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Just saw an advertisement on my Instagram feed. Paramount+ 5/12/23. Geddy Lee; 'Are Bass Players Human Too?' This looks good fun.

Recently got this beautiful 55-94 as well as the HX stomp. Going minimalist with my board. Christmas came early for me haha

I consider myself technically a very average bass player, very average, but rightly or wrongly I also consider myself to be musically/artistically and acoustically/structurally literate. The best compliment I ever received from a fellow musician was: "You're one of those players who no-one notices until you stop playing". I try to live by that, don't stand out, be part of the whole, but nonetheless make a difference. You don't have to be much cop at bass to do that 👍

To this day, I still really enjoy early Rush (aside from Caress of Steel), but fell out of love from Signals on. The one overriding thing with them though - Neil Peart included - is that it's obvious there's huge chemistry between them, there's humour and they really don't seem to have any issue in poking fun as themselves. Just look at the dinner film they did. It's hilarious. Like many of us here, we've seen the Beyond The Lighted Stage documentary and from this and the many interviews with Geddy and Alex, like Taylor Swift, they seem incredibly likeable - the Dan Rather thing with Geddy Lee was great too. I'm of the belief that the joy we can get from Geddy transcends music itself. Looking forward to this.

Guitarist's view of what makes a good bass player - plays the roots. Drummer's view of what makes a good bass player - locks in with the drums. Singer's view of what makes a good bass player - plays the right notes. Bass player's view of what makes a good bass player - owns a van, PA, lights, organises gigs and rehearsals, breaks up fights, designs websites and prints setlists...

(with thanks to the GIMP and sincerest apologies to Gallien-Krueger...)

I am looking forward to packing away someone else's Spectors. Ideally, Guy Pratt's! I can add it to Paul McCartney's Hofner....

If I’m not in a band , I will rarely play bass at home , I much prefer to pick up a Classical guitar and play that until I manage to wheedle my way into a band as a bassist . As previously said , there is always the natural ebb and flow of playing music , I don’t think you can sustain 110% effort all the time without some burnout or disinterest. My current band suits me very well , we mainly gig in Summer, our rehearsals are very low stress social events , lots of chat and cups of tea , lots of varied and unusual material to try , we all know we are never going to play Wembley , For me , the key is to enjoy music / playing bass.

I'm going to try to get over to this. It looks like it's going to be busy. I'll bring some LFSys cabs, including a brand new model, together with a Veyron amp and Squier CV Precision. I'm looking forward to meeting all the familiar names I've read over the years but never met.

There's another HPF thread here. (I've partly quoted my response from there). I've recently added the Sine H24 to my board, at the end of the line. I can't compare it with any other HPF. We have a regular sound guy and he was showing me the EQ he uses for my bass in the FOH sound. It had a cut at 35hz and since I like the sound he gets, I thought I'd invest. I tried the Sine at rehearsals, going in to a TCE BAM200 and a 1x15" bass cab. The Sine was set to cut 30hz (the lowest setting). I could definitely hear a difference with it engaged. Very subtle but it tightened the sound up. We record all our rehearsals (just in case we want to release a 'Lost Tapes' retrospective 😂). The recording had a more defined bass guitar sound (all other factors - mic position, recording levels etc - being equal). The master volume on the amp was slightly lower than usual. A non-scientific review, I know, but enough for me to be placing this as a permanent 'always on' pedal on the board.

Yeah.... about that.... Err..... I hope you take soul crushing, world ending disappointment with a smile.

This Saturday, in Hereford...

(Instant) Whip It! ～ Devo

Build one?

The main problem (in my opinion based on several interactions) with BD is Marcus (not Mark). Unbelievably rude and arrogant - acts in such a condescending and patronising way, absolutely no excuse for that - it's been something that's been said on here many many times. Honestly, I don't understand why Mark keeps him around. Lose him, hire someone that can at least act like they give a single toss, and BD would hugely benefit.

On a good day I think I'm a decent bass player considering that I'm an amateur enthusiast. I could definitely have been a professional if I had wanted to be, bearing in mind that to be a professional you don't need to be great, you just need to get paid. My goal from when I got my first bass when I was twelve years old was always to be a good player. I wasn't even that bothered about being in a band. Forty-odd years later I still feel the same way and I'm still tormented by the need to improve even though I am only playing at home for my own amusement nowadays. I've seen and heard some superb bass playing from Basschatters over the years, for sure. Occasionally I have also seen some very average to poor playing too, sometimes from members who have stressed and obsessed about the finer details a equipment choices. That in itself has been a valuable lesson. It's much easier to improve your equipment than your playing. Good luck to all of them anyway. What's for sure is that if I don't have something nice to say then I say nothing at all. It's worth mentioning that I've endured an awful lot (much too much) virtuosic bass playing by pro players that was incredibly dreary and self-indulgent. I would much rather listen to amateur players who play with conviction at whatever level than have endure competent twaddle, so I definitely wouldn't necessarily equate how technically proficient a bass player is with how enjoyable the music is.

I should be getting a fretless tomorrow, and I have a gig on saturday. Seems like the ideal oportunity to find out if it is a good idea

Yes, because they have eleventy-five Spectors to pack away... 🙄

Dirty Old Man — Martha Turner

Moves like Jagger - Moron 5

Buy a whole cab from Stevie pre made and all the design and DIY niggles taken care of!

You’re My Best Friend - Queen

Being competent will do for me. As long as I play the right notes in the right order, I'm happy.

I have plenty of hangups about my playing. I know loads of people who can play better than I can. However, a drummer who knows once told me I put the beat in a sexy place and that is good enough for me.

Despite gigging more or less continuously at 20-30 gigs a year with a covers band I’d probably describe myself as barely adequate. Far too lacking in confidence to even try out gear if it means playing in front of other bassists. It can take me weeks to learn some songs and I rely heavily on tabs and chord charts. If it’s not in ultimate guitar I’m lost. I know my limitations and work within them. I’ve along list of skills I want to accomplish so s*** hot? I’m not. I’m sure bass playing is like every other human skill, normally distributed: 20% of us are truly skilled, 20% are awful and 60% of us are intermediate. A little story, I came to bass via cricket. I have one skill, I can throw straight. I can’t catch and I definitely can’t bat. I’m not big or strong but at my best I can bowl accurate line and length and I’ll happily run round a boundary all day. I can do maths as well and realised we won more matches when I played than when I didn’t. Some of my team were in a band and they needed a bassist. However crap I was they would be better with me than without a bassist and I let myself be persuaded. I could hold a beat and hit a root and mostly that was enough. I’ve played in bands with people with genuine talent and skills but sometimes in life, music and cricket a good line and length, holding down an end is all you need.

The deadwood stage - DD (so lovely, they named a bra size after her)

Last one of the year for us, at our second home and sometime recording venue. We're 60% sold already, which is nice and we'll be showcasing some of the new stuff as well.

Mark needs to recruit, train and manage his staff better than he does. They lost my business by taking payment for a £1500 item that was not in stock and it appears was never going to be, and then when I contacted them they pretty much blanked me, forcing me to get PayPal involved to secure a refund. Mark was away at the time, which perhaps explains the problem, but even so it’s still his responsibility. He should make sure his staff don’t lose him customers as the result of poor training and poor systems

I came close to giving up some years ago. Instead I started collecting unusual bass guitars, although I've now reduced the collection somewhat. I kept my hand in, played with a folk outfit for a bit but quit that when other members demonstrated their lack of regard for the time I was committing to the project. Then I got contacted by a lifelong friend and former bandmate asking if I'd be interested in getting involved in a musical project with him and a very talented songwriter. I seized the opportunity, and now at the age of 51 am playing the best I ever have - creating music I am immensely proud of (including singing! ) with two great mates. We have a good laugh, we perform professionally and I am so glad I didn't jack it in.

My Caveman Audio BP1 Compact arrived this week - and all I can say is WOW 🤩 All the words people use to describe it that do sound a little bit generic (like ‘it sounds so clear without being harsh’ and ‘it just makes you sound better’) make perfect sense once you’ve played through it. I actually don’t really know how best to describe it, it wasn’t until I’d practiced for a few hours that I really started to understand it - it’s not just a sound, it’s how it feels under your fingers, it almost changes the way you play the to a degree because it makes he dynamics & subtleties of your playing shine through. Combined with a bit of the Marcus Miller-esque sizzle from the SBP-2 and the well known benefits of the Cali76, I reckon I’m pretty satisfied with my board. I’m gonna get a HX Stomp (or similar - any suggestions for any alternative that’s good for bass, like the Hotone Ampero, Headrush gigboard etc, are very welcome) for Dep gigs which I do quite a lot of, but for now I think I’m done….. 🤞 🤪

Ah different set of attributes to the rhythm guitarist in an ex band of mine who was in the band because (in order of relevance).... a) He had a van b) He had a PA c) He carried spares of everything from guitar strings to cables to mics to drumsticks d) He had a guitar Upside: Categorically one of the most useful band members I've ever had the pleasure of driving to and setting up a gig with. Lovely lovely guy, helped with everything. Always cheerful. Downside: Categorically the worst musician I have ever shared a stage with. Almost Les Dawson-esque in his note selection abeit without the immaculate sense of timing (or any sense of timing). Extremely toppy Telecaster compulsorily swamped in reverb by the rest of the band in an attempt to hide the undisciplined romp through the chromatic scale that defined his attempts to find the correct chords in each song. I lasted two gigs (in part because the singer was a complete prat as well), but still have fond memories of this guy's van, it was a 1980's music shop on wheels

Dee Murray has long been one of my favourite players and an inspiration. I always get the feeling he was one of those players who was naturally gifted. I don't think he had to practice the bass much, he just had an innate musicality that made it easy for him. He always knew how to make his playing interesting without ever getting in the way. A lot like Paul McCartney in that respect.

I'd say get whatever bridge takes your fancy that the base plate covers the existing screw holes, fill and redrill.

“when you stop playing Trav, we can hear the bloody song…” was my version of this 🤣

The point is that the sensitivity across the board is -2dB compared to the other speaker. There is no loss of relative volume at the low end, compared to the rest of the audible spectrum. To put it into perspective, at full power, that Gnome would be capable of driving the 12" to 119dB and the 10" to 117dB SPLs. With a 600 watt rated speaker, there would be little thermal or power compression. Surely enough for an acoustic gig?

It's all science and engineering until you start playing and using the stuff, then it's art. Unless you play like me, then is various noises. If it works for you, it is right.

One ting I would suggest is not to get too hung up on driver size. The work that @Phil Starr and I have done on smaller drivers, inspired by @stevie from LFSys, suggests that there is little to differentiate between some good 10s and even the best 12s. If you look at the LFSys range, for example, there is only 2 dB difference between the 12" Monaco and the 10" Monza with the same frequency response. I believe that @stevie has been investigating other drivers. Now 2dB between friends is not a lot, but you may find that on an 8 ohm speaker a Warwick Gnome would not put enough out for you, but our recent amp shoot-out suggests otherwise.

Reviews and clips of the three EFs I own. The Fwonkbeta has a huge bottom heavy sound, not very versatile but nothing else like it. The Supa Funk is the closest to a normal EF, quite subtle, the Funk Machine is mental and good for the extreme Brecker Brothers 'Sponge' sound or as an LPF.

You've not been to one of my gigs then?

Been absent for a little bit but have been playing a lot more. Added another SUB a couple of years ago I picked up super cheap and that was my main gigging bass for a good while. About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to grab one of the only 2 Darkrays in NZ. It has not disappointed!!

I always say that if you want a bass player who plays like me, I'm the best.

Bass direct is on an industrial estate in Warwick , which probably has zero footfall compared to the guitar shops in Denmark Street where everybody come in has a twiddle and then leaves without buying anything . Most people who visit will have driven there with the express purpose to buy , or at least be interested in something the shop has to offer . For myself , it involves an expensive ferry crossing and 300 mile round trip , but it’s worth it to try out the different amps and cabs which are not available anywhere else and get some forthright advise from the proprietor of the establishment. ( most of the people who worked in guitar shops in London were wannabe rock stars who were only interested in themselves , hence there lack of interest in the customer ) I agree 100% , if the support staff are not up to the job , find someone who is .

I know some very fancy tricks acquired over a period of 27 years - all of which time should’ve been spent learning theory and sight reading, stuff like that. So I sound like I really know what I’m doing but in reality I haven’t a foggy Feckin clue. It’s like the kid at school who could juggle a football doing keepie-uppies etc but never signed for United. but the bass version 🥴🥳