Cat Burrito

See now I just assumed it was and thought he must have eaten all of Axl's puppy fat that he's spent the last 30yrs piling on!

Worse still, as per the original post, I'm not even overweight! I think I need to learn a different instrument.

Does the same apply to the rule that bass players also always wear a shirt and tie but absolutely nothing below the waist?

Better than I was. I have an upright bass in the corner of the living room, along with a couple of bass guitars and there is also a bass guitar in the bedroom. The rest are in cases and I do rotate them a bit. I usually take a bass on breaks with me too. My coffee table even has the Geddy Lee book and most of my bookshelves are full of bass books. I'm sure I'm far from the worst offender / winner of this thread but I am certainly up there.

At a festival that I played at recently I was drinking at the bar and a guy came up and asked if he could chat. Of course. He liked the band and ended the conversation with "I think it's really cool that you hang out with us like you are just normal"... er?!? I've been recognised on holiday (impressed my now wife, no end!) and been asked a number of times if I have a day job too. People are funny.

I still remember Victoria Beckham on TFI Friday back in the 90s, without a hint of irony, describing herself as a singer songwriter. Nobody in the audience laughed.

I love this thread. I went back on Amazon and bought it for £20. It's amazing. It has to be the heaviest book I own and the pictures are beautiful. The book to end all books on bass!

And there are thieves who operate in Poundland! 😂

For anyone interested;

I have one, but in black. A lot of friends generally regard it as my coolest looking bass. I prefer the weight of my Gibson but the Epiphone has all that chrome hardware, which looks amazing.

Watch your bandmates disappear the second you play a venue with stairs!

Lozz's post is really helpful. I play in 4 acts, 3 originals and one covers. The covers circuit is just easier because everybody knows what they are getting. It's about being professional when you do get in as the personal touch goes a long way, but maybe bending to fit to get that all important foot in the door.

I remember there being a thing about Hofner logos differing on budget models a few years back. £50 is very reasonable as compensation and as said, who would fake a budget model?

Effectively you are an unknown entity so promoters are reluctant to take a chance. It's definitely harder now. Do you do any covers at all? If so I would bill yourself as whatever genre you are and state it is a mix of originals and covers. Then when you do your set that is 95% originals, if it goes down well and people come - you have a foot in the door.

New Moon for me and although I forgot to ask, you do get a 10% discount if you mention Basschat. Again, never claimed but very easy to deal with. Really friendly and helpful. I just amended my policy and there was no charge.

Good stuff and I agree, more than a minor success

I know. First thing I thought was "my bass doesn't even have a passport!" 😹

Perhaps the crew were taking a leaf out of the books of other airlines? Who knows! Not good though.

£42 isn't great, but it is far from the worst. The airlines do absolutely fleece you from my experiences on tour. I don't think our spam filters on this site would let me tell you my honest opinion of RyanAir, where as on the flip side, one European airline let us take the instruments on board for free and one of the crew came over to talk guitars with us the whole flight. For my show next month in Norway, my bass has it's own seat as it works out cheaper. We learnt the hard way but I recommend anyone not aware of how airlines fleece musicians, read up and do some homework before booking flights. It can be pretty grim. Hard to believe there are yet more ways for musicians to get ripped off!?!

I used to rate the Seymour Duncan Antiquity range but more recently I have actually just been liking stock pickups. I think my playing and understanding of amp tones must have improved

I agree with all the above, especially the bigger the better. I have to say though that I picked this up for under £130 https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/J-D-ABG-1-4-String-Acoustic-Bass-Guitar-Black/art-BAS0001331-000 and granted, it needed a setup as some of the frets were a bit rough etc BUT it now plays like something worth 3 or 4 times the price. Probably little to no resale value but really good. It is massive though so most acoustic bass gig bags were a problem BUT it is big enough to carry some volume when playing unplugged with others.

If you are constantly hiring PAs, I would probably invest in one. That doesn't sound like a great deal so maybe keep that promoter for the festivals and work with someone else for the larger venues. One of my bands is a tribute band and we were told either play the pubs as a less serious option (we're pretty much doing it for a laugh) or get serious on the main circuit. We all have other bands so went with the former. Promoters range from being brilliant and just expecting you to show up on time and be good, through to doing all the promotion on Facebook right through to just showing up, taking a cut and complaining that you don't pull enough people. In 30yrs of gigging I don't want to appear too cynical so won't comment further 😹

Some great advice already. I have 6 songs to learn for next Saturday so I'm in a similar, albeit easier position. Personally I set up a playlist on either YouTube or iTunes and run it from a laptop into my practice amp, plug in the bass and stick some headphones on. Take a few songs a day and add to a longer rehearsal as I start to build up. Oh, and I'm sure this goes without saying but spending too much time on Basschat doesn't count as bass practice when there is work to be done!

Here's the old thread from the 1st model