Beedster

Had a lovely two hours of therapy over beer and pizza in the Toon (as our Geordie singer calls it) with Walshy yesterday. Almost as an afterthought some gear tokens and instruments were exchanged, which as ever was nice and simple. Looking forward to the next one Walshy mate 👍

I’ll be needing that bass first 😆

And taste. The only compliment I’ve ever received re my bass playing that I felt I earned was from a BL who said ‘You instinctively know when not to play’. Still makes me smile 🙂

Shit you’d have needed to charge me £250 extra 🤔

There’s a lot of truth and sense in that 👍

Not very scientific….? Au contraire mon ami, the essence of science is systematic and controlled trial and error. You are a scientist 👍

Yep, I set up different basses as a function of function of purpose, higher action and flats for Motown and Soul, low action and rounds for rock, strings almost touching fretboard at nut on fretless….

This ^

I met one of the top session players when he came to my house to buy a bass (yes, I sold one). Even my youngest daughter who was four at the time said afterwards ‘Dad, he was really good at bass wasn’t he?’. And yes, he really was good at bass, made me realise just how far I’d need to go to even think about a pro career. And playing bass is only one of many skillsets required 🙂

Expensive and ultimately unsatisfactory experiment I suspect 😕

I had a soundpost go down in a rehearsal and couldn't find anyone to the work without a 4+ week wait, so I set about doing it myself. Not only did I do it and make a decent job of it (it's still up two years later), but I learned how moving it around changes the characteristics of the bass itself. Us UPs (Upright People) can (allegedly/so I'm told) spend a lot of money on strings, PUPs, mics, preamps, and amps in the pursuit of perfect tone, while in my case 4-hours with a pair of kitchen forks, some string, and an as it transpired completely unnecessary first aid kit, was an equally interesting and varied journey, albeit cheaper 👍

It's OK, you're among friends, we all know the rules 🤔

A tad excessive 😆

In the meantime stick a capo between nut and tuners, works a treat 👍

That’s a Peruvian Yucca Flute, water messes with its core tone 👍

Yep but once you’ve bought the book you’ll be doing it for yourself for ever, frankly none of the jobs in question require much skill or even specialist tools, just decent materials and patience 👍

All is good with the World 👍

Yep, although IME most studio owners wouldn't be so daft as to accept that as an excuse for not paying (although having said that, I guess bands can be pretty loose about these things when making arrangements).

We've all been there, even in the most amateur of bands frontmen/women (although more so men in my experience), can be utter prats. I work in sport occasionally and there's a sense among practitioners that many athletes are at their best when their mental health - or at least their ability to rein in extremely narcissistic and egotistical traits - and therefore their ability to function in 'normal' social settings, are at their lowest. I often chuckle and say "You think this lot are bad, you should spend some time in the. music business....."

There's a lot of shitiness in there @ezbass but while he was a cock to you the most shitty is not paying the studio fee. That is 100% unacceptable and I hope he gets taken to court, no matter how small the fee

FWIW I allowed myself to be talked into using a musician who charged for rehearsals as well as gigs a few years back and I would never do it again 👍

A Zen Master at the top of his game 🙏