bassbiscuits

I once made Neil Murray a cup of tea. I was working at Roland/Boss at the time and he came to our HQ for something. I also sat in a hotel bar with Guy Pratt once after a stand up show he was doing called My Bass and Other Animals a few years ago now. Ended up getting pissed together and talking about our fave bass lines. And Marcus Miller once rang me when I worked at Roland to get some info on a sound module. No idea whether he ever went out and bought it tho!

I'm off to a Francis Dunnery house gig tonight in Stamford. Not quite sure what to expect, but the albums I have of his have been outstanding (Tall Blond Helicopter, Lets Go Do What Happens). Not really up to speed on his It Bites material i must admit. He's gone a bit mellower since then i think, but really looking forward to seeing and hearing him. Anyone else been to one of these, and what did they make of it? Just curious really. Cheers

That looks great - cool colour too. A refreshing change from the sunburst which all my fenders are! I like that sort of 50s maple neck look. V nice.

Still none the wiser i'm afraid....

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1502694556' post='3352835'] bass biscuits - I`m beginning to wonder if this isnt the future for me too. Plenty of small cafe gigs in nearby Cambridge... Did they provide a PA or do you have to take your own? [/quote] This particular one was PA provided along with a bloke who did the sound and even played some cajon on a few tunes. I've got a little PA of my own which does the job for small gigs too as a couple of my other regular ones don't provide one. I do love proper band gigs as a bassist but over the years I've racked up enough songs I can enjoy playing on guitar and singing that it's a no brainer not to get some gigs out of it. Nice to have the choice tho.

Solo gig at local cafe/pub thing on vocals and acoustic guitar. First time using Boss RC-1 looper pedal I bought a few days back. All well and good for the first half when there's fewer people and you can hear yourself - less successful during rowdy second half so in reverted to mashing out the hits on my acoustic guitar. Decent enough gig tho. A few other local musos popped by which was cool. Nice early finish at 9.30pm and home by 10pm with a cuppa.

Blimey - that's astonishing. Makes even the oldest, most valuable electric guitars and basses seem like newcomers.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1502182586' post='3349736'] Play your best, up tempo, interesting, lively. . . you get the picture. . . . song first. Say "Hello" during the count for the second song. Start this immediately after the end of the first song. End the set with a couple of strong songs. If you don't already have these songs find some. You have to make an impression. Second set should be more of the same. IMO "Hello Neasden" is way too cheesy, as is putting one foot on the monitor. Don't do either. You should all do your final tuning earlier, then walk off the stage. When you're ready, all walk on together and start. Don't twiddle or play anything. Know the first 4 songs you're going to play before you walk on stage. Better still have a set list. Sets should be constructed to ensure a momentum of energy. Bowie, The Stones, Dave Gilmore and all other pro bands I know of use set lists. Any "dead" time on stage looks very amateurish. Some bands I play with do this and some don't. The ones who do always go down better. [/quote] This ^ I've played in bands with guitarists who endlessly make tiny adjustments to their sound/effects pedals etc once we're on stage to start the first song, and do the same between every song, which utterly kills any vibe or momentum. Drove me insane. Not helped by the absence of a set list, which meant lots of shouting across to each other onstage between songs, while guitarist is making more imperceptible tweaks to sound. Aargh! Sometimes if the venue has been quite quiet to start with, we'll begin with a gentler song or two to ease people in - but left up to me I always start with something that's fairly indicative of what's to come. I also always try to go straight into the second and third song etc to keep the momentum before stopping for any patter.

Mine's not pre-CBS but its a 1970 P, so 47 years old (older than me anyway!) From the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s it was the only bass I owned so it got gigged all over the place, including getting stolen and recovered a few days later. It had a bit of a spell out of action when it was having a refret and a few tweaks, but since then I'm using it more for gigs - there isn't any point in having gear that's so good you're afraid to gig it. I guess I might have 10-15 years of wanting to bother gigging anymore, so might as well enjoy it.

Ooh i say.

Yup another big fan of JC basses here. I also noticed the Hipshot Supertone bridge and thought it looked ace but the three-point jobbie it came with seems fine for now.

Just sold a bass to Dan. All went smoothly and he's a top bloke.