12stringbassist

We played at a new (to us) venue - The Number 39 Brewery Tap Bar in Darwen on Saturday night. It was a bit like 'Jazz Club'. Small and intimate. They have only just started dipping their toes into the murky waters of cover bands A good crowd, some transient people came and went during the evening. I was quite worried about the gig beforehand, as my throat had been really rough and my voice was coming and going. I'd slept in til 2pm that afternoon from 11pm the night before. I was really feeling flaky. Two covid test came back negative, just a really bad cold. A couple of beers and some chloraseptic spray helped. We went down really well. I expect some of the punters were expecting the one finger in your ear folky stuff, but we don't do that. The owner had me giving him some names. And we look to be doing the Darwen Live event there (to be confirmed). ** edit, we got a 6-7pm spot there on October 2nd, which lest us travel to our evening gig. The jam night yesterday was Hell for me. I felt really ill and with there being no other bassists in, I ended up playing with everybody. Not the end of the world, but three hours of it, 7 - 10 without a break... We powered down and the landlady came along and said we should be on for another half hour. The times have been switched round so much recently I lose track AND at that point I was struggling to remember who i was. I just stopped when our drummer said 'last one'. I think she will get that extra half hour out of us on the Bank Holiday weekend.

Out and about in Southport last weekend.

Oh, yes - you can get musicians who are guitarists first and foremost, but who are all-rounders. They are the gifted people (like Prince) who can play anything well. They are not the ones I am talking about. I'm talking about someone who is (in capitals) A GUITARIST, who happens to pick a bass up. They don't often think like a bass player. That's the problem. They will try to do some little slap thing to impress the bassist whose bass they are holding, or some little bass solo, which they may pink torpedo up because the strings are wrong for them. They can't think like a bassist and there's the problem. That's what I'm talking about.

What makes a bad bass player? Usually a guitarist playing bass: They have little or no thought of bass function or where a bass sits in a song and fribble away frantically like billio, making a horrible racket. They just think 'less strings, no chords easy peasy.' Wrong. A lefty playing righty: Someone I know can't play a solid tight rhythm because he plays wrong handed. Everything comes out sounding all bibbidy bobbidy instead of dumdumdumdumdumdumdum. I know some players do it wonderfully, but some don't.

People are talking about their bad experiences with other people at gigs. I went to The Ritz in Manchester to watch Chas And Dave. I don't own their records, but I thought they are one of those bands you should see before you die. I got there when the doors opened and went centre front. I staked my place and got it and didn't move for anything. Great view. The support band were interminable. I forget their name. Chas & Dave and their drummer came on and played a set of bazzing rock and roll stuff, some corny hits that I'd forgotten about before the gig and soon after. A few songs in, this woman came up behind me, started elbowing me in the back, and loudly demanding to go in front of me. She shouted in my ear that she'd come all the way from Cockneyland and was their #1 fan and HAD to be front centre. She was entitled to be where i was standing, so I should move. I said she should have got on the train earlier to get to the front before me, then. She wasn't impressed by my Northern logic and started sticking her elbows in me again. After about a minute of this, I shouted at her to eff right off, or I would hit her back. She got the picture and moved to the right and started on another couple. They basically said the same thing and didn't wait so long to loudly tell her to eff off. Dave Peacock on bass was watching what was going on and looked very disturbed (either by the sight of this daft woman bashing their audience, or by all of the front row of the said audience telling her to eff off - and we were not quiet about it). After failing miserably to get people to move, she came back and started on me yet again. Other people around me started joining in telling her to eff off too. After about half an hour or so, I was pretty much bored stiff with Chas and Dave and felt like getting on the train and going home. but was I going to give that loudmouthed woman my place? No. I stuck it out to the bitter end. Never have I ever wanted a group to not do a third encore before.

Myself and my mate Mark were fortunate enough to get a little time with Andy a few years ago. It wasn't long after this that he passed. Very very saddening.

I'd take my Gretsch White Falcon. It plays beautifully, plugged in or not.

We restarted out jam night the other week and this got gigged for the first time since I bought it.

If I could make you stay Terence Trent D'Arby

This is what I generally do...

I think what people are talking about is when the solitary guitarist stops playing rhythm to pull out a solo. The bassist (and also the drummer) has to make sure the bottom doesn't fall out of the whole song. If they step back instead of filling the sonic gap up a little it can all sound empty. It also isn't 'changing style' as someone else suggested above about 'our heroes'. They will also often move to complement the solo, either by changing the bass sound or riffs and / or drum pattern. Whatever they do is 'their style'.

If I was to go anywhere without a backup, sods law dictates that is when an expensive catastrophe would happen. It takes less than 5 minutes to pack and unpack another bass and so I never get screwed onstage. "Hang on lads, stop the song - I have to dig into my bag for my spare strings and change one of them. We'll take a quick break." I think not. People who don't take a spare (when they have the option) deserve it when stinky poo happens. I still wake up sweating sometimes, remembering when that bloody awful Blackstar bass rig I had crapped out on me (again), 5 minutes before we were due onstage, meaning I had to go home and get my Hartkes and we had to start 45 minutes late.

No it's not.

My Gordy XR fretless has an XLR socket on it.

Nothing else since yesterday...

My guitarist plays a few different guitars.

This is just great. I can hear Alice Cooper changing the words and doing this. The video is a total hoot too.

The regular album version of this. I am in love.

Not for sale, unfortunately.

All three of those can sing, but it's not exactly a pleasant listen... Dylan has a grating tone, but some love it. Rotten was perfect for what the Pistols did. Anyone else wouldn't have been half as good. McGowan was also just right for The Pogues. The guy I was talking about couldn't decide about sharp or flat on any given note.

Book one taster bass lesson with a tutor and hopefully that playing technique problem will be sorted out there and then. Putting a quick video on here would sort it out even quicker. If you do end up buying a new bass, the Fender Player Series Precision Bass or jazz Bass are an excellent bang for your buck. I have a few of them.

A guitar wearing the wrong decal is: An attempt to deceive the audience. An attempt to make the owner feel better about his guitar. A potential fraud upon resale. A bit stupid, really. If the owner says it's not really a Fender, what does it make them look like? I'll happily go out with a Squier bass, though I have several Fenders. And its logo is untouched. People who rebadge Rockinbetters as R*ckenb*ckers make me laugh the hardest. I will happily own up to getting this TRC for my Retrovibe, though...

Similar to my story above.. Another guitarist mate of mine has a local band with two local mates and he is an exemplary player. He's a bit backward at coming forward, ridiculously modest and not very pushy at all. Instead of getting his face out there and doing what he does best (a perfect tribute to a well known 70's mega successful UK rock band), he is a bit lazy and has ended up settling for two mates on bass and drums. he's taken the easy option. He confided to me that he wasn't happy with them and was thinking of letting them both go and getting more suitable players, but of course, he's too disorganised to arrange rehearsals and auditions and doesn't want to go through the angst of upsetting his mates, so while he could be back in theatres, he's occasionally in pubs, stuck with players who make mistakes around him and a bass player who can't keep a solid tight rhythm going. The band isn't up to his level - it is down to theirs. He's going to look back in a few years and curse himself for his laziness. A band is only as good as its weakest link.