Cato

I didn't watch Jools on Friday but I got a text from my mate on Saturday morning asking if I wanted to go and see Amyll and the Sniffers (who I'd never heard of) , followed by another one a couple of hours later telling me that their shows in the Birmingham/Coventry area had sold out so we'd have to wait until next time.

Did the guitarist have that Red Special already or has he also taken advantage of the situation to treat himself to a new guitar? Is there a suspiciously new AC30 somewhere out of shot?

I was really liking the look of that Acinonyx bass until I realised that there are a load of tone push switches right underneath where my right hand/wrist would be if I was playing it.

Much as I love the aesthetics of Ritter basses, to me they look like they belong in the hands of one of Prince's sexy backing bands and the like. Personally, I reckon I 'd look and feel ridiculous playing one in public.

6'4. There probably is a minimum height/arm length for comfortably playing a 34 inch scale bass, but I'm certain it's a lot shorter than that. With great height comes a greater probability of back problems and cracking your head on door frames.

Maybe try writing something in a totally different genre? Stay completely away from the blues and see if you come up with something different. Maybe one of your band mates can 'blues it up' a bit later so it fits more with the band's usual style.

Aside from the other various impossible things going on in this clip, this guy starts tap dancing whilst playing at about 1:05.

Over the years I reckon I've seen pro level bass players using everything from 3 fingers to thumb pluck only to almost flamenco guitar style thumb and four fingers. It's one of the many areas where there's no absolutely correct technique, just whatever works best for you.

What's going on at the 10th, 11th and 12th fret? Is that just decoration or is it some sort of cunning playing/learning aid from Mr Mandrel's youth?

I don't think my legs can physically move like that. If I tried it I'd be face down on the stage before you could say 'River Dance'.

£100 in 1990 (around the time these guitars came out) would be worth close to £200 today. Having played both I'd say the Harley Bentons of today are considerably better than the Axes were back in the day.

Hofner violin basses have a reputation for being a couple of pounds lighter than the average Precision. Not sure if that applies to copies by the likes of Harley Benton etc.

For the first year or so I used to tune up to the E-A-D-G notes provided on the 'how to play bass' tape that came with my first bass. Looking back, because the process involved a fair bit of stopping and rewinding each time and with cassettes being what they were, I suspect that those recorded notes were actually dropping in pitch over time as the tape stretched. Then I got a battery powered tuner and that aspect of playing got a lot simpler and quicker.

You won't go far wrong with any of those. Might also be worth considering a Sire V3 if you can find one locally to try. it's basically a Jazz bass but it has an active preamp which makes it tonally very versatile indeed.

I had to turn it off after 30 seconds it was just too jarring. Bad song choice I reckon, that's a laid back track and the busy drumming style just doesn't suit it at all.

Outstanding execution of a fundamentally brilliant idea. There's a fair few mass production basses that could potentially be fitted with something like that. I'm eyeing up my Sire V7 as I type and thinking that apart from the obvious utility of the thumb rest it would also cover the dirty great truss rod adjustment hole in the scratch plate at the the end of the neck.

I wish I'd had my Zoom B1on 30 odd years ago when I started playing. The onboard drum patterns alone make it the perfect bit of kit for silent practice. As for being little better than a toy, that's more subjective and people are obviously going to have differing opinions on the quality of the various effects, but personally I genuinely believe that there are a couple of things such as envelope filters and synths that it does better than my Helix Stomp.

The simple answer is that you can play any kind of music on any kind of bass so the best bet is go to a decent sized guitar shop or two and try out as many different basses as you can to find the one that suits you best.

I suspect what he means is that have having the guitar volume on full drives the amp harder which produces more drive/distortion. On some guitar amps you can switch from a distorted to an almost clean sound just by turning the volume on the guitar down a bit. I'm not sure it would work as well with most bass amps, which tend to be designed to distort as little as possible and I'm not sure it would be a particularly useful feature for most bass players if it did. I'd generally keep the volume on the bass on full and turn up at the amp if I felt it necessary.

With me it tends to be stuff that gets overplayed on Radio 1 when I'm driving to and from work. there's a song by Miley Cyrus called 'Malibu' which for no particular reason I can put my finger on grates on me like nothing else.

Sounds particularly good in the higher register.

I went with Nevermind. I'm probably a bit unusual for a bass playing Chilies fan in that, although it grew on on me, I wasn't particularly keen on Blood Sugar Sex Magik at first. I preferred their earlier stuff. I've always thought they peaked with 'Mother's Milk'.

I'm quite liking Sam Fender at the moment. It's nothing groundbreaking, in fact it's quite 'old fashioned' in some respects, but it's done very well.

Are we 100% sure those are the actual pickup covers that come with finished bass and not just some crass over -branding for the website? I just can't see how anyone would think that's a good idea or that anyone would want them on their bass.