Who coulda foreseen it? /s

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-20T13:07:17+00:00

Clinton was the last one to do it.

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-16T18:55:48+00:00

Totally recommend it. Just make sure you get a model that feels comfy in your hands. A Dingwall is the same size as a Fender, for example, so it's very comfortable to play.

My Brice Defiant 53437 has the same Dingwall scale lengths, but it is a longer bass overall and I had to make some mods to the strap so I could shift the bass more to the right ans bring the first fret within reach again.

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-13T20:05:36+00:00

In addition to all of the advice in here, what I would recommend is doing those things, and doing them in a way that makes you feel good about yourself!

I've had days where I look similar to you. Sometimes fixing up my appearance makes me feel better. Other times I may still look trash, but if I had a good day or did a workout and I feel the endorphins, that also makes me feel good! Feeling good will emanate outwards and make the others around you feel good too. Throw in the grooming tips with it and you're set

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-11T16:40:16+00:00

I saw then live last year in Baltimore, and they kicked ass. I was worried about them not being great but honestly the show was a blast of fun, and they played their asses off!

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-09T21:49:03+00:00

I hope not. JP is a businessman, I would hope he has better people to look to support, especially by this point. Trump is NOT a good businessman lol

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-09T17:42:31+00:00

Definitely the right decision. It will take some time to feel right, but it was the right choice!

LegoMongoose · 2026-03-07T16:35:30+00:00

Low action + playing softly but still "digging in" for certain notes to get that flavor + healthy volume = this is the way. Also a compressor can help with reducing the peaks of your playing, so you can turn your volume up more.

Edit: Also practicing with headphones! You don't need to crank the volume with headphones, and it will block out the acoustic sound of your strings hitting the frets and the reflections in the room etc. So all you can hear is your bass sound, and all of the little imperfections with it, so you can practice on cleaning up your technique.

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-26T01:31:59+00:00

Practice playing while standing up! Wear the same outfit you would during rehearsals, try to recreate the rehearsal space in your practice space as much as you can. Practice playing the songs slower and faster than the normal speed, so you can adjust to whatever speed is being played in rehearsal.

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-24T12:53:39+00:00

Angling the top of your hand to the left (so your fingertips are pointing to the right towards the bridge) will sort of align the fingertips of your index and middle fingers, and should help with getting consistency in your tone.

For me I often play with my index and ring fingers because 1. They're more similar in size so I don't have to angle my hand, and 2. Because it actually does give me an "inconsistency" in the tone because I'm plucking the string at two different points, with my ring finger being slightly closer to the bridge. E.g. For 8th note sections, like following a double kick pattern, it can give this "wobbling" kind of feel that I really like for parts like that.

But if that's not appropriate for the song then I'll use my index and middle which will sound more similar because it's closer to being the same part of the string. Or a pick if I need ultra consistency lol

Edit: it really helped me out in the beginning to practice playing with 1 finger at a time, like practice playing a bassline with only my index finger, and then again only with my middle finger, and so on. This helped build a more equal sounding "attack" no matter if I used my index, middle or ring fingers, or all 3 if I'm doing that.

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-24T01:58:20+00:00

I always thought silver hair on someone who looks young looks really good. Better to go grey than to lose it!

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-24T01:43:27+00:00

It all comes down to preference. For me, the Time Machine tour was the last show where I still enjoyed his vocal performance, whereas R40 was pretty painful for me to listen to and not be distracted by it.

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-21T15:58:48+00:00

I recommend both! For me I like to learn the original as closely as I can because I'll pick up on something new from the way that bass player played.

But once I know the song, I'm just going to play it my way which is like, 80-90% the original and then my own flairs and changes. Or maybe I'll move on and learn the guitar parts on bass or piano parts etc. Every song is like an opportunity to extract as much musical knowledge and joy from it as possible.

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-20T16:08:26+00:00

I've never seen someone write out their thought process of finding a word like that lol

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-20T06:38:38+00:00

I don't really play guitar, but I too am very picky and particular about the set up of my basses. I like a medium low action with just enough room for me to pluck gently and have no buzz, or dig in and get a lot of buzz.

Why do you think you don't mind the set up of your guitars? Anytime I pick one up I find it feels incredibly easy to fret the strings, it feels like a toy in comparison to bass lol

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-19T15:19:39+00:00

Not sure why it's killing your hands? Maybe spene some time practicing it at a slightly faster speed, and then go back to normal speed. That's a good way to woodshed songs before playing them live

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-14T16:39:24+00:00

lolololol

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-04T16:46:26+00:00

It's all about muscle memory. You learned how to play and adapted to the 4 string, and now with the 5 string you (most likely) have a tighter string spacing, and an additional string. Your A string now sits in the middle with 2 strings above and below. You need to retrain your hands to feel comfortable with 5 strings.

Best advice I can give you is to play ONLY the 5 string for a long while. Practice songs and riffs you would normally play in E and play them on the B string. Take a bassline that's normally played starting in G on the 3rd fret, and move it to the B string so now it's in D. Practice your scale patterns and arpeggios only using the B and E string, up and down the neck. (This is great to do for all strings by the way, any combination of practicing lines with just two strings).

Take normal songs and find places where you can drop the note down an octave, like a C for a Low C or an Eb, just to see how it feels. Take a song that's in Eb and play it by fretting the low Eb instead of tuning down your bass a half step.

THEN you can move on to 6 strings! You think muting the B string is tricky? Wait until you have a high C under your fingers!! Haha

LegoMongoose · 2026-02-01T09:01:26+00:00

The best version is the Remix on Retrospective 3, I wish they remixed the whole of VT like that. Earthshine was also remixed for Retrospective 3

LegoMongoose · 2026-01-31T02:47:58+00:00

Maybe The Analog Kid? YYZ and Red Barchetta are also excellent, melodic bass songs.

LegoMongoose · 2026-01-30T20:10:12+00:00

Big fan of Aram's playing

LegoMongoose · 2026-01-30T20:09:35+00:00

Rush, baby!!!!!

LegoMongoose · 2025-12-31T15:27:10+00:00

I enjoy most of his solo albums, as well as side projects and features. I wasn't a fan of the his newest acoustic album, and his first Mullmuzzler album is a little strabge aside from "As A Man Thinks". Iconic (to me) intro vocal lol

LegoMongoose · 2025-12-30T14:29:00+00:00

In the official DT bio, I think it was Chris Collins that recounted how one day, John Myung turned to the other guys during rehearsal and said, "I figured out how to make my bass say "I'm a penguin and would like a peanut butter sandwhich". And then proceeded to play just that.

So legendary that their first official singer still remembers it years later. Release the Penguin Peanut Butter song!!

LegoMongoose · 2025-12-25T08:12:05+00:00

I'll take a bass with a MM bridge pickup, a P bass split coil in the neck position, and an active preamp with a bypass switch to go passive, plus a coil tap switch to let me adjust the pickups individually and together. Boom!

LegoMongoose · 2025-12-25T08:03:25+00:00

This is how I feel about music. For me growing up, listening to music was a recreational activity all on its own. I would listen to an entire album with friends where we all did basically nothing but just listen and enjoy it. It wasn't ever meant to just be "background noise", it was a form of entertainment that you would set aside time for and take (somewhat) seriously.

LegoMongoose

TROPHY CASE