gjones

Dave Swift plays 6 strings, as many of the guests on The Later With Jools Holland show decide they want to sing stuff in a different key, from the originally agreed one, on the day of the performance. Dave quickly learned it's easier to transpose stuff on a 6 string than a 5 or 4. Luckily he has very large hands. It's one of the reasons I bought a 5 string when I joined a cover band. The singer rarely sang the songs in the original key.

When I started playing bass, at 16, I learned a few Rock classics, then pretty soon after joined a band writing and playing original stuff for the next ten years. Then joined my brother in laws Blues band and for the next 30 years played nothing but Blues (in various bands). But since I've turned 50 I've branched out. I still play in a Blues band but have been in a ska band, a country band, a heavy Rock band, and a covers band (playing everything from Blondie to Queen). So I've definitely become a more versatile player since my 50th birthday.

I saw a couple of guys( one on guitar and one on bass) play about 4 U2 songs at a jam, with the bassist playing slap bass like Mark King. There's overplaying.......and then there's OVERPLAYING!!!

Why not take the B off and make it into a normal 4 string, tuned EADG, with a very wide neck?

Whatever's easiest. Frankly nobody in the audience will care. Now if you were asking me about Sweet Home Alabama, that's a whole different question entirely..... 😄

When I started playing bass I had no amp and my bass was fitted with flats. So if I didn't play really hard, I wouldn't hear myself. As a result I got nasty blisters on my fingers. Covid meant that the gigs dried up and after a couple of years of not playing I worried that I'd get blisters when I started to get back to gigging. My solution was to turn my amp up loud and play softly. I recommend you do the same. Turn your amp up way louder than you need to and it will force you to play softer. Result...... no blisters.

Most early Pretenders songs have great basslines. Back On The Chaingang and Kid are two of my favourites to play.

I was in a band, until recently, which was originally formed by two guitarists in 2019. We'd started 6 months before lockdown and were working on a set. In 2022 we got back together and spent a lot of time and money working on two sets worth of songs (about 25 songs). I decided it was time to get a decent demo together so booked a studio. We picked the songs and 3 days before recording got together to go through the tunes we were planning to record. In the rehearsal room one of the guitarists seemed a bit distant and was not contributing much. Then, the next day (2 days before we were due in the studio) he sends a Whatsapp message to us all to say he doesn't want to join us in the studio. Of course I contact the studio, to apologise for mucking them about, and cancel the studio session. We then organised a band meeting and he explains he doesn't like approximately half the songs in the set, as there's nothing for him to do (i.e. there's only one guitar part on the original record and no guitar solos). He's a grown man, we've been rehearsing this stuff since 2019. Why wait until 2 days before a recording session to tell us this? The singer in the band started a poll to pick the songs that we all liked. At which stage I told them if the criteria a song has to meet to get it in the set, is that its a song we all like, then it's going to be an awfully small set.........and left the band. But I took the singer with me. She is a great singer and really loves Americana and Country. The songs we will play will be the songs she wants to sing, not the songs the guitarist wants us to play (because he likes the guitar solo). What's that joke about how does a guitarist change a lightbulb?

Secondhand CDs are stupidly cheap on Ebay. So if you wanted to physically own the music you play, it wouldn't cost you that much. I was reluctant to use a streaming service for quite a while, as the payment per stream, that artists get, is pretty miniscule and I felt this was unfair. But I did some research and found that some are more generous than others. Tidal is the most generous, followed by Apple and Deezer. I don't know where Amazon comes in the list.

Aged 18, for a proper ticketed gig. It was at a local nightclub supporting some art school band or other. We were called Peach Melba.

If you are fine to spend £45 I know a man who can help you out with an excellent, solderless, Volume, Blend, Tone wiring harness https://www.basschat.co.uk/profile/7835-kiogon/content/

You took the words right out of my mouth.

It's this bloke, apparently. Mark King's brother, from the Andertons video reviews, is playing bass (at least for this gig from a month ago).

It may be a midi played line but at least it's trying to sound like a real bass guitar. Many of the songs I hear on the radio these days have no discernable instruments at all, just a background mush of synth pads, a midi drum pattern and an autotuned vocal.

My brother in law is the main guitarist and singer in a few bands. He actually likes playing bass and occasionally does deps with bands but can't sing while playing, to save his life.

I love Hothouse Flowers but the last time I saw them at The Barrowlands they just would not get off the stage. They went into some weird trance like jam thing, at the end, that went on forever. They looked like they were having a great time but, after about three hours, I had to leave them to it and say goodnight

I agree about skipping entry level. Buy a good brand secondhand and you'll get most of your money back if you ever need to sell. Whatever you do don't skimp on the speakers, as they are the weak link. If the speakers can't run loud and clean, it doesn't matter how posh your amp is, you'll still sound rubbish.

On the other hand...... I was chatting to the drummer in my band, after we'd finished our set at my local music bar. The band on after us were starting their soundcheck and the bassist started playing. Both my ears and the drummer's pricked up and we spun around at the sound of the bass guitar. It sounded amazing and I immediately tried to identify the bass he was playing. I could see it was a WAL mark 11, which I'd never seen in the flesh before and it had the best bass sound I'd ever heard. Now that's an objective opinion, as I didn't know what model of bass it was before I turned around to look. After hearing one in the flesh, and now knowing how great they sound, would I ever buy one for the many thousands of pounds it would cost me to do so? Nah......

I played a festival a few years ago where the backline was an Ampeg SVT through an Ampeg 4x10, which would normally be a decent rig. But it had been limited in volume somehow and I couldn't get any decent level out of it. I had to stand right next to it in order to hear myself at all. I played the same festival a year later and they had a ratty old Ashdown Mag head with an Ashdown Mag 4x10, when I saw it my head drooped but, surprisingly, compared to that Ampeg the previous year, it actually sounded great.

I've only ever bought a brand new bass once in my life, which was a Fender Elite Precision. It cost me just under two grand. It's a nice bass and is put together well but the stereo jack input (which is a cheap looking plastic thing) only lasted a couple of years before it developed a fault and had to be replaced. Saying that, I'm happy to subsidise a company like Fender and it's American factory and workers, if it prevents the company from having to offshore their production to find cheap labour abroad.

So if Ed Friedland calls you to dep for him on the next Mavericks tour, I assume you'll be washing your hair? 🤣

After countless rehearsals one of the guitarists in the cover band I was in decided to tell us, two days before we went into the studio to record a demo, that he hated half our set. The singer tried to be diplomatic about it and get everyone to vote on a new set. I just grabbed my bass and headed for the door. What's that joke about how a guitarist changes a light bulb.....

I'm assuming the secondhand prices shadow the increase in the RRP of basses in the shops. For example, new prices, for Ernie Ball Musicmans, have gone through the roof.

Do you have the problem when you play without the band? If not, line up each member of the band and get them to start playing one by one, starting with the drummer, then you, then the rest of the musicians. When a musician starts to play and at that point you cannot hear yourself clearly, sack that musician. Problem solved.