Leaderboard

Really cool gig as part of the Andy Wales Blues Band at the Donkey in Leicester, playing a mix of originals and well-chosen covers. We’ve only done about half a dozen gigs so far and most have been support slots etc. This was I think our second or third full-length gig, but it was nicely busy in there. We went down a storm! We’ve been making a point of rehearsing every week which combined with our familiarity of each others playing styles means we are really on it in terms of being tight and interacting with each other. It also means we bring at least one or two new songs to each gig to keep it fresh. I’ve previously gone straight for Precision Bass with flatwounds for this sort of gig, but last night opted for Yamaha BB604 with lots of active growl and punch which worked a treat and added a new dimension to it. Some very nice things said to us afterwards from the audience, so really buzzing. Feels great!

My band 'Shreds.' played in Boston, UK at The Carpenter's Arms ("The Carps") on Saturday. It was a great show with a number of excellent bands and one solo act, but had one unfortunate incident. An audience member was crowd-surfing and fell, landing on his hip (not during our set). He was screaming in pain and yelling for someone to take him to the hospital. The bar staff called for an ambulance straight away, but it was taking too long to arrive and ultimately one of the other musicians drove him to the hospital. Fractured hip apparently, with a few days in hospital. Otherwise it really was a great show. We played well, although the sound guy was all but absent. While this seems really bad, the lack of his attention actually made our show easier since we always record our set live using our mics, preamps and a laptop. He was visibly drunk by the time we arrived, and at some point handed me a broken SM-58 to use but when I turned it over to plug in the XLR cable I found a vacant cavity missing any pins! Our show recording turned out great. Perhaps the best yet. I gigged the Rickenbacker, and used Ric-o-Sound... I sent the bridge pick-up through some distortion and into my bass amp during the show, and sent the neck pick-up directly to our recording gear (it was a small venue, so only vocals were going through the PA). Once back at home, I re-amped the clean neck pick-up and mixed it in with the recording of the amplified bridge. This turned out really well! At the end of the year, we're going to take our 2023 gig recordings and make a live album.

We (Milestone acoustic duo) played another gig last night at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough. Capacity audience in this small venue meant I had to sit alongside my Rumble 100 combo instead of having it behind me. It surprisingly worked out fine, another myth debunked! Some great requests from the audience, including ‘Mack the Knife’ and some Buddy Holly right through to ‘Wichita Lineman’ and Chasing cars’. Best audience response yet, wouldn’t let us finish before doing a couple more tunes. Probably my favourite ever regular gig, despite a slow 50 mile drive home last night due to icy conditions. We are there in a couple of weeks for their Christmas party which should be brilliant, and then a couple of Sundays every month starting January 2024.

A bit late reporting on Mustang Sally's weekend, due to me being a bit cream-crackered yesterday! Friday was a private party in Beaminster in the Fleet Club, a few miles up the road from me - it's the only upstairs load-in we play at the moment, but with our roadie and some punters we got the gear in and set up, squeezed into a diagonal on the route to the loos and opposite a long table ominously placarded with various curry names! First gig with the 2-Notes bass boost pedal, worked very well with the HB shorty (no room for the Bongo without braining the drummer anyway). No crowd surfing but a very happy crowd, good pay, table-dancing from our singiste and a fairly early finish and a lovely 20 minute drive home instead of the hour-plus from our more usual North Dorset venues. Saturday morning I couldn't find any of the band clothes that I'd left hung-up on the floor - Mrs G pointed to the washing machine: "They stunk of curry, and so do you!" she trilled gaily "so get under that shower or you can go in the next wash too..." Yes, the half-time free food had been a Smorgasbord of nothing but curries, and the jeep and instruments inside it were well-Madrassed too. Saturday's gig was at the Coronation club in Gillingham - it's been recently refurbished quite nicely but there are now 'banquettes' around all the walls, so the amps and speakers had to be sat on top of them in the corner next to the bar through lack of floor-space. Using the same setup as Friday, I soon realised something was very wrong with the bass sound - hardly audible, very woolly. Changed everything I could between numbers, eventually mostly solved it by removing the 2-Notes booster from the signal chain, taking the cab off the padded seat and squeezing it onto the floor, and changing to the Bongo. A forensic investigation today revealed that I'd used the wrong AC adapter in the 2-Notes (9v 0.25amp) instead of the 12v 1.0amp that came with it. Stupid mistake, but in the semi darkness of the corner of the room when setting up and a bagful of cables and adapters to choose from, I'd f**ked up - lesson learned! Not proud of my performance that night, too much self-induced stress, but the punters all loved the band and most importantly everyone but me had a good evening!

Yesterday was an afternoon gig for BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band in Airdrie. Quite a decent sized venue and a large stage area to play on so that was great. Wasn't sold out but a decent sized audience for a first gig in this club. Lots of dancing and lots of vids being taken with mobiles. Decent applause for each song. Was an odd crowd tho as they were slow to start but not sure if they were stunned by our appearance. Feedback from the Club committee members that booked us was excellent and they've never seen anything like it in the club before. They asked us to do 2024 Hogmanay gig which has now been confirmed. They also want us to play thru the year as well so all good. Sound on stage was great too. Singer/guitarist managed to coerce me into doing an audience walk around on the last song which has a guitar medoly of songs before going into Bay City Rollers Shang-a-lang. Dance floor was full and i kept getting dragged into photo shoots with several women. All great fun and that's the first time i've ever had the nerve to do that. No pics or vids yet but hopefully some will appear soon. Dave

Two gigs with Public Service Announcement this weekend. Saturday night was at the Trinity Bar, Harrow. Originally, we would be opening the show, followed Damage UK (who organised the event) and headlined by Eddie Roxy and the Adjacent Kings. Unfortunately Eddie Roxy had to cancel, so Red Anger joined the bill as opener and Damage UK headlined. Venue had an Ashdown combo to use and knowing bands play upstairs, I decided to use house rig as frankly, I couldn't be arsed to lug my rig up stairs! Something in me said to have my little Warwick gnome in my bag and my Orange SP212 cab in the boot - just in case. Good job I did, as arrived at venue to find the house rig wasnt working. Back up rig sounded great. Onstage sound was definitely one of the best we've had. All thee bands played well to a very receptive, but small crowd. Not sure the line up change at fault or just a slow night. I find originals gigs really can be hit and miss attendance wise. Drive home was just 30 mins, so home well before midnight Sunday we headed down to a rainy, windy Brighton for the Punk 4 the homeless gig at the Pipeline. We had a 5pm slot. We parked in a multi story and then three of us lugged guitar, bass, pedal boards, cable bags, mic stand, cymbal bag across Brighton in search for venue. Why we didn't pull up outside venue, drop off gear and then park, I don't know... We got to venue in time to rest our achy arms and enjoy a pint while we waited for the drummer, who'd headed down earlier with his wife. We waited, and waited and waited and then we got nervous, and then we got anxious. As the band on before us finished their and started to pack up, in he strolled, looking a drowned rat. He wiped the rain of his glasses so he could see, took his wet coat off and rushed to the stage.... House rig was an Ampeg head through an Ashdown 4x10. Sounded great! Wish I noted what model the head was - not that I have need or money for any more gear. we played really well and went down a storm. Calls for a encore which we had time to fulfill and some great moshing from the younger audience at the front. We then grabbed a beer and enjoyed Watching Rage DC before lugging the gear back through the now dark streets in the wind and the rain, loaded the car and then sat in the traffic jam on the M25 And exhausting weekend. Loved every minute

Three hour afternoon gig on Sunday at (the pink torpedo (LoL)) the C*ck in Dereham with the Checkmate Kings (blues band). As you can see from the photo, it’s very tight for space and the punters are spread across three rooms but it always turns out to be a good gig (this was our 5th in two years). We got plenty of positive feedback and the landlord was talking about getting repeat gigs every three to four months next year, which is a result. I used my BF Two10 with Mark Bass LM III (overkill for the venue really but I like the tone) and Maruszczyk Elwood 4a medium scale. I’ve got two more gigs to go this year but with two different (non-blues) bands and very little overlap in the set lists. A bit of practice is called for!

On Saturday I was back at The Angel this time with In Isolation supporting B-Movie. The gig was sold out and I have never seen the venue so full. There were people queuing up the stairs waiting to get in just after we had finished our sound check, and during the gig the room was rammed with the promoter turning people away who didn't have tickets. Played really well including the new songs and the audience who more mostly there to see B-Movie were very appreciative. Sold some CDs and T-Shirts. And got more gigs in 2024 from the promoter. I don't think there will be any photos to post as I didn't see anyone taking any while we were playing. New gig on Sunday 3rd at The Black Bull in Gateshead - apparently it's in the afternoon.

I've been thinking about getting one of these for a couple of years, mainly because I really like the aesthetics and the idea of a Thunderbird in a more compact package also appealed Anyway a couple of days ago I gave in and ordered this from Gear 4 Music. When the courier handed the box over I was immediately struck by how little it weighed. Intrigued (and half wondering if I'd been sent the right instrument) I eventually got my new Epiphone Embassy out of the packaging and again was struck by how light it was. I'm fortunate not to suffer with problems that mean that I usually worry too much about a basses weight but I had to find out how much or rather little this thing weighed. Using the with/without bathroom scales method and after double checking a couple of times I got my answer. 7.2 lbs. I've got a thinline Tele skinny stringer that weighs about a pound more. What doesn't really come across when you see these in pictures is firstly that the body is smaller than either a P or J and the overall length of the bass is 2-3 inches shorter, largely due to the 2+2 headstock. Secondly and I suspect this is where most of the weight difference is, the body is significantly thinner. Enough about the weight. It's early days and I've only had it a few hours, but so far I'm happy. Unlike the body, the tone is far from thin, it's a lovely warm tone, full of bass and mids, it lacks some of the higher frequencies I get from my PJ and J basses but I don't think it's a bad thing to have something a bit different. The bridge pickup solo'd is a bit of a revelation, it's got far more body to it than my single coil basses which makes for a very usable tone. As I say, early days, but very much looking forwards to spending a lot more time with it.

My mother was a piano teacher, so we had a rather lovely Pfeiffer upright, which from about 3 years old I spent much time at, picking out thirds, and generally noodling. When I was four my mother began to teach me a few minuets and pieces. I could play them faultlessly with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. At the age of five, I was composing little pieces, which I played to my mother who wrote them down and published them as "Nannerl Notebuch" (she's German). When I was 6 I started a three year tour, playing to the crowned heads of Europe, and while on tour at age eight wrote my first symphony. Further tours followed, with numerous concertos, symphonies and operas. Then at the height of my child-prodigy fame I heard music the like of which I'd never heard before; it was sung by a strange limping man and it had this crazy syncopation, which I discovered came from something called "the bass guitar" - the song was called "Hit me with Your Rhythm stick". So I forgot all about all that piano nonsense, and journeyed into bass, discovering the likes of Parliament and Bootsy, Fatback, James Brown et al. By now I was shunned by the classical establishment, somehow my head was shaven on the sides and down the middle was a plume of black hair. I spent my time plucking away on a very battered acoustic guitar with the 2 high strings missing, yearning for the day that I could properly take part in The Joy of Bass. Then one day as I took my evening constitutional on the mean streets of Hyde Park, Leeds I heard music. Music with a strong beat, and there was phat bass! I ventured into the house, and there was a party going on where all manner of people cavorted in various stages of ecstasy. As I wandered deeper, into the basement, there were some youths playing guitar, drums, keyboards and there was a bass. On its own. With no-one playing it. So I plucked up courage and strapped on the bass. Somebody handed me a strange and rather large cigarette, and soon we were a band. A month or so later Dredd and the Badass Weeds did their first gig. Followed by quite a few more - most of them quite chaotic, some of them lasting for many hours. And after 40 years, we've finally (almost) produced our first mini LP.

My first look down the Spector rabbit-hole. A Dan Briggs signature model with Darkglass Tone Capule preamp. I have to admit I didn’t have a clue who Dan Briggs was! First impressions are positive, aside from it being a bit on the heavy side.

I have been attentively listening to songs' basslines - as opposed to lyrics and other instruments - since I got hooked on Saturday Night Fever the soundtrack when I was 13. At the time girls weren't supposed to play bass, there were no lefty instruments AT ALL in shops, and the received wisdom in my family was that we had no talent for music anyway. Fast forward nearly 30 years spent taking photos and doing primitive sound engineering for friends' bands, standing in front of, rather than on, stage, and at age 41 I split up with guitarist partner of 16 years. I missed music, I did not miss guitar, so I bought a lefty bass online and started the journey; happy to be still on it. No interest in playing live or indeed in playing in front of anybody - just for myself. It makes me happy.

Beware your 35th birthday. ...

The first time I really noticed the bass was at a concert at the Albert Hall when I was 7 or 8 or so. I distinctly remember pointing at the bassist and telling my mum that I could feel what 'that man with the guitar' was playing, making my tummy flutter. If memory serves correctly, it was a sunburst Fender of some sort. From that moment on, my ears instantly homed in on the bass whenever I listened to music. When ska hit in 1979, I wanted to be Horace Panter -- he was the Specials for me. And when a bunch of us in the 6th form decided to form a band, there was only really one choice for me. First influences were Horace, Dave Steele of The Beat, then Tony Butler of Big Country. And then one night, I saw Mark King on the telly and he quite literally changed my life.

And it didn't even happen during your set. You guys are lovely, well done.

Update on the crowd surfer: Broken left hip, and he'll have surgery this morning. Poor guy, we're sending him a free 'Shreds.' t-shirt.

This is one of the finest lines I've ever seen on Basschat!

I was able to fit 2 Berg AE112 cabs and a 19" rack and 2 basses into my wife's Cooper S about 10 yrs ago. I did remove them when i sold the car tho. Dave

Micheal Caine - Madness

I did this very trick with a friend's band years ago when they asked me for some advice after they kept not getting re-booked for pub gigs due to the guitarist being face-meltingly loud. I turned up at their rehearsal and got the guitarist to put the amp in front of him on the tilt-back legs like a monitor wedge. After half a song, he kicked his amp and stormed off. "It sounds awful and is giving me a headache!" he raged. "Now you know how your audience feels" was my reply......... I understand he went out and bought a Blues junior the next day and gigged with that for years.

I went on tour in Germany with the school choir in the 6th form. My best mate played guitar and he and another guy who played spent the whole week sitting together on the bus talking about guitars, leaving me alone with my hangover and Walkman every day. I knew my big brother had a guitar in the attic, so I asked said mate if he’d teach me when I got back. Sure enough, upon my return, I dug out my brother’s ancient guitar, it was a Kay SG with four strings which I enthusiastically took to school to show him. (He owned a stunning fender elite ultra, a 60s gretsch and a 70s SG and was surprisingly supportive.) Much of my time was then spent hanging around the music room and youth wing where my mates band would rehearse and, although I knew nothing about guitars, I knew that one particular type of guitar was way cooler than the others I saw there, and so was the guy that played it. The guitars that appealed to my teenage sensibilities had big fat strings and chunky machine heads and looked somehow ‘tougher’, and the guys that played them always had something aloof and cool about them. Apparently, these were ‘bass guitars’ - something I’d never heard of. I watched closely and the concept was explained to me. I knew right away It was for me. It just felt right. My birthday was coming up, and there was one bass guitar for sale locally, a blue Kaman GTX 53 pointy thing for £50. My dad was very reluctant to part with the cash for a fad (to say the least), but I was determined and sure enough it was soon mine. I worked out that if I jammed the ‘record’ head in on my old 70s tape player and plugged into the mic socket with an adapter - it became an ‘amp’. Two weeks later, the bass player in my mates band quit and handed me the job, claiming I was better in two weeks than he was in two years, which was kind. I was on stage within two weeks of buying my first bass and playing full shows within a month or so, with both the aforementioned band and even depping for the school jazz band, where the music teacher said some very kind things! I started off with the usual three note stuff - wild thing, rocking in the free world etc, but the songs that really made me want to go home and get working were ‘throwing things’ and ‘kill your television’ by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin - two bass lines per song to figure out. That was the first few months of a journey that’s taken me to some of the UKs biggest and most prestigious venues and many of its dingy pub corners, plus radio, TV and MTV and magazines. 30 years, (Well) over 300 basses and lord knows how many amps, pedals, gizmos and bad choices later I’m still out gigging every weekend and loving every second of the amazing journey that I’ve been on. Some people will do karaoke once and talk about that moment for years, so I never fail to appreciate how lucky I am to get to do what I do week in week out. It’s ace. This place has been pretty cool too. Just sayin’.

Played one of the worst gigs I've ever done last night... horrible grotty little (anti) social club somewhere in the Midlands. The sort of place pregnant women go to smoke. There was a loud ten piece soul band playing a private party in the next room (who sounded pretty good to be fair),there were about 20 people ignoring us, half of whom were kids under ten. Everyone was vaping indoors, including some of the kids I think. There was American football on all seven enormous TVs and a dog wandering round. One guy sarcastically danced, a women asked for Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre, apart from that, total silence. No applause, no engagement, nothing. I'd rather have played to the proverbial brick wall. Longest two 45 minute sets in history. 😐 Played the StingRay and apologised to it four times. We packed up in 22 minutes flat, which beats the previous record by nearly an hour. Got paid cash and let us never speak of it again.

I think I told this earlier somewhere, but... I had played piano for +10 yrs, but wanted to try the g-word. Bought an old, red Hagström. My schoolmate was an avid g-word player at that time and looked at me and said: "You're so big and ugly, why wouldn't you play bass?" My voice is low, and bass actually felt like mine. Bought an old 4001, then went to a music school to learn jazz and pop. My playing is not very flashy, although I try to overplay too often... so far I have played maybe 2000 gigs. Not very much compared to pros, but enjoying every opportunity.

I'd fancied the idea for years without doing anything about it. A friend at uni had been the original bassist in the Dogs d'Amour and he tried to convince me to get a bass, but I bought a cheapo electric guitar instead because, well you know, guitar. When I moved to Leeds in 1993 and started using dial-up bulletin boards, I encountered someone who had been a session bassist. I toyed with the idea of getting a bass but never took it any further, even when I wished I could play like John Deacon. Then back in 2015 when my marriage collapsed, I finally decided to give it a go, as I wasn't getting any younger and I thought it might stop me spending the evenings inspecting the world through the bottom of a bottle. I stuck with it, and began to improve first from books and then from lessons from @wilko_66, who is a superb teacher. it helped that I'd played other instruments in the past, as my reading ability and theory came back and after several house moves and a few failed auditions, I ended up in my 80s post-punk band which consisted of people with far more experience than me. I really had to push myself to get up to something approaching their level and we played our first gig ten days before lockdown. Since then, we've gone from strength to strength and tonight we played to a packed venue as a two- band bill along with a 90s cover band. My start in the bass world was late and looks like it was unconventional, going by the posts above, but I'm glad I finally got there!

I acquired an older 300 watt combo and not knowing its history just wanted a quick MOT so I can rely on it. I removed the head from the cab, sent it by courier and Dave Green turned it around within a day changing the control pots and deemed it all okay to fight another day. Charged me £9.20 and £10 shipping plus vat, came out at an amazing £23.04. In this day and age of utter wangers out there, it is so refreshing to have an absolute smiley encounter with an amazing company. Thanks again DG and Ashdown.. 5 stars!!

Another ripping gig on Saturday night. Oh how I love playing ska and reggae. It's such happy music. 🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤

Before people jump simply to attributing this to malice, it could be a systemic failure - where IT change stuff on the website and neglect to inform the people who maintain that info on the shop floor. If they haven't realised that there's a problem, it'll keep on happening until they get a procedure in place that properly handles price changes. But they probably are at it, yeah

Not for me, it's not. ANDAAAAAAYEEEEAAAA WILLALLWAAYS LUVYOOOOOO, oh spare me please. The way the acrobatic OOOOOOs drift in and out of tune is like fingernails down a blackboard. Give me Dolly's original any day.

Sadly I wouldn’t fit all that in the boot of me Mini Dave 😂

I have 3 of those (excellent) Hiscox Liteflite cases and for touring purposes they’re fantastic. If my phone camera wasn’t kaput I’d take a photo of them stacked, as each of them still has a strip of masking tape at the body end with marker pen denoting which instruments they’re for. Telecaster #1, Classical, Acoustic, a trick I learned from searching for the correct cases in the basement at Vintage & Rare. Never thought of doing the matching strap-to-case thing though, that’s new to me I must say! Even though I no longer tour, I still keep the cases with the guitars stored in them. No idea why, as gigbags would take up less room. But Hiscox cases are ace 👍

I don't mind a legitimate sincere encore from the whole room. I don't know how I feel about one or two dudes " three sheets to the wind" requesting one more song. Lol Daryl

Geordie RIP

'twas on the bridge at midnight etc etc You can fill in the missing bit .... 😎

100%. Coldest i've seen here in central belt Scotland was -26 oC back in early 80's. I was working outside doing a backshift and my hands were literally sticking to things outside that i was working on. After that it was -22 oC in 2010 and altho not as cold it never climbed above 0 oC for approx 3 mths that winter. The amount of damage it caused at work with frozen and burst cooling water pipes on large compressors and gas plants was "trying" to say the least paddling thru 1-2 ft of warm water in plant shops to reach an isolation valve. Happy Days and thankfully long gone for me now. I don't miss working at all Dave

Why do people do this? "This is our last song" - "AWWW WHAT, WE'VE ONLY JUST GOT HERE" - err, it's 1 in the bleedin' morning, we've been playing since 10, feckin' get here sooner in future!

Last night... first gig for a month and a bit. Somehow I managed to take a lump off my right thumb on friday and scratch my left palm (opening a paint can with an old chisel - tŵat). But I was ok if a bit sore. Then weird lead issues when setting up, possibly caused by a dent in a jack plug. Amp went very quiet just like @Woodinblack' issue! Reversingbthe lead solved it. But in the break I blew most of my cut and ordered two neutrik/sommer cables. Venue was a 400 year old pub, regulars love their music but odd layout. Band and dance area is a step lower than the bar. Very few people in the low section, but packed like sardines in the bar section. So notmuch applause as all holding drinks, instead shouts, whistles and appreciative comments. Feels odd. Did about 45/50 minutes first set, about 65 second set with an encore. Finished a few minutes before the curfew and a couple of punters came in and expressed their disappointment. So a weird atmosphere but a good gig. Our ott PA and lighting... used the AVII P and the Flea Jazz. Very different feel and sounds, jazz is more comfy and varied but the P has that oomph so gets the second set.

Robert Plant's Saving Grace Tour in Stoke. "I'd like to say it's great to be back.....but I can't furbing remember" Plant's opening line to the audience set the tone for a fabulous gig of chilled country/folk/roots music interspersed with the occasional Led Zep song. His vocal partner Suzie Dain was excellent and a perfect foil to Plant. Does the Golden (now silver) God still have it? You bet he does although he blended his vocals with Suzie and the rest of the band rather than trying to dominate. I usually cringe a bit when I see banjos and accordions on stage but they worked, even on Zep tunes. They did The Rain Song which was magical and mystical....even with an accordion 😊 Catch this tour if you can, you won't be disappointed. There's no merch, not much on YouTube....you have to go and watch. "This is one of the best musical experiences of my life....and it's great not having to compete with that racket" Plant said at the end. Turns out he's a bassist too...

J.S. Bach. Taught me the essence of a good bass part, and had an immense impact on my musical thinking. Stanley Clarke (Children of Forever, School Days) and Jaco Pastorius (Jaco, Jaco Pastorius, Hejira). Rein van den Broek, trumpet player with Ekseption. Trumpet? No, but he did use a King Octavoice, an octave divider, and he pulled wonderfully raspy low tones out of it. Now, I only had a short-scale kid's guitar, but ... think shrewdly with me now: A second Octavoice doesn't know that the sound has already been through an Octavoice, now does it? ... [finger taps nose].

When I was in Y3 (age 7-8ish?) at school, I got sent to a room with a group of other kids to take a test. Turned out to be a musical aptitude (Bentley) test, and off the back of it I was offered lessons with a peripatetic violin teacher, so I ultimately learned violin and played in orchestras and string ensembles for the next 8 or so years. The first 4 years were really good fun, but when I moved to secondary school I had one violin teacher who was fixated on grade exams and then another who I think just liked the money, the school orchestra wasn't all that great, and as it became less fun I lost interest. I was playing grade 8 pieces, but had no interest in theory or taking exams, so kept on with it for long enough to get me out of PE lessons but ultimately gave it up. By that time, though, I'd had a school music lesson where the nylon-strung classical guitars were handed out and we were all shown enough chords to strum along with Everybody Hurts by REM. It made me think that guitar would be a fun replacement, but electric would fit better with the music I liked to listen to and I certainly didn't want to play dots or have lessons. We knew a guy who played and was looking to sell his starter kit, so I ended up buying a cheap 'Session Pro' Strat copy and a Peavey Rage 158 for not very much at all. I got absolutely nowhere with it, so decided to trade it in and get a bass instead - not because it would be 'easier', but my logic was that with 4 strings and single notes rather than 6 and chords, it might feel more familiar. My first bass in 1999 was a Squier P Special, and it rattled horribly but I could play stuff on it pretty much straight away. I took it back to the shop and was told they'd had issues with the entire batch so were refunding people and sending them back. After a bit of back and forth I managed to walk away with a Yamaha BBN4 instead of a refund, and I've been a self-taught bassist ever since.

Outstanding.