Stub Mandrel

In the early days of spam, a New Scientist columnist wrote "I experimented with clicking on every pop up that appeared on my computer for a year. My pen_s is now ten feet long."

I use adblock plus but disable it on sites I want to support, also by default it lets through advertising that meets some sensible guidelines (e.g. no repeated animations, no pop-ups). It let the old Roto/Elixir ads appear, and I was happy with those.

I bought a Blackstar Fly for quiet guitar practice and its usable with a bass, so I imagine the bass-specific version is very good. My 'proper' bass practice amp is an Orange Crush 25, which has a 'pad' button that keeps things sane. Actually had a (very civilised) jam last week and I left it on the pad and barely went over 1/4 on the volume, I reckon you could do an 'unplugged' gig with it or even a small pub. Downside is no DI ou,. Advantage is that any and all basses sound fantastic through it, disadvantage is that it seems to impose the 'orange' sound so if you are 'Mr Trace Elliot' it may not be your cup of tea.

Well that's proof alone that rock bass playing is not a refuge for failed guitarists...

I have an old Japanese Maya p-bass with a tortoiseshell scratchplate. I got a nicely aged pickguard effect when I scraped the white gloss paint off with a knife... replaced with a stock item that is a ringer for a 62 scracthplate. I made one for a 'new' guitar and chose off the shelf vintage yellowed effect rather than a harsh white material.

I love the way the drummer's face says "Wow! I'm part of this!"

And sometimes the opposite. The album version of Doctor Doctor is insipid compared to the classic live recording.

Why not head for a decent sized bass shop and see what they have for you to try out?

Worth adding the basses you linked to are NOT 'decorative' ones. Harley Benton is Thomann's own brand and has a decent reputation of good budget instruments; the deco ones are QC fails and the mere fact they weed out the bad ones should give you some confidence in the full price ones!

I think learning a bass line and learning a song are different. It's one thing to learn a bass line off by heart, and practice improves my playing and phrasing. Last weekend I met up with the guitarist and drummer from the 'weekend warrior' event I've signed uyp for. My first time playing with people who aren't family for a quarter century! I was pleased to be able to more or less run through some of the songs we had lined up. I was more pleased that we managed to jam our way through some songs we hadn't planned on trying. To me knowing those songs well enough to improvise a bassline and anticipate the changes was more satisfying than rote learning.

Look at Squier basses. I bought a Jaguar VM SS and I've hardly put it down since.

I think it's a distinction between means and ends. The prime objective is to make sure band and audience has a good time. The attitude here doesn't preclude making things more complex or challenging than the original. In my first band the keyboard player and I used to do some of the lead guitar lines. Is that invalid? (Hmm, Jim lea was well known for being an ace interpreter of Jimi Hendrix songs on his bass...)

Just a philosophical thought. Someone made a good distinction between tributes and cover bands. A tribute is like an impersonator or an impressionist -and those two different words imply different things. Outside 'popular music' it is the norm for the performer to put their personal stamp on a performance. In classical music, orchestras vary in their composition and conductors vary in their styles. An classical soloists have their signature styles. Bach's Tocatta and Fugue sounds very different on depending on the organist and organ. Jazz is all about improvisation developing the themes in a piece. Folk music is all about a huge canon of music that gets continually reinterpreted. Perhaps the question should be 'why do covers bands try so hard to sound like the originals'?

Think about the alternatives - Sky Sport or Jive Bunny on the juke box...

SSH! Don't let the guitar heroes find out...

Strong in this one, the Farce is.

I can imagine the awkward conversation... "OK, we've sorted out red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. That's leaves you with, err... pink?"

My brother's band makes a point of playing everything in their own style and audiences seem to love it.

I've been learning Stay With me. I've seen at least six different bass tab and a video, all different. The Faces played it live differently from the record and there seem to be two different studio versions with long and short endings. These all have inconsistent bass lines, especially at the end. Aside from getting the introdsuction spot on, I think hat for most of teh song its the distinctive rhythm that matters. There' also Feel Like Making Love, where there a very distinctive riff with a pronounced slur, this is followed by a little pentatonic run. The first bit needs to be spot on to get the feel of the song, the second bit it seems to be largely improvised and is much quieter anyway. So my thought is to decide which bits define the feel of the song or set up changes, and get those right.

Narrowly avoided a Hofner travel bass. It was only £99 and it felt rude not to but I managed bit of self control.

I peed in the same trough as Noel Redding - at the same time! It was at De Barra's Folk Club so hardly an unusual incident. Good gig too 🙂

Good gig! Apparently true anecdote I once heard. Two legends meet at a big event: "Hi Bonzo!" "Hiya String!" P.S. Not sure I can forgive you for dredging up deep subconscious memories with that last comment...

Oh well - that wasn't very productive. The McKenzies have a black on white label "Mackenzie Professional series' and no other markings, not even a power rating. They are 12", dual cone with a voice coil perhaps 2 1/4" or 2 1/2" diameter and a seep crimson crackle finish frame. And how on earth do spiders get inside a cabinet that is to all intents and purposes airtight and fill it with web?