Franticsmurf

Today I've been listening to 'Yessongs', the live album with quite a bit of Fragile on it. The whole band sounding really good and Squire's bass solo reminding me why I got interested in music in general and bass in particular.

I agree, and it's great that the choice has widened without too much compromise on sound quality. Coincidentally, last night I decided to put together an alternative board using small and cheap pedals - the idea being to experiment with sounds and set ups. I love trying out budget effects and I'm relatively new to the whole effects thing so I need to find out how things sound and how they fit in (or not) with the stuff the band is doing. Up until lockdown I was using an EH Chorus and that was it. Since then I've added a few little boxes and my current line up includes a Zoom MS60b and a Laney Digbeth preamp. But I like experimenting, and I have been collecting a few of the cheaper micro pedals, including a Mooer Octave and Nux Sculpture compressor. Last week I bought a new delay pedal from Amazon for £9.99! (If you go looking, its branded 'Olycism'). It's never going to make it to a recording but it will provide me with slapback echo. And that set me thinking that it would be great to have a baby board with several effects on it that I can play around with and swap and change and that won't require the sale of an internal organ to fund or a sack trolley to move about. As an aside, the board is an old off-cut of a 4" wide plastic fascia strip, covered with black masking tape. I've put a piece of non-slip matting on the floor side and strips of velcro on the pedal side.

Hi Mark, welcome. ...I play jazz. A lot. Most gigs, in fact. 😀

I think it might be down to a wide angle lens used on some of the shots, which exaggerates the neck and headstock.

I used to feel the same way. I saw a band onstage once and the bass player looked about the same height as me. His Precision looked far too big for him (particularly the headstock). Although I was a guitarist at the time, I was leaning towards picking up the bass as the band I was in was struggling to find a reliable one, while we'd had plenty of interest from guitarists better than me. The sight of that bass dwarfing that player put me off. Years later, I found out from a mutual friend that the bassist in question was shorter than my 5'7" and around the same time I discovered headless basses. I now play a Sterling Ray34HH and don't care if it looks too big on me (I don't think it does) as there are many other things that people will pick on first - grey hair, white beard, dodgy wardrobe, inconsistent backing vocals.... 😀

In a former life as a guitarist, I was once told at the end of the version of 'Another Brick in the Wall' that "David Gilmour wouldn't have played it like that." To which I had to own up and admit that I wasn't David Gilmour. Rock star name snobbery? 😀

I think there may be many contributing factors, but the psychological element is definitely there. I have done it myself and I've learnt not to rely on a great rehearsal being an excuse to wing it on the night. In fact, I actively look for any areas to improve my performance during any rehearsal as strategy for dealing with the over confidence a good rehearsal can bring. Equally, I've experienced the 'great gig, we don't need to rehearse' approach which inevitably leads to performances we'd rather forget.

For years my criteria for a bass guitar were that it had to be affordable and versatile, i.e. suitable for a range of genres as the band I was in played all sorts of songs and all sorts of gigs. We were mostly in pubs to start with and the acoustics were almost always dodgy, so the sound was secondary. For the first 12 years of my bass gigging 'career', I didn't own any new basses and hadn't paid more than about £250 for the ones I had. As the gigs got better (and as I improved as a bass player) I started to invest in the sound aspect; better amp and speakers and a new Epiphone EB0. Finally I decided to buy a 'decent' instrument (a Sterling Ray34HH). I've never experienced bass snobbery although I've seen guitar snobbery aimed at our guitarist and on one occasion a case of band snobbery - we were gigging in a pub and another band was watching. Halfway through the set they decided to critique our backline for some reason. After a while our singer engaged with them along the lines of 'what's the matter guys'? to which the response was something like 'we'd never gig with that old kit'. So he asked them where they were gigging tonight. And where they were gigging tomorrow night. And next week. They walked off and later the landlord explained that they rehearsed in the pub but never actually played any gigs.

Hi Adrien. 😀

Hi Rib. 😀

I started using a headless bass for exactly the same reason. 😀

I am fortunate that I don't suffer from performance nerves. Being your own worst critic is probably the main cause of performance nerves but the reality is that most people watching can't tell if you've made a mistake unless you signpost it. I learned this quite early and although I still self analyse, I now use it to improve my playing. I found this approach really helped. I find things outside my control are the usual sources of anxiety. Finding the gig, dealing with the venue and leaving afterwards without any hassle from drunken punters are particular favourites. More recently 'will the singer get the song arrangement right' has been a concern. 😀

We had to 'let someone go' once. I was chosen as the bearer of the news and rang him up to explain (generally poor attitude and specifically refusing to play an encore at a nicely paid club gig because he didn't like the song). It wasn't pleasant, mainly because he hadn't seen it coming and was upset, but we owed him the courtesy of a phone call. Years later I met him again at one of our gigs and he ended up taking photos for us. It's always good to take a professional attitude, deal with issues early and regardless of the problem, treat the person as you would want to be treated.

My first guitar back in 1984 was one of these. I wish I'd held on to it now. 😀

I have had a Sterling 5 string for a while and loved the action, neck and the clarity from the active electronics. Last year I invested in a Sterling Ray 34HH and it's the range of sounds from the two pickups and the EQ which means it can cover pretty much anything I'm playing that makes it a standout for me.

In general, close vocal harmonies. Particularly UK traditional folk, like sea shanties and some of Steeleye Span's songs. I would agree with you that a great arrangement hits the spot, too. When playing it's that moment when the band has come together and there's an undefinable thing happening, regardless of the song.

In 2014 I climbed Kilimanjaro. The summit 'day' is a steep all night slog with little to see or hear until you get to the rim of the crater which, if all goes well, coincides with the sunrise. It took us about 7 hours and for most of those hours I had 'Three Little Birds' worming its way through my head. To start with, it was annoying but as the fatigue set in the chorus 'Don't worry 'bout a thing, 'cos every little thing's gonna be alright' was exactly what I needed to hear.

It's not for everyone and I admire those who can do it well. I played in a similar band for a few years pre-lockdown. We'd started off a very tight blues/rock band and we were getting plenty of work. We could jam - at one of our regular gigs we'd have a guest spot (usually a harmonica player or singer) and we'd be off on one But slowly things started to change. The singer/guitarist got to the stage where he couldn't be bothered to learn anything other than songs he played in his solo set. It made me a better bass player (and the drummer and rhythm guitarist said the same about their playing) but it was never fun and more often than not he got things wrong anyway. Arrangements and song structure went out of the window, he'd ask for requests at the start of the set and inevitably people would shout out something he didn't know so he'd either make a stab at playing it, usually badly, earning the disapproval of the crowd, or he'd ask them up to sing it. This would often result in an open mic session which was hard to stop as he'd set the precedent. We had a few good gigs - usually functions where he was a bit more disciplined. But usually the rest of the band came off stage feeling a sense of relief mixed with a feeling of having 'won' or 'lost' according to how well we'd coped with the random set list. Needless to say, the band and singer have now parted company. Edit: I just remembered I used to play in a backing band (drums, bass) for a music school end of year gig. I was one of the mentors and after the students had played it was a free for all and if they needed a bass player, it was me. I did enjoy that but it was simple stuff.

I sense a new 'How to play bass' YouTube channel being planned. One-handed catches. Two-handed catches. The 'Got it.... no... yes... no... yes... now make it look like part of the act'. 😀

Before lockdown we used to play regularly in a local pub. It was always a good gig, fun, relaxed and appreciated by the crowd. There was a guy that was always there who would jump up and spin with his arms outstretched during the first half when we played faster songs. The first time I saw this I expected a bit of trouble as he was bumping into people but clearly he was a character known to the regulars. He never hit the band and after a few spins (which were quite intense) he'd disappear into the crowd again and all would be well in the world.

One of the few songs I used to take the lead vocal on, and I've always sung 'Robin Hood'. 🤣

My first band landed a nice spot in a multi-band charity event, attended by several hundred people, with a proper stage, FOH sound and lights and a dressing room. At this point we'd played less than 10 gigs so this was a big deal. I was a mere guitarist back in those days and the audience was largely made up of people who worked in the same organisation as me. No pressure, then. The running order was by ballot and we managed to get the second from last slot, before the main band of the evening. Most of the bands were scratch acts put together for the event and all bar the main act were given 15 minutes. We started playing and three songs in, the organiser told the singer to 'play an extra song, you're the first act they've danced to' and sure enough, everyone was up and dancing. Not because we were brilliant but we were playing songs they knew. As a predominantly originals band, we had few covers we could call on and our 15 minute set was made up of the four covers we regularly played. So the extra song was one we'd mucked about with in rehearsals - 'Smoke on the Water'. The singer was very taken with the audience reaction to us and when I went to play the guitar solo he fell to his knees in front of me and screamed 'Dave on guitar'. Very dramatic and very, very off-putting. There followed a slow motion car crash of a solo (some would say nothing new there). 😀 We managed to pull it back together again and played several repeats of the chorus, drinking in the full dance floor but it all had to come to an end and we managed a tight finish and we even remembered to step back to allow the curtains to close. Then I realised I'd left my pedal board on the other side of the curtain. There followed a fumbling, confused search for the end of the curtain, rather like a Morecambe and Wise sketch, and I popped out alone on the stage to the obvious delight of everyone watching.

Sometimes it's just about being fun to play. And if you need any reasonable justification then anything that inspires or encourages you to play has got to be of benefit. (I chant that to myself at least once a week - slightly more since I joined BC). 😀

The Police with their reggae/rock ode to a BBC presenter - "Sue Lawley, Sue Lawley, Sue Lawley". Kenny Rogers - "You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille, four hundred children and a crop in the field". Well, with 400 kids, they could certainly make a dent in that crop.

Yes, and I respect that - they were happy (he was particularly happy, as I recall). Goodness knows I've made a fool of my self on many dance floors. 😀