chris_b

Best bass builder? I'm sure there are a lot guys who qualify to be on that list, but "apex" basses I've owned have been Wal (Pete Stevens and Paul Herman), Sadowsky (Roger and Yoshi Kikuchi), Mike Lull and Lakland (Hugh McFarland).

My Markbass LM2 EQ was all tone controls at noon and the 2 filters off, fully anti-clockwise. That was with my Lakland and 2 Aguilar GS112 cabs. A great sound and only sold due to the weight!

I've had both makes (not the cabs) and my preference would be for Markbass. My MB could get a very warm and fat sound but I found the the TC was just bassy, a bit one dimensional. IMO from Markbass to TC is a sideways move. I'd keep your amp and put it with a Barefaced Super Compact. That would definitely be taking a big step forward.

Clearly you don't understand "groove".

It would have been quicker, but I'm closer to your way of doing things and have been for years!! Being able to pick up lines very quickly gets me gigs, but it's a curse because I don't do any of the other stuff. I started well, teaching myself to read music but got distracted in the middle years. Now I'm trying improve myself before it's too late. . . it's probably already too late, but people who want to do better will always get encouragement from me.

It's the basics. It's important to know this stuff if you want to progress to be a better musician, and I think the OP wants that. The biggest chore for me was learning to play the bass in the first place. If you have the drive to push through and beyond the chore stage you'll do well on the other side.

Have discipline and a plan. Write down a list of 10 things you're not very good at, 10 things that you want to do better and work through them. Pick 10 bass lines you can't play and work them out. If you can knuckle down, Scott's bass lessons (the free ones and the pay ones) are worth investigating.

I got that on every school report. They were right, of course. I wasn't interested. I'll never forget Mr Ford, the careers advice officer, practically banging his head on the desk in frustration with me during our interview. I just knew telling him I was going to join a rock band wasn't a "career" choice either of us was going to agree upon! Fortunately, when rock stardom when down the pan, I discovered a fledgling IT industry, and I slotted right in. I can apply myself now but I find the lessons I'm having are even more effective because I have to sit in front of someone and demonstrate what I achieved between visits.

Ever played "Life's A Bowl Of Cherries" in 5/4?

Good move. Don't forget to improve your networking. Find a better band to utilise this new-found bass prowess.

An hour to travel to do anything in London is about par for the course. The real question is why do some bands rehearse so much?

A couple of years ago we did a wedding in a venue which had a meter. We we're surprised to see the gear trip. . . because we weren't playing at the time. The guests were making so much noise that they tripped the power supply!!!

I usually have the bass volume control on max. IMO a clean sound comes from not pushing your amp and/or cab so that the signal distorts. My regular amp is an AG700 and I usually don't have the volume beyond 10 o'clock on normal gigs and about 12 o'clock for the loudest gigs. I'm running that amp into 2 500 watt 210 cabs. Maintaining "headroom" in your amps and cabs will usually get you the cleanest sound.

Too young!

We supported Status Quo in the Winter Gardens. We were 100 yds away from the stage, in a far part of the building and on another floor, and when they started we had to shout to be heard in the dressing room!

What have I discovered and what can I share? These are just common sense and have been in many threads on Basschat in the last 10 years. Effective bass lines are the best. Simple bass lines are the most effective. A good "Adam Clayton" is worth his weight in gold. An almost good "Jaco" misses by a mile. Your groove is more important than your sound. Obviously don't sound bad, but what you play beats the sound of your gear every time. The audience or your mates might tell you you sound good, but if you're a good player you'll be asked to join bands. Get the basics right. Second nature, so you can't play it wrong. Then you can focus on the good stuff. Learn to keep good time. Don't count but feel the beats. Play every note exactly in time.The basic difference between the world's best and semi pro is the quality of the timing. If you're going to stand in front of an audience, bring your best game. Every time. It doesn't matter if they are not listening or there is one man and a dog. Go home knowing that you couldn't have given any more, even if you were playing the Albert Hall. Learn to sing. Bv's are a bare minimum and will make you more valuable to your band.

Me neither. I'd spent about a year playing bass lines on the bottom 4 strings of my terrible Spanish guitar and buying the real thing just seemed to be the next logical step. When I got it home I didn't have the first idea what to do with it! After a week or 2 the flood gates opened and in the next 2 years I learnt 99% of everything I've played ever since.

I was in Andertons today. All the guys were very friendly but I was only looking for a 2 U rack case and they don't do them!. They have a lot of Sire basses on the wall, about 17 in all, but they were all over my weight limit or I might have had one.

I bought my first bass on 14th August 1965 and started gigging on 20th November 1966. I bought the bass and amp in the first year then had to wait till the next summer holidays to earn enough to buy the cab. In some respects nothing has changed. My Duck Dunn bass lines still fit into all the bands I play in. . . with Little Richard, Bruno Mars and Jessie Jay songs alike. Then it seems like you blink and everything has changed.

I've done some shockers. Irish clubs in Willesden and WMC clubs all over the place (I had to buy a black bow-tie for those gigs!) and US EM clubs in Germany. I even played in a friends Dixieland Jazz band for awhile. It doesn't stop. Last week I did an awful gig in a West London Bingo hall the size of T5. Don't feel sorry. . . . I got well paid for all of them!

I've been in bands who have been asked to turn down. Been told we're not coming back because of the volume and seen many gigs restrained and actually closed down by neighbours. Not my fault (I blame the band leader, I was just following orders!). So yes, volume is killing gigs. Standing in the middle of it, it's also killing me.

Apparently Buddy Guy spent ages playing in the style of other guitarists on his gigs. He did Hendrix, BB KIng etc, I guess he was showing off. Then he asked the audience to suggest another guitarist he could do. My mate in the second row shouted back, "Play like Buddy Guy FFS!"

Stevie Wonder was taught many of his instruments by the Funk Brothers. As jazz players playing a lot of horn oriented music they would have mostly used flat keys. He probably picked it up the Eb thing then.

Yes. That never sounded right to me either.

I guess some of us have OCD when it comes to cables and some don't! I play with several guitarists who stand on a pile of cables on every gig. And guess what? They're always crapping out during sound check and in the middle of gigs. At the other end of the scale, I also know 2 singers who won't let anyone touch their PA and instrument cables. If you try to help they have to unwind everything and do them again. Whirlwind instrument cables used to be sold with a 25 year guarantee. I always thought that was a bit optimistic, but 5 years ago my Whirlwind came to the end of its guarantee period and it's still working just fine. My OCD makes me hate when people run cables across my space on stage. All the guys I play with have finally got the message, any PA, power or instrument cables have to run behind my amp.