Graham56

Not for me, I’ve got plenty… but for my bass sound. I play in an Americana/blues/gospel band. Bass, drums, guitar, sax, singer with harmonica. There are a couple of songs we’re working up where the guitarist is playing trumpet. (No, not Ring of Fire!) When he does, the body of the band sound tends to drop out. The sax can cover some, but I wonder if I could fill out a little more of the space. I play a P-Bass with LaBella flats through Little Mark and Barefaced, and I don’t want to meddle with the basic sound. I currently use no pedals – I try to avoid any complexity and adding stuff that increases the chance of some kind of systems failure. But is there a pedal than can ‘flesh the sound out a little’? Only a little mind you – I’ve tried a couple of fuzz pedals and hated them. But if there was something that gave a little more grit and body, that might be useful. Any thoughts from the collective? I know very little about pedals so be gentle with me… Cheers, Graham

At least I was honest...

Again, from the band side... We were a pub covers band and occasionally used deps (drums guitar or sax). We would claim, "Don't worry, we play like the record." Except we didn't always. Some we had changed keys for the vocals, others had slight modifications to the arrangements (four times the starting riff instead of the three on the record etc etc). Once a song has been in your setlist for a while its easy to forget any modifications you have made... Most of the deps handled it all very well.

This! Make sure you enjoy it. So by all means do some exercises if you wish, but finish your practice by playing tunes you like.

I've played mainly LaBella flats for about 15 years. When I (rarely) switch to my Ibanez with rounds I find I've become really sloppy with finger placement, sliding between notes and preventing fret buzz. Flats seem to be better (for me anyway) at hiding poor technique. I need to do some work for a couple of hours to get roundwounds sounding tight and precise. Maybe I should do it more often...

From the other side.... When I turned 66 my dad was 90. His comment? "I'm not sure I can cope with having a son who's a pensioner..."

You've got the gig at the ball? 😆

For a while my daughter worked for Tesco on a nightshift, filling the trays for home delivery orders. She doubted the worth of the substitute list when it suggested that the acceptable substitute for a customer order for vegetarian sausages could be meat ones. What really did her in was a manager telling her not to think for herself and just put the meat ones in... 🙄

And there you have about 90% of all product advertising distilled in 9 words... 🙂

Yeah, I don't need a guitarist for that, I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself...

Stupidity (Dr Feelgood). Took another few years before I came anywhere the feel of John Sparks' original.

Les Paul? 😁

I watched my mate's band play a quiet cafe-style gig last night. Towards the end of the set they introduced a new song, Taylor Swift's Shake it Off. And they had a communal band-wide brain fart and couldn't get the riff going. They took three attempts then moved on to the next song. They handled it brilliantly though, with lots of humour and asking the audience if anyone knew how to play it. When they finished, people asked them to have another go. And this time they nailed it. Got the biggest cheer of the night too.

Nick Cave at the O2 a week ago. I don't usually like huge venues like this - but... It was an intense, sad, joyful, wrenching show that completely drew the audience in, probably the best show I've seen in years. Did I say intense?

I can't add much to what else has been said, apart from this. The vids don't sell you. Yes, your playing is solid and competent, fine and ideal for the music. But the visuals aren't. You don't need to jump around, but maybe you should stand and just look more engaged. Does this guy look like he could do the job and keep his energy levels up for, say, two 90min sets? Because that's what the band needs! I'm not sure your relaxed sitting position does that for you. Keep networking though, and keep trying! Cheers! Graham (66)