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10 years ago, my brother and I did this: We participated in a Dutch TV quiz. While driving to the final round in my Fiat Panda, we fantasized about what we would do with the prize money. My brother (a drummer) said he'd have a drum kit built, and I said I'd buy a vintage Fender bass. Not long before that I was at Paul's Bass Matters here in NL to have some coffee and drool over vintage Fenders, as I did pretty often back then because I lived very close to his shop. That specific time, I played on a 1966 Jazz that was absolutely perfect for me. It had everything. The colour was right, dots & binding on the neck, sound, feel, the lot. But then there was the price. The 19-year-old me thought he'd never be able to afford this kind of bass. And then we won. The prize money was more or less exactly the price of that bass. I don't recall it exactly but I think I sent Paul an e-mail that very day stating "please hold the bass for me, I'm coming for it". And so, a day before my 20th birthday, exactly 10 years ago, I drove to Nijmegen to pick up my favourite bass of all time. I take it to pretty much every recording session I do, and especially since it got some new frets last year, it's seeing more stages again. What a bass. Everything is absolutely perfect.

I'd give him another chance. Give him 5 songs to master for next time then give him all night to have them sorted in a band scenario. I can play just about anything, but cant 'jam' for love nor money. I absolutely hate it! and I'm useless at it. He may just be a player who can play what hes practiced. Also, nerves play a huge role when first meeting up. Once he relaxes he may be fine. If after that he isnt up to it, and doesnt have the enthusiasm to improve, then take it from there.

He may not be a jamming type of guy, but can get a decent part together with some practice beforehand, I know it takes me longer than my guitarist to sort something jamming out other than a root note, so we record it and revisit it the next week when I have had time to work something out (as long as the guitarist doesn’t change it!) Give him a workload which is fair and not unrealistic to learn for the next rehearsal and see where he is at, if he puts the work in, plays a decent tune and provides a consistent layer of sound that others who can jam over the top can fold around, then actually it’s not a bad thing. If he cannot pop together pre-prepared material either due to not being able to have the time to do the work, or he doesn’t play well enough, then that is another issue. Better to play with nice people of lesser ability than a genius who is a bell end

"All band members take one step forward!" "Not so fast sunshine, where do you think you are going?"

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.

b) kind of - maybe not "you're not good enough" though, as this may cause long term issues with his playing / development. Maybe something more constructive - that you're looking for someone to fully contribute to writing and the creative process and that he's just not ready / at the same level as everyone else, which will cause frustrations for both parties. OR,if he's keen and you could happily be with the type of personality in the band situation, do you have the time to spend with him helping him develop?? I've been in bands with people with amazing ability, but horrendous personalities - I'd go for the better personality 9 times out of 10.

I must go & see this before it ends in April. Its good to see that Paul's bass is resting on a nice padded cushion to prevent it from getting damaged.

An interesting take on the 1973 classic Radar Love by those wonderful DCR chaps from down south in Hampshire. Enjoyed playing my P bass on this track which was put together by the Bass Doc and features a vintage p bass pickup by Eternal Guitars.

Personally I would work on this Dave , because now you’re conscious of it you can pay more attention to keeping the thumb on the back of the neck, the only time my thumb does that is when I’ve been playing for a long time and I’m getting tired 🙂

Title of my forthcoming autobiography, there.

It's probably very good for fracking.

Of course having gone through all this he will be in touch shortly telling you that you are not quite what he's looking for so he's letting you all go.

She was awesome!

I should add another important exception to the rule, I always stick to the original bassline if it was written by a master. The day I think I can come up with better than Jamerson, Osborn, Kaye, Entwistle, Watt-Roy or Thomas is the day I need sectioning.

Don’t we all son... don’t we all.

Ok - (had to go desktop to post this, as my mobile was being annoying) Lookit - new '51 P Bass model in 32” scale announced from the ever inventive @Chownybass Reading further: Retrovibe will offer a Custom version too. This could be very GAS-inducing!

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.

Teddy Swims. If you haven't heard of him yet, then check this out. Stunningly beautiful.

Could be. Mrs Trueno swears by tonic water for alleviating cramp. Don't dilute it with too much gin, though.

The Clash and Paul Simonon were / are a big part of my musical life so I really enjoyed the exhibition. It was great to see the instruments, clothes, artefacts etc from a band and an album that changed my life. It was great to see Paul’s bass up close. It’s an iconic object for sure, but also it was good to see and photograph it in detail as I’m building a replica at the moment. Intact though haha.

A bit of buggering about with the supplied foam and packing out the lid foam a bit deeper and job done.

The gist seems to be that how close you get depends upon the situation and the song. As a bassist in a covers band the aim for me is to serve the band and serve the song in that order. It's rare for the rest of the band to play a song note for note so you will have to adapt a little anyway. The multitracking in anything recorded since the mid 60's make it impossible for five people to cover what can 30+ recorded tracks anyway. Just as a simple example you can't play the bass to Walk On The Wild Side with a single bass however clever you are. If the drummer plays a different rhythm then I'm going with the drummer. I'll even have a go at a guitar fill if there's only one guitar and a two part bit of the song. I've a pet hate though, I can't bear it when a band can't be bothered to learn the song 'properly'. I've no problems at all with rewriting it or re-arranging it but there's a certain sort of musician (guitarists mainly) who seem to think if they have the chords for the verse and chorus they don't even need to listen to the song. I kind of think that if you are going to mess with a song people love you need a reason; keys solo when you don't have keys, too difficult to play, just bored and want to mix it up a bit, want to make the song your own are all fine reasons but drop that bit because you can't be assed (escaped the filter ) and then claim it's artistic integrity... You are in a covers band for Pete's sake.

Marty McFly?

Well the answer could easily be Sister Rosetta Tharp. She's certainly better than many others I've heard from the era. https://laughingsquid.com/sister-rosetta-tharpe-godmother-of-rock/

must admit when we dumped our last drummer we got the new one to start booking rehearsals under his name so we couldn't be tracked down. Old drummer was a dangerous man. During today ive since found out our guitarsist has booked himself as not available for a lot of the spring and summer weekends. partly because of the football, and the rest he is just going away with his wife etc I will not pull my punches when he gets the chop.

If you read it a year ago it would have been a vastly different (and quite impenetrable) manual. Also it would have been for v2; v3 is very different. My new version was released at the end of October. I completely rewrote it, added screenshots, examples, wrote new sections on useful stuff and rendered it into clear English so it’s a completely different beast. Read it either here or from within the editor under the “help” menu tab.

This is tricky. But maybe here’s some language to help put your message across tactfully. (Always say ‘we’ and not ‘I’ – to show it’s what the band thinks collectively, not your personal opinion) · - We’re not sure you’re ready for this yet. · - Your playing’s coming on well, but we’re not sure you can handle this – you’ll be under a lot of pressure. · - It’s obviously going to take up a lot of your time preparing the material – we’re not sure you can really spare the time for this. · - We’re not sure you’re the right fit for this material. · - We’re not sure you’re on the same page as us. · - We’re not sure you have the breadth of experience you’ll need for this. · - You’d certainly fit in well as a person but we’re not sure it would work musically.

It's an Ibanez... Or maybe not... No idea what make it is, but it looks great, so enjoy it for what it is... a bass that needs to be played.

I don't think one pink highlighter is enough.

Having given that a little more thought (as I was fettling the pickup height on a false jazz bass), I reckon beta males such as ourselves, David Byrne out of Talking Heads, etc -- are alright... it's the alphas that shouldn't be allowed to be singers. 👍

Fella can sing alright, but to my ears it's identikit mawk-by-numbers, headed straight for a regular Jools slot. Nothingremotelyunusual/10

There is a lot more to being a pro than that. Getting enough work to pay the bills for one. I can play stuff blind, in the dark and in my sleep, doesn't make me a pro. Its just playing by rote. Creativity is the measure of a musician for me.

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

Great singer. I love it when ones expectations are confounded. The woman in this vid' of a covers band looks as if she works in the local hairdressers, but boy can she sing -

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

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.

50 years ago today, heavy metal started, with rain and a bell

Hang on in there Dave, I experienced similar when I bought my 2015 US Standard Precision, it had a far chunkier neck than I’d played before and my fretting band was cramping for the first two or three weeks I had it. And also similarly I put up a post on here and was advised to hang in there, so did and all was fine as I got used to it.

Bloody hell. That's going to need sorting out. Thank you!

Knocking the headstock off a gibson isn't the end of the world - chap I know had his invisibly repaired for £65, and its almost expected for an old one to have a repair in its history. If fitting four pedals is such a pain in the ar$e for the manufacturer, he should probably try fitting them using his hands instead.