Norris

If you're not doing it for the money, you should be doing it for the enjoyment. If you're not enjoying it, don't do it.

How many fingers have you got? If you have two un-injured fingers you can play bass You have my sympathies. I once crushed the tip of my main plucking finger. I was packing the gear in the van at the end of the night, having consumed one or two glasses of pop during the evening. I managed to mangle my finger against a PA cab while loading my heavy cast aluminium Traynor head. It resulted in several hours at the infirmary, 5 stitches to pull the mess back into something resembling a fingertip, and a tetanus injection. It didn't half smart It took several months until I could play with it without pain. On the up-side, the scar tissue means my fingertip never goes soft even if I haven't played for a few weeks

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1340400' date='Aug 15 2011, 10:37 AM']3 is the magic number....[/quote] ^ This

I'd played various other instruments before picking up the bass, so could read music. I've never had help/lessons with bass playing - as you'd probably tell if you looked at my technique You never stop learning though and 25 years on I feel I'm much better than I used to be, but not as good as I [i]could [/i]be...

[quote name='oldslapper' post='1328007' date='Aug 4 2011, 11:19 PM']Don't worry he'll discover "mr. Pink" within the year and be playing that equally as furiously.....he can always come back to the bass.[/quote] Chortle

I bought a Comfort Strapp from Dave. He posted me the strap on trust, and I sent cash by return. A recommendation from me in a very positive feedback thread.

Alternatively, tie a piece of string to your bridge strap button, then around your foot

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1308259' date='Jul 18 2011, 07:11 PM']John East has beaten you to it, He does a P Bass preamp that fits in an un modded p bass cavity that has a battery (or capacitor style jobbie) that you charge through the jack socket with a sort of 9v phone charger. He is a clever chap [/quote] Might be a problem if your bass takes 2 batteries, as it might need both 9v & 18v supplies (as my Aria seems to).

My old Aria is active, but even unplugging the lead the batteries would only last about a month. I think the jack socket only switched one of the batteries, so I ended up having to disconnect the other battery at the end of each gig. Of course the batteries gave no warning - 30 seconds of farty noises followed by silence, and no passive mode. Changing the batteries required removing the back plate - three small screws easily lost on a dark stage. Now I'm a battery-free zone. If it's not passive, or doesn't plug into the mains, I don't want it

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1299829' date='Jul 11 2011, 12:42 PM']Also - try dropping the pickups a bit. As you go up the neck, the strings might be getting a little close which will kill the definition.[/quote] Thanks for that one. I generally play the Jazz with both volume controls at about 80% - never flat out, so maybe it's the pup height. [quote name='Vibrating G String' post='1297921' date='Jul 9 2011, 01:45 AM']I've found for me thinner strings give me more useable neck. Too thick and the tone starts falling off after about the 5th fret. YMMV[/quote] I always use Ernie Ball regular slinkys (50-105), so the strings are not exactly fat - and they sound fantastic on my T-bird (which I do have volume at 100% most of the time).

I've been playing in bands since 1985 - summer season at Butlin's Skeggy. Highs Back in the 80's/90's playing in pubs packed so full you could faint and not hit the floor (like my wife did once!). You just don't seem to get pubs that full any more. Playing with Geoff Downes at a festival when his usual bass player went awol (with Jack Daniels?) Being in such a tight band that on several occasions you all do some accent/phrasing you've never done before - at exactly the same moment Lows The point at which I realised that the drummer I had been playing with for 10 years had slowly turned into a complete & utter ar*ehole A wedding night where only the bride & groom turned up Being so skint on a cheque pickup gig that the barstaff had a collection to buy us a pint at the end of it A few fellow musos 'playing the last chord' way too young

I bought a brand new US standard Jazz several years ago, played it constantly and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then more recently I bought my Thunderbird and have played it ever since, the Jazz hardly getting a look in. Several people who come to our gigs have commented on the Thunderbird, saying how great it sounds, especially further up the neck compared to my Jazz. I hadn't really thought about it before, but they were right. The Jazz seems to lack clarity & definition above about the 5th fret, whereas the Thunderbird is a pure tone monster anywhere on the neck. So, is this something that could be corrected, or is it inherent in the bass? Would a new set of pups help? I'm reluctant to change anything on the Jazz, as it's still 'factory' with barely a mark on it. It has had a decent set up, but is otherwise unmodified. It just seems such a shame for it to sit there in the case, but I'm unlikely to choose it over the T-bird at the moment - the T-bird sounds so much better. Should I just stick the Jazz under the bed until it's 'vintage' and worth a packet no matter how it sounds?

My (ex-Clarky) Thunderbird has 'Nigel Tufnell' levels of sustain - and I like it that way. If you're playing a ballad (e.g. Still Got the Blues) and hit that last power note, it's great to still be there when the guitarist has finished with all the mega-widdling and to have enough volume left that you can damp it gently off at the end. On a side note, I used to have a sustain pedal. I've never actually used it on a gig, as it was a great way to get screeching feedback after a few seconds. It used the guitar signal level to light an LED, and had a pre-amp controlled by a light-dependant resistor. So the more the signal decayed, the dimmer the LED got, and the more boost from the pre-amp. And when you didn't play at all, it sat there loudly hissing. It was complete rubbish really

I once SOLD a bass because the other band members convinced me it kept going out of tune. This was long before digital tuners were quite so commonplace. After several gigs where we were well out of tune after about 1/2 hour of playing, I finally part-exchanged my beloved Rickenbacker 4002 for a 'modern' Aria Pro-II SB 1000. This bass also regularly 'went out of tune'. Then I discovered that the guitard kept his guitar case at home behind his sofa, snuggled up next to the frigging radiator! I've never forgiven him & bring it up at every available opportunity. I never really did like the Aria either.

Ha! My very first bass was a Kay SG copy - VERY cheap & cheerful in transparent red plywood. I wonder whatever happened to it.

Manicman Skint-ray

Beautiful!

Back in the late 80's our band was part of the lineup for a large barbeque-style gig. The 'stage' was a lorry trailer, but it did have decent lighting & PA, etc. I was standing backstage waiting to go on and watching one of the preceeding acts - about half a dozen chaps doing a 'balloon dance'. They were all naked apart from a couple of small balloons each. I got chatting to a bloke standing next to me, both of us agreeing that the dancers were crap and that the performance was money for old rope. We spent a good 10 or 15 minutes in much beer-powered criticism. I found out later that I'd been talking to Dave Edmunds

Alternatively, you could always grab an old 50's/60's number and rock it up a little. We have great fun with Del Shannon's Runaway. It started as an off the cuff lark about, but has now become a permanent member of the set

[quote name='SteveK' post='1245313' date='May 26 2011, 10:42 AM']Buy ... a boss octaver![/quote] Someone was selling one cheap at work a few months ago and I snapped it up. I've still not played with it...

[quote name='thumbo' post='1245403' date='May 26 2011, 11:40 AM']Just got done reading Keidis' autobiography ...[/quote] That's a very good read. More downs than ups, but then that's probably likely when you have had a serious habit like that.

I have done a lot of reading & theory in my youth (grade 8 trombone - orchestras, brass band, big band, etc. ), but not really on the bass, so now I'm rather rusty. I've not really needed it since I stopped blowing and drank beer instead