My new bass got its first public outing today for the morning service at Hathern Baptist. It is music I can feel my way through and the bass did pretty well. I’ve found myself adapting to the five string pretty easily. I pretty much set myself with one sound for all the songs rather than messing with all the knobs but I tend to do that even when I’m playing my six string Sei bass and I was able to pull the sounds I needed out by how I played (well, that and the multiFX board at my feet!).

I decided not to take it to the CSWO rehearsal in the evening, which was probably just as well as it was quite a sight-reading heavy session tonight, trying out several new pieces as we think about what might be added to the set for forthcoming concerts. I’ll probably wait until the summer season gigs are past before bringing it along there or to the concert band but I am keen to give it a try in those settings.

I’m keen to give the bass quite a lot of play – partly to get fully familiar with it but also so I start to wear the strings and can feel justified in replacing them with something more experimental. I’m thinking lighter strings so I can have an instrument going from a low D (up to F in this case) and probably a brand, material or finish I’ve not tried before.