martin8708

A small selection from my brood . JV Strat for electric duties ( best Strat so far , I’ve sold on my FCS Strats ) Balladeer - been a good friend for 42 yrs Ovation Classical with stereo output .

Bought some TI flats from Graeme , very prompt delivery and accurately described . Many thanks for a smooth transaction. Cheers Martin.

Offer ends 15th July , just managed to squeeze my order in for 2-4-1 . Looking forward to getting my 4” straps .

Gear that is collectively owned by the “band “ is always a headache when someone leaves or the band splits . I think your quite fortunate in getting your share of the gear paid back to you , my experience has been very much the opposite . I now leave all PA purchases to the vocalist , If I buy any peripheral purchases , they come home with me .

I prefer to call them Drifters , they join the band with great gusto and fanfare , but either don’t turn up / cause arguments / don’t learn material or try and change set list to suit themselves . They leave , join another band and repeat the same procedure . If the music community is quite close knit , they get a reputation quite quickly.

My well gigged AVRI 57 P bass , this is my #1.

Your strengths are that you are prepared to put in the hard work to learn the songs and be a reliable bass player . This alone stands you in good stead for any future bands . Its not always the flash players that get the gigs .

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 .