GarethFlatlands

When you're bad, don't tell yourself you're bad. Stops you giving up. When you're good, don't tell yourself you're good. Stops you not trying any more.

10/10 which is impressive as a 5 of them were either educated or blind guesses. Real life self score would be 4 or 5, I'm not as into metal as I was as a teenager but enjoy it fairly regularly.

Our guitarist uses the GT100, sounds pretty good and looks like it does 5+ effects and amp sims with 200 odd save slots.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1455144769' post='2976526'] Thanks, GarethFlatlands Actually, there are a number of aspects that are easier...but you have to get your head around the design musts and must nots. And there are quite a few extra jigs and fixtures to make (body mould, radius dishes, go-bar deck, neck joint jig, etc)! [/quote] I guess there's less routing which looks fairly terrifying if you're not confident at it but more steps that need taking your time over and gear required. Still, nice work!

Very cool, you make it look so easy even I'm thinking I could put one of these together!

Very nice! Acoustic builds look like the hardest to get right but it looks like you've got the skills and gear for it. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[quote name='The Badderer' timestamp='1454656306' post='2971651'] I also have probably one of the most underrated chorus pedals, the original 18V Danelectro Cool Cat chorus from the 1990's. Sound amazing on bass! [/quote] Don't, I still regret selling mine on ebay for peanuts

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1453989195' post='2965019'] Somme of you may laugh but I have tried a few chorus pedals and my favorite one is an old 80's Rocktron pedal I picked up on ebay [/quote] I chatted to a guy on another forum who swears by their Zombie distortion so I'm sure they have a few hidden gems.

Had an EBS Unichorus on there for a while. I wasn't using it for the current band (Bowie covers) but might put it back on if we learn "Absolute Beginners" for the intro and I'm helping out a friend in April and will need it for one song then. It does me fine but I'm not really a huge effects fan on bass so there's probably better out there.

If you're handy with a soldering iron you can get a BYOC compressor for around £50-70 and assemble it yourself. I use the optical compressor and the reviews on Ovnilab compare it favourably with the BBE Optostomp and the 5 knob comp has a good review. Not for everyone but something to consider.

I loved my Les Paul, if they weren't so fragile and I wasn't so scared of taking it out the case (the headstock had been broken twice before) I'd still have it.

Gutted, always been aware of him but never really got into him since joining a Bowie covers band back in August when I went back and really started appreciating quite how much he'd accomplished over the years. We did a gig on Saturday as a celebration of his birthday and new album and everyone in the band is a little stunned about his passing. Listened to Blackstar on the way to work this morning and the lyrics seemed very poignant, it's very much a farewell to this world and I got a little choked up during Lazarus. Struggling to think of anyone that comes close to him. Time for a Bowie binge.

I usually just add a touch of treble on my on bass EQ and shift the pickup balance to a little towards the P position to keep some low end in there, so essentially making a scooped type tone for pick work. I realise this is useless for single pickup, active basses! Works for me but I'd advise playing around and seeing what you like in the context of your band. From the sound of it, you need a little more attack with fingers so add a little treble and roll the bass off slightly to stop it getting boomy. Maybe play a little closer to the bridge as suggested elsewhere too. I'm sure you'll get there with some experimenting,

Not sure if it'd be up your street but maybe load up on effects and take the early Radiohead route of making weird, complementary noises? I'm being asked to switch from bass to be the 3rd guitarist as well so that was my first though as one guitarist is a fairly busy player and the other one does a lot of melodic single note stuff (which was my role in previous bands) and I'm not sure what I can really add apart from textures.

1) Play a few more gigs with the covers band and make a little extra cash. 2) Finish off the riff ideas and demos I have on my computer and maybe put out a little 4-5 track EP. I'm learning to draw so if I can make my own artwork for it then that'll be a bonus. 3) Either get back up to speed on trumpet (I had an embouchure collapse in August and my playing range more than halved overnight) or find something else to learn.

Been in a few bands with friends, always playing original music we wanted to play well aware the market for it was small and we'd struggle to find a decent audience out of our home town (apart from Scotland. We always seemed to go down well up there.) It wasn't worth us rehearsing and playing live more as it would just be diminishing returns. We recorded some stuff for posterity, gigged sparingly and called it a day having had a good time and made some good friends on the way. If we'd played more commercial stuff then it would have made sense to put more time into it but we didn't so we picked a level that worked for us.

Rich Tone in Sheffield is pretty good. Went in for a new guitar, told them my budget and after sorting me out with an amp & lead and a pick, left me to wander around trying stuff out with no hassle or hard sell. Great selection too. The staff seem to be the old guard from various now defunct shops in the city so they know their stuff. The guy who rang up the Strat I ended up buying was the same guy who sold me a POD and helped me out with string gauges for detuning back in the mid 00's.

Know your chord theory and begin with 12 bar stuff I guess. If you can find some backing tracks then you can get comfortable with improvising and learning lines to play under the basic 12 bar structure. That should give you a nice jumping off point to playing over chord charts without feeling like you have no idea what you're doing.

Bunch of friends again for me. We all started learning guitar and one of them had a bass as well I used to noodle around on. Got the money together to buy my own (which I still have) before heading off to uni and have spent my time since split between bass and guitar in various bands.

Great Christmas present, I wish these had been around when I was shopping for my first bass all those years ago! I'm thinking about adding a thumb rest to mine to stop my hand slipping off when I get a bit over excited playing live. Really impressed with the quality of budget instruments from companies like Ibanez and Yamaha these days.

An Ebay purchase for £160 delivered. Chosen for the reputation Ibanez have for making great cheaper basses and the slim body as I was after something lightweight after a minor back injury earlier in the year. Owned for a couple of months now and used in bedroom, practice room, studio and on stage so I've had some time to get to know it. Condition - Great first impressions. Really slim neck, great for my small hands, and no issues with sharp fret ends and the like. A little unremarkable design wise and I wasn't sure on the overly long upper horn but that made sense when I got a strap put on it as it helps with the instrument balance, presumably due to the light body. The intonation was a little off past the 10th fret but I'm confident I can sort that out next re-string, as well as sorting out a buzz on the low E which thankfully doesn't come through the amp at standard tuning but sounds awful when dropped to D. The input jack is also a little flaky, sometimes the cable requires taking out and re-inserting otherwise there's a terrible crackle which I hope some contact cleaner will fix. I've used another one since buying mine and it didn't have this issue so just one of those quirks I guess. So a few minor issues with the setup but nothing deal breaking as far as a 2nd hand instrument goes. Playability - Overall, excellent. The slim neck makes it really fast and I get my hand around it easily for any stretches. The pickup covers are arched, rising up towards the middle 2 strings and falling away towards the edges, making it tough to rest your thumb on due to the lack of an edge. According to Ibanez, this is to balance the output across the strings and it seems to work well for that purpose. I'm adjusting slowly or using the fretboard to anchor my hand but a thumb rest as standard would have been nice as it's obviously going to be a problem for finger style playing. Sounds - 2 pickups with a balance control, volume, stacked bass/treble cut/boost and a "style sweeper" that's meant for making the bass able to go from slap to fingerstyle easily. Seems to alter the EQ as a whole in a way my rubbish ears can't describe very well but adds more girth generally at the clockwise position and scoops the tone in the other direction. I leave it just over halfway and bump it up when playing with a pick to add some growl and to stop the low end falling off on the D and G strings. A little different to the 3 band controls the current models seem to have but offer a nice range of sounds. The P position pickup has a big rounded sound but as I like a more cutting tone, I tend to balance a lot more towards the bridge PU to give the attack more definition but keep some of the P wooliness in there. Dial in a little treble and bump the style sweeper control and I'm set to go from finger to pick easily. Generally has a very zingy sound to the top end and a good amount of mids, very good with slap sounds if that's your bag but flexible enough to work very well with fingers or a pick as well with just the on-bass controls. Overall - for the money, fantastic. I think these are £230 new but I'd still recommend it. Performs well across all playing styles thanks to the flexibility of the onboard controls. A jack of all trades rather than a master of any but what's on offer is a very usable range of sounds in a lightweight package and a great feeling neck. Finally, what's a review without a picture! Here's me, laying down a jazzy line for a friends Christmas charity single back in November.

I'd echo Ibanez, the only "budget" bass I've ever bought but I got an SR300 off Ebay for £160 delivered and apart from a tweak to the intonation, it's fantastic. Doesn't tick all the boxes you mention in the OP but they seem to know what they're doing with low cost instruments.

I don't play wrong notes, I was just "experimenting with dissonance". It's not my fault the rest of the band chose to play it safe.

Used one that a studio had lying around on a track a few years ago,very lo fi and filthy sounding. Wouldn't have it on my board as I don't think I'd use it that much but it was perfect for that one section.

I think metal guitarists like them as they can use a lighter touch with the pick and still get an aggressive sound. Useful for someone with weak, girly hands like me. Having said that, I prefer single coils in general but have used humbuckers over the years with no issues. Like everyone said already, it's how you set your rig up as to whether or not they sound bad.