gjones

I saw an ABM 500 III on ebay and snapped it up for the ridiculous price of £134. I used to have one, over 10 years ago, but traded it in for one of those new fangled digital fellas. I loved the sound but not the weight. I no longer live on the 3rd floor of an inner city block of flats with no parking, so the weight is no longer an issue. It sounds great in the practice room but haven't managed to gig with it yet.

I've recently joined a rock band and I've had to relearn how to play with a pick. I've found that anything by Thin Lizzy is pretty easy and allows you to get up to speed with the technique if you're new to it. Try this one.

Bass Direct have a 1960/1 Precision on their web site. It's in ridiculously good condition and is going for £14000. Musicians don't buy those kind of basses. Just like art lovers don't buy Van Goghs. It will be bought as an investment and stashed away, in a dark room, securely, for the next 20 years. I heard Guy Pratt and John Illsley (bassist in Dire Straits) talking about this very subject on Guy's podcast a couple of weeks ago. Both of them have early 60s Fenders that they actually play.

The problem with drummers is they don't have a volume knob (unfortunately) which means they will hit their drums as loud as they need to hit them, in order to hear themselves. So blame the guitarists......yet again.

This is very useful, as I bought a used 2014 Stingray about 3 years ago. I didn't realise that the Stingray specials were the new standard.

I tend to 'upgrade' any new Jazz Basses I buy, with a J - Retro. It makes them very versatile but recently I removed the J-Retro from my Road Worn Jazz and replaced it with the original electrics, and it sounds great.

I have a friend who used to promote gigs at a local venue. He mixed the sound but only vocals and keys ever went through PA. He was always moaning about guitarist playing far too loud. I told him to get tables, flight cases, or beer crates, put the guitar amps on top of them and aim them at the guitarist head. That did the trick.

Sounds great. I've just joined a rock band and we play a few Lizzy tunes. It's good to be able to play with pick. The last time I played with a pick I was 18 years old and was playing Queen songs in my school band.

Are you sure he didn't confuse you with the drummer/guitarist/flugelhorn player? That's happened to me in the past 🤥

The only time my band ever appreciated me, was when I couldn't make the gig and somebody else depped for me and was fekkin awful.

They say that the cabbages grown in that field, were magnificent for years afterwards 🤣

So who was the seller we should be beware of on Ebay?

I leaned the floating thumb style, when I first started playing bass and it means you can play anywhere along the strings, from the bridge to the neck. Which allows you to get a lot of different tones. But I've noticed many, very good bassists like Guy Pratt and Leland Sklar, playing with their thumbs glued to the pickup. Edit: Oooops, I take that back, I just saw a vid of Leland playing floating thumb style. Edit2: And just saw Guy do the same............I'll get me coat

I think it's time to take up Morris Dancing.

He appears to have forgotten that he can't gig for health reasons. While I 100% understand why he can't gig, I didn't want to be in a 3rd band with a drummer who can't gig (I'm already in 2 bands with him). As far as I'm concerned bands are not social clubs, they have to gig. If I asked him to play in a hot sweaty bar, in a couple of months from now, I know he'd tell me he couldn't do it and it would be irresponsible for me to ask him to.

Well the saga continues...... Tonight, myself and the guitarists, told the drummer that we had started a new rockier band with another drummer, and he's had a hissy fit and appears to have flounced out of the band. His logic appears to be, that we knew he really liked heavy stuff (it's a heavy rock band) and why didn't we ask him? I told him it was because he's afraid of catching covid (which is understandable considering his health issues) and doesn't want to gig. I smell something fishy, I suspect he's lost interest and wanted a way out of the band and feigning indignation is a way of doing it.

They're usually made out of basswood (mine were). No weird routing on the body, so good for that Jaco look with the scratchplate removed. They also have a grounding strip, from the bridge to the rear pickup. Which was how they used to ground Jazz Basses when they were first manufactured in the early 60s.

Ahhhh....the legendary 'Brown' note.

You're not the only one. I feel your pain.

I bought a P bass with a set of 45-100 Elixirs. Sounded great.

I'm in 4 bands. 3 of them can't gig because members are vulnerable to covid (one band member got covid and ended up in intensive care). I've had to start a new band, which so far has no singer, but I'm happy to plough on with gigs until I drop (I'm a relatively healthy 58 year old).

I think back in the 90s they were a bit cheaper to produce but these days I don't think people look down on them as inferior, they just have a slightly different sound. I tried a Squier silver series jazz bass, that a friend had and liked it so much I bought one myself. The pickups are bassier than your average jazz, which is what I liked about it. The necks are also quite shallow, though very slightly wider than a normal jazz.

I think I saw that one up for sale on Ebay a couple of week ago for £350. I've had a couple and they're nice basses. The neck at the nut is somewhere between a normal Jazz and Precision measurement (they made the Jazz and Precision necks the same on both models). The pickups are ceramic and have a darker tone to them than normal Jazzes, which I liked. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than £300 for the bass, in the condition it's in (if I remember rightly it had some scrapes and bumps).

My niece has her own, signed, band. There's always issues with song royalty payments going only to her, as she writes all the songs. She would have signed over a percentage of royalties, if she could have been confident that the band members would stay for the long haul. But her band has been a bit of a revolving door, with members joining and leaving over the years.

I think I know that guy. But the one I know can only play in E. People think he's a great boogie woogie player but I know his guilty secret.