GreeneKing

I meant Steve B. I spent many a formative year in Pompey and the surrounding territory.

Now I'm curious, those Waterlooville lads

Just to be specific. The issues are usually around the lead ending a section of the song a phrase or two early and going onto the chorus/fill/verse/outro too soon. The drummer just accommodates as I guess drummers often can without anyone noticing. Rhythm is drowned out anyway (except when playing a solo) but does recognise the issue. At the end of the song the lead usually says 'that was great/tight/sounded good' etc. with no idea that I was out of the mix for a bar or two (again) trying to sort it out. It ruins my enjoyment of playing well. I think that in a gigging scenario it's me who'll look to be getting it wrong to the punters. I get criticised for being too loud at times and that is down to me wanting to be heard in the mix. I did spend one session behind the lead's amp and I had to move right up to the kit to hear it! I also ended up with a headache and nausea. The last session I went the other side of the kit to be with the Rhythm and he moved to alongside the lead leaving me to myself. It was bliss. I could hear the drums. I got told off for being too loud (the drummers wife who comes along) but I feel that I'm forced to compete with the lead who been asked time and time again to turn it down. Last session I was told I was turning the bass up and I honestly didn't touch it. We had a recording and it was supposed to show that the vocals were muffled and overpowered. The trouble was that the recorder (a phone I believe) was placed behind the PA that was facing the band and it was getting the full blast of the backline. I pointed this out and was ignored The bass sounded just right to my ears btw.

I think this is a very accurate picture. I’m seen as the problem here at least by the lead and possibly the drummer. The singer is fairly even handed around it all despite it being his brother. Don’t get me wrong, the lead can be a pleasant fella and is most of the time. It is however, if only in feel, his band. I’ve been happy to run with that. Hopefully we can find a way ahead. I suppose what I really struggle with is being made to look an eejit because of his off piste playing.

My previous post may give a hint about band dynamics. I'm the incomer. The gig is driven by me. My local I.A.M. Motorcycle Group has it's annual dinner and I was asked if we'd play. Otherwise we would probably have carried on as a perennial practice band. I was also hoping that it would lead to more gigs. Instead we're in danger of coming apart at the seams!

What a great response. Thank you. As a bassist I have the confidence of a gnat. But (never start a sentence with but), I've improved a lot and I can hold down a pretty solid bassline. I've been playing for over 20 years, much of that at home by myself. I'm 67 so started late. So I don't sell myself well and I couldn't improvise if my life depended on it. In this 20+ years I've played in 3 bands and only done 3 gigs (which were an absolute blast) all of which were with the first band of guys all older than me, many years back. I've come on a long way since then. I'm the oldest in this lot but none are that young. If I turned up, cranked up my amp to dominate the band and then did my own thing occasionally with some of the songs (through error methinks not creative effect) I would get comments made about it along the lines of 'you need to sort yourself out'. If I then had a tantrum I would get asked to walk. The the lead, drummer and rhythm have been in a band and gigged before. Rhythm only really wants to turn up once a month to play with other folk, stuff he likes and doesn't have to do any work on. He's not keen on gigging. The drummer (who is in other gigging bands) is tight with the lead and from the looks exchanged between them there's stuff being said that I'm not a party to. My options around here in terms of opportunity are limited. I don't want to go back to the bass 'shed', the last time that happened I gave up for a couple of years. I'm going to say my bit along the lines of the above the next time we get together but I suspect I'll get nothing but another hissy fit. I love playing. My limited experience of gigging leaves me wanting more. Bands are ego-fests. I'm an open and honest sort of bloke. The two seem to clash. Peter

The singer is his Bro. They practice together a lot.

I play in a covers band. We've been playing together in a loose way for a couple of years and now we have our first gig in January. Things are okay. Having the gig to work towards has its benefits (I'm feeling very focussed by it) but it's proved a little stressful. We have a lead who plays very loud. Rhythm can barely be heard at times but my bass and rig allows me to cut through the mix pretty well. The lead 'drives' the band and sometimes I think that if I stopped playing he'd carry on regardless. We have a range of abilities and willingness to put work in. I spend many hours a week working on the material. He says he plays by 'feel'. What that sometimes means is that he'll add a few bars into the structure of the song here and remove a few there. This means that I have to think on my feet at times I can get a bit lost getting back into the song. I find this frustrating and solvable. I don't mind if we play the song 'wrong' so long as we all know and we're consistent. In previous bands I would hang in with the correct song structure, verse, chorus, bridge etc and the band would hang in with me. When I raise this the lead can get very angry. To the extent that the drummer had to take him outside to calm him down on one occasion. I'm not rude, I just suggest that we need to get the structure sorted. He will occasionally make a comment on my bass line and I'll simply listen and sort it. I think that he may have issues with perceived criticism and that's causing his simmering rage. I feel that it's disrespectful to 'do your own thing' and expect others to fit in 'on the hoof'. It's not Jazz and I'm an enthusiastic bassist with a limit to my talent. It's also easily sorted to my way of thinking. I tried messaging him to sort it out and his reply was, basically it's not a priority and we can work on it later. I feel like this stuff is the basics and needs sorting straight away. Any thoughts? I'm not a seasoned pro and bands are I find hard work at times (too much ego going on). Peter

Zoot 32” Funkmeister P bass review Over the course of 25+ years and many, many basses I finally concluded that: 1. I particularly love the Precision sound 2. I don’t need more than 4 strings 3. Standing around playing for up to 3 hours was stressful to my back and shoulders 4. I was getting stress injuries and ‘trigger finger’ with my left hand I have many friends who use basses made by Mike Walsh of Zoot (Iceni) bass in Essex. I originally hail from Essex (Mersea Island), and I’ve met Mike on a couple of occasions over the years. I did own a fretless 5 made by him many moons ago. I bought it 2nd hand from a guy in NI and it didn’t work out mainly because it hadn’t been looked after and the cigarette smell wouldn’t go away. Mike offers the opportunity to place a deposit and then make payments as the build progresses. He’s busy now and back to being a ‘one man band’ so build times are creeping up to and even over a year. I had a couple of basses to sell, and the monthly transfer of funds wasn’t an issue. Due to my regular changes to the spec the cost rose steadily! I have a 2008 Fender Jazz in off white with both white and tort plates. I bought it on Bass Chat (Nick Carey). He had the neck fettled by a top luthier (Mr Robinson in Bolton) and upgraded the tuners. I fitted a high mass Gotoh bridge and upgraded the wiring (still passive, VVT) It’s an awesome bass and more than the sum of its parts. It’s also the model colour wise for the Funkmeister and a keeper. Another huge inspiration was seeing Mike Birch’s black 32” scale Funkmeister P finished. So, to start with, a 32” scale. I believed that the 32” scale is the ideal compromise for me. I find 30” a little bit ‘wee’. Ownership for several months has validated this choice hugely. The body is scaled down to suit the neck and it’s also chambered which has made a huge difference to my comfort. I’ve not weighed it yet (I will, for the review) but it’s light! Lightweight Hipshot tuners are fitted with ‘proper’ ears and it balances absolutely perfectly. I wanted a matching headstock, a maple neck, and an ebony fingerboard. No front markers. I initially wanted a John East P Retro. Sadly, John was having problems obtaining the rechargeable battery at the time and they were temporarily (?) discontinued. Mike had a cream Haussel pickup that he suggested I could use. This was a change away from the black that I had in mind, but I thought it would work well with my colour scheme of off-white bass and ‘Colgate’ white plate. When the P Retro became unobtainium Mike suggested a Noll 2 EQ with an active/passive switch and passive tone powered by 18volts. I have heard many positives about Noll and went with that. Things I changed as the build progressed? 1. A zero fret was added 2. I decided that I would like a 3-piece neck for added stability. The centre of the 3 pieces is reversed. 3. The next add on was to add ebony veneers between the 3 neck pieces 4. I had Mike add in his ‘magic’ filter circuit with a switch between the controls 5. I had a 2nd ’tort’ plate made to give me that option I had already specified Dunlop strap locks and Dunlop flatwound strings. I value 4 main things in a bass. It must look good, play well, have good build quality, and have a versatile and strong tonal palette, capable of the job it’s designed for. It excels on all 4 counts. Looks: I love it! The finish is flawless, the ebony board is very black, the matching headstock is stunning and as an added, unexpected extra the neck is flamed maple. Looking down at the neck while playing can make me smile in appreciation as I see the flame finish and the neck veneers.. Playability: Perfectly balanced, light weight (7lb 10oz on my fishing scales), and that slightly shorter scale makes a huge difference to my left hand comfort. I went with Mike’s suggestion for the neck profile and it’s not particularly shallow as per modern trends, but it just feels right. Fret access (I don’t often go there) is very good too. Build: Its fit and build quality matches its finish. In terms of fretwork the neck is very well dressed and the trussrod is smooth and light to turn. The neck is super stable. The zero fret takes any mention of the nut depth away and the neck has a neat 5-bolt fixing. No build issues here. Sound: I generally play through a GK Legacy 800 head and one 8-ohm Accugroove Tri112L cab. I have a 2nd cab (both the earlier models with 2 variable controls on the rear) but I’ve not needed the 2nd cab yet. Bass to amp is via a Broughton tuneable HP filter and a EBS Microbass III. The Funkmeister has a huge range of tone for a single pickup bass. Firstly, and most importantly it cuts right through the mix at very low volume settings on the amp. Passive is pure P bass and active just boosts/cuts the same in bass and treble land. The passive tone works in passive only. I tend to run with the bass control centred and the treble backed off a tiny amount. Either that or passive with the tone set to taste. Mike’s magic filter? I guess it’s a sort of Low Pass filter. It’s a whole lot more than just rolling off passive tone. It gives the bass a real old school tone without taking away any of its ability to cut through. It’s great. It gets used often. The bottom line? I couldn’t be happier. I’m enjoying playing more than ever and much of that is due to the bass. My MiM Jazz and custom Sandberg Jazz with JE Uni Pre are sadly under used. The full spec sheet: Body: Zoot Funkmiester 32" from swamp ash finished in "off white/light cream" hi-gloss Neck: 32" Canadian maple neck with Bi-flex two way truss rod with modern 'C' profile. Finger board: Ebony with M.O.P. dot inlays to side and a compounded 16" radius and medium heavy fret wire Pickup: Haussel P pickup in cream Bridge: Hipshot "Kickass" in chrome Machine heads: Hipshot "Ultralite" with Fender clover leaf buttons in chrome. D Tuner Hipshot. String retainer: Hipshot "Ultralight" quick change E.Q. Noll 2 EQ Active/passive with passive tone and filter with swich Battery details: Gotoh 18Vdc quick change battery box. Top nut size: 40mm with zero fret Bridge saddle spacing: 19mm Neck finish: Hi-gloss to back of headstock matching colour front with smooth satin to rear of neck (playing area) Body finish: Hi-gloss off white with ‘tort' and brilliant white 3 ply scratch plates. Hardware: All other hardware in chrome finish. Price, £1325

I sold Ben a Sire V7 Fretless. The whole thing went perfectly. It was a pleasure. Peter

I sold my Yamaha BBPH to Ash and the whole sale went brilliantly. It was nice to meet face to face and chat for a short while. A pleasure. Peter

I part traded my Fafner for a Sire fretless. A pleasure to deal with a great communication. Shame I was in a hurry with Mrs GK waiting van sitting outside. Peter

It was a pleasure Graham

Seeing that Tony was looking for a strap and realising that I had one spare we had an easy and straightforward transaction with great communication and prompt payment. Thank you.