CHW

I'd say that it is about having the ability, contacts, reading and equipment to bring in enough work that you don't need to supplement your income by getting a "proper" job.

I suspect string endorsements may get more response from the proles, When I was a teenager I had a basic Encore P copy. I couldn't afford anything more, but I tried all kinds of expensive strings on it, all pretty much based on magazine ads with Jason Newsted, Duff Mckagan or Jeff Ament quoted saying that they were the best tone, most long lasting and comfy to play strings they had ever used. In recent years though I did notice when I went to a workshop with Martin Simpson, a large number of Sobell models- in fact I'd never heard of Stefan Sobell before I saw his link with MS, I remember seeing a fair number of them in Martin Simpson covers on YT too.

In our household it is probably Life on Mars, now forever entrenched with the end of the TV series. Whenever it comes around on the playlist in the car I cannot stop myself seeing John Simm wandering around on the top of the council offices in Stockport before leaping off at the culmination of the song.

I have a vague memory of seeing a documentary about Duran Duran where JT was saying that I. The studio he played the verse with a pick and the chorus with fingers. He had to learn to do it all fingers live. Re the whole they couldn't play thing. I have seen them state that at the time they toured the first album. That was the entirety of their repertoire. I decidedly remember them mentioning that as a band, they couldn't even play Johnny b Goode.

It's been mentioned briefly but my advice would be to go for a bit of palm muting to soften the tone to make it more Country but not losing so much volume as a switch to fingers. either that or an EQ pedal set up so that you can drop pick, stomp on box and voila- it's a lot less hassle to palm mute tho.

Essentially, 1 a modern player jazz -I used to keep a crafter precision copy in the boot of the car for unforseen issues, but after 20 years with no unforseen issues, I have stopped taking it. 3 years on, and I've still not had a problem. I do own a virtually unplayable defretted (by me- badly) acoustic bass, but it hangs on the wall by my bed and is the bass I use if I need to practice anything

For me it's the ones that instantly identify the song- the initial signature of the song if you like. If I had to make a "pointless" style prediction, based on playing a snippet, I'd think that summer nights would get the highest score on instant recognition

3 x 40 mins at our favourite pub. Ticket only affair so no idiots which was great. Best payday of my gigging career, and 4 diet cokes so went home completely sober. Was new to us to do 3 sets, so I sat down with a napkin and wrote them out on the spot, and for once, no-one complained. Went for 1st set Rock, 2nd set Punk/Pop Rock, 3rd set Dancing tunes. It worked really well as had a full dance floor for most of set 2 and vast majority of set 3. Really enjoyed it actually even though it was very much in the "work" gig type.

When I joined my current band, they told me the following: -We all played together back in the '70s and stopped due to families and work. -Got back together for a tribute to a friend who had died -Previous bass player didn't fancy continuing, the rest did. -Wanting to rehearse fortnightly, get out and gig ASAP and earn a few quid. -Cost of rehearsal space. What they asked me: -What gear did I have? (I'd add that I was asked in a sense of did I have reliable giggable kit) -Did I own my own car? -What live playing I had done in the past. The rest has bee a case of proof of the pudding being in the eating

I think I recently made a breakthrough with one of my guitarists, In a rehearsal I noticed that his sound was a lot clearer, cutting through the mix, and cleaner than usual. Glancing at his pedal I noticed that he was playing one of our rockier songs to his "Mustang Sally" setting, which is pretty clean. The daft old sod had forgotten to change it over. I decided to jump on the opportunity by telling him how much better it sounded, and how his lead stuff really cut through instead of getting lost in the mix. It seems to have worked, as I have seen him using that setting on the majority of our set. Maybe the old fashioned methods of positive reinforcement are still the best.

It's always a bit rough (I not so affectionately refer to it as the bear pit) but while off loading our kit from the pub into the cars on Saturday it was all kicking off around us. A couple of empty riot vans were our only protection. Carrying a load of cabs though a brawl is not something I'd recommend- It was nothing like the scene from Only Fools & Horses with Del and his Capri Ghia.

Not his best bass line, but for making me realise that you could put 12 stings on a bass neck and get away with it. Jeff Ament- Jeremy

My first thought was extreme's get the funk out, but then I remembered a lesser known song on the third album- Tragic Comic, -it's pretty much just an exercise in major triads, but it works so well.

I'm not sure of the model but our vocalist sometimes uses a little zoom jobby to record live gigs, the sound is always pretty good and the bass is always there in the mix.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1448998328' post='2919975'] Good luck..... personally not at ALL keen about people getti ng back into it...and especially drums. Being gig fit is quite a big thing... [/quote] Just to offer a juxtaposed view- we did this 12 months ago with a drummer who had not played since 1982 when he got married. It took him about 2 mins to get the groove back and 15 to get the fills going. To be honest, I've played with worse drummers even for the 2 mins he was getting back up to speed.

Getting 2.5x the normal fee at our most regular pub. Is a definite "working" night but for probably the first time ever, my hourly rate as a musician, will out perform my hourly rate from my day job

For me it was the Corrs, I was asked to go along with some friends when at uni- it was at the height of their fame about a year after the 2nd album. It was unashamedly brilliant. All of them are good musicians and sing brilliantly together. I'd only heard the stuff that was on the radio and that had entered my consciousness via my housemates music collections but I loved every second. Support were an irish band called picture house and they were rather good too

I've not done a massive amount of recording, especially in a "proper" studio. I've met one engineer whose main line was "It was sh*t, do it again." While technically he is a great studio engineer, the fact that he is a total tool made "red light fever" a real difficulty. So for me it is a case of the level of customer service. -I'm a live player, experienced and competant- I'm also a studio novice

For me it was incubus at the mcr apollo. It was a gig that never got going, nothing too wrong with it, but somehow flat

[quote name='Luulox' timestamp='1447967849' post='2911979'] Evanescence at the arena in sheffield. Got a free ticket from a mate because his missus wouldn't go. Support band were a poor nirvana type who were on for over an hour playing bad shouty stuff. Evanescence came on, played for 30 sterile, tepid, out of tune minutes said thank you Sheffield and left. I still think I paid too much. [/quote] I saw them 3 years ago in Brum, supported by the pretty reckless- both were excellent

I think, and this is a bit sketchy, that I played solely bass for the first 2 years before picking up a guitar and learning the E Barre Chord. From there is was a short haul to learning open chords and beyond. 20 odd years on I'm now not sure what is my first instrument (probably whichever I'm practising at the time) It's not the dark side, just a shade or two that way.

I cannot believe that any seller would assume that that instrument would be bought based on the description and there wouldn't be any form of come back? It's been around the block a few times that one.

It took me years (and I probably mean about 15) to get used to my "Man" singing voice. I was a member of a church choir until age 12 and found singing pretty natural. I had to adjust to the fact that I was now a bass/baritone and just couldn't sing along with songs in my record collection. Everyone can sing to a certain degree, and it is about finding your natural range and tones. There may be some tools online to find this, I don't know. I probably taught myself to sing again in the car- belting out things totally in my adult range -The Hymn Jerusalem is right there for me. From there it was about picking harmonies and pushing the range. I think the starting point is to find out where you naturally sit- so many people I hear singing badly are doing so falsetto in too high a range.

It would be interesting to see what Queen would have become if Freddie had never gotten ill. Would they be still doing the circuit playing the great shows? Would JD have retired into grumpy financials mode? Would Roger and Brian still have appeared on the X Factor? Queen post Freddie have become a kind of tribute/celebration of what they were. I can't think of any great songs to have come out of the Roger/Brian partnership.

A clip on Boss one that goes onto everything when needed I think there's one on the Boss ME unit too. That's it Oh and one of my acoustic guitars has got a built in tuner.