Marvin

I usually start with the factory recommendations for neck relief and tweak from there, to get something comfortable and suitable for me. It’s probably not far off a factory set up. I don’t play heavy at all, but I still don’t seem to be able to get a cigarette paper low set up to work for me. I just get loads of rattle and buzz

I’d be looking at the Yamaha TRB6, as others have suggested. They’re solid, quality basses.

I totally agree. There have bee a couple of times when I’ve not been in a band I’ve said to myself ‘I will now learn all about music properly’. It lasted about a week. It quickly got to be a chore, quite uninteresting and then relegated to not being done. The last time I wasn’t in a band I didn’t touch my bass for 9 months.

Billy Sheehan, renowned bass fretboard tapping artist, cites Billy Gibbons, from ZZ Top, as the first guitarist he saw tap a fretboard ( although, it was not as an extensive a tap as that of the fella in the OP’s link 😀). Seems tapping was quite well established before 70’s flares 😎

So, LOUD memories with plenty of HEFT!!!

This is becoming a more prominent issue as time goes on. As an audience member, I absolutely loathe bands that feel they have to play loud, there's simply no reason for it. This isn't just a drummer thing, it applies to guitarists and bass players. I've been to gigs where drummers are hitting the hell out of their kit, where guitarists are using full stacks and bass players 810 fridges...and all in small venues, small pubs even. It's ludicrous. As the volume goes up the quality of what you hear simply goes down, and the gear might be able to handle these volumes but people's ear sure as hell can't. 3 gigs stick in my mind for just awful sound. One was a local covers band (that I stupidly ended up joining when they changed to do originals). They were playing a small local pub and I walked out. The bass player and guitars just seemed to be in a volume war. A couple of years back I went to watch The Dammed, that was god awful as well. I was incredibly lucky to be wearing the jeans I'd worn to practice the night before and left a pair of earplugs in my back pocket. It was just a loud mush of noise. Finally, a gig that was totally ruined by a crap sound engineer was when I watched Dodgy at a small local venue. During the second set the SE just kept ramping up the volume and made the band sound awful. This was a real shame as they really are very good, and underrated musicians. I'm very fortunate at the moment in that I play in a band that will not play loud. It's to the point where, in order to keep my volume down I'm using the -10db switch on my amp. Our guitarist simply won't play with a drummer who can't control dynamics and our drumming will rarely use sticks as he said "they're too loud, they even annoy me". Our drummer usually uses hot rods, and the other evening, even at village hall gig, he used brushes because the reverb of the room made the snare sound so loud. There's simply no need for these ridiculous volumes.

I want to get a V3 as a back up to my V7. Unfortunately I need to sell some gear first. I’ve had my V7 for over 4 years and it is my no.1 bass, just feels right to me.

Our guitarist is a very decent a fair minded guy, it's a good band to be in.

Gigs Friday and Saturday this weekend. Friday was in a pub in a nearby town where we've played before. The place is very small, but the crowd are good and always like what we do. It was a little odd at one point. At the start of our second set, we were part way through the first song and a very young lady, wearing next what was supposedly a dress started posing in front of the band and her boyfriend was taking photos of her...all very weird. Highlight was our guitarist called over a guy who regularly goes to the jam night we go to. He's not a musician really but likes to get up and maybe join in singing a couple of verses. At the jam night, some of the snobs have asked him not to, so our guitarist saw he was in the crowd on Friday and got him up on the mic to join in with song he knew. It was a bit of a squeeze as the guy is not small :) Saturday was a all ticket fundraiser at a Village Hall. Lovely crowd, up dancing and having a good time. Afterwards we had lots of compliments and asking us to go back, result. Only thing is the sound in there was awful. The best description would be, it was like playing at a public swimming pool. The sound just bounced around everywhere, it was a reverb hell. Otherwise, a good night.

At 20 I didn't have a job, but I was lucky that I lived at my parents. Lots of my friends were also out of work at the time so it made no difference really, everyone was always skint. When you could scrape enough money together we'd go and get totally wasted and maybe go to a cheap gig. I'd already stopped playing bass by then, I'd only bought my bass when I was 17 but got bored and fed up with just jamming in cold garages. I didn't really have any priorities. Now, I have all the responsibilities of house, kids etc. I'm playing again, better than I ever have. My priorities are my wife and kids. The band maintains my sanity, but to be honest as long as the family are ok, everything else can go rot 😀

We played both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Saturday was a local charity event, a freeby. We packed our own PA, which was fortuitous as when we turned up there wasn't one. Unfortunately our PA isn't big enough for outdoor gigs, it's a pub PA. We went down well, quite a few people came up to us afterwards saying they really enjoyed our set. The weather was good, so all in all, it was an ok afternoon. I don't think we'll be doing the event again though. It's a lot of faff for not a lot return. Sunday, we played outdoors again for a local pub. The pub is about a mile out of town. It has a field it decided it could use to put on an event to celebrate the 2nd year the landlady had been running the place. Unfortunately, the weather was bloody awful. Somewhere the landlady managed to get hold of a 40ftx40ft open sided tent thing to which they lashed together other gazebos to make a makeshift 'indoor' thing. The whole thing was running late, it was bloody cold, wet...the only good thing was we knew the guys on before us and they'd provided the PA, so we asked if we could borrow their backline so we didn't have to heave our gear up to the field from the car park. We were on last. None of us really enjoyed it, though the punters seemed to like us again, up dancing. Our drummer had got so bored he was half cut before we got on, thankfully not to affect his playing too much

I've got dead rounds on all 3 of my basses, I simply don't have the spare cash to keep changing strings. They must be at least 2 years old by now. As said, they don't sound like flats, they've still got some bite but have lost the bright zingy sound. I like it ☺

These Tiny Desk Concerts are really good. I've never ever listened to Tower Of Power before, but now it's grooving the stereo in the dinning room.

£150-200, is typical if what a band will get in my area for a pub gig. There are pubs that might pay more, it depends. I don't see how a pub, considering most pubs near me are very small and they're struggling to stay open anyway, could pay much more. They simply can't get the number of people in. Most pubs near me seem to put on music as a personal indulgence of the landlord/lady.

My current and last bands have both been through contacts and friends. I've had a couple of auditions from JoinMyBand. BandMix gave me my first band 10 years ago, however, other than that it's been a complete waste of time, to the point I've actually deleted my profile. For the number of musicians and bands on BandMix in my area it wasn't worth even staying on there let alone paying a fee for it. It's all a bit hit and miss really

Try email/contacting Ashdown directly through their webpage https://ashdownmusic.com/pages/contact-us

I play in a more Chicago style blues band at the moment, although we do cover material by the Stones and similar. Having listened to a lot of older and modern blues to get myself more acquainted with blues and I can't really find 'a bass tone' used by everyone. I use a Jazz type bass, Aguilar TH350 into a Schroeder 1212L. The roundwounds I have on that bass are as dead as a set of rounds can be. I can turn up the gain and drive a bit on the amp, give the low mids a bit of a boost and that's about it. It fits with the rest of the band, whether it's an older blues song or a more up to date song. I'd use what you've got at the moment and see if it fits the band.

Thankfully you've seen sense, pickguard all day long...don't even know why you asked

Last night my blues band played the town's Art Centre. This may not sound a particularly big deal but for me it was one off the bucket list. The venue isn't big, but it has a good reputation and has had some very good artists and bands play there...the likes of John Martyn (obviously when he was alive), Andy Fairweather Low is there again soon. The first time I went so see a band was at this venue, I was in my teens and went to see a band called the Cult Maniax, ironically last night, my first time playing there, our guitarist was in the Cult Maniax. This was a ticket event, we didn't sell all tickets but the venue were very pleased with the turnout, I think we out sold a much better known blues band a few weeks ago. It was a great gig. When we finished the first song we received a massive cheer. I think this really spurred us on and gave us confidence to not just play the songs but to entertain as well...if you get my drift. Post gig I had people come up to me and say how good they thought it was, never had that before. This was the first time the band had played an established venue having to sell tickets (we usually play pubs) and we were all really chuffed with how it went.

I bought one of the first V7s from Thomann, one of the ones with the signed neck plate. I've never had an issue at all with mine. The only thing I did was to buy a replacement neck plate so that the signed one sits in a box on my music shelf. It's my go to bass and sounds great, plays great. Yes, it's not the lightest of basses but it's not an issue for me, I carry a weight on one shoulder for a living . The tuners do the job they're designed for, they could 'feel' better, however, I can't grumble, the V7 stays in tune, and I only paid £280 for mine. I checked out a MIM Std Fender Jazz before I bought the V7 and I have no doubt at all I bought a significantly better bass. It's the only bass where when I opened the box I literally went 'Wow!'

Thank you everyone. Our singer's wife bought him the Shure Super55 Deluxe. It arrived in time for rehearsal on Thursday and sounds very nice. He's really happy with it. Thanks again.

Looks like a cheap bitsa to me. Probably a Squier Affinity body with a cheap neck and Fender decal put on.

I use one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/chord-CPT-01-Chromatic-Tuner-Pedal/dp/B0176UV9OC Works really well, big bold display, accurate and no 'pop' when you switch it on or off. Can't ask more for £26.

Thank you. Very useful and detailed information and advice. @BigRedX thanks for the insight on the SM55's durability. The singer in the band I'm plays a lot of guitar so doesn't do much with the mic, although it's still handy to know, thanks.