Doddy

I'm a big believer in using a quality gig bag which is why I've used an iGig for years, and more recently a leather Reunion Blues. It's worth it if you are carrying expensive instruments all over the place 3 or 4 times a week. But, as the OP says he rarely takes his bass out and has a limited budget, he doesn't need to be spending a couple of hundred quid. I mentioned the Thomann one earlier, but I also picked up a Protection Racket years ago for under £50 and it's still going strong. The new Ibanez ones look decent for the price too.

If you were seriously gigging, I'd recommend Reunion Blues or ProTec or similar, but as you hardly take your basses out I'd look at something like the Thomann gig bags. I've got the fake leather one, and although the shoulder strap is starting to go a bit, it is still a decent case.

My Dad was a well respected drummer and teacher, who did a lot of theatre and TV work, so he was always encouraging. There was always a kit set up in the house for teaching,that I could mess about with but I was never serious about it. He never listened to records at home, mainly because you need a break when you're playing shows every day, but he would buy all the drum videos and magazines, so even at a young age I was aware of all the best players. When I decided to start playing bass, my parents bought me my first bass and amp, with the stipulation that I learn properly. My Dad got me lessons with the best guy in the area (even though he didn't teach), so I learned how to read and play changes. Eventually he started asking me to sub for him on some shows, which lead to getting more work. Besides all that, I had many good times with my Dad when we would take days out to visit music shops and go to all the drum and bass clinics that were happening. In fact, one of the last things we did together was go to a Nathan East clinic.He was feeling really rough, but still wanted to go. I definitely wouldn't be doing what I do if it hadn't have been for all the support that my parents gave me.

When I saw Meshell Ndegeocello a few years ago she was playing a Reverend- I think it was a Mercalli. She sounded great.

I've got her Fuzz Goddess Plume pedal, which I picked up when she was selling via ebay a few years ago. It's a lo-fi, heavily gated fuzz that is kind of based on a Big Muff. It's not a classic fuzz, but it is certainly unique and can get some good sounds if you play around with it. Her Devi Ever FX Hyperion and Soda Meiser were pretty cool if I remember correctly.

I'll probably add one of these to the collection at some point, but I'm a bit surprised that Boss have stuck with a digital pedal rather than going analogue. They seem to be going more for the Micro Pog/Sub n Up market, which is cool, but I would have thought that they would be better off going after pedals like the Octabvre/ MXR Vintage Bass Octave, and making a pedal that will give the classic, analogue Boss octave sound that everyone is asking for and is super popular lately. Also, they are probably aiming more at the guitar market, who generally don't seem as fussed about the subby, synthy, glitchy goodness of the old OC2. I still want to try one out though.

I used a Line 6 M5 for a couple of years when I couldn't use my regular pedals, and it was cool. It's the same effects as the M13 but you can only use 1 at a time. I'm not a huge fan of the distortions in it, but I managed to get a couple of decent sounds after a bit of fiddling. I've got a load of pedals that aren't specifically for bass and some of them sound better than others. Most of my favourite pedals aren't bass specific, but they sound great. Others can sound a bit thin and weak. Some pedals don't work well with active basses but do with a Precision. Sometimes a pedal might not sound too good on it's own, but in combination with other pedals they come alive. I've got an envelope filter that is a bit lame on it's own, but when stacked after an OC2 sounds awesome. I've never use a blend pedal either-the players that I like who use lots of effects never seem to use one and I think they always sound great. I think the trick with effects is to experiment and combine pedals, and learn how they react to your sound and playing.

I'm surprised at a lot of negativity towards F Bass. All I can say is that I spent a couple of hours with George and Marcel at the factory last year and was able to play a bunch of their instruments. I've got some nice basses, and I've played a lot more, but I can honestly say that they were the best instruments that I'd played. They were impeccably made, the feel and balance was spot on, and they are really versatile tonally. I wouldn't have paid that kind of money for an instrument that wasn't amazing, and there was no way that I wasn't going to order one.

Not yet, but, all being well, I should be picking up my F Bass BN5 from the factory next month. They finished making it last week.

To be honest, for only 2 pedals, I don't think I'd really bother about using a board. I'd carry them in either my gig bag or my leads case, and just put them on the floor at the gig.

Because he's only 11, I'd look at something short scale. It can be tough to reach the low F on a standard Jazz Bass for some kids. I've had a couple of young students who have had Squier Jaguars, and they were decent. The short scale Ibanez Talman is cool and really inexpensive, and would probably be my choice. He can always move up to a full size bass in a couple of years, if he takes to it.

This is an odd one. I don't mind the ding on the front too much because at least is is being sold as B stock, but the finish on the back looks a little bit dodgy for a nearly £3k instrument. My old Warwick Streamer which cost me way less than this (used), looks better. I was really close to ordering a new Sadowsky, either a Metro or a Satin, just as the Warwick agreement was announced. Seeing these new Metro's kind of makes me glad that I went with a different builder. It's also interesting that they are listed on the Warwick website, but have no mention on Sadowsky's.

I was playing a 5 string and I figured that 6 would be the next logical step, so I part exchanged my 5 for an Ibanez BTB406. That was a nice bass, but it felt huge-t he neck was really wide, and so was the body. I used to use it quite a lot, and I stuck a Roland V Pickup on it to give it even more versatility. I then got lucky and found a 1991 Tobias Standard 6 which was so much nicer than the Ibanez in every way, with a tighter spacing, asymmetric neck, Bartolini NTMB preamp and pickups, and a smaller and lighter body. I've still got that one. I've settled on playing mostly 5 strings now, but I like to play my 6 on certain jazz gigs. I like the extra range in the higher positions for playing melodies and chords, and of course for playing solos. I sometimes take it out on other gigs and recordings just because it's a really good sounding instrument over the whole range.

I didn't particularly learn much from my school music lessons because all I wanted to do was play the bass. I wasn't interested in the whole keyboard harmony side of things. The teacher was sound though, and pretty much left me to it because he liked me. I was having private lessons anyway, and I was the only bass player in school who could read so I used to do all the school bands and shows. In fact, the week that I left, the music teacher asked me to join his band ( where I replaced the deputy head), and he paid me to go back to play for the shows for the next 2 years. But as far as learning goes, I leaned far more in the year after I left school by sitting in on Jazz gigs with serious older players, and eventually being offered the gig with them every week.

For Big Band playing I generally want try to get a decent level with the rest of the rhythm section first. After all, that's who is going to be driving the tunes, for the most part, so you all need to hear each other. I also prefer to read those kind of gigs while I'm sitting, which also lets me hear my amp a little easier, otherwise tilting your speaker might help. If you need more or less volume out front the bandleader will usually tell you. I wouldn't worry about getting a wireless and going out front. It might work for a self contained small group, but not in a big band. It makes it difficult to read the charts while you're walking around,and you don't want to annoy another 15 people while you're the only one to go wandering off to check your sound.

If you were to tune up another tone to ADGC, you'd be in tenor bass tuning that guys like Victor Wooten sometimes use. Really, you're still playing bass, as you are still within the same register as a standard tuned bass. Your low G would be written on the first line of the stave in bass clef. Unless of course, you just want to give what you are doing a fancy name to sound different.....🤔

I find that sometimes you just have to play around with the knobs to find a sound that really works in the situation. It might not be as nice as your solo sound, but it will sound better in context. I used to do the LS2 blend thing, but it got to to the point where I prefer to not have the clean signal blended in (and I didn't want to carry an extra pedal). Even if the pedal has a blend control, I have the dry signal pretty low or off.

I don't use a Flanger that often, although I sometime use one to get an Anthony Jackson kind of vibe. When I do, I usually go for either my old Boss BF2 or my even older Ibanez FL9. I tend to put it towards the middle/end of my signal chain along with my chorus.

So you definitely won't want my Fender Bullet now then? 😆 Seriously though, that's awesome.

It's worth noting that you can find some older German Warwicks for pretty cheap at the moment. I bought an immaculate '99 Streamer LX5 for a crazily low price. I put a Bartolini preamp in it after the MEC died, and along with the MEC pickups it sounds killer.

I don't know the song, so I'm going purely from the music. In the first example, the melody is mostly in C, as proven by the natural sign by every B which will cancel out the flat in the key signature. The chords are also mostly diatonic (in key) to C, with the exceptions of the D and E chords. I'm guessing that the key signature is written as F because that's where they think the tonal centre is, even though C would probably make more sense. The second chart in D Flat is a Piano/Vocal/Guitar score, with a capo on the first fret of the guitar. You obviously can't capo a piano, so the music is written in the 'correct' key. The guitar will play the chord shapes shown(which are the same as in the first chart) and because of the capo the two parts will be the in the same key. As a bass player, when this happens you should follow the piano chords instead of the guitar chords. The interesting thing about the second chart, is if you take it down a semitone/remove the capo, it will now be in the same key as the first chart, only this time it will be written in the key of C, which as we said earlier, makes sense.

When I have one of my occasional lessons, I like to go in completely open without dictating what I want to learn. I generally have an idea about what I think my weaknesses are and where things may go, but sometimes it goes in a completely different way than I expected. When I had my first lesson with a relatively well known player, he picked up on my fretting hand technique (which I thought was pretty good) and we worked on that for a bit before moving on to more challenging material. It wasn't what I was looking for, but it made a big difference and made the harder material a little bit easier I'm kind of the same way when I'm teaching. Of course I want to know what the student wants to get out of the lesson, but we may end up working on something that they didn't think was an issue, but will help them get the results they need.

I don't think that there is any correlation between formal training and creativity. The 'classical players can't improvise' line is used a lot, but there are also a lot of untrained musicians who can't improvise either. A good classical player might not be blowing improvised solos, but they will be interpreting and feeling a piece in their own way. Meanwhile, there are plenty of untrained musicians who play the same cover songs, with the same licks, at every gig for years, who play everything by rote and never improvise or create. It's never an either/or thing. Someone who is creative will be the same whatever their level of training, it's just that some will approach it differently than others.

That's complicating it a bit. It's just in 9/8 I'll go with Turn It On Again as being in 13/4, but I would say that Golden Brown is 3 bars of 3/4 and a bar of 4/4. It has that waltz type feel. The verses are all in 3, so it makes a bit more sense that way.

As far as I'm aware, the Beef bag is a straight up clone of the original Meatbox, which Mantic stopped making when DOD brought out the reissue. To me it sounds just like the Meatbox, but with much better build quality. Mantic still make the Density Hulk which is their version of a sub pedal. That sounds great too-it's more clean than the Beef bag. I put it last in the chain, run the dry out to my amp, the effected signal to a DI, and crank all the knobs. You need a decent PA really, but it sounds massive.