lozkerr

Thanks, folks! It sounds like Chris McIntyre is the guy to go to. I'll give him a call. And if he tries to flog me any extras - well, a thumb rest would be a good idea. The neck pickup is so deeply sunk into the body that it's next to impossible to anchor on it.

Hi folks, My Steinberger Spirit XT-25 is needing a wee bit of TLC. I've had it for a while as a travelling bass, and now that the newness has worn off, it's becoming apparent that it needs a decent set-up. The strings clatter like a tram going over a set of points, the action's high enough to drive said tram underneath the strings and the G string won't stay in tune. Could anyone recommend someone knowledgeable in Edinburgh who could give it a set-up? I know what to do in theory, but I don't want to damage the thing and incur a hefty repair bill. Many thanks, Laura

I have an MIA Jazz V and I absolutely love it. It's a wee bit on the weighty side, but a wide leather strap helps to distribute the bulk. Not neck-heavy at all, and it's a joy to play.

This - this - is the attitude to have. You have to pay the bills, but that doesn't mean that the thing you love doing automatically has to take a back seat just because you're a wage-slave. It depends on how you see yourself and your place in the world - are you Employee Number 12345678 or Stew the bassist who's putting some hours in to pay the bills?

Haste ye back!

You should resurrect it. We could have regular events - Funk Bonfire Night where we burn funk albums, Slap a Slapper Day... endless possibilities!

I do the same thing, largely because I just cannot get on with tabs (and that's without their being wrong / tabbed for a four-string when I play a five / not having the rhythm done properly if at all / being broken into silly little chunks that don't flow / flippant comments from the author that they CBA working out fills etc etc). I suspect it's because I learned to read music when I was quite young and found myself instinctively following the stave when I was learning from a tutor book. Even when I find a good tab on Songsterr, I'll fire up MuseScore and write out a stave before trying to play it. It's been a wee bit o a slog, but it's helped immensely, especially when playing from scores that were written for a piano and having to transpose them on the fly.

Just spotted and leeched this. Thanks for making it available! It'll save me a lot of work.

Harry Enfield says that it's someone who is 'considerably bassier than yow' 😉

Ain't that the case. A text-book example of how to exploit the Streisand effect.... on second thoughts, that isn't actually a bad idea. Provided you don't leave people out of pocket, of course.

I had to stop and think where to put them. Over-use of 'like' is something that really irritates me, but i guess that's just my age. Young people's vocabulary doesn't age well at all - how often do you hear something described as 'right on' or 'chronic' these days? Eee, when I was a girl...

+1 for this. I would not be remotely surprised to see a few tedious hipster types turn up, iToys at the ready to vlog the whole ironicalised experience: "Hey everybody and welcome to my channel! Tonight me and Jemima are in the Underworld to see the global digital sensation Threatin - the awesome dude whose digital tour like literally broke the internet. This is a like totally exclusive gig with only a few selected attendees as you can see (waves camera around unsteadily showing a handful of hipsters standing around holding skinny lattes in one hand and their phones in the other). We're here to immerse ourselves in the like whole ironicalised experience. And hey, here he is!" Holds camera up as Threatin swaggers on, trips over a cable and limps up to the mic. The camera wavers as he howls his way through all the tracks on his latest digital album - Pole In Ur Hole, Drop De Dax, Oh Yeh Baby, Baby Baby Me At The ABC (Adult Baby Club), Gimme All Your Money, I Eat Ur Az, Yeh Baby Yeh (Don't Stop I'm Cummin) etc. "Hey, wasn't that just like so AWESOME? And look at this like cool merch! Cropped T-shirt (emblazoned with 'Thretin Behavior' and displaying ironic loose threads and pulls) only £49.99. CD artwork (CD case with a paper disc carrying a download code), yours for twenty-five pounds, exclusive tour poster (which has just one date on it) for thirty - this is just like so cool. I guess it's a shame you couldn't be here, but if you liked this, don't forget to hit Like and subscribe!" I now feel ill after writing that.

I'm happy to be old-fashioned in that respect; when something is pulled from Spotify or YouTube, I still have it to hand. There's a certain satisfaction in knowing that my music collection isn't subject to the whims of some faceless American data hoover. I like to think of it as sticking it to The Man, 21st century style 😊

I use a Boss eBand JS10 for learning by ear. I convert the song to an MP3 either by ripping from CD, recording from vinyl or converting a leeched YouTube video. As well as being able to slow the tempo, it has the facility to record small snippets which can also be slowed down. That comes in very handy when working out tricker bits where the bass isn't that audible. It's a nice, albeit pricey bit of gear. The only downside is the 3.5 mm headphone socket - the weight of an adapter plus headphone jack strains the socket making it cut out intermittently - but I hook that up to my practice amp's aux input and plug my cans into that instead. It works well.

I think you've nailed it. If you did a poll of random people and asked them to name a 'classic' punk album, I would expect most of them to name Never Mind The Bollocks. Or Dark Side Of The Moon if you asked about concept albums, Sergeant Pepper if you asked for a Beatles album, and so on. They might not necessarily be musically the best, but they're the ones people remember.

I've got 34 of those albums, some of which I've only listened to once or twice and most of which I missed the first time around. The only one I feel I did miss out on is Parallel Lines.

Piece Of My Heart, Dogs Of War and Valerie (Zutons original) in the song department. I'm also working through the Hal Leonard Bass Blues book I treated myself to on Chrimble Eve. I'm a fair way through it already, which has been a huge encouragement as it shows I know a wee bit more than I thought I did. I'm also working out some Passions basslines by ear. It's harder than I thought it would be, but I'm getting there.

+1 for Ultravox. I love their first three albums and still listen to them a lot. But when John Foxx left, he took the hard edge with him and the band became a shadow of its former self. I quite like the idea of an Ultravox tribute band, except that we'd be stuck with playing bloody Vienna at every single gig.

You could of course do both, in the interests of providing a balanced response.

I've just bought a lighting rig and a pedalboard. Does that mean I have to get the 115 cab I'm after before Hogmanay?

Aye. Props to the guy for successfully gaming the system - except that he's just made it a wee bit harder for everyone else and the band he hired are all out of pocket. Manipulative wee shite.