leschirons

Now dedicated to a minimum of 2 hours playing every day hook or by crook, get more theory under my belt and try and seriously improve my crap fretless intonation. May also consider taking up lessons again if I can find someone good within about 50kms.

This is not intended to be one of those lack of confidence posts. It's just that something occured to me over the weekend. I got a good gig last Friday opening the guitar festival here in France. Gig went well, great money and good reviews / feedback etc. Rock / blues trio doing covers. Since living here, I've had no shortage of offers to play in bands, do loads of deps etc and always seem to be playing but on the last night of the festival, I went to see Jennifer Batten. She was supporting the Michael Jones group. He's the ex guitarist for Jean Jacques Goldman and to be honest, I'd never heard of them. Anyway, I was watching the bassisit for the whole set. He made it all look so easy. Didn't play anything flash or outlandish, classy and subtle basslines and totally nailed it. Minimum movement on the fretboard and was so tight with the drummer you couldn't get a Rizla between them. Made me realise that I'd really got complacent. For the last 8 years, I've assumed I was an average to good bassplayer but watching this other player made me realise that I've not moved forward as a musician and just sat on my arse and now, have a serious amount of work ahead of me if I'm going to be satisfied with my playing. Big fish in little pond syndrome? Guilty.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1319919240' post='1420192'] Could be F for Fender. [/quote] That's why my wife bought it for me for my 50th birthday. I was seriously into Jazz basses at the time but it got me thinking about F basses so I tried one and thought ooooh yesss.

Bloody great. Opened the French guitar festival last night for lots of money for a one hour set, during which we dragged three really good guest guitarists up on stage to have a blast. Large appreciative audience, played two encores and found myself all over the festival TV system when I went back today. Best gig I've done since being here.

Played a gig (on drums) supporting prog rock trio T2 back in the 18th century at Cloud 9 in Peterborough. During my big solo the bass drum kept creeping until it finally dropped off the front of the stage, giving a young lady a fairly serious head injury. While she was being stretchered out by St John's ambulance, we were asked to leave and had to get our stuff out through the crowd.

I have [b]B4SS F[/b] on retention now (as I sold my F bass last year)

I give mine to a local guitar teacher who passes them on to the kids at the music school who are learning bass, and probably skint. I'd also heard somewhere that Herbie Flowers has a set of 35 year old strings on a jazz bass, that he still uses, so maybe I'll send the next set to him.

[quote name='tommorichards' timestamp='1318706185' post='1405490'] Bot exactly ugly, but looks at it closely. [/quote] That's brilliant. Have they just cut and pasted a headstock on or a whole neck?

Bought some strings from Shep. Posted same day. Top service and top man. Easy to deal with. Thanks

[quote name='DirkThrust' timestamp='1318598352' post='1404163'] Thanks for your replies. Looking on the Interparcel website, as far as I can see they only offer insurance up to £1050. As I'm selling this bass for £1400 that's quite a shortfall. Are there any other couriers who will offer the full amount? [/quote] I think UPS will offer insurance to a higher value as long as you pay the extra premium. I had a bass shipped here from the States and it was insured for the full price. However, that was from a shop and it was brand new so they could prove the value (invoices, customs etc) The French postal system (La Poste) will only offer insurance to 800 euros but there are private French companies like GLS who have reciprocal arrangements with UK couriers and it could be arranged from this end by your buyer. They also offer supplimentary insurance to a higher value.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1318415975' post='1401751'] Thank you muchly, sir. Too wide and heavy for me, as I suspected. One went for not very much on eBay this morning - £84 - and collection only from just up the road in Basildon. I think someone somewhere is happy! [/quote] To be honest, I've never been a fan of Stingrays and I don't mean the sound. Tried a few and never felt comfortable but I got this one cheap to defret it and it's really great. Very comfy to play. I have small hands and am not a big guy (despite usually on a 6 string bass) so if you get the chance to try one, do it. Surprised me, I love it.

I know this post was aimed at non musos but I had a guitarist in one band ask me what note I was playing. I replied a "G" he then rolled his eyes upwards and said "Well it's supposed to be a Gm" I was on bass that night.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1318414441' post='1401727'] Isnt that the new Haven flagship camp? [/quote] That's the one yes. Just pop in to reception when you arrive and ask for Goldie "one eye" He's the site manager. If you can make it for the 21st, and you like things like Crufts, I think there's some sort of dog show being put on by some environmentalist group called the Badger club.

[quote name='Ben Jamin' timestamp='1318360684' post='1401200'] Good luck finding a gigbag for that! [/quote] I think I see one in the picture already

Anything single cut.

42mm at the nut, 62mm at the 21st fret and mine weighs 4.5 kilos exactly. It's a very early one with single P/U.

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1318353892' post='1401084'] Where is it ? Dave [/quote] Dale farm, Basildon although haven't been able to rent it for a little while now. The site has lots going on and there's a lucky heather shop, and shop for pegs and a really busy take-away service. All roads fully tarmaced. Pets allowed.

[list] [*]Gas fired central heating throughout [*]Double glazing and extra insulation in walls, ceiling and floors [*]Full width living room with electric fire., colour TV, DVD and Digibox [*]Superb modern kitchen including fridge freezer [*]Large master bedroom with full size double bed. Most with en-suite W.C. [*]Vaulted ceiling and pitched roof. [/list] Bugger, sorry, meant to advertise this with Caravanholidays.co.uk

Just bought a Roland JV1010 sound module from Dave, on behalf of our newly MIDI'd up guitarist (no doubt to put banjos, accordians and strings in Smooth operator) Anyway, really nice, easy guy to deal with and SUPER fast posting of goods. Buy and sell with the utmost confidence.

Cheryl Cole's latest CD?

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1317838793' post='1395286'] I'm off! Been stuck in this band for 8 years now. Got the worlds worst drummer. In fact the first time I played with him, I thought he was mucking about during the end of 'Dance the night away' and the singer who doesnt know how to operate the PA, insists on playing rythm guitar, doesnt know how to tune it, and just plugs in and plays without adjusting anything! full on on reverb and played very loud out of tune with frequent wrong chords. Why do I stay? Because its regular work, playing nearly every week and over new year too. But enough is enough, I,ve got an audition with a blues/Rock band next week! Have to learn: All Right Now - Easy enough Freebird - Never listened to the bass on that one Black Betty - Interesting stuff going on there! Hey Joe - Easy! Let you know what happens next Friday! [/quote] Hope the audition works out. Just out of curiosity, if you get the other gig and leave, are you going to tell them why? Unless of course, your drummer has already secretly joined basschat like mine has

[quote name='Pete Academy' timestamp='1316957569' post='1384764'] So we're due on at The Platform in Morecambe at 8pm and have to be soundchecked by 7pm. The drummer has to travel from Birmingham and is stuck on the M6, due to an accident. The traffic isn't moving at all, so we're not sure if he'll make the gig. We ring the other drummer, who is already on a gig. To cut a long story short, and after many phonecalls, fellow Basschatter Phil Wood, who was coming to the gig, found a great local drummer who provided a kit and played an impromptu opening 20-minute set of blues/rock covers with the band. Our drummer eventually turned up around 8.45, and we played the Steely Dan set as normal, albeit with a couple of songs having to be dropped. The night was eventually a success (I hope!). However, here's the dilemma: if this happened to your band, would you try to get a last minute dep, who wouldn't have time to go through any songs, or would you cancel the gig? People had paid over ten quid for a ticket, so do you risk it? However good the stand-in musician is, he or she wouldn't really know the beginnings, endings, stops, starts, etc. Any thoughts? [/quote] Been in this situation and we went for the dep option. It made it a very hard gig for me as I was providing all stop and start information but the drummer was good, he kept it simple yet solid and it was all covers. Some he knew, some he didn't. I would never cancel a gig unless we were all 100% positive it was going to be a total disaster. Sounds like you got to provide the audience with what they'd paid for anyway.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1316813935' post='1383410'] If you squint a bit he looks a like Tal Wilkenfeld* *crossed with Ken Dodd. [/quote] If you just look at the Youtube intro pic and NOT press "play" He's a ringer for Roger Daltry.