Burns-bass

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.

If you’d made this yourself as a bit of fun, or as a project with a child then fair enough, but how he can and sell this for £300 is incredible.

Well played...

I actually think it's pretty interesting advice. I base this on teaching intermediate level students (let's say Grade 5 and above) and the issues she raises are pretty common things that bass players do. They'll focus on fills, embellishments and using the fragments of theory they know to construct overly complicated lines. It's probably a reaction to every video you see from someone like Scott (awesome player) who starts off with some noodling that's useful in about 0.00001% of real life bass situations. The open string thing seems weird, but when you play an open string you're not totally in control of the note. If someone is attacking a fretted note with a pick then an open string can jar a little. That's the only incidence it would make sense to prefer a fretted note, or if you're adding an embellishment to it. There's plenty of plain bad advice on the internet, but I wouldn't class this as such. When I was 15 and starting out, this would have helped. And we all need a reminder sometimes that we should focus on groove, not fills...

I’m the same (but a it earlier). I’ve got somewhere near £15k worth of gear, but at times it was up to around £40k. You can see the old pre cbs basses I sold. I have cleared it all out and only now have the 66 candy apple Jazz (that took me two years to buy) and a Paul Bryant double bass. The rest are all on their way out slowly. I run a business and when I get home and have put the kids to bed I’m just shattered. Everyone I know has told me to wait a few years, so I’m planning to do that. A hobby should be something to enjoy not feel guilty about.

White socks jazz funk. I have the same sort of feeling listening to Vulfpeck and the whole host of revisionist funk bands out there. There are no new ideas here, just old ones imitated averagely. In this instance however, when I was teaching at a music college one of the kids asked me to transcribe a SZ line and I had a lot of fun. He really does work a groove and they are very musical, and highly lyrical in their approach. I retain the right to be wrong at any point, and the freedom to change my mind.