Hello from South London

[Mediocre Polymath]

Hello folks. Name's Ben. I've been playing since I was 16 or so, and I'm getting alarmingly close to 40 now. I have never been a touring or regularly gigging musician, though I have had periods of playing live fairly frequently and have been in many, many of those sorts of bands that rehearse for months and then fall apart without playing a gig because everyone's too busy.

 

My formative bass influences were, as is probably pretty ordinary for my generation, Flea and Stuart Zender, with a bit of Matt Freeman and Mike Dirnt thrown in. More recent years have seen me gravitate towards the work of the old masters, studying the ways of Jamerson, Dunn and Rainey.

 

I've always kept my stable of basses to no more than two – a fretted and a fretless, though the roster has changed a few times. The fretted list starts with the family heirloom Gibson EB-3 that I learned on, then an OLP Stingray copy (see the note about Flea), a Yamaha BB604, a Squier VM Jazz, and finally a thing I made myself. My fretless basses have been a mysterious 1980s Yamaha I got from a pawnbroker, a Warwick Corvette, and finally another weird headless custom of my own design.

 

My amps have been many and various, but these days I rock a Markbass head and a stupidly heavy 1x10 cab I made myself. My effects consist of the traditional bass player tuner>compressor>overdrive.

 

In addition to electric bass, I also have an upright bass (that I got for free and can't really play very well), various guitars, a banjo and a mandolin (which I think of as a tiny bass strung backwards).

 

I'm at the stage of life where old bandmates from days of yore are getting bored with parenting, and deciding that maybe they want to get a band together and play Steely Dan covers in the pub. Which means I'm starting to get called on again.

 

[Frank Blank]

Welcome @Mediocre Polymath

[SpondonBassed]

Welcome Ben.

[ezbass]

[PaulThePlug]

Great intro post... welcome.

40 ya say... nearest anyone on here gets to 40 is a speed limit!

 

Looking at the Basses, You clearly Know ya Onions... More Pics Please!

(There is a Build Diary thread if you have any old pics of when you put em together)

[Mediocre Polymath]

10 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

Great intro post... welcome.

40 ya say... nearest anyone on here gets to 40 is a speed limit!

 

Looking at the Basses, You clearly Know ya Onions... More Pics Please!

(There is a Build Diary thread if you have any old pics of when you put em together)

 

Thanks, I'll have to dig through the photos on my phone and see how well I documented those builds. I'm not great at taking pictures as I work.

 

Also, I'm much happier hanging out with fellow old-timers than fielding the umpteenth question this week about whether or not you need a specific kind of bass to play [insert esoteric heavy metal subgenre here], which is 90 percent of bass conversations online.

[msb]

I’m curious about the family heirloom.

 

Welcome to the board.

[Mediocre Polymath]

1 hour ago, msb said:

I’m curious about the family heirloom.

 

Welcome to the board.

Hah, just a roundabout way of saying "my dad's bass". Both he and the bass are still going strong. He even still gigs with it, despite it being about the most uncomfortable and awkward bass ever made. Can't deny it looks cool though.

[PaulThePlug]

...and? Pic of the article? It's a Basschat house rule...

[nilorius]

Best regards!

[Rumple]

Welcome to BC.

That fretless looks lovely 🙂

[msb]

12 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Hah, just a roundabout way of saying "my dad's bass". Both he and the bass are still going strong. He even still gigs with it, despite it being about the most uncomfortable and awkward bass ever made. Can't deny it looks cool though.

 

I like short scales , and would love to find a nice EB-3 sometime. I’m fine with the shape and ergonomics. I have an SG , but they’re not the same thing.