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I'd have ticked the box 'All of the above', if there had been one. It depends entirely on the song, so, for different songs, I (in the case of the drum part...) or the bass player (Our Youngest son...) will do any, and have done all, of the choices shown. When I was playing bass, I'd do the same. 'Nail it' if I'm able to, 'Close enough' if I'm not, 'Embellish' if it works better that way, 'Dumb it down' for the same reason, and adapt to the group's style when there's an obvious mis-match. Nice try, though.

I bought this on eBay - to my astonishment the seller accepted an offer from me that was below my ceiling price for a Faker - and it arrived just this afternoon. To my untrained eye it looks and sounds very much like a Rickenbacker. Certainly heavy enough! That, if anything, will be the deal breaker for me but I am going to give it a go because I think we are going to get on famously. So - no brand name on the truss rod cover or identifying marks that I can see externally. What is this likely to be - one of Cushin Gakki ones? Whatever it is I am going to call it my Sprackenbacker that being close enough to my name to make me smile every time I say it.

I'm a professional musician. Just not a full-time one. I also don't do my desk job full-time, but that doesn't mean I'm amateur at it. It's just semantics.

I'll settle for happy musician - which I am.

Why "Verses". Its not a knockout competition. Aspirations aside we all do the best we can with the time we have for music. Some have, or chose to prioritise, lots of time for music, others have to fit it in around life. I like to think I am an amateur with a pro attitude. The only way I would have loved to be a pro would have been in a band with my mates playing and recording the music we had writen. As for a hired hand or a session player, no thank you.

My (ex pro) Dad used to say that an amateur practices until they get it right. A pro practices until they can't get it wrong. That'll do for me.

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The board has had an update. Meatbox and ls2 exit stage right. Enter Xerograph Delux! I'm really happy with my board now. No changes for a whyle now.

I don’t feel remotely guilty about having nice gear. If my financial situation changed and I needed to sell it all to pay the rent I wouldn’t feel bad about that either. I could easily get away with an entry level Yamaha fiver or similar if needs be. No need to justify it. You earned it, spend your money on whatever you like

Pino Palladino. Walked in and someone was playing something downstairs amongst the vintage Fenders... I thought the player sounded good. Turns out he was. I'm not a great bassist by any stretch because I've only just started relearning but I can safely say my mind went blank... Oh well. Scales it is!

Diddnt think it necessary to start a new thread about this, so I thaught the folks here might appreciate it. Custom 3D printed power supply brackets under my board for my recently acquired zuma. Previously my 2 power supplies were only just covering my needs. Some pedals were under supplied but worked so I ignored it. Now everything has pleanty and I can genuinely say is sounds way better! A revelation for me. Anyway pics.....

So in the next instalment of my live video journey (OK, I know they aren't gigs but I'm upping my vid skills right now so my next band ones are better). Here's me filming a friend's promo material. I'm quite happy considering it was filmed in the confines of a front room in Smethwick with a couple of mics! Again, all totally live, no fix in post BS. So, the new grey card is working well but funnily enough, these vids just didn't seem to work well in colour (so kinda negating the whole reason for having the grey card), so I dropped them into a lovely shade of err... monochrome blueness. I'm kind of glad that I suggested that she change over the mic to the Super 55 - it turns out it fits the vibe nicely, especially with the jazz box instead of the acoustic.

My trusty Pbass bitsa!!

I bumped into that Pino Pastorious at our Internet Addiction Counselling and he says that work has dried up since he joined Basschat and stopped practicing - but he does have a shedload of really interesting pedals.

Was trying to stay out of harm's way this year. Got to February and decided I needed a PJ. There's a really good USA Deluxe for sale on here, but I decided I wanted a passive. Spotted this at Bass Direct... and next thing it's here. Yet more of Corona's finest. This one's a '98 Special with std P neck of the period, passive VVT controls. First excuse the rubbish pics - old phone and too mean to replace. Now then - really don't know what the previous owner of some 22 years did with this bass... absolutely nothing I suspect. It's like new old stock. He never even opened the poly bag with all the candy in - it's still sealed complete with truss rod key. And there's a clue. So Bass Direct listed it as cleaned and set up. Well, it wasn't set up cos that truss rod has never been touched I think, since it left the factory. Still, all went very well and neck now exactly how I like it, with new EB Cobalts fitted. So far - really good, sounding quite glorious through my GB900 and PJB 6B cab. It definitely sounds P-like with the front p'up full, back (bridge) off, and then I get a load of interesting sound options including the back p'up funk thing, and a fab scooped both-full + full treble sound. Been a Precision fan for years but never tried a P/J. I think I'm going to like this... and it's very shiny

TL;DR -- we had a power cut but managed it anyway. As per my status update, I was in the studio with Train To Skaville this weekend. Set-up on Saturday afternoon, recording Sat evening and all day yesterday. Or at least, that was the plan. The idea was to record 3 takes of each song 'live' as a band and patch up or cut/paste any hiccups after. We put 3 songs in the can on Saturday evening and had another 12 planned for Sunday. All was going well and we were blasting through take 2 of Rancid's "Time Bomb" when Ciara put the lights out... We waited for a while -- "anyone want tea while we w... oh boIIocks" -- until a google revealed that half of Wiltshire was fecked and we were looking at probably a 6 hour wait. Hold on, says Gil the keys, I know a bloke who hires generators... could we make that work? A quick scout around the control room and some fag packet work and yeah, if we just plug in the bare bones of what we need and forget most of the rack gear then why not? Jim from Powerline turns up with his trailer genny and ten miles of electric spaghetti, and much plugging and trailing and swearing and we're back in business. We finished all the songs as planned, a bit later than planned but with a sense of triumph in the face of adversity. What a TOTALLY BRILLIANT weekend. Here's engineer-producer Steve in the moodily-lit control room. The live room wasn't much brighter

Entirely depends on how the rest of the band play it and how closely their instrumentation and arrangement match the original.

So the answer is to play them! Who knew? Well I think my initial post was me in what could be loosely termed as 'a period of the bass doldrums' (just left of the actual Intertropical Convergence Zone). The possibility of the duo I play in ending had simply cast a dumb cloud over my head and I am un type psychologique who tends to throw the baby out with the bathwater, demolish the bathroom along with the rest of the house, set fire to the wreckage and dance around the fire. My usual overreaction to such an event would be to sell up all my gear and take up with a passing circus or something but after some wise words from @Al Krow (thanks dude) and a short period of thought I picked up the short scale Recurve and started writing. Well, the reason I love the Rob Allen Mouse is that every time I pick it up to just noodle I end up writing a new bass line, or at least coming up with the kernel of something new, music just seems to fall out of it. I always have a 'cooling off period' with new basses before they either get moved on or stay, in all honesty the only one that has ever really stuck has been the RA. This is almost certainly a contributing factor in my ambivalence towards new basses, subconsciously I'm thinking "It isn't going to be as good as the mouse", not in a quality way but in a do I want to play this all the time? way. On Monday I had a little series of notes running around my head, I went to pick up the Mouse but picked up the new Recurve instead. Now its Wednesday (no Craig David quips please) and I have almost an entire songs worth of lovely bass line and I can't put the Recurve down. I think I might finally have found the perfect fretted bass to compliment the fretless Mouse. ...although don't quote me or it. Now what do I do with the ACG Harlot..?

The one big thing I was taught at uni is the requirement to have what they called a portfolio of skills, so you earning from playing, teaching, arranging, maybe writing too. It’s all music, I don’t get up at 7am and spend all day working in a shop or factory. Yesterday I was at uni for a PhD thing, yesterday evening I was teaching, right now I’m doing PhD work, this afternoon I’m teaching. There’s very few people I can think of that only play.

🤩 To speed things up I've just emailed all my bank details direct...

I’ve not watched the vid, but seeing as I don’t earn my living from music I’m amateur - with the most professional outlook on it all that I can manage.

Having spent two and a half years recording an album with my good friend Rich, we decided to take some songs out for a road test at the local open mic. A rip roaring success. Richard Davies & the Dissidents go live this year. An indie deal is about to be signed for the record and proper live dates to follow. Loving this phone snap.

Until recently I was after a P bass, but then I made a bass I already had work better for the P bass with flats thing. I looked at the Stingray 5HH before I bought that one, and I knew about the Stealth Black, but never spotted one second hand, so when this one came up on BC while I still had the money I'd put aside, that seemed like the universe telling me I needed this bass in my life. Well, that's my way of justifying buying yet another thing anyway. It's... well, it's a Stringray 5HH. I know the HH doesn't sound the same as the H (or HS), but I want this as a rock bass and I think it will do that nicely. The bridge pickup is right there for me, great sound. I'm just figuring out which amp models it likes, Ampeg ones seem to work unsurprisingly. I can see it being played with a pick more than my other 2. Also, it looks the absolute dogs IMO, quite hard to photograph though. How much more black could it be? None more black.

Went in to the Bass Gallery today to put my old bass up for commission sale and try a few basses out. Thank you to the excellent staff in there for all their help and subsequent set up. I am now a very happy owner of the Sadowsky Will Lee they had for sale in there, although one of my idols was in there at the same time getting some work done on their basses so had no idea what to play! Really versatile bass and way too good for me but I am unlikely to be in a position where I could do something like this again.

Sanded back the orange a bit, as I wanted more burl visible. Started roughing the maple neck. The Birdseye fingerboard will have binding and blocks

Follow it the best you can, then make it your own with what you cant, or what doesnt work for your band. I always look at it that if you give 100 people a paragraph to read out loud, then everyone will be read out differently, but say the same message. Different pronunciation, phrasing, dynamics, but all come across good because they are natural. Not forced. And they all say the same thing. Try to copy someone exactly and it just wont sound right. Maybe something you cant put your finger on, but you can tell something is not quite right or doesnt sound natural. I look at musicianship the same way. No 2 musicians will be exactly the same, no two bands will play the same piece exactly the same way. Embrace it and enjoy it.

Most professional musicians I know, have a wife who has a proper job.

In the ac/dc tribute I play in we do the songs the way that they were done originally. Sometimes we play the live versions as they can be slightly different from the recorded versions but unlike some other dc tributes, we never add in extra fills or tart them up. Our drummer especially is right on the money which means a lot. We have a loyal following and they seem to appreciate the way we remain true to the original songs. It might seem a bit restrictive to some but getting the chance to play great tunes from one of my favourite bands makes it a great gig.

Very informative vid. I used to get so hung up on being good at everything that I stopped enjoying what I was naturally good at which is simplicity and solid time and feel. Food for thought.

I’ve just left my band, we set up 6 years ago and have got to the point where I could no longer continue with the punishing schedule, so a replacement was sought, and he’s doing well. I was asked yesterday how much weight we booked for my bass on flights, I replied and asked where they were heading this time - Athens. I’m glad to know that they’re still going from strength to strength, that was another reason for me leaving, to not stand in the way of the progression. It was all done amicably, though more difficult than we anticipated as we had to remove me from the business, re-register the business address and buy me out. Who said punk was about rebelling eh?

My Youtube recommendations have led me to this groovy 70's psychedelic rock & funk instrumental album by a European band I'd never heard of before..... niiiiiice....

Anyone else read that as 'get back to me, Pie a*se'?

Nothing eye opening at all in that vid. Stating the bleeding obvious and sweeping generalisations. If you can make money by posting vids like that and get away with it then good luck to the guy. Wish I had thought of it.

Goodness me look at that 😍 Always amazes me how thin KS basses are front to back. That is as fine an example of Craftsmanship as you will ever see...

That's a good, but the point is no one has to "settle" for anything. IMO the video is starting from the belief that most players will want to get better. The points are things that are not always obvious but knowing about them will help all players to improve in many areas.

There was another thread about this exact same thing recently which may have some ideas. It went a bit off track but it's BassChat isn't it.😁

Norfolk Music scene. What's it like? ...a bit flat at the moment.

^^ This. Nailed it (not literally thank goodness)! A bass doesn't have to be either purely functional e.g. only there to be gigged, or something that is "just" an object that you can love looking at and holding. Instruments can be both wonderful sounding and a delight to play and also stunning in design as a piece of workmanship. Gratuitous KS pic:

We do a few reggae tunes amongst the ska, my favourite of them is Bob Marley "Is This Love". It's a lovely bassline, and I just adore the message... 'I've got absolutely nothing but I'll share it all with you, we'll manage somehow'. And it only mentions Jah once. Lovely.

Maybe worth looking in any local Cash Converters or such like shops .

Rics are so not the instrument that so many players appear to think they are, i.e., an anachronistic throwback to a bygone era in terms of tone, playability, build quality and aesthetics (although I recognise that the third can be a problem - although arguably no worse than some other brands - and the fourth is a matter of taste). I always find it amazing how many people who slag them off, whilst basing their entire rhetoric on their experience of five minutes playing a badly set-up instrument through a Carlsbro combo in a shop in 1982, or simply on what they've read on forums. As Nick is finding out, Rics are f*****g awesome basses, that really do fill a gap between some of the more commonly used basses. In fact, I'm really not sure why I don't have one at present

The man who failed to earth?