Doddy

He was playing a Sire V7 fretless 5 last time I saw him. It sounded great.

Which is why I mentioned (twice) a small combo for practice at home, and in ears for gigs.

I didn't know the Helix had a headphone out. In that case, that's the practice rig right there. Maybe a small combo, if the OP wants to move some air. I'll always recommend in ears over floor monitors for gigs though.

Not really. Some systems have a line in, so you can go straight in to them from your instrument, out to your headphones. It's an easy practice set up. Otherwise, I'd recommend a small, inexpensive practice amp for home and in ears for monitoring at gigs.

I assume (hope) that you're not being serious here?

Personally, rather than get an amp for monitoring I'd get a set of in ears. You'll hear everything better and it will keep the stage volume down.

Fair enough. I think that guys like P Nut, Ryan Martinie, Evan Brewer, and Trevor Dunn have done some really cool metal (or at least metal influenced) slap lines.

Surely the motivation is to play the song as well as you can in order to make your bandmates happy or to get rehired, or whatever your situation is? Personally, I find it more useful than demos played with a pick. Mainly because I usually play more with my thumb than with a pick, but also because I think the difference between fingers and slap is generally greater than between fingers and pick. None at all? Forget Me Nots? Aeroplane? Thank You? Never Too Much? Higher Ground? Stomp? Let's be honest, the slap technique is just a way of playing a note, just like playing with a pick or your fingers. It's not the fault of the technique that a lot of people seem to only play octaves in E minor.

Even that's not original. Bob Haggart and Ray Bauduc did that back in the '30s with Big Noise From Winnetka

Is the issue here about actually disliking slap bass, or is it really about disliking slap bass YouTube demos? You never really see anyone say that songs like Forget Me Nots, or Peg, or Never Too Much suck because of the bass technique. Mark King and Victor Wooten always unfairly get named in these threads. Both these guys have done plenty of work where they just sit back and play without all the flash, but you won't find it on the 1st page on a YouTube search. The suggestions that slap can't be melodic or creative is just laughable.

To be fair to Victor, if you listen to his albums or see him live, he's playing with a band pretty much all the time.

Cool.

Because slap can't be melodic?

The Ashdown Studio 15 would handle it, no problem. I've done big band gigs, with and without PA support, using my 240 watt Ashdown PiBass and a 1x12 and it's more than handled it. To be fair, I've also used my old Roland Cube 100 and it's been fine.

I've never even thought about string spacing when I buy a bass. I think there are more important things. My Sire V7 and Roscoe LG3500 both have 18mm spacing, but the Roscoe feels easier on the right hand. My Shuker Singlecut 5 feels huge compared to my F Bass BN5, yet they both have 19mm spacing. Switching between electric and upright is a much bigger jump than just switching between electrics.

Keneally used to have a big section on his website called '1988 Was a Million Years ago', which was essentially his tour diary from that last tour. It doesn't seem to be there anymore, unfortunately. It was a good read. Edit... FOUND IT.....http://www.keneally.com/archive/1988/1988.html From what I've read, I think it was Ed Mann who was the biggest instigator in causing the rift between Thunes and the rest of the band.

When I had a 50s style Precision, I only rested my thumb on the pickup when I played the E string, the rest of the time it was resting on one of the lower strings. I do that as standard on any bass, so it wasn't a big deal.

Which is one of the reasons why I've played for a few tribute shows.

I don't think playing in a tribute is much different than any other cover band. They still learn the songs the same way, they're just more anal about it.

If I'm learning something for my own amusement I'm going to spend time getting it as close as I can because I normally look for lines that are going to make me work to improve. If I'm learning tunes for a show, it depends on a few things. I'll learn it dead on but you have to adapt to what everyone else is playing. You can't just plough through playing it as the record if the band has a specific arrangement. If there's charts, you play that even if it's different from what you learned. If I have to learn a whole set in a day, then there's no way it will be perfect, but it will still be right. All the main lines will be there. Out of interest, I've never heard or played in a cover band that plays things exact, even though they claim to.

I don't know if that was the case but a lot of the really well known players who came through his bands, on all instruments, were good readers, although they never read on stage.

No argument there. Of course it's important to be able to play consistently slow too. Not everything is metronomic but there are a lot of situations where you're playing to a click, and in those cases it is. Sure you can fudge your way through if you're struggling, but wouldn't you rather be (or hire) the guy that can play it right rather than half arsed?

I think a lot of people are being pretty unfair to the OP here. The title might have been badly worded, but it's a legit question. How many times do you see posts talking about drummers who keep dragging? If they drag, it's because they can't play the part and keep up with the tempo, and it's the same with bass players. What's going to happen if you're faced with a semiquaver pattern at 120 bpm or a fast walking line at 300 bpm and you can't keep up? You can play a nice semibreve, but it's not going to cut it and there's a chance that you probably won't get called again. Unlike what's been suggested earlier, no half decent player is going to play blazing fast lines over a mid tempo tune. Just because someone can play fast doesn't mean that they will do it all the time. I agree with everyone that says a good player isn't measured by what bpm they can play at, but there are times when it is still important.

I'll give a serious answer.. You need to be able to play fast enough for what the gig requires. Personally, I don't want to be pushing the limits of my technique when I'm on stage. I want to be able to play something like 'What Is Hip?' or a fast Rhythm Changes comfortably, so ideally I want to be able to play several bpm higher than is usually expected.

There are other blend pedals like the Xotic X Blender, or the Wounded Paw Blender, or the One Control Mosquite Blender. The LS2 is a very cool pedal though. It can work as a blender (although I never blend a clean signal with my effects), but I use it either as a master effects bypass when I use a board, or as an AB box for multiple instruments. Its a super versatile pedal, and I picked up one of mine from Cash Converters for £20!!.