bassbiscuits

I find my plucking / picking hand to be most comfortable when the bass is low, and the fretting hand prefers it if the bass is a bit higher. So I kind of aim in the middle (roughly the full extent of a long Comfort Strapp) which is the best of both worlds for me. But some basses - I’m thinking Thunderbirds and Epi Jack Casady basses - I can’t get comfortable at any height. They’re just the wrong shape/balance for me whatever I try.

Think I’ve only got about half a dozen gigs booked in all year so far. Mix of solo, band and depping. We’ve booked two holidays and annoyingly I’ve since had to turn down four well-paid gigs which clash with the school holiday dates. Hope it will even out a bit as the year progresses.

He was good tho! The voice, the moves, the spangly see through vest, the lot. Good on him!

I thought You Spin Me Right Round with Rylan as guest singer was also far better than it had any right to be

Rick Astley was awesome tho! Go Rylan!

I’ve fallen back in love with mine. It’s a 2013 MIJ one with a jazz-width neck. I wasn’t using it much this year, as I’ve done lots of function gigs for which my active Yamahas were more versatile and better at covering a lot of different styles and sounds. However I took it to a gig on Friday and it fitted in perfectly. I took the Yamaha too and swapped to it halfway thru but it didn’t suit the music anything like as well as the Mustang. I’d had a bit of a downer on it and was going to sell it but my eyes have been opened once again to its charms. And of course, they look very cool.

Due to handing in my notice at work to retrain, I’ll have no money for instruments so I suspect I’ll be abstaining whether I choose to or not!

Here’s me from a couple of years ago at a beer festival in Bedfordshire if I remember correctly. I felt sick as a dog the entire gig but it went well enough.

The rehearsal space we’ve been using since the summer comes equipped with a fairly old Ashdown ABM300 head into an 8-ohm MAG 4x10 cab. Much to my surprise it’s a stonking sounding bit of kit, and really loud. Especially surprising since the various Ashdowns I’ve owned weren't my cup of tea at all. But this one has magic inside it somewhere. It sounds lovely.

That little run at the end of the choruses took me a while to nail. And the bass line in the chorus itself is all over the place, plus with BVs on top. Cool tune tho 👌

Yeah definitely! Dee Murray I think was the bassist on a lot of the earlier stuff and he’s really inventive. I guess having Elton’s left hand already rumbling away on the low end means finding some other space for the bass lines to occupy. Step into Christmas has a fiendish bass line too!

Sorry yes good point. It’s the Elton John tribute band.

Just back from two shows at Bibi’s Italianissimo - sort of big 1920s-themed restaurant in Leeds. We do a matinee and evening gig there most times we play, as we did today. Really good vibe, nice crowd, up for singing and dancing. Took my Mustang bass along for its first gig this year - I’d put it up for sale, then withdrawn it, and thought I owed it another bash to see how it performed at a live gig. And the answer was “brilliantly!” Glad I hung on to it. The projection of a cosy winter hearth on the backdrop did make it look like our drummer was on fire when viewed front on…

I’ve got a couple of those Markbass Bass Keeper things so I just Velcro my spare bass to the side of my amp. Saves taking up space onstage with a spare in a stand. As I dep quite a lot I find I’m often left with the small space that’s left once everyone else is in place so it comes in quite handy!

Yeah i usually take two basses but touch wood have never needed back up. Ironically some of the biggest gigs I’ve done have been festivals, support slots and/or abroad where I’ve travelled light and only been able to take one bass anyway (a reliable one). But for my own gigs here I’ll also generally bring a spare amp head, spare cables and batteries etc. For a long time I was the only person in the band who thought to bring any spare bits.

I still don’t want to listen to Gary Glitter tho.

I’m pretty sure there was a white/tort/rosewood one of these in Bass Bros earlier in the year. I don’t know who the signature guy is but the bass looked ace.

Yeah totally. Basses have different character and different sounds and strings are as much a part of that. I’ve got D’Addario NYXLs on my active Yamahas, La Bella flatwounds on my precision, and D’Addario heavy nickel wounds on my Mustang. Each suits that bass perfectly.

I couldn’t move fast enough to stop Gary Glitter’s “Rock N Roll Christmas” piping up from the Christmas tunes CD I put on this morning. Not having that on thanks.

Worth seeing what the drummer / bandleader thinks of this. We are assuming he is supportive of her idea, but he might be tired of hearing about it too. I very much doubt she’d play bass as well as the actual bass player, so then it comes down to whether the bandleader/ husband /wife are happy for the music to be worse quality for the sake of appeasing her, in which case you’re better off out anyway. Hard to know from the OP how serious or determined she is about it, or whether it’s just a nice idea that’s come to mind etc. I’ve swapped with guitar/bass/vocals in bands before for one or two songs and it didn’t bother me as I was clearly the better bassist. Might as well try and sound out what she and her husband want from this, rather than assuming the worst and walking out. If they want you as the bassist I’m sure they’ll be able to say so. If they actually want to shoehorn her in on bass it’s best you find out straight. Hope it works out either way.

Playing what looks like a Mustang neck on a Westone Thunder 1A body. Thats sorted then.👌

Alan Rickman?

Likewise - a blue MIJ Mustang is normally a good thing, but not interested in celebrating either Budweiser or some bloke I've never heard of who works for them.