Krysbass

Been using an original Ibanez Musician case since the mid 80s - mostly for my Westone Thunder III, but also for my Ibanez SR600 for a while. So it's a versatile case, but also a frequent reminder that I never managed to bag an Ibanez Musician bass and so use the case for its true purpose.😶

I began using ear plugs (just inexpensive off the shelf ones) in 2008 when I was in a band with a drummer who hit the heads so hard that he put dents in them and broke so many sticks that the scattered debris at the end of a rehearsal resembled the floor of a sawmill. He was so loud that without earplugs it literally hurt and I could feel the insides of my ears rattle like an overpowered loudspeaker about to disintegrate. But although he was unnecessarily loud, he did me a favour, because I've religiously used ear plugs for all rehearsals and gigs since then. Thankfully my hearing is still pretty good.

As a long-time Thunder III owner still hooked on the looks of these basses, I found a couple of solutions to the neck-dive issue. The main one that served me well for many years is 4" wide suede-backed strap. The other more recent one is replacing the stock tuners with Gotoh lightweight ones. I now find the bass comfortable enough to play for a couple of hours without a break. ps - I've added a couple of photos of my Thunder III to my original post on page 1 of this thread.

Very nice bass - and obviously well treated over those 30-odd years. That looks like a Westone case too if I'm not mistaken? Still loving my modded '84 Thunder III, - it was just a slightly younger version of the Thunder II when in original spec. Only difference from the T-II was black pickup and truss rod covers.

This only happened to me once, when due to being late home from work; I was last to arrive at the gig. But as the p.a. had only just enough power for vocals, it was essential I used my rig, so the drummer had to move his kit. Other than that, I'm usually one of the first to arrive and make sure the drummer leaves enough space for me. And it's not as if I need much space, as my rig is two 2x10 cabs stacked on the small ends - so arguably the smallest gear footprint in the whole band. But some venues are just impractically small for anyting more than a duo so there have been situations where my 4 or 5 piece band has had to cram into a venue minus our usual guitar changes, effects boards, lights, number of drums etc and I've had to play my bass pointed at the ceiling all night. Curiously, one of those cramped, stripped back gigs remains one of the best received we ever played....😐

In my 50s and still love gigging. The loading in and out of gear or late arrivals home don't bother me either - despite some aches and pains the next day. But I'm bandless right now and missing gigging - deeply. 😟 Rather, it seems my problem is finding enough other musicians who have the commitment and availability to average even a paltry 1 gig per month.... which surely isn't too much to ask? - Evidently it is.

A Thunder 1A was my first "proper" bass - by that I mean one with a body not made out of a slab of plywood. 😁 I think the woods used and heavy construction have a lot to do with the tone which is why I next had the Thunder III that I still own. But I replaced the pickups and electronics last year with a Bartolini system, with 3 band eq. Despite such a major change, the ringing piano-like original tone is still there, but with better/easier control than was possible with the original pickups etc.

A Fender Jazz bass with natural wood body and a rosewood or other dark wood fretboard. I'm not keen on maple fretboards, but suprisingly this seems to be the only option with natural wood on the body. Curious, or maybe its just me being too fussy?

I also prefer strings without wraps as they somehow look tidier - IMHO. I use either Elixir or D'addario stainless roundwounds on most of my basses - both non-wrapped. But I bought a set of D'addario flatwounds for my fretless last year and these do have wraps - though dark blue, so less obvious than some of the louder colours out there.

I depped on bass in a friend's unsigned band at the 2018 Bluedot festival (Jodrell Bank, Cheshire ). It was the largest festival I've played, the weather was fine and overall I enjoyed the experience, especially "access all areas" which allowed us back-stage at the main stage, even though we were only playing the smaller "Nebula" stage. So it was a great opportunity to be a part of it, but having to arrive on site a minimum of 4 hours before we were due to play and backstage 2 hours (IIRC) before our 30 minute early afternoon slot meant a lot of standing around. So I couldn't help thinking that had the weather been bad; this would have been pretty miserable, with little backstage shelter for the queue of bands and their gear, waiting to go on. Although I'm in my 50s, even in my teens or 20s I was never motivated to go to any outdoor festivals or gigs, mainly because the UK weather is predictable only in its unpredictability! But I also dislike very large venues (both outdoors and indoors ) where there's no guarantee of being reasonably close to the stage.

After just over 3 years, I have just folded a musically solid band that I started. This was principally due to the lack of commitment and availability for gigs and rehearsals of two keyboardists in a row. The keyboardists' behaviour became infectious too and the singer went and joined another project whilst staying with ours, which made the band's availability for gigs become almost non existent, so there was no point carrying on. I no longer had the patience to just replace the two of them and start again. The OP's situation may not be so bad or end the same way, but I do recommend watching it closely. As for me; this was the first band I had started that needed a keyboardist, and I have vowed it will be the last. Although I'm sure there will be exceptions to the rule; I feel keyboardists tend to be too high-maintenance.

Even as one who has never owned a Fender and without even being a devotee of the marque; I can spot enough things that don't look right with that bass to make me very doubtful as to its claimed pedigree. 😯

Aside from hearing how off pitch Madonna was in some news reports, I have avoided watching Eurovision since the late Terry Wogan stopped doing the commentary. For me it was only Mr Wogan's observations that made it entertaining enough to make up for the political nature of some of the votes - and I gather that aspect is even worse these days.

I'm going through a similar problem with a band I started, except that in my case the difficulty isn't so much rehearsals as getting all 5 band members in the same venue at the same time for gigs. The worst offender is the singer, closely followed by the keyboarder who between them have ensured that after a gig we'll be playing on 15th June, we are unavailable for any gigs until mid September at the earliest. I feel a calm but earnest conversation coming on in the near future essentially saying that unless their availability improves there's no point in the band continuing. That will be a shame as we've been getting great feedback from the gigs we've played, but having had a gutfull of problems with others who have come and gone since we formed in 2016; I no longer have the patience to replace them and then wait for the new members to be up to speed on our repertoire.

Unless its abput 18C+, if I'm not walking or running, my hands (and feet) have a habit of going cold and numb and my hands start to lose coordination and cramp up in temperatures that many people would call mild. I now carry a pair of thermal fingerless gloves with my gear to all gigs and although these attract the inevitable clever comments, they do generally improve the situation without overly impeding my playing. I played a 1 hour outdoor festival gig a few years ago at the end of May in Cheshire and in view of the time of year, thought I was safe to leave the gloves at home. Wrong - it was cold and windy and my hands started refusing to cooperate, so I didn't play well and didn't enjoy the gig. Lesson learned.

Each to their own; but even genuinely road worn basses don't float my boat. In fact, I must confess to being extra careful; verging on OCD, to keep my basses looking as unmarked as possible - which is a particular challenge in the more cramped venues I play in.😯

A song I'd recommend is "April" on Brand X's "Product" album - its by John Giblin. As it's not fast or with the bass buried under vocals and other instruments, it's easier than many to figure out and is just a nice, melodic line that sounds so good on fretless that I still keep coming back to.☺️

It's maybe worth adding that there are plenty of original bands who don't always play their own songs live exactly the same as their studio recording. So other than the more iconic bass lines already mentioned, there's an excuse for not getting too hung up on the details. 😊

I've owned a Spector Rebop 5-string since 2015 and it's my first and only 5-string in over 35 years playing bass. I love the core tone of this bass, the looks (mine is gloss black flame maple), the light weight and I get on fine with the 35" scale. And Spector basses aren't exactly a popular choice among bands on my local covers band circuit, so I guess its just nice to be playing something a bit different. My only criticism of this bass is the 17mm string spacing at the bridge. I think I'd get on better with the standard 19mm spacing. Problem is I haven't found another 5-string bass with 19mm spacing that also ticks enough other boxes for what I like or must have on a bass - so the Rebop is staying.

I wouldn't choose a single pickup bass as my only bass as I doubt if it would be versatile enough for all the music I play. Just my view - but doubtlessly others will disagree. 😊 Other than my acoustic bass with a piezo pickup, my other 4 basses are all twin pickup. Two of them are P/J (Bartolini and DiMarzio) and the other two have soapbars (Bartolini and EMG). If I had to choose to keep just one of those, it would probably be the one with the twin Bartolini soapbars - again for the versatility.

We used to have a keyboardist who used to pull the same stunt of bailing out on rehearsal at the last minute. In fact, one day I realised that he'd had more missed rehearsals than the other 4 of us put together. Paradoxically, of all of us, he was the one who needed the most rehearsal time. We had to let him go and I deeply regret not doing it sooner, as he held the whole band back.

I have a bit of a beef with the current fashion for trial by media being used in place of, or to pre-empt trial in a court of law. I'm not a fan of MJ, but far as I can see; nothing criminal has yet been satisfactorily proven against him, so I would not let the current media circus persuade me to avoid playing his songs.

In response to the OP - Yes. I played only 4 string basses for over 30 years before buying my first and only 5-string in 2015 and thought long and hard about it before taking the plunge. I had a genuine reason as there were numerous songs I wanted to play in my band that went below E - a couple of them even go down to low B, and I couldn't be bothered with down tuning a 4 string bass - especially at gigs. Although I prefer the wider string spacing on a 4-string, when playing 5-string I do often make use of the ability to move across to the B string if thats closer than moving down to the first 5 frets on the E string.

When you change the battery, check that the terminals connecting the battery are secure. My Ibanez SR600 intermittently popped and cut out completely due to the terminals being loose. I managed to tighten them as a temporary fix but am replacing the battery clip as a more permanent cure.

When I first picked up a bass, my natural preference was to try to play it left handed. But that was in 1981, when left handed basses were both rare and expensive, so for purely economic reasons (because I didn't know if my foray into bass playing would work out), I bought a cheap secondhand right-handed bass and taught myself to play right-handed. But good quality, reasonably priced lefty basses are far more plentiful nowadays, so if I started over, I'd go the left-handed route. Building enough speed in my right hand has always been a struggle - especially as I only play fingerstyle. I hit a wall with pick playing and kept dropping the things.