Krysbass

Got to admit FFYL (the Neil Murray version of course) has been a not so guilty pleasure of mine but a work in progress for the last few years. I’ve never played that song live, but I did put the work in for one band to get Neil Murray’s also great bass line on Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City fairly close, only for the song to be dropped by the lead guitarist/band leader. I later found out that my predecessor in the band had kept the bass line very simple, so with that and a few other incidents, I gradually built a suspicion that the lead guitarist didn’t want anyone else in the band to steal his thunder or even share a little of his limelight.😯

I prefer rosewood, ebony or any other dark coloured wood on a fretboard - but this has nothing to do with the sound and everything to do with the look. Then there’s the practical consideration of the frets being more visible in dim lighting. - Something I found more useful in my early years as as bassist.🙂

I folded my last band in June 2019, chiefly because two of the 5 band members became rarely available for the constant stream of gig offers we were getting - so with an empty calendar there was no point continuing. I love gigging and hoped to find a new project, but I’ve been in bands long enough to know that the chances are high of coming up against the frustration of yet more time-wasters with availability or commitment issues. So in the enforced reality of lockdown I have had to rediscover the enjoyment of just playing at home, the challenge of developing my improvisational skills and a growing acceptance that my gigging days may be something to look back on.😏

Yet to break a string in over 37 years of playing. But I always keep the last set of strings removed from each bass in the case, as there’s a first time for everything.

On the subject of the pickups fitted to Rebops; I bought my ReBop 5 DLX new in 2015 and It came fitted with active EMGs (DC I think) rather than the expected passive EMG Hzs. At this point, Spector appeared to have dropped the DLX model in favour of the ReBop MM, so I wonder if they were perhaps going a bit off piste with the parts used on the final DLXs produced?

On the other hand; basses left out of their cases get more dusty more often. This may not be an issue to everyone, but as my time with my basses is very limited, I try to spend as little of it as possible cleaning them.👌

This started life as a Stagg Fusion fretless – £99 new. First mod was DiMarzio pickups to replace the original very low output, noisy items. Then: I shielded the electronics cavity with copper foil – originally this wasn’t shielded at all. I shimmed the neck, as the string height adjustment at the bridge was about as low as it could go – the shim allowed me to raise the action at the bridge and gave more room for adjustment across the strings. The rosewood (?) fretboard was originally coated with a black dye that came off on my fingers when playing, so was carefully cleaned to reveal the wood underneath, then oiled and polished. The original Stagg branded tuning heads were typically bargain basement, so replaced with a set of Gotoh GB707s that were easily fitted with very little filing of the holes in the headstock. The original headstock was annoyingly pointy, so I re-modelled it and sanded off the original Stagg logo at the same time. The Stagg Logo on the neck plate was also ground off and the neck-plate re-painted. This is my only fretless and despite its humble origins and still modest budget; it sounds and plays well. Learned a few things too along the way. Currently considering upgrading the bridge and control pots…..☺️

I’m astonished that the store allowed the bass to get into that condition in the first place. Hopefully they don’t just allow customers to take display basses off the wall and try out unsupervised? And if they do supervise; surely they should be ensuring that nothing a customer is doing (or wearing) can damage an instrument’s finish? I have a gigged bass now 35 years old that is in far better order!😲

Got a Labrador (well almost as he’s also part red setter) and I’ve always driven Fords including a couple of Fiestas - the most ubiquitous car in the UK, but well made and unflinchingly reliable. So since bass playing is my escape from such ordinariness; I have always felt that my choice of basses must resist going down the most popular and iconic route of Fender or Gibson and their copyists - however highly regarded these basses are.

Subjective of course; but to these eyes this is the bass equivalent of a car composed of the front end of a Ferrari grafted onto a Ford model T.😲

Agreed. It should be whatever works is fine. I just recall having a couple of lessons around 15 years ago as my playing had hit a plateau and straight away the tutor insisted I should have my thumb behind the fretboard - so I went away and spent a long time correcting that. Now seeing CS play; I’m again questioning whether I needed to do that.

My thumb also stays behind the neck - so I think you may have a point there.😳

Despite the wisdom that curling the thumb of your fretting hand over the top of the fretboard is “bad technique”; I never cease to be amazed at how many highly competent, creative, successful and iconic bassists (and guitarists) I’ve seen do this to no apparent detriment to their abilities.😯

I managed with one bass for the first 24 years or so. But over the last 12 years the collection has grown to 5 basses and although various things have conspired to ensure that I’ve been bandless since May 2019; I’d struggle to justify letting any of the 5 go. Then again, Sod’s law being what it is; if I was to strip back to 1 bass, that would be the very time a project would come along needing the basses I’d just got rid of.🤨

Just don’t get the Lorde cover. I’m all for creativity but to these ears it just sounds like she’s close to vomiting.🤢 But I’m probably just being “boring and old-fashioned” so I’ll get my coat.😳

Obviously the late, great John Entwistle. Aside from him letting his fingers do the talking; the icing on the coolness cake for me was his lack of participation in the smashing up of gear (at least on stage - I know he had his moments off stage) which I always considered crass and wasteful.

It comes across as a tad immature, petty and now boring too from someone old enough and wealthy enough to have moved on from the bad blood with his ex band mates. - Especially since we were led to believe they had buried the hatchet as of their one-off re-grouping at Live8.

+1 - that’s pretty much me too, except that I choose not to sing. For me, playing bass is still a pleasure that I fear would only be diluted if I had to sing at the same time - so I don’t.😎

Always loved that Planet Earth bassline, but frustratingly it’s always been beyond my non-existent abilities with a pick. 😳 I agree that JT is underrated - plenty of great lines in DD songs and thankfully (for me) most are more suited to finger style playing. But never motivated to go to a DD gig, as I tend to prefer to hear the band at gigs rather than the audience.

Gigging as a 5-piece, all male 1980s covers band with a set list of well-known 80s songs to suit our line-up - then at one gig; along comes a request for anything by Kylie Minogue......?

Westone wood...

I aspire to being Michelin star but being towards the end of my 4th decade as a bassist perhaps I should be past the aspiring bit by now? Cooking is another passion of mine and I can put together some interesting things, but to do it I cut corners. Where I will often buy a ready made sauce rather than make one from scratch. Similarly with bass lines I will get most of the notes and the overall feel right rather than staying 100% faithful to the original song (recipe)😂

I dislike all basses with pickguards. But I’ve always been puzzled as to why most twin-Pickup basses with pickguards only deem a pickguard to be necessary around the neck pickup and not the bridge pickup too? To me this says that the pickguard is more about style than any sort of functionality, and therefore unnecessary......

Here goes... No Scratchplates, solid paint finishes, sunburst paint finishes, maple or any similarly light coloured fretboards, bridges made out of bent metal (solid, cast Bridges only please), “relic’d” finishes, headless basses, basses without bodies (eg Steinberger), chrome hardware styled to look like it came from a 60s American diner, headstock designs that cause the strings to exit the nut at a sharp angle...... Or in short, probably 75% of the basses out there.