Doddy

Most bands are going to have at least a small PA for the vocals, so if need be you can go through that. It's not ideal, but it will get you through the gig.

I agree that it's about the people hiring you, as well as your own reputation, and you need to be prepared. I'll never argue that. What I will argue is that not carrying a spare everything is unprofessional. Not all gigs allow you the luxury of taking backups for all your gear. Things go wrong, but it's how you handle it that makes the difference. If you run a DI in your signal chain, then if the amp goes down you'll still have a signal out front, so you can carry on (all be it unideally). If a pedal goes down, a quick bypass of your board will sort it in seconds. If a string snaps, you might not have chance to stop and pick up another bass if you're in the middle of a 30 minute medley or something, so you need to carry on and rethink your playing. What is unprofessional is these things happening and then you panic and stop playing while you are fannying about to fix them.

I've got the old, brown Boss GE-7B, and I wouldn't say it was noisy. It's a good pedal. For a different option, I think that the preamp section in the Fender Downtown Express is really nice. It's designed by Alex Aguilar, so you'd expect it to be decent. You should be able to pick one up used for around £100.

I guess I'm not professional then as I never take a spare amp and, depending on the gig, I don't always have a spare bass.

The bass isn't played at twice the bpm, it's just subdividing in to semiquavers.

I put usually put an EQ first in the chain because I want it to affect my clean sound before it hits any other effects. If you put it at the end you can use it to EQ the effects. Some fuzz pedals lose low end, so you can use the EQ to add in some bass after if you want. Like I always say, with pedal order you need to move them around and see how their position in the chain affects the other pedals.

It's not that unusual. I've got 5 active basses that don't have any passive options.

So if you can comfortably play semiquavers at an average tempo of, say, 120 bpm are you counting that as being crotchets at 480 bpm?

Half the time I don't even take a spare bass, so I'm not going to carry a spare amp. I've always got a couple of DI boxes with me though.

But most of the players who use an octaver are going to be playing pretty much everything in the middle to higher range of the instrument. It's not like you're going to play a line and kick the pedal on or off for one or two notes.

You can't just stick an octave pedal on and expect it to just play everything an octave lower. They don't work like that, especially on bass. Most analogue octavers, like the OC2 or EBS, will start to glitch around a low A. Apparently the MXR will get a bit lower, as will digital pedals like the Sub n Up and the POG (although I prefer the sound of analogue octavers). When playing up the neck I've never had any issues with tracking. It's like any pedal, they work best if you learn their idiosyncrasies and how they react to your playing and other effects.

I've been using the Earthquaker Devices Plumes a lot to get some drive. It's based on a Tubescreamer, but I think it's way better. They are only about £99 new.

With your set up I'd probably go Tuner>Octave>Filter>Synth>Whammy>Overdrive>Fuzz>Wah>Chorus>Delay. If you are using the Alpha Omega as a DI I'd put it last, but I'd move it nearer the front if it's being used as just a preamp. The compressor could either go first after the tuner or last before the DI, depending whether you want to balance your signal before hitting the effects or use it as a limiter to stop any spikes from using multiple effects at once. I only suggest that order because I've found that after playing around with a lot of pedals on a lot of gigs, that would give me the sound that I want. Really it's about what works for you. Move them around and see how the pedals react to each other. You can get some really different sounds just by swapping the order of a couple of pedals.

I use octave pedals all the time, but I wouldn't recommend one for what you want. Octave pedals generally work best if you want it to double a higher octave part (think Guy Pratt on Earth Song, or Pino on I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down), or to get a synth style sub sound, like John Davis or Tim Lefebvre. They won't just make your bass sound a nice clean octave lower without changing your tone. If you are going to be playing a lot of songs that need those lower notes, then you're going to be better off looking at a 5 string. If you only need the odd low Eb or D, then a Hipshot Xtender Key will do everything you want. You should still get an octave pedal though. They're awesome.

I don't think it is at all. There's nothing stopping anyone playing solo melodies and chords on the bass.

As far as 'new' music based comedians go, I really like Boothby Graffoe. He's funny, and I think his songs are really strong. My favourite though was Victor Borge- He was brilliant. If you look back at a lot of the older comedians (most of who aren't here anymore), there was a tradition of incorporating songs in their act. Most of them sung a couple of numbers, and there were a lot who even released singles or albums at some point.

I've played the bass role on electric, upright, and synth. I've done a few gigs and sessions (and a lot of teaching) on guitar, and I've done a few gigs on drums and/or percussion. Oh, and I once recorded a track on banjo.

5 This. I think emailing is fine of you're dealing with Thomann or somewhere, but for a UK based shop I think it's far better to actually speak to someone before making a big purchase.

Robert Trujillo could also leave Lars in his dust if he wanted too. You never know- Les Claypool might have got the gig and done the job fine, if he hadn't have asked them to jam on some Isley Brothers tunes.

I'm surprised at the number of people who haven't played in a year. I was wondering if the idea of being in a band and hanging out with mates (and collecting gear) is more of the driving force than actually playing the instrument? It's cool if it is, but I just find it surprising when there is so much to learn and play on the bass. I don't always sit down and spend hours playing every day (it's difficult with a 3 year old running around), but I try to pick the bass up for at least a few minutes a day to keep my hands working. There might not be any work about, but my motivation is to not be sh!t when they start up again.

I think that's more about cheaper 5 strings often having poor B strings and cheap active electronics, whereas a lot of cheap 4 strings are simple P or J style. Thankfully, brands like Sire are changing that. It all adds up, but the biggest reason that they all sound different is because because they are different people with their own technique. I don't know if you've heard the SMV album? There is a track on there where Marcus and Stanley swap basses, and they still sound like themselves.

For me, the concept of 'the one' isn't about having one instrument that will do everything. It's about the bass that you know so well that it feels so natural to play. I mostly play 5 strings now, but I always say that 'my' bass is my mid 90s MiJ Fender Jazz that I've had since new. It's not my best bass but I've done so many gigs with it and changed so many things on it, that I know all it's quirks, and to me it's irreplaceable.

It's ultimately about the whole thing, but the most important part is always going to be the player.

There was a full transcription of it in Bass Player magazine a few years ago.

Your debate is far from robust. First off, I'm not talking about Pino's fretless playing. I'm talking about his Precision Bass work, which is why I compared all those guys. All play a Precision bass, yet all of them sound different. The audience might not know the difference between a Precision or a Jazz, but we aren't on AudienceChat. It does, however, matter to musicians, band leaders and producers. Maybe you should know about Tim Lefebvre. It's not like he's top level player and big influence on a lot of players or anything.