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I wish I had a super cool picture of a bass to share but I didn’t need one today. We entered the studio to finally FINISH our third album. “Vox Populi” by Deadlight Dance will be out on 20th March. Today I did a couple of vocals but it was more about finishing the songs. Ten tracks of dark delights. I’m as excited as I was over 35yrs ago.

I sometimes use a mandrake

That is one of the best looking basses I've ever seen, lovely stuff. How does it balance on the strap?

Well, let’s put it this way, January last year I got a bit of inheritance money and decided to buy a Sandberg that I found in Denmark Street (which was 99% my ideal spec - colour variant, that’s all). That’s been getting all the playing love since then and I led me to decided to order the above Superlight at the end of August. My Wals have pretty much been sitting in their cases (unheard of) and the arrival of this one almost certainly means that my Mk 1 Custom Series will be going up on consignment in the near future (something I thought that I would never do). They’re fab basses!

When Jim was still in North Yorkshire he gave my old Thumb NT a full set up, frets dress, new nut, the works, it was absolutely outstanding when I collected it.

Remember, this is what ever pro will do if they are asked to dep / learn a set. It is just a part of a skill set that it is a good idea for you to develop.

I'm looking for a bass I owned in the late 80s, early 1990s. Its a red Stingray (1985-1987) Not sure the exact year, and no, no known serial number) I know I had it in senior year of high school in 87. Is solid red, has mutes, 4 knobs on the preamp and a stunning maple neck. I traded it in to Sam Ash Music in New York for an SWR rig and regretted it ever since. The picture here is from roughly 1990. Any leads are greatly appreciated.

The phases of the Moon were always reliable...

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?