Delberthot

I don't hold the kind of parties that serve little cubes of cheese and pickled onions so I've never owned a cocktail stick but I always have superglue. To avoid getting it on the bass I coat the threads of the screws and I've never had one come out but they are still easy to remove if you ever sell the bass on.

I developed a staccato technique over the years to compensate for big wooly sounding cabs so that I could hear myself properly and make it sound more punchy. I don't use a plectrum and I've never tried palm muting. I've just realised that there's a song I play where I drop the E to D for the bridge. I then play the open D for a full bar then flip the lever back up to play the E for a further full bar so 2 bars in total.

You need some amount of sustain available, you don't just want a note to stop dead as soon as you've played it. Unless there's something I'm missing and sustain is something completely different? e.g. you play the note and it rings out for as long as you need it to? If so then I'd rather have the option to use it than not have it available but unless you stick mutes or bits of sponge under the strings then I can't imagine any bass not having enough unless it was a turkey

"It's Better To Regret Something You Did Than Something You Didn't do" Deep Kick by the Chilis from One Hot Minute I've done a lot of stupid stinky poo in my time but I don't regret anything. It's all part of learning and maturing

Here are my current two

Why stop at just the hardware when you can have gold frets, sparkly gold body and gold strings

If you get one it will fit in a cajon bag along with your amp and cables. I carry mine in a cajon bag by hand but it also came with shoulder straps

Bagpipes - surely the instrument of the devil. Sounds like a bag of angry cats. Dreadful out of tune wailing noise and ridiculously loud when played indoors.

I always laugh when I think that I've had everything from A to Z apart from Alembic and Zon Primarily a 4 string player I've just bought a 5 which is my first in a couple of years. I still have a craving for a Hamer B12A despite having no real use for one

But it does mean that you can have the most expensive and exclusive party The figure I heard quoted for hiring the venue for the weekend was £15,000. It's normally £27,000 for a wedding just for the venue and waiting/bar staff.

Instead of things you want how about things you are confident that you will never ever buy again? For me there are three: Fretless basses - ideal for certain situations but don't suit my punchy aggressive style of playing. I still love the way they look though. I still have a £50 Lindo fretless precision bass in my livingroom as a reminder - any time I even contemplate one I pick it up and it all comes back to me. Heavy Cabs - I had a flashback this morning back to a gig lifting 2 37kg Ashdown ABM410s up several flights of stairs and telling myself then that was the last time (and it was). Heaviest were 2 46kg Trace v-type cabs or the Ashdown MAG810 that I had that weighed 57kgs. Effects - don't have any use or need for them and just spend my time messing with them during gigs then sell them on the next day

I have a hankering after an Epiphone Jack Casady Blue Royale bass

Has "lifting the stone" been modified by the profanity filter? And sorry I meant spinning in his gravy, he likes a good roast on a Sunday

Exactly. We played a gig the Friday before Christmas to a family who had booked an enormous stately home for their son's 21st birthday party. There were 34 people there and we had a ball Tonight we will be at the same venue as we have for the past 3 years. Nice hotel, we're looked after while the guests are having their meals and it's only 9.30-12.30 with a 3 minute drive home. I'm trying to look forward to it but after tonight there will be nothing until February so it's always a bit of a downer for me towards the end of the night as we've had such a great run of Christmas party nights and enjoy each other's company. We're not the kind of band that socialise outside of the band, we're all incredibly different people in terms of personalities and musical tastes but together it just works perfectly

Rick Neilson would be spinning in his grave if he saw that

The Fender Rumble combos sound great but I would still use another 2x10" cab if there was no pa If I left my function band and went back to playing in rock bands then I would keep my amp and get something like 2 Barefaced Two10s. The main reason being that I couldn't get a 6 x10" or 8 x 10" in my car

And it's the flavour of the month thing to have - a tiny amp that gets really hot with no speakon output, has a hump on the top and doesn't sound like a Trace Elliott As a backup that you can stick in your cables bag it makes perfect sense to me but cabs can only physically get so small and I have one of the smallest so there seems to be little point of having it this size unless it's a backup to your main amp

The most recent incarnation of my wedding/function band has been going for the past 3 years now and the main theme running through our set is disco/funk but not just 70s We do Blame it on the Boogie but we also do Uptown Funk, Get Lucky and so on Also, if we are given plenty of time we will not only learn a first dance but a couple of others that we don't have on our set list. the most off the wall ones we have had this year compared to what we normally do are: The Kaleo one took us a couple of rehearsals to get it right as there are so many changes and timing changes but we absolutely nailed it on the night The Biffy one was the only song in 30 years of playing that I had to tune down a semitone to play and just prior to going into the chorus had to drop the E which was tuned to Eb down to C# then back up going back into the verse. That one stands out as being a lot of fun to play as myself and the guitarist have both played in rock bands for years

If they are the same shape as the ones on the standard and goth models then EMG 35 pickups go in there. There is a small gap top and bottom but nothing that should bother you. There are loads of variants of pickups in this shape

I've been in wedding & function bands for about the past 23 years. Anyone who's been in that type of band knows that you can be playing one style one minute and something completely different the next. In that time I've owned about 130 basses and the right bass for the band was the one I had at the time and to alter the sound I've moved my hand towards the neck or the bridge and played either heavier or lighter. My advice would be to find a bass that you really like to play, that feels good and you can comfortably play all night. Chances are the audience won't notice the difference anyway. Sometimes we get too caught up in trying to find something that we don't really need. I know that I was incredibly guilty of it in the past. When I change basses it's for the hell of it and not the sound. Any half decent bass will sound decent through the PA. Once I had it out of my system I started enjoying playing more instead of trying to find something that I thought I needed but had all along

I spotted that as well but collection only so you may get it for a relatively low offer

35 including NYE this year and almost the same already in the diary for next year so should be a lot busier

There's no reason why it shouldn't last 20 years if looked after and not pushed too hard. I'm the same as you - I could have basses and cabs of any age but I'm really panicky about my amps and change them every couple of years. You've got a backup so worst case scenario you finish the gig with the Promethean and either get the MB checked or bin it and buy another

And Eric with Cheryl Crow and Nathan East. What's not to love about this? And I may be out of the loop but is that Steve Gadd on drums and Greg Philinganes back on Keys?

He's still one of my favourite guitarists and I've read his biography many times. I'm so glad he found peace later in life. He's been one of my major influencies musically and the first time I got to see Nathan East's big beaming smile was here: