WalMan

For over 20 years I would have agreed. Then I got my G&L L2500's and the Wal (my baby) has gone into semi retirement. The newer version fretless in particular I love playing as it is so easy

[quote name='Platypus' post='1155322' date='Mar 9 2011, 01:52 PM']<<A heads up for weekend Tube travel>> Don't know if anyone has mentioned it already.. As with most weekends they will be dicking about with the Tube service - with replacement bus services in many cases. Worth checking route on tlf.gov.uk[/quote] Yup. That seems to explain the bizarre results I got from National Rail. Looks like the line from Clapham Junction - Olympia is out all w/e. Managed to find an old BC card, so I think the laminator may get used tonight to try to create something that'll hang reasonably securely on a lanyard for BC ID

Just sorted a ticket for Sunday. Now all I have to do is get around the rail works apparent when I booked the train ticket. National Rail gives me a train getting in @23:00 on Saturday, and a first train on Sunday @ 13:00. Something very odd there

Tonight to get to r/h first run/will it work/what key have been through Street Legal - Unconditional Love - a nice Lizzy type dual guitar with some mild doubled bass widdles Whitesnake - Ready & Willing - not much there Family - Burlesque - this'll be down to feel and brushed up on Led Zep - Good Times Bad Times - must remember the first bass bit that I had remembered every time at r/h amd promptly forgot at the gig. DOH! and Porcupine Tree - Blackest Eyes double checked before Friday as well

[quote name='BassBunny' post='1144714' date='Feb 28 2011, 05:55 PM']If you are bringing it back yourself, take a cheap-sh*t Bass out with you and then the one you bring back is "the one I took out" As you will no doubt have to make special arrangement for it to go in hold/on board, being able to prove you went out with a bass could help the cause.[/quote] A potentially dangerous suggestion to get around the tax/duty bringing it back in. They are not fools and do have people who know about these things giving you the potential risk of the bass being confiscated. EDIT: Already beaten to the "BE VERY CAREFUL AND DON@T TRY TO GET TO CLEVER FOR YOUR OWN GOOD" reply. It's just not worth it

Uitopia - The Garden Came upon it last week when media player was on random and then actually got into listening to the album - one of my many eMusic downloads in the past that I had not got around to listening to properly. Really good & some nice bass going on in there.

PA feed broke part way through the first set. I felt like I played like an @rse most of the time. Bass was sounding nice though. Ah well there's always next time

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='1143139' date='Feb 27 2011, 11:14 AM']was in the Bass Cellar on Friday. There semed to be a lot more space and the staff appeared to all be friendly and helpful. Maybe things are changing at last.[/quote] Have to admit when I was in about a month ago it was much the same. Who knows!?

You think you've got problems. One of the bands I'm in does Wayward Son in a shortened & heavy version in E, whilst the proggy band does the full version in A. Added to which another band I dep for occassionally does a few songs my main band does in a variety of different keys. It's a frickin' nightmare remembering what to do with which and where on the neck

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1136333' date='Feb 21 2011, 09:32 PM']I think I'd been playing a fair few years before I actually got paid! Now I think it's important that musicians are paid for their service. Doorstaff & barstaff get paid. As a minimum venues should at least feed & water the band.[/quote] Rick Wakeman had a classic rant on this subject in his Classic Rock / Prog magazine column recently. Something along the lines of being contacted and asked to do a charity do. Quoting a price, getting a slightly shocked query re this assuming he would be doing it for nothing and then a sheepish response when he asked if the venue, staff, etc would also be providing their services for nowt. Slightly different for him to my circs. Have done a few over the years and tend to look on them as a "calling card" possible "in" to new gigs in different areas.

Caught most of it by chance, channel hopping. [quote name='Beedster' post='1136549' date='Feb 21 2011, 11:40 PM']Uh oh, the truth about Alive and Dangerous.......[/quote][quote name='Beedster' post='1136551' date='Feb 21 2011, 11:41 PM']As far as I remember, it's all live.........[/quote] Well there were at least three versions last night but no mention of the Bowie audience being added to bolster response (which I seem to recall as another "myth" about that album) [quote name='Beedster' post='1136896' date='Feb 22 2011, 11:30 AM']He wouldn't be the first 'out of it' muso to either not remember recording a part, or to have his parts re-recorded by someone else without his knowledge [/quote] May have mentioned this on the Gary Moore thread, but a guitarist acquaintance of mine tells the tale of going back to a local studio that Lizzy had been recording at and hearing a blistering GM solo, to then be told that he was so out of it when he recorded it that he was being propped up by a roadie. Whatever, a great band I was many times in Brighton & Portsmouth

[quote name='Marvin' post='1127375' date='Feb 14 2011, 06:04 PM']I finished with that habit a couple of weeks ago at a practice night. I was 'moving' the pick around my mouth and nearly choked on it I've now stopped. [/quote] Beat me to it. I was going to refer you to [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=121463"]THIS[/url] sorry tale. I've not heard if he's given birth yet (and would have thought I'd have heard the screams if he had ) If you're a bit of a sweaty betty most picks will stick to a damp forehead...and it gets a laff when people notice

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='1126739' date='Feb 14 2011, 09:57 AM']Whenever we do a wedding that has a meter we try and trip it at that point (assuming its the last song of the night, with no DJ ect after us). It helps clear the dance floor and gives us an excuse not to play any encores. Ive only had two gigs this year, im really missing them. Sat night are bloody boring. Still, we now have a run of 7 gigs in a row so thats something to look forward to.[/quote] Wasn't a level meter, all the mains in the pub went out and had to be reset Obviously didn't have a big enough nail in replacing the fuse. Power came back, but not to the "stage", and as it's a strict 11 finish by the time it did come back it was too late. Cue our vocalist apologising for the fact that 50p could not be found for the meter, so I'm afraid that's it from us. Went back Saturday to pick up a bag I had left and they were still talking about how spooky it was that it went when it did

Friday at Cheers.OK & a reasonable crowd who were into it, which was nice. Bizarre moment of the night though, the power tripped on the last crash of the last song of the second set

[quote name='risingson' post='1124583' date='Feb 12 2011, 01:53 AM']Bass is bass, I'm a firm believer in thinking that most bass guitars sound more or less the same. That may sound a bit ridiculous but to a wider audience without a discerning ear, this is for the most part a universal truth. Yes a jazz bass is going to sound different to a P bass or a Stingray, and yes certain pickups/preamps will sound different than others etc. but who's going to notice? Not as many people as you'd like to think. I choose bass guitars on how they make me feel when I play them, closely followed by how well they're going to sound in live and studio applications. If you've got a great sounding bass then it's a huge morale boost and that's important as a performing musician, but for the most part and as controversial as this is, most basses sound fundamentally the same.[/quote] I have three basses that (IMO) all sound awesome, certainly for what I want but they are each individuals, even the two L2500's, but I'm sure ultimately you're probably not far off it there. Tried the compressor tonight, and though it was clearly working from the activity on the meters it wasn't choking off the sound, or having any overt effect, so noone would notice that. The EBS Microbass II is again only really a tone shaper, with the stun setting having A & B channels linked, and stun was not engaged at all. The Octabass I used a couple of times & I knew it was there but I don't suppose anyone else really noticed or cared; and The UniChorus was used a few times for effect and was probably the only thing that anyone might honestly have noticed. Ah well, I'm happy and as long as I'm not being told it sunds like utter cr@p, why worry Mind the gear war could have been escalated tonight when one of the guitarists turned up with his latest acquisition (a reissue 58 Flying V) which was quickly plugged in at the soundcheck and did sound rather nice. I just need to keep repeating the mantra "Your sound is good. You dont need anything else" to myself over & over again

your vocalist says "I don't know why you bother with all that extra cr@p. I think it sounds great with your bass straight into the amp" GAH! Why do we do it to ourselves!? Constantly searching for that elusive sound, buying this, changing that, a tinker here & there, and at the end of the day bass 101 (a bass, a lead & an amp) often does it, and would make life & gigging so much easier. Annoying thing is I sometimes agree with him too!

There's a fair few, but less than there were in recent years, and the usual problem of getting through the door at places that have finite gig nights and book a year in advance with their regular bands. Not helped by a few bands that seem to have a consistent core of musicians but go out in slightl different line ups under a variety of names

First one back this year after nearly 2 months, so it was good to get it out of my system. Four hour r/h with the other band in the morning definitely loosened me up for the evening and things seemed to flow - I really should sit down on the morning of Saturday gigs & noondle through some stuff though I suspect unstructured noodling won't have the same effect. New songs went well and at least one where I am often not happy with what I am doing flowed much better. Sound guy seemed to be having problems to start off but they sorted themselves out - may have to have the gear talk again as it's expanding again and too many potential gigs are having to be ignored due to the amout of PA. It is a good sound, but there is rather a lot at times. Good night generally apart from the punter guitard (mentioned elsewhere in the guitard thread) who annoyed me in the break, and then saw nothing wrong in stepping up to a mike on one song in the second set, which was promptly muted

Not bad really considering I got the call to stand in Friday afternoon and I played with them once before on a "starts & finishes" run through of the set that time back last summer. Largely the same set(s) but a couple of new ones I'd not done before. Nothing that difficult and a nice workout. Took the full rig as it was just the amp doing the work, no PA DI tonight, and it was sounding pretty good. The damn power block fell off the "stage" and my sound went completely but got that plugged back & running reasonably quickly...shame it was on Emerald!

[quote name='wizbat' post='1105279' date='Jan 27 2011, 05:17 PM']He plays it on the wal 4 string for sure! drop d tuning, I watched him from the front row a couple of times now. I love the band. [/quote] I shall have to be a real copycat then Wall with the Hipshot it is

[quote name='RhysP' post='1104686' date='Jan 27 2011, 06:27 AM']As Colin Edwin doesn't use 5 string basses it would have been drop D tuning. He also uses a Spector 4 string with a low tuning (C I think) but he didn't have this when "In Absentia" was recorded.[/quote] Cheers. I meant to try and check from that direction, but it was getting late

Anyone cover this at all? It's been talked about in the proggy covers band and is on the "learn" list for next r/h. So I pick up the Wal 4 with the Hipshot on that is in the study for a first go and the song itself is pretty straightforward, BUT in D and all of the riffs seem to fall nicely under my fretting hand with the D-tuner switched down a tone to D, though messing with positions I can see that it would probably be easy enough on a 5 with a slightly different pattern. I have semi retired the Wal and done the last proggy gig & r/h's with the two L2500's but I might have to bring the Wal back out for this. So, as above, anyone cover this, then what do you use?

[quote name='Doddy' post='1101639' date='Jan 25 2011, 12:41 AM']I love using in ear monitors,and use them pretty much all the time. One function band I play with has got rid of all amps on stage-we're all running Pod's and in ears. We get a really good sound both out front and individually,with no one fighting each other for volume. The panto I just did had all the band on in ears (via an Aviom system) with no amps at all,and it was great. I don't think that using in ears "SUCKS for bass" at all. I'd happily use them with no backline at any gig. They've also helped me to improve my singing,because I can hear all the vocals clearly and can sing without having to strain[/quote] We use Aviom as well, which is great as I can set my own mix (though a curse if it needs tweaking). For a while I was just using a BassPOD with the IEM, but one of the guitarists didn't like the IEM's and the drummer said he felt too isolated, so we had to have monitors for the bass on stage for those NOT using IEM's. They never seemed to move the air in the same way as a bass amp which is why I ended up getting the MB combo. Now I don't bother with the BOD anymore but still use the IEM from the Aviom. You need a decent set of plugs to get the bass. And finally to just jump on without having tried it out in a r/h is almost certain to end in disaster IMO

Plectrum. My plucking hand is too messed up for fingers nowadays except on reeeeally slow stuff

Cople of unexpected one possibly? All good (for me anyway) in a lights out, headphones on & just let it wash over when things are getting fraught Always loved this song - shame about the video tacked onto it This is quite good too The Little Bruises album is pretty good all round. Still gets a spin on occasion. I seem to recall I came by it in a weekly trawl through the bargain bins in a second hand record shop in Guildford because the band line up looked good (I think Pino was on it) Lastly -