OutSpoon

Mark King, MeShelle Ndegeocello..

Lemmy! Gene Simmons, Suzi Quattro...

There's plenty! Sting, Phil Lynott, Les Claypool need I go on?

I'll be bringing one of these. Massive.

Sounds like a bundle of fun. I'll bring STUFF.

I think I've met a fair few drummers with that attitude. So, I have a Fodera Monarch 4 and a Sandberg Cali 5 that I can bring (I've got '94 Stingray if that is interesting?). LOADs of pedals and a pair of TC combo amps?

Do I need to bring amps and basses? Everything?

Never been to a bass bash and this isn't too far away.... would love to meet you all.

I've been a member since the beginning - massive resource of knowledge. If you want to learn how to play bass, get better or get great, there a course. If you just want to noodle around - no point joining. If you are serious about getting better, there isn't a better online resource. In my opinion.

I've got an audition on Friday - with 8 songs to learn: which is kinda reasonable: 3 songs with a male singer, 3 with a female singer and 2 duets. It's a new band to actually playing together for 90mins or so will be valuable. 5 days to learn 8 songs is fair (and they are all 80/90s soul so no mustang sally or sex on fire to busk!).

This - I agree 3-5 is plenty and getting every audtionee (sp?) to play 11 songs is going to mean each audition takes 90mins or more. Frankly, they should know after 2 songs whether a) you can play b) you can learn and c) your gear is good and d) you are a cool cat. But, yeah if they want you to learn 11 songs and you want the gig - get busy. But take charts!

Look at it this way... you charge like £150 for an average gig right? Which is maybe 3-5 hours work (including travel etc.). So 2x gigs in a day would net you £300. Let's call that your 'day rate'. Materials to make a nice bass, a fancy top, hipshot hardware, some decent pickups, fingerboard, frets etc. can easily cost £800 and upwards (I know because I am commissioning a bass right now). So, how many days do you think it will take a craftsman to make a bass? 2 weeks maybe? That's £3,000 in day-rate alone. Look at it another way, if you bought a 'hand-made' bass that took 2 days to build, you'd be like 'wha?' it only took 2 days. Hmmm... that's what you would get for £1,500. 2 days work and some average materials. In my opinion. I'm saying, hey, handmade things made by craftsmen with beautiful materials are time-consuming and expensive. Most lutiers are in the business because they love making things by hand. They can't crank out 10x instruments a day, and they don't even want to. In my opinion. :-)

Really enjoyed the show yesterday, highlights for me were seeing Bobby Vega skipping around and being funky with the SBL crew, Steve Lawson was beautifully ambient and I actually thought the coffee was quite good! It actually seemed quieter to me than last year, thunderous thumbs were more timid. At least that's how it seemed. Back again today - really want to have a noodle on some basses. And learn some more from the masters! See y'all there!

Cool, I 'might' drive. We'll see what the weather looks like. Not sure if it's better to be stuck in your own car, than stuck in someone else's train...

Where are you based? I'm just south of reading... is it worth meeting up?

Luckily (?) I only live in Hampshire, so will make a yes/no decision on Saturday morning, but at the moment, I'm thinking about braving the weather and enjoying a quiet show! Might even get some 1-to-1 time with people. :-))

Can I throw in a vote for the Yamaha TRB1005 - 35" scale http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/TRB1005J.html Brand new for £725! I just bought one of ebay and it's lovely. Very hi-fi sounding and punchy as hell. You can pick them up used for around £500.

RIght now, in Hampshire we have like 45 snowflakes in the sky. It's cold, but we are a long way from having a snow-storm. I have an inappropriate, rear-wheel drive car with summer tyres and planning to drive into London.

How about Royston Langdon from Spacehog (who used to be married to Liv Tyler you know.) and could swallow a mike. Great singer, great line.