gjones

I gig quite a lot but 95% of them are at venues which provide decent backline. So my amp and cab do little more than gather dust back at home. So why do I keep on checking out the amps and cabs for sale constantly? I dunno!

I have a friend who is a very good pro bass player. I first met him when he was playing a P bass through an old Gallien Krueger 1 x 15 combo. His sound was a lovely old fat P bass sound that really laid a great foundation for the rest of the band. In fact I liked his sound so much that I promptly went out and bought a P bass. The next time I saw him play he was playing a Warwick Thumb Bass (which has single coil jazz type pickups very close to the bridge). His sound this time was very nasal (in an extreme Jaco Pastorius kind of way) and didn't support the bottom end of his band as well as the P bass did. He was still playing through the GK amp. Recently he's aquired a MM Stingray. This bass has a very, aggressive, rocky sound. As above, it didn't complement the band as well as his P bass did. He has also changed his amp setup to an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 and an SL 112. I actually preferred the tone of his old GK combo which had a deeper rounder sound, especially when he played his P bass through it. So to answer your question, yes your gear does affect your sound. It doesn't make you play any better (assuming your bass is well set up in the first place) but it does affect your sound.

I once played a gig in a big, crowded, sweaty, venue, where after each song a woman shouted, 'you're sh*t, you're sh*t!'. Eventually, after about 4 or 5 songs the singer had enough and shouted back, 'Well if you think we're sh*t f*** off then!' to which she replied 'Oh I wasn't calling you sh*t'. Who she was calling sh*t, we never found out?

If you had the chance to have a hollywood star play in your band who was sh*t, or an anonymous bass player who was really great, who would you pick. Congratulations Keanu, you've got the job!

You need to get a long lead and head where the audience will be sitting. Then get the band to play a tune, which will allow you to set your bass to the correct volume, in relation to the rest of the instruments. Then if your amp is sitting right next to another band member's head and they complain you're too loud, you don't need to turn down, they just need to move their head out of the way of your amp. Edit: Aha, I've just read your last post. And it's all your fault

Don't peel the tape off then. You bought a pedal not the box it came in.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1434247828' post='2798015'] I have official permission, from my wife, to keep my hair even if I go the full Terry Nutkins skullet. The other day she rather proudly pointed out that I was sitting on my hair. Which I wouldn't have minded if I'd have had pants on at the time... [/quote] You did say 'sitting' didn't you?

I have a musician friend who has just reached 65 and retired from a sensible job. He's now become the long haired,, bearded, hippie, freak. he's always wanted to be.

My brother in law turned up to a pub, where he was booked for a solo set, to find another band set up and ready to go. He complained to the landlord, who confirmed that it was him that was supposed to be playing that night. It turned out that the band had actually been booked for a gig at another pub down the road, and had mistaken this pub for the one they should have been playing. The landlord told them to take all their gear down and sling their hook.

When the drummer can't make it..........the bass player is in charge. But don't let the power go to your head.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1434120189' post='2796907'] I hear this a lot, but I don't agree. I like flatwounds with no muting, tone control on full and the treble boosted on the amp, so the sound is actually quite bright but not in a metallic or zingy way That provides a sound which I can't get from roundwounds - you can get the harmonic content similar with tone controls and EQ but the attack/decay envelope is quite different. [/quote] And then you plug into a DI box (pre EQ which is usually the case) and the sound person reduces your fastidiously, sculptured, sound into an inaudible, mushy, mess. I quite like the sounds of flats when I have control of how I EQ them. But that rarely happens if I'm going through a venue's PA and my amp is there purely for onstage monitoring.

You can get a flatwound sound from roundwounds, if you take all the tone off your bass. But you can't get a roundwound tone from a bass fitted with flatwounds. Which is why I always go for roundwounds. If you want to go 'vintage', then put a lump of sponge up by the bridge, to mute the strings, and turn all the tone off on your bass. Instant James Jamerson.

And I'm almost as impressed by the quiff as the bass playing.

Excellent!

Bought a precision scratchplate from Gareth, and very nice it is too. Excellent communication and a completely, painless, transaction. deal with confidence.

If the guy emailing you actually thinks you're going to head off to the States to join his band, then he's crazy as batshit. If you actually go, then you're crazier than he is.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1433154701' post='2788239'] Send them some pictures of the most portly bass player you can find, and tell them the pictures are of you! [/quote] Did somebody call?.

Thanks for that. I've booked for the Edinburgh show.

Ultra shortscale neck.

WTF? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FENDER-PRECISION-BASS-HEADSTOCK-/121648860953?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_77&hash=item1c52d64f19

I own a Behringer BDI 21 and it does give a nice punchy rounded vintage sound with roundwounds when I play it with my Precision.. It costs just over £20 from Thomann and is amazing value. It tries to emulate an Ampeg SVT. By the way, there really is not a lot of difference between P bass pickups. I've tried a set of no name cheapos, a set of 70's seymour Duncans and a set of Fender custom shop pickups and you'd have to be a bat to tell the difference (ie they all sounded effin great throught the right setup).

You need bootsy666 to build you one of THESE!!!!! http://basschat.co.uk/topic/259954-custom-8x15-bass-cabinet/

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1432477636' post='2781823'] No playing music in bars doesn't command respect. I was really addressing disrespect and those that make a mockery of live music. Sort of like if someone came into an office goes up to someones desk and starts mocking what he's doing for a living. Blue [/quote] I live in Edinburgh. It's a big tourist destination and people from all around the world visit it all year around. All the tourists we perform to really enjoy the music we play (mainly Blues and Rock 'n' Roll) but the ones who are most enthusiastic are from the US. I think you just bumped up against a random idiot.

Learn a lot of standards and write down the basslines in a BIG book. If you can do backing vocals it helps. A friend of mine (guitarist/singer), who has his own pro band, uses a lot of dep bass players. He says his favorite type of bass player is the one he doesn't notice. Because if he notices the guy, it's usually because he's playing a wrong note.