knirirr

There was a jazz jam on last night; IIRC there were 5 bassists in the room and 2 guitarists, with neither of the guitarists wanting to play. So, I ended up on guitar instead, but I think I just about got away with it. Video here, should anyone be interested (dodgy guitar solo at approx 2:15).

To my embarrassment, I haven't got around to clearing out the garage, so these are still available for now.

In an ideal world I could retire from the day job and earn a bit of money on the side from gigs. But, as I only play jazz this is probably a fantasy. Full time pro work would probably take the fun out of it.

Lending out backline seems fair enough to me. If it's jazz then the expectation seems to be that the house bassist will let others use their upright for a tune or two (same for keyboard and drums), given that all these instruments are a pain to transport and cause a great deal of clutter. Having said that, I went to a jazz jam recently where two keyboard players set up because one refused to use anyone else's keyboard (and then noodled on everything). I'd expect anyone wanting to play guitar or bass guitar to bring their own, and to accept without complaint or argument if they are told they may not borrow one. Not everyone I meet at jams shares this opinion.

AFAICT that's the default for jazz jams, at least, though there's some variation. There's one I usually don't attend as I'll be lucky to get one go in the first set and one in the second, then get back to bed near midnight for an 06:00 alarm and 90+ minute commute the next day. Another, where I am the house player, it's extremely rare for another bassist to appear. When they have they have brought their own bass guitar and amp and we have then alternated two tunes on and two off between us. If they wanted to use my upright I would be reluctant to let them play more than a couple of tunes during the night. My least favourite jam (> 20 years ago now) involved turning up early to set up, then helping the drummer and keyboard player, and playing for the first 30-40 mins or so. At that point other bassists would turn up and demand to use my bass and/or amp, supported by the MC because "you've already played for a while", and this would go on until the end of the night when I would get out last and struggle to find a taxi.

Interesting. As a British scientist myself, I'm pleased that this meme didn't exist when I last had to visit Russia.

I've used my Orange Terror with 1x12 cab for a jazz jam on guitar before (G&L ASAT). The tone wasn't bad at all and nicely clean.

That is an interesting question, which has caused me to pause and reflect. I do have a bass with such a fake decal on it, though where the serial number should be is instead a small-print admission that it's made up out of WD music's licensed spare parts. Why I put it on is due to conversations along these lines: "Why haven't you got a proper bass?" "This bass is completely proper." "I mean an upright, they sound so much better." "I have got one, but I fancied playing this electric tonight." "Oh well, at least it's fretless, and a Fender." After putting that on I saw that someone (probably here) had a logo made which said "Offender Imprecision Bass". That's much better and I should have done that instead.

Earlier today I was discussing the pickups on one of my basses, and thought I'd look up the website to send to the person with whom I was talking. But, it had disappeared and the domain was listed as for sale. The Wayback Machine turned up a version of the site from the 5th of April with the text: So, presumably, these pickups are no longer available.

T&G Martin sell one with their name on which looks pretty much identical to that (I'd guess that it is the same one). I have got one, and it has been very reliable; the many handles are useful .

I think it went something like this: Before leaving school I discovered The Shadows, and thought that this electric guitar music sounded awesome, much better than what my peers at school were listening to (this was the 80s) and more exciting than the classical music pushed via school music lessons. Listening only is never enough, so I saved money from holiday jobs to get a cheap electric guitar (Hohner flying V). But, good as it was, there was something lacking, so I tried listening to blues, rock & roll, funk etc. to see if I could find what I was after. Eventually, I discovered that it was jazz I wanted to listen to and play. As an undergraduate, I learned how to do big band style rhythm guitar and joined the university band. When in this band, I realised that bass sounded rather cool. There wasn't any opportunity to play bass at the time, but when I graduated I bought an unlined fretless electric and switched over (here's an example from a year later).

I think that this is the chap they ought to be looking for to fill that vacancy:

I usually wear a shirt to match the bass (and Orange bass cab). A picture was previously posted here: https://www.basschat.co.uk/profile/40067-knirirr/?status=2573&type=status

This is why I shouldn't go up on stage at jazz jams; the public would rather hear the people better than me, and the people worse than me need the practice more and should play instead.

This piece has been stuck in my head recently, and I think it might meet the criteria:

Listening to this now. Not bad at all. Caveat: I quite like listening to a bit of fusion, e.g. Nucleus, Soft Machine or Miles Davis (e.g. Jack Johnson), particularly whilst working. It makes an interesting change from the usual hard bop & soul jazz. Edit: On track 3 now and so far I've not heard any slapping, which is nice.

At the usual jam (which is supposed to be gypsy jazz) no guitarists turned up, but four horn players did. The result was more along the lines of this album (but nowhere near as good). Interestingly, this changed sound caused an audience member to request contact info. for the "band" and the landlord to suggest we also played in another pub he manages.

I shall have to take a trip to Banbury at the weekend, I think! Good luck with the baroque stuff also.

I'm in West Oxfordshire, but I work in Oxford. The only place I'm aware of is the violin shop on Banbury Road, but I asked them and they said they didn't deal with basses or bass bows at all. As an aside, it's a nice shop which has been there for years. They sold the violin that I used to play at school for me.

I might well have to do that. The reason I was looking at going to the chap who can't get the black hair is that his shop is easy to visit in person; I'm less keen on posting my bow. Having tried black hair I do notice a better feel and tone, with fewer nasty squeaking noises.

FWIW I started bass (having first done some guitar, badly) on an unlined fretless with dots on the note at 3, 5, 7... etc. This was in fact fairly easy and so I'd not expect you to have any trouble with that arrangement. This reminds me that at a recent jam I had a go on someone else's DB. The owner disliked finding Ab on the E string and so had got a big white dot on the side of the fingerboard to mark it - just like the dot you'd expect to find on G on the sort of fretless basses I have always played. This made for an entertaining tune as things tended to drift a bit sharp if I glanced to the left and caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye.

Does anyone know of a UK supplier who can provide hanks of black bow hair for bass bows? A local luthier will rehair bows for me but can't get the right sort of hair. I suspect the postage/tax on https://uptonbass.com/shop/bass-bow-hair-hank-black-for-1-bow-rehair/ would render such a purchase too expensive.

We played the opening slot at the Charlbury Oktoberfest today - so, now I have a souvenir "glass" with the band's name on it. Unfortunately, the bassist of The Inflatables (also mentioned on the glass) isn't on this forum; apparently they've been playing since 1980 and he was one of the founders.

It's probably not what you're after, but I hope you don't mind me mentioning this just in case. When I bought an amp for gigs I was looking for exactly the same thing; a light combo. This search resulted in buying an Orange Terror bass with 1x12" cab instead. The cab is about 12kg so a little under half the weight of the Trace Elliot combo I sold on here, and it is quite capable of playing jazz/fusion gigs in pubs or small beer festivals. I've never felt the need to get a second cab for it. Now, I'd be tempted to by a small solid state head to go with that cab and save even more weight.