Gareth Hughes

Yup, I can match that - and possibly beat it for amount of hours involved relative to hours played. (Not that I'm proud, or that this is any competition with a great winner). I did roughly the same amount of hours travelled for two gigs as Pete Academy did for his Irish jaunt - except that my two gigs were in Chicago. What should have been a three week tour was all but cancelled at the last minute. Seeing as the visas/flights, etc had been paid for the manager thought the act should still do the two shows that had sold well. Flew from Dublin to Chicago late Friday evening - gig on Saturday, gig on Sunday, early morning flight Monday. Second time - same act now that I think of it - was worse. I had a different gig in Killarney - a good five hour drive from Dublin at the time, but took it anyway, thinking I'll still get back in time for my 7am flight to Germany. Coming into Killarney there are thousands of punters heading to a gig - but not my gig, I knew from the numbers. Turned out Westlife were playing there too that night. And all those people were leaving the same time I was leaving!!! I left the gig at 1130pm - by 1am I was still in Killarney and panicking as I looked at the map. I finally got home at 5am, packed quickly, said goodbye to my wife (whose birthday it was.......) and left for the airport at 530am. It gets worse. The flight is on the Saturday, but the gig is on the Sunday. So why the early travel? There's a 6 hour bus ride from the airport to the gig and as we're playing at some huge conference once it finishes (and it started at 9am), we have to soundcheck the night before. Joy. At least two hours are wasted once we land because whilst a bus has been booked for 10 people, it does not hold 10 persons luggage and their instruments. Doh. We finally get there late in the evening and all I remember is setting up my gear and then lying down to sleep in front of my rig while a tortuous vocal soundcheck was done . Band soundcheck time - midnight. The better part is that this was the day of the Germany-Brazil World Cup in 2002, so we had to watch the match on a huge cinema size screen in the same room as the conference and they play immediately afterwards. Fair play to the German punters -when they lost we thought it would be the worst gig ever, but everyone in the room stood up, applauded Brazil and then seemed to enjoy our gig. So all that for about 90 minutes of music. (And a HUGE frikking buffet;))

That's a great set-up you have already Dave. I use an F500 with a UL112 for most things, then add another if necessary. Tried using a GK MB150S combo, but kept missing that full low-end feeling that is seemingly only obtainable with a bigger box. OTOH, I have heard great things about the Markbass combos for DB. Another option is a tilt-back cab/monitor - I need those high frequencies aimed at my head or else it's a shot in the dark with tuning. Sorry that's not more specific gear wise.

Onwards and upwards!!!! Next week - WEST SIDE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (with no rehearsal, of course )

None that will match a baritone uke and a mandolin sadly. As small as they may be, those high frequencies are just tough to get heard over - as an acoustic bass guitar simply doesn't have the body size to move the amount of air required to generate the volume you need. That's why an upright bass is the size it is. Apologies if that comes across as a smart a$$ answer. Believe me, I wish there was an answer that would work.

I tried a bent endpin once, from George Vance, and that really helped for removing a lot of weight from the bass when playing. (Still the same weight to carry tho;)

This one's gonna cost you [url="http://www.lucaspickford.com/transbass.htm"]http://www.lucaspickford.com/transbass.htm[/url] Shall we all do a whip round to help James out?

[quote name='steve' post='853321' date='Jun 1 2010, 09:43 AM']Will 15's be enough? will 25s be too much? I could do without splashing out on both tbh.[/quote] I've been using custom molds with 15's for the last ten years. There's only been a few situations where I really wanted to have 25's. For the majority of gigs - 15's are more than an adequate whereas 25's would be overkill. One thing to remember (and I've only just learnt) is that your molds are only good for a couple of years as the silicone degrades and your ear canal changes shape over time. I thought the second point was baloney from an audiologist to get me to buy molds more often, but on getting my new ones back and comparing them to my old ones they look completely different.

Keep it up Faceman - sounds like it's going well. I know it's a gut-wrenching feeling for an MD to stop a song midway and look at you, asking if you're alright - lordy knows I've been there too many times. Best thing is to just own it - hand up, that was my fault. I've found that in reading gigs, it's best to acknowledge your own mistakes before someone points them out. With 'Santa Fe' - I found it was best to learn a hand shape that involved minimal movement, and then to recognize the change in the written patterns to keep moving along. It's all based around an alternating 10th and 9th pattern, so I played that across four strings for both patterns - middle finger on the B, third on the D#, fourth on the F# for the 10th pattern and then middle finger on the B, first finger on the C#, third on the F# for the 9th pattern. Bit of stretch but it eliminates looking at the neck while trying to follow the page. Then when it changes chords for the chorus you just move the 10th pattern up to the D, then the E, and down to the A when relevant. The bugger is fingering the G 10th pattern and the F# 10th pattern at the end of the chorus. After that it's just the same thing over and over (with those very cool fills thrown in)

'Love Cats' by The Cure is a good one to get your head and hands used to the stretch's.

Hello. I'll be your doochess....da da daaaaaaaaa