gjones

I learned hey Joe from a book which had one of those floppy records enclosed.

Suspending a buyer? That's about as dumb as it gets. Ok you may end up buying directly from the seller on this one purchase but eBay is all about buying at a distance and it's rare that you get the chance to try before you buy. Pushing a buyer off like that is bad business.

Did you bankrupt him, with your demand for a £20,000 fee?

My recently bought, early 90s, MIJ Fender Precision (from Basschat), sounded perfect playing with my country band, at the weekend. I have various posh basses but the P bass sounded perfect for the type of songs we were playing. You can't go wrong with a MIJ P bass.

I sacked the drummer in my band for exactly the same reason. He was also my landlord. But he had to go. I figured that, as we had another more committed drummer waiting in the wings, a decision had to be made. And I could always find another flat.

Interestingly I heard this song on the radio the other day and thought exactly the same. The good thing about being the a bass player and the boss, is that you can whack the bass up in the mix and drown out the guitarist. By the way, that's the first time I've heard a Rikky sounding halfway decent live (but still think he should have kept the Yamaha)..

Just give it time. I've seen MB500s going for £250 recently and MB 800s going for around £350.

I play through a PF500 and an ampeg 410 at a local venue regularly (it's the venues gear). The problem with the PF500 is that, if you want to play loud, you have to turn the gain up. If you turn the gain up it tends to sound pretty overdriven (which is fine if you want that sound). A few times I've brought my Gallien Krueger MB500 along to the gig and found I can get a much louder and cleaner sound out of the 410, than I could with the PF500. A few months ago I bought a Barefaced Super Compact and even the GK MB500 wasn't powerful enough to drive it enough to compete, comfortably, with a loud drummer. So I went out and bought a GK MB800, which now gives me enough power to get the level of volume I need. GK amps are very powerful and ridiculously cheap, secondhand.

I like the song, it reminds me of Jeff Buckley, but I'm not a fan of her voice. Maybe she could write the songs and get another singer into the band to sing them (like Pete Townsend does with Roger daltrey). But she is a great bass player.

Hmmm....good question. I think I waited until other people called me a musician. I don't think I've ever called myself a musician? Even when I was making my living doing it. People would ask me what I did and I would say I played bass in a band.

That's the one! I forgot to add the link....duh.

I used to have one of these back in the day. It was the cheapest bass in the shop (Grants in Edinburgh) and I bought it for £75 back in 1980. It had cheap pickups and cheap tuners and a cheap plywood body. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's vintage, it just means it's old. If somebody actually buys it for £399.99, they'll be very disappointed.

The Trace Elliot was a top line piece of kit back in the day. I could only dream of owning a TE combo and struggled by on a totally sh*te Carlsbro Stingray., that farted like a hippopotamus. Recently I played gig through a TE G7 combo and it sounded great paired with my Precision. I've seen them going for £150 on Ebay and would love one but then I think about the weight and decide to stick with my 'light as a feather' head and cab.

I saw this band playing in Edinburgh a few years ago and was surprised how excellent the bassist's Vintage Stingray sounded.

Ignore it and it will probably go away.

The opposite is also true. It's much easier for me to say things that may offend others, from behind the safety of my keyboard. My policy is, if I wouldn't say it to somebody's face, then I'm better off not posting it on the internet.

I'll pass on the bass but that drummer is tight as a ducks derrière.

I played one and found it quite twangy. The sound of a Jazz Bass does depend on how the pickups are set up. I own a road worn Jazz, which initially sounded pretty nasal. I adjusted the neck pickup, so that it was closer to the strings and lowered the bridge pickup, and this darkened the tone considerably.

Precisions and ashdowns do sound good. I played an R&B festival in 2015 and the amp supplied was an elderly looking Mag 300 and tatty 410. It looked underwhelming until I plugged my P bass into it and it sounded great. The year before, when I played the festival, they provided a valve ampeg and 8x10. The old ashdown sounded better. I snapped up a, UK built, ABM 500 head on Ebay recently. I haven't had the chance to play it live yet but I'm pretty certain it will bring a smile to my face when I do.

Exactly. I have 6 Jazzes (6!!!! how did that happen?) and they all sound different.

Mad drummer who was convinced I was too loud. Every gig he would moan about how I was too loud, until one day I turned my volume down completely to zero (as an experiment) and he still complained I was overpowering everything. At that stage I realised he was mad as a f**king hatter and decided he had to go. Luckily he got sacked at our next gig for stopping in the middle of a song because (you guessed it) I was too loud???? He' was a good drummer but obviously delusional. He joined another band and persuaded them to get rid of the bass player. Eventually, the penny dropped, and they got rid of him.

Excellent. Something that might be worth adding, as fundamental advice for a bassist or a drummer, is to sync up the bass and the bass drum. If they're not in sync, the rhythm can sound weak and disjointed, when they're in sync even very simple and sparse arrangements can sound very powerful.

I really liked my Ashdown Electric Blue 150. It was pretty loud and quite light (compared to a Peavey TNT). The Peavey TNT I used to own, was as heavy as a small planet, but was probably louder than the Ashdown.

Well I've played the MIM Precision Deluxe and I own the Fender Elite Precision. I actually prefer the Deluxe, as the onboard preamp is the same, as are the pickups, you get a Jazz neck, it's really well made and it's 2/3 of the price of the Elite.

When I get to hell, The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain will there be waiting for me (shudder 😱 ).