gjones

I'm starting up a covers band and most of the suggestions are really good tunes, from Blondie to AC/DC. No Wonderwall, or Mustang Sally.

I bought a double bass about 4 years ago, as I felt I should learn to play one. It's spent most of it's time in the corner of my living room (which is the only place I have room for it) where it looks great. When people come into the house the first thing they do is mention the DB, it's become a conversation starter. Every home should have one.

I found that even just loosening your strings for 24hrs will bring the life back into an old and dull set of strings. When you tune them back up again they're much brighter.

I doubt he'll be joining a bluegrass band any time soon then?

Most of the pro musicians I know make a precarious living. When I say pro, I mean session musicians who play with No 1 UK chart topping bands. it's all pretty hand to mouth unfortunately.

I liked my Barefaced compact so much that I bought a Super Compact. It's a good sounding cab but it's not as loud as the old Compact. I can play my Compact with a loud drummer, using a 500 watt head and I have headroom to spare. The Super Compact needs a bit more power to compete with the same loud drummer. I had to upgrade to an 800 watt head.

I've owned a couple of Geddy Lee Fender Jazzes but I don't really like Rush - they're just really classy basses.

The band I was in before lockdown called it a day, because of the singers health. We'd been pretty busy for a few years but that's life I suppose. So I joined another, newly formed band, and started rehearsing. The two guitarists in that band, asked me if I would like to join a band playing rockier stuff with them and I said yes. So that's two bands all rehearsed and nearly ready to gig. Then the guitarist in my original band contacted me and said that the singer, his wife, has been miraculously cured and asked if I'd like to get back gigging with them. ...and of course I said, 'You bet!'. So that's 3 bands I'm a member of. Of course two of them have never gigged but it's going to be difficult once the bookings start coming in. My old band have lots of contacts and a good reputation as a crowd pleasing, competent band. So I expect we'll be getting quite a few gigs soon. The other bands will need to work themselves around those gigs (especially since me and the drummer are in all 3 bands). I've never been in 3 bands simultaneously before, it should be fun

5 years ago I bought a USA Fender Elite Precision, my first USA Fender, which cost just under £2000 (the only bass I've ever bought new). I owned, at the time, a Japanese Fender Precision and a bitsa Precision (Classic Vibe body,Japanese Fender neck, old USA 80s pickup). The USA bass is very well put together and is a beautiful thing, it sounds great and is very versatile, as it's a P/J with and active pre amp and it plays really nice too. But the Japanese Precision plays really great too and sounds fantastic, as does the bitsa. There was no logical reason to buy the Elite, as my other Precisions were more than capable. I just had an emotional urge for a USA Fender. My warped logic was that a USA Fender is the 'Real Deal', and all others are (however good) imposters.

One of the Amp options on the dial is bass and it sounds alright. Decent volume too.

I like all genres of music but my favorite is soul, by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes. I play in a covers band, a rock band, a blues band and a country band but no soul band. There's a lack of soul bands in my area unfortunately, which aren't dodgy wedding bands (I hate playing weddings).

I've got a Yamaha THR 10, which I bought to play my electric guitar through. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it could be powered by batteries or mains and that it can also be used for bass. The tech blurb says it's 18watts and It's definitely able to keep up with acoustic guitars, as I've taken it to a few acoustic rehearsals with one of my bands.

I've been asked to lend my most rubbish bass, to a friend of friend, and I said nope. If I knew the person and was confident they'd look after my bass, I'd probably say yes. But I wouldn't lend an expensive bass, like a yours, to somebody I had never met.

Thanks for the info about 'WhenAvailable'. I arrange rehearsals for a couple of bands and setting a date/time is a pain in the butt. That website will make things a lot easier.

I care ❤️

I bought an Ashdown MiBass 550, secondhand from Basschat, about 10 years ago. I gave it to the son of a friend of mine, about a year ago, who'd started to play bass and it's still going strong.

I keep on telling the rest of the band that 'Care Homes' are a golden opportunity for a band like ours, whose target audience are 'Grey hairs & nae hairs'. They're not convinced.

'Pretty Tragic' is a great name for my new Engelbert Humpeldink band! Thanks!

It can be a bit disheartening when you see a video of your band, recorded on a mobile phone, with no bottom end, that sounds tinny, unbalanced and distorted. A few months ago we were recorded at a live gig, onto multitrack, by an excellent engineer. The recording was then mixed and streamed and I was astounded at how great everything sounded. I was so used to those awful mobile phone videos of the band, that I thought we sounded rubbish live.

You made the fatal mistake of plugging a bass into it. ......and turning the volume higher than 2 on the master. I had one too. Shockingly useless thing.

It's excellent and doesn't tangle. I've owned previous cheaper versions of Fender leads that were cheap and nasty but a friend had one of these and I was so impressed I went out and bought one. It's the best lead I've ever owned.

The standards usually had smaller machinehead plates. It looks like this one has had 70s style machineheads fitted at some stage. All the Japanese Fenders I've owned, over the years (I still have a Jazz and a Precision), have been excellent.

I had a Peavy TNT about 25 years ago. Very solid and loud amps. That one looks in good condition. The Ashdown looks a bit 'homemade'. I'd suggest you give them both a test at a loud volume before parting with any money.

I played my first music, in front of punters, for over two years last night. It looked like it might never happen, as the singer of my main band had some serious health issues over lockdown, but she's feeling much better now and ready to Rock n Roll again. I'd been rehearsing with other bands but they're not quite ready to gig yet (if it ever happens). It was great to get up and turn everything up to 10 (well actually the gain was probably on about 2). We ended up playing everything about 3 times it's correct normal speed (I think the drummer was a bit nervous).