Boodang

Totally agree with @stewblackon this one, which is why there's no place for @Bassfingerstyle 'banter'.

Looks like there's some good option in the BC marketplace at the moment, including some trace elliot stuff. I noticed there's an old TE 4x10 combo from a Hobgoblin shop in Manchester for £150.... comes with a free hernia apparently.

Is your stage name Bernard Manning?

There's lots of fancy options at the premium end but to be honest at this stage a cheap and nasty 4x10 will do the job admirably and get you heard. Back when I was using Trace Elliot gear the 2 rigs that that always pushed it out to the audience were a 4x10 with a 350 head, and a 1x15 double ported combo with a 300 amp stage. Two instances stick out for me when I was using them... we were doing a gig in a pub car park at the edge of a park that had an open air festival. Half way through the set this guy comes over (their sound engineer apparently) and asks if we could turn down the bass or point it somewhere else as it was cutting across the audience in the park. An example of the focused 4x10 projection but in fairness it never failed to be heard in a venue when we didn't have a PA. The 1x15 combo was double ported and had a fat boomy sound but it did bounce around a venue and I wouldn't say it was very hifi but you were guaranteed to be heard (fyi their non ported and lower wattage combos don't achieve this). Was at a medium gig where I was using it as a monitor but had to keep turning it down as it was pushing out to the audience. Both fairly cheap now but there are obviously plenty of other options.

There's some very experienced players here on BC so I'm sure there'll be no shortage of advice! So, depends what you want from your backline... is it a case that you're going through a PA and it's just for monitoring or will your backline be how the audience hears you. Oh, and whatever your guitarists are using you'll need way more power/cabinet size than them! So, for small gigs where I'm not going through a PA and I've got guitarists to content with... for a drummer who's hitting reasonably hard anything less than a 4x10, ported 15 or 2x12 is going to be buried, and that's with at least 350 watts (rms). If it's just monitoring I would say get the same and turn down as at least you have the option. You don't want to be running your backline at full tilt to keep up, it's nice to have some headroom, so don't be shy with power. It doesn't have to be expensive, an old 4x10 cab and a suitably powerful amp off ebay, or BC marketplace, shouldn't be too much.

That's every singer isn't it!

Also, play sitting down, then you don't have to worry about being on your feet for 2 hours. In a punk band?, get a seat with the hydraulic adjustment, then you can bounce on it and it'll look like you're pogo-ing.

Always have time for people who enjoyed your gig and come up after for a chat. Too easy to be wrapped up in packing up and not be generous with your time.

Welcome back. Band name suggestion; Long Story Long Seriously though, interesting story and good luck, especially finding a vocalist, and keep us up to date, maybe with a cheeky demo or two.

Also good for making gaffa tape wallets while you're waiting to play. Scrawl your band name on them and sell them to eager punters.

Galli Synthesis update.... so, on my Squier Jazz VM the strings are great, no issues now they're settled in and love the flexible feel and the tone is nice and open. The above pics are from a set I was going to put on a new fretless but decided to use TI flats instead. As I was coiling up the E string I slightly over did the radius and pop! The chrome windings split open in 5 places. And when I said I over did the radius I do mean only by a bit, I wasn't being brutal and tying knots with it as I know they're delicate. Well, when they say delicate they mean it! Having said that, they're not delicate once strung up and I've had no issues on my Jazz. Once out the packet though, they're getting put back in, just in case!

Latest cable purchase... Sommer SC 'the Spirit'. Definitely more manageable than the Van Damme silver. PS Design-a-cable do have Mogami cable in stock.

My latest build from my local luthier, a '61 spec jazz neck (well dimensions that is) and a lovely set joint!

It certainly did! But as the body was already made and the luthier is semi retired and only doing projects when he feels like it, it's happened pretty quickly. We initially had a chat about the project, I expected it to be a while before it got off the ground but next thing I know he sent me pics of it in progress. Not complaining, actually pleased it's almost ready as once you get an idea for a bass you then just want it, but glad I had a clear vision for this from the start. Apparently the main woods in this bass he bought 25years ago. The walnut he got would usually have been used for making gun stocks by all accounts (not by the luthier!).

I haven't seen it in the flesh yet, apparently the oil coating is still drying. According to the luthier it has a slightly compressed, focused sound. The pickups are in the 70s position with the rear pup slightly closer to the bridge.

Yep, for a minute there I thought I was on pianochat!!

Ah, but are you playing a half diminished b9 b13 at the 24th fret?!!!

An angled headstock is going to be more susceptible than a level one. As it happens I'm having a bass made with a particularly thin jazz neck (36.5 mm nut) and although I didn't want an inline 4 headstock we've kept it level as an angled version would make it a bit vulnerable.

In 40 years of playing I've never broken a neck, and although such a thing could happen I've never chosen a bass based on how easy it would be to repair.

If I'm in a mischievous mood and I'm in no hurry to sell something (and I did this with a classic car I was selling as I was fed up with ludicrous offers).... if I've explicitly stated no offers, the buyer gets one warning after which the price goes up by the amount of the difference in their offer. Huge amounts of fun to be had with indignation from the buyer, especially if they then go up to the original asking price which has now in turn gone up, so I treat it as an offer and price goes up again! They even use swear words!! Brilliant!

Yeah, gobsmackingly expensive!! You see his stuff and think, ooh nice I wonder how much that is. Answer is, you could have a table or a house to put it in but not both.

So, I've been going through the recesses of my mind to see if I can locate the reason why I have the correct (!) attitude towards bolt on necks and think I've come up with a culprit.... John Makepeace. MakePeace is a furniture maker par excellence, his stuff looks like it's grown into being rather than been made. I think if he saw two pieces of wood screwed together he'd cry! He had a place called Parnham House in Dorset which I used to visit when I went down to see my parents and you could see all the furniture that had been commissioned (back in the 70s a table from him was about £40k!)... they were works of art. Now I'm not say a guitar should be made in the Makepeace tradition as no one would afford them, but they should be made in such a way as to not make him cry in disbelief!!

Yep, don't know why, but from the very first bass I got many moons ago, I thought the 'bolt on' arrangement was clumsy and most un-elegant. Consequently i saved up so I could get a neck thru custom made and solve the issue. But since then I've owned many 'bolt ons' as well (but still prefer neck thru), so to avoid getting rid of half my collection, as well as yours, when I'm PM I'll just ban them from now on!

Gwizdala's really into bit crushers and he gets some interesting sounds... too mad for me though.