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My wee practice rig.

A bit more work done

I guess not everyone likes gigging - the often less than perfect circumstances, the travelling, all the unglamorous lugging and setting up, sometime poor pay, dealing with band members, compromises on songs etc. Me? I love it. It's the reason i took up bass in the first place, looking at all those old gatefold sleeves of live bands onstage in the 70s and 80s and thinking "I'm gonna do that!" It's equal parts my social life and therapy - an antidote to the grind of a desk job. I've spent a lot of time on the motorways of Britain recently, and yes it can be exhausting (especially if you've got kids and a job too), sometimes frustrating or even disappointing, but I'd choose that every day over sitting at home.

I absolutely love gigging whether its to 20 people at the Dog and Duck or 200 at the main stage at the Magna Beer Festival... I love every aspect of it...the nervous anticipation of loading the car, meeting the other band members at the gig...setting up, sound checking and then walking on stage knowing you are supremely confident in playing the songs you've been rehearsing for a couple of night at home. I love trying out any new gear, different strings and different amp settings. I just love the buzz of performing and being as tight as possible with the other band members. Then after the gig, ragging down asap with a large beer, chatting with anyone who might have appreciated my bass playing and finally loading up to drive home for a sandwich and a whisky. I just simply love it, been doing it for 50 years while holding down a stressful full time job too....l must be some sort of crazed, demented animal who doesn't mind feeling knacked all the next day with blisters on his fingers....l just can't stop myself and l will gig till l eventually can't stand up anymore. I simply love it.........

All the time, probably my main criterion for any bass purchase ever. And that's a lot of basses. Couple of examples, one good: And one absolutely bloody awful: The Lottery Of Functionality aspect might well be a factor in the whole thing, but I don't know. I just like shiny stuff.

Yes, pretty much every bass I have ever bought. In my hands, in a band mix, most basses sound pretty much the same; so how they look is what differentiates them from each other. If you play live it is, IMO, important to have a bass that compliments the image of the band.

I've never heard of 80% of Bass players people talk about on this forum.

Assuming it's not fixed, then it must be on some people's radar? 'The UK's Top 100 biggest singles of midweek is compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on sales of downloads, CDs, vinyl and audio and video streams ...' From what I've seen , I would think that there aren't that many people on here who follow the charts - historically the singles chart has been dominated by the choices of (dare I say) it a younger demographic. When you start questioning their choices then you're probably just too old - I know this from experience, my interest in Top 40 stuff having been steadily on the decline since the mid 1990's.😄 My old band played one or two times a week at a city centre bar for 15 years. We used to keep our massive set list 'topped up' with the big tunes of the day, and some of the punters appreciated it. Once the song had left the charts though, the majority of the requests we got were for old standards and classic rock stuff. People want to hear something they know in these situations, the trick is covering the big songs but adding a few forgotten ones too. Once you start getting self indulgent and just doing the tunes you like, the audience will move on somewhere else.

They were great - missed a few of my favourites off the set list, but Samuel T Herring is one hell of a performer.

My Dingwall Combustion 5 I had a clear pickguard made, to show off the quilted maple facing. I also changed the control knobs for Sadowsky style ones - much easier to identify the settings. It's a shame I'm sellng it - such a cool bass.

Absolutely, once I saw this I had to have one !! EBMM Stingray Starry Night Short Scale … I’m a sucker for sparkly

Dusted off the acoustic guitars, one played in standard tuning the other in Nashville tuning Bass is a unbranded old 40+ years young Japanese jazz with equally old flat strings Drum kit a cheap Tornado kit Acoustic and vocals recorded with a Behringer mic All recorded in Ableton live, mixed and mastered with Ableton and T racks The song is called Diedfordills , unsure if lyrics have any meaning. Oh yeah, and nicked the phrase from a Thread, hope allowed 😁 Springs is here It's cringing me The world affairs Bring despairs Mr… . Stop refuting! Are we on the brink of a war? The whole world pleas For world wide peace Please end this tyranny What we're seeing Has no meaning Stop this madness Sorrow and sadness They died for dills They died for dills They died for dills They died for…..dills Spare our cities Leave our towns Spare our children Spare our lives Life is like Day and night When joy turns Into darkenss No guarantee as Far as we can see Where this takes us? It's surreal! Like the ocean Dark and deep Will we ever see the end? They died for dills They died for dills They died for dills They died for…..dills It's not the time to Say goodbye End this craze And Lough out loud…. Is this a dream I Wish it was All this conflict At what cost Stop the fighting and save The human race This world would be a better place All the mankind Join in Hold your hands And greet the spring They died for dills They died for dills They died for dills They died for…..dills

I had a Limelight bass made a few years ago and the experience was mixed. Dealing with Mark was very easy with good communications. However from the deposit to delivery, it took just under a year to make which is a lot longer than the 12 - 16 weeks I was told. Some of this was partly down to the wrong neck being ordered for it so I had to wait for the correct neck to be ordered and fitted. When the bass did arrive the case was ripped which I informed Mark about and he refunded me £15. More worryingly, the bass was cutting in and out, the volume and tone pots were crackling and there was a huge hum when no part of the bass was being touched. I informed Mark who suggested I take it to a luthier and he will pay for the repair. I did this and it turned out the bass was not earthed correctly. So after waiting 10 months, it went straight in to the luthier which was disappointing. I then got it back a few weeks later and it was ok but similar issues started to happen so back to the luthier and we fitted new pots and jack socket which completely fixed the issue. Once getting it back, it was fine for a little while but then the neck started to play up and I couldn't adjust the action any more so back to the luthier again and he managed to sort it. We also found there was no adjustability under the pickups so this was rectified as well so pickup height could be adjusted. After all that work, the bass then played beautifully ever since but after paying just under £1200 for the bass, having to wait nearly a year for it to then turn up not working with a damaged case and then 3 trips to the luthier to make it right, I'd lost the love of the bass and sold it. I did manage a few gigs with it and it played lovely but in my head I was done. The new owner as far as I know is also very happy with the bass. I know a lot of people have bought Limelight basses and they have been absolutely fine with no issues whatsoever so I do put myself down to being unlucky in this instance or I'd just bought a lemon. Disappointing but these things happen from time to time so don't let my experience put you off buying one and as I say, Mark was fine to deal with.

Whoops, late to the party on the profile gauge! My understanding was that with the laminate construction Ian and Pete found the carbon fibre strips unnecessary and, in fact, potentially made the necks TOO stiff and resistant to profile changes. So, they dropped them for the Custom series.

For me, playing to an audience that are sitting down or just standing there with pint in hand is pretty dispiriting. While I like a bit of rock (post punk and some Grunge) when playing, it doesn't come natural to me. I'm much more at home playing tunes written for the dancefloor. Also, from what I've seen, most of those in rock crowds are older blokes. When I used to play funk/soul/disco/new romantic, it was usually more women and girls watching and dancing, which I always preferred playing to.

Tim, the title of the thread is 'I hate gigging'...it's not really a surprise how much moaning is on here, is it?

Gigged solidly (2/3 times a week) a for a good 6 years up to the Pandemic, band split over lockdown so formed a new one from scratch this time last year. Wrote and recorded an album by June, started gigging in August, managed around 13 gigs between then and Christmas. Got a decent calendar for the summer, all originals. I love gigs, I hate driving, parking, loading in and out, waiting around, watching a band eat in to your set time haha. I wouldn't change anything though.

I'm playing tonight, tomorrow, the day after and the day after that. 2 gigs and 2 deps, 4 gigs in 4 days and I'm looking forwards to each one. It's why I bought my first bass in 1965 and why I just loaded the car. Love it all.

I may have overdone it a bit, over the years !

Motörhead - Overkill... Released on this day, 23rd March 1979...

Yes, I bought a Fender MIM 70s reissue because it looked so purty. I never play it, I just look at it.

Having been to a lot of festivals there are some very good songwriters around who understand song structure and chord progressions and write songs that work, even if you don't actully like them. But there are an awful lot of bands who just string a load of riffs together and call it a song without understanding anything about music. That's never going to work for anyone.

No, apart from the Fender mustangs, a couple of epiphone vintage pro thunderbirds, a Guild starfire, a hohner B2A, a danelectro longhorn, and a few others that I can't see from where I'm sitting.

My Ibanez EHB 5-string is under 3.3kg (about 7lbs). Most comfortable live bass I've ever played, and the weight is definitely a huge part of it.

For info, on the laminates, the original Pro necks were (outside-in) laminates of maple - mukulungu - hornbeam. At some point the mukulungu was swapped for mahogany. Some time into the Custom series the hormbeam was swapped for maple. More info here: http://walbasshistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/wal-woods-part-1-necks.html

You want one of these... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Duplicator-Irregular-Measuring-Laminate-Woodworking/dp/B082PXHG9M/ref=asc_df_B082PXHG9M/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=399647037248&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1570370471340861073&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007104&hvtargid=pla-859785507490&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=85427415979&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=399647037248&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1570370471340861073&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007104&hvtargid=pla-859785507490

The one negative I've heard about the EHB is that the luminous fret markers don't glow for long enough. The one person I know who has one drilled his out and fitted luminay markers. That is a very minor thing. It wouldn't stop me buying one.

A bit of Keith and tex this morning

After resisting the call for a pedal board for many years I've finally put together a simple Di, EQ, Compressor, Overdrive and Chorus system using only a few pedals. Can go direct to PA or into my GK 2001EB - 212 Neo.

For me on a purely personal level it boils down to one simple thing. I'm not a professional musician, music is my hobby, and if you're not enjoying your hobby, then why the hell are you doing it? You just have to figure out which parts you do and don't like, and work accordingly. I'm still trying to keep an open mind in the hope that gigging with the new, originals band will be a much more pleasurable experience, time will tell. I definitely enjoy the music more, but I suspect the crippling anxiety and imposter syndrome will still rear it's ugly head.

On the Dad Rock thing; a good friend and ex/sometimes BL of mine is in a well-regarded (rightly; they're very, very good at what they do*) Status Quo Trib, and yeah, they travel to gigs, but that's as much because they play to big audiences, whether at festivals or their own gigs, and their calendar's booked solid this year. We played (the old originals band; we were the only non-Quo band on, to some bemusement from the audience) on the bill at a Quo Festival in Glasgow last year, and both nights the venue was full. There's a sizeable audience out there for all sorts of music, even something like Quo, which has been considered 'unfashionable' and sniggered at in various places for decades now, if you're prepared to seek it out and cultivate it. I suspect lots of people that might have sniggered would kill for their following, even as a Trib... * Which is, as the saying goes, a lot harder than it looks...well, it should be, after all...

The venue and location is all important. The covers band I last played with worked a Saturday night residency for over 10 years and the set leaned towards classic rock, but would best be described as guitar rock, playing everything from Creedance up to the Foo Fighters and the like. The venue had huge footfall in a touristy city, so there was a fresh audience together with regulars. It was always a full house with all age groups represented. In another venue with less footfall, the story would have been very different. There was a synergy between the band, venue and audience and thats what made it work. It was a very handsomely paid gig as well.

I think the thing here, is that Pete travels up and down the country playing well attended gigs to appreciative audiences. He mentions he's in a Led Zep tribute band, so it makes sense that not all of the gigs will be in the same geographical area. I know a few bands from the Manchester area who play original music (I'll count my band as one of them) who play around the UK, simply for the reason that you can't keep doing the same stuff to the same crowd continuously. I think the days of the "dance band" playing in the same location week in, week out, are long gone. The audiences want some variety in what they hear nowadays and even if you have an alternative setlist, it's only going to be sustainable for a finite number of gigs.

A couple of years back a Zep tribute (from the UK I think) played Dublin and had to put on a Saturday afternoon gig, such was the demand for tickets from those too young to be allowed in to a late night performance. The most popular local venue close to me, has lots of tribute acts of what might be called 'Dad Rock' bands and get full houses, the vast majority of the attendance being under 30. Not surprised that your Zep tribute is doing well, as there is a market there that you have tapped into.

I'm currently playing in a Led Zep tribute that travels up and down the country. We're gigging all the time, making decent money and packing out most of the shows we do. I've no problem with that so why are you turning your nose up at it? If you love playing blues (or reggae or whatever) and are good at doing it, then FFS that's what you should do. You may have to travel away from your home town, you might even spend the occasional night in the odd travelodge, but that's what being a musician is all about. Why celebrate being mediocre? I've nothing against playing pubs at all, but if you pick your venues you can still play an interesting setlist. A few years ago, I was playing pubs around West / South Yrks / Lancs playing a set mainly based on 80s hard rock (AC/DC, GnR, Van Halen, Skid Row, etc) and we were very successful. It helped that we had an ex touring pro guitarist and a convincing LV / frontman (singing that sh*t is not easy), but we played the right venues and got a decent audience. We made a point of not playing the most obvious songs from that genre, but had a great response wherever we played and built a pretty respectable audience. I would rather do that than playing random bog standard standards because that is all punters who are not really interested in live music know!

The thing is that they are all great songs - there is a reason why they have become standards that every lowest common denominator band plays. The trouble is that we've all heard them too many times.

I've played eight gigs in the last six weeks, from South East London to a bit north of Edinburgh. Like you, that's why I saved up to buy my first Fender Precision as a teenager!

Sweet. If you want to have it as a Wal, just reverse them back to how they were. Regarding the Wal "mid push", it comes down to pickup construction amongst many variables. The main thing to be considered is that even though you are using multicoils, these are not wired in the same manner as a Wal MK is. The coils should be wired in a 1 humbucker per string config plus, they should be electronically mixed before seeing the EQ stage. The NFP-SPECIAL does this, provided the coils have been wired in that manner and has 1 output per string. That will probably put you a bit closer to the Wal MK. As a side note, the neck construction is super important for the energy transfer of the strings, probably more than the body itself.

True but even playing genre specific covers and / or tribute band material involves playing some tunes you don’t like, but they are there for the audience’s benefit. I think everyone has some music they don’t like but as long as you can tolerate it in an otherwise enjoyable and lucrative band it’s ok.

I think there's some confusion here between "ONLY playing music you enjoy," versus "playing music ONLY YOU enjoy." Clearly a different point. Every gigging muso has probably got songs in the set they don't enjoy playing but which go down well (which is itself enjoyable anyway). That's not the same as solely playing something so obscure or inaccessible that you are literally the only person able to enjoy it. That would be daft.

If you play music that you don't enjoy, then you will be incredibly unconvincing onstage and will be mediocre at best. There is an audience out there for most types of music (if you're good enough). It's your job to find your audience.

My band's new single launches today! Anyone who likes a bit of metal, please jump on the premiere and check it out

Future Islands are great. I really like the bass player as well, he gets a great tone out of his basses. Here he is using a Precision that sounds very compressed. Would love to know what his setup is.