musicbassman

I think the most important thing is to make sure the backing always suits the style of the lyrics...

Bass players, eh? This has to be the finest JMB ad I've seen in a long time !

Isn't this forum great? - 5 pages of friendly discussion about one of the finer details of bass playing 🙂 I put Olympias on my '82 JV Squier about 18 months ago. They get better and better - rather a 'sticky' feel to begin with. I would say they're medium tension - weights are 45.65.80.100 The big thing about flats for me is that they're so versatile - If you're playing with fingers then digging in changes the sound substantially - but then they also sound great with a pick. Or pick and palm mute for the Carol Kaye Beach Boys sound? Or play with light thumb and palm mute for a real DB sound. Only thing they fall down on is slap - but like I really care....😁 Here's my bass. Had it from new in '82, converted to a PJ in '83. It's turned out to be the most playable and versatile bass I've ever owned. And it's done some serious bass miles in the last 37 years - I'd be lost without it.

Ah - the wonderful Percy Jones. I think my ears fell off when I first heard this in 1980.

Are you going for the Joe Dart look? Seriously, I wonder if that guy's going to suffer for his head-bobbing traits later in life.

Try learning or playing along with something that stretches you way outside your comfort zone ? My current plays are 'Hanging On' by Knower and 'Delorean Dynamite ' by Todd Terje For me, both are very hard work. YMMV.

Hang on, let's not get started on the old adage about long men and long... errrr....members. Anyway, that correlation is more accurately between the length of your fingers and the ....errr...other length. All to do with mother's hormone levels during pregnancy, apparently. So if you notice a male bass player who's playing really badly but still has an over-confident grin on his face, then look at the size of his hands to see why that might be..................

I had a 1963 Philips tungsten filament bulb - with it's original box! Had proper bayonet fitting, original price sticker (1/6d) and everything. It didn't work, so I foolishly threw it away. Just think what it would be worth now. 😥

If you want subtle and sensitive lyrics, then Spinal Tap's your best bet.

Oh, this is pure gold. Have a listen. And microtonal as well ! - a bit sharp in some places, a bit flat in others ! As they say on Jazz Club - Nice ! 👌

She's just getting clued up so she'll absolutely know for sure that you'd bought an original '59P for £20k, when you'd told her you were actually only buying a Custom Shop reissue for £2K....

1) Hofner Club. 2) Carefully crafted EQ 3) Played with a pick. 4) Compression on 11 5) Tina Weymouth. 😊

This won't be everyone's cup of tea but shows how widely Knower (Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi) are respected these days. Look out for bass player John Goldsby. Usually better known as a DB player, but here he shows his skills nailing one of Louis Cole's off the wall bass lines. This also shows why having good pick skills can be really useful for some lines.

I would suggest that it's your fingers that are the problem, not the strings. Next time this happens, put the tiniest smear of Vaseline on your fingertips. if this cures the problem, you've found what was causing the problem. And if you're worried about your strings getting greasy because of the Vaseline, just give them a wipe with a dry cloth afterwards.

I'll just park this here on a Sunday morning. Enjoy. 😊

OK, not strictly bass related, but worth a watch and listen - it's only 1min 45 secs.

Quite right, lurksalot, I would've done just the same. You're doing it to assist in what could be one of the most important days in two people's lives, not necessarily just for your old band's sake. And I hope your old band thanked you profusely. Good karma has been created, and one day you might find it's repaid somehow, ......hopefully ! 🤗

This absolutely. Apart from a period in the '80's when a band I was in used to back cabaret acts fairly often, I have never ever seen any sheet music on stage, keyboard players excepted. - and this is why classical musicians who are used to having dots in front of them are notoriously bad at playing pop or rock. ....other opinions are available.

I'm usually doing deps, sometimes having to play covers from all eras. It would be pretty hard to do this without some pick skills. And it's a very necessary skill for some country music. For different eras, it generally works out something like this: 50's - fingers 60's - fingers or muted pick (as per Carol Kaye) 70's - mostly fingers 80's - slap, fingers 90's - pick or fingers, whatever's best to recreate an approximation of the original (often this was synth bass) 00's onwards - mostly fingers - with pick where necessary. For example I think the main syncopated riff for Bruno Mars 'Locked Out Of Heaven' would be really, really difficult without a pick.

Nick Campbell - first came across him working with Pomplamousse. Just a tiny bit talented. YouTube title sounds a bit clickbaity, but he really plays this to within an inch of it's life 😯😨😵

.... and not forgetting the wonderful Mononeon ! 🤗

Yes, I can remember decorating the ceiling when i was about 15... ...a small amount of touching up is all I can manage now....

I love depping and have quite a bit of experience doing this. For me, the more last minute the better - there's nothing quite like the buzz of meeting a band for the first time at a venue and playing straight off with no rehearsals. Experience, versatility and a good ear is everything, plus a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of popular covers so you can mostly play them by ear straight off. Good luck with this - try and build up your background knowledge of standard covers, and don't worry if things go pear shaped now and then - you're depping, after all, and the band will usually be delighted if most of it is right! https://www.lastminutemusicians.com/blog/popular-cover-songs-2500-set-lists/