gjones

This is my opinion on the matter as well. In my experience, bands who play for nothing are doing it because they're so bad that there's no other way they'd ever get a gig (Apologies to members of all the bands who are the exception to the rule and play for eff all, even though they're absolutely amazing musicians 😷).

In my neck of the woods pro musicians host the jams and they get paid. If the people jamming with the pro musicians are good enough, at some point in the future they might get a gig out of it themselves.

I got a set from Bass Direct for £35, as they have a sale on. They sound and feel great https://www.bassdirect.co.uk/product/elixir-electric-bass-nickel-plated-steel-with-nanoweb-coating/

I'd like my Fender Precision Elite better if it came with a Jazz neck like the MIM Deluxes.

Wow.....that's a lot of basses. Edit: After a quick think, I recall seeing this guy and these these basses on Gumtree for months now, I assumed he was a dealer which makes more sense than a compulsive bass buyer.

I recommend that before spending that kind of cash, you try the bass before you buy it. I bought a £2000 bass new and unseen a few years ago and it wasn't quite my thing and didn't play as well as I had hoped. If I spend that kind of money again, I'll make sure I have a good play of the bass before I fork any money out.

I've bought 3 barefaced cabs over the years. I initially bought a second generation Compact, then due to financial issues had to sell it. Once I was out of my financial downturn I bought another Compact which I still have. I also bought a Super Compact, as I thought that it would be an improvement on the original but soon realised that it just didn't have the output of the original 15 inch speaker version and sold it recently.

What would the pie chart look like if it was for female bassists? I'm interested

I can see now where the idea for the makeup came from

He was the best looking guy in Duran Duran, as was Martin Kemp in Spandau Ballet and Alex James in Blur. But playing bass in a band won't get an ugly guy laid

I bought a Markbass CMD 121 P combo during lockdown and, although I do have a 1x12 extension cab, I've never had to use it.

My decider about joining a band is, would I be embarrassed to invite friends and family, or other musicians, to a gig where that band was playing? If the answer is yes, then I don't join them.

My Elite Precision's jack input failed a year after I bought it. I had great trouble finding the cheap, plastic, Fender branded, replacement to repair it.

That's an excellent philosophy. It could be the title of a self help book. A very short self help book

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

Unless I have dealt with the seller before, I would always make payment by Paypal and offer to pay the fees. If the seller doesn't accept Paypal (and there's no excuse not to, as it's really easy to set up) then the sale is off.

Are you being paid a lot of money? In which case say yes. Have you been asked to join the band because you look incredibly sexy (like Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet who couldn't actually play any instrument at the time he was asked to join the band)? In which case you should feel flattered...... but still ask for a lot of money. If the answer to the above two questions are NO, then tell them to get lost.

This is number one in my opinion. Bass also has the annoying tendency to sound fantastic when you're standing next to your amp and really rubbish when you actually listen to it in front of the stage where the audience is (if you have a long lead, or are wireless). Of course if you then tweak your EQ to sound good to the audience, it will probably sound rubbish on stage.

Car brands have taken Fender's lead in having a budget brand and a luxury brand i.e. Toyota has Lexus, Honda has Infiniti, Hyundai have Genesis. Make the same guitar, put a 'premium' logo on it and sell it for much more than you budget brand instruments. You'd think that people wouldn't fall for it, but they do.

With any band there is aways the inspirational figure in the band, who is usually the frontperson songwriter, and then there's the rest of the band members. These days, with so little money coming from sales and publishing, there's just not enough money to feed the drummer, bassist, guitarist, cowbell player, as well as the frontperson/songwriter. So if you are a new act, you'll see a 'band' as just more mouths to feed. Why bother with a permanent band, just hire session players when you need to record or gig, if and when you need them. It's the brutal reality of the music business today. Sad but true.

The guitarist in my band actually filmed a DVD called 'Play Bass Guitar In One Day'. He had filmed the guitar equivalent and decided he might as well do a bass version. He had never played a bass guitar previously. I do recommend checking out the 'ROCK GRIP!'. I use that particular technique, since I first watched the video, whenever I can 🤣🤣🤣

If Fender can't sell Mexican made instruments in the US, they will have to try and sell them to the rest of the world, not affected by the tit for tat tariffs. Hopefully one of those countries will be the UK. Maybe we'll get a load of cut price MIM Fenders dumped over here - they have to sell them somewhere? Silver linings and all that....