uk_lefty

Has to be my fretless five string Kramer. It's not worth much at all, but I got it for my 18th. It still gets gigged nearly seventeen years on, here it is enjoying a sunny June afternoon depping in with a friend's band. You know when you've had a bass so long whenever you pick it up playing is just effortless... For long periods of time this was my only bass. Others have come and gone but I wouldn't swap this for anything. It's been gigged in every band I've been in, whether it looks the part or not!

I was thinking about this just yesterday... I quit my first band aged 18. We had spent a year rehearsing before our first gig. I got most of the gigs in even though the drummer and guitarist were older and way more experienced. At our last gig the guitarist, amazing guitarist but awful singer, introduced a guy to us and said "he's my mate, great singer, I want him in the band". To which I had to say I'm sorry but I move away to go and study for four years. That was the end of the band. I realised that while I liked the guys and we had a great band, we never socialised or talked about anything other than our set. So they didn't actually know that I was going away to uni even though it was my focus for the last two years! Other bands I've left because: rock covers band, plays biker festivals and so on... Singer spitting all over the place during rehearsal (disgusting), and not very good. Guitarist had guitars worth thousands but couldn't play in time, no energy to it and never felt part of it so quit without needing to say anything. I didn't ask about next rehearsal and they didn't contact me. New covers band with a dictator on guitar who wants to play loads of Stereophonics songs. We had two female singers!! Plus guitarist wanted to hire and fire other guitarists, drummers and keyboard players each week. It fell apart but me, the drummer and another guitarist had already thought to set up on our own without them. Failed covers band three years back. Great guys but two of them had a bit too much to drink before rehearsal every time. Endless versions of a song I told them I need time to work on, but they jam it for twenty mins anyhow... Etc. Couldn't see it going anywhere so got an audition for an established band and quit politely.

Ok, maybe wasn't meant literally... I just meant the typical formula of verse-bridge-chorus, verse-bridge-chorus, solo, verse-bridge-chorus... Etc

Interesting views on the Foos... I thought I was the only one not wildly in love with them! Great songs, solid musicians, excellent performers live, just a bit bored of the formula now.... And they were my ex's favourite band so I struggle to enjoy them now. They are worth seeing live, so generous to the audience.

Play was good to watch/ listen to. He's keen on young people learning and discovering music, he has no arrogance about him. The musical piece is a bit long for me, sounds very Foo Fighters too, then there's a bit with the acoustic guitar and glokenspiel/ xylophone which reminded me of Radiohead.... It's well worth a watch, good to see a rock musician a little out of his usual comfort zone of three and a half minute pop song formula.

For many years at primary school I wanted long hair and a keytar. I got a bad Beatles mop-top cut, without asking, just hated the painful experience of my mum's friend cutting my hair by basically ripping it out, and I eventually got a Casio keyboard that I never learned a note on. Parents thought a school teacher would just show me I'm her spare time rather than thinking lessons was the way forward.

Not heard that for thirty years!!! May just be saying it all day at work now. That's brightened my morning!

Not sure there's a genuine need for this. My friend who is a guitar collector of sorts has a very rare epiphone his uncle found in a skip he was walking past, so maybe there are a good few guitars in landfill here and there... You could dig them up and sell them as "relics" like some of the butchered crimes against music you find on eBay.

Great news! But is it an improvement on the quality of past MIM Fenders? I know we only have the J to compare it to... It's tough at the moment with so much competition in that price bracket, these need to be good!

They are about quite often but at "buy it now" they're stupid expensive and don't seem to sell. When they're auctioned off they seem to go too cheap... Auctions less common though.

Guitar Guitar Epsom has one of the new line in...

I've got both set up on my board and had a good hour with them this evening. I played both through a fender bronco practice amp emulating an SWR Red Head so it was all clean, using my jazz bass which is the current go-to. I tweaked both around a lot. Tone-shaping wise there's not much in it through head phones, though I wasn't getting the punchiness the Hartke usually gives through a rig. Both seemed equal in terms of what they give, though the low mid control on the Batallion is the one that makes the real difference and that probably shades it for the Batallion. Drive wise I pushed the Hartke "harmonics" a lot and got to almost the same territory as the Batallion on full drive, but the options with the Batallion make the drive far more shape-able. I got to a point where I had a good "always on" drive useable for pick and finger style and either front or back pickup really easily. Again I think the eh Batallion just edges the Hartke here to my taste at least. The Batallion compressor sucks. It sucks volume and it slightly takes the tone. I got the most out of it bringing in my Boss LMB-3 on the compressor setting. The Hartke doesn't have a compressor at all. What I did find was that the Hartke wasn't giving me the full guts it gives when playing through a rig. It will be a few more weeks before I get these in a band setting so for now they're staying side by side. If you put a gun to my head right now to choose I'd say the EHX. Tone control is easier and there's more control over the drive. It's a tough call though, it's not so far ahead of the Hartke that I'd call it a revelation. More will be revealed when tested at volume...

Excellent, congratulations to you! I've started to lust after small bodied "modern" instruments only recently and that flips my switch.

My drummer doesn't sing but he listens to the vocal for cues, rather than guitar or bass... Or counting the bars! I work this way too, so he and I both mess up together Playing with a drummer who just plays the same pattern without leading the band in to a change is infuriating.

Already got my Pro Steels. Just need to get time to fit them, has been a difficult few weeks for bass-time

Saw them a few years back in Leeds. What a show! Met Jerry very briefly afterwards, shook his hand... The man has these massive muscular hands that just make you feel incredibly inferior. And I consider myself to have fairly big strong hands.

I've been playing with my drummer for two years. In practice we are constantly making eye contact to follow each other for fills and stuff but it doesn't always work. On gigs he will barely look at me. I played a dep with a different drummer though and found it far more difficult, the guy had better timing but didn't build up to a chorus or bridge or anything which is hard when you're playong unfamiliar material. The first band I was ever in had a drummer who is hands down the best all round musician I have ever known. He and I could drop out for odd beats and come back in and accent each others playing so easily. It was a band dominated by a guitarist playing huge guitar-w@nk solos so he and I needed to keep ourselves awake somehow!

We have a similar system in our band. We are all friends but if someone is doing something irritating, like a guitarist widdling a bit of the next song before we play it on a gig then a word is had. I've played bits that haven't worked and been told "better the first way you did it" and then you know, do it again and everyone will be seriously p!ssed off. A disapproving look is not enough, it needs to be said.

Times have indeed changed!

I agree with you to a large extent, but I am confident my bands approach is the right thing for us as a band.

Three. P, J and fretless 5. I plan to add a fretted 5 soon, but it could be a four with a d tuner. I would like to collect but don't have the space or the disposable income, sadly.

We will change the offending word to something else often. Seems best, these days with the culture of being easily offended by anything and everything and being able to spread that by social media we just don't want the hassle. Plus, we don't want to offend people either, we play for people to enjoy themselves and don't want to have anyone genuinely upset. Aware others will have very different views but we are a party band that want bookings, not an originals band making its own stamp on the world, so we need to be friendly and acceptable.

It's too much for me to handle but Bass Direct have a gorgeous six strong Warwick neck thru Streamer for £1600ish. Looks amazing.

I own the 500 but we have the 800 at our rehearsal space. It's incredibly loud but doesn't loose tonal quality. Pair either a 500 or 800 with the right cabs and you won't get remotely near half volume unless you want to deafen people.

From a brief play through my short verdict is: Hartke does "punch" whereas EHX does not. I think that comes through in the boost the Hartke gives and the Hartke Shape function. The Shape function is personal taste, I never move it anti clockwise from 12, for instance... The EHX compressor is a bit.... Well it just dulls the sound for me. More experiment needed, especially with the fretless. More to come later...