bassbiscuits

Oh dear! Guilty as charged re the hat. Never worn at same time as a waistcoat tho.

Mine was December 1988, for the Christmas party at the sixth form room of the school i was at in Swansea (I was only in fourth form, tho my brother and rest of band were sixth formers) I was 14. My bass was a white Westone Spectrum ST. The amp was a borrowed Carlsbro combo, as i only had a tiny practice amp of my own. Set list was about eight songs of 60s/70s/80s rock, including stuff by Poison (Every Rose has its Thorn), Cinderella (Falling Apart at the Seams), Wild Thing etc - can't remember the rest. Someone videoed it, and the set is interrupted by some halfway through announcing there's still some sponge cake available for sale... very rock and roll. I had a mullet, a bright yellow shirt and puffy white trainers. Oh dear. First gig at a proper venue was in 1989 at the Biko Bar at Coventry Polytechnic, when i was 15, with a four-piece band called Wile Air (again it was my older brother and some uni mates, with me on bass). I used the same Westone bass, and a Thunder 1A too, this time with my Peavey TNT 130 combo. We did covers from Marillion, Bon Jovi, Georgia Satellites etc. It was a really busy battle of the bands type thing and i felt like a god for the rest of the evening (we didn't win tho!)

Croeso y Basschat Amy, Another Swansea native here, tho I've lived in Leicestershire for the last 13 years, so it's all changed a bit since then. In terms of basses, Epiphone do some medium-scale (or even short scale?) SG-shaped EB basses i think. I'm no expert on short scale basses, but as the others here have mentioned, there are some very informative threads and more knowledgeable people on here who can help. We're a nice bunch generally!

I had a Tokai TB48 Thunderbird copy that weighed something like 5kg. Way too heavy to play a whole gig, so it didn't last long. Mine are all under 4kg now thankfully.

Most of my gear is secondhand, so it's all got a range of scratches and knocks anyway. But they're working instruments, not museum pieces. I'm quite careful with them, and I get a bit annoyed with myself if i notice I've put a major ding in something (especially if I'm doing something stupid at the time) but i play them hard and gig them all regularly so it's to be expected. As long as the playing surfaces, electronics and moving parts etc are all sound and working well, then I'm happy.

Did a support slot on Saturday night for a cool local blues/r'n'b band, which went down well. Spoke to quite a lot of people who'd specifically come to see us, which was nice. Then did a solo guitar gig on Sunday but was so knackered i struggled, and the place was pretty empty anyway, so turned out to be quite a gentle night out.

That Taylor looks great and £380 sounds like a super price for it. Well done! I was going to throw my hat in and suggest Crafter but I seem to have missed the boat on this particular thread. I've had my Crafter DE-7 for about 15 years now and it's broken in nicely. Warm cedar top, mahogany back, neck and sides. Plenty of Crafters out there for under £500 I'd say. Tho I expect your purchase wipes the floor with mine so well done on such a bargain!

It's a tricky one. I used to gig in a band that kept getting offered possible gigs, half of which came to nothing, but i still had the dates pencilled in my diary. If availability for a gig was checked a few months ago, but not mentioned at all since then, i can understand why someone might think that the gig wasn't confirmed. Not saying that's right, just that its quite an easy mistake for your drummer to make. A communication problem more than anything else by the sound of it.

Great looking bass - dead ringer for my '70 sunburst P. Sunburst is almost identical too. Interesting what you're saying about it sounding quite different to your 71 P. Nice.

Well done on your first gig! Whatever happens from now on, you'll have got that one out of the way and can hopefully relax into it and enjoy the future ones. Gigging is great fun once you get in the swing of it - its quite addictive too.... Have fun.

The BeeGees. Ok it's a guilty pleasure but it's taken me to be a bit of an older bloke (early 40s) to realise what great songwriters and singers they were.

I'd rather be the worst player in a great band for sure. I've been the best player in a crap band on a few occasions, and it didn't give me a greater say in what we did - quite the opposite. The whole potential of the band and the material was severely limited by the shortcomings of the bad players, so my views were a bit surplus really! I'd much rather play with people better than me who force me to raise my game, even if it puts me under the cosh a bit initially. At least there's room to grow and improve in a good band. With a crap band, there isn't.

[quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1505749199' post='3373998'] Dire Straits - MK is a fave guitar stylist and influenced me to change from using pick to fingers. However, the music is mostly beige coffee table pish for people who probably also were uber fans of Michael Bolton and Jennifer Rush back in the 80s Dream Theater - arguably the most technically advanced collection of rock musicians out there - terrif bass player, top class drummist in Portnoy and Petrucci is a better shredder than Vai and Satriani IMO. Unfortunately their output is preposterous prog metal twaddle. Foo Fighters - DG is an excellent frontman, great drummer, decent guitarist and seemingly all round good bloke. Unfortunately the FF are to rock what Level 42 were to funk and the Mumfords are to bluegrass. And another thumbs down for Florence. ATM could be half decent without her one trick pony style of belting out the same way whether a ballad or a rocker [/quote] I agree - Mark Knoplfer is an incredible guitarist, but a fair bit of Dire Straits stuff is rolled-up sleeves on a pastel-coloured suit jacket. Guess it's just of its time.

[quote name='Quevlar' timestamp='1505750363' post='3374015'] Was going to say the same as Barking Spiders above regarding Foo Fighters . Motley Crue, i like the band and enjoy the music but Tommy Lee (the person) seems like a bit of a clown shoe. [/quote] Whoa really? I'd say Tommy Lee was the best member of the band by some distance. I love his drumming, but can take or leave the rest of the band.

An old album called Max Q from back in 1989. It was a collaboration between Michael Hutchence taking time out from INXS, a chap called Ollie Olsen and some other under-the-radar American electronic musicians. It's not universally amazing, but it has a really cool vibe of open experimentation and is a real grower after a couple of listens. First two songs in particular are awesome. Worth a listen if you can find a copy (it wasn't a massive hit at the time, and has never been reissued) so you're looking at secondhand copies only.

And have a wee before you start - it'll distract you for the entire first half otherwise.... Enjoy the gig tho - playing live is great.

My best amp has been the one i've used for every single gig since i bought it back in 2011 - a Markbass LM3. I went through a load of Peavey, GK and Ashdown kit before settling on one of these, and i've never looked back. Touch wood but its never had so much as a hiccup and has never let me down in six years of being gigged loud pretty regularly. In that time i've rehearsed and gigged with provided backline that included Orange AD200, Ampeg SVT and Marshall MBA valve heads, all of which sounded awesome but are way out of my league in terms of cost and (lack of) portability. So the Markbass is a better fit for me and what I want/need at the mo. I love mine.

Surely the next natural step to this discussion is "Bands you do like, which have a member you don't like." Trickier, but i'm sure they exist.

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1505319016' post='3371027'] I also like the Levellers. Levelling The Land is one of my favourite albums. Fantastic live in the early 90's. [/quote] I hear ya - I loved Levelling the Land and have seen the band twice at various festivals over the years - been brilliant each time. In fairness I don't remember them ever being heaped with quite the same gushing praise as some of the other truly overrated acts on this list anyway. Hence whether the Levellers are any good is secondary to how highly-acclaimed they are/were in the first place, if you follow me.

Has to be Oasis for me. Granted I wasn't into them in their heyday, and therefore I've only ever known them as the staple diet of a million pub cover bands ever since. Closely followed by Kings of Leon, for much the same reasons (tho i did see them live in their heyday and still thought they were pretty dull).

I used a P with La Bella flats at a recent blues weekender gig using the supplied backline ( a nondescript but reasonably effective 1x15 combo ). The guy before me had a Gibson Thunderbird with rounds, which sounded great, growly and punchy. I was relieved to plug the P in and get a really lovely smooth punchy old school bass sound too! I like the idea of adding a touch of grit tho - bet that sounds quite valvey and hot.

That's magnificent! One of the finest local news stories I've read in a while.

To be honest my back up bass is just anything reliable and versatile enough that will get me through a gig. Currently a Yamaha BB604, which does a bit of everything and plays nicely, so thats job done for me.

[quote name='SICbass' timestamp='1504288025' post='3363959'] Now there's some PROPER obscure 👏👏👏👏 [/quote] I do aim to please...

Here's an obscure one. I used to live in a flat above a shop and the newsagent next door was owned by the sister of Welsh bassist Andy 'Wal' Coughlan, who played with among others Gary Numan,Shakin Stevens and Cerys Matthews.