lozkerr

I really struggled to crack the octave jumps because of the fast tempo - it took longer to do that than it did to get the bass solo right. Lots of practice was the only answer.

That sounds great! I'm making s l o w progress with it - the verse riff is needing a lot of metronome work - but I'm determined to crack it. Might suggest it for the 80s band if we get a gig close to Christmas next year, as it's so nice and upbeat.

Thanks for posting this. I leeched the transcription on Sunday and had a go at it tonight. Let's just say it won't be ready by the weekend... OTOH, it's now well and truly on my to-learn list. It's irritatingly catchy and will be a lot of fun to play once I've got it under my fingers!

Asking if something is good for metal.

It's this beastie. The depth knob gives quite a wide range of sounds. I'm not sure what you mean by thick or wide, but you can get a lot of different effects from it. I spent ages happily noodling away through it in Scayles before buying it. Plus, although it uses Eden's 15 volt power supply, it runs OK at 9 volts from a Voodoo Lab unit. As they're now out of production, along with every other Eden product - thanks for all the investment and support, Marshall - you could probably pick up one dead cheap on fleabay.

Best things I've bought have been individual pedals to replace my multi-effects unit. Tuner, compressor, Boss synth and overdrive pedals, plus an Eden chorus pedal that I bought on a whim but which is getting a fair bit of use, especially in the punk band.

Definitely not, if they want to get anywhere. I sympathise - I wouldn't last long in a band like that. Bringing someone else along and expecting them to be allowed to play without asking beforehand is downright rude. We use phones in both bands I'm in, but only for recording the sessions and playing back cover songs through the PA that we're having difficulty getting right. The Ultimate Guitar thing sounds bizarre, too. I'd be embarrassed at having to do that - I normally learn songs by making a paper chart and getting to the stage where I only need it as an aide-memoire rather than reading to the exclusion of everything else. It's easier to annotate a paper chart, too. But don't be disheartened - you came into the band with the right attitude and if you keep looking, you'll find the right people eventually.

At the age of 59, I can still lug most things about and play a full evening with my five-string Fender Jazz, but I do have to be careful moving things like Hughes & Kettner PA cabs and my Eden Metro. I tried to move a Trace combo in a rehearsal studio some months back and felt strain in my back. I took that as a warning to take it a bit easier.

Impressive thread, this. Seven pages in and no mention of bathrooms yet!

That sounds quite probable, but if that is the cause, it's likely down to slovenly system design resulting in crapware thrown together by hipster brogrammer types whose confidence far outweighs their ability. I've spent almost my entire working life in IT. Primarily healthcare and life science, but I did have a stint working on a retail and supply-chain management system. This setup had a central pricing system that used a basic retail price and added markups depending on the store type and (IIRC) location postcode. I think the idea behind that was to offer lower prices in deprived areas - £9.99 in Torquay vs £4.99 in Toxteth, for example. Or conversely, screw a bigger margin out of the better-off. Sounds brutal, but that's how the retail industry works. For this to work properly, price changes had to be communicated instantly to every store. When a central change was made, electronic messages were sent to the in-store systems notifying them of the change. Cue harassed shop staff changing shelf prices at very short notice. The reason I know all this is that the main part of my job consisted of testing those messages. The point of this waffle is that price management is really basic stuff - Janet and John level - when you're managing a large retail operation. The PMT website is just another type of outlet. A price difference of that magnitude suggests a big hole somewhere, which makes asking for either a price match or ordering online at the lower price a very sensible thing to do.

I'd fancied the idea for years without doing anything about it. A friend at uni had been the original bassist in the Dogs d'Amour and he tried to convince me to get a bass, but I bought a cheapo electric guitar instead because, well you know, guitar. When I moved to Leeds in 1993 and started using dial-up bulletin boards, I encountered someone who had been a session bassist. I toyed with the idea of getting a bass but never took it any further, even when I wished I could play like John Deacon. Then back in 2015 when my marriage collapsed, I finally decided to give it a go, as I wasn't getting any younger and I thought it might stop me spending the evenings inspecting the world through the bottom of a bottle. I stuck with it, and began to improve first from books and then from lessons from @wilko_66, who is a superb teacher. it helped that I'd played other instruments in the past, as my reading ability and theory came back and after several house moves and a few failed auditions, I ended up in my 80s post-punk band which consisted of people with far more experience than me. I really had to push myself to get up to something approaching their level and we played our first gig ten days before lockdown. Since then, we've gone from strength to strength and tonight we played to a packed venue as a two- band bill along with a 90s cover band. My start in the bass world was late and looks like it was unconventional, going by the posts above, but I'm glad I finally got there!

Nailed it. There are two or three songs in my two bands' combined repertoire that actually need notes below bottom E, but I could never go back to a four-string now - I'd have to re-learn the fingering for well over a hundred songs.

Started off in a school choir directed by an old-skool music teacher with wild hair and a fiery temper - even the head teacher hesitated to cross swords with this guy. If you were good, he had your back and you could get away with a lot. Then a change of school saw me in a marching band, where I ended up as leading bugler and side drum tutor. After that, a trad jazz band with me on trumpet, my best friend on clarinet and a steady stream of others who liked the idea but didn't want to put in the work. Inevitably, it fizzled out. Then a long hiatus, punctuated by annoying distractions like 'work', 'degree', 'career' and whatnot, until I picked up a bass and realised I should have done that as a teenager. I think I might have had a fairly successful career as a musician, but it's too late now. But: better late than never. When I walk into a rehearsal studio or step on stage, I know I'm in my happy place.

I'm in two bands and they both have different approaches. In the 80s covers band, we use a voting system. We're a six-piece band, so each of us suggest two songs. We then cast six votes. The most popular six are worked up and rehearsed a few times and we then decide yay/nay. Obviously, the singers' views carry most weight there. It's worked well so far. In the punk band, it depends on whether a suggestion is a cover or an original. If it's a cover, we'll try it out provided it fits our overall vibe of angry feminism, making changes as needed. If it's an original, we'll spend time trying out different ideas to see if something workable emerges. It helps that we have two songwriters who work well together, plus a band leader who openly admits that she's a control freak but is careful not to interfere with the creative process. For my part, I tend to listen to the rehearsal recordings and jot down ideas to try out at the next session. Both approaches have produced good results.

Mono M80 gig bag for me, unless my bass has to go in the back of a van. Then I drag the Fender hard case out of storage.

Saturday's gig could have been a tad melancholic, as it was a memorial to a guy who passed suddenly earlier this year. He was the singer in a band that we normally do a two-hander with called Rock for Remembrance as a fundraiser for a charity supporting disabled Forces veterans. But far from being downbeat, it went down a storm. It was held in Colinton bowling club - a genteel place in a leafy Edinburgh suburb. A kids' birthday party was finishing as we were loading in - I don't think I've ever seen so many Trinity tractors in one small car park before. We were on first, and I was expecting our whole set to be met with nothing more than polite applause, but we had people up and dancing well before we finished. It got livelier as the evening went on, so all good there. On the downside, one of the lighting stands slipped as I was setting it up and took a lump out of my left index finger, and the lighting desk was sulking. It took a bit of percussive persuasion to get it to behave. I think it's on the way out. But all in all, a great night!

80s band: wet-look leggings with Primani boots adorned with fake pearls, plain-colour top, black jacket, Satanic necklace. Punk band: bottom half as above, band T-shirt rotating between Girls Rock School, Countess of Fife, the Rezillos, London Underground logo and artwork from the Passions' Africa Mine. With a lurid pink jacket over it sporting badges up the lapels. Plus the Satanic necklace.

For me, it's this. Fender Jazz V Deluxe through an Eden Metro atop a 118 cab. This was taken a few days before lockdown - seems ages ago now!

Aye, you're not wrong there! It's seriously loud!

Punk Floyd.

Deep Burple.

Excluding a few small practice amps, I have four that get used for gigs: Eden WTX-264 - this one is also my practice amp. It's handy for smaller gigs where we're told that the acceptable volume is 'not Motorhead, please'. Eden Metro - bulky beast but it's monstrously loud. Eden E300T all-valve head - another plaster-loosener. Eden WTP600 - nice amp but I'm not 100% convinced it's quite up there with the Metro. Four cabs - a 118, two 210s and a 112. All Eden. I should probably thin out the collection a bit!

In all its emotional colours... this one shows a different aspect to the conventional story: