AdrianP

Currently watching a live acoustic set by Sonya and Glen from Echobelly on Facebook. This sort of live set is perhaps one of the very small consolations to come out of all this.

Ok, just tried switching on mine. Plugged in. Switched on. Green light comes on at the front. A VERY low electronic hum can be heard with my ear right on the casing. But the fan is definitely NOT running. Left it plugged in for half an hour. Still no sound of the fan running. Does that help?

Looper pedal. Not only still in its box, it's still in the original Amazon parcel.

We all chip in with suggestions on an equal footing. Then we end up doing whatever songs the BL and guitarist want to do. Same thing with dropping songs that don't work. If the BL and guitarist still like them, they stay in. I've given up making suggestions now which works perfectly for everyone.

To be fair, Hartke stuff is not necessarily all bad. By accident rather than design, I've got two Hartke 112 cabs and, driven by a 700 watt class AB amp, blows away everyone else in the band if I've a mind to. And the 4/8 ohm switching is useful for running one cab on it's own. My gripe is twofold. firstly, they are probably the worst company for inflating the power values of their most recent class D amps (I'm not talking about the older ones here). But, more crucially, their distribution in the UK is abysmal. Good luck if you do want to buy any Hartke product from a UK dealer because almost none have any actual stock to sell you. That's got to be down to the distributor. Soon Hartke will go the way of Blockbuster Video and Border Creme Eggs. something that you vaguely remember from childhood but can't quite put your finger on why.

Which is fortunate as their UK distributor makes not being able to buy anything by Hartke incredibly straightforward!

Does he have his own transport? Brings his own gear? Is he reliable? Unlikely to run off with the drummer's wife?Otherwise trustworthy? If the answer to all of those things is 'yes' I'd say he's 90 percent of the way to being a perfect band member. I'd cut him some slack and see how he settles in with the band. If you drop him, you may not be so lucky next time.

In my main band, we don't so much play covers as covers of covers. For instance, we play a cover of Rocking in the Free World (yes, I know!) but a cover of the Suzi Quatro version. Actually, I add some riffs in from a Bon Jovi live version so it's a completely different version to the original. Same thing for a cover of House of the Rising Sun. We do a cover of the Frigid Pink version, not the Animals version. The only cover where I do try to follow the original is You Oughta Know but precisely following Flea's riffing in F# is kinda tough. I think i play all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order! So I suppose it all depends on how your band sees the original material. If you're a tribute band, then by all means follow the original. But some bands like us see the original as source material only to be played in our own style.

No he doesn't but, as I said, I wanted to get a reality check before having that conversation. I think he's keen and has rehearsed it separately with the vocalist as a duo. That actually makes me think they can perform it themselves if they really want and I'll slope off stage for a quick half. As for my place in the band, know how difficult it is finding half decent bassists round here?! I think our relationship will survive, but really wanted to test out whether, to be frank, I was being a bit of an a*se for refusing.

So many good replies. Thanks again. And it's still difficult to pick out the one, definitive, reason not to do it. Except that I wouldn't feel comfortable, in myself, performing a song that's so tied to a particular place in time and location. And one where we, as a band, have no particular business going. So it's down to authenticity with me. Then there's the point about how it's going to land with Fred down at the Dog and Duck who wants a bit of a sing-song with his half of mild. It just doesn't fit the rest of our set, even if it was a great sounding song. Which it isn't, as already pointed out. So what does it benefit us, or our audience, to do it? As I said before, I can see no upsides here.

Thanks all for the comments. A couple of responses. In terms of the rest of the set, we're in the process of moving away from pub rock to a sort of cool, adult oriented pop cover band. In that respect, this does not really fit the vibe we're trying to create unless we gut the song of any kind of meaning it ever had. On the authenticity point, I think this hits the nail right on the head. We're not a political band and we haven't been part of any struggle against anything much at all. So how could we carry this off? I don't think we could and it would look fake as soon as anyone saw us. So, on those two points alone, my mind is made up. I won't be doing it and suggest they don't either. Thanks all.

The BL and the vocalist in my band both want us to add Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit to our set list. I'm not comfortable with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not overly PC or all that susceptible to ideas of cultural appropriation. But this is a song about a particular time and place where some folks thought it was ok to lynch other folks for no other reason than the colour of their skin. It just feels wrong for a mostly white band to play it. And this is coming from me who, in being part Chinese, is the closest the band comes to an ethnic member. And I do get that it was written by a white civil rights activist. But it seems to me to be so much Billie's song that that fades a little in importance. For me, though, the real problem is that I cannot see any scenario where we perform this and don't end up looking bad. At best, it's a bit embarrassing and uncomfortable. At worse, we get a slating for appropriating another culture's music and never work again. There seems no upside to doing this. So, before I make a stand on this, I guess I wanted the Basschat hive mind's opinion. Do any other bands play this? Am I getting on my high horse about nothing? You're never going to make me happy playing this but I would appreciate a reality check. Cheers.

A very thought provoking and fascinating piece. Thanks for sharing. There is a fine line, though, between an intelligent piece and being too clever for one's own good and I wonder whether, on occasions, it skirts the line a little too closely. Still, my life is still better for having heard it rather than not so, once again, thanks for the share.

I am GROOT!

Will there be a companion series on western music? Then we have the entire musical spectrum covered! Seriously, I've watched it and enjoyed it immensely. I'm not really a big country music fan, particularly not the highly polished Nashville sound. But I particularly liked the episode on bluegrass which then meandered into outlaw country. I've not seen every episode but i was surprised by no mention of The Highwaymen? The Cash, Jennings, Nelson, kristofferson super group. But certainly enjoying it so far.

Indeed, that's what the Yamaha website suggests. I've just never managed to get it to fit properly. Actually, one of the imperial sized wrenches seems to fit most snuggly, which cannot be right. I'm fortunate in that, with the strings slackened off, the truss rod moves really smoothly in either direction so, hopefully, minimising the risk of any damage. But I will certainly be careful to get a snug fit.

Hi all. Wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the Repair and Technical section but thought this might be better. Does the collective BB hive mind know for sure what wrench size is suitable for the truss rods in later Yamaha BB basses? Whenever I've adjusted my 424 or 1025 I've reached for a hex wrench suggested by the Yamaha website which has always been the wrong size. Do we know what the correct size is? Thanks.

"Glory Box" by Portishead is one which particularly comes to mind. We do this with one of my bands and it's actually quite difficult to keep from tripping out when playing the same repeating riff for an entire song.

My three. Classic. Adrian Gurvitz. The most mangled lyrics ever foisted on the English language throughout all of eternity. Hi Ho Silver Lining. The perfect song to empty the party and get the punters out at closing time. Mustang Sally. Beloved of drunk mums and dads everywhere. Despised by all other sentient life forms. But what surprises me is that, 5 pages in, we've had no Morrissey numbers on here. You guys disappoint me sometimes. actually, I absolutely adore the Smiths but I know how marmite Mozza can be. I just expected better somehow.

I'm content with mine. I bought one about 6 months ago as a backup when it came up as an Amazon warehouse deal. Cost just over £100. I've used it for a couple of rehearsals where it has kept up quite nicely with a loud drummer and guitarist. but, for gigs, I tend to use my Peavey Tour 700. I have no doubts the BQ500 would work, though. best of all, I keep it in a neoprene laptop sleeve in my cable bag and hardly know that it's there. But I know that it could get me out of a jam if something happened to my main amp.

But dragging it back on topic, how come 'Christmas Time' got so much airplay, with a world record number of mentions of the phrase 'don't let the bells end'?

My band leader plays sitar quite decently actually. We played a version of Venus in Furs at our last gig with him on the sitar. it's a temperamental old thing (the sitar, not the BL!) but it gave it a really unique sound. It does look fiendishly complicated, and goes out of tune at unpredictable moments, but it's certainly a talking point at any gig.

Thanks both. I think my problem is that, in rushing to get to the next root note, I'm not not giving enough time for the octave to ring out properly meaning that I choke it off before it's really sounded. So that's probably poor technique. I will have a look at the Talkingbass lesson. That sounds perfect. Thanks again.

Hi there. Our band is looking to add a couple of new songs to our setlist for the next rehearsal, Hollywood Nights by Bob Seger being one of them. This is mostly played in E but seems to include a little C#, D root and octave run at the turnaround. Then there is a longer descending/ ascending run in the outro. This is the sort of thing I've not really done before and, to be honest, am struggling to pull it off. I just can't seem to get that pop going. Or to do it quick enough. Apart from doing more practice, is there any technique that you guys have found to work? We are maybe thinking of adding a Duran Duran number next year and I know that this is a favourite technique of John Taylor so it will be worthwhile getting it right. Cheers.

Another Constantine fan here. It always seems like, no matter what obscure stuff my band wants to play next, Constantine had usually got a video of it. And it's always solid, no drama, bass playing. I like him. I'm also a big fan of Infusion26. He has a really wide range of covers, mostly from the 60's through to 80's. Again, suits my band down to the ground. And he is another where it's all about music. No bigging himself up. No 'click on the link'. Just solid, well played, covers.