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Moccasins are more comfortable than bare feet. I used to wear them in the winter as a young lad as I journeyed through the drifting dunes of sparkling white snow drifts on my way to school... for several miles! I think that brogues are shoes that have gone bad... Suitable for guitards!

Ah! Like a six letter word... Or an over-sized coffee table with very short legs in the middle of a room. We all know it's there and we all walk around it, but we never use it. (Would you call it a tea table?) Or a very cheap lawn ornament Elf that we all see as we arrive but never comment on for fear that our hostess may try to give it to us. Thank you once again, SDV! You've saved my Canadian Bacon! Europe is not a place to tread in one's moccasins without careful deliberation. Especially with so many doggie lovers! (Of course I mean that in the most innocent of terms.)

Precisely!!!

Well done!

Would you encourage "your" friend to start playing a bass guitar at 60 and join a band? There are far, far better things to be done in one's twilight years... For me, playing bass is a legacy issue. After 50 years I can't stop now. I still have my fretless '69 PB. There's still DNA on the fingerboard from the summer of '69...

You have me at a disadvantage. Kettering, you say?

Indubitably!!

Oh, but you do have a soul, BH! You just haven't found it, yet.

We will miss you, BH!

I'm starting to believe it! You Limeys are giving me a run for my money, today! And to think that after you've all just told the whole of Europe to **ck-off, most are calling me a poor sport (and maybe other things) for retiring from the band biz. Viva La Brexit!

I've seen others get the shaft. I quit when I seen that happening. A band is not more important than a soul.

Don't give up your day job for stand-up. Is that a picture of a rat? These punters never intended to take on a new bass player. They simply wanted someone to fill in temporarily, but they lied about their intentions. Many bands do this and waste people's time and efforts.

Of course. But the OP was seeking advice. He claimed that the money spent on gear was competing with his obligations to his family. You should read the OP. I wrote that he could use it as a pastime. But I would avoid seeking band-mates. What is the life expectancy of a punter band...? Bands are time wasters.

Projection is no avail for resentment. Simply design your life for success. Speaking honestly about one's experience and offering general advice is not resentment. Do you resent what I wrote...?

I'd say not. 44 is still young and you've been playing a long time. But as a sexagenarian, I wouldn't start out now playing with bands. A 60 year old learner...? Especially if I was paying to put a kid through college and had a youngster who needs two parents. My kids are in their early forties and no longer need parents, but I now I think of money as something to leave them when I die. I'd rather work overtime and make real money for my wife and estate than goofing off as a bar musician. My wife is used to it, although I've given up on being a band-boy. Gigging on Fridays/Saturdays makes a wife a widow. I'd rather be happily married than some guitard's bass-boy. I'm content with playing along with the best musicians on the planet - my CD collection. Leave the band grind to the young and the foolish. Packing gear, driving, parking, studio rental, low paying gigs, late nights... band issues, back-stabbing... If people were honest, they wouldn't disagree too much with what I've said. Unless you're Charles Mingus, work the overtime and buy your wife some flowers...

I'm not bustling into the personal life of the OP, but he did openly ask for advice. I'm not one for platitudes as they are particularly worthless to a man who is in charge of his own destiny. I'm only writing the following because I'm retired and can recognise a mid-life crisis before it turns the corner. I've seen it in myself and in my friends. I have to say, you're not a bass player. You're a family man. You made the better choice long ago... There's nothing more sad than an old bass player trying to find a band... I would suggest that if one wastes their time and energy on band-people and their multitude of issues and problems, they will short change their family and jeopardise their real future. At 60, we ain't got long to go. If one has already built a life, the trick then is to maintain current status. People in bands are damaged people... This you can find out for yourself. Becoming a bass player at 60 in 2018 means one will never make money at it and will, quite frankly, be laughed at. Especially if we try to "gig". I've been playing bass and studying music for 50 years. And I'm talented. But there are still a million guitards out there who crave to micro-manage "their" bass players. And these guitards buy basses. They think they can already play bass because they play guitar! I play guitar, too. But I never mention it because the guitards get so jealous when they find out that a bass player can play guitar. Leave this to young people and the Rolling Stones. They spent their entire lives playing music as a professional band. I don't know how their personal lives fared, but at least when they cry, they are comforted by being rich. You don't want to be a poor man crying... Wives don't respect musicians, especially if it's their husband. I was recently used by a band of devious sexagenarians because their bass player attended a one year re-training course. Of course they never told me that... and when he secretly returned they said, "Oh! We're shutting down for a while to re-group." They never called back and are now playing again (for free...) with their old "friend/lodge brother". I surely don't miss these less than mediocre lads, especially after playing a bar where the young patrons, feeling a little short-changed, started screaming/chanting for Zep's "Moby D*ck"! (You know, the big, white whale...) This is just one example of "band people". Folks will say there are also good people playing in bands. Don't listen to them, they are stupid. Or they're band-people. As amateur musicians age, they become worse, as they have to live with failure until they become desperate little men who will hesitate at nothing to gain some weak measure of fame. An old man beginner will not become good enough to earn respect. This becomes more important as we age. One should play their strong suit. Can't read music either? Save the money for old age and family commitments. Don't we want to travel when we retire? All wives resent it. It alienates wives in a way that one will come to regret. Imagine if a wife suddenly took up a musical instrument near retirement age and had no time for cooking, cleaning or coddling... How would the husband feel? That bass is competing for family time. Maybe play along with CD's when bored. A sort of secret pastime, exploring the music of all eras. Forget bands... Charlie brews his own coffee... Jack doesn't...

I'm not in sales, but I enjoy this gizmo so much that I feel like throwing in my two cents... If you have a little cash, and are new on the bass (or even a pro covers musician), this tool makes a lot of sense. Portability/Privacy: The main thing... They're very PORTABLE! Store it in your bass case. Much smaller than an amp and headphones prevent others from becoming annoyed (especially your family) (put yourself in their shoes...). Use it on the porch, in a vehicle, hotel room/rooming house, in the park (or some scenic area), when travelling, military, away on a job, in the hospital... Not essential for practicing, but headphones allow you to practice when others may be asleep, not feeling well or watching a movie. New Ampeg BA-110V2: It has an aux input (and headphones jack) so I can plug the Tascam in without putting on headphones. I like this little amp because the cab shape includes a 60 degree angle to aim the speaker directly at yourself. I keep it under the desk. There's something about the 10" speaker @ 40 Watts peak that gives a great sounding bass tone. The small speaker has to work and the tone is very much like an Ampeg B-15N without tubes. I also tried the BA-112V2 @75W peak. It's louder, but I get better tone with the 10"!? I don't expect much from it at a rehearsal, but it's a lot lighter than the Classic-SVT 810E and doesn't shake the house. Cheap CD's and Key/Tempo changes: I keep using the CD type, because I've bought many CD's at flea markets for little cost. As I often need to play a tune in a different key (to protect the singer's voice), I can still learn it by playing along in the new key. The Tempo function lets me learn/practice at a slower tempo and then speed it up gradually as I learn the song. This function is also handy for practicing scales, triads, excerpts... Just gradually increase the bpm until you're able to play it faster. Rehearsal/Audition Prep: Mostly, I enjoy it as a tool for learning covers, especially when in a hurry for auditions (loop function). The trainer allows me to hear myself in the mix as if I were the bass player, so I can really notice if I'm stiff or flubbing the parts. It's like being inside the song. Adaptor Burn-Out: Avoid battery u$e, they won't last long. I always seek out an electrical outlet, if possible. And NEVER leave the adapter plugged into an outlet when the unit is not in use. The adaptor will surely burn out if left plugged in! BT vs PC: I could buy the $oftware and use my computer, but what if someone else needs the PC? Also, firing up the PC may be a pain. I can pick up the Tascam and go into any room. And why drag the computer outside the house when you can just bring the trainer? The trainer is simplicity. Recording music is a different matter and is probably better with software on a PC. I haven't looked into iPhones.

Perhaps...But she never claimed to. Someone else would play DB in the lower register while she would tic-toc or use the higher register.

That's it. BASS FUNCTION ***Long winded, fireside chat, retired BP ALERT!*** I recollect being 13 years old at a couple of high school dances... a band playing at a motorcycle dealership... Frankie Vallee And the Four Seasons playing at a downtown square for free where I noticed the Yamaha electric piano more than anything else ... I hadn't yet picked up the bass so all I knew was the combined sound of the band. I knew what drums were, guitars and the vocals. But I had no idea what the bass was or what it was doing. I never noticed the four heavy strings, long neck and bigger amp. I think I knew what a tuba was and the double bass in an orchestra because of their unusual appearance. The bass just seemed to be another guitar, slung and played like a guitar and manufactured to look like a guitar. Indistinguishable.... Transistor radios and phonographs could not reproduce the bass. I "sensed" the bass from the old wooden radios/stereos with the 12" speaker without knowing what it was. Also, those jukeboxes in restaurants. More of a curious vibration than a sound. Motown's James Jamerson and later Paul McCartney... Talk Talk by the music machine. Only when I wanted to reproduce that sound, did I find out more. A friend just happened to have a Hofner Beatle bass. I tried it and was hooked. Off to the pawnshop for a $50 Japanese bass. Bass kept my sanity at times as life's demands took over. My point is that most people are like I was at 13, when it comes to the bass. Blissfully unaware of the instrument, but grooving on it's sound. Western music needs a bass line and people expect it. People are more focused on their dance partner and their surroundings and unusual things that a band may do. Their life focus is on their job, politics, family and friends... They know as much about the bass as most people know about carburetors... as long as the car goes, they're happy. Tell them about the carb and their eyes gloss over as their consciousness slips away and they end up at McDonald's. I'm not being insulting, but the reality of 99% of us does not include the Fender Precision bass with heavy gauge strings and a 15" speaker cab. As 12stringbassist said, BASS FUNCTION. The rest is of concern only to the BP... and guitards who think they can play bass because they can play guitar. (I just recently had a guitard send me a sample of his very lame version/arrangement of Heat Wave/Linda Ronstadt with him playing his non-descript bass. I was to play his Bowdlerised version exactly note for note. I found out it was him when I said the BP on the sample was stiff and weak. Let me handle it, I said. Well, I'm on the loose again looking for a new band.

Listen... Elvis played bass... I play bass... Anyone can play bass...! But I can't believe that you never heard of Boogie Cindy with the Boogie Wonder Band... Y'all gotta visit Montreal... I LIKED this video so many times, my fingers ache.

I was running late, overslept and raced off with bed-head to rehearsal slicing my index finger on the door. I'm playing away trying to avoid the stinging when I noticed the singer looking at me oddly and laughing to herself. I asked later and she thought I was putting on some extraordinary bass face. I tried to explain myself but she didn't buy it. I'm not self-conscious as I was as a young lad, but I cringe whenever I forget myself and people see my bass-face. Why does this dead-pan constipated look only afflict bass players?

Hold on... this has already been done. Bass Chat has a Bass Face thread... See you later!

I just figured it out! These are bass players, aren't they? Examples of various types of Bass Face! As a public service, perhaps we can codify and classify the Six Main Bass Faces prevalent in todays music scene. Then we can just look into the guitarists' beady little eyes and show them one of these cards from the pack rather than get into a long winded discussion about how bass should be played. We need a 52 card deck, but these six are a great start. 1. Mad Max! "Is this guitard actually telling me how to play?" 2. Pained and P*ssed Peter! "Well, that guitard needed to be replaced, anyway, see?" 3. Happy D*ck! "The guitard's fiancé was a little late for work this morning." 4. Doubting Tommy! "So, you call yourself a guitar playah...really?" 5. Vincent the Visionary! "With a 10 string bass, who needs guitards, anyway?" 6. Freddy the Fixer! "Yeah... we had a guitarist... but... it didn't end well..." If you ain't got a Bass Face, you ain't really playing that bass...

Bias Alert! I feel that I should clarify this. The context of my remarks is where a band with a rhythm section is performing music for a dancing audience at a wedding, bar, pub... Where patrons or guests are having a good time moving to music of various tempo and the expectation of the patrons or venue operators is to keep the floor moving. This scenario is the norm for most BP's. A concert performance is a different animal. At a concert, the audience is accepting of long soloing sections and even craving many solos. As a BP of the former, I cringe at the thought of bass soloing as it destroys the momentum you've worked so hard to achieve. Still, it seems condescending to me, "Oh, it's only fair to let the bass have a solo, too!" As patrons find an opportunity to order, make a phone call or use the facility. Even in jazz, when it's "time" for the BP to take a solo, they seem long winded and unrelated to the music that has just passed. But then, I'm a dance musician. I play danceable jazz. Even in Dixieland, BL's have indicated that I could solo, but I never care to. Maybe four bars at most, a little string slapping, and I'm back into walking. In fact, I feel that as a BP, I'm always soloing within the mix, anyway. That's why I play bass. I realise there are 10 string BP's with FX pedal boards of 36 square feet who would like to kill me, now. And I probably only need two strings to do what I do to keep a floor hopping. In fact, I sometimes view the bass as just a glorified conga drum... But I feel there's a place for both BP types. Perhaps, not the same place.

Hilarious! But you made me think, and it's only my biased opinion, but I feel that bass solos are over-rated... I enjoy trading fours with the drummer. I enjoy prominent bass lines. I enjoy playing tic-toc with the guitar. Throwing in double-stops. Even a four bar funk filled escapade alongside the drummer. I enjoy a fancy bass on the intro or finale with whomever. But if the band stops playing and the BP actually plays "solo" all alone... I feel like the night is over and it's time to consider if I should wander off to another locale... As SD said, "Bye." I'm a fairly good BP, but I would never solo in public. Only at home, alone. I play classical things and even Glen Cornick's Bouree solo. But I would never bore people for 15 minutes with a load of licks and tricks, 'cuz bass is best when in the mix.