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D'Addario EXL165 nickel rounds all the way for me on my Musicman basses. Nice zing without being too metallic, kind on the fingers with a nice slick feel, relatively long lasting and nice string tension. Always used Roto steels until a couple of years back when I tried these and never looked back.

Nothing flash, but that's a proper bassline.

Nothing new, I remember valve amps always picked up the local taxi firm in my old local venue. Was very common for "just dropped at the Louis Armstrong" to blast out of the stage during a guitar solo....

My tip for BV's: First get the bassline off pat so your hands can play by themselves and you can dissociate your mind. Then I learn the notes of the BV's by playing them as a pattern of notes on my bass. That way I can remember them as a bassline and always remind myself of what i should be singing. For LVs and BVs, some notes resonate with your chest, some in your throat, some with your sinuses, find out which notes are resonating which part and imagine you are singing through that part of your body. Sing through your nose and mouth at the same time. If you struggle to hit the high notes, imagine you are singing through the top of your head or your frontal sinuses. If you need dirty bluesy sounding vox, tighten your vocal chords. Practice and Fishermans Friends will extend your range.

Yes, bands that are not so well known tend to go on a multi-band lineup or at least have a support act where I am. For example one of the popular originals venues in Winchester has 3 bands on a gig night. The variety is great and it's never boring.

Did you get the crime number and go back to the pawn shop where the lad bought the bass? They have a responsibility here. It's well known that places like this pass on a lot of stolen goods and they are supposed to get an ID and address of the person selling. If the toerag selling the bass has used a false ID, at least they can get a description, and he might well be known to the local plod. According to citizens advice, you are liable for a full refund if you buy stolen goods from a shop, so the lad you met on Facebook should get this for you.

Let this venue go. The fact is only crap bands will play there if they are not paying, probably a bunch of inexperienced teenagers and their mates. Real music fans will avoid the place for both of the aforementioned reasons and the pub will go into decline. If you want to make an income as a venue, the term "speculate to accumulate" is very relevent here, very few decent acts will play for nothing. So far as payment goes, in my experience having played in both, most original bands sell tickets and and charge an entry fee on the door while covers bands get paid by the pub. If they are any good original bands will make money eventually, at least cover their costs.

Signed up to Mark Smith today as Scott's website is down for maintenance (I'm on strike so a good time to work on my music!). Seems pretty good, gone back to basics and found lots of bad habits already so it's already worth it. I'm completely self taught up till now but for slap watching an expert seems pretty important. Hopefully there'll be a lesson that helps you keep your rhythm while distracted by shaking booties!

Lol, I know, sometimes slap bassists can be a bit like guitar "shredders" who just widdle up and down arpeggios at lightning speed, but having played lots of different fingerstyle stuff for years, getting good at slap I will be a more rounded bassist and musician, I don't need to try and impress anyone at all it's about the music. Besides, I love music from the grunge and funk-rock era and driving slap basslines from the likes of Flea really work. I want to play good slap basslines, posing with flashy slap solos is not of interest to me. Slap seems to require a level of control and dsicpline that some other techniques don't have too, so it can only be good for timing and timbre in general. My lifetime goal is to be able to play absolutely anything on the bass. I know I'll never really get there, none of us will, but decent slap eludes me right now, and this is an annoyance.

Some great info here to keep me busy, thanks a lot

Didn't realise! I'll sign up thanks!

@Spondon, there are actually a few pay to view slap courses out there as i mentioned, but they are expensive so I was interested in people's opinions of them before I took the plunge. And I'm the one who will be doing the slapping

Thanks Barking Spiders, I like Scott's videos but I find the Youtube ones pretty low on content as they are really ads for his bass academy. I really want a complete course that I can work through over several weeks. It's a bit of a gamble to sign up for the academy for the slap content alone, but feedback from any subscribers would be of interest.

Brilliant, thanks guys i'll check them out

A little advice from anyone in the know would be appreciated. I'm by no means a beginner, I have been performing fingerstyle for decades and I'm pretty proficient at most types of bassline. I can play a bit of slap too, slaps, snaps, left-hand slaps etc. But I never got really good at it, I'd probably rate myself at intermediate. I have the basics down and I can make basslines that work. So I'm looking for an online course that runs in steps all the way from intermediate to advanced without just getting dribs and drabs from Youtube etc so that I can really progress. I have had a look at Scotts Bass Lessons and The Bass Wizard slap course but not signed up yet as they are both expensive and I want to know which would be the best. Any experiences of these (with regards to slap only), or any other suggestions? Cheers!

Thanks for the replies, I can buy with confidence

@jimmy23cricket Well to be fair, I had a few problems with my Ampeg soon after I bought it. I took it to an amp tech who corrected all the crappy solders and I have not had a problem for 5 years. If it really sounds that good and is so cheap, might have been worth doing the same.

Has anyone had experience of these? I have an Ampeg SVT3Pro which has a valve preamp stage and a mosfet power amp stage, so I'm interested in some preamp valves. here are various replacement preamp valve kits on Watford Valves at a variety of prices and a variety of different claimed tonal qualities. Do they really reliably make the huge difference in sound as described in each kit description, and do you think it's a real improvement on the standard valves? And do the higher prices reflect the actual quality of the improvement in sound, or just the availability of the particular valves. It's a bit of a shot in the dark to drop £80.00 - £200.00 when you can't hear them before you buy.

Thanks for your suggestions guys. I'm checking out video reviews for those pedals right now. Also looking at the MXR M89 which looks good bang for the buck and has a blend knob.

I have been using an EHX Big muff Pi Bass and I don't find it a very good pedal at all. It's too fuzzy and you lose the low end and it doesn't sit well in the mix. The GF has given me permission to replace it so I need some help! I'd like maybe to split the signal and have both a clean and dirty sound if this is the best solution? I'm not a particular Billy Sheehan fanatic, and I don't need to play many bass solos in my current outfit, but it looks like a good pedal. Mainly, I'm playing things like Zep, ZZ top, Rory Gallagher etc right now, and I need some nice tonally sounding dirt that cuts through the mix without sounding like a chainsaw (especially for the early ZZ top stuff). To give you an idea of my sound, current setup is: Sterling SB14 bass (soon to be an EBMM Stingray). Ampeg SVT 3 pro head Ampeg SVT classic 4x10 EBS Multicomp (and some other stuff on the board that is not on all the time so not relevent here). Any advice appreciated!

Yes I am stupid! Found it with your help, WooHoo! Thanks again for all your help chaps.

Nope, still can't see it. Am I being stupid or have they changed their site?

Thankyou!

I looked for it on their website but I couldn't see one. These seem quite hard to find.....

Thanks guys, some really helpful replies. I'll check out A-strings. Also, I have always liked Stingrays, but like a Jazz profile so I'll check out the SLO special too.