martin8708

Hi George . If 1974 is your date of birth , your 10 years younger than me . From my experience, music / bands have always pulled me thought bad times . I still have my Ovation guitar I bought when I was a student at 18 yrs old , played it in many squats / bedsits / shared houses when life was pretty grim and lonely . My current band are not only fellow musicians, but friends as well , with a common love of music and humour and banter . When life is tough , you need support from all avenues of life

I had a 5 string for a while , trouble with turning up at a gig / open mic / jam night with a 5 string is there is the automatic assumption that you are some kind of sh*t hot bass god , rather than a weekend warrior with an extra string . Sold it , happy with 4 .

Hi Al , we are just using the BB for rehearsal at the moment , it seems to have fallen down to me to set all the drum patterns and tempos of the beat buddy .and clicking the pedals for fills and second part variations of the pattern.I read on here some time ago one of the main challenges with drum boxes is making them audible and sitting well in the mix , I’m running mine through a Yamaha powered monitor with pretty good results . We did have two small gigs lined up at the end of last year which I suggested we do with the BB to see if we could gig successfully with just the pedal . A stand in drummer was found at the last minute for one , we never played with him before , and we struggled through with different timings /patturns . We had lost all the tightness and fluency with the songs . The other gig was cancelled due to flooding . So we are still beat buddy virgins . We have no sound clips of what we sound like , but for quite a few of the songs I’m starting to think , hey that sounds pretty good. Drum machines are quite unforgiving, so my playing has tightened up a lot . I’m also surprised how by changing the tempo by 2-3 bpm can really change a song from a dirge to more upbeat .So we experiment a lot with different tempos . It would be really good to not have to scratch around for a drummer , of course , nothing beats a real drummer , but I think we could carry off a gig with just the pedal .

I have a Boss DR 01S that I use when playing acoustic guitar at home , lots of interesting percussion options . With the band we use a Beat Buddy pedal ( we have two ) , purely down to the fact that we haven’t had a reliable drummer in the last 3-4 years . We have a regular dep drummer that will play for money , but will not come to rehearsal . The advantages of the beat buddy are we can set the tempo / pattern to exactly how we all want it . Ive found most dep drummers play a lot quicker than the original tempo of the song , which puts added pressure on the vocalist’s phrasing of the song .

I have a Whizzy 12 ( not M line ) Still my go-to cab for small gigs /rehearsals . Ashdown stubby seems to go well with it .

I had a Fender 25 th Anniversary Stratocaster in white ( the first 500 were white ) and the finish crackled and crazed , they then changed the colour to Porsche silver , which then went green . That was a 1979 instrument , never seen a 75 ‘ finish go that way No extremes of temperature or humidity?

From my limited experience 5K seems to be the going rate for unadulterated Wal Pro 1’s . In the world of vintage Fender , extra routing / extra pickups / addition of Floyd rose trem seriously affects the resale value . As said , shame about the J .

Sold Tim the Markbass 802 that I bought off him last year . Prompt payment , excellent communications , very smooth transaction. Many thanks again Tim .

John bought a barefaced One10 from me , I approached him after his missed out on a BF cab in the for sale section . Prompt payment and great communication, very smooth transaction. Many thanks John , enjoy the cab .

Thankfully music /bands is not my day job ,so I don’t rely upon it for financial survival . If the scales of enjoyment and reward are tipped towards having a good time and enjoying myself , I tend to just put up with the minor irritations within the band . ( yes , there are some irritants in the band , you are truly blessed if you get on fabulously with everyone ) If the scale is tipped towards dreading the rehearsal evenings , time to put the feelers out for a new band . We also do the “turn the instruments off “ and work on vocal harmony to try and nail the vocals .

The above mentioned problems apply to music in general , wether you play Rock or any other style . If she has been with you for some time ( months /years ? ) and there is no perceivable improvement in her vocal skills from all the rehearsals and gigs you’ve done , then it’s time for that uncomfortable chat . Is she aware she is singing out of key / coming in too late /early ?

Very similar situation in my current band , female vocalist from folky background, who’s partner is ( a very good ) rock guitarist. There are so many genres of Rock Music , but we avoid the Thrash /death metal type stuff , and carefully select songs we all like but are within the vocalist’s capabilities. Luckily we are all quite honest about if the song works or is beyond our capabilities, we do drop quite a few if we see it won’t work out . When it does work , it works very well . Fortunately ,it’s the guitarist who is the first to say “no -it’s not working ,let’s move on” Perhaps you can tailor the set list a bit so it’s more in her favour ?

I think Phil Starr has hit the nail on the head . Never under estimate the draw of a young attractive female bass player , a huge asset to Pub bands . When I lived in Barnstaple , there were lots of bands around ( it was dubbed the Seattle of England ) Hope it works out well for you .

If you play another instrument , this could be a good opportunity to show off your musical prowess by playing guitar / keyboards / harmonica / djembe or triangle . Hopefully your bass skills are far better than hers , so the band will rely 100% on your input for gigs . If drummer is band leader , could be a bit tricky . I have been in a band where I swapped duties with rhythm guitarist for a number of tunes , quite nice to mix it up a bit .

Lovely stuff. I had both the tobacco burst and natural BB1200 , the TB was my very first bass , Yamaha Musikland was selling them off cheap .( 40 years ago ) Really regret selling it , I was convinced a Fender P was the bass to own

I have been playing bass for 32 years ( I’m sure loads have done it for longer ) I was blessed to be in a great band for 10 years , a few other stints in good bands for 5 years or so , so I consider my success rate about 50% . I have been in countless projects / start ups / get togethers that don’t go anywhere , you put the effort in , learn the songs just to watch the guitarist or drummer fumble around at at rehearsal. Being in a good band with all the musicians of equal skill and motivation is akin to the aligning of the planets , happens once in a blue moon .

Hopefully not tempting fate , but at 59 , the back is still OK . I am lucky to live on the outskirts of town , so I walk to work ( 30 mins ) walk to the shops , walk to school drop off . We try to limit using the car , only long for longer journeys ,etc. I try to eat well , do lots of physical outdoor work , and have a 17kgs Vanderkley cab to carry around .

I was at a mates house in the 1980’s and he had VHS video of Duran Duran . It was the song The Reflex , I just watched John Taylor strutting up and down the stage with 1000’s of women screaming at him ( for him? ) That was the precise moment I knew i had to be a bass player . ( Still waiting for the hoardes of women , though )

Sold a Squier Mustang Bass to Sinky , he was very patient and tolerant with me when I addressed the package to his neighbour instead . All came good in the end , great communication and prompt payment . Welcome to the Basschat community / marketplace , it’s a great place place full of great people .

Before the days of eBay , internet , Basschat , I had 1 bass , 1 amp and my Ovation Balladeer . I didn’t want for nothing , because there was no temptation. I’m actually envious of you .

Some bass lines just seem to make sense , even if they are complex or busy . Some three chord songs can really mess with your playing if they don’t follow a natural progression . Knowing the song in your head helps massively .

There’s a few instruments I regret selling , two stunning Yamaha BB1200’s , a 72 Tele and my Larrivee OM3-R , ( for some reason I felt I had to have a Martin acoustic ) , man , I miss the Larrivee. Playing wise , possibly just the regret I did not practice/ push myself more . The day job meant I was never meant for the bright lights of stardom . My only niggle is that I did not learn to play drums as well , I always felt I could possibly been a better drummer than guitarist .

My Dad - numerous James Last Albums My Mum - early Stones , Dave Brubeck , Chris Barber ,Acker Bilk and Neil Diamond . Hot August Night is still one of my favourite jam along records . I owe a big debt of gratitude to my mum .