Stylon Pilson

There are two types of post on JoinMyBand. There's the "we're an active gigging band and our bass player has moved away from the area so we are looking to replace him" and then there's the "I'm a guitarist, I'm great, I used to be the touring guitar tech for the guitarist in [insert obscure 1970s act you've never heard of] and I am looking for a bass player, drummer, keyboard player and vocalist to start a band." The second category are the time-wasters (or sources of hilarious anecdotes, depending upon your perspective). S.P.

Ah, that can sometimes happen with something as simple as a PIN. After spending years typing it in purely using muscle memory, you can make the mistake of one day trying to explicitly remember the numbers that comprise it, and then by overthinking it, the next time you need to use it, the muscle memory will fail you. S.P.

When I was bass shopping last week, one of the first things I did after sitting down with a bass was to whip out my phone and bring up my set list. S.P.

Sounds good, would it be compatible with a PA stand though? Given that I'm looking to capture video, I need to get the phone reasonably far away from me, and snuggled up to my chest will probably not give the best view of the band! S.P.

That's great, thank you. The flexible tripod looks like a good way to go, and they're available for mobile phones so I wouldn't need to get the mount separately. Any thoughts on vibrations, or do you think that's one of those things that I should just give a go? S.P.

My drummer has a gooseneck mobile phone floor stand which he uses to record video of us when we're playing live. It works pretty well - he sets it up next to him and points it towards the front of the stage. I'd like to try something similar, but I want to avoid needing a large piece of equipment or something that takes up additional floor space. I was wondering about something that can attach to a PA stand. My thoughts are: Does such a thing exist? I can certainly find plenty of items if I search for a "mic stand phone holder" but I guess that they won't be compatible with the thicker pillar of the PA stand. Is this a good idea? Will there be vibrations resulting in an unstable image, or should the PA stand be solid as a rock? S.P.

Ah, you've just reminded me of the scene where they're recording the advertising slot for the radio station. In the previous scene they'd all been at each others throats, but having that shared disdain of whoring themselves out was the most adorable bonding moment. It brought a tear to my eye, I do declare. S.P.

I watched Some Kind Of Monster recently and it was incredibly interesting, though I wouldn't agree with Beedster's comment that it is like the "real life Spinal Tap". I found most of the band members to be generally fairly intelligent, articulate and respectful of each other. James Hetfield is certainly a lot more stable once he gives up the drink. S.P.

Haven't seen this bass before, it is gorgeous in (nearly) every conceivable way. The colour, the figuring, the hardware... the only gripe I'd have would be the controls being all bunched up there, but I imagine that that was done for a reason. S.P.

I'm expecting this thread to have a fair few followers by the time the day is out. S.P.

I use a TC Electronic MojoMojo for adding a touch of drive when required. While it's ostensibly a guitar effects pedal, it sounds great on bass. S.P.

Fret buzz caused by backbow would probably not be isolated to a single fret or a single string. S.P.

Fluffy on the board, scratchy on the pedals. Increases the amount of heft considerably. S.P.

It does sound like it's uneven fret wear, yes. The only other possibility that leaps to mind is that something is vibrating (like a loose tuning peg, or the truss rod) which can often sound a lot like fret buzz, but from what you've said, that seems unlikely. S.P.

It sounds like either the 5th fret has been worn low at that point, or the 6th fret is uneven and is high for that string. Does the fret buzz go away if you raise the action? S.P.

Incidentally, I felt that I should follow up on this. In Guitar Guitar there were some 5-string Ibanezum on the wall, and in the interests of challenging my prejudices, I asked the sales assistant to also get one of those down so that I could try it and attempt to open my mind. Pretty big of me, right? Anyway, started to play it, and something felt wrong about it, the strings seemed a bit loose. Checked the tuning and, yep, the person to play it before me had dropped it by a tone. I rolled my eyes at having my Ibanezist stereotypes so blatantly confirmed. Brought it back up to pitch, and gave it a really good crack at it, but alas nothing was working for me. Wherever I put the EQ, it felt like something was missing, and the whole size and shape of it didn't really feel like it belonged to my body. For a laugh, I scooped the mids and boosted the bass and treble, slapped a few notes, and was instantly whisked back to my formative years, in pubs where teenagers would play "metal" which basically consisted of going THARRAKATARAKATARAKATARAKATA with great speed and intensity but very little groove or melody. S.P.

We'd be awful shopping together, because we'd be fighting over the same instruments! Unless we're making a joint purchase, that is. S.P.

I'm generally a fairly open-minded person. However, when shopping for a bass myself, I will automatically exclude the following: More than 5 strings: whatever you're planning on doing with all those strings, it can't be healthy Precision and Jazz basses: can't fault them in terms of sound or playability, but where's the soul, where's the character? They're like the Starbucks of the bass world. I don't mind a bass that draws upon them for visual inspiration, but the originals (and exact copies) make me yawn. Ibanez: undoubtedly great value instruments, but I'll always associate them with teenagers playing metal and slapping furiously without a semblance of a groove Singlecuts: Mr Blobby aesthetics make me boak Warwick: I once tried one in a shop. Salesman begged me to make him an offer, but I just couldn't bring myself to. Gibson: I must admit that I really dig the look of LP basses, Thunderbirds and EB-x, and it would be great to have a cherry red EB-3 to match my 6-string Epiphone SG400, I'm totally scared off by what I've heard about their neck dive. I know how bad my SG400 neck dives, so I can only imagine how bad it is with a bass, which will be even heavier. Pointy headstocks (Jackson) or pointy bodies (BC Rich). If you're not wearing full face makeup, or you have long flowing hair with your shirt unbuttoned to your navel, then they aren't going to suit your look. S.P.

UPDATE: I took the advice of those above and paid a visit to GuitarGuitar in Epsom. Nice place, great staff. Came home with a Lakland 55-01. Thanks for all your help, peeps! S.P.

Yeah, that'd be a 2 hour drive each way for me - that's well beyond my desired distance. Andertons have a similar system where most of the "in stock" stuff is actually in a warehouse, but can be retrieved with a couple of hours' notice. The thing is, I don't have a specific bass in mind. I'm just looking to try out some options and hopefully discover something that inspires me. S.P.

I was looking for an alternative to Andertons just because it seems to be the place where I most often end up. The bass room, while a great idea in principle, starts to feel a bit claustrophobic if you're not the only person there. Price range is fairly broad. Historically I've tended to spend up to £500 on a bass, but I wouldn't be averse to spending a little more if it's something that really gets the blood flowing. Ritters and Foderas are probably a bit too much to justify though. S.P.

Oh, I know that, which is why I'm a bit ashamed to admit it. Generally I pride myself on being the kind of person who doesn't get too hung up on brand names - an anti-gearsnob, if you will - but something about the Ibanez brand has just been too badly tarnished during my formative years. S.P.

Okay, so I've had a look into these options: Guitar Village in Farnham doesn't seem to have much in the way of 5 string options (see here). There's a Tanglewood Curbow (I actually tried the 4 string one of these in Electro Music in Doncaster many, many years ago. Not bad, but it wasn't love), an Epiphone Tobias (which I've heard bad things about) and a couple of Ibbys but they're both marked as out of stock. Guitar Guitar in Epsom - I could figure out how to filter their online product list to just in-stock (see here) but not how to further filter it to just in-stock at one specific store. I've sent them an email. PMT in Oxford - good online store, was able to filter it to show just 5 strings at Oxford (see here) but the result is mostly Ibanezi. The thing is, and I feel really petty to admit this, but I have an inexplicable dislike of Ibaneziata. I'm sure that they're great basses, and everyone says that they're decent players, and some of the finishes are downright gorgeous, but that headstock and logo will always remind me of teenage onanists who learn to slap before they can even play fingerstyle, and I want nothing to do with that. Vintage and Modern in Thame doesn't seem to offer much in the way of 5s either (see here), but to be honest with a name like "Vintage and Modern" you can't be terribly surprised if it's mainly 4 string Fenders and Hofner violin bassen. Hmmmm, maybe I should just go back to playing a 4 string. S.P.

Do you mean Guitar Guitar in Epsom, or Guitar Village in Farnham? Bass Gallery is a bit of a journey, yeah. It would take me as long to get there as to get to Bass Direct, if not more. Again, if I were going into London for any other reason then I would consider dropping in, but I don't want to make the journey just for that. S.P.

I've got the day off on Monday and am thinking of going out looking for a new 5-string. My usual go-to is Andertons in Guildford, but I was wondering if there are any other places that people can recommend that have a decent enough range of basses that there'll be some interesting 5ers on offer. I've got half a mind to try out Bass Direct but it's a 90 minute drive which is a bit far if I'm not going up there for any other reason. S.P.