josie

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Welcome! (back 🙂 )

My grandson, aged not quite 4 in this pic. And don't suggest getting him a ukulele, I already have. This is what he wants. I might try getting him an Ibanez Mikro. But when I give him the choice of any of my guitars / basses, he always says "I want the big one!" 🙂 But a good U-bass can sound surprisingly good for its size. I know a bass player who is having increasing problems with lifting weight and has gone from a P to a viola-bass to a U-bass. The U-bass sounds better than the viola imho.

Welcome! Respect for taking the plunge (so to speak...) Hope it goes well for you.

I've burbled on about mine too often on too many threads before... But there's nothing quite like the lightness and vibrancy of that semi-hollow body combined with that punch and growl with the bass boost kicked in. Nothing. Plus feeling 50 years of music history flowing through your hands. Do it. Save up for it. Keep your eyes open and they do turn up now and then.

Any way you can find of being careful. I've recently made two remote purchases on the BC Marketplace - an amp from @Truenoand a bass from @HumblePie Both times I sent a small bank transfer test payment to the seller and had email confirmation that had been received before sending the balance. A determined scammer could get around this, but might not bother for the small sums involved.

I understand why people love them. My son, when I offered him up to $750 towards any bass in Nashville, went halves on a new MIA Fender P, and I appreciate that it's right for the music he plays. But not for me. My first bass, a GMR5, has what I now realise is exceptional sustain, so that's how I learned to play and how I naturally develop all my basslines. I can play staccato when it works in the band, or I can let a note ring clearly for a whole bar. But I find even on a really good P that the notes just die too soon. It's frustrating. Imho, ymmv 🙂 If it's history you want, my 1966 EB2 has decent sustain too 🙂

That's it. Best blues festival in the UK by far 🙂

Welcome! Love the sound. Do you only play solo? What's the bass? Good sustain 🙂

Welcome!

Welcome Lazarus! I wish I could have started at your age - best wishes for many good years ahead of you. Very best wishes for your band. What kind of music do you play?

I've seen you, and you make it look easy! And you guys play fast, high-energy stuff, so your bassline may be simple (and it isn't always!) but it's still quick and you keep it solid. Hard work pays off. Respect.

Elles Bailey! Great voice. Not quite to my taste, but respect! Saw her at Scarborough Blues last March - were you there?

UK alcohol licensing laws then enforced much more limited opening hours than now - pubs had to close between 2pm and 6pm. There was an exception for - don't remember exactly - it can't have been "moving vehicles"! But moving boats were certainly exempt, so it used to be common to hold a party or executive jolly on a canal or river boat which would potter up and down just enough to qualify for the exemption, so people could buy drinks in the afternoon. It would make sense that they might have a live band as well. I (dimly 🙂 ) remember one that had a jazz band that sounded pretty good by the end of the "cruise" 🙂

Bowness Blues Festival on Windermere in the Lake District runs a "Blues Cruise" - a couple of hours pottering around the lake, lovely scenery on a clear day, and typically good musicians, but poor sound quality: http://www.bownessbayblues.co.uk/blues-cruise/ And there are some longer blues cruises from the UK to the mainland and back, good line-ups, can't find a link atm.

I've just posted (see below) with a link to an mp3 file which I uploaded in the same way as for photos (dragged to the bar at the bottom) hoping if one clicked on the link it would play, but instead it downloads a copy of the file. I've added a warning about this to my post - I would hope peeps are very careful about what they download and would be unhappy if this happened - I know I would be! 1) Should I put the mp3 on something like SoundCloud - would peeps be able to listen directly from there? 2) Is this a potential security weakness?

Yes! We're working on Tortora & Tyzack's Easy Money, a fine contemporary blues song. The original references the 30s depression, in the lyrics and the sound, but we've somehow translated it into dub and it works really well. (I've also gigged a solo bass / vocal cover and dedicated it to Grenfell Tower.) There are also some great reggae & dub covers of Take 5, although they're in 4/4 - recognisably covers even though they miss the whole point of the original, and good music in their own right. Imho there's a difference between covering a well known original and one that's less known. We look for less known early blues songs - preferably by strong confident women - and keep the lyrics, melody, and often the bassline, but that's just our starting point for developing our own arrangement. I hope nobody is going to complain that we don't sound like Irma Thomas... You can have my husband (Apologies for poor sound quality, this was just a memo-to-the-band practice recording.) Warning this link will download the file, I was hope it would just play. So don't click it if you don't want your own copy or if you don't trust me! YCHMH_2018-08-08.mp3

It was suggested not - although it would be interesting to hear the recordings... also no information on whether it helped cure their addictions. Apparently Lex had a 90% re-admission rate...

The prison in Lexington, Kentucky was also a "Narcotics Farm" and drug addiction treatment hospital - in the 40s and 50s many famous jazz musicians were sent there after they were busted. Instruments were provided, and the inmates were encouraged to make music. Most of them believed that they played better when high - so apparently part of their treatment was to give them heroin, record them playing with and without it, and play them the recordings.

"I thought we'd agreed to play this one in F" "Thank G** I'm the bass player and I don't have to remember what order the solos come in" "This stage is awfully small, if I look right to see what the keys player is doing I'll smash him in the face wth my headstock"

Sounds good... last thing I need is new GAS! 🙂

I'd probably look at putting flats on my EB2 if I had her with me here, but she's with my son in in Nashville and I only get to see her for a few days once year, so it's not worth it 😞