BaggyMan

Woohoo what a ride, nice comments...some completely odd yet artistically done..nice. Its good to consider other opinions ...even bad ones..thats how better solutions are born.

Finally worked out how to give feedback..d'oh Great trade on a single cut ibanez, as described, good comms, great bass, will happily deal with again.

I chose bigot as a word to describe all types of 'ism' bias i guess. Lots of valid points about "would you want to be a 50 something yr old bass player in a band with 15yr girls.." and so on. Totally get that , sometimes its just not the right thing.. I suppose what i was suggesting is that we as musicians need not type cast/think of ourselves as this or that genre or 'type', yet invariably we all do. So, yeah my first post focussed on being older (becuase..i am and had practical examples to assit the point) , and being fed up with being pigeon holed. I suppose the overall point is stay loose in our thinking and we might get a surprise what the outcome might be eh?

Smooth transaction selling my EAST pre amp. Many thanks, would recommend.

Good discussion folks...

musical style 'opinion Crosses genres as well btw , tried out for a folk band, played well all looked to be good, but they heard i was also in a rock band and dropped out because of that. You play really well but....

Haha it doesn't bother me personally, but I know quite a few players of a certain age who land up depping because they cant get into a band because of age. Smiled when I saw 'paunch' that's stoutist that is haha

Both of them are session players outside the Chas n Dave day job...nuff said

Most of see us see ourselves as open minded inclusive sorts...or do we? If you saw a band advert for "all white band seeks bass player, ethnics need not apply..." what would be your reaction? (some sort of indignation hopefully.) Ok next up "all male band seeks bass player" Men only please.. getting tricky eh?, why? because we expect equal rights perhaps? But How many adverts for 'all female band seeks...." Hmmm getting trickier positive discrimination is allowed i guess The point I suppose I am moving towards is how many adverts say: "rock band need bass player, ability to play <style or level of accomplishment>> needed, otherwise age/gender/sexual orientation irrelevant" None to my eye. Why do i bring this up, well as a 54 year old bass player, i have my own rock/indie band (this is a good point to attach the well tried labels of "dad rock", middle aged rockers ...blah blah). This last few years I have become more aware of ageism. Let me expand that a little, the automatic assumption that someone who has played for 30 years+ is "stuck in their ways" and indifferent to playing well. Cant tell you the number of throw away comments here where I have seen the attachment of 'age' to being crap, or indifferent or uninteresting. My band is well rehearsed, has good gear, and chooses tracks that only keep us happy as musicians people enjoy hearing. I would quite happily have someone in the band on merit alone and not look at their age or anything else for that matter. Don't get me wrong there are lazy crap bands out there...age isn't the primary driving factor tho.. So are you a bigot??

For my few pennies worth. Local to me (medway towns), the big problem for the venues brave enough to try live music is: a) unless you can guarantee a crowd to follow you in they cant afford band entertaining an empty pub. Hence established acts are good to go, new starts or something a little different, struggle to establish themselves. we have lost three venues this last year due to the noise abatement issue. The flip of responsibility for noise issues from the Police to the council has meant a complaint comes in and they act as if it was a noisy neighbor complaint. Disco or Karaoke is all they are allowed after only a couple of complaints... A couple of really good venues have been castrated by this .. c) the pub culture is changing as said above, people don't have the same drinking patterns as before and why spend £3+ for a pint when you can buy a 12 pack for less than a tenner. The govt (successive ...not just this one) aren't interested in the pub/bar scene. So cut price booze sales from supermarkets have turned people off the 'pub for a pint' ritual. Sighs....

Totally enjoyed the lively discussion from #1 G&L's...so thrying out this ..#2 why would someone buy a Fenix I had a Bone white P bass special (the one with the extra bridge jazz pickup) back in the nineties Basic sontruction was very good, swapped out the bridge for a badass like one, and some hot pickups. Awesomely good for not much money. Budget basses (even with a few upgrades) dont have to be second /backups imho.

Ok I'll kick it off..I have owned two SB-2's. One US and one trubute. The biggy for these is that they have two volumes, one per pickup. Simple as a stick to play, and brilliant giiging bass.