chris_b

I bought a suit a few years ago and went to the tailor for a final fitting. He couldn't get the waistcoat to sit properly on my shoulders. Turns out my left shoulder is 2" higher than my right, after years of holding up heavy basses.

Sounds like you've missed out on an opportunity to improve your vocals and meet other players, friends of the band, who might be more proactive on the gigging front.

I have the same thing on the way and I'm looking at all possibilities. I have no medical suggestions, but a very low action and a soft technique, involving very little pressure, is all I've come up with so far.

Defeated? Not yet.

It's the internet. People can be either sensible or stupid. You can't let any of the idiots get you down.

When I play I get paid for 3 reasons. . . . This is not a hobby. If someone is making money from my playing, so am I. Most people I play with are making their living from music. So playing for free, for fun or a favour, is not an option.

I've seen this a few times and it's disappointing that people don't always have a positive experience on Talkbass. I joined TB in 2007. Most stuff I post is prefaced with IMO or IME, and while I’ve had disagreements I've not seen any serious push back on any opinions I've expressed. I've found TB to be a great bass resource. Sorry that's not everyone's experience.

A few years back I played with a guitarist who could make his 112 combo and pedal board sound like a stack of Marshall’s, even at a very low volume. You just need a guitarist with brains, will power and talent. . . . oh, wait!!

If it's half as good as mine it will be the last bass you buy.

You will only play music you are interested in? OK. Personally I don't see any benefit in a player placing such restrictions on themselves.

I taught myself to read music in my school band. We were a prototype Blues Brothers, and that started me off slowly. I progressed and my "peak" was being asked to do some proper commercial reading sessions. All simple pop stuff but it's a great feeling to create music from a few dots on a paper.

My band had a gig in Leeds, and the trumpet player dropped out on the day of the gig. We phoned the Leeds School of Music and got a young student to sit in. We had a partial run through at sound check. He read the parts without a hitch, but it was a Soul band so ABC stuff compared to what he was used to. Reading music is like reading a book. You can be at "Janet and John" level or "Hamlet" level. Depends on the requirements of the gig and your ability. Ideally you want to be reading stuff that's below your maximum level, but I've seen interviews with Laurence Cottle and Chuck Rainey relating stories about sessions where they couldn't read what was put in front of them. Cottle said the arranger told him afterwards, "That's not what I wrote, but I like it, so we'll keep it." Very few people are going to need to play a piece at first sight, even in the West End they get practice and rehearsal time, as do symphony orchestras, but reading, at any level, is a great skill for a player to have.

IMO multiscale isn't a solution to anything, but, like jazz basses, roundwound strings, active, 5 and 6 strings, humbuckers etc it's a good evolution.

In the old days, beer crates borrowed from the bar staff used to work for me. If I couldn't hear my cabs standing right in front of them, I'd be questioning why I'm using those cabs. I use 2 Barefaced 112 cabs which have such good dispersion that while they are pointing at the lower half of my body, I can hear every note perfectly.

I used to visit when in Brighton. Always a good experience. This is sad news.

It was like that in the 60's and 70's. Sheet music was written out by piano players, who were paid by the song, so the bass parts were an afterthought, about 20% correct, if that!

When you've got started, try some of the various Bach for bass YouTube videos. Bach is very good. Rhythmically it's simple, mostly multiples of 4 in the bar. There are a lot of notes to read, so Bach is very useful for recognising the notes on the stave and translating where they are on the bass. Also you won't recognise the tunes so you'll have to be reading the dots.

I learnt scale shapes, the names of the notes, where they were on the neck and where they were on the clef, and played along, with sheet music, to various simple pop songs at the time. That was in pre computer age. These days all you need to do is search for "Reading bass clef on youtube". There are a lot of choices. I just looked at the first few on the list and the introductions look pretty good.

Thanks Steve.

Are they rough enough to cause wear to the frets?

If I won the lotto I'd keep most of my gear. Top of the list would be an Aston Martin DB12 Volante.

I've bought basses and cabs on the way to gigs and played them that night. If the bass is as good as you say, play it. No reason to delay.

Even though he came from Detroit, Bob Seger was Southern Rock. Thin Lizzy was more top 40.

Maybe a high mass bridge will change the tone on your bass, and maybe it won't, and maybe it does and you can't hear it. All possibilities.