josie

I use the low B string more than the G - the one 4-string I gig is strung BEAD. As said it's partly about having more chord / key changes under your fingers rather than chasing up and down the neck. It also allows you to root anything in B - C - D an octave lower. Sadly many 5s do have a floppy B string - if that 5th string is an afterthought to a 4-string design. I have a rare top-end 1992 Fender Jazz+V on which the B string is unusable. My main squeeze is a GMR Bassforce 5 on which the B is as tight and clear as the other four (she was my first bass, and it took me a while to realise that not all 5s are like that!) I'd say go out and try as many basses as you can. Focus on whether that B string *feels* the same as the other four under your fingers. Some will do nothing for you, and one will feel like a body part you didn't know you'd been missing.

I didn't sign up for this... but gear so far this year three sets of strings. D'Addario 5 tape-wounds for my fretted acoustic, birthday present from my band. D'Addario 4 half-rounds, passed on by a lovely BC-er who didn't want them. Leading to Bass Centre Elite 5 half-rounds for my main squeeze, nothing wrong except mis-matched silk wrapping on the B string, which when I gently queried they refunded the purchase price of the set. So money spent on gear so far £0. Only likely purchase before the end of the year is an Ibanez Mikro for my 5yo grandson - he's obsessed with guitars, and the sooner I win him over to the dark side, the better. Might also postpone the day when he steals my Jazz Aerodyne 🙂 Seriously, I'm trying to really work out and develop the different sounds and feels of my current hard core of six basses, thus trying out different strings to suit what I want to do with each. I might well end up taking more than one bass to a gig depending on the setlist...

Spot the bass player:

Welcome!

Welcome - beautiful bass!

Welcome!

Someone I met at a blues festival (not in Manchester) once remembered seeing me play in a blues jam in Manchester. It must have helped that he's also a bass player, and I remembered seeing him (at different venue), too. We've stayed in touch, and my band is opening for his band tonight (and I'll be using his Trace Elliot rig) 🙂

Thanks, but it's about expectations - if I saw another bassist playing something like my Ibby I'd expect them to be a better bass player than I am. You don't need to understand bass guitars to spot this one as bling (which is *not* why I love her!) The better and more confident you are, the better you can do with "less great" gear. If the naff Encore P I keep at work had been my first bass, I would have given up within months. My GMR 5 wouldn't let me give up. She isn't "fancy", but you won't find better build or tone quality for 5 times what I paid for her. She's my inspiration much more than any particular famous bass player.

I didn't get on with my first 6 (Warwick Thumb) purely because it's too heavy for me. Should really make more of an effort to sell it. My second (Ibanez Premium BTB 1406) is a delight, absurdly light and easy to play. I'm not as confident with it yet as I am with my first bass (GMR 5), so for now I'm still taking that out for proper gigs, and the Ibby to casual jams and OMs where there's less pressure. Also I would feel pretentious turning up in front of an audience with a conspicuously unusual and high-quality instrument - the GMR is just as good, but you'd have to understand bass guitars to know. I'll just have to get over that 🙂

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition, there's a hunger still unsatisfied (Pink Floyd, "High Hopes") This is in my funeral instructions as my epitaph.

I live in a tiny flat which is more or less all music room. I make a point of playing all my basses (4 electric, 2 acoustic, all out on floor stands) often enough that they don't need too much dusting, and change strings as often as I fancy trying a new type of strings, which is fairly often. I've resisted getting too geeky about details though - I don't know much about bass guitars but I know what I like 🙂

Back to our favourite venue, the Old Abbey Tap in south Mcr. They've been good to us and the numbers are always small (it's tiny) but vibe is always good. I'd set up the gig as a double bill with the Gus Glynn Band who were coming up from Nantwich and happy to play for pizza and beer rather than their usual £. Got there well early with bass and rig (MarkBass 400 combo) for the barman to say "Nobody told me there was live music tonight - but you're here so you might as well play!" He then went on to say "I'm the sound engineer, I'll help you set up and soundcheck." Star. It was on their FB page with a fair number of peeps "interested", but there was more or less nobody there, apart from one local whose appreciation became more annoying as the night went on. Still it was a fun night, the pizza was excellent, and it was a good warmup for our first professional gig on Sunday. I was worried GGB might have been unhappy, but they seemed to enjoy it too and were the first to say "Lets do this again!" My GMR 5 and the MarkBass sounded good together 🙂 Even my higher-pitched lines with lots of sustain and slide held up well in the mix. On a couple of songs in C or D I play octave switches between rooting on the A and low B string and the contrast was dramatic. Happy cat 🙂

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!