Viajero

I've been thinking of getting a dedicated bag for my Little Mark II, something a little more padded than my everyday messenger bag. Markbass' own seem to be going for around the 70-80 quid mark, which seems rather a lot. On Talkbass someone mentioned having bought a [url="http://gigskinz.com"]Gig Skinz[/url] Small Mixer Bag for theirs, and they don't look too bad at all. Has anyone out there ever used any of their stuff?

Just bought this fellow's old Status Energy fretless 6. Accurate and honest item desciption, helpful photos, good communication, easy to deal with, bass shipped quickly and with good protection. All in all, not a bad word to say for him, and I heartily recommend buying from him.

First proper gig since I got back from the Edinburgh show, a wedding at Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland. Was going by train, ended up two hours behind schedule (flooding, apparently), but made it in time for a pre-gig curry. 8-piece band, only knew one of them, two hours of standards and pop, walking from notes and chords. Enormous fun, really well received, decently paid. Only problem was that after the leader called The Flintstones Theme at 270bpm, my arm took the next two songs to recover. Walking four to the bar with two-beat changes for seven or eight minutes. I can still feel the pain...

It's not just about what you [i]need[/i]. The things we do for their own sake are what makes things that bit more special. 5 more notes, but 5 times more flair.

I've had a bit of this recently. Unemployed, gigs thinner than they were because I've moved, it would have been easy not to practise much. My solution so far has been to: 1) buy a fretless (arriving soon, I hope) - it should make everything I already knew harder, and means I'll have to re-tread everything for a bit. 2) quest for genuine perfection in something -I'm trying to play all of Bach's 1st Cello Suite, start to finish. I'm still having to read it (I don't think I'll ever learn it completely), and that alone for 30-60 mins a day is sharpening my reading and technique. I guess my suggestion would be that if it's getting easy, make it harder. You'll never be so good you can't improve. However, if you don't think you really want to, then your answer is just to give up. But do you really want to do [i]that[/i]?

I've tried practising while on the throne... not as glamourous as it sounds.

Ah yes, please do. A backrest and footrest - might be just the job. Is a drum stool not a bit low to the floor, Ped?

What, if anything, do you sit on when you're practising? I tend to stand up, but really what I need is a decent, tall-ish stool. I've used good ones in pits and rehearsals in various places, but wondered if anyone had any particular recommendations. K&M's offering is a trifle expensive, Stagg seems to do one with a backrest but I've never used one, and my inner realist suggests an IKEA bar stool might just annoy me. Any ideas?

Played and bought: a completely ragged Squier P 4-string, white pickguard on black. Bought with a tiny practice amp for 120. It didn't last long, I px'ed it within a couple of years for my first 5-string, which I still have.

That's what I was thinking, but I can't locate one so far. You seem to get an octave and a half on the Stylo, but I fear it will be useless for hearing harmony. I should dress in a 70s way, certainly. Perhaps I'll end up sitting next to an 80s guy with a huge ghetto blaster, and an alarm clock round his neck.

Good shout on Guitar Pro, but I'm thinking of the lo-fi moments here. [url="http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/stylophone/index.html"]These[/url] appear to have headphone out sockets AND input sockets for running your iPod in so you can play along. The more I look, the more I think it might be good. Combine it with a lovely Moleskine pocket sheet music book and you're away. If I can get one in time for my trip to London tomorrow, I'll let you know how it is when I get back.

When travelling, waiting for cast members etc, it's nice to do some transciption to keep the musical mind ticking over. I'm not great at it, but feel great when I get something written out all purdy-like. Thing is, I don't have perfect pitch, so I need something to give me notes while I do it. The bass is ideal, but if I'm on a train it's no good. So, what can I carry around in my bag that will give me notes? Perhaps a Stylophone? You can pick them up for 15 quid or so, it seems. Does anyone know if they can do chords? If, as I suspect, this idea is very flawed, can anyone suggest another small note-making device?

The Gallery. There is no shop in the country quite as wondrous as that for bass. But their prices can be a bit high.

Yeah, there's a surprise. Nice shout on the leisure batteries. To be honest, it's looking like the outlay and effort required just to go and play a few songs on a whim might puncture the sponateity of the enterprise, so I might give it a miss. Worth knowing, though, for future reference. If it happens, I'll just try and take power from a nearby shop, or perhaps just borrow an upright.

Excellent. I shall look at car batteries etc immediately. Cheers guys.

Hello all, I'm doing a show in Edinburgh this year, and somebody suggested busking during the day as a bit of a laugh. Two things occurred to me that I thought someone out there would have an answer to. 1) Is this possible in Edinburgh during festival time, or do you require a licence? 2) What kind of portable power solutions are there to allow me to use my amp on-the-go?

Amazing - not posted in a while, then I started getting this odd pain in the left side of my wrist and fingers. Lo and behold, a quick look reverals this post. I've made an appointment with the doctor. I'm worried. When did it start? Just after a two-hour Tower of Power gig. That Rocco still has wrists is impressive.

There was a thread on this about a year ago, if I remember correctly. I always say Eye-ban-ez, but there's a case for pronouncing it the Spanish way (as it presumably originated), either Ee-ban-eth or Ee-ban-yeth (though there's no ñ so the chance of the latter is slim).

Use the wiki?

The trick with surgical spirit is not merely to dip the fingers, as that only really disinfects. Get some cotton wool pads, wet one and rub it on the fingers in a circular motion. I believe this little bit of friction helps harden the skin. However, the fact is that it's not brilliant, and doesn't give the kind of lasting callus you need. Unfortunately, the best course is to let the blister heal, then practise just enough every day as to avoid getting another and gradually build up hard skin. As for how to rapidly heal blisters, get Compeed plasters and you might be able to play with them on. I've never worked out whether it's better to pop a blister or not, though. I'm sure someone else can enlighten us both.

Afaik, H is B natural in Germany and various other places round that way. I've had charts in this country with it on too, though, where Bb is in the key and H is clearer than Bnat. Don't know why, just know it's the case. Always sorts the men from the boys at new players' first rehearsal.

Will do. I'm going to cast a wide net with an upper limit of 1000 pounds and see what happens. I'm in no hurry, but The Quest For the Brilliant One Thousand Pound Or Less Fretless Five-String begins here. Might have to work on that title...

What I like about an active bass is that you can adapt your sound to the room and the song on the fly. I set my amp near to flat and then make little changes on the bass, which is efficient and flexible. Saves you looking like you're making loads of changes with your back to the audience, you just roll on.