Ed_S

I’ve always played both as and when required and would say I’m equally proficient in both styles, but irrespective of whether fingers would be most suitable I’ll always switch to pick when my finger ends are feeling like if I go for any longer I’ll injure them. I know some people take blisters as badges of office but I find no joy in having them so make sure that all sounds I’d normally achieve with fingers I can also get a workable version of with a pick. Maybe that gets me a guest membership to the club.

Had mixed experiences, myself. I'm sure I'll have forgotten a few bits but.. TO800 Overdrive is a great TS copy. XM8500 Mic is great as a cheap talkback - possibly more but I don't sing. FBQ1502 EQ is really handy for the dedicated sub out. PM1 Belt Pack is alright. MIC2200 Preamp was alright. MDX2600 Compressor was alright. DI100 DI Box is alright but noisy when phantom powered. RX1202FX Mixer was alright but noisy and susceptible to interference. Xenyx 502 Mixer was alright but the knobs went oddly discoloured for no apparent reason. FBQ2496 Feedback Destroyer was actually quite good.. but would occasionally go nuts! BDI21 Preamp was uninspiring and the switch felt crunchy. FBQ100 Shark Feedback Destroyer was poor. SU9920 Sonic Ultramizer was poor. TU300 Tuner is poor. MDX2200 Compressor died. Bought used - good condition. Xenyx 2222 Mixer died. Bought used - reasonable condition. Bass V-Amp Pro died. Bought used - mint condition. DI20 DI Box died. Bought new. On the whole mostly alright, some really useful bits, a few definite misses and a few total losses. I don't have any issue at all with using their gear, but I've found that the more complex bits that try to cram in loads of value-added features are very easy to forget how to operate if I'm not using them particularly often, and the manuals aren't always that helpful to get back up to speed. To that end I made a decision to avoid anything of theirs that doesn't have a dedicated, labelled dial or button for every feature it offers, and buy something else that just does the thing I need. No holding this while turning that and pressing the other until the light blinks 2 and a half times, thanks. I feel exactly the same way about Zoom gear as well, so it's not a unique situation by any means. To answer the original question about why the used stuff fails to sell... well in my case I would only buy new Behringer kit now because everything I've bought used so far has died!

Light weight, decent build quality and some evidence of it actually having been engineered instead of just stuck together from parts that hit the target price. Then recommendations from BC and from friends in bands, and occasionally personal experience of hearing that brand or range at a gig. Then aesthetics and price, either of which could veto something outright no matter how well specified or highly recommended it is.

I keep thinking about buying another Orange TB as I've never had quite the same sound and feel from another amp as I did with that - it had a bit of a 'bounce' to it, if that makes any sense at all?! Sadly mine was one of the original v1s with the dodgy power board, so when it blew up at a gig I lost confidence in it, got it repaired under warranty and moved it on to try something else. I had the matching isobaric 2x12 cabinet at the time, and it never sounded anywhere near as crisp with that absolute boat-anchor of a cab as it did with my Barefaced Super12. I still have the S12, so I keep wondering whether to try and get the magic back... or just leave it in the past and remember it fondly. I've never had an Aguilar TH but I have a Mesa D800 and tbh it's a bit vanilla - seems well made and sounds loud and clear, but to my ears it kinda lacks personality. I've never had a Darkglass, but since they look like the old Mac Mini and every one I've ever heard has been made to sound like a road drill, I'm not overly tempted to go there any time soon!

I enjoy buying bits of new gear, so over the last 20 years I've had matched Hartke, Ashdown, Orange and Markbass rigs, as well as mixed rigs comprised of all the above plus TC, GK, SWR, Fender, Trace, Ampeg, Peavey, Mesa, Eden, Barefaced, etc. The advent of small amp heads made it significantly easier to keep the revolving door turning, but swapping the cabs to match every time would have been an expensive pain in the behind, so I kept those I was happy with and haven't felt the need to change them in a good few years. There have been a few real stand-out rigs, some of which have matched (Markbass LMII and 104HR) whilst others have been mixed (Orange TB500 and BF Super12). Similarly some real disappointments which have matched (Ashdown ABM500 and ABM410) and been mixed (Markbass F1 and Ampeg 410HE). To that end, I think it's probably alright to say that listening to a matched rig is the best way of hearing an amp how the manufacturer intended it to sound, but whether or not that's the best sound the amp is capable of producing for your personal tastes is an entirely different question. What matters most to me these days is that gear is capable, reliable, and as lightweight and ergonomic as possible, so I think accepting that everything might not be from the same manufacturer is fairly fundamental. Also, there's nothing as lightweight as a cab you've not had to bring, so being acceptant of any reasonable speaker size/quantity/configuration and confident in the ability of my amp head to drive it in a suitable manner has likewise been beneficial!

I always think the Veyron heads look fun - it’s like they went for ‘make it look like a Streamliner’ but inadvertently ended up at ‘make it look like a Technics mini hifi component’! 🙂 I ended up playing most of my gigs in 2019 on a 300W@4ohm micro head and any old cab that happened to be at the venue when I got there, so I’m sure the Technics would be loud enough.

I’m not an electrician, but one at work told me never to do that in commercial premises unless I was absolutely sure that both circuits were on the same phase. I got the feeling that he thought it was a pretty bad idea even then, but apparently if they aren’t and there’s a fault between two bits of kit on different phases, the jolt you’re risking hurts considerably more. Same guy also told me that if you think you might get a zap from something you’re about to touch then keep one hand in your pocket (cue the music) and touch it with the back of your other hand so that if it turns out to be live, your arm naturally pulls away as your muscles contract due to the shock, and you don’t grab onto it when your fingers clench at the same time. Interesting bloke to chat to 🙂

I can recommend taking a £200 punt on an Ibanez GSR200B - mine is 2.85kg (just below 6lb 5oz says google) and it's a compact and comfy shape, has a standard long scale and normal-feeling nut width, balances well, has good fretwork, decent hardware where it matters, functional electronics (the 'dynamix' pup covers feel plasticky but the soldering is neat and it sounds like a bass) and the 'phat' active eq knob that everybody hates is actually alright if you use it more like salt instead of gravy. The factory strings are of course tragic, the finish is uninspiring brown, and the knobs are plastic ...but they work and they're lighter than metal ones! Sandberg SLs are also good, but ironically heavier at 3kg and certainly not £200 new just to get out of a hole.

Personally I'd always go in straight away with my own take on the songs, because doing anything else would be presenting something at audition that I wasn't willing to continue doing if hired. I'd eventually end up doing my own thing because that's me; that's what I do as a bassist - I play the instrument, not individual songs or lines. Far better in my opinion that the prospective band gets the opportunity to decide whether or not 'what I do' is right for them before hiring me instead of having to deal with it later when I've inevitably reverted to form. If you're willing to not only play the original lines at audition, but then also continue to play them as a member of the band and maybe even continue in that style when writing lines for new material... go for it! If you're considering playing the written/recorded material as-is and then 'putting your stamp' on the new stuff, consider that if your take on their existing material wasn't going to excite them, then your take on their new material possibly won't either, and you could end up stuck being their old bassist instead of their new one.

I used Allianz years ago for my violin when I used to play. Had to claim for a bow that got damaged and they were fine about replacing it - just needed a decent repairer to assess it and say it was beyond economical repair. I've used MusicGuard on-and-off for bass gear and PLI but fortunately haven't had to make a claim yet. I did ring them up when it came to this year's renewal and remove the gear from the policy just leaving the PLI (since gear doing nothing and going nowhere is adequately covered on the house insurance) and that was a perfectly friendly and efficient conversation which resulted in the right things happening, so no red flags.

Can't un-see that now.. but good call!

My first setup was a Yamaha BB-N4 and a Trace Commando 15, so if I could nip back and offer my younger self some advice it would be to acknowledge my luck and keep hold of those, buy that BB-G5 that I always fancied, and then just use the hell out of what I’d got whilst waiting for a company called Markbass to emerge on the scene and sort me out with a lighter amp. If I was starting out these days, I’d like somebody to tell me to get a Fender Player Precision, an Ibanez SR-505 and a Markbass CMD121P or a Fender Rumble 500. Fresh strings, decent cables, good bags and cases, wide straps with locks, and a SansAmp are always good advice as well.

My possibly over-simplistic view, for what it's worth Somebody says that listening to music makes them feel something really positive and only music does that for them. They're willing to lay down their free time and disposable cash to experience the thing which makes them feel good. The product they expect to receive for the money they pay is a feeling. That seems to be generally accepted and perfectly relatable. Somebody else says that playing music to an audience makes them feel something really positive and only music does that for them. They're willing to lay down their free time and disposable cash to experience the thing which makes them feel good. The payment they expect to receive for the product they provide is a feeling. That seems to be somehow tantamount to robbery and completely reprehensible. The gig needs a clean, safe venue with tables and chairs and beer and food and toilets and staff and a stage etc. so the audience pay their disposable cash to float that. The musicians need lessons and books and instruments and amps and rehearsals and transport etc. so they pay their disposable cash to float that. The door/bar/catering/cleaning staff probably don't get many uniquely positive feelings from playing their respective parts, so they expect their recompense in cash and they get that. As long as everybody involved is happy enough with the arrangement, then I don't see what the problem is. If, as a professional musician, you can offer that venue owner something special that guarantees a bigger take on the door/bar to the point where they can afford to pay you as contract staff and still make more profit than the free alternative, then offer it and I'm confident they'll take you up on it. After all, as a non-professional musician playing original material, I have to accept that I can't get a gig in a decent venue with 'organic' footfall on a Friday/Saturday night - that's firmly covers and tributes territory for a reason.

Aye, that sounds ace as compromises go - everyone gets at least the gig they want to see and some get two-for-one!

I've seen a fair few established bands touring their latest album by playing a select few of the best songs from it crafted into a gig that, if anything, actually focuses slightly more on the previous album that everybody has accepted into the fold and feels comfortable with by that point but isn't overplayed yet. I'm more than happy to accept that I might be in the minority, but for me personally, playing the entire new album is a real misfire unless you're a new band touring your debut. I can only think of one exception - when seeing a band tour a new album and play a lot of it made me like the album a lot more - which was Arch Enemy touring Rise of the Tyrant. I just didn't 'get' that album until I heard it live and realised how big and epic it was clearly meant to sound but the studio recording just hadn't captured effectively. They've done it both ways, though, as I thought War Eternal was a great sounding recording but they couldn't perform it at all well when I went to see them live. I digress. If Maiden ever announce that they're going to do a gig where they play through all of Fear of the Dark, nip backstage for a fisherman's friend and then come back and play through Brave New World then I'll be down at the front, but otherwise I think I'm ready to accept that I'm just not their target audience and leave them to it!

Totally agree. Also bands that decide to play a full run through their latest album that's only been out a few months and you haven't really connected with yet, followed by a few old classics just as an encore. Iron Maiden have done that to me 3 times now, so they won't be getting another opportunity. On the other hand, album anniversary gigs or full-on performances of concept albums I'm well up for, because you know exactly what to expect and if you don't like that one, you don't go. Well, unless you're dragged along by a mate who bought the tickets and loves the album in question but neglects to mention any details... I remember expecting a WASP greatest hits gig and got The Crimson Idol in its entirety, complete with video projections. Most memorable thing about that night was getting my drink spiked.

I was given a set to try (SB nickels, but 45-125) and ended up using the 45-105 out of the pack as 4 string set since they were all I had around that was suitable to put on a Precision that had come out of retirement and needed freshening up. They felt fine, but the lower tension didn't do it for me on a top loading bass and I ended up getting rid and replacing them with my usual EXL165s. However, a couple of months ago I bought a USA Pro Jazz 5 and the Fender strings that came on it felt like playing the Humber Bridge. I ordered a set of Dunlops for it and the combination of slightly lower tension than I normally like, but stringing through the body instead of top loading, seems to have rounded out at a very pleasing feel indeed. I think they'll be the strings I stick with on that bass, but I just need this set to wear out so I can put a new Hipshot A bridge on next time I restring, because the current Fender USA bridge is a proper knuckle-shredder and needs to go.

I don't like to have anyone else to worry about when I'm going to gigs - I'd much rather go on my own. If I go with friends I'll reiterate my position, make a point of telling them to do their own thing and agree to meet back at the car/hotel/train, because there's nothing worse than group decisions about where to stand and which least-favourite song should get sacrificed to go to the bar, or whether somebody's tired and wants to leave early, or where to go for food afterwards, or whether I'll hold their pint/bag/phone/coat/burrito/whatever while they go for a pee. If I'm not just left alone and allowed to be completely 'in the moment' and absorbed in what I'm watching, then I'm unlikely to be enjoying myself and there's really no point me paying to be there. That aside, it's just people being irritatingly thoughtless and unaware of their surroundings or needlessly aggressive that can spoil it for me. Some of those types have provided amusement or at least decent stories, mind... I recall going to see Motorhead and being stood towards the back when a fairly short lass started back-pedalling towards me, clearly only concerned with getting a better view over the crowd. She literally back-heeled my toes and then stepped up onto my steels, believing them to be some kind of fortuitously placed riser. The height difference was such that - even stood on my shoes - she wasn't actually obscuring my view, so I just stood there amused, looking like a metal penguin for a bit and waited until she noticed. When she did, she must have jumped far enough to get at least a fleeting glance.. of her house. I was on the very edge of a pit at one gig.. can't remember who was playing.. when a bloke flew out towards me and I had all on just getting my arm up to protect my face from his. He obliterated his nose into my upper arm, apologised and headed straight back in, pouring blood everywhere. The next day I was left with a dead arm and a massive bruise, but figured he'd probably woken up looking worse, so I got on with my day.. which included attending a funeral. As I was sat in the service needing to look suitably sombre and contemplative, the nerve in my shoulder decided to un-pinch and I got level-500 pins and needles down my arm and half my face. Cheers for that experience, lad.. hope your nose set at a right-angle! Another edge of the pit experience was at a Megadeth gig where a bloke tottered back from the bar between the bulk of the pit and me, carrying one of those 2-pint plastics in each hand. The crowd surged and knocked both of them upwards, but he kept tight hold of them so they just went straight over his shoulders. Straight over me. 4 pints of Strongbow. I decided that I didn't like Judas Priest enough to stay and watch them headline the gig whilst I was p-wet-through and smelling like a urinal. Ruined my leather jacket, and Megadeth had just played absolutely terribly, so that was an expensive night with few redeeming features. I still spare a thought for the guy who lost 4 pints purchased at arena prices - my jacket only cost a couple of hundred quid!

When I saw Danny Vaughn a good few years back it was one of those gigs that just had great atmosphere and he actually commented several times about how much fun he was having - seemed totally genuine rather than just the usual patter. In the end he gave the audience a ‘cheer for the option you want’ choice - either pretend it’s the last song then go backstage for a bit and come back on, or just stay on stage and see how many more songs he could get through before the curfew. The loudest cheer, and indeed his own vote, was for the latter option. Personally it’s not something I enjoy unless I can squeeze a trip to the bog, the bar or the both of ‘em into the time it takes for the act to do their planned theatrics. I accept it happens, though, just like extended crowd participation and drum solos, which I also don’t enjoy and treat as refreshment breaks.

I always take a spare where it’s feasible. I favour the cheapo backup option to keep the insurance premium sensible, and also because “my jag wouldn’t start so I went in the merc” sounds nowhere near as much fun when drunkenly recounting the tale at a later date as “..so I fired up the reliant and off we went!” 🙂 Our rhythm guitarist is ‘that guy’ when it comes to gear maintenance and associated malfunctions. He had yet another string break and proceeded to change it on stage, mid song. We just carried on playing and he managed to come back in for the last few bars. Unfortunately for him, he had a GoPro pointed straight at him, so the lead guitarist took the footage of the string replacement, speeded it up, set it to the benny hill theme and sent it round. It got the point across.

We're actually a 5-piece but we'll play gigs with the rhythm guitarist missing and our singer only sings, so I'll join in. On those gigs I haven't changed my tone, but I've sacrificed a few twiddly-bits where it's better to just keep the rhythm driving, and I generally don't play super low to begin with; I find that if you're thundering around at the bottom of the B string when the guitar switches from rhythm to lead it's a much starker contrast when the 'middle drops out' than if you're routinely based half way up the E and A strings so there's still plenty going on in the mids to connect everything together and the bass part was just never that low.

I’m quite happy that somebody else has heard of House of Lords! ...but I think the only band I’d be willing to buy a CD from without hearing it first is Amorphis.

I made a bitsa out of a Fender official spare-part MIM body and a Fender licensed Mighty Mite neck that had a dodgy decal already applied to it when it arrived from the eBay seller. I didn’t feel the need to remove the decal for my own use, but I would if I ever sold it as, legality aside, I wouldn’t want anyone to buy it believing it to be something it isn’t. That said, Fender will happily sell you a spare-part neck with the logo applied and must be aware that you could match that with any body and try to sell the results as anything you were cheeky enough to attempt. Certainly if I were to buy one for my Squier VM (as I keep considering) and then subsequently sell the assembled instrument, I’d do so honestly but I wouldn’t be sanding the logo off just because the body wasn’t MIM Fender.

I started off on a Squier P/J which I owned for maybe a day or two before it became apparent even to a total beginner that there was a lot wrong with it. We took it back and the guys at the shop agreed, so by way of an apology gave me a great deal on a Yamaha BB which they said I'd have no problems with - and they were right. Rightly or wrongly, that experience negatively coloured my opinion of Squier and, by association, Fender and anything fenderesque for the next 10 years. But then Fender seemingly upped its game massively and released the revamped MIM Standards so, having read a lot of good reviews, I went and tried one. It was a 4 string when I'd played 5s exclusively for years, it was white/white/maple when my main basses at the time were all black and pointy (a BTB, a Warlock and a Vampyre), and it was light and ergonomic at a point where I was suffering back/neck issues that worsened with every rehearsal and gig. It was smooth and tactile, singularly the most comfortable instrument I'd played in ages, completely honest in all its limitations and just sounded great with both controls on full, so I bought it there and then. I pretty much instantly connected with it and the more I played it, the more it felt like the way forward.. so I proceeded to ditch all the black, pointy, heavy, uncomfortable instruments that I'd amassed, re-imagined all my original bass parts for 4 string and started to really enjoy playing again without always being in pain. So yes, a good P can be a revelation and even dig you out of a hole - probably literally if required!

Genuine and totally un-troll-ish comment here (which I say because I realise it might easily sound like one) but speaking only for myself, if you play by ear and don't actually know any of the notes you're playing - just where to find the next one you want to hear relative to the one you're currently playing - 6 really doesn't add any complexity or take any time to 'learn' at all. Just like as long as the intervals between the strings are 'normal', the note that each one is tuned to isn't that important; just find the start note and work from there. I admit freely the downside is that if you can't hear yourself on stage it doesn't make for a particularly fun gig, and any bass that's drop/open/nonstandard-tuned is just an unplayable, out-of-tune bass, but in most other circumstances it does make for an easy time with the additional strings on 5s and 6s. I imagine it's maybe like a keyboardist pushing the octave up/down buttons - everything is where you expect to find it, it's just either higher or lower - but I don't play keys so I don't know for sure! If anything adds any complexity for me, it's changing the string-spacing as you pack more of them in. It's fine - it just takes a few minutes to adjust, which is why I don't swap and change at a gig, because 'a few minutes' is 'a song' which I'm likely to have multiply fluffed, especially if it's a quick one with a lot of string-skipping!