louisthebass

I've been playing for 35 years. I'm a failed guitarist (found playing those weedy little strings very problematic) so a mate of mine who wanted to form a band said - "why don't you learn bass? It's only got 4 strings and must be easier than guitar?" (sound familiar?). I bought my first bass (a "Craftsman" Precision) a week after Live Aid in 1985 and a couple of months later had a Carlsbro Cobra 90w bass combo to go with it. 

About 15 basses and a few rigs later, I've settled on stuff I'm more than happy with. Still think it's the coolest instrument in the band, and found that it "wasn't easier than guitar".... I've also worked with loads of great people, and am still friends with most of them even now after all this time.

I still miss gigging and rehearsing, and I'm lucky to be in a couple of bands where I get on with all the people in them, and there aren't any major egos to deal with. However, as my personal circumstances have changed in recent months, I may have to choose one over the other as I doubt I'll be able to financially cope with two. 

I know the gig / rehearsal thing is being debated in separate threads on here, but I don't see myself getting back into either until the threat level goes down, or a vaccine comes out. In one of my bands, a couple of the guys are reluctant to get back sooner rather than later, and I respect that.

6 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

My recommendation would be...

Hal Leonard Bass Method: Complete Edition Spiral-bound – 1 May 1996 ...

Inexpensive (£16.15 for three spiral-bound volumes...), taking one from absolute beginner to proficient bass player in credible steps and a variety of styles. It's all there. 

Another vote here - I wish this book had been out when I first started playing. Excellent beginner book.

What one of our membership said in this video:

I found this fella over the weekend - really good player, don't know if he's a member on here but there's some transcriptions of some of his videos on YouTube:

15 hours ago, Russ said:

I find Beato to be hard going. He's knowledgeable, but opinionated and rather one-dimensional. He also seems to be fixated on classic rock and not a lot else. 

Rick likes his classic Rock as well as the Grunge thing, but he's also heavily into Jazz and he hasn't done a lot of that recently. I admire the fact that he's got the guts to stand up and say what he thinks, as a lot of his criticism is either aimed at the record companies that block his videos, or the "perfection" that seems so prevalent in modern pop radio.

On 27/06/2020 at 10:46, TKenrick said:

I'd second @louisthebass suggestion of Joe Hubbard's beginners' course - I haven't taken it personally, but I studied with him for a year or so and learned way more than I did in my entire music degree. He taught Pino, Paul Turner, Dave Swift (I think...) and hundreds of others and his materials and concepts are top-notch.

Sure, it's not free, but in my experience you definitely get what you pay for.  I think you also value what you've paid for more than anything you get for free - I have hard drives full of video lessons and books that I've 'acquired' over the years, but I always come back to books that  I've actually bought or notes from lessons that I've taken.

The Friedland book is also a great shout. From the little I've seen of Yousician, I'd avoid it like the plague; it's aimed squarely at children and the lessons videos I've seen have some very questionable advice on bass technique.

I'd also recommend checking out @TKenrick's own site; https://freebasstranscriptions.com - there's a few videos on there that a relative beginner can benefit from, and Tom has also produced his own book called "Better Bass Practice" E-Book which is well worth buying. I've found it very helpful, and it makes you refocus how to practice the instrument.

I saw Suzy at Shepherds Bush Empire in the mid 1990's with a great backing band, and she sounds live exactly like she sounds on the records 🙂:

49 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

It’s difficult, but if we take live performing out of the equation, it all depends what kind of musicians you play with Or bands you are in.

The only people I play with are mates, and good mates at that - we all trust each other and are doing the right thing in our respective bubbles, in fact because of my job I am probably the biggest risk.

But.......If you have this level of trust with band mates, then it’s conceivable to meet and jam and play around during this time I would imagine

I think that's the thing about it - all the guys I play with I class as really good friends, and I'm hoping that at some point I'll be playing alongside them in close proximity again. In both bands it's agreed that things are on ice for the foreseeable..

Although the "virtual" online jam programmes are supposed to enable musicians to play together in isolation, from what I've read there isn't one that actually works in "real" time. Frustrating.

5 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

When motor cars became a 'thing', those in the horses trade had to either change horses, or specialise, or suck it up. Not saying that this show is over (no fat lady as yet...), but it could be that there's a radical 'step change' just over the horizon. It might be wise to start getting used to stuff having changed since this time last year, and last year's stuff might not be back for a while, if at all. I don't wish to be overly pessimistic; just suggesting a Reality check. 

The longer this thing goes on, the more I'm inclined to agree with this statement although I'm still clinging on in hope that Level 1 will be reached eventually. Getting together with fellow musicians was (is) something that I really looked forward to, and now that could potentially go out the window for a very long time, I wonder what on earth I would do next? ☹️

A lot of people swear by this:

https://www.studybass.com/

Apart from that, there is a ton of stuff on YouTube that I get bits from that aren't necessarily presented by bass players. If you want to learn about music, check out Rick Beato's channel. He's recently done some basic harmony and theory videos that applies to pretty much any tuned instrument.

I know Joe Hubbard runs a beginners course every 6 months, but it's not free. However, you'll be getting top quality tuition and you'll be expected to put in the hours if you want to get the most from it. I've no personal experience of that myself as I've been playing a long time and I've got my own private teacher, but if you look at any of his videos on YouTube, you'll see what I mean.

If you like the thought of learning the basics from a book, get this:

I think this is the best beginner's bass book ever written, and one of the many good things about it is that it encourages you to learn how to read. All of Ed Friedland's books are great.

10 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

I completely get that - but you would think in some areas, especially using machinery that can be harmful - they need to not be unwell, believe me I have seen consequences, even tiredness as a delivery/truck driver

Agree 100% with your point here, and I think that is where employers in "manual" trades (I know that's a pretty broad term) should be treating their most valuable assets (employees) interests as a priority. I feel it's better for them to "take a hit financially" by paying sick pay, rather than risking a Health & Safety penalty which could be huge.

1 minute ago, Cuzzie said:

True - but what I/we hope is that (Job dependent) measures have been put in place to work from home And we now see this as a possibility.

Also can we work smarter - if someone had to leave the house and work, can it be done in as safe a way as possible

Yep, I don't think it's the work from home (office based) employees who have to worry so much as they can "suffer, work, and isolate" (so to speak even if it sounds a bit Draconian), it's the manual employees (manufacturing etc) who stand to suffer the most financially. I would hope that most employers in that particular field who would display some leniency in these difficult times towards their employees where sick pay is concerned.

2 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

 

It will no doubt stay here and unfortunately we may have a flu season, a Covid season etc. On the face of it, there is certainly nothing wrong in some of the lifestyle changes such as sanitisation, appropriate cough and sneeze capture technique, not struggling on and coming into work regardless etc.
 

Unfortunately, people will still go into work "under the weather" as a very large number of employers will not pay out for the first 1-3 days if employees go sick. I think this will be even more acute given current job losses and employees needing every penny they can get.... 

I'll go with these:

23 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

The problem is, there are many businesses whose business model is somewhat marginal and they need some kind of incentive to get punters in (be it a shop, pub, website app, widget factory selling stuff, etc etc) to be profitable. With Covid 19 and the required social distancing that goes with it, many businesses are simply unviable. Fortunately, the government is artificially propping many of these up with a humongous financing package. Put simply, pubs don't need or want bands at the moment.

Think you've pretty much mirrored my thoughts there @paul_c2. Pubs first instinct will be to sell beer and in some cases initially sell food. Bands are way down the food chain as far as they're concerned, so I think anyone getting too excited about the stuff that's been announced are getting ahead of themselves. 

As the scientists have said, this thing is in for the duration and the economy is being reopened to see if the human race can (somehow) live alongside it. Whether that was the right choice remains to be seen.

On 22/06/2020 at 13:21, BassBunny said:

Your contract is between you and Andertons so up to them to sort.

Exactly - Andertons will have to claim from DHL. I spent 25 years in that industry, and times have certainly changed, not for the better...

I really don't see pub gigs happening for bands in earnest until sometime next year. I'll be happy just to get back to rehearsals..

A lot of bands will have members who are still concerned about catching the virus so may not be in a hurry to get back to gigging for a while, the pubs will need time to get their operations up and running again properly having had a long lay-off just to serve punters drinks and food, and I'm not totally sure they (the pubs) will have the necessary funding to pay bands for a while anyway. I still think bands may end up playing for next to nothing for quite a while. Whether some bands choose to do that, is a decision for each one to make.

Even if ours opens up (possibly mid July, depending on the owners discretion) I still don't expect to be rehearsing until end of August, start of September. Just had a WhatsApp discussion, and the drummer thinks mid July is too early to restart.

Clapton's "From the Cradle" album has keys / piano on it. You could also check out virtually any Robert Cray album as well, as he normally has a keys player too.

7 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I used to go and see Be Sharp when the late Andy Brown played bass for them. Initially, I was blown away by Jerry Stevenson’s guitar playing (quite rightly too, he’s very, very good and I was a guitar player at the time), but eventually, it was Andy’s playing that became my focus (probably adding to the desire to move over to bass myself), he was great and had a great voice too. Be Sharp’s version of Green Manalishi remains my favourite by anyone.

Lost count of the number of times I've seen Be Sharp, but never saw Andy Brown play for them. I've got most of the CD's he's on and he was indeed a great bassist and singer. The bass chair in the band's seen a few changes over the years and apart from Dave Bronze I 've also seen Gary Moxon, Darren Tingey, Kevin Miller (ex Style Council / Tracey Young), and the current Richard J Turner-Finch play for them. Great trio 🙂

On 08/05/2020 at 20:58, Captain Bassman said:

Rather ironically the night he blew his groceries in my car we’d been to see Be Sharp in a really small venue. The classic lineup - Jerry Stevenson, Bob Jenkins and Dave Bronze on bass.

I remember Lee being completely in awe of the immense talent right in front of him, as if his own natural talent was nothing in comparison. A very modest and unpretentious guy.

Be Sharp are a great band - that's where I first saw them too, about 1990 or 1991 I think 🙂 

Met Lee during his time at Rockbottom, the drummer in the band I was in at the time said he was (is) a real talent.

3 hours ago, Richard Jinman said:

Hi, I'm in the market for a decent - relative term I know - Yamaha. I like the sound of the BB1100s, but am confused by the wide - really wide - range of prices for the instrument. For example, there's one on Reverb right now for about £380 with hard case. It's made in Taiwan, but as far as I can tell the Japan/Taiwan thing isn't a big deal with Yamaha in the way MIM and MIA seems to be for Fender. The Bass Gallery has a BB1100s on sale for about £1000. Sure, you'd expect to pay top dollar at a London bricks and mortar store, but I can't begin to reconcile the difference. A 1100s sold here about a year ago for about £350 I think. Any thoughts on the reason for the variance (besides people trying it on etc) and what would you consider a fair price?

And for my secondary question. Would you look at a newer model like the BB1024 - around the £500 mark secondhand - in preference to the 1100s? Cheers, R

I think £1,000 is a lot of money for a BB1100S, sure you can get one for less than that if you look around?

If you get one you won't be disappointed as it's got J and P bass goodness within. I had one for 13 years, and it's the only bass I ever regretted selling.

I've missed doing rehearsals and the gigs I had lined up for this year, mainly because I like the musical and social interaction with my band mates in both outfits. 

The only upsides to not doing that at the moment is mainly because I'm not working. I'm not spending money on rehearsal rooms, fuel, and general wear and tear on the car. I'm also moving into a flat where I've got to buy essentials like white goods and furniture all over again, so lockdown has been beneficial there.

3 minutes ago, odysseus said:

Loads of music in Cornwall. At least there was.....

Mostly bog standard pub rock and pop covers, but there is some good stuff out there too if you head off the beaten track and into some of the dingy back alley bars...

A few of my old music buds have relocated to Cornwall recently, and (up to Covid-19) pretty active musically.