FinnDave

10 minutes ago, casapete said:

Quite disconcerting to hear torrents of water lashing down a 

few feet away from your bass rig, but no real issues thank goodness.

Feet? Luxury! The overflow from the hasty erected gazebo formed a small waterfall about 3 inches in front of my cab and at one point my mains power block was sitting in a puddle while I was playing. Obviously wasn't my time to go, as nothing went wrong. I suppose if it had, I might not be here to type this today!

1 minute ago, Lozz196 said:

Really pleased for you Dave, glad you can keep playing 

Thanks, Lozz, it was a great gig despite the heavy rain. Our new drummer (he's been with since spring 22, but we have only managed a handful of gigs with us) suddenly got how we play and fitted in perfectly. A wonderful moment. There were a lot of local musicians in the audience who knew about my arthritis and were all congratulating me on my return to playing live.

Just back from my first gig in 8 months. The break was due to osteoarthritis in my left hand fingers. A few weeks ago I bought a couple of short scale basses (Mustangs) in the hope that I would be able to continue playing, and tonight was the time to put the theory into practice.

Well, it certainly worked - we played as a three piece, so lots of room for interesting bass, and we held a good crowd outside a small pub in Witney, even though it was pouring with rain. We had a gazebo style canopy over us (that the bar owner put up) but the weight of water on it caused a small waterfall to cascade between me and my amp & cab. Luckily, the mains plug and socket was just out of range, but we stopped and moved the sensitive bits somewhere safer. 

Home again, no problems with my fingers after nearly two hours of energetic playing. Good to be back!

I'll be playing my first ever gig with a short scale bass (Fender Mustang) this evening. Looking forward to coming home without a sore shoulder and aching fingers on my left hand.

I've played gigs in several states that I'm not prepared to admit to, but one strangely pleasant memory concerns the two Easter gigs I played shortly after prostate cancer surgery in 2015.

The first was on Good Friday, at a pub about a mile from home. The band carried my gear in for me, and I sat on a bar stool while playing, but was still in too much pain to play well.

The second was at a pub about 200 yards from home. After the experience of the previous night, I loaded myself with painkillers and again used a bar stool. Being in my local pub, quite a few people knew about my surgery and bought me drinks to keep me going.

A few songs into the first set, I was just sitting there and enjoying the music, totally detached from reality. I remember thinking that the bass player was quite good, and I remember wishing that I could play like that. Then I looked at my hands but didn't make the connection between them and the bass playing. 

After the gig, people kept coming up to me and telling me how relaxed I looked.

5 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I think that if you're playing rock'n'roll you have to make sure you're both rocking and rolling... So I have two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

Watch out for the bats!

Most of the few gigs I play these days are in pubs, and we often get offered free drinks, which if I am not driving I will happily accept.

I wear glasses for distance pretty much all the time, only take them off for reading or using my laptop/phone, etc. Without my glasses, everything further than three feet or so away becomes blurred.

I often take my glasses off when I gig so that I am less distracted by the activities of members of the audience. I am easily distracted by some of the saucier ones!

I rarely look at the neck when I'm playing, and, strangely, find my way around the fretboard more easily after my recent switch to 30" scale basses than I have ever done in the last 50 years of playing 34" scale basses.

12 hours ago, 3below said:

You are me […]

I am You

All of us together

I had trumpet lessons from the age of 11 until about 14 (now over 50 years ago), so had a vague idea of theory and could sight read the treble clef. The lessons stopped when my family moved to a different part of the country, got into rock music at the age of 14-15 and bought a guitar, swiftly realised that bass was more my thing, taught myself by copying records (mostly Gong & Syd era Floyd) and that was that. I wasn't aware of lessons for bass guitar, so all my mistakes are mine and mine alone!

41 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

Yes. Doesn't everyone know that Twitter is just a massive collection of batshit crazy people.

 

In the old days every village had an idiot. Now we have a whole village full of idiots. We call it Twitter. 

The next village to ours has an annual election for the official village idiot, who is awarded a cup for his trouble. Campaigning is very active! The same chap has won it for years, the cup is kept in the village pub and his name appears on it frequently. I know him quite well, and he is far from being an idiot!

There is also locally brewed beer called Village Idiot - it's very good!

I was once a very unenthusiastic member of the audience at a Hawkwind gig. I found a seat in the bar at the back of the venue and sat there trying to ignore everyone and everything around me. Thing is, though, that I am a lifelong Hawkwind fan and in fact I was (unknown to me) coming down with pneumonia at the time.

I've never heard of the band in question (have my own personal rock to hide under) but woman in a bobble hat sounds like the  sort of person I see in the waiting room while my wife has her radiotherapy. She might be doing the very best she can to enjoy music she likes, no one knows what's going in in a stranger's life.

Like the majority here, I take one to play and a spare just in case of a problem with the first.

10 hours ago, martthebass said:

Time for a JMJ now Dave….

I've used up all my bass buying money for a while now! The Player Mustang is very good, sounded great at rehearsal.

I'd buy it if I had anywhere to keep it, so I'm forced to stick to just one Super Compact until our house magically expands.

I don't think I'd survive that much exertion!

20 minutes ago, snorkie635 said:

Time for you to do a dance like the farmer in 'Babe'. Delighted on your behalf.

Thank you, but I have no idea what dancing like the farmer in 'Babe' means!

Played the Mustang for a full two hour rehearsal this afternoon with no significant problems. Sat outside a local pub for a post-rehearsal debrief and a couple I know booked us for an autumn beer festival gig as they walked past. 

I turned 13 in late 1970, so the 70s was definitely my era. Wasn't too interested in music (other than trumpet lessons) until I was about 15 and discovered Gong and that opened the door to a world of non-commercial music for me. I started playing bass then as well, and had various permutations of bands that just jammed, learnt a lot from that. I very rarely listen to music now unless I have a song to learn for a gig, the music of my teens lives in my head and and I can listen to it internally. 

6 hours ago, Bolo said:

Is she single? 

No, she's a married woman, and I'm her lucky husband.

3 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

Don’t I remember that not so long ago you were going all 6 string Ibanez, then you reverted back to 4 string Jazz basses and now you’re going short scale! What’s with the big changes @FinnDave?

You have a good memory! The six string basses were down to the band I was playing in, but I was never very comfortable with them, so reverted to my trusty four stringers. The move to short scale is an attempt to prolong my playing life as I have arthritis in my fretting hand. I found that the smaller stretches of a 30" scale don't cause any pain (at the moment) whereas the 34" scale was next to impossible for me, despite or because of playing them for the last 50 years.

9 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

Trades?

Please send pics of what you're offering 🤪

2 hours ago, snorkie635 said:

Does she have a sister? 🤣

Sadly not, she's a one-off!

1 minute ago, snorkie635 said:

Remember to let us know how it sounded - I'm sure it will be great. GLWTR.

Will do. I'll be using the rehearsal room's amp and cab, but it should sound fine. Quite a wide range of tones from those pick ups.

In case anyone is wondering how I sneaked this one past my wife - I took her to the shop with me and she said I should buy it. She's a good one!