Franticsmurf

Between you and me and while no one is listening, I brought out my VBass because the three piece I'm working on now is looking to do some more adventurous stuff and it would sit along side my normal board during the rehearsals and arrangements sessions. Ideally I would not have them both on stage but they may co-exist for a while until I get an idea of what I actually need to play the songs we decide on. Incidentally, I played guitar in a duo and for several years I used the VG8 guitar version as my only effects. It was great as I could switch from electric to acoustic and the occasional strings. Hmmm, there's an idea for the bits of the set I play guitar on... 🤣

Yes, it is. Hence the little laughing emoji after my comment.

Blinkers kept me in a blues rock band for years until it folded. Then one of the band suggested playing a set of Abba/funk/disco stuff and I gave it a go. What a revelation - songs that I would never normally listen to other than on the radio were so much more fun to play. Interesting and challenging basslines, great songs and some good gigs. I'm still not a die hard fan of Abba/funk/disco music in general, but I'm glad I widened my horizons.

That's great - I probably miss out on such bargains being too cynical. 😄 The floor unit is a bit big - you're going to struggle to fit it on a commercially available pedalboard 🤣. I've got some time on my hands as we have a break in rehearsing and gigging so I'm going to start playing around with mine again. I can't comment on a lot of the emulations as I don't own the original instruments, but the Ricky sound is close to what I've been after and the other emulations are good sounds regardless of whether they're accurate. Some of the synth patches are nice, too.

Join a band. Or form your own. I'm in a band that I joined when I was 57 and at 59 I've just put together a 3 piece in the last couple of months, as the first band doesn't play often enough for me. Have a chat with your guitarist mate and see if there is common ground for you to become the pair around which the band forms. Be prepared to compromise a bit. The 3 piece I mentioned has me (a certified prog rockist), a guitarist/singer (very much a heavy blues/80's metal-ist) and the drummer (from early 70's via big band and jazz). If I'd gone with their genres, I would never have through they'd fit with what I wanted to do but with a bit of wiggling and some subtle hints, we're working on a bunch of tunes that we all like and which, because of the way we've arranged them, seem to work together.

I agree - would also class myself as a bit on the introverted side of average but as @Crusoe said above, I can play a part on stage. I find I am driven and motivated by the actions and reactions of others. In other words the energy I receive from a good reaction to a performance feeds back into the performance, and to my enthusiasm and motivation. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. I find the same with any group activities of which I am a part. Most noticeably, when trying to get a band going, get new songs into a band or try some new ideas for the stage act. If the other band members are keen and show it, I get a boost and I'll be the most enthusiastic there. But if they don't care and/or want to leave it just to me, I find it difficult to keep going and may even lose interest completely.

I have a Peavey Minimax 600, a TCE BAM200 and a Vox VX50B mini combo. In one band, I have recently taken the plunge and gone DI only, but only because there is someone that knows what they're doing looking after the FOH sound and my IEM mix. The other band is a three piece and there's no intention of going ampless there as we only want a small PA for vocals to keep things simple. For those gigs I'd use the Minimax as it has a more comprehensive pre-amp section and the headroom to cope with small venue gigs. The BAM200 would come along as a spare. The Vox is surprisingly loud and easily copes with rehearsals. I have gigged with it a couple of times and it's doubled as a monitor for me on several occasions.

I have everything I need to play the gigs I anticipate in the next 6-12 months. However... Having recently been using my Ibanez EHB1000s at gigs, I really like the sound and design and quite fancy one of the long scale models. The EHB1500 series is rather nice. I've also been thinking that to complete the line-up, it would be good to have a semi-acoustic bass. And for some strange reason I've been gassing after a Telecaster style guitar - I occasionally play guitar on one or two numbers and have depped on guitar with a mate in the past. I'm always on the lookout for interesting pedals but nothing specific come to mind.

I wish I'd started playing bass earlier than I did. For the first few band playing years I was the guitarist in an originals outfit but I was mediocre at best (the drummer and I were good at writing but my guitar skills limited the final results on stage). Our band struggled with keeping bass players, so all the clues were there. With the clarity of hindsight, I should have played bass from the outset. I doubt we would have made a bigger impact on the music scene than we did (think small ripple in a puddle), but the experience would have been a more enjoyable one and the band would have lasted longer. When I finally did start playing bass, I found it came naturally to me in a way that playing guitar didn't. The rhythm side of things in particular I found easy to get and as I was best mates with the drummer from schooldays, we made quite a pair driving the music. But that line up didn't last (ironically by then we had problems with the guitarist) and I ended up parting company with my mate and playing in a covers band/duo for 20 years.

Step away from the source of GAS - is it online? Move on to the next page and tell yourself you'll revisit it tomorrow. I find that a day or two usually lessens if not removes the temptation of GAS as common sense/logic kicks in. Talk it through with band mates who understand the situation (and who have experienced GAS themselves) and that you know will give you an honest opinion. Could you borrow a similar guitar to try and satisfy the GAS without the 'A'? Good luck from a fellow GASer. 😄

Another vote for the MS60B. I bought it as a stop gap and a means to try out effects types before investing in a dedicated pedal version. It has been the one pedal that has remained on my board throughout the changes I've made for various projects. I now use a Plethora X3 for compression, chorus, flange, phase, octave and delay but the MS60B supplies most of the overdrive options, amp sims and all my filter sounds. I have specific patches on the Zoom for songs like 'Sledgehammer' and 'Dakota' which require a quite specialised but one-off sound. In rehearsals, I can use the MS60B to quickly approximate a new sound before fine tuning it later.

It takes me ages to learn a specific bass part to play to the point where, pre-lockdown, I got in to the habit of accepting a simpler version that was quicker to learn. This was partly to do with the nature of the band I was in at the time (I have posted elsewhere about the singer who would 'wing it' through most of our songs). There was never an incentive for me to learn the accurate part (or an interesting variation of it) because we rarely played the song properly, or even consistently. During lockdown the rest of the band left the singer and as soon as we were able, began a new project and sure enough, it was still taking me ages to nail the bass parts. As the OP and others have said, things that some people pick up instantly I had to work hard at (and still do). I have a particular problem with playing riffs and runs that use a mix of open and fretted notes around the first three frets which for some reason take me longer to get right than the same pattern all fretted. But I learnt that it was worth the effort for the end result and I feel I became a better bassist as a result of learning those parts. I can't read music and have no interest in doing so (I'm not dismissing the skill and I admire those who can). I can improvise over basic chord progressions (the random arrangements, keys and even songs our singer would introduce during a gig taught me to be confident in the basics). Playing with other musicians made me better, and playing in a relaxed and 'safe' environment (rehearsals and jams with people where I felt comfortable trying new stuff out and making mistakes) meant I could learn along the way. To the OP - I wonder if you're a bit too self critical? Forget what you can't do, get into jam sessions with like-minded musicians and see what you can do. Jam along to backing tracks, a drum machine, the radio. I think playing for fun, without the goal of being perfect, is a great benefit. And play the instrument you feel most comfortable with. But, this being Basschat, it would be wrong of me not to add my voice to the growing mass encouraging you to buy a new bass. It won't make you a better bassist (I know, I've tried it). But it's new... 🤣

This is what I was trying (and failing) to describe. 😄

When mixing a recording, a little reverb can help to bring the whole mix together. But it's a delicate balance and too much (a subjective phrase) can turn everything into mush. As a bassist I've never used reverb live (although I'm currently looking into that for certain songs where I want to soften the bass a bit while keeping it there in the mix - difficult to describe what I'm after - we play Sheryl Crow's version of 'Sweet Child' and I play a busy bass part based on the guitar part of her version and I'm right up the neck. Reverb helps bring the sound out without me having to turn up the volume). As a guitarist (yes, I know, sorry) I used reverb and delay on solos to fill the sound and hide any shortcomings (of which there were many) in my technique. I would love to introduce some syncopated delay into my playing but setting the delay time, even with tap tempo, doesn't always work and requires the rest of the band to be consistently spot on the tempo throughout the song. That never happens. 😄

You, sir, are an absolute star. Glorious indeed! 😄

I play 5 string now and again, very rarely, so I find it hard to go from 4 to 5 but easier to come back to the 4 from the 5. I have a Guitarbass VI and going from 4 to 6 with the narrow spacing I find I'm struggling when trying to jump to the top three strings. I guess if I played both more often I'd get it.

I can sympathise - the singer in a band I was in used to ask for requests all the time, despite us asking and then telling him not to. Inevitably we'd get asked to play all sorts of inappropriate stuff (songs from 'Frozen' spring to mind). And he would often go on to torture and kill the song requested because while he liked to think he could 'wing it', he most definitely couldn't and more often than not he'd give up, play a few random chords and then go on to the next song. Unless I had an idea of how the song went, I'd turn my volume down and do my best TOTP mime act and the drummer would play a basic 4/4 beat. Sometimes the singer would say yes and then not play it, resulting in an upset or angry punter or two. We tried explaining that saying no was infinitely better to playing badly or saying yes and then not following through but our singer, who thought himself a true professional and better than us, 'knew better'. We had our fair share of audience singers all of whom were dreadful apart from one woman who, as we cringed in anticipation, sang a great rendition of one of our setlist songs. We were once asked for 'Another Brick in the Wall' by a older lady and when we played it, the local line dancing club got up to dance to it. A heavy rock band I was in was repeatedly asked to play 'Apache' at one pub gig. We went through a period of playing regularly at one pub where 'Mustang Sally' was always requested. But as it was by young ladies who would join us on stage to help perform it, we usually relented. 😄

I used to play in a duo and we were often either 'by the dart board' or 'if you just move the pool table, you can set up there'. The pool tables were always massive and bulky, as were the guys still playing pool on them. 😄

I once wrote a blog for our band website (now long gone) and I tried to keep it very light hearted, with references to pre-gig travel and post gig fast food preferences and the strange conversations we'd have - in other words mostly backstage/behind the scenes stuff. The website took care of the serious band and booking information. I saw it as an attempt to give the band a character over and above the business of playing music and it meant that the website was updated with new material several times a month. The blog developed a small following (maybe 20 views per post on average) but I can't say it boosted attendance at gigs. I wouldn't do it again as I don't think the return justifies the effort.

I played in a covers band for several years but I would never have made an effort (or paid money) to go and see them. I enjoyed playing live and, as has been said by others above, there is a difference between listening to and playing a song. We had a good time on stage and I think a couple of the others were of a similar mind to me and wouldn't have been in the audience. But I would never have left them without a bassist had the opportunity arisen. And for me, this is the crucial part. Turn the situation around - would you want a musician in your band whom you knew was likely to leave if the right band called? On first reading the OP, I thought 'yes, play, get the experience, enjoy'. But there is the matter of letting the band down if something else comes along. And with an originals band that can be disastrous if they lose a band member as they are building their reputation. I think if it was me, I'd be making sure they understood my feelings towards the music and I'd be honest about my intentions. They could then decide what to do - and perhaps look for a permanent bassist while you play with them. It's only fair to everyone. Are you able to give the level of commitment they deserve? I recently left a band that wasn't doing it for me. I enjoyed the opportunity to play, they were great musicians and decent people. But I realised that the music wasn't what I was in to, and therefore I couldn't give it the 100% the band deserved. I went before they got to the gigging stage so they had time to replace me with someone more suitable. And it kept things amicable.

I am that pair of a drummer from T. I can slick for anyone's bass trax and I certainly have tomany of need. The Internet is a fabulous place. 😄

Skill - as @Graham56 said, listening. In reality, bladder control, calming techniques, self confidence mantras. 😄 It's the kind of thing I'd love to be offered. In all honesty my first reaction would probably be 'Me? No way.' But that would be wrong. I think with four other musicians, I'd start off playing sparingly and build up as my confidence grew. Edit: I've mentioned elsewhere that for many years I played in a band in which the singer/guitarist would 'wing it' through a number of songs whether or not we'd rehearsed them. He'd spring new songs on the band, resurrect old ones that we hadn't played for ages or inflict chaos on the ones we knew. It was awful and we eventually left him to it. But I have to admit it made me a better musician as I had to up my improvisational game and it gave me a bit more self confidence having to cope with his random arrangements 'on the fly'. Hence my listening comment above. I would also add watching, as sometimes the only way I knew what he was playing was by identifying the chord shapes he was using. 😄

The name of my next band. 😄

It's what I did and as he appreciated the chat. He's our regular sound man and as I'd recently joined the band, he wasn't sure what I was using. I get an excellent sound from the PA now. 😀

Similarly, I deliberately went quiet for a couple of songs in a gig and the sound man said afterwards 'You suddenly went very quiet in the mix so I turned you up.' The rest of the gig must have been quite bass heavy. 😀