Bassfinger

Since 2010 the average dibble has gone from having 12 years service under their belt, to less than 3. 

Anyone who knew what they were doing and had the experience to be able to actually do it has long since gone. 

Mrs B still has friends in the job and she says it's a farce now. One sergeant she knows recently took a call from the irate mother of one of his young bobbies demanding to know when he was going to be home for his tea.

Another brings his pet snail (I believe its a giant snail, not a garden variety) to work to help with his anxiety.  Why is he even in the job at all?

That's the service the government think we're worthy of. These days you're better off looking after yourself, being wary of scammers, locking your doors properly, and doing the best you can never to be in a position where you have to rely on the dibble. I don't blame them for that state of affairs - the cause goes much higher.

I never worry too much. By the time it's been rough handled by numerous minimum wage types who arent paid enough to care, and subjected to a dozen rapid temperature changes as it goes from building to vehicle and back, the chances of a bass not needing at least a minor tweak a small, regardless of how well it was set up.

Hell, merely between home and gig It's not uncommon to have to make a minor tweak to intonation or the like.

It's akin to asking the dealer to clean your car after a service before they drive it across a muddy field to your door. The odds of it arriving in the precise state it left them is slim.

Provided the frets are reasonably finished and the neck not bowed, any of us should be able to do a proper set up in 15 or 20 minutes anyway. It's not witchcraft.

The likes of Tokai were at one point so good they were making serious inroads into Fender sales.  

Working on the "If you can't best them, join them" principle Fender came up with Squier and the likes of firms such as Tokai were contracted to make the product on Fenders behalf. This took very little effort to accommodate, necessitating effectively little more than a headstock decal change and a range of equipment and finishes to suit Fenders request.

It was win-win.  Tokai still got paid, while Fender got a decent quality product to sell to the budget conscious, and more cash kept within the Fender family. Early Sqhiers from the likes oF Tokai are now highly prised.

I'd have no issue at all with an 80s or early 90s Tokai.

Evri is the worst rebranding since Gary Glitter renamed his act the Wandering Hands Band.

One leg at a time doing the can can.

A tricky and ever changing list, but I'd say...

Geddy Lee - Obvious. He's the guy the gods worship.

Jack Bruce - so good I named my dog after him.

Phil Lynott - the swagger, and he owned pick playing.

Lemmy - the attitude.

John Paul Jones - the consummate professional.

Jim Lea - staggeringly good bassist, composer, and multi instrumentalist.

Jet Harris - an early pioneer.

Paul McCartney - wrote the book on rock bass playing.

Marcus Miller- not my thing, but he good, he very good.

Geezer Butler - better than most players realise.

It's not just a case of learning the part, certainly for myself and doubtless for ithers too. 

Not being hip and down with the yoof means that for me it's often a case of learning the song first. 

Once I know the tune and it's reasonably well wedged in my cranium then learning the part is generally straightforward, usually by music but sometimes by ear.

I'm OK at reading music but far from the best at it, and I'm not good enough to play along to a song I've never heard, but once I've heard the song a few times...

If its songs I know then ten in a week is, probably, doable.  If I don't know the songs then it simply ain't.  

If I were familiar with the songs then maybe, but if I hadn't heard some or any of them then nah.  It's really pushing it.

Praise be to the Lord that it is rare.

We do weddings - if they're willing to pay our rates, we're not poncing about for a poxy grand between the five of us - and our typical set list is a mix of old stuff and new material from the last 15 or 20 years. 

I Predict a Riot, Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me are not my favourites by any means but the crowd universally respond positively when the hear the opening notes.

That said, our heavy rock versions of Video Kills the Radio Star and Country Roads seems to be our biggest fan favourites at weddings. We do a rocked up version of All Of Me that breaks to Enter Sandman in the middle and that gets the youngsters bopping and the older customers breaking out their air guitars every time.

A good manager - Mrs Bassfinger is our manager, so I have to say she is excellent - will ask if there are any special requests how many guests, their age mix, and will show up at a fair proportion of gigs themselves to gauge the reaction and provide feedback.

Those Entwistle pups are astonishingly good bits of kit and laughably inexpensive. 

I've heard they're no longer being made.  They're certainly harder to get hold of these days.

Used to subscribe to Bass Player but binned it off a couple of years ago.

Practice, practice, practice, time, time,time, repetition and persistence will eventually retire your brain and form those neural pathways.

I recall that I got it figured out in two or three days - and then a year to perfect- which is unusual for me as I have the natural coordination of a one legged cat burying a turd on a frozen pond.

The entire Royal Blood catalogue.

Isle of Noises, Conversations With Great British Somgwritere - Daniel Rachel.

22 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

What about finger style and really low?

 

 

 

That's a good picture. Dangle it too low and it becomes difficult to rotate the fretting hand far enought forward to reach E.

To compensate many players hold the bass more upright hat the norm, a la Bill Wyman, well illustrated here.

I must be boring, I call them things like the Green Sire, the Geddy Lee, the Steinberiger, etc.  Not very imaginative I'm afraid.

5 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

It's not their definition of "affordable", it's the government's - something like half a million for a London house. Plus a developer can get exemption from supplying the appropriate number of semi-affordable houses by doing a bit of fiddling - https://neweconomics.org/2022/02/how-private-developers-get-out-of-building-affordable-housing

I have cause to be in central/North London recently.  My companion pointed out the fairly mediocre inter-war semis we were driving past and casually told me how they were now selling for more than a million.  I've got a 5/6 bed farmhouse with outbuildings and 11 acres and woukd have significant change from a million were I having to buy it today. The thought of a normal Joe trying to buy one of these Lomdon on a normal wage is frightening, and just unimaginable for a struggling artiste.

4 hours ago, NHM said:

Sort of teardrop shape with a pointy bottom🤪.

Reminds me of a lass from Croydon that I briefly dated.

I'm probably lacking a little in the bicep department, but I'm taller and close on the same weight. Shoulder pads deffo not needed

Hulk Hogan was actually me in a wig with a fake mustache.

Always used Tortex Trangle in 1.0 flavour on the bass.  I've got big hands, so that and the need to get those big strings moving make them ideal for me.  Our rhythm guitarist is a big lad and I gave a couple to him and now he's switched to them as well, although he uses the lighter weight ones in Yellow.

5 hours ago, TimR said:

There's a reason most players have their bass at a common height.

 

I don't think I've ever seen two in the same room that wear them at a common height.

I've got to learn the bass, so thought I'd familiarise myself with rhe track first.

My Daughter's music teacher is called Mr Starr.  I expect he's heard all the jokes.