Happy Jack

L'audace, et toujours l'audace, mon brave!

Nice one, mate. And the good bit is, the more you do it the better you get and the better it sounds and the more fun it is. Try singing BVs stepped back from the mic on other songs in the set - no need to tell your bandmates you're doing it. Eventually, you'll choose when to step up to the mic and join in properly.

In truth, if it's your first-ever fretless then it doesn't matter much what you buy so long as it's cheap. At best, it's a 50/50 whether or not you like it enough to keep playing fretless. I certainly wouldn't think in terms of messing about with a decent fretted bass. A very quick eBay search turned up: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Squier-jazz-bass-fretless/163194746006?hash=item25ff2a3496:g:JrAAAOSwXVNbbMvf https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stagg-BC300-NS-Fretless-Fusion-Bass-Guitar-Natural/232886336485?epid=2256060733&hash=item36391b7be5:g:Rg4AAOSw1m5bI7RM https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squier-Vintage-Modified-Fretless-Jazz-Bass-Custom/173470790738?hash=item2863aa3452:g:VB4AAOSwd8ZbRIhW Any of those three will be enough to get you started, and if you decide that fretless is not for you then you won't take a bath on the resale value.

But good luck with enforcing that.

In all fairness, what he sold was 'the world's oldest bass guitar that is not a Fender or a Rickenbacker or anything that most people would recognise'. I'll bet the world's oldest Fender would sell for a bit more than the price of a family car ...

Mind you, when I saw the title of the topic my first thought was, "well he was about 5' 10" and a bit chunky, so maybe 180lbs".

Feel free to share this one of me:

I do like that lino. A lot.

That sounds fair to me Lozz, especially given that half the song is likely to be in the energy level. But in a covers band it doesn't matter whether you're learning Brown Eyed Girl or Sweet Child O' Mine ... the rest of the band will expect you to learn the right bass line and get the song structure right, if only because they know that their audience will expect that. In that context, being able to hear the mistakes so that you can correct them becomes quite important.

Surely the guitarists spend 20 minutes noodling aimlessly at full volume while you're trying to talk to the drummer?

Drumming? Technique? What is this Forum coming to? You'll be telling us that guitarists are sensitive, supportive people next ...

Strangely enough, it does. And that's without putting my Fishman Plat Pro in line. Obviously it helps if you like the 'untweaked' sound of your DB, and the Elf offers nothing in terms of feedback control etc.

http://www.tomandwill.com/productdetail.asp?productid=46BS34-315

http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/library/Other music related/DB Transport

So there I was, browsing the eBay listings, when I came across a bass I'd never heard of before: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Danelectro-Wild-Thing-Bass-Guitar-Light-Weight-Twangy-Fun/223097088630?hash=item33f19f6a76:g:lqMAAOSwkyNbbakj And I looked at it, and I thought "that's interesting". And then I looked TWO listings down, and guess what was there: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Danelectro-Wild-Thing-Wildthing-Bass-Guitar-Back-friendly-light-weight/192459626280?hash=item2ccf7cd728:g:lYIAAOSwoRBaiaCP Don't you just love synchronicity? Good name for an album, that.

Does this mean that you now afford to buy those poor girls some clothes? I'll bet they'd each love a nice cardy ...

I haven't said 'Yes' yet mate ...

Just use headphones ...

Ha! Go to their website and there's a really cool photo of three Kliras on a white background, no explanation given. Are they variants of the new bass they're building? Nope. They are part of the collection of original basses owned by a Talkbass guy. They didn't contact him, didn't ask his permission to use his photo of his basses, basically cheapskated the whole way. I gather that he is now ... erm ... in discussions with Eastwood.

I only got as far as having the two kids, but I practised every night for years by playing through a pjb Bass Buddy and decent headphones. It's what Bedtime is for ...

Now me, I'd have gone with LED side dots ...

The biggest problem with pretty much every rehearsal room I've been in is volume. You have a room roughly the same size as a single garage and you fill it with stacks by Marshall and Ashdown, plus a PA that could handle the main stage at Glastonbury, and then the band plays at gig volume. Well gig volume only works at a gig, in a decent-sized room with carpets and furniture and stuff, and above all with dozens (perhaps hundreds) of bodies absorbing the sound. I've never understood why so many bands are so stupid about this. The only thing that gig volume is good for at a rehearsal is hiding the mistakes ... so why bother rehearsing? Grumpyguts, try insisting (just once) that the whole band turns down to a sensible level. Turn the singer down on the PA to the point where he's at home stereo level, you take the bass down to match, force the guitarist(s) to follow suit, and then the drummer has no choice. I believe that you'll be very pleasantly surprised at the result. And your ears won't be ringing the next morning.

That's pretty much identical to mine, which I bought recently for significantly less than £999! I'm aware of two more of these for sale in the Home Counties right now, both of them listed at £1200. One has been listed for a couple of months now, and the other for nearly a year ... These are staggeringly good basses, though. If you're near Bolton you could do worse than pop in and make an offer.