bassist_lewis

Fodera Anthony Jackson Signature. Done!

To answer your questions: Its however you wnat it to be, if you want it to be 4 years of free money (at the time anyway), getting pissed and watching Jeremy Kyle then thats what you'll get. If you want to learn then you'll learn and be given the time to do it with tutors who can help. How many? depends on the course, colleges take on more people (creative degrees are a good source of income for institutes, search how many there are in UK), my university had 50 in my year but only 25ish in the subsequent years. they're were never many bass players, perhaps 5 at the most but this gives you lots of experience playing with people (if you want it). You get taught music! this can include theory and technique, however my tutor said to me soon after I left "you learn all the important stuff after you leave!" Production, recording and computer music, music business (its very dull but it IS important), straight business (I had to do a business plan, pain in the a**e), i did a course on acoustics, teaching method, community music, world music, history of music. BUT the one thing thats gotten me more work than any of this is the people I met, as a professional musician your most important asset is contacts. The band I'm in met at uni, and we've just started workign with an agent because our guitarists tutor at uni works with him as well. On the whole, for me it was a great experience, both personally and musically. Find the right course and you can't go wrong! Maybe try college for a year or 2 to see if its a hobby or if you genuinely want to pursue it as a career. Hope thats of some help!

the jazz bar in Edinburgh has great live music most nights of the week, though Wednesday's have the Mike Kearney Ka-tet who, I've heard, are mind-blowing. Mondays are also good, you'll get to see Aki tearing it up on the bass, which is annoying as he's mainly a guitar player! If you want something poppy then go to Finnegan's Wake (playing there in March, maybe catch you there ), Malone's, Dropkick Murphy's or Biddy Mulligan's, all near the Grassmarket (gotta love the Irish!) the Tron is still there and still dirt cheap , I think that chippy is still there but also try Pizza Paradise on south bridge, next to another famous music venue, Whistle Binkies, its free every night and you get what you pay for, sometimes its angsty teenagers on their first ever gig, sometimes its seasoned pros.

[quote name='mcgraham' timestamp='1327172866' post='1507477'] He informs me he refuses to schedule a gig until he thinks the band is ready. [/quote] I got this crap from the guy who ran th Jamiroquai band I was in, he decided we weren't tight enough as a band (search Jamirrorquai in Ireland and you'll see that that was NOT the case) and wanted to rehearse weekly for months without any prospect of gigs (this was at all our expense I might add). IME if someone thinks that rehearsing is more important than gigging then they know nothing about music.

[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1179394784' post='248'] [attachment=15:DSC00214.JPG] [/quote] WO... MAN...

I'll be sure to post in the gear porn section when I get it. I'm hoping this bass will plug my GAS-hole long enough for me to start spending money on learning to drive!

Flea - first bass lines I ever learnt Stuart Zender - I'm still finding new things to be amazed by in his playing Damian Erskine - deepest pocket I ever heard and a great sound, plus his advice is down to earth and easy to follow (No Treble) James Jamerson - you play bass, you're influenced by him Jaco Pastorius - ditto Edit: Janek Gwizdala just missed out on the top 5 Edit: so did Anthony Jackson Edit: and Matt Garrison Edit: Pino Palladino and Lee Sklar are pretty good too Edit: and I've got Victor Wooten's book, so I guess that'd be an influence as well...

[quote name='simwells' timestamp='1325780420' post='1487580'] No as it's in within the EU, they probably won't price match though. [/quote] There's nothing on gutarguitar's website about price matching, unlike DV247 and RedDog, so I guess they're not obligated to. My concern was having to wait in for it but if I save £100+ then I'd be happy to just collect from the depot. cheers guys!!

I've found a bass in guitarguitar that is also stocked by Thomann for over £100 less, and thought I'd try to get a price match. But would I have to pay any tax if I bought from Thomann? (in case the cashier gives it as a reason why they can't lower the price) L

I emailed Mr D. Erskine about location and how it impacts on your career, just wandered what you guys thought, seeing as you're all sacttered to the four corners In Edinburgh there are quite a few venues hosting live bands but it does seem to be a lot of the same bands playing the same venues (they are the minority though), is this different in bigger cities? or is the ratio of gigs to musos the same everywhere? http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2011/12/28/location-location-location-does-it-matter-for-a-pro-musician/

[quote name='Blademan_98' timestamp='1325280631' post='1481815'] Murder is probably extreme, just a good kicking to front man will do. Failing that, play for less than the rest......... just be aware they may give out the beatings if they find out All tongue in cheek - just keep trying and once one accepts you, the others will fall in line! [/quote] just to clarify, I was joking about the murder thing, forgot to chuck in a . though Jonathan Creek is giving me some ideas... cheers tho

I've just started researching pubs in edinburgh for gigs, and it looks like a lot of the same bands do the venues. How do you break in? money? murder?

here's one of the master's of solo bass and music ("The Music Lesson", buy it). I do a solo on one song with a pop/rock band and I used play lots of pentatonics but it just sounded like s**t. I think less is more with solos (especially bass solos) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2cOVgaKBM&feature=g-vrec&context=G20a9221RVAAAAAAAAAA

[quote name='algmusic' timestamp='1323687323' post='1465690'] If you have a bass that you have problems with..GET ANOTHER BASS, then you won't have to.. [/quote] about sums up my feelings on the subject, if your bass keeps breaking then there's something fundamentally wrong with the bass

I know this is somewhat anethema on this forum but I'd like to have one go-to bass (or perhaps two of the same). I know that one bass won't cover every sonic situation but what I'd like to know is, those of you who use only one bass or one brand, how did you arrive at that conclusion?

this was my friends drum exam that i played for. he's a f******g beast on the kit!, check out his cover of tiempo de festival on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsNNz1pz10&feature=related

I'm of the same opinion as the OP, I've been doing weddings and functions for the last 2 years and never had a bass break mid gig (strings or electronics). i used to use a 4 string and 5 string when I played for a jamiroquai tribute but I didn't like the hassle of swapping mid-gig. i read an interview with Lee Sklar who confirmed my feelings, if one song in the set needs a 5 string, play a 5 for the whole set. it was only when I joined this forum that I even considered taking a back-up bass. I did hear about a guy who forgot to bring his bass and had to borrow one from an uncle's friend who's kid owned a £50 chopping board with strings on it. A back-up would have been good in that situation!

first and foremost, tone is subjective, I might listen to your recording and hate it! The basses, amp, cab, audio interface and headphones/speakers will all have a "sound" and the way each component interacts with the others is what creates the final tone of the bass. The jazz bass isn't interacting with logic in a way that pleases your ear but it does interact well with the Hartke head and cab. To your ear hope that helps

when I was about 16/17 a vowed never to play a Fender because everyone played a Fender. However, I'm changing my mind, as with the stratocaster, the sound of Fender Ps and Js has become a trademark of genres and players, even pick-ups are sometimes referred as 'jazz style' or 'precision style' by non-Fender manufacturers.There's no escape!!! So I was playing an American Deluxe Jazz V today and felt that it was a very nice instrument but that it hadn't been well set-up out of the box, the neck pick-up was too quiet and needed to be raised, the string heights were kind of radiused like you'd find on a double bass so the A stuck up and tripped my fingers over and the relief (or general string height) could have done with being a bit lower. Is this a common thing with new fenders, that it has an off-putting set-up? And how far can it be undone? I like a super-low action but then my Clover's fingerboard is almost flat thanks in advance

I was playing one today and felt the midrange control was a bit redundant but then it was possible to get the right tones fairly quickly using my hands and only tweaking the treble/bass controls slightly. It was also quite heavy, not sure if I'd want to stand with it around my neck for 3 hours :S Otherwise great instrument, looks sexy as f**k too