Marvin

Encountering the same problem. I've said I'd play bass for an outfit that is currently a trio - vocal, acoustic guitar and electric. It needs a drummer or cajon. However, I only know of two drummers, both of which I'd rather not want to work with for various reasons, which is no great loss as neither would want to get involved anyway. I've looked at the pre-recorded mp3 drum tracks before but never went any further than thinking about it, partly because no one at the time knew how it worked techinically.

I preferred the Celinder out of the 3. Then the MM and finally the G&L. I wasn't that taken with the G&L for the track, it didn't fit for me. Rest assured though, I was oblivious to the mistakes...probably

I prefer the 60s spacing personally, which is fortunate because I think my Jazz bass has 60s spacing...if it hasn't I'll have to buy a new Jazz bass. The 60s spacing sounds fuller to me and the pickups seem to work better together.

I've had tinnitus for more years than I care to remember, probably caused by loud gigs, clubbing and jamming too loudly in acoustically dreadful rooms (like garages). My tinnitus isn't that annoying to be honest, it's bearable and only really noticeable when it's quiet. I did however go and get my hearing in general tested a while back and, apart from the audiologist telling me my hearing starts to fall away at about 8khz, he went through tinnitus. Apparently it's an audio hallucination, in that what you're hearing isn't actually there. He also said that in some cases you can get something similar to a hearing aid that cancels out the hallucination...or something like that, it was a few years ago now. As someone else posted, I get that thing where I struggle to pick out what people are saying if I'm in a crowded room with lots of noise (not noisy, just lots of noise). My hearing tends to get saturated by background noise and will struggle with what the person speaking to me, who maybe only 3 feet from me, is saying. I've been quite fortunate in the last couple of bands I was in in that they were not loud, at all. One was helped in that there was no drummer, and the last one the drummer rarely used anything other than brushes as he said "any louder would annoy me more than you guys". It was a struggle to get him to use hot rods to be honest. On top of that the guitarist/band leader just won't put up with loud playing, a drummer who can't control their volume isn't a very good drummer in his opinion. I tend to agree. Now, I simply refuse to be in a loud band, or go and listen to a loud band, and I still have my earplugs with me for practices and gigs. I went to watch The Dammed with a work mate a few years ago, it was stupid loud. Luckily I remembered my earplugs, so unlike my work mate I didn't have a ringing in my ears like a jet plane taking off. Amps, cabs, PA's and whatever may be able to go to stupid volumes without packing up, distorting and the like, but your ears can't. The gear will be pumping out excellent quality sound, but your ears will start crapping out, so you can't hear the music etc properly, it's just dumb. Just turn it down a bit and you can hear the instruments, the vocalist etc.

To be honest, Basschat ads are the least intrusive of any website I use I think. When you consider the minefield of ads on, for example, local news sites that almost renders the site worthless, Basshcat is a near joy to use The only ads I see are Rotosound and Basschat strap locks.... EDIT: wait up, there are some at the bottom of the page for companies I've never heard of and one in the top corner. I really need to pay more attention.

My go to strings. If I'm feeling a bit tight I might buy some Fender strings, but from what I remember I think D'Addario make Fender strings. I tried Roto's for the first time in years a little while ago, absolutely hated them, so stuck D'Addario's back on. They're consistent and have a good tone. One day I might try a different maker, who knows

The MiniMax's fan is a bit disconcerting to start with, but it doesn't bother me after using it a few times. It's nowhere near as annoying as the noise some guitar amps make...all that buzzing and stuff. For the money it's a good little bundle. Plenty of power, good tone and sound and plenty of features. I prefer the MiniMax to the Aguilar TH350 I had.

I've got the same(ish) one. It's always in my gig bag...well, apart from when I'm using it of course

Sire V7 (gen 1, one of the signed ones) 4.5kg or 9.9lb Squier VM Precision 2010 model I think is the same weight. I've never weighed them before, but always thought they were about the same weight. I've had lighter basses, Ibanez SR and a Yamaha TRBX that were both under 4kg. That said I don't find my current pair a problem regards weight, I'm quite happy to play for 2 or so hours with either one.

I happened across Alanis Morrisette in concert last night, I lasted less than one 'song'. Absolutely awful. The Pretenders was on after, that was alright. Nothing great.

Some of it's down to promoters not willing to take the risk as well. I follow Billy Sheehan on social media and he gets loads of grumbles from Australian fans complaining he doesn't do shows there. He explains that if a promoter is willing to book them he (and whatever band he's playing with) will play Oz

I used to have a defretted one of these many years ago. I was a bit silly and sold it really cheaply...to buy a fishing rod. Nice basses.

I don't think we need to go that far.

It's poor, and that's being kind. I agree with the points made regards Izzy. He gave the band its songwriting swagger. Without Izzy it's just not G'n'R. I'd love to see Adler back, but I think considering the beating he's given his body and mind with drug abuse he's simply not up to the task. Sometimes it's best just to call it a day.

Thank you. Although it's not quite that vibrant, the picture has been 'adjusted'. It's still a nice pickguard though.

For small up and coming UK bands, gigging around Europe was just an extension of gigging in the UK, it was the same circuit. It literally meant they were gigging all the time. I know of several who would pack their gear in a van (just like the old days) and gig small venues in France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium for several months. They'd even just pop back to the UK to do a week of gigs or a festival and then back across the channel. Being able to do that was like US bands who are able to just gig around the US. But that's all gone now. Visas, carnets etc, all extra cost that will make it totally unworkable for these bands to do what they were doing. Also having all those extra venues and audiences in throughout the EU made their band etc viable full stop. For the bands I'm talking about they don't have gear in other countries or are able to hire gear. Similar bands from the US with similar fan bases, ie. small, just don't tour or gig in the UK. It's too expensive. It's the same reason why the bands from the UK who'd easily gig a lot throughout the EU don't gig in the US.

That's because we don't have journalists in the UK anymore, who previously would have checked what was actually going on. Now we have persons who glibly repeat announcements, or what someone said on social media and pad it out with unresearched 'comment'. To be fair this govts green credentials just go up and up, they're always recycling announcements.

I genuinely hope Charlie recovers soon from his operation. The lead singer in my last band washes Charlie's windows and Mr Watts is a genuinely nice guy. Our singer actually gave him complimentary tickets for the gig we did at our local arts centre...this was in return for the VIP tickets he gave our singer for the Stones concert in Cardiff a few years back. Unfortunately Charlie doesn't venture out much so he didn't come to the gig, not that we really expected him to, he'd have just been mobbed by the audience. I think Steve Jordan is absolutely the right drummer to step in for Charlie. Picking a name that's known for being exceptional in A band doesn't mean they'd be right for playing in another band. They've got to have the right feel for that band to make it work for the players involved and ultimately the audience. I've always said, just because you put some decent players in a room together doesn't mean the end result will always work.

I was 10 when Gimme All Your Lovin' was released. I probably saw the video on Top Of The Pops...and being young thought it was a great song. I subsequently got my Dad to order me a ZZ Top album from his latest Britannia Music catalogue. The cassette that arrived was The Best Of ZZ Top, which to a 10 year olds ears was a 1000 miles from what I'd heard on TOTP. However, that's what I got into. I really loved early ZZ Top. I ended up getting Rio Grande Mud a few months later. So while my peers were listening to mid 80s British pop, I was listening to early 70s Texas Blues/Boogie. Several years later I bought the CD version of Rio Grande Mud. Unfortunately I got the remastered one, that was made to sound like Eliminator, so loads of reverb. Gimme All Your Lovin' is a very ZZ Top song, it's just got a ton of reverb on it and synths

I'll just stay in the dark 😎

It may have been already answered, but how do your points go up? I'm just intrigued to know

I've just watched the ZZ Top documentary on Netflix, it's a great watch. Just 3 humble guys who wanted to play their stuff. The sad part being now that Dusty Hill, who like the others comes across as a really lovely person, isn't with us anymore He leaves a fantastic legacy

...and then there were 3. I changed my strings yesterday on my Jazz type bass and tweaked the truss rod. The tension of the strings, new and old, were noticeably different and so was the neck relief. I ended up adjusting saddle height and intonation as well.

No, because I can't really play any other instrument. I occasionally look at a Strat and think, that'd be nice. But it'd be a waste of money because I can only just about play A, E, G and D chords...maybe occasionally C