Trueno

A bit like Pschitt lemonade in France. Yes… before the pedants pile in… I know it’s onamatopoeic

I’ve played quite a few Military bases, never had any problems… including Sergeants’ Mess gigs. I always thought that posh weddings were far worse.

I would (and have done) replace pickups/electronics and bridge (bridge for cosmetics only). But I wouldn’t go for refinishing or reshaping. I’d replace tuners if they weren’t working very well.

I reached tipping point with Clapton when the singer in my band snook “Wonderful Tonight” onto the set list without consulting anyone. It was the very last straw and I quit.

The miserable git.

Hofner Club bass. Crazy light… short scale… looks cooler than the Violin bass… sounds really good with the right flats on it. I’d recommend the HCT version.

Personally, I find any comparison with the “classic TE” thing to be completely irrelevant. The Elf is the Elf… you either like it or you don’t.

Too late… I fear…

I still haven’t got over my Fallout GAS… be off with you…

I’ve had a Mac Mini 2014 since… erm… 2014. By far the cheapest way to get into Mac desktops. To me it’s an advantage over imac or macbook as I can use my serious clackety keyboard for writing. Current monitor is dead cheap, but I don’t need more at the moment. I haven’t upgraded the latest OS’s as they’re not supposed to be so good with an old style hard drive… but I will be upgrading to M1 if/when I get any problems. I also have latest iPad air… I use it for digital art (Procreate). Works really well… may upgrade to an iPad Pro, but don’t think I’ll need it, current screen size is fine.

Breeze block basses are great… no neck dive…

As long as I can stick an EMG Geezer in it I’m happy.

I bought a 10” Elf combo recently… for home, rehearsal and gigs… and sold all my other amps. I used it for rehearsals and found it to be excellent… in a large room and the gain up to 75%ish. Plenty of volume and whoomph (for me). I planned to maybe get a 10” extension cab, but not sure if I needed one for the type of gigs I would gave done. I’ve now left the band, but don’t regret buying this. We were playing classic rock and I loved tye effect the gain had on tone… don’t have any effects pedals. Also unbelievably light and easy to transport. It’s also fine for home practice with the gain turned down but you might find the fan a bit loud… I’ve got used to it.

I phoned them for advice about a new bass… I only wanted to know something about the truss rod adjustment but they got The Fear that I wanted to send it back. The guy was a nob.

Now we’re steamin’ towards page 13. That’ll totally ruin it again… aaarrrgghh!

… and some of us (myself included) only have shorties. We even have our own thread.

I’ve read comments from Adam Clayton before… my first thoughts were always that he had a rather pathetic sense of humour. Whether that is fed by sexism… or any other “ism”… I don’t know. If I met him at a party I’d quickly distance myself from him.

I stand corrected… My fault for trying to make light-hearted quip on a Sunday afternoon.

It’s what happens when you’re playing fretless and can’t get your fingers in the right place.

I long ago decided that, with the bass, you can play any notes you like as long as you stay in time… and nobody notices.

If it was me… I’d scrap it (sell for spares or repair). I’d have to wonder how many more £200s you can chuck at it, as well as the pain if having it fail at a vital moment… and the continuing worry of whether it will work.

Ambition mismatch… it’s more of a killer than musical differences. Whenever I audition bands to join (because that’s how I always look at it) I always ask: “how many gigs will you be doing?” Then they always look at me for a bit of a clue…

Playing by feel… to me, this means you should be even more alert to what the rest of the band is doing and having sufficient musical savvy to carry it off. Works well if everyone is up for it and up to it. I prefer it if everything is rehearsed to within an inch, but if a band of competent musicians want to go for it I’ll go with them.

I did something similar. We had a problem playing a particular intro… it involved the guitarist counting to two. So I said… for a start, just play it like the record. I gave them all fair warning that at the next rehearsal I would play it like the record… and continue to play it like the record, regardless. Next rehearsal… I played it like the record until they all fell apart. Then again… and again… and again. I was just getting blank looks from the guitarist. Eventually it all became a bit fractious and the singer suggested we should “park” that one for a while. To be honest, if you can’t get something like that right there’s no hope. I quit the band a couple of weeks ago and I’m now luxuriating in all the recovered headspace.