Leaderboard

Time for a story, sorry Many years ago lighting was expensive and I was broke. For our band I kibbled some lighting together, ahem health and what? Anyway I had two kitchen spotlight units with three different coloured halogen spots in each, a strobe attached to each and a smoke machine. It was all wired through a homemade footswitch to turn it all on and off. The smoke machine was tucked behind my massively over the top bass rig consisting of a bi-amped pair of 15's and a pair of 12's, aiming behind the drummer. When we did Motorheads Overkill I would stomp on the switch turning off the coloured lights and turning the smoke and strobes on when it got to all the false endings, if you know the song you'll know when I mean. At one gig I stomped enthusiastically on the switch at the correct moment which immediately fell to pieces leaving the smoke machine and strobe permanently on only able to be turned off at the wall. The drummer slowly disappeared from sight, then the guitarist and I and it stayed on for the remainder of the song until the stage area and crowd were completely lost in the fog and blinded by massive white strobes bouncing off the cloud. Oh how we all laughed, well apart from the drummer who was having some sort of epileptic asthma attack

Sounds a fun project, if you give us a call and chat to Dave Green(who designed the LB30)he will more than likely give you some advice(he normally does even when not asked...) on how to tie everything up... I’m fairly sure he won’t mind you being ‘inspired’ by his output stage... but sometimes he can be a tad grumpy so you takes your chances 😉

I had a Kay EB100 (tulip bass). It did go on the bonfire 😃

Kays are getting harder and harder to find these days, as anyone with any sense who had one would have spent an enjoyable afternoon pouring petrol on it and watching it burn!

A bunch of Indie halfwits, who are so talentless they are unable to join in with the opening theme, and instead just stand there with their arms folded. A proponent of world music, never heard of before or since, producing some unintelligible atonal drivel, which nevertheless is lapped up by the audience less they be accused of racism for not liking it. A former boy/girl band member trying to gain some real muso credibility to kickstart a solo career, but obviously finding live vocals a bit tough. A former legend living on past glories, much loved by the audience who are obviously saddened that the legend is past their best and the voice is not what it was. A re-formed but fatter and balder line up of a band, failing to make anyone interested in their new material. Plus a painful ‘off the cuff’ chat with a ‘friend’ or celebrity in the crowd.

Taken just now from Ebay.co.uk, used, 'BIN', with approximate postage costs. I've not selected on make, just availability, but not damaged, of course... Hi-hat £20 HH Stand £15 2 x Cymbal stands £30 20" Ride £25 16" Crash £25 Total £115 There are also packs of 'beginner' cymbals starting at £20 or so. Is that expensive as a 'get you going' deal..?

Some of that is harsh but true. However for an originals project 4 months to write and release 9 songs isn't unreasonable (depending on the songs of course). For the majority of new originals bands a handful of 25-30 minute support slots would the way to ease into gigging. No one is going to want to see an unknown band band with unfamiliar songs playing for any longer. IME originals bands don't need a PA. The venues they play nearly always have them. In the last 10 years of gigging with originals bands I have done less than a handful of gigs at venues that didn't have an in-house PA and engineer to drive it.

There were several episodes of spontaneous polite applause from the clientele throughout a very pleasant evening with my quartet at a restaurant/bar in Sutton Coldfield.

And don't forget, Bonfire Night is coming up soon... just sayin'...

Quite, Health and Safety. Or do I mean Health & Efficiency..? Anyway, the safest way to dispose of a Kay bass is to bury it (not in your own garden, obvs) or leave it in the boot of your car until you can drive to the coast and hurl it into the sea. If you're pressed for time and really can't stand the damn thing, wait until it's dark and throw it into next door's garden, preferably at that bloody plastic flamingo you don't like. Done!

His book, Kraftwerk: I Was A Robot is an excellent read.

It is indeed a Kay, as sold by Woolworths in the 70s. Didn't cost a lot then worth even less now although some think they are worth a fortune and collectable.

This is true. If there is a musician in the audience and you are playing like you don't care, you have probably lost networking and gig opportunities. Always give 101% even playing to one man and a dog. . . you never know who's listening in the other bar. I've been asked to join every band I've been in since 1985. I've picked up every gig and band because a band member suggested me or a band leader dropped in and thought I would fit into his band. So how you sound is important but how you play is even more important. Every gig is a potential introduction to more players.

Yer actual leg end, there.

Jeff Lynne's ELO at London O2 Arena last night! Wonderful songs, fantastic musicians and vocals, stunning light show and an atmosphere of smiley, happy people singing along..... oh, and my 'young at heart' Mum by my side enjoying very minute. Precious moments for sure :)

There is a different switch available, maybe thats more for you: I have a mopar purple NG-2, and have experimented with the pickup configurations a lot... as you might know all the recent Combustion and NG models have all three pickup cavitys routed already, so it was easy to switch positions. After all the testing, my ideal NG-3 switching would look like this - if limited to four positions..: middle/bridge in series middle only bridge/neck in parallel d-bird type all three Neck only sounds worse imo to the middle only. Comparable character, just less tone and definition to it. It has a bit more low oomph. neck/bridge in parallel sounds absolutely cool. Mind that the Combustion and NG models have different preamps. I like the gritty Tone Capsule a lot.

Wolfgang Flur, (ex Kraftwerk) last Friday night, in a small club in Cardiff He's now over 70, but still full of energy (more movement / dancing than he did in Kraftwerk) Great songs & accompanying videos, met him afterwards for a signed CD + poster. Nice fella too

Looking for ways to better protect my amplifier when being loaded in the van with everything else... I came across this plastic case for around £22. https://cpc.farnell.com/unbranded/17051n-079-gpb/plastic-case-515x415x135-black/dp/SG33316 They come in various other sizes, and colours... I went for the black one. It has two layers of foam inside, and I bought an additional 6cm thick block of foam, with precut squares, to allow perfect fit of anything else you want to put in there. Total £34. It arrived today. First impression is good. Not the sturdiest thing (hinges and catches will not last a lifetime), but considering the light-weight of these amplifiers, I think it's a good match. Very light too. It'll fit the amp, cables... and there'll probably be space for a bit more. Pictures to follow...

Oh no..! Not another log in trouble..?

Certainly both would be ideal but if you're going to make a start on your own then Geoffs lessons are the only ones I'd follow just to get going a bit until a tutor can be found.

Fcuk yeah! More = better.

James was loudest in the mix. They knew he was great ! Even Macca knew he was great.

How many cymbals does a drummer need? Hats, crash and a ride, that's the job done. Use basic tools until you feel you can afford, justify or even need more. Decent cymbals can be bought quite cheaply now and even economy brands are certainly better than they were in the past or at least better than no cymbals at all. He has to hire cymbals in? What's all that about? I've never heard of such goings on. This would not happen in any Northern town. Sounds like a load of old bollox to me. He may have delusions of grandeur! They usually have. 🥁 Maybe the singer is delusional about being a singer too if he can't remember his own lyrics after that length of time. That would be about 8 months since you started the project? If he can't remember them by now, he is either not cut out to be a singer, the songs could be too long and/or full of pretentious philosophical nonsense that no-one but he can understand anyway or, he is a goldfish. Seriously though, it sounds like they are scared to me. Well, maybe the drummers doing a drummer thing and trying not to let the girlfriend know that he needs to actually buy something for a change! 😂 Good advice in above posts though. Book a gig, get a target and you will hopefully find that the rest will get themselves together. If they don't, you have the answer to your OP.

That's the one I had. If I ever see it again, it will be about a billion years too soon.

It will probably be a good 3 months before you are gigging. So start by booking yourself up some gigs now. In the mean time pop along to some local jam nights as a band. I have done this. Very valuable. Film it too so you can pop it on your website/social media to make yourselves look busier than you actually are. As said before, it will help overcome nerves too and iron out/flag up any weak spots too.

It's a Peavey with a 'custom' paintjob - plays fantastic, worth bugger all!

Ditto! Ditto! A few years back now

My first 'real' bass was a Kay from Woolworths, with a truly dreadful 15W 'Audition' amp and cab, too. The action was OK if you could afford a taxi from the strings to the fretboard... which I couldn't at the time. Still, it's nice to have these instruments, if only to make you realise just how far we've come with budget basses!

But this all can be resumed, this is the way i used to do it: - Start with everything Flat/Switches OFF, Master and Gain at 0 - Set gain, slapping the bass until the clip led lights up, then go back a notch; - Pre-Shape / Valve sim / compressor OFF, you don't need that!; - Set Masted to sensible volume; - Turn on EQ switch, set the first and last sliders to cut almost all the way (that low-end rumble and high end hiss aren't pretty to be heard); - Re-check gain; - EQ to taste keeping the EQ curve balanced around the 0dB line; - Re-check gain; - Set Master to gig level;

Yep...unfortunately. Being one of that kind has always been my downfall

I can think of as many great female bass players as male ones. Which just goes to show that we shouldn't really need to ask questions like this....

Not at all, that's fascinating and pretty much how I do it... after quite a bit of trial and error! Another point to consider is the fact you probably won't get a sound you much like playing solo. It all comes together in concert, which is why your tone should be got when you're playing with your band...

If you have a problem with the answers maybe you should have phrased the question differently. This is also the problem with "click-bait". If you point people in one direction you can't complain if that's the direction they go! Then there is the long post problem. People generally don't read long posts so any points being made in a long post will probably be missed. Long posts are generally not to the point. Sorry, but I tried reading yours and drifted off several times. Perfection is overrated. The value of anything to be "good enough".

We have one. we use it when we need just a teensy tiny amount of pepper.

I've spent most of the morning sanding down the body so I'll start Danish oiling it at lunchtime today hopefully that has sorted out the uneven patchy/darker bits and sanding marks.......... 😀

Jeezo... Scott Devine gets about. Building pedals for dark glass now. 😋

We know. If you took the French and German out of the English language we would only be able to grunt at each other.

Can you Photoshop my belly to make it smaller please.

This is all getting quite boring. People taking offence for no reason and on behalf of others. I actually think the bickering here is far more off-putting to all forum users than any offence that might have been taken. I'll invite the mods to decide the nature of what has been posted and take action as needed, and let that be the end of it.

Well at the next bass bash you could organise a blind audience fingering and get answers.

Whether it's in the fingers, or you have good or indifferent bass gear, one of the main (and overlooked) elements regarding how you sound is how everyone else in your band sounds. It's no good being the world's best bass player if you're in a band with the world's worst drummer or the UK's loudest guitarist. Whether or not you're heard and appreciated is also down to how other people play - do they listen, are they selfish, do they leave space in the music, do they have good timing and groove? Some people (even when playing covers) will fill every nanosecond with noise, so ultimately you can't hear anything much and whether you're a good bass player or not and whether you have good gear or not becomes moot.

- so maybe at the next Bass Bash, instead of a range of basses there should be just ONE bass - but with half a dozen different competent bass players all playing the same line on it - maybe some standard like a Motown or Stevie Wonder line - then we'll see how much difference there can be just between fingers...

I own three Peavey B-Quad (original owner). Two 4 stringers fretted and one 5 string fretless. The two 4 stringers are 2 of the first 12 pre-production prototypes (Violet & Teal). I have a personal letter from Hartley Peavey stating so. These were on USA dealer tour at select Peavey dealers featuring Brian Bromberg himself giving a seminar/demo. It was a fantastic experience being able to sit just a few feet away from Brian as he just blew everyone away with his virtuosity. The 5 string fretless I have was custom made. It's one of the very last B-Quad made (see extended story below) I had to contact Brian to get permission for the changes (no fret lines, side dot markers placed were the frets usually are, and no "B" at the 12th position). Surprisingly he approved it! It's black, black hardware. If Darth Vader played bass this is the bass he would have. The pre-production prototypes have electronics and piezo bridge saddle pickups that were designed and hand built by Rick Turner, co-founder of Alembic. I don't know how long Turner continued to make the pre-amp for the B-Quads. I do know that he wasn't happy with the Peavey relationship at some point because I had to contact him for a piezo bridge saddle pickup replacement for one that failed. He had ONE in stock and kindly sent it to me for FREE (Thank you so much Rick!). The custom 5 string was a disaster. It took 18 months to arrive. I had to repeatedly complain and inquire "where's my bass?". It turned out that because of the above mentioned "custom" modifications, someone at Peavey thought it was a defect and had tossed in pile of other defective components. When it finally arrived, it had the wrong hardware (I originally ordered gold), and the batteries were dead. It had different electronics, different piezo bridge saddles, sounded way different, and I never really liked the way it felt. BUT - it sure looked cool. It always draws comments from the audience with the shiny fretless, almost glass-like black fingerboard. At the time I bought the first one I really had my heart set on a Modulus. The sales guy suggested I try more instruments including the B-Quads. I hadn't been playing for a while and was just getting back into the music scene. When he left I decided to try a B-Quad. To my surprise, my wife who was with me suddenly said "I like the way you play this one. You're playing things I've never heard you play before". I was stunned. Why? Because at Brian Bromberg's demo one of his pitch lines was "This instrument will bring out music in you that didn't know was there". I thought "holy s***! talk about taking the words right out of the horse's mouth!!" So I bought it. It was nearly a year later and the other B-Quad left behind from Bromberg's tour was still sitting there. I was surprised no one had bought it yet. The store manager knew I had bought the first one and caught me eyeing it again one day. So he said "give me a figure - take your time". So I thought about it and finally gave him a rather low-ball figure. He then showed me his calculator. My "bid" was $50 higher. He sold it to me for the lower price.

Thanks for that. I've owned an NS-94, the forerunner to the NS2000s, which was in itself a great bass and very well put together indeed. This was sold and the proceeds went towards the Euro 4LX. I'd say in terms of construction quality not much to choose between them, but I definitely prefer the active p/ups and the EQ setup on the Euro compared to the SSD humbuckers / Hazlab on the NS-94.

The Wal I waited nearly 2 years to be built. Fits like a glove

One of the first orders for our new guitar was placed by a high-profile member of this forum, who specified it to be built using Rocklite. This innovative material is a very recent development that's already being used for fret-boards as a rosewood replacement. As far as we know, we're the first to use it to use it for the body as well. As these pics grabbed in our workshop show, it's turning out rather well. http:// http:// http://

Burke Shelley? Geddy Lee? (playing a cassette years ago , I was asked by my boss 1 time''who's the chick singing'') Enid from Girlshool?