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Yep! All superb musicians individually.... but my fave is the guitarist Darren who manages to absolutely nail every guitar line, solo and style from Denny Dias to Skunk Baxter to Larry Carlton to Jay Graydon!! He's unbelievable...!

Welcome KR.

My very first way to tune up was to tune to the floppy plastic 7” record at the back of Jim Gregory and Harvey Vinson’s “electric bass” book which had the four notes followed by some basic progressions. I have a tuner on my board nowadays but I still often use the old way of putting my palm against the back of the neck and tuning until I can feel the out of phase notes come together. Come to think of it I’ve still got the Arion tuner I got for Christmas 1986. Still works too.

😖

^^^^ Very much this. Any little note that aids memory/instills confidence is worthwhile. I used to have tunes that I’d have a mental block with, which only got worse as the section approached. I’d just write a few chords down on the set list that I could quickly look at for reassurance.

Thanks for letting me in. I used to play drums but now...I play bass because some moron drove a Nissan Qashqai across double white lines into my motorcycle, shattering 10 bones in my right hand and sending my lower arm bones through my elbow. This was 'fixed' during 9 hours of surgery and many pieces of metal. I couldn't hold sticks anymore, but I am hoping to learn bass enough to play in a pub band again. Feel free to offer advice on anything I post...I'm here to learn 😀 Bass: Amp: Speaker: Ibanez Mikro - Main bass TS Electronics BQ250 Suggestions welcome (no rush) Washburn Taurus - Understudy (too heavy) Vox Amplug 2

I did my first gig with the covers band last night at The Whitmore Tap, Clifton/Redland, Bristol. It was quite stressful overall especially being the first time with a very established band. The footprint was so small and the layout so weird, we didn't have space for monitors, lights or my mic stand. I had my pedalboard on my amp and had to stand still to not hit walls, drummer and 2nd guitarist with the headstock. The pub has waist-high wooden screens that form booths and the sound was muffled everywhere. The load in/out was horrible too. No parking, yellow lines everywhere. The radiator behind us was red hot and didn't seem to respond to the valve adjustments we made. I was sweating and my fingers were slipping easy more than you'd expect for a February pub gig. I told Guitarist 1 that he'd have EQ issues with his cab in a corner and guess what? No one seemed to know what time we were supposed to start, we had conflicting info from the agent/promoter and the pub and we went on in the end at 19:30. Finished up about 22:10 with a short break. 33 songs in total. That's as many as I've ever played I reckon. The punters were all over us and wanted a go on the drums, guitar, they wanted selfies with the band, they thought it ridiculous that we don't do random requests. And of course they all stood in our way when we were packing up and unloading to the cars. It was like a greatest hits of pub gig niggles rolled into one! There were some tyre-kicking wedding enquiries that might or might not lead to decent function money but who knows? One bloke told me that my bass was the nicest Warwick he'd ever seen. Second time that's happened in the last 6 months. If you know, you know 😉. I kept my cool, did my job and went home only to find the road for last 3 miles of it was closed and I had to make a 9 mile diversion up the M5 to get home. Considering everything, I think we did well. If you can deliver the goods under those conditions, you're doing alright.

Write out simple charts until you have played the songs enough times to memorise them.

Yeah he's definitely got a talent for making it all seem less intimidating. And absolutely right about the speed - I think Paul would have half a guitar built before I'd be done with a setup 😆

Just repetition until you get it imo Steve, I’ve been going through this myself with the latest song we’ve decided to do and just going over & over it is getting me there, I can’t see any quicker way to be honest.

Im having some trouble remembering more complex song structures. Our band has lots of double length bridges, half verses and missing choruses and other weird stuff that works great but is a bugger to remember. I love that the listener doesn't know whats coming next, I just wish I knew! Any tips or is it just repetition until I get it?

Kapow! Cow! Now! Er... A clomping, stomping romp of a tune that takes its title from one of the many great lines in Douglas Adams' superb Hitchhikers books and is in no way a comment on Mrs UD's driving, oh no. Cigar box guitar, Epiphone guitar, violin bass, MT Drums and virtual keys. My good friends at Wavepad, Audacity and Ableton helped it all along.

Yup, we went all in on this one.

Forgive me if I’ve completely misunderstood this, but… a watch?!

Ah, you're a gent, thank you! That is definitely useful information - both my Precisions are 281mm to the middle of the pole pieces on the neck side of the pickup.

But then again there's something about the way the light hits the lighter bits and they go silvery or purply (assuming it behaves the same as the old 4 string despite the differnet wood) that is very appealing and you wouldn't get from flamed ebony. Love the commitment to the black stained neck as well.

I'm certainly not a 'tight wad', but I've spent too long being skint when I was younger not to want to get value for my money. I've always kept my living expenses pretty low, so I live in a small house in an OK-ish area and drive an older car then I could afford. However, I wear reasonably expensive clothes, we eat well, we travel a bit and I have more top quality musical instruments / gear than I strictly need (although they have always paid for themselves through gig earnings, etc). I've always been pretty fit, although I can't exercise to the extent that I used to, due to a bad knee injury. However, I still do a bit and that is always a good idea. I have had a couple of fleeting issues with depression - in my late 30s after a period of chaotic romantic relationships and then in my early 50s due to relatively minor health issues. What brought things into focus for me was my wife having a serious medical incident that required an operation to save her life. You have to focus on what is important and not sweat the small stuff.

I can't stand Scott. His American clone, Ian is pretty good though.

Have a look at Hellfire Tools. I have a few of their bits; files, straight edge, hammers etc. Crimson stuff is also good but slightly more expensive. Chris Alsop also does so nice hand crafted stuff.