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I've got short fingers and if I'm playing a walking bass line, I use one finger per fret wherever I'm playing. I think that's the only time though, mostly I use 1, 2, 3 or 1, 2, 4 over three frets.

I was buying lunch in the BBC canteen a number of years ago when a big bloke came and tapped me on the shoulder and said "I see you're into Guzzis!" (the t shirt and belt buckle gave it away). Turned out it was Josh Homme and we ended up having lunch together and talking Mandello Stuff! Another time (beeb canteen again) I bumped into a guy who was in the Weeds with me back in the early days - Chris Haskett. He said "Come and sit with us"... So I did - "us" turned out to be Henry Rollins and Melvin Gibbs. We discussed Sonny Sharrock and Defunkt. None of 'em were at all grumpy, though I was a bit in awe of Melvin!

Sorry, it's the SUB 5. So many different SBMM/EBMM basses, it's like they were Precisions...

The Hulla band has its self organised festival coming up and one of the acts on the line up is a choir made up of volunteers for a local homeless charity (one of the recipients of the funds raised by the band each year). They are also singing 6 songs with the band - it's become a tradition over the last three festivals. Last night we had the first rehearsal with them this year. They are very good - their leader is a gifted singer in her own right (she usually joins the Hulla band for the festival gig). The songs they are doing with us are 'For What Its Worth', 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', 'Run', 'One Day Like This', 'Like a Prayer' and 'Burning Love'. There are some beautiful gospel vibes on 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' and 'Like a Prayer' but the song of the night was 'One Day', which had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Rig du jour was my recently acquired Ibanez GSR205 through a Vox VX50 bass amp (tiny, plastic but a great practice amp with lovely bass). We were also experimenting with how to mic up the choir for the festival so I was working with our sound man to test a few microphone combinations. Today's homework is to take the recordings we made and separate them into different mic set-ups so we can confirm what was chosen on the night. We tried a pair of small diaphragm condensers, a pair of 'cheap' dynamics and a pair of SM58s in various physical set ups and the sound man decided the SM58s at just above head height, separated by 9 feet (as suggested by the Shure website, apparently) gave the best sound. I was also trying out a Behringer boundary mic which I had recently acquired, more for my interest than a contender, and I was very happy with the results.

I bought an Ibanez from Graham and it was an excellent transaction throughout. great comms, everything up to scratch. Another great Basschatter.

spoonman - soundgarden

I would love to grab one at some point, not really feeling any of the finishes just yet but look solid.

I had one put in my Lull after the East preamp stopped working. I'll admit that when I (finally) got it up and running (see elsewhere), it didn't really do it for me. That said, I haven't run it through my XB Driver. Might be a revelation. I'll try later.

Yeah clamped and left for about 3 days. Then a very slight rub down feels great now.

Thankfully he was saved by the funk. "Free Your Mind And Your A$$ Will Follow..." ✊️

Afternoons And Coffee Spoons - Crash Test Dummies

Yes and no idea!

Black Coffee - Black Flag

Ahh this is a classic problem! Depends on your home and all that, but I used to practice in the kitchen when the kids had gone to bed. Now, thankfully, I have all my basses set up in my home office so can play every day.

Well that's exactly what prompted the search. I was discussing using an electric upright, but the affordable ones all look terrible. My other half suggested getting a 'real' bass instead; id always assumed that would be off the cards due to space. Result! 😎 The only other worry is that my usual practice time is after the kids have gone to bed. We'll have to see how that goes.

Grinder - Judas Priest

A strange effect I found too is that double basses are extremely wife friendly - in other words as a guitarist of many many years - and being careful how much kit I brought into the house - I was a bit concerned how the huge bulk of a double bass might be viewed around the house - well most specifically in the corner of the lounge. When it arrived my wife said it looked like a beautiful piece of furniture ... and of course it would look great in the corner of the room (on a Hercules bass stand). Result!