gjones

I played a festival a few years ago where the backline was an Ampeg SVT through an Ampeg 4x10, which would normally be a decent rig. But it had been limited in volume somehow and I couldn't get any decent level out of it. I had to stand right next to it in order to hear myself at all. I played the same festival a year later and they had a ratty old Ashdown Mag head with an Ashdown Mag 4x10, when I saw it my head drooped but, surprisingly, compared to that Ampeg the previous year, it actually sounded great.

I've only ever bought a brand new bass once in my life, which was a Fender Elite Precision. It cost me just under two grand. It's a nice bass and is put together well but the stereo jack input (which is a cheap looking plastic thing) only lasted a couple of years before it developed a fault and had to be replaced. Saying that, I'm happy to subsidise a company like Fender and it's American factory and workers, if it prevents the company from having to offshore their production to find cheap labour abroad.

So if Ed Friedland calls you to dep for him on the next Mavericks tour, I assume you'll be washing your hair? 🤣

After countless rehearsals one of the guitarists in the cover band I was in decided to tell us, two days before we went into the studio to record a demo, that he hated half our set. The singer tried to be diplomatic about it and get everyone to vote on a new set. I just grabbed my bass and headed for the door. What's that joke about how a guitarist changes a light bulb.....

I'm assuming the secondhand prices shadow the increase in the RRP of basses in the shops. For example, new prices, for Ernie Ball Musicmans, have gone through the roof.

Do you have the problem when you play without the band? If not, line up each member of the band and get them to start playing one by one, starting with the drummer, then you, then the rest of the musicians. When a musician starts to play and at that point you cannot hear yourself clearly, sack that musician. Problem solved.

It was similar to the Peter Cook one. It had P and a Jazz pickups, a tone and a volume and a mini toggle switch. The body was sunburst mahogany and the neck maple. I don't know who it was put together by as I got it secondhand from a guy in a London reggae band. I got rid of the body, as it weighed a ton but I still have the pickups and the hardwear. The P pickup is in my Squier Precision and the neck is on one of my Jazzes.

I very nearly bought one in 1984. It would have been my first 'proper' bass. They cost £140 new, which was exactly what I had in my piggy bank at the time. In the end I bought a Mighty Mite, Fender clone (the neck of which I still have attached to one of my favorite Frankenfenders 38 years later).

I would feel the same as you if my playing had been tampered with, or not used at all in your case.

This is your best option. Straplocks are fiddly and need to be removed when you want to remove the strap, or when you put the bass in it's case. I have a few Fenders with straplocks and I've removed them and replaced them with the bottle washer option. They're cheap as chips on ebay. Fender actually sell them too.

I play there regularly and I've noticed the bass amps sometimes have some very extreme EQ settings, when I first plug in. I assumed that a cleaner had just given it a good scrub and had turned all the knobs in a random manner. By the way, in room 7 the Ashdown 4x10 has an ever so slightly farty speaker.

They look like something a kid would make in a woodwork class 😂

I bet it weighs the same as a small planet. Do you get a free roadie with every combo. I owned the Tweed Fender TV15 (which was issued a dozen years ago), that gave me a hernia lifting it, and that was solid state. It didn't help that it had just one handle at the top and my flat was on the 3rd floor of an old tenement block.

Played a large music bar in town last night which is a regular gig. I thought we were sounding pretty good and the guitarist had a great sound (he's changed from a Les Paul to a Telecaster and the sound is now much clearer than before). He was playing through the venues Orange Valve head and a 4x12. In fact after the second song I actually shouted over to him what a great sound he had. That was probably the wrong thing to do, as it fueled his egotistical guitar brain and he went straight for the master volume! At the break the sound engineer came up to us and said that one of the barmaids (it's a big bar with a capacity of 900, over two levels, and she was working at least 50 feet away) had complained that she couldn't continue working as the guitar was so loud. He said the guitar sounded fantastic but it was the loudest he had ever heard a guitar being played at that venue and the guitarist had to turn down before he sent the bar staff deaf. For the second half the guitarist turned way down and I had to listen to him through the monitors (which sounded, in comparison, like a ukulele played through a cheap transistor radio). Next time he plays I've told him to bring his 15 watt Fender pro junior, which is what he usually plays through, and he'll not be able to make anybody's ears bleed.

Having played bass through a Marshall head before, due to faulty rehearsal room bass amps, I found them to be pretty bass light, even with the bass knob at max.

Dave Swift has one too. He said because he uses IEM he missed the feel of a bass rig playing loud behind him. The vibrating plinth gives him the illusion that he's standing in front of a cab full of speakers.

I bought a Geddy Lee Jazz because I googled, what's the best Jazz Bass Fender make, and it kept on coming up again and again. I've never owned a Rush album. I've owned a couple over the years and they are excellent basses.

Oh....I also bring spare batteries and strings for the singer (who plays an electro acoustic guitar) and never brings her own (sigh..... )

I bought my GK MB 800 secondhand and when I first tried it there was a audible distortion when playing. I took the case apart and made sure all components and plugs were properly seated on the main board. When I put it back together again the distortion was gone and it's never failed me live but since then I always take a spare head, just in case. My gig bag is full of tools and batteries, spare strings etc. When recording, or playing a very important gig, I'll take a spare bass.

I don't know about the Ampeg but the Fender Rumble 500 V3 is an excellent amp. It's very light, it's loud and it's versatile. I have the 100 watt version and it's great.

In the good old days nobody would be able to run off with a bass cab, they were all too flippin heavy.

I've got some really nice high end Fender deluxe and Elite basses, plus a Stingray, but frankly the most versatile bass I have is my G&L L2500 Tribute. It cost me £350 secondhand and it does everything my other basses can do and more. If I thought about it logically, I really should sell all my other basses and go on a nice holiday with the money.

I have the very same G&L 5 string. It's a fantastic bass.

Put some tape over the top of the pickup to shield it from your fingers. If the noise stops it was because your fingers were hitting the pole pieces of the pickup. If not then it's a poltergeist 😱

The Sailors Hornpipe. I heard some guy throw it casually into a bass solo once and I said to myself, 'That guy doesn't take himself too seriously but it still sounds cool'.