lozkerr

Friends, Romans, Basschatters, lend me your ears. Actually, don't. The fist I'm making of the octave jumps in the second bar of the verse in this song is painful and it's really getting to me that I keep cocking it up. This is Blondie's Atomic - a fabulous song that ticks all the right boxes - it's loud, powerful, completely in-your-face and suits our female singer down to the ground. I've just about nailed every part of it, including a slightly simplified bass solo. Still have to work out the comms between me and the drummer so that we come back together properly if I go off-piste. But that's a bunfight for another day. Thing is, after practising it constantly for several months I'm 100% certain that this is a psychological block - I've buggered it up so often that I subconsciously expect to do it again. And inevitably I do, after playing it OK several times. It's incredibly frustrating - I can pick up my bass from doing something else and play it faultlessly. I can play along with the recording just fine until I start overthinking it and screw it up. We tried it at rehearsal last week after putting it aside for a few months and the recording is toe-curlingly bad; the only good bit is that I'm landing on the top E on time so it's not throwing everyone else. I've tried different fingerings, and they don't seem to help. My weapon of choice is a five-string, so I start the bar on fret 7 of the B string. All good in the hood until I mess it up. Same thing happens if I start on fret 2 of the E string. So - does any kind soul out there have any suggestions for dealing with this psychological block? ('Play something else' isn't an option 😊) I'm sure I can't be the only person who's encountered something like this. Many thanks.

From last Saturday. Depressing lyrics, but I love this song. Love Will Tear Us Apart LQ.mp4

I've only bought one this year - Ellen Foley's new album Fighting Words. She's still got what it takes: https://ellenfoley.bandcamp.com/album/fighting-words I bought an autographed CD rather than a digital copy as I figured she'd make a bit more from that.

Last night - charity fundraiser gig for armed forces veterans. Unpaid, but it was just so good to get out there again after 20 months!

Just bought a Behringer lighting desk from them. It turned up on time today but it looks like an ex-display unit as the rack ears were fitted, there was no internal packaging and the mains cable and manual were missing. If I didn't need it for a gig on Saturday, I'd have already sent it back. Not overly impressed.

If it's a first dance, this might fit the bill:

Just bought an Eden 210 cab from Paddy. Great guy, easy to deal with and I'm dead chuffed with it. It'll likely be used in anger next week. Also a big thanks to his daughter Jennie for holding it for a day before I could collect it. Would definitely buy from him again!

This ^^^^ During lockdown, we picked another fifteen songs to add to the repertoire and diligently beavered away learning our parts. We all found some parts dead easy and others a tad more challenging. My own doddle was the Cure's In Between Days - easy peasy bass part but a toughie for the drummer. But when we were able to get together again, everything that was as tight as a gnat's chuff against the original recordings fell apart when we tried to put it all together. We sorted it all out of course, but there was no way we could have gigged those songs without ensemble rehearsal. Getting to know each other's idiosyncrasies helped to iron out and anticipate problems, plus having regular rehearsals - we rehearse every fortnight with the expectation that everyone will put in the necessary effort outwith those evenings - has planted the band in everyone's mind as a regular commitment.

Can't you just play the notes on the lower strings and drop down the octave for those wee fills higher up? I've had a crack at it and it sounds OK, but it's definitely easier on the five-string, especially those octave jumps from low C#

Oh, you've heard me play it then.

It's in cut time, so it's really 240 bars of rests.

Other way round for me. I tend to start higher up, and sometimes find it easier to go back down for some songs after struggling to reach the right speed - Echo Beach and Back On The Chain Gang being a couple of recent examples. I don't think I would like to lose the flexibility of the five-string but sometimes the four-string fingering works better.

And a very loaded one, which unless you're severely autistic, is something you knew perfectly well when you posted it. The fact that you attracted such a big pile-on last night should tell you something.

I think he's just trying to weed out unsuitable forum posters...

Aye, I'm going to have to do something. That or some folky stuff about the Clearances - they love that down Bannermanns on a Saturday night. I'm just sad I didn't have what it takes to be in a covers band.

Prophetic thread this... just had a WhatsApp from our BL. They're firing me because I needed more than one listen to nail Jerry Was A Race Car Driver. Gutted 😭😭😭😭😭

Well, I am. So are all the other Basschatters I've met. Haven't met you, though.

Rispek. I've managed something similar with Heaven by the Psychedelic Furs. But that's a dead simple three-chord job with straight-eighth root notes all the way through. Two or three listens to get the shape of it, a few more to work out the passing notes and job done. But - there's a big difference between cracking something simple on a few listens and nailing songs like Atomic, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, Roxanne or For Whom The Bell Tolls, which is why the assertion that one listen is enough strikes me as fatuous.

Indeed. I think most of us have rather higher standards than one listen being good enough. No way would I perform something in public on bass unless I'd nailed it, just like I wouldn't do it on keys, violin, trumpet, voice or any of the other instruments I've played over the years.

The Cold Warriors.

Ain't that the case! I have a Glowplug too and it makes quite a difference. I use a 118 extension cab, and it really fills out the sound. I second the EMAS proposal!

I'm an Eden fan, too. If you're selling, I'm buying 😉 I love the Eden sound. Twenty kilos isn't outrageously heavy. I couldn't use it as a practice amp though - I live in a tenement flat, so I have to use my WTX-264 as a headphone amp. But the sheer volume my Metro cranks out has got me hankering for an Eden valve power amp. We got back to regular rehearsals a few weeks ago. Our normal venue is a college recording studio, which sports a Phil James bass combo with 4 x 5" speakers below a weedy Class D amp which I cranked up to eleven. My bandmates, quite rightly, complained about the lack of bass on the rehearsal recordings. After a few rehearsals, I took the Metro along. Instantly, the reaction changed from 'no bass, wotcha daeing Lozz' to 'sh!t, the bass is drowning everything'. I'd had the weed up to eleven and the Metro was less than half-way up. The Metro is valve pre-amp and solid-state power amp. That's why I'd love to try an Eden valve power amp. I think it would take the roof off.

Aye, I saw the one on here and I think the seller eventually pulled the ad. I can see its limitations - big heavy box, can't run it with no load, expensive to replace the power valves, no headphone circuit and unless you own a mansion, it's complete overkill for home use, so rehearsals and gigs only. I'd still like to try one, though!

Tempting, but I already have four Eden amps (EC8, WTX-264, Metro and WTP600). I'm just hoping that a VT300 doesn't appear in the Marketplace...