knirirr

I got a Vox curly lead and a "Tesco value bass player" T-shirt. Both should come in useful.

We were only playing for two hours, but were simply bad. I suspect that the chief culprits were the horn players (noodling in the breaks, too loud, wrong keys/tempos, getting lost etc.), but that is probably not an unbiased opinion. ;-)

Jazz jam in a local pub. The Urban Dictionary says: The punters evidently agreed; when we started the pub was fairly full, but by the end of the set it was empty.

I spotted this and wondered if it would be of any interest to anyone here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21751987 The link to the application is at the top: https://www.fatpick.com/

I get the same fairly often, though Firefox Send is the method I’ve been using.

The only musical dreams I seem to get involve being roped into an impromptu gig with unfamiliar material and being told not to worry because I should be OK simply playing by ear. I am then given an instrument I cannot play, such as the piano or saxophone, and have to randomly hit keys in the hope that something musical happens (spoiler: It never does). I blame this. Something such as that mentioned above, with weird folding instruments, would be a lot more interesting.

Originally recommended to me here, always excellent service in my experience: https://www.smartguitars.co.uk

I'll have a listen to that later - thanks. There's only one similar solo album from Monk Montgomery - here's the title track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seXDmbF_ILo His last album was more straightahead jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd4_7p7es-Y Plus, of course, he's on some really early stuff, one of the first, perhaps the first electric bass recordings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h_BD2Wj7kU

Does that happen to include any of Monk Montgomery's, e.g. "Bass Odyssey"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4ZiFt6hSRQ

This jazz trio a week tomorrow in Oxford: https://www.robterrytrio.com/ http://www.jazzatstgiles.com/tourdates/rob-terry-trio-porgy-and-bess-rite-of-spring/

From time to time I've wondered if anything along those lines existed, i.e. a double bass with a hollow body along the general dimensions of a solid EUB. Luckily it seems that they don't (apart from custom builds, and I'm not going there again), otherwise I'd have to blow money on one.

I agree about the Fender flats - actually quite nice. I have them on one Freless Jazz with TI flats on the other. The problem with the lined boards they use is that the side dots are in the wrong place - too confusing for me, even if I were to ignore the lines. Whoever runs their Twitter account has no interest in my complaints about it though. ;-)

6' 3" for me.

Well, it does seem to happen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Morgan#Death_and_legacy

Depending on how far back the clock could be wound, I'd either want to have gone directly for the bass in my 20s rather than mucking about on the guitar first, or if it could be 10 years earlier than that, double bass rather than violin at school (allowing me to drop the double bass in favour of electric later on, but with some useful skills).

Yes, I did reach that point around 20 years ago. Various other things (work and hobbies) cropped up plus the band I was in folded due to members getting jobs elsewhere, I thought that the jam scene sucked and was also afflicted with massive self doubt. Of course, no-one wanted to buy my gear then so I kept it, but never used it. Eventually, last year, this changed. Perhaps you may also find that a break is of use - with luck it won't be so long.

By the time I spotted this it was too late.

The EUB I mentioned earlier was not only a custom build, but 5-string as well.

Yes, even then. The last bass I sold was a decent quality popular model which I would have thought even I could avoid making a loss on as I bought used and it (unusually) had frets. But no; I had to pay import costs when buying and commission when selling.

Any instrument I try to sell will be at a loss, no matter what it is, so any purchase I’m not certain to keep will be a big waste. Buying an EUB was probably the most expensive mistake, this was due to a combination of not being able to find the ideal BG (which I now have) and too many “you should play upright for jazz” comments.

Not strictly a gig, I suppose, but I went to a jam last night and played with some decent musicians, and succeeded in getting away with sounding reasonably competent. The audience seemed to enjoy it as well. So, progress!

Interesting to see that "Side dots at the fret positions" seems to be in the lead - I was under the impression that "Full fret lines and dots" (presumably placed as on a fretted bass) would be the winner. This latter option is all that Fender has available, thereby causing me to waste loads of money buying and selling second hand stuff when I would have just gone to them years ago and bought a new unlined bass from whatever they were calling their standard range.

I had one of these, long since sold (though I should have kept it): https://www.talkbass.com/threads/nbd-9-thrift-store-fretless-p.1413362/ Until I saw the advert for this model in a magazine c. 1993-94 I wasn't aware that fretless basses existed, but it looked so awesome I had to have one and switch to bass from guitar immediately. I was also able to get one of these, which I still have and I suspect I will be keeping.

This is a good suggestion. It may help to dress differently to get into character.