Jakester

I think all of the manufacturer's 'core' ranges are much of a muchness - clear/coating single/twin ply. It's when they go for their proprietary stuff it gets interesting. My preference has been for Aquarian over Remo for coated single ply, but recently had a head 'let go' between the flesh hoop and bearing edge on an Aquarian Texture Coated - I've never had that happen before. Remo and Evans are much easier to find though. I tend to use coated single-ply heads on the rack toms and coated double ply heads on the floor toms. The key point is to know what sort of sound you want and choose the heads accordingly. Open, bright, lots of attack - single ply. That 70's studio 'thwub' sound - twin-ply coated or even oil-filled. You can then tweak with damping and tuning from there. My absolute fave head was Remo Vintage Ambassadors and Emperors - a bit thicker than the 'normal' ones with a heavier coating. Lovely heads, but really difficult to get hold of and REALLY expensive. I always tend to use coated heads - I don't like the plasticy 'thwack' you get with clear heads. My 'go to' snare batter is a coated reverse dot - CS Dot in Remo parlance, and Power Center [sic] Reverse Dot in Evansspeak. Recently I got a snare with an Evans Genera HD Dry head on it and liked it a lot - so much so I bought some more for other drums. Edit: and some of the best heads I ever used were Evans G-Plus etched heads - a cross between a clear and coated, with a thicker single ply. Absolutely lovely heads those were. They don't do them now and I don't know what replaced them.

If playing rock and metal Ambassadors won’t last. Look for two-ply heads - plain Remo Emperors, Evans G2s, Aquarian Response 2s etc. If want a deader sound try heavier twin ply such as Pinstripes, or Evans Hydraulics. There’s a really good comparison chart here which shows the comparable heads for each brand: https://www.aquariandrumheads.com/drumhead-guide-comparison-chart

But how do you deal with someone adding the odd bar or two in the middle of a song? I've played lots of jazz over the years and it's absolutely improvised, but improvised within the structure of the song eg. solos will be one, two, three etc times through the solo section. I've played in bands where the BL wanted to vamp a couple of bars - fine, but it was a part of the tunes that a vamp would work. I'm used to playing off the BL, soloist, lead guitarist, singer - whoever - for cues and even totally on spec stops, breakdowns, solos, time changes etc - but never, and I mean ever, have I come across someone who just wants to add "a couple of extra bars" in. If it's not just "a couple of extra bars" - and it's twice through the solo rather than once, for example, then that's easy and will just require agreement as to how to signal it. If it is genuinely playing a (say) 12-bar section with two extra bars because he feels like it, then the lead player needs shooting.

Nah - if it's properly too loud then the venue will shut you down as they owe a duty to their staff as employers to provide a safe working environment. A dB meter will only tell you the volume at a particular location, which can vary depending on the layout of the room, so wouldn't be particularly helpful unless you followed the bloke around. If said punter decided it was too loud and continued to stay then it's non volenti fit injuria i.e. by realising the risk of harm, but doing nothing to avoid it, you can't then bring a claim against another party. If anyone is concerned about the risk of claims for hearing damage then the best thing to do would be to put a box of those foam earplugs on the bar for people to help themselves to. That demonstrates that you have identified a potential risk and taken reasonable steps to mitigate it. If no-one takes any, well, that's their choice.

Presumably you’ve Googled it? First few links suggest it’s an active buffer preamp akin to the Creation Audio Redeemer.

Well, back, and it was ruddy cold! Fine for setting up, but as the tunes went on fingers got really stiff! The bowed DB parts didn't sound as good - no doubt a combination of being stood right on top of my amp, plus the tuning really wasn't happy with the cold! Still, a couple of people remarked it sounded okay. I struggled more with the 'normal' parts I've played loads - by the end of the gig - the most complicated and fiddly tune! - my fingers were really struggling by the end! Enjoyed it though, and we drew a decent crowd so yay! On to the next.

Every Planet Waves cable I've ever had has failed. I steer well clear of all of their stuff now. I have two MXR cables and they're going strong, and just bought an MXR 'PRO' cable (dunno what the difference is - was on sale) and haven't had any problems thus far (touches wood!)

Yep, love it. Someone who knows what they want and isn't afraid to say it. Weeds out a large % of the time wasters too.

I have my first gig doubling on DB (well, EUB to be fair) this evening! I'm very much an unintended bassist - I picked up a bass for fun after being a drummer for 20+ years and whilst I've played a few gigs solely on electric, this'll be the first time I've actually done a gig using my EUB as well. In fact, it's only the second time I've really played it in public - the last being the last rehearsal! I play in a community orchestra and the conductor/arranger asked me to bring my EUB to the last one as there were a couple of pieces that had bowed DB parts. I'd usually played them using a sustain pedal on the electric but I thought 'what the hell' and brought it along. To my surprise it went fairly well and I got lots of compliments about the sound (what is it about a DB/EUB that captures the imagination more?) so I thought "sod it, let's give it a go" tonight! It's a mix of bowed parts and pizz bass, as well as the stuff on the electric. Only wrinkle is that it's forecast to be 2deg when we're playing so hopefully I'll be able to keep my hands warm!

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

I have in the past used my CMD121P on top of the matching NY121 but with the de-rigueur ikea laptop stand between tthem to angle the combo up. Worked an absolute treat. Perhaps try angling just the top speaker? Not too far from Wells so you're welcome to give it a go if you like.

Nice! I think those FRP snares are fairly rare/sought after. My Yamahas are: Akira Jimbo Sig 13x7 Peter Erskine Soprano 12x4 Maple Custom 14x6 Brass Custom Absolute (or whatever it was called - it has Absolute lugs anyway!) 14x4 I really want one of the old Yamaha Bamboos but they're hen's teeth.

I realised the other day I have literally run out of space for my snares! Yamaha probably predominate in terms of brand, but I've got Ludwig, Slingerland, Gretsch, Dunnett, Ahead and so on!

Maybe this should be called 'Yamaholics' instead! The big thing ATM seems to be to have a deeper tuned side snare - that fat 70's sound. I've been playing around with it and have an old Maple Custom snare tuned right down - interval between the 12" and 14" toms - and it's great, adds some real interest if you play backbeats between the two.

Wow, that BCA looks lovely! Good to see a fellow 'massive kit' enthusiast too.. 😂

Here's a couple of pics

*waves* I'm a drummer who fell into playing bass by accident, but love playing both now. I'm quite lucky in that I've had the opportunity to pick up my dream gear over the years I've been playing. My 'home/studio' kit is a 1980's USA Gretsch in 8/10/12/14/15/20 - it's in natural maple finish so pretty classic. It sounds amazing, and until recently was my gigging kit too, but it's seen a hard life and I don't want to take it out any more! I've recently fallen for Yamaha drums - or, rather, I've loved them for years (have a couple of Yamaha snares etc) so during lockdown I shelled out for one of the new Recording Custom kits - it's an absolute beauty. It's 8/10/12/13/14/16/22 in their Classic Walnut finish - slightly darker than the original cherry finish, but absolutely stunning. I realised I'm a proper Yamaha fanboy when my main bass is a TRB1005 and I also have Yamaha PA too!

I'm absoutely seething on your behalf! I hope you'll be asking the first bloke to pay for Jon's repairs?

I cannot believe the original "repairer" had the temerity to return that back to you in that state!! Absolutely outrageous! I mean, mistakes happen, stuff gets damaged, but own up to it and ask the owner how they'd like to proceed - don't just bodge it and hope they don't notice!! I don't think I've ever seen a worse job (that bloke on eBay excepted). Well done for not murdering the "repairer". Lovely work by Jon and great to see it back to fine fettle again!

Not quite on stage, but I used to be part of a group of deps for this vocalist who did gigs up and down the country. One of his band used to do the sound and the singer was endlessly beaching at him, gig after gig, about everything - too loud, too quiet, frequencies wrong, setup wrong - whatever it was, he complained about it. The guy used to just take it - he was really quiet and reserved, never snapped back. He was an chocolate starfish, but he paid well and the rest of us weren’t generally weren’t in the firing line. However, it all came to a head at a big wedding do at a huge country house in the middle of nowhere. The singer was off on one of his rants and the sound guy just snapped. Told him where to go in no uncertain terms and started packing all his gear away - both the PA and his instrument. I have never before seen someone plead like that singer did at that gig. Almost literally down on his knees begging, pleading with the guy to stay - it was almost like an adulterous husband pleading with his wife to take him back. The gig went ahead in the end, but it was touch and go for a while - and thereafter the singer treated the sound guy much better! (He was still a pink torpedo though and a few gigs later I refused to do any more with him!)

And it's arrived, and it's much bigger than I anticipated, rather undermining the whole 'compact mixer' point. Still, it should do the job, and useful to have as a backup to the XR18 if ever that goes kablooey.

Oh, that's a whole other conversation....🙄