WalMan

Shame. Basingstoke is probably just a bit too far for me from where I am on the south coast.

WPOD made it last Friday & will again at least Saturday as that is a mammoth gig that pretty much EVERYTHING gets played at. Loads of water and a decent warm up are the order of the day there!

Have you looked in the control cavity yet? There is often a bit of masking tape with some more details about the bass, woods etc.

So since the Admiral Drake we have had:[list=1] [*]The Half Brick, Worthing [*]Red Lion Stubbington [*]Cheers Bar, Bognor Regis [/list] Half Brick - hmmmmmmmm. Started quiet, and got quieter. Still a paid rehearsal. To be fair there were a few souls about who enjoyed themselves and took the time to say so after, and some of those coming out of the function room do behind us were dancing around. Got paid & offered a support to one of the name bands he is putting on a gig for to get us in front of a few more people so that [i]hopefully[/i] the next gig we get on our own there will be better attended Red Lion - not a bad night & a few other bands in to find out how it should be done Cheers last night - An OK night. The gaggle of girls on a birthday night out moved on to their next port of call in the break. Sound was good for me and now Max is mixing up the set to keep us on our toes it gets interesting when stuff we haven't done for a while gets put in. Found it funny that for a rock band (and a bunch of aging rockers at that!) there seemed to be mostly girlies up and dancing at the front pretty much all the evening - which was nice. Most enjoyable view from our side, it probably looked like a bunch of old lechers from the front The tour continues next week with The Royal Oak, Whitehill Friday & The Fountain, Chichester (our favourite gig) Saturday - mind you it does mean I shall be good for absolutely nothing but kipping & bathing my aching joints on Sunday

[quote name='Rich' post='439273' date='Mar 19 2009, 02:32 PM']Years ago I nearly bought a Shergold 8-string for £150... been kicking myself ever since for not grabbing it.[/quote] Blimey! If you were buying from an advert not a shop that might have been mine, in which case it would have been the silver burst one above. It was quite hard work as an 8 string. Not one to be used for a whole set!!

[quote name='josh3184' post='438831' date='Mar 19 2009, 12:43 AM']Sometimes when I see these old basses with these insane looks I get the feeling that we're missing out with the current crop of basses out there- it just [i]looks[/i] like its got all sorts of crazy features that I wouldn't understand [/quote] The Shergold Marathon (which is what mine were) came originally with a stereo jack, and later (as on my fretless) with a pair of jack outs. Both would operate with a normal jack, but if you used a stereo jack (or a pair of leads on the later ones) you would get E & A strings on one lead/side and D & G strings on the other. When I first got them I had an old Selmer Treble & Bass amp (or Tit & Bum as they were known in the band at the time) so I ran E&A to the bass channel & D&G to the treble - can't say I noticed any difference though As I recall the Shergold Modulater basses had a volume/tone section that you could pull out as a single unit and plug a different modules in - see [url="http://www.shergold.co.uk/modules.html"]HERE[/url]. Bizarre!! Is that crazy enough for you

I have to say I don't particularly find my Wal heavy, and certainly don't put my replacement shoulder down to playing it for 23 years. From all the other comments from Wal lovers it may be horses for courses, but as I said earlier, find the one for you and you'll never want to let it go, will guard it come hell & high water and love it forever

My old Shergolds and the Wal Pro1 Funnily enough a similar body shape. The Wal fitted the Shergold flightcases The Shergolds were my first proper basses and I gigged them for getting on for 10 years. The Wal has been my sole gigging bass for pretty much the last 23 years until the G&L came on board and the Wal was semi retired to recording & special occasions

[quote name='ped' post='437857' date='Mar 17 2009, 10:13 PM']I am over the moon with the way Elixirs last and sound, and I have learned the hard way that if it aint broke, don't fix it! Given my previous experiences with normal rotos I won't be checking them out![/quote] Indeed. I think I shall need quite a few waxing lyrical about the new Ropewounds before I jump the Elixir ship.

It will be interesting to hear how they compare with Elixirs. £23 a set from SoundUnlimited, £25 from StringBusters (£28 for Elixirs) Having used Elixirs for a few years now I did try a different brand of coated a couple of years back (can't remember which) and they were awful. If the Rotosound Nexus are as good sounding & long lasting as the Elixirs it'll be good.

[quote name='Dropzone' post='436037' date='Mar 16 2009, 01:14 PM']WPOD?[/quote] White Punks on Dope - The Tubes but without the lame codpiece

Stubbington went OK. Completely different set and Max mixed them up as we keep chivvying him to do to keep things fresh. As his setlist email said "there's 40 songs and we can't do them all". A few other bands in and only one mad ending to a reworked song where the Rall., was in two or three different BPM's. We'll get it next week. A few requests for WPOD, which hasn't been in the set for a few now, and I was asked about the Wal, which I haven't taken to gigs for a while, though that was because I was mistaken for the old bass player of the band the others were in but I never quite joined 20 years ago

[quote]What is it about Wals?[/quote] - If you get a good one it's frickin' marvellous. I tried a few at the Bass Centre in Wapping years ago and was not overly impressed at the time, but think that was down to set up frankly. Then my Pro1 was p/x'd to the drummer in the club band I was in at the time's shop and it came straight off the wall to a gig that night & never went back It was a single pup passive at the time but sounded great. Ten years later Pete @ Wal retro fitted the Custom pups and electrics, which as I understood in talking to him at the time was always the intention with the passive Pro1's - ie sell it as the bottom of the range "starter" bass with the option to add actives at a later date if required. Adding the actives bumped the available sounds up a huge amount (obviously) and tightened up the sound to make a good bass great. It's got a lovely fast neck and a smaller headstock than the original spade, and I LOVE IT!!![url="http://planetsmilies.net"][/url] [attachment=21864:AlansWal.jpg] No idea what it's worth, though I know what it's insured for which is probably about enough to replace it if I could find another, but I'm in no great hurry to sell it.....EVER And a couple of clips that would have been from when it was still a passive bass (though possibly with a second pup added, not sure the multitracks say 1986 ) [attachment=21865:ATF___Sp...al___kit.mp3] [attachment=21866:ATF___St...ass_clip.mp3]

[quote name='Dropzone' post='429119' date='Mar 9 2009, 10:12 AM']How bizarre, ours at Cheers was busy but no where near as busy as we normally have it???? Must be the credit crunch ;-) I see you guys are down Cheers soon, I will try and pop down and say hi if there are no clashes. Cheers Mike[/quote] That'll be a week Friday on the 20 March

[quote name='Dropzone' post='427031' date='Mar 6 2009, 11:30 AM']Are you sure they weren't holding the doors shut to stop people escaping ;-)[/quote]Probably [quote name='Dropzone' post='427031' date='Mar 6 2009, 11:30 AM']Have fun at the half brick.[/quote] Well it was different (and sadly quiet) but we got paid & he wants us back so its a start. Onwards & upwards to the Red Lion Stubbington this week Oh and as for [quote]we were wondering if the half brick punters would be into Nu metal?[/quote] sadly I couldn't tell you as they weren't out last night in any strength, well at all actually

[quote name='evilLordJuju' post='427586' date='Mar 6 2009, 09:13 PM']Martin Turners version is still out and about playing - saw them not so long ago, and MT is still using his 1960s Thunderbird. Sounds great of course. Obviously, for us bass-players, that is the line-up to catch! see his tour dates here [url="http://www.wishboneash.co.uk/livedates/1.aspx"]http://www.wishboneash.co.uk/livedates/1.aspx[/url][/quote] We [i]might[/i] be supporting them, but I need to confirm dates as at the moment it clashes with our best gig There you go. That's put the kibosh on that then

[quote name='steve-soar' post='427525' date='Mar 6 2009, 08:10 PM']Do you own the most expensive bass on Basschat[/quote] Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer NO

[quote name='Dropzone' post='426272' date='Mar 5 2009, 03:24 PM']We are currently in liason with Mark to get a gig at the Years Club. Good luck for Friday. I would come down be we are playing the hell hole known as Cheers ;-)[/quote] Ah yes the joy of Cheers - where everyone knows your name. Last time we were there the wind was howling along the front and the door had to be held shut. We started in woolie pullies it was so damn cold and then slowly disrobed as things warmed up Mark's a good bloke. We've know him since he used to come & see me, Max & Kev in A Kind Of Fury years ago

[quote name='Dropzone' post='425014' date='Mar 4 2009, 01:12 PM']Hi I play in Dropzone and we were wondering if the half brick punters would be into Nu metal? as I have never been there? I have listed our set below to illustrate what we play. Ta Mike[/quote] Eeeeer pass. It's our first one there tomorrow. Not sure how its going to go for us!? I sort of think probably not as it seems from the gig lists to be a more classic rock/blues gig. Whether you could hire the function room to put on your own gig I don't know. Have you tried [url="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=436175592"]The Years Rock Club[/url], which I think is up by the main station in Worthing?

When my son was at BIMM the bass players always had the pick of bands for the end of term concerts, while the guitarists had to fight over too few pleces and occasionally ended up playing bass just to get a gig

As this is in the "General Bass Discussion" section I feel I have to add that Adam Clayton clearly is a bass player as he plays with his fingers not a pick. You may not like what he does, but he does exactly what is required keeping a solid base to the songs with the kit. As for the band you may not like the music - I like some bits not others - but as others have said they have produced music that has moved many and have what you need in a band with a charismatic front man (who many will feel comes off as a knob, but that's the front man role surely)

Sometimes picks are a necessity. I used a pick for years because I preferred the sound for the rock & punky stuff we did (and yes I am well aware of Steve Harris and Billy Sheehan thanks). Got into using fingers, and reasonably proficient, in our bluesy phase. Now we are back doing rockier stuff I just prefer the attack of a pick - that and my right hand fingers are twisted with arthritis so that, other than on the occasional slow number or broken down section when I might use fingers, I get p155sed off with middle, ring and pinkie getting tied up with each other.

[quote name='silddx' post='421829' date='Feb 28 2009, 06:07 PM']Some geezer at one of our gigs a while ago said any bassist playing with a pick is not worthy of the name and shouldn't be let near a stage.[/quote] .....and he is a tosser.

Went to the gig early & watched the England/Ireland game (will they ever manage to play a full 80 mins with 15 men!? ) Pub pretty much emptied after the game so the crowd was not huge for most of the night. Did most of the first set and part of the second to polite applause, and was chatting to a couple at the break who said that Friday is the better night - ain't it always the way - and we were wasted on the rest of the pub ([i]which was nice[/i]). All rather annoying as we were really tight and the sound was great. Still about half way through the second set a pirate band arrived (NO REALLY, well OK a bunch of folks who had decided to go out for a session dressed as pirates) and they geed up the rest of the pub, so we finished to cries of more. Nice but a bit late in the evening sadly. Still onwards & upwards. The two new Foo Fighters songs went well and another new venue to try next week. Final annoying part of the night. We are down to play (and possibly finish) a festival in its second year in my home town August Bank Holiday weekend. First we realised at a meeting about it this week that our drummer gets back from hols that morning, but he's been talked into having a couple of hours kip & doing it. Then tonight I find our vocalist will be in the US , and our old vocalist from the originals band from a few years back will be back from New Zealand, but travelling round Europe with his current girlfriend over that weekend (double ). Drummer & I were talking after the gig over a kebab (something we have not done for a while) and trying to decide whether we could think of a stand in for a half hour set, and whether that will cause different grief.