ambient

I think you have to consider what you personally want and need from life. A lot has been said about paying bills and buying houses. The reality is very few jobs nowadays pay enough to get a mortgage, that's why more and more people are renting. People can't raise the often huge deposit, and then there's the repayments and job insecurity. Consider the bills that you pay each month. You have to pay for somewhere to live, and to heat and provide electricity for where you live, and food to eat. [b][i]But[/i][/b] Do you need the super bumper platinum Sky TV package, when you probably only watch 3 channels anyway and do you have to have the latest electronic gadgetry, new flatscreen TV and mobile phone and games console ? Do you have to spend a fortnight in the sun on the Costa Del Whatever every year ? What about changing your car regularly ? Buying new clothes every season ? Eating out regularly ? [i][b]Or[/b][/i] Can you make do without any of that nonsense, and be satisfied in what you do for a living ? Being a professional musician is a lifestyle, not just a job.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1398516416' post='2434876'] I love the way that "Jack of all trades, master of none" has now become "Portfolio Career"..... [/quote] I kind of disagree with that a bit, you have to be good at all, otherwise you won't get asked to them.

Try this [url="http://www.seventhstring.com"]http://www.seventhstring.com[/url] Very cheap considering what you can do with it.

There are lots of things you can add to your portfolio, you really just need to use your imagination, and if you think of an opportunity then grasp it and act on it. I know Steve Lawson does seminars/masterclasses about online marketing/ use of social media and things like that. There's busking too, especially if you live in a touristy area, and can come up with a different slant on it, Chapman stick playing or solo bass looping maybe ? Running a website with music educational resources is a possibility. Stage/instrument tech'ing.

To do a trade or a sale ? I've met people in railway stations, tube stations, coffee shops, Tate modern.

You need a 'portfolio' of skills. Teaching - not just bass, but general music/theory/harmony/sight-reading/ear training/music tech. Playing live. Production. Session work. Journalism maybe, both online and published. I know a couple of people who write for BG magazine. Arranging. Composing. Music tech skills are really useful. I did some work for my cousin last year. She trains and rides dressage horses. I did several CD's for her routines. They use classical music, it needs to be linked to each horses gait. I'm doing some soon for some friends of hers.

What did they sound like after 20 years ?

I never even felt safe in Anaheim which is where Disneyland is .

[quote name='Josh' timestamp='1398285945' post='2432603'] Having been a fair few times over the last couple of years I can safely say L.A. is very overrated and quite a nasty place when you really look at it. It's cool to do the sunset strip once to have a look in all of the guitar shops but thats about it. There's one major downtown strip with the Hard Rock Cafe and where they film the Letterman show and that's about it. Be careful where you do wander off though, it really is a dangerous place. One place I highly recommend if you enjoy astronomy is the Griffith Observatory which is on the hills around L.A. It's absolutely stunning at night. San Diego is nicer but a bit scarce of things to do other than it's main strip of shops and restaurants. San Diego Zoo is pretty awesome though if you fancy it. If you can I'd say go to San Francisco, now that place is somewhere very worth going [/quote] I totally agree with San Francisco, I really loved that place. Monterey is great too, brilliant jazz festival every September which is what I was there for. There's a bass store in San Diego .

I was there for about 3 days 10 years ago, I didn't like it, found it very scary. Don't go east. The place is huge, something like 80 miles by 40 miles, downtown LA is about 20 miles inland.

No good for me, I'm scared of the dark and spiders.

I always thought it kind of rhymed with dinghy but with an 'e', so it's wengy.

Checkout the vintage tubes here. I don't usually like this sort of thing, but this blew me away. I liked the Markbass one, then Steve switches in the Darkglass vintage tubes, and the difference is amazing. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJe08UZP__g"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJe08UZP__g [/url]

[quote name='Shedua511' timestamp='1398103034' post='2430518'] At the moment I'm not looking to sell, but I will keep it in mind. If I can offer some advice, I wouldn't worry about the lack of the metal bridge: unless you intend to tune it differently, you'll be fine. After all, 5ths/4ths tuning is the standard (pretty much all instructional material is in that tuning) and light gauge strings + Stickup are the Stick sound we all refer too. To be perfectly honest, I use medium gauge on my main Stick and I tune it one whole tone lower, but the Tony Levin/Bob Culbertson/Nick Beggs sound is light gauge, standard tuning, Stickup. What you really need is an adjustable truss rod, that would be a deal breaker for me. Very low action and straight neck are essential. It an be retrofit on old ironwood and polycarbonate Sticks, but hen you would have to ship it to Emmett and back... a modern Stick would probably cost about the same. Make sure you also check out the new Railboard, model: it's cheaper that wooden and graphite Sticks and is really nice. Emmett himself only plays a Railboard nowadays. If you need some advice on a specific instrument, feel free to PM me. [/quote] That's very kind, thanks .

[quote name='Shedua511' timestamp='1398086979' post='2430247'] Angel, I would love it if you could put some photos of the SIM mod up. I've been playing the Stick since 1990, though lately it isn't getting ugh playtime: hopefully that will change soon, with a new musical project on the horizon! In the years, I've put together quite a collection... I also have an old ironwood, but it was on holiday when I took the photo! Here they are for the Stick-o-philes Graphite 36" grand, shedua grand, purpleheart grand 1/4 fretless, bubinga 10, polycarbonate 10 and polycarbonate Grid (MIDI only) [/quote] Wow, what a great collection. Don't suppose you want to part with one ? I'm looking for one at the moment. How do the different models compare ? I've been offered 3 different ones so far, one is a very modern one, but slightly out of my price range. The other 2 are a lot older, and don't have the metal bridge arrangement.