Ross

Put your name out there, even gigs you don't want/ probably won't get. CV's and business cards are cheap, get into the live music scene wholeheartedly, talk to some people and just drop into the conversation "Oh if you ever need a session bassist give us a bell" or something. No use sitting at home trying to get some work bud, make yourself known, build up reputation and contacts in whatever way you can. Same as any established business.

Assuming she's only going to get a few bars done you could probably work it out yourself in less than an hour and be better for it. Just remember good bassists deserve fine arse (The GBDFA on the lines of the stave, and the other notes in between). Took me 20 minutes to learn the fundamentals of notation and how to work out notes.

Sorry to state the obvious but spray it with the lacquer of your choice? Maybe a few coats of sanding sealer on the bare wood as well, it's designed to harden the ends of the grain, makes it better to sand and more hardwearing in the process. So after some sanding sealer and a polish with some 800-1200 grit you could probably oil it, and re oil from time to time.

Hats off to the bloke, that must have taken a lot of dedication and practise.

[quote name='mike257' post='1314113' date='Jul 23 2011, 07:12 PM']You don't use a case at all? You almost sound proud of it too. Mr T would undoubtedly pity you.[/quote] I've seen the light, hard cases are the worst, dead weight.

Rarely even use softcases myself, just be careful. I carry it over my shoulder, lean it in a corner somewhere, tune it just before going on. Lovely job.

"I'm the gardener, I hear your gutters need cleaning" ziiiip All I can think listening to that, it's good though.

[quote name='Bassman Sam' post='1313382' date='Jul 22 2011, 11:09 PM']I don't know what the bass is but it's great to see Jethro anytime. Ace.[/quote] Seconded, as a pretty poor flautist (Although no classical training) Ian Anderson is my god, I'd love to be able to do what he does. Loving some of the bass parts as well.

I use my thumb as part of my standard technique. And I never played guitar before falling into this technique either so it's not a guitarist thing... Thumb, first finger, and usually both of the other two at the same time. If I play it with just thumb then I know what you mean, seems a little warmier than fingers.

Tuck your cock back and balance it on your giant bassist testicles.

I had a great adventure, left my mates in a coffee shop to go buy some smokes, ended up paying a tramp to give me a tour, then got some cakes from what he claimed to be the best place for munchies and shared them with him. Had a great conversation about the meaning of life, then went back to my friends still in the coffee shop who thought I'd only been gone like 10 minutes. I was deep fried beyond belief, hill street blues had some insanely strong stuff.

[quote name='bassmachine2112' post='1310546' date='Jul 20 2011, 05:05 PM']Treat yer misses to 4 or 5 days in Amsterdam and visit coffee shops then go for cream cakes and forget the troubles of the world for a few days[/quote] I'm voting for this! The cakes in amsterdam are amazing as well, i ate so much over there.

I play all kinds of combinations, best way is to experiment. If you're really getting buried, turn it up louder!

Just wanted to say a big thankyou, just started these lessons and they are proving incredibly useful. Didn't realise how lacking my knowledge in theory was.

4 chords? I'm pretty sure I got so into prog I invented some new ones which souned terrible and then dubbed them backwards using a foil wheel and then somehow fed it in and out of a pigs brain while it was on a sh*t ton of acid then used it for a 7 section interval in 19/4 in combination with a balalaika and some screaming children. But hey man, thats what prog is all about, that and consuming just, massive amounts of hallucinogenic drugs.

Every time I listen to iron maiden I think back to driving down a busy highstreet quite fast in a clapped out old daihatsu hijet which was noisy as sin, me and driver topless, windows down. Blasting iron maiden out of the most ghetto soundsystem in the world.

Good phone support is incredibly rare these days, so rare infact I turn into a babbling idiot of niceties when someone is actually helpful on the phone. If they are even UK based and speak a reasonable standard of english, most of them read from a script of pre set idiocy.

[quote name='Hobbayne' post='1310608' date='Jul 20 2011, 05:52 PM']Quite difficult I believe, the late great George Harrison had one back in the 60's but he didnt know how to play it, so he tuned it like a guitar and played it on Norwegian Wood. He later had lessons from Ravi Shankar and became quite proficient on it! [/quote] Indeed he did, I was listening to Ravi Shankar recently and looking at the cover "produced by George Harrison" I thought, that doesn't surprise me. It's a real pity teachers are notoriously difficult to find, I've managed to find one which teaches out of my university. I had a feeling it isn't the sort of instrument you can learn properly without a good teacher.

How difficult is it to play the sitar anyone? I've been looking at getting one as I'm really into my ragas and sitar music in general at the moment. And looking on ebay I can pick up a cheap one for a couple of hundred.

I've had a thought, why not teach bass as a day job, gig in the evenings. I know a guy my age clearing 25-30k a year off teaching and gigs (originals band), guitar teacher mind you but I'm sure the moneys there for bass too if you get your name out there. Even with that I'm sure you can keep your wedding band on while things pick up.

Ever thought about putting yourself out there as a session player? And there are gigs on other days of the week believe it or not, for a project band. And open mic nights.

I look much less like a bassist these days I'm sad to say. Looking for a decent picture of myself the majority I'm pissed, sweaty and pulling a stupid face. That might be about right come to think of it. This is about as good as it gets...

Snapped somewhat and used music to regain my sanity. Not even joking, I was a f***ing mess Bass was just "Oh i'll play that big guitar, it's only got 4 strings should be easy"

[quote name='Big_Stu' post='1306656' date='Jul 17 2011, 01:42 PM']In the early 80's one of the driver's of a certain rock band was considerably larger than average, looking a lot like Giant Haystacks long lost twin. As his job was driving, as I said, he had developed a habit of rolling up a strip of loo roll & wedging it down the crack of his gargantuan arse to soak up the sweat. If any newbie was naive enough to share the cab with Dave AND be daft enough to fall asleep; 9 times out of 10 he'd wake up with a Fu Manchu style moustache comprising said rather sweaty used loo roll. Many many stories like those, but that was then & most of them are so far wide of PC that they're untellable.[/quote] Oh man, thats nasty. Tell us more!

I'm there right now, you've gotta love getting out of bed and getting straight back on it!