gjones

Don't do it! Gumtree recommend you only deal with people in your local area and meet up to do the deal, because there's lots of scammers out there who want to steal your money. Whether it's Gumtree, or Facebook, the advice is the same. Fight the GAS!

Met with band, at their rehearsal room, in the afternoon to go through 30 songs. Made chord charts and notes on every song. Got to the gig that night, which was 50 miles away, to find I'd left all the notes in the rehearsal room. 15 minutes before the gig singer frantically writes down the chords of about half the set. Amazingly, it went really well considering my stupidity. Band never asked me back.

There's 3 jam nights in my area and all have different formats, you're probably not expected to play on every song. In my experience, jammers are desperate to get up on stage. If there's any decent bass players you can get them up to play, especially if they know the songs you're not 100% sure of. Most jam nights don't attempt to busk through Bohemian Rhapsody, they usually keep things simple.

I saw Steve James playing mandolin about 12 years ago and he was great. He said there's two things you can be sure of as a mandolin player, you'll always be broke and you'll always be out of tune

Why not ask BassBros? They say they'll fit a new set of strings to the bass you buy. I'm pretty sure they'll be able to tell you.

It sounds like Big Country, all it needs is that bagpipe guitar sound they used to have.

Mad drummer was sacked then singer and guitarist rehired him, against my advice, only for him to be sacked again mid gig. Yes he was that mad.

If you listen to Gayle Ann Dorsey, playing live with Bowie, many times she doesn't stick to the original bassline. David Bowie didn't seem to mind

For years, mainly due to lack of funds, I struggled with underpowered amps, cabs and combos, where I was always struggling to be heard above the sound of the drums. So my advice is, if possible, go for something that is louder than you think you require, as it's better to have power in reserve if you need it. Now I have the cash available to buy whatever I need, I've gone for a Markbass CMD 102P combo, which gives me both power and lightness. But I'd also recommend the new Fender Rumble V3 combos. The Rumble 500 has a 500 watt amp with a 2x10 cab and allows you to add another cab if you really need the extra volume (which you probably won't). They're reasonably priced new and are even cheaper used (well under your limit) and really light.

Aphantasia is the inability to picture things in your head - like an apple, a face, or a house etc, etc - so I suppose there are people who can't hear music in their heads either.

Why not see if the truss rod can be replaced by a local luthier/tech? I doubt the work would cost more than buying a brand new Fender neck and it would mean you wouldn't need to sand the heel down to fit the body.

Very sad to hear That Old Horse Murphy has passed away. I enjoyed his posts and was amused by his tales of insatiable GAS.

I've owned a recent deluxe Fender Jazz and own an Elite Precision and you're right, the preamp in the deluxes, Elites are ok but the John East preamps are significantly better, as they have a parametric mid control which allows you to boost specific frequencies, while the Fender Preamp doesn't.

A white one with a maple neck.

I've played some rough places that sound a bit like that venue. The good thing is that the locals tended to beat the shit out of one another rather than the band.

I'll be playing The Howling Wolf at the end of this month. I'll have to pay the £60 Ulez fee of course but luckily the extended parking fees don't start until April 1st. My band won't be playing there again unless things change. My advice to them is to install a PA and backline so that bands can get the bus to the venue rather than have to spend their gig fee on Ulez fines and parking tickets.

You can see where Tom Waits got his influences from. It sounds like the lyrics to one of his songs.

Now if I had the choice of saving my best friend, or my cat, from a house fire.......that would be a conundrum? Edit: I'm sure my best friend would understand if I saved the cat but if it was the other way around I doubt my cat would be too chuffed.

Drummer knocked the bassist (luckily I'd left the band by then) unconscious with the guitarist/singer's 1975 Stratocaster. The guitarist/singer chased the drummer down the street threatening to kill the drummer for the damage he'd done to his Strat. The bassist spent a week in intensive care. The Stratocaster, unfortunately, succumbed to it's injuries.

The whole concept of the RNRHOF is pointless. Music is too subjective for these type of arbitrary awards. Bands moan about the decision process but they still turn up for the ceremony.

I have a Precision Elite which developed a fault in the stereo jack input. I bought a replacement a year ago and still haven't installed it. A G&L L2500 tribute which sounds fantastic but I don't really need a 5 string for the Blues band I play in. A MM Stingray which sounds great but is a bit too aggressive sounding for my Blues band. A MIJ Precision which doesn't sound aggressive enough for my Blues band. Plus a couple of others that don't get played for one reason or another.

London Weekend Television. The wife of their chief executive asked if her husband could get up and sing Eric Clapton's cocaine (small pub gig during Edinburgh Festival). I said no. She had a strop and said she'd make sure my band would never appear on LWT while her husband was in charge. .....and she was right, we didn't.

He's just jealous, cos it's common knowledge that the Devil has all the good music 😈

If you're worried about your brand new bass getting chipped, then don't buy a brand new bass. Instead buy secondhand, pre chipped bass, or if you have to buy brand new buy a roadworn bass, where every new chip just adds to the mojo.