Lozz196

And quite often the bands will stop playing mid song if someone looks to be badly hurt, to summon help from venue staff, I’ve seen that a few times. As you say Steve, happened for years and long may it continue.

Likewise. On the punk scene you get the established bands playing often with newer bands supporting and some of those support bands have been excellent, and have gone on to be big bands in their own right. It might be cool (in some peoples minds) to only watch the main band but in my experience that means missing out on what just might end being your new favourite band.

I’ve recently bought a bass that has what I think are Dunlop flats on it, and they’re very nice, tension good, sound good. I’ve never really gelled with flats but these ones just seem to work, so I may we’ll look into their rounds as well.

In my latest band we are very loud - it’s the drummer, he is simply the loudest drummer I’ve ever been in a band with. Anyway I had a set of the usual £20 from Amazon jobbies that blocked some noise out but they cut off most of the top end. Now said drummer and the keyboard player both have ACS plugs and said that essentially with them in the band sounds like stereo at home volumes with all frequencies still there. Good enough recommendations methought so I bought a set. And they’re exactly as the guys said. Now I know fitted ACS isn’t the answer to the OPs question but to anyone reading this thread who is in a position to get a set of ACS plugs (or the like) I’d recommend doing so if you’re in a loud band, or even a reasonably loud band. They cut the volume down so much that the band sounds like recorded material, you can hear everything so clearly and focus on exactly what is being played. It really makes playing a lot easier and more enjoyable. I wish I’d had the sense to get them years ago even tho my last couple of bands weren’t really that loud.

There are some sad & scary accounts in there

Hubba Hubba, that is one amazing grotto of Ashdown gear @Painy

Looks a great bass, if I was @police squad I think I would have started a hate campaign against DHL by now.

Looking back at the 70s & punk lack of money seemed to be a main factor for many of the bands, living in squats & rehearsal rooms etc. Move forwards to bands like Guns N Roses who did similar. I think today’s “glossy polished” music it would be unlikely to get people from those types of backgrounds & environments. Def time for a guitar resurgence, played by scruffy unpolished young people who don’t get sent for media training & image awareness.

Those little Marshall MB amps are pretty decent, you got a good deal there at that price.

£149 for the pedal looks good, be interested to hear how these perform. The staggered 410 also looks interesting.

I suppose seeing as the post is what do you love or hate about going to gigs and I’ve already said what I hate then I should answer the other part, what do I love? Well seeing the band obviously, but that first chord/song just brings a smile to my face. Hearing how a band represents their recordings live is a good one, can they do it or do they fall short. Checking out their back lines and instruments. Seeing how they adapt recordings for live arrangements, and finding out who the natural performers are in the band (not always as obvious as would be thought). Buying a t-shirt or the new CD. I suppose I like a lot more about gigs than I dislike. I do prefer to stand at the back/near the sound desk rather than down the front but that’s not age related, I’ve always preferred that, I can hear better there and it just makes sense to me if going to see a band to be where the best sound is.

£40 (used) Ashdown After Eight amp £200 (new) Ashdown Original pedal Somehow seems the wrong way round

You have to be over 7 feet tall to see pretty much any big band now, due to the raised hands holding mobile phones pointed at them, usually whilst the owners of said raised hands try to talk to each other. Because we all know the sound quality & picture on an iPhone tomorrow morning at work will be superior to actually watching & listening to the band at the actual gig.

I was going to say “how very dare he” until I looked at the spec, I may well have to try one out myself.

Red Red Wine, UB40. Jealous Guy, Roxy Music. I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston. All very good versions of very good songs.

Lovely looking bass Trevor

Good track Dave, and think you’ve nailed it with your description of ACs playing, a simple but effective bassline that probably much of a generation hum on 01 January every year.

To be honest with mics you could do a lot worse than the Behringer XM8500. Not quite as middy as the SM58 but sound very good and at around £15 a piece you can kit out a whole band for less than the SM58, and also not such a big deal if one gets dented.

Def, the actual part isn’t that difficult on its own but it repeats so much and if you fall slightly out with the drums it sticks out like the proverbial. And the bit where it changes from the A riff to the E always catches me out.

I was also going to suggest the Original.

Tort looks 60s Black looks 70s Both look great

It’s funny Chris, I depped for a band and got the sounds right for the majority of the songs at home. At rehearsal in the mix they all sounded like the same sound so I just kept to one core sound for the gigs. So I suppose unless a song is really based on a certain effect or specific sound keeping to one good sound/tone is probably not only the easiest thing to do but the most effective.

Yes we were testing basses with a Precision pickup, sorry should have been a bit clearer. From recall we even had a Dingwall in amongst the basses. The test was done with the audience voting with their ears only, I played the basses behind a curtain (couldn`t even play well enough to make my own bass win, lol) was a lot of fun and an unexpected result.

I’ll bet that just can’t be unheard, Paul

Very good basses too, in a Blind Precision test the Hoppus was the runaway winner, up against some serious contenders such as 50s/60s/70s/modern US Precisions etc.