bassbiscuits

Didn't Harry Secombe used to play one?

There was the Halloween gig near Doncaster a few years ago when I felt so ill I had to keep pulling over on the way to vomit out of the car door. Spent most of the night in the car park in a cold sweat trying to get some fresh air and not barf. Managed the gig without passing out and succeeded in not spewing while singing which was a miracle. Seem to remember a big gang of lads singing some massively racist chanting as I was leaving too, which was nice.

Got to the final of a battle of the bands thing once and we all drove to Birmingham for the gig. Turns out the band (who go on to win, no surprise at all) are the mates of the pub hosting the gig. So they get to go on at peak time to a good crowd, and the soundman giving a sh*t. We don't go on until long after - some 'technical problems' from the venue apparently which delay our set even further. By the time we play, it's going on for 11pm, and there's a handful of people left standing among the detritus of the previous bands beer bottles etc. We don't win.

In the 1990s my band in South Wales did a good few gigs in the valleys. Our first ever gig, in a pub in the Swansea Valley, the landlord kicked us out after our soundcheck because the half a dozen or so punters were apparently expecting a female cabaret singer. We didn't get paid and our van got caught up in a big clash between football fans on the way home. My next band did a gig in a really rough club in the Rhondda Valley. We were a mix of britpop originals and some classic rock/pop covers, but a big mound of a guy sidles up to tell us it's death metal night there and furthermore most of them have taken an E (not a combination I'd have though but never mind). The gig was awful, they weren't interested, and we were glad to get our alive. Same band played a gig in Soho where we'd driven in a hired van from South Wales. Turns out it's a transvestite bar and we've been billed as a jazz combo. We go on after a Shirley Bassey impersonator. No one likes us. Our van gets a parking ticket. We only get paid £50 of the promised £100, which didn't event cover the cost of the parking fine, let alone the van hire or the petrol.

I need to check out Lau. Isn't Kris Drever their guitarist? I've got some of his solo stuff and it's great. Come to think of it I saw him live at the Big Session too. I remember he had a lovely fingerpicking guitar sound.

Yep Tunng are cool. I saw them live a couple of times over the years in a long-gone event called the Big Session which was on Leicester. Folktronica is about right! They'd gone off my radar a bit but I must check them out again.

I've tried. I really have. The only jazz i'm at all familiar with is a couple of Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Dave Brubeck albums I have, so late 50s and early 60s I guess. That hardly counts as a wide cross section of jazz I know! Maybe it's cos it's not stuff I grew up loving or influenced by particularly, so while I can see it's worth, musically and technically, it just doesn't fire me up in the way I'd expect if I loved it. Sorry.

Hi Matthew - no worries. If you click on my name in the little icon, it''ll take you to my profile, from where you can click on 'send mail' to send me a personal message. I've just PM'd you. I just thought it looked like a pretty cool bridge. I need to check the string spacing etc on the bass in question. looks nice tho.

I've had a couple of Nanyos - a red SB310 like this one, and a black fretless SB301. Both lovely basses and ridiculously good quality for the price. I was never crazy on the looks tho, and ultimately moved them on.

That's cool - what is it? I need something like this potentially.

NYXLs are v good strings, currently on my Yamaha. However I already blagged my current set in a raffle at the local Bass Bash last year so it would be mean to bag another free set, wouldn't it?

I used to boil my roundwounds occasionally, and it does help to give them a bit of extra life but not for long, and not more than once really before the strings started to look a bit sorry for themselves with shredded silks etc. However - if you look at Marlow DK on Youtube he does this thing of slackening the strings off and doing what he describes as 'slapping the sh*t outta them' - literally popping and slapping the slack strings to knock some of the gunk out. And it does actually work. A bit. I've mostly moved over to La Bella flatwounds these days tho so zing is not my thing. Interested in the Warwick Red Labels tho for my remaining roundwound bass.

'Back of the net' I believe is the correct term. Well done that man!

Yup - at 20 I was still at university, with two-foot wild curly long hair, gold earrings and bead necklaces and thinking I was quite a guy. So my priorities were drinking, drawing, playing music and trying to charm female students into bed, armed with sod all money, a bad hairstyle and a knack for drawing occasionally very cool artwork. I wasn't playing in any bands at that point - I'd been gigging in my teens but wasn't paying much attention to much at 20. Im 44 now, and all rather more realistic. I'm still pretty dedicated to playing both bass and acoustic guitar and can't go more than a few days without getting itchy fingers. I gig as much as I can around commitments of work, family and children, but I've got a bit more selective over the years and better at saying 'no' to stuff I don't want to do. I still manage the occasional artwork (life drawing sessions at local art college etc) and have found a new lease of life drawing cool things with my kids (robots, monsters and spaceships mainly). The hair has long returned to a normal shape and size. Still got the earrings, but the Tibetan shirts, incense and selection of global trance music has long gone...

Quite.

I don't think it was my bass playing itself in question - more his attitude overall to stamping his authority on his band by making sure I knew my worth. Idiot really.

I was the replacement bass player, and therefore the last member to join, one of my previous bands. They were halfway thru an album at the time, and I was really looking forward to recording some stuff. I played and sang on about three of the songs I think, and was eagerly waiting for the next stint in the studio to do the rest. I found out subsequently that the guitarist had decided to just play the bass on all the rest of the tunes and went and completed them without telling me, after booking the recording session when he knew I was on holiday. In fairness, I did leave that band - not as an immediate result of that, but it did give me a fairly good indication of where I stood.

I still get on with most people I've shared a stage with over the years. But im also glad im not still in a band with quite a lot of them! Where friendships existed before the band, they've survived the best. Some others were people I'd have nothing in common with beyond that particular band, so we've not really kept in touch.

Definitely agree with going secondhand. I picked up a used Yamaha BB604 for £200 which has become a main bass. Jazz pickups, active electronics and 24-fret neck make it very versatile and usual great Yamaha build quality.

Yes Si, very much so. I wasn't that bothered when I bought it as i wasn't sure it was gonna be a keeper. Now i'm sure it is, I'd be more inclined to splash cash on a proper bag.

My 2013 MIJ Mustang came with a standard Strat/Tele gigbag which the previous owner carried it around in. It's a tight squeeze at the headstock end tho and not wanting to scrap the headstock against the zip, i dont use it. I find that using a regular long-scale bag is fine anyway tho - mine is a Fusion F3 i think, which is quite rigid anyway so doesn't flop at the empty space at the headstock end, and has a velcro strap to hold the neck in place anyway. I guess some foam padding or bubble wrap would secure it in place if it was essential. I realise that doesn't answer the question at all! Just saying, that full size bags (which most of us will have at least one of) work fine in my experience. I'd rather put up with the extra space than try to force it into a smaller bag.

Well done on the move to Germany chap - hope it works out well. Hoping we can manage to keep the bass bash going - the couple ive managed to get along too were great, and been a great chance to meet other BCers.

Gibson and Fender are each sitting on a pile of awesome, classic designs for guitar and bass. Fender manage both to make both faithful representations of their classic models, and updated versions with sensible, useful amendments. Plus a product range spanning various custom shop, MIA, MIJ, MIM, along with the large Squier range to cover a lot of different price points. Gibson on the other hand haven't even regularly produced an accurate version of some of their existing models, for example the original EB basses, SG or LP Juniors or Firebird 1 guitar (or single pickup Thunderbird bass for that matter). The tweaks made have often answered questions no one has asked - the Firebird X, SG Zoot Suit, the robot tuners, the wider neck and lower frets of the 2015 range etc. Gibson need to concentrate both on making the best possible versions of their own classic designs (which merit the hefty price tag), and make sure the improvements/developments they make on more contemporary models are based on what players might actually want. For what it's worth the Epiphones I've played seem to have a closer take on that that Gibson ironically - models like the Jack Casady Bass, Thunderbird classic pro and the Casino Gary Clark Junior model I have are brilliant designs - sensible rejigs of classic models to make them versatile, affordable instruments.