Punkviking Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 Hi there! My name's Lewis and I'm from the south east, I'm a singer/songwriter/guitar player/drummer but my heart rests with the bass guitar, as I'm relatively new to playing the bass guitar as part of a band my rig/gear is pretty ghetto, I currently own a Peavey TNT130 1x15 combo amp, Roland cube 30 amp (which I often play my bass through to use fuzz/effects) what I believe to be a Stagg four string "Fusion", a Epiphone special 2, 6-string guitar, a mystery 6 string guitar with an explorer body made from who only knows what and a digital guitar tuner I found on the floor of a car park (lucky me). I learn mostly from playing as part of a band and an app that I use on my phone, called Yousician I'm hoping to develop our current band into something we might tour with (however it is very early days) we have played a couple of open mic nights with a mixed/shocked reception as we play heavy punk music (we have a lot of our own material too) and most of the local venues are folk/blues oriented. There's a couple of questions if like to ask, 1. Has anyone found playing to a more genre oriented audience results in an improved response. 2.has anyone found that most audiences want to hear covers and not our own material 3. I'd like to swap the bass guitar neck onto my explorer 6 string body, do people this this is possible? Thanks and I hope to meet some people and gain some music friends. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Hi Lewis 1 - Yes, definitely; 2 - Sadly, yes - until your band get a 'following', then they just want to hear the stuff that you wrote last year, not the new stuff! 3 - Not sure about this one - but I bet someone on here will. 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkviking Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 Cheers, I'll have to find some more suitable venues and learn some covers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_c2 Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 1. "Know your audience" 2. IMHO people want to hear tunes they know........ 3. Several major issues: neck pocket - bridge position will probably be different, resulting in the bass neck fret placement all wrong. Guitar body will have a 6-string guitar bridge and pickups? If you swap these too, and relocate the bridge to the correct place, it might work. But I imagine the neck -body join will be clearly seen as bodged (is the neck pocket even the same dimensions? I would have thought the bass one will be longer and thinner). Also the angle will probably be slightly off, resulting in either no action, or too high action. This would be correctable with a shim or two, but will probably be visible. And the chances of putting the guitar neck onto the bass body are just as slim too. In fact, all the corrections (bridge location, pickups etc) will result in a bodged look, or plain not work properly. It would take a lot of time and skill to visually fix these. You'll probably just end up devaluing/ruining 2 perfectly reasonable instruments and regretting it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, Punkviking said: Cheers, I'll have to find some more suitable venues and learn some covers Certainly find venues & audiences more suited to your style of music. Learning covers can be a good way to gel a band, but don't necessarily bin the originals - practice them 'til they're bang-on, then play them at a suitable venue to the right crowd (if you can find them!). Good luck 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 1. Has anyone found playing to a more genre oriented audience results in an improved response Yes. When starting out it definitely helps if you can find a venue which actively promotes (or at least accommodates) your genre of choice. Basically you and your band tip up and insert yourself into a pre-existing scene. If you're a start-up band then don't expect to get paid more than a pittance, if that. 2. Has anyone found that most audiences want to hear covers and not our own material Depends on the venue. Yer average local pub offers live music mostly as an incentive to people to come and drink there. Yer average local punter going for a night out at yer average local pub with a band thrown in (as opposed to specifically going out to see a band) seldom welcomes 'challenging' material. In that respect, vanilla covers bands offer reassurance and familiarity and ignore-ability whereas originals bands - er - don't. The trade-off is that covers venues are pretty much ubiquitous whereas genre-specific venues are fewer in number and therefore more thinly spread in a geographical sense. This means that bands and audiences have further to travel with all the concomitant issues of cost, time and logistics. The upside to genre-specific or music-specific venues is that punters are going there specifically for the music rather than simply to get mullered with their friends and moan that the band is too loud. 3. I'd like to swap the bass guitar neck onto my explorer 6 string body, do people this this is possible? Yes, people have done stuff like this. Yes, it is possible. But it is not a straight swap and will require substantial reconfiguration of the component parts for little real benefit. If you want an Explorer bass buy an Epiphone Explorer bass or a similarly asymmetric instrument. Don't buy something that's too pointy unless you want punters to think you're a Metal band. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigman Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 7 hours ago, Teebs said: 2 - then they just want to hear the stuff that you wrote thirty years, ago not the new stuff! Corrected for you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliasMooseblaster Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 17 hours ago, Punkviking said: ...most of the local venues are folk/blues oriented. 1. Has anyone found playing to a more genre oriented audience results in an improved response. Hello Lewis, and welcome to BassChat. Do you mind if I ask you narrow down your location a little further, as in my experience, the answer to your first question is a resounding "Yes!" and I happen to be playing a lot of folk-blues at the moment myself... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 (edited) Welcome Lewis. 1. Yes. See comment at 2 below 2. Lot's of venues are more comfortable with covers. I think most of them will accept original material if it is "woven" into a set that is familiar to the punters and it is complimentary to your cover material. I'll always remember the gig at a working men's club in Dublin in the mid eighties where the landlord shot over and cut the power off before we were even eight bars into the first of our set of Joy Division and Cure derivatives. Our drummer's dad had got us the gig at his club. Michael returned the favour by thanking the Killester Working Men's Association for being "such bar stewards" at the top of his voice. He chose to do this before we'd taken down our gear so there was a thick oppressive atmosphere for a while before we got out of the place altogether. Fun times. 3. Take a look at the Basschat Build Diaries for inspiration. Even if you don't want to do the work yourself, you will surely be able to refine your ideas for a custom build or a modification by looking at what others have done before. Edited June 20, 2019 by SpondonBassed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkviking Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 Evening everyone, firstly I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for being very helpful in their answers. I am in East Sussex (Eastbourne) area and the pubs we have played in so far are the Wheatsheaf in Willingdon once and the Six Bells in Chiddingly twice (and these were all open mic nights) The reason I ask about covers/genre specific audiences is that the first couple of times we played people were shocked but enjoyed it however our last set people didn't really seem to be interested given there was probably 12 people in the room including ourselves that probably doesn't provide much applause and I also suppose people aren't going to go mental over some random bunch of punks screaming their heads off on their calm Tuesday night, however the last gig just seemed off (maby it's all in my head) but I like the idea of meshing covers with original material, An extra question if I may, how long do people spend practicing, and how do they practice? I.e learning songs, playing scales, taking lessons ECT. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 10 minutes ago, Punkviking said: how long do people spend practicing, and how do they practice? I.e learning songs, playing scales, taking lessons ECT. That's a good question. Some of us rarely practice in a structured sense, preferring to noodle around aimlessly. Others buy books and watch YT vids. Others have regular lessons (even if they're very experienced players). To an extent one's practice regime is determined by the scope of one's musical ambitions, availability of time and depth of commitment. So if one wishes to be able to accompany any tune in any key in any genre at the drop of a hat then one will choose a different path to someone who's happy enough to stick to one or two genres and bang out the roots. There is not necessarily a direct correlation between skill and frequency of gigging . There are plenty of very talented bassists in our little world who seldom venture beyond the bedroom and many less - shall we say - formally educated players who enjoy a bulging diary. Indeed, those for whom the gig is the thing might suggest that past a given level of proficiency it is equally important to develop one's networking skills and the ability to tolerate idiotic band mates. At the very least one should develop one's skills to the point where one knows approximately where all the musical notes are on the fret board; can play a few simple scales and be able to work out some simple bass lines from those scales; can instinctively feel a chord change coming without needing to consult a crib sheet; to know when to play fewer notes; to lock in with a drummer so that you pulse together. Frankly, that's enough to be going on without worrying about the exotic stuff one may see on YT. As for covers, there are a number of different approaches if you're doing genre stuff like punk. One is to punk up a well-known song from another genre and deliver it to the audience with a certain knowing archness. Another is to take a famous punk classic and just do it straight so the punters go 'Yeah!'. A good place to deploy a classic is towards the end of your set. Another approach is to take a very obscure punk song, tweak it so that it sits comfortably alongside your own songs (without standing out as an obvious cover) and helps to bulk out your set list until you've written more originals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkviking Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 11 minutes ago, skankdelvar said: Idiotic band mates How did you know? Thank you very much that was very informative and gives good peice of mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 10 minutes ago, Punkviking said: How did you know? It is an almost universal condition. Only 7% of us here are in completely idiot-free bands (and I'm not even in a band atm so that jacks the average up). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnDave Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 47 minutes ago, skankdelvar said: It is an almost universal condition. Only 7% of us here are in completely idiot-free bands (and I'm not even in a band atm so that jacks the average up). I would advise the 7% to take a very careful look at themselves - if you can't identify the idiot, then there's a good chance it's you. Everyone in my current band seems cool and competent, no idiots, so I am worried... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliasMooseblaster Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 13 hours ago, FinnDave said: I would advise the 7% to take a very careful look at themselves - if you can't identify the idiot, then there's a good chance it's you. Everyone in my current band seems cool and competent, no idiots, so I am worried... I can't even be certain there isn't an idiot in my solo project... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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