chris_b

I bought a bass and an amp with the proceeds of a summer job. A year later, after another summer job, I bought a cab. After a year of playing along to records I was ready to play with other musicians. Within 3 months of getting the cab I'd done my first gig. My bass was second hand and the amp and cab were new but the cheapest I could find. The sound quality didn't matter. It was a live bass sound and, with all its faults, it just sounded wonderful. Play your favourite songs. Start with simple songs, and when you can do that expand your material to stuff you find more difficult. Learn scales, common riffs and patterns.

Are you guys putting your basses on stands, or leaning them up against something during a gig? My basses live in Mono M80 Vertigo gig bags unless they are being played. I'm more likely to damage a bass at home than on a gig.

Sorry I asked now. Scared me just looking at the photos!! Be extra cool. Why don't you wear the shoes and pants on the train?

All my basses are "best". They are all tools, are replaceable (although I would rather not have to) and were all bought to be gigged, so leaving them at home has never crossed my mind. Same for amps and cabs. I'm not going to sound my best if I leave the "best" gear at home.

I have no idea what that is. . . . but I have carried basses on trains since the 60's. I've also seen full golf bags, numerous full sized bikes, families with a dozen large suitcases off to Heathrow and workman with bags of tools that made my gig bags look small. As long as you can get up and down the stairs, go for it.

Hi Aberdeen bass players. . . . did any of you play with Dave Innes? I gigged with him a lot down here in London. One of the best drummers I played with, he is sadly missed.

Deps are not a negative scenario. Deps make gigging more flexible. Pick the right deps and you can have a lot of fun. You don't give your band members much credit for their ability to learn sets for 2 bands. You don't want band members to be in multiple bands, I get it, but your whole outlook on the subject is very negative.

As I said, get your gigs into the diary first. Problem solved! Then it depends on the deps. Deps can be good or bad. If you've got a bad dep then it's your fault for not booking a good dep. Make the right choices and the deps can be better musicians than the guys they are replacing.

You are trying to tick the boxes and are only considering the positives. Look at it from the other angle, what can go wrong, and what will you do when it does! Tick all the negative boxes and then decide if you want to risk your cash.

I can see that rule working in a hobby band, if someone treats playing bass as they would the occasional game of golf, but not if you are remotely serious about being a working musician. I've done the one band thing. We were gigging 3 nights a week which could be 4 or 5 on occasion and often twice on Sunday. You don't see many bands being that busy any more, so multiple bands it is.

Chinese factories selling on eBay. . . . what you see is not always what you get. There was an article about people buying clothes from Chinese companies and a totally different design turned up. Good luck returning the product and getting a refund!! You'll find the postage back to China prohibitive.

Make sure you're playing songs everyone wants to play, then get gigs. As I say, if everyone is in multiple bands then they'll be unable to do some of the gigs. That's when you call on the deps. The secret is to get your gigs in the diary first. The bands I play in usually don't rehearse. We turn up knowing the parts and songs. I did spend some time in a band which regularly rehearsed. Annoyingly the problems from one week could still be around the next week. . . . and the week after! They were good guys but too many rehearsals and not enough gigs killed it for me.

Are they good players? Then forget rehearsals and put gigs in the book. That'll focus their attention. You also need the numbers of a few deps.

I don't know the amp you're using but I'm running my One10 with an 800 watt Thunderfunk. Even at a whisper it sounds great. I've also gigged my 2 One10's with an Aguilar TH500. I loved that tone.

I use a One10 at home. Does the job perfectly.

You're not comparing like with like. I would always expect a Monaco to exceed the performance of several One10's.

Thanks for clearing that up. IMO having following switched off is the only sensible option.

Err. . . . you have to click on following, unless you have a different setting to me. I've commented several times in this thread and I'm not following..

During lock down, to keep match fit, I set myself a task, to learn and chart every song on every Stevie Wonder album. I did that, and then started on Bonnie Raitt and Keb Mo albums. That kept my brain and fingers going, but nothing really compares to the physical effort required to gig.

There are 10 people interested enough to be "Following" this thread. Many more can gain some knowledge or insight, even if they didn't ask the question in the first place.

Finding a 5 string P bass was a lightning bolt moment for me. You've got to kiss a lot of frogs. . . . but IMO when you find the right P5 it will be a keeper. I lucked into a Mike Lull PJ5 and it's been my main bass for the last 14 years. You might need to replace the pickups to get the best sound. A good set will be an investment. Also putting on a set of TI flats improved the sound of my Lull a thousand fold.

Peggy Lee. . . .

Excellent.

More cabs is not just about volume, it's about tone and being heard. A 212 might be fine, but I'd bring both 212's, cos you can never have enough tone.

There's an Aguilar AG700 in the Classifieds which will run at 2.67 ohms. Great sounding amp.