chris_b

I played with a terrible Working Men's Club band in the 70's. They really were the lowest of the low. Our best number was Spanish Eyes! I'm shuddering even recalling this! I got paid a lot and the Guinness was very cheap. I was happy that no one I knew would see me. . . until we did a cricket club and an old school friend, who I hadn't seen for years, came over while I was setting up and said Hi. I've not seen him since but the whole night was a nightmare of embarrassment and shame!!!

Most switching problems come from players not being familiar enough with the note positions. Many of us, me included, predominantly use patterns when we play. If we use the E string as a base point, putting the B string in confuses a lot of people. Some blame the instrument or make silly comments like, "Jaco only needed 4" and some work though it. If we know the notes rather than just the shapes we might get through the 5 sting learning process with more ease. The "starting on the wrong string" thing caught me out a lot in the beginning. My solution was to switch to 5's exclusively.

Nice. Not my thing at all, but I'm always appreciative of talented players and love listening to good playing, for its own sake.

Hey Blue, I understand your pain. I also didn't want anyone to see me when I played one of those basses!

I've seen a chart for this song and they indicate 1-2-2 for the fingering. That gets over the octave jump, but even that shouldn't be a problem with enough practice.

In the late 80's, when he was with Terence Trent D'Arby, I stood for an hour pretending to look at basses and listening to Cass Lewis trying out TE gear. What a great player.

My tutor plays this with 2 fingers. So does Paul Turner, on the live videos. Play it any way you can make it work for you, but don't start with the intention to cut corners. The pro's, the guys you are trying to emulate, will start slowly and build up. And it's not just about one riff. Once you have trained yourself to play difficult passages at these speeds, and with proper fingering, you'll discover an extra benefit which you weren't expecting. . . . being able to play fast improves how you play all the slower stuff. Wikipedia has Derrick McIntyre playing bass on this. He's a new name to me. With "additional bass" by Randy Hope-Taylor. I guess they dropped him in on some overdubs?

I was walking/staggering home after a gig and the case opened. My P bass fell out and bounced down the road. I just picked it up and put it back in the case. Next day I saw some very large gouges out of the top of the body. It was a shame but what is done is done. The impacts became part of the life of that bass. I did buy another case.

I wouldn't start screwing anything into my cabs. When I wanted to stack my Bergs on their sides I just bought some rubber feet and placed them in between the cabs. Kept them in my accessories bag. I got mine from Maplins but Blue Aran do them too.

When you start hearing things you don't like about your gear, it's time to move on. Time to upgrade and buy one you like the sound of right out of the box.

The guy giving me lessons has shown me different ways to play stuff I've been playing for years. . . and opened my eyes. On some of it I've gone home worked at the lines and come up with "better" and more comfortable ways of playing his lines, ie playing on different parts of the fretboard, starting on a different string, etc. He is happy that I have adapted his method and made it my own.

This isn't classical music. There is no such thing as cheating. All the top players will have good technique, but they all have their own style and method of playing as well. If it sounds good then do it. If you can make something easier to play, and get the same results, then work on that. Do everything in stages.

As long as you are following "orders"? Nothing. Stuff may not be what it seems, but context is everything. As long as you sound good or look the part and the guy who is paying you is happy then it is all good. I've never been replaced by a session player on a gig or record, but I've been in bands who have initially done that with a drummer and brass section. The guys were cool. They got paid, got the glory and did the rest of the work once they were up to speed. I have mimed to tracks on TV and on a live show, where we only did 2 numbers, because they didn't have the facilities for a live sound or the engineers to mix what we were playing. I'd rather be miming to a well played record than sounding terrible at the hands of a guy who doesn't know about how the band should sound. Stuff happens. Learn from the bad, remember the good and variety is always fun.

Practice is the only thing that will get your ability and technique up to speed. Use a metronome and set it to a count where you can just about play that line. It'll get very boring, but you keep playing it until you feel comfortable and it is easy to play. Then you speed up the Metronome a little. Go around that loop until you can play along comfortably with the record.

OK. Seems like you've covered all my suggestions. I don't know what to suggest next. For me the ER15's then the PRO17's filtered to the right level across all the bands I play in, from quieter to louder. Our sound must be very different. I have never "lost" the bass wearing my plugs.

I'm taking lessons. I told the guy I was bored with my rut and I wanted him to find me a new one. So far it's working really well. I'm probably tool old to carve out a completely new rut, but the current one is a lot wider and far more interesting.

Yes, but only if it is the resignation of the guy causing the problem.

No. I'm not a fan of rehearsing at high volume. If you are rehearsing at gig volumes then you should be setting up as you would on a gig. So whether the problem is the way you place the back-line, or other players, or the room, or the volume you rehearse at I can't say, but my guess would be that the plugs are working as intended and they are high-lighting problems with your rehearsal process. My experience with band rehearsals is that the gear placed around the room in a circle and you all have each others amps pointing at you. I usually had the guitar amp pointing at me! Turning up the bass just makes the guy across the room turn up and you get nowhere. Everyone playing in a loud band is going deaf. This is happening at different rates but the end will usually be the same result. I'd guess that if you thought it was worth paying this amount of money to protect your hearing you are already experiencing some "issues". You've got to give these plugs a chance. One rehearsal is too early to give up on them. You are putting a filter between you and the sound waves so everything you hear will sound different. The balance can change but you just need to acclimatise. I'm not sure how you can have a sound that disappears when you put the plugs in. Maybe your sound is one that is filtered out, but I haven't had that. When I use the plugs the bass sounds bassier and louder to me. Raising the cab will change what you hear, but I think your rehearsal is the problem. IMO taking the plugs out and carrying on without them is the last thing you should be doing.

Why is quitting the first advice that is always given in these threads. Is this guy the band leader? If he isn't then nicely tell him to stick it. If it is his band then the rules are different. I'd still try to negotiate the end of this micro managing, but either way you've got to come up with interesting parts that show you can be trusted to think for yourself. Quitting should only ever be a last resort and be way down the list.

Being "picky" about what you are willing to play is fine, but if you are sitting at home waiting for something "great" to turn up you're also getting rusty and dropping further to the back of other musicians memory banks. When playing you are meeting different players, you're networking, you're keeping match fit. There are possibilities you don't get with something like JMB. A band might be temporary and not your ultimate aim but IMO most playing is better than not playing at all and better opportunities present themselves when you are "out there" and part of a music "scene".

The last time I needed a back up amp (and I didn't have one!!) was to cover last valve amp I owned. Bloody valves!! In the late 90's I bought a new Mesa 400+ from the Bass Centre, which popped a valve the moment that Chris and me took it out of the box in the shop. Then carried on blowing valves over the next 5 months that I owned it. It went back 4 or 5 times but they never found the problem. In the end Nick (good guy) offered me a swap with an Ampeg SVT3-PRO. I lost a fortune on that deal (but not as bad as the deal Barry wanted. He tried to get me to give them the 400+ and buy the Ampeg for half price!!) but I was happy to get rid of an expensive and unreliable pile of poo. I could get great sounds out of that Ampeg, through my Mesa cabs, and I used it for the next 8 or so years. By which time the cabs, which weighed about 100lbs each, had permanently damaged my back!! I've done a couple of thousand gigs since and haven't needed a back up since moving to SS and D class amps. A great idea that went very wrong.

I'd guess the starting point is Flatwound strings. The rest might include setup and an over driven amp. Later in the song it doesn't sound like he's using any pedals, but as pedals are a black hole for me so I don't know if he's using any or not

Ask first and they should be happy for you to try the basses. They'll probably want to "supervise" and set up the amps for you. As an older gent, I've noticed that I don't get hassled so much in shops when I pick up a bass. I didn't try any last time I was at BD, but didn't I see some had locks on the hangers? I'll always say Hi first and ask if they mind me trying out the basses. I'll probably play a dozen basses but only plug in 1 or 2, or maybe none. I can tell if I'm interested without an amp.

Love this playing. . .

Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart.