uk_lefty

All of it! But please don't explain, I don't think I need to know and my head couldn't cope with the information.

Right now it's amps. I've got a perfectly good amp that is loud enough, doesn't have valves that are expensive to replace and is flexible enough for each bass I have. I really want something with a tube front end though, like an Ashdown ABM. I also really like the look of the Markbass Marcus Miller stuff... Complete opposite, I know! I really like the GK amp sound too and I'm a sucker for trying to find old SWR amp heads going cheap. I don't need any of it at all.

That sounds interesting, I had the old Bronco 40 and thought it was great for what it was. I am very late to this party, but a few months back I acquired a Spark. I didn't have an electric guitar amp since getting rid of my Blackstar BEAM which was a great bit of kit that I moved on too hastily. I saw the Spark as an upgrade on that. So far I've only had time to be using it as a plug n play practice amp. For guitar that's great, I recently moved on my budget electro acoustic and budget electric guitars and got myself a lovely Epiphone Casino. Tweaking the amp and effects is Ok but not stellar on the android app but I feels a bit restrictive with just what's available as standard though I may not be educated enough to swap out effects and so on just yet. I have a Helix Stomp so in theory I have all my effects and amp Sims there really but I wanted the one box simplicity of the Spark for recording without having to mess about getting out all the pedals, leads, power supply, USB mixer... Etc. The Blackstar was great for exactly this (here's a demo I did in minutes with just the Blackstar USB recording into my laptop, no other hardware Listen to Take on Me by clive mustang on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Gybdw . ) For bass I find the Spark disappointing tbh. The speakers don't like the bassinet notes, they get a bit farty from A downwards I find and I don't play at any kind of volume. The sound is a bit thin and weak. It's ok for playing along to tracks to learn them but it's not ideal if you really want to get into the detail of your sound. The bass amp models seem limited really. Again, maybe I need to do a system update to get hold of more options but for some reason mine just won't the handful of times I've tried. I've had better options for amp sim and effects in the old-tech Fender Bronco I had but that didn't do guitar. If I can get something at the right price I will probably be buying a bass specific practice amp and only using the Spark for guitar. One app feature I don't quite understand is the video thingy... You can video yourself playing but it's just the same as doing that off your phone anyway, so it doesn't record a direct signal of your instrument for the video which would be more helpful if you were doing an online demo of a tune. Overall if I am to make demos of songs as I want to in future I can see me only using the Spark for guitar tracks, and only if I prefer the sound there than what I get from my Helix. If I get the time to get stuck in I would like to use some of the jam functions and learning tools within the Spark, I just need that time!

They are hard to find but keep checking eBay and Reverb etc. Maybe put a wanted ad up on here. I prefer my ABM Neos to the Rootmaster cabs I had. I expect I'd prefer even more the non-Neo ABM cabs too and keep a track of those online, they go very cheap second hand but they are not lightweight.

Wonder if this is what Bruce Springsteen was playing in his early days, struggling to get a decent sound when someone said to him "nice bass" or something like that.

I got fired from a band once by email. I was quite relieved, it was never what it claimed to be. Two female singers doing funky jamiroquai type stuff, I signed up, auditioned ... The audition was an odd experience. We went through a number of weeks trying second guitarists, drummers and a keyboard player and I stuck with it through all this because the singers were good. But. The material was all over the place. The guitarist basically loved the Stereophonics so it was about four or five Stereophonics songs. The girls were amazing singing 80s power ballads, we did two but guitarist refused to do any more. We settled on a line up and rehearsed for a few weeks. The guitarist's behaviour was odd in how he treated people and how quickly his "ideas" changed. Me, a guitarist and the drummer got fired after a few weeks. The email read something like "you all rock and you're amazing musicians but there's just too many different ideas and it's hard to keep everyone happy..." It taught me a lot about being in a covers band: set out your stall early on what the direction is and stick to it. Or, play to the strengths of your biggest asset (in this case the singers). And a lesson I learned more recently: If someone turns up all enthusiastic but just wants to do the songs they know and love from a different genre to the band direction BIN THEM NOW because they will never, ever stop.

Maybe they were being honest, but they're just completely deluded? So, so many muso types are unfortunately.

That is almost every bass you'd ever need in one. Love it!

All I can say is that I bought some diMarzio model Ps for a bitsa and they were worth every penny. They go for about fifty quid second hand. Really nice pickup for a vintage P bass sound. Not all P bass pickups are the same, they were a long way different from the Steve Harris Seymour Duncan pups I had in a previous bass, so try to find some sound samples and see where your preference is.

The new Ernie Ball BadMotherF*cker bass and case.

I've had the opposite too... People assuming my knackered and heavily modded Mexican Jazz was some kind of vintage masterpiece. Then they heard me play it and realised it was mostly Wilko wood filler and matchsticks.

I've had someone running the sound for a charity festival tell me: "sh!t bass" at my Japanese Fender P. I'm not sure if he was joking or not, you can't really tell with people you don't know. Some people hate Fender and it was a black and white Sid Vicious looking thing. It was minutes before we started playing and it just made me think he was a d!CK and (among other things) not mind at playing a twelve minute medley when we were told three minutes left. I've made the same faux Pas, watching a band with a very young bassist I turned to my drummer and said with mock derision "I don't respect anyone who plays a Fender P copy!" The joke being I had played a Tanglewood P copy for ages until recently. The kids parents didn't see the joke, obviously, and I felt bad because the boy was really good. Safest to keep private jokes private.

As much as I love my hardcase for storing my bass away while not using it it's also a pain in the bum for gigs. It doesn't fit in my mini properly and I can't stuff cables and the like into it like I can a gig bag. My Stingray case is mainly used to store the bass only and I use a gig bag to take it to gigs or practice.

Only looks as cool as what's behind it, surely.

Yep, it went on a bit as well. I genuinely wore three watches at once on one gig and showed photo evidence. Beat that for anarchy, Sex Pistols.

The iPad debate...! Reminds me of the long thread on here a while back where someone said wearing a watch on stage was unprofessional 🤷🏻‍♂️ each to his own!

Personally I like the look of some relics and a Jaco relic has some appeal to me... BUT. Every relic guitar I've come across in person, including a fender CS Jazz, has just made me not want to play it. There's just something about the fake ageing, dirty neck, cracked finish, unrealistic wear patterns that loads of other guitars have in cookie-cutter identical places, Sandberg for example all their heavy relics look identical to me and that's disappointing for a handmade item. Each to their own, though.

Sounds like you've done well to get rid early. I recently learned the hard way that the audition process has to take weeks, it's when people think they're "in" that the bad habits and personality issues surface, or you see they're just a one trick pony. Well done on the phone call too.

I love my Stingray because it is BIG, bold and a bit gritty. It does great big dollops of deep, gritty Stingray tone, or I crank up the mids and make it a bit more like a P bass. Put simply it's the ultimate live bass. I compare it to having a big, stupid, lovable dog that slobbers all over you and always wants to play but will never just sit calmly in your lap.

Time tree is a good one. So is Family Calendar. Both are apps that work on Android and Apple. My band uses an Apple Calendar and it means I can't access it on my android phone, which is annoying.

It certainly does. But out of the 121 sounds I only find a handful actually usable!

I loved the idea of the EHX Mono Synth but found the tracking awful. It had the best sounds for popusic, if you're holding a single note for a whole bar it's great but to play anything busy it can't keep up IME. It's a shame, there's something about EHX that always pulls me in but I've never kept a single one of their pedals that I've bought even though I always want them to be the best thing ever.

You're on a very interesting musical journey! I wouldn't know about schools of the sort you mention if Google hasn't turned any up then I guess if it does exist at all it's very hard to find. I would suggest you track down via YouTube or instagram etc. players you like, who play the kids of music you want to learn and come across as personable. A lot may offer private lessons 1-1 which is great because then you can set out what you want to work on and get their input. Some absolute top players offer lessons. From my own experience I saw that Nathan King (pro guitarist and bassist who does the Andertons bass demos) was offering lessons during lockdown. A single 1-1 1hr lesson with him helped me re focus on what I needed to learn in order to progress my playing.

Ignore my previous advice, if you're handy with the tools then do this! Probably a better investment of time and money.