12stringbassist

Les Pauls: Vintage | Gibson | Gibson | Radiotone

SG's are good...

This was out of the case yesterday as well..

Currently enjoying this one...

I'm hoping so too. I'd rather BE gigging of course, but if this was going to happen it suits us for it to be at this moment. We do / did a weekly jam night and I was getting really worried about hosting those, until the plug was pulled. My wife falls into the vulnerable group and I didn't think singers bringing their own mics and players bringing their own guitars was really going to keep us safe. The lay-off has actually also come at a right time for my band, as my drummer has had a serious operation which was going to take him out of the game for three months at least and we were lining up dep drummers to cover, so I was looking at 3 months of slightly below-par gigs and myself organising everything. My band live geographically remote from each other and I would say our contact through Facebook has been very sparse. There's nothing much to talk about. Hopefully we will start work on three or four new songs when the lock-down looks like ending.

I find the current situation worrying - if the band can't play til next year, we will probably have drifted apart as a unit, have no gigs in the diary and a whole bunch of venues will have disappeared. I haven't plugged bass in for a month.

If the gear feels surplus to requirements and has no sentimental value, let it go and get something you want more. You can always get another P bass if you feel like going back to playing one. I'm trying to be a bit ruthless with some of my gear. Someone I know mentioned late on last week that they quite liked a Telecaster I own. Said it was a shame I wasn't selling. I said are you buying? We agreed a price and I'm delivering it to him tomorrow. If I start hankering for another Tele, they are always in the shops.

Or not...

I think I'm falling over...

How long had you had this bass before the truss rod failed? Some top end basses have rather long warranty periods. And if they don't, maybe they should.

Jam night. I'm on guitar for a change. Andy Worthington on bass.

It is different than Lake Placid Blue.

New to me today - a limited edition FSR Player series bass in this groovy colour. Arrived thru post with slack strings, from PMT online, but was quick to set up and intonate. Plays wonderfully

We were part way through burying him.

Nah. The 12 string bass gets an airing every now and again...

The Christi Haydon EP (bonus tracks on the deluxe reissue of Sparks' Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins). I had the pleasure of having a dance with her at a Sparks gig some years ago. Lovely girl.

People coming up to me midsong, while I am singing.. If I can hear them, I pretend they are not there til the end of the song. Then I speak to them. However, there should always be an exception: Slade at Manchester Rotters 1979. A punter (me) gesticulates frantically at Jim Lea during a song. Seeing as he knew me to chat to at sound checks he didn't ignore me. "Oi, Jim. Your bass rig is belching smoke". An Acoustic 360 power amp was overheating. One of the crew just pulled it out of the rig.

I use a Zoom B2 bass pod, set to Hartke rig (which is what I use onstage) and go via very careful EQ and compression on the desk into the recorder. I tend to trim off the bottom end a bit. Clarity is your friend, rather than thump.

She knows their bassist.

It was a lot of money to lay out (even with an artist discount for a sh*t product).

My 'expensive' mistake was a few months flirtation with a newly issued range of amplifiers last June, because my guitarist snagged me an artist deal on them. The top amp was a 500w 2x10 combo and I also picked up a 250w 1x15 extension cab. They looked gorgeous, but the amp started to make hideous noises at the first or second gig, so it went back to the maker. They arranged courier collection and got it back to me fairly quickly. They blamed the fault on "a crimped wire." A couple of weeks later, the extension cab failed to power on, so that went back. It was replaced with a new one. I warned the company that the next strike they would be out and I would be asking for a refund. The third strike followed a couple of months later. Fortunately, it was during the solitary rehearsal for a band reunion the next day. I went into the PA for the rehearsal. Thank God it didn't happen at the actual two gigs. I got the rig collected later that week and my refund was processed after a couple of reminders. The company were very fair with me and I cannot fault their superb customer service. I was refunded with no argument. I have been told by a number of friends who work at repairers and stores, upon mentioning that I had owned them, that this amp range is a bit of a disaster and the number of returns is unbelievable, without even mentioning my woes, though I did share my experience after that. No names, no pack drill, but think back to what new model bass range came into stores in July or August last year.

My band played two blindingly enjoyable gigs on Friday and Saturday after a weekend off. We handed our weekly jam night over to a long established and trusted local band, so we could head up to The Talbot in Burnley (always a good gig) . It had been handed over to some friends, who regularly attend the jam, the previous week, without incident. After our first set of three, I saw a message from the landlady, asking me where the stand in band for that night were. I looked on the bassist from that band's page and he had been advertising the jam earlier in the day. I sent her a screenshot of that. We kicked off our second spot... Then he posted, asking around for a drummer, as their drummer wasn't doing it. They have had 3 weeks to sort this out. Shortly afterwards he posted that he was chucking the jam in, as he couldn't find a drummer. The landlady messaged me saying she was going to have to close as people had come in and walked back out, as nothing was going on. I messaged the bassist who was covering and he said he had messaged her and she mustn't have seen it. That was not the point. He let her down. Big style. I just felt sick. This ruined my evening. I know that we are going to get it in the neck next Sunday, as she will be ripping about this - as she is indeed entitled to be. I am normally there first and will catch the brunt of this anger. Ironic, as I didn't want to hand the jam over for a second week on the trot. Pray for me...