FinnDave

I feel the same way - I have been playing for 45 years or more, have spent money or decent basses and amplifiers including back ups, have a larger car than I need simply to be able to transport my gear around - so when I am asked to play somewhere miles away for a free beer or two, I refuse to do so. I am also in two bands at the moment, one used to gig every weekend until the drummer left and then Covid struck - we are still trying to find time when all three of us are able to rehearse so that the new drummer is up to speed on the set. I could do with getting that band back to regular gigs as the money was useful. Other band is a six piece Grateful Dead covers band, based in Oxford, which often plays at multi-band afternoons arranged by a 'promoter' who gets paid by the venue, but the 4-6 bands he talks into playing for him don't. I simply do not understand why anyone would play under those conditions. For me it means driving 30 minutes each way, parking invariably means paying for the privilege, and I am supposed to be grateful for the 'exposure'. I always think that anything is worth what you pay for it. When the blues band goes out for a decent fee, we are treated well by the venue as they are investing in us. When I have played free gigs, the bands are usually treated as worthless because they are costing the venue nothing. I have never had a paid gig cancelled because the venue will lose money - but I have schlepped my gear to free gigs and back several times and been told there is no time for us to play - thus wasting my time and money for nothing except increasing anger and bitterness about the whole process.

Which is exactly what our household & car insurance company told us - the one my wife works for, so they are unlikely to be making it up! Paid gigs (even if you make a loss when all the costs are added up) push it into a different category.

When I am considering buying a new amp, new bass or anything else for that matter, I have never looked at a you tube video beforehand. If want a new amp, I want to see it, pick it up (or try to) and play through it, preferably with my own bass, if not, then something very similar to it.

My current Precision hoard is two US Standards (2010 & 2012) and two MiM (50s Classic & 2022 Player). No room for any more unless I completely remodel the room or sell a Jazz bass (not likely at the moment!).

Only if you are a government advisor.

I used to work in television. Just about everyone would be in the club bar lunchtime and evening. A lot of useful networking was achieved in the club.

I prefer to have a couple of drinks before/while playing, but everybody else prefers me not to. Used to play with a drummer who didn't have a car, so always cadged a lift with the guitarist. Guitarist had to stop after a pint or so, whereas drummer got so relaxed he'd be slipping off his drum stool. Playing gigs is great, drinking is great, but not at the same time.

If flats are flatter than rounds, do they need to be tuned sharper?

I had a new amplifier delivered to my house my someone from the local (Oxford) PMT and it went straight into the car and off to a gig, turnaround between delivery and gig starting was under and hour. Fortunately, I had already packed the car and my older amp was still in the back as the new one only lasted a couple of verses of the first song before giving up.

I swapped a Jazz bass for a Precision with someone about nine years ago, drove home, had a bite to eat, then loaded amp and cab into the car and drove to a gig. Played the Precision there for the first time, and it is still my number one bass.

I had some space and spare money after a clear out of random basses over the last year or two, so filled the empty spaces with Precisions. The amps had to be bought as they were so cheap!

So if I don't play any of the three Precisions I've bought recently, or any of the three ABM combos, it won't count against me either?? 🤪

I bought them from the Next store in Witney as a walk in customer, the receipt would have been chucked out within hours. Lesson learnt!

Too late, they were thrown away one at a time as the holes appeared. By the time it was obvious that there was something wrong with the pack it was too late to retrieve them. I did look on the Next website and found some reviews for the same packs of socks that I had bought - most of the reviews said the socks developed holes after wearing them once, so I wasn't the only one to be 'unlucky'.

I bought them about two months ago, and I was most definitely underwhelmed. I get far longer out of the cheap socks from Sainsbury's. Can't quite work out how we got to complaining about socks on a thread about bass snobbery, but that's the joy of this forum, never what you expect!

They sound great on a Precision, I have a set on one of mine.

To be strictly accurate, after wearing them once or twice, the socks I bought from Next had at least two holes in most of them - one to put my feet in and one to let my heel get a better view of the world. Some had a third hole, as the toes were jealous of the heels' ability to admire the view.

I have only shopped in Next once - bought a pack of socks. Most of them had holes in after the second time on. If that's typical of their quality, then I won't be going back. I still fit Levis that are just 2 inches (or 160 millipedes) bigger round the waste than I used to wear when I was 18 (a mere 46 years ago).

I don't consider myself a bass snob, and certainly never look down on other people's choices of instrument, but I have six basses at the moment and all are Fenders - four Precisions (two US, two Mexican) and two Jazz basses (both Mexican). When I was starting out on bass in the mid seventies, just about every bass player I admired played a Fender, usually a Precision, so I graduated from no-name cheap plywood basses through copies of Fenders and finally was able to have a real Fender, or two… Owning a Fender wasn't a case of being one up on anyone else, it was just a natural aspiration for a young player growing up in that era.

I've played gigs with my Elf and a Super Compact, works fine for me, but prefer to use an ABM combo at the moment, so the Elf is relegated to back up and sits in the bag of leads, etc. I haul to gigs next to the Sansamp DI I have had for years and used once. Not all of the gigs I play have PA suitable for bass guitar, often they are just lightweight vocal PAs. I have damaged holdback monitors by going DI as well.

Good reason to buy a new bass - otherwise you'll lose money on the strings!

I'd say he's letting the side down!

Cloning seems to be the best way to manage it.

I had a reply to a JMB post at least three years after I'd posted it - and surprisingly, we had gone full circle and were indeed looking for a new drummer - and he turns out to be just what we needed!