bassbiscuits

I guess not everyone likes gigging - the often less than perfect circumstances, the travelling, all the unglamorous lugging and setting up, sometime poor pay, dealing with band members, compromises on songs etc. Me? I love it. It's the reason i took up bass in the first place, looking at all those old gatefold sleeves of live bands onstage in the 70s and 80s and thinking "I'm gonna do that!" It's equal parts my social life and therapy - an antidote to the grind of a desk job. I've spent a lot of time on the motorways of Britain recently, and yes it can be exhausting (especially if you've got kids and a job too), sometimes frustrating or even disappointing, but I'd choose that every day over sitting at home.

True but even playing genre specific covers and / or tribute band material involves playing some tunes you don’t like, but they are there for the audience’s benefit. I think everyone has some music they don’t like but as long as you can tolerate it in an otherwise enjoyable and lucrative band it’s ok.

I guess for us mere mortals who aren't at the white hot core of a new wave of music, it depends then if you're looking at getting regular paid work doing songs you can tolerate, or playing largely for free doing obscure original material.

I think there's some confusion here between "ONLY playing music you enjoy," versus "playing music ONLY YOU enjoy." Clearly a different point. Every gigging muso has probably got songs in the set they don't enjoy playing but which go down well (which is itself enjoyable anyway). That's not the same as solely playing something so obscure or inaccessible that you are literally the only person able to enjoy it. That would be daft.

I wouldn't go that far as I'm sure some other people broadly share my musical tastes, but I agree with the point that you've got to think about what your audience wants. An over 50s dinner dance isn't going to want to the same set as a packed sweaty city centre pub on a weekend. I've done both sorts of gigs with the same band, and you just adjust your setlist accordingly.

Good call - that was the other one I was looking at when the Cali76 came up locally. The Markbass has good reviews too and I fancied trying the valve compression.

In retrospect, I've dialled the Att/Rel back a just a hair (anticlockwise towards a slightly faster attack) for subsequent gigs to ensure the compression is catching the initial attack on the songs when I really dig in. It looked overly complex for me at first but its actually quite intuitive and easy to use. I tend to just leave it on the whole time, but that's just me.

I'm running it at 9v as they are the only adaptors i have at the moment from my Boss pedals. I'm plugging it directly into an adaptor though rather than daisychaining it off my Korg Pitchblack tuner - figured anything to remove potential sources of unwanted noise was worth doing (not that the daisychain method has given me any problems either in fairness).

Acquired this from my friend who was selling it in favour of the big version. I’ve not long got into compressors after 30+ years of managing perfectly well without, but I’m doing more theatre-type gigs with IEMs etc and there was room for improvement in my sound. I was quite daunted to be honest by all the parameters you can alter, and hated the idea of being mister “all the gear - no idea” However I’ve quickly realised that a) the parameters are all useful things to tweak to really refine how your compression is working for you, and b) it sounds absolutely stellar live. A proper pedal I can just leave on the entire time now. The acid test for me has been the last song of our set where I go all 80s slap bass and chorus pedal, which prior to the Cali76 tended to vary between horribly piercing thru IEMs or just completely neutered by my attempts to rein it it a bit. But the last two gigs this weekend the sound has been sparkling, punchy and bright, but tamed and controlled and just frankly excellent sounding. It’s not cheap but it’s added a whole extra dimension to my onstage sound. Love it.

Sold a gig bag to Colin. Good comms, prompt payment and easy deal all round. All good stuff!

To be tall/young/cool enough to look good playing a black Gibson Thunderbird slung low. Failing that, a nice lightweight 1969-1973 jazz bass to accompany my 1970 P.

Nice that

I’m glad to hear it sir!

Thus proving you are truly an awesome bassist.

Ha ha presumably that guitarist thinks playing barre chords on a guitar is a difficult thing then? Spoiler alert - they aren’t.

The Markbass Traveller 102P is a mighty fine little cab, but if your budget/spec extends to it I'd consider the bigger Markbass Std 102f - it's also a 400w rated 2x10 cab, but it's slightly larger size and front bass port makes it sound a lot bigger and punchier onstage. I've got both cabs, but I'd say the Std102F is probably a better standalone cab than the Traveller 102P. However, both are very good.

Yeah I vary between a P bass and a Mustang to cover the same sonic ground at gigs. The P has a bit more definition but the Mustang is very much in the same ballpark tonewise for those gigs where an elderly P bass fears to tread…

I'm finding that Mustang + Markbass go well together. I was using mine MIJ Mustang into a Genz Benz 2x12, (figuring small bass + big cab would even out). But instead i've found the extra punch and slightly darker sound of a couple of Markbass 2x10s suits it better - makes up for some of the boingy woodiness of the short scale. YMMV of course...

I’ll play - I’ve ended up with two Markbass Little Mark heads and three 2x10 cabs (a traveller and two standards.) For what I’m after, one traveller plus one standard is the best sound of the lot. Plus I’m an old fart now and this is light enough for me to move easily and stick in the van.

Just after a bit of advice from the collective BC pool of wisdom really. I’ve insured my kit with these guys for many years, and it’s due for renewal. Surprised to find they don’t hold a detailed schedule of what I’ve got insured with them ( no descriptions or serial numbers etc) - just general totals for PA, instruments, amps etc. I don’t know what’s currently insured with them or not, so can’t tell them if it’s correct. They said if I needed to claim I’d have to provide a receipt for the item - I don’t know about you, but I don’t have receipts for instruments I bought 10 or 20 years ago. Without that, I’m struggling to see the point. So my questions are: 1. Is this approach typical? 2. Are there any other insurance companies people would recommend? I looked at MU insurance but I’m not a MU member. Any thoughts - fire away!