Yup, it's me.

I've been playing guitar for around 7 or 8 years. I'm alright as a rhythm player, but get lost on leads.

I've been "drafted" into this band made up by two of my friends, one of which I taught guitar to, the other is amazing for being 16 years old, and their friend who's gonna be the drummer, a royal a-hole, but good drummer. They know I can play almost anything, so I am coming in on bass. The friend I taught was gonna be rhythm and singer.

That was the original plan. But now the one guitarist that I thought was damn good, his cousin is joining us as lead and the friend who was going to be rhythm is just gonna sing. I'm still bassist and the drummer is still drumming. So now, the worries about the singer not being a good enough guitarist, as he's only been playing for about 10 months, as it's now a dead issue.

Now I am worried. I haven't played *that* much bass, as my main focus was always guitar. The new lead guitarist is very talented. Even better than his cousin. Now there are two awesome guitarists and I'm gonna be on bass, and I'm afraid that I'm gonna be the mediocre one. Making matters more difficult, we're gonna have our first gig on the 2nd of May (also it'll be the first gig for all of us except the lead player), and I've not had a chance to practice with them. And might not have many chances, as during the month of April I usually don't get any days off from work.

I've got the now-rhythm guitarist recording rehersals for me, so I can practice along to them on tape or CD-R.
Plus he'll be tabbing out his parts for me to read, because I'll be writing my own lines for some of the original material. I still don't feel like I'm biting off more than I can chew, as they still want me to contribute some stuff as well. As I've got a number of songs written as well. However wether or not we use them yet is way up in the air. I'll bring some tabs and such (possibly including demos as I am a multi-instrumentalist) to practice when I get to play with them.

Another big change, my approach to bass, I've decided I'm gonna play with a pick, these guys are mostly doing a hard rock, where I tie in more with the guitars than the drums, and I'll need to play with some speed, and being one who's always approached bass straight finger, I need more volume and attack, and picking seems like the way to go.

I'm gonna have to get a louder bass amp, as my Ampeg is 100 watts and might not be enough to contend with 100 watt and 150 watt halfstacks. I've got a couple things in mind.

Well, just thought I'd give a drunken ramble about how I'm joining your ranks in bass-land. I'm feeling rather confident, although I don't know why. I guess it's a start. I've been practicing bass all day, instead of guitar, as I should be, I'll up my practice a level once I get the package from the guitarist. I'll probably give an update as things go.

-Joe