Burns-bass

Agreed. Instrument cables are different to the typical audio cables people spend a fortune on. Being brutally honest, if you're not much of a player it doesn't matter how much you spend on a guitar, cables or amp... Oh, and the Precision was the first mass market bass that captured the attention of players and the public. They're pretty agricultural when you play an older one, but they do the job. When I interviewed Carol Kaye and a few other studio players they had no real reverence for older instruments. She also hated jazz basses too. Strange woman.

At the risk of incensing you I can see how this plays out on guitar, where the notes are much more expressive, the use of accents and embellishments and chords and so on. On bass, next the majority of situations, the quality of the note and the resonant qualities of the instrument are going to matter less. In my experience my £150 Jap-built Squier is more expressive and rich instrument than a US Strat that retails at 10 times the price. When I played if gigs and recorded my Jap Geddy Lee jazz was liked more by all than my 66 Jazz. If I had spent £10k on a guitar (and I have) I’d look for every justification why that money was well spent. We can hear all sorts of things if we want too (see blind tears of high priced audio cables, or anything with gold connectors).

There’s no info on the volume of sales. Women maybe buying more, but overall,are sales up or down? Gibson going bankrupt suggests the market is febrile. It seems that fewer people are interested in guitar bands or watch local gigs. I guess it’s why we do it. My daughter loves listening to me play guitar, and I’ve recently bought a guitar for my nieces. If they get some pleasure from it, that’s all that matters.

I play music for about an hour a week but my hand carved Bryant has pride of place in my second living room. It’s a constant reminder that I’m a musician and I’ll pick it up once the kids are older. Plus it looks amazing!

Maybe 15 years ago...

His sound doesn’t do it for me... but Sire basses are so far in advance of the stuff we had in the 90s it’s unreal.

If you’d made this yourself as a bit of fun, or as a project with a child then fair enough, but how he can and sell this for £300 is incredible.

Well played...

I actually think it's pretty interesting advice. I base this on teaching intermediate level students (let's say Grade 5 and above) and the issues she raises are pretty common things that bass players do. They'll focus on fills, embellishments and using the fragments of theory they know to construct overly complicated lines. It's probably a reaction to every video you see from someone like Scott (awesome player) who starts off with some noodling that's useful in about 0.00001% of real life bass situations. The open string thing seems weird, but when you play an open string you're not totally in control of the note. If someone is attacking a fretted note with a pick then an open string can jar a little. That's the only incidence it would make sense to prefer a fretted note, or if you're adding an embellishment to it. There's plenty of plain bad advice on the internet, but I wouldn't class this as such. When I was 15 and starting out, this would have helped. And we all need a reminder sometimes that we should focus on groove, not fills...

I’m the same (but a it earlier). I’ve got somewhere near £15k worth of gear, but at times it was up to around £40k. You can see the old pre cbs basses I sold. I have cleared it all out and only now have the 66 candy apple Jazz (that took me two years to buy) and a Paul Bryant double bass. The rest are all on their way out slowly. I run a business and when I get home and have put the kids to bed I’m just shattered. Everyone I know has told me to wait a few years, so I’m planning to do that. A hobby should be something to enjoy not feel guilty about.

White socks jazz funk. I have the same sort of feeling listening to Vulfpeck and the whole host of revisionist funk bands out there. There are no new ideas here, just old ones imitated averagely. In this instance however, when I was teaching at a music college one of the kids asked me to transcribe a SZ line and I had a lot of fun. He really does work a groove and they are very musical, and highly lyrical in their approach. I retain the right to be wrong at any point, and the freedom to change my mind.

Still don’t get it but the video was cool, and great all the excitement for a new band!

And check the insurance is for musical instruments. In most cases it isn’t...

I sent a guitar with UPS and had no problems. Accidents can happen to all couriers, and in my experience at least, UPS have been better than some others. Personally, I invested in 30 metres of bubble wrap from Toolstation (other providers are available) and triple boxed the last guitar I sent. It worked well, too (by that I mean it got there without a scratch and the buyer was well pleased).

Beautiful Christoph.

I went on tour with the Musical Box a few years ago. You genuinely won’t meet a nicer bunch of guys. And the show I witnessed every night was exemplary.