Japhet

At age 5 I was asked if I wanted to learn guitar. I immediately thought Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Beach Boys etc so agreed enthusiastically. I then spent interminable weeks being taught Edelweisse and Michael Row the Boat Ashore and was told that I absolutely had to learn a load of this stuff or I'd never be able to play anything else. I believed it, gave up and never picked up an instrument again until I was 15.

When/if I get back to gigging, my Weber Mywatt 200 is getting some outings. Fired it up a while back after an extended period of using class d amps, and it sounded beautiful. If Covid has taught me anything, it's make the most of the stuff you've got and don't be too lazy to lug it around.

A TC Spectracomp mini weighs less than a fairie's fart. No hardship carrying that around.

Versatility is key for me. I've played in all sorts of bands and do some dep gigs as well. There's a big difference sonically in playing in a band with 2 Les Pauls v one with a Strat and keyboards for instance. There are of course all sorts of variables to add into that like brass sections and music genres too. You then have to think about the footprint size of your rig and how much room you're likely to be given on stage. With all of that in mind, my go to cab is a 2x12 (TechSoundsystems) which copes with everything from a loud rock band with a neanderthal drummer, to an acoustic gig with 1 guitar and a mandolin.

In my opinion, the only thing that would make Eric Clapton more boring would be to paint him magnolia.

I recently picked up a mint (used) Fender Champion 100 off Ebay for £160 and am very impressed. i'm not into all the modelling stuff but this has a range of amp sims on the 2nd channel. The 'Jazz' setting is a very nice clean sound that takes pedals very well.Then it goes through Tweed and Blackface to a Marshall type sound. All good basic sounds. The 1st channel is clean but not as good a clean sound as the Jazz setting. It's an easy 1 hand lift and would be easily capable of a full volume loud gig too. There's a range of effects on it too with tap tempo on some (delay, vibrato, trem etc) although I generally prefer pedals. There are smaller versions too which would be well worth checking out if they sound anywhere near as good as this thing.

We use a Mackie desk that doesn't have faders so the gain is the only control on the signal strength. It's not a great idea but it works OK now we've worked it out.

Our problem was getting enough volume without feedback. In the end I bought a Behringer graphic EQ and cut all of the irrelevant frequencies right out which made things a load easier. The main part of the problem though was that our 'singer' has absolutely zero mic technique and no interest in learning either.

I don't think there's a right, or wrong way of doing it. It greatly depends on what sound you're after, how powerful your amp is and how hot the signal is going into the preamp to begin with. Some active basses put out very lively signals and then there's always effects pedals to take into account as well. A while back we took advice from a sound engineer on our PA setup. He suggested we max out the power amp and use gain to control levels. It was pretty much unmanageable and we went back to how we always used it previously.

I used to be in a band that did Tom Jones - It's not Unusual and Delilah as ska versions. Proper good fun.

In that case, I'm out.😉

I'm obviously getting old and grouchy. I did a dep gig a while back and we did stuff by people like John Mayer and Robin Ford. I really enjoyed that because it was a challenge and I knew the rest of the band were tight as a gnat's chuff.

I might be off soon but there's nothing else in the pipeline. I hate playing all the obvious songs as in if we do a Free song it has to be Alright Now. I've played that bloody thing for 30 years and I'm sick of it, plus Free did dozens of cracking songs to choose from. There are also bands I can't stand like Oasis. We also seem to be dumbing down to just churn out loads of utter crap like 'Teenage Kicks' because it's easy. I feel like an utter knob playing Teenage Kicks at my age, and saving the best til last - I've just been told to have a go at The Proclaimers 500 miles. Thinking about it, I can feel an email coming on!

I allegedly have a veto but it doesn't work. We end up playing loads of stuff I hate. It's called a 'bass player's veto' bye the way.

When I had a fretless I played in a band that did Don't Dream it's Over (Crowded House). Don't know if it was meant to be played on fretless but it really suited the song. Give it whirl.

Here's another one I love playing along to. Another cover by Troy so the bass is a bit louder in the mix.

I thought there was just male and female. Learn something every day.

I guess you'd describe it as TS based although I don't particularly like TSs but I do like this. TSs get a bit too 'thin for my liking but this maintains the bottom end really well, especially with the 'fat' option selected on the side switch. I also particularly like being able to blend in as much clean tone as you want. I bought it to fatten up the sound of a Strat (which it does really well) but then tried it with the bass (admittedly at low volume) and have found that to be a sound I really like as well. I'm not into heavy distortion and I'd only really describe this as low to moderate gain, but it does a really nice full but gritty sound on both 6 and 4 strings. It also cleans up really well if you roll off a bit of volume on the guitar. No idea when I'll be able to give it a proper blast but I'd say it's well worth checking out. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't nail down a place on my pedal board.

Bought a T Rex Diva drive from Thomann. Nice and cheap (£60 ish). Bought it for electric guitar but it sounds great with bass too. It has a kind of 'voice' switch which gives you Normal, Mids or Fat but also has a blend control so you can mix in your dry sound. Think it could be a cracking pedal but won't really know til I can try it out at a gig - if that ever happens again.

I enjoy playing a lot of stuff I'll never get to play in a band. Quite a bit of Steely Dan stuff. One of my current favorites to play along to is Anthony Jackson's bass line on Donald Fagan's version of Ruby Baby. This guy Troy also picks some cracking stuff to cover from all genres on his channel and does a great job.

I've also found that other band members have introduced me to a whole load of stuff I've never heard of. I'd never have discovered bands like Storyville, Government Mule, The Rival Sons or Cry of Love without them and they're all great bands that I listen to a lot now.

I hardly listen to what I'd call 'new' music, mainly because in spite of a lifetime of listening, there's still a vast cache of quality stuff I've never experienced, so much so that with many artists they've done so much I have no idea where to start. I had random Ry Cooder stuff playing on Alexa the other day for hours. I've got Sonny Landreth on there at the moment.

If my Mum had imposed her musical tastes on me I'd be listening to The Sound of Music and South Pacific instead of Robin Trower and Meshell NdegeOcello. Just sayin'.

That would be a killer rig. You could just use a split signal and run 1 clean and the other one with a bit of grit.

With any luck he'll be sitting down having a jam with Danny Kirwin right now.