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A set list , for your regular 45 min set x two , will be around 10 - 13 tracks per set, ( say 20-26 all in ) give or take depending on how long they are and how much babble there is between songs. Ask the band to make up the list for set 1 , and get that rehearsed, then again for set 2. They obviously have a lot of spares for longer gigs, or if they like to juggle the set lists about. It's a bit much to throw 40-50 songs at you straight off. They'll need to be patient.

Since this discussion has moved on - my Abba tribute band is called AbbaRation. We combine the genius of Sweden's two foremost musical exports, by performing the songs of Abba in the style of late 90s Opeth. This is (almost) true - I've spent many an hour enthusiastically discussing this idea with a like-minded drummer friend. It will happen, one day...

If they play "What is hip", I suggest doing the set list alphabetically, and if it were me, I'd be hoping to never get to the Ws before closing time. 😁

There always seem to be pressure to get things right first time - generally from ourselves. If the band wants you to be the bassist they should accept it may take some time to get up to speed. I would suggest getting to know, say 10 tracks, well rather than 50 "badly". Good luck

40-50 songs straight away is bollocks. Agree on a set list for the next couple of gigs and learn them only. Then add to it later at a rate of 1 or 2 songs per gig until you've got them all.

Nice one for getting headhunted! The band wanted you to join & its taken them 3 years to get as tight as you say they have become, so I'm sure that they'll appreciate that it'll take you time to get up to speed & lock in with them. Don't worry about bum notes etc. - everyone makes mistakes & worrying about it won't help you get there any quicker. As you've said, speak to them at rehearsal & try to pin down what you should concentrate on - then at least you've got a chance. But most of all, don't let the pressure get to you & enjoy it! Good luck 👍

Three years is no big deal, and should be easily surmounted. What you really don't want to do is to get involved with a band who have played together for 10 years or more, and where you'll always be the 'outsider'. After three years together yes, they'll have stories to tell and shared experiences, but you have a fighting chance of becoming a fully paid-up member of the band. Musically, their tightness works to your advantage. Your inevitable mistakes will do far less damage and they'll be able to carry you to a certain extent while you get up to speed.

You can control it via the ethernet port, so if your tablet (unlikely) or laptop (very likely) has an ethernet port then you don't need the wireless. I have the XR18 and it's beautiful piece of kit. Digital mixers are as much of a revolution in gigs as class D amps or neodymium cabinets IME. They save time at soundcheck (as 90% of the levels and eq are the same, there's just tweaking for the room to do), they are smaller than most analogue mixers, not to mention they can replace about 50 rack units worth of outboard gear aside from the mixer itself. I use mine in two bands, each band is saved as a scene so when I get to a gig I just pick which band it is and everything is just as it was left last time. I have the mixer in a 4-space shallow rack with a media player and it's wired into a Mikrotik hap mini. I'd like a 5GHz router as 2.4GHz gets increasingly congested, but honestly I've never in hundreds of gigs had a dropout with the Miktotik and (perhaps crucially) I already had it sitting around the house. The mixer can also be a wireless router itself but then I did experience dropouts. An extra side benefit of the mixer having it's own wifi is that, when at home, you can switch the mixer using the front panel switch to being a wifi client and then it automatically connects to the home wifi. In one band we have a soundman. The drummer met her boyfriend at music college and he's damned fine soundman, so that's that. He tends to bring his laptop and then runs a very long ethernet cord from the router in the mixer rack (which is always beside the drums as that's where the most mics are) to where he sits on a table in the venue. Sometimes that's a proper FOH position, sometimes it's just a pub table where the audience are. The other band we don't have a soundman. I walk the room with the tablet during soundcheck (whilst sporadically playing bass, which isn't ideal). For changes after that during the set, the guitarist's gf has the app on her phone and she's only allowed to move faders if someone is far too loud or too quiet. Control: tablet control works very well. With both bands we set everything up in a room for the first time and sat with a laptop for ages as typing and controlling will always be easier on a laptop but we only did that once. You can do everything on a tablet and they're fine for quick tweaks at every gig. Having said that, if someone is static at a camera position then maybe laptop would be better? They have bigger batteries, bigger screens and ethernet ports compared to tablets. If you go for a tablet then any second hand Android tablet would do, and I do believe there's a third party (unofficial, no idea how good it is) on the Amazon store so you could use it on a £30 Kindle Fire. I have (because I already had) a Samsung Galaxy 10 that I use. The one thing to note is that, for the Behringer mixers, there's Android phone and tablet apps, and an ipad app, but crucially there's no iphone app. An example brand new XR18 setup like mine costs: XR18 £340 (they've come down SO MUCH, I paid £450 for mine second hand when they were £550+ new!) Kindle Fire £30 Rack £50 Mikrotik router £15 Power strip £20 So that's around £450 give or take for a full setup. I think if I was buying again I'd have the A&H Q-USB as it records proper multi track to a USB memory stick, but I'm in no hurry. Being a Behringer I keep expecting the XR18 to crap out on me, but it hasn't happened yet...

Yep - thats a promo shot for my ABBA tribute band - ABBAtrois - we rehearse in a slaughter house Aye thank yooo! (courtesy of Darren Wlash, Edinburgh Fringe 2016)

I was going to go to the next Cloudbusting gig at the Rescue Rooms Ray, would have been nice to catch up. Unfortunately a gig I had coming up in Birmingham originally set for Apr 6th has been brought forward to March 30th which clashes so can't go now! Say hello to Dave from if he's in the bar after the gig, lovely bloke and great player.

This colour & this bass fuels my GAS soooo badly!

Cloudbusting, that is awesome, very high end tribute band. What a buzz it must be to play in a band of that quality, total respect.

Cloudbusting are great and we caught them last week at The Half Moon, Putney where they were in fine form. We also spoke to you after the gig, Dave and lovely to meet you @sprocketflup. C'mon, how many people in a tribute band can say that their dep is the Real McCoy, in this case, Del Palmer!!

In situations like this, I would recommend three systems... of course, all driven by budget. Mackie DL16S XR12/16/18 Touchmix 16 Here are the key differences...if you want a built in interface, Touchmix is the only one (although you can add on sliders to control the XR18 with sliders) But that's also the most expensive. Touchmix is iOS. Mackie is iOS/Android (Mac and PC controller software coming soon - mid year apparently... although that has drifted from end of 2018). Behringer is iOS/Andriod/Linux/Mac/PC. Interface wise, I'd say Mackie is the easiest to use straight out of the box, (especially if you are coming from an analogue desk) followed by the Touchmix, followed by the Behringer... although like anything, once you've got used to it, it's pretty intuitive. FX and routing wise, Behringer is the most comprehensive... if you want to delve into that. Most bang for buck is XR18 - but do factor in cost of external wifi router... as the built in one is fairly ropey. To be honest, I'd never trust any built in wifi... as it's just usually the cheapest 2.4Ghz that a manufacturer can find to tick a feature box. There's a reason why ethernet enabled pro mixers don't have built in wifi... Personally, I think like this - 340 quid for the XR18 from Gear4Music... well, for the cost of it alone, it pretty much cements itself as the nobrainer choice out of the 3. Depending upon your requirements, you may even get away with a XR12 or XR16 - the key thing to watch though, is obviously how many inputs you need and crucially the number of auxes - as you only have 2 on the XR12, 4 on the XR16. (6 on the XR18). However - £625 gets you the X32 rack... which I would defo take over the DL16s (£645) £1099 gets you the Touchmix... and the same for the x32 producer (basically the x32 rack with some sliders to fit in a 19" rack). So depending upon your budget... the X32 is more than most bands will ever need... but give you everything you could ever want... and the ability to run a large number of auxes (if stereo in ears ever becomes your thing). If you can afford the X32 Rack and it doesn't take up too much room in the car... that mixer will future proof you whatever route you choose to go. There's also a raft of add on cards... Waves, Dante, etc... so from that point of view, it certainly cements itself as more of a pro mixer than anything else in the price range that it is at. The other thing which it really cool, is that you can utilise affordable digital snakes (SD8/SD16) that is run from a single ethernet cable... so cabling up things like mics on drums can be kept very, very neat. Nobody likes a rats nest across the stage. Hope this helps... give a shout back if you want me to expand on anything. Oh, or course, you can get things like the QU16 - which is a good mix of traditional faders... but also has wifi control... but you will be looking at more like 1500+ for that - similar for the fully physical fader loaded X32. How much are looking to spend?

I was truly on the fence about fender until I tried a fender jazz elite 5er in guitarguitar Birmingham. It was WAY out of my price range but ended up buying it because it was without doubt the nicest 5 that I ever played. It just spoke to me! The compound neck radius, that active tone, the fit and finish were all superb. And the B is great! Still love it.

And here's my Westone Spectrum GT too. I'm surprised how popular they appear to have been - they were great basses (typical Matsumoku) but I don't ever remember seeing anyone else playing one back in the day.

Hey guys and girls, I've recently been head hunted to join a band from someone who knew me from seeing bands I've played in before. After a few failed attempts to get my own bands going over the past few years, I decided to give it a go at one practice with them and I seemed to get on well all the members and with a fair share of the songs on their list but I've been given about 40-50 songs to learn in all and no certain set list to follow. I've not always been an anxious person but over the last few weeks I've been struggling trying to learn these songs whilst doing what i do out of practice time. These guys have been playing just shy of 3 years and have got a really tight formation on the songs- from practicing over that time and they sound well but I worry about myself, often wonder if I'm letting them down with bum notes trying to remember all the songs and riffs correctly and once or twice sitting songs out I'm really not comfortable playing just yet. Has anyone else been in this situation? Is it normal to feel this way? Am I putting myself under a lot of pressure in such a short time to perfect so many songs? I'm off to practice with them again tonight, going to give it my all but going to try and sit down with them and at least come up with a setlist to make things easier for me.

I joined a band with a good reputation locally and similarly had a lot of songs to master. I knew most of the songs in general, few bits I wasn’t clear on, but knew I had to up my game with that band. Up until then I never used to practice bass at home, just playing what would do in whatever bands I was in, from then on I practised pretty much most days. And I’ve never looked back, so seize the opportunity and make the most of it, they chose you based on the abilities they’ve seen/heard, you’re up to it.

I'm in the same position as you, just joined an existing band. Fortunately mine are better organised/more realistic and have given me time to learn the set. First gig with them is the last week in March. I really seriously doubt that they will play all 40 songs in one rehearsal 10-12 is more likely. I learned 17 for our first rehearsal ( I had about 10 under my belt already) The first list they sent me turned out to be an old set list with songs they'd dropped in recent gigs and they've now given me a 30 song set list for the March gig. Glad I hadn't wasted time on songs they'd dropped I made sure that all the songs at the first rehearsal were ones I was confident with and a mix of easy and more complex songs. I wanted them to feel relaxed and confident with me and chose to stick to a few songs I knew would work rather than under-prepare a greater no of songs. I printed off a list of the songs I'd learned and bless them they just played through that list, if they hadn't it would at least have showed I was working hard and that i'm organised. I'm just running through this weeks list now and adding another 7 songs, I'm leaving the stinker until last; Tommy Cogbill's Son Of A Preacher Man, oh dear Relax and enjoy it as much as you can, at a first run though with a new band just playing half a dozen songs that make you all smile will leave you and them feeling good about the world. Good luck

I felt this way when I went into my current band. I went in initially as a medium term dep but signed on after a couple of months. I was concerned getting 40 numbers under my belt, I prioritised the ones with the most well known/distinctive bass lines and made sure the remaining would pass audience scrutiny. It was a good 15 gigs or so before all the numbers were at a standard I was fully happy with. Honestly, no one but me noticed.

All good solid advice here and no need to put yourself under unnecessary pressure. Look at the positives here. They headhunted you. They've seen you and they want you. You, my friend, are their choice out of all the other bass players out there. Use that knowledge, use the adrenaline and enjoy the process of getting up to speed in a really good band who chose you to join them. Itll be hard work - but anything worthwhile always is. Have fun

Are the wires colored, so is there a lacquer on top of the wires? Then you need some more heat to burn the lacquer first. Those are such pain to solder. If those wires are really aluminum, you should use oil to solder them. When the wires are under (or in) the oil, the surface will not oxidize and soldering is possible. It doesn't have to be motor oil, you can play with olive oil if that is at hand. You probably need to do few trials first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmjdXKyDEWY Sennheiser sells spare cables...

What fretmeister said. Perfectly reasonable to ask them to prioritise a set list. I worked out a rehearsal schedule for myself when I last joined a band. Knew which songs I was learning on which day, with a few rest days factored in. Aimed to have all done a week earlier than I needed them to allow for problems / time to work on them as a whole set before the first gig. Worked like a charm. Showed the band the schedule so they knew which songs we could rehearse and when.

Being presented with 50 songs to learn is really daunting, I'd be feeling very similar to you. I would definitely get them to agree to an initial set list of 10-20 you can get focussed on. Then I'd probably try and get the basic structure down for each and a feel for the main riffs, rather than learn each song as per recording .I'd then bring in what ever intricacies and variations may exist as I feel more comfortable. Be open with them on how you are feeling, I'm sure they want to work with you on getting up to speed.

So, Sting Bummer No! My surname’s Sumner Oh, Bummer Sumner then etc, ad nauseam.

My Abba tribute is called "Abba in Cardigans". Which is cool, because it also attracts unwitting Cardigans fans. 😉

You're only jealous because the Teebs-meister can pull that look off....

That's brilliant. And they are the perfect match for each other! I take it that the picture is one of your promo shots? You look gooooodddd

Oh really?

It's pretty right enough, but a bugger to find a decent outfit to go with it.

After weeks, possibly months, of saying “I wanna fretless, I need a fretless, i can’t justify one, I don’t play fretless, I would if I had one” etc I finally have one. Well, actually it’s with the guitar repair man getting some new strings and a full setup. I could do it but he’s sooo much better than me. Originally owned by the lovely Ricardo Westie and made fretless by John Shuker it’s the red one in the photo. The black jazz copy is a BC purchase and it’s great. The 6 is a Peavey Grind, also great (I may gut the electrics one day, but I say that about all my basses/guitars). If I manage to get to the South West Bass Bash I’ll bring these with me - not as exciting as some pieces, but they’re mine and I love ‘em!

You're all wrong, but that's OK. This is the best colour, somewhere between Surf Green and Daphne Blue 😛

A little while back, in November, I was taking my Aria EUB to try out with the jazz quartet in an afternoon rehearsal/recording session. However, in the morning, I had a practice for the Xmas concert by the jazz workshop band with which I also play, and I was going straight from one session to the other. I wasn't going to leave the EUB in the car, and so I decided that just maybe I felt brave enough to give it a try-out on a tune or two. Just something slow, nothing too demanding, to dip my toe in the water. I set everything up, and got a few looks of interest from the many horn players in the band. First number up, Charles Mingus' tune "Boogie Stop Shuffle", an up-tempo Bb minor blues. Thought I'd give it a go - nothing too worrying there, right? Except the MD counted it off at a ferocious pace and it was way too late to jump back onto the bass guitar. But as they say - what doesn't kill us......doesn't kill us. And the reaction from the massed ranks of saxophonists, even mid-tune, was to turn around to me with a "Whoooooaaa!!! What is that?" expression on their faces, accompanied by many thumbs up. At the break, everyone was asking about it and saying that I should use it for the gig. Well........ So I survived that, though my left hand and arm were feeling the burn! I went on to do about 4 or 5 numbers on EUB in that rehearsal - mostly bluesy Hank Mobley tunes, or Latin pieces. "With a bit of work, maybe I might just take that to the gig", I thought. 3 weeks later and it's the Xmas gig. 18 tunes in all - well, one was done twice, second time as the encore at breakneck speed! - and I played 11 numbers on the upright. People loved it. I loved playing it. It's a real visceral feeling, a different connection to the instrument and the music. Much as I'd love a real DB (I have owned and played one before, and it was great), I have neither the money to spare for a decent one, nor the storage capacity for it. The EUB tucks away nicely in both car and house and it does a good job. And don't discount the "listening with their eyes" factor - so many punters see an instrument that's upright, rather than being worn like a guitar, and instantly for them it adds a touch of authenticity to your jazz/rockabilly/Americana or whatever. I used to play a duo jazz gig on guitar, with @Stingray5 playing a Dean Pace; and for the audience, it was totally credible despite the lack of "organic wooden box"... Of course, his top quality playing might have had something to do with it

Sorry to disagree with the general consensus that this is so complicated, but you really don't need the driver parameters to port your cabinet. Don't use 2" ports - they are too small. Use either 2 x 70mm ports (standard drainpipe size) or preferably 1 x 100mm port. The length in both cases should be about 180mm. The Eminence Megoliath is described as a bass guitar speaker. So you have a good chance that it will work, as 30 litres is a reasonable size of cab for a typical 10" bass guitar driver. Without the TS parameters you won't be able to predict the driver's performance in the cab, but as you have never used speaker modelling software, you are unlikely to have a clue what to look for anyway. Just port the cab and see what it sounds like. I wouldn't expect the driver to handle its rated output and I would expect the solid pine cabinet walls to resonate at volume. Just suck it and see. Good luck!

If the pick ups would have been without the ears I would have said: 'with veneer'. Now, I am not really sure. 🤔

My (soon for sale) Modulus Graphite Quantum 6 EMG from 1990 :

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I saw an interview with them a while ago... They said they were very surprised that British audiences knew them, and wondered why the audience would all chant "craddock!" as soon as they came on stage.

Here's Jean Baudin on an 11 string >> I'm not sure how @binky_bass plays his ERBs but the above is gold standard as far as I'm concerned, not necessarily what folks would consider bass playing, but absolutely incredible musicianship as far as I'm concerned..

Another example of a Fender style headstock on a SC body >> I think it looks pretty bloody cool, hope @Andyjr1515's glue work holds up Eude

1. It's bolt-on without screws. 2. The non screws placement is a superb anti-lutherie concept.

Ooo, you've reminded me about THIS!

Erm.

I can’t inderstand cheating. If you don’t want to be with someone, leave them. Why live with someone and live a double life.? I couldn’t cheat even if I wanted. Mrs Ubit and I do everything together. ( to a point )

How did you get Bruce Willis to play bass ???

Extra couple of dodgy rehearsal tracks added