bassbiscuits

I hear you - I've been there and lost my mojo too in the past. It can come from overdoing it and losing all the joy, or can come from playing with people or doing music you don't like. There's nothing wrong with stepping away from an instrument for a bit - often helps refresh your brain and your approach, especially if it really makes you miss playing and keen to get back into it. I didn't touch a bass for two years after a pretty acrimonious split with a band I'd invested a lot of time and energy with back in 2002. But music is a lifelong thing isn't it. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Yup - I've got them on my bass. They aren't 'low tension' as such - they are 43-104 gauge off the top of my head. But they feel perfectly comfortable to play. There are some specific 'low tension' Labellas available too but i haven't tried those.

I only used round wounds for over 20 years, but the last couple of years i've been getting really into flats. That said, not all flats are the same. The TIs on my Epi Jack Casady are very musical rather than thuddy, but low tension. The Labellas 760FLs on my Precision are very beefy and smooth, but not particularly high tension at all (i.e. I can still do two-fret string bends pretty easily). That said, I've got nickel rounds on my Lull which sort of suits that sort of bass better....

As the owner of a couple of genuinely scuffed guitars which I've owned for donkey's years and which have earned their mojo (some of it by me, some of it by the previous owners...) I'm not particularly attracted to relics - it wouldn't put me off an otherwise good guitar, but its not something i'd seek out either. My 47-year-old Fender has done a lot of gigs with me over the last 20+ years, and has buckle rash thru to the wood, plus lots of dings and worn areas, but its still not half as battered as my brother's brand new heavy relic Custom Shop stuff...

Nice one! Welcome to basschat - we're a nice bunch mostly. Bass is a great instrument to play live I find.

Not a bizarre request in itself, but we played at a wedding anniversary and agreed that the husband, who played guitar, could get up and play a song of his choice with us - Johnny B Goode in A, he told us. So I gave him a spare guitar and we played the song, tho there was definitely some background noise from somewhere. Turns out he'd played the entire song just mashing away on an A chord.

My band at the time was a five-piece of 30-40something blokes, playing rock/pop/70s-00s stuff. One woman asked if we could play any Girls Aloud. FFS.

Saxophone. My in-laws had one which they loaned to me - me thinking it would be another string to my bow etc. It was impossible - there was nothing familiar about how you play it, and it was deafeningly loud which meant i hardly wanted to blow it anyway. So it went back to them at next visit unfortunately. Top marks to anyone who can make it sing - it completely eluded me.

I had a few pints and a chat with him once after a comedy gig in Leicester a few years ago, and he was really good company - witty, knowledgeable and full of amusing stories.

Hello Looks like i'm going to have to replace a bridge on a Yamaha BB604 - has anyone done this already, and what bridge fitted well? It's a sort of fairly high-mass gold bit of metal, but the holes are in a different place to my BBOT Fender spare i was using to measure it. Its the same bridge as on a RBX760A, but as both the BB and the RBX are discontinued, Yamaha says they can't provide me with a spare. It's just the base plate i need - the saddles are fine. Any ideas? Is there a Yamaha experts/owners group or something? I've tried ebay and the usual parts/spares places online but nowt. Bummer.

Aside from novelty songs which aren't really meant to be 'good' my pet hate of a song is Robbie Williams 'Candy'. It's utter tripe.

I love Francis Dunnery's solo stuff - Tall Blond Helicopter and Let's Go Do What Happens were both real game changers for me musically, and helped me make sense of quite a difficult period in my life. Never seen him live tho, which is a real shame. Enjoy the gig!

We briefly did Bowie's "Oh You Pretty Things" and it was a total dance floor emptier. People just looked slightly panicked and confused when we started playing it. We dropped it after about two gigs...

Iron Maiden - Live After Death Scorpions - Worldwide Live Kiss - Alive 2 Three of the first albums that got me into playing music. I have listened to each of them hundreds of times, and know every single note, every bit of banter etc.

Jimi Hendrix "All Along the Watchtower" does it for me - its one of the most atmospheric sounding recordings ever. Mark Knopfler's "Sailing to Philadelphia" is up there for spine-tingling, tasteful, sparse playing. On the other end of the scale, Queen's "The Show Must Go On" gives me shivers - such a great vocal performance, especially knowing he's dying.

I had an old Volvo 940 estate for a long time - huge amount of room in the back with the back seats folded down. I've got a settee and a massive fridge freezer in there before now! It didn't have the same height as people movers do, but you did get a huge loading bay boot right up to the back of the driver's seat if required. Huge space, and lovely car too.