Beer of the Bass

It looks good, even if it's not quite there. Come to think of it, I need to go back and pay some more attention to the fret ends on the neck I finished last month as a couple are lifting! What sort of music will you be playing on this? The BC Rich-esque styling and humbuckers make me think something quite rockish?

I have the bass in front of me with the back towards me me, scroll resting on my right shoulder and right arm around the front of the bass to steady it. I do have to walk with a slightly shortened stride, which I find I adjust to after a while.

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1410857271' post='2553819'] This guy was doing it for the wrong reason. And he's got no soul. [/quote] I'd agree about the reason being wrong, and I think that's the issue with bucket lists in general. Bucket lists are all about being seen to do these aspirational activities in order to present yourself as a particular sort of person. That's a recipe for self-centred poser-dom if ever I saw one! I think most of us play music because we can't imagine not playing music, and that's the right reason IMO.

[quote name='UglyDog' timestamp='1410792702' post='2553176'] Do you want luck in changing their minds, or luck in getting a painless divorce from them? [/quote] I want to part on good terms, smooth the transition if they look for a replacement bassist and still be talking to them at the end of the process, since they've been friends since before this band existed.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1410791993' post='2553164'] Good luck! Just out of interest, how do they do gigs without you if none of them drive? [/quote] A lot of our gigs are in places with supplied or shared backline, though it's often pretty ropey. I much prefer to bring my own even if I'm just hopping on the bus with my MB200 and Wizzy 10. Out of town gigs are entirely dependent on me being available to drive.

I've sent a few facebook messages back and forth with the other three of the band now. They have the idea that we must accept gigs wherever possible no matter whether the whole band can make it. Although our few paid gigs make us less than minimum wage and many don't even cover expenses, the singer and guitarist seem quite convinced that this is professionalism. My idea of professionalism for the type of gigs we do is presenting a good quality, consistent sound at every gig and not accepting gigs unless we can do that. As the sole driver in the band, I often end up putting much more work into gigs than the rest of the band and I need each gig to feel worthwhile. The fact that we've been grinding out the same set for more than a year doesn't help with that either. I've asked everybody if we can meet up for a chat. Wish me luck!

Cheers guys. There are more responses here than I expected, almost too many to respond to individually but there are some good points there. We had a solid couple of years where the gigs were really fun and we seemed to gather a bit of a following. I don't think that we're still at that point, as the gigs are drying up a little (one of the reasons the singer is keen to take every offer) and we're not rehearsing very often. The singer gives the impression that she wants the band to be the main thing in her life, and I don't feel that I'm in a position to do that or that the band is actually ready for that. Had we jumped on it and gigged more widely a year or two back when things seemed to click a little better perhaps we might have been able to take it to that next stage, but we didn't. I do wonder if there's an element of denial over whether we've missed the boat there. I'm about 6-8 years older than the rest of the band and I've watched friends get signed to labels, slog round rubbish venues staying in travelodges or on floors and end up in the same position they started in except distinctly jaded and frazzled round the edges. It seems like the ones who are happier have just continued to do their own idiosyncratic thing on the local scene to whatever niche following is around whilst carrying on with a relatively normal life. So that's the model I want to pursue, and happily that's more or less how my other projects operate. It's difficult as the singer and the guitarist (who are a couple) are people I knew before we put the band together so whatever I do I need to keep it amicable. They got together at about the same time I met my wife and we've spent a lot of time together. I think I might suggest that they look for a new bassist, but agree to play out the remaining gigs we have booked and see how that goes down...

I have been having mixed feelings about one of my bands lately (the first link in my signature) and I'm trying to decide if I may end up leaving when we get together to talk to each other about it. I've played in the band for several years; we've had some really enjoyable gigs and recorded some things I'm quite pleased with. It's an amateur concern, as while some gigs are paid, when all band activities are taken into account we break even or less. I also play in two other projects, one of which gigs very rarely and the other of which can occasionally be busy though it's quite sporadic. When asked about my availability for gigs, I will confirm the earliest offer for a given date without giving priority to any one band, so short notice gigs (less than a fortnight ahead) are sometimes turned down. This summer I've had limited availability as my Father-in-Law had a prolonged period of illness and passed away last month and we've had to travel up and down from Scotland to England a number of times to care for him and my Mother-in-Law and to sort things out after his death. I had to cancel a couple of gigs at short notice the week he died, but what else can you do? The band keep accepting gigs when I have told them I'm not available and playing them without bass, which for our particular lineup isn't going to work very well. I have told the band that I'm uncomfortable with this as I don't feel that going out like that represents us very well and I would prefer to feel like a core part of the band rather than an optional add-on. If anything I would rather they used a dep rather than going out bass-less. Two members of the band have responded to this by saying how disappointed they were in my limited availability recently and that they thought I must be losing interest, and this is when when I've already made my family situation quite clear to them. We have already disagreed a few times recently over which gigs we should accept, as our singer believes we need to say yes to everything in order to "make it". I have no concept of trying to "make it" and just want to play gigs which I enjoy. We haven't worked on any new material in over a year and it appears that my priorities are not the same as the rest of the band. I'm fond of this band, so it's a difficult choice to make. Looking at this description, what do people reckon?

A wee something to cheer up the Bono haters, this was apparently written when Bono had his luggage stolen on his way to do some lobbying. This is the beeped-out version, for forum-friendliness... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbyuRyNlWI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbyuRyNlWI[/url]

In a non-fiction vein, I like Tim Bradford's The Groundwater Diaries. It's a sort of travelogue following the lost rivers of London which keeps digressing into ramblings about high-strength lager and the Danish punk scene. For fiction, I'd recommend Magnus Mills' The Restraint of Beasts. It's an extremely dry, deadpan sort of humour in a book which is written in a deceptively simple manner.

I'd agree with Chrizmuzz and suggest getting a set of nickel roundwounds from any of the quality mainstream brands (D'Addario, Ernie Ball, Rotosound etc.). Chances are they'll do the job, but if not then at least you'll have a good reference point when looking for alternatives.

And as any fuzz user will tell you, hard clipping sounds bloody 'orrible into a tweeter! This is why guitar amps never have them. Square wave synth sounds usually have some kind of low-pass or bandpass filter on the output, as an unfiltered square wave is surprisingly unmusical.

[quote name='toneknob' timestamp='1410268983' post='2547660'] I listened to this yesterday, honest... 1. Lágnætti 2. *title track* 3. Rismál 4. Dagmál 5. Miðdegi 6. Nón 7. Miðaftann 8. Náttmál and if you;ve got the Deluxe Version, you can add: 9. Tilberi 10. Til Valhallar 11. *title track* (Elevator Mix) [/quote] Is this the Ikea catalogue?

[quote name='arthurhenry' timestamp='1410215204' post='2547306'] Is it not possible though, that a "limited" player could still play the perfect part for the song(s), perhaps throughout his/her career? In which case; wouldn't we say that they were a great bass player (in the context of their band/songs/genre/whatever)? [/quote] As an example of a fairly limited player turning out to do a fine job I always liked Rose Simpson with the Incredible String Band, who was Mike Heron's girlfriend and only picked up the bass because there was a feeling that she might as well do something useful. Her lines were quite simple, but generally worked nicely and I'd say that getting a session guy in wouldn't have made the music any better. I don't think she played again after this lineup split. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg4VdknBjv4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg4VdknBjv4[/url]

The only time I've had an SVT and 8x10 as supplied backline, I was playing EUB in a band with lots of acoustic instruments and very, very quiet stage volume. The volume control was in that twitchy zone between silent and barely-on. It's annoying, as there have been plenty of other gigs where I would have been delighted to find that rig as the hired backline, but the one gig where I got one I would have been as well off with a decent 1x12" combo!

Wouldn't it be natural for "Rock Music" as Gene knows it to take a back seat after this long? I mean, Music Hall, Big Band Swing, Rockabilly and any number of other styles aren't in the mainstream any more either.

I did this with my guitar combo a couple of months ago. It was fine immediately afterwards, but about a week later one of the power valves started arcing and I have to wonder whether the bump had loosened something inside the valve and shortened its life. Everything else was fine after I'd replaced the valves though. Just to be cautious I'd give it a close visual inspection for damage and keep an eye on the valves when powering it up so that you can pull the plug quickly if any of the valves are red-plating or arcing.

The finishing and general construction look a little crude on this one, almost amateurish (and I say this as an amateur builder of imperfect instruments myself!). I wonder if this was an early example of his work?

I tried 3M Clear Ears, which look a little like ER20s but cost less. While I think they provide adequate protection, they sound terrible at gig volume and do something to the bass frequencies which almost sounds like distortion. So I really wouldn't recommend them for musicians!

I've found in the last few years that I gravitate towards flats, though nylon tapewounds had their good points too. The clincher for me was when I stuck an old set of rounds back on my bass as an experiment, took it out to a gig and realised that I've actually adjusted my playing style to flats and sounded excessively clanky on the rounds to the point that the band were giving me funny looks. I really missed the more interesting attack/decay envelope of the flats too. I'm not going for a Motown sound either, it can be surprising how much brightness and definition you can get out of a set of flatwounds with the right EQ, albeit with a very different character from rounds; more earthy grunt than metallic clang.

Although technique will be equally as important as setup, I found that Spiro Mittels were not very forgiving if I'd spent a week or two away from practising (due to holidays or being busy on other instruments). If you're able to practice every day they can be great though! Spiro Weichs are a little friendlier in that respect and easier to come back to after a break.

Bass Strings Online have decent prices for LaBella, their shipping isn't inflated and it seems to be the luck of the draw whether your package has import duty applied. I've just had a set of Sadowsky flats from them which reached me without attracting the attention of Customs. (This always seems to lead to multi-page threads about the ethics of tax avoidance, but please, let's not!)

At a wee festival called Doune the Rabbit Hole the weekend before last, with New Urban Frontier. I'm in need of a haircut and I think hairychris has me pipped on the beard front!

On the series-wired Jazz suggestion, I've never found it to sound much like a Precision. It's louder and thicker than two Jazz pickups in parallel, but it still has that characteristic thing going on in the treble that you get from two widely spaced pickups. It can be worth trying though, as it can still be a good sound in it's own right.

I'm glad there's someone doing them over here, it seems daft to ship the driver from Italy to the US to put it into a cab, then ship the whole thing back across the Atlantic again, not to mention the duty both ways! I've seen these mentioned as an alternative to the EA Wizzy 10 a couple of times. If I'm right in remembering that you've had both, how do you find the Crazy 8 in comparison?