chris_b

I like the idea of the rosewood slab board and roasted neck, but they don't do 5 string versions.

My turmeric "tea" is turmeric, black pepper and some chipotle chilli flakes. Three mugs a day. Last month I stopped taking it for 3 days and my neck and shoulder arthritis pain started to come back. I also have twinges in my thumb, which the turmeric seems to be keeping at bay.

This. I tend to own amps that get a great sound when the controls are at 12 o'clock or very close. IMO extreme use of the EQ means you bought the wrong amp.

I want every note to be clearly heard and felt by the guy sitting in his front room in the next street. And I want to see a sprinkle of dental fillings on the floor around the room.

Keep what you regularly play. Sell what you are just storing.

Not yet, but I'm very interested in these amps.

My first bass was a Framus Star bass. Bought in August 1965 for £22 10s. It was the cheapest bass in the shop but still just under £400 in today's money! I spent 6 weeks on a summer job picking fruit to pay my Dad back. With a short scale and thin neck it was a great bass to learn on, but it started to fall apart very early on. You can see in the picture these are replacement tuners. It ended up with the pickup directly wired to the jack plug socket because the pots stopped working. I treat my gear very carefully so I wasn't happy with the rate of attrition. In the end it went to the dump. All it was good for!!

This isn't something I intended and I've never bought a bass for the hardware, but. . . . . . I've had Dunlop and Allparts (rebadged Dunlop) strap locks on all my basses since the mid 90's. Hipshot tuners since 2003 and Hipshot A bridges since 2011.

I know a bass player who used Jamey Abersold books when he was getting up to speed on DB and getting into Jazz. He was able to make them work for him. He was a great electric bass player and now he's a great DB player.

If anyone wants to play for nothing hire a studio and play your hearts out. If you want to support a charity, give them money. If someone is trying to make money off your labour then you should get your cut, as everyone else connected to the event is.

I have a big pile of Making Music mags from, I can't remember, was it the 90's?

Yes. Even the songs with Bob Babbitt on bass were hits, so sorry guys, they are still playing those song 60 years later because of the songs not the bass playing.

I was told by a mate (a jazz double bassist) that if you don't know the number you never hit the same note twice in a row. Hit a different note every time and you'll either be on the right note, a harmony or a passing note. I tried it and it works.

I'm playing with an upside-down guitarist at the moment. He does a great job. Stan Sargeant with Keb Mo is an upside-down bassist.

Just look like your enjoying yourself.

I really don't care about bad bass players. My problem is the good ones!!

This. . . IMO Wilton Felder was probably reading the part for I Want You Back, and Freddie Washington is credited with the bass line on Forget Me Nots. Lee Sklar said that he created the bass part for Do You Know Where You Are Going To by Diana Ross. James Jamerson got dots, chord charts and sometimes jst the producer humming the song. So it depends. In a Nathan East interview he said that you get written parts or just chord charts, but whatever turns up the best guys "leave something on the table". That means you put in something of your own into the song that makes it perk up, like a flourish or a lick. If you can do that on every song then the producers will be keen to get you on the next session.

They'll never get up if you throw a TE 410 at them.

I'm not sure bass teaches us anything. I think the people who become bass players are better people to start with.

I know we have to get going again, and the country can't afford endless lockdowns but new cases hit 22,000 yesterday, up from 2000 a month ago! That's not going in a good direction, even though hospitalisations are staying very low. . . for the moment. The issue is more transmissions means more variants could appear. That could be very bad.

Try his appearance on Jools The bass player has a "unique" style. Probably not the way I'd play that song, but it fits. He starts with a slide between root and 5, then gets into root-3-5-6-8 patterns. A more standard walking line would work.

Lovely.

I liked Simon Kirke's drumming style. I was always hoping that I'd get to play with someone like him. I played with some fantastic drummers but never a Simon Kirke.

It was the time. You could phone up their agent and get almost any band for your "club" gig. Pub back rooms, scout huts, community centres, town halls etc were very busy back then. John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Jeff Beck Group, Jimi Hendrix, Geno Washington, Jimmy James etc all regularly toured these gigs around the country. I also saw many US artists in these venues. Guys like Bo Diddley, Ben E King, Lee Dorsey and John Lee Hooker. The colleges, Uni's and Poly's also had great gigs. SW London was a good place to be back then.

Best? Possibly The Crusaders in 1976 at the Victoria Palace when they were touring the Those Southern Knights album. They had Larry Carlton on guitar and the amazing Pops Popwell on bass. Or maybe the first Cream gig at the Marquee in 1966. Or James Brown with Bootsy at the East Ham Odeon in 1970.