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I have vivid and fond memories of watching my (South African) mate giving an excellent and very well received impromptu version of "We Will Rock You" on the highland pipes while dressed in full Scottish regalia, accompanied by a German oompah band, also wearing their traditional costumes, late at night at an open-air riverside café in Turku, Finland in the summer of 2017 during the Europeade (European folk dance) festival. Pick the cultural bones out of that one!

I've only ever depped a few times and only for people I know. Last time was a young girl who occasionally songs with my band gave me about 48hrs notice that her bassist couldn't do a festival gig. She got her band moved to be on just before mine so I'd be there and sent me the set list of covers... i got introduced as a last minute cover and got through the first few songs including an improv section I wasn't prior warned about and all went well. Then Seven Nation Army was up next. I just stood there. Singer says "it's you". I had ear plugs in. "It's you. Now, it's you" I'm just standing there. "It's you" "what?" "Play the riff" "what riff?" This went on for ages until she basically spoke like to an elderly relative who thinks he's escaping from the nursing home "seven nation army. It starts with the bass riff. You need to start playing it"

I'm looking forward to going down my next blues jam night to check passports, and I'll be requiring written proof that the singer's dog has actually died, his woman did indeed done him wrong, etc. 😁 I used to go to the Bier Keller in Manchester when standing on tables and hurling steinfuls of lager around the place was a big night out, and the house band there (definitely Oompah) covered Like A Virgin...it was a life-changing experience... 😁

"Music eh...shit business int'it?"

Two things: first, Bob Marley's dad was a white guy from Liverpool. Second: you live in a flipping colony!!!

@The59Sound do you need to take a break?! How about it, or do you think you can behave like a grown up for a bit? Calm down.

Been in the news a bit this week following Michelle Obama’s speech. How many of you guys have been in this situation? I did a dep gig on Saturday night. Was sent the set list, had a brief look through it, met the guitarist and ran through a few numbers. Didn’t seem anything too complex. Turned up to the gig unloaded and set up and then realised I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Not practiced any of the tunes at home, didn’t know the structure to half the tunes, no ideas of intros or endings. I was screwed. Anyway, felt my way through the gig by using my eyes and ears and smiling a lot. The band thought I was great, the audience thought we were great. We got paid and the band leader was asked for cards. I suppose really that’s what musicians do when they play properly and all this endless rehearsals and preparation with semi-pro bands is mainly just to stoke the singer/guitarists ego. Quite honestly I’d prefer to dep all gigs. Keeps it fresh and reminds me of what a real musician is.

This. When I started, I was the worst musician in the room, but - I was a musician! Our om community was truly appreciative of the people who came every week just to listen, but as soon as I crossed that line it became completely different. I'm usually still the worst musician in the room, but that's because I keep pushing myself, and trying to play with better musicians, because it's the only way I'll get better myself. Many years ago a sprinter who came last in the Olympic 100m final was asked how he felt about coming last. His answer: "Being the 8th fastest man in the world ain't bad."

Flight cased in ears porn.

Remember , unlike my generation, I'm 65, no longer is every kid in the neighborhood buying a guitar and starting a band. There aren't that many guys in their 20s & 30s interested in bands or gigging. But there's a ton of us older guys not willing to give up our rock & roll spot light quite yet I'm not Blue

I had some trouble with Twist and Shout once I realised I was a different colour than the people who first sang it. Or is it a different nationality? Or religion? The Isley Brothers (who were the first to chart with it) were Seventh Day Adventists...

He's currently on a hiatus. God knows what he's going to be like when he finally decides he loves playing bass again.

It's a good thing to be helpful, right? Apparently the cry has gone out that the 2nd market is slowing (see that other thread). How could what we are signing up to do here (led by our pied piper moderator @Sibob) be described in any shape or form as being "helpful" on that score? 😄

My current fretless squeeze... OLP Ray body, Jaydee neck with mostly-unlined ebony board, EMG-HZ pickup, as yet passive electrics. Future plans are to squeeze some sort of 3-band eq in there. For the moment, I'm loving it just as it is. It plays beautifully and sounds better.

I fully understand. I just wish that big events like this weren't always so London-centric.

How did the Hipster burn his hand? He changed the light bulb before it was cool.

Next time I gig my Super Twin, I'll have to take an umph meter and see what is lacking

all brands of IPA available in the UK for a Yule long tasting session 🍻

A bit of peace and quiet hopefully.

Have you planted the Helix Stomp seed yet? I love how you have named your P2s too. I'm going to call mine Stan.

You can download them yes. Click on the 3 dots at the side of the video, that should give you the option to download. I've attached a photo of one of mine.

Unless you have a Mark King complex, you'll probably find that 4kHz isn't much of a limitation at all.

@Paul S Good luck. They won’t be expecting too much. Have fun.

I play in a ska band. I thought I was a bass player. I never realised I was a thief, coloniser and oppressor too. Thanks for the heads up.

You really are an over opinionated racist fool aren't you i grew up in Tottenham listening to reggae [both uk and Jamaican] and have played it for most of my fifty years i play with a band that consists of Jamaican, Indian ,Polish, Bermudan, mixed heritage and uk born some of the white members of the band have played with some of the biggest names in reggae without any problem i play the music from the streets i grew up in but reggae music is loved the world over ,and its message of unity and love is open to all.

I started in live music by playing at one of the better jams in West London (the Drayton Arms, Ealing, formerly the King's Head, Acton jam). Quite literally everybody in the room was a better musician than me, and the great majority (including the guitarists) were better bass players than me. So? You have to start somewhere. If I could get in a time machine and go back those years - taking my bass with me, natch - there would still be plenty of better musicians there. There will always be better musicians than yourself somewhere, if you look hard enough. So stop looking and enjoy what you do.

Good luck with your endeavours. If anyone, of whatever colour, tries to tell you that you shouldn't be playing a particular type of music because of your ethnic background, then they are being racist, and should be ignored, however much they may try to conceal their racism behind such fatuous pc terms as "cultural appropriation". It's no different from someone telling a black person that they shouldn't be performing opera or playing in a string quartet. Music is music, and has always benefitted from cross-cultural fertilization, without which much of the music we enjoy, and which has enriched our lives, simply would not exist. Enjoy!

Why are you being rude? What an odd reply. Literally an opinion, a point of view - my 2p. The concept of a cheaper (‘kiddy’) Flea bass in itself was acknowledged by Flea when he brought out the “fleabass” range of instruments and further addressed by the introduction of a lower price point Fleabass (street bass). I was just pointing out that Fender may have missed a trick by only having the one price point which would be out of reach for younger/less affluent fans when they’ve done broader attempts to previously... Mike Dirnt has/had a Fender and a Squier model simultaneously BB King had a Gibson and Epiphone version of Lucille (there are plenty more examples) It just broadens their buying audience somewhat and more buyers means more money. Makes more business sense. And having left the guitar/bass retail industry after 12 years in 2015 - I might have an idea of what people buy into. As a point, the cheap fleabass instruments weren’t that great - but we sold 100’s of them because people bought into the Flea name/image. But what would I know, I’m only a child.

Went along to a start-up originals audition once. The band were pretty good and (along with myself) had largely done their homework - except for the potential singer/guitarist/front man, who clearly was unable to fulfil any of those roles. It became obvious that he had made no effort to listen to any of the material, but this turned out to be irrelevant as he just plain couldn't sing, sounded as if he'd never ever picked up a guitar before and had all the charisma and personality of a canoe. BUT he thought he was great! The band played the songs while he made a terrible howling noise like an aphasic drunk falling down an escalator with a cutlery drawer, gurning horribly and throwing weird stunted shapes like an arthritic gnome with terminal hemarroids. The band immediately avoided each other's gaze. Rarely have I been so embarrassed yet so wanted to laugh as never before. No-one stepped in to stop it, we just kept going on and on through the set. It was absolutely interminable. We never met again, but later I heard he had persistently phoned the band leader pleading for the job, claiming he was obviously the best choice! And in the end actually got weird and threatening. Steps had to be taken. I've met some deluded flakes in my time - comes with the territory - but I won't forget this one in a hurry.

Sunburst it should be sunburst, split pickup, jack on the front, maple fingerboard, with LaBella 760F-MUS strings. Why they don't make these anymore I don't know, it's my go-to bass now.

Beautiful colour, but I wish it didn't have that Jazz pickup.

Sorry, you've lost me.

That's interesting. Hopefully it will help to keep the price down if Yamaha are using the standard BP34 neck and body. Fingers crossed.

Ah so I can do it on my laptop.... D'oh! Hadn't actually tried that yet Thank you all!

I forgot to mention, I'm using Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Weich's. (not gut's). I emailed Pirastro & they confirmed that their string oil is for gut's only. I just found the Pirastro String Cleaner so good at making my strings feel smooth again, & removing light grime build-up from finger oils etc. I'll probably take a punt on the Royal Oak, Gewa Old Master and Nature Works at some point. Try out all three & see which I like best!

RIP Pete. Great band. Amazing pure pop songs. Saw them for the first time in 1978 and they made me want to start a band. Those first three albums and that run of UA singles are perfection. When I asked him for gigging advice I was told "drink champagne instead of beer before the show so you don't feel bloated" Will raise a glass to that.

If I was starting again, that's what I'd do as well.

Sennheiser are a good place to start, especially the HD range.

Or much better wait to list until eBay are doing their regular max £3 or max £1 fees offer and then you just have the PayPal costs on top which are about 3%. My tip: NEVER list a big item when you are paying the full 10% eBay commission.

One gig in an old band I misread the set list, the onstage sound was shocking and there were no monitors. They started one song, I kicked off with next one. It was only when they launched into the chorus, and I was a few bars away from the chorus for the song I was playing, did I realise. After we'd played a punter walked up to congratulate me on a great set, singling out the f'ed song as being particularly good. I explained what happened, he laughed and said it was still awesome. He wasn't being sarcastic either... He may have been deaf though.

For sure! This was a hard one to balance between explaining something that is common and sought after (scooped mid sound) and trying to give an alternative (added mids at the end of the vid) as you mentioned. I agree that slap tones often aren't seen as being diverse as they are in reality. Forget me nots is great proof of that!

I think that we make it hard for ourselves - we study great bass players on TV, YouTube, Spotify etc, we chat with other great bass players on this here site, and so as a result we can have a tendency to take a harsh view of our own abilities, because we set ourselves such difficult standards to meet up to. But then once you're up on stage, you have to remember that you're probably the best bass player in the room, and you're doing things that, to the majority of the crowd, is like witchcraft. I don't think that we should get too complacent though. I like being well prepared, I like knowing that I've done the best that I can do. But I also agree that some of my most memorable gigs were the ones where things went wrong, but the band held it together by sheer musical intuition. S.P.

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My idea is a bit different but that was mostly covered in fretmeister's answer... Bass (no g-word) Octaver (for the tracking) (X-over starts) Muff (for that sound) Synth (for some space sounds) Chorus (and some extra wobble) (X-over ends) Compressor (let the comp level everything) Amp

I have a Wizard Thumper in my SX/Mighty Mite/CTS/Gotoh bitsa P Bass and I couldn’t agree more Steve . I love it

Why would anyone do that ? I'd let my missus audtion as a singer for any band she wanted to. The fact that she can't sing a note and her voice would hospitalise small children is neither here nor there. My only wish is that it was a band full of Millwall fans and they'd suffer irrevocable ear damage in the process.

Some years back we were in need of a new drummer, so set up auditions. The first one to turn up, spent an age setting up his kit, tuning it, fiddling with drum heights etc. We finally launched in to the first song of his choice and he didn't do a thing, nothing. Claimed that he wasn't quite ready, so we started again, same thing, although on the very final note he wacked the snare drum and asked us what we thought