uk_lefty

I use a dish sponge as a string mute on my P bass occasionally. Now I just have nylon coated strings. They last forever. Save money on effects pedals and all that paraphernalia by buying a decent multi and learning how to use it. I learned that a few months back. Made a profit on my old gear and have far more possible effects combos at the end of my toes. The excellent multi effect unit cost me just £100 on BC market place. Save your strings by cleaning them at the end of practice/ gigs. Of you like a bright sound this is a must. If you want a muddy, thuddy sound, and there's nothing wrong with that, then save on vintage amps/ pickups and basses by just never, ever cleaning your strings. Save loads more money by never going in to guitar shops. Ever. Especially if you've just had an unexpected tax rebate. You might end up with a brand new stingray. They ain't cheap.

I have always listed after Ibanez basses, they're bound to be excellently put together. I have got a Sire Vintage V7 though, and got it with options that you just can't find off the shelf in lefty basses under a grand. It was my main gigging bass from the day it arrived until the day a Stingray arrived... Excellent value basses, great feel, very versatile pre amp that's easy for someone like me who isn't great with active electronics. Still, feel is so much more important than any other factors. I'd say go for which one gave you the biggest grin when playing.

Whereabouts are you based? If you're somewhere accessible then people will probably drive to get it if at a good cash price. To me if it says Peavey on it then it's a good sign that it's indestructible so if I were in the market and had storage I'd go for it.

There's something about this that looks really low budget, that and it's not a cinema release. Still, despite that I'm booked in for 22nd March and I have hope it will be utterly amazing.

The various breeds of Stingray could be good. I have a full blown USA Stingray and it's the mutts nutts, but to get within budget you could go for two of the cheaper Sub or Sterling ranges. Not sure if they do fretless off the shelf but buy second hand and get to work with your pliers? I'm waiting for a nice used Lefty Sterling to come up for sale so I can have a fretless stingray

Honestly I could barely move my feet! It was a multi band thing and they all seem to have brought as many shoddy guitar practice amps as possible with them to "decorate" the stage

We've got a vinyl banner with big eyelets in each corner. Sometimes it gets hung up behind us, sometimes on the front of a stage. Sometimes it's just too much p!ssing about so we don't bother.

I think it's to do with the bass itself for me, and also strings. I thought it was output but I'm not so sure. With my Kramer fretless (a cheap passive low output bass) and with my old MIM Jazz I had to dig in like hell and end up with blistered fingers on a gig, the tips would harden after lots of rehearsal. But in the past I've had flatwounds on each bass and not had blisters or calluses. With my MIJ Precision, Sire V7 and Musicman Stingray I don't get this at all. And I use roundwound strings on them. But I don't need to dig in because I get the tone and presence I want without needing to do that. The tips of my plucking fingers have a little hardness to them but not much. I've been playing the Stingray pretty much exclusively since the start of the year. I've done three gigs with it and not come close to blistered finger tips, even a very long function gig.

Get a Sire...

Just as I was discovering the possibilities with the EQ I've had to put it up for sale!! I love a jazz style bass though and in future if circumstances allow me to have more than enough basses again I'd go for a Sire all day long, it's not the simplest EQ to use (hence this question) but it is the most versatile I've found.

You can bypass the active very easily, just flip the switch and it's passive with a load of extra knobs.

Purchased a practice amp from Neil. "As new condition" means just that, even came with the instruction manual in its plastic sleeve. Professionally packed. Also, very well priced. All round excellent experience dealing with Neil. Thank you!

Believe me you do get used to it. It's not that bad after a while.

Mrs Lefty likes one Black Stone Cherry song so slowly but surely we are getting there. My two year old daughter loves Sabbath and Killswitch Engage, far more my style!

My wife's Taylor Swift, the Feeling, the Script and One Direction albums sound best in her car. In the driveway. Engine off. Radio off. CD's in cases in the glovebox. Car frozen shut. Car blocked in by mine.

Very, very good value for money. The colour combos and fretboard options available are fantastic. They're so good you can start to convince yourself you like the ugly headstock after a while.

Hotel California. While driving an E reg Volvo 1.7 rear wheel drive with brakes that occasionally need pumping a few times before they work. Wouldn't do it now but I was a student and I bought the car for a hundred quid. Also Pearl Jam, rear view mirror. Greatest driving song ever.

Sums it up for me too, very nicely put.

Ha! How many times did you play "crazy horses"???!

I think some on this site know him... I did one rehearsal with a drummer named Dave. He was ok as a drummer. Spent ages faffing about with kit and telling the studio staff how shoddy their kit was etc. to kind of make a weird point. Anyhow we get playing. He's ok, nothing special. Then we have a break and he's telling us about bands he's been kicked out of because of differences of opinion "but you just need to talk about it and see what you can agree on" he says, seems fine but small alarm bell ringing as he just doesn't shut up, doesn't let anyone else speak. He goes on about how "crazy horses" by the Osmond's goes down well. We are sure it does, we say, but it's not aligned to what we are trying to do which is New Wave and early 90's melodic indie stuff. He keeps going on and on. We play some more but now he's talking so much between songs it takes too long. He then tells us for gigs he wants his kit at the front of the stage. He tells us he has a headset microphone for backing vocals. As we all have packed up and we are ready to go he leaps from the kitty, slams the door shut, turns out the lights then starts playing with glow in the dark drum sticks. I'm driving the other band mates home and we say we will give him a try, drummers are hard to find and he's ok. Then we get an email of twenty odd songs we should play, it reads like the playlist of a karaoke night in a seaside town. It's dreadful. I can't remember it in detail except "crazy horses" and the nail in the coffin, "let me entertain you" Robbie Williams. He also seemed very creepy, but had a loneliness about him that made you feel sad. If only he had some self awareness he may have been able to reign it in. We never contact him again. A few years on and with a different band I'm getting ready for rehearsal. The guy working in the studio is a drummer and he's flustered. Dave is one of the rooms complaining about every nut and bolt in the drum kit. Their kits aren't great but you can handle them. There's a bassist and guitarist in there bored, half heartedly jamming away (bassist sounded really good) while they wait for this rocket to sort himself out. He saw me in the foyer and made eye contact. I don't know if he recognised me or whatever but I made double sure the lock on my front door was secure that night.

I've never had the truly appalling, I guess mine are a but tame. But I don't lend money out and I get my opinion on lateness etc across really quick, plus I'm keen to walk if things aren't going well or if band practice is really just sinking twelve cans of cider and making noise in a room with me as the taxi driver.... When I went to uni I found a guitarist on a website and he drove well over an hour for rehearsal. I thought that was a bit weird but ok .. he knew a girl who had never sang in a band but had a great voice. That should have been the alarm bell... Lovely girl but wouldn't sing in to the mic with other people around, barely remember he properly attempting a song. Since then I've never wanted a singer who hasn't done it before, it's ok singing along to CDs but when faced with a live band and a mic it's a whole different game remembering queues etc... Anyhow. We got a drummer. He turned up once. He never answered his phone, or texts or emails. His flat was near mine but the guy just plain disappeared and never had the decency to say "sorry I don't think I can commit". After a while and a few very unproductive rehearsals I decided to knock it on the head. The guitarist who seemed an ok bloke was convinced his band from his uni days were the nuts. I listened to their cd and they weren't even an ok pub band. When he got my message saying I don't think it's working and also I have just started uni, I've got my course ramping up etc. He sent me an email saying "thanks for nothing, I've driven all this way, spent all this on fuel, all this time learning songs, I've put so much in to this and you are just messing me about..." Weird. I didn't force him to drive 90mins each way, I even said early on "that's quite a long way, are you sure you want to do that?" Also he knew the problems I was having getting in touch with the drummer, he could see with his own eyes that his "singer" was too shy to sing and was, well, not a singer.... I remember being quite taken aback by how badly he took it.... All after meeting for one pint, three or four rehearsals that didn't do much, and lots of email chatter about song choices and originals... It's not like we had a European tour booked or anything. We didn't even have one song! It seems a lot of muso's are far too sensitive, and while a lot are committed to what they do some go to extremes and expect everyone else to follow. Also, a lot just think they're way better than they really are. I like to think I know my level and I'm at it, my wife keeps on at me about my band charging too little for some of the bigger gigs but I keep telling her we aren't worth much more!