Lozz196

Bought a stunning Fender Precision from Chris. Good comms throughout the transaction, and collected from him as I was playing a gig nearby. Thanks Chris, great bass, am well chuffed.

And there`s an Ashdown Rootmaster 800 on here for silly money at present. They really are quality amps, my RM500 is incredibly powerful and it`s only on really big stages where I can tell the difference between it and my ABM600 - the all elusive heft is more present with the ABM on those large stages, it just retains that weight to the sound. But on a regular stage or pub sized venue then the RM500 is more than enough, so the 800 would no doubt be a worthy addition.

We rehearse every week, irrespective of gig schedules, unless one of us can`t make it for whatever reason. The drive for me is 15mins, but I`d happily drive 30/45, however what I wouldn`t want is to get in after 11pm, so that would be a big factor for me. Sensible punk rockers that we are we start at 5:30ish, often in by 8pm for tea and toast.

Yeah and those Fender amps seemed to be voiced to really hit the loud-spots.

I`m a rounds guy through and through, I`ve tried both the EB Cobalts and Fender 9050s and preferred the EBs purely as they feel nicer to play. If I were to be playing my previously preferred sound of warm/rich/Ampeggy I`d probably choose the EBs for that as well, but for my current sound they just don't work, as it`s very twangy and quite driven. Not a fault with the strings, just the wrong ones for that job.

Last band I went to see was The Last Resort in Bedford a couple of weeks back. And very nicely too we are playing on the same bill as them this Saturday, at The Fleece in Bristol,

Post 2012 models I`d say yes the MIMs are def better, but before that it was for me dependent on the individual instrument itself rather than generalisation. Some were great, others not so.

Def not only drummers to blame, have suffered it with guitarists in the past, especially in the form of No 2 as per @Monkey Steves post above.

Quite agree. My sound for my current band is just about as far removed from how I like bass to sound as possible (I love the warm, rich Ampeggy sound) but it`s the right sound for my band.

It is possible for bands with big backline to play at non ridiculous volumes. In my old punk covers band me and the two guitarists all had 412s, yet given that the drummer was very fast, and played with the lightest sticks possible we had to match his volume, which wasn`t much at all, so we weren`t a loud band in any way shape or form. But the depth and quality of the sound was great. When we reformed we all had much smaller gear,1x12s etc, again played at the same volume but the sound wasn`t the same anymore. Almost like punk-band-lite or decaffeinated punk.

The classic case of not having read the whole of the e-mail, happens at work all the time, ends up in message ping-pong. So much quicker in the long run to just read everything someone has written.

Written (ok, typed) set-lists are a must, we often have people asking for them. Wouldn`t do to be giving tablets away.

A drummer I know will only play with rim-shots. It`s actually painful at times. He insists that`s just how he plays, and for everything else he`s faultless, the most accurate timing drummer I`ve ever played with. But due to said rim-shots he has to mic his own bass drum up and have an amp by his side as otherwise he can`t hear it. Essentially for most pub sized venues he would make any band he was in not bookable - at least not for a second booking.

This is a real bug-bear of mine. Whatever the band, the vocals need to be understood, not just heard. The amount of bands I see where the vocals are barely audible, as the sound-people seem to spend all their time on the bass drum, is pretty amazing. Now I get with the gigs that I do, which are all FOH, that we have little control over the overall mix, but it seems to be the norm over most gigs that the instruments are too loud for the vocals. I read in Chas (of Chas & Dave) Hodges book that they approach sound-checks by doing the vocals first, stating that no-one ever left a C&D gig because they couldn`t hear the bass drum/keyboards etc, but people have left their gigs when the sound-desk didn`t have the vocals loud enough. Something that many bands should take on imo.

There`s a very nice Ashdown RM610 up for grabs on here for not much cash at all 😉

Yep, not used one myself but heard a stack of these (combo plus powered ext cab) recently and it was a really good sound through FOH.

Well imo Markbass amps work very well with Barefaced cabs, but as well as the two listed I`d also check out the Little Marcus, as the frequency settings on the eq seem to fit better with overall tone-shaping, less of a gap between the mids and highs.

Make sure all your gear is working, no iffy leads/flat batteries etc. Pack your gear so that when you unpack it to set up it`s in the order of setting it all up - this conveys an image of being focused and reliable. Be early, if the journey should take 30mins allow for 45. Lastly make sure you`re well hydrated.

Think the WL50 is great for those with a dedicated pedal-board, BOSS have really nailed it with this range imo. Although the range says 50ft in line of sight my mate went out into the pretty large audience in a fairly big venue and it worked fine.

Yep, it at may well be easier to pay at that height but it just looks pony.

It`s difficult to imagine a cooler looking bass

Ok, just bought one of these as been thinking of going wireless for a while, but didn`t want to have a unit that has to be plugged in to the mains as sometimes sourcing another plug socket on the hoof can be challenging. Enter the Boss WL20, two little units, one in your bass, one in your amp/tuner/DI/whatever, and you`re good to go. 50ft line of sight range, 2.3ms latency, automatically scans 14 frequencies and selects the best one just by connecting the two together, so no fiddly settings etc. This is the main reason I went for this one over the cheaper Xvive U2 as with that one you have to pair the two units and with my rotten middle-aged eyesight seeing small setting controls in dimly lit venues is another challenge, and one I don`t wish to accept. Plus Boss, well pretty much an industry standard. Ok the batteries apparently have a shelf-life of two years and can`t be changed so it`s buy another kit in two years time, but at £160 for two years use, well for me that works out to approx. £2 per gig on 40 gigs per year, less than the cost of a diet coke in most venues. I`ll update with my findings on the actual use but a mate of mine has one and I`ve seen him use it and it`s worked fine for his band.

Yep, gigging, and doing as many as you can, all over the place, is your friend. We sell a good load of CDs both at gigs and via our website. In my view without doing the gigs all over the place no-one hears you/knows about you, so you really reduce your sales opportunities.

If looking for a more modern sound back off of the Drive and use your Gain for any fur/hair to the sound, the lows and highs are more extended. For more vintage sounds do the opposite, back off of the Gain and use the Drive, this seems to raise the bass frequencies and drop the high-end frequencies so more like an old valve amp.