Burns-bass

There was one last weekend (and they seem to appear regularly). I don't know whether they're blanket offers, or ones for selected sellers, but I sold an NS design bass and paid just £1, which I was well happy with.

People seemingly buy and sell gear as a hobby. The item itself is less important than the thrill of purchase and the excitement of expectation. Perhaps were realising that having more and more gear is a distraction, and that we should spend more time playing and lesss time browsing? I know I should! I’d also echo the thoughts here that some of the gear is priced very highly. I always assume a typical retail markup is about 30% and take this off to give me a guide for private sales. It’s a crude metric, but it helps. When I see vintage Fenders on here priced the same as you’d pay in a London shop I’m always surprised. I personally know that a dealer like Andy Baxter spends a huge amount of time - and a reasonable amount of money too - documenting the history of his basses, and of course buying through a shop gives you significant amounts of consumer protection.

Looks nice. I bought a 70s fretless jazz from Dave once - wonderful bass. I still have the flight case in the loft (and have tried selling it, but novody wants something so heavy!).

Love Richard Thompson. My dad introduced me to his music years ago but never thought of playing along... stupid me!

Good recommendations everyone, really appreciate it.

Good recommendation. I enjoyed that

Ahh I should have said, Tom Waits is on the list! That album (and Closing Time) are absolute solid classics and I love playing them.

Hi all... I’m appealing to the collective knowledge. I play upright at home and while my wife (and kids) don’t like walking bass to Standards too much, they love it when I play a bit of Norah Jones, Gregory Porter, John Martyn etc. Just wondering what examples of tasteful upright playing there are out there that I could add to my practice regime that won’t upset the wife and kids.

Someone else would have said it at some stage, I guess. My point was that these guys become first-call for a reason - they've established a formidable reputation. It would be impossible to brand themselves without this, which makes the whole task difficult for the OP. As I said, I'm just offering what I hope is constructive and helpful feedback to help the project, not to be a smart derrière or know it all (because I certainly don't).

This isn't technically true. Some session bassists are brands (Will Lee, Pino Palladino etc.) but they develop their brand through years of playing and exposure, not because they simply tell people they're great.

This is really interesting. I hope you don't mind me making some points... (This comes from spending time as a music lecturer when we would set assignments like this). I think you're confusing your own career aspirations with the demands of the assignment. A session bassist themselves isn't a brand, but a company that provides session bassists - or deps - could be a brand. 'Deps on demand' or something like that could be a good model. You could test the market on how much people would be willing to pay for a stand in. Say a gig pays a band £1000 but the bass player has gone. What do you do? This situation you could jump in and provide a service that ensures the gig goes on, keeps the client happy and the band earning. Looking at your survey, you're already collecting useful information. Apologies if this is seen as critical, it's certainly not meant to be.

Are you a covers band that plays for a good time or one that prides itself on authenticity? if the guitarist demands you play the parts as written, that’s fair enough. Worked for Steeley Dan. If he’s asking you to play his interpretation then that’s obviousoy different.

They’re great multimedia devices but woeful phones for calls. I bought a Huawei which I use for work - it’s much better!

Crap gear was crap in the 60s. Great gear was great. The vintage guitar market is a massively inflated bubble driven by greed, ignorance and an exaggeration of the relative scarcity of certain items. Older doesn’t mean better, but some old guitars are wonderful.

Martin Penning.

Or you played it more...

Agreed. Instrument cables are different to the typical audio cables people spend a fortune on. Being brutally honest, if you're not much of a player it doesn't matter how much you spend on a guitar, cables or amp... Oh, and the Precision was the first mass market bass that captured the attention of players and the public. They're pretty agricultural when you play an older one, but they do the job. When I interviewed Carol Kaye and a few other studio players they had no real reverence for older instruments. She also hated jazz basses too. Strange woman.

At the risk of incensing you I can see how this plays out on guitar, where the notes are much more expressive, the use of accents and embellishments and chords and so on. On bass, next the majority of situations, the quality of the note and the resonant qualities of the instrument are going to matter less. In my experience my £150 Jap-built Squier is more expressive and rich instrument than a US Strat that retails at 10 times the price. When I played if gigs and recorded my Jap Geddy Lee jazz was liked more by all than my 66 Jazz. If I had spent £10k on a guitar (and I have) I’d look for every justification why that money was well spent. We can hear all sorts of things if we want too (see blind tears of high priced audio cables, or anything with gold connectors).

There’s no info on the volume of sales. Women maybe buying more, but overall,are sales up or down? Gibson going bankrupt suggests the market is febrile. It seems that fewer people are interested in guitar bands or watch local gigs. I guess it’s why we do it. My daughter loves listening to me play guitar, and I’ve recently bought a guitar for my nieces. If they get some pleasure from it, that’s all that matters.

I play music for about an hour a week but my hand carved Bryant has pride of place in my second living room. It’s a constant reminder that I’m a musician and I’ll pick it up once the kids are older. Plus it looks amazing!

Maybe 15 years ago...

His sound doesn’t do it for me... but Sire basses are so far in advance of the stuff we had in the 90s it’s unreal.