thebrig

Mostly through musician websites like JoinMyBand and BandMix.

I have literally just left the band, I feel so much happier now and I will take my time looking for the right people with no ego's to play music with.

Ok, thanks

Here's another example to illustrate bass players being the "poor relation in a band" In the band I play in, I’m normally stuck at the back behind one of the guitarists who is 6ft 5in, but at one gig recently, there just wasn’t enough room in the tiny little corner I was in, so I had the audacity to move to the other side of the stage into the only space available, which happened to be right in front of the other guitarist who was also well over 6ft, so he easily towered over me seeing as I'm only 5ft 8in, but he was not happy, afterwards he complained that I had cramped his style, especially when he was doing his solo's, when I questioned him about his ego, he just said, “no one in the audience wants to see or hear the boring bass player, they only want to see the guitarists doing their solo’s”, and he mean’t it.

I went to a Jam Night that was run by a guitarist who had the biggest ego possible, he started the evening by doing all the Hendrix stuff on his own at very high volume and with loads of distortion, this went on for about 30/40 minutes before he started calling people up, and yes, they were mostly his mates, even though myself and others had got there long before they did, (there was no board to put your name down), and then he asked if he could borrow my bass, to which I reluctantly agreed, he then proceeded to play for another 20 minutes with said mates, and yes, he sounded like an over-egotistical guitarist trying to play bass, and probably believed that he did a better job on bass than myself and the other bass players there.

Just wondering why there isn't a bump option when you list in "Items Wanted", once anything I've listed has dropped down a few pages, I have to create a completely new listing which surely clutters up the section. Is there a reason for not having a bump option?

Why not just go down the simple route? get yourself a small practise amp such as a Roland Micro Cube. All you need to do is plug your mp3 source (mp3 player, phone, laptop, etc) into the aux-in, headphones into the headphone socket, and away you go, silent practise made easy, and if you do want to do away with the headphones occasionally, you have a great sounding little amp that won't annoy the neighbours.

After going through many different basses over the years, its the precision tone I like and settled on, I've owned a few jazzes as well, but to me, they sounded thin, and I guess I just didn't like the tone, but on a whim, I recently purchased a road worn jazz from a fellow B/C'er, and I'm blown away at the playability and tone, it certainly isn't lacking in depth, and the output is comparable with all my P's, I've gigged it and the drummer complimented me on how great it sounded throughout the set which was mainly classic rock. Maybe as others have suggested, could it be down to dodgy wiring/pots etc?

I’ve tried almost every bass out there over the years, and my favourite is definitely a Precision bass, but I feel so much more comfortable with a Jazz width nut, but not too keen on the Jazz sound, so I always go for a Precision and put a Jazz neck on it. So it made me wonder why are we all so different when it comes to nut width preference, even a standard P bass nut of 41.3mm is a bit too wide for me, and the thought of getting to grips with some of the older P basses that have a 44.5mm scares me rigid, but is it all in my mind, could I eventually get used to a wider nut width? because if I could, then I wouldn’t be so restricted when I’m gassing for a new Precision. And why I’m on this subject, why don’t Fender give you the option to choose the neck width? there must be loads of people out there who would like a Precision with a 38mm nut, and there must be many people out there who would like a Jazz with a 41.3mm nut, considering that these basses are mass produced, surely the choice of nut width could be offered as a option. I know there are some P’s that come with a 38mm nut, but why can’t it cover the whole range? Anyway, my main point is, why do some of you guys prefer a wider nut, and others prefer a narrower nut?

Which is why it is a great ad Blue, it's told you quite clearly that it's not for you. If for some reason you left your band and they placed an ad stating that they want a bass player who is prepared to do 4 hour gigs, three or four times a week, I would not apply for it because I don't want to do 4 hour gigs three or four times a week. The ad is perfect as far as I'm concerned, and this is one of their requirements I particularly like, "Do your homework before practice (obvious but I had to say it)", nothing winds me up more than people turning up for rehearsals having not learn't the songs.

I just don't get why you would have an issue the the requirements Blue, they want to play FIVE gigs a year to a good standard, so therefore, they want someone who is a decent musician and who is happy to rehearse, and play, just FIVE gigs a year with them. If I saw an ad like that locally I would apply straight away because the criteria exactly fits my needs, if it didn't, then I would NOT apply. An upfront ad like this saves a lot of wasted time on both sides.

This hits the nail right on the head! It's upfront, to the point, saves wasting everybody's time if it's not for you, and you are not for them

I know of four Swedish guys who gig no more than 5/6 times a year, they all have very good jobs in Sweden which take up a lot of their time, they come over to England once a year to play a couple of local pubs for the same fees that all the other bands get, they are far too busy to play more gigs but when they do, they have so much fun, they have beaming smiles on their faces, have a good drink (after the gig), but the bottom line here is, they are "top top" musicians, I try to catch up with them every time they come over and I can honestly say that they are the best band that I've ever seen playing in a pub, what they do suits them, and if one of them was to leave, I guess that they would have to put out an ad stating that they "require someone who is happy to gig just 5/6 times a year, be a decent quality musician, someone who is prepared to put the work in to get the set tight enough to put on decent shows when they do gig" personally, I don't see what's wrong with being totally up front with their requirements. I also used to go to regular jam nights where quite a few ex-named players from the past would turn up and play a couple of songs, when I got to know them better, I found out that they were perfectly happy just doing a bit here and there after many years of full on gigging/touring and recording etc.. There are lots of reasons for people wanting to only gig a few times a years, just like there are lots of reasons why people want to gig as often as they can. We are all different folks

They are exactly the type of people I would want to play with because, especially if 5 gigs a years is what I'm looking for

You still don't get it Blue, there a loads of top muso's out there who only want to gig 5/6 times a year for various reasons