rushbo

I rotate three basses with my current band. They're all bitsas and they're all predominantly made up of Squier parts. My favourite bass has a Squier neck which came from an instrument I paid the princely sum of £25 for. It's beautiful. I would have absolutely no problem playing an "off the peg" Squier as long as I could tweak the string heights a bit. I'd put an Indonesian Squier bass up against a Mexi Fender any day.

When I get home, I have a cup of tea, a couple of rounds of toast and I watch half an hour of poor quality TV - normally "Family Guy"or some terrible expose of a hoarder. Then it's off to the land of nod fairly swiftly.

When it's done right, sunburst finishes can look lovely. More often than not, it seems that the person who had the egregious job of painting the instruments, decided that blending the two or three colours together was too much trouble and instead we get a wobbly version of the RAF roundel painted in three shades of fecal matter. I had a lovely, Japanese Fender P in Tobacco Sunburst and if it hadn't have weighed as much as the Isle of Man, I'd still have it now. I have a Hofner Beatlebass which has been really nicely done, in spite of it being a budget bass. Then again, my favourite bass is fiesta red with a brown tort plate, so think of that what you will...

I always mark my plugs with Tipp-Ex, so I know who they belong to and what they're for...a few years ago I managed to plunge a pub into darkness by unplugging the lights for the bar instead of my bass amp. Hilarity ensued. We never played there again.

Most of my leads are really lurid colours, so a. no one wants to nick 'em and b. they're easy to see when you're packing down.

The Grolsch ones are actually more durable! I bought the Fender versions to make up an Amazon order a year or two back and the stuff they make them with goes hard and brittle after a while. My Grolsch ones are still lovely and bendy, even though I'm not any more.

For so many reasons, this is the best thing I've seen in ages.

I bought a cheap camera case from Amazon for mine which worked a treat. I also used Duracell rechargeable batteries and I got about 4 1/2 hours life from one charge.

I had a G30 for a while - I had a few months of trouble free gigging, then it started to drop out - only momentarily, but I couldn't stop it. I tried all the fixes I could find, but I couldn't stop it glitching. I sent it back to Thomann and they tested it, pronounced it perfect and sent it back. It started glitching shortly after. Apparently, this is not a unique occurrence. I bought a Smooth Hound wireless system shortly after and I'm absolutely delighted with it - brilliant customer service and perfect performance. http://www.smoothhound-innovations.com/

I used a flight case for years, which looked incredibly cool, but weighed a ton. Recently, I've switched to a "Producer Bag" by Thomann which is brilliant. Loads of storage pockets and easy to carry. The centre dividing panel was removed from the main storage section to make room for bigger or odd shaped stuff - I use two Hercules folding stands and they fit in there a treat.

This popped up on my FaceBook feed. It's been patented by a guy from Ireland and it's definitely one of those "why didn't I think of that?" products. It's not the best video as you don't get much of a look at the real details, but I'll be keeping my eye on this.

Five strings: I've tried, oh lordy have I tried to get on with them. But I don't Fretless bass guitars: (See above) Boutique or coffee table basses: Sometimes, the wood looks beautiful, but it just looks weird as a bass body. Complicated knob/toggle switch arrangements: I'm easily confused and all those micro-decisions would make me cry. Amps and Combos: I love my Genz Benz Contour rig so much, I can't imagine using anything else now. (I realise that this statement will probably bite me in the bum before the year is up...) Multiple effects pedals: Even my Zoom B3 seems like overkill in my current band. I loved having 9 or 10 pedals on a board, but it just became impractical, especially when you're playing in pubs with barely enough room to stand on both feet... So, to recap, by this time next year, I'll be playing a five string, fretless Fodera through a vintage Trace Elliot stack via a pedal board so large it has to have its own generator.

Saxophones in Jazz: Yes please. Saxophones in Rock/Pop: No thank you. Also: anything with a synthesized brass section makes my teeth hurt.

fIREHOSE: "Ragin' Full On" (Mike Watt) Violent Femmes: "Violent Femmes" (Brian Richie) Lou Reed: "The Blue Mask" (Fernando Saunders) XTC: "Oranges and Lemons" (Colin Moulding) Smiths: "Hatful of Hollow" (Andy Rourke)

As its Christmas (and I spent two snow days working the goshdarn bass part out...) I thought I'd pop this here. It's not 100% and there are notes where they shouldn't be and vice versa, but it was a lot of fun to play. Kudos to Tracy Wormworth for the original, epic bass line.

What he plays is always perfect for the song. Nothing flash. If all it requires is root notes, then that's all he plays. I rate him very highly.

I loved Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. I saw them both at the Brum Odeon. What a show. I'm a big fan of the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and DC Basehead. When rap has something to say or a unique way of saying it, it's unbeatable. When it's lazy and generic, it's unlistenable.

R.E.M. Turned me from a fan into a musician.

Another vote for DFA swiches. I've got one on my OLP Musicman. That's the knob I twiddle ostentatiously when the sound man asks me to "drop the level of the bass onstage, please". Works every time.

I can't really compete with Billie Jo Spears and a death on the dance floor, but I have played some howlers, including: Nellie the Elephant Wombling Merry Christmas Grandma's Feather Bed Theme From the Muppets Three coins in the Fountain Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (reggae version) Ding a dong (1975 Eurovision winner - I love it. YMMV) Save Your Kisses For Me ...there may be others. I tend to blot out trauma. The closest I got to seeing a fatality at a gig was at a wedding reception my old band played. The whole night was strained as it was obvious that the happy couple (who were both lovely) were the only happy people in the room. Both families hated each other and sat at opposite ends of the venue, only interacting to walk over to the "enemy" side and do some shouting, swearing and chest poking. While we were packing up, the groom's mom started laying into another guest...an elderly gentleman who happened to be in a wheelchair. To be fair to him, he was giving as good as he got. I didn't stick around to see who "won", we chucked the gear into the back of a couple of cars and got out of the area before the cops arrived. I don't miss wedding gigs.

Buy it now: £875.

A very honest appraisal by the seller, tho'...

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1509643890' post='3400578'] This is what I wore in a very early 90s very indie band... [/quote] Oh my. Is your backdrop made from Stilton?