josie

School exams can be deadly, but I've taken the bass guitar grade 1 and 2 exams and I did find them motivating. The syllabus is well designed, and they forced me to concentrate on important elements of playing that I would have neglected otherwise. (Getting a distinction for both was a nice confidence booster too 🙂 )

It helps to be motivated to learn anything if you need to! I hated French at school, but I must have learned more than I thought, because I've won arguments with taxi drivers in north Africa. (Never again.) Amazing how much easier it is to spend as much time as I should practicing bass when I have a gig coming up 🙂 "Play for more than you can afford to lose... Only then will you learn the game." - Winston Churchill

Motivation for French language learning (I'm her mentor, not her academic supervisor). My own MSc students are mostly working on assistive software.

That's one heck of a gig list! I've got the Remedy Bar date in my diary 🙂

Welcome! Such a strong connection between science and music. Lots of my favourite science colleagues over the years have been good musicians. People who understand the structure in music and the art in good science. (And one of my PhD students is a fencer and classical piano player.)

Welcome! Not a name I know, but I'll look out for it now - nice looking bass!

Welcome back to the low end!

Wish I'd known you were going to be at the Stock Dove - just up the road from me, I would have been there.

So happy for you all. What a wonderful smile! And she can grow up with live music as a natural part of her life 🙂

Yes, I tested that a while back.

This pattern is so well known that linguists have a technical term for it, which I can't remember, but basically, any neutral or technical clinical term for a condition thought of negatively will become used as an insult, so the clinicians will come up with a new neutral term, which in turn becomes used as an insult... I'm old enough to remember "spastic" and "moron" as playground insults which were recognisably still used as clinical labels. I'm now, studying for a degree in mental health care, seeing leading professional bodies like the British Psychological Society advising us not to use technical terms like "psychosis" or "bipolar disorder" with our clients because the popular media have created such intensely negative disinformed stereotypes around these labels that our clients will think worse of themselves, rather than better because their condition is known and understood and we know how to help them. </rant>

Mr Josie would no more ever challenge any of my stuff than I would his. I really don't want to judge or stereotype, but it's hard not to. What is the overall balance of stuff in the house? Yours is all tidyly packed away apart from a few minutes before and after each gig, is hers the same? My daughter-in-law told my son he couldn't have the guitar he wanted because there wasn't room. I gave him one, and somehow there was room. Then there wasn't room for an electric guitar and a small amp until I made those appear. They're now moving to a larger house with a garage which she has agreed will be made into a sound-proofed music room. (Ok they needed a larger house as the grand-sprogs were growing up anyway, but she did concede that space for music gear was also important.) That may be an extreme or impractical solution...

It would also make sense that the older a bass is, the more its tone and playability will vary with how well it's been treated. I went hunting for a Gibson EB2 a while back and found two, same year (1966), same price (US$2k), in very similar condition to look at. One was dull dead wood, the other warm and resonant and a complete joy. I'd be surprised if two much newer basses, originally so similar, were so different to play. (Unless one had been seriously trashed.)

My ex-band BL didn't hold auditions but just took on first offers from JoinMyBand, a huge mistake - I might have passed, but the drummer certainly shouldn't have! Have you ever tried to play bass between a drummer and a rhythm guitarist who were totally out of time with each other? :-( (They did find another bass player after I left, but disappeared from sight soon after.) My current band started as a workshop project, and loved it so much and got on so well that we decided to carry on as a band. Atm, if I had to audition, however well prepared I was, I'd probably lose it just on nervousness. Hopefully this band will roll on and i won't have to face that :-)

Done, and very glad to get behind this. Anyone who behaves like this scammer should be nailed (and as I understand the story SH provided the key evidence that nailed him). And anyone in our BC community, I hope, will get this kind of support. I'm only responding to the support I've had.

I don't know the technical details, but my 1966 Gibson EB2 is still close to the original cherry red on the back and a faded walnut colour on the front. (Mind you imho she looks as a 50-year old bass should - and is pure joy to play :-) My 1992 Jazz Plus is a gorgeous metallic midnight blue on the back and just very dark grey on the front. I've tried one of those colour restoring polishes sold for cars and it had no effect :-(

I was only allowed classical music as a child, but I can remember sitting on the floor in front of the one speaker of our mono record player, intensely tracking the cello line in Mozart string quartets. Just by instinct. I must have been about 6 at the time. The BBC programme "Why is music addicted to bass" is still available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwg5w and (as you'd expect) some very well informed and interesting discussion here:

Welcome! Good to see someone else with a fretless acoustic - should work well with a Celtic folk vibe :-)

Plastic Mojo Band (or Plastic Mojo Collective in our more chaotic, half-of-us-plus-the-neighbour's-dog weeks)

£800 atm, closing tomorrow. Fair price £2k or a bit more, even allowing for the repair which he's honest about. You'd have to collect it from Portsmouth though. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-EB2-Bass-Guitar-Vintage/282974297203?hash=item41e2951c73:g:318AAOSw6D1bAZOH

Gibson EB2, if you can find one with the "bass boost" still working. It was *the* bass for reggae in the 60s. There are some around - should be around £2k in good condition. This one's on eBay at £800 atm (closing tomorrow) if you live near Portsmouth. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-EB2-Bass-Guitar-Vintage/282974297203?hash=item41e2951c73:g:318AAOSw6D1bAZOH

Interesting - you're using a pick just for two songs, for the sound quality? I'll check your links... I'm in Mcr too, we could meet up in the bass corner of Johnny Roadhouse some time if you fancy?

Good topic. I use public transport. We have an irregular residency in a fun pub in south Manchester, 40 minutes walk from Mcr Piccadilly. The bass is on my back and a tiny cr@ppy amp and everything else I need in an old-lady's shopping trolley. Works fine as long as the weather holds. With a bass on your back you can't use an umbrella, because the top of the gig bag is too far over your head. I've gotten very wet a couple of times :-( I'm about to invest in a proper trolley, which will sort out the local gigs, although getting my 400w Markbass to Southport Marina Festival in July looks interesting...

Close harmonies live always give me shivers too. Alison Krauss and the Union Station do it really well. Also the Sheepdogs, a Canadian "retro-rock" band who deserve to be better known. (good topic, sorry for going ot again!)

Florence and the Machine live on BBC Biggest Weekend. I knew the name but hadn't heard them before - impressed, will definitely look for more.