fred72

Wanted - bass player to complete original rock/blues - drums/lead/rhythm/vocal already in place. Looking to gig asap. Rehearsal space in Newton St Cyres. Background: session musician from 60's & 70's retired and looking to play own original material (for a change). Good listening skills and ability to compliment drums/melodies more important than super-technique! Thanks for reading... please get in touch for a chat.

Thanks for the pics - looks great. Reminds me a bit of the basses Dusty Hill uses in ZZ Top - think its on my 1980 something vid at the Rockpalast? Same binding on the body... :-)

Good thought Mokl, I didn't have a clue what gauge was on there before, so went with shop's suggestion. I did however download the recommended neck relief and action settings from the EB website... all appeared to be within guidelines, but even with a decent metal rule my eyes are flippin terrible these days - when we're looking at 10ths of an inch or 1/2 mm I can never see the difference :-/

Yeah, it's cool how we're all on this exploration of creativity and all the little nuances, our gut feel and decisions we make allow us to constantly make little changes, develop our styles, tweak the feel to keep it real. Get on!

I know it's subjective and utterly down to personal pref. but thought it interesting... my recently purchased 2nd hand Sterling SB14 came with a new pack of Rotosound 66 stainless steel strings - being new to bass things I thought I'd give them a try and took off the old (what must have been nickel plate) originals. Felt stiffer, looked duller, nice thud to them, didn't think too much of it but over the period of a week started playing less and less.... my bass had become this unforgiving lump of wood and metal... Popped into my local (project music, exeter) determined to pick up some nickel wounds (after reading some past threads here) - no experience with bass brands so thought ernie ball on an ernie ball a good bet - set of hybrid slinkys later and (to me) it's a different beast - it's become an instrument I can express myself on again - tone, feel - all back... The strings feel part of the instrument, as opposed to a bass strung with strings that I had to work on! Anyone else had a similar experience? Do people immediately take to one over the other? Has anyone ever gone from years of playing nickel to SS? Any alternatives? I've seen some crazy looking coloured strings out there - are they just for show?

[sub]Read this thread with some trepidation, and a little concern the further I read! Am new to the bass scene but have experience on 6 string ('normal' guitar - is that how it's distinguished?!), live sound and recording. Needed a bass rig for a new band - looked at MarkBass, but just didn't like the aesthetic - call me fickle. Looked at Aguilar TH320 + SL12 cab, lovely sound, obvious quality, just couldn't get my head around stooping down so low... tried a Hartke 500 something (had a valve pre) and really liked, but thought I could do better... came across the RH450 with RH212 cab and it really ticked all the boxes (and then some) so I bought it! Previous research had come up with loads of reviews saying how it punched through the mix and was so loud it kicked arse against guitar stacks etc. Seems like TC have created a great deal of controversy with all this Bass 2.0 malarky though!![/sub] [sub]I'm really fussy about sound and the cab and head in the guitar shop sounded superb... got a Sterling by MM SB14 and the eq on this coupled with the amp/cab and a nice set of nickle strings sounds sweet with lots of variation... I've not gigged with the full band yet, but I must admit I was practicing with the guitarist yesterday... he was playing through my little BadCat 5w amp and even though I was turned way down I had to crank the treble on the SB14 all the way up to cut through... we shall see... hoping it will do the job, we're only a 3 piece, so I'm thinking there will be plenty of room in the frequencies we're kicking out for the RH450 to sound its best.[/sub] [sub]Cheers[/sub]

+1 for Land of Pink & Grey - one of my favourites - 'Golf Girl' is so totally British and of the time - seriously good

Thanks chaps, BTW I just looked at my thread title and username and thought - do people think I'm 72? Nope, that's me birthday, so a well rounded 42 ;-) Here's to playing new gigs when I'm in my 70's though - hope so... Cheers

Hi, just got a gig playing bass, but I'm not really a bass guitarist (yet)! Been playing electric/acoustic guitar for 30 odd years, I picked up a 2nd-hand Sterling SB14 (which I really like BTW) to record some tracks into my home studio... I answered an ad. for band members (for acoustic rhythm) and ended up getting the bass slot ;-) I'm really chuffed, as I always fancied doing the bass thing some more... any advice on kit much appreciated. If you read my sig. I'm practicing through a 120w acoustic amp! Doesn't sound half bad, but it's obviously not gonna cut the mustard... We'll be a 3-piece - electric guitar, drums, bass - aiming to move from small/mid venues up to festivals maybe (who knows)... am gonna have to spend whatever it takes to get a suitable amp - thinking in the region of £600-800, is that enough? I'm fussy about tone and the aim is to place the bass quite forward in the mix. Looking at new D-class mini heads and lightweight cabs, these are coming in at 300w or 500w (or even 1000w - from Orange). I'm used to low-watt all valve guitar amps that can crank up bloody loud - so even 300w sounds seriously high... Music style? Well, rooted in 60's/70's rock/blues/folk, but definately forward thinking fusion of old and new. Cheers