chris_b

In March I bought an amp, auditioned it, sold it. Does that count? My 2 regular rigs have been unaltered for 5 or 6 years.

Forget bass gear, I got several boxes of chocolates. Much more useful.

In the 80's BT chopped out 3 layers of IT middle management and the business didn't miss a beat. What a surprise. I worked for Big Blue in the 00's and in 5 years we had 6 reshuffles! These had no effect on the job we were doing or on the service we gave to our customers. They were pointless and only proved to me, yet again, that a large percentage of managers are an expensive and unproductive bunch of wasters. And don't get me started on US management! OK, I will. . . . in the 90's we were taken over by a US company and the first project for the management was to count the carpet squares in all the offices, to ensure that no one had a bigger office than their manager!! They were also annoyed to find out that several of the smaller offices had curtains and the managers offices didn't!!

She's thinking about the bass line in isolation and not playing with the track. She not a bad player. She's hitting the notes OK, just has to get the timing and groove right.

I'm not a fan of buying cabs because of their looks. The amp looks good on the case. IMO your Super Midget sitting on top of a Super Compact is the best way to go. Or you can run the SC stand alone.

Looks like a TRB, don't quote me on that, but certainly a Yamaha.

In the past I was likely to vote with my wallet, but these days I'm more inclined to support the guy who is being screwed, particularly if his bosses are laughing all the way to their off-shore tax havens.

Technique is all about accuracy. Moving smoothly from one note to the next and seamlessly putting together patterns of notes. There are world class players who tear up the rule book, but for the rest of us the accepted technique for our instrument will usually help us be better players. I have never thought about either of my thumbs. They go where they want, but after threads like this I've noticed my right thumb is a moving anchor, and my left thumb is 90% on the back of the neck and 10% wrapped around the neck, although those numbers can change by the song or my mood. One thing I have changed over the years, these days I try to play with a lighter touch. When I had energy to spare, my technique was pretty agricultural. Now I play with the least energy I can get away with. I think it's helped my playing to mature and improve. I can move around the neck a lot easier than I did and the notes are more even than they were.

The Metro basses were made by Yoshi Kikuchi and a small team team of luthiers under Sadowsky supervision. As far as I know the Metrolines weren't made by Yoshi.

In 1998 the Bass Cellar, Denmark street, had Martin Kemp's JG Wal, with the leather pickguard, for sale. That was the best sounding bass I'd heard up to that point. It had the switches (series/parallel?) on the pickups. I was told it was sold to someone in Wales. I asked Pete Stevens to build me a 5 string bass that sounded that good and he said he couldn't. Apparently there were subtle changes to the sound when they had to switch to using metric wire in the pickups.

I believe that Lakland have the same business approach as Sadowsky. If you want the special options, a hand made instrument or just a bass made in the US then they do that. If you don't want those things the Asian basses are made on a production line from the same components and built to the same high standard, with the price reflecting the lower costs of building in the Far East. My Japanese made Sadowsky Metro is a fantastic instrument. I have no interest in the US version at all.

3 options. . . . 1 in, 1 out!

Depends on the bass. As the price goes up so do my expectations. I'm usually looking in the £1 - 2k range. Right now I think I'm at a point where, within my budget, my basses are pretty much unbeatable. I've owned one bass for 12 years and the other for 8 years. I'm still keeping abreast of the bass market but I may have already bought my last bass.

After chatting to my postman I discovered the PO wants to switch all deliveries to van owning contractors, who will undoubtedly be on minimum hourly wage. I can sympathize with the guys who are striking for their jobs.

Fodera are amazing hand made basses. I played a couple in Bass Gear. The tone of one was good but the tone of the other was wonderful. Both were way beyond my budget.

Jeeeeezzzzzz!!!! Fully booked in 2023! I'm officially jealous!

Watch any bassist out there in a pro band and they'll all be moving their thumbs from one anchor point to another.

Russell B Jackson's Precision bass. In the mid 80's I saw a video of Russell B Jackson playing with BB King. He was the first guy I saw with a modded Precision. The P pickup is hidden under the cover but he's added 2 Bartolini Jazz pickups. I was so intrigued that after several visits to the Bass Centre I installed a Bartolini pickup on my Precision. That was a 1000% improvement and the first time I'd owned a bass that sounded like my records. I've never owned a bad or even average sounding bass since, all thanks to Mr Jackson.

You are right. I was playing the right notes and writing down the wrong ones!!! Sorry @bloke_zero

. . . . Clinic and Fish Market. I had that on a T shirt many years ago.

Main section The riff is the same notes played twice in every bar, but played slightly differently the second time. C D D A D (the low D is followed by an open A then a D) repeat with slightly different timing on the first 2 notes. Middle 8 C C# D low G. Bb to B (hammer on the B). This guy seems to be playing a low F and sliding to the G, but the original just hits the G, which makes more sense to me. That's it.

I amended the seconds after I found a calculator that included leap years. . . !!

My first gig was 20th November 1966. My last gig was 6th December 2022. 56 years and I'm still loving every second of being a bass player. And just because I had nothing better to do. . . . that's 1,768,694,400 seconds!!