KevB

I'd only seen him in Whitesnake and wasn't aware of his earlier stuff when I saw him at an Alexis Korner tribute show in Buxton. He did San Francisco Bay Blues as a solo bass spot and I realised just how good he really was. Must be a good few years back as Tony Ashton and Noel Redding played and they've both been gone a while...

If the really old blues guys are offputting to you then you could try Clapton's take on old blues classics on his 'From The Cradle' album. For some younger blues artists check out Aynsley Lister and even more recently a young lady called Joanne Shaw Taylor - her 'White Sugar' album definitley worth a listen.

I'd never go see them and what I have in my collection have just been downloaded. Not my fave band. However, I was asked to learn Holiday from American Idiot for an audition and quite enjoyed doing so, definitely not all root notes.

The new(ish) bloke covering Dunnery's parts is not bad actually both guitar wise and vocally without it being an impersonation. I do remember seeing the original line up on their farewell tour and they were an incredibly tight outfit.

Jumping Jack Flash really threw me when I had to learn it at short notice once. Got the chords, then played along with the recording and....it's neither in B nor really Bb but somewhere between the two, just enough to make me suspect, like others here. it's basically down to a wrong tape speed, whether accidental or deliberate. There are lots of recording by lots of bands from that era that are accurately in tune enough to play along with the recordings without problem. Most Beatles songs I've tried seem to be pretty 'straight' tunings.

I wouldn't be disheartened by it, I started getting into a jam session at a local pub when I was between bands. Maybe the one I do is a bit different to yours but it mostly comprises of a house band doing a half hour warm up set then people getting together and playing something they think they all know. With basic blues I've just winged it and you sound like you're comfortable with blues anyway but there are far better players than me who I've seen get up and make a total cock of what they were playing because they didn't know the song half as well as they thought. I'd be surprised if the guy you were impressed by just got up and played complex jazz/funk stuff with absolutely no prior knowledge of any of the songs if they weren't reasonably repeptitive chord sequences. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors goes on with these things. I've seen people get up and *appear* to do impromtu performances which sound slick but i know for a fact they've spent the last half hour discussing it over a pint outside as to what the chords were etc. These days I usually email the guy I've played with recently and ask him what he wants to do and then I try to get a reasonable version of it in my head in advance.

I think they are just an acoustic guitar/vocal duo so won't require anything major and an offer of a 200W power amp and matching speakers by Skytronics for £250 came up so they asked my advice. Alternative was 100W Peavey with speakers and mics/stands for £200, i thought if 100W was enough power I'd go with the peavey set up but wanted opinions about Skytronics first from anyone who's actually got/used their gear.

Yes I'm old enough to remember Don't Ask Me with MP's flailing arms (isn't he on Thomas Dolby's 'She Blinded me With Science'?) Anyway, back to Focus. I've seen them twice since the reformation, last time I noticed they had changed guitarist, the original 'comeback' lineup had a bloke called Jan Dumas in the band but the new younger lad is probably even closer to Akkerman's tone/style. As has been mentioned Akkerman hasn't been involved for years, I think he left the original band in the 70's at least once after disagreements with Van Leer. The current bass player is actually Van Leer's stepson!

A mate asked my opinion and I don't have any experience with Skytronics stuff. It looks good value on paper but is it cheap and nasty or decent quality?

Shortest time I've owned a bass was one of the Korean Bisons. Think I turned it round in about 6 weeks, just couldn't get on with it. Neck seemed way too long (but I'm just under 5'8" without gorilla like arms) and I couldn't get comfy with it. Wasn't thrilled with the finish either, it was a black one but it was a matt finish and looked a bit cheap up close. Sounded OK but nothing special. Got pretty much what I paid for it and the buyer collected from me so no financial harm done ^_^

There is something very Spinal Tap about it all, so I present to you someone who made it a bit of an art form... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3eNLVbouxM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3eNLVbouxM[/url]

I agree, it won't look right with 4 tarnished old tuners and one shiny new one, you might as well just get a set of 4 which will all match. I think they are pretty cheap, around £25 for a set.

Well as it turned out I probably knew the 8 songs at least as well as the 2 guitarists anyway after 2 nights learning them (could hardly hear them anyway). Band had 2 singers but only 1 was available and didn't normally sing most of the songs I was asked to learn. Most of the alternate keys were just 1 step down so mostly easy to transpose. I thought they were generally a bit disorganised so I've turned them down before being given a verdict either way. They were auditioning another bass player anyway so they can let him have it, seemed more trouble than it was worth for me.

Thanks for the tips guys. I usually try to learn stuff without open strings anyway if at all possible. I'm hoping they haven't mucked about with the tunings so much, one song is in drop D so I'm taking a 2nd bass I can pick up without even detuning my main bass, assuming they haven't changed the key on that one! It's mostly straightforward but none of them are songs I've ever played 'for real' before so it's just an added worry really. The one that hasn't stuck too well in my mind is Green Day's 'Holiday', I'll be OK if they do it in original key but if it's been changed around a lot it'll be a pain to transpose on the fly. It'll be an experience anyway...

Hi Rich, Jazz looks a beaut, really like maple boards. I picked up an 04 S1 jazz on eBay for under £400 a couple of years back (including the SKB hard case) and it rapidly became my main gigging bass. Put a badass III on it (didn't make a vast diff in sound with the thru body stringing) but that's all I've done with it, played great with no further set up. As BBC said engaging that S1 switch really gives it some balls.

This is a new one for me... After being in the wilderness for a few months I'm up for audition tomorrow. Now I find out they're not just auditioning me but a new drummer *at the same time* Anyone had this experience? If the timing goes astray how do they know which one of us is screwing up? Also having given me 8 songs to learn there was a flippant ps at the end saying that they might not be in the original keys but the person contacting me didn't now which were the actual keys they played them in (must be the snger I guess!) Sounds like fun...

On a jazz or a precision it is usually in the top of the scratchplate. The scratchplate is too firmly attached in the ric so in that case ut's usually a back pocket. At one time I had one of these [url="http://tonedeafmusic.co.uk/mic-stand-plectrum-holder-p-145.html"]http://tonedeafmusic.co.uk/mic-stand-plect...lder-p-145.html[/url] which works very well but it went missing and I never got round to replacing it.

Been quite lucky as I've only ever had 3 auditions (technically 4 but with one I was the only bass player to turn up so it hardly counts) but got the job each time. It's true about the 'you auditioning them' bit, in hindsight I probably should have turned down one of the 3 offers I got. Best of luck, give them a genuine impression of what you are going to play like and your personality if the job gets offered. Nothing worse than auditioning someone and then they turn up 'for real' a totally different person.

I think I'd also ask yourself if you really need to practice for 4 continuous hours without rest. My guess is you're probably not improving a jot after the first hour and a half. Are you ever likely to play a gig that is 4 hours long with no breaks?

A guy that plays regularly at my local jam session often uses a Shine Hofner type violin copy. He said he'd tried a few violin types and that was the best sounding and construction of the lot. Sounded good through his Hartke rig. I would have had a go myself but he's a leftie. Mind you if I could get a deal like this; [url="http://www.incredibid.co.uk/acatalog/Shine_WVEB883_Violin_Bass_.html"]http://www.incredibid.co.uk/acatalog/Shine...olin_Bass_.html[/url] I'd be tempted anyway from the sound quality of the one I heard, don't think he'd modded it in any way.

Find an S1 jazz then you can get some pseudo P type sounds with the S1 switch.

Depends what kind of playing you do. I've always maintained that if you are playing reasonably busy melodic basslines you really want your dominant (and thus usually more dextrous) hand doing the fretting part rather than the plucking part, hence it's not surprising that a lot of lefties (like me) play right handed. I doubt I could play anything on a leftie bass. I guess if you are a serious slapper or doing complex plucking stuff then it might be better doing that with the left hand.

Not much of a jazzer so I can't be arsed to look through the whole of this thread but has Return To Forever been mentioned? I downloaded a few of their albums and quite liked some of the tracks. Are they rated as jazz or fusion or what and are they considered good by the proper jazz officianados? just mildly curious.

I'm pretty sure he's used the occasional Gibson as well, around the time of Tormato & Drama. There were some youtube clips of him doing Drama era material live playing a Thunderbird. Still sounds like Squire though...

Rhythm Stick or something by The Jam really should have been in there if they are going for identifyable bass parts but also well known overrall songs. Also should have had a Motown song (River Deep prob obvious choice) for some Jamerson thump.