Gareth Hughes

[quote name='Davemarks' post='640887' date='Oct 30 2009, 11:16 AM'](a lot of GnR songs and Extreme - I remember from my teens - all tuned down a semitone)[/quote] Admit it Dave, you still rock those Extreme records.

I like how the title of this, when you see it on the main page, makes it look like the last person to comment has signed some petition saying 'I've got black nylons on'. And now that person is me Ah well, worth the post.

Has anyone heard this version?: [url="http://djearworm.com/in-the-sky-with-diamonds.htm"]http://djearworm.com/in-the-sky-with-diamonds.htm[/url] It's about three tunes down the list. I heard this in a cafe in Germany earlier this year and couldn't believe just how well it worked. Check out some of his other tunes - quality stuff, especially since the artists are giving him the multi-tracks to work with. All good.

As far as I know, pulling the pot to passive will NOT save your battery. The battery starts to drain once the cable is plugged in, effectively turning on the preamp. A practical solution for me in these scenarios is using a Boss TU-2 tuner, which can mute your signal. Turn it on, disconnect the cable. Reverse when necessary. Or use an A/B box and disconnect when you switch to the other instrument. Or use a volume pedal. The cheapest option, if you don't wish to buy any new gear, is to put a fresh battery in before the gig. You'll certainly get more than one four hour gig out of it. Whereabouts you playing in El Nortie?

In response the the post abut playing your own music vs. someone else's. I've done both and I love both. From a business side of things I'd much rather play someone else's music and let them worry about the headache of empty theatre's and plane tickets, etc. Musically tho, I fell into being a sideman/session guy simply because I wanted to play my bass EVERY day and simply couldn't find a band that would do that, so the solution was to play in lots of bands. It helped being blessed with a genuine passion for a wide variety of styles - nothing was really a pain to play, there was always something I could enjoy in it. As for playing bass lines I haven't written - for me it's incredibly satisfying to play through something 'West Side Story' and be a part of that big sound. If you get your kicks that way even 'Copacobana' is great!!! (It's a great read too - pity the horn section, it's a roast for them) I suppose that's an aspect of playing music professionally that surprises me. Sure I started off wanting to be Gene Simmons playing in front of the adoring masses, but that quickly got replaced with actually making music, and making a song sound good. One thing I keep in my head when I'm playing, and it helps on the dodgy gigs, is a quote I read somewhere in Bass Player magazine: 'you should always try to make the music sound better than if someone else was playing it'. In other words, don't just phone in your part.

For the most part I'm self-taught, banging away to records since I was 13. I'm 32 now. I did attend a music course for a few years, at NVQ level. Not a well run course at the time, and the qualification itself hasn't done diddly for me (but that reflects more on me than the course - I'm not the academic type). It did open my ears, and attitude, to what else goes on in this musical world and that's been an invaluable lesson to adapting and surviving as a working musician. It also opened the door to reading, which I pursued in earnest after I left. As for getting my foot in the door - I called around anyone I vaguely knew and let them know I wanted to gig, which in reality meant calling guys I knew playing in wedding/cover bands and theatre jobs rather than original music. My timing was good as I called one guy who's lead singer/bassist was leaving so I was able to step in and learn the gig while the bassist just sang. Through that gig I met a pile of other musicians, as this particular band had a constant stream of deps in all roles. I'm pretty sure I gave my number to every one that passed thru. Then I got the number of a well-respected and established guy I knew needed a dep for the up-coming panto and called him. I can still remember how much I was bricking myself at the phonebox while I called him. Thankfully got his voicemail and he called me back. I auditioned for him and the MD of the show a few days later and got the dep gig, which in reality was only two or three shows at the end of an 80-odd show run. Might have seemed futile then, but I have a good relationship with him to this day. (Actually just borrowed his upright to do an album last week while my new one makes it's way here). Then a drummer from the first cover band recommended me for a well known band here that had reformed, I got that gig and that opened more doors. Same drummer also recommended me to the fixer for the Irish production of 'RENT' and, with it being a ten week run, that's how I ended up in Dublin. The other guys in the band assured me that if I moved down I'd get plenty of work as there weren't too many readers on electric and upright. The guitarist in the band also lived with one of the main fixers in town so that helped out immensely. I could go on about how one gig lead to the other - like how I did a gig on Saturday just past, covering for a guy that I met in Switzerland on a festival about two years ago - the point being that one thing leads to another, it just might not be obvious at the time. So like someone said above - play each gig to your best ability, because you don't know who is in the audience.

That's been my impression too. I've genuinely never been more impressed with an amp than with Markbass. So much so that I have two Markbass heads and want for nothing else. Somehow my 500 watt Markbass heads are FAR louder and clearer than my 600 watt Acoustic Image Focus 2 head and my Euphonic Audio iAmp 800.

[quote name='Spoonman' post='637255' date='Oct 26 2009, 07:53 PM']Thanks guys this is all really useful and encouraging stuff to know. One thing that was on my mind was, does anyone ever go to any jam nights anywhere? Are they worth while? Where are good places to go if they are? Cheers for all the info..[/quote] I don't, but only as there aren't any here. But a great gig is one a friend of mine runs several times a year. About 10-12 singer/songwriters and a house band. Band at one end of the room, singers round the edges, audience in the middle. Fun part is NO PRAC -there's a running order of who sings, and everyone joins in as they feel, so that means figuring out the tune as it happens in front of the audience. Even more fun is trying to figure out how to get 15 or so people, who have never played together before, to end at the same time in a musical fashion. That's where you learn the strength of a good rhythm section.

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='637254' date='Oct 26 2009, 07:51 PM']Even if Mika makes him dress up like Two Face. [/quote] Yeah, and he has to play 'Big Girls' too, tho I'll bet it sounds better than the version I play with the wedding band I gig with

I remember Jimmy Sims - he was always really good to me anytime I was in London and dropped in to the Bass Centre, and it's not like he knew me to be doing me any favours. Bought my Micro-Synth and X-Citer from him. Good to hear he's on the Mika gig. Nick Owen's a top bloke too.

[i]OK - strap in and get comfy - I'm on a roll. I was going to PM this but here you go for everyone's reading pleasure. Don't hold me responsible if you get fired. (actually, I've been fired from quite a few gigs - not the worst thing that can happen to you)[/i]. A balance of brass neck and a controllable ego are a good asset. You need to be able to put yourself forward for a gig, but not come across like 'I'm bloody amazing, me - why haven't you booked me already'. I've known guys to do that - finding out from the guy who booked me and not them . In other words - hustle, but don't be a hustler. Without raising the debate of 'can you be a professional musician without reading music', I would 100% advocate learning to read. Love it or hate it, the undeniable fact is you can get reading gets if you can read. And vice versa. This leads to another factor - playing for a living more often than not can mean playing styles of music you wouldn't listen to and don't like. Here's my take - does a plummer care what style of toilet he has to install or what the bathroom looks like? Of course not. He has a skill like a professional musician has a skill. Like someone said about me once - I can play 1-5 in all sorts of styles. The point is to do the best job possible. Of course it can get frustrating playing a style of music you loathe, but that's where being a professional comes in. You're being hired to play a style of music, not create it like an artist. Be reliable - and that means more than just showing up on time. It means that if I call you to cover a gig for me and you're not already booked, I won't hear 'Ah, I planned on sitting in with the girlfriend' or 'I don't feel like heading out tonight', 'It's a bit far', blah blah blah. There's nothing more frustrating than having someone call you looking for work and then when you call to offer them work, they couldn't be bothered. It also means respecting what you've agreed to do. I've found out second hand that a guy I've booked to cover me has booked someone else to cover him because he got a better offer. Sure he's entitled to do what he wants, but then I have a bandleader calling me saying - who did you book? and that hurts my position. Reliable also means learning the material backwards and forwards. On Saturday night there I just played with a well known Irish trad group, filling in for their regular bassist, to a festival audience. I don't play trad AT ALL but that didn't matter - I learnt their set and got the best compliment possible - 'we didn't have to think about what you were playing, you fit right in.' You also have to keep yourself in check - and not just for yourself. Take the £300 gig one night, and then take the £80 gig the next night - if for no other reason than to show folks you're not above doing lesser paid gigs. Some folks think that once you get well paid gigs that you'll no longer take lesser paid gigs. Pure nonsense. The 'lesser' paid gigs happen more often than the better paid ones. Also, get out there and show your face. It's happened too many times when I take a three week tour and then someone thinks I'm away for three months so never thought to call me. On one gig years ago in Dublin a guy asked me if I had come down just for this one gig. I'd been living there four years and this guy thought I lived a hundred miles away. He'd have never thought to call me for a gig based on that perception. Anyway - that's my tuppence worth. Get out there, call the guys who have the type of gigs you'd like to do and let them know you're up for covering for them if they ever need a dep. Then learn their gigs. Record their gig somehow and learn it - be prepared to get a call to cover him/her tomorrow night, or tonight!!!! It happens.

I've been stubbornly making a living playing bass for 11 years now. I'll send you a PM later - Monday's are my weekend so I've just finished mowing me lawn and cleaning the driveway. Rock n' roll, wha?!?! Anyway - my nugget of advice is in the first line there - stubbornly. Brute force and ignorance can really take you a long way.

To the OP - would you ask your wife to give up something for you? Your answer, in my opinion, should determine whether or not your wife should ask you. I cannot fathom asking someone I love to stop doing something they love. Most, if not all, of us are biased here towards the music as we all hold music dear to our hearts, but in reality it doesn't matter what the passion is - gardening, football, pints...etc - take away something you love and you'll be miserable, and I can't imagine resent not building towards the person who insisted on taking it away. Luckily for me (tho it's still darn tough at times) if I stopped playing music the bills would stop getting paid, so I never have to consider taking gigs over something else. That said, it wasn't the easiest thing to go on tour for 4 weeks solid when my kid was only a month old. Anyone who thinks musicians are lazy bums can blow me. (STEP AWAY FROM THE SOAPBOX......STEP AWAY FROM THE SOAPBOX)

I'm another lefty that plays righty. Can't even hold a lefty guitar neck properly. Maybe someone mentioned it already, but I heard that Hendrix was a righty who played lefty. I could be wrong.

If you see one for sale, I'd heartily recommend a Fishman Dual Parametric DI. 2 channels of by-passable parametric EQ, phase switch that's amazing for taming acoustic feedback, and oodles of signal from the DI to drive a power amp. All good. So good, I have 2.

Digging it. Solid tight playing, and the right punchy tone. .............Git.

There is indeed enough space to put two pots on a Nano BassBalls, as I just had mine modded and hand delivered by the wonderfully talented Bigwan on this forum. He also did a great mod to my old Mini Q-Tron, putting a volume trim on the output of the effect to tame the volume bump those pedals have. Great guy, great mods.

Aye, fer a bit o'craic - I'd be up for that.

The easiest things to check are to see if the any of the seams have opened - ie if the front or back tables/plates have separated from the ribs/lower or upper bouts. It won't be life threatening if the have, but get them glued by a luthier asap. A major thing to check is that the soundpost is still in place. Look inside the f-hole on the g-string side and check there is a wooden pole wedged into place from front to back. If it isn't there DONT play the bass. If the soundpost ever falls out of place DONT play the bass. As for playing in an orchestra -play away. I've played in community orchestra's and they're always crying out for bass players. Don't worry about how much you're being heard by the rest of the orchestra. Use your time with them to learn as much as possible.