gjones

First get competent musicians. There's no point in bringing in an inexperience singer/drummer/guitarist, if you want to gig ASAP. Make sure they have commitment to the project and it's goals (It's no fun trying to herd cats). Decide on set list. If the musicians are competent it will take less than a month's committed, rehearsals to get them ready for the first gig. Hey presto you have a good, gigging, band.

I hate to say it but I'll bet that the house sound engineer, in any venue you play, will smile and nod and mute the feed from your mic at the first opportunity. Live sound engineers REALLY like to DI bass. I know it's a pain but they really, really do.

Ooops.... how did that happen?

Mini tour of England (um two gigs) for my band The Dana Dixon Band. The Nottingham Royal Concert Hall on Mon 6th of March and The Blues Kitchen in Camden on Tues 7th March. If you'd like to hear a mess of Blues & Rock n Roll, from the UK's finest Female harmonica player, come along. http://www.bluesinbritain.org/listen-dana-dixon-good-rockin-mama/

My Carlsboro Stingray, 150 watt, 1x15 combo, farted like a hippopotamus if you didn't keep the bass way down. It was a pile of sh*t. I can't remember if I sold it or just gave it away?

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1488380500' post='3248441'] Opposite, I learned it because a mediocre band I was playing with insisted on doing it. Then they changed their mind after running through it twice as the phrasing on the vocals was too difficult. See also the bastards that only did Babooshka three times before the guitarist ditched it. [/quote] Ooooh that would piss me off....

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1487979335' post='3244879'] This is, deceptively, THEEEE hardest bass line of all time. I can play things WAAAY harder, but the correct execution of Rhythm Stick eludes me 90 times out of 100. Without a word of a lie, I spent three months learning and polishing this. I practiced it every day. And I eventually got it. And I went "Right. Done. Learned." And I stepped away from it and moved on to the next tune. Then I tried to play it again and haven't pulled it off since. And the thing is, from reading others' posts on Basschat over the last few years, and from conversations with other bassists - some of them I would describe as special - the phenomenon I described is by no means limited to me. This bassline continues to stump bassists WAY better than me. My question, therefore, is what kind of VOODOO resides in the fingers of Norman Watt-Roy? Don't even mention Paul Turner's flawless version with Shuffler, which is noticeably faster than the original. [/quote] I learned it just to challenge myself. I've never played it live with any band I play with.

I live in Edinburgh and ended up selling my Stratocaster, which I'd put on Gumtree, to somebody 470 miles away, down in Hove. I thought they were mad (but took their money anyway ). Personally I'd never buy something from gumtree unless it was face to face and in cold, hard, cash.

A lot of music I hear on the radio has no identifiable musical instrument playing on it. In many cases the instrumental part of the track is just a pad of mush. The creator of the track, is not trying to emulate any known acoustic or electric instruments. In many cases there is hardly any human element in the track at all. Even the vocals have been sampled and autotuned and bear very little resemblance to what originally came out of a human mouth. The stuff I reserve my contempt for is the low end, mass market tosh, pumped out by soulless corporations. But I do concede there is some very beautiful electronic music too. On the whole though, I do like to hear human beings playing instruments, not sequencers.

3 of my friends started a band. The guy who was to play bass decided it wasn't cool enough, so bought a guitar and sold his bass to me. I took his place in the band and the rest is history.

A band I was in for 3 years has had over 20 members in the 7 years they were together. No wonder I left.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1487798563' post='3243103'] Badger metal never really took off then ... [/quote] Well actually... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_agPRqgBs"]http[/url][url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_agPRqgBs"]://www.youtube....h?v=-t_agPRqgBs[/url]

[quote name='Monkey Steve' timestamp='1487782528' post='3242861'] Some old band mates of mine who's other bands were at a far more extreme metal end of things compared to what we were doing once sent me into fits of giggles quite seriously discussing whether an assortment of bands belonged in a book (for which one of them had been interviewed) about UK death metal, because apparently there are people who are very serious about whether a band is black metal, death metal, blackened death metal, or any number of sub genres. There is genuinely "shoegaze black metal" [/quote] Just put a random word in front of 'Metal' and there'll be a band that plays it..

If you want clean and LOUD I can recommend a Gallien Krueger MB500. It's the loudest amp head I've ever played through (and I've owned a lot of amps). You can get a secondhand one for £350 on Basschat.

Take them all and judge if it was a good idea, by the look on your fellow band members faces when you take up half the stage and fumble about mid set chopping and changing instruments. Spare strings, tools, a spare lead, a spare battery and your God given talent, is all you really need.

This guy gets a decent sound out of one. I don't know what pickups he has in it but I know he's on Basschat. Maybe he'll respond to the video and you can ask him? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJSGskGwFLw

I saw an early one on Ebay today and it certainly looked crap. It had cheapo tuners and a bridge with only two saddles on it (as per the original tele basses). I know Maya made some nice basses back in the 70s but this isn't one of them http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/maya-electric-bass-guitar-/322422611008?hash=item4b11e29c40:g:FPEAAOSwCU1YogNE

[quote name='ChunkyMunky' timestamp='1487149234' post='3237438'] I went on a spree of trying all sorts of different cabinets and the one I ended up choosing was something I did not expect in the slightest. I tried out a load of Barefaced, Schroeder, EA, EBS etc.. I ended up going for a TC Electronics of some description that I used regularly from a rehearsal studio I go to all the time. A TC Electronics BC2x12, if I recall correctly. Has anyone else had any surprising buys that turned out absolute trumps for them? [/quote] I used to have one of those. It sounded very nice and it was light too.

I don't really like the feel or sound of flats. a few ears ago I bought a bass with a set of flats on them. I took them off and kept them in a draw. Occasionally I'll take them out and fit them to one of my basses, then realise they sound too indistinct and woolly for me and put them back in the draw. Maybe they are just not very good strings. They have gold wraps at the headstock end, anybody know what make they might be?

Led Zep or Atomic Kitten.

Check your fly is done up before you go onstage.

I know I shouldn't like them but a little light relicing for asthetic purposes never hurt anyone. A bass that looks like it's been dragged down the motorway, for 20 miles,is not my cup of tea.

As Elton John's bass player, Davie Paton, how he managed it. https://www.facebook.com/david.paton.58

Have a look at the wiring, there may be a loose connection somewhere.