neilray

Much as I hate to admit it , I prefer the full band rehearsals to actually playing in front of people . Don’t have to wear the monkey suit , or have a three hour ride home at two in the morning having just played to 100 wedding guests who only actually notice you are there 5 minutes before you have to stop playing .

That’s interesting and I’ve no actually worked mine out . But as an example , I’m playing in Glastonbury tomorrow night , private party the n St ives in Cornwall Saturday night . I’ve got to be in St ives by midday Saturday and we are setting up p.a in three separate venues ( speeches etc ) . So I’ll leave Epsom in Surrey around 11 tomorrow’s morning and not be home until Sunday afternoon . I’ll earn 275 . And 75 of that will be a tank of fuel for the 600 mile round trip . Another 30 quid or so is food and drink . Just re - strung both my basses etc etc . Wouldn’t change a thing and I still love it

Yes I agree with you on most of your points . My point is , even if you are are a pub or bar that wants to put on live music , why you you expect to pay peanuts for the bands/ musicians? Because musicians will play for peanuts because of the love of what they do and that’s a personal choice . Also it’s exactly why I couldn’t just play music for a living . This doesn’t mean I love or enjoy playing any less than a full time musician . It’s just that I realised when I left school that I needed to earn money . I wasn’t a good musician at that time so I trained to do something else .As in my previous post , nothing but admiration for the full timers out there .

It does . I’ve nothing but complete admiration for anybody that strives to make a living by playing music .Fact is, I’d play gigs for nothing because I do something else full time . What I do , and I guess I’m not alone in this , is put my gig money by so I can get strings and occasionally something bigger - a new bass or a safety net in case any of my gear goes wrong .

Good points . I suppose I just get annoyed at the exploitation. And yes - if you don’t do it , somebody else will . Sooner or later , gig or no gig , you have to put a value on what you have to offer .

By the way , I’m not a full time musician . I’m actually a plumber

People . Just read an ad on gumtree via basschat . Band looking for a bassist to gig every Wednesday night . Three x 45 minute sets .either a three or four piece band . The pay was £120 - divided amongst all the band members . So you travel to this cocktail bar , paying your tube/ train fare , play three sets , then travel home again . You will get 30 or 40 quid for your trouble . By the time you’ve paid travel costs , you won’t have enough money to buy a set of strings . Especially if you use a five string . Before you respond , yes I know all gigs are good experience - but why should the venue be allowed to obtain your services for the same money that a plumber makes in half an hour ? I’m sorry people but this stinks . Am I the only person thinking like this ?

I’ve not used the Elbe range but I own two Embee 12 cabinets and run a Mesa Subway 800 through them . They are rated at 600 watts each and easily handle the power of the Mesa ,.they are great for near- field monitoring , due to the angled speakers (angled upwards ) , and they are very clear and punchy across the whole frequency range . The tweeters are subtle rather than the glassy and sometimes brittle character of some HF units . Two of them stacked up is a huge and exceptionally clear and clean sound . They are reasonably light , though not featherweights, but have cool angled handles which makes the cabs easy to lift . I can carry one in each hand but probably wouldn’t if a flight of stairs were involved. They aren’t the cheapest , mine were 675 a unit , but I’m delighted with them and the company were very helpful and easy to deal with . Worth trying alongside the other cabs in this very competitive sector of the market .

Completely agree . There’s nothing like getting the sound you want to make you play just that little bit better . Like most people I guess , a bass player , more than most others , is likely to suffer when it comes to certain venues . I sometimes cringe when I’m sent details of certain venues I’ve played before as I know them to be a nightmare for bassists . I recently bought an Auralex Gramma V2 and it’s been a revelation to be honest . Using the gramma has made me rethink the pickups upgrade a bit .

Hey thanks for that . I didn’t think my pups were muddy - although I understand what you mean . Mine just sound a little flat and clinical . Though I too love the bass . Easy to play for two hour sets and relatively light . Not tried a Sire yet but saw a lake placid blue 4 string V7 gen 2 that looks great and was £408 - amazing looking for the money

Hi mate I think your bass is essentially the same as mine save for the fanned frets and singlecut shape of mine . What’s your thoughts on the original barts ?

Hi Danny boy yeah that’s a good point but I love the neck on the Ibanez and , though it’s not that important , I got it for a steal and it looks fab IMO . I’ve also got an East system that I bought for a project that never happened and it’s also 5 pots with mid freq select plus a passive tone . It would fit in the cavity of the Ibanez easily . Could be worth fitting the East and a couple of Nordstrand pickups . I’ll enquire about the size of the pickups . I’ll keep you posted hi . Yes that was my thinking .while Bartolini are great pickups , they can sometimes lack a little character and power in my opinion . Nordstrand Big singles would be my choice too . Same size casing so should fit nicely . I’ll try them with the existing preamp and maybe see how that goes . I have a Lakland too - a DJ 4 . I also had a skyline 5501 which had Barts .while it played fantastically well , I did lack a certain something sound wise

Hi Danny boy yeah that’s a good point but I love the neck on the Ibanez and , though it’s not that important , I got it for a steal and it looks fab IMO . I’ve also got an East system that I bought for a project that never happened and it’s also 5 pots with mid freq select plus a passive tone . It would fit in the cavity of the Ibanez easily . Could be worth fitting the East and a couple of Nordstrand pickups . I’ll enquire about the size of the pickups . I’ll keep you posted

Hello . Recently bought an Ibanez SR single cut 5 string as a backup and am really happy with it and it plays nicely . It’s got Bartolini soap bars at the moment but I’ve noticed that some of the SR basses have nordstrand pickups as standard . Any body think that the bass would benefit from the upgrade to Nordstrand ? Have read great things about them and while I’m happy enough with the Bartolini pups , a buddy of mine has an SR with Nordstrand pups and it seems to have a bit more presence and bite than mine . Thanks in advance peeps

Hi I’ve never used one but all the horn players in our band do - it’s all I-pads now . Our singer uses one too . It’s a thing with me if I’m doing lots of singing - which I don’t these days . I’m always bringing up the fact of music stand usage with the horn players . I understand completely if you’re new to the tune , but they still read songs they’ve played a hundred times .you c ant remember what notes you play in “ Gimme some lovin “ ? Really ? ill expect a backlash ............lol

Thanks guys and I’d agree with most of your points . My lakland is a skyline series and just felt right straight away . It’s like putting on ya fave slippers every time I pick it up . I actually really like the passive tone and the pickups are great . No noise and good sound with one or the other backed off slightly. I always have the tone down about a third. Playing it through a Mesa subway d800 and two DB embee cabinets with 12 s . Any body else using DB cabs ? Thoughts ?

Does anybody else- like me - keep thinking that the higher price you pay for an instrument , you’re more likely to find that the cheaper one , that you’ve had for years , is really hard to top .? Recently bought a Mayones Slogan and it’s a beauty but it’s just not MY bass . I keep going back to my Lakland DJ 4 which I’ve had for about 8 years and has simply never let me down . No shifting of the neck , no crackling pots and for some reason , strings last for months on it . I think I just learned my lesson . A good bass is a good bass and forget about the price of it . Consequently, im selling the Mayones - any interested parties please let me know .

Wow mate . I can’t really moan about. 220 mile round trip . To make that kind of journey you’d really need to know it was going to be worth it . When I went , I must admit to being underwhelmed at actually being there . But if you know what you want , it’s worth the trip . Out of interest , what do you have in Scotland ? I know Guitar guitar have a couple of places up there . Is there much else ?