd probably also get the Focusrite one, though.

We are an incestuous bunch here in SE Essex and half the guys @hiram.k.hackenbacker plays with I do as well. So, at their instigation, I also installed Jamkazam and although I haven't used it in anger when I tested it with one of the guys there seemed to be almost nil latency, which is astonishing. Way better than Zoom. But. I found it very frustrating to set up. Not being remotely techie one of the guys had to talk me through it but even so it wouldn't work, just farting and white noise. In the end I got the fellow who sorts out all my PC/IT stuff at home to come round and have a look. He hadn't heard of JamKazam but just went back to basics and looked at my pc set up. He found 3 things and corrected them. Moved the interface (Behringer UM2) USB from the front panel of the pc to the back. He said that was better. Re-routed the cable so it didn't travel across a PSU. Told me to ditch a fluorescent desk lamp. Voila. Green lights across the board for latency and jitter, whatever that is. He did explain why all that made a difference but I didn't understand. He also suggested turning off virus protection for the duration of the rehearsal. And switching it back on again afterwards.... It was after that I had the good result All we need to do now is find a time when all of us are available, so that is the same as usual

Oh dear. Orignals vs covers. Must be weeks since the last thread.... 😄

Shameless plug! 2.6kg, short scale. You need a strap to prevent it blowing away.

I had one a few years ago. Bought it cheap, sold it cheaper. I think value for a good 'un is £180+/-, tatty one less. But they are good basses, just not worth much in the market place. When I sold mine Flat Eric (remember him? Connoisseur of basses) chimed in abut having two and not wanting to sell them.

Actually my strongest recommendation for a 5 string is 'don't sell off all your 4 strings when you find one you like'. I did. it is costing me a small fortune to rebuy all those 4s I loved.😄

Looks like a proper rig to me. I look at my FRFR set up and sometimes wonder.....

I'd say a Yamaha BB. I had the BB425 and found it hard to fault as a five string, the low B was good and strong. The string spacing is just nice, too - not too tight at the nut or the bridge. Too heavy, sadly, so I had to go elsewhere. But Bas's 1025 would be a peach. Having said that, I'd be very curious about a Harley Benton 5er.

I didn't enjoy it much but it is a hard song to get right, I think. The vocal is tricky and you have to get the tempo bang on otherwise it drags. It is one my lot do and unfortunately the guitarist uploaded a rather wooly rehearsal of it onto out facebook. Redeemed by some rather tasty guitar playing, which I guess is why he did it

When I was looking for a new plate for my HB shorty P bass, Jacks gave me a quote of £60, Brian's cost me £26.99 delivered.

I'm one of them. Great service and cheap, too.

I modded my Stagg to mount it on a tripod stand à la NS Design EUB. It was easily done using a tattooist's arm rest. Other tripods will also work, of course, but that had the advantage of having an adjustable bracket on it that sits nicely on the body of the Stagg. I still have to steady it a bit, especially if trying some vibrato, but generally - for me - it is more comfy than the end pin and bracket thingies.

Took some guts to write that, Chris. Well said.

With much thanks to Jon @Bassassin for all his advice, knowledge and patience. I've had the hots for one of the old, better quality Japanese 'SG' style basses for a while and this one popped up for sale on Reverb at a reasonable price. A Fujigen made, Antoria branded, short scale EB-3 copy finished in what I guess you'd describe as a dark walnut lacquer. It arrived a couple of weeks ago now. A serial number on the back of the front pickup dates that, at least, to 4th August 1972 and, apart from a few dings in the paint, it seems in remarkably good nick for a bass that is approaching it's half century. Lots of life in the frets. I believe everything is original and, more importantly, still works. It arrived absolutely spotlessly clean, the neck dead straight and the action to my liking so all I needed to do was tune it up and lower the bridge pickup a tad to balance the output. I took off the middle chrome hand rest that I found rather in the way and there was a (original?) foam mute under the strings at the bridge that I also removed. The bridge adjustment is crude but, then again, so is my playing Edit - re-strung it with my favoured TI Flats. Weighs in at 3.4kg and sits nicely on the strap, no neck dive. Slim, shallow neck with a nut width of maybe 39mm. Have to say I am really impressed. Build quality is everything you would hope from an early Fujigen. It is the tone I was unprepared for. The neck pickup in particular is warm with HUGE character, a million miles from the Epiphone EB-0 I had years ago, even with the industry standard Dimarzio upgrade. Wander up to the 7th-12th fret area and there is a hollow, almost choral sound - hard to describe but I like it lots. And that is just at home. I suspect that pushed it will break up nicely and growl - really looking forward to trying it in the context of my blues trio. I have one of the Gibson Les Paul Jnr DC basses and I love it to bits. But, big question, do I prefer this? Possibly. I like that this is old. I like the whole quality Japanese copy thing. I particularly like that it cost me well under £300.

The nearest I have come was that my blues rock trio were invited to play at the Stowblues Festival this year, an event organised partly by BBC Radio Suffolk and the gig was to be recorded and broadcast. Hopefully next year! I've been on the tele with my garden a couple of times, mind

I see a TV career looming, too. Bass off? Master bass? (steady...)

Funny how tree branches always look so much smaller when attached to trees. We have an ancient Lombardy Poplar in the corner of my place with lots of 'small dead branches'. One of the 'small dead bits' blew down earlier this year in a storm and it was 30ft long.