bassbiscuits

Ive played the same bass for 24 years but can't be considered by any stretch to have had a glittering music career!

Took a bass off over my head onstage in Derry and smashed it straight into the lighting rig above me. About 25 years ago after seeing a Mr Big gig I decided to try supergluing three picks together like a clover and sticking it to a drill. Too impatient to let the glue dry properly I fired it up, splattering the bass with little beads of superglue which I never managed to remove. Oops. If anyone out there owns a black Charvel model 1 bass with mystery little bumps all over the front, that's the reason....

Rory Gallagher's battered strat?

I'm also pretty sure that Steve Harris's (Iron Maiden) P bass now is the same one he's used since the early 1980s. The one that's currently West Ham coloured is the same one that used to be the metallic blue sparkle/mirror pickguard one from around Live After Death tour in 1984/5, which itself was a refin of the white one with black pickguard he used from around Number of the Beast onwards. I might be wrong tho. It does happen.

Malcolm Young and his Gretsch guitar. Used it throughout his career from the early days when it was red and white, then stripped back to natural wood.

Nice! What's that - an early 80s jazz? DOH - i could have just read the description couldn't I? I'll get my coat...

I've got the earlier MIJ Mustang, which i think has a tighter radius neck and smaller frets than the JMJ. Mustangs are lovely basses (def go for the La Bella mustang strings too - they sounds great).

Absolutely. I spent last night listening thru a load of tunes, sketching out the main sequences and arrangements and busking along to get the hang of them. But today I listened to them all again on the bus ride to work and they are full of little phrases and runs that just bring it all to life. He doesn't spend much time on his low E string at all - the majority of stuff seems an octave up and creating really melodic lines rather than my own usual approach of relying on volume and power and vamping away on some root notes. Ive really warmed to his approach tho and feel like it's time well spent retracing his steps for a couple of weeks until I've got the songs down.

Apologies for being so late to the party on this one (about 47 years late...) but I've recently started learning Bowie's Hunky Dory album ahead of a tribute gig I'm playing at in January. What a great bassist Trevor Bolder is! So much of what he plays isn't what I'd expect him to play, and I've had to learn some sections one note at a time thru headphones (Quicksand for a start!) Excellent stuff tho. Way ahead of its time. But you all already know that. It's just me who is just waking up to Bowie's music. Sorry to have taken so long.... Just got to learn the stuff now - luckily I'll be playing my short scale Japanese Mustang will hopefully give me a nod in the right direction tonewise.

I'm going to have to pass his year. Its Mrs Biscuits' 40th birthday and I'm supposed to be coming up with a plan to take her somewhere nice. Not sure the bass bash will be enough for her!

what the hell are clavos anyway? they look like limpets.

Fender Poseidon Bass?

True. I've played original gigs for nothing - got paid in pie and mash with a pint once (which was lovely) and we made enough money hawking CDs to punters at halftime to make it worthwhile.

Joe Walsh is mint. I always think his guitar playing sounds like his personality.

You'd be more than welcome to come along to one of my gigs and hear them for yourself. They're not American guitar metal tho. Thankfully. 😀

Having drawn all this attention to himself, the best bit is that his song on Youtube is an absolute sack of cack anyway. Awesome.

We often (i.e. mostly) practice without a drummer. It means we can meet and practice at front room volume and work on aspects like backing vocals, song structure, lyrics etc. Periodically we will record these on our phones, share them with the drummer and then meet to put it all together. Works pretty well as we are all too busy to meet at the same time most weeks.

I know it. That's a decent venue for original bands too.

Yep JC basses have some pretty full on neck dive. Great basses tho. I used a 3.5wide suede strap which did help grip my shoulder and went someway to curing it. Good luck!

Where's the gig?

What a tool

Just come back from seeing it. Thought it was brilliant and moving. Good solid bit of entertainment.