Recent content by BenRL

The difference between musicians and just music lovers is the need to be part of it. I'll never be Les Claypool but when I hear music I want to join in, it isnt good enough just listen. I often pick up my bass just to have it with me. I sit watching the news on TV with it on my lap just leaning...

I once tried to replicate that Tex Mex meal in the gatefold of Tres Hombres. Awesome stuff haha

That band camp sounds great. My local music shop runs things for Uke players in groups and trios etc but nothing else. It is harder finding gigging bands as an older musician but not impossible, I've just come out of a rock covers band and looking for a soul/funk review outfit for my next...

Going back to the start seems to keep me going. Played bass with a pick since age 15, influenced by Chris Squire, John Entwistle, Graham Maby etc, then spent 6 years in a cover band as lead guitarist as they already had 2 guitarists. Left the band last year coz I got fed up with the singer's...

Recently come back to bass after a 6 year lay off and would really like to check out pressure wounds as an alternative to round wounds that my new jazz bass came with. Slap, tapping and mid range punch. Any views on pros and cons?

When I was 14 I moved next door to a guy who introduced me to guitar and basic music theory. I didn't even know what a bass was but 3 months later I knew I wanted to be a bass player, coz those counter melodies and rhythms are where my ears naturally went. I got a bass guitar for my 15th...

11 drum Chrome shell Pearl. I used to run a 300w amp flat out through four 4X12 Marshalls in rehearsal and still got drowned out. S'why I wear 2 hearing aids today

I started playing when I was 15. Went straight to roundwounds because of Chris Squire, John Entwistle, that bright ringing sound was fundamental for me but in recent years, as an old geezer I'm loving flats. I'd love to get a Rick back and go mono for that classic McCartney thump, I'm even...

Did indeed, I remember chatting to Kirk for quite a while. Metallica supported my band in a pub called the 5 Bells at Kings Cross in London, (Building still there but now a branch of Chuck Burgers 257 Pentonville Rd) before they went stratospheric and I went on welfare; 2 careers going in...

I never thought of it as a P tone so much, which was actually more what I was after at the time but I only had it about 9 months and came straight at it after using a Rick 4003 in full round wound, Chris Squire glory, so the Roadster seemed a bit tame in comparison. Maybe if I'd added some sort...

It's an Ibanez Roadster RS 924 active 24 fret. I bought it off Dave Pegg in 1982 along with a fretless, through his tech for £500 the pair (I never actually met Dave) who said Ibanez made him a matching pair. I sold the fretted to buy a Fender Jazz, I didnt like the pick ups on it, too 80s, too...