O/

[PatrolOfStroll]

Yo, I'm Natalie from Chester. I'm a very novice player. Back when I was about 17 I bought a Squier Affinity JBass new, and barely touched it. What I now know is that undiagnosed ADHD was having its way with my attempt to keep the hobby going, as it did with many other hobbies!

 

Anyway, a couple of years ago I stopped neglecting the poor thing, but I tinkered with it more than I played it. I got it new pickups and some not-too-expensive new hardware. An EMG JVX set I got for a steal on reverb, some nice Wilkinson tuners, and a Fender HiMass bridge that Richtone Music had on clearance. Since about a year ago my now-diagnosed ADHD has been medicated, and I've found myself committing a lot better to practicing, especially in the past few months. So it seems appropriate a time now to set myself up an account here.

 

You can call me by she/her if you'd like, I know the name Natalie makes that feel the most natural option. I prefer they/them these days if you want, but I won't be upset by she/her at all either. So just do whatever. I'm AMAB trans which you can look up if you don't know the meaning of, but without boring any of you too much with the details, over about a decade of introspection I just feel like it's easier and makes me happier if I think of myself not as a 'gender' but rather as just who I am. If you don't like notions like that or balk at pronouns being posted, you can probably safely assume that we wouldn't get along very well, and we can keep a healthy distance! But in my experience anyway, although media people seem to like platforming some very vocal opinions about this stuff, the real people of the general public are overwhelmingly friendly and accepting. Live and let live is way easier than being angry about things that don't matter to oneself, after all. I have no doubt that the good people of Basschat are a friendly bunch glued together by our shared passion, so I'm confident I'll get along fine with everybody, anyway! I'm not one for starting fights and if somebody decides they don't like me I will simply zip my mouth and report.

 

But... that's enough rambling about a barely relevant subject. Back to something more interesting. I find myself gravitating towards pick playing at the moment, because many of the bands I listen to the most are metal and the harder ends of rock. In particular, I have a somewhat embarrassing fixation on Japanese groups... over the years, I've found myself in some slightly awkward situations with people asking about my tastes, but having shamefully little knowledge of the west's contemporary rock scene to talk about with them, haha. My head is too stuck in Japan's late 90s and early 00s scene. Visual Kei and Nagoya Kei bands' outputs from that era comprise a massive chunk of my favourites list. Bassists I really appreciate from that category are Yu~Ki from Malice Mizer, Hitoki from Kuroyume, and Toshiya from dir en grey. Toshiya is still going strong, with a style that has evolved a lot over the years. I think he's really underrated in the bass player anglosphere, thanks to an understandable language and culture barrier. As for more recent material (and by recent I mean... over a decade of range, I suppose, lol), the Japanese band that most stands out to me is 88kasyo junrei. Their frontman and bassist, Margaret Hiroi, is I think a bit of a genius. But if you're somebody who is reading Basschat and you have any interest in Japanese rock at all, I'm quite sure you probably know about him already, and don't need me to explain! Fingerstyle players like him, as well as, of course, Cliff and Steve, are the kinds of players who keep me eager to learn and practice fingerstyle just as much as pick. (I'll work on slap eventually too, but I wanna get some fundamentals solid first!) Cliff and Steve should be pretty telling as to what my tastes in English music have been; the Guitar Hero games landed during my late teens, and those are what got me into this kind of music in the first place, as happened to many in my middle-millennial age cohort... so, we were listening to lots of classic rock and I especially gravitated towards thrash metal. And the contemporary scene going on at the time was dominated by metalcore, so as avid watchers of Scuzz and Kerrang on the telly, I was given a massive dose of Trivium And Friends, and although I don't actively listen to much of anything from those groups anymore, I still feel a deep-seated fondness any time I happen to listen to the music I kept around me back then.

 

This is way too long-winded, so I'm cutting it off here! Glad to be here, and looking forward to chatting with everyone.

[ezbass]

[PaulThePlug]

Hi Natz... welcome to the machine...

[alyctes]

Hi!  Always good to see new people.

[Reggaebass]

Welcome Natalie 👍

[Bunion]

Welcome 

[SpondonBassed]

Welcome Natalie.

[msb]

I’m perfectly ok with you using a pick.

Welcome , Natalie.

[PatrolOfStroll]

2 minutes ago, msb said:

I’m perfectly ok with you using a pick.

Welcome , Natalie.

Haha, thankyou kindly. Glad to see people are open-minded when it comes to this very contentious issue.

[LowB_FTW]

I use a pick exclusively. Nothing wrong with being a pick user in my book.

Hiya and welcome.

 

Mark

[Waddo Soqable]

4 hours ago, PatrolOfStroll said:

Haha, thankyou kindly. Glad to see people are open-minded when it comes to this very contentious issue.

Another 90% pick player here 👍

[TheGreek]

7 hours ago, PatrolOfStroll said:

I think of myself not as a 'gender' but rather as just who I am.

 

A very considerate way of thinking about people.

 

Welcome Nat...

[Richard R]

Welcome aboard!

In my opinion the only people who should use picks are navvies.  Plectrums however, perfectly acceptable.  😁

 

See also: sidewalk, faucet, quarter-note, pronouncing Z to rhyme with T, etc etc... <grumbles off to find glasses, hearing aid and a pint of warm ale>