4000

Can of worms with both comments. 😂 All I can say is we’re acoustic (apart from me). 3 part harmony, guitars, mandolin, clarinet, occasional trumpet/violin/melodica. Pretty eclectic. Influences from ABBA to Zeppelin, not about to make it any time soon. Let’s leave it at that. 😉

Ah, phones. I have a mobile and I can just about text. A sentence takes me a week. I only use mine for the occasional text or, shock horror, making phone calls. 😂 Internet on phones? What’s that about? 😉

Yeah, Nile is definitely having his cake and eating it. In fact I suspect he’s having everyone else’s cake too.😁

I obviously spend too much time on Internet forums. 😁

I think our definition of commitment maybe differs. For me and many others, committing to my music is more important. For some pros, committing to playing - regardless of what that happens to be - is more important. Each to their own. Of course if my band suddenly became hugely popular, however unlikely that might be, then I’d be having my cake and eating it. 😉

Then I don’t really grasp why you appear to have been disagreeing with my points. 😉 BTW, the YMMV thing, I’m 55. Are you much older or much younger? 🙂

This is what I’ve been saying all along! Amateur, semi-pro or pro makes no difference to whether you are a musician or not.

As per previous post, you seem to be of the opinion that earning money somehow has something to do with being a musician. It doesn’t. I also paint, I studied fine art and illustration at degree level, but I don’t paint for anyone but myself, and I don’t sell my work. At all. But I’m still a painter, because I paint. As for how important making money from your art is relative to your status as an artist, you may wish to speak to Vincent Van Gogh. 😉 If you mean being a professional musician (a different distinction) then bear in mind that being a full-time musician doesn’t mean you’re necessarily better. It may mean you’ve been lucky, it may mean you’re easy to get along with (ask Guy Pratt), it may just mean that you’re more willing to compromise. It may even mean that you don’t really care about creating art and just like to play.

This.

I’ve still got the programme upstairs. Signed by Girlschool, who were the support. Great gig by both acts. Saw GS loads of times, only managed Heep once. I love me some Heep. It’s saying something that TB isn’t even my favourite Heep bassist; that’s the marvellous Gary Thain.

Nice bass!

I’m not fully committed to being a full-time bassist, because it’s only part of what I do; to me being a musician Is far more than simply being a bassist, although it’s certainly possible to only be a bassist and still be just as much a musician. Probably an odd place to voice it on a bass forum, but solely playing bass isn’t that important to me in the scheme of things. Because the important thing to me is the music itself. Creating music is far more important to me than making a living from it. Whether that music enables me to make a living is entirely out of my hands. Not comparing myself in any way, but there must be thousands of tremendous writers and musicians who aren’t able to make a living from it because they are more concerned with making art - even if no-one else views it as such - than making money. IMO, the former is far more musicianly than the latter, although some lucky people get to combine the two. If pushed, I judge a musician by their commitment to making music, not by their ability earn a crust. Again, YMMV.

Splitting hairs I know, but I don't think it's necessarily an issue of commitment. I'm extremely committed to what I do but because I write and perform my own material, I, like many others in the same boat, find it difficult to earn anything remotely resembling a full-time wage, particularly in this day and age. I have a full-time job because I have to in order to pay the bills, but I'd much prefer to do my music full-time.

Saw them with Muzz at Manchester Academy, back in the day. Tremendous gig.

Saw him with Heep in 1980. Great player.

If it doesn't have a Ric neck, I don't. ;-)

For me it would depend entirely upon context. As a bass sound in itself, anything with Chris Squire (and obviously there are many things he’d fit in really well, not just Yes) but I'd much rather have Bernard Edwards in Chic. 😉

The music should always come first. The bass players in all the bands I love are an integral part of the music (and which incidentally include Squire, Lee, Burnel, Macca, Zender). However, following a recent conversation about Vulfpeck (who I’d never heard of, so gave a listen), it recently occurred to me that many bassists seem to be into stuff that leaves me utterly cold. Motown, Steely Dan (who I tried for years to like until finally admitting they affect me like nails down a blackboard), loads of so-called “blues” (anyone who has seen Ghost World will understand), soul/r&b/what I refer to as “funk lite” & “fusion lite” (admittedly early Jamiroquai could qualify here but for some reason I love them). Weather Report are another who I convinced myself for years were great, when actually they only do marginally more for me than Kenny G. Joni Mitchell is another on the Kenny G scale. 😂 FWIW, I love everything about ABBA.

I think Mrs 4000 would run round the house cheering if I sold mine. Most of my girlfriends have had a bit of an issue with my basses. My first serious one, otherwise thoroughly rational, said she was jealous of them. Although I suppose I do love my main bass more than anything except my cat. As for her buying me a bass, it'll be a cold day in hell....

I'm always amazed when people say this. Mrs 4000 would sooner wrestle crocodiles in quicksand than encourage me to buy a new bass. She has a right sulk whenever the subject crops up.

I’ll vouch for this. I was on starvation rations.

It's entirely dependent on your taste. I've found that an important part of the sound I love and use is having a specific type of pickup roughly half an inch away from the end of a 20 fret fingerboard. The same thing an inch away doesn't work the same for me. Put 24 frets on it and I'm knackered. However if you asked Jaco, he'd tell you something entirely different. Dad3353's suggestion is a very good one.

Not necessarily. We're an originals band and the sound I/we're trying to achieve, in terms of both material and sonics, is more important to me than anything else. I don't really consider what the audience (and I'm not just talking live) will think too much. Luckily most of our audiences seem to like what we do, but it wouldn't matter a great deal to me if they didn't. We'd just get less gigs, which to be honest wouldn't bother me much.;-) If I'm really honest I could do it in isolation and enjoy everything just as much as I already do. Also, in terms of bass itself, in my current band I use a pretty specific kind of sound and style, that isn't achievable using just anything (I know, I've tried). Again, what the listener perceives doesn't really matter to me; I know what I want to hear. What I'm trying to create is always far more important to me than how it's perceived. I'm sure most people who have ever created any sort of art (I come from a fine art background), and that includes music, are more concerned with what they think of it than what anyone else does.