thepurpleblob

I think it's a "thing" these days. The bass drum has to be pumped up to plaster-removing levels. It's probably just "sound engineer fashion". In the industry I work in almost nobody can think for themselves either ;-)

The only time I seriously thought I was in trouble was playing in quite a rough punk band in an even rougher pub in Glasgow. I had a Line6 something-or-other floor effects thing at the time (what was I thinking?). One big guy was spectacularly drunk and was jumping about all over the place narrowly missing my pedal board. Of course, eventually he did some massive jump in my direction and my instinctive reaction was to give him a big shove to save myself and my gear. The dude goes flying landing on his face in the middle of the room. To say he didn't see the funny side would be an understatement. He came back up swinging, threatening me with death and worse!! There's no escape route from the corner we are playing in. The only thing I can think is that I'm going to have to get my bass off, hit him with it and hope for the best. Anyway, it was not to be. Our crazy drummer saw all this. Launched himself right over the front of the kit. Straight past me and laid the guy out with one thump. I needed a bit of a sit down! I really don't approve of violence

Ditto.... in fact I've just kicked a couple of people out of auditions for that line. If you can't be bothered learning the songs for an audition there's no chance you'll be committed learning songs for the band.

A drummer I played wit briefly used one. He was terrible. About the only thing you could say about him was that he was in time.

I've learned some valuable lessons over the years... Glasgow, ten years ago maybe. I was looking for a new band and had put an ad in Scumtree and got contacted by a dude. Let's call him Robert. They were putting together a new covers band and just needed a bass player. They were all experienced, mature musicians, was I interested? I explained that I probably wasn't as experienced as them but had been gigging a lot with the usual suspect covers and should be fine. So Robert says, "great come along to our next rehearsal and we'll see how we go". I asked him for a list of songs. He replied, "don't worry about that. Everything we do are standards (sic.) so you'll know most or, at worst, some of them". Should have seen the big red warning light there. Got to the rehearsal, three guys much older than me (and I'm not that young) turns out all were peripatetic music teachers and had years of experience. Oh well, it's never been a bad thing playing with people better than me. Starts calling out songs. One after the other. Never heard of them. Who is that by? Who? Played a bit of each one. Not a clue. Whatever a "standard" is it clearly isn't "Wishing Well" or "Freebird". "Not to worry - we'll try some and I'll shout you the chords - see what you can do". So he starts playing and making these weird hand gestures at me. I stand there looking - rabbit in headlights. "What are you doing?". Turns out that there is some convention of hand signals for chords? Never heard of it. Never seen it before. Never since. Packed up and left. Lesson learned

Just for the record, I don't have an issue with guitars or guitarists (no more than usual, anyway), I've just never aspired to playing one. And I still don't. I understand chords but if you make some weird shape with your fingers on a guitar neck it means bugger all to me I was thinking. A lot of people assume that as a bass player you must also play guitar. A bit like they assume you are an alcoholic

As above. I've never picked up a guitar. Never played one. Never been interested. Went from a percussionist (the classical variety) to a bass player and never regretted it. The only significant downside is that guitarist show me chord shapes and the answer is, "you're wasting your time there mate". I was wondering how many other people here are bassists without the seemingly obligatory intermediate step of playing guitar? And how do you feel about it?

....just in the interests of full disclosure.... I've never been able to play pull-offs either. There are just some techniques my fingers are not interested in. I'll survive!

Bass strings bend? Hang on...... no they don't, you're all crazy

It's a little thing, but it's not having a setlist and/or having one and not sticking to it. Two problems... 1. I'm deaf and never hear what the next song is and spend the bit between songs hissing, "FFS, what bloody song are we doing next?" 2. Panic sets in that nobody will dance and all the "dancey" songs get used up in the middle of the set. Result is ending the night with a couple of slow Pink Floyd numbers and slinking off apologetically. ;-)

I get home, have some toast/bagel, a cup of tea (or two) and sit and chill for a while. I sleep ok but my pathological hatred of pub toilets means I never drink enough (I don't drink alcohol). The risk is more waking up in the morning with a stinking headache. We all have our weirdnesses.

It shouldn't really matter - in an idea world. My opening gambit has always been - "I don't like football and I don't drink". Best to get these things out of the way ;-)

To be fair... I've put stuff up for sale, had loads of enquiries, been very busy with work stuff and never got around to replying to them all. Mea culpa but I'm still a reasonably nice person. He may just have forgotten.

I'm naturally "wound a bit tight" so, yeh, I do get a bit paranoid before a gig. I'm usually ok by the last song though :-D BTW... I've suffered from proper, clinical anxiety in the past (and been treated for it) and it's no fun at all.

I'm not that bothered about other people playing my gear but it doesn't go anywhere without me. That's my "rule". The gigging environment is not conducive to care being taken of stuff. Drink, moving things, spilt stuff, rushing.... and so on.