Leaderboard

Well, I'm having quite the week. This beauty arrived by UPS this morning, well packed, and undamaged. Straight out of the case it plays really well, only a little intonation required on the G string, which I'll get done in due course, and fix that long adjustment screw too which appears to be the only non-original part on the bass. It's light, only 8 1/2 lbs, feels great on a strap, and balances well. The neck is sublime, a well rounded deep C profile, and instantly feels comfortable and easier to play than the Squire P-Bass I've been playing for the last couple of months. I've not had chance to try it through my new Markbass rig yet as Mrs Rocks is working from home. I'm supposed to be working too, but a little distraction never hurt anyone did it? I'm chuffed to bits! Cheers, Rob

Ah, the 'we've booked you by accident' syndrome. Was in a folk/rock band, there was a local festival which was quite popular, we submitted a demo to try and get on the lineup but we'd put it in late and wasn't surprised to not get selected. Then, with not long to go and thinking we were just going to be in the audience, we got a call saying there had been a last minute cancellation by one of the acts and could we oblige. Of course was the answer but was very surprised to learn that the organisers had put us on as the headline band. Now we had been around for a bit, so in our egotistical minds this seemed plausible. Come the day, the organisers were chatting to us so no suspicions about mistaken identities. Then, the MC announces us with the line 'we're really excited to have booked this band, we've been trying to get them here for years...', at which point we all look at each other with wtf faces, ' please welcome THE *****'. Turns out we had the same name but without 'THE' in front of it as the band they thought they'd booked. We had never realised there was a band out there with a similar name as the 'real' band were doing much bigger gigs than us and our paths had never crossed. Well, no time to think about it, we went on and the set went down well. The organisers were happy and said they really enjoyed our new material. We never told them!

“I’m trying to thin the herd. What bass shall I buy?” Basschat in a nutshell.

@ossyrocks - step away from the long adjustment screw. It's 100% original.. that's how they were 🙂

How did I end up with this bass? Wasn’t I looking at P basses (yes, I was)? Well, whatever occurred to alter the search this drastically, I’m pleased with the result. I acquired my first short scale about 12 months ago, a JMJ Mustang, which really opened my eyes to the delights of short scale basses. Having watched and listened carefully to some YT demos and reviews, I pulled the trigger on this Daphne Blue, all maple necked beast. It’s all passive, but with some interesting little wiring shenanigans, namely: a series/parallel/single coil selector and a volume boost built into the volume pot. The boost seems a bit of a misnomer as, in reality, it’s a volume cut, the ‘normal’ setting being fairly quiet compared to my Mustang. So I’ll be keeping on boost permanently. The coil splitting is very good, without any really noticeable volume changes between the 3 settings and, unusually for me, I’ll be leaving that set to parallel (I normally opt for series). It comes with a nut width of 38mm, which I normally find too narrow, but combined with the extra girth that all maple necks from MM seem to have, it’s very comfortable and suits the diminished size well. The nut slots were cut a bit high, so I’ve taken them down about 1mm and the fret tang finishing on the sides is a bit untidy with inconsistent filler (some small pin holes and a lighter colour filler used). The tuners aren’t the best, with a little slop in them, they do the job though, they’re just not premium (some lightweight, Hipshot lollipops would be a great upgrade). It could possibly do with a bit more foam under the pickup to achieve more height as there is more adjustment available in the screws. However, those are the only shortcomings, the rest of the bass is pukka. It’s really nice to play and is super comfortable to wear, weighing in at a mere 3.4kg - happy days. Tonally, it does the ‘Ray thing really well for a passive bass, but adding my Sadowsky SBP2 into the chain and it’s a proper ‘Ray and really sounds great when slapped, which is weird as I don’t slap that often, but I couldn’t resist a bit of Higher Ground, Lessons in Love and School Days. At £599 it seems well priced, although no gigbag or adjustment tools seems a bit mean. Next to my Mustang it adds a really good tonal contrast, whilst still maintaining the short scale vibe and feel. OK, it’s early days, but I think I may have this one a good while (I daren’t tempt fate and call it a keeper just yet). Oh yeah…

This bad boy dropped on the doormat today. Will give it a whirl at tomorrows rehearsal.

Time for a 'drunken mates' one. Our first gig of 1994 was in Dublin's legendary Baggot Inn on lineup with 3 somewhat stylistically similar bands. Things were looking very promising when a group of nice young ladies who, I think, were friends with one of the other bands, invited us to a party after the gig. Our good friend Big Al was helping out with carrying gear and general bonhomie, which was nice, too. We went into the set in high spirits, but it was not to last. Our singer was a lovely guy but could be quite divisive, on first encounter. The Baggot Inn had a very low stage, no more than a few inches high, so you were just around eye-level with the audience. Some nights you click and some nights you don't and this was one of the latter. We had a song called "What's Your Name?" where our singer would ask members of the audience their name and introduce people to each other, over our smooth jazz backing. Sometimes, there was a follow-up question - "Where are you from?" - to which the audience member would say where they were from and our singer would usually say "That's... my kinda town" and it often went down well. This night was not one of those nights. He encountered someone who wasn't really playing ball and, of course, after really having to work to prise this information from the guy, it meant the guy's town was not our singer's kinda town. The guy was not so happy about this and walked right up to the stage, almost eye to eye with our singer, and made the deekhead sign at him, right in his face, then sat back down. I noticed he was sitting with the party girls who, I also noticed, were uninviting us from that party through the mean expressions on their faces. Back then, we would sometimes finish the set with a cover of Paranoid and it seemed quite apt on this occasion. When the guitarist would play the intro riff, our singer would rip off his jumper to reveal a ruffled pink silk shirt, to which he had crudely added home-made white tassels and do the oul Vol.4 pose. It usually went down a storm. Not this night, as you may have guessed, with one exception. Big Al was, by this point, in a state which is often known as "heroically" drunk and loved his Sabbath, as do we all. I noticed him crawling slowly across the stage behind me as we played through the first verse, reaching our singer as the second verse started to play and slowly, in the Rocky vs Apollo Creed in Round 15 style, used the mic stand to try to drag himself upright onto his uncooperative feet. He then proceeded to sing what was left of the song in the jazz style, you could say, several seconds behind our singer and with no respect for pitch or melody. It cane across as some kind of demented delay effect. Alas, not even this could win back the crowd and, after we finished, Al crawled slowly back off the stage as we packed up and left. No parties were attended that night.

I dunno, look at from my perspective, I’ve been playing bass for two months, and if people can put out records like that, with bass lines like that, then I have a very bright future ahead of me!

Not exactly an IKEA solution, but a furniture conversion nonetheless. Take one old wardrobe, remove everything except the top shelf, install Warwick guitar rack, and now my basses have nice safe dust- and sunlight-proof storage. Miscellaneous bits live on the shelf (batteries, tuner, books, etc etc etc), and straps/ leads/ stage clothes/ whatever hang inside the doors. The wardrobe itself is a bit cheap and nasty, so at some point I'm going to source another nicer/more contemporary one. Maybe even an IKEA one

Pic...

Only three or four years ago, New Years Eve, we (function trio) turn up to an agency gig (a new agent, too, whom the Singist/BL assured us was 'Bob on') at a working men's club; I'd originally been delighted, as it's a mile from my house - as with a lot of NYE gigs, the DJ was bound to want us to pack it in at 11:45 so he could do the chimes, etc; I could be home before midnight for once. The first small inklings that something might not be quite right were the posters saying 'Soul Band and Buffet' as we were loading in, but we thought that was another night. We got set up (with BC-approved Minimal Light Gear Including In-Ears, etc), on the very big stage, begin to soundcheck, and the landlord approaches. He looks confused, and not very happy. 'Where's the rest of you?' he said, with a kind of doomed, sinking tone in his voice. 'Sorry?' 'You know, the horn section...the rest of the band' 'Erm...this is it.' 'But...but...I booked a full Soul Band. Horns and everything.' 'Oh' 'Can you play any Northern Soul?' There's a pause. The singist has his acoustic around his neck. He decides honesty is the best policy. 'Not that you'd recognise, no.' We tried, we really did (after some furious Googling and scribbling backstage), but it was never going to happen. The audience weren't for giving us the benefit of anything, least of all the doubt. We did one set, then the DJ took over, and we slunk away. At least I was home in plenty of time before midnight. And we got paid, too, tho the agent (echoing the audience) seemed to think it was somehow our fault, and never booked us again. No loss there, to be fair... The only consolation was thinking some venue somewhere got a full Soul Band they weren't expecting...I'd like to think it was the back room of a small pub, and they blew the roof off...

I have a 68 Fender Precision which I bought new at the start of 1969. I'd have to be in a wheelchair, but even then I can't see me selling that bass.

January report - still in. Gear bought - 0 Basses sold - 1 Music shops visited without incident - 2 Bring on February

Elvis Costello - Pump It Up

That’s me definitely out, the Sterling ‘Ray short scale arrived today and I like it. Good luck to all those still abstaining.

I've always found playing fretless changes my playing style somewhat, I'm a very aggressive player on a fretted bass, striking the strings very hard to get attack and plenty of clang. Playing fretless makes me back that off a bit and get more laid back and (possibly) more melodic... I played unlined to begin with, had a lovey Wal Pro 1 at one point in the 80's, but now have a defretted SR5 and I found the lines do help with my less than perfect intonation. I've gotten used to having them now and the rather beautiful fretless that Alan at ACG is building for me has lines. Of late I've been working with much more distortion in my fretless sound, which I'm really getting behind. It's a different way of playing for me, I like it a lot for some tracks, not so much for others.

It's a bass situation, so probably a Bb

Hello,from Seattle Wa. USA. I was googling the meaning of the phrase “Bijou Clutchette” (used to describe an impressive stable of basses) and vigorously rabbitholing . When the combined wonders of inattention and Glenfidditch deposited me here.I like to learn anything I can and share my experience, support and gratitude re; everything bass. It’s very nice to meet you all. Slainte.

That, my friend, is what a bass guitar should look like! 🙂 I always reckon the best Fender period is 1966 to 1973/4. Really great instruments but not at the crazy pre-CBS prices (although they're catching up).

Entwistle had to play like that to stop people from noticing Pete Townshend's limitations

I love 'em! Mainly because Wilko basically does the same in every song so Norm has to fill it out... But then I'm the sort of bass player who got offended by School of Rock; just watched it again the other day and at the end JackBlack tells FlyingV boy to "melt his face" with a solo (average solo follows). Then he says similar to the drummer, keyboard player, each and every backing vocalist in turn, all of whom do their bit. Except the bass player, who stands there like a spare part doing that tedious bass player thing of doin' nowt except 8th note root and fifth, if you're lucky. I just don't understand why so many bass players feel this is all they can, or are allowed to, do! Since when was musicality and (dare I say it?) showing off only permitted on instruments that aren't bass? After all, getting up on stage is really all about showing off... And if a bass player dares to play more than the allotted amount of notes there's a chorus of tutting from the Staid Hordes Of Square BassPlayers!

I'm going to be flamed for this but there are two serial culprits (IMHO) .... many of NWR's bass lines with Wilko, and John Entwistle. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Norman Watt-Roy in the Blockheads etc but I find many of those Wilko bass lines too far too busy. I find the same with JE. I'm going to be in a minority of one, but the question was asked.

I'm always minded to think of the following quote by Lemmy: "If you're going to be a f*****g rock star go be one. People don't want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet. You want to see somebody you'd never meet in ordinary life." While anyone who's ever met me will confirm I don't scream of "rockstar" I do try and make a bit of an effort rather than looking like I'm just nipping in to town to buy some baked potatoes.

Every single song by Keane

After completely falling in love with my G&L CLF L-2000 I decided I'd like to try a few different styles and having sold a few basses recently, I wanted to try G&L's P Basses. After speaking to a few dealers I was able to secure a SB-1 and a LB-100 on approval. The SB-1 arrived earlier today. First impressions are, well, wow. Build quality is brilliant as expected, it weighs just over 8 and a half pounds and the Pickup is some thing else and it easily overpowers my Stingray 5. That said, it's very versatile and still retains that warm P Bass sound, just more of it. I was interested to see the body shape of the SB basses in person as they looked a bit incongruous to me, so a chance to compare one to my P basses was useful. You can definitely tell they're related and the difference is subtle (a bit like the Lakland DJ4 vs. Jazz Bass shape). It certainly looks right to me, if a little different. I don't even mind the headstock design too much! Playability is excellent and the whole bass is really top notch. From what I understand, the LB-100 is more of the traditional P Bass but I look forward to trying it when it arrives (hopefully) Wednesday. If it's anything like the SB-1 in terms of playability and build quality I may well be selling something else shortly!

OK. Gap Year. Stick with it. It's good. This was a memorable gig for all the most cringe of reasons. So... this was down in Cornwall on a massive private estate in the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be for the wedding of the son of a Lord (I won't divulge names as he's quite trackable). Working through some of the events of the day - 1. We were asked to get changed in the servants quarters in the house. We were told that "Tarquin" would let us in and show us to the room where we can get changed. As the good lord told us - "Tarquin. Philippino bloke... but awfully nice. He'll show you the way." I don't think Tarquin was Tarquin's real name - and I don't know why a he would be anything but awfully nice... but there you go. 2. We went off to get changed and whilst in the toilets, a tin box was noticed on top of the back of the toilet cistern. It was inscribed with William and Cathrine. After some keen googling, I found out that it was a cake tin from the Royal Wedding. That was the first indication that these folks were connected as up until this name, we only had the name of the events organiser. For anybody interested, the tin looked like this: 3. We went through the hallway (on the way to our holding room with the hired help) and the place was full of the family with their more famous family members... including one who probably wasn't sweating in the photograph and a picture of the lord with Charlie boy. As the evening progressed, we realised that we were in the company of some quite notable people... and our "warm up" act (who was providing the music during pre dinner drinks) would appear to be somebody of pop royalty (I'm shocked that they didn't just get her band to play). Anyway, that's probably a story for another day... Carrying on... 4. The marquee was built onto a hillside - a platform had been built on stilts to have the marquee on the level - but give the infinity views out the side of the marquee. Pretty impressive stuff. This marquee was absolutely massive - with large lounging areas, separate bars, the main eating area, indoor fountains... just think of something completely over the top and multiply it by ten. The band area was a separate "surprise unveiling" - in that it looked like (from the inside of the marquee) it was just the side of the marquee... but it then opened up into a.. err.. nightclub in a marquee. So this brings us to our first notable incident. We were running on a generator - presumably the same one that was powering the whole of the marquee. There was a lot to power - and probably of note was the huge chandelier and hanging illuminated pinata (but more on that later). As we soundcheck, there was what I could only describe what felt and sounded like a bomb going off. The whole ground shook and the sound was just louder than anything I'd ever heard. Everything inside power wise, was dead. We went out to the generator was located, and there we found that the top of the generator had been blown clean off. Cue the electricians (whole team of them) trying to get phone signal to source another generator. To be fair, they sorted it pretty quickly. They'd got a make shift generator running and then another lorry turned up with whatever was needed to restore power. I had thought that would be the end of events... but turned out, that was only the start of the fun. 5. We went to the catering tent - and jeez, you have seen nothing like it on this planet... Curiously enough, despite the immense catering facilities, outside the marquee, there were two complete stoners (like, obviously stoned) cooking up some dubious looking meat in a dubious, patently unsafe oven, out in the open for all to see... with their rust bucket of a van parked next to them. Clearly there was something not quite right... so being a member of the band (which gives you the right to speak to folk, right?), I struck up a conversation. Turns out these chancers were cooking the meat for one of the main courses - which I seem to recall was something rare and oxen like. I asked them how they got the gig... and apparently, the client had been ringing around catering people to see if anybody knew how to cook this thing. It would seem nobody else would go near it... but this pair told me that they had said "yes, do it all the time, no problem". I looked at him... and he pre-empting me, he responded, "yes, we've never cooked it before, but I mean, how hard can it be?". You could see and feel the tension between the catering crew and the stoners... who by the end of the night couldn't stand due to their alcohol consumption. Hilarious. From a bystanders point of view. And no, I didn't partake in the food. Come to think of it though, I can't actually recall eating anything. Probably had a bag of crisps in the van. 6. We'd all sound checked and was waiting in the house ready for "the call" after the speeches. It was delayed... and delayed... and delayed. The speeches hadn't even happened... so I went out to investigate. Turns out that the best man had told the groom not to marry the bride whilst waiting at the altar as she was only after his money. She clearly was... just after the money. He - socially awkward, dweeby, pretty ugly (trying not to be too unkind here) guy... her, super model looks but not the err... supporting pedigree shall we say. It was clear who her guests were and who the grooms were. Anyway, turns out, one of the brides friends had overheard this and told the bride. Naturally, the bride went off the hook at the groom shortly after the matrimonial vows had been exchanged. Unbeknown to us, the whole day was running late as the bride and groom had vanished and spent the day arguing in the grounds. The wedding breakfast had mostly gone ahead without the bride and groom being present. 7. Eventually, about 11 o'clock (that's PM), the speeches happened. There had been some cooling off by this point and the best man got up to do his speech. Lets just say, he started the speech with (and I paraphrase here), "it all started as an unlucky chance meeting on a gap year in Ghana where the "happy" couple met. He then proceeded to rip into the bride. The father of the bride then ripped the mic out of the best mans drunken hands and kicked him out of the marquee. Then started another half hour of chaos and guest awkwardness. The father of the groom came across to me and apologised and said he would still try and make the first dance go ahead. 8. The first dance. Probably the most memorable first dance I have ever had the (dis)pleasure of seeing. About quarter to midnight, the "nightclub" was revealed. Bride and groom were dragged onto the dance floor (literally) and told to dance as they were causing embarrassment. (I found this so funny - like the most embarrassing thing for the family at this point was the reluctance to have a first dance?! ). We played "You're Too Good To Be True". I remember this sequence of events like they were only yesterday - a - band starts b - bride and groom do nothing c - singer prompts - "this is your time to shine x and y" d - nothing e - father of groom appears with a sword f - groom puts his hands awkwardly on brides hips g - bride removes grooms hands from her hips h - bride is standing there, groom is dancing in front of her like an awkward Alan Partridge. i - father of groom gives sword to groom j - father of groom whispers in groom ear k - groom jabs heart pinata with sword l - confetti falls on the happy couple, causing the bride to roll her eyes and storm off stage m - we finished song with groom just quivering in the middle of the dancefloor, the guests having remained absolutely quiet and motionless (even whilst the band was doing the baa daa baa daa!! bit...) n - the singer turns around and asks what we should do next, we just shrug - the dancefloor is now empty and some of the guests are dispersing o - father of groom comes over to band and mimics the hand to the neck movement (cut it there) p - he speaks to me - "you're only contracted to midnight and I dont think anybody is in the mood for music anyway" q - we start packing up at about 5 minutes to midnight in absolute silence. No music, no talking, nobody in the marquee was talking. I don't think the band spoke to each other until we were all back in the van. r - father of groom gives me an envelope "for our troubles". (I should have mentioned we had already been paid up front anyway... so I think this was embarrassment money) s- we drive out the venue, having packed up, past the bride and groom who were arguing at the gate which was at the perimeter of the field we were in. We wound down the window and thanked them before wishing them a very happy life together. So yeah. that was a memorable one. I've never been paid so much for 4 minutes of playing. (If you are wondering, my rate that night for playing was £150/minute)

Hi Chaps, Following on from my post in Introductions, and asking about lightweight setups. Today an amp popped up on Facebook Marketplace only 10 minutes away from me in Lancaster. I had been looking at buying a new Markbass CMD 121P, but this was too good to resist. It's been gigged quite a bit, the cab was covered in white cat hair 😂, and it appears the cat liked to exercise it's claws in the cab covering. But it sounded great, works fine, and the price was right. A bit of de-hairing, trimming the plucks and a bit of cleaning and it came together nicely. I now have my first rig! Tomorrow, before noon, my first decent bass (vintage Precision) is arriving too! It feels like Christmas! I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has a similar setup, amp settings etc, as I'm going to have to get used to dialing this in. Cheers, Rob

I just heard this song on the radio and the bassline was so annoying I just had to vent my spleen, and what better place than here on BC? Anyone else got any examples of basslines that really get on your tits?

I've seen probably 2 I normally would have bought by now, but rationalised them away. Don't think I'll make the year by any means but it's good to be able to hold back for once. If any of the 'always wanted' basses come up at the right price, I'm out. I'm looking at you Yamaha RBX6JM.

I have - and nothing on the horizon. A pickguard for the sabre I ordered in December arrives tomorrow. And a yamaha bb tuner/machine head. does that mean I’m still in - it’s to keep the bass functioning…

I only ever did a few small gigs when I first started in bands, so I don’t have anything like what people have shared so far. The very first gig wasn’t even with a band, as such. I was about 13. The school orchestra was playing in a church hall for a chicken and dance thing (though there was no dancing) for a bunch of elderly folk. My music class only had 6 people in it, including me, and the teacher thought we should perform a couple of songs. We had a very, very good pianist, a good drummer, me on bass and three girls that couldn’t sing… I can’t remember if we did 2 or 3 songs. The only one I remember for sure was The Locomotion… When I got to the hall, I discovered that my brother had stollen my strap, and no one had one I could borrow. So I ended up playing leaning against a table. I had to have the table because that’s where I had a sheet of music notes for the songs. So I spent the whole time leaning against a table, while looking behind me to see the music. To be fair, the audience loved it, unfortunately. They had found the orchestra quite dull and they wanted us to keep playing, so we ended up playing the same songs again because that’s all be had. Most of my train wrecks were when I was doing Discos, so I don’t want to go on about them here. Except to say that I really hated doing weddings. And about that one New Year’s Eve when I spent the whole night telling a bloke to move away from the pyros, but he just kept coming back. For some bloomin’ stupid reason Bill, the boss, had put the pyro button on the floor, under a table at the back of the stage. Come midnight, there I was, scrunched up under a table, unable to see anything. Midnight comes… Boom! Then screaming as people scattered from the silly billy whose jumper was now on fire!

If you're in a tribute band, yes, play it as closely as possible to the recorded version. People will notice if you don't, and it'll take them out of the moment. Otherwise, get the tone, notes and general feel right and you're probably good.

And already by far the most popular gear abstinence thread EVER!! 😄

Way,WAY back when we were first starting and were in our first incarnation of our band we played at a village hall a few miles out of town. We were very young and excited to find that ticket sales showed that it was a sell out. You used to get that back then. I highly doubt you would get kids driving 15 miles out of town for a dance in a hall nowadays. Anyway, the gig went great and the place was rocking. In my excitement I did my best rock star impression "you guys have been a f***n awesome audience, lets f****n rock!" All went well and the gig was superb. We went down a storm. That is until the next day when we went to the head of the hall committee to get the key to get our gear out. ' Your language is absolutely atrocious young man, you should be ashamed of yourself" I had to sheepishly apologise as all rock star ambitions were dashed and I was brought back down to to Earth and reduced to eating humble pie and thinking I bet Iron maiden don't get this.

I am sure that te VAT rate charged within the EU was for the county of origin. For Example Germany has a 19% rate but Thomann shipments to the UK had 20% VAT. Of course in the EU you cannot change VAT downwards so thankfully once Brexit is done we can have 19% in the UK. Great, when will brexit be done?

I find the sound of a bassist self-consciously showing off fairly boring, but get very excited by music that simply requires virtuosic bass playing eg. I don't necessarily clock the bass playing at first, because it's all part of the texture (and I'm too busy being swept along by the music to be able to think straight anyway)

And the winner is... @SH73 ..! Here, then, is your Winner's Certificate (download and save as pdf file, then proudly print and frame...) ... BC_Chal_Cert_2022_01.pdf ... which looks like this (but bigger, of course..!)...

After some research and deep thinking I decided to build a cab based on the old B15 double baffle cabinets. It was a fun project and Im quite happy with the result. Maybe Ill make another and another and another... I used 18mm poplar plywood. A celestion bl15-300x driver. F2853817-D0AD-464F-9699-E634F06E1D10.heic C58BFCBF-7878-4511-86E8-9F310DD8A065.heic BCFDAEED-230C-4445-A0D0-F64BBB7D0015.heic 3FC65FB3-2FF4-4FB6-B238-4E6DD59E8198.heic B667B803-3423-4736-B17F-E1A8F24949F2.heic D76A355B-D18E-43B6-8D71-8A5F765657B4.heic

This. But also different back injuries can bring their own individual issues and what helps one doesn't necessarily help another. In my case, long term I've had a weak sacro-iliac joint and used to see an osteopath who specialised in treating said joint - the local hospitals and doctorswould refer patient to her. One time when I hurt my back more seriously I saw her again, both assuming it was the same area that was injured, and ended up in worse pain than when I went in.* It transpired I had done something completely different - prolapsed disc - and what she had done was actually quite dangerous. So I would recommend, if you haven't already done so, find out exactly the cause of the problem as the treatment can vary or even conflict. But, yes, whatever the issue pilates, yoga - anything that concentrates on the core muscles and spine will help generally. I end every afternoon with a 30 minute set of stretches working from my neck downwards (no more stiff neck, either!) and most mornings will go for a walk, which seems to help reset my spine to default somehow. However, for me, the single biggest factor is a lightweight bass. These days I aim for 8lbs. I tried a duo strap but couldn't get on with how it felt - more like a girdle than a strap and, despite the adjustment built in for different wearing positions, never managed to get it feeling comfy. But that was me - I tend to play my basses with the body angled back on my hip rather than flat on. *As an aside, this was the day before I went on a holiday to Tenerife. The flight was horrible - we hit some turbulence and that was really painful! 2 days in, and faced with the prospect of not being able to do anything at all, I had to seek out an osteopath with the help of the holiday rep who did all the ringing round. The guy I saw (who luckily spoke near perfect English) was meticulous - sent me off for an MRI scan the next day (just Euro 200!) and I went back with the results the same day. Some deep tisssue stuff unlocked the muscles and resulted in being able to do some walking, so the holiday wasn't a complete write off - plus my holiday photographs included the MRI scans

I completely agree with the (for me) uninspiring preponderance of lined Jazz/Jaco clones, so decided to go down a different route and make my own. The unlined rosewood neck is from a Fender Japan Jazz, EMG pickups and loom and a custom made P Bass body. I think all in it probably cost me £600, which was IMO a good deal compared to what is available in the market that gives me something somewhere close to what I wanted.

A friend of mine, was set on a course of wickedness after imbibing to much alcohol at a wedding gig. There were other things going on but he preceded to: Fall into the wedding cake, later he was found crawling around under the top table while everyone was seated, then he topped it off by driving the band van over the golf course. Cost to put that right: £5000

Two that spring to mind: 1. We had a gig the other side of London and the drummer offered to help ferry across the PA that was stored in my garage. When we finally arrived at the gig, instead of picking up the mixing desk in its gig bag he'd brought our camping table by mistake. Fortunately the landlord had a spare desk, otherwise it would have been a four hour round trip to retrieve our desk. 2. A guitarist in a band I played with in Bristol had the disgusting habit of walking over during a song and letting rip right by me. He'd then saunter off leaving the smell behind him. One night he turned up with his brand new Les Paul and was cradling it like a baby all night. During the gig he sauntered over as usual, let rip and managed to follow through! The look of panic on his face was priceless. The Les Paul was swiftly unslung and propped up against his amp (or so he thought) while he clutched his buttocks and minced off the stage. Unfortunately for him, the guitar slid off the amp and he ended badly bending a couple of tuning pegs.

Ah I have so many of these, mostly with one band. Back in the 90's my band were doing our first headline show and, foolishly, the guitarist and I consumed a quantity of... let's say... stuff before doors opened. As we were getting ready to play our set, the guitarist came over to me, looking quite pale, and said "I can't feel my hands." He couldn't really feel his feet either, as it turned out, so had to do the gig helplessly wobbling atop a small bar stool, his hands fumbling for notes in the fog. Not a great look for a rock band, it must be said. I was physically fine but, instead, was experiencing intense paranoia and every gap between songs seemed to take an excruciatingly long time. As a result, I was giving the singer a hard time between songs, pleading with him to hurry up introducing the next song so we could finish and I could hide somewhere. Unknown to me, what had started as banter between him and some mates in the crowd, had turned nasty as the set progressed and there was huge tension between him and a lot of the audience. During one of the following songs, our singer simply walked off stage, went straight through the crowd, out the door and did not come back. When you've tried to figure out how to do the second half of your set without your singer while a rather hostile audience looks on, in the midst of a paranoid meltdown, it changes your perspective of what 'train wreck' really means 🙂

I know a bass player who forgot his drummer once. I had to drive all the way back to collect him.