EliasMooseblaster

There's no harm in doing it back-to-front....I started on bass, and then took a more active interest in guitar a year or two later. Being able to "read" a rhythm guitarist's fretting hand has proven to be a boon at a lot of open mics, jams, and those nightmare scenarios where your clueless mate has asked you to play bass at his gig and starts playing songs he's never even shown you before. But aside from those situations, it isn't strictly necessary. I think the guitar just naturally piqued my curiosity as I became a bit more confident with its larger brother.

Chronic bender and dusty-ender, me...

^ This. I can't stand the group's music, but there's no denying he used to be a bit of a genius in terms of self-marketing. I use the past tense, because the last time I saw him making headlines was because he'd used an interview to make a crass and (likely deliberately) offensive comment about people with mental health issues. Sure, it worked, it got people talking about him, but it seemed like a really cheap shot from a guy who used to be ahead of the curve in terms of marketing his band.

Probably Paul Stanley, based on the stories our drummer has told us in the past (he's a huge fan and seems to know far more about them than one might consider healthy). I do wonder why this rumour hasn't become stadium rock's equivalent to the digs about David Gilmour playing most of the Pink Floyd basslines towards the end of the Roger Waters era.

Likewise, I was very pleased that the "two years' free service" they always talk about at the till is always properly honoured. They were really helpful when the preamp was on the blink in my Corvette a couple of years ago - sadly, compared to some other retailers (not just of guitars), it seemed like a nice touch that they phoned me up to apologise for a bit of a delay because they'd had to order in a replacement part! Unfortunately I think I might have been in there too often - I phoned ahead last time to see about part-exchanging a bass, and I think the guy recognised my voice...

So very true - I haven't had the pleasure of trying a JHS/Vintage bass, but I do have one of their SG guitar copies. About ten years ago the shoulder strap on its gig bag failed and it fell, face-first, onto a tube platform. Obviously I was upset at the time, but I'd have been mortified if it had been a real Gibson, or a high-end bass. But apart from cosmetic damage, the only thing that actually broke was the pickup switch. Easily replaced, and I've since been into shops to try Epi and Gibson versions and come away slightly nonplussed. If the £600+ version doesn't make me feel that much more inspired than my beaten-up sub-£200 version, I'll keep playing the Vintage and hang on to my money! (You never know when I might get bad GAS for a Sandberg again, after all...)

Oh, that really is quite lovely.

You're quite correct, but if I may just plug in my hair-splitting device, it's not individual groups sounding like their heroes that I object to. It's more the fact that so many rock groups seem to be emerging now who all seem to think that there's space for yet another Led Zeppelin soundalike, and I worry that none of them are trying to doing anything new with that format. I still enjoy that kind of music, I just worry that if all these groups can aspire to is "an authentic-sounding revival of that '70s sound" (for example), the genre is going to lapse into a coma after fifty years of staring back into its own navel.

I'm not sure when we started doing it, but for the longest time we've always had a mic and a laptop to hand. Typically our guitarist or I write a song alone, and email a demo 'round. Then we'll get together and have a few attempts at the song; once everybody's happy we'll plug the mic in and do a shonky recording of it as an aide memoir. It's particularly useful for our singer to have something to take away so she can work on the melody, phrasing, etc, and it allows us to review our own parts, and pick up on any bits that, away from the visceral thrill of the jam, do or don't really work!

I had this at a gig recently. It wasn't a deliberate act, just an unfortunate error that the guitarist put the capo on the 2nd fret rather than the 3rd. I was used to singing this particular song in Bb, and something didn't sound right...a quick look down at the guitar neck confirmed my suspicions, and I spent the next three minutes trying to shift the vocal line down a semitone whilst still trying to capture the gentle, summery wistfulness that this song is supposed to evoke. I wouldn't have minded so much except that I was also the guitarist in this situation...

"Well, Edmund, it's just that while Baldrick and I were searching through the bass guitars, we found one...pfft! ...shaped almost exactly like...a thingy!" "I trust you have removed this hilarious item?" "No, my lord, I had a cunning plan to put it up for sale on ye internet, where all the world might marvel at it from the comfort of their electronic terminals."

Not quite sure why that's reminded me, but one of the most parochial examples I've come across: any David Byrne fans here? I couldn't help but notice the radio edit of Like Human Do (known to everybody who ever installed a copy of Windows XP) replaces the line "I never watch TV, except when I'm stoned," with the rather more banal "we're eating off plates and we kiss with our tongues." Just seems like needless censorship to me, but then I guess Weezer had to similarly censor Hash Pipe to get it played on the wireless...

If memory serves, I think it was Messrs Barker and Corbett who got away with "A sol, a sol, a soldier I would be, Two pis, two pis, two pistols at my knee, For cu, for cu, for curiosity, To fight for the old count, fight for the old count, fight for the old country..."

I had this same sinking feeling at the first Ramblin' Man festival. I saw a couple of excellent new bands that weekend, but I also saw a glut of new rock bands who just seemed to be playing rock for the sake of rock. There's only so many times you can watch a guitarist walk up to the wedges, to open a song by belting out a crunchy pentatonic riff as a predictably turgid 4/4 beat starts up, before you get bored stiff. I'm not saying music needs to get to Scott Walker levels of abstract to be interesting, but some of these bands need to draw on some other inspiration than Led Zeppelins I through IV or I'll be scared off tuning into Planet Rock for good.

Certainly the *right* budget mics will stand you in good stead. The cheap small-diaphragm condenser I bought from Maplins showed its limitations pretty quickly. On the other hand, the Behringer C-1 (a large diaphragm condenser) sounds excellent. It won't compete with a Neumann, but nor will anything else that only cost 40-odd quid. (It was good enough to do an acoustic solo EP, in any case...)

Curiouser and curiouser...on my own P/J, the split-P is actually closer to the bridge than on a normal Precision. Presumably that placement was chosen to impart a certain tone, though I've faint recollections of a thread on here about P/Js having the split-P moved bridgeward rather than neckward. EDIT: I've just remembered I have a second P/J in the cupboard, a Fender to boot. I might have to make some measurements later.

Tonally, they're definitely in the same ball-park. The Warwicks are bright and clear with plenty of zing; much like Rotos that does fade over a few days. I think the Rotosounds have more "authority" in their tone - I also use them on my Thunderbird, incidentally, and with the pickup blend just right I do find I can get a nice piano-like tone without sacrificing the bottom end. The Warwicks definitely manage a close second, and I'd probably go back to them if I couldn't get Rotos for whatever reason. The Warwicks obviously have the advantage of being cheaper; curiously enough I also found them quite a bit softer under the fingers, and I tend to favour the nickel-plated Rotos when I can get them.

If you're looking to play around without investing a lot of cash (initially) there is a lot of free software around at the moment. I've recently rediscovered Guitarix as a surprisingly good amp sim. Unfortunately, the latency is the kicker, as several have already said - with my current setup, it's too much to turn my computer into a replacement for a practice amp. But a combination of dialling in a satisfying sound, then recording without sending the Guitarix signal back out to the monitor, allows me to get a passable bass amp sound for laying down demos etc.

Amen to that!

Even with roundwound strings on, you'll find it sounds quite "dark" compared to most other basses, but that shouldn't stop you giving it a bit more bark. I appreciate that my Epiphone EB-3 is a different instrument from a "real" Gibson, but I've tried it with Roto RS66 (both SS and nickel), Ernie Ball Cobalts, and Warwick Reds - I still default to Rotosound, but all of them have sounded good. (The Warwicks are pretty good as a cheap option if you're just looking to experiment!!)

Christ on a pogo stick. I've just watched your demo videos and that thing sounds incredible. Love the overdriven tone, in particular; I can only imagine how good that would sound with a Bass Tubescreamer in the chain. If anyone does get a chance to A/B that Handbox against the Ashdown (which just happens to be my current gigging head...), I'd be very interested in hearing the verdict, or indeed the source material! (I expect the CTM-100 will sound darker, but then I usually gig mine with a T-bird, which probably sounds a fair bit darker than a Marusczyk to begin with.)

Lest we forget, that chap with his infinitely relisted (and frankly monstrous) 15-string conversion was originally trying to get ten grand for it...

You don't happen to also be a member of Nigerian royalty, by any chance?

...so sayeth MU head honcho Horace Trubridge: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43540298 Anybody else ever have a run-in with these clowns? I've never forgotten being invited to an initial meeting with some of them, via an email in which they wrote effusively about how much they liked the sound and look of the band, and really thought this was something they could work with...only to turn up and be asked questions such as "so what kind of music do you play?" and "how many are you in the band?" I remain relieved that I didn't hand over any money as a result of that meeting, but I know one or two who were less fortunate.

A fair point, but my current role is ironing laundry, and the Squier performs surprisingly well as an ironing board, provided you don't mind your clothes smelling faintly of melted nitro afterwards...