Midlife re-evaluation and gear simplification

When people get to be my age, they go through what most people call a midlife crisis. I don't like to think of it that way. I view it more as a midlife re-evaluation. It's the stage of life where you finally realize that you no longer have all the time in the world to do everything you want to do, so you re-evaluate those goals and figure out which ones are viable and which ones have to be abandoned. It's a bittersweet time as it's sad to see some of your old goals and aspirations die, but it's good to be refocused on the things you really want to do. It doesn't happen at once and the plans often change until you finally figure out what you want.

This re-evaluation happened to me recently. I'm fortunate in that I have a logical, analytical mind, and that I can do a lot of internal analysis without doing anything rash. Many people end up doing crazy stuff like quitting their jobs, divorcing their husbands/wives, and buying outrageous sports cars, boats, motorcycles, etc., only to realize they love their spouse, they liked their job, and the new bike hurts their back. I'm also fortunate because the only part of my life being re-evaluated is music - I enjoy my career, I love my wife, and although I'd love to learn to ride a motorcycle, it's not as important to me as it used to be, so I could take it or leave it.

Basscapades, ep. 2: Influences

With my pending foray into the world of bass, I've been thinking a lot about bass players and the ones that I most want to emulate. Just as my guitar playing is influenced by a mix of several guitar players to make my style, such as it is, my bass playing will most likely be the same. Everyone has influences, everyone takes bits and pieces of other players' styles and adds some of their own flavoring to make their individual style.

Here, in a particular order, are my top five bass influences. I'm not saying this is a list of the best bassists of all time (although each one deserves a place on such a list), but it's a list of the players I most want to emulate, starting with number five.

5. Steve Harris - Iron Maiden

Despite my progressive rock tendencies, there's more than a little bit of metal in me, and to me, Steve Harris is the quintessential metal bassist. His playing is authoritative and technical and he does it all on a P Bass, no need for fancy 5- or 6-string basses. Plus he writes most of the band's music.

Basscapades, episode 1: The bass comes home, goes away, comes home again

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, I decided to call my new bass series "Basscapades." This first installment will focus on the arrival of the new bass, which, as you can see from the picture on the right, kicks massive be-hind. Sure it's just your average Squier Affinity J Bass value package, but I love it. It has a beautiful deep blue finish and is surprisingly well made for something so cheap. It's also my third Indonesian-made instrument along with my two Ibanez RGs, and I have to say, Indonesians really know how to make stringed instruments.

I ordered my bass from Guitar Center on October 30 and it arrived in the mail this past Wednesday. Although there's a GC close by in Fort Collins, I got it online because they didn't have a blue J Bass pack in stock, just black, and despite the fact that Geddy Lee's signature bass is black I wanted a blue one.

The bass in the picture is not that bass.

On Saturday, I decided to open up the package just to make sure everything worked. Even though this is a Christmas present, I wanted to check it out now just in case anything was broken so I could return it if need be. I'm so glad I made that decision.

After unpacking the contents, I checked out the bass first. I tuned it up and played it a little and I was impressed. It had no blemishes and everything was bolted together quite well. Then I took out the amp, plugged it in, and turned it on.

Nothing.