msb

I’ve been using a Hotone Thunderbass as a headphone , practice rig , it has a mini aux in for a phone or tablet so you can easily play along to video. Not that expensive , fairly small , works well. I’m ok using plug in headphones.

I do a gig in the house band for a blues jam in the local dive , been doing it for about twenty five years now. Some old friends from Austin Texas were in town and dropped by after doing a festival in New Brunswick. Was an absolute joy to get them up.

I used to love TI flats on Pbasses and Rics , but when I started switching over to short scales I wanted something a bit stiffer. LaBellas are what most of them wear now.

I started as a Pbass guy , for years it was the only thing I played. I played a lot of Jazz basses but never bought one , but I did try quite a number of basses with two single coil pickups. The first one to really turn me around was a 4001. After some years looking for one (pre internet days and nothing available locally) I found one in Toronto. Fell in love with it. And a Danelectro Longhorn. At first I had troubles dealing with the short scale and it sounded pretty twangy , but as I played it more the strings deadened and it developed a lovely old school thump , and I came to prefer short scales. Still my most frequent gigging electric. I wound up with several Dano short scale basses. Love them. And for giggles I picked up a Yamaha Samurai. I had always been intrigued by the shape , it’s been described by some as a Jazz bass on steroids , I can see that. Although I usually gig with a Dano , my favourite bass these days is a Gibson DC Jr. Shortscale , light weight , single humbucker in the sweet spot it sounds wonderful , despite generally being a flatwound guy I like fresh rounds on it. Some have said they are like a miniature Pbass , but I find them to have a little more going on. I seem to be leaning towards Gibson/Epiphone these days and have an SG bass , and an Epi Flying V and Rumblekat. That little Jr is my favourite.

Not for me , but I find the lines quite interesting. I suspect that it’s a very balanced and comfortable bass to play.

I did play French horn in the school band , but the less I say about that is probably for the better. At best I can say I played it badly…

I’ve found that after goofing around on a BassVI I’m using more chords and thinking more guitar , I also picked up a baritone guitar. It’s given me another avenue of discovery and has definitely influenced my bass playing. All good.

Outdoor backyard private party , piano trio. Nice little gig , played from 8-12 beside the pool, it was starting to get a little cool but fall is underway. Fingers were cold by the end of the night. But a sweet little gig!

I have the smaller Forte , and love it . It’s a simple , clean transparent amp , with some serious slam. edit I also just picked up a Darkglass Exponent , which is also got a clean , transparent base , but has an incredible array of presets and pedal simulations … and although it’s about the opposite of the Forte , is a heck of of a lot of fun to play with. The E500 is for home use as the Forte is the perfect gig amp for me.

Is it still noisy?

The favourite combination was brass nut , DiMarzio , and BadAss bridge. It seemed like most basses you saw were modified in the mid to late 70’s. And the finale was to add a Jazz pickup. And now they’re all mysteriously stock again , it’s rare to see the period mod these days! If you like sustain they’re great mods! Older basses were just as likely to get the mods at the time.

Favourite? I’ve got around a dozen and found the Gibson DC Jr to be the favourite , although I usually gig with a Longhorn.

I’m not the target audience , an old geezer that usually sets and forgets amps , not generally a tweaker . But … I picked up one yesterday , and I’m loving it.

New amp day , picked up for a nice price on kijiji . Initial impressions are somewhat overwhelming , this is going to take some time to learn . Downloaded the Darkglass suite but not recognizing my device yet. The presets sound great though , I think this will be a stay home practice head as I don’t tend to spin the knobs too often on the gig. This thing is a knob farm! edit Got the Darkglass Suite loaded and have been at play , there’s five channels you can load up with various pedals and cab sims , and all of the settings can be tweaked with an iPad through the suite. This is wild , but the starting point is nice clean and transparent . This is wild technology ! I’m going to be wrapping my head around this for a while …

Nice touch! Welcome.

Tempted to put an offer on a local kijiji amp sale. But I don’t need it. It could be a deal… There’s still some deals on private sales but even there many are looking for close to retail money. edit put in an offer for a Darkglass Exponent 500 , might be too late …

For years that was the only bass I owned , and it got a lot of play around the eastern circuit here. Went through three hard shell Fender cases getting tossed in and out of ratty old trucks and vans before I switched to well padded gig bags. Looks like it went through the Boer War , but still plays wonderfully. It seemed that everybody played a Pbass in those days , and they all felt different. I had to put some nail polish on the bridge because otherwise the posts would fall. At the time most advised me to get a brass nut, Dimarzio pickups and a BadAss bridge but I left mine stock. Funny how all the basses from that period are all stock now because back in the day most that you’d see on stage were altered. And you had to route the bass for those early BadAss bridges. Now earlier in this thread I mentioned the tv logo basses were inconsistent , but I didn’t say bad. But if you played the dozen you might see in a music store they all felt different. It was around 74 when the really heavy ones started to appear , and many at the time believed they had greater sustain. They were often the first ones sold. Today I’m thankful mine is quite light. And despite being an old Pbass guy , these days I mostly play shortscales. It’s mostly retired , still feels wonderful when I do pick it up. At the time I thought it was all the bass I’d need and I missed a lot of opportunities to buy vintage basses that were going for a song. I was an idiot. Pre CBS basses we’re just called used , and we’re much cheaper than the new stuff.

Ok , that’s one fine looking thing !

My old 72 has a divot where my thumbnail wore into the wood.

Many in the US think of us in Canada as being raving Socialists , one step from being Commies. … we have Healthcare and gun restrictions. And the metric system! Pinkos

Somehow wound up with a bunch of clip ons. I put two in the top pocket of my usual gig bag , and there’s more in my two practice spots. Mine are Son of Snarks ,and Danelectro badged ones that are really Snark Supertights. I like the convenience. And have a little stock of fresh batteries. edit I still have a pitchfork! Just in case of technology failure …

They don’t have the same kind of resale value though.

Get at it , and take photos. I’m curious as hell to see how these might turn out.

They were not all bad by any means , but they were not consistent. Many were great instruments. In fact I think most were. We don’t see that variation today with CNC machines.