stewblack

Funny you should ask as I've just got the beginnings of another bout of amp gas. It's always bass gas but amp and cab gas comes and goes. Once you realise it's all gas you just go with it and enjoy the frustration, the lust and the anti climax when it's all over. It's a lot like sex.

It's funny you should ask this, as it often comes up with a guy I'm teaching. I say to him I wish I'd learned four different scales instead of 1 as I've limited my note choice and only now am expanding the options. If you only know one place on the neck to play a particular scale your bass lines will be restricted and could become repetitive. Having said that I've not heard many people write better than me so I've not done too bad. Also I wish I'd not been so proud and occasionally learned someone else's bass lines when I was starting out. It stretches your technique and saves you reinventing the wheel. I was so damn certain I had to be original I didn't learn another bassline verbatim till I was in my 40's.

[quote name='Rich' post='99342' date='Dec 5 2007, 09:57 AM']A T3 fretless? Oh that is a thing of beauty.[/quote] So annoying, just before Chrimbo. It is indeed a beauty.

Bassassin - I am the worst ebayer in the world. Having had the winning bid on your Jazz copy for three days I forgot to look at it yesterday. Grrr. You'd have made a couple of quid more as well if I'd had a brain.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='97504' date='Dec 2 2007, 11:12 AM']Does the truss rod loosen? If so take it back a 1/4 turn then try going forward, if it stops in exactly the same place then it 'may' be that the truss rod is at its limit! In which case your trusty tech may well be needed.[/quote] Yep - it's off to the expert. Thanks everyone.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='97431' date='Dec 2 2007, 12:10 AM']Stew 2 tips Slacken the strings. Sit on the floor, put the bridge between your feet, the back of the body/neck against a knee and gently but firmly push the neck straight while adjusting the rod. This will take the strain off the trussrod. If this doesn't make it free-er take it to a luthier.[/quote] Thank you Oh king of all things Green. I desisted when I had what we recovering alcoholics call "A moment of clarity" as I thought about the torque I could apply with the pipe. The posh bass I tried next tightened up a treat and restored the action with a quarter turn. 1 up for Musicman. I've alerted my splendid guitar tech that he may be needed.

My better half against my better judgment went out and got central heating fitted now all my bass necks are shaped like long bows. So how hard can it be to tighten truss rods. Well on one of them bloody hard it turns out. Any tips? I loosened the strings, took a deep breath put a 6ft length of pipe on the allen key for a bit of the old leverage and still the bastard won't move.

You have my sympathy - you embody the spirit of 'the show must go on' I once did a gig whilst suffering a bout of diarrhea and boy was that a challenge. Literally running between numbers. Awful.

[quote name='OldGit' post='92347' date='Nov 21 2007, 10:27 PM'][url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=8701&view=findpost&p=90143"]Aguilar 2x12 I suspect this may be just a little better than the Behringer ...[/url][/quote] At least you were good enough to say you suspect, not know as most people would. Of course everyone here told me the Eden amp and later the Epiphani cab I bought were better than the Behringer equivalents I already had.. Guess what? They're not. The amp is less well made (the knobs are all losing their coloured ends for instance) but still quite good, the cab simply isn't any different. Blindfold anyone and they wouldn't know which I was playing through. I use it all in a stupid ott stereo set up and get people creaming over the sound I get.

[quote name='tauzero' post='91857' date='Nov 21 2007, 12:00 AM']There's talking to the audience and there's being in love with your own voice. On a really bad night, he'll introduce the band three times, ask for birthdays in the room four times, ask if there's any singers in the room twice, and ask for requests several times. We can cope with 1 and 2 because we all know our own names, even the drummer, and we can manage "Happy birthday", but 3 has led to a variety of drunken audience members doing a song or two (which doesn't go down well with the other audience members - they're there to see a proper band, not some pissed-up fart singing tunelessly), and 4 is hideously embarrassing because we've only ever managed one request (particularly stupid as the vocalist doesn't even know the words to the songs in the set). I think I'll just have a little lie-down now.[/quote] Hmmm. It appears to me that you hold your lead vocalist in similarly high esteem to that with which I viewed the singer in a now sadly defunct ensemble in which I had the honour of playing the bass. Might be wise to consider your or his position before you end up trying to strangle him. If you are driving along a dual carriageway as we were when this happened to me it can put your gear at risk of serious damage.

[quote name='tauzero' post='91480' date='Nov 20 2007, 04:04 PM']Getting your vocalist not to go on and on between numbers so everybody sits back down - priceless.[/quote] Funny, different folks I suppose. Ours can't speak to them to save his life and I feel it alienates them, causes an 'us and them' scenario. I end up filling the gaps and that just looks wrong. Maybe somewhere between the two lies the answer. I'd like to get a whole second set of disco/funk and play it without any gaps. that'd sort them. anyway can I add "Oh What A night" - goes down a storm. With the oldies.

[quote name='ergon' post='91140' date='Nov 20 2007, 12:01 AM']OK point taken [/quote] And if you happen to be in the west Country any time soon call in and see just how good the BA4X10 really is.

"Hey Bulldog" The Beatles. I told 'em, but would they listen? "Oh but it's so cool to pick a Beatles track most people don't know" Yes it is and a great bassline and I love playing it but not at a bluddy wedding.

[quote]the pleasure comes from watching loads of people enjoying themselves.[/quote] Almost word for word what I said at my last practice. We're also in a band that plays original material which we agonize over and utterly love. If two people in the crowd get it then that's a bonus, but the covers band is all about the crowd. And getting paid.

[quote name='obbm' post='90616' date='Nov 19 2007, 01:56 AM']This does raise the bigger question however as to why do band members so dislike playing the songs that the paying punters like. I could reel off a whole list of popular numbers that my fellow band member just will not do. It's a kind of musical snobbery.[/quote] I don't think they dislike them because of snobbery. I suspect musicians love music on a much deeper level whereas the general public take a more superficial interest in it. "Play something I recognise and I'm happy". Musicians tend to like songs for other reasons, and naturally shy away from the bog standard run of the mill obvious every day vacuous chart stuff that the proles lap up. Oh hang on, that is a kind of snobbery. Hmmm.

[quote name='Jack' post='90058' date='Nov 18 2007, 12:44 AM'][url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/cat.html?gf=4x10_bass_cabinets&oa=pra"]Look at me and don't buy rubbish![/url][/quote] This doesn't surprise me. I said a while ago that as people realise how good and reliable and well made Behringer stuff is that they would be able to charge a more sensible price for it. As everyone here is always telling me - you get what you pay for.

[quote name='charic' post='90341' date='Nov 18 2007, 06:41 PM']Biggest response ive seen was to Status Quo - Rocking all over the world the band hated playing it as it was just for a joke but it backfired when the entire function room stood up and moved to the dance floor lol[/quote] I'm glad you posted this as I'm in the middle of trying to persuade people that a Quo song would get a smile and fill the floor. Natch it's being seen as a stupid idea but I know it would work.

Killers "All These Things I've Done". Always works whatever the gig whatever the crowd, and it's not really a dance song is it?

Makes sense to me mate. You can listen to all the advice in the world but in the end you'll go with what you fancy and learn from your own experience. I'm like you, I do like a guarantee, I've never bought second hand stuff that hasn't developed some sort of trouble and you have no comeback do you? Just a sense that a bit of saving up first and you could have got the real deal.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='89500' date='Nov 16 2007, 06:41 PM']Now [b][i]that's[/i][/b] how to photograph a bass for eBay.[/quote] Isn't it though! Not a bad looking bass, for a Fender.

[quote name='neepheid' post='89267' date='Nov 16 2007, 12:17 PM']Yeah, I'm just thinking that I would slap someone silly if they put any of my babies down on top of a brick/concrete block wall. Mmm, abrasive. Christ, was there nowhere better? Couldn't you have found a towel or something to lay down first? I want to rescue it like it's an abused animal.[/quote] Glad it wasn't just me that cringed!

There's something about that Epiphone... wish he hadn't balanced it on the wall to photograph like that though!

Well the great man made me some up in shiny blue cable and I have no complaints. Top gear, top bloke. Thanks OBBM.