My brilliant bass tutor Mark said I must join Basschat so......................... My name's Les and life as we know it really started very late for me - I didn't start playing bass until about 1990 [ so I was over 40] when I was asked to join a friend's group. We played 1950/60's rock covers with the odd [relatively] modern C&W, Eagles etc. Obviously I could get away with mainly Root/5ths and life was pretty good for quite a while. Eventually, as these things go, the group disbanded and I didn't play actively until the mid 2000's when I put together a group drawn from the staff at the University at which I worked. This did some of the songs I brought from the old group plus a lot of more up to date stuff brought by the younger members of staff [!] My bass playing moved on from Root/5th's, but not by very much though I wasn't found out [ atleast I don't think so!] and we were together until last year, 2012, when finally career and family committments took the younger members away. Currently the rump of the group, who are all retired - don't ask our average age!! - [drummer/keyboards/me] are continuing as a "power trio" mainly for fun but with a view to gigging occasionally, probably when we've supplimented the group with a vocalist/lead guitar.
Over the years I've played the usually copies, Precision/Jazz/Musicman with as range of combos though I did own a Fender Bass amp for a while. Currently I own a copy violin bass, bought on a whim and soon to be re-sold, a Musicman American made SUB Bass 4 - my first quality bass- also soon to be sold and now I'm the very proud owner of the Zoot Custom Chaser advertised on the Bass Chat site last year. Ampwise I have a Ashdown Super Fly head with a Behringer 2x10 cab. I've always prefered 10's to 15's. I also have a Laney head which I created from an original R3 combo. So, not a lot of money spent over the years really with the exception of the SUB Bass and the Zoot but it's been a lot of fun.
Retirement has given me the time to learn to play "properly", which is where Mark comes in. You know when you go to a golf pro and he takes your [ what you thought was a perfectly good] technique apart and puts back together again so Mark has done to me! I now practise regularly and there is light at the end of the tunnel - I think!! but more importantly it's still fun.
Welllllllllllll - probably gone on for far too long and about things of little interest to anyone but me - sorry
I'm looking forward to reading the various forums and items for sale. [I have a hankering for a Zoom practise amp the same as Mark uses for teaching or is it just "the the tone on the amp over there is always better?!]
Who knows.