uk_lefty

Interesting looking Yamato lefty on ebay now. 300 quid, looks in good condition from the pics. I'd be tempted if I hadn't had my fingers burned so many times recently from buying second hand basses that need more work than I realised! I might be learning my lesson...

What's the retailer?

Seriously. When I upgraded my beginner bass many years ago there wasn't a lot of choice of decent basses, and definitely not lefties in the backwater town I grew up in. Internet buying had only just started and there was a site in the US offering Tobias, Kramer and Steinberger Spirits. So I had a choice of "standard" looking Tobias bass, headless Steinberger, or fretless five string banana headstock Kramer.... I was in a band playing Hendrix, Sabbath, Zepplin and Alive by Pearl Jam. I bought the fretless and eventually got rid of my beginners fretted P bass and never looked back. You don't have to "mwaaaaaaaahhhhh" every note with a fretless, so it can be very versatile. It still gets gigged today, even when depping in an originals band where I can't play like the original bassist so I got permission to do something completely different...

Pearl Jam, Ten.

I'm in a similar boat to you. My band that had a great 2020 to look forward to is looking like it could fold. Lockdown has been tough. 4 of us are parents, one is a single parent with two teenagers, one has two grown up children who got sent home from uni and working away all while his livelihood was under threat and his wife's job disappeared within minutes of the first lockdown, one has no commitments whatsoever but his work changed his job and he's busier than ever. So my proposal to rip up the set list and start again went nowhere. I don't know when we will meet up and if we do it's likely to just be a social. However between lockdowns I found a drummer and guitarist and formed an 80s band. We brought in a singer who we couldn't work with until 2 weeks ago. Though early days I'm hoping this band can get going because there's great potential.

Unfortunately that may be the way of the world very soon for lots of things, especially as new variants of covid emerge. At least he's given you notice, unlike the person in the other band.

I bet you love saying that! ☺️👍

Ibanez Roadstar II just appeared on ebay in London, looks like an OK price. *I have no connection to the seller, the item, I was not at the Capitol riots, etc.

Mate, that's awful. I think this last year has brought about a serious rise in scam behaviour. Hope you get your money back and justice is served to the scoundrel.

Made effects pedals that needed a different power supply to the usual 9v and when they couldn't sell them for £90 each knocked them out at £30. It's a shame, I've been ogling Eden amps on ebay for quite a while. I quite liked how their styling was really carp but you know there's a really good quality amp in there. I can only hope that Marshall do a more modern version of the Bass State hybrid amps I used to have and the DBS amps I could only dream of playing in my teens.

I'm trying to change, really I am. 1 is up for sale.

It's so hard but I think the lockdown is doing funny things. Without direct contact people are left with too much time for their mind to wander and for a long time it was hard to see if or when we'd be getting a band back together. Hopefully you get the new singer fired up and it sounds like the guitarist has quite a valid reason to leave. Unless you have a really clear vision of what you want to achieve I'd suggest finding an established band that needs a bassist, that rakes away a lot of the false starts you get with trying to set up something new. I've hedged my bets and found a covers band very similar to mine but in a different area that needs a bassist, my covers band may well fold soon, and as a side project I've started up an 80s band but while I'd love it to work I'm not expecting too much from it.

You could trade in the existing P and with the cash buy a higher spec P bass. Or have a Jazz pup fitted at the bridge. Or get one of the Fender Japanese Boxer basses which look amazing. Or get a stonkingly good second hand amp for that cash. Seriously, I like the idea of having one bass that you love and sticking with it. OK, OK, I've got six basses, but if I need to record anything I always get out the fretless Kramer I've had for near 20 years, whether the recording needs fretless or not. It's by far the cheapest and "lowest quality" bass I have, it's just "me" on record. If you really need a spare and your current P is your number 1 forever then go for Vintage, Squier or Harley Benton P or PJ as a backup.

I disagree. If "you could be mine" was on Appetite then all other music could cease, perfection itself would have been reached.

Bad for Good by Jim Steinman seems to be getting a lot of praise now he's passed, whereas it was always considered naff and a bit of a joke as far as I'm aware due to him not waiting for Meatloaf to be healthy enough to sing it. Longest sentence I've ever written on BC.

I used to hate the Police. My uncle years back bought me a "best of" for my birthday and I didn't listen to it for ages. Then when I did I really heard the quality of the lyrics, songwriting, everything. I love the Police now. Others: Springsteen (before I understood Born in the USA properly, now I love Springsteen and a lot of his albums and have seen him live), Bon Jovi I'm warming to though think some of his songs are lame copies of "the formula"

The John Taylor one is the only one I've heard and it's great. They really got the whole atmosphere of listening in on a chat between mates, rather than a staged interview. Also, John was so relaxed talking to them, I got a bit lost when they were talking about some people they all came across back in the 80s without any context who they were or what they did but luckily that didn't go on too long so it wasn't all luvvy industry insider stuff, far from it. Need to make time to listen to some more!

My band has had a few enquiries, so the possibilities are out there.

Where Trace really went right though was not just producing really loud amps, they still sounded fantastic when cranked up. Lots of depth and punch to the sound even when turned up to wall shaking volumes.

That is absolutely brilliant!!!

Reading your post reminded me of watching musical theatre and how absolutely in awe I am of some of the performers. Proper live singing, and playing, while dancing about and changing the sets. I'd be offended to hear auto tune there, but if I was watching a pop band if I could hear some auto tune as long as it wasn't being overused or abused then I'd brush it off. Is it so widely used in pop that a lot of us just accept it?

Agree one billion percent!!! I've been saying this for years after hearing that "just haven't met you yet" bullshtit song, it's just so in your face how the note comes out then it's like it's hitting a ceiling and staying there, yet the adulation he gets is unreal! Am glad someone else hears it. I've said in this thread about having a "little tech help" being OK but this is absolute abuse of the tech!

That's very clever, in a very small footprint too. Would be interested to hear some of your synth sounds if you have sound clips?

This is not the most exciting board you will see today... I sold off all my individual pedals because it was too much faff and I was constantly buying chorus pedals then moving them on because they weren't right, or buying pedals for one song and then the song gets dropped... So I got a Boss GT10B it was awesome but huge and heavy. I sold off the Boss multi, and my zoom guitar multi, and even my pocket sized basic zoom Acoustic Multi and bought a Helix Stomp. One box to replace EVERYTHING. Except the Wahs aren't very good and I like a bass wah. So I got an AMT cheap on BC and I like it. I already had the HB tuner so I kept it. I've got a separate expression pedal for the Helix too which may go on the board if I need it. I received the Budget Donner power supply and lightweight board just this weekend but I've got an issue with the board bag so not connecting it all up just yet. I know the Donner PSU won't power the Helix, that's fine. The idea is keeping the tuner as a complete mute switch for the whole board, I want to reassign fs 3 from the Helix to do something else other than tuner but haven't spent the time to figure that out yet. The AMT wah comes after the Helix so I can put drive in to the wah, but this necessitates the mute at the front of the chain but also means if I DI from the Helix then the Wah isn't in that signal chain, so that may get a rethink. A synth pedal of some kind may arrive on the board soon. So much for having just a single gig bag friendly box! Any advice on pedal orders, tricks with the Helix, gratefully received.

This is something I'm interested in too, and it's also come about at a good time. However your comments go completely over my (very simple) head. I want something that go press button make sound. I don't want to spend the years that it would rake for me in a darkened cave reading manuals and programming things to just learn the basics of this witchcraft. With bass synth pedals sounding like Skynet having a bad day I'm thinking some kind of keyboard synth to make tasteful 80s synth bass sounds is what's required. It would be good to know what comes pre loaded with usable sounds vs what is just an interface for more background wizardry involving computers and whatever the heck MIDI is.