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IMO you are going about this all wrong. Start by getting some support slots at local gigs. Find similar sounding bands on social media, get in touch and ask for a support. For this you only need 25 minute's worth of original songs - no-one will want to listen to a band they have never heard of for longer than that. You'll need a demo to convince the bands you are contacting that you are worth bothering with so find a decent cheap local studio, book a day and get a good version of your best song recorded and mixed. It sounds like you have plenty of songs already written, so pick the best 25 minutes worth (plus one cover) and get practicing.

My band has been struggling to break into local venues and we played two gigs last year. By chance we got ourselves an agent (our guitard met her when seeing a band she represented at a local pub). We played a gig last week (arranged by her) where she saw us for the first time, and we now have eight gigs lined up so far this year. Although she is taking a small cut, she is arranging a fee that incudes her payment so there is no downside for us at all. Result!

I like this. I'm always looking for ways to lighten/carry less gear. Could be a good substitute for a couple of stands.

I know this sounds pretentious but I maintain the standard musical notation system is one of the pinnacles of human invention. Off to cook some quinoa now....

This is without a doubt the single most useful thing I have ever read upon this thing called 'the internet'. Have yourself a biscuit, sir. A choccy one. In foil.

Yeah, go on. GAS-filled minds need to know!

IMPORTANT: I implied that there may have been a problem with one of OBBMs cables, but I'd like to make it quite clear that there was NOTHING wrong with it and Dave's reputation remains intact! https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/318164-using-te-combo-with-effects-problem/

This evening I tapped out Beethoven's 'Fur Elise' on my scrotum with a teaspoon.

I once stood and watched a fantastic saxophonist stand under a bridge, here in Edinburgh, and play his heart out. He was so good that I went up to him and gave him a tenner. He looked at me and said 'I'm not busking, it's just that the reverb is really great under this bridge'. He didn't give me my tenner back though.

So... skimming through today's threads we learn that you're probably best off with an old Peavey TNT combo and a used Fender bass. Hooray! Ten years of membership to find the best gear was totally worth It!

Purely a personal observation, but it seems that the enthusiasm for 'boutique' basses expressed on this forum doesn't translate into mass sales. I would think that the number of players who equate 'bass guitar' with Fender must be in excess of 75% of all players of the instrument. In the real world, rather than the rarified atmosphere of a specialist forum, I have never heard any negative comments when I have turned up with a US Fender. They are an industry standard, and are likely to remain so for many years to come. Say what you like about more modern designs, technology, etc, the truth is most bass players regard a Fender bass as an essential tool if you expect to be taken seriously by anyone considering hiring you. A Fender bass will keep it's value far better than any beautifully crafted, hand made special, simply because they have such a wide appeal. Go ahead and tell me I'm talking out of my backside, but you won't change my opinion.

To be fair the revolutionary innovation happened years ago. I agree with you about the rut, but on the other hand when Fender do try something new everyone practically has a heart attack and demands they get back to their 'core values', i.e. more of the same.

Well, last year I reached a bit of a milestone in work - 30 years! So to mark the occasion, in a moment of madness, I decided "to hell with it" and ordered myself a Limelight bass One of my fave colour combos (if not, my fave) is Fiesta Red, with rosewood board and tort plate (of course) Since having my old Squier P bass converted into a P/J, I've become a real fan of this pickup configuration A few years back, fellow South Walian pal FuNkShUi was selling a Limelight P, in Fiesta Red, and it had a Jazz style neck I tend to prefer Jazz width necks, or at least I don't mind P width necks.... but don't like them to be too deep.... So that was my order - a P/J Precision, fiesta red, with Jazz width nut. I missed out on FuNkShUi's bass back then, as I had to sell a bass before I could buy another A week later, the MM I was selling had sold (to another BC member) - but the Limelight had gone, and I had been kicking myself ever since Mark at Limelight has done a superb job. I asked him for a medium-light level of "distressing". I know not everyone is a fan of Relicing - I don't care.... it's MY bass I think it looks lovely. A quick noodle, and it feels amazing! Sounds lovely through my small practice amp too. Can't wait to plug it into a larger amp and crank the volume up Since the new CITES rules , Mark had a bit more trouble than usual sourcing the Rosewood fretboard neck - however, I wasn't in a huge rush, so I told Mark not to worry .... my new bass has been worth the wait. I'm a happy boy - but am currently in work, and can't wait to get home, to try my new bass (Pics courtesy of Mark at Limelight)

I hear you, brother:

so so true!!

All my gear other than bass and cab fit in a laptop bag. Even the amp. I just wish I could find a laptop bag that would also fit a 1x15 lol.

Well, I have room for eight, so it's more likely to go down than up. Can't see that happening anytime too soon though!

...all in the name of science and experimenting...

Excellent.

Oh, definitely addicted to loving flats. I have Chromes on my P Bass, EB Cobalts on my Jazz and LaBella on my Spirit headless. I like them all, but Chromes will be tried on the Jazz at the weekend, looking forward to it. Big fan of TI’s, and would love to try LaBella white nylon... guess I need 2 new basses?

It certainly isn't a put down. It's just like Marcus Miller said, 'why wouldn't you'?

-

I thought it was a Carl Thompson initially, but it’s actually an Abe Rivera, and was apparently the first bass they (he) made.

No I’ve decided against it, just going for simple black pickguard and hardware I think it would look better that way

@petebassist, so, which one is you..? ... ...

I'm sure he'll be Grateful.

Washing up and tea spoon playing aside, Fender announces a rename of its American Vintage line with some (very mariginally) modified basses and it gets 1370 views and 100 replies in less than 24 hours?!! Good for them if that's what keeps them afloat and is their sales model. I'll certainly be looking at the new models with interest - not sure they'll get over my 70s created aversion to their basses, when lots of other makes started providing a better platform for players to express themselves. However if people generally want to hark back to 60s pop when bass players were generally the rumbling and inaudible poor relation of the band, plodding along in the background then this doesn't auger well for bass players and bass playing in general - it's also to be heard and seen in current popular music as well - not universally though as some producers and players do seem to see the value of bass as a fundamental or leading part of music. The demographic of the forum must have changed and is perhaps over-represented by Fender players - something also visible on televised music but strangely not amongst the range of players I see in local bands where a much broader range of makes appears.

One Control HGBM See if you can try out the One Control HGBM with your T-Bird? The one criticism (not mine btw!) that folk seem to have of the HGBM is a possible loss of low end, however there's actually a side dial accessed with a small Phillips screwdriver that increases the lows which I think some folk might not necessarily have come across. Besides, that should not be an issue for you with the T-Bird. The HGBM is both transparent and on the 'dirt spectrum': warm-valve-->overdrive-->distortion-->fuzz goes from warm valve to mild overdrive. I'd actually like it to be able to do even 'dirtier' but from what you've said, it could be perfect for you? For me the Mojomojo was great in not lot losing low end but it came with a trade off not being particularly present at the treble end. The HGBM is significantly better at the upper mid / treble range than the Mojomojo, but doesn't have the very high end fizziness that you will get in abundance on a Zoom B3n with most of its dirt sims (and I assume also its sister pedals) or on DG pedals or the Two Notes le Bass. Another solution would be a B3K or Two Notes le Bass with a LPF. I had the pleasant surprise of very recently discovering that the "Tone" control on my DG M900 Microtubes engine is in fact a variable LPF, which means that the B3K on my M900 is starting to be used a lot more by me (and why my TC Mojomojo has just been moved on). EDIT: caught up with @krispn after posting the above and both of us agree we're not sure where the concern about the HGBM losing low end is coming from. Certainly both our experience, each having lived with this pedal for several months, is that is not the case.

I owned a 3.0, and now I am using a 9.0 for 6 years or so. And I also liked the sound of the 3.0 the best.

They're still not interested in it. No-one is.

Cheers guys. Yeah. Without doubt the white components are not the same colours but they look fine next to each other

Sad as it may be, people don't want innovation from Fender. They've launched a number of original non-classic designs over the years, all have them have been commercial failures.

You get asked to play and get well paid. The food and drink is usually free. I love them. The audience may not love what you play but the people who are paying would have to take any flack for liking and booking the band. Whats not to like?

They do a nifty line of underpants and pencil cases.

There's a story about Jimi Hendrix appearing on Top of the Pops in 1967 to perform/mime Purple Haze, only for the technician to put on Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear... I would have liked to have seen that, if it's true.

Ive found that a lot of the time if youre not lucky to find 4 driven musicians, you need one person leading or bossing the direction in order for things not to just fizzle out.

Did someone mention bad miming?

Not sure they're addictive - however if you can get on with them they're good. However, there are flat wounds and flat wounds - I was put off them when I bought some of a certain make and once fitted put me off playing the instrument largely because the string tension made it feel like arm wrestling. Probably OK if you're a double bass player wanting to play a bit of bass guitar. Since then I've found several types that I really get on with including TI, Roto Solo bass (actually not fully flat wound but half ground), EB group 3 and EB cobalt slinky flats. These all have one similarity - string tension more or less the same as round wounds. The cobalt flats are absolutely amazing and are permanently resident on my Stingray Fretless whilst TI flats are a current fixture on my Classic Stingray. Im not sure about wearing them in - the first set mentioned resulted in the bass not being used very much. Strings are such an important part of an instrument, I don't think anyone should have to compromise - choose strings that compliment and suit your playing - we are all different and one person's utopia is often another's anathema - including flat wounds - you have to remember flat wounds were really a thing of the 50s, 60s and to an extent, early 70s (when bass was not really heard that much in pre hi fi days - at least in the UK) - ok they are popular currently but it is largely a retro thing in my opinion. I personally love Pino's Precision sound with John Mayer using flat wounds - and am convinced Bernard Edwards used them on his Stingray for some of the famous stuff in the late 70s (based on flatwounds being the only way I can create his popped string sound on We Are Family plus Stingrays shipping with them till mid 78). However Pino is probably one of the world's best bass players - I am not and however much I aspire to play like him I probably won't and I doubt flatwounds would be that much help in me getting there anyway - it's more about technique, knowledge and feel.

I tend to swap back and forth. As soon as I feel that I’m starting to get hooked - I swap. And it’s really hard not to get back to flats. I just swapped to roundwounds few days ago. Oh, I love flats...

@lownote12 all sorted?

What’s your monitoring going to be like? If good then I’d say take your bass and Evo head since you have all your modelling etc in there. If there’s no guarantee of decent monitoring then take you cab too, just in case. Better to have it and not need it than the other way around.

The problem with a lot of XLR cable is that whoever makes them tends to cut all three conductors to the same length so any undue strain can snap either of the main signal wires. The secret is to make the signal wires about 2.5cm longer than the screen and fold them back into the shell. This way any strain is taken only by the screen which if properly soldered into pin 1 is much much stronger. I always sleeve the signal terminals with silicon rubber sleeves or heatshrink.

Well this is what I looked like in 1962... And today. And gigging circa 1984...