gjones

I've been through a lot of gear and the only way you can be sure that it's right for you, is to play it with your band, at gigging volume. Basschat is a good resource to get others opinions on gear but ultimately it's a bit of a lottery.

Better than the real thing

I saw David Lee Roth on Joe Rogan's show. He sounded a bid weird. I think he's lost his marbles.

I notice that the RM500 in my local rehearsal room has all the writing, on the silver front panel, rubbed off. I think that possibly somebody, in a COVID cleansing frenzy, went too far.

I bought a head from Basschat a few years ago, which was faulty when I received it. I could hear a pretty severe distortion and there was a definite lack of power. I took the cover off it checked for loose connections and re-seated any component connectors on the board. I put it back together and it has worked perfectly since. Before you spend any money on it, I recommend you do the same and check if any internal fuses have blown.

In June I played a festival gig where covid tests were compulsory on the day, temperature checks were completed at the entrance to the venue and masks had to be worn, while not actually onstage. The singer in that band had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had just completed a course of chemo. So could not be vaccinated due to possible adverse reactions to the vaccine. She still wanted to do the gig, despite the possible risks involved. I have a friend who does a lot of wedding gigs (up until now they've all been in England - he lives in Scotland). They're mostly dep jobs with musicians he's never met before. The gigs he's playing appear to have no testing requirements whatsoever. Recently he travelled to a wedding gig with another musician, who unknown to him at the time, was suffering from covid symptoms. When he got home from the gig he felt unwell, so took a test, which came up positive. He's had his two vaccinations and his symptoms are mild. Pre gig tests or not, in a crowded environment, there's always a chance you'll get infected. The most effective precaution against getting the virus, is to not play any gigs until the pandemic is over. Most musicians, I know, won't be picking that option.

FYI The CITES rules on Rosewood no longer apply to musical instruments. The rules changed about a year ago. So if it's a newish bass, there's a good chance it could be rosewood.

My Niece, who has her own band, sufferers from severe tinnitus caused standing near by an incredibly loud onstage monitor, while the drums were soundchecking. She now uses IEM which helps considerably. The drummer, who's soundcheck caused the damage, now plays in KT Tunstall's band.

I bought a Stingray, secondhand, from Guitar Guitar, for £1200. Which was about £400 above the going rate at the time. So it's not as if they're exactly selling pre owned stuff, at knockdown prices.

This was my bands first, and possibly last, gig of 2021. It was a video for the blues section of the jazz & blues festival up in Edinburgh. We didn't do too bad considering we hadn't played a gig in 15 or so months. We had two rehearsals beforehand to go over the songs a couple of times, one of which the drummer couldn't make. I managed to record the audio of the video while it was streamed on 17th june..

I have many more basses than I need and followed this advice when I sold one of my basses recently. It was one that lived under the bed and was never played. I made sure I listed it for a decent price and wasn't budging. The guy who bought it, initially offered me £100 less than the selling price. In the end he bought it for £20 more, as he asked me to deliver it and gave me the petrol money for the trip though to Glasgow.

A couple of years ago I bought a Jazz with the most dead round wound strings on it I've ever heard. The guy I bought it from played with a pick and he must have beaten the fekk out of the strings. I have to admit I really loved the sound. I rarely change the strings on my bass once they're fitted but I've never got to the level of 'totally fekked', as those strings were.

I liked her song 'Smelly Cat'.

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.