Bridgehouse

I’m not sure about that quite yet - but yeah, I reckon I can provide at some point.

Well thanks all for your kind words and thoughts. I fear I may be going a bit mad now though. I’ve realised that I really like the tone I’m getting from the Shuker’s piezos. I’ve always thought they were decent, but revisiting it now I actually prefer the wider range and more detailed lows and highs compared to a P bass. Now I’ve always been a P bass chap, and this revelation has come as something of a shock. The under-board jazz pickup is meant to provide upper mids which can be dialled in where needed to focus the sound but I’m finding I’m not dialling it in much at all.

That's a very kind offer, Dave - and believe me I spent a good few seconds considering it.. however, I feel I have to bite the bullet and look after it myself (sadly)

You should have seen it when I still had the dressing on! Oh, the bass… right…

It’s not real tort - it’s fake tort. Otherwise I’d never be able to take my forearm out the country attached to the rest of me.

Apparently acceptable Basses for post-HA care include P, J, Stingray, Fretless and a limited amount of Bass VI. However, PJ is unadvisable, anything too active is discouraged and as you rightly say anything by Rik would result in a referral, a big syringe of sedative and a rather discouraging frown.

I thought I’d revisit this topic as it seemed apt. Some of you will know already, but last Tuesday I had a heart attack. I’m on the mend now, and during conversations with the doc he suggested I needed to exercise my right hand to stop stiffness after the angioplasty and the cardio catheter. Apparently my session was a bit more brutal than usual. I asked him if playing bass would suffice, and after a bit more chat he thought it would be ideal. Anyway, got home from hospital yesterday, and decided I might as well have a go. They give you lots of stern warnings about depression and suggest that doing stuff not too strenuous is a good idea. Picked up the Shuker and realised it’s a bit like me. Has had an incident involving major surgery but is actually the better for it afterwards. Yep, I’m pretty much stuck with it now given that link.. so I had an enjoyable hour getting back to it and despite a bit of wrist discomfort it actually wasn’t so bad at all. Nice to be home, in more ways than one.

This is true. Drop me a line and you can come round to mine - I have loads

FTFY

Nut cheese? Isn’t that a prop65 substance?

Another thread where I’m convinced Bass Chat should have the warning “may contain nuts” on it.

I based my playing off your excellent example

FTFY

If I’m playing it, it would be in half cut time

You’d only do that once tho

Definitely not 120 bars of rest:

I see this is the Ames Trapezoid version of the tab. You can tell because it's the version that sails past people and goes right through them - seemingly impossible at the time, but logical once you get your head around it. I recommend cutting it out, attaching to very thin card, and then suspending on string so it can be rotated.

Completely on point and a great response. The OP asked a perfectly valid question - a covers band with a mix of songs, some of which they like, others they don't. Is there value in learning the songs they don't like? People join bands for all sorts of reasons: Money, experience, they like playing with other musicians, it's an opportunity to learn etc. etc. You pick the reasons that apply and make a decision on that basis. Learning any new song of any sort will add to your experience and will further you musically - even if just a very small amount. The discussion in this thread should have been about this. However, it's mostly consisted of a discussion about the fact that the "most" or "vast majority" of songs can be learned (whatever that means) with one listen through. The implication is that it doesn't matter too much because you should be able to pick up this "most" or "vast majority" of songs with little effort. Nobody on this forum knows the intricate history of any other members playing. We don't know how each of us think musically, where we are stronger or weaker. I've played with musicians of all sorts of different abilities, and some can nail a song on their chosen instrument after one play through, and others can't. I've played with musicians who can pick up songs quickly but are just not good at playing in a band setting. Others who have to work hard to learn songs but are rock solid and reliable in a band. The end result is indeed everything - it is different for each of us. There is no one easy answer. Why are people upset on here? This is a forum for Bass Players to discuss Bass Playing. Simple as that. And by discussion, it involves actually being able to get your head around the fact that each member will be in a different place both technically, in terms of talent, in their experience, and in their approach. If every thread on ability, practise, or anything had experienced players simply saying "gït gud" then the discussion would be worthless. To the OP - weigh up the pros and cons and yes, practising songs you don't like will make you a better musician one way or another. How much time that takes and how many run throughs you have to do to get there is irrelevant at best, and condescending at worst.

The interesting twist to the uni-girlfriend-instant-copy-player story was she was utterly incapable of writing any sort of original tune.

If the "go-er" bit relates to her ability to listen to any piece of music on any instrument and instantly play a fully arranged piano rendition of said music, then yeah - she was a steam train. It was actually bloody annoying. "I wrote this cool riff for our next song" *plinks out vague tune on [random instrument] slowly, and a bit haphazardly* "Oh, you mean this?" *Plays fully accompanied version of said tune with every embellishment known to humankind* "Yeah. That." *watches manhood wither in front of own eyes*

Somewhat drunken flute/whistle/mandolin/mandola/octave mandolin/harmonica/melodeon/english concertina/djembe player:

One particular gig - I believe it was the Cromer Folk Festival on the Pier, after such a gig and such a resultant exchange with a slightly older chap with a knitted sweater came after a crab supper and three pints of Fully Rigged Ship or some such other local ale, and my response, IIRC, was a rather large belch in his face.

Or have a natural talent for music like a girlfriend I had at uni. We rather misguidedly decided to form a band together. As a rakish, unkempt and mostly drunken student my own view of my musical talent was, eh, overinflated. Ok, I was classically trained and performed in semi-professional choirs for 10 years, but that didn't translate to bashing a guitar and attempting the latest hit from James or Blur. On our first *cough* album, we had an argument about the keys part - she claimed I wasn't being specific enough for her as to how it should sound. I rather sarcastically said maybe she could make it sound like Rick Wakeman and stop p***ing about. When we got to the keys break she played pretty much the whole of Catherine of Aragon note for note. It didn't end well.

I'm pretty sure a lot of us have. In fact, I had a five year penury in a folk outfit playing a combined set of instruments that made a one man band look pathetic. We didn't even do covers - it was original stuff. I put some pretty complex flute and whistle lines on a whole bunch of songs which, to be honest, were mostly improvised at recording, and thus nigh on impossible to play live without mixing it up a bit - especially after a few pints of local ale. However, countless times some geezer or other would pop over after the gig and remark that my "phrasing on the solo in blah blah wasn't the same as the recording, and had I consciously decided to disrupt the flow of the melodic interchange with the guitar and violin?"

When you drag that Shuker out it's difficult to confuse it with anything else.. It turned out that the Singer was the previous Bass player, and the rest of the band had told him he wasn't cutting the mustard on bass, but his vocals were good - so insisted he stopped playing bass and got a new one in so he could concentrate on his singing. It was enough of an emerging train wreck to make me bail before a note was played. But to be fair that was probably a combination of the guitarist wheeling in a full Marshall Stack and a pedalboard the size of a dinner table and the keys player poking his head round the door and asking if someone could give him a hand with his two lesley cabinets..