Hello, my name is John Six. I have been learning electric bass guitar since 1980. I must be a slow learner, as I am still learning.

 My #1 bass is a 2002 Peavey Fury 5 string. The first Fury5's had a Bartolini Pre amp, the later models had a peavey equivelant preamp.
 You would have to listen very closely to hear the difference. I discoverd this after buying another Fury 5 2 years ago because I had
 worn the frets down, and it cost less to buy another bass then to replace 5 frets.

 I also play a Epiphone Standard 5 bass, it is passive with a Padula style neck radius.

 I plug into a TC Electronics BG500 head and my main cabinent of choice is a single 15" woofer in an old crate cabinent that I "improved"
 or a single 10" cab that I designed with a Hartke TX600 head. 

 If I was younger I would use a Hartke 4-10 XL cabinent for outdoor gigs.
 In small clubs I'll gladly go direct and I am learning to appreciate the isolation of in ears because I can hear what I need to hear.
 Way better than trying to ignore the people playing way too loud because they do not know how to listen.

 I practice daily, usually for 2 hours. 2 or 3 times a week I practice new material, just songs I enjoy or was asked to learn.

 My music choices are a very wide variety. As a child I was only allowed to listen to Hew Haw, so as a teenager I did not care
 for country western music. While in the US Army I was exposde to every variation of music available. My favorite was the hard rock/metal.
 Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, April Wine, Triumph ect. Living in Austin Texas I played Country Western Music and Blues.
 I also loved the new wave/punk styles I saw on MTV. If it grooves, I enjoy playng it.
 Sadly, here in Columbus Ohio the majority of guitarists are mellow people who believe Tom Petty is hard rock.

 Even at 66 years old I still play harder rock then most people in Columbus will play. 
 I have spent the last 20 years playing 1965-1975 music on stage because that is all central ohio guitarists know how to play. 
 It is like they learned 30 songs and stopped learning anything new.

 There was a brief period in the late 90's early 00's that I ran a band. 
 We played a wide variety of top 40, pop, hard rock on the radio of mostly 90's tunes.
 I learned a lot of things in that 5 years. I learned to sing in that band. Why? 
 Because I learned that singers, like guitarist only learn enough songs to play out and basically refuse to memorize or sing anything else.

 I then spent 2 years just filling in for various bands until I managed to join a corporate band which I played with for 10 years.
 They decided at 60 they were too old. I was 10 years younger. I tried out for a few bands and realized how bad I was as a player and 
 spent 3 years relearning the bass guitar.  I added picking with my fingers, stay in the first 5 frets and pay attention to the groove. 
  
 Covid arrived so I spent my time playing at home with Pandora (great selection of music and they never yell at me), plus I have a list of over 500
 tunes I run through to stay sharp. The winter (2020-2021) my goal was to learn 3 sets of 1 hour each of tunes I can sing and play at the same time.
 Once covid is over I will try to join or form a band. (2025,,,did not happen as life got in the way)

 March of 2024 I finally found a vocalist and with that we started True Color Music 
 We could not find a guitarust till June. We scheduled a gig for Nov 30 and the drummer quit 8 days before the gig.
 I found a female drummer and at this time the band is Stepnaie Knepp lead vocals, Patrick Bullinger Lead Guitar, Lisa Bailey drums and me on bass.
 This is easuily the best band I have been with talent wise. They are making me work really hard to keep up with them.
 Sadly Patrick could not make a schedule so we replaced him with Ritch Baier, Loved playing with Ritch again.
 Logistics killed this band, we were too far apart with Columbus in the way.

 December 2025
 Sadly the part about people refusing to learn new tunes ended up, still being true. When the singer started suggesting Allman brothers
 I decided it was time to move on. I learned over 60 tunes for True Color Music, yet after a year we still did not have 3 hours of music.
 When I join a band I am lucky if I get 4 weeks to learn 40-50 songs.
 Another disapointing thing was, I am not allowed on facebook, yet no one would send me any videos.
 That is why there were only 2 videos on our website and those were snippets from our very first show. Team players, they were not.

 2026?  We shall see. I paid Bandmix so I can send messages to people looking for a bass player. I know plenty of drummers.
 Lead vocalist, lead guitarist and key players, I can count on a hand how many I know.

 I am working on my vocals this winter. I should be able to work my way up to 15-20 tunes, hopefully more.
 I am starting off with 76 tunes, mostly rock but some blues and even 5 or 6 country tunes.
 The country tunes will help weed out people who only like one style of music. I want to put my last band together.
 Joining bands has not worked out, for multiple reasons but the #1 reason is egos. I do not understand egos.
 We are playing ONLY in Ohio, usually Columbus for poverty wages at best (5 hour gig pays $100 plus 2-3 hours moving/hauling gear)
 
 So, I will start the process again. I meet musicians in their late 70's, so I see no reason why I should stop playing.
 
 Then again,,,,,,,,,,,
 Insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting something different.