uk_lefty

Believe me you do get used to it. It's not that bad after a while.

Mrs Lefty likes one Black Stone Cherry song so slowly but surely we are getting there. My two year old daughter loves Sabbath and Killswitch Engage, far more my style!

My wife's Taylor Swift, the Feeling, the Script and One Direction albums sound best in her car. In the driveway. Engine off. Radio off. CD's in cases in the glovebox. Car frozen shut. Car blocked in by mine.

Very, very good value for money. The colour combos and fretboard options available are fantastic. They're so good you can start to convince yourself you like the ugly headstock after a while.

Hotel California. While driving an E reg Volvo 1.7 rear wheel drive with brakes that occasionally need pumping a few times before they work. Wouldn't do it now but I was a student and I bought the car for a hundred quid. Also Pearl Jam, rear view mirror. Greatest driving song ever.

Sums it up for me too, very nicely put.

Ha! How many times did you play "crazy horses"???!

I think some on this site know him... I did one rehearsal with a drummer named Dave. He was ok as a drummer. Spent ages faffing about with kit and telling the studio staff how shoddy their kit was etc. to kind of make a weird point. Anyhow we get playing. He's ok, nothing special. Then we have a break and he's telling us about bands he's been kicked out of because of differences of opinion "but you just need to talk about it and see what you can agree on" he says, seems fine but small alarm bell ringing as he just doesn't shut up, doesn't let anyone else speak. He goes on about how "crazy horses" by the Osmond's goes down well. We are sure it does, we say, but it's not aligned to what we are trying to do which is New Wave and early 90's melodic indie stuff. He keeps going on and on. We play some more but now he's talking so much between songs it takes too long. He then tells us for gigs he wants his kit at the front of the stage. He tells us he has a headset microphone for backing vocals. As we all have packed up and we are ready to go he leaps from the kitty, slams the door shut, turns out the lights then starts playing with glow in the dark drum sticks. I'm driving the other band mates home and we say we will give him a try, drummers are hard to find and he's ok. Then we get an email of twenty odd songs we should play, it reads like the playlist of a karaoke night in a seaside town. It's dreadful. I can't remember it in detail except "crazy horses" and the nail in the coffin, "let me entertain you" Robbie Williams. He also seemed very creepy, but had a loneliness about him that made you feel sad. If only he had some self awareness he may have been able to reign it in. We never contact him again. A few years on and with a different band I'm getting ready for rehearsal. The guy working in the studio is a drummer and he's flustered. Dave is one of the rooms complaining about every nut and bolt in the drum kit. Their kits aren't great but you can handle them. There's a bassist and guitarist in there bored, half heartedly jamming away (bassist sounded really good) while they wait for this rocket to sort himself out. He saw me in the foyer and made eye contact. I don't know if he recognised me or whatever but I made double sure the lock on my front door was secure that night.

I've never had the truly appalling, I guess mine are a but tame. But I don't lend money out and I get my opinion on lateness etc across really quick, plus I'm keen to walk if things aren't going well or if band practice is really just sinking twelve cans of cider and making noise in a room with me as the taxi driver.... When I went to uni I found a guitarist on a website and he drove well over an hour for rehearsal. I thought that was a bit weird but ok .. he knew a girl who had never sang in a band but had a great voice. That should have been the alarm bell... Lovely girl but wouldn't sing in to the mic with other people around, barely remember he properly attempting a song. Since then I've never wanted a singer who hasn't done it before, it's ok singing along to CDs but when faced with a live band and a mic it's a whole different game remembering queues etc... Anyhow. We got a drummer. He turned up once. He never answered his phone, or texts or emails. His flat was near mine but the guy just plain disappeared and never had the decency to say "sorry I don't think I can commit". After a while and a few very unproductive rehearsals I decided to knock it on the head. The guitarist who seemed an ok bloke was convinced his band from his uni days were the nuts. I listened to their cd and they weren't even an ok pub band. When he got my message saying I don't think it's working and also I have just started uni, I've got my course ramping up etc. He sent me an email saying "thanks for nothing, I've driven all this way, spent all this on fuel, all this time learning songs, I've put so much in to this and you are just messing me about..." Weird. I didn't force him to drive 90mins each way, I even said early on "that's quite a long way, are you sure you want to do that?" Also he knew the problems I was having getting in touch with the drummer, he could see with his own eyes that his "singer" was too shy to sing and was, well, not a singer.... I remember being quite taken aback by how badly he took it.... All after meeting for one pint, three or four rehearsals that didn't do much, and lots of email chatter about song choices and originals... It's not like we had a European tour booked or anything. We didn't even have one song! It seems a lot of muso's are far too sensitive, and while a lot are committed to what they do some go to extremes and expect everyone else to follow. Also, a lot just think they're way better than they really are. I like to think I know my level and I'm at it, my wife keeps on at me about my band charging too little for some of the bigger gigs but I keep telling her we aren't worth much more!

Electrical tape. Wickes.

I answered an ad to audition for a funk band with two female singers, one of which was an ex pro on the cabaret type circuit. I turn up and it's all being run by a guitarist, let's call him the band leader. He seems like a nice guy and we get on well. I'm the only bassist. A drummer turns up but he's not very good and anyway he plays stuff like system of a down... No idea why he was invited/ asked to go. Guitarists come and go. None of which are "good enough", i.e. one of them was proper rubbish and another was excellent but I think the band leader felt threatened and didn't want him. Anyway I get on well with everyone, they seem to like me and we meet up a few more weeks. We get a keyboardist. He's bludy awful. Throws in the odd chord here and there but really can't play for toffee. It would be like giving me a go at it. He made loads of noise while setting up about playing festivals and how this festival didn't have some technical piece of kit so it was too amateur etc. Etc. But the guy just really couldn't play. Add to this he had never heard of any popular music from any era. It was hard work. After a second session he was let go. Anyway, the bad band mate turned out to be the band leader. We had two awesome female singers. I thought I was joining a funk band. What songs worked was 80's power ballads like Heart's "Alone". It felt to me like a direction worth pursuing. The band leader likes stereophonics and while it's early days I'm ok playing easy songs we all know just to bash through. But we ended up adding more and more of these stereophonics songs. For a funk band. With female singers. Who sound awesome doing power ballads. He hands out a CD for people to pick songs off. Early 90's rock and indie. Doesn't fit the vision of the band I was sold (jamiroquai etc) or the style of the muso's in the project. He gets abusive when I suggest songs like "I think we're alone now" which would have worked. Proper abusive, like would deserve a punch in the mouth if he was stood in front of you. Weird. Also his tactics for getting rid of people were a bit shoddy. The keyboardist was terrible, we should have just hit him with a shovel and buried him out the back, but instead it was "pack up all your gear, and when he's gone get it all out again". Childish, cowardly, and ridiculous. A waste of time and just stupid. I packed up and just said "nah, it's late. I'm off". The band ended over email. Arguments over song choices and direction. The arguments got silly and I am not to be taken at face value often saying things tongue in cheek, but again got more abuse. Me, the rhythm guitarist and drummer had one jam together, with me filling in on vocals until we could find someone. They wanted me to sing Aerosmith and were annoyed I couldn't do it. I made it clear I'm not a very good singer, perhaps Aerosmith is a bit ambitious? Never saw them again. No idea if the band went anywhere. It's a shame as the girls were awesome singers and worked so well together. I'd have loved to have had a proper band with them in it.

I liked the video. Good for a refresher of what we should be doing. Gave me the idea to work specifically on fills with the drummer so that we are more in sync. We both like to chuck in fills here and there but we need to be doing it together and also being more coordinated about what we play and what feel we create. Good video, right length for getting the point across. Thank you!

The Phil Jones stuff does sound like a great piece of kit but we'll out of my price range I'm afraid! Have ended up buying a Fender rumble 15 off BC marketplace but now am considering getting an electric guitar in the next few months so might be looking at the Blackstar Beam again!!

I was in a similar position in December! An unexpected tax rebate, a trip down Denmark street and most unusual the approval of the wife... Brand new stingray. I went for it in natural but only cos I'm a lefty and I fell in love with the one in the shop. Natural ash body, rosewood board. You can see where your money goes. My other basses at the time were a cheap Kramer, MIM Jazz, MIJ Precision and a Sire Jazz fiver. The Stingray is pretty much the only bass that gets played now. Once I have a drop D tuner on it the Sire will be gone. I traded my MiM jazz in for the Stingray abd while I often think I would like a jazz for balance and having a two pickup option I just can't see past the Stingray for playing live. I get so much big, thick, bassy, tone it's just ideal for belting out 80's covers for people to dance to. The only thing it is not is a fretless. Not sure if the classic is two or three band EQ. Mine is three band and while a lot of people prefer the two band I have never used it so don't have the frame of reference. I think the three band is great. The treble can be a bit wild so I'm glad I've got the rosewood board to keep it a little calmer than a maple board would. Overall, you just can't beat a Stingray for playing live. I had a go on a new MIA jazz and if I was recording or playing a style where the nuances of the bass tone were more important I'd have saved some cash and got the jazz but the Stingray for me is the bass for gigging. Hope that helps. I bang on a lot more about it in the NBD thread I did a short while back. Overall I don't think you'll regret any Stingray.

With my Ashdown Rootmaster I find bypassing the EQ for active basses works best. Having a footswitch in for the overdrive is really useful, but kore useful on the Rootmaster where you can fit a two button switch and do the sub harmonics by footswitch too.

It's one of the only things I can cook that doesn't involve pasta. Ok I'll tell you. Carbonara should never be made with cream. No. The sauce is made of EGGS, pecarino cheese and a splash of water from cooking the pasta. And cubes of bacon. That's it. I don't think I have any other egg recipes, sorry.

For my two penn'orth on the subject... I do enjoy cooking chopped chorizo in a pan to the point the oil leaks from them, throw in some onion and chilli too... Then scramble some eggs in it. Delicious. Top with fresh basil or rocket and get it down yer neck.

It's just a poor attitude. I don't mind if someone says "I've had a listen but not and chance to play it yet" (for a practice, for a audition I'd take a different view!!!) and then they have a go, but to refuse and to not even have a listen and try is poor. Our singer sometimes stops and asks someone more familiar with a new cover what the timing is for coming back in etc. It's fine, it shows he wants to get it right

It's the cost of being in a band. Even if he was note perfect I wouldn't want to gig with a stranger. Sounds like an entitled, deluded so and so... Which is like every keys player I've met.

Jeez how much do your rehearsals cost if he is so out of pocket he needs a gig to cover it?

Simple. String one bass flat, round, flat round and the other round, flat, round, flat.