bassbiscuits

I play bass first and foremost, but started playing acoustic guitar within a year of starting on bass, and the two have been parallel all my life since. I find that the two influence each other in my playing - the grooving, percussive elements to my acoustic playing come straight out of my bass playing. But when writing a song on bass, I've often swapped back to my acoustic just to strip the song back down and map it out more clearly.

Strengths: I'm reliable, I learn stuff quickly, I've got good gear, good transport and am reasonably easy company. I sing well, and play other instruments, and like a really wide range of music. And I play for the song/band, not to show off. I'm a supporting role on bass, not the star turn. Weaknesses: Apparently I get stressed out a fair bit ( so I'm told ) cos I hate being late! I do like to turn up in plenty of time, and I like to crack on with the gig rather than waiting about. I don't really do slapping or tapping, but then I have no call to do so in my bands.

I love my NYXLs - I'd been using EXL165s prior to that which sounded and felt good, but then tried these and loved them. I couldn't give you a direct comparison as they're on the same bass, so never played the two sets side by side. But they sound and feel great, and are still going strong after more than a year of admittedly only light playing with two gigs and a lot of rehearsing. Would definitely buy them again tho.

I'm the same sort of age as you, and also got back into drawing recently at evening classes etc. Really opened my mind to the hugely different approaches people take to the same thing, and as you say, the general ego-free creativity going on. Also fed into my approach to music too - experimenting with ideas, keeping things simple rather than adding more and more, and trying stuff for the joy of exploring rather than focusing just on the end result.

I listen out for new music all the time - but as with music at any time in history, there's good stuff and less good stuff. If you take the last five years say as 'new', then off the top of my head I've bought stuff by Rival Sons, the Virginmarys, Jain, Laura Marling and Ginger Wildheart for starters. Also been going backwards too tho, and getting into 70s and 80s stuff like John Martyn, Hothouse Flowers and The The.

None of this cosmetic stuff is the end of the world of course - it could well be an awesome bass, for which you'd happily put up with these small flaws. But as a vintage-era bit of kit, the price should reflect that.

I think that's fair as a shop price (Andy Baxter's being an actual bricks and mortar shop, in London no less) for a bass like that, IF it was in very good condition. But those dice stickers would need to come off without leaving a mark, and the thumbrest has been moved too. Would need to see the condition in more detail to see if it justifies that top-end price. I'd guess £1,750-£2,000 as a private sale.

Sure thing. I meant more that there's room in the world for people to do some original stuff of covers depending on what they fancy. No better or worse. Live and let live and all that. I did a nicely paid covers gig last night - I fastidiously choose covers you ain't already heard everyone else playing. But then I've spent all day today working on three new original tunes. Financially lucrative? No chance. Creatively fulfilling? Immensely.

1. Definitely my Markbass LM3. I faffed around with other secondhand amps for ages and then decided to bite the bullet and buy one of these new. Have never looked back. 2. La Bella flats. There it was - the sound I'd after from a P bass all along. 3. Schroeder 1210. Got bogged down in reading this and that online about them before finally snapping up one on Basschat. It's been my go-to cab ever since. 4. Merrell sandals. 10 years and counting of wear and tear but still going strong!

I'm somewhere in the huge audience at the Stereophonics Morfa Stadium concert in Swansea in 1999, which was released on DVD.

My current gig - solo guitar and singing - is 90 percent covers, 10 percent original material (gradually adding to that as and when i write stuff that's worthy of using) but none of my covers are slavish copies of the originals. They're also mostly songs you don't hear everyone else already playing. I've had to rework them for acoustic guitar and voice, with different arrangements and dynamics, rather than just being a bloke bashing out pub covers. Saying that i love the buzz of writing a decent original song, and also hearing people respond to that. There's room for originals and covers in this world if you're a gigging muso.

Big holdall, into which i put my various leads and parts into three separate 'bag for life' type bags - one each for jack leads, mic and speaker leads, and kettle leads/power supplies etc. Makes it easier to whip out the right bag in gloomy venues. Things like guitar stand, extension lead/plugs, mics etc go at the bottom, round the edges or in side pockets. My small Markbass head fits inside a laptop neoprene bag inside there too, or in its usual Markbass carrying bag. My holdall is a wreck too but i'll probably replace with something pretty similar when the time comes. I also use some bungy cords from Halfords etc to bind together mic stands, speaker stands etc into one big bundle, which can then be carried in one trip 'twixt venue and car boot.

I do a lot of this sort of music - I used a Markbass Little Mark Head, into either a Schroeder 1210 (12" and a 10" speaker) or for really big gigs, I add another Little Mark and an Aguilar GS410. Bass-wise, a Precision with flatwounds does the job. Tone sometimes rolled off to about 1/2 or 3/4 depending on the room. I find the guitar and keys covers a lot of the mid/high end of frequencies, so a nice, warm, smooth bass sound stands really well in that mix.

Maybe. I have a day job tho which brings in most of my income, so I don't need to stay in a band with a##eholes just for money. That's why playing solo works well for me - I can be an a##ehole all by myself then!

That was broadly my understanding too - as I said I understand the sentiment in the context of the song, but it's a horrible turn of phrase to use in this day and age. And as any grammar pedant will tell you, it should be 'fewer' not 'less' anyway

Ooh ya. Well my main bass is an original 1970 Fender Precision that I've owned for years and years and has been everywhere with me, and I genuinely can't think of anything I'd swap it for. Its exactly what I want from a bass, in terms of tone, looks and playability, and sounds sublime on the recordings I've done over the last couple of years. So 'stick' I guess for me.

Oh dear what have I said. Your English is better than my Swedish, so don't worry! But yes, it's the other one - the one that rhymes with wagging...

He's a bit too big for the sling now but this was a year ago when my lad was one. He actually went to sleep one time. Now he still likes listening to me playing bass so I can get about 10 mins done before he gets bored and kicks off.

That's a great bass tho! I still have a four string BB604 now and it's ace.

Ah an amazing blast from the past! I had this album when I was about 15 on cassette and this is the opening tune. It's great isn't it? I think Pete Heycock died a couple of years ago. I wonder what else Livingston Brown was involved in? I'd love to hear more of his playing.

Nope you were right all along - driving and sh@##ing are still way more fun than band practice.

Ha ha - no the band wasn't like that at all when I joined. It was a really very promising original band, in the process of recording an album and was miles ahead of anything I'd been involved with. Over the years members came and went, the internal dynamics changed and the band fell into being a fairly run of the mill covers band instead. When I realised I wasn't really getting any say on what we were doing, my offers of ideas to turn it around were ignored, and after one too many pub gigs of thinking "wow - we are never going to be any better than this" I decided it was time to walk.

Ive always hated the N-word bit in Oliver's Army, especially with one of our deps being a black man. Every time I've sung it I've slurred that bit into something incomprehensible. I think I understand the point Elvis Costello is making, but it's not a word I'm comfortable using.

I quit my last band because I was fed up with the choice of music (and my say in the choice of music), the interpersonal dynamics, the uneven sharing of the workload, the stagecraft and quality of live performances, and general balance of power between those who saw it as their band, and those who actually made the band any good. Ive been gigging solo for nearly two years now and haven't looked back.