Dr.Dave

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1381953860' post='2246097'] That's really cool Dave! [/quote] I've never found 'cool' something I had to work at ! I have little respect for punters - they wouldn't know if I were as good as John Entwhistle or John noakes - so I know thy won't remember my playing. I figure that when they sober up in the morning and can recall a foul mouthed bastard with a daft looking guitar covered in beer bottle labels that put a smile on their faces while relieving them of a few quid then I've done my job. The pickguard's just the normal one with beer bottle labels stuck on with wallpaper paste then trimmed with a scalpel and varnished. I could have bought a clear one and put them underneath but that would have cost at least 12 quid. The dice are a fairly snug fit but I tapped them and put tiny grub screws in too. I stick an empty box of nicorette patches under the strings at the head end and divide the world into people I'll like - because they get the gag - and tossers .

Backing up the Blue Flower Fender 54 reish these days.

Happy with mine and they arrived hugely quicker than I was promised. Excellent fit. Only mistake was mine - I asked for matching colour piping for combo and cab. Now I can't tell which is which without taking one cover off. My fault - should have had two differing colours.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' timestamp='1371134348' post='2110276'] You can have both. And sometimes, just sometimes, the ambience and energy present in a good live gig (warts and all) can overcome all the machinery in the way and become a genuinely good recording in its own right. I have some live recordings of one band I was in, and in some cases the tracks are more energetic than their more polished studio counterparts. And in answer to the op, every band I've been in haven't recorded something we couldn't reproduce faithfully in a live environment. [/quote] Yes - but.... what is the music on your favourite live albums?? More than often it's a live version of a previous studio recording. There's a reason for that. No need for a chicken/egg debate on this one - the art comes before the craftsmanship.

A gig is a gig - it's gone in a heartbeat. A recording attracts repeated listening. Go for the feel you like in a proper recording environment over the one off performance every time. Studio albums are a pice of work. Live albums are a souvenir.

How good is my back up bass.... As good as I am. No better . no worse !

Place doesn't matter but our guitarists Mum turned up. 79 Years old and dancing around to rebel yell and quo and god knows what. Fit as a butchers dog , sharp as a razor and a pleasure to entertain her. Shows what keeping a young and open mind can do. I told him - hang on to that memory. Priceless.

Tips - Yes. No 1 Tip - practise. Why would you expect to do it easily without practise? Could you drive before you practised ? Play bass before you practised ? No 2 Tip - Put on the actors clothes and pretend you're confident. Go at that mic like you the best in the world. Pretend. Next time - you'll act that bit less and feel that bit more properly confident...and the time after that and the time after that etc etc. That's how I did it. I'm not the best in the world but I can think I am - sometimes that's just as useful.

a 20 year old slut with no gag reflex and a daddy complex.

I try not to do anything I don't fancy doing so I don't practise. I play 6 string a bit when bored , we have an odd rehearsal cum drinking session and we gig tons - that's enough for me these days - and probably why my playing is not what it could be, or used to be for that matter. My average is better than most and I settle for it - bad attitude but there it is.

There were 4 I didn't know. I did know who Richard's brother is though.

Tap mic to see if it's on - adopt grumpy Yorkshire accent and bellow ' stop fiddling wi them f***in knobs , f***in 'bar's open '.

i started a thread in OT re. Trevor's death - sorry everybody , never saw this one.

[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1368697449' post='2080227'] I know nowt about upright basses. Quick question if its not too obvious, do leftys string them the other way around ? [/quote] Don't know either but I expect of you reverse the nut and the bridge because of the guage of the slots you can easily reverse the stringing and you're in business.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1368687843' post='2080104'] Quick question - if we all played upight basses would it matter if we were left or right handers? ........97,98,99 - change hands! [/quote] Quick answer then - I have no interest whatsoever in upright basses so I don't give a monkeys - sorry All I know for sure is however you're made it makes perfect sense to choose an instrument designed for the way you're made rather than one designed for someone who's made differently to you. What's so difficult to understand about that ? BTW - I note some folks observation of contouring on the bass in question and I'm inclined to agree but it could just be discolouration/wear and tear on a slab body job. The blue flowers are starting to get thin at that place on mine. That's what it would look like if you took a vintage well played right handed bass and used it as a movie prop with a left handed actor.

[quote name='Stacker' timestamp='1368613729' post='2079127'] I dunno, but I reckon the late Keith Ferguson (Fab T'birds) rocked an old P-bass the wrong way round. [/quote] Mate - folk play what they want , I couldn't care less BUT quoting examples of players playing an instrument the wrong way round does not prove it to be a good way to do it. However - choosing an instrument that's designed to suit the left or right handed player you are does show that you're interested in doing a good job of work because you picked the best tool for the job. I believe yonder super rich Scouser first played right handed violin basses upside down because of availibility issues but at least realised that a feder style bass upside down looks and plays like a pig. Later - same dude swapped to basses that were designed for players like him. In short - he approached the issue like a professional and not some 'I know better than the rest of the planet and I want to look cool and grounded' dip stick.

I learn a song's arangement and chord structure then just stick to rolling my own. I have enough on learnig lyrics without worrying about playing my lines the same every night - how boring is that !

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1368550893' post='2078440'] A certain Mr. Hendrix seemed to manage OK playing right handers upside down, didn't he? I'm just wondering if this one is a very old P bass which has been messed about, that's all. [/quote] Maybe if he'd used a left hander more I might find more of his overrated stuff worth listening to. Billy Sheean used a multi tool to 'sculpt' his bass - doesn't make it the best tool for that job though. I can't see anything odd about the pup from that pic. It's just a single coil P pup isn't it?

I think copying someone elses playing is fine. It's a good way to learn skills , and we all have a time for learning skills. Youcan;t break a rule if you don't know it first. As musicians though , if we can also learn to roll our own we become better musicians.

It's a right handed slab bodied Precision played by a left hander. Maybe it's a Fender and it looks like someone's stripped the paint off. Piece of sh*t to be honest. If you play left handed , buy a left handed bass. Aterall , I wouldn't buy a lefty and turn it upside down. Where's the sense in that?

I'm knocking on the door of entry into this club , I fear. Just last week I went to get a bass case from my lock up just outside my front door......... but , if only for a moment , I went outside in joggers. Sorry. Last night not only did I talk to someone at the gig who had a tattoo on his neck and a skinny bird on the go with a 'Jordan' pink tracky on ( I said ' either buy a drink or don't stand in front of the f***ing bar' when , clearly , I could have just punched them) - but I also found a screwed up greggs pasty bag in my gig bag. I'm ashamed to admit I did eat it out of the bag while walking down the street - which should be life imprisonment in my book. In my defence I can only say that at least the bag was in my gig bag which means I didn't just chuck it in the street.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1367544029' post='2066800'] That said, Brilleaux was a fantastic frontman but no Charlie Musselwhite [/quote] There'd be no Charlie Musselwhite at all if it wasn't for me. He got himself locked in the (outdoor) artists bogs at the Duchess of York in Leeds and was having a pretty serious panic attack about it when the bass player from the support band - yours truly - climbed in through the tiny window with a screwdriver and rescued him.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1367586622' post='2067269'] I dare you to play straight 8 root notes for a whole song [/quote] A great player - in any gendre - would know when that is exactly the best thing to do

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1367582819' post='2067194'] Oooooh, I feel a bet coming on... That's a bit like saying "That Einstein bloke was a bit clever, an all, but could he install a gas cooker? Could he f***." [/quote] No it isn't - you've just used a bit of ,my paragraph which was saying that anybody can do anything if they put the hours in to learn.

Playing any music well ( in fact doing anything at all well ) is hard - why would jazz be a special case? I go see ballet a fair bit - watching the dancers and the orchestra - and my first thought is often 'Christ - I could never do that'. But that's just not true. If I put the hours in that those folk do in the ways that they do it of course I could. Put them on a stage in a boozer full of scrotes on a Saturday night and get them to do what I can do well and they'd probably crap themselves. If you strive to do anything well you never really consider yourself the finished article. The 'goal' constantly changes as your skill sets improve. Any of us can do anything we wish - if we work hard enough for it - but I maintain that many of us are far too wrapped up in trying to be the best craftsman we can be to allow ourselves to be artists. Artists.. ideas.... that's where true happiness of expression lies. Trying to sharpen skills to absolute perfection will always produce a frustrating shortfall.