Ed_S

I've seen a guy play electric upright fretless at a metal gig for no other reason than all his stuff was in the car from the previous gig and he didn't want to go home and swap gear. Nobody seemed to care and the band sounded pretty much as they always did, so if you can make the right sounds then I don't see why it should matter. I might be a bit cautious if I was setting up a new band and the prospective fretless player lacked experience of playing live, because stage fright and no frets sounds like the perfect storm to me as a fretted-only bassist. Another way of looking at it might be how much do you want to play in the band Vs how much do you want to play only fretless? If somebody said that I needed to play fretless to be in their band, I couldn't, so that's me out of the running. If somebody said I had to play a 6 string, even though I knew I wouldn't need it, I could still do that so I'd just weigh up how much I wanted to get my foot in the door (and maybe have the conversation about dropping back to a 5 later on) against how much I wanted to have the argument right now and throw away the gig.

If he's using the authentic vocal exercise from the film, it might explain why his singing isn't improving and he was an hour late to rehearsal.

For clarity, when I say that I ask for exactly what I want, and say how I want problems to be resolved, I really hope I don't do it in an entitled way. I've worked my entire life being the IT guy who gets ignored when things work and kicked when things don't, so I know all about cutting people a little slack. I just mean that rather than saying "this is wrong..." and then waiting for the gush of apologies and offers of reparations, and then being annoyed when instead I get "ok.. so what do you want me to do about it?", I get in there first and say "this is wrong so please can you sent a courier to collect it in the next two days and process a refund? I've sent you an email that says the same.", to which I'm probably going to get "ok", which is all I really wanted.

I've had overall positive dealings with BD and I like having a chat with Mark, even when we have differing views on something. I admit I've felt a little less connection with some of his staff over the years, but rather than rude I've actually tended to think of them as maybe just a little socially awkward. Of course I have no idea whether that's true or not, but my rules of engagement are that I don't stress politeness principles, ask concisely and plainly for what I want, don't assume anything is implicitly understood or a given, and if an issue arises explain exactly how I want it resolved. If I'm wrong and they are, in fact, just rude... then they're getting the benefit of the doubt and I'm still getting what I want without any requirement to feel annoyed.

Didn't know Liam Lynch worked there! 🙂

Aye, never say never and all that, but I'm willing to go as far as saying that where revisiting playing from dots is concerned, I passionately don't want to and can't think of any opportunity so enticing as to change my outlook. On the plus side, I reckon it's been so long that I'd be in born-again territory and could focus on bass clef without any vestiges of treble confusing me. Conversely, though, I reckon I'd resent it so much it'd be the beginning of the last 6 months of me playing.

I could, but I ran out of uses for it when I stopped playing violin, and I haven't looked back in the last 22 years.

There's definitely a genre divide to observe, isn't there. When I played in orchestras we had one very showy conductor who got away with limited on-stage antics, but it wouldn't have done for them all to act like he did. Then when I played acoustic singer-songwriter stuff in small bars and coffee houses the norm was very much to sit and play with no requirement for a visual beyond that of real live people playing things instead of a CD. There were some elements of stage-wear for those with a thread of activism running through their performance, but still nothing major. The rock and metal scene round here does demand a bit of show, unless, of course, you make it your trademark not to have any; I saw one band who turned all the stage lights off and replaced them with a single bedside lamp on top of one of the PA stacks, and they stood still throughout their set. It was different, so still created an atmosphere. Totally the right approach, I reckon. For me as a punter it's all about being able to get 'in the moment', for want of a better term. Like when you're watching telly and you only really notice that you've zoned out everything else that's not on the screen when somebody knocks at the door, punctures the little bubble, and the telly that was your entire world suddenly becomes really small because now you're aware of the room. Being at a really good rock show should be like that, so on stage I try to add a bit of the sort of thing that would help me to engage to that degree were I in the audience.

One of our guitarists is very fond of the darkened spaces in the back corners usually reserved for bassists, so my spot is downstage left, gurning and posing with the singer and lead guitarist. Lead's a lefty, so from our respective positions we can meet in the middle to do shoulder-to-shoulder posing during solos without risk of guitar entanglements. Nobody has ever told us it's not cool. You can go too far, though. There's a local band with a bassist who shoots off round the venue mid-song, doing quite violent body-popping movements uncomfortably close to people. Fair play to him, I couldn't do that while playing (or at all for that matter), but on the other hand it just makes for an uncomfortable half hour of ignoring his band and hyper-vigilantly looking after your pint and your teeth lest he hit you with his rhythm stick.

Aye, broad agreement on all that, just with a different album - 'Get A Grip' for Aerosmith and 'Live At Donnington' for AC/DC. Ozzy is the same deal - I'm not really a fan, but 'Live at Budokan' is great, and it's a double-whammy (or is that wah...) because I don't like Zakk / Black Label Society at all. Except for House of Doom! Wahey.. found another band with one song I don't mind 🙂

For me it's "Rock and Roll" off The One With Stairway On. Everything else I've ever heard by them just irritates various anatomical features off. There are many bands whose career I could condense into an EP and a lot I find unlistenable in their entirety, but bands with just one decent song is a proper ask - good one!

I reckon it comes down to the difference between value and significance when you say 'worth'. Some will see the cash value of these instruments, some will see the significance of them, and for either reason some who are able due to finances or connections will continue to acquire them irrespective of their 'generation'. The balance of significance will probably change over time from "it was Pete/Gary/Kirk's guitar" to "it's a thing that's over two hundred years old" or "it's made of a tree that no longer grows", meaning they will probably be of variable interest to different groups over time. The value will fluctuate due to external factors as is the norm, and periods of reduced interest, accidents, malicious damage, natural disasters, whatever.. will eventually reduce numbers to the point where the examples that remain become "priceless", which at the same time precludes their use, prohibits their sale and becomes their tacit significance to everyone who holds them in no other regard as they look at them in a museum. Apparently I'm a millennial, and personally I have no interest in old guitars that anyone else owned - I like new things than only I've owned. I have friends the same age who feel the absolute opposite.

Now that's a proper bass ownership story to tell - the day my music room got hot enough to melt solder! 🙂

I'm not sure which group this should worry most - those who never take a backup to gigs because what could possibly go wrong with a P bass, or those who always take a backup to gigs because if one fails you can rely on the other! Never had anything similar myself. Hope you get 'em sorted without too much inconvenience and expense, and it'll be really interesting to hear what it turned out to be.

Playing violin in a fairly large concert orchestra was helpful in that it got me used to walking out on stage and being part of a big, loud, musical thing where I had a part to play and a lane to stay in. Most of all, though, it trained my ear. Of course getting there involved formal lessons, reading music and knowing just enough theory-words to sound informed, but I really didn't enjoy any of that - I just put up with it because I was told it was necessary. The orchestra had a notional grade 8 entry requirement, but because I hated theory and didn't care about certificates, the only one I ever took was 3. My sight-reading was pretty strong (as it needed to be given the amount of time I didn't spend practicing) but fortunately the piece they put in front of me to audition happened to be one I knew so I just did my usual and played it from memory whilst looking in the general direction of the music stand. I was in, and as long as I made sure my bow was going the same direction as everybody else's and sat on the side of the desk that wasn't expected to turn the pages it was never a problem all the time I was there. Which is a long way to say that formal tuition and playing another instrument was useful, but because it generally trained my ear and provided sufficient experience of being part of a group to show me what was important to me. That let me learn and play bass in a way I'd enjoy rather than resent; no more dots, no more theory, no more lessons.

Agreed, I think it would be hard to do much better than a Hiscox STD-EBS. I've got a proper flightcase with a CNC cut foam interior and I'm not sure it offers a great deal more protection - it's just a lot heavier and more awkward.

I used to play a full step down when I first joined my band as it suited the vocalist, and at the time I was using EXL/EPS 220-5 sets (40/60/75/95/125) on standard 34" scale basses - they didn't feel floppy and I thought that they sounded a bit less muddy than heavier strings. The singer changed and I switched to playing 4 strings down only half a step with EXL/EPS 190 sets (40/60/80/100) which worked equally nicely, and then a few years later the singer changed again and I went back to standard with EXL/EPS 165s (45/65/85/105). So contrary to most advice I've ever read, I actually played lighter sets for lower tuning. All I'd be doing in your position is putting a fresh set of whatever you normally use on, tuning and stretching them in to D standard, maybe adjusting the neck very slightly if needed to compensate for a little less tension and just seeing how you get on.

Aye, I know I'm strange, but I've learned to live with it. It does take both of us to make that world go round, though, because if I wasn't buying them new, looking after them impeccably and moving them on at a thundering loss, then you wouldn't be picking them up second hand in mint condition for a little over half the cost of a new one. Similarly if you were as obsessed with cutting manufacturer logo branded sticky-tape as I am, I'd have nobody to sell to! 😉 That 'new' smell, though.

Ah well, it's all part of the journey isn't it, and I know people who've lost a lot more than a grand on much more painful and profound life lessons. And it's not like I've even learned mine either as I'm currently waiting patiently for a teambuilt Warwick to be erm.. built by the team, having convinced myself that if it's not what I want when it arrives then it'll sell just fine as it's not actually custom. And in any case, I 'paid' for it entirely by trading in basses I no longer use so it is also, in fact, free! 🙂 It's probably accountancy like mine that makes basses seem like a good investment.

Yup, if you happen to be in that fortunate position to acquire something that somebody else has taken the initial drop on for you, and you have the opportunity to play it before you buy it - which they never could because it was two bits of tree and a dream at the time - then you're probably onto a winner. Personally I don't do second hand instruments any more, as every time I've tried, they've never ended up feeling like they're mine. So I'll just stick to nice examples of mass-production that arrive factory-taped and smell of new! 🙂

If it works out, absolutely. It didn't for me - I went to a well respected luthier but sadly the end result wasn't special at all. It eventually moved on at about a 60% loss. The same thing with Fender on the headstock would have moved much faster for a lot more money.

Oh yeah, of course, I'd forgotten about the 5881 - I've encountered those in a Marshall 9100. My back aches just thinking about it!

I don't think I've ever seen a 6L6 anything-other-than-GC before, but you're right and I fully take your point. Do you find the other 6L6 variants used in amps? I've only had a Peavey 6505, a Mesa RectoVerb (which always sounds a bit rude to me) and the Classic 60 with valves from that family in them, so my experience is quite limited. And the 12AX7s in the power amp... again true, I believe I was thinking of phase inverting and said rectifying. And even then I might still be wrong, but I think that's closer? I know one of the tubes in the set I bought had extra snake-oil rubbed on it for good luck, and I think it was that one 🙂 Autocorrection?

I don't believe they do any more, or at least not all of them. I've sold my P 4s and switched to SR 5s in the last year or so, buying new premiums with the proceeds. They have 19/20/21 date codes respectively and none of them came with the semi rigid case - just a branded soft gig bag. Personally I don't mind as I'll keep the soft bag for storage at home, but the first thing I do with a semi or fully rigid case after retrieving the contents is put it back in the cardboard box it arrived in and send it off to whoever will give me a few quid for it. Takes too much room to store, unwieldy to carry, doesn't top-load, gets scruffy and damaged quickly, pain to fit in the car, offers no more protection than a good bag and often a lot less than a proper hard case. Just my opinion of course... I'm sure many people love them, and indeed I never have any trouble finding somebody to sell them to 🙂

I think the US neck finishing feels a bit nicer in the hand, but I've had a few (standard, deluxe and professional ranges) and always found the quality control in other areas to be patchy. If they scale back the numbers for whatever financial reason, but take the opportunity to concentrate much more on overall quality of what they do put out, there's a chance it could actually work in their favour because nothing makes people want something they never even considered before like a slight shortage of it, and if when they finally get it it's perfect and they put pictures and glowing testimonials all over social media, that surely can't hurt the order book longer term.