cheddatom

I'm not sure about the US, but I think less people are going out at night in the UK. This would explain the amount of pubs closing for a start, before we get to the amount of empty gigs. I think better quality and more choice in home entertainment means that more people stay home instead of going out to socialise. I play in bands with a few guys 10-20 years older than me, and they reckon 15 years ago there would be well attended gigs every night of the week in Stoke and it's surrounding towns. It's just not like that any more So, I think any decline is more to do with the audiences than it is the bands I like to hang out with my bands but I don't think I've ever seen them outside of a gig/rehearsal/studio time

Friday night Rainbow Venues in Digbeth supporting TV Smith - this is a dead cool place. Not many people there but it was fun non the less. Saturday night downstairs at Rock City playing the after party for Ferocious Dog. I didn't get to see their set as we were busy getting ready, but we played well to a good crowd. It's nice to be able to say "I played rock city" even if it was the small room

most appreciated ironside. I have actually had a few guys come in to use the studio just for drum tracking, and then take home the stems, which is fine. I think communication is my biggest problem - not reaching enough people, or not often enough

I've had a couple of experiences like that in the past Jakester - one engineer refused to let me use my distortion pedal on bass! I was young and so just huffed and put up with it, but I should have walked out without paying the guy.

yeh, i really appreciate all the replies and i've had some great advice by PM too. I think my most obvious failing at the moment is an out of date website lacking in content. Regarding coffee - I have no idea! I hate the stuff. I do have lots of Yorkshire tea though, and tend to go the extra mile with lifts from the station etc. Regarding rehearsals - I'm in partnership with a rehearsal studio so they send all their business my way (it's a bit more involved than that but you get the idea) I do wonder if it's a viable proposition at all really, but I absolutely love recording and mixing so I'll keep it going as long as I can!

Don't you think popular tastes change? I can think of a couple of bands who've changed their sound to something a bit less original, and become more popular as a result, but then I can also think of music which was only a minority interest at first, but then became more popular. Just like fashion I suppose?

It's used on this [url="https://soundcloud.com/creepjoint/bass-invader"]https://soundcloud.com/creepjoint/bass-invader[/url] but very dirty! It's got a lovely clanky sound with the tone pot all the way up

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1448312997' post='2914438'] By the time a band gets popular enough for tickets to be expensive/fast selling they are no longer playing the kind of music I want to see/hear. [/quote] I don't understand this. Are they going to change what they're playing because they've become popular?

yes, he switches between them depending on which sound he likes I like my schecter studio 6 which I think is about in budget? But I've never played a bad instrument from Yamaha, so if you don't get to try before you buy, that'd be a good bet.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1448180679' post='2913418'] Hot Rails, Cool Rails, and I put a lipstick pickup in one I had (8K bridge position for Strat) which worked well and looked fantastic. Only downside was nowhere to rest my thumb so I put a thumbrest on as well. [/quote] Did I buy this off you? If so it sounds great and plays really well. Unfortunately it belongs to the bassist in my band so I hardly ever get to see it

I gig on bass and drums but only play guitar or piano when I'm on my own. Bass and drums only make sense to me when I'm with a band, so I suggest you find yourself a band!

Good stuff! Lw - I don't do very well online but can't figure out why. My meta tags are pretty good and I'm listed on all the relevant directories. Maybe I need to start advertising with google again but it wasn't very effective. Regarding interaction with local organisations etc I think we're more involved than the competition, so that's good. All of the customers I've had so far have been from word of mouth/referrals (except Pete who came from Basschat) or from community engagement like sponsoring competitions etc.

Mykesbass - "live recording" is something I do quite often, if requested. It's always preferable for me to go over the vocals separately so that there's no bleed at all from other instruments, but sometimes that's not what the customer wants. I do whatever it takes to get the best performance 'cos this is way more important than the sound of it IMO Lw - There are loads of rivals around here. I think in terms of price there are 2 in direct competition (at the bottom, price wise). I don't see much advertising from them. I'm not sure what else to analyse? Location and price are what I'd assumed would be the main deciders, but I remember choosing a studio years ago, and we'd decided that for some reason we would only choose a studio with a Control 24 Pro Tools desk?!? So I imagine there are some pretty random factors

I have a studio near Stoke, and it's going OK. Everyone who's been to the studio seems very happy, and lots of them have returned. I could still do with some more business though, so, I'd like to know how do you choose the studio to record in? It's not so much market research as a general discussion on the subject, which would be interesting even if I didn't have a studio

Let's have some photos then!

Corporation in Sheffield on Friday, great sound on stage. My first time gigging without an amp (just DI through the monitors) and it was perfect. Not many people there, but it was a very small room so not too depressing The Sugarmill in Stoke on Saturday. I set up for soundcheck and nothing came out. We did a soundcheck without my pedals, and then I had to go and try to fault find without an amp! I used my tuner as a signal indicator and located a bust patch cable. So, sorted in time to get on, but I think I might have been a bit too loud in the mix with my pedals We went down well anyway Star & Garter in Manchester last night, back on drums. It's a cool venue but there weren't many there, and some of the old punks looked nearly paralytic. We did get to see a very good band called Eye The Bomb who I'll be following

Steak Number Eight - cool on record, but I never expected they'd have so much energy when live. I was totally captivated for at least an hour. Ace!

Paul Simon at the NEC. He was great, and so were the band, but it was an enormous venue with sh*t loads of empty seats. Awful sound and no atmosphere

cable losses wouldn't be effected by the quality of the lead. The length of the cable is what degrades the signal (although I'm sure a bad cable can do this too) Obviously some buffers do sound noisy, I'm not denying that. However, most are fine, and they do bring some benefits. The Pete Cornish piece isn't trying to sell you any of his pedals, it's just very informative about the subject

thanks, I'll try it out!

I've raised pedals before with a small piece of wood the same size as the pedal. I don't think it looked weird, but then I also don't care if anyone thinks my pedalboard looks weird. Is there room inside the pedal box for you to shift the sockets up a bit? The digitech site says the polara is 5.08cm high, and the photo makes it look like the jacks are just over half way up the side

wow, can't wait to see this finished

still no photos?! I have no idea what this looks like!

Skybone I'd recommend reading that pete cornish link

I've got 3! My only 4 string is in bits. On a standard gig I could cope with a 5, but I generally don't get "standard" gigs on bass, so when I do play it's generally weird experimental rubbish where I can play loads of chords and go mental