chris_b

I get a lift from the likes of James Brown, Jon Cleary and Delbert McClinton, so I guess I'm plumping for Blues, Soul and Funk.

A few years ago I bought a 55-01 with a plan to upgrade. I was going to replace the pickups, remove the preamp and make it passive. I liked the bass but in the end, at nearly 10lbs, common sense took over. I'm never going to gig a bass that heavy again.

Hubert Sumlin's guitar solo on Spoonful. Only 6 bars but a perfect solo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0aIjyX7vwI Hubert Sumlin again on Smokestack Lightening. No solo to speak of but 3 minutes of riffing that launched a million bands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ri7TcukAJ8

The Bass Centre told me that the Mesa Boogie RR210 EV I bought in the early 90's had been part of Mark King's Mesa rig. That couldn't have been true, because it never made me sound anything like him!

You beat me by 10 months. I bought my Fender Precision in March 1969. I still have it although I can't remember when I last took it out of it's case. It was very modded in the 80's, which has hit it's value as a vintage instrument, but with it's replaced pickups, J pickup and preamp it's a far better bass than when I bought it. Within 2 years the nut broke and was replaced. A few years later the frets were almost down to the fretboard and had to be replaced, so it was never going to be an original. That was Fenders in the early CBS era for you!

All my basses were owned by me. That's all I got.

That's an easy decision. Keep the one you play the most.

A lot of people say this. I guess it depends on what you want to play. In Boys Of Summer I wanted a strong sustain for 4 bars, to hold on and not die in the middle of bar 3 and leave me looking like I've fallen asleep or forgotten to play. I've had basses that could do that and basses that couldn't. Most basses can hold a note for a bar and many for 2 bars. 4 bars sorts the men from the boys. My old US Lakland was the best. You could go shopping and when you came back the note would still be ringing. If you don't need that facility, fine, but if you do you'll be thankful for the guys who make basses that can do that.

So exactly what exhaustive scientific test are we talking about?

How about the new Warwick/Sadowsky MetroExpress basses. They are guaranteed to weigh less than 9lbs, and on a dark stage they won't look like a Fender at all.

Forgetting stuff. . . . . . . . I've left a wardrobe's worth of clothes behind on so many gigs, starting when I was in my first band! Anyone had to stop by the side of the road to work out how to get to the gig and if they were going in the right direction?

I worked with someone who had a photographic memory. He had memorised every relevant IBM manual and had instant recall, but somehow couldn't remember to wash!

I haven't seen Gregory Porter yet, but I though the Hugh Laurie and Dizzee Rascal shows were interesting.

Your marketing department is making that up.

Because when an armchair expert starts to tell a world class company that they don't know their business as well as he does. . . . it's obviously an Oh, Dear moment.

Bobby Vega has some cool lines where he taps, slides and uses harmonics.

I played a Fender Precision for the first 25 years so 18mm-19mm at the bridge is the only measurement where I still need consistency. I play 5 string basses so wide necks are par for the course. Width at the nut and scale length? I don't even think about them.

Oh dear.

Short scale basses might seem like the logical suggestion, but kids younger than 10 learn on a full size piano without any trouble. There are plenty of YouTube videos of kids playing full size P basses, because a full size bass is easy to play, even with small hands, if you have the right technique. I'd suggest your 10 year old tries out some basses and chooses his own, but starting the same week you sign him up for one-to-one lessons so that he learns to play it correctly.

Yeah, I've played Superstition many times but never in Eb. Did get asked to do it in D once. Low D was lovely, made the whole room vibrate!

If you Google "Talking Book Songs" for instance, it brings up a Youtube link to all the songs on Talking Book.

I'd rather be playing a modern bass than one made in the 1950's. Whatever they do to them these days that's different is fine by me.

I believe early versions of Badass bridges required either a shim or rebating into the body, but I've not heard about any others.

You get better at this the more you do it. I periodically run over sets of bands I play with, just to keep up to speed. Also many of the songs are interesting to play. I got a call once at 10 am on a Saturday asking if I could be in Devon by 4! It was a wedding and I'd never played with the band before. They got a lot of busking, but the audience wouldn't have spotted the cracks. My memory is pretty good. If I can hear a melody line then I can get by. I've done gigs with little notice and you just do the best you can. If you are really stuck, just turn the volume down and the bass up so no one can hear the notes!

You're playing Triggers broom.