Happy Jack

"The Fodera Mini MB Presentation is open to orders with a total price of $18,450." Of course you then need to add shipping, Import Duty, and VAT on everything.

IME (which is genuinely quite extensive) random cold-calling by phone or email is at least 90% useless ... I'd actually go to 95% in truth. Every now and then you get lucky and think "well that didn't cost me anything so clearly this is a great method for getting gigs" but it ain't, it really ain't. Every pub / landlord / band is different so there's no magic bullet, but I can tell you what works for me and @Silvia Bluejay. We use Lemonrock & similar to identify which pubs within 30 miles of us put on the sort of bands we play in, then we use Google Maps to plot a circular course which will allow us to visit half a dozen of those pubs without wasting too much petrol, then we go and visit all those pubs on a MONDAY. Yup, a Monday lunchtime. By a country mile, the best time to get gigs. The pub will be very quiet, the manager can't justify paying bar staff to stand there for three hours doing nothing so will be running the bar (and using the down time to go through the weekend's paperwork in their cubbyhole behind the bar), and has no alternative but to engage with you if you are buying a drink. In practice, I hardly ever even need to buy a drink - we just walk in and ask "where do the bands set up?". Pubs are absolutely a people business and there is just no substitute for facetime with the manager. We also find that gig-hunting as a married couple makes us easier for the manager to engage with, especially if it's a woman on her own in a deserted pub. You can maybe replace the Monday with a Tuesday or Wednesday, maybe, but don't even think about visiting pubs to ask for gigs on a weekend. You can guarantee that you'll be told the pub's gigs are booked by the wife's nephew's second cousin and he only comes into the pub on days with an Q in them so feel free to come back then.

Let me know when you decide to sell it ... 😂😂😂

Cramp has many causes, and each of them requires a different fix. Most people assume that cramp is caused either by dehydration or by lack of salt, and those can definitely cause cramp, yes. My cramps are completely different and come about through poor posture derived from having flat feet. For me the solution has been a long-term program of Pilates combined with daily stretches and close attention to how I'm standing, moving, picking things up, etc. Have a look at this, see if it helps at all. The bit about hands starts around 7:30.

And what a missed opportunity for Basschat R-Sales this was:

Thank God it has the original case ... makes all the difference, y'know.

Wow - whoever fitted that brass nut deserves ... well I'm sure he deserves something.

Did the steel framework prove cheaper than pouring concrete, or was there another reason for going that route?

"What's your WiFi password?", "What's your WiFi password?", "What's your WiFi password?" ...

I've gigged mine quite frequently with two bands. Neither band is offensively loud, but both go through the PA anyway so the Elf is just for backline. Superb piece of kit, sounds just great, never lets me down, ludicrously small. Particularly handy for rehearsals in unfamiliar studios, where you never know until you get there what monstrosity is being passed off as a 'bass amp'. I like mine so much that, earlier today, I posted a Wanted ad for the Elf 10" combo.

I believe that what you are referring to is known as "Supply Chain Difficulties". You have clearly ordered something dependent on non-existent microchips from a Covid-affected factory in China through a distributor in Kyiv.

Don't forget that (to a large extent) the voters in this poll will be self-selecting ... far, far more gigging bassists will reply than Basschatters who never gig and perhaps have no interest in gigging.

... and the eyes of The Council turned to Frodo.

Are you sure the drummer can hear the guitar?

Another vote here for Comfort Strapp. If you're anywhere near Harrow, I have a couple of spares if you want to try one out.

Entirely agree with that ... after all, pretty much everyone who starts playing will start by playing their favourite songs. When they first formed, The Beatles were just another covers band. I was just astonished at the notion that 'most Basschatters' play in either a tribute act or a functions band. I've met a helluva lot of Basschatters over the last 15 years, been to see plenty of them play too, and IME there are way more guys doing what I do (pubs & clubs playing covers, dabbling on the side with originals projects) than there are playing in functions bands. As for genuine tribute bands (if that's not a contradiction in terms), those are seriously rare. I can think of half a dozen BCers over the years who have mentioned playing in a tribute band and - sadly - not all of those are still with us. Being a numbers guy, I'd be happy to bet a fiver that the make-up of Basschat is: Tribute band players = 1% Functions band players = 9% Pubs & Clubs players = 20% Originals bands, successful or otherwise = 20% Not gigging bassists = 50%

As you already know, "Yes, I gig in a mostly covers band" doesn't really do justice to what many (perhaps most) bassists actually do. It was the closest available so I ticked it. Unfortunately, that selection makes no distinction between a covers band that plays pubs & clubs, and a covers band that plays functions, so this poll won't even answer the original question. 🙄

Who on earth would make that assertion? And on what basis?

One bass? Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! No. 😉

Oof! That's a bit of a blow for you. Pretty much every band I know is fully-booked for the Queen's Jubilee weekend, so there won't be a lot of 'spare' bassists wafting about. Good luck.