SPHDS

I thought they were....but, apparently, they are covered single coils (not sure what type, mind......)

As a fellow JetKing owner (Sunburst in my case), I can agree, they are remarkably good! Mine is a tad beaten up (pickguards have warped, and the finish has the odd ding), but was a hardworking main, then deputy gigging weapon for many a year. (Admittedly not played in a while...maybe it needs another run out....just need to get back to gigging.....!) I swapped the original Top Hats for silver knurls (from my No Name Jazz) after one got lost, the remaining two then went on my Squier Affinity P (in Silver Sparkle), whose Black Knurls are on the Jazz (whose neck volume pot snapped off, so permanently 'on') Enjoy the new bass!

Quite like the look of that.....! (but then I do also like the LP Jr DC!) Do agree on the headstock looking a tad out of place though.... Any idea on the specs - can't find owt on t'interweb....!

That is pretty impressive.... But I will raise you Pau Villareal of The Warning.....! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWg1Wwrm99o Stick 1 at 01:46 Stick 2 02:07 All whilst not dropping a beat, destroying the kit and belting out vocals.....aged 14 Quite a powerhouse of a band to be fair...

Ha, Jezzaboy, All our drummer wanted to play was Oasis......! I totally accept I will have to play dross that gets the plebs up dancing, but my (and my guitarist's) philosophy was to chuck in a couple of 'unknown' and less common songs in - as a punter there have been loads of songs I've heard bands play that have made me go 'oooh......what was that.....!?!' and then discover a 'new' band or 'not heard that in bloody ages......!'

Oh this all sounds very familiar....and I know I've mentioned it before (sorry...!) My last band was one I put together with a guitarist I had played with previously, when his then band split (due to the other guitarist never learning any new songs......), he said from the beginning, apart from a few 'no go's' he was happy to play anything, and it was 'my band'.....(I classed it as 'our's', but it was good to know he basically had my back....!) We recruited a drummer I had previously been in a band with a few years previously, found a singer, we all picked and agreed on a set..... Then COVID reared it's head......! We had a few practices between lockdowns and were getting on pretty well.....it then got to learning some of the songs lower down the list (bearing in mind these had all been agreed by the whole band before the pandemic hiatus.....) It soon became clear that the drummer basically only wanted to play his old band's setlist, the singer claimed he 'couldn't sing' anything he didn't like and there were a couple that they both shut down without even listening to them..... They then both quit a week before our first gig.....(a Summer Bank Holiday festival slot) Two weeks later.....the drummer's old band reformed......and they had a new singer......! I admit I do have a few songs I will flat out not play (doesn't everyone?), and a few I really struggle with, so prefer not to butcher, but will always give stuff a punt, even if I am not a fan....

Cheers KB, I had seen that one too.....was quite tempted by it, or the GS422B Plus My only worry was that the Explorer is pretty long (probably longer than a T-Bird due to the more 'extreme' body angles), although I did spot the Explorer on the tree there, so might be ok....!

I have had failures in the past, so have always taken a back up 'just in case', and they have always been different - - No Name Jazz backing up a Ibanez JTKB200 JetKing - JetKing backing Epiphone Explorer - Explorer and Squier Affinity P (No real preference as to which is 'main' on the night) I now have another P, built by my father's bass player for my 40th, so that will probably become 'Main' with one of the others as 'Back Up', when I get back to gigging etc, so may have a foot in both camps!

I THINK it is a Hercules.....the GS526B PLUS - http://herculesstands.com/international/products/fretted-and-bowed-instrument/guitar/multiple-stands/gs526b-plus/ Bit overkill for my needs - I only have 5 basses, and 2 rarely leave the house, but I have been eyeing up something from them to hold me Explorer bass....just not sure which...!

To be fair.....I did once consider of doing the reverse (putting guitar set on a bass...) albeit a Mikro or Bronco..... (or maybe even properly MDP'ing it and bunging EADG on a 7 string (ExAxDxG).....) (Ok....disown me....I know...)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195491050649?hash=item2d842cb499:g:p7EAAOSwbDdjgJ~l

Apologies if done to death/wrong place on the forum....(move if need be!) What are peoples' views on the above......? I've never used them (but them never been asked to either.....) I totally understand if you are using backing tracks/lighting/effects etc, where they would be useful, but doesn't having a metronome clacking in your ear just ruin the 'vibe'......also, isn't there the danger of becoming too reliant......? (I know from jamming along to stuff on YouTube etc at home, I'm all well and good, but come play it in 'real life'........GULP!) I'd like to think that, whatever I'm playing, I can rely on the rest of the band to keep in time, (and to keep up with them.....) and not have that dictated by something in my ear (Or am I totally missing the point, need to get to sleep and forget about it.....?)

The two best cars I've had for gear lugging were probably also the most troublesome as actual transport (one certainly was.....!) - Mk4 Astra 1.7DTi - could get all of the rig (at the time) into the boot easily, and it was pretty economical.......only problem was that it got to the point that my local garage refused to do any more work on it 'as it isn't fair on us, and it definitely isn't fair on you....' It did a headgasket (took that on the chin....), then proceeded to blow every water pipe on the engine, in series, and so overheated several times, then the turbo failed, followed by the headgasket, again.....! - Mk1 Suzuki Ignis - Bonkers little wagon, 90hp (yes ok, not Jaaaaaaag type figures, but going through those skinny little tyres....!) Eager little buzz box, and drop the seats and you have a 4' cube to load (again, not Volvo volumes, but for half the length of a 240.....) But then it started to randomly overheat/lose coolant/be incontinent.....no rhyme or reason, never did it for the garage......Radweld didn't work.....

I was in a previous band with our current guitarist and we were playing his wife's 50th....... The Singer (with a history drug and alcohol problems) turned up and decided to get absolutely spifflicated on the Punch made for the party.... to the point he could barely stand up, spends most the evening stumbling around swearing and generally being a complete twonk...... (the other's guitarist's daughters (and several other guests left at this point......)) Come the actual gig he gets about two songs in before smashes his guitar on the floor, rips the Floyd Rose bridge off, stamps on the guitar then wanders off and disappears, we ended up getting a friend up to finish singing the set...... Needless to say he didn't last long after that......! (I also managed to fall in the pond, but that's another story......)

Oh.....I know that NOW....! (and he is very good....!), just meant, back when I was starting out, and got hold of a Fender catalogue...... The Roscoe Beck IV caught my eye......but had never heard of him (I knew who Hoppus, Pastorius and Sumner were....just not Mr Beck, in the Sig section) (As I said, same with the JC......liked the bass, looked the artist up.....!)

Like seems to have been said several times already.....I don't/won't buy into the whole 'hero worship' of signature basses, that said, there are several I do want to try/buy...... Fender Roscoe Beck IV (no idea who he is......but saw it and thought 'WOW....COOL!') Epi Jack Cassady (See Above - but also kinda wanna try a semi-hollow) Fender Mike Dirnt (Do like Green Day, but mostly love the '51 shape.....so.....)

My attitude depends on the other members of the band..... There are plenty of songs/bands that I am not keen on (and would never listen to, given the choice), but have been established parts of sets of bands I have joined, so have got on and learned/played them (U2 and The Jam, to name two) I am also willing to play stuff I am not a fan of, if the band really want to do it, or it is likely to be a crowd pleaser..... I am also willing to accept that others might not like my choices, but if they then actively sabotage, that is when I start to get irked.......in my last band (which I formed with a guitarist friend I'd previously played with), a set list was drawn up, with all members having input/vetoes (so no Billy Idol or Sex on Fire.....!), the singer/guitard then started to 'forget' to learn songs (then come up with a load of others (like ubit said....)), or claim he 'couldn't play them' (how you can play 'Rain' by The Cult, but then claim 'Lil Devil' is 'too hard' is beyond me......!) He and the drummer also flatly refused to play a song (then admitted that neither of them had actually listened to it......'but they didn't like it') It was at this point that I thought 'If I have any qualms about anything they suggest, I'm not doing it......' (if buthe co-founding guitarist suggested anything, I would, but then he was more willing to compromise.....and was enduring having to play Oasis......(drummer's choice, not mine.....!)) Mind you that is all academic now.....the drummer quit just before our first gig.......then mysteriously our singer quit 'as it wasn't what he signed up for' (having helped write the set list....), lo and behold, about a week later I see a post on FB that the drummer's old band (which he had kept reminding us, several times, every practice, had been going for 15yrs, played 100's of gigs, been really successful, for 15yrs, playing 100's of gigs.....) were reforming......having found 'a new singer/guitarist'........!

Had a couple of those myself! - Was playing a gig and some drunk yobbo tries to grab my mic, I wrestle it back, he goes again, etc.......afterwards have the band going 'you should have just let him have the mic.....' Thing was, they didn't spot the fact that due to the tiny stage, and the rat's nest of cables, every time he went for the mic, the PA speaker on its tripod lurched forward, had he got it off stage, the whole thing would have gone... - Playing a rather 'interesting' Pub, a punter kept on shuffling up and trying to stroke/poke various members of the band.....! - Watching a band in my local, a drunken woman kept on stumbling on stage, until the singer changed the chorus of 'Hard to Handle' to 'Hey Can Someone Get Her Off The (BLEEP) Stage Right Now'

Oh this is all all too familiar...... My band (formed on the verge of lockdown 1, by me and a guitarist I've played with on and off for ages, a drummer I played with years ago, and a new singer/guitarist) are now on the search for a drummer and frontman after those two suddenly 'weren't sure they wanted to go the direction the set was going (having helped write/build most of it during and between lockdowns.....) and decided to walk, just as we had been offered our first post lockdown gig......! Suddenly the drummer's 'old band', which folded when the singer moved away, has reformed (albeit 'looking for a bassplayer') with 'a new singer/guitarist' (I have no idea where he came from......!?!) Onwards and Upwards !

Well, a lot of this sounds very familiar....! Our journey started just before the Pandemic took hold....... I started a rock covers band with a guitarist friend I'd previously played with (our previous effort crumbled due to a revolving door of singers and drummers - deportations, getting so off their head they couldn't perform, not learning sets......) I contacted a drummer I had previously played with, and he seemed keen, as his previous longterm (15yrs) band had folded. We found a singer/guitarist (rather good at both, usually simultaneously, so bonus..), and made a 'MegaList' which we started to work on, and it all began well (albeit ensuing lockdown considered...!), but then the singer started to 'not be able to do' songs (even if they were same band/key as stuff we were doing....!), others seemed to get 'forgotten' repeatedly.....meanwhile new 'suggestions' kept on being made (distraction tactics......half of them he couldn't play!) We then get offered (a couple) of 1/2hr spots at a local(ish) charity bank holiday bash, through our guitarist, right, set lists made (by me.....but open for adjustment...), the drummer starts to get cold feet 'it's a long way away.....'(1/2hr from his), 'are we getting paid?', 'are they providing a backline?' 'Is it really worth it...?' etc, He then started to get into niggles over how songs were played 'because in his old band....', 'which was very successful, don't you know, and had been going for 15yrs, don't you know......' (he never said......!) Next week the drummer ups and quits 'as the music isn't going in the direction he wants to go in.....' (he was present at all points when deciding on songs....) A mutual friend, totally unprompted, went 'or, rather, you ain't playing his old band's set list.......' The Singer is now saying he isn't sure he wants to continue.......(for similar reasons.....but again, he's had input on the set.....!) As a result we have had to pull out of the charity do...... (Guitarist and I still want to keep going, and hopefully get a bit more of what we want back into the set.....) Oh The Joy of Bands!

I have rarely taken a backup to practice, but always (well, as soon as I had more than one.....) taken one to gigs (albeit the backup is not the same as the 'Main' bass.....) I have had to swap out (mid song......) due to snapped strings/loss of signal (dodgy jack, as it turned out) more than once, so always going to keep doing it...... Currently Epiphone Explorer/Squire P (quite like the OP sig pic, actually) in rotation Previously Epiphone Explorer backed up by an Ibanez JTKB JetKing, Before that, JetKing backed up by No Name Jazz Copy I did manage to break strings on both Main and Backup in one day......(A on the Main at a festival in the afternoon, E on the Backup at pub gig in the evening (luckily on the encore.....!)

When I started I used a pick, then switched to fingers (after not being able to play certain songs with a pick....) Now I am back to pick as I feel I can get a better sound.... As for what I use......depends, I generally have a few in rotation Most are Dunlops (0.96, 1.0 1.14) A load of random ones acquired over the years at gigs/as gifts etc I also have a few I've made with a pick press (current ones are made from waste plastic packaging from work, so not entirely sure what it is or exactly how thick.....just that it is better than old debit card or milk bottle...!)

I believe by 40 - 60 L they are referring to the volume of a suitcase/bag (25x40x60cm = 60 L for example) , as opposed to liquid - 60 litres of clothes weighs a less than 105 pints of beer.... But still some of those do look sturdy enough to hold an amp.....!

As the title implies.....a query about said head.... Seen one for sale.....I like the look..... But are they any good......and are they good/loud enough to be gigged? Thanks

I cannot remember exactly....But it was either - Pet Sematary - The Ramones or Burning For You - Blue Oyster Cult (There was also Sell Out by The Levellers before that, but that doesn't count as I still am not happy with how I play it.....cannot for the life of me seem to get the picking rhythm right......!)