casapete

I used to play a fair bit in Scarborough, loved The Indigo Alley on Thursday nights! The Watermark café do some good stuff, as do The Merchant Irish bar. There always seem to be a lot of really good musicians for not a particularly large town for some reason. When I gig in Scarborough these days it's usually at one of the hotels doing cover stuff for functions etc.

Absolutely. We live in East Yorkshire, not that far from York, and the house prices / rents deter us from looking to move there. Nice place but as Len says, it is a tourist hotspot which can get to be a pain. Leeds is a lot bigger, with a busy gig life and plenty to do, although (as a lot of places, including even York!) it does have some areas which are a bit dour. Think you would fare better for finding a band in Leeds, not least due to the Leeds College of Music having plenty of good players looking to gig.

Yeah, you’re probably right. Got a Now TV thing, which means I can access a lot of catch up as well as other stuff. Just wanted to see what people watched live on a Saturday evening these days, and was so disappointed.

Having a quite rare Saturday night not gigging, so thought I'd watch a bit of TV. Used to think I was missing out on one of the best night's telly of the week, how wrong was I? Strictly Come Dancing - a long programme introducing C list celebs and loads of filler in between. Even Nile and Chic didn't save it for me. X-Factor - WTF? More dreadful than I remembered, with out of tune contestants being praised by all the panel. Jonathan Ross - don't mind his show normally, but why have far too many guests on at a time? Some potentially interesting people on, but too little time to get the best out of them. If this is what a lot of the country sit and watch on a Saturday night, thank god I'm a gigging muso. Over and out.....

Looks good! Great price too, so assuming you love the sound it makes / plan on keeping it (which I'm sure you will!) I would use some of the saving and get an amp tech to give it the once over. Good luck , nice one.

Crikey - great player uses clip on tuner shock 😉 New band / bassist for me, sound great.

Bit of different situation though to be fair - haven't seen the Stones play a gig without him in that period, and am sure he'll be on a retainer to make sure they're his first priority. Quite surprised that any band would drop the bass first. I mean, drums and no bass ??

Mmm, tricky one. The 8 piece band I was in would sometimes take gigs for a 6 piece, losing two brass players in the process. However, once those gigs were done, we all agreed that we would only go out using the full band. This was decided as a result of a) being fair to all the band members, and b) to avoid confusion with people wanting to book the band i.e. if they wanted us then it was the full line-up. Although initially we did turn some gigs down, I think it was the best route. Must admit IME it's not usually the bassist who first suffers from slimming down a lineup, especially as it seems your band has bass on most songs they play. Hope you manage to get it sorted, otherwise you'll have to decide whether it's worth your time being what is ostensibly a part time member. How about them using you as a session / dep player i.e. you'll do it if you're available, but not guarantee exclusivity and therefore leave you free to pursue other stuff?

Mike Chapman was in the pub recently where I play every week in my acoustic duo. As well as all the mid 70's pop stuff he co-wrote for Mud, Smokie etc, I never knew he went on to produce Blondie's 'Parallel Lines' album and also co-wrote 'The Best' (Tina Turner / Bonnie Tyler). Wouldn't mind a cut of the royalties for those.....

Thought so! Whilst you can't do much harm trying different strings, my money would be on the bronzewounds.

Hey Jon. As stated above, they will work but I've found with my Washburn AB20 the best results are with the brass coloured bronzewound strings. I use Fender 8060 phosphor bronze sets (45-100 gauge) and they're fine. Usually pay around £13-£14 a set, and they last reasonably well. Probably worth asking whether your bass is either a semi-acoustic ( like an electric with magnetic pickups etc but partly hollow body sections ), or what's called an acoustic electric (or electro acoustic) bass, which usually means it's more like an acoustic guitar - larger body etc - and often has a built in piezo bridge pickup like my Washburn.

Absolute bargain, great basses.

I've known three of my closest friends for around 45 years, having met in a local guitar store and being in many bands with them on and off ever since. There is definitely a special connection you make with people you bond with musically, and continue to find good new friends like this too.

Yeah, the late and great Greg Ridley. That album is a killer!

My thoughts exactly. Having been forced from using MM stuff following a shoulder injury, the new Rays definitely have my attention if they can magic up a 4H that weighs less than 8lbs. Anyone who can confirm this please let me know how you got on!

Not a big SD fan myself, but they do have Steve Winwood as a special guest - absolute legend.

Some of that late 60’s orchestral / pop output really made me take note of the bass nearly as much as the Motown / soul stuff. Thinking of say Love Affair’s version of ‘Everlasting Love’ , ‘Eloise’ by Paul and Barry Ryan, and some songs by Pet Clarke and Dusty etc. A lot of it sounded quite ‘ Precision with a pick’, which made it more prominent (especially on small radios). Also some of the same orchestral style American hits like ‘McCarthur Park’ and Fifth Dimension’s ‘Aquarius ‘ made me very aware of how important bass was. Still love that kind of stuff even now.

My two fave bands at this time were The Faces and The Stones. Their recordings from then still stand up now IMO. Always hankered after a Zemaitis bass like Ronnie’s too, so cool.

Yup, found that out the hard way with my upright! Was quite taken back by how quiet such a large instrument could be when played pizzicato - the difference between that and bowing is remarkable.

Around this time there was also Ronnie Lane, ex- Small Faces and member of the newly formed Faces. Their early albums had a big effect on my guitar and bass playing as a teenager. Taken from us far too soon as well.

Absolutely love my Washburn AB20, but in over 20 years of owning it I’ve never once found anywhere ( other than solo practice at home ) where I even thought of using it unplugged. Probably only a double bass would be able to hold it’s own unamplified with some acoustic guitars I’m afraid.

Sorry, but have to disagree about Motown bassists lacking excitement compared with rock bassists. As a young teenager at the time, the sound of ‘Bernadette’ and other Motown gems coming down the corridor from my older brother’s Fidelity record player was enough to convince me to give stuff like Black Sabbath and Led Zep etc the elbow for good. All my mates were into heavy rock at the time, and Motown wasn’t considered hip at all, which somehow made it even more special for me. Soon as I started playing bass I certainly didn’t want to be Geezer Butler that’s for sure.

Mike Campbell is one of my all time favourite players, and he never fails to amaze. One of those great guitarists who plays for the song, and can solo brilliantly when necessary. I think he fits in fine, and despite not being a FM fan I think they sound okay. Neil Finn seems to be doing a good job too.

Definitely, although I do feel after the brilliance of the solo the song dips a bit and struggles to maintain the drive and energy it creates.

With the exception of Coldplay ( I don't know what would improve them for me) all the other bands work because the rhythm sections don't overplay. Bad Co & Free in particular had spectacular rhythm sections IMO, who completely understood and used an understated groove to make the songs work. As Mickeyboro said in the above post, they could also cut loose in a live situation where necessary.