jazzyvee

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1423476056' post='2685090'] I'm going on my first ever tour with my new (to me) band in a few weeks and I wondered if anyone had any advice? [/quote] Where is the tour, UK, Europe, USA? My first tour was in Florida, USA in 1992 and since then I've done my fair share of touring in the UK and abroad and there are many things to learn as you go round. Most things are pretty much common sense. On stage my view is to quickly establish a logical and methodical approach to setting up and breaking down your gear. That way you are less likely to leave anything behind or wire things up wrongly. Always be polite to the guys/girls setting up the stage, FOH and monitor sound they usually will have a better view of how the sound will be at a particular venue. I never leave my bass plugged in on stage unless I'm playing it for obvious reasons and if you must, then don't leave your bass plugged in whilst the stage is being setup, I've seen the inevitable happen a number of times and the aftermath is unpleasant. Enjoy the experience, take loads of photo's, make contacts & friendships, go and, if possible, meet the punters after the gig let them have photo's taken with you if they want. You don't say where you are travelling but, if I'm touring abroad I always take a memory stick with picture copies of all my travel documents including passport and driving licence. Make sure your gear is properly insured.

I weighed my bass last night after getting into an on-line discussion on bass weight. It's a short scale 4 string and weights in at 12lbs. Although when it's on it doesn't feel that heavy.

Had a great first gig of the year with Musical Youth last night at an ultimate 80's weekender.

I personally love ebony fingerboards, you have to oil them maybe once or twice per year with pure lemon oil to keep them in good condition and prevent them from drying out. Whatever they are alleged to do for your sound I can't comment on with any authority but all my basses have them and they all sound great.

Here is a short promo video I've put together for my band in the hope that it will help us get more gigs this year. It was filmed at a concert we did on 12/12/2014 at The Crossing in Birmingham. It was a Tribute to Grover Washington Jr & his music. It was a great night. I hope you enjoy the video. [url="http://youtu.be/o3DD0UbiRrY"]http://youtu.be/o3DD0UbiRrY[/url] http://youtu.be/o3DD0UbiRrY

Seems like Marcus has got a deal to create his own line authorised line of basses. [url="http://marcusmillerbysire.com/marcusmiller/page/about.html"]http://marcusmillerbysire.com/marcusmiller/page/product.html[/url]

I have Scott Dixon cases. They are light and strong aircraft grade aluminium. http://www.scottdixoninc.com/#!bespoke-products/cgnx

[quote name='bassbiscuits' timestamp='1420753916' post='2653160'] Someone put me out of my misery here - tell me I'm not the only one in the world with this problem. My fingers, (complete with calluses and thick fingertip skin from decades of playing) don't seem to work very well on touch screens like smartphones, tablets etc. Now - someone said they work by picking up some electrical pulse from your skin. It occurred to me that thick calluses might be something to do with why my fingers don't always seem to work on touch screens. Or it could be a load of old cobblers. Does anyone else have this problem? Can't figure out whether to call Apple or Embarrassing Bodies... [/quote] Yes I have the same problem. It's worse when you have a protective film over the screen too. I also wonder how well the fingerprint detection would work on our bass and guitar playing fingertips as they would undoubtedly change over time with the possibility that all of a sudden the phone would not recognise our prints and lock us out of our own phones. I'll stick with a password.

I've met Al a couple of times here in the UK when he was playing with the Wailers and he is truly a superb musician and guitarist. I first heard him on the Natty Dread album and his tasty guitar playing influenced how I play fills when doing reggae. Do you know any of his non wailers albums that I could check out?

I don't play fretless but I've read that ebony is a good choice of material for nuts on fretless basses.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1420246997' post='2647269'] Wow. Alembic Europa? [/quote] Absolutely right he got it just before Christmas and taking it on it's first gig tonight. My own contribution to this blue bass thread would have been a Musicman sterling that I sold around 2007/2008.

A friend of mine in the states has recently had this custom blue bass made.

Yeah good vibes.......

I bought my Mesa boogie walkabout in 2003 and I think they are a great little amp. Mine is the silver faced version and I've had problems with the output suddenly dropping really low. I took it to a repair centre and was told this is a common problem with the version I have and it relates to the jacks used in the send/return sockets. Its been fixed now and seems ok. The newer versions of the amp are ok apparently.

On a slightly different note, about 12 yrs ago I bought a high end electric guitar from cash converters. It was in immaculate as new condition including a deluxe case. I paid good money for it but about 1/3rd of the retail price ,(£1300),at the time. Anyway I contacted the manufacturer via email sending the serial number and asked for some details about the guitar. By return of email I got the reply that the guitar belongs to them and that it is a pre-release guitar they had loaned to the guitarist of a famous rock band, whom he named but I won't mention, and that I should return the guitar to them. Concerned that I may have inadvertently bought a stolen instrument, I contacted cash converters who would not release the details of the seller of the guitar and then took legal advice. I was advised that I should contact the police to try to establish if it has been reported stolen. It hadn't. then if it had not been reported stolen then I should contact the manufacturer explaining that I had bought the guitar in good faith from a store and paid a fair price for a used instrument stressing that it has not been reported stolen and if they felt that the guitar was their property them they should contact the police and resolve the matter of owner ship through the courts. The police did advise me not to sell the guitar before I establish if the company is intending to pursue the matter legally. I didn't get an acknowledgement of my email and even contacted them a couple of times in intervening years and got no reply. I still get stuff through on their email list when they have new stuff and their site forum. I often wonder if they got in touch with the guitarist they loaned it to. It's a superb guitar though.

No basses in or out this year but I'm still on the lookout for a used short scale Alembic Series I or II bass.

I prefer right angled jacks. I think they pose less risk of being pulled out and I think they exert less stress on the jack socket. Also for not being able to fit into a strat style jack socket, I also use right angled ones on my strat as well, you just have to invert it. The right angled jack on my Fender Custom Shop cables won't stay in one of my basses so I use a neutrik right angled cable for that bass.

Just play it from the underneath instead. :-) [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1npcwhVTAM&spfreload=10"]https://www.youtube....AM&spfreload=10[/url]

I use a Radial DI ProD2

I spent a long afternoon trying our a load of fender basses out in a shop in Brighton about 5 years back and this was the only one that felt and sounded like a bass i could spend my money on. If in the future i need a fender bass sound I'll start by seeking out one of these.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1418641943' post='2631878'] It's probably worth using switch cleaner spray on all pots and switches just in case any of those are affecting the signal. [/quote] Don't use Switch cleaner on Alembics, the pots and switches are sealed and are self cleaning. http://alembic.com/club/messages/16271/16357.html?1107712343 As for the switches it's recommended switching them on and off about 30 times or so to clean them.

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1418066123' post='2626517'] Lots of basses with "blank" fretboards have tiny dot markers on the side anyway... Could be worse, you could use LEDs! [/quote] Ahem..... well my bass came with led side markers as standard and I think they are a great aid when making large leaps around the fretboard. Thankfully they are not visible to the audience. :-) cos that would be way too flash.

For me, I prefer 4 string basses but most of my gigs require a low B so 5 string is more appropriate and what I use most of the time. As for 6 string bass.... I have tried them out in music shops but not found any musical reason for me to own one. That may change in the future.