SteveXFR

24 minutes ago, paul j h said:

At Glastonbury a few years ago, Beyoncé was on the main stage and it was absolutely rammed on the field, me, I wandered off to see the rather wonderful Suzanne Vega on the Acoustic stage, stood only feet away from someone who’s music I have adored since the first album. Happy days.

Ive always found at Glastonbury its great when there's an enormous act on the main stage, it makes it easy to get to the front at any of the other stages. Ive never enjoyed performances on the pyramid stage, its too big there and even if you get to the front you're still a long way from the stage and sound isn't great at the front 

17 minutes ago, Dood said:

 

Or knowing when the song you are playing is totally killing the dance floor on that occasion and how to communicate quickly to seamlessly get out of it in to the next song! 

I just throw a pick at the singer

14 hours ago, Mrbigstuff said:

 In the gigging world, there’s lots of trips and hazards where you need to be agile and able to improvise. Learning a bass part is 10% of the gig.

Like those times your guitarist forgets what song you were playing as he goes in to a solo and drifts off in to a different chord progression. If you have the skills to spot it quickly and follow the daft b*****d you will save your band from many embarrassments. 

58 minutes ago, SumOne said:

Glastonbury 1995, Oasis Vs The Prodigy at about midnight.

I was there when Blur clashed with Prodigy (2010?). I lost the argument and we watched Blur and it was boring. Everyone agreed afterwards that I was right and we should have watched Prodigy. 

Festival organisers obviously can't get it 100% right for everyone. For some of us, there will be unfortunate clashes. 

Last year,  I had to make a tough choice between Battlesnakes and God Speed You Black Emperor. I chose Battlesnake and it was brilliant but I know I missed something great.

This year its between missing the end of Napalm Death or the start of Primus. Thats a tough one.

What's the toughest choice you've had to make at a festival?

Thanks for the tips. Ill get on to writing out charts for the songs giving me trouble. 

Next challenge, thinking of a band name we all like.

Im having some trouble remembering more complex song structures. Our band has lots of double length bridges, half verses and missing choruses and other weird stuff that works great but is a bugger to remember. I love that the listener doesn't know whats coming next, I just wish I knew!

Any tips or is it just repetition until I get it?

I can't stand Scott. His American clone, Ian is pretty good though. 

I tried Scott's Bass Lessons. Didn't get on with them at all. I found them quite uninspiring and too much based around jazz and blues music. The biggest problem was the lack of any feedback until I got in a room with other musicians who were honest enough to tell me that my timing sucked

54 minutes ago, Useless Eustace said:

I’m really bad for forgetting to breathe when concentrating on anything!    
 

 

 

 

I like a wide range of stuff.   If I could play along to my favourite album of all time, Velvet Underground & Nico, I’ll be made up!    Stooges, punk, but also into trip hop, bit of soul & reggae to blues & country.   Bit of James Brown & Chic would be brilliant.

 

 

You'll be needing to learn to play with pick and fingers.

What you want to play will also determine whats most important to learn. If you want to play motown, there's no point learning to use a pick or if you only want to play covers then you won't need much theory or if you want to play funk you won't need to learn to change strings. 

A bassist who plays a simple part perfectly in time is far better than one who plays a complex part with sloppy timing. 

Understanding when to stay simple and when to go for it is also an important skill and a skill no guitarist has.

Id definitely recommend in person lessons. On line lessons are fine but you'll get no feedback at all. You need someone to tell you if you're technique is a bit off.

The online lessons also don't put enough emphasis on timing and because bass is a rhythm instrument, timing is extremely important. Bad timing can make a good band sound terrible.

Eat the meek - NOFX

56 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

What happens when you take small children away from there parents and send them to a single sex boarding school? 
 

Whatever you did don’t let them near the levers of power. Oh dear too late. 

Three if my mates went to very expensive boarding schools. One has been fired from at least four jobs. One has bankrupted two businesses and a third soon most likely. The other one ended up selling cocaine so I then avoided him (I don't like drugs). A couple years later i heard he died of a heroin overdose. 

Ive also worked with several privately educated people who were mostly utterly hopeless. 

If I could afford to send my kids to private school, I wouldn't. 

The Real Thing by Faith No More. 

I haven't listened to it in years and forgot just what a masterpiece it is. One of the all time great rock record, id put it up there with Led Zeppelins best. 

Billy Gould deserves more recognition as a great bassist. 

Demon Cleaner - Kyuss

2 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

You sure it was the OBC112 as it’s lightweight around 12kg ? 

Yep. There's no way it was only 12kg. Maybe they've made it lighter since then 

I had one. Very punchy, pretty heavy and very harsh sounding. I wouldn't recommend it.

Ive had a few Orange cabs and didn't really like any of them. 

Kids of the K hole - NOFX

On 08/02/2026 at 11:04, Terry M. said:

https://thebassgallery.com/collections/bass/products/ernie-ball-music-man-5

 

I've actually played this bass in the store and believe me when I say my recently acquired used Ray35 is no worse. It's hard to look at this price tag after that.

I like how the website allows you to select a quantity. Dangerous when drunk online shopping. You could end up with 12 of the bastards and no house. 

Ive never had trouble getting things repaired but I deliberately bought amps that can be repaired. Ashdown and Trace Elliott are just made of standard components. Ive had pedals repaired by a local, retired electronics engineer. Ive never had trouble getting a bass repaired.

Holy crap. I had a carbon mountain bike frame shipped over from Colorado for only a few pounds more than that.

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

 

Are they these guys?

 

Thats the ones

Can someone help please?

I've got a 1985 Japanese made BB1100S and one of the tuners has an issue. As I turn the D string tuner to slacken off the string, rather the string coming slack, the tuning is unscrewing itself and the knob with worm gear is coming out of the tuner back plate. Is there anyting I can do to fix it?

I really don't want to replace the tuners, they've got an amazing look to them from over 40 years of use although that 40 years of use may be the problem!