Delberthot

I stopped smoking 13 years ago and stopped drinking completely at the beginning of the year. Just bottled water for me, plus the occasional half time protein shake or coffee. I'm pretty much OCD about having clean hands when I'm playing so I've never eaten during any gig ever in 30 years apart from the buffet at half time

The same for me but the song was Footloose. Once we changed drummers and started playing it at the correct speed it was a hell of a lot easier to play and more enjoyable

I tend to dig in or play lightly depending on what song I am playing. I have always set up my basses so that I only get fret rattle when I dig in. I've found that if I can't hear myself properly then that's when I really dig in. Got my first blister in years a few weeks ago playing a charity gig as I couldn't have my cab right next to me and turning up louder would've been too loud for everyone else on stage

I forgot to mention that - I was advised years ago not to use silicon polish but the car polish I use doesn't contain any

I bought a litre of proper lemon oil from an olde fashioned DIY store 25 years ago and there's still loads left. I absolutely detest scratches and dings, dongs or marks of any description and don't understand how some basses get in such a mess. Nitro finishes will age naturally but poly finishes are really hard wearing and I imagine it would take a lot to damage the finish. My bass is the last thing to get taken out of it's bag once everything else is set up and the first thing to go away. Once a year during a string change I take off all 4 at once instead of one at a time and treat the fretboard with the lemon oil, leave it for a minute then wipe off the excess with a clean cloth. I then clean the bass with car polish - I've been using the same bottle of dark blue Colour Magic since the mid 90s on all of my dark basses. This is the same time that I change the battery whether it needs to be change or not so I can concentrate on playing and not worrying about the battery going half way through a song. That's it - plus no one gets to touch it, let alone play it. It's coming up for 2 years old and still looks brand new

I was surprised how many songs Gene Simmons sang when I saw them live last year - plus Paul Stanley has been responsible for many of the recorded bass lines, my favourite being I was Made for Loving You. Flea has "sung" a couple of Chilis tunes including Pea and the outro for Deep Kick both on One Hot Minute And how could we forget Graham Gouldman? What a talent

for me there is no better feeling than the smooth, almost slippery feel of flats. It's not so much to do with the sound as the feel. It's so much easier to give it hell for an entire gig and not have sore fingers by the end of it. My favourite combinations of flats and basses have been: Chromes - Epi Thunderbird, Fender FSR Precision with EMGs & Yamaha BB1025 Rotosound - My gold '54 Warmoth with SD stack pickup Thomastiks - Ibanez SR1016 & Stingray Fretless Unfortunately my Sterling sounded dreadful with flats so I've gone back to D'addario nickel plated rounds which are the smoothest rounds I've ever used, plus it brought the MM growl back

I was the opposite - I was 12 at the time and my mum and my brother wanted me to get an electric guitar but typical stubborn me decided on the Marlin Slammer. £99 in the Littlewoods catalogue in 1987. It was red and looked a bit like John Deacon's one that he used in the One Vision video. I don't think his one had the chrome peeling off the bridge after 6 months though

I've been using my TGI Extreme bag since I bought my Sterling new in March 2016 and it's still as good as new - currently £42 from Bass Direct It's been used for all gigs and rehearsals. I still keep my original MM case in case there is a situation when I would be going to a gig in the van but it's never left the house since I bought the bass (the case not the van)

for an 8 o'clock start we're there for 6 and we always specify 2 rooms in the contract for changing as we are a male & female band - we're lucky if we get to change in the toilets TBH. There are absolutely fantastic wedding venues out there that genuinely look after bands but they are few and far between and an absolute joy to play at. 1 hour is what we say as it allows us time to sound check but rarely do we get it but luckily myself and singer have wireless so we can venture into the crowd to see what the levels are like during the first couple of songs

I have mine zip tied to my strap at the bottom just below where you select the channel. I also have velcro going around it further up to both hold it on and to make doubly sure that the battery door is closed and stays closed. I buy Duracell Industrial batteries in bulk (usually about 100 at a time) and they work out at about 26p per gig and I change them every gig. The old ones go home and are kept for remote controls for the TV etc

Unless she weighed herself, went to the bathroom to drop the kids off, then weighed herself again?

I like quick and easy. My Barefaced One10 sits on a Gorilla speaker stand at ear level facing me right behind the main PA speakers on the right hand side as this is where I stand. My Gallien Krueger MB500 is attached to the cab permanently using high bond tape and my Line6 G30 receiver is attached the same way to the top of the amp. Also attached onto the stand are a clip on fan and bicycle water bottle holder so I can get a drink in a hurry during breaks. I hate messy cables so I have several pieces of velcro wrapped around the stand that go round the cables at various points from the amp down to the floor to keep things neat. My bass sits on a Hercules stand right behind me when I'm not playing. I can set up and strip down in less than 5 minutes each way and it's only one trip to the car with a combined weight of around 17kg

Winning bid of £400 - The Chinese Fenders didn't even cost that much more new

"Handcrafted in Jolon Ca." Surely that should be "Colon Ja."?

Someone wanted more neck dive than it already had Always loved the way the Streamer 6s looked. This one looks like it's in pain

The new Stingray has the 22 fret board and 5 bolt neck plate same as the Sterling which hopefully suggests modifications to the Sterling to take it further away from the Stingray. I wonder if this means that we'll soon have the option of a Status Graphite neck for the Sterling if it shares the same scale and heel dimensions as the new Stingray. I'm wondering if we'll see changes to the Sterling firstly on the 25th anniversary that I'm hoping is in the pipeline like the 20th Stingray was the first to have the new bridge without the mutes. There has to be one but if not then I'm having a sparkly blue stingray. Best thing I did to my Sterling was fit ultralites as soon as I bought it.

Back in 1988 when Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out, all of the critics were going crazy for it saying what a fantastic film it was. I watched it and thought it was utter shite. Despite only being 12 at the time, I have never listened to a critic or "expert" since and whenever anything comes out purporting to be the best thing since sliced bread, I usually wait until all of the hubbub has calmed down before watching/listening to it and instead judge for myself how good I think it is. There are some cracking tunes on this album though

I was disagreeing with you saying that DJs are more effective than wedding bands as opposed to what your band does - it depends on the band Maybe there aren't any good DJs in my neck of the woods then We also do corporate stuff / dinner dances / wedding anniversaries and not a music stand in sight thank you very much

I had the 4x10" & 1x15" NX Neo cabs and they were amongst the best I've ever used

I would have to completely disagree with you on your first point. A good wedding/function band will try something that isn't in the set that they have been asked to play, within reason of course. I've heard a lot of DJs and rarely can understand a muffled word that they've said. They can have a huge variety of music available but nothing beats live music. A few years ago hotels were offering complete packages including DJs but those have died a death as people wanted live music and this year will probably be our busiest yet. You can't approach a wedding/function/private party the same as a bar gig. I've done lots of both over the years - in bars they are there to hear you, at weddings/functions you are providing a combination of background music, music to dance to and if you're good you will develop a rapport with the audience during the night. Each gig has a different mix of ages and you have to be ready to change accordingly. If you play weddings etc looking for people to tell you how good you are as a player then you will be thoroughly disappointed. If you are good you will occasionally have people telling you that the band are good and in incredibly rare events you might even get someone telling you that you thought that your playing was good but those are few and far between. I sometimes miss the compliments and experience that playing bars provides but I couldn't contemplate give up what I am doing. I'm having too much fun.

I also use a laptop bag - it dates back to when I had a Genz Benz Shuttle and it used to live in a laptop bag with a divider and my cables in the other half.

I've gigged 8 and 12 string basses and the 12vers are much, much bigger sounding than only an extra 4 strings would suggest. However, despite this, I'd still rather have a 4 and some pedals to emulate a rough approximation of a 12 string any day of the week

Not Labellas but the last time I bought Chromes it was cheaper to pick single strings of the gauges of my preference than it was to buy a pack from Strings Direct

My Trace MkV AH150 and 1248H cab were epic - and so was the weight. Must have cost about £250ish. Allegedly 90w was all that the Trace was putting out into that 4x12" but it was bloody loud