BillyBass

@lotte Congrats on your new bass and hobby. Starting out learning 'Hit Me with your Rhythm Stick'. Is like jumping in a Formula One car for you first driving lesson. 'Seven Nation Army' by the White Stripes or something by Snow Patrol might be a bit easier.

Tom bought a bass from me yesterday. This isn't the first time I have sold stuff to him; he is always really straightforward when buying gear and a really good bloke too. thanks Tom

No, it won't be 😉 Congrats on the denim bass though, looks lovely.

Definitely cultural. We have a notion of a price, and that is fixed (by us). In the Indian subcontinent, there is no fixed price for 99% of goods sold, haggling is expected and people wouldn't understand offence being taken. Whenever I have south Asian customers, for my business that is, not bass gear, I anticipate a conversation about price that would be quite different to conversations about price with English or European customers.

All personal taste innit. I don't mind that, it's got a Lakland vibe. G&L's 4 inline headstocks are way worse, the pointy bit is more obvious.

I think one of these would be helpful: https://origineffects.com/product/bassrig-64-black-panel/ It's a pre amp with a Fender Bassman cab sim. You will need a power amp to go with it, or a class D head that has the option to bypass the pre amp. As has been mentioned above, for a cabinet, Barefaced 10s might suit your sonic needs. Not cheap, but their new 3x10 cabinets seem to be popular.

With whatever approach he uses to start with: videos, lessons etc...I would advise to focus on technique at the beginning and resist the urge to learn favourite songs. Technique practice/exercises can be a bit boring but it will prevent bad habits being ingrained, which can be more difficult to unlearn later on.

I'm not really a 'seasoned player' but I love learning new songs and have been doing this pretty constantly since the end of the first lockdown. I am a covers band player and, as such, I don't need to play a particular bass line exactly as the original was played but what I play does have to fit, particularly with what the other musicians in my band are doing. I start out looking for a video with a bass tab or a chart of the guitar chords, which I follow when listening to the song. From either of these I will get a basic framework. Then, as @ahpook above does, I get out my notebook and listen to the song through several times, noting down the Intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro etc in bar sections e.g. outro: -Dm|F|Dm|A|Dm|F|Dm|A|Dm|etc to fade. (The Man who sold the world, down tuned to suit our singer's vocal range) These are my own (written) notes so I don't need to go into too much detail. I'll work out the (music) notes from the arpeggios which fit when moving along the 4 bar sections, then play and repeat until I've memorised it. I then put the song into a playlist of our set on my iPad and play along. When I've nailed a song I play it once, then move on but If I haven't, I'll play it twice and sometimes stop and practise a certain section that I haven't mastered. Then when we meet at the rehearsal, we play through and sort out our ending (-fade, doesn't work live). This works for me. You will, no doubt, work out a system of your own in due course.

Me, and many others like me are looking forward to a drop in the interest rates. We might have to wait until August though..

How many of the 10 options do you use? After doing lots of experimenting when I got my Triad, I mainly keep to either the neck soloed or the middle pup soloed; normally its just the middle pup on. The option to have the bridge and neck together, like a jazz bass with both pups full on would be useful perhaps, but I have 2 other 4 string basses with that option, so I don't have the incentive to mod mine yet.

I think lying on the sofa with a bucket of KFC is underrated.

BL and me auditioned a new drummer yesterday and it went well. Conveniently, the drummer lives on the same street as the BL and both of them have dedicated music rooms in their houses that we can rehearse in-with headphones through a laptop with a click. This is all a bit new to me, I'm used to 4 blokes in a studio with acoustic drums and amps. It's nice not to need ear protectors at a rehearsal!.

I think that Guitarguitar ad PMT structure/arrange their 2nd hand deals differently to Bass Direct. GG and PMT will offer you a cut in part exchange for one of their new basses. This difference in price then has to have VAT added to it when they sell it. So it rarely ends up being a good deal for the individual wanting to part ex one of their basses for something shiny in GG or PMT. How the Bass Gallery do it is to act as an intermediary; they sell your bass for you and take a cut (15% in the case of the Bass Gallery). This keeps things cheaper and I guess the only VAT being paid is the 20% they have to pay on the fee they get for selling the bass. I'm guessing Bass Direct do something like this too. I once spoke to someone working in a Guitarguitar branch who told me up front I would be better off selling my old bass on eBay, rather than part exing it with them. I've not bought much with Bass Direct but these few transactions have all gone smoothly. I've bought a fair bit more from Guitarguitar, again all good. PMT I'm wary of. They seem to be box shifters and little more. I have had problems with several orders, which, they have always dealt with well, but it doesn't encourage me to use them if an alternative is available.

I do like the colour. You don't really see many basses in butterscotch blonde, unlike Telecasters of course. You did comment on your 'Gloxy' that the top row of knobs got in the way of your hand sometimes, at least with the passive basses, this shouldn't be a concern. I wonder why MarkBass are trying to capture a position in the pretty full budget F shaped object market? I doubt whether Harley Benton or Squier are too worried.

I use Deezer. It appears that, so far, I am the only one on this site to do so. I got Deezer free for three months when I bought some Sonos stuff about 10 years ago and have kept with them. I paid double to get the higher quality streams (not sure just exactly how 'lossless' this is) and then all the prices came down...and then came down a bit more with a yearly subscription. I use playlists on my iPad to practise along with the songs my covers band(s) play. I haven't actually listened to music at home that wasn't band related for a long time.

Vanderkley make front ported cabs. Bassdirect and the Bass Gallery in London stock them, or at least could order them in for you if stock isn't available. I've never played through them myself but they have a good reputation. https://vanderkleyamp.com/cabinets/

Yeah that Stingray does look lush! But, my budget wouldn't go that far either. I'm waiting to see if the project I've joined has legs. As soon as we get our first gig, I'll get a second fiver.

Hi Dave I've been tempted recently to get one of the Sire P5R fivers, at Andertons. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with this. What was the bass you liked but was too dear? I tried a Reverend Mercalli 5 up in Glasgow when I bought my Decision P, I was mainly focussing on the 4 stringer but I do remember being pleasantly surprised by the B string and the weight. I have to use a fiver for my current project but I'd rather be playing my 4 string basses, I won't be getting rid of mine.

For those interested, Sterling seems to have strengthened a little against the dollar, so it currently £319.00 for the bass and £507.11 including shipping, U.S. taxes and UK customs duties. Looks a bit ordinary to me but I do like the look of the 2 new colours for the short scale Sterling Stingrays.