STEINBERGER by Jim Reilly – A Review

I’ve long been a fan of Ned Steinberger’s work, and I’ve owned an NS Design creation, my NXT5 upright bass, for over a decade. If there were no limits to my budget and to the ready availability of left-handed NS instruments, I would probably own quite a few more. Since meeting both Jim Reilly and...

Basschat South East Bash 2019

The South East Bass Bash 2019 moved to the end of October as opposed to September in order to avoid a clash with the UK Guitar Show, part of which was formerly known as the London Bass Guitar Show. The Bash was a relaxed, quietish affair where the emphasis was again on catching up with...

London Bass Guitar Show 2019

It was all change for this year's London Bass Guitar Show - the date, the location, even the name. The show took place in late September, as opposed to customary early March, and moved to the Business Design Centre in Islington, north London. Being co-located with the UK Guitar Show seems to imply that the...

Uxbridge Charity Autoshow 2019

The annual autoshow took place in 2019 on 21st July, and after hearing about it for a few years, I finally managed to attend. I'm a late-comer to classic and vintage motors, so I spent a lot of time simply gawping at the variety of models from all eras, and taking photos of them in...

Basschat South East Bash 2018

So we got to the time of year for our annual bass-themed catch-up in Addlestone, thanks to organisers Hamster (Colin) and Silverfoxnik (Nik). It was a relaxed affair, with a timetable that survived being messed around with (thank you, public transport and road network). As always, this year we had a star guest (Richard Searle,...

Basschat Double Bass Bash 2018

The 2018 double bass bash was held in mid-April after almost two years, in a different location from 2016, and organised by Brother Malvis as opposed to Bassace. That's where the difference ends, though - many of our DB regulars attended this time too, and the meetup had an added international flavour due to the...

Amp Shop/Bass Exchange, North Hollywood, CA

By Happy Jack Nicole and Silvia Bluejay We visited Bass Exchange after it was recommended to us while we were at NAMM. The shop is filled with basses, guitars, amplification and lots and lots of accessories and components; that in itself is spectacular enough. https://flic.kr/p/HHiX59 https://flic.kr/p/236oXfq https://flic.kr/p/25RhrFD https://flic.kr/p/236oW6w There is also a small stage at...

London Bass Guitar Show 2018 – Part 2

Here is the second part with photos of the best bass event of the year in the UK! The exhibitors are in alphabetical order, although some stands covered more than one company. As usual, almost all of the photos were taken before the doors opened to the general public. This year I noticed the appearance...

London Bass Guitar Show 2018 – Part 1

This year the London Bass Guitar Show had a different look, the main exhibitor area having been divided into smaller areas through floor-to-ceiling partitions. The new layout had the function of dampening the noise and gathering together similar exhibitors, creating, for instance, an Amplification Zone and an Instrument Zone. As always, in addition to the...

NAMM 2018, Part 4 – Beyond Bass

The last part of my NAMM blog series includes booths that were not specifically aimed at bass players, but managed to attract our attention and intrigue us even amid the chaos and cacophony. You'll also see some bass amplification, as well as a few well known faces we spotted randomly at booths. Aguilar Amplification The...

NAMM 2018 Part 3 – Bass!!

The hall that holds much of the gear we GASsing musicians are there to ogle/stalk/drool over/lust after (delete as appropriate) is located on the ground floor in the main centre. The hall is, in fact, made up by four adjacent mega-halls linked by large doorways. We worked out that it’s a rectangle the size of...

NAMM 2018, Part 2 – A general look

2018 has been the year I finally attended the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in Anaheim, California for the first time. Held at the end of January, it’s the first music-related show of the year and the largest, as well as the broadest in scope. The footprint of the show is huge, as...

NAMM 2018, part 1 – Bluejay plays the New Left-handed Dingwall Combustion NG

A couple of years ago I interviewed Sheldon Dingwall for Bass Guitar Magazine, and had the opportunity to ask him if he was planning to ever start making left-handed models. To my surprise and delight, he said he was, and would start producing at least one model as soon as the company could afford to...

Basschat South East Bash 2017

Our usual September appointment with the Jubilee School in Addlestone was another well-attended GAS-fest with mouth-watering gear on show in the Main Hall. In addition, we had an early talk by Lee of Anderton Music, and two great guests offering two totally different takes on bass playing: Davey Rimmer of Uriah Heep and solo bassist...

London Bass Guitar Show 2017

For the best part of this year life got majorly in the way of my music blogging, but I finally managed to sift through my photos of the event back in March - here they are! This year, once again, the show was mostly populated by smaller companies whose offerings have nothing to envy the...

Basschat Double Bass Bash 2016

After a few failed attempts in previous years, this year, at the beginning of October, I was finally able to attend the annual Basschat upright bassists' meetup, held in Risley near Derby, and what a fine day it was. Basschat has a small but highly dedicated contingent of talented, experienced double bassists who don't mind...

Basschat South East Bash 2016 – 10th Anniversary

This year's South East Bash was the tenth event of its kind - the first having taken place in 2007 - and organisers Silverfoxnik, Hamster with wife Sarah, and OBBM made sure it was one to remember for all the right reasons. It was held, as always, on the ground floor of the Jubilee School...

Basschat Herts Bash 2016

If it's the first week of June, then it's got to be Herts Bassbash time! And again, organiser Mick The Greek – with help from Bassface2k10, Lozz196, Grangur's wife Louisa and Sibob's parents – did a sterling job. The ream created an excellent opportunity for us to meet up, ogle and try each other's basses,...

London Bass Guitar Show 2016

The buzz about the 2016 London Bass Guitar Show started as soon as we had recovered from the excitement of the 2015 show. At first, new information came as a trickle: the 2016 date was announced; we were promised the event would be amazing. 'Huh, that's what the organisers always say, isn't it' we mumbled...

Basschat South East Bash 2015

After last year's November date, this year the South East Bass Bash was back to its more customary slot at the end of September. And a very well attended bash it was. The event's schedule was as fascinating and as full as ever: a talk about setting up our basses, one about a year in...

Basschat Herts Bash 2015

It's summer (at least according to the calendar) – that means Herts Bass Bash! This year the by now customary, and highly anticipated, appointment with Breaks Manor in Hatfield was on a cool, greyish Sunday in mid-June. Despite the England football match scheduled for the evening, this meetup was one of the most successful ever...

London Bass Guitar Show 2015

Had we been remotely inclined to listen to its detractors’ bleating in the run-up to the event, the London Bass Guitar Show 2015 was going to be The One The Biggest Manufacturers Did Not Bother Attending and The One Where The Noise Is So Bad You Can’t Hear Yourself Thinking, Let Alone Playing Bass and...

Bell Studios Launch Party, 15/01/15

As a Chiswick resident, a former Tech Music School (now BIMM) mature student, and someone who often works in Acton near to what was for years simply Bell Percussion, the awesome drums store, I couldn't have been happier to find out that the shop was expanding into rehearsal studios in 2015 and having a mid-January...

Basschat South East Bash 2014

The 8th annual South East meetup was held at Jubilee High School in Addlestone a little later in the year than usual - on 1st November (Halloween weekend!) as opposed to late September. This year the bash was deliberately planned in a more relaxed way, with fewer talks and masterclasses than the star-studded, incredibly fast-paced...

Basschat’s West Sussex Mini Bash, 31/08/2014

Who would say no to spending a glorious sunny day at the end of August near the south coast, meeting fellow Basschatters and trying out some awesome bass gear? Certainly not me, said more than a score bass addicts from the area, and several others from further afield. So we all gathered at Climping Village...

Guided Visit to Fodera’s Workshop, Brooklyn, July 2014

I met and worked alongside Joey Lauricella and Jason DeSalvo of Fodera while managing Basschat's corner at the London Bass Guitar Show in March 2014. The guys were helping out at Bass Gear's stand, showing their creations and talking about bass-building to existing and potential customers, and Basschat was sharing stand space with Bass Gear....

Bluejay visits the Warwick Custom Shop in NYC, a year later

This was my second visit ever to New York City, and of course I was determined to return to the Warwick&Framus custom shop as soon as I could hit town! I have great memories of last years' visit - my first - and equally happy memories of this year's. While my previous visit was on...

Basschat Herts Bash 2014

After its success in 2013, the highly anticipated Herts Bass Bash returned to Hatfield on a warm Sunday in early July 2014, again thanks to organisers The Greek (Mick), Lozz196 (Laurence) and Bassface2K10 (Chris). Despite clashing with the Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Wimbledon Men's final, the bash was well attended. We would be...

Basschat Midlands Bash 2014

Roland Rock's account of the awesome bassday on 10th May 2014 at Brockington College in Leicester, which he organised together with Si600.         The BC Bass Relay and the Baton hit the Midlands Bash!   The rest of the photos

Basschat at the London Bass Guitar Show 2014

It's back! The most widely anticipated bass-related UK event of the year again took over the Olympia Conference Centre on the first weekend of March 2014, and again Basschat was there, sharing a stand with high-end bass equipment retailer Bass Gear. I set up home - with our brand new BC backdrop, as well as...