TrevorR

That SB700 was my first ever bass too. And yes, it weighs a ton but balances perfectly! Still, it meant that when I picked up my Wals back in pre-Internet days I never worried about their weight... I just thought all basses weighed 10lbs and that was perfectly normal!

Is that pedal for guitar or bass? I can’t tell from the box...

Still love my ‘700!

Those oval bridge plates on Laklands. Can’t get past them. I know it’s their visual signature so it would never happen but give me one with a regular rectangular bridge and I’d be all over it!

Our local Poundland says in its windows that it's doing it's "BIGGEST EVER SALE! - Many items at 50p!" That made me smile as I walked past! It's a hard time to be a shop at the moment. the BBC News Review of the Year programme on "The REtail Year" was an interesting, if slightly depressing, watch... https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bw98j2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bw98j2/review-2018-the-retail-year

I love, love, love Trace Elliot! I'd still have my trusty Series 6 1215 combo if it hadn't gone to that great gig in the sky some years ago. However, if you're planning on lugging gear to gigs as a short-medium term aim then investing in some lightweight, Class D, neodymium magnet gear might be advisable - those old TEs are WEIGHTY compared to the modern stuff like MarkBass, GK and the like.

Green tinted AND glow in the dark! Well, under UV anyway! Hi there Kirstie... also from the BPU of BookFace... Good to see you here too!

I'd add in Joe Pass' Virtuoso 1 & 2 albums even though they patently don't meet the criteria (they are solo guitar albums - no bass, double OR electric!). Or put another way, ideal jazz standard bass karaoke albums to play along with and see how your emerging skills are getting on... 😉

Some amazing suggestions so far. As a practical note. For a newbie there are some amazing compilations out there going dead cheap because the age of many of these classics makes their licensing cheap and easy. A quick skim of Amazon and iTunes threw up these... https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-jazz-album/1113064945 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-very-best-of-jazz-50-unforgettable-tracks-remastered/539446930 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-no-1-latin-jazz-album-ever/552348564 https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-1-Jazz-Album-Various-Artists/dp/B000024U2A There’s a lifetime of learning and jazz appreciation in just those! And change from 30 odd quid! Plus a good way to find out what styles of jazz float your boat!

The entire Reeve story. Courtesy of Flat Eric... still not worth 2 grand, though. http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-reeve-guitar-story.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/04/reeve-brian-may-and-more-reeve-guitars.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/04/val-reeve-continues.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/04/reeve-guitars-continued.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/05/reeve-brian-may-red-special.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/07/reeve-guitar-gallery.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-visit-to-val-reeve.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/10/derrick-taylor-roachford-reeve.html http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com/2016/11/reeve-headless-bass-finished.html

Built in the same year as some Wals... must be worth at least 2k, then. Good grief! £200 maybe given it’s a pretty much unknown brand!

My first real gig too... 1981 with Snowy. St Austell Coliseum. A few months before Renegade came out. Cracking gig! Still my favourite band all these years later.

Great band. And adding the fantastic Dave Bainbridge, formerly of Iona, on guitar has done them no harm at all!

I’ve got to that age we’re I suspect that my brain is almost full up with music good and not so good. So it’s very rare these days that I come across new music in and genre that makes me go “Wow!” like so many bands did for my in my teens and twenties. However, just this last couple of months I’ve come across a few different bands that tickled my ear like in the good old days and made me sit up and get into them in a big way. A chum leant me Greta Van Fleet’s album. Considering I find Led Zep very dull these days and simply don’t listen to them any more these guys really impressed me with their sheer energy! OK, they’re are more Zeppish than Zep ever were but still... I do like a bit of souly Acid Jazz type music so this review CD from Richard Hawley’s cousin and the ex-Weller drummer really floated my boat... love the Bond theme vibe on this one... More acid jazz... heard this band on the PA at a Pret A Manger and just had to Shazam them... I think that The New Mastersounds are my New Favourite Band! And now for something completely different. Another review CD by Sinnober blew me away. All About Eve meets CSNY round at early Fairport Convention’s house... lovely swirly music.

I do enjoy Rick Beato’s videos. Pretty well informed, well argued, interesting topics... always worth a listen. So what better way for him to start the New Year than with a “Top 20 Bass Sounds” video. Some great players and lines on there and some stellar sounding basses. He asks about which tones he’s forgotten. I guess my nomination would be this one... always loved the bass tone on this track. He chooses a totally classic Chris Squire line but I must say I’ve always had a soft spot for this Yes track. Love both the bass tone and the bass line. The hair cut not so much...

Silvia’s second bullet point was never going to take us in a helpful direction. Apropos of nothing and notwithstanding that gender is irrelevant, three (actually make that four) other bassists whose playing I have always enjoyed are: Sheryl Crow - simple but solid. Claire Kenney - Cropped up on TotP so many times and she played a lovely Aria SB too back in the late 80s and early 90s which counted as extra brownie points for me Carrie Melbourne - when she wasn’t playing for the gawd awful Babylon Zoo. Good stick player too. Took over from Lol Cottle in Mike Oldfield’s band IIRC Jo Wadeson - some great playing with Thea Gilmore and the Waterboys. Really tuneful and powerful playing both on record and live. And to amply demonstrate how irrelevant gender is in a bass discussion, Jennifer Maidman. Great back in the day with T-Rex, Gerry Rafferty, Paul Brady and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and now funking it up with the revamped Kokomo.

If you want to see real terror, get a classically trained pianist (who isn’t also a rock/jazz player). Give them a chord chart and say, “12 bar blues in A, just feel the changes with us.” Also works when giving guitarists sheet music.

Lesley Garrett having a pretty good go at it... But compared with the fluidity of Ella...?

Two of the greatest singers of their generation not getting the heart of a well known song... The show tune singers getting it (Marni Nixon as the voice of Natalie Wood)...

Thing is, that video will seem like such tosh or stupidly simple stuff for most folks on this site but it’s not aimed at those of us who have that kind of internal rhythm. It’s aimed more at those formally trained musicians who can sing or play the notes strictly à tempo but don’t have a loose, swung bone in their body. She does talk about her piano students at the top of the vid, after all. Think of those “classical soprano sings jazz” albums that Kathryn Jenkins, Dame Kiri and the like release - all painfully stiff and straight in their timing. The choir my little boy sings in does all sorts of stuff from jazz to pop to show tunes to folk songs to whatever and I find listening to the choir mistress fascinating and horrifying in equal measure sometimes. She and the other choir mistress will often do a solo or duet spot during the choir shows. Now if they choose to do Delibes Flower Duet from Lachme or Ave Maria or some other classical piece it’s absolutely sublime. If they choose to do Summertime or a Simon and Garfunkel tune or an Irving Berlin jazz show-tune it is absolutely painful. They. sing. it. so. pain. full. ly. straight... Vocalising rhythms like in the video is actually a really powerful way of internalising feel and it’s that kind of person (the 1-3 clappers) that the video is aimed at. For us it’s “Well d’uh!” For them it’s a potential revelation!

Don’t worry, a late Motown vocalist’s estate will be along soon enough to claim it sounds vaguely similar to something he whistled in the shower once...

Good advice but I’d also underline, learn the basic groove that underpins the song and play around that. Sometimes a groove is just a groove and you can play around it as much as you like. Sometimes it’s a fundamental part of the song. Good Times wouldn’t sound like Good Times without an approximation of THAT bassline. So long as you play the fundamentals of the song and work out what’s important to the tune. Applies to certain tunes in all genres. Good Times, Owner of a Lonely Heart, The Chain, So What, Lady Marmalade, Another One Bites The Dust, Rio and Superfreak would all sound as bad as each other withthe iconic bassline replaced by either root notes or a rock ‘n’ roll walking bass. Whereas when we did “What’s Going On” or “Mercy mercy me” in my old band I felt much freer to play around the chord changes...

A jam, in my experience, is between the scone and the clotted cream, not on top of it. YMMV moi luvver!

Here’s a photo of my “The one that got away”... Spandau Ballet at Live Aid, 1985 I popped into Denmark Street back in 2000 or so on the hunt for a 1970s Pro Series Wal to go with my Mk 1. I went into (I think) Music Ground and asked if they ever got any in. The guy behind the desk said, “Not seen any of those in for a while. But funny thing is we just got a couple of the newer type in... they’re hanging at the back.” I went over to have a look and there were two. A walnut fretless and a maple fretted one with an added finger rest that looked strangely familiar for some reason. And for a decent price too. The store guy said, “What do you think?” “Lovely, but I’m not really looking for a Mk 1 at the mo...” “No worries. We’re selling them for that bloke who’s in East Enders who used to be in Spandau Ballet.. He’s not using them any more.” “Oh, nice. They’re lovely basses!” Mentioned it to my wife a couple of days later. “Yeah, the bass he played at Live Aid.” “You should have bought it.” “Really?” “Yes! of course.” “Oh, ok. I think I will!” By which time, of course it was my “one that got away...

Of course, Tears For Fears “Mad World” has been known to work well in a more acoustic mood... and in a depressing, “It’s Christmas, think I’ll just go and top myself” mood. These arrangements may not be mutually exclusive.