thepurpleblob

As much as you need to make it worthwhile. The last one we did I think we charged £800 to play a pub. It's a bit of a sellers market (around here anywhere) as a lot of bands don't seem to want to do it.

I like to learn theory because it helps *me* to play. I was that kid who took things apart to see how they worked - it's a personality defect of some sort. Knowing the rules and applying them is how I learn stuff. My point, I think, is that how you approach learning and instrument depends on your particular learning style. I'm very analytical about it. Clearly others are not. We are all different - a good thing.

I don't use tone controls on the bass or the amp. I just set it flat. Even on basses with loads of active controls it doesn't seem to make all that much difference. It's a bass for heaven's sake The only exception to that would be if the room has some odd resonances which I would try to dial out. If it goes through a PA then it's somebody else's problem.

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='276551' date='Sep 3 2008, 09:14 PM']Scales are like roadmaps. Its fun blasting about aimlessly for a while but eventually you will want to get where you need to go quickly and by the best route. Get them learned. Start Maj and Minor plus a Dom 7. It will open your eyes. G[/quote] Dom7 isn't a scale..... unless you mean the mixolydian mode. There, that's scared him away

Learning where the notes are isn't theory, it's knowing which note is which. You can more or less get away with knowing the first seven frets on the E and A strings (I've been playing for years and I still need to think about the G string). How much more stuff about harmony and scales and all that stuff is up to you. However, a lot of it is actually quite interesting and it all helps - really :-)

My band plays (older stuff) Moonage Daydream and Ziggy Stardust. Neither are bass playing rocket science, but a bit more interesting than the usual all the same.

[quote name='bassmansky' post='275730' date='Sep 2 2008, 07:23 PM']not so cheap yamaha guitars.........just stick with making keyboards or pianos![/quote] Yeh - but they depreciate like a rock. An old TRB for a couple of hundred quid starts to look like a good deal.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='275494' date='Sep 2 2008, 03:12 PM']I own a Behringer rack tuner it looks good but it is sh*t.[/quote] Oh yeh... I bought one of those. Doesn't work with bass frequencies at all (even though the blurb says it does). Excellent idea :-) It went straight back.

[quote name='P-T-P' post='275459' date='Sep 2 2008, 02:34 PM']Bit late to the party on this but Thomann's own brand IEMs are fantastic. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_iem_100_863_mhz.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_iem_100_863_mhz.htm[/url] Me and the singer in my band both use them, though ours are an older model than these. Using Shure SLC-3 phones with them, excellent.[/quote] Am I right in thinking that you can have one transmitter and several receivers?

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='275332' date='Sep 2 2008, 12:04 PM']She’s 22, it’s all legal [/quote] I'm twice that age. I'll be dead soon. Oh well

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='275279' date='Sep 2 2008, 11:09 AM'] That will make her day if I told her, and I say “if” because “if” I tell her then she will know I’ve posted a pic of her on here and there’s quite a high possibility that she will totally blow her nut [/quote] Yeh, but I'm probably a sufficient number of years older than your other half to have committed some sort of offence saying that!!!

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='275041' date='Sep 1 2008, 10:46 PM']One of me and my better half last night at a free classical concert at Darley Abbey Park in Derby…she had no idea about the fingers [attachment=12835:darley.JPG][/quote] Good grief... you are both annoyingly attractive people

What I keep coming back to is that I don't get on with the narrow string spacing on many 5s. Of course they're not all the same. You can get a 5 string with the same string spacing as a 4 (or wider even), but this only seems to happen at the very expensive end of the market for some reason. I've settled on one of those Hipshot Xtender jobs. Drop-D is nearly as useful once you get used to it.

Playing the bass, much like any instrument, is *difficult*. If it wasn't then anybody could do it and it wouldn't be worth the trouble. They say is takes around 1,000 hours to get competent at any complex task and I think that's probably fair. This isn't to put you off, it's just to get you to understand that you will be rubbish to start with - everybody is. Getting over the initial "I can't do anything" is the hardest part of learning to play bass. I'm afraid that the world of music is full of people giving it, "I just picked it up and could play it". They're all lying :-) Good luck, get some lessons - it's all worth it!!

[quote name='Gamble' post='272801' date='Aug 29 2008, 08:15 PM']I'll bet you're a damn sight cooler on stage than I am with this mop! That's an awesome mowie by the way Ou7shined![/quote] Crucial strides dude!

[quote name='andy67' post='267342' date='Aug 21 2008, 08:24 PM']check out the bassist and drummer in this vid: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPGA3vjMLgE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPGA3vjMLgE[/url] andy[/quote] who the hell is Paul Gilbert?

Whatever next... [url="http://www.openstomp.com/"]http://www.openstomp.com/[/url]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='270945' date='Aug 27 2008, 01:06 PM']Is that keyboard there as a crowd barrier? [/quote] It's to keep the screaming teenage girls away from me!!! Well it was, I don't play in that band anymore. My wife was getting jealous.

I've been trying to avoid this mostly because there are no pictures of me looking cool :-) So given that it can't be done..... I'm the fat bloke with the cool hair..... and the bass!!

[quote name='uptonmark' post='270488' date='Aug 26 2008, 06:44 PM']imo, one of the funkiest riffs of all time and easy to play too[/quote] You speak for yourself

Nothing special I'm afraid - Smells Like Teen Spirit :-) I'm also chipping away at "Disco Inferno" and "Just" (Radiohead).

[quote name='johnnylager' post='270001' date='Aug 26 2008, 09:01 AM']For what it's worth, I've just acquired an old 'Ray and the thing that does it for me is the fat neck - it feels so much easier to give it some welly than the Geddy Lee's. That and there's something 'organic' (listen to me, what a hippy) about playing a large, heavy slab of wood. I don't seem to need to use me pedals (compression & tuner excepted) or eq the amp anymore either. Wish I'd known this a few years ago.[/quote] Yeh - since I got mine I'm screwed. Absolutely nothing else seems to cut through like the Stingray. It doesn't seem to matter much what you do with the settings either !!

[quote name='BassManKev' post='269787' date='Aug 25 2008, 09:33 PM']stingray = MAN sterling = GIRL thats my take on it anways [/quote] So what does that make the Bongo then?

I've owned a Stingray for a couple of years and am really impressed with it - spoiled in fact. However, I keep noticing the Sterling bass. Apart from the obvious difference in the controls what's the difference between these two basses? I've never had the chance to try a Sterling unfortunately.