gjones

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'.

Played at a local music venue last night, first gig in about 6 weeks. It went well and I really enjoyed it. Brought my new (old) bass with me. It's made from the maple neck of my first ever proper bass ( a P/J Mighty Mite bass from the late 70s) attached to a maple Squire, vintage modified, 70's reissue, Jazz bass body. I'd fitted it with a set of Fender 75 vintage pickups. The neck on the bass has been with me for decades and I must have played a thousand gigs with it attached to some bass or other. It sounded great through the house amp and although the bass is now all maple it didn't sound particularly toppy, in fact I had to turn the bass down on the amp.

Fretless can sound great but if you're not planning on playing in a fretless manner - i.e. you're just going to be playing the same stuff the same way as you would on a fretted bass - then there's no point in having one. If you're wondering what I mean, have a listen to Alan Thomson playing bass with John Martyn.

Having played with a horribly high action for decades, until I figured out what a truss rod actually was for (thank you bass chat) The difference in a well set up bass and a badly set up bass is significant. A well set up action does make playing easier, whether the neck is chunky or slim. I don't know about 'faster', as I don't do 'fast' - I'm build for comfort, not for speed.

Any old bass would be an improvement on that flipping Hofner Paul McCartney plays. He should have stuck with his Yammie.

I saw Tears For Fears last Summer, in a field in the grounds of Kelso Castle. Strange place for a gig but they had a great sound and they had a good crowd of about 3,000 there. They were fantastic even though they are both the wrong side of 60 (and Roland Orzabal now looks like Santa Claus). Unfortunately the day after that gig Curt Smith broke a rib and they had to cancel the rest of their tour. Hopefully they'll get back on the road again before they are past it.

The singer looked the spitting image of Dr Zachary Smith from 'Lost In Space'.

I'm glad you asked that question because it means I don't need to.

In one of my bands the singer (who's band it is) says learn this song for our next gig......and we then play it at the gig. In my other band we faff around for ages figuring stuff out and then never play it again.

Bass players were real men back in the Trace Elliot days. That 8x10 combo weighed 14 and a half stone. 😮

When you play bass regularly you'll get blisters and eventually calluses build up on your fingers and they don't hurt anymore. If you don't play regularly the calluses don't have time to harden your fingers and every time you pick a bass up and play it, after a while, your fingers will start to hurt again. I don't think changing the strings will make it hurt any less (and strings are expensive to experiment on). Most of my guitar playing friends, who occasionally play bass, tend to use a pick for this very reason. Maybe that would be an idea for you.