Rocker

It is important to listen to what she says about bass playing. FWIW I think she makes some good points. Keeping it simple and knowing when to do so, is what makes one a musician. As opposed to merely a bass player.

Jamie, when I read your OP the first thought in my head was 'Oh No, not another bass solo post'. So having scanned your playing I am glad I did. Your playing is fine but you fall into the trap of projecting the bass (guitar) as a solo instrument. The bass is so much more important than that. As everyone here knows, the bass links up with the drummer to create the foundation for the singer and other musicians (guitarist?) to perform. A solid foundation or groove is what gets people off their seats and onto the dance floor - it makes them want to dance. In a band situation, each musician has a role to play. It might be hard for a bassist or a guitarist to accept but their function is to support and make the singer look good. Of the two mentioned, the bass is the more critical for the reasons listed above. Queen (the band) are a typical example. The band supported Freddie - even the guitar and bass solos and playing were only used to put further emphasis on the front man Freddie. The band were and are fine musicians in their own right but they knew that they could help make the sum of their efforts to be greater than their individual playing. Take a young child's jigsaw puzzle for example. Four parts to assemble the picture, but the picture is only fully revealed when each piece is in the correct position. Take away one piece and the picture collapses. Likewise take one piece and emphasize the colours using a painting set, and the picture has lost its wholeness, its balance as one quarter is now brighter and more vivid than the other three pieces. Just because a musician learns a technique, does not mean that he has to use it unless the song requires it. And searching for a song to use this technique results in the other band members learning the song to accommodate the other musician. Which is not conducive to a good or great overall performance by the band. We have all heard examples of this - the guitarist learns a song because it has his new solo in it.......... Please don't read this post in a negative fashion. I am not criticizing your playing. Rather the idea that the bass is or could become a lead instrument. If the song requires three root notes plus octave, nobody will sack you for playing those notes. It might be boring as hell but TBH a lot of playing is repetition. Repetition can become boring but the boredom is reduced if the dance floor is full of people swaying and dancing to the music. People hear the singer and the overall band sound and react accordingly. They may not pick up on the subtleties of bass playing but they will feel the groove. And they will want to dance. What more is there to ask for?

Switching from left hand to right hand and vice versa is certainly doable but hard work. (1) For close on fifty years I used a shotgun to shoot clays, game and vermin. I am a natural left hander with a shotgun (I write with my right hand) but my right eye is master so I had to learn to shoot from the right shoulder. (2) Following a life changing accident almost forty years ago, I had to switch my golf swing from right handed to left handed. This proved much more difficult than changing sides for shooting. I literally had to learn or relearn everything from grip to alignment. I still and always have putted right hand. And I carry one right handed club in my bag for those times when left handed shot is difficult or impossible. I would imagine that the relearning the bass 'the other way round' would be challenging and frustrating but perfectly doable.

The sound might change if you use a second power amp & speaker. No harm in trying it out....

Dearag Doom by The Horslips for the riff & melody, every Irish soccer fan for the lyrics

Not sure what to think about anyone having a favorite bass solo. Let alone two. Get out there and enjoy life is my best thought for you.

I use a Peterson StroboStomp which is really excellent. The model I have has been superceeded by a new model whic I expect is as good.

I took up bass to see what a bass does and to learn what it adds to music. I cannot think of a single song that made me think, I will have to learn to play bass. I discovered that I love playing bass but to get the best out of it, I took on a music theory course and this led me to learn to play chords on a piano. The bass re-ignited my love of and interest in playing my six strings.... I might be slightly against the grain here by suggesting that the bass is not a lead instrument. It is much more important than that. Drums and bass provide the foundation for the song, for the music being played by the band. I hear music as the total sound created by the band and not the individual members contributions to the sound. On balance if the song requires simple root notes, then I play root notes. Boring? Possibly but the overall sound is what matters, my ego has to be put aside in favour of the song.

Vinyl won't ever go away but it will always be a niche market product. LPs are also very expensive, I saw one of Air 'Moon Safari' for around €30 in a Dublin shop recently. And the fallacy of cheap vinyl from charity shops is just that - a fallacy. Fine if you like Val Doonican or Nana Mouskouri but hopeless for music that we can rock out to. I buy my music on CD and rip it [FLAC] to my computer hard drive. I use Sonos to access the music and Daphile on a laptop for my hi-fi system. Online music systems like Spotify are OK to check out music but, sound quality wise, are no better than YouTube videos. You won't notice this sound degradation on a pair of earbuds connected to your phone but you will if you play those lossy files through your hi-fi system. Some people see vinyl as cool or hip or somesuch word but the only reason to use vinyl as a music source is sound quality. That sound quality does not come cheap. Everything matters for vinyl replay, everything from the disk cleaner to the wall mounted shelves for the turntable to the phono stage and the cables to connect everything up. To get a good vinyl system correctly setup, you won't have any change out of £10K, in actual fact closer to £20K is a more realistic spend. That is assuming you already have a decent amplifier and a pair of loudspeakers good enough to replay the extra information received from the vinyl setup. Lower priced turntables like Rega, Pro-ject etc. allow vinyl to be played but you are not hearing all that is on the record. There is no way that a £50 phono stage is able to handle and present the information received from the cartridge in an accurate way. Sorry guys, but that is the reality, that is how it is.

'Past the point of rescue' by Mick Hanly. Bass can be as 'simple' or as complex as you like. The solo needs perfect phrasing or the whole thing collapses. 'Sweet little rock and roller' by Joe Dolan. Another relatively 'simple' song that has to be played perfectly as everyone in the audience knows it very well.

How do you play an E minor chord on this thing?

How do you load this thing?

Sweet child o mine. Amazing guitar from Slash and the bass is not far behind it..

I think a Les Paul is still the guitar rock players look and sound best playing. For bass it is Fender. There are are lots of (better?) alternatives in shops but Gibson and Fender have the history and credibility that brings to make them still the most desired instruments.

To a lot of people, Phil Lynott was Thin Lizzie.

I practice songs, not scales. Roots, walking lines, that sort of thing. I am learning piano and how to read music. For bass I try to keep it simple and straight down the middle. That is what my band mates want and expect to hear.

Gibraltar drum throne. Costly but worth every penny. I use mine for guitar, bass and piano as I suffer from back pain. Mine is shaped like an old fashioned scooter seat. But better padded.

Not so in my experience! A parallel is that everyone 'knows ' Ohms Law. When I started my electricial apprenticeship I too thought I knew Ohms Law. But when a teacher on a block release course explained it to us, then I understood Ohms Law. I find it difficult to learn, really learn, something by reading it. Which is why I will be starting music lessons very soon. Just to be able to read the dots...

Awesome thing to do, many thanks in advance

Words fail me.....

This is not a song I know, not sure if I ever heard it on the radio, but reading your tab I see a lot of open strings used. I usually play the EADG notes up the neck as it is easier for me to damp any unwanted strings. Maybe this song needs the bass note to ring out but, for the music I play - country, rock & roll, etc. - I need to play the notes that are needed hence damping is required. The concept of playing open strings is fascinating, I might give it a go and see what happens. Thanks for alerting me to this possibility....

SomeNeckGuitars in Dublin. Website usually up to date, more vintage guitars and amps than basses but always worth a call. Owen is the guy to ask for. https://www.someneckguitars.com/

You might be right Jack about my cables losing something that standard wires do not. I disagree that there is some confirmation bias, I want the best sound from my kit and I know I am getting it now. I can hear the difference. Nobody listens to music by looking at a scope screen. Even crazier is the concept of ABX swapping of cables. Simply put, if downgrading my cables would give me a better sound, I would downgrade in the morning. And sell my cables on eBay. Who wouldn't? For me I know that the cables in my system, and they are modestly priced especially when compared to Nordost or Kimber products, are staying where they are. They work. They make my system sing. What is the problem then?

This is not a debate that either side can 'win'. You or I can do nothing about what happens or is used in studios or indeed anything before buying the CD or LP and taking it home. If your replay system is properly setup (speakers vertical, supported and positioned correctly etc), you will get to hear what is on the disk. The quality of the sound depends on how the system parts work together. To date there are zero perfect system components. Everything is compromised to a greater or lesser extent. A good system is where the strengths and weaknesses of component parts are in balance. As I already explained, the system is everything from the wall socket to the speakers. As difficult as it may be to accept this but even the wires used to connect the boxes can have an effect on what you hear. The modern hi-fi sound, one you will hear at hi-fi shows, is slightly edgy and very detailed. The sound I want is more laid back and smooth. Cables like Nordost do emphasise the detail on the disk whereas cables made from silver wire smooth the sound to a large extent. For many years I kept a box of standard cables, mains etc., that I used to swap into my main system every year or year and a half. Just to keep me honest. Just to see if I have been fooling myself by using silver cables. The result was always the same - my system did not sound right to me until I refitted the silver wires. After many years I sent the box of standard cables to the recycling depot. In this hobby, nothing can be assumed or taken for granted. Valve amps with high levels of distortion usually sound better than better measuring solid state amps. A good hi-fi dealer will usually get you the sound that is right by your ears, that is his chosen field and he knows his products. Years ago I coined a phrase 'AudioBliss' to mean the best possible sound in your room, a sound that you feel could not be bettered in that room. If you arrive at that state, leave everything as it is. Change nothing, just enjoy your music.

Leonard Smalls. Thank you for your reply to my contribution. I am not telling you anything about Russ Andrews or indeed anything along that lines. My point about considering everything used on your hi-fi system as part of the system [and thus affecting the sound from it] still stands. I am a retired electrician and worked 'on the tools' for a fair number of years. In that time, we [sparks] spoke of ring main circuits or spurs depending on how they were cabled. Rightly or wrongly every spark knew what you were talking about when you alluded to ring mains etc. The lingo might be different in the UK but the meaning is likely to be the same. What you say about the current draw for a hi-fi system makes sense except it is not like that in practice. However it happens I don't know but using the 6 sq m.m. cable from the MCB board benefits the sound from my system. Ditto with the additional earth wire. I am not going to pretend that I know why, I don't, but it does. I am simply passing on this information in case you or others might be remodeling and/or rewiring your house and this work is easy to do in that case. So it ought to be done to get the best from your hi-fi system. People from a technical background tend to dismiss the importance of electricity quality and cabling, usually arguing that one cable is more or less the same as another. The hi-fi industry charge amazing prices for bits of wire but sometimes, just sometimes those bits of wire do make a difference. Why or how I don't know. It is simply a question of trying it out and listening with an open mind. Not too open mind you, just be alert to the possibility that you may be surprised.