No lust in Jazz

As regards tone - this can be changed with palm muting, changing the attack or even tweaking the EQ I tend to gravitate to a pick - largely because a lot of the bass players that I listened to in my formative years used one, but I can play 90% of what's currently in our set either way. I suppose for my input if you feel comfortable with a style stick with it - I don't see too many limitations either way

If it were me - I'd ditch the PA and hire one (with a soundman) as and when needed.

Once I understood Scott's Bass lesson didn't have a hearty chunk of Scott Thunes playing bass; I realised that the channel wasn't for me.

As an event - big tick Also makes me think that I need to get over to Northern Ireland at some point again.

I've watched the Bobby Kimball live version a few times since it was originally posted - to the OP, I offer my thanks for the comedy high point of the week.

I have one of these..Spector CTB Its really nice.

Yes - I laughed a lot - ultimately figuring that there was a very plausible yet inexcusable reason why the vocals sounded like they did; at one point I felt sorry for Norm - until he went for it.

I can't remember the last time that we played without full PA and a soundman - certainly for a corporate / function / wedding / Party engagement we have always added the cost of this hire to our fee. Unless someone in the band has an interest in this then its best left some one you trust and more pointedly earns a living at it - I'm not far away from getting a modeller set up, but my pedals leads and Amp (Quilter Bass Block) are a one handed lift and I get a monitor wedge supplied in the price of the PA. I guess my tip is, unless you really want to - don't get involved with PA set ups. Put your efforts into a great set list and show and have some confidence that you will sound as good as you can given the room - other views are available.

Excluding novelty songs - I have a bigger issues with half-arsed versions of songs than disliking the songs themselves. (If I dislike a song I can zone it out - much like an annoying co-worker)

Yes and social media presents the ideal platform to share such indignation

I watched week one on iPlayer last night - nothing I heard made me want to investigate further - I was impressed by the lad from Plan B and his positive action in setting up a scheme to help 'troubled' youths via music education.

In my experience Jam nights are cliquey and are best avoided.

After we've paid the PA and lights (which was always hire) We clear between £80 and £220 each for a six piece - the variation is due mainly to travelling and whether we 'fancy' doing that gig.

Always interesting choosing material - luckily our band has two gig types A Function gig: Where we can make reasonable money, but all accept that we are being paid to entertain / provide / background music / Microphones for speeches / nice lighting - the material could be pretty dull, but we've learned to refresh it regularly and further make the best of it by creating segues and medleys to cover instrument changes etc. - in reality this keeps us interested and a 'gig' becomes more a show.. A Pub gig: Where the material is pretty much ABBA to Zappa we update and refresh material regularly, some songs go really well some that you'd expect to go really well, don't - you never can tell what works or not. If covers or 'standards' are your bag, there are thousands of songs to interpret.

Personally I don't. Our drummer uses a Roland SPD-SX pad - which allows him to route a click (of his choice) to headphones - it is awesome. I find some of the drummer jokes tedious - in a band you should be able to keep reasonable time - I've found by far the worst culprits are vocalists

My second transaction with Andy, he is a Top guy to deal with - Fantastic instrument I look forward to spending many hours learning to play it.

Stuart Clayton

Thanks - I'll take a look.

I've been going through the PA for years if you are planning on monitoring through a wedge it's also worth checking that you have enough monitor sends on your desk so that you can have bass only or a mix of your taste without sharing with others in the band. I've thought about in-ears the connection that I haven't yet made is getting from the desk to the in-ears with control of what I'm hearing, but I'm more interested in exploring this than an additional cab.

A few years ago our function band coughed up Dancing Queen by ABBA. Yeah I know, but listen to it

The Mustang PJ is a good bass, if you like it buy it. or indeed hit with the Mustang

My experience is that there's very little to worry about - I bought a Spector Short Scale CTB - which I love, but then beat myself up about ben able to play a 34" scale again - once I started thinking straight I've had a 5 string built with a 30.5" scale - which too is lovely. I found that it takes very little time to adjust and switch from scale length to the other.

For me the easy answer was to install a You tube video blocker.. I just block channels that feature endless click bait - like Scott's Bass Lesson - it makes browsing YT much less tedious its not all doom and gloom though, I also support YT stuff that I like though Patreon

I think one of the Punk movements saving graces was that it didn't matter whether you could play or not - it was more along the lines of get up give it a go.. I also think Sid Vicious was a troubled soul more than a Bass player One thing about the Sex Pistols and a lot of other Punk music which is lost at this remove, is that largely due to the monopoly that the BBC had on Radio and TV in those days is that it was really hard to hear the music on the main steam media