alant

Welcome from another "local" bassist.

I'm thinking about getting hold of a "low budget" P bass and wonder if anyone has experience of the Bass Collection Power Bass. Saw them last weekend at the show but didn't get the opportunity to play one. Any feedback welcome. Thanks.

Being an "old git" I'll be hot-footing to the Rotosound stand Sunday lunchtime to hopefully meet an old hero of mine, Martin Turner, original bassist with Wishbone Ash.

Most pubs we play usually start at 9pm and go through to midnight. We play 1 hour first set, then half hour break, so 2nd set is usually 9.30pm to midnight or thereabouts.

Pick most of the time, but fingers on some numbers. I always suffer with blisters when trying to use fingers too much as I think I probably play too heavily - any advice to prevent them?

We usually play Run Run Rudolph as well. For a slow and cheesy number, we have also played Mud's Lonely this Christmas.

We've recently started finishing our set with a slow number at the end of the night as a "final encore". We found that the audience generally kept wanting more "encores" if we kept on the lively rock type numbers. Adding a slow number at the very end seemed to have a calming influence and everyone really believed them that we were finishing!

[quote name='Paul S' post='609502' date='Sep 26 2009, 07:30 PM']Not sure if it was overdubbed but Humble Pie's 'Performance - Rockin' the Filmore' sounds very live. You can hear beer bottles being clanked during quiet bits.[/quote] Fantastic album and the first album I ever bought!.

[quote name='ben604' post='591985' date='Sep 7 2009, 10:51 AM']I've just started doing backing vocals for our covers band and it's one of the most frustrating things I've ever attempted! I've found though after being useless for a while, something just clicks with the rhythms and it gets much easier almost straight away. Playing the basslines until you dont need to think about them is the key, as mentioned above.[/quote] I agree, again as someone who has started doing some backing vocals for a covers band. Being of the "older generation", one of my bass heroes is Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash who incredibly (IMO) manages to sing and play fairly complex bass lines at the same time!

We were playing in Oxfordshire, but close to Abingdon. I think it's only 20 odd miles to Minster Lovell or so but I don't think we were that loud to be heard there! Mind you the way some pub landlords complain about the volume . . .

As mentioned earlier some songs can sound a bit odd in a different key, but the vocalist is always the deciding factor. I think you've received some good sound advice here about transposing, not learning with open strings etc. Good luck!

I guess it depends on the venue - how long you are booked to play for etc. We play mostly around the Oxford area and with extended hours now most pubs seem to expect at least 2 x 1 hour sets. Our second set often extends to nearly 1 and half hours. We usually play between 30 - 35 numbers over the two sets.

I used to use fingers all the time when playing with an acoustic guitarist only. Now joined a covers band that plays rock, blues, pop etc and find that I have to use a pick for most songs otherwise my fingers end up covered in blisters!