ezbass

There’s always the JHS Vintage brand too. https://www.jhs.co.uk/collections/vintage-basses-1/products/vintage-reissued-v96-4-string-active-bass-black

I’ve been toying with the idea of pulling the frets out of my HB Mustang-alike. Intonation shouldn’t be any harder than playing a normal scale, further up the neck. If you want to play up at the dusty end on a SS fretless, then greater care would need to be taken, I imagine. Tapewounds might help with that, they seem to on Rob Allens.

Probably not helpful, but I joined my first band in my early teens, albeit on guitar. We were mostly fairly bad, so it didn’t matter. Because I had already many years of playing in bands on guitar, when I switched to bass it was with the intention of joining a band in pretty short order. I don’t remember how soon it was after jumping ship, but I’m going to guess at 3-12 months. One of the reasons I moved to bass was to get more gigs, I think it was 2000 (I’d previously moved to bass in the early ‘80s, but I was asked to join a band on guitar and went down that rabbit hole again for a good while). Try going to some open mic events, once you’re comfortable jamming with others, you’re ready for a band.

The Preacher The Teacher - Yes

I see what you did there @Goliath_FX

This Ibby 505 is at GG in Edinburgh if you want to do some hands on action. https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/200325357674025--ibanez-sr505e-brown-mahogany-left-handed

The Ibanez pickups are humbuckers (as far as I can ascertain) so will be way quieter than the Sadowsky's single coils. I imagine that the pre amp is boosting the noise that the single coils will always make, thus the difference when you engage the preamp.

I think focus helps, as your set list is less scattergun in approach and that makes choosing songs easier. I’ve played in bands where the set list contained a good number of pub favourites. However, the band I had the most fun in was specifically an ‘80s covers band. This helped with choosing the numbers, on stage appearance and having a specific product to tout to venues and punters. I joined a mod band earlier this year, after moving house (not normally my kind of thing, but I was desperate for a gig) and the same advantages seem to hold for this project too. FWIW my old ‘80s band did a good number of functions as the clients wanted our specific product.

At least it admits from the get go that any such least is doomed to failure and I like that it only includes living players.

EB cobalt flats, they work for me.

I joined a mod band in January and it’s not a genre that I know a lot about. The singer and band leader loves his mod stuff (as you’d expect) so he knows what we need to stay on topic and what he sing. The way it goes is that he provides a list of songs he’s interested in and we pick what we fancy from the list. What this means in reality, because I’m retired and look at messages pretty quickly, is that the list arrives, I pick what I fancy and everyone seems to go along with those. Seems ideal, for me at least .

Novocaine - The Unlikely Candidates

Rubber Bullets - 10cc

Someone pass the brain bleach, now!

Rock With The Caveman - Tommy Steele

About the same for me, maybe even a wee bit earlier. They're kind of who I am. I went to have this done ages ago. Whilst in the waiting room the assistant came out and said that they couldn't perform the procedure because the machine wouldn't calibrate. I was an office equipment engineer at the time, working with lasers, so I knew what this meant and the possible fall out if it happened mid procedure. I never went back to have it done.

Thanks for sharing that, some great pics. Betsy seems to have been quite the draw. I thought it was nice of Darren Redick to do the interviews (at least that’s what it looks like) with Guy and Laurence; top bloke.

I’ve never worn contacts when playing, as I tend to use them for outdoor activities. However, why not? A supply of some disposables is probably the best way to go. My eyes have a tendency to get a bit dry indoors with contacts, but that’s just me.

Same. However, I actually jumped from the 6 string razor in my 20s, but I was asked to play guitar again for a new project and I ended up staying with the skinny stringed beast longer than I should have, not picking up the bass again until my 40s. Nonetheless, I did pick the bass up again and that’s what matters.

Darren & Guy!

Michael League talks about right hand technique from 28:26, although mainly about palm muting, it talks about 2 and 1 finger playing.

Sit Down - James

A lot of things go better when you 'slow down', especially sports. If you slow down, you tend to relax, if you're relaxed, there is less tension, which in turn allows you move faster. The same is surely true for playing any instrument.