bassbloke

Get an active jazz bass. Bridge pickup covers some of the stingray sound, neck pickup covers p bass. No band is going to take issue with a stingray and jazz as your tools of the trade

I bought a Dingwall NG3-5 'unseen' last year on the basis that I'd tried one out when buying a second hand pedal, I had won an outstanding employee award, needed to spend the money in a shop willing to accept BACS/SWIFT transfer and Andertons were still online only due to Covid. Apart from, last 'new' bass I bought was in 2003. A US Deluxe jazz 5 I picked up for silly money in the States - USD900, which due to Exchange rate and tax rebate worked out less than £600 Everything else has been second hand from Basschat, Ebay, or FB Marketplace

Depends on the music style, song, tuning and the instrument to an extent. Until I bought my Dingwall, D standard was the lowest tuning I was comfortable without my bass sounding rubbish. I was in a prog metal band that write in either D standard or Drop C and was reasonably happy playing my parts of a standard tuned 5. A lot of 70s pop and rock songs are in Eb and they're simple enough that again you can play on a standard tuned 5. I think Eb is def my fave tuning though.

A savvy artist would ensure their songs are associated with both.

A huge part of the sound of an 8 or 12 string bass is the natural chorus effect produced by the octave pairs. It's a fantastic creative tool. I haven't used mine live or recorded with it, but I've reworked a number of my bass parts for the day I might. I approach bass parts completely differently with more open strings, ringing notes, muting, etc... Also, you can play Big Bottom on one.

Now I obviously don't know the context and I am unlikely to attend such an event, but if someone asked me list the top five artists I'd expect to hear at a Donald Trump campaign rally, it probably wouldn't include The Village People.

You mock, but Joey DeMaio of Manowar plays something not too dissimilar. Sounds shite mind you.

Brilliant channel. Very informative and quite inspirational. I couldn't imagine being a professional musician dealing with a MS diagnosis

Fender. Re-release the HM bass. Make sure you include red crackle finish. Still regret selling mine. Also, release the Charvel San Dimas bass with a decent preamp and black pickups. Also, 5 string should be a PJ not JJ. Also, re-release the Fusion series basses with the Blade pickups. Regret selling mine. Boss Re-release the bass 3 band parametric EQ. Still regret selling mine (notice a trend here?)

It's not just about the B. The E and A on my NG3 sound really balanced. You still get great tension with lighter strings. My NG3 is tuned down a whole step with standard gauge strings. The effect of downtuning seems far less pronounced than standard scale length basses. Not necessarily better, just different.

I used to own a Passion Delta metal fretless. Wonderful instrument, although the body cracked and needed repairing. The bass centre had a blueburst fretted 5 and black fretless 4 on special offer and it is to my eternal regret that I didn't snap them both up. The neck on both was wonderful. Lovely and slim. The only issue I had was that the active circuit was a little quirky.

Stock bridge sounds more like a jazz bass. More of that nasal growl. IMO the high mass bridge is better suited to the precision. It made a noticeable difference to my son's Squier Classic Vube 60s P bass.

Refret, new scratchplate and some TLC. £300 or so and you'll have a great workhorse and real conversation piece.

I bought a bass over the counter in Ishibashi Shibuya and the service was exceptional. The assistant carefully disassembled by bass, labelled each neck screw, coiled strings and wrapped neck and body in copious amounts of bubble wrap to ensure save transit in my luggage. Any of the unboxing videos I have seen of Japanese Fenders show the instruments wrapped incredibly securely.

Exactly that.

Probably my mxr bass octave deluxe. I can literally spend hours recreating analog synth sounds

A 250W amp pushed to its limits will do more damage to the speakers in a 400w cab than a 500w amp.

+1 for pots. My MB500 Fusion has this issue. No harm getting amp overhauled by a local tech for a few quid. You'd be amazed at the difference

IMHO 90s CIJ/MIJ represent best bang for buck. I bought a 96/97 MIJ 70s jazz on this forum a couple of years ago. Fantastic bass for £700. I was in Barcelona on hols with family a couple of weeks ago and stumbled across a guitar shop near El Bron that had loads of 2nd hand 90s MIJ basses. I gave a few of them a reasonable inspection and there wasn't a dud among them. Loads of major and all under €1000.

Tell that to Django Reinhardt

Amorphis, Eluveite and Dark Tranquillity in a couple of weeks. Date night with the missus. Together 32 years and married for 26. I hope she hasn't bought tickets in the seated area again

DD Verni - Overkill. I bought Years of Decay around the same time I started playing bass (16). Considering bass tended to be buried beneath twin guitars on most metal and thrash albums, his tone and presence in the mix was something else! I remember wearing my bass as low as possible and cranking the treble up full.

Great gig on Friday. A longtime friend and former vocalist started playing guitar a few years ago and really started to put in extra effort over lockdown. His dream was to play a gigbat his 50th birthday so asked us lot if we would be his band. We roped in another friend, who is a great jazz/blues singer and lover of metal and got to work. A few months and 7 rehearsals later we had an hour set mostly Iron Maiden (Powerslave, 2 mins to midnight, moonchild, fear of the dark, losfer words, wrathchild), plus dio and priest. He said it was the best birthday present ever. 100 punters (mates), loads of positive feedback and we actually sounded really good. I was standing next to him onstage and he didn't stop grinning. Added bonus, I got to be Steve Harris for the night and got loads of compliments. Eventually the penny dropped that three of us had been in bands together for nigh on 30 years.

2022 has been pretty much a write off anyway as we've been searching for a new singer since March. The malaise and general disinterest is like nothing I have experienced in nearly 20 years. I've been to a few gigs and attendance has been really good, so there's clearly demand. That said, it depends on the genre, venue and bands. People are going to look to make savings wherever they can. It might mean deferring a wedding or revising their expectations and booking a DJ rather than a band.