Grassie

I agree - looking for instrument demos and reviews on YouTube can be frustrating. Demoing a bass by playing a load of slap and some chordal stuff up the dusty end is not showing me what I want from bass. It's just showing off.

I love slap - the two main players who made me want to take up bass are Flea and Mark King. But I can't slap for toffee. There are a lot of players who leave me cold when they start whacking the stings - Victor Wooten being one of them. Slap is great when it's in the context of a song, think of all the great classic funk tunes that incorporate it. But slap solos are generally naff (as are most solos actually), especially when they just descend into a load of tuneless clicking (see Wooten).

Welcome and enjoy your new found way of burning money.....😁 Nice bit of kit there. Apart from the headstock.... Whoever is in charge of designing them at Sire needs to take a step back from the monitor once in a while and have a really good look at what they've created. Then erase, and start again.

Hi all, Has anyone ever replaced the covers (the actual black plastic enclosures as opposed to the chrome ashtray jobs) on pickups with exposed pole pieces with blank or closed type covers? I want to try a set on my Squier jazz bass but am concerned that a blank cover will cause a reduction in volume/output as the pole pieces will be covered. Some reasons for me wanting to try this: I'm quite heavy handed when digging in and often catch the string on the pole piece, causing that horrible clicking sound. I can't keep the pole pieces clean for love nor money. I get sweaty hands when playing and the poles on all my basses have a certain degree of corrosion. In the past some have actually gone a bit rusty. I don't actually like the look of exposed pole piece pickups, closed ones look much nicer. Thoughts/experiences anyone?

My avatar has me playing a 310. Yes, it was a little heavy, but my god, it cut through everything in its path. Chalked up on the “one I wish I’d kept” list.

Hi all, I've been looking for new bass bodies for a possible build project, but I want one with no routing, so I can decide at a later point what type of pickup to put in. P-bass style with contouring and neck pocket, but no other routing. Anyone come across such a thing? Cheers.

"Congregation" by Foo Fighters, by me. 😁 Fake Mendel precision bass into Focusrite Scarlett Solo audio interface, into FL Studio. Resting bass face as standard....

What is the B string like on that? I've never understood why some manufacturers make 5er's with only 20 frets, and not a minimum of 22 frets...

If it's for charity, then yes, I don't have a problem with it. I do have a problem with pubs/venues asking if we can play for free as "we don't have a budget for music/it would be good exposure". Why will it be good exposure? Are Sony Records coming for a pint of Bishop's Finger and a bag of pork scratchings? Musicians playing for free and giving their recorded music away for nothing are devaluing the entire medium.

I'm having that book. Hope there's a Kindle edition. Thanks for the heads up.

I used to buy it religiously every month from around 1993 until around 2003. The end for print magazines is inevitable (hoping that newspapers go the same way to be honest), and a sign of the times. 😶

I had put together a covers band last year, rehearsals were only once every two weeks due to my shift pattern, and progress was very slow. Since Coronavirus hit, I haven’t missed playing at all, and haven’t really played much at home either, apart from making a couple of YouTube videos. I’m gradually getting to the point where I really can’t be bothered with it anymore. Starting rehearsals again seems like a waste of time, and there is a strong possibility I’ll sell most of my gear at some point.

Looks good on @Slapbass Shaun’s wall... 😁

I used to have a US deluxe Fender Jazz 5er, 1996 (anniversary) model. Crimson burst, rosewood board, had the Suhr pickups. Needed a new amp at the time so I had to let it go. Went to a chap in West Sussex, possibly Littlehampton (his name eludes me). I shoulda kept that one. And the ATK 310.... 😒

A thought.... Given the current Covid-ness of our lives, I’m thinking of making this available as a digital file, so that you lovely people can print a copy (or copies.... 😉) off at home. I can format it to whatever size you fancy, and ping it off to you via email. I will also make the guitar print available in the same fashion if the interest is there. Thinking of using a “pay what you like” pricing structure..... Opinions welcome.... 😊 If anyone is interested, let me know. Cheers!

Waiting for an Epi LP Money bass, or a proper non-reverse T-Bird...

Two - "Tiny Music...Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop" by Stone Temple Pilots, and "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime" by Faith No More. The first was really different from their previous release "Purple", and I was not expecting it to sound so lo-fi, and as weird as it did. but Robert DeLeo's bass tone on a lot of the tracks is really cool, and "Art School Girl" is amazing. Second, FNM came out with this absolutely schizophrenic masterpiece in 1995, three years after "Angel Dust", and, again, it was so different to previous stuff that it caught me unawares I think. It's punk, funk, loungey, nasty, disturbing, but above all it's Faith No More-y and it's my favourite album of theirs.

Finished my copy this week. Yes, it only goes up to the Chili's very first gig, but the ride Flea takes us on through his childhood makes for great reading. You certainly get to see why he is the way he is. The chapters are quite short and concise; each one a short adventure within the whole story, but he gets a lot of detail in. The audiobook version is read by the man himself.

Great stuff. Mark has a very distinctive voice, you don't sound like him at all, but your voice is excellent in its own right. Good luck with it.

Loded Diper.

Personally, I’ve quit bands with 3 months or more notice, simply because my reason for leaving has usually been that I’ve just gotten bored with a particular band, and not for reasons like falling out with anyone. It’s common courtesy really. The exception was with my last band, who cut me out of a number of gigs at a certain venue because they wanted “more money”. Their keyboard player is a talented guy, and was able to cover bass parts. I quit on the spot, with four days until the next gig.