thepurpleblob

I'm not that bothered about other people playing my gear but it doesn't go anywhere without me. That's my "rule". The gigging environment is not conducive to care being taken of stuff. Drink, moving things, spilt stuff, rushing.... and so on.

It's polite to ask the guy if you need to change anything. You don't always get the chance, though. I've been the gear lender before and, while I've never actually had anything broken, I've come back to ridiculous levels of reconfiguration. Just be reasonable... make the minimum changes you need and don't starting plugging and unplugging stuff. You're only the bass player ;-)

The drummer has a big van (tail lift and everything!). He and the other two guys travel in that. I take my own car and gear. I'm an antisocial b*****d

I don't think it's out of control patrons; it's poorly managed venues. Pubs have drunk people in them - it kind of goes without saying. There are, however, pubs where I can almost guarantee no bother and others were I can pretty much guarantee there will be. The difference is the quality of the management. Good staff will not put up with idiots. I've seen some members of bands I've been in seriously verbally abused (and visually on one occasion - don't ask) and the staff did nothing. It's not on. Mind you a good Blues Brothers style bar fight is always entertaining :-D

You may well find that if your favourite bass/amp gets nicked and you claim on your insurance they may want some proof of its existence. A receipt is always a good idea. As is taking photos and notes of serial numbers. Do as I say, not as I do :-)

I'm off to install Audacity and report back. I have used it but not like this.

Because it's easier than sitting practising for hours on end.

There's definitely a Linux version. No need to run it under Wine. I use it all the time. Linux is now quite a reasonable proposition for musicy stuff.

Not interactively. You can process a whole song but that's not much use if you just want to have a look at "that fiddly bit in the middle 8". I suppose it depends who you are. If you have to get the bassline for half a dozen covers for a gig tomorrow night then it's a really useful tool.

I use it all the time. It's very useful and, IMO, a bit better thought through than similar offerings. The ability to speed up, slow down, change tuning, easily identify and loop over sections, fiddle with the EQ etc. etc. is incredibly useful. A tad old fashioned looking if that bothers you. In fact, I've bought it twice. Both the Linux and Mac versions (licenses are not transferrable).

I'm not very sympathetic (to the shop). The very existence of a "specialist" shop is founded on the availability of specialist advice and good service. As has been pointed out, almost anything you want will be available online for delivery before 10am tomorrow and cheaper too. They have to put that bit of effort it.

Pay peanuts...

You can't be too thin or have too much RAM. Generally the best value upgrade is to max out the RAM. Followed closely by an SSD drive. With the exception of some weird iMacs they sold a couple of years ago, Apple didn't make a low-spec computer so anything from the last few years is fine.

Of course, a shop floor (and the bit of it your bass is sitting in) costs the trader real money. I used to get this all the time when I ran a specialist shop (not music but similar) - "I wish I was on your hourly rate" and such. Well, that's fine, here's my telephone bill, rates bill, insurance bill, wages bill etc.

Strictly two fingers. I can't play with a plectrum.... and I've tried... a lot. It just feels completely wrong. And I always drop them. It's going on that very big heap of things that I can get by without needing to learn...

I'd be happy to sing backing vocals. In fact, I have a go as long as the song has a simple enough bass line. But I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. In particular, I don't know what to do with my voice. They say, "sing from your diaphragm". That's nice, but I haven't the slightest idea what that means. Your vocal chords are in your throat!! I keep thinking I'll get better...

It's the '55 Dual-J'. It's supposedly only available in Tobacco Sunburst according to the website but not on this occasion it seems. It's one of the 'cheap' USA models *cough*. That's the one. You know when you pick something up and it's, "damn, I'm going to have to buy this"? I've never considered buying a non-active bass before but, apart from a little more noise than I am used to, I really couldn't find any objection. I always set the EQ flat anyway!

I think we might have played in the same band

I learned on a five but drifted to a four for a few years and now play both. My Stingray 4 is just the right thing for some gigs and songs. If in doubt, I take the five. It's hard to explain. This doesn't help at all, I know :-D

My last advert in Scumtree looking for a band was, "Old, grumpy bass player looking for like-minded band of non-psychopaths". Oddly, it worked reasonably well. Best to be honest about your aspirations in these adds. However, unreasonable they are

I've been trying. I've absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I should be used to that by now :-P

If you're doing it for fun and it's not fun.... well, you don't need to ask us really, do you?

I've had this since just before Christmas now. Went out trying to find a lightweight bass with five strings and 19mm spacing. Found this. There was no way I was going to spend over two grand on a bass. Sigh... Neck feels like what a five string Stingray should have been like if they'd done it properly. Ridiculous B string. Seems very simple but works perfectly.

Ahh.... I can't play with a pick. Well, I've been trying with pretty poor results. I also had to look up who Bobby Vega was I'm pretty much oblivious to anything from the USA!

I discovered the other day that I really like the Ting Tings, thus disqualifying me from having an opinion I think the danger of being any kind of musician is that it takes the fun out of listening to music. Who cares if the artist is "original", "authentic" (whatever that means) and so on? If you like it, great. If not there'll be another one along in a minute. Mr Mars is earning a living (probably a good one) in the music industry so good luck to him!