Crawford13

Invest in an ear training course, Rick Beato has a great one for not too much money. I would say a starting point would be to be able to identify common chord progressions using the Nashville number system. Then once you catch one chord with some practice you can understand where it's likely to go next. If you Google the axis chord progression, it will help show just how similar most pop / rock songs are and it will be a good staring point.

Yup , I use a DG Harmonic Booster as a preamp, and I be pretty happy the the clean tone I get. It can bump the mids nicely.

It was possibly Planet waves, as I have had that issue with them in the past.

There definitely is a difference at the low to mid price (mainly whether the cable is shielded), but like everything after a certain point the law of diminishing returns applies.

I get you, to answer that question, I would have no interest in spending my free time around someone who operates like that.

From a lot of stories I have read over the years, this was standard behaviour for professional MD's looking for musicians. You would be told what exact instrument to bring (black P bass etc) and exactly what to wear. But if it's for a non pro band it seems a bit OTT.

I am a certified Alpher Fanboi. Just about all my instruments are made by Chris & Al. I love both of my basses, but the my Manta guitar is also a masterpiece, I never really enjoyed playing guitar until I got this instrument. Now I love it. Not only do they make incredible instruments, but they are also great guys that are a total pleasure to work with. Now I just need to find strings that I fall in love with, it's been a 20 year struggle...

My main bass is a passive PJ, volume is around 90%, balance pot is dead centre, and tone is almost always fully up.

No one has mentioned Jason Momoa (Aquaman) yet. I think he even managed to get on the front cover of bass player magazine some how...

He certainly plays a mean air bass...especially in static homes.

I would say no, we are not automatically in a better position to judge just because we play bass. However it is true that we are more likely to notice a bad drummer, as guitarists (especially lead) are too busy thinking about what they are playing to notice what anyone else is playing... The one thing I would say is that different people feel the beat in a different way, some people naturally play behind the beat, some right on the beat, and some after the beat. If you and the drummer feel the beat in a different way, it's never gonna be much fun.

i Had a bass defretted by Jimmy Egypt before. He did a fantastic job. Highly recommended.

It sounds like you are sorted Dave, but if that falls through, I would 2nd Flynn in Glasgow. They are top notch.

Janek Gwizdala is always good for inspiration.

Wow what a great price. I must say I just went on the anderons website to have a look and it's back up in price. 😭

Wow to call it a win is setting a pretty low bar... But to be honest, life just works like that sometimes, I'm sure you won't be missing out on too much.

All my instruments of note are Alphers so made in UK. My cab is an Ashdown ABM 4x10, so UK company but not UK made. I am between amps right now, but would like a UK made head. However my pedalboard doesn't have a single UK made pedal on it and I don't see that changing. But to answer the other question, yes I think about this quite often, I would like a full UK made rig. Support local builders.

Lovely collection of instruments.

I have had a Fender Custom shop P bass. It was a lovely bass and probably the best P bass I have played. However I have 2 Alpher custom basses and even though the guys can do pretty much anything you could want, I agree with @Doddyfind the luither you trust and let them make many of the decisions as they know what will work a lot better than I do. Bottom line, I would highly recommend a custom bass that is exactly what you want, but play one of the builders instruments first to make sure you like what they make.

I'm unlikely to attend any concerts for large band / artists in the near future. I just can't justify anything over £50 for a gif ticket. I am going to make a much bigger effort to go see smaller / emerging artists though. We need another Fugazi to show that bands can still operate with reasonable ticket prices.

Hmm my opinion on this is a little bit different. There's always a price to pay to do the things you want to do. To play a few songs you don't like in order to get all the rewards of playing live for me is always worth it. It's a bit like I don't particularly like photo shoots / filming videos but I understand it's something I have to do in order to function as an originals band. So if I want to play good gigs, get decent festival slots etc I need to do the necessary evils.