TrevorR

For that rock/blues thing also definintely check out some of Gary Moore's blues albums.. Still Got the Blues, After Hours and his "Scars" band album spring most readily to mind. You might also check out BBM (Bruce, Baker, Moore) for some Cream-alike renderings...

As others have said, the real answer is because I could afford them and I like them (nay, love them)! But for the purposes of craic... Aria SB700 - my first ever bass. Not played much now but great sentimental value (18th birthday pressie from mum and dad). Too lovely ever to sell. Wal Mk1 Custom - fell in love with the Wal sound watching Robbie Burns demo some Marshall amps at the London Music Show in 1988 and thought, "I'd love one but could never justify the price". Bought mine second hand in 1993 for £500. Been my main bass ever since. Will never sell. Wal Pro II E - thought it would be cool to own one since they are lovely basses and sound great. Found a second hand one in a local shop and after a haggling session that lasted 18 months (it really was stupidly over priced) bought it in 2001 or 2002 for £550. Has been my second bass ever since - always took two basses to the gigs when I was in a function/covers band and used both across the set. Will never sell. Frankenjazz - bought cheap off eBay as a project bass. Turned out properly lovely and got used regularly for many years until I loaned it to a producer chum. It now earns its keep in his studio and I suspect I may never ever get it back... Tony Revell Custom acoustic bass - bought as an indulgence from my share of the band recording fund when the folk band I played in split up. Lovely, unique. Paid dividends when I was effectively housebound with ME for two years in the mid 90s. Faith Titan Neptune Bass - bought a couple of years ago because we started doing acoustic nights at church and the TRevell has no pickup and is too delicate to drag around. Markbass LMII, Traveler 2x10 and Traveler 1x15 - a really great sounding flexible rig which has seen me right in a myriad of different contexts and venues... Back line only gigs, clubs with PAs, marquees, hotel function rooms, church, prison gigs, local festivals, wine bar gigs... Polytune pedal - essential piece of kit Tech 21 Sansamp VT DI - because we've now gone amp free at church Ancient Boss CE2B chorus, EHX Pulsar tremolo (a gift from a friend), Morely Bass Dual Wah - all I need for additional textures and more. Lehle 3@1 - for switching basses when I was in the band and used two on stage

Lozz, don't sell yourself short. Since this hypothetical person is hypothetically saying "Money no option" at the very least treat yourself to a Masterbuilt Custom Shop P bass...

Scott Devine is giving his top 10 tips for flying with a bass in this week's Scott's Bass Lessons video blog... http://youtu.be/_7zbE8bpkyM

Easy, two choices for me... A Wal MkIII Custom series bass... Probably an olive ash top, maybe in trans blue... 4 or 5... Not fussy... A 64 YOB Jazz Bass (or maybe a Hofner... Nah, deffo a Jazz)... For no other reason than that would be cool. PS Happy Birthday!

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1456004028' post='2984528'] Is that John Sykes on guitar as well? [/quote] Yes, from the farewell / Thunder and Lightning tour in 1893. Saw them on that tour and the Renegade tour in the summer of 81. On that tour Phil was playing an Ibanez Blazer bass with a mirror scratch plate.

I ended up ditching Bose ear buds after a few years. The performance of the buds was a fine but the cable at the mini Jack went far too easily and quickly for gear in that price range. And of course, the earbuds were hard wired so that was a terminal case. Complained and sent them back on a couple of occasions but even when replacements came back with a redesigned style of plug and cable they still didn't last nearly as long as I would have expected gear of that quality. And I'm pretty gentle and anal about looking after that type of thing. Between use they lived in their own little case, not tightly wound around my iPod. Moral, if you're going for expensI've ear buds splash out on a brand with replaceable cables. Not used them but the Shure in ears look pretty good for the price. Now for the iPod I just use cheap as chips Sennheiser CX3000 buds which, don't sound appreciably different for iPod use and have lasted three times as long. Anything more esoteric and I'll use my in moulded ears...

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1455876336' post='2983119'] The TE website doesn't appear to have been updated for some considerable time. It's won't be long until TE is no more I imagine. [/quote] ...again... A sad piece of deja vu for a great, badly mistreated brand.

Isn't the Ashdown VU for input gain not output? What you're seeing isn't the amp struggling, it's the fact that playing live you put more energy into the strings than practising at home. Therefore in rehearsal your bass is giving the amp more level than at home. Just turn the inpUt gain down a tad to reduce the peaking and increase the master vol a tad to compensate... And yes, if you do need more volume try adding an extension speaker first.

Great band. Did you know that Archive.com has a load of their shows for free legal download? Including the Electrif Lycanthrope shows... https://archive.org/details/LittleFeat?and[]=year%3A%221974%22

Sigh... Just a straightforward way of saying actually only a few are at one extreme or another but most are in the middle. Therefore a few bands (covers or original) are rubbish, a few are absolutely amazing, most are, to one degree or another, OK to quite good... Sigh...

For me the thumb behind four fingers four fret technique has been really useful and one which it is worth working on and becoming comfortable with. Ive got shorter fingers and even if you don't use it slavishly it is a really useful tool to have in the toolbox as a player. Looking across my playing I probably use 4 fret technique about 30-40% of the time. A lazy variant on 4 fret about 40-50% of the time and thumb over about 10-20% of the time, sliding between all three. Building up the pinkie works too, in fact now my ring finger is probably my more neglected finger over preference for the pinkie. It gives that little extra stretch. Those chromatic four fret exercises are good for building dexterity and strength too... Spiders crawling up the string and across the strings. Eg working up the next 4 frets at a time starting at F, then F# then G etc. Or 4 frets from F then Bb, then Eb then Ab and back down to F#, B, E, A etc... I've never had an issue with 34" scale lengths a problem but narrower necks certainly are an advantage.

Funny, I spent this morning on a diet of Doobies... Their first album and farewell gig from the 80s. With those five CDs you have the cream of their stuff. Next two two try are Minute By Minure and Livin on the Fault Line. The other two classic period albums. Tho on both the Michael McDonald soul influence gets heavier. Their self titled album is rawer but a great listen too. Tiran Porter... What a bass player! The later post reform stuff doesn't really stack up to the early stuff but is still quite listenable. There are a couple of live albums which are good too, esp Rockin' down the Highway: The Wildlife Concert. Kind of a greatest hits live set. Studio Discog... The Doobie Brothers (1971) Toulouse Street (1972) The Captain and Me (1973) What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974) Stampede (1975) Takin' It to the Streets (1976) Livin' on the Fault Line (1977) Minute by Minute (1978) One Step Closer (1980) Cycles (1989) Brotherhood (1991) Sibling Rivalry (2000) World Gone Crazy (2010) Southbound (2014)[18]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1455740068' post='2982046'] My job in my band is to play the best bass lines that compliment the songs we play, sing background vocals and maintain a certain level of stage presence. I was not hired to critique or correct other members playing ability. As long as our calender is filled with good gigs I keep quiet. Blue [/quote] Dragging us kicking and screaming back onto topic I found Blue's comments interesting although I didn't agree with them. The difficulty arises when the player thinks that they're doing just what Blue describes but on any reasonable measure isn't. Where they are playing something that clashes with the song and/or other band member (either because of a characteristic of the song - to over exaggerate effect, palm muted metal power chords all through Le Freak, a Mark King slap fest all through Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding... Or by consensus of the band that that isn't what is wanted/required for their version of that number). Then, and here is where I disagree with the last comment, it should be addressed within the band context. Sometimes one member is elected (or the first to blink and elect themselves out of necessity) to be the catalyst for addressing the problem. Unaddressed it just festers and causes even greater problems down the line. Humility and teachability are great character assets for any musician, as the willingness to play for the greater good not just oneself. There have been some really good bits of advice so far on how to help open the guitarist's eyes to a need to change already in ther thread,

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1455876552' post='2983124'] A declaration of war! [/quote] No, just an over simplified statement of statistical theory... Most things fall into some form of distribution and that will include both cover and originals bands... As others have noted. On this table... X axis will be increasing goodness of band, Y axis will be number of bands...

Hake! This could drag on for dace before we all clam up. I'll just perch over here and watch...

I love the Audere pre I put on my Frankenjazz... B/M/T plus pickup pan. Plus dead easy to install...

Just saw this on one of the "for sale" pages on Facebook... now THAT'S what I call that great Trace Elliott tone... Yikes! Zoinks! PS no connection/interests etc... just thought it was a stonker of a photo...

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1455301848' post='2978057'] Or what about Koi Division... or Hake That? Or do we go full out with Codplay? [/quote] Just wondered whether Codplay would have a guest vocal slot from Beyonsea?

Not seen that video before. Genius. If my old TE Series 6 200w 1215 combo hadn't died after falling off a trolley during a load out I'd still be using it today as my main gig amp. Loved that amplifier. Always sounded great.

The day they match the rosewood neck with the ash body I'm "in"... Like a rocket!

Aimee Mann swaps and changes between guitar and bass across a live set... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbX2jAgQOgY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbX2jAgQOgY[/url]

I met Phil Lynott once, after a gig on the farewell Lizzy tour. After queuing for autographs I phoned dad and had good half hour wait while he drove from Truro to St Austell to fetch me. Bored, I wandered back into the empty hall to watch the roadies break down the set, as was my habit. Suddenly Philo appeared from backstage carrying a half empty Smirnoff bottle and clocked this forlorn teenager in a huge empty hall. He asked "What's up, you OK?" And when I explained I was just waiting for my lift he beckoned me up on stage and said, "Well, you can wait up here if you like." So for the next twenty minutes or so we sat side by side on Brian Downey's drum riser chatting about this or that and shooting the breeze. Talking about music, stuff we liked, Phil's plans post-Lizzy. He really seemed like a genuinely lovely, soft spoken (slightly drunk) guy. Bless him, he was still in full stage apparel and was dangling his legs back and forth. He was mortified when he accidentally kicked my shin with his big cowboy boots and apologised the way only a cheerfully half cut person can. Eventually dad appeared at far end of the hall, wondering where I was. I bade Phil farewell and jumped down off the stage before heading home. Also when I was putting my Wal history blog together I chatted to or met a few Wal players. All were really nice folks but three stand out in memory as particularly great. Percy Jones, great fellow, Justin Meldal Johnsen who was a laugh and a total bass geek... But loveliest of all was John G Perry of Quatrum Jump, Giltrap Band and Caravan fame. Just such a nice guy.

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1455179141' post='2976626'] It's not a Squier neck. [/quote] D'oh!

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