gjones

I found one mouldering in an attic. I gave it to my Brother-in-law, who is a guitarist, who paid £100 to get it back up and running. It now sounds epic and nails that T-Rex sound to a T. He now taunts me by sending me ebay adverts where they're up for sale at ridiculously high prices.

I was probably the one who was most reluctant to get back rehearsing in a small, stuffy room. Not because of my fear of covid (I've already had it and have had my 2 jabs) but because of our drummer who is vulnerable but too gung ho for his own good. I've already rehearsed with band no 1, this is band no 2. Rules have relaxed now and I've booked a date and we'll be rehearsing in a couple of weeks.

Have you ever mimed your way through a gig before?

After years struggling with a Carlsbro fart monster, I would probably do the same.

I recently had a gig at my local Jazz and Blues festival. It was not in front of an audience but was to be recorded and streamed at a later date. Having had a gig recorded and streamed by them in 2020, where the bass was almost inaudible in the video, I decided not to take my Jazz with a J-Retro pre amp (which would be my usual choice and sounds great) but to take my old MIJ P Bass because thought at least it would look cool in the video, even if you couldn't actually hear it To my surprise, when the video was streamed my old P bass sounded excellent and really filled out the sound (we're just guitar, bass, drums and a singer). After a bit of googling, I found out the sound engineer, who mixed the video, is a bassist himself.

I heard Guy Pratt, on his podcast Rockonteurs, talking about how he was asked to dep for Norman Watt Roy, when he was taken ill a few years ago. He said he had to play this song, at the first gig, with very little prior notice and with no rehearsal beforehand. He said he found it incredibly challenging. I bet it was........ 🤣

My partner was going out with the guitarist, in my then band, when I met her. So she knows the score. She's a professional sound engineer and has been away on tour for weeks on end, in the past, where I've been the one sat indoors watching Love Island. My sister, who is married to the guitarist in another of my past bands (there's a theme developing here), hated the fact her husband played in a band. She wanted him to get a proper job, like collecting trolleys at Asda. It was only when he started to make decent cash, after slogging away for years playing toilets, that she started to support him and now she's his biggest fan. My niece has her own touring band and her partner was never supportive of her choice of career (although he used to be a bass player himself and met her at one of her gigs). She's toured the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia, played big festivals and supported bands like the Foo fighters, yet he wanted her to give it all up and get a job in a call centre or something. He's history now.

Yup..... a P Bass and a decent amp. Then use yours ears and listen to your favorite players in those genres. Spending silly money won't get you the feel or sound. I've heard some bassists getting great sounds out of cheap gear.

Yes....I get that compliment from other bass players quite a lot too 😆

At last gig I played in June, the engineer actually asked me to turn up (gasp!). He didn't DI my bass, he actually recorded me with a mic in front of the amp. He recorded the gig for the festival we we playing, as they were streaming the gig online. My bass (my MIJ Precision through a Markbass CMD 121) sounded absolutely fantastic in the video - loud and fat and punchy. I later found out he is a bass player himself. You don't find engineers like that every day. I thought about kidnapping him and keeping him in my basement. Trouble is, I don't have a basement This is him https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stevie-cossar-b04347106

I have one of these and it's a great little amp. It does get overwhelmed by John Bonham type drummers but if I wasn't planning on gigging with it then it would be my first choice.

My First bass was one of these. I still have the neck, pickups and hardwear but the body has disappeared into the mists of time.

Looks a lot like one of these. https://reverb.com/uk/item/37774412-burns-baldwin-baby-bison-bass-guitar-c-1965-sunburst-original-vintage-uk?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12200508927&utm_content=campaignid=12200508927_adgroupid=115920727614_productpartitionid=1258648438448=merchantid=445804591_productid=37774412_keyword=_device=c_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=495081226236&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0K-HBhDDARIsAFJ6UGhgVvSxKuYk8I4MG4EEHmI-jlugoAAVKqhZLBOHcqbNYID-KBMjGGgaAgeVEALw_wcB

I bought a Precision Elite a couple of years ago. It was a really nice bass and very well put together but I just didn't bond with it. I changed strings to a standard gauge set of Rotosound Swing bass, from the original Fender strings, and I still wasn't sure about it. But then I put a set of Elixir 45/65/80/100 and the bass came to life. The strings sounded better and the lighter gauge allowed me to play more fluidly. This is not the first time a change of strings has brought a bass to life for me. Sometimes that's all it takes, to change a dud to a player..

You should count up how much you could get for the parts, if you sold them separately, then put it up for sale at that price. If nobody buys it, you can disassemble it and sell the parts.

I've had this problem before. I had to file the holes in the headstock to make them larger.

I bought a 5 string G&L L2500 tribute, a couple of years ago, and am still amazed how versatile it is. You want honky Jazz tones you've got them, big fat P bass on steroids sounds, you've got them. The B string is really tight and defined as well. I don't know anything about Yamahas unfortunately.

If you got paid £10,000 to play the Dog & Duck, I'd definitely want to see that gig.

You get paid what you think you're worth. If you don't ask for any payment, you're probably pretty awful.

The video reminded me of the worst gig I ever did, which was a last minute dep for a wedding (I don't do weddings) where none of the musicians in the band had ever met before. We had to play for 3 hours, as the bride and groom hadn't booked a DJ, we soon ran out of songs we all knew. I realised that if I didn't know a song, there was no point guessing the chords and messing it up, so I just turned my volume down and mimed along to the music, with a cheesy grin on my face. After a while I realised the guitarist and the keyboard player were doing the same........ 🤣🤣🤣 After a nightmare of a gig, at the end of the night the bride and groom came up and thanked us for contributing to a wonderful night ????? They hadn't noticed we hadn't a clue what we were doing. I felt guilty taking their money.

Playing behind the beat is a skill you and any drummer you play with need to master. This a VERY extreme groove but is a great example of this style of playing.

I've bought a couple of basses from BD. Dispatched in no time and received in a couple of days. It's a great resource for the bass player who is looking for something a bit less less 'run of the mill'.

Well I gigged with the Markbass today, at a filming session in a theatre in Edinburgh, for the Jazz & Blues Festival. It was certainly powerful enough to compete with a loudish drummer. The sound tech actually used a mic on it and didn't bother with a DI. I had it at about 11 O'clock on the master and I played my P bass. The bass and low mid were at about 1 O'clock. So a pretty successful first outing.

Yes, I was at that U2 gig too.