casapete

Ace Chuck berry clip. The bemused looks on the faces of the band is fantastic! Chuck remains for me the best of the rock&roll pioneers. Been fortunate to see him half a dozen times, and he's varied from being amazing to indifferent but always somehow enjoyable. Met him (briefly)once too. Can be notoriously difficult, as anyone who's seen the footage of him rehearsing with Keith Richard etc in the film 'Hail Hail Rock&Roll'. Often let down by using under-rehearsed pick up bands (what I would have given to play for him though!) As a songwriter unequalled in my view,and a direct inspiration for so many legendary band/performers/writers. Still gigging at 82 years old. Go Chuck go!

Bought a Mex Jazz bass off Grahame for a pal of mine's 14 year old son. Grahame was absolutely great throughout the sorting out of the transaction,and even chased up the courier for me as well. Could n't have been more helpful,and a great bloke too! Would recommend him to anyone as a seller (or buyer come to that!). Top feller.

Mate of mine is thinking of selling his Peavey Combo - its a 210TX I think. Probably made early/mid 90's in the USA-solid build. 200 watts into 2x10 speakers, 300 watts if you add another 4 ohm cab. Got a graphic,compressor etc. Loud as hell and in excellent nick too. Reckon he'll want just under £200 for it. Drop me a PM if you're interested and will chase it up.

Have borrowed this speaker cab from a guy called Alex on this site, hooked it up to my 3k Crown power amp and......only joking. Few years ago the singer in our band forgot to lock the back doors on the trailer with the PA in. Roared off after a gig in city centre to have the entire rig spew out all over the road at 30 to 40mph. Drunk passers by helped collect the stuff, and (you've guessed it..) when it came to plugging it in again everything worked!!! Mostly Peavey stuff too. Power amps were scratched/corners bent etc but carried on fine for years after. One of the worst sounds I ever heard was a bandmates' lovely CSL cherry red Gibson 335 copy falling off a six foot high stage. Neck swinging,held on by the strings only etc. He got it fixed , though twas never the same.

Just received the Compact for my trial period. Am using it with a Gallien Krueger 700RB11 head and a Musicman Sterling bass. Used it last night in a small club with my band. Lineup is voc/guit/keys/trpt/tnr sax/drums and bass, doing covers of all sorts. The stage was tiny (especially for 7 fat lads), so I was crammed in a corner next to the (incredibly loud)drummer. Initial impressions very favourable. After altering my eq settings (usually use a 4x10) around a bit, ended up with a good rounded sound with a surprising amount of lower mids too. Cab performed effortlessly throughout 2x60 min sets, remaing clear and loud. Had to run my amp slightly up on the master vol to my 'normal' setting (my usual cab is 4 ohm,so guess thats why?), but still had plenty left. All the band were amazed at the performance of something so compact and light. Although not ideal testing situation, certainly has made me think it would be able to cope with most of my gigs okay. And how good to be able to walk into the gig with my amp in one hand and speaker in the other,both weighing nearly the same! So important to me following an arm injury which has left me difficulties with handling heavy cabs. Am going to be seriously considering putting an order in. Will report back from any other gigs before reluctantly passing on to the next guy on the list - Finbar in S.Yorks. Great idea for getting the cabs heard Alex - good luck with your business mate, and thank you.

[quote name='tonybassplayer' post='570416' date='Aug 16 2009, 08:12 AM']An ex work colleague who was a pro drummer in the seventies ( even made new faces !! ) told me a story of the worst gig they played in a south Yorkshire wmc mid seventies. They were waiting in the wings as the con sec went up to the mic and said "we've got four lads on next for you, not my cup of tea but the commitee out voted me" he then turned to the band and said "your on" as they walked on to a packed but silent club !![/quote] Similar story, again from the 70's I believe. Some mates of mine were playing at Bernard Manning's Club in Manchester (The Embassy IIRC?), and were announced onstage by the man himself - " Okay you cu**ts, we've got a band on now all the way from fu**in Hull. I heard them soundchecking earlier and thought they were sh*te, but anyway see what you think......" !!!!! We play a lot of weddings, and yes the older section of the audience will dance at the front of the dancefloor right in front of our PA speakers / pull faces at the volume rather than move further back. It's almost as if they enjoy being able to comment on how the band are too loud etc. We do try to keep sound levels acceptable (after all,what's the point of upsetting potential bookers,whether they are are daft or not?!),but there will always be someone who thinks it's too loud. A few years ago we had the father of the bride (who was somewhat tired and emotional it has to be said) ask us to turn down which we did. Then he stormed up and demanded we did again,rather unwisely threatening our singer (who was a big handy lad)of the consequences if we did n't! Having restrained our singer, we then continued our set at an unbelievably quiet level - nobody now dancing! In the end the bride came up and apologised for her pis**d father and asked us to carry on as we had first played! That's weddings for you.

Not my kinda thing either, but nevertheless great stuff!! And even better dancing....

[quote name='Stewart' post='569023' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:57 PM']PA operators usually want you to use their DI because they are (to them) a known quantity. Many heads (not GK) it seems do not have a good DI output. Some are unbalanced, some just noisy - levels are all over the place from unit to unit. They just want a signal they can use at the desk for the entire show. If you want more control , take your own DI - maybe a microphone too. But you'll get a better reaction if you take BSS/Radial... DI boxes and Shure/Audix/AKG... mics.[/quote] +1 to all the above. I always have a BSS DI box in my gig bag just in case. Apparently one engineer told me that they prefer using a DI box rather than the amp DI because if the amp fails then they still have a feed into the FOH main PA/monitors etc. Also is easier for them setting levels if time is on the short side. Was in a band a while ago who used Trick-O PA Hire from S. Humberside. Phil the engineer is a top bloke and could get my Stingray sounding ace in about 90 seconds! (Whole band could soundcheck in about 10 mins to perfection!) Guess thats experience for you.

And since when were Gibson Grabbers built in the 60's ....?

Great kit for the money. Not sure if they run comfortably into 2 ohms as Peavey claim though -anyone have experience of this?

[quote name='davidmpires' post='549744' date='Jul 24 2009, 08:56 AM']Someone also said that a bass player doesn't need to play fast, but it needs to be able to listen fast. Chill out, keep it simple, try to keep it with the drum kick, and pay attention to the accents, but most of all just enjoy the experience, it's always good to play with people more experienced than ourselves. Providing they are cool people of course. [/quote] +1 to all of that. However, a drummer I play with regularly plays 'pushed' accents so much that if we both played them the song would have no groove at all... He also plays accents with the horn section parts, so that it makes them sound really obvious. A lot of the songs we cover (especially soul stuff etc.) rely on a solid bass/drum foundation with other instruments providing the accents and pushes-this is what makes the song come alive and creates interest. (I find myself playing less in order to try to restore some balance sometimes!) Another drummer I play with is the complete opposite of this-plays really simple and solid with very little 'embellishment', and of course it works like a dream. The songs seem to just gel more, and am sure makes it better for the audience to dance to as well.

Used but still some life left in them - off my Hohner B2A Steinberger thing. Yours for the p&p ! (A quid should cover it).

[quote name='geoffbassist' post='545702' date='Jul 20 2009, 08:20 PM']i think that was me.....i had it serviced and its working great, im using a newer head most of the time but its great to have it it about.....[/quote] Glad to hear its okay for you, should've kept it really. The guy who fixes my gear said it was a doddle to service/obtain parts for, and would last eons! Mind you he does love old school British kit-mention Mark Bass etc and stand back!

I had a Delta 600 head. Good solid (heavy!)build, reliable bit of kit. Was a bit 'middly' IIRC,but okay. Sold it on here for a song.....

The Mark 111 series (and also the Mark 4 come to think of it) had a different layout to the Mark 5 IIRC. That deal for the whole setup is so good - get it! Had a Mark 111 years ago and it was a belter! The cabs were okay too (even better with Black Widow spkrs which were an option), and with the build quality being so bomb-proof would be okay if you needed to upgrade the drivers at a later date. Will blow your Hartke away-just get a mate to help you with the stairs though....

East Yorkshire ( near Hull ) - please add me to the list Alex. Great idea! Cheers.

Roundwounds they are! PM'd.

Set of Elites off my Hohner B2A Steinberger bass (may actually have another set if I can find them too!) . 40-60-80-100 gauge. Used but not completely shot ! Yours for the p&p. NOW GONE!

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='531841' date='Jul 3 2009, 05:04 PM']DAMN! You beat my deal! Did you get a chrome grilled one or a black grill? I grabbed one of these from a local PMT for £500, when they had £700 on the price tag (if you don't ask, you don't get!). They are excellent amps, mine recently died mid-gig, but i think this is due to spending all it's time in a slightly damp van. It's currently at an amp repair guy, paid for by PMT! Your very cheap price is more than likely due to SWR discontinuing them recently. There's an owners manual [url="http://www.swrsound.com/support/manuals/pdfs/blackbeauty_om.PDF"]here[/url] if you want to see what you've got yourself in for. It's very clear and powerful for a 15 incher, but sounds even better with a 2x10 on top (preferably 4 ohm, which boosts the amps power from 300 to 350 watts. A 2 ohm cab would boost it to 400.) I like it with the tweeter set to -6db. By the way.... The Aural Enhancer is best set at 2 o'clock. [/quote] A 2 ohm cab.....really?