KevB

Have a good one, it will absolutely fly by. Just lock in with your drummer and try not to overplay, it's a common reaction to a few nerves. One thing that did strike me though - your band are doing a 'Seattle' set and the support is doing all Nirvana songs isn't there a likely clash in set lists? Or do you guys just avoid the obvious Nirvana songs that will be in the tribute's set?

Shangalangtastic

Probably not what you're thinking of Dave but you could probably work a bit of Alice Cooper's 'Elected' in with a bit of brute force and ignorance.

Also features quite a lot in the recent BBC 4 [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nzchs/The_Joy_of_the_Single/"]'Joy Of The Single'[/url]

Take him on stage with you, rest the headstock on his shoulder, neck dive cured

Some more info here and a guide price; [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-60th-anniversary-precision-bass-blackguard-blonde/44051?gclid=CPbb4dKq57wCFSTMtAodDkcAzA"]http://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-60th-anniversary-precision-bass-blackguard-blonde/44051?gclid=CPbb4dKq57wCFSTMtAodDkcAzA[/url] Not sure if these were a limited run or not, I know the 50th anniversary P's were in a run of 400-500 (I've seen different numbers quoted as to how many were actually made) but not sure about the 60th's.

Does this mean that there isn't much demand for the Unibass any more S/H (I know its discontinued)? I have one that I hardly ever use and was thinking of putting it on eBay but if it has basically been replaced by this Fishman product maybe it's not worth it? Although the unibass would probably be about half the price of the fission. I agree with Bobvbass about the distortion on the unibass, you don't want to overdo it and it sounds like the fission is similar.

Suspicious Minds - Elvis. No, I'm not going to attempt to recreate those Jerry Scheff live workouts. Leave that to the proper players

An old album from semi-prog/psychedelic Dutch band 'Earth and Fire' (no wind).

I did this a couple of weeks ago, popped into a jam session on way back from somewhere, no bass and did not intend to play. However got badgered into doing a quick set and was loaned a bass. Six stringer, never even played a five before. No matter how much i kept telling myself to 'just ignore the top and bottom strings' (it was BEADGC tuned) it was a mess. It brought home to me how much i play without really looking at what I'm doing, so my fingers were just naturally going to the 'correct' position for strings on one of my own basses but which would be the wrong one on the 6-string with very tight string spacing. The G string was exactly where the D string is on all my own basses. I was out of there within 5 mins of playing my last note!

Now you know why I suggested you brought along a mate with you - safety in numbers I've edited my original post to acknowledge your presence, good to see you again but not the best of nights for us, a whole string of things added up to it being a slight off-night. Lots of gigs in March so we just chalk it off and do better next time.

I think we fell victim to 'new management ideas' at a regular venue for us. Insisted we start at 10pm and didn't finish second set until 12:30am. Problem is that all the punters have got into a routine over the years and half of them were heading home at [i]their[/i] usual time so we were playing to a half empty dance floor for the last 30 mins or so. In fact the place generally wasn't quite as busy as usual so maybe they are doing other things that are keeping folks away too. Presumably sense will prevail when they start looking at the lower bar receipts. Also annoyingly they had put some games machine smack in the place I needed to set my gear up, no way could we fit our band in the remaining space if it stayed there so I gave it to them straight - shift it or no gig. Our band leader also invited a mate's trio to act as a support for us. Quite enjoyed their set actually, more than playing my own in fact! A previous bass player from the band turned up as did our own bc'er seashell. So I had an ex band member, the bass player from the support band and a forum regular all watching my cockups!

I'd wondered what Yes did with that revolving stage when they'd finished those 'in the round' gigs at the end of the 70's Seriously I actually enjoyed that, it was a nice distraction for me from some old sh*te I'm sat here having to learn for tomorrow's gig. And Brentford still top of the table - tough game tomorrow though!

As previous and with M-Bass_M the ony time I change relative vol pots is on a jazz to occasionally give a bit of diff tone. Mostly the vol is full on and all other adjustment done downstream on amp, preamp pedal and whatever. Lots more control than on the bass itself.

[quote name='Absolute Beginner' timestamp='1392973402' post='2374721'] And another thing.....! I normal pluck with my thumb resting on the E string as opposed to resting on the neck pick up. Is this wrong and will hamper my development, or doesn't it really matter ? Thanks again. [/quote] It can actually be very useful if the E string needs to be dampened while you are playing other notes on other strings, just don't get into the habit of keeping your thumb rooted to the E string. Eventually it will be second nature taking it off when you need to play the E string. For the time being just concentrate on getting nice clean sounding notes and that you can play in time with what the music requires. Get confident on the instrument you have before moving on to other ones. If a pick currently gives you that confidence to improve then stick with it, many pro players use picks almost exclusively and it can become part of 'their sound'. There is always time to work on finger style as you progress.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1392910139' post='2374081'] maybe they should have tried this sort of format... [url="http://youtu.be/dJTzTQgsS-4"]http://youtu.be/dJTzTQgsS-4[/url] [/quote] Jeezus, there are too many WTF moments in that montage to comprehend. What's with the blokes wearing the elephants FFS?

Is Ellie's brother still a bc member?

In the acousticy first bit she sounds like James Blunt to me and the song's a bit like one of his too before it all gets a bit techno.

Although I've been far from indispensible most of the bands I've been in have either folded while I was in it or don't seem to have lasted. The only one I actually got sacked from seemed to be a long lasting kind of thing and if they played locally I might have popped in out of curiosity. However I recently bumped into a guy who always seemed to turn up to our gigs and he said he hadn't seen them for months, their web site has no upcoming gigs lised and looks dead. I did see a band using the same name as one I was in (folded with me in it) and the backdrop was our old one but none of the members were people I'd played with nor did they know the guy who's band it was when I was in it. They must have just got the name and banner second hand or something, bit weird that one. They still gig but with a slight alteration to the name and a new backdrop. I see people in bands I've either been in past bands with or jammed with fairly often so it wouldn't be a big deal seeing an entire 'ex band'. They have all been covers acts so I don't hold any particularly 'special' feelings about them, if it was an originals band I'd been in for a long time with long term friends I might feel a bit different.

Think I might know the same guy, Ray. In fact there were a few players who backed him in his early days who were promised decent jobs when Jake made it as they all knew they were too old to really be his backing band on a full tour. Some did get good 'behind the scenes' jobs for the tour but not all. As you say I think Bugg just did what management told him and didn't ultimately have any real say. I guess it's the sort of murky goings on that happen all the time when someone hits the 'big time'.

Well one regular member in the past actually used to post under th name of 'cetera' so he certainly has been discussed in older posts and in 'underrated bassists' but not he most recent version, that topic has been done a number of times.

Some of the processing with the TC Helicon stuff is getting quite sophisticated and they come in boxes small enough to have at your feet at a gig so who knows, though I think some of the harmonisers still sound a bit more 'artificial' than the sound in the OP's Africa clip. Vocal tweaking is probably here to stay so we might as well make the best of it.

I keep a small number, never seen need for dozens of them as I'm not a 'collector' by nature but can respect those who are. Wouldn't feel comfortable if gigging regularly with absolutely no backup in case of accidents or failures. Also means I have the ability to loan out a bass to others in need without it being too detrimental. Currently have 4 decent quality basses and looking to slim it to 3, think that's just fine for me. If I stopped gigging or not in any recording project type band then I'm not sure I'd even keep one or any serious gear, never been much of a bedroon noodler.

Never met him but saw him play with Heep, terrific player and often overlooked. Always looked like he was fretting (parden the pun) over something onstage but produced glorious lines with n'er a duff note. I think he was quite bitter over his departure from the Bowie band for a long time (along with the drummer) as he always claimed they were never really told that they wouldn't be part of the next album though others in the camp say it was pretty much an open secret that the band would be broken up after Aladdin Sane.

The group I'm currently working in were featured in the Horizon programme 'The Truth about Exercise' shown a year or two back. I didn't feature or have any direct dealings with the program makers but the guys that did said they were a decent bunch.