12stringbassist

I just use it as an excuse to buy a new bass, then sneakily clean the older ones.

My wife used to come to a lot of my gigs in the early days of us seeing each other, because weekends were our only time together and I was always gigging. Now we've been married for years on end, she has to be dragged into the pub next to us to watch me play. Everyone's different, but I imagine following you round 8 nights a month hearing the same stuff would get too much for anyone. It can be her 'me time'.

I always had trouble with singing and playing guitar. I became determined to sing a couple of songs while playing bass, my main instrument, or the songs didn't get into the set. First of all I learned a couple, bass first and then practised singing over them, when I didn't have to concentrate on bass. I would use a lyric cheat sheet to the side of the stage with the chords as a prop for my confidence. Eventually, singers went etc etc and if I wanted to play various songs, I had to sing them. I have always figured that if some of the uitter bananas I have seen on a stage can do it, so can I and that realisation was a big step. Another secret is not to pick songs that are too hard and to play them the same way consistently! If I f*** up, we laugh at it. I have been playing for about 40 years and the current band is the very first where I have done 95% of the lead vocals. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8e1KYVSbmI[/media]

I love this one. Had it since 1994 and it's my soulmate. Gold hardware.

Bands NEED to be able to advertise for the person they actually want. They should not have to audition someone they are not interested in. If they don't want a man or woman in their particular band, that doesn't bother me. If they don't want a black person or a woman in their serious Beatles tribute band (for example), I don't have a problem with that. Nor if they don't want a bloke with a bushy beard in a Bangles tribute band. I'm 58 and have played in aband recently with a 20 year old. It was disaster for me, as he wasn't really connected to the music we were playing and was just lazy and immature about learning any songs he didn't have an interest in and so he played stiffly and 'by numbers'. If it had been my choice we would have got a better, older player. In an advert, if they state an age range that they want, I find it helps. Once you get to the level of 'everyday, general bands', I think the wording of the advert - if done properly - should be enough to give people a clue as to whether they would fit in. It doesn't have to be done in a bigoted way.

[quote name='Bassbadger' timestamp='1474464124' post='3138202'] Hi there, Here are some Facebook comments by Ian Taylor who has been using his T-ROD for some months now. [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1161405247205516&set=o.165543703496598&type=3&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=3[/url] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1206725152673525&set=a.465667920112589.109788.100000081557258&type=3"]https://www.facebook...81557258&type=3[/url] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1187384261274281&set=o.165543703496598&type=3&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=3[/url] [/quote] Ah, my guitarist. He really DOES like the Retrovibe. It sounds like THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWpcfSnc6g

Video of the bass section in use... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5MID0sjs8"]http://www.youtube....h?v=pU5MID0sjs8[/url]

Status Quo's 'Caroline'. Particularly satisfying as I absolutely dreaded playing it with my previous band as they weren't competent and really butchered it. Then into 'Roll over lay down'.

If I had a pound for every time some fool asks us for a Meatloaf song, I could stay at home. I occasionally get asked for a song by The Arctic Monkeys and I just can't keep the politeness going. I just tell the person asking that I am not going to play music that I detest. Last night someone cheerfully asked us to play [i]Shangalang[/i] by The Bay City Rollers and we hammered it out (seeing as it's in our set anyway). That shut him up.

I play in a general rock covers band and I will take any bass I like out to a show. Pointy, whatever. The idea of 'what bass should be in what sort of band' is in [i]someone else's head[/i].

[quote name='peety' timestamp='1481882884' post='3195887'] Hulton Arms there's another big Pub across the way on the same crossroads at 4 lane ends there not sure what its called but that looked shut or was being refurbished. Have no idea why this place has bands on two of the lads in our band used to play in a duo and have played there three times and it was the same then [/quote] Ah, you've strayed into Over Hulton! The pub across the way is The Red Lion. Mainly an eating place. Interesting time of year for them to be doing a refurb! I've played The Hulton Arms and had a decent crowd at times. I think it has changed hands recently. That doesn't help, nor does the run up top Christmas, when some are trying to save their cash.

[quote name='peety' timestamp='1480950317' post='3188307'] Had a similar experience earlier this year at a big pub in Little Hulton inbetween sort of Bolton and Manchester audience clientele maxed out at 8 which included a guy who never left the smoking shelter all night just had someone regularly delivering pints to him out there and 3 people round the far side of the bar watching TV meaning the actual audience ranged from zero to 4 despite it being a really rubbish experience for bands how can such pubs justify paying out for a band when they can't even be taking enough to cover the bands fee even before the cost of the beer. Have spoken to a couple of other people who have played there and had a similar experience safe to say will not be going back no matter what the payment is despite already having had an agent try to book us in there again. [/quote] Was it The New Inn?

Don't work with anyone who doesn't respect your work. Tell them that you need to devote more time to your own work and that something had to give and it was them. For the future, your time will be charged (mates rates) by the hour.

I have done two support slots that were a bit painful. [b]The sad remains of S***e in 1994.[/b] The sound man came along and repeated the same litany that D*** H*** had offended me with ten minutes before: No S***e songs - or the power goes off. No standing in front of the monitors - or the power goes off. Don't over-run - or the power goes off. A few minutes before we went on, the guy behind the mixer demanded roughly the amount of our fee, or we wouldn't go through the PA. He basically said 'show me your contract that shows you are even contracted to play the show, or I am going to the pub'. The organiser of the gig was feeding D*** H*** at a restaurant round the corner, so our drummer wrote a cheque (which he cancelled the next morning). Then suddenly our set was cut by 15 minutes. We brought most of the crowd to that show. [b]The Qu*******s 2010.[/b] The gig was on their acoustic tour and they were seated for their show, apart from their singer. The guitarist from the band spent all of our soundcheck time complaining about a spotlight that was in his eyes. We had to put our gear on stage in front of an audience that couldn't be kept outside of the theatre any longer. No soundcheck. Their singer was a gent about it. The guitarist was moaning like an arthiritic old lady the whole time.

Ian Hunter and the Rant Band http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlUBVsWDi5Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSNizHLYHSE&t=5s

I tend to watch the show properly. If I do film any of it, it is with my camera under my chin and not in people's way. It may go on Youtoob later on. I don't live stream anything i have bought tickets for. Example: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhRZVomtJyk&t=4s[/media]

Macca only used the Wal for a couple of songs on the 'Flowers in the dirt' tour - 'Figure of eight' and 'This one'. The rest of the time was the Hofner. That was when all the Beatles songs made their way back into the stage show.

"Tell me boy... before we pull your fingernails off and throw your girlfriend to the customer service staff.... where did you buy that Rickenfaker?" "Ebay, Mr Hall, honest.."

I played in a band with a quite young guitarist. The amount of fuss he got from the crowd was unbelievable. It never got to me at all that he got more fuss, why should it? My problem was that he had a very limited set of tricks, was generally inaccurate and totally lazy about learning technique and point blank refused to learn any new songs, unless his dad (the drummer) bullied him into it. It was like going to the museum every gig. I think why a guitarist gets the limelight is that they are playing some version of the melody of the song, that sticks out, at people. I just think it's better that someone in the band gets attention than an audience ignoring them.

I am really careful with it. A drummer I used to play with put a tiny ding in it and I nearly died. Fortunately, it's not where you can see it very easily. With help I managed to cover it with a silver sticker and you can't find it. It IS a fingerprint magnet.

I'm careful with my basses on and off stage and they live in cases. If a ding happens, I don't have a meltdown about it, but I like to keep them as clean as I can.

I think some necks will get sticky for some and not for others. The best way to tell is probably to give them a good workout in a shop.