gjones

My opinion is there's nothing worse than grown men getting up on stage, in front of an audience, and sounding like a school band. I'm constantly bamboozled by some of my musician friends willingness to get up on stage and make a complete derrière of themselves, because they haven't been prepared to put some work in rehearsing and learning the songs to a decent level. I have great admiration in your loyalty to your friends. The singer definitely sounds delusional. I would definitely have bailed by now.

I bought a couple of basses from BD. The only personal interaction I had with Mark was when I'd missed the courier and he called me to give me their address so I could pick up my bass. He seemed fine over the phone. His specialised shop is a great facility for bass players and, however grumpy he may seem at times, we'll miss it when it's gone.

I though they were updating their website? It looks just the same to me.

My Experience of the Markbass CMD 121 P, is that it will do the lot. It can keep up with a loud drummer and can be used as an onstage monitor when going through the PA.

It's traditional for bass players to stand rooted to the spot looking like they don't give a f*ck.

My first gig with my old band for 2 1/2 years, as the singer had serious health issues over the lockdown. Luckily she has made a full recovery. It went really well, I had a great time and we've got plenty more booked in the diary.

When I bought a G&L 2500 I was amazed at the sounds I could get out of it. It has two humbuckers which can be put in parallel, or series mode. You can have any sound from a fat Precision on neck pickup, Jazz bass on series mode (good Jaco sound on back pickup), or Stingray on parallel mode through the rear pickup. It's also active and has a bass and treble boost. When people talk about the 2500, the first word that comes to mind is versatile.

The days of playing toilets are far behind me. Not that I play super, well paying, gigs all the time. I just play venues where we don't have to drive for miles, the audiences are enthusiastic and the sound engineers know what they're doing.

I know the feeling. I bought a Fender Elite PJ that cost just shy of two grand. I'd seen so many great reviews of the Elites and it was supposed to be 'The One' but although it is a very well put together bass and is very versatile for a P bass, I just haven't bonded with it. On the other hand, I had some parts hanging around.....a Squier VM jazz bass maple body, the maple neck from my ever first P bass(which I'd played a thousand gigs on over the years) and a set of USA 70s vintage pickups. When I put them all together everything felt 'right' and I fell in love with that bass immediately. I say go for the Tokai if you feel the same about it.

The head of Fender, Andy Mooney, said in an interview recently that even pickup wire is hard to source these days and that availability and prices of electronic components vary wildly. He said the demand is there but the ability to satisfy that demand is very limited due to the state of global trade today.

When the music is good, I don't have a problem. My neighbour across the street occasionally plays her music loud but she's got great taste in music. I had a neighbour who played sax and he was excellent, so I didn't have a problem with it. My neighbours came up to me, a few months ago, and asked if it was me playing the electric guitar the other night? I said 'Was it any good?' and she said it was great. I replied, 'It couldn't have been me then....'. 😊

🤣

That's great to hear. Gail appears to be enjoy playing with Matthieu Chedid. I got the feeling that she wasn't too comfortable touring with Lenny Kravitz.

You are right of course. But some idiots still lust after them. Like me 🤪

Ha, ha, Fenders business model is unfortunate. Its products don't have built in obsolescence, like other manufacturer's products do. With care their guitars and basses will last forever. If Ford had this problem we'd still be driving around in Ford Zodiacs our grandfathers bought in 1965.

I bought a Fender TV 15 Bassman from GAK about 12 years ago. It was reduced but didn't state on the website that it was B stock or a demonstrator. When it arrived it had signs of use and the tweed covering was pretty badly marked. I kept it because they were only minor surface defects and the amp worked as it should. Some music shops have a record of not being totally honest as to why a product on their web site has been reduced, in the hope that people won't return items they're not 100% happy with, due to the hassle factor.

Natural fibre eh? They'll be making them out of wood next........ 🤔

Last minute gig last night at a local music bar. My band would have liked a couple more rehearsals before we gigged but the drummer got a call from the booker asking if we'd do the gig and we 'seized the day'. The songs we knew well, sounded great and the crowd loved them, most of the ones we weren't 100% up to speed on were pretty good. Only a couple of total disasters but we'll work on them at our next rehearsal. That was my first gig for over 2 years.......here's to many more.

The way it works is...... Start a new band with the members of the band you think are good and you are able to work with. You can keep the old one 'on the go' until the new one is up an running. .Then leave the old band (or just ignore the lazy guitarist's calls).

I now own a Markbass CMD 121 but I played through an Ashdown MiBass 550 for some time and I really liked the sound. I've played through Ashdown Rootmasters in rehearsal rooms and I also like the warm, punchy sound they have. I was very impressed the first time I heard one, so I would reckon it's definitely one to consider if you like the Ashdown MiBass sound.

I've been playing bass and gigging for over 40 years, and I've probably got to the stage now that I've mastered what to leave out and when not to play. That's definitely a start.

I lust over sonic blue Jazzes. They're few and far between. Most of the ones that claim to be sonic blue are actually daphne blue. It's weird, in some lights they look white. You have to change the scratchplate to a cream pearl one though. That's the law.

I was having a typo moment and typed gain when I should have typed master. As far as I am aware, there is no noise to amplify on a class D head, so you can turn the master to full and then use the gain to adjust your volume. When the amp starts to clip, as you adjust the gain, you know that's as loud as you can go (assuming your cab is good enough to take that level of input).

I was under the impression that the master on a class D amp can be turned to max and you can then use the gain to adjust your volume. Which means that your gain shouldn't clip, unless your band is seriously loud.