molan

One of the first things I spotted was that you said you'd only had 8 rehearsals yet had a massive list of songs & then chose 20 to play. My tip would be to pick your best 20 (or at least an agreed number that will fill a set) and then stick to them until they are totally nailed. No use part-learning 40 songs if you can only fit 20 into your time slot as the audience won't ever discover you've got another 20 that you could possibly play. Could even always play them in the same order every time you rehearse so you'll start to get faster between changeovers. This can sound a bit boring at times to be just banging out the same songs week after week but, unless you've got one really strong MD who can hold everyone together, it's just about the best way to get really tight. Once you've got these in the bank then you can start adding a couple of new songs each week and build the list up, have 'spares' for that elusive 3rd encore etc.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1170754' date='Mar 21 2011, 03:09 PM']It's looking more and more likely that I'm going to get to this...[/quote] Me Too! Long way to travel but sounds like fun & I can get to meet some more faces I haven't seen before Keith - you can definitely count me in, organised my car about 10 minutes ago so I'm all set now. . . Also - if anyone wants me to bring any of the basses listed in my Sig then gimme a shout, the car will fit a good few if anyone wants to try something out

Good to have more people from sunny Oxfordshire I'm in Henley - only in Oxfordshire by about a mile, but it makes all the difference, lol.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1170884' date='Mar 21 2011, 04:47 PM']Contact these guys. Pat knows everyone and everyone knows Pat. His son, Dorian Kelly, is also over that way. All great players. [url="http://www.pendulum-byjo.co.uk/education.htm"]http://www.pendulum-byjo.co.uk/education.htm[/url][/quote] Brilliant, thanks Bilbo - I did think of contacting you first but thought this was a bit of a distance off your 'patch'. Should have known you'd be 'connected' all over the country when it came to all things jazz

Not sure if this is the right forum but I thought I'd start off here and see how I get on I know of a jazz guitarist who I'm told is very good (I know his partner). He's been looking for either some other people to play with and/or maybe put a band together or just some good jam nights that are jazz focussed. Apparently he's tried a few places but the quality has either been a bit poor or the focus has almost always ended up just playing 12 bar blues and he'd like something a bit more challenging. Unfortunately I have no ability to play jazz whatsoever so I'm not much use to him! I think he's based somewhere near Ascot / Windsor so I'd think there must be some people from here that might be able to help with some ideas?

Phil is going

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1167869' date='Mar 19 2011, 01:23 AM']Jeeeez Barrie.. forget this thread..what you Gassin for? most of your boutique basses, are not that flashy, but very expensive.. i always loved that Louis J bass you had.. i can only think of 2 bass companies that may have a deposit of that sort of money..Alembic and Fodera... i dont think your an Alembic man, so im guessing Fodera... i bet my pants on its a Fodera.. you should really branch out and try a Sukop or STR.. and let me know how the Sukop went...[/quote] Actually I'm not really gassing for anything much at the moment, lol. But if I did have £5K to spend only on bass then I'd absolutely try out something at the very highest end of the market. Fodera basses still slay me on sheer playability so that would definitely be my favourite - maybe a custom build with much 'darker' sounding woods than my Yin Yang

I can never really understand why anyone [i]wouldn't [/i]want an exotic or boutique bass if they could afford one without having to think about the cost I have no arguments that there are a zillion lower cost basses out there that sound, look or feel great but the OP's quote was "if i had £5000 to spend on only bass" - with that in mind I'd really want to spend the money on a £5K bass rather than, say 5 x £1K basses. Not least because you can only play one at a time, lol In fact I spent all of last weekend on a stand at the London Bass Show watching people try out basses worth between £4K and £8K and at least two people came up to me openly saying they wanted to try one simply because they were sure they weren't worth the money. After 5 minutes one of them was discussing how much I thought he could sell his 5 basses for in order to pay for the £8K bass he'd just been playing Pretty much every person that played one of these beauties walked away muttering how amazing they were to play and saying "one day". . .

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1167587' date='Mar 18 2011, 08:13 PM']if i had £5000 to spend on only bass...[/quote] I'd use it to put towards an even more expensive boutique bass, £5K would just about cover the deposit of what I'd really like to buy, lol. Horses for courses eh

[quote name='TomKent' post='1165929' date='Mar 17 2011, 04:02 PM']Bloomin' eck! Just seen the price of them - right out of reach. haha [/quote] What I meant was that you could borrow one of mine I may have a hard case somewhere as well - my loft is full of cases!

How about one of those Sadowsky style hard/soft cases? Great protection without weighing a ton I've got a few kicking around somewhere. Also have some other really tough gig bags that would survive a flight OK

There's one for sale on EBay already : [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290545468384&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123#ht_500wt_1079"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3#ht_500wt_1079[/url] Looks like the blue one in the pics above?

I'm pretty local too - technically in Oxfordshire but only by about a mile over the river from Berkshire border

[quote name='jamesbass116' post='1162277' date='Mar 14 2011, 08:08 PM']Ahh that was you!! I was the person you let play the bass through the little korg mini effects unit. I wanted to thank you personally but you were in the middle of helping someone else out so I'll thank you on here...Thank you SO much for letting me play on your fantastic bass! If I had the money I'd have bought it on the spot I don't remember being too rough with it I hope [/quote] Ah, sorry about the Korg / headphones combo - it didn't really work very well. I'm afraid it was an afterthought after the din of the first day. That Korg is ok for playing around at home but it's a bit of a 'toy' and I think it masks the true tone of a bass. Nice to meet you and sorry I didn't say a proper goodbye