cdog

I played out at a local pub called the primrose in Leeds last night. It's a night where they put on five bands and so we got a 35 minute set and feels like a Leeds rite of passage . There was an old Peavey bass amp provided but I took along my rumble 500 and I was glad because the sound from the peavey was pretty mushy and muffled. I took my sire V7 because I find that it gives me a nice crisp tone without being quite as in your face as a stingray. The music in our band is funk rock so I need something that this going to sound nice when slapped. I also just got a boss me 90 b on Thursday and so I had set up a load of patches because on one of the songs I switch between a clean sound and an octave pedal and then distortion and then octave and distortion. I had foolishly added a bit of envelope filter to the clean octave sound and when I played it at gig volume it was definitely a bit too much top end. Oops, I'll join the me90b discussion later on the appropriate thread... The first band on were a very tight rock band with a female singer, bassist playing a p with flats very nicely. Our set went pretty well with the usual issues with speeding up when we get excited and the guitarist struggled a bit with his guitar dropping out of tune all the time I think next time we need to get the guitar out of the case in advance so it can get used to the temperature in the room. The PA was a bit muffled though which doesn't really work for the hip hoppy lyrical delivery and my partner said that when I spoke through the microphone she couldn't make out what I was saying so definitely the PA was just not quite right. Shame because we have been practicing three part harmonies for a while and I think they probably got lost in the mush. I also tried a Bluetooth wireless set up my dad lent me and it worked great. The band after us were a four-piece metal act called 6 foot under with a fantastic front man and really talented musicians, in particular the guitarist who had that trait of sounding amazing but looking like he was barely moving his hands. I'm not really into metal at all anymore but I appreciated their musicianship and the show. They even gave out Yorkshire tea bags with their qr code on it! All in all a fun night out, just a shame there weren't that many people out to listen.. I wore my altra lone peak trainers as always.

I once bought a Sire V7 off someone on FB marketplace. In the course of the short conversation he called me Pal bud Dude Buddy Bro Man Lad Mate. Irrational I know, but I didn't like that at all, he knew my name.

I just don't think they are necessary, and they play into this idea that it's important to be shredding up high as a bass player. IMO, not real bass playing: be a guitarist if you want to play up there . Also, its worse for slapping as you either have to slap on the fretboard which is painful after a while and has a less deep tone, or play off the end of the fretboard, but then the lower frets are miles away for the left hand. And it makes the bass more buzzy where the strings rattle against the 24th fret. So, not a fan. In their defence, I think the 24th fret is used in one of my all time favourite basslines, just another story by Jamiroquai, but that's still not enough!

Painted heads, painted necks, 24 fret necks, people playing with their bass at their knees, leaning the bass against a wall strings facing out, not tucking lead through strap.

I totally agree with you @sean on point 3 in particular: if you couldn't write it out you don't really know it. I also agree on understanding theory, and I think that this can help to learn stuff faster because there's a framework that you can drop the structure into. I have to be careful talking theory in my band though because that's not a language that the guitarist speaks. He's still great though, just can't communicate with him in that way.

Another thing I think about is that lots of great bass players are strongly associated with a single bass that they used for most of their career: Duck Dunn, James Jameson for example. If they managed with a single bass who am I to need loads of basses. I guess it's because instruments were more expensive back then, but did the gain anything from from having a single bass?

Bringing this old thread back to life, and kind of following on from what @SumOne was saying, I currently have 7 and find myself a bit overwhelmed by them all. When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing. I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

I agree Chris, but I do get great protection from the foamies, it's just that the top end gets cut much more than on fancy plugs so I am sacrificing on my experience of the quality of the sound rather than protection for my ears. Foamies will cut up to 38db which is more than any of the fancy ones could last time I checked.

I really hate it when things are too loud and after trying some £20 musicians earplugs off Amazon that let far too much treble through for me I have found that I quite like using cheap foam plugs, they reduce the volume massively but I can still hear enough. Is there a better brand of foamies that anyone uses? Also, I'm starting to do backing vocals now and I'm not sure about singing with earplugs in as it seems to be really loud. Does anyone know anything about that?

I'm currently borrowing my Dad's lovely EB Stingray. I'm a bit scared to gig it lest anything happened to it as it's over 20 years old and immaculate, but my Dad's keen for me get some use out of it. 😐 For my current band my Sire V7 is just perfect and I can't dial in a better tone with the Ray. That's probably a topic for a different forum though....

@MichaelDean Total sidenote, but.. I'm total barefoot shoe convert for 8 years now so give it time. After trying a few brands I have settled on Altra, specifically the lone peak. They are trainers but super wide and comfy and more cushioned than vivos so less harsh on your feet. Can't see myself wearing much else from now on tbh.

Yes it's a great venue. I'm struggling to get in with other busy Leeds venues. We've played packhorse and crank studios which were nice but it's great to be somewhere that people can find you easily rather than being stuck in the top room of a pub. Any ideas gratefully received. Chris