mingsta

Thanks for that, never heard of her before, but that's right up my street!

Ah brings back memories! @la bam you weren't too far wrong about two months wages, I spent 2 months working nights in a warehouse in '94 to save up for my trace combo. Sadly it never left my bedroom and I ended up selling it about 8 years ago to my mates dad for all of about £200. I reckon it was probably the most pristine example of its kind out there. Just as well, though, as this coincided with when I started gigging on a semi regular basis... I'd be in a wheelchair by now if I hadn't switched to a lightweigh genz benz rig!

I suck at pick playing, I can just about pass at home, but always chicken out of playing pick in a gig situation as I'm more sure of my fingers. Anyone that says that it's not proper bass playing needs to have their head shoved down the loo and made to watch Bobby Vega vids on YouTube when they are let up for air.

Spot on! I'd answer instantly that my "keeper" is my Sadowsky Metro HPJ-RV. I'd relate it to my darling wife; my soul mate and lifelong partner. Then I'd patiently explain that my other four basses are like my girlfriends and mistresses. I could live without them, but variety is the spice of life. They give me some welcome relief and ensure that I come back to my sadowsky refreshed and all the more appreciative of it after a brief break. Most importantly, my five string does things down in the bottom area which my Sadowsky would be unwilling and unable to do. I think she'd totally understand after all that.

I got my 5HH Stealth new for the princely sum of £560 (plus shipping and taxes, which added a couple of hundred iirc) from the US back in about 2008. Along with my Japanese sadowsky metro its the nicest playing bass I've owned, fast neck and nice low action thats basically not moved or needed any adjustment in over ten years. Tonewise, the I read that basswood was deliberately chosen for the bongo for its tonal qualities. I've found that while the bongo has a fair bit of built in flexibility due to the pickups and eq, it's definitely got a signature tone, which I'd describe as a very focused lower mid punch with a bit of zing on top (but not quite up to extent of a stingray). It's definitely its own beast, which I find a refreshing and useful addition to my stable of J, P, Ray archetypes. I find the position of the pickups limits a bit of the HHs flexibility. Together they work very well but I find the neck pickup a bit too bloomy on its own due to being a far bit left of the P position. I tend to leave the pan at 50/50. I tried a Dingwall NG2 at Andertons a while back and was massively impressed. Another one to consider if you're looking at the bongo. Both mould breaking basses with big, punchy and articulate sounds.

You have my sympathies. Its like an island amid a sea of one way traffic, that pub. Hope you had a good gig!

Thank you sir! PS your sound could clips were the reason I took the plunge! Good work!

I've just received my FI and it's exceeded my expectations for delivering those 80s pop synth bass sounds that I didn't think I'd ever achieve with a bass fx pedal. Thanks Mr Q for uploading all those patches to the site. The only fly in the ointment is that I've not been able to get great tracking, a fair bit of glitching and missed notes. I need to adapt my style a bit and practice how get the best out of it, but I'd like to think that I've got a pretty clean technique to start with. Has anyone got any tops about any setting to make? I've heard you need to get the input vol right so it's green on the whole and only goes red for really hard notes. I've also read from the manual to go for higher numbers on the two global note on and off levels, but it'd be good to hear ppls own experiences on what has worked best. Does the C4 track better? Hopefully I'll get to a happy place with the FI, but if not I might give it a shot!

The Bastard!!! I bought a stingray in 1993 with my first part time job because I thought that's what he used to record BSSM, then wondered why I couldn't get close to THAT tone. Then years later I read that most of it was recorded on the Wal. So obvious now in the age of YouTube vids and sound samples.

I've loved that solo since back in the days and it put him on my all time list. There's countless guitarists who can shred like hell, but few who could get close playing those few, sparse notes with the same emotion and feel that JF delivers. Sad to see Josh go, as he brought something new to the band and I liked their last album. JF will always be the iconic RHCP guitarist, but each time he rejoins I think it's a new story, so time will tell if it's the right thing for him and the band. Let's hope so.

We get the singer to cough really loudly and switch to the right tempo straight after. A bit like trying to cover up when you know you're going to fart. It's particularly effective for the infamous wedding first dance, which are invariable slow numbers that get started way too fast.

I'll go for six months plus, but I'm from the Jamerson school where a slightly dead string is no bad thing.

For me, yes. Though I appreciate that people play for different reasons. If I don't have gigs to work towards I hardly play, though this is more due to bonkers job and three young kids swallowing up my time. I love whole process that surrounds preparing for a gig, learning the music, rehearsing and getting tight with the b a nd, but this would all be quite meaningless if there wasn't the payback of delivering it all to an audience. The best bit for me is when you start out with an indifferent audience, but make things happen so that everyone is up and dancing and asking for for at the end of the night.

Yup. Always good to play different styles. I did a stint in a metal band a few months back and it was great as you need to be tight tight tight and I levelled up with my pick playing coming out if it.