KingBollock

I’ve banged on about this so many times that I’m sure people are sick of hearing it… It was my Westone Raider I in silver/grey. I loved that thing! It was only an incredibly dire situation that caused me to have to sell it. There’s a chap on BassChat that, I think I remember him saying, owns one that lives on top of a wardrobe. I have spent the last couple of years trying to decide if it would be rude to ask him if he’d sell it to me…

I’d donate a femur or humerus for a flute/tin (bone) whistle.

I honestly couldn’t tell you. I just play like me… I do play, almost exclusively, with a pick, though.

First, I’d have to go with the two that got me into bass: Lemmy Steve Harris Also: Billy Sheehan Jo Bench

Do you need the action to be lower than it currently is? If not, then maybe a thin, shaped shim to go under the bridge might be easier to achieve? I am sure there will be others here that can actually help you with what you actually want help with, but it was just a thought.

This probably doesn’t count… I’ve got a classical style, nylon string guitar that my dad bought from the Kay catalogue in the early 80s. I have no idea why he bought it, he never intended to try to learn how to play it, and he never encouraged my brothers nor me to learn it either. Many years later he came to me asking to borrow £22. The trouble with him was that he would guilt trip me into lending him money and then, when I’d ask for the money back, I’d get a lecture about how I owe him thousands of pounds for the cost of raising me… He NEVER returned anything he borrowed from me. So, this time, instead of lending him the money, I offered to buy the guitar from him. It was/is rather battered and wasn’t really worth £22. But it plays well enough, sounds quite nice and I play it quite often. I’ve had it for about twenty five years, I think.

Unfortunately I sold my first (and second) bass, but I still have a Cort headless Flying V that I got in 1994/5. That’s not a photo of mine but one that is identical. Although, mine is currently banana yellow. My plan is to strip it, again, and stain it walnut. I just missed out on the bass version of this guitar. It would have been cool to own both.

I’ve never exactly been mr money-bags, so it’s all relative… My first proper speaker cab was a Marshall 1960b 4x12. Unfortunately, little thirteen year old me could only lift it six inches off the ground (which was fine for getting it onto the trolley I nicked from the local Co-op warehouse, to wheel up to the youth centre for rehearsals…). I ended up doing a straight swap for a no name 1x15 (and returned the trolley to the Co-op). Quite a few years later, I sold that 1x15 for £50. About ten years after that, the chap I sold it to needed to make space in his house and, since he never actually used it (I don’t know why he bought it), he gave it back to me, for free. I still have it. Age sixteen, while doing work experience at a TV/video repair shop, I mentioned to the boss’s son that I played bass. He told me he owned one but had never actually taken the time to learn to play it. He said I could have it for a tenner. I turned up the next day with my tenner and he with his bass. I had a bit of a play on it, at which point he said I could have it for free. He’d been sceptical about whether I did actually play or not. It was just a Satellite P-bass, but it was free, and it actually played and sounded really nice. I later sold it for £35. A couple of years ago I was helping a mate get started to learn to play bass. He heard one of the pedals that I had and fell in love with it. I am rather fond of that pedal, too, but he really, really wanted it and was prepared to swap a Zoom B3 (which he was finding overly complicated) for it. So I agreed to it. He’s since decided to do the Van Life thing and sold all of his bass gear. He came to stay with us for a few days recently (staying in his van on our drive), and gave me the pedal back and wouldn’t take anything for it.

As SH73 mentioned drop D tuning, I remembered why I got my first five string. It was during the height of Nu-Metal and I wanted access to that D. But, rather than hobble a bass by keeping it in drop D, I figured a five string would be more versatile. Also, C# standard is quite a common tuning. Tuning up to it on a five string works really well. No more flubby bottom string. I think Cradle of Filth do a lot in C#.

The first band that came to my mind was Amon Amarth.

My ultimate favourite shape is the BC Rich Warlock with the Widow headstock. My number one bass is a glossy black Warlock NT and I love it to bits. I have an Aria Pro II Magna Series MAB 20/5, which is a fairly standard shape, and I hate it! It’s just dull dull dull. It plays and sounds great, though.

Indeed, I too love Son of a Preacher Man. I also love White Rabbit, which is getting a right kicking in this thread.

I really dislike the slightly stretched, drawn by a child, quality of Spector basses.

Perhaps you’d prefer this version…

OutKast’s Hey Ya. Almost as ear-gratingly nasty as the theme tune to the old tv soap Take The High Road. I almost put Meatloaf’s I Would Do Anything For Love. But the reason has more due to timing and a certain couple of women than the song itself…

Loving that track!

My first 5 string was a Magna Series Aria Pro II MAB20/5, and I hate it! It has a very narrow neck, which makes it really easy to play, and the jazz pickups are really nice and growly. It sounds lovely. But it looks so boring! The shape is a slab, all hard angles, and the colour is a dirty looking pearlescent white. Just looking at it makes me cold, and black veins crawl across my soul. I’d like to do something with it, though. I like really glossy, piano white basses. It doesn’t feel beyond me to sand it back and re-spray it, but it has a nasty, wood deep chip in a prominent place, which means I’d have to take all the paint down to the bare wood. Which would at least give me an opportunity to reshape it a bit, rounding over the edges. But my confidence that I could do a good job of it is not high. I have thought about filling the chip and having at it with an airbrush, possibly do some kind of design on it. Maybe something American McGee’s Alice inspired? I’ve thought about defretting it, too. I doubt it’ll ever get to the top of my stuff to do pile, though, and I’d probably have to give someone money for them to take it off my hands…

Are you having doubts about giving up the band you just left, or just in general? Maybe the enquiries piquing your interest might be a clue that what you really need is something new/different?

I love stickers. Meet Angelbane. Again.

I use a sandbag rifle support. Once filled with sand they get quite heavy and sturdy. But you could also fill them with beanbag beans for a more lightweight solution. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185027001692

What about replacing songs in your set that he currently struggles the most with, with simpler new songs?

I hope you enjoy them more than you think you will. I know you said that it’s the lead up, rather than the gig itself, that gets to you, so hopefully you’ll end on a high and be left with good memories.

Isn’t alt rock just anything that isn’t rock?

Have you tried the nylon ones? What sizes are you trying? I used 3mm Big Stubbies for over twenty years until I discovered Dunlop Primetones. They’re expensive but they have better grip than Stubbies and I prefer the sound from them.

I was once in a band that disbanded and reformed with a new name and different lead guitarist and singer. I had no idea it was going on. They all knew each other socially but I was quite a bit younger, not old enough to go to the pub with them. I was just told that the band was over. At the time I was working in a guitar shop and the lead guitarist had come in for something. I was out of the shop, on my way back, when I met the guitarist coming the other way, and he told me there was someone on the phone for me. It turned out to be the second guitarist. He and the drummer had organised the split and they wanted me to join them again. I said yes. A little while later the lead guitarist had found a really good drummer and they asked if I’d like to join them… I really wanted to but I had no idea that you could be in two bands at the same time, so I felt I had to turn them down. The new band was a mess and didn’t last long. Guess who went on to have a proper career in music…