gjones

He has a whole house full of secondhand Ibanez basses. He's a big fan (and probably has an endorsement).

Does she work out? It looks HEAVY.

Check this out. Slap bass on an upside down bass, by Stan Sargeant.

Smooooooth.......

Playing a gig in a bar next to BBC studio in Edinburgh, during The International Television Festival, sometime in the 90s. TV bigwigs all around us one of them comes up and asks to sing Eric Clapton's Cocaine (I suspect it was to be sung ironically). We told him to sling his hook and he spoke these classic words in response, 'Mark my words, you shall never, ever play on London Weekend Television, not while I am in charge!', and walked away. And Guess what? .........we never did.

This is me playing with my main band. I don't look anything like this anymore since I went 'Lockdown Crazy' and grew a beard and cut off all my hair. It's okay, I may look like a psycho but I don't like liver or fava beans

I think he's just using the basic groove and putting into a 12 bar format. Blues is all about improvisation.

Is there any room to tweak? If there is, give it a go. If that doesn't do the trick, then if it really bothers you, send it back. I've owned, and played regularly, a Squier with a G string that was worse than yours, but I only paid £95 secondhand for it, so wasn't too bothered.

The guy sells custom shop Fenders on ebay. I know my USA 75 reissue came with a reissue case. It's pretty beat up and looks like the real deal.

I'm the opposite, I like the look but just don't like the sound. Sting gets a woolly kind of sound out of his and if he can't get a decent sound out of it, I doubt I'd be able to.

I was at a jam night, a few years ago, and a singer/guitarist and a bassist got up to jam with the house drummer. They played three U2 songs, which the bassist proceeded to slap over the top of. I cannot begin to describe how awful it sounded.

I one bought a slap bass instructional DVD, by Ed Friedland. He's very good at it. But he admitted that he has never ever been asked to play slap bass with a band. And neither have I. The DVD is still in it's plastic wrapping.

I do like The Artic Monkeys but can't help picturing George Formby singing with them, when I hear them.

I have played expensive basses that were difficult to play and cheaper ones that were a dream to play. The difference in playability was due to the setup. Took me a long time to figure that out So if you get an expensive/not so expensive bass, make sure it's set up well (a decent set up won't cost you much). It makes a world of difference. Especially when you're starting out.

Although I still don't know if my bass is good for metal?

Thanks Basschat for showing me how to tweak my trussrod.

Bad hair day

If you want cream pickups, just change the cover, it's cheaper. Edit: ah...you've already figured that out.

The DI on your amp will be more than adequate if you ever have to be DI'd to a front of house PA. Be aware that your amp will probably have a post/pre EQ button. When it's set at Post, it means the signal going to the PA will include your EQ settings. When it's set at Pre, the signal will be totally unaltered by your EQ settings and will just be a clean signal from your bass, straight to the PA desk.

The first one is a bit middier possibly? Still sounds fine to me. Is that the immigrant song by Led Zep?

I've seen the stuff he sells on Ebay. Loads of 'Vintage Parts' selling for silly money. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

My band play in music venues with a bar (is that a pub?) all backline and PA provided. The rest of our gigs are festivals. I was never keen on playing in pubs in the past, as we don't play the usual pub band fodder. Many years ago I played in a bar band, because that was my only source of income. Many times the audience were not in the least bit interested in what we played but I just treated it as a paid rehearsal. Once, at a duo gig, we played to an almost empty bar, it was pretty humiliating. The only guy who was there was the pub drunk, who started howling like a dog halfway through a song. I couldn't take it anymore, so stood up, went over to him, threw him over my shoulder and physically chucked him into the street. Amazingly the landlord asked us to come back the next week............... we declined.

Just in case anybody is worried about buying from Bassdirect, I bought a bass from them recently and it was with me in two working days.

Well, what I remember about the 'old days', is that all my gear stunk of fag smoke. Quite disgusting.

Heresy!!! Burn it!! Burn it!!