Leaderboard

After playing on Saturday night to around 3000 people at a festival, I had a gig this afternoon playing to around 30! We usually do a care home ( where my Dad spent his last days ) twice a year, Summer and Xmas. The weather held out so we played in the courtyard garden, with requests ranging from Elvis to Nirvana ( okay, that was from one of the staff). Apart from my bass lead, it was the first time I’ve done a gig with a Bluetooth PA including mic - great JBL speakers sounded fine. Used my little Ibanez electro acoustic and Fender Rumble, ideal for such occasions.

I’ve made a living from playing music now for a tad over 30 years. I gave up my day job with a local newspaper in the early 90’s due to increasing pressure on my workload, and this coincided with me being offered a position in an 8 piece function / wedding band. Prior to this I’d been resident in cabaret and working men’s club bands, working 3 nights a week alongside my regular 9 to 5. At this point I was earning good money from the two jobs, along with a company car, so giving up one of them wasn’t an easy decision. I was married, with my daughter at primary school too, so it was a massive change for me. Early on I worried about volume of work / paying bills / buying a car etc, but the band were doing well and it soon settled down. I stayed with that band for 16 years, through good times and some bad. This was a time when many pub bands were trying their hands at function work, so we were being constantly undercut and also seemed expensive as an 8 piece outfit compared to a smaller band. Also the running of the band was blighted by alcohol and substance issues ( not mine!) so I started to look around for something else, not easy as in my early 50’s by then. I did contemplate a 9 to 5 again, but then got offered my current gig with The ELO Experience. I’ve been doing this now for around 13 years, after initially doing some deps for their original bassist who was sadly battling illness. Absolutely love it, playing with a great bunch of people and crew and earning a decent wage. Through all the above I’ve worked with my best mate in an acoustic duo too, so been good to have that income, along with many deps and one offs as well. I’ve never earned shedloads of money, which I suspected would always be the case, but have managed to live a reasonable lifestyle. Paid off two mortgages, holidays abroad etc etc, although by current standards we still live quite modestly. Would do it all again if I had the chance* and am now facing the dilemma of when to consider retirement from the band, although can’t ever see me not continuing with the duo. *Only thing I would have altered would have been to learn to read properly, which may have resulted in more work.

There are two big debates going on here: How much do you need to live 'comfortably'? Can you earn enough to live comfortably from a function band? Clearly, some of us are fortunate enough to have very different ideas of what 'live comfortably' looks like, but disregarding that it's clear that you need to address the first question from your own point of view before any answer to the second has meaning.

Got this one in last week, a nice fretless in see through blonde finish. Probably late 80s.

A very odd one on Tuesday evening. We played at a pub in Erbistock, as they were holding an event to celebrate their recent re-opening. One of the singists is an area manager for a brewery and it was arranged to say thank you to the people who had helped with the renovations and whatever business stuff gets done when a pub re-opens. There were a fair number of people who declined the invitation, some on the day and a few in advance, with the upshot being that we played to about 12 people. We played ok, but it was very loose and we were changing the set list all the way through, adding some and dropping more. We're not a covers band and had only put two into the set (we'd not performed them before), which were both dropped and replaced with a different one we've done a few more times. Still, the few people there were somewhat attentive and polite (possibly because they knew the singist). We were also fed and paid, which is always nice for an originals band! 🤣 I also got to give the new RCF ART 945's a run in anger for the first time, so that was useful. Mosh pit photo below.

I've said this before too, and its something which is rarely considered. As you get older going out nearly every night until the early hrs chasing every penny can loose its shine real quick.

It’s barky with a little bit of bite…

Looks like a quality woof-er installed.

Where do you insert the jack?

I think it's great. We did an outside acoustic gig and a van dropped off a dozen care residents. It was heart warming to watch how cool and appreciative they were. Blue

Brilliant for improvising, but hopeless for remembering what brilliant improvising you did.

First time out for the recently formed Just two songs at a small open mic (and we had not yet learned the words!) but it was well received and a load of fun. I spent the rest of the evening enjoying the other performers and co-running the sound system. S'manth x

We've been asked if we'd be prepared to do an hour or so at the care home where Mr Lead Guitar's mother is a resident. We've all said we'd be happy to do it, but aren't entirely sure how our particular selection of country-rock / blues covers might go down. Guess we'll just have to wait and see if and when it takes place.

Aaaaaaaaaand, we're off again! D5 vs. DHL, round two, ding ding!

I bought it from a dealer on reverb. I hadn't seen one before myself and liked the creamy looks with the ebony fretboard. The placement of the pickups seemed good for a fretless, so did some research and ending up buying. The fact that I just sold my '66 jazz didn't help not buying it 😉. It's really a fun bass to play, and I like how it sounds. Especially with pickups solood, brings out the mwah more apparent than with the two pickups active.

Cheers. Regarding my duo, it's acoustic guitar / lead vocals and me on acoustic bass / harmony vox. We're called 'Milestone'. We've been doing it now for around 25 years, and my mate on guitar is literally one of the best players I've ever seen, let alone gigged with. He can play pretty much any genre of stuff superbly, and has that greatest gift of all musicians which is knowing when not to play too! He has a great voice and fronts the duo really, with me chipping in or singing lead vocals occasionally as and when. We've got that telepathy thing sorted so it really is a breeze playing with him. I'm considering retiring from being on the road with my main band next year, but can't ever see a time when we won't be gigging with the duo. We have a monthly residency in a local pub, and also regular gigs at a restaurant in Scarborough which is an absolute delight to play ( see pic below). On top of that we do functions / weddings etc as well as my local pub over the road and others. He's a fully pro player, so it works pretty well - the main issue being when we get offered gigs is whether we are both available. (No YT footage I'm afraid, although there may be something lurking I'm unaware of.)

It does appear that the strict answer to the original question is 'no'. However, by branching out into other areas you can, and a good few here, do.

Yes to both of the above. Like many, I've done my share of playing in toilets to animals who hated me because every penny counted. Now I'm retired and reasonably comfortable and don't have to do it, I don't. I won't play for nowt ("It's for charity", etc) on principle, but as long as I cover my expenses plus a couple of beers and the experience is enjoyable, I'm happy. I appreciate I'm fortunate, but I did do my time/pay my dues back in the day, so I guess I earned it.

Wonderful story, thank you! I've often wondered how strict a "no substance abuse" policy bands should have, given the prevalence of drugs and alcohol in society and particularly the rock 'n' roll scene? So it's illuminating hearing about the damage it can do, as it's not widely spoken about or shared, but I guess that's a whole different thread and a complete side-track on this one... In terms of your acoustic duo, what is the set up on that in terms of instrumentation and vocals? (Any YT footage?)

After 45 years of playing and having more basses than a guy should. I’ve come to the point where the P is the bass that best suits my style of play and I can get any tone I want. I constantly am fighting with my J basses to get anywhere near the tone I want. But, that’s me, play what you love and just enjoy. That’s the great thing about bass….there’s no wrong bass. 😃

Only brilliant for improvising if you wanted a 4 hour 12 bar blues track!

Last night I dropped over to see the cab and head my friend picked up. She got a Darkglass MicroTubes 500 v1 with the SC112. First thing I did was pick up the cab , and the weight brought a smile. And then we dialed in the amp , and I was encouraging her to spin the knobs. She was amp shy at first , but was quickly over that. Most of the amp tuning was at fairly low levels , but we did check it out at volume. … nice! I love that cab. It would be fun to do a side by side comparison to my Berg HDN112. She seemed to move to a fairly traditional old school thump. She likes her bass bassy. She was delighted to pick up a “forever cab” as her first one.

No idea what make of bass I've been (and will be) associated with 🙄🤣😂

I suspect that the real world cost of living is having an impact on us all. ☹️ Or to put it another way: GAS PRICE HIKES HIT GAS! "We can barely afford the bass-ics" say UK forum members. "It was buy food or a Fodera, but fortunately I found a can of tuna under the stairs" (more on p34)

Yep and I can't play the bagpipes either, thankfully.. 😁

I can't help thinking that a lot of the anti slap brigade are people who can't do it.

The G3 Atom finally arrived today, so I spent all evening wiring it. Some of the audio cables runs are a bit tight but they all just about reached (still had to order more as there wasn't enough left over to wire up the pink fuzz). Underneath is a bit of a birds nest but I'm waiting for the extra wiring to tighten up the cable ties. Otherwise the Atom is great, I can finally switch between multi-pedal patches instantly. Bit weird for a bass player, but absolutely necessary when you play in fusion/jazz/prog power trio!

I can understand taking a second banana as a spare, but did you really need a whole box of them?

Sweet bass, real nice find. I've just seen this thread, the bass sounds awesome. You have original soldering on the pots so its almost 100% certain the pickups have never been out or fiddled with. I can tell you exactly what happened with the bridge. At some point an owner took the neck off - for whatever reason, probably to adjust the truss rod. When they put the neck back on and re-strung, they noticed the strings weren't aligning evenly down the bass and treble sides of the fretboard. Something they probably never even thought of before, let alone noticed - and then they couldn't remember if the E and G strings were always like that - so they panicked and their conclusion was..."the guy at the factory didn't mount the bridge dead centre in the middle". So they moved the bridge to what they thought was the "correct" position. Problem solved, E and G strings both the same distance from the edge of the fretboard. A global rookie mistake - I've owned more than one P Bass or Jazz with two sets of holes under the bridge. The stupid part? It's not a commonly shared set-up technique, but when attaching the neck, before fully tightening the neck mounting screws, you string up. Then you check that the E and G are equidistant from the fretboard edges. If one string is closer to the edge, all you gotta do is pull the neck by grasping it around fret one towards the side that has the bigger gap between the string and the fretboard edge. Then once you've eyeballed it and it looks good, you tighten down the neck bolts. The bridges were never mounted off-centre by mistake - they used jigs to drill all the main holes on the body and neck. Neck pockets will have a tiny amount of play - even if a neck pocket is super tight, you can still tweak it a fraction to either side to align the strings perfectly. Anyhoo, killer bass you got there, nothing like an early 70's with the B width neck. I just picked up a 73 - the thing was buzzing out everywhere, truss rod was all wrong, and the the G was almost off the edge of the fretboard. I don't know if the seller was a player or not, but this thing was unplayable. Sitting in its glorious original case. But a couple of turns on the truss rod, an alignment of the neck before tightening the bolts and a re-intonation and it is incredible. Ten minutes and no re-drilling of the bridge lol... The photo being taken from slightly above actually makes it look like I haven't aligned the strings..made me laugh after the alignment issue I described...

Never heard them called that but I suppose they do look like it 😁, here you go

I had three 70s Precisions, a 77 with rosewood fretboard and two 78s with maple. One of the maple ones was seriously the most aggressive bass I’ve ever played, I named it Ian Paisley after the politician as it barked just like he used to. The other two were decent enough basses but IP, well for punk it was pretty awesome.

Well, I’m also a ‘76 vintage and I’m not worth 4K either. Sob.

1991, the "Leo Fender Signature" basses were made the year he died. (I have one but fretted)

There is a 74 jazz bass in the studio. Everyone hates it. There is also a 74 p bass - everyone loves that - regularly wins in the blind listening shoot out against all sorts of other basses (not all - it lost out against a new squire jazz the other week). I think modern quality control is often much better than it used to be. 4K is crazy money!

You really want to feel smug… get one of the Squier 40th Anniversary Vintage P basses. Absolutely killer looks(Dakota Red), fit, finish, a neck that is amazing, and sounds fantastic! Plus super light. Mine is 3.12 kg

So, "yes, we have no bananas"..... etc

I doubt any of our punters would notice what I'm playing even if I left my bass at home and played a kazoo instead.

I hope the dog didn't get in free

Impressive packing skills there, I hope the car boot sale was a great success!

I made a living predominantly from playing for a few years, but supplemented it with bits of sound engineering, driving bands about on tour, that sort of thing. All the full timers I know are doing a mix of functions, more frequent but lower paid bar gigs, bits of teaching or studio work, and various bits to fill in the gaps. I went the other way, hung up the bass (from a professional standpoint - I still play for pleasure) and threw myself in to the backstage side of it, and I'm now fairly busy all year round straddling multiple roles in live production on fairly decent sized shows - tour management, production management, sound engineering and backline teching. There's decent living to be made from music, but it's hard graft, you've got to build a good network of people and a reputation for being decent at your job and pleasant to work with, and be good at sniffing out opportunities to do things. It's also very tough on family life and if you've got a family, requires huge compromise and sacrifice from yourself and and your partner to make it work. It's not for everyone, but it's out there if you really want it.

We only do this one Blue, as a favour for the owner who I’ve known for a few years. It’s actually quite enjoyable, and the residents seem to like it. When my Dad was alive, I used to take him to regular ‘singing with dementia’ afternoons, and it was really moving to see people who struggled with their everyday life managing to remember lyrics and tunes from their younger days. It’s also easy to think the residents all like really old stuff, when in reality most of them probably remember seeing the Beatles and the Stones in their youth! We do requests, and the ones we get back that up - usually Elvis / rock n roll / 60’s stuff is popular, with the occasional standard thrown in too. It’s lovely to see how they react when we play their favourite songs.

I'd like to do some care home gigs. It just seems like it would be fun and I'm sure the residents are appreciative. And it's " giving back" to the community. I couldn't get my band members on board with it. I couldn't even get them to listen to the idea. They ignored me. Blue

Why not escape brand slavery and try other brands who do make 32" P basses?

This series took me from not being able to slap properly at all to being sort of OK in a few weeks. I'll never be Marcus Miller or Victor Wooton though.

I cannot attest to BD’s service and despite the honesty of all BCers, the comments on here cannot properly be calibrated. You have to make your own mind up. My beef with them was a criticism of a manufacturer that they did not sell, that seemed spiteful. One of the things I learnt in my working life was never to criticise your competitors. If you do, you may allienate all their happy customers.

Don't think the intention is to crush your dream but trying to take away the rose-tinted glasses of being a full time bassist. It can definitely be done but we are all just trying to show how difficult it can be. Obviously some guys do it but they do appear to be few and far between. @spencer.b has managed by sound of it. It would help to know his background and how he got to being full time and make it work . I don't have the experience of being a full time bassist so i'm looking at it from a different angle. I lack that level of commitment. Its a hobby for me and i like it that way. I'm retired with a decent pension. I don't want to feel that i'm back working again. Dave

A new band would be tough. Most new bands are not together long enough to even see their first gig. Just finding 4 guys to fully commit to a band where your all on the same page is a challenge in itself. Getting into an established band with a years worth of solid bookings would be the safest bet. But finding that band and landing the gig would be tough. Blue