MrDaveTheBass

Yeah, I've met them too!

Definitely go second hand - it's a buyer's market for cabs especially, and there are some great bargains to be had if you're able to travel in person and pick them up. I would also go for the separate head/cab approach - that way you can upgrade more easily as and when funds allow. I would recommend Genz Benz Focus cabs as cheap but good, and still fairly lightweight. Markbass LM3s are solid, reliable and powerful, and I like their transparent sound, but if you like any grit or dirt in your sound, you'll need a separate overdrive pedal too.

I was once in a similar situation - I was playing with a drummer who I disliked both musically and personally, and no matter how hard I tried, we never seemed to gel, on or off stage. Meanwhile, the narcissistic control-freak singer/guitarist sang badly and his guitar playing was only average at best. However, I liked the material that we were playing, and rather than face the bandless void, I spent over a year trying to make things work, whilst steadily enjoying myself less and less and becoming more and more frustrated and depressed. In the end, a particularly unpleasant racist story from the drummer prompted me to walk out, and it was the best thing that I ever did in that band. Unsurprisingly, I got a lot of abuse for leaving, but a couple of months later I found myself playing in two great bands with lovely, talented bandmates, and right now I'm loving my musical endeavours. Life is too short. If you're not having fun, walk. Remember too that it's possible to improve your bandmate's musically, but completely impossible to fix their personalities.

I see what you did there!

Unless they do something stupid, like set everything to 11, I don't have a problem with people adjusting my EQ settings when they borrow my rig. After all, that's what they're for - to make whatever instrument/player/style sound the best that it can. When borrowing an amp on stage, it can be useful to take a photo of the owner's EQ settings so you can easily set them back to how they were when you've finished your set.

https://reverb.com/news/3-times-electric-guitar-makers-tried-to-ditch-wood

I bought a 2m Speakon-to-Speakon speaker cable from Rockwire this week and I'm extremely impressed. It feels like you could tie up a battleship with this monster - and it arrived the day after I'd ordered it. http://www.rock-wire.co.uk/

Maybe they've got a veneerial disease...

Great song! I hadn't heard it until we played it in my 'originals' band - at least 90% of the audience think we wrote it!

The first thing I'd try is to take the jack socket out of the bass and plug a cable into it. The solution may be as simple as bending the jack socket slightly so that it grips the end of the plug properly. (I once let a player with an Epi T-bird play through my amp at an open mic. When he used my (Planet Waves) lead, there was no output, even though the lead was fine with my bass. He was only able to get a signal using his lead. The only reason that we could think of was that the input jack on the Thunderbird wasn't a standard length, and I've heard that Planet Waves jack plugs can be slightly longer than standard too.)

I think that we're all missing the point discussing Gene's views on pick vs fingers. After all, Gene isn't a professional bass player - he's an (extremely successful) merchandise salesman. I'm not sure how many takers he's going to get for the 'Home Experience Package', where he personally delivers a load of old demos and out-takes to you for $50,000. Personally, I'd be be more likely to pay $50 grand just to get him to flip off out of my house!

Are you in a Welsh Traffic tribute band?

Hi Clive! If there's a problem when playng the open string, is the nut-slot for the E-string too deep?

Is it better to jam on a Cream song, or cream on a Jam song?

I like the idea of the 'Drag' control. - I'd love to be able to adjust the flamboyance of my stage costume mid song.

"Froggy went a courtin', he did ride mmm hmm"

Nice! Did you pimp your toaster too?

Ed Friedland has written an interesting article on Mustang Sally - a line that he assumes that everyone always plays wrong: https://www.bassplayer.com/lessons/rb-gold-mistake-sally (I appreciate that Mustang Sally could be considered as just plain wrong, however you play it)

Your suspicions are correct! - my fretless Sterling sounds great, especially with EB Cobalt flatwounds.

Always try and be as efficient as possible, so that your fingers do the minimum amount of work for the maximum effect. Try to relax - the more tense that your hand is, the slower you'll go, and the more likely you'll hurt yourself. I used to find that my speed was limited because I 'dug in' too much. Turn up the volume, play lightly and let the amp do the work. I can also play more quickly with a pick, especially when using alternate up/down picking. Try a variety of different gauge picks. I've settled on a medium gauge, but you might find a heavy or lighter pick works best for you. For fingerstyle, try using different numbers of fingers. I've found that using three fingers on my picking hand can be more efficient, especially when playing triplets. Surprisingly, I've also found that using one finger can sometimes be quicker than two, especially if you use an alternate up/down picking action with the very end of your finger. Finally, don't be afraid to vary the amount of fingers you use during the song - one phrase might be easier with three fingers, another with two, and another section with one.

If you ask on this thread, they should be able to give you the bass' exact date of birth: http://forums.ernieball.com/ernie-ball-music-man-basses/1254-music-serial-database.html?s=3a7b8153deb4b477d484c2f285edd81c

I like the Focus 4 x 10: loud and punchy, not too boomy, and fairly lightweight for a 4 x 10. I've find it quite neutral sounding, which makes it versatile - I use it for loud rock gigs as well as quieter fretless acoustic ones. Especially for the price, they're hard to beat.

You might find this site useful: http://www.ovnilab.com/

Bass Culture's one of my favourite albums - it really does exactly what it says on the tin! My originals band have got one ska-influenced number, and I'm trying to get us to lean a bit more in that direction. Ever since my 20s, my ambition's been to play bass in a full-on roots reggae band - unfortunately though, they seem to be very few and far between.