Doddy

I enjoy sitting down on gigs. Obviously, for most of my rock and pop stuff I'll stand because I move around a lot, but on anything more chilled I'll sit if I can. I pretty much always sit when I practice too. If I'm going to practice seriously for a couple of hours, I want to be comfortable. I used to have one of those folding stools that's pictured in an earlier post, but I never really liked it. I've been using a Roc n Soc drum stool for a few years now, and it's great. It's low enough that I can put both feet on the floor to put my bass on either leg, and I can easily reach my pedals.

I love Chris Wood's playing. The Wood Brothers are great, but I love his work with Medeski, Martin, and Wood. They're a great trio. Also, good score on a Clifton Bass. I love mine.

TC Spectracomp and Polytune will sort you out. Not particularly expensive, and even cheaper if you buy secondhand.

Take your pick..... https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pino-palladino-mn0000292499/credits And that doesn't include live work.

If you quoted all of what I said, rather than just one line, you wouldn't have had a point. Will a high level session player use what is right for the gig? Obviously. Will they be using an inexpensive bass because 'the audience can't tell the difference'? No. When a session costing thousands of dollars is at stake, they are going to use quality instruments.

The whole 'Pino would use a (insert inexpensive bass here) if it was the right choice' is mostly bogus. At that level they are going to play quality gear. You want a P Bass? They aren't going to reach for a Harley Benton. They're going to have, at the lowest, a Mexican Fender. More likely something vintage or custom. Such as?

Maybe, but you can guarantee that that £90 pawn shop find will have been worked on by his tech to make sure it is suitable for a gig or session where 1000s of dollars are involved. He's not going to turn up with a fresh out of the box Harley Benton or a just bought, pawn shop Kay.

Bryan Beller used the Interstellar Overdrive on the Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins song 'Why Am I Your Guy', and it's a killer sound. Great score. I love the old SWR gear.

It sounds like it's simply put it in to a major version of the same key, rather than go to the relative major. In the original the first 2 verse chords are Am and Em, and they have been shifted to A and E. If you just moved everything up a minor third you would really just be changing the key up to C minor. Of course, you could go to the relative major, but that is going to make the song quite a bit higher in pitch and change the whole tonal centre.

That's a great book to start with. If you go through it all properly, it will give you a good solid grounding. I wouldn't wait to finish before looking at songs. Try to find time for both while you are practicing, that way you can enjoy yourself while still getting the work done.

When I fret with my little finger, every other finger behind it is also on the string, whether I'm playing one finger per fret or not. Nothing to do with strength, like when I play upright, but more to do with avoiding flying fingers and keeping things fluid.

It depends on the tempo of the piece. If I was playing a semibreve in a slow ballad tempo, I'll probably drop my thumb on to the E string. If it's uptempo quavers/semiquaver, I'll stay on the pickup. Basically, I'll do whatever is the easiest and most comfortable way to play the note.

On the odd occasion that I've thought that my playing isn't going where it should, I just book a lesson with great player and go and get some new ideas. There's always more work on. Can you read? If not, there is plenty to work on there. If you can, there are tons of books (not just bass books) that you can open up and take ideas from. There are hundreds of scale and arpeggio exercises that you can do. Just a bit of focussed practice each day on these will make a huge difference to your playing.

I don't think it makes them seem like a poor relation. It's generally just an easy way to show that the pedal has been tuned to lose less low end.

And then you wonder why musicians get bad reputations.

It's not really about strength. In lower positions, it can be a bit of stretch to use finger per fret or 123 fingering, especially on a 35" scale bass. 124 gives you a 3 fret reach with a more comfortable hand position. Also, I've found that the vast majority of people who I've taught have more dexterity in their little finger than their ring finger.

I've never worried about that. In fact, I'd had one expensive bass for less than a year when my then 3 year old got hold of it and put a big scratch on the back. Whatever. It's nice, but stuff happens. I've never worried about a bass on a gig.

I was playing a panto a few years ago, and about half way through the 4 week run I had an infection in my middle finger causing it to swell up a lot. After it was drained, it turned out that a couple of tiny pieces of the coating from the Elixir strings I was trying had come off and gone down the side of my nail. Looking at the string you could see where the coating had peeled off where I play.

I bought one of the DeArmond reissues in the early 2000s, when some shops reduced them to around £100, new. It looked kind of cool, but it had a lot of neck dive and the first fret felt a mile away. Hardware wasn't great (especially the tuners) and tonally it sounded like a relatively cheap P Bass. Honestly, it was really just a pretty cheap and unimpressive instrument. Mine mostly sat in a corner for a while,before being given something like £70 as a part ex.

To be fair, there have been players who have been putting effects on their bass for 30/40 years. Just look at players like Pino with his OC2, Anthony Jackson with his phaser, and Neil Jason with his envelope filter.

I'm not in it either. I think their rates are totally out unless you're a solo artist. I don't really do many pub gigs anymore, but I do think they should be paying around £100 each.

Has anyone mentioned the MU rates? They reckon that the fee for a pub band, playing for up to 3 hours, should be £129 each, plus you can add on travel, porterage and a late finish fee.

It looks to me like his thumb only comes over the neck when he's playing the higher strings. I'd guess that either he's doing it to mute the low E string, or because he's got relatively poor left hand technique and grips the neck like a baseball bat.

The chain running right to left makes sense to me because my cable comes out of the right side so goes straight in to my first pedal (volume pedal) on that side. I can see how that would be a pain for left handed players. My first generation EBS Octabass has the in and out the opposite way to most other pedals, and it's a right pain to put in a chain.

But then you're just adding different problems, like having to program patches, not having instant tweaking on stage and,in my opinion,not as good tone (particularly for overdrives and octaves).