meterman

Eh? What do you mean 'old strings'? Would they be worn-in rounds that have been on the bass since it was made, in 1967? Or flatwounds? Either way, I say keep them. That way folks in future generations can wonder all day long about what the heck all these old wires were once you've gone.

Contemporary funk is very big business and has been since its renaissance around 2000 or so. It very occasionally breaks through to the mainstream, although there's no shortage of specialist record labels putting out fantastic new stuff seemingly every week. Labels like Big Crown, Colemine, Spasibo, Timmion, Funk Night, ATA, etc, not forgetting Daptone Records whose house band played on a lot of the "Back To Black" album by Amy Winehouse, all regularly release great new funk records, but because a lot of it is vinyl only and doesn't make it to streaming platforms it means you have to do the work of seeking it out for yourself. Which most punters wouldn't be ar$ed doing. Whether any of their output would be popular down the Dog & Duck is hard to know, but if punters there didn't break a sweat listening to covers of Jungle Fire, The Whitefield Brothers, Poets Of Rhythm, The Budos Band, The Soul Surfers, Cold Diamond & Mink, or whoever, then they'd be hard to please with anything I'd reckon. But best of luck to the OP and I hope there's a decent set list they can put together otherwise 👍

Brilliant band but all their best known stuff (IMHO) was recorded before 1980. Have played a bunch of their stuff live with one of the original band members, and tunes like “Pick Up The Pieces” or “Cut The Cake” or “Work To Do” will still get an audience dancing. Hard to pull off without a horn section though.

Absolutely brilliant band, The Peddlers. I know he left the band in the early 1970s (or was forcibly replaced) but anyone know what happened to him? He can’t have just given up playing, he was great 👍

My potential Bronco sale fell through as the guy decided to keep it as a knock around bass to keep at home : ( I might still keep an eye out for one though. Although my #1 is a Jazz, I’d still have a cheap Squier if one showed up near me. Googling Reverb, LeBonCoin and ebay now...

Having admitted that, I don’t know why there aren’t more female bassists posting here on BC? I realize it is a very blokey site at times but it would be great to have a better balance of female to male players I reckon. Non-binary too. Bring it all on. Different viewpoints and perspectives and all that. Even about streaming sites 👍

Same here - never owned an iPod or put music on my phone (although I’m not sure how to do that), and I don’t use streaming sites either. Still got a CD player, a CD recorder, a tape deck and 2 turntables at home, basically a hi-fi separates setup and a couple of ghetto blasters for tapes in the kitchen when I’m cooking. Only really use the internet for Pornhub and Basschat. Streaming sites don’t get a look in. Not enough milf on them for a start.

I think it depends on your location and which platform you’re using to sell your gear. And what gear you’re selling as well. My preferred option is to sell on Reverb, as it’s just for music gear, which narrows down the search engine. In the last two weeks I’ve sold €2500 worth of various items on there. Yes, there’s fees, but there’s fees wherever you sell. Unless it’s to a mate, or down the pub. If I was still in the UK and selling bass gear my first choice would be here on Basschat. Ebay wouldn’t get a look in from me, the timewasters and non-payers pretty much killed it for me years ago.

£3,800?!! That’s crazy talk! First Rhodes I had was a 1979 suitcase model for £350, the second was a fully refurbished stage model that I paid £1000 for. I don’t own either of them now but I made a profit on both when I moved them on. If you really want one in good nick and at a decent price, look online for Doug McKendrick / Klassic Keys, I think he’s based somewhere in the Midlands? He’d be straight with you 👍 Btw, Rhodes pianos are generally as roadworthy as it gets, if a little unwieldy. I took my last one all over, and I only ever had to retune a couple of tines once.

Good ideas, thank you 🙏 The attic space would definitely need some soundproofing because it lets external sounds in and mics would definitely pick them up. I’ve got an electric kit but I mostly play with brushes and they don’t work on a Roland, unfortunately. But otherwise I have used it for easy remote sessions when someone just wants a decent drum recording. The kick pad and cymbal pads still transmit vibrations downstairs though. Have done DI for bass and guitar and keys, but my amps are really quiet anyway. But I don’t mind recording either way really. For vocals, I don’t do them too often, but I’m not a Robert Plant style belter anyway so they’re not really a problem. The biggest hurdle is recording stuff and not transmitting vibrations or frequencies that will annoy everyone else in the house. But I can pick my times, so if I can do a floating floor and make an airtight soundproof box I might get away with it. There’s a local studio I can record drums in but they charge more per day than I’ve spent on my last half a dozen albums. I’ll sort something out, even if it’s a total compromise. 👍

What’s the asking price? They’re worth having if the price is right. I’ve owned two different ones, a Stage model (the one on four legs) and a Suitcase model (the one that sits on it’s own cab, with the panning tremolo) and they were both fabulous instruments to have, can fully recommend owning one 👍 Plus, with a very minimal toolkit you can tune the tines yourself easily, balance the pickups, adjust the action, etc. They’re pretty solid.

I actually wanted to do this because there’d be room for it, but the streets here are about 6ft wide and getting crane access over someone else’s house to drop a container into the barn would be some kind of miracle. Or cheese fever dream 😂 Although if I could get a container in 4 pieces, I could get it welded and then do the conversion work afterwards. Would still have to get permission to get hooked up to the utilities. Unfortunately, where we live it’s the equivalent of a ‘listed buildings’ area, so all the work would have to be done by council approved contractors. Getting our house roof fixed took 14 months, the bureaucracy here is off the scale. Not ruling anything out though.

Oh Douglas, I’d love it if it was possible 🙏 But without the barn roof being redone (there’s currently massive holes where the rain gets in, which is rare but it happens) and the roof and 1st floor timbers completely being replaced (they’re held up by acro props) I don’t think it would be a goer. I’m already looking at having the roof and timbers removed and buttressing the walls just to prevent the likelihood of the place collapsing, as it shares the manger wall with the house next door to it. If it went, the insurance might cover it but there’s never any guarantees. Also, solar is a no-go as we live in a ‘heritage zone’ and we’ve been point blank refused solar panels on our house roof as it is : ( If I can think of a workable solution I’ll gladly give you a shout. You legend, thank you. 👍

My wife slipped over in the kitchen earlier this year and broke her shoulder. The yowl when she hit the stone floor was incredible, like Yoko Ono on steroids or something! I hope you recover soon, best of luck with the healing process 👍

Thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it 🙏 Ideally, I would convert my barn. It's across the street and so it would be the easiest commute! Sadly, the roof needs replacing, a lot the timbers need replacing, and I'd have to knock out the original manger and get the floor levelled with concrete. None of which I have any experience of. And I'd need to have an electric supply fitted over there. If you saw the place you'd be surprised it's still standing. It's more wreck than barn, converting it would cost more than my house is worth. I've owned a couple of studios in the past but they were already established studios. I just had to move my gear in and start working. But that's not an option round here. FWIW, I don't have any amps louder than 5w and if I pick my times carefully I can get away with recording live drums in the house. I'm not a John Bonham style player. But I still don't like doing it because I know village folks can hear me. And being a forrin in a remote French village... well, you don't really want to pi$$ these locals off. They all have guns, for starters 😯 I don't want to be the "Straw Dogs" newcomer, especially after what happened to the Romanian family that moved here and (briefly) set up a drugs factory in their house. That didn't end well at all. 'Harrowing' is probably the word I'd use to describe their ejection from the village. Locals got rid of them before the gendarmerie had a chance to get involved. Having done TV work and made many records out of the corner of the spare bedroom, I know I can operate in a small space if I have to. But you're right, and I agree - a rethink is in order. Back to the drawing board 👍

Yes, thank you - I vaguely recall your place - although it was late at night when we arrived and very early morning when we left - but I do remember that there wasn’t much in the way of neighbours round yours, is that correct? Our place is in the centre of a tiny village, it’s surrounded by vineyards and there’s no shops, bars, or anything. The house is in an 1840’s mostly stone terrace rue with only 8 houses which open out onto a square with elderly folks in their chateaus. But because the area is so quiet (except at grape harvesting time) any external sounds like passing horses, chapel bells, the occasional tractor, etc, really stand out. And because of the chimney going up through the attic all those sounds sound like they’re in the room next door when you’re up there. It’s the only place in the house where you can hear external sounds really clearly. So playing loud stuff in an untreated space up there is out of the question. I generally don’t play loud, and record mostly at low volume but I’m more concerned about external sounds getting picked up by mics than me making a racket. The loudest live thing I might record is congas or occasionally live drums, but I don’t want to be that guy in the village that upsets everyone else with the noise of them. I couldn’t get away with no soundproofing at all. The attic has a pitched roof that slopes sharply towards the front street (you can’t stand up by the windows, theres not enough headroom) so whatever I build will have a sloping ceiling. But it will definitely need to be as soundproof as I can get, and have a live room and control room all in one due to space constraints. Might read up on the ‘Sound On Sound’ articles and see if a local chippy might be up for doing the stud walling. 👍

By the way, if anyone in the South West corner of France has a Cumbia band, or is starting one, and needs a bassist or percussionist, get in touch cause I’m yer man. Have guiro, will travel 👍

I love Cumbia music so I listen to a lot of accordion. One of my favourite live bands when I lived in the UK was Malphino. A lot of folks might find their shtick a little too mannered but they can really put on a brilliant show. Mind, I love Cumbia from all countries so I’m definitely biased : ) I tried playing an accordion for the first time recently. I can get by on a lot of different instruments so I thought accordion would be a similar deal. How wrong I was! 😂 It’s without doubt the hardest instrument I’ve ever had a try of. Anyone that can play one to concert or studio standard has my full respect. Wepa!

Like the title says, I'm facing the age old dilemma of building a room within a room. I've been my wife's primary carer for a couple of years now, and so far I've been able to get away with having a makeshift studio in a corner of a spare bedroom. While it has been successful enough to date, we're now looking at having to have extra nurses and possibly live-in help. So the spare bedroom's going to be taken. But because we've got a decent sized pair of (albeit slightly scruffy) attic rooms I've been thinking about building a small-ish, but workable, room within a room up there. Problem is - I've never done anything like this before. Aaarrrgghhh! Where to start? What to buy? What to avoid? Has anyone here ever done this, or have any tips beyond the obvious floating floor? I'm curious to hear anyone's stories of self built studios in their own home. Like quiet ventilation systems or what kind of soundproof isolation to use? If it's any help I've got neighbours on both sides but they don't use their attics. But I am concerned about frequency transmission or vibration transmission. Even though I'm not super loud when I record, it's still a concern. Interior acoustic treatment I can handle. But building a studio structure from scratch is totally new to me. Anyone done this or something similar? Please let me know 🙏 Thank you. I appreciate any of your time and input.

In terms of age I'm not too far behind you (55) and have had a few lean periods but sometimes you just need to take a break and refocus on what you want to achieve. Last year I got a commission to write some instrumental music for a documentary on climate change. And I'm not kidding, it absolutely stumped me. But I recorded 14 pieces of music and they used five so it worked out alright but talk about leaving your comfort zone! Do you ever write away from an instrument and then later refine what you've written once you're sat down with a guitar or at a piano or something? That's a good way of shaking up old habits and can put you in a different headspace. Or write on an unfamiliar instrument? That's another good way of breaking out of a routine way of doing things. Put your feet up for a couple of weeks. It'll come back, you'll see. 👍

I was wondering about the JD mini jazz as well. They're about 125 euros new over here. Only thing is, I'd have to buy one online before trying it to find out if it's any good. They do look good though 👍

Thank you! 🙏 I'm generally not into modding instruments beyond adding a tugbar or changing strings but I'll see about the bridge. Pickups, pots, etc, are beyond me as my soldering skills are abysmal plus my hands aren't steady enough to do a clean job. But swapping out a bridge, I reckon I could do that. Will post pics if / when my mate brings the bass 'round my house.

Quick question for the short scale community, of which I belong to. The humble Squier Bronco. A friend has offered me his kids old, unused Bronco bass for a very cheap price, and I might take him up on the offer. But, it’s one of the 2010’’s era ones with the Musicmaster style bridge. I know plenty folks here have owned these, so what I needed to know is: can you swap out the Musicmaster bridge for a regular BBOT one, ie P or Jazz style, or is there a difference in the string spacing at the bridge that makes changing it out difficult? I can live with the Musicmaster style bridge aesthetically, just not sure about the intonation though? Never owned a Bronco, but for 60 euros I’m tempted to give it a try. If anyone here has done the bridge swap on one of these, let me know. Thank you folks 🙏