All Activity

As an early 60s bass is beyond my means, I have Flea signature jazz and an AVII 1960 precision. The latter, in particular, is supposedly Fender's closest approach to replicating those early basses. Certainly the pickups are very close to the originals in materials, construction and sound. Some may disagree, but I think that, aside from the lovely played-in feel of a vintage instrument, the main appeal of vintage is the joy of owning something with a history to it.

When this sort of thing has happened in bands I've been in it's been my first reaction to have to know what's going on, it's the biggest thing on my mind. But in hind sight people have come and gone bands have come and gone, but I'm still playing and life has carried on. Occasionally that magic combination of people has disappeared, which is a shame but usually things turn out ok. I hope they do for you. All the best

I have an Android phone. The Do Not Disturb feature is very powerful with very in depth features. I don't know how the Apple version works but it's worth exploring. I went away for a week and checked messages and emails every evening for preview of message and subject line of email. No messages or emails were opened. No facebook, TikTok, BassChat... The stress completely evaporated. And to be honest I learned that all messages and emails can wait until you reply, you don't have to reply when other people expect you to reply (immediately). Regards your singer. If it was that important that he tell you immediately, he would have made the time already. He hasn't, so my gut feeling is he's prepping you for something he thinks someone else will tell you, and he wants to get his side across first. Honestly? It's not your job to manage other people in your life and get involved in their problems unless they specifically come to you, or you think they are in real danger. That way leads to madness. I have little time for people who surround themselves with drama where they are the lead actor.

I don't think so. I.T. generally has made it difficult to relax after work. You might have work related SMS items to deal with on your own time. You might have bosses who don't sleep and can't understand that normal people NEED sleep. Similarly, on holiday, it is hard to get away from it all now that comms providers have made roaming charges more attractive to their customers. The way I look at it; The internet and all of the devices connected to it are dependant on electricity. The makers have left out one important thing - the OFF switch. Standby is seen to be the same thing except it isn't. When I go out of a room, I switch the light OFF. I do the same with mobile comms and data. I have no need to carry it with me. Go and enjoy your holiday. When you come back I am sure the melodrama will have developed sufficiently for you to deal with then.

Bingo. Keep out of it and say nothing bad. They're big enough and ugly enough to sort out their own problems

This is the answer. Or if you're put in a corner, just say you enjoyed your night. If he's a proper pal though, you can rip the band to shreds.

It looks awful, but I'm sure its great... But it looks bloody awful.

Assume this is a prototype before factory tooling. Love it!

Do they rehearse? Let them get better in their own time. That way you don’t ruin the relationship and they still have fun doing it. If they came to you and said we can’t get gigs, do you know why? Well then you will have to drop the truth bomb.

From ‘try a little’ to ‘all that I’m asking,’ Bernard Edwards’ funky bass on Diana Ross’ "Tenderness" is the perfect way to close this series.

Off I went to Home Bargains this morning and bought 2 x 500ml bottles of meths (£2.29 ea) and a large plastic tub with a lid (£1.29) and now I have 2 sets of EXL170BT coiled and soaking. I'll get them back on ready for Friday's gig and report back.

My approach in these situations is not to give advice or comment per se but to switch to a purely coaching approach. Asking probing but open questions and getting them thinking in a reflective way. So, how do you think that went? If you were to score yourself out of 10, what number would it be? OK, so what does an 8/10 look like compared to your 6/10? Have you thought about recording the gigs and listening back to spot improvement opportunities? If you could go back in time and play "Wonderwall" again, how might you approach it differently? How have the rehearsals been? Are they as productive as you'd have hoped? How different is that from your ideal? Obviously, you can tailor the language to make it less corporate-coaching but this stuff works and gets them doing the thinking. They don't get offended (usually) and could then see you as a genuine help rather than just giving what they see as negative criticism. Coaching does need a bit of practise, though and isn't a cure-all for everyone but it's worth trying.

Bit of a thread resurrection - looks like this is gone from Thomann and everywhere else apart from AliExpress, has it been discontinued? A mate of mine was contemplating one but waited too long.