Muzz

Or just go the whole hog and play a 12-sting bass? Actually, don't bother; I bought one once - took it to a rehearsal with an originals band, played it on a couple of songs. No one noticed. Or cared... 😕😃

It does depend on where you're gigging: a function/wedding set will be primarily tuned to getting the ladies dancing (because when did you last see a bunch of blokes heading out onto the dance floor first?) and giving people singalonga hits, and that's also broadly true of a lot of pubs, unless you're on a rock circuit (not that there's many of those left) - play stuff people will sing and dance to, and they'll have a good time, and so will you*. * If you like that sort of thing, but then I've always loved playing bass for ladies to dance to...YMMV, etc, etc...

I'm gonna guess this was a while ago, because as I mentioned the earlier incarnations of Elixirs did shed. The new ones don't.

The newer version (which IIRC have been around at least a couple of years) don't suffer from the 'shedding' thing that the very early coated strings did. I use a pick 85% of the time (and not with a light touch, either), and I've got Elixirs which are 18 months old, and they haven't shed at all...

I put a split coil 'P-Type' pickup and a John East U-Retro in my ABZ4, and it'll do all sorts of tones now. It's still the most resonant, 'alive' bass I've ever played unplugged. The neck profile is a bit too chunky for me these days, tho, since I had my Shukers all made with super-skinny necks... Quite like these Ibanez ones, though they're a solution to a problem I haven't got, but it's nice to see a big manufacturer pushing the boundaries a bit...

In the covers/function band, we have an (unwritten) songbook of perhaps 150 songs, of which there's a frequently-played core of 75 or so, all of which I can recall straight away. The other half are pretty much there, in fact if one's called, I freeze momentarily and couldn't tell you how it goes, but once the '2,3,4' has gone they (mostly) come back in their entirety. We don't rehearse. The originals band I was in 30 years ago had a reunion last Nov, we had, I think, 6 rehearsals for that, at the first one five or six of the songs came back straight away after 30 years absence. I'd listened to them via some mp3s we still had from the original tapes, but not played them. The other 10 or so took a bit more work, as several of them I'd forgotten about completely. I struggle a little to pick up new songs when I'm studying for exams (unending Microsoft and Cisco qualifications, mostly), but then that is my day job... I still forget what I've just come upstairs for, or go back down without it. The brain is a wonderful thing... 😃

We stopped doing Sit Down after the singer/guitard and I played a weekend drum clinic thing for an ex-drummer; long story short, we played it 48 times in one weekend. After that, it got dropped for a good while. As you say, it's always a guaranteed floor-filler to have in the back pocket. And you can play it while asleep, too... 😀 Surprisingly, The Smiths' This Charming Man and There Is A Light never, ever fail. Massive bonus is they're terrific bass lines that are fun to play. Oh, and I Am The Resurrection, too - people might be politely enthusiastic during the verses, but once the chorus drops...blimey... 😃

Absolutely not.

In the sorts of pubs where this happens, this is given a very close run for its money by Wagon Wheel. Again, no idea why...

...me too, tho I probably couldn't lift it... 😕😀

Well, if we're going to be setting rules, I'll see your Derek Smalls 'proper' double-P vibe and raise you the Derek Smalls "proper proper" double-double P vibe... 😀

You've clearly not been near a merch stand recently then, Rich; last one I looked at (I forget the gig, but it wasn't Bon Jovi or owt of that scale) they wanted £35 for one out of the cardboard box behind the decorating table with the sheet on it. You'd have gone over like an incarnadine fire hydrant...

If we're talking the average pub gig, old school heavy metal is completely done in most of the ones we play in, the nearest people want to get is Teen Spirit or Killing In The Name or pretty much anything by the Foo Fighters. I've noticed a lot of the others above becoming less and less popular over the last few years, too...and I'm not sad to see the back of most of them. I spent an awful lot of time in rock clubs in Manchester for an awful lot of years, and even I'm sick of stuff like All Right Now, so the average pub punter under 50 really doesn't want to hear it... Oasis, on the other hand... 😕😀

3 of my 4 gigging basses are P-P (the other one's a single MM-type)...they don't look it, tho... 😀

Well, that didn't last long... and it was tonier, too... 😀

Although let's not forget that a £1400 bass these days (let's say a US Fender) isn't miles away from what a £700 bass (let's say a US Fender) was a few years ago...as for a £3400 Rickenbacker 4003, if it's any different in terms of actual quality (leaving aside the fact that I got a dog) from the £1600 Rickenbacker 4003 I bought 5 years ago, I'd be very surprised... Completely agree about the bottom end, though: there are very few honkers sub-£500: very inexpensive and relatively high quality Chinese and Indonesian production has meant the days of the really really ropey plywood 'starter' instrument have pretty much gone...

I'd reiterate the point that no-one's asking for their own perfect nirvana on setup: by the point tastes get that exacting, the skills to set it up that way will probably have been developed. The issue is badly intonated (and there's a universal, despite later adjustments if strings are being changed by the buyer), neglected instruments that haven't had any sort of attention given to them: the G-string choking because the plastic cover had wrinkled up? Strings buzzing so much they were on the point of choking? One of them had a £900 price tag...if shanking £900 out of a punter doesn't justify ten minutes to set the thing up to be generally playable, then the staff/shop aren't doing their job, and won't get my business. Ever bought a secondhand car from a dealer that was filthy? A mini valet takes longer to do than setting up an instrument to be generally playable...

Preferences aside, anyone who works in a music shop with any sort of interest in their job who actually played either of the basses I was handed should have spotted a badly set up instrument immediately.

I was in PMT to try out combos, but the first bass I was handed was a Fender Precision of some sort (not too sure the exact model, but it was £899), and it was a dog of a thing, setup-wise. The G string was choking on the plastic cover for the pickup which had wrinkled, so I said "D'you want me to take this off?" and the answer was "Erm, no..." It went back on the wall without being touched... I got a BB434 next, which was better (the strings were in the same post code as the fretboard, at least), but if anything, this was too low, as it was a bucket of buzzes...and I don't mind a bit of fretbuzz... If I'd been in the market for a new bass, I really wouldn't have bothered... I also ordered a brand new 4003 a few years ago from GAK (at £1600), and that was terrible, too...it went back the next day...

Just as a little aside, I was watching a YouTube vid last night of The Stranglers on C4's The Tube circa '85, and JJB is using...a BB! A black one, obv... His sound wasn't so good (for JJB), but that was in the period just before Hugh left when it all went a little squishy...

Love them - apart from the odd flirtation with NYXLs, I use them on everything (barring my acoustic bass - flats on there), they last a long, long time, and I like a bright aggressive sound...

Well, if it's got a dowelling system that makes it like a neck-thru one-piece, that makes it tonier... Take my money 😏 Oh, I forgot the custom-wound alpino pickups... The real question is...does it go to eleven?

Funnily enough, I was in PMT today trying out some small combos, and was very impressed with the Studio 15; Ashdown have clearly gone for the Rumble series, and done a good job, too. The Studio 15 weighs nothing, is very compact, and has plenty of punch...

Was in PMT this afternoon trying out small combos (see my ongoing search for something loud and light in another thread*), and the first bass I was handed was an £899 Precision (not sure of exact model), which was just awful in pretty much every way, including having considerable and surprising neck dive. I gave my opinion of it, and was handed a 434, which was soooo much better. A nice slim neck, too - big improvement on the 1024X. If I closed my eyes I wanted one, but then I opened my eyes...and no, sadly, I'm far too shallow... TL:DR - 434 necks are slim and very very nice; £900 new Precisions are rubbish. Oh, and they had a Fireglow 4003 hiiiigh up on the wall for £3349. Yep, you heard that right: pushing £3.5k for a bog-stock Rick... * If you're interested, the winner was the new Ashdown Studio 15. Weighs nowt (26lbs, IIRC), plenty of ooomph, very compact. Ashdown have gone for the Rumbles directly, and from what I heard, got it right.

I'm 56 shortly, I love gigging (I'm with the right people, and yeah, I guess I'm lucky in that), there's two originals bands (one's been going 30 years) which are very occasional but pleasant ones, and a busy covers trio with minimal gear to get a great sound, so it's all good. As is the money. Not gonna stop any time soon. 😁