Buddster

I can assure you that is most definitely not always the case. Many hours of dropins can testify for that! Don't get me started on singers! 👉🤐👈

I can't answer from a professional bass players point of view as I'm not one, but I can give experience as a professional studio sound engineer (in a previous life) who's had the luck to have worked with some of the best musicians (including Rhino and funnily enough Mikey Finn from T Rex!). And they all had one quality in common. Their ability to leave their egos at the studio door. Nobody wants to work with a premadonna. As it's been mentioned above, the ability and confidence to get on with people is very important because walking into a session full of other musicians /producer /engineer etc is very daunting. Being a professional is not the same as being professional. Turning up on time, having gear ready to go and sound good, knowing your chops and being able to play in the pocket. Learn a song structure quickly and listen to what the band/producer wants. Reading the dots wasn't always important (unless it was a complete band + orchestra setup) but knowing scales certainly was. The need for a session musician also varied. A sax player for instance would be expected to solo well, a drummer be rock solid, singers to harmonise for backing vocals etc etc. Unfortunately, most bass players were used to turn a synth bass line into one with more feel. Fortunately, I never had to record a bass solo! Plus luck and conections. I thought the section in the Marcus Miller interview with Scot Devine (posted on here) where he talks about being a session player was very interesting.

Garbage a couple of years back. The band were great, but the venue got changed to Bristol City football club. Which was basically a long corridor under a stand. I had to stand at the back (which felt like 100 yards away from the stage), and thankfully I'm over 6' because if I'd been any shorter i would have spent the whole evening staring at someone's back. The sound was so loud it was painful and so echoey due to the concrete walls. I'd waited years to see them i was so disappointed. And the worse part was, being a Rovers fan, I had to spend the whole evening at the City ground!

Turning Japanese. The Vapours (i think we all know the connection 😏)

With my live engineers hat on, I'd prefer 2 separate di's to be able to mix foh as needed (and adjust to the room/venue), and supply you back with suitable foldback levels for you and the band. If you send me one di, well that's your responsibility and I will tell the band to shout at you and not me if it's wrong (much like a guitarist that hasn't matched their pedal board sounds). With my bass player hat on, I'd rather send 2 di's and trust them to have control of foh (and adjust to the room/venue) and take the pressure off me having to match levels on stage.

Use it up and wear it out. Odyssey

I am a cider drinker. The Werzels

Mary Poppins?! No more of that. SLF

Aye, definitely a bit of an issue for me too. It's rather annoying to keep changing the eq settings within Spotify to compensate. I use the Mightier Amp app (rather than the Mighty Amp, see previous posts here) and have emailed them to see if they can put an eq in to help with this, but no reply so far.

Michael Booths Talking Bum. Splodge (again!)

Wet dream. Wet Leg

The Sand Dance. Wilson and Kepple

Hey Hey we're the Monkees. Some tv show

Cheif Wiggham. The Effends

Up Up and away in my beautiful balloon. Andy Williams

Echoes...... I'll get my coat

Down Down. Quo

Stuffed. Liberty 37

Two pints of larger and a packet of crisps. Splodge ☃️

I want to break free. Queen

667 the neighbour of the beast. Iron Maiden Sorry, as you were, i couldn't resist. 🥳

Tears of a Clown. Smokie

This '76 Jazz. That's all. Not asking too much is it Santa?

Thanks for all the replies. So interesting comments and also a complete mixed bag. I agree that most store basses won't be set up to test properly anyway (they look like they haven't seen a screwdriver or allen key since being taken out of the box) and the thought of trying some show off slap or fancy jazz is a big no, so yes, taking plugin miniamp and headphones is a good idea. And a strap. PMT in Bristol used to have a small room you could have a tryout in (tbh they should stick the guitar buyers in there too, save us the suffering!) I can see that if you prefer say, a jazz, that buying blind would be fine as you know what you should get. But how do you know you like a jazz without trying a jazz first? Or a Stingray, or an Ibanez. So I bought a Squier jazz to see and now I know, but it was a gamble. I've also an SR which I bought because I love the look and thankfully love playing. So thats 2 for 2. I should have gone to the SW bass bash!

Can't think what you mean..... 🤪. 🥕