markdavid

How about these Daddario Eliptical end pins I use them and seem to work well, less than a tenner too

One more question and this time more about sound, I like a defined bass sound and i tend to roll back lows to about the 9 o clock position and boost high mids to around 3 o clock, my bass will be going through my bass combo and not through the pa , there will be keys as well as guitars, drums and vocals so quite a dense mix, I am thinking of wedging something under the amp to tilt it back a little so I can hear my bass more clearly in the mix , I assume this should not make any adverse/undesirable difference to what the audience hears?

Thanks again for the replies, have saved lyrics for the songs in word format and added in spaces between the lines to allow me to write notes on the lyric sheets , has helped a lot

Thanks for the replies, some really good suggestions, actually feeling a little better about the gig now

Hi all I have a gig to prepare for in 9 days time with a band I have joined fairly recently and looking for some pointers on how to prepare. Our singer booked the gig a few days ago, he knew we would have a lot to learn as due to various factors we can only rehearse once a week but the only reason we were able to get the gig is that the band that was booked for that day cancelled so I totally understand why he jumped on the opportunity. So far we have around 26 songs 8 of which are originals the rest are covers, some of these songs we haven't even played together yet, I would estimate we are confident on probably half of the songs, looking for pointers on how to prepare, any tips for remembering the songs etc, even if we are far from perfect I would like to know that I did a job that was at least competent , thanks

Sounds like a defective string, nothing you could have done to stop this

Hi All Due to be playing with a band that does a cover of Don't stand so close to me by the Police and I thought it would be a piece of cake, started to learn the bass part and whilst it is not technically complex I just cannot nail the feel of the bass part , the pre-chorus and chorus of Getting better by the Beatles also caught me out in a similar way although I have now nailed it, any songs that you have tried to learn and thought would be easy but caught you out?

Yes, I definitely agree with this

Done that before, at a jam night and the guitar player started playing wonderwall, the previous song had nearly identical chords so my brain was still thinking of the song before

I had a situation last night where I was playing live and I was confident before hand as I knew all the songs so I thought "this will be a breeze" , when I went on to play we played this song that is dead simple, a total of about 4 chords with a few bass fills here and there, however when we started this song my mind went totally blank for about the first 30 seconds of the song and I basically stayed on A for pretty much the entire 30 seconds, a little embarrassing for such a simple song, in retrospect I probably should have just played nothing for those 30 seconds and come in at the chorus, anyone else have moments like this ?

Actually it is a myth that John Lennon made that comment about Ringo , it was said on a Radio comedy called Radio Active https://twitter.com/marklewisohn/status/1039429309797158912?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1039429309797158912&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html%231039429309797158912 but I get your point

Tried these and actually found them a bit too stiff for my liking, shame as I liked the tone and they had a nice look to them as well but compared to Labella 760fx or TI flats these were just too stiff, shame you can't buy individual strings and make a custom set

I watched Some kind of monster the other day (well most of it, I still have about half hour left too watch) and found it an entertaining watch. I have the following observations James Hetfield - Complete control freak, all that crap about I can only work 4 hour days so all of you should only work 4 hour days. The bit about him hunting bears at the start didn't fly with me either, he was like I killed 2 bears on vacation, one of the other guys asked "can you eat them" to which he replied that you couldn't. Lars Ulrich - Another control freak, him telling Kirk that he cant play solos on the album, I felt a bit sorry for Kirk, just let the guy play some solos for god sake, he doesn't tell you not too abuse the snare drum on every song Kirk Hammett - Seems like a nice enough guy, pretty easy going compared to the others, he does actually come across as a nice guy without the huge ego of Hetfield and Ulrich Jason Newsted - I loved the bit were Metallica went to see his new band and they stuck around to speak to the band after the show and Jason disappeared before they could talk to him, obviously had no interest in talking to them lol The therapist - what a complete tool Dave Mustaine - What a whining self pitying silly billy, decades on and still crying about Metallica sacking him , all this crap about "how do you think that made me feel"

Hi all, thought I would update on this thread, have made some good progress, am still struggling but somehow managing to get through it , have been practicing more and working (although not always successfully) towards certain musical goals. I have also been working on trying to expand a little on the more mundane, simple bass parts that I often have to play, sometimes with good success, sometimes not (sometimes root fifth is what is perfect for the song) but focusing on trying to play more interesting bass parts has brought back some of my enthusiasm for playing and I now have some nice basslines to play. One thing i am still suffering from is brain fog, I went to a jam night the other night and me and a friend started playing the first song and my mind just went completely blank, I totally botched the first minute of the song, thankfully I redeemed myself a little later in the set .

It was just the once , you would have thought he could have let it slide

I once played in a covers band where the drummer was insistent that everything had to be exactly note for note like the original recording. We played Immigrant song and I put a slide in at the end of one of the lines, nothing over the top just a simple descending slide and and he stopped playing, the guitar player stopped playing and he screamed at me that the original did not have slides in it , I left that band not long after

Wasn't me was it lol , no im not in the same district as you so couldn't have been. I always play during the verses of that song, I could leave it without the bass playing but I would just feel like a pillock standing around doing nothing, my version is a lot busier than the original but strangely because there is so much open space in that song it works

I think it was an enjoyable watch but I had a couple of small issues with it 1. There discussion about Hofner basses, in particular when they were saying that McCartneys Hofner didn't stay in tune across the neck and saying that the Rickenbacker did, whilst this may in McCartney's case be true this is because McCartney did not go to the trouble of actually trying to intonate his Hofner, this is not the fault of the instrument but they (probably unintentionally) made it seem like this is some kind of issue inherent in Hofner basses which is not the case at all. 2. No Joe Osborne , how can you mention Jamerson, Kaye and not Joe Osborne

£300 though, im sure its great but thats insane for a headphone amp

Have yet to find a set that I have settled on but the 2 sets I really like so far are TI Jazz flats and the Shortscale version of Rotosound flatwounds, much lower tension than the long-scale version and sound really thick and meaty.

Gonna throw in a suggestion for Ernie ball group 3 flatwounds (not the dreadful cobalt flats which are really more of a roundwound that feels like a flat) they are nice and warm but have a good growl to them. Roto flats are ok but seem to go dead quickly and a bit stiff, also (as per the below) Roto's are rougher than most flats

I used to love Tonic water then I was prescribed Quinine tablets for a medical condition (not malaria) and the side effects alarmed me enough that I stopped taking them and just dealt with the medical condition and were enough that I stopped drinking Tonic water completely

I use and would recommend TI Jazz flats, you will find that some of the string has to be wrapped around the tuner post but because they are so flexible this will not cause any issues. Tonally I just find them superior to any other string out there, articulate, decent sustain for flats, good mids, a little growl available too but they are definitely a flatwound in tone, none of this cobalt flatwound that sounds like a round nonsense.

Rio by Duran Duran is a fantastic one for improving technique, it is a challenge to get it sounding clean and consistent and also not forgetting the ghost notes, I learnt to play it a while ago but am still to master playing it cleanly and consistently

This is a very good point. I think Nick Rhodes is a very important part of Duran Duran, imagine The Chaffeur without his synth part, even the part in the first verse that sounds like someone doing slides on a bass are synth, Save a prayer also features his synth very prominently, there are many others i could mention.