stewblack

I have been so astonished by the quality of Harley Benton basses that I now regard £400 - £500 as a high priced instrument. Would never cross my mind to buy anything over that price. I'm a working musician and nobody but me would know the difference.

I'd advise against tying up money in stock likely to sit unwanted for a very long time. Unless they are in a good location for passing trade as well, unlikrly given the nature of the business I try to avoid paying to rehearse whenever possible. We use pubs and clubs happy to have us in on a quiet night and maybe sell us a couple of pints. However right now that's not an option so I'm forced to pay. There is only one consideration when choosing a space, and that is price. Nothing else. Every penny I spend effectively comes out of the next gig money, and there's precious few of those to look forward to.

Paul Weller's new one. It's very good.

Yeah I wasn't so specific, anyway it's cool, I'm just looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.

That's so much simpler than my insane solution

Not my field. I did a quick image search of 60's basses seemed quite popular, but that's irrelevant. It's your project, gotta look how you want it to right?

Ah, so it's not just me! I made the mistake of shining a torch at mine the better to see the control labels. Made it so much worse. Need a creative solution

Rehearsal yesterday, used the FI to great effect, first time in a band setting and it attracted all sorts of interest from the others. Also started to work more on my own sounds. I'm particularly keen to try to get as close as possible to so. e Depeche Mode sounds. Not easy as they used all sorts of creative ways to make noises and not just with synths.

Oh. Sorry for showing my ignorance. How does a painted headstock impact on that?

👆 couple from the late 70s end of my collection.

Glad we didn't do that I couldn't hear my rig.

So when he collapsed to the floor twitching that wasn't boddy popping?

I glance out the window tyo see the owner dancing to us in the carpark at one point. In the rain. At least I assumed he was dancing to us. Hmm.

Nice people too

Rehearsal today in Bristol. massive room so all good as far as soc dis is concerned. First time in a room with six other people, was a bit overwhelming, but I got through. I took my RM500 12" combo with 12" extension, also popped my Elf in a back pocket. Played mostly with the Ashdown rig but rreally struggled to get a sound i liked as the room isn't really finished yet, so many hard surfaces so much of a racket from the other instruments including something filling the bottom end of the sound to the point where i stopped playing and no one noticed. The Elf through the two Ashdown 12s actually cut through more in the mix and if nothing else i know both these set ups can comfortably cope with a 7 piece noise fest. I suspect the room was responding to a frequency or a vocal mic was picking up one of the guitars. To be fair we were all a little bit over enthusiastic but two of us did try to get a sound check in before we kicked off. the vocal harmonies in the band are really good but when everything is louder than everything else who can tell? Anyway, I know the new rig can handle the volume, I'll wait till i'm with my four piece to hear the more nuanced subtleties of my new gear.

Oh god, that does look wonderful

Nothing wrong with it at all. Solidly built and for bass, in a band mix, the effects are absolutely fine. I sold mine recently because money. No other reason.

Well, It was interesting. After over 100 days playing with myself (settle down at the back) to suddenly be in the maelstrom of noise was a thoroughly schizophrenic affair. On the one hand it was sheer joy to lock in with a drummer, to feel that buzz that goes through the band in the moments when we're all right on it. On the other hand I've got used to hearing what the bass sounds like, to pleasing myself how it sounds - to actually being able to bloody hear it.

Firebird in Brislington. We're a 7 piece, they have just opened a massive room we were comfortably 2m apart, no problem.

... for a band practice. Feels very strange.

Straight into the headstock with not a moment of hesitation. I'd be terrified to pick up the saw. Will you paint the headstock to match?

TBH the way you're using it is absolutely fine. You have, effectively 3 stomp boxes running off one power source with no patch cables! Depending on which three you haven't had to buy, the cost of the unit is covered! You could have fun creating an effect of your own by building it from three effects, say eq into overdrive into an envelope filter. Or build a monster distortion with three different overdrive pedals. The great thing is you always have the ability to blend clean signal with the final patch, so you can go a bit crazy with the effects in one patch but only dial in a small amount with the clean bass sound. Have fun - experiment, but don't feel you underused it If it's doing what you need it to do, it's doing its job.