Frank Blank

I find lines help me, some people will vehemently disagree with me, each to their own. I tried a lot of fretless basses over the years and thought it just wasn’t for me and assumed that was because it was so difficult but the difficulty came because I hadn’t found the right fretless. When I tried a 30” scale I found I could play it ok. So try lots of fretless basses and don’t give up if it’s too difficult, it might be you just haven’t found the right bass. I have lines and side dots, gradually you rely on them less and less as your ear improves. Some of the best advice I had on here was to just play the same as you would on a fretted bass, bass lines you are familiar with then you’ll hear when your intonation is out. For me the weird thing was after playing fretless exclusively for a couple of months, going back to a fretted bass felt very restrictive, fretless can be a very freeing thing. People will give you all sorts of advice and tell you their way is correct, there is no correct way, try out all the advice and settle with what form of practice suits you.

Your Dad was Roy Orbison?

Ah, I had no idea, and that was the version I owned!

The most exciting, most violent gig of my Sorry little life The Birthday Party with support from SPK at the Electric Ballroom. £3 ffs. Extraordinary night, one of my mates lost half his ear in that crowd. SPK had sheep skulls on sticks dotted about the stage, they threw them into the crowd once they’d finished, a mate of mine caught one and suddenly went white, the skulls still had eyeballs inside and his finger had gone straight through one, the stench was epic. The Birthday Party were just a huge cloud of dry ice with NC occasionally emerging clutching a bottle of Jack Daniels and a mic screaming madly. I remember escaping up on to the balcony and thinking a) it looked like the Somme and b) It’s not going to get any better than this, and guess what? It hasn’t.

Sorry for the late reply Sir. First released in 1981.

Peterson StroboClip, nothing better imho.

Mick Karn.

Can’t see it myself but if you say so. Surely bullying would invoke a victim of some sort and if you are suggesting the OP is the victim of a “DOI-style circlew*nk” then what does that consist of other than nonsense?

Much as I have enjoyed this tiny bauble of distraction during my 48hr pass it is time to return to barracks at the DOI. Do enjoy your taped up thumbs and recalcitrant commas.

FTFY

Exactly. Just as an aside the number four player in this picture is Bob Upandown who, after suffering a career ending leg injury, went on to be Cardinal Robert Upandown The Venerable Cloister of Naseby until his unfortunate demise in an incredibly slow road traffic accident outside Penge.

That was Lionel Macari, here he is on the cover of his 373rd album...

Your ferret ate Len Macari who ran the Fish & Chip emporium on the Old Kent Road, Len’s Plaice it was called. It’s still there run by Len’s wife Mrs Betty Macari.

Agreed. I would also recommend Empires and Dance, the album before S&F, It is absolutely bass driven. Forbes is a brilliant bass player and SM became a shadow without him.

This thread is like trying to do a Rubik’s Cube on acid whilst riding a rubber roller coaster,,,

I think I recognise that headstock!

Lots of good ideas here…