Franticsmurf

I learnt (just about) the bassline to Christmas Wrapping but we never got around to playing it. My favourite song to play is Slade 'Merry Christmas' - great bass line and a great song that always works at gigs.

As it's his 18th, it would be nice if he had something that would last and that, when he gets to 'ahem' our age, that he could look back on. A really nice, quality made strap with (perhaps) straplocks would last even if he changes basses/amps/pedals.

Take a complete break. Weeks or months, but enough of a gap so you can start fresh. At that point you can reassess (as @Jackroadkill say above) and you'll know whether you want to actively try again, see what comes your way up or retire from the music scene. The worst thing to do is to make that kind of decision right now, while the situation is raw and the emotion is in charge. The important thing is to be in control of that decision - in other words, don't just wait for the band to fade out but step away on your own terms, take a break on your own terms and make a comeback on your own terms. Good luck.

You have won Basschat. Game over. 😃

Same here - Crib Goch, Striding Edge etc etc, but painting the hall over the stairs or cleaning the gutters.... 🤢🥴🤮

I've been using my Digbeth for a couple of years now and it took me a while until I got the drive side sounding as I wanted it. @MartinB's topic was very helpful in getting me on the right path (thanks). With the band I'm in I tend to use it on the clean channel and only hit the drive as a boost for a couple of solo spots and a couple of more rocky songs towards the end of the set (when everyone else has turned up the volume 😄). But in a previous band I was using the tube channel quite a bit to give me some edge.

I often go to the Bass Gallery online just to look at the pretty basses. I don't need another bass. I have no particular yearning for one either. But I like looking and playing the Lottery Win version of the 'what if' game. 😄

The Hulla band played an 'acoustic' night for a local drop-in centre for homeless people last night. We've worked with their volunteers before, backing their choir and raising funds for them, and the centre manager sings with the Hulla band occasionally, so it was a very relaxed and friendly affair. I say 'acoustic' because I was led to believe it would be unplugged, but in the end there were several amps and fortunately I had one to myself. The set was distilled from our usual Christmas party list to the more popular Christmas songs. There was some doubt over whether 'Fairytale of New York' was appropriate given the potential audience of disadvantaged and homeless folk, but the centre manager said ok, so we played it and it went down really well. We were asked to play on so out came some of our rock n roll classics and we played for twice as long as originally planned. It was a good atmosphere within the band and, of course, great to bring some smiles to faces of people who may not be celebrating Christmas the way most of us will this year. The Hulla band only plays for charity donations - its a community based band so the playing standard varies but we have a great vibe going. I love playing gigs but something like this one this brings an extra dimension of satisfaction. We all had tea of coffee before the gig - hardened musicians all. 😃 The gig was in a church - great acoustics. I appear to be the star of the show (I'm sorry, the bigger boys made me write that).

I originally got it just after joining the Hulla as they were doing a series of outdoor/unplugged gigs sponsored by the local seaside chippy. It was great, we got paid in fish and chips. 😃(The Hull is a non-profit band). It cost me £50 and it has a piezo pick-up fitted so I can plug in if necessary. See below. (I would love a semi acoustic bass and have been looking recently at the Hofner Verythin, Violin and the HB equivalents.) My understanding of the night was that it would be a quiet session in a church. Our drummer can be quiet when he needs to be but you're right, it was going to be touch and go. So I got them to bring my speaker and BAM200 which are usually kept in the rehearsal hall. Just in case. Good job as when I turned up, there were two guitar amps and the two brass players. So I ended up plugging in. And had I known about the amps and the extended set list (we went into rock n roll), I probably would have brought my Ibanez EHS1000 instead. I'm listening to the audio now and it's a nice mix.

My rig of choice for tonight's charity gig. There will be an amp and speaker available but I'm planning on keeping it unplugged unless the drummer is too loud. 😃

Not in my experience. With my story (above) at least everyone could play through all the songs at the practice stage. You could force the issue to test the waters - suggest attending an open mic night to play the best three of the 5 songs. Set a realistic but tight time scale and see what reaction you get.

This scenario is familiar - I've just had very similar issues with a three piece project. The guitarist/singer liked the idea of being a lead guitarist in a band, but there was very little enthusiasm to actually get and play gigs. The setlist grew into a list of songs he already knew and which, without fail, had extended guitar solos (or the potential for them). I left as rehearsals with no intention of gigging wasn't doing it for me. This is the second band this year I've left because there has been a distinct lack of interest in actually getting gigs. I'm not ready to give up yet. Maybe you should take a definite break - give yourself Christmas and the New Year off and some time to figure out what you want. Set a time - 6 weeks - that you won't actively look for something so there's no pressure to find the next project. Then start fresh. Good luck.

Yes, this is exactly what I experienced recently. The person concerned loved the idea that he was in a band but when it came to actually stepping up, taking some responsibility and 'doing it', there were excuses and late finishes. He also kept suggesting new songs to add and it became very obvious from his suggestions that they were simply songs in which he could show off his guitar soloing prowess.

The reason I went with the B6 was that I wanted to be able to change effects mid song or quickly between songs. I have a B1-4 but this has sequential effects selection and you have to know in advance the sequence (which in some line-ups I've played in is not always an option). I have the B6 set up so that the patch change gives me four amp set-up patches and for each patch I can have up to 4 selectable effects pedals. For example, patch 1 has a clean SVT with compressor, chorus, flanger and phase 'pedals'. Once I've selected that patch, I can switch to 'Effect Board' mode and engage/disengage the pedals as necessary. In the New Year I may be sharing bass and guitar duties in one of my bands. The B6 gives me two selectable inputs and with careful use of the effects loop I should be able to swap between guitar and bass. In terms of sound quality, my jaded ears can't spot the difference between the B6 and the B1-4 and neither (I suspect) can the PA speakers/room acoustics/audience. I don't use it to record, which is where any sound quality differences would show up.

The Hulla, in its acoustic/unplugged form, is playing at a local homeless drop in centre on Sunday. The usual Xmas set list. I did question whether Fairytale of New York was appropriate given the potential audience but the person who runs the place said it was ok. We do a few events for them and last summer we backed their volunteers choir at the Hullabaloo festival - they were very good (their rendition of 'One Day Like This' was incredible) - and we're hoping to work with the choir again.

Similar. Last year I gave myself a hernia and when the consultant examined me he found a second one hiding on the opposite side. It prompted me to investigate smaller/lighter options for all my kit and resulted in me ditching the Laney RB7 combo (about 25kg) and 15" cab (around 20kg) in favour of two 1x10 Trace Elliot cabs (about 8kg each) and a TCE BAM 200 (some grammes). I also dabbled in making my own small cabs based on the designs published on this site, resulting in two 1x6" cabs which I now use for practice and occasionally as a monitor. I had both hernias repaired at the beginning of this year but I like the idea of lightweight, and the 1x10 cabs sound great with my kit, so overall a win. Indirectly, the search for lightweight kit also got me into IEM and currently I don't use any backline with the Hulla band. In terms of instruments, I avoided the Sterling 34HH for a while and used my Spirit headless and/or my short scale acoustic bass - although in my case the weight of the bass didn't really risk worsening the hernias. I just wanted to be cautious.

A professional set up for my Sterling 34HH (as opposed to the amateur set up I performed) including cleaning the selector switch, which has crackled since I unboxed it a couple of years ago.

My three favourite bass players: Squire, Entwhistle and Bruce. Tony Levin would have been in there had the option been open (instead of Entwhistle).

I'm involved with my mate's 'Rockschool' summer school project for the kids who take music lessons with him. They form groups of up to 5 and a tutor mentors them. It's scary how good some of them are. Last time I did it, the band of 14 and 15 year olds I tutored did three covers, wrote their own tune and, because they nailed it all early (the school runs for a week), they learnt Hotel California, complete with harmony guitar solo. At the end of the school, there's a concert in a decent venue with proper stage, sound and lights and they went down a storm.

I started off with this, although an earlier edition. If/when he's hooked, you might want to try 'The Guitar Handbook' by Ralph Denyer. It may bit a bit too advanced in total, but there's a handy chord dictionary, scales and the first elements of music theory. And as he progresses, there's a whole load of content on maintenance, amps, effects etc. I bought my first edition when I was 16 and I still have a copy that I use as a reference now (many, many, many etc years later).

I know that feeling - I was never actually kicked out of bands but occasionally asked to simplify the bass line a bit. And I've been on the trail of Squire's tone almost since I started on bass. I'm getting closer, but it seems to always be one pedal/amp/cab/bass ahead. 😂

As a Yes fan, their extended live version of 'Every Little Thing' is often playing, and the Daytripper riff appears in the introduction. Norwegian Wood also makes an appearance mid song, and it was this that made me think of doing it myself.

Got my B6 a couple of days ago and I've spent about 3-4 hours over the last few days setting it up. So far I'm impressed and happy. Impressed that it has so many options and that editing is simple (I haven't felt the need to connect it to Guitar Lab). Happy that it lets me do what I wanted, which was to be able to set up the effects so I can go between them without having to cycle up or down. Coming from the world guitar multi FX, this was the norm but I guess bassist aren't expected to change back and forth mid song. I have four amp-based patches set up within which I can select or deselect individual effects (chorus, flange, phase and delay in my case). The simple editing process means that it will be easy to adjust on the fly during practice as new songs are brought in, or old favourites wheeled out from the cupboard. I haven't been able to test it at gig volumes but at home volume (with the neighbours away) and with headphones I like the sounds I'm getting. For the main band (the Hulla) I'll be using it directly into the FOH and I'm hoping to get the chance to try this on Sunday (still waiting to hear if we're rehearsing). Otherwise, with only one gig on the books between now and the new year (and that one is meant to be quiet, so I'll probably be using my acoustic bass) I'll have to wait a while to see what difference volume makes.

In the late 80s when I first started out on the musical dream* our keyboard player was on the music tech course run by a local college. He managed to get us a gig as the 'house band', which students learning about the recording studio had to record. It was fun as we got to pretend to be rock stars and to present the students with challenges over and above getting the sound on 8 track tape. We ended up with a three track demo for free. An additional bonus came as the keyboardist was given the keys (pardon the pun) to the studio for the half term break. We went in to record as much of our original material as we could over the three days we had managed to organise being available for. The keyboard player - the one with all the studio experience - spent most of the first day trying to set up SMPTE (I think) code on the Atari in the studio while we attempted to set up the mics on drums and amps as we remembered them from the previous sessions. On day two we started to record our long, proggy masterpiece but the Atari wasn't playing ball and it took all day just to get the rhythm tracks down. On day three we managed to complete the proggy number but with only a few hours left, the other 7 or 8 songs didn't have a hope. Until we hit on the idea of setting up as a band and playing the whole set live. Drums in one room, vox in the vocal booth, guitar amp isolated in the drum room and keys and bass Di'd. We managed two run throughs and those are the recordings I still occasionally listen to. *may have been a day dream

We often do an extended version of Hey Jude at the end of 'Hulla' gigs, usually because of audience participation but occasionally singer inebriation. At the end, once I've exhausted the main bass part and variations thereof, I will ascend to the dusty end and start alternating between a slow version of the melody of 'Norwegian Wood' and the main 'Day Tripper' riff. Often with full psychadelic flange. 😃 I'm careful not to go too loud and I'm guessing half the punters never notice. But it makes me smile.