As a teenager I used to play bass in a punk folk band.
" A WHAT???"
I am glad you asked and you are right, such a thing should never have existed. Two very respectable genres that dont mix very well. Call it experimental. It was 1976, Punk was new and well someone had to try.
My first bass was bought for £17.00 from a junk shop in 1973. It was a Hofner 500/3. To me it was a tired old dinosaur from a bygone age that I had nothing in common with. Imagine my shock when I googled it recently and saw an identical one up for £950.00. I swapped it in 1975 for a rather neat looking Welson Violin Bass. It was a nice guitar and played well, but it wasnt the precision or rickenbacker 4001 that I hankered after. I flogged that in 76 for £ 40.00 (wayhay £23.00 profit :-)), in order to go on holiday, thinking, oh well I will just buy another one when I get back. Oh the folly of youth.
[b]Fast forward to December 2012.[/b]
I find I am listening and humming along to the bassline of every tune I listen to and am looking at bass guitar adverts online. 2nd January 2013 and I walk into my local music store pick up an SX FP62 Precision and am amazed how comfortable it feels in my hands. The shopkeeper plugs it into an amp and says have a go. "I dont know anything I say".
[b]Fast forward 5 seconds [/b]
And I am running through a 12 bar blues without having any idea what notes I am playing or what is actually controlling my actions. It was the first time I had picked up a bass guitar in 36 years!
I have some questions
1. Is this form of madness curable?
2. I thought not. Where can I get an SX precision where I can buy it on hp (spent too much at Christmas)? It came across as a very good bit of kit and at £ 189.00 seems like a bargain. None of the online stores in the uk seem to stock it. In fact, my local shop is the only place I have come across it over here. In the US it is extremely popular according to the forums over there. Alder body, great finish, no belmishes wonky screws or filled gaps. Looked as good as a real Fender he had in the shop and sounded great.
3. Is the Squier Affinity P bass as good (budget up to £200.00 if I am lucky)?
4. What about the Epiphone Thunderbird IV or EB-3 ( I understand they are both poorly balanced guitars)?
5. Is the Laney RB1 15 Watt practice amp as good as I think it is (Which is good enough)?
6. Does this age regression thing mean that someone will be changing my nappy in 15 years?
I want to play Punk Folk (joking), 60's and 70's rock from the Beatles and Kinks through to the Stranglers and just about anything in between. I might try some of that new fangled Oasis, REM and Pulp type stuff from the 90's as well. Gigging if it ever happens will probably be restricted to playinjg the bottom end of an, English music only, Ceilidh band (all of my brothers and my neice are in it so at 54 I should be thinking of toeing the family line), Unless I can find some other old gits to form a retro band with.
Thank you for reading that. I hope you don't resent me for wasting 5 minutes of your time.
Cheers
Damon