gjones

Heft Quilter amps GR cabs are the new 'craze'.

What's good to one person might not be good for another but if you're after loud and light, you can't go wrong. As a one cab solution to gigging, a secondhand 10 year old Barefaced compact (about £300) might be all you need.

She's not singing out of tune, she's 'Jazz Singing'.

I was asked to join a band, a few years ago, and the drummer was shockingly bad. I've endured rubbish drummers in other bands but I decided I wasn't joining this band if I had to put up with it this time. I brought the issue up with the guitarist and he texted me the next day to say they'd got a better one........RESULT!!! If the singer is going to be an issue, bring it up now, or regret it further down the road.

Dave Swift uses IEM and stands on a vibrating plinth type thing, which vibrates along with the notes he plays, to mimic the sensation of standing next to an 8x10 with the volume at max.

Who'd they wheel in to do that, Pino Palllidino, Nathan East? It sounds like a sequencer.

You should have given it to me.... 😲!!!!!

I recommend going for a G&L L2000 tribute. I've owned every variation of P bass, Jazz and i own a Stingrays too but I was really impressed when I bought a G&L L2500 (which is the 5 string version). It's insanely versatile, as it has two pickups which can be played in series and in parallel mode. On it's own it sounds great but I've played it with a band too and it really has a great bottom end and clarity too. It's new price is well under the £700 you were wanting to spend. This is a video of the USA version (the Tributes are made in Indonesia).

i played through one of those combos, at a gig a few years ago, and was seriously impressed by the power it had and the sound of the thing with a P bass through it. The sound engineer said it was the best bass sound he'd ever heard (he possibly didn't get out much).

I remember going to some guys house, to check out the Hartke 410 combo he had for sale at a ridiculously low price. I had the cash burning a hole in my pocket but first I decided to check out how much it weighed. About the same as a small planet. I left without it.

Used in a subtle way it's fine. Such as when a vocal performance has a better feel to it, than other takes of the same vocal part, but has a few pitch imperfections. On the other hand there's Katie Price.

Bass strings are expensive to experiment with but they do make a huge difference to your sound. Sound is subjective and what one person loves, another will hate. I do love Elixirs though.

Root and fifth old chap, root and fifth.

It's a great bass. I have the 5 string tribute version and it sounds fantastic and is extremely versatile. I own top of the range active Fenders and an EB Stingray but nothing sounds as good as my L2500.

My guess would be a Mex deluxe body and a US neck. A US body would be string through.

Looks just like one I used to own. The 2 band EQ sounds great. I always described it's sound, as like a bass guitar with a kick drum behind it, it has a real punch. I'm sure you'll be very happy with it when it arrives.

Japanese and US Fenders, bought secondhand, hold their value. Are they the best basses out there, probably not but have brand recognition. I'm a new convert to G&L basses but they aren't popular (who knows why?)and are difficult to sell on.

The guy with 50+ basses was either mentally ill, or was buying the instruments as an investment. The fact is, certain brands of guitars and basses, if bought secondhand, hold their value. They keep up with inflation and if you sell them in later years you might actually make a profit. Why park your cash in a low interest savings account or ISA, when you can buy 50 basses instead? I came into some money a few of years ago and went on a buying splurge. All the basses I bought were secondhand and I'm pretty sure that when I sell them, at some time in the future, it'll be for more than I bought them for. I no longer have GAS, as I have so many of the effin things (not quite 50). In the meantime I have a room full of basses I can play whenever I wish (and can hopefully gig with, once this Covid thing is over).

The Muzak men I actually did the same a few years ago. The band played a few weddings and conferences. We were named The Blunderbuss Principle. We played some eclectic stuff in the hope that, if you didn't like the song we were playing at that moment, the next song might float your boat. We'd shoot all types of songs at you in the hope that one of them would hit the target.

I tie my lead in a loose knot and store it in my gigbag. I've never had a lead fail on me in 4 decades of playing, so I must be doing something right.

The John East J-retro, for Jazz bass, comes in two varieties. There is one where the EQ is totally flat when passive and another where the EQ is 'tweaked' even in the passive position. The standard issue J-retro is the one that is 'tweaked' in the passive setting. This may be the answer to your question? I recommend emailing John East to confirm.

That's a double for my 2014 model. Nice oiled necks.

You're right, I just meant she didn't obsess with every little frill and improvisation from the recordings. I'm a big fan of Gail Ann Dorsey.

Gail Ann Dorsey was always one for not playing Bowie basslines like the originals. She tended to simplify them live. I assume Bowie didn't give a sh*t!