12stringbassist

I will try them out first wherever possible. I've bought one bass (an Ibanez 5er) on Ebay and was very lucky with the price and the condition of the bass. I've had 4 new Rics from online stores, all great and I still have them. One new custom colour Fender FSR P online from PMT, which I had to set up, but mint and lovely. Never seen one in-store.

The new Sparks album. It's a grower.

Les Pauls: Vintage | Gibson | Gibson | Radiotone

SG's are good...

This was out of the case yesterday as well..

Currently enjoying this one...

I'm hoping so too. I'd rather BE gigging of course, but if this was going to happen it suits us for it to be at this moment. We do / did a weekly jam night and I was getting really worried about hosting those, until the plug was pulled. My wife falls into the vulnerable group and I didn't think singers bringing their own mics and players bringing their own guitars was really going to keep us safe. The lay-off has actually also come at a right time for my band, as my drummer has had a serious operation which was going to take him out of the game for three months at least and we were lining up dep drummers to cover, so I was looking at 3 months of slightly below-par gigs and myself organising everything. My band live geographically remote from each other and I would say our contact through Facebook has been very sparse. There's nothing much to talk about. Hopefully we will start work on three or four new songs when the lock-down looks like ending.

I find the current situation worrying - if the band can't play til next year, we will probably have drifted apart as a unit, have no gigs in the diary and a whole bunch of venues will have disappeared. I haven't plugged bass in for a month.

If the gear feels surplus to requirements and has no sentimental value, let it go and get something you want more. You can always get another P bass if you feel like going back to playing one. I'm trying to be a bit ruthless with some of my gear. Someone I know mentioned late on last week that they quite liked a Telecaster I own. Said it was a shame I wasn't selling. I said are you buying? We agreed a price and I'm delivering it to him tomorrow. If I start hankering for another Tele, they are always in the shops.

Or not...

I think I'm falling over...

How long had you had this bass before the truss rod failed? Some top end basses have rather long warranty periods. And if they don't, maybe they should.

Jam night. I'm on guitar for a change. Andy Worthington on bass.

It is different than Lake Placid Blue.

New to me today - a limited edition FSR Player series bass in this groovy colour. Arrived thru post with slack strings, from PMT online, but was quick to set up and intonate. Plays wonderfully

We were part way through burying him.

Nah. The 12 string bass gets an airing every now and again...

The Christi Haydon EP (bonus tracks on the deluxe reissue of Sparks' Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins). I had the pleasure of having a dance with her at a Sparks gig some years ago. Lovely girl.

People coming up to me midsong, while I am singing.. If I can hear them, I pretend they are not there til the end of the song. Then I speak to them. However, there should always be an exception: Slade at Manchester Rotters 1979. A punter (me) gesticulates frantically at Jim Lea during a song. Seeing as he knew me to chat to at sound checks he didn't ignore me. "Oi, Jim. Your bass rig is belching smoke". An Acoustic 360 power amp was overheating. One of the crew just pulled it out of the rig.

I use a Zoom B2 bass pod, set to Hartke rig (which is what I use onstage) and go via very careful EQ and compression on the desk into the recorder. I tend to trim off the bottom end a bit. Clarity is your friend, rather than thump.