bassbiscuits

Lots of vocals A big bag of spares/tools etc A Volvo estate

Why just man? What about women too?

When I was a kid there was a motorbike cop show called CHIPS which had a funky theme tune. I also loved the music from the Fall Guy with Lee Majors.

Good shout with Go Jetters - that's on in my house all the time and I can't believe i didn't think of it. I'm not sure it counts as 'grooving' but the daddy of all TV theme tunes for me has to be Ski Sunday - I've attempted to play it a few times but it ain't easy...

At a packed pub on St Paddy's Night a few years back, my keyboard player pulled on a lead that was snagged on something on a windowsill at the back of the stage, and it tightened, flipping a full pint of water into the back of my Markbass head. I snapped it up, desperately shaking it to get the worst out as my keyboard player looked on, mortified. Miraculously it seemed fine, and worked for the entire gig (and still does). Happy I wasn't drinking anything stickier. I think that was the same night we got about 200 drunk people to sing Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" on St Patricks Day. At that same venue (but different gigs) the keyboard player's x-frame stand gave up mid-song and collapsed in a pile while he looked on, crestfallen, and the guitarist's valve amp fell down a flight of stairs when the rubber dogbone handle split. Someone, neither personnel nor gear came off seriously damaged.

I've normally got about £150-£200 a person for NYE gigs in the past. This year is the first one in a long time when I'm not going to be playing (unless something dramatic comes up in next couple of weeks!) and I'm quite looking forward to being with my family for a change, tho I'll miss the money!

Good shout ezbass! Yep Leslie West had a great sound. And yes you're right about a single pickup focusing the mind. As a lifelong P bass player I'm not really one for pointless fiddling - get a good sound, and then get on with playing.

Anyone here tried a Gibson SG Junior? I've borrowed a 2004 one off my brother who isn't using it, and i fear i can see how this GAS will all end... I normally play strats, and this definitely isn't one of them - a single P90, a wrapover bridge, late 60s batwing-style pickguard, fat 50s-style neck, dark red woodstain. But oh, the sound! Real snarl and bite from the P90 cranked to full, but rolls off nicely on the volume, and the tone control rolled off takes you into halfway-set wah wah territory and dark woody sounds. Ironically, i can see me having to flog my USA HSS strat to fund this (if it comes to that - steady on!) and while this SG Junior does more or less just one thing, it does it spectacularly! Oh yes, and it looks awesome.

14/15 for me - confused my Kim Deal and my Kim Gordon. And never heard of Thundercat! Good quiz tho.

AC/DC - Live Wire Jain - Makeba Van Halen - Panama I cant work out how to add links to YouTube etc but I'm sure you can find them yourselves!

It came on just as I got home from a gig last night. Exactly what I felt like watching with a cuppa and the rest of the house fast asleep. What a cool band.

What an awesome player and what an ace band they were back in the day. That live version of Highway sounds really really loud too! Cool. He had the best job in the world, writing AC/DC riffs and then standing in front of a stack of Marshalls, next to Phil Rudd, and flooring it. RIP sir. You've done us all proud.

Hello Ajoten, There are a few people on here with various shoulder/back injuries etc, so we might be able to help. 13lbs is an extremely heavy bass in my experience - that's about 5.8kg. The average weight is about 4kg (9lbs) for a long scale, solid body bass like a Precision or a Jazz. There are lots of lighter basses tho, depending on how much you want to spend. At the budget end, SGC Nanyo Basses are Japanese 1980s instruments, which come up for sale here from time to time and are very good value and very lightweight. At the other end of the scale, American-made boutique builders like Mike Lull produce basses which are often sub-4kg but are expensive, very fine instruments. There are a hell of lot of instruments in between the two, so its not too hard to find something that fits the bill. I don't know exactly what tendon problems you have, or what impact a heavy bass in having on them, but try wearing a lighter bass on a strap maybe and see if it feels more comfortable, and take things from there.

My lightly reliced Sandberg California TT4. I couldn't get it to sound like I wanted, and ended up trading it in for a jazz bass which i later sold anyway. But listening back to a few snippets i recorded it sounds lovely, and probably would have just benefited from some different pickups etc. The rest of the bass was lovely. I've kept an eye out for it but it hasn't come back up for sale again. Bummer.

Aargh my eyes! I'd go as far as 'fugly' on that one.

Yup - I've got a few old songs in the bag which I'm revisiting and looking to rejig a bit for possible use with a current band. There's quite a few bits in each which I've totally forgotten how to play tho. Had to sit and listen to work out what on earth is going on.

My 1970 Fender P i bought back in 1994. It's not perfect, but its my bass for life as the best compromise between sound, weight, vibe etc. I briefly owned a black/maple 2008 USA Jazz bass with Aguilar Hot pickups - that was very close to being absolutely perfect for me, but I had it at a point where I'd injured my shoulder and couldn't take the 4.3kg weight, so i sold it.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1509487824' post='3399428'] Cheap "Guitars for kids". Awful and totally embarrassing, because they are rubbish for kids to learn on. They sound bad, they play even worse and don't even get me started on the tuning problems. [/quote] This. I did some guitar teaching last year for kids aged about 7-14. The younger ones all had cheap beginner acoustic guitars which were universally dreadful - impossible to tune and a struggle to play. Ive just picked up a Tanglewood travel-sized acoustic which will hopefully prove a bit more useful should my lads decide to learn when they're a bit older.

I had an awful Satellite short scale bass with sky-high action, and my brother had the corresponding guitar. Our other mate played the drums by hitting our bed mattress and pillows with some sticks while we fizzed away through our five-watt practise amps and tried to play U2 and Thin Lizzy songs.

I've bought very little this year - actually been doing the opposite and selling off kit I'm not using. Best purchase: An Allen and Heath Zed 10FX desk for my solo gigs (best as in I've already earned back a lot more than it cost me) I've also just picked up a little Tanglewood travel size guitar which I'll hopefully put to good use. Worst purchase: Luckily, I haven't bought anything that's a real dog this year, so lets hope I can keep that going until December!

Welcome Mark, I'm just up the road from you in Leicester - and the annual East Midlands Bass Bash run by Basschat is in Enderby every May - worth popping by to meet up and try each other's gear, chat and eat cakes! Nice one.

I did one of these last year in a pub in Leicester city centre. I narrowed dodged being caught in a scuffle which erupted behind me as I was getting a pint, but got a drink thrown across my back while getting away from it. The group of people involved got bundled out of the door, where they carried on battering each other and one guy got knocked out cold on the pavement. Yeah, Merry Christmas indeed. I'm not gigging on Black Friday this year as far as I'm aware, and I can't say i'm shedding a tear.