LeftyP

You are John Shuttleworth and I claim my prize!

That's not a bass, it's a harp!

Hollow body neck dive is noticeable on both my basses. I installed Hipshot Ultralight tuners on my Italia which has helped a little but you are right it is still a bit neck heavy. As to playing as a right hander when being left handed; It goes back to when I tried, unsuccessfully, to learn classical guitar. Having never played a guitar before my teacher suggested trying the right hand method. I have posted about this elsewhere on the forum. The result is, I can't even hold a guitar in the left hand position very well. I am a very basic (bass -ic) player in our church band and don't need to be flashy at all so playing "back to front", as it were, hasn't been a problem.

Yours are positively palatial compared to the "shed" we had barely enough room to get changed into our wedding togs!

You make Shepherd Huts - was this one of yours? My wife and I stayed in it for a night when our daughter got married last August near Stoke-on-Trent. Interesting, and all part of life's big adventure!

I'm supposed to be retired at 69 but I'm still presenting programmes on BBC local radio which I have done for over 40 years. I told the station manager that I would keep going until I got it right and he said I would have a long career ahead of me! Just about to go and present my usual Sunday evening show.

Hofner manage to avoid weight with their violin basses and other makers of hollow body basses don't appear to have bending issues. Both of my basses are hollow body and so far they have not folded in half. My point was really that the weight of a bass may only have a marginal affect on the sound once the amplification, pick-ups and strings have had their say. That being the case (if it is) then there should be no need to make basses heavy.

That is the reason I'm glad I learned to play right handed even though I'm very left handed. I can try out any make of bass in a shop. I still can't play them very well but at least I can try! Getting back to weight; Why are bass guitars so heavy in the first place? I've seen the arguments that a certain type of wood gives an instrument a characteristic sound, but with electric bass guitars there is so much going on between the strings and speakers I do wonder if the wood has a significant affect. Let's face it, the type and gauge of strings, the quality of pick-ups, the instrument's tone controls, the amplification and EQ, plus the size and quality of speakers will all colour the sound somewhat. Not to mention that some players feed their bass signals through more pedals than you'll find in a Tour de France peloton! I suspect that we all pluck or pick the strings differently too so will anyone really notice much change from an ash bodied bass to a mahogany one? I can understand that purely acoustic guitars will be affected by the type of wood and how individual timbers resonate but solid bodied, electric instruments, have so many other things thrown into the mix that the type and weight of wood must only have a minimal affect on the sound reaching the punters' ears on a crowded dance floor.

I don't worry about it, I just don't like being in pain and possibly causing more damage to my spine. There are genuine reasons for wanting a lighter bass and they have nothing to do with GAS.

I "did my back in" a few years ago when learning to snowboard and have had back issues ever since. Most of the time I don't notice it but every so often I get a real pain in the lower back for no particular reason. I like short scale basses and tried a Chowny SWB-1. As bass guitars go, it was not overly heavy but it did aggravate my back when used for a while. A great little bass which I was sad to see go - don't let my issues put you off trying one. My current two basses are; Italia Maranello Cavo, hollow body, short scale, which weighs in at 7.2lb and a Tanglewood version of the Hofner violin bass at a svelte 5.7lb. I would not consider anything heavier than my Italia. I have tried all manner of straps to spread the load. One well padded leather strap was nice but added just under a pound to the overall weight! In reply to an earlier post about flat wound strings for a short scale; I use LaBella Deep Talking Bass 760FX. They are medium scale and fit the Italia perfectly.

I don't have a problem with people doing their own versions of well known songs but I don't see the point of trying to do a carbon copy of the original. Give the song your own twist, like Joe Cocker did with the Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends". Having said that, it would be a very brave person who tried to match Karen Carpenter.

No.1 - Has to be The Beatles, especially their early stuff - never did get the fuss over Sgt. Pepper. No.2 - Probably the Beach Boys for that West Coast summer sound also echoed by The Association. No.3 - Then Spanky & Our Gang who were very much of their time but I still love their albums.

I like the look of my Italia bass - even though it has lots of chrome on it and I am not a fan of things shiny. I am sure P and J basses are excellent instruments but when you've seen one you've seen them all really because that shape is everywhere. If I had to pick one bass design it would be the Hofner violin (Beatles) bass. I have a Tanglewood copy and I just like the look of it!

I was a teenager in the 1960s when Radio Caroline changed my world, along with the Beatles (and a cute little blonde girl I used to walk home from school!). There are countless songs I could list but I'll go with "River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike & Tina Turner. When that blasted out of my small transistor radio it stopped me in my tracks. Aretha Franklin and "I Ain't Never Loved A Man" was another show stopper.

It was mentioned in their last news letter a couple of days ago.

I hadn't played for about 12 years until a chance conversation at church found me on the worship team rota. I dug out my old Tanglewood violin bass and began playing along to MP3 tracks of the church songs. After a couple of sessions with the band I bought a better bass and now enjoy playing once or twice a month. I practice at home to backing tracks and always seem to have a song we haven't done before. We only play 4 or 5 songs on a Sunday but that is enough to keep me plucking the strings. I hit the big 7-Oh!! this year so I don't fancy hitting the road in a band, but my church 'gig' satisfies my desire to play and learn more. Try playing music you wouldn't normally listen to - it will keep the old grey matter working and give you a reason to pick the bass up again.

I think the way to tackle GAS is to play the bass you have. I used to play the chromatic harmonica (badly) and ended up with drawers full of the things. I tried different makes and tunings in the hope I would find the one. Secretly I was looking for the harmonica that played all the right notes in the right order! I always drifted back to the first one I bought. I like looking at, and reading about, different bass guitars and have been tempted by several models that look "the bizz". Then I pick up my current base, start playing and realise that it serves my purposes very well. I have the same situation with bicycles. I love cycling and follow the racing scene with keen interest. I can spend hours drooling over the latest carbon fibre lightweight bikes that cost many thousands of pounds. Then I pull my old aluminium framed Bianchi out of the shed and ride it up the road. After about 10 minutes I'm in love with it again and realise that it matches my style of riding (slow) perfectly. I've seen many posts on this forum from people who have sold and old bass and replaced it with a shiny new one, only to regret losing the old bass. Enjoy what you have and you may fall in love with it all over again. Oooops! just received an email from Bass Direct.......wow look at that...........................!!!!

This gear abstinence thread would be a lot easier to keep to if Bass Direct would stop sending me weekly emails showing their latest stock!

I play bass in our church band and am on a rota with all the other musicians. I get to play about once or twice a month and the band line-up changes each time. We do not have a rehearsal during the week but get together about an hour before the Sunday service to run through the songs - generally about 4 or 5 - and ensure we are all playing from the same hymn sheet! We play a mix of hymns and more modern worship songs to a mostly young congregation of about 120 people. The church attracts many students and young families and we are blessed with some good musicians. We have three keyboard players, three violinists, two oboe players, several flute players, three semi-acoustic guitarists, a couple of drummers and even a trumpeter/saxophonist when needed, plus several vocalists. We don't all play at the same services so that members have the chance to enjoy the meeting without the pressure of playing every week and it also prevents a clique from forming. At 69 years of age I am the second oldest member of the music group and it is really great to be able to play music and have some fun with the younger people in the group. I would like a mid-week rehearsal but there is so much going on at our church there is not time to fit one in! At our Christmas Carol service I found that two of the carols I had been playing at home were in a different key to the rest of the band. Not only that but we all had variations on the words too. That made things "interesting"! I have no control over my sound as the bass is plugged direct into a DI box and fed through a mixer at the back of the hall. Again, we have a rota of mixer operators and some of them don't understand fold-back. I am squashed into a corner between the keyboard and drums and am also behind the speakers so cannot hear how the bass is sounding. To make up for not getting a mix from the system I use a 'Y' connector to feed my bass into the DI box and also into small street busker's amp at my feet. At least then I can hear myself. As has already been mentioned, the main thing is to enable the congregation to sing and praise. It is not a performance and I always try to hit the root note in every chord change. I am not a brilliant bass player by any means but most church songs tend to concentrate on about three chords - usually Eb Bb and F with the odd C and G thrown it for interest. Root and fifth or an ocassional arpeggio are all that is often needed. There are one or two songs that I have been able to put more in but "Less is more" is often best. When playing in a church band park your ego at the door. Play as well as you can to honour the songs and God but remember it is not a show and you are not the star. I sometimes watch American "super church" bands on YouTube and they look more like rock concerts than church meetings. A different culture I suppose. Enjoy the experience and play well but do it with humility. The attached photo is from our Christmas Carol service which was held in a local secondary school/academy and open to everyone. There were over 200 people there singing carols then eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine (non-alcoholic!). The photo is a 'still' taken from a mobile phone video while we were rehearsing. I took my jumper off for the event itself but I think the picture shows me trying to work out why the chords I'm playing don't match everyone else's!

Well, I've known Richard for years and have never seen him with a bass in his hands!

GAS seems to afflict guitarists and bass players more than most other musicians. My wife has had her oboe for more than 30 years and it wasn't new when she bought it. The other members of her orchestra have violins/cellos and the like which are decades old and they have no intention of replacing them. I once chatted to sax player Snake Davis and his chosen instrument looked as though it had fallen from the back of a lorry and been run over by a following car. He loved it! Why is it that guitarists and bass players are always looking for the next shiny object?

They had a Christmas Album called.................................."Christmas Album"! The song you may be thinking of was "Little Saint Nick" which got some air plays.

If you are feeling a bit soppy this will say it all.

I thought I had posted this before but it has not appeared. The lyrics were written by stand-up comedian Mark Lowry with music by Buddy Greene. It gets me every time.

My wife is a big Barry Manilow Fan - I have offered to pay for therapy. I like the songs of Joni Mitchell. Put the two together and add some festive tinsel and you get this;