chris_b

It's not a problem if the audience doesn't notice or appreciate what I do, my job is to make the band want me. I get all my gigs by word of mouth, so every note, every space is important. There are always better players around, you can't escape that, you just have to try and bring something extra to the table. The time I put into it is for the band, the money I spend is for me.

Depends why you want to become a 5 string player. If you're giving up on a 5 string bass because it doesn't feel "normal" then you haven't given it enough time or effort. If you are a 4 string player, a 4 string bass will feel "normal" and the 5 won't. What you have to do (if you are serious) is to put your 4 string basses away and play the 5 until it becomes your new normal. then you can play either with no problem.

I am biased, because I don't think you have a problem. You have spaces in your music? Great, IMO that's a good thing. One guitarist is also good. Even in Rock, I hate the "filled up" sound of 2 guitarists pounding power chords at each other!! Embrace the spaces. Filling up the sound with over playing won't sound good (will loose the groove) and hitting a pedal every time there is solo will sound "amateurish" after awhile. If you have locked in with the drummer it doesn't matter what other instruments are playing or if they have stopped. The song carries on riding on the groove that you and the drummer are laying down.

I'm older than you, and agree with you. No joke. . . . I actually do have 2 laundry baskets.

Most are, and probably should be. IMO you need an ego to stand up in front of a crowd of strangers and perform. You need to believe that what you are doing is good enough to interest them. It's the toxic ego, the ego maniacs, selfish and self centred Richard-heads always spoil a band. These guys rarely change so in the end it always comes down to a choice. One of you has to go.

Err. . . . we have 2 laundry baskets! The planet might struggle to recover!

Jazz and Chaos?? I bought Mama Too Tight by Archie Shepp when it came out. Not sure what I was expecting but chaos is one way of describing it!!

I've only seen a band member "explode" three times, and they were all singers. They were all tw*ts so we just ignored them and carried on. I'm in a band with a guitarist who is too loud, and while he'll turn down if he's told, the constant reminding is becoming tiresome. All part of the joys of being in a band. IMO you stick with it for as long as the good bits outweigh the bad bits.

This. I didn't know another bass player for most of my life. I know a few now, thanks to the internet. I started with flats on my Framus. On the next bass I moved to rounds because of the dynamic range and stayed with rounds for over 40 years. Nearly 10 years ago, I put flats on my Lull. I love that sound, but my Jazz with rounds has been my #1 bass for many years. It's all because of that extended dynamic range.

I have a passive PJ5 with flats and foam and an active Jazz 5 with rounds. These cover all the sounds I want, and have ever been asked for, so I think that's the right number.

Check out Sire basses.

If you decide to leave, before you go, confront this guy over his bad attitude, his lack of team work, his lackadaisical attitude to arrangements and his disrespect for the rest of the band. Tell him what his problem is, tell him to grow up and stop being a selfish, pathetic bully. Give him both barrels. Don't give up the high ground and do it in front of the whole band. You never know, they might agree with you.

This guitarist needs a nasty, musical career ending accident. See if you can come up with something.

A slab board and Brazilian rosewood might be interesting. They are supposed to have a better tone. Isn't the neck slot usually unpainted?

When I put TI's on my P bass my sound improved significantly. Just the sound I was after. If I want a top end twang I'll bring out my Jazz. Flats aren't expensive. This set of TI's has been on my P bass for the last 5 years. In that time I've put 5 sets of rounds on my Jazz. So rounds are way more expensive than flats.

Where have you been for the last 10 years? Checkout Barefaced cabs. Look for them in the Classifieds.

Hi Dave, good news. As always, it's about who you know.

I've done this. I put a Jazz pickup on my Precision bass. The "improvement" I got was significantly less than I was anticipating!! A fraction of the boost to my sound that upgrading the P pickup gave me. IMO it's not worth the cost.

Unsubscribe will work on valid companies' emails, but obviously won't work on scam emails, and it's the scams that are the problem. Some of my scam emails are so close to the original that the only way of telling is the email address, and some of these are getting closer to the valid addresses. They are now using exact copies of font, colour and graphics. I suspect that clicking on "unsubscribe" on these emails will be very dangerous indeed.

Apparently if you cryogenically freeze. . . . then unfreeze. . . . cables the copper molecules line up in the same direction, which is supposed to make the electrons flow more easily, which in turn improves the tone. My post was tongue-in-cheek, but this is something Gilmour's tech, Phil Taylor, says bought benefits when they did this. I believe they froze instrument cables amongst others, and thought the tone was improved. I have no idea whether this works or not, but if those guys think it did then I'll believe them.

Have you cryogenically frozen your cables, as I believe Dave Gilmour did?

Hey Blue, good to hear you're getting over your surgery. At 65 my aim was the same as it had always been; to be better today than I was yesterday and to play as many gigs, with good players, as I could fit in. It's still work in progress.

I'm blocking spam senders at the rate of 2 or 3 a day.

All my cables are OBBM, except a Whirlwind instrument cable that I bought in the late 80's! I agree with all the guys who are saying, they'll be retired before OBBM's cables stop working. I had a traumatic event when I left one behind in a rehearsal room, earlier this year!! Thank goodness I have several!

If you want "break up" buy a pedal.