Marvin

I'd like a Cort A4 Plus, but I don't like the look of the bridge. It looks a faff to set the intonation on it. I'm not keen on gold hardware, or black for that matter. Natural finishes, no thank you. Although I do have a natural finish bass, sort of, that I love. It's got a heavy lacquer finish, which I should hate really, but don't. Pointy basses, not really my thing. Light colour finish. I tend to gravitate to darker colours. There's probably more.

I use AKG K52 on ear headphones. They're entry level at about £40, but I really like them.

At grassroots adult football that happens. The team I used to help with had to disband the 3rd team because players were so unreliable. Several teams I know of locally have withdrawn from their leagues mid-season because players are so flaky.

'Practice' night, and I use that term very lightly, is at a time and place that isn't very good for me. It results in me not getting a hot meal that day or seeing my family. It's something I'd be fine with if I thought the others really wanted to get out of the practice room. The 2 guitarists only have to remember fairly straight forward chord progressions, no solos or tricky stuff. Yet at the beginning of every song the phones come out and Ultimate Guitar is referred to. Which is somewhat redundant as the singer wants to change the key of the songs at every practice (there are only 5 songs so far and one of them has been played in about 4 different keys). Next practice the singer has invited a cajon player along who can only stay for an hour as they've got a weekly commitment that night. And the singer needs to leave early anyway. It really is a shambles. It's simply not how bands function is it?

I think I'm cursed. I initiated a new project several weeks ago with a singer I know. They brought along 2 others. After a few practices it's clear it'll go nowhere. No one seems to be able to practice regularly or what seems longer than an hour and a half. No-one seems to want to bother learning material. I was very clear at the outset that I wanted to get gigs, not be a practice room project and get out of the practice room fairly quickly. I can't see that happening. Just another ensemble of people who like the idea of being in a band. I'm not sure whether to keep going or just pack it all in. This is the 4th or 5th time of going nowhere since my last band fizzled out.

Mrs Marvin and myself went to watch Far From Saints (Kelly Jones of The Stereophonics, and Dwight Baker and Patty Lynne of The Wind and The Wave) in Reading last night. I've followed The Wind and The Wave since they started out (Patty Lynne slightly longer) and have always wanted to see them live but haven't had the opportunity, mainly as they don't come to the UK often. So when the FFS tour was announced I snapped up tickets as soon as I could. It was a fantastic performance last night. A great band, faultless. Kelly Jones has a great voice in my opinion (even if you don't like what he sings he sings it well). For me though Patty Lynne's voice is awesome, and she can belt it out as well. Whoever was on the sound desk deserves full credit. Perfect mix. You could hear everything when it needed to be heard. Nothing overpowered anything else. Whoever it was should give lessons to all those poor sound persons. You might have concluded I enjoyed last night's gig 🙂... I did.

The most number of basses I've had at any one time is 3. Now I've only got 2. I've only ever really owned one amp set up at a time. For 2ish months I did have a giggable combo and amp/cab in the house. I toyed with the idea of splitting my signal so one would be clean, the other effects only. I couldn't get bothered in the end and sold the combo. I've simply not got the money or room for more than what I have right now.

I've dropped out of the loop of contacts I had 5 to 10 years ago. Although quite a few of the bands I got involved in were via JMB to be fair though. I never got anything from going to open mic or jam nights. When I look on JMB these days there's barely anyone looking for a bass player, and if they are it's +40miles away. That and most bands being, and venues wanting, acoustic duos there's limited pickings. I do wonder if I should just keep one bass and my headphone practice set up and sell the rest (not that there's much to sell)

What does it matter? Is anyone forcing anyone to listen to any potential new Stones material? Is anyone forcing anyone to go to their concerts? No, they're not. If you're not interested stick to playing covers in the local Dog and Puke and be on your merry way. If you don't want to still be playing at 80, feel free to be filling your incontinence pants listening to what ever tickles your what not. It's up to the Stones what they do. If there's still an audience for whatever they're up to, all the best to them.

I had a 504, which looking at the spec is very similar. The build quality was very good, although I could never get the action as low as on my Ibanez SR300. Very comfortable to play. The big down side were the pickups and electronics. I played around with it a fair bit but it was a very bland sounding bass, it just lacked something.

I've had Chromes on my Jazz bass for 6 or 7 years. Initially they were brighter than the dead rounds I took off. However, it didn't take long for them to bed in and now they've barely got any top end at all. I'm a very below average player, but I don't find the tension an issue. I put a set of rounds on the Jazz a while back, thinking I'd notice a big difference in tension, and to be honest... not really.

100% top most greaterist musician person I was in a band with was a young woman. She was superb. Fantastic voice. Memorised all her parts, vocals and rhythm guitar. She was brilliant. A band after that had 3 young female singers. All as mad as a box of frogs and excellent singers. I was in an originals band with 2 brothers, and we auditioned a young female singer. I thought she was very good. They thought she was awful because wasn't coming up with lyrics or melodies they wanted. They hadn't told her what they were looking for, hadn't written any lyrics etc themselves. I suggested that if they'd wanted a mind reader they should have said so in the ad. I was kicked out for that comment.

I was in a blues band that got asked midway through a gig if we did any ABBA.

I think there's only been one band I've been in that played material I liked and I might possibly go and see. All the others, no. I've played in various covers bands that played songs where the world would have benefited if they hadn't have been written at all, but the band was good and good fun to be in. I was in an indie punk originals band that I definitely wouldn't have gone to see... and the reason I left was because no one else wanted to see them either.

Billy Sheehan has a red Yamaha Attitude made from red acrylic, weighs A LOT!

I played in a blues r&b covers band a few years ago where I mainly used my Jazz bass. I'd got into the habit of using only the neck pick up. I thought it sounded good for the band. Then we played a venue where just using one pick up was bringing up the dreadful hum you can get. I played the whole gig with both pick ups on with the same settings on the amp. My wife recorded a few songs and the bass sounded very different to how I thought it would on those settings. It sounded almost like an upright bass. I was rather pleased. So that's how it's remained.

I don't play unless I'm in a band

Yes, so I can see the set list taped to the floor.

It'd be wrong for it to sit in a case doing nothing though 😁

I wish I was in some sort of band because I would definitely be ordering one.

Martin Chambers wasn't on the drums for The Pretenders, bit odd.

I'm currently watching Editors on iPlayer. I've seen them a couple if times in recent years and they are great live. There's nothing wrong with the mix, but there never is with Editors. I'm not sure the new material is working live and I'm still sceptical over Blanck Mass' work on the production side. But that's a very minor niggle to be honest, still a great performance

Mrs Marvin and myself went to see Dodgy at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, on their Free Peace Sweet tour last night. The last time we saw them was 10 years ago when they were doing their First and Last tour (they played all of Stand Upright in a Cool Place and all of The Dodgy Album) playing a small venue of no more than 100 people. Great musicians in my opinion, Matthew Priest is a great drummist. I couldn't fault the band last night and a great crowd made for a really good atmosphere. All excellent APART from the sound. It was woeful. Everything was drowned out for large parts by the drums and a booming undefined bass. And the top end, what you could hear, was shrill and brittle. Perhaps it's the venue. There is a banjo part in one song on the Free Peace Sweet album for which Dodgy got a touring player to just play on that song. Total waste of time, didn't hear a note. Perhaps where we were sat, up in the balcony. However, the O2 Apollo in Manchester is a very similar venue, and when we saw Editors there a few years ago the sound was spot on. If someone made my bass sound like the bass last night they'd get a bollocking (the bass in The Supernaturals, who were supporting, was exactly the same). It marred a very good gig. I know how good they can sound. On the First and Last tour the sound was brilliant. The mix was perfect, not too loud, you could hear the vocal harmonies and so on. Chris Helme, previously of The Seahorses, played a support slot which was very good. Which was surprising because I didn't really like The Seahorses... probably due to John Squires' constant guitar widdling. 😁

Being in a similar situation to the OP, I understand completely