john_the_bass

I thought you were Japanese - I was going to say "konnichiha" and everything. Oh well! Welcome to basschat

Thanks Jase - I've been a thinking about it for a couple of weeks and wondering what we should do - we're not short on offers of gigs so we can get out there, but I think we need to start writing again or at least pull some of those songs to bits and try them without so many parts.

Thanks Jase, much appreciated That stuff was done when we were a 4 piece and there are certain things we can't recreate with only 1 guitar - I have thought about recruiting another guitarist but we've not got that far yet. I don't want to leave them, I just don't think there's much mileage left in it, which is a crying bloody shame!

Cheers BB I've got a Behringer Ultra G G100 DI thingy - probably not the best DI you can get, but all the soundmen around our way seem to use Behringer DI's. I take it that because it requires either a battery or phantom power, it's active?

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='216658' date='Jun 11 2008, 09:59 AM']*gets notebook* Have a seat. Tell us all about it...[/quote] [url="http://www.myspace.com/27brigade"]This[/url] is my band. I have an errant drummer (aren't they all? ) who seems to view rehearsing as optional and a recently departed guitarist, taking us to a 3 piece. We've tried to adapt what we've got to work as a 3 piece, but to be honest, the songs need totally deconstructing, or sacking off and starting again. I think we're getting a bit bored with the same songs and haven't done any writing for a while. Now might be the time to call time on it or at least have a break for a couple of months and come back to it, but to be honest, if we do come back to it, I'd be tempted to do something completely different. I'm still playing in a covers band and actually, I think playing covers to a pub [b]full[/b] of people who are clearly having a good time takes the shine of doing the original stuff to 3 people in a crappy bar! I sort of wonder why make all the effort?

I just thought I should point out that I've taken my rig to every other gig we've ever done - hauled it across fields and up fire escapes, squeezed it into tiny cars and hired vans to cart all of our gear 70 miles. I just can't be bothered although more seriously, perhaps it's my commitment to my band that I'm having trouble with.

I did think of turning up and asking, but I hate it being done to me - yes you're right though, I should try and get hold of somebody in advance. I'm such a lazy bugger - plus I'm trying to find out what's wrong with the other half's car at the minute so she is driving the rep mobile and I've got enough room in hers for a 1x12 guitar cab and a bass!!

The venue in question is miles from any half decent parking - it won't take me 30 seconds to strip the rig down, stick the covers on and get it ready to go, but I need to fetch me car, find somewhere on the ring road in the middle of the roadworks to pull up and try and get all the stuff out in one trip (I can't) and as usual I am providing a guitar rig for my guitarist. I'm just being lazy, but what can you do?!

I know there's probably loads of threads on this but I've got a gig tonight and I'm hoping for a quick exit, what with it being a work night and all that. I would like very much to not have to bring my rig so I don't have to drag it in and then have to try and drag it out quickly again. There are plenty of stage monitors so I should be able to get something out of. Should I just bite the bullet and use my amp or should I stroll breezily in with my DI box and stick it on the stage and say, "right lads, I'm using that tonight"?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='216309' date='Jun 10 2008, 05:07 PM']So that would be a bad thing? Sod it, I've set myself up as the villain of this thread, I might as well play it with as much moustache-twirling as I can muster. When someone brought up Take That and Boyzone earlier, all I could think about was how much they shouldn't be allowed to exist. So one of this bloke's favourite bassists toured with them - that does not make them acceptable! And as for Paul Turner, I can only assume he'll play anything if the money's right. To me that says nothing positive about his artistic integrity. Would you expect someone like Kim Deal or Mike Watt to turn up touring with 'N Sync? Not likely, because they aren't pathetic sell-out chumps.[/quote] Yes but if you look at it from the point of view that playing for Take That or Boyzone might be the worst musical decision ever made, the doors that it could open for said bass player, not to mention the fact that they would be playing in front of big audiences is them doing their "right thing" - which I still say maintains your own integrity. I'd go and play for fecking Boyzone if it meant playing to those audiences, having me own tech, tourbus, opportunity to go onto to bigger and better things, as opposed to playing in some basement sh*tehole to 3 people and a barman. The last originals gig I played, last month I think, they shut the bar in the end because it was costing them more to keep it open. It's just bloody demoralising

[quote name='yorks5stringer' post='216144' date='Jun 10 2008, 01:21 PM']Like I said, I could be wrong....![/quote] or I could!!

Daion acoustic guitars are supposed to be the nuts - they were MIJ stuff I believe and the values of the Martin copies and such like are shooting up now - £300+ was one of the last ones I saw.

Martin gave my Simon & Patrick dreadnought a good home and gave me some cash! Top man, thanks very much.

Kev bought my loop switch, sent me a cheque and all is good! Cheers Kev

Cheers me ducks! I think 6 months ago my attitude was "if it doesn't owe you anything, don't sell it" but more recently my attitude is that if I'm not using them, it's a shame to keep them in cases, in a cupboard, [i]just in case[/i]! Just in case of what? I reckon I can get by on 2 basses now The Stingray I'll keep whatever I think - the P, I might sell if the band folds and I am not playing bass.... I don't know. The band is on hiatus as of last week so I am only playing guitar and you can buy a lot of guitar for the price of a secondhand 'ray...

I think you're about bang on there. I can't quite make out the headstock but the American Vintage ones have plastic knobs as opposed to the chrome VMJ ones and this ebay one appears to have something written on the pickups (ie. Duncan Designed) = Squier VMJ. Plus - if you bought a new one, it wouldn't have all that writing on it!!

ooh ya fighter. I was looking at Brook guitars when I was looking at buying a top end acoustic guitar - these were way way out of my price range, but looked like bloody lovely. I hope they play/look as nice as they sound. Fretted I take it? Are you having a pickup fitted?

ah cool - I've posted on there to see if I can get a DOB Cheers

[quote name='johnnylager' post='215056' date='Jun 8 2008, 07:30 PM']That's the fella, thanks chaps. Off to do a bank job. Edit: f*** me, look at [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-G-L-USA-ASAT-Bass-in-Clear-Orange-w-Maple-Neck_W0QQitemZ250256615674QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]this[/url]. What's wrong with it? [/quote] nowt me duck - it's just what an American one costs in America. I've been in Nitro Tone too, nice shop, nice blokes and nice stuff. Watch out for the customs charge

Everybody needs a black stingray!

Friday's gig was alright, 2 x 1 hour pub sets. It was pissing it down on Friday night so the town was dead, but the pub seemed to fill up around 15 minutes before the end of our first set and then stayed that way until about 15 minutes before the end of the last set. We weren't what you'd call loud, but some fella in the audience kept telling us we were too loud and drowning the singer - I came close to drowning him myself in the end. We were quieter than in rehearsal in the end.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='215220' date='Jun 9 2008, 08:56 AM']Did two gigs this weekend - one was to a yacht club function. 250 people all eating drinking and being merry. They loved it; some singing along, some dancing, lots of applause. But, yes, you guessed it, the music was dross. Didn't swing, didn't groove, weak players, dreadful sound (massive warehouse type room - think Stafford Bingley Hall but smaller). Earned £100 - hated every minute except the breaks. 2nd gig - jazz trio (piano, bass, drums). Great sound, real piano (for a change) - appreciative, attentive audience including a retired American pianist and his party who were thrilled to hear jazz played so well in the UK and kept saying so - he kept asking for requests, most which our pianist (Chris Simmonds, Norfolk) knew and I could credibly busk. Great evening - spiritually, socially, musically. Earned £50. When I start turing down gig 2s to play gig 1s because it is more money, then I will know that the integrity has long gone.[/quote] You're fortunate then that your gig2 pays you some cash and gives you an audience. Gig 1 - for example, is a 60th birthday party - people are all up dancing and enjoying themselves. I'm enjoying it, even though I'm playing Mustang Sally. Gig 2, is in my originals band, I am opening for a signed band who have managed to draw a crowd of 4. I am not getting paid, have had to rush to the venue for a sound check (and spent an hour sitting around waiting for something to happen) and have then played to an empty room. I know what I'd rather be doing.

I may have confused Montana with Desperado - which are available here - [url="http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZwildwesthog"]http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZwildwesthog[/url] I also got a couple of very nice leather straps from [url="http://www.bulldogproducts.co.uk/"]http://www.bulldogproducts.co.uk/[/url] in Penzance

I took some more pics of my basses yesterday and thought I'd put them up here. The first bass I had was an EB-0 I "liberated" from me dad. I'd been playing the guitar for about 13 years at this point and had been asked to join a band on bass, so I borrowed the first bass I could get my hands on. I guess I played it for about 6 - 8 months before I found it a bit weedy and moved onto this: [b]1984 MIJ Precision Bass[/b] I found it on ebay and had a should I/shouldn't I moment, and in the end just decided to punt on it - very crappy pic and minimum detail in the auction, but it was a good price so I went for it. When it turned up I discovered it was nearly mint, like somebody had shoved it in a cupboard in 1985 probably. Then I kept breaking strings on stage and in the studio (never at rehearsal!) and decided I needed a backup so I bought this: 1995 MiM Jazz Bass. Another one for a good price, it was a proper dog when I got it, hadn't been looked after, was filthy and needed a good sorting out. My mate took it off me, cleaned it up, put a new WD bridge on it and set it up. I played it in the house and thought it sounded great but then I'd take it to gigs and really struggled to get it to fit. So I stuck it on ebay, long before I found what was Bassworld and it went for £100 more than I'd paid for it. Which was nice and part funded... [b]2004 MIA Am Series Fender Precision S1[/b] I still have this and probably won't part with it unless I stop playing bass/guitar/whatever. When I bought it, the price of a secondhand one was £600+ so I thought I did well when I got this for £550 - of course the values have dropped now and you can pick them up for £2.99 with every £20 fuel purchase . I don't care though, it's probably the best Precision I've played, has a ridiculously (stock) loud pickup and it's a great bass to play. I wanted a black/black/maple Stingray, but couldn't afford one, so I bought this. Then I found out how much I could get a black/black/maple Stingray for if I imported it from the US and found this: [b]200? (never worked it out) EB MM Stingray 3EQ[/b] Found it on ebay and sorted out a deal whereby I gave him cash and he shipped it over here! I got bashed for £100 customs when it turned up but at the time, it was still cheaper than I could get my hands on a UK one. Of course the prices have all gone south since, but ah, who cares? Took a lot of getting used to as I didn't think you could get basses that sounded like that! Treble? Who said that? And then last year, I found this: [b]1983 Squier JV Precision Bass[/b] Again all original and in excellent condition, another ebay bargain, but the bloke who sold it also had this: [b]1983 Westone Thunder III fretless[/b] In pretty much mint condition - how could I turn him down?! To be honest, I can't say my life would have been any less fulfilled had I not bought it and couldn't really apply the fretless thing to anything that I was doing at the time (and continue to do) so I sold it. Then before Christmas, the bitsa jazz BassBod built came up on here for the second time. I'd ummed and aahed a bit over it the first time and the second time it came up, I bought it. [b]Parts-o-jazz Bass[/b] And very nice it is too, put together (as I understand it) from a mixture of WD Music, Gotoh and Kent Armstrong parts. It turned up at work and I took it straight to a gig with a sort of "what if it doesn't fit?" feeling, but it was so big and full sounding it became my main bass until our guitarist left and we turned into a 3 piece (then I started playing my P again). I put a set of flats on it as soon as I could get my hands on one which just made it sound even more beefy. And all that remains is the parts-o-jazz, the 'ray and the black P. I'm half undecided whether I shouldmove on the 'ray and go for something passive and a bit more old school, but we shall see. I'm in no rush!