steantval

Christ, I have a number 2 on top and 1 up the sides, I’ve got no chance.😢

There’s an old saying for us older guys. We have learnt, played and forgotten more songs than you young guys have yet to play. 😁😁

58 is a bit old for wearing platforms 🤩🤩

Many years ago when I was a six string guitarist before moving over to bass, I did own a couple of Tokai guitars, Les Paul and Strat copies, really great instruments at a good price compared to the Gibson and Fender prices. I know they produced some of the classic bass copies and I would assume these were priced quite low, not sure how much they now command on the secondhand market. Anyone had experience of the Tokai basses ?

Although we didn’t stay there, the Madonna Inn in SLO is an experience, famous place.

Back in the year 2000 I did the Pacific Coast Highway from LA up to San Francisco, fantastic road trip. We had no pre-booked hotels and just stopped at motels where we ended up and the end of each day. We actually stopped for one night in San Louis Osbispo, a lovely place with a great feel. What I didn’t realise at the time, that’s where my bass was made, I spotted it on the headstock along time after my trip and it suddenly clicked.

High Barn in Great Bardfield, Essex. Stunning music venue and recording studio, now it is just a very classy wedding venue. Played there in our Free tribute band, all ticketed and sold out. Brilliant gig, our best ever and well worth the 140 mile round trip.

It was Lemmywinks, Sir (holding hand up) 😀😀😀

Just edited my post, you beat me to it.

Just out of interest, here are the average daily circulation figures for 2017 as you keep referring to the Daily Mail. Daily Mirror 724,888 The Guardian 156,756 Daily Mail 1,511,357 I used to work for Viz (John Brown Publishing) in the 90’s , we managed to get the circulation figure over the million mark.

Gigged ?

You and Woodinblack are not very PC. You are assuming by calling me fella that I’m a man because I have a wife, not the thing to do nowadays 😱😱

I personally would not book our band into the same venue two months running, I always ensure they are well spread out. One of the venues we play wanted to give us four gigs this year, I said it was too many and we eventually agreed three.

Hey, what yer sayin. I drive an Audi and so does my wife.

Nice to see some great young talented musicians, are they from the UK ?

If the woman loses, I presume she will be hit with court costs.

Totally agree that songs should remain as they were originally written.

44 years for me on motorcycles and still riding and racing, big crash in 1998, new replacement bike and me fixed, back on it again a month later. My two big passions are music and motorcycling and I will keep playing and riding as long as I can.👍👍👍

That’s probably the 80% of us I was talking about, if it was just for the money, most of us would probably not be gigging.

I assume what you mean by working bands, these are pro players and do it entirely for a living and by hobby players you mean guys/gals who play at the weekends in bands but it is not their main occupation. I would hazard a guess that this site membership is probably split to a max of 20% pro players and the rest are as you call them “hobbyists”. I come under the “hobbyist” category and I do not reside in or anywhere near London, we book gigs up to a 45 mile radius of where we are based. I have been in a total of eight bands since the 80’s and one criteria in all of them is that everyone has their own transport.

Just a quick question, I noticed a lot of the folks on here have their basses out in the pictures, are these permanently left out or were they specifically out just for the photos ? It would mean a lot of dusting if they were permanently out. My bass at home is usually stored away in its case although I do have stands. In terms of caring for the instrument, is it beneficial to leave it in or out of the case when stored indoors at home?

Sorry Pete but I don’t get your statement. Its got nothing to do with the songs, it’s the bass sound I have worked towards through purchasing high end amplification, using a different amp/cab will not be my sound. If all amps/cabs sounded the same, why do we need ( and purchase) all the different makes and configurations that are currently available? Over the years I have played many multiple band gigs and as a band we (as well as the other bands) have brought our own drum kit and back line amplification, 15 to 20 minute changeovers are no problem, the drummer has all his kit all set up backstage and just needs to carry it out plus our own individual back line gear, first song of the set is a sound check.

I cannot understand why a drummer or a bass player would want to play on equipment provided by a venue. I would assume most of it would be sub standard stuff that’s been hammered. I have my own individual sound based on the bass guitar and amplification I use and this also fits in with the overall sound of our band, using another amp that is provided just does not make sense to me. Our drummer Ray has a couple of high end kits and top of the range cymbals, I’m pretty sure he would not be happy playing another kit , it comes down to your individual set up, it’s a personal thing.

In my music room.

Mark Knopfler hit the big time when he was 30/31.