NickD

As above, Stuart Clayton's books are great. His reading music books really helped me. As an all rounder though, Bass Guitar for Dummies us a great resource. Styles, techniques, the function of the bass, theory, building bass lines and lots of play along examples, all in a simple, clear presentation.

Where I'm from, a little (ex) mining town in the Dearne valley, almost nowt... Except Steve Dawson from Saxon used to drop his kid off at my junior school either in a Lincoln Continental (which was somewhat conspicuous at the time), or a van that resembled the one that the A-Team had. Where I am now, George Michael and Andrew Ridgely met at a school a few minutes from here.

I replaced mine last year, nothing too flash.... i7, 16gb RAM, etc. Prior to that I was running Cubase Elements 10 on a 9 year old Toshiba Satellite with 6gb Ram, and never really had a problem. It was video editing that it struggled with, and the recent updates were slowing it down generally due to its age. As above, as I understand it your audio interface essentially acts as a soundcard.

Nice one! It was a great cover of a quality tune.

First 3 tracks while we wait for 2021 to die, through the headphones I usually mix on. It's perfectly loud enough to me. Pushed any further it wouldn't work IMO. Not my usual fare, but it sounds pretty cool. Just my perception, but the drums are really fat, as is clearly heard in the naked parts, and the bass sound is fairly clean. The parts you're playing, being pretty melodic, help separation, but I think a bit of dirt adding a bit of grit to the top end, and taking a touch of bottom end out where you complete with the kick would have pushed it out a bit more. TLDR... Nowt really wrong with it IMO

I like the frets... they look OK.

Mine was delivered in October 2016... Its still my number 1.

I mess around with one a lot, it's a ton of fun with a looper.

Life's too short to pander to the bellendery of others. It not nice being onstage with people you can't depend on.

My contribution to the Basschat December Cover Challenge. Knocked together this very afternoon, thanks to Jon Shuker, Vintage Guitars, Line 6, Steinberg and Red Wine. I've been listening to a lot of blues lately, as I find it's good for my bass playing, so while I'm not usually one for covers I thought I'd go for a classic.... Killing Floor, by Chester Burnett (aka Howlin' Wolf). Rough in places, sure, but it's the blues maaaaan!😎

I think I've got the blues for this one.... and I mean 'da bluuues'! *Time permitting of course. 🙄

It's a cover... how does that work then?

Congrats... Nice work Fella!

I also have really sweet Elwood L5... sounds great, weighs nothing and plays beautifully... And I keep thinking about chopping that in against a second Jake 5. There's something about them. 🤣

I've tried the Hi Beams but never the Sunbeams. They were almost as good as D'Addario Nickels, but disappointing for almost twice the price. On everything except my Jake 5 (which wears the Maruszczyk Nickels) I always end up going back to the D'Addarios.

Since my Jake 5 was delivered at the tail end of 2016 it seems to be the only bass that ever gets to leave the house. I've bought things that I thought might supersede it since, but every gig and every recording date still ends up being the Jake.

That was really tough to keep down to three choices!

I use their nickel rounds on my Jake 5, because that's what it came with, it sounded good, and there aren't many strings in the same gauges that I'm keen on (125-45, evenly spread). I like the feel and sound, and they last ok too.

My contribution to the November 2021 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by the picture chosen by the previous winner, Upside Downer. I got halfway down a droney, chilled, ambient road, then I woke up with with this popping round in my head... the chorus at least... the song wanted something other than what I had planned for it. Based on the picture, I had the idea of a shift tasked with resetting the universe after the day is done, and from here I got the notion that there are folks that do that in a practical, non-celestial way... The truck drivers, shelf stackers, train engineers, office cleaners, etc... so this is for them. Knocked together in Cubase Elephants, Jake 5 and Strat through the Helix, Everything else is from the bundled VSTs.

That's a cracker! It must be a month for it... I got halfway down an ambient, dubby electronica route, then on Friday woke up with a pretty much fully formed campfire song, melody, lyrics, the lot. Just need to figure out how to put it down, and find the time.

I love that! As is often the case, a bit of shakiness in the vocals reinforces the sense of it being heartfelt... At least to me it does. I like how the fuzz and organ introduces a bit of organised chaos too.

Horrible news. Sincere condolences.

This one - https://isleofeverything.bandcamp.com/releases 🤣 Shameless self promotion aside (well you have to nowadays!), Silver Lining Suite by Hiromi is weird as hell and I like it a lot.

Here's hoping for the best possible outcome.

That never stopped the rest of us! 🤣