chris_b

Not really a disaster but a self inflicted knee in my own whatsits. In my first band I had some crazy idea about sounding more DB like and removed the frets from my bass. I took the bass to the gig that night. For some reason I also decided to wear dark glasses on the gig. I couldn't see a thing and with no frets the bass was giving me no help at all. Of course I was far too cool to take my shades off!

I had the occasional gear problems in the early 70's. Everyone did. The last time I had any gear "issues" was 20 years ago and was with the last valve amp I owned. That thing was nothing but trouble. I have a clean sheet with SS and D class amps and, except for blowing a speaker in 1986, all my cabs have worked flawlessly. I have never broken a string or had a lead fail.

This. I reckon if you are having problems with a room it is usually because you're adding too much of something. That might be EQ, pedals or volume. IME the answer is never to add more of what is causing the problem. OK sometimes dealing with a stupid guitarist means you have to turn up but I'm talking about playing with sensible people. Bad bass sound on a gig is usually caused by too much bass or low frequencies and not enough definition. I played for years in what I thought were "bad" rooms, but when I started using Bergantino cabs most of the "bad" went away. That is because the Bergs tightly control the bass and the emphasis is in the low mids. The sound from my Barefaced cabs is pretty much the same, but bigger. I get very few "bad" rooms these days and even in the worst rooms the bad sound seems to be confined to the stage and doesn't escape into the audience.

First set, start very strong (you have to get their interest in the first 4 bars), hopefully no more than one slow number about halfway through and end with a couple of "up", "lively" songs that leaves them wanting to stay for the second set. Second set, more of the same but start building the set towards a big finale. If you think you're getting an encore, finish slightly early and plan to play 2 good numbers in the encore. Generally, treat each set as a show, don't give them time to think about going to the bar or sitting down between numbers, view all songs from the point of view of the audience.

When you discover the "it just works" thing, don't analyse why, just gig the hell out of it.

About 25 years ago I gave up gigging for awhile and felt I needed a bass challenge to tide me over. A 5 string was a novel idea back then and I didn't know anyone professionally or locally who played one. It was an interesting project so I bought an MM SR5 from Exchange and Mart and discovered I loved the feel and sound from the first note. I knew I didn't need anything else. After 10 mins I realised it wasn't a challenge at all but a natural extension of the way I'd always been playing. Buying my first bass was the best bass thing I've done. That Sting Ray was a close second.

I have enough people come up to me and say they like the bass for me to know that more people notice than we realise. We have to be good enough that they want to make that step and come over and tell us.

You said, " Their entire catalogue is ruined by sh*te drumming. "It wouldn't have been the Beatles without Ringo" blah blah blah...if Ringo had raised his game, they'd have still had him & they'd have sounded better. " I understand that you don't have to like him, but you don't seem to know or understand what he did and why he wasn't "sh*te" at any level. Ringo's qualities as a drummer were acknowledged before he even joined the Beatles. They picked him because he was regarded as the best drummer in Liverpool. I don't know about the others but I'm just trying to help your musical education.

I was a Stones fan but still had all the Beatles albums, singles and EP's. As a musician you had to, they were the source of most new ideas at the time. The Beatles started as a live Rock and Roll act, went through being a backing band and came out the other end as the biggest original band in the world. No one's ever likely to like all their output (even they didn't), as it stretches from I Saw Her Standing There to I Am The Walrus, through Yellow Submarine (!), but they constantly changed what was possible with every new song and record they put out. Lennon and McCartney were musical giants. Very few bands have survived to the first album with two such original talents on board. They had to fight each other for their space in the band and certainly weren't interested in giving George Harrison a fair crack. He got his token song on each album and as he said he was writing songs but not bringing them to the band. He did manage to write one of their most famous songs. As Frank Sinatra said, "Something is the best song Lennon and McCartney ever wrote!" Forget the inaccuracy, that's some complement. While Lennon and McCartney were busy re writing the rule book for popular music Ringo was redefining what was possible for a drummer to play. Earl Palmer changed the drum world in 1949 by starting the 2 and 4 snare drum pattern. Now you can't imagine music without that simple beat, but 2 and 4 didn't cut it in so many of the Beatles songs that Ringo had to come up with something that did and in so doing opened the door to creative drum patterns that have spread into every drummers repertoire. Neal Peart, Buddy Rich and Jon Bonham are all great drummers, they brought something to the table but they didn't change the world of drumming. Ringo did and for that he needs recognition. There might be "better" drummers but Earl Palmer and Ringo Starr are the two most influential drummers in the last 70 years.

I've spent decades trying to sound good and IMO good gear, good ears and asking will make you sound as good as you're going to get. I used to go to the pubs and clubs to hear the best bands I never thought anything about the sound. On a weekly basis I was seeing the likes of Jack Bruce, John McVie, Alex Dmochowski, Ronnie Wood, Phil Chen and many others. They weren't special because of their sound. . . . with the gear they had in the 60's, most bass players sounded like a goose farting in a fog. It was their playing made them stand out. In my musical world I don't see anyone getting a gig because of their sound. We get the best gigs because of our playing and most important of all. . . . being in the right place at the right time or knowing somebody.

There's are amps by Ampeg, Rumble, TC and Markbass all at or near your budget in the first 2 pages of the Amps and Cabs for Sale section of the BC Classifieds. Bass Direct has a brand new TE Elf which comes in at £250 and a used Hartke HA2500 for less than £200.

Three of the guitarists I play with use an AER Compact 60 when they're playing acoustic.

I've used an GK MB150S and it was OK for home use but the only way I could make it work on a gig was to add the extension 112. At home I use my Barefaced One10 with whatever amp I have to hand, usually the TH500. The tone is seriously huge and the whole thing is smaller than the wast paper basket.

My criteria was to keep the gear I use the most and sell the gear that I use the least. So in effect I'd already made the decision. I sold 2 fantastic sounding and playing basses because they had been superseded by 2 others and weren't being played. I sold my Wal for the same reason. I loved that bass but hadn't played it in over 2 years. I don't play stuff just because I own it. Even at home I just play the best bass and I came to the realisation that there's no point in me owning a great instrument if it never comes out of the case. IMO and IME

It's on threads like this that I realise I'm sharing Basschat with a bunch of weirdos.

This year I reduced my stuff to 2 basses, 2 amps and 2 cabs. And I'm still playing the best sounding gear I've owned in a long line of great sounding gear.

+1 Guys, even the top pro's, will play what is easy for them and fits into their style. If someone can play triplets with 3 fingers they will. Most of the rest of us can't do that trick so we'll adjust and play it the way we can, or if you're a guitarist or singer you'll just refuse to play a song you don't like (can't play or sing!)

80%

You already have some of the best basses, amps and cabs. . . . . I reckon you have reached the stage of having enough. That's a good place to be. Now you only need to focus on the important stuff, what your are playing, where and with whom; the set, the gigs and the bands.

The best bass shop we have access to is the Basschat classifieds.

Perfect Intro? The two for me. . . . and . . . .

Sad news.

An "old" 210? If you start from a low point it isn't very difficult to get a better sound. Many cheap and older cabs were/are just cheap drivers in a box. Built to a low price point. It would be easier to get a better sound because you're installing the drivers they couldn't use in the original design because it would have made the cab too expensive. When you start using good drivers you also have to start specifically designing the cab to bring out the better qualities of that driver, or else you're wasting its potential. If you start with a decent cab it will be harder to improve the sound. They will already be using better quality components and will have spent spent some time designing the cab.

Yes. That's what the rest of the post was about.

Yep, a piece of cake. If I was playing this I'd do the 4(B)-1(D)-4(E) fingering people are suggesting, but the second 4(E) would be made by flattening the pinky, ie the pinky remains on the B but the finger is flattened to hit the E. No hand movement required at all and the only finger movement would be the rocking pinky back and forth.