neepheid

The keyboard player in my band says that my Jack Casady is his favourite sounding of all my basses.

I'd expand upon "clear on what you are looking to get from the sessions" to be make a plan - plan everything - which tracks to record, what instruments on them, any overdubs they'd like to do for each track etc.

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1425640654' post='2709263'] BBOT never bettered does the job and is hassle free [/quote] Nasty troll, get back under your bridge!

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1425479050' post='2707739'] You sound like a barrel of laughs ! [/quote] I hope you meant it jokingly, but it still comes off a tad harsh to me.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1425400145' post='2706958'] And English bassists too, Moffat is border country. It's not like it's in Aberdeen. [/quote] Well, indeed. I was merely referencing what Alan said about "I had expected more interest from my part of the world". Everyone is welcome. They must be, they let people from Aberdeen attend!

I had my first proper listen to them in the car last night on the way home from band practice. I wasn't driving, so I could concentrate on it more. Or so I thought. Once I had track 1 out of the way, the next time I looked it was track 7 and I wondered how the hell it happened. Seems to be a bit samey, tracks merging into each other a bit. It was competent enough, but I don't think I'll seek out my own copy.

I'd be annoyed too, and I'm no newbie. I also think the response was pretty restrained from an obviously irritated person.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1425381599' post='2706656'] Really don't get soft covers for cabs. IMO a properly made cab is its own case. Also my experience with soft covers on something much smaller and lighter than the average bass cab was that they had the durability only slightly greater than a wet tissue and unless I could afford to replace them every 6 months or so the amount of protection they give when loading in and our of the band van is going to minimal. [/quote] Don't expect too much - covers keeps rain and dust off/out and that's principally what they're for IMO.

424 has angled through body stringing and a 5 piece maple/nato neck over and above what the 414 has. The posher ones add stuff like different pickups (P with blades instead of pole piece pairs), spline jointed bodies, maple/mahogany neck instead of maple/nato, nickel silver nut (same material as frets so in theory open strings sound more similar to fretted ones), and some mad wood treatments which claim to make the wood "old" but fresh from the factory.

Sulking's always disappointing from grown-ups. I've quit two bands in the past, one time the split was amicable (with leaving card/booze and everything after the last gig) and the other time I got a stroppy passive/aggressive email from the band leader telling me that using a band meeting to tell them in person that I was leaving was a "futile and theatrical gesture" but it'd be fine if I wanted to come back. Riiiiiight then.

The "wish I'd gone to the loo before we started" The "bum note" The "I'm playing an RD Artist, ha ha!"

Difficult to say. The last time I left a band, I told them at the end of a rehearsal. I was going to wait until after our last gig for a while but my hand was forced when emails started going around about some potential upcoming gigs so I had to make my move. It was OK in the end, everyone was sad but nice about it, and they made a fuss about the gig being my last, even presented me with a card and a bottle of bubbly. In my remaining band, if we're not gigging, we're creating new stuff, and that's fine by me. We've not got any more gigs booked (enquiries have been lodged with a few festivals, waiting to hear back), but I can probably get us a gig at a local venue in the not to distant future if we decide to air some of the new stuff. But my real aim this year is to get some recordings done. Something to hawk at gigs. Something to talk about if we get interviewed by blogs/'zines/community radio/whatever. Something to get better gigs with. Band kitty has been (very slowly) building so hopefully we'll be able to spit out at least a 4 track EP or something.

I used to be a bit of a tinkerer, but I've calmed down a lot. The only one which survives from that era is the Epiphone Les Paul (not so) Standard: Physical changes - pickup selector switch installed in the rightful place. These basses didn't come with them, even though they had the internal routing for it. Doesn't look like a Les Paul without it, so I did it myself. Taking a drill press to a carved top instrument was a bit of a scary moment, but it turned out OK in the end. Cover on the back is a little tight and difficult to remove, I made the rebate a little too snug. Internal changes - guts ripped out entirely and replaced with 2x EMG-HB pickups (split P rails in a guitar humbucker sized package), 2x volume plus selector switch fed to an EMG-BQC 3 band EQ. Controls - vol, vol, bass/treble stack, mids/mid sweep stack. Somehow managed to squeeze a battery in there too More recently, I changed the neck pickup on my Gibson Midtown Standard to a DiMarzio Model One. Not trivial - the Model One doesn't fit in the hole left by Gibson's "I look like a mudbucker but I'm really a TB+ in disguise" so I had to enlarge the route a bit. Just did it by hand with the chisel - only needed a couple of mm each side. Found a spare push/push pot, so I have series/parallel selectable on the volume pot.

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1425244862' post='2705563'] I've never owned one, but if I can make a teensy-weensy observation/comment it's that the headstock on the above models is way better than the[i] chewed by a bear[/i] ones on the later models. Message ends. P [/quote] Wrong! Eye gouger FTW.

Barrel jack? Replace it, not much else you can do, everything's internal. http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/neutrik-nys2203-635mm-stereo-long-reach-chassis-socket-n39gb

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1425123073' post='2704147'] Music (like every other bloody commodified product) is very much prone to supply and demand - so no doubt there are lots of originals bands playing creative and inventive music in Milwaukee - but what blue is saying is that there is no market for it there, which is the [i]really [/i]sad and depressing thing about it. Mediocrity abounds. [/quote] That's what I was trying to figure out - no market for it, does that mean that originals bands still play but get naff all, or do they just not bother airing their stuff in public at all because no-one wants to hear it and no-one cares?

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1425095379' post='2703916'] I think the OP wants to gig and possibly be paid.If there are gigs for original bands in his region fine. Here in Milwaukee it wouldn't be the best route for those that want to gig. There is no local market for originals bands in Milwaukee. Blue [/quote] Man, it's all about the bottom line with you, isn't it? Also I find it really sad to hear stuff like "There is no local market for originals bands in Milwaukee." - you mean the originals bands get next to naff all money, or that there are no originals bands playing anywhere in Milwaukee? Originals bands getting f all isn't anything new. But a dearth of local originals bands even playing? I'd find that worrying and rather depressing. Where's the inventiveness? Where's the creativity? Aberdeen (Scotland) can be a weird place, but it has a decent number of venues putting on a decent amount of originals bands every weekend, and even through the week. You get paid a token amount, but at least you're gigging and getting your tunes in peoples' ear holes.

Originals or covers?

Where the hell are these £250 gigs?

You've been really unlucky with the people you've met. You can't keep being this unlucky. Try originals for a change of scene/pace? Completely different set of frustrations to contend with Write your own stuff? If you'd told me 5 years ago I'd be writing and performing my own songs, I'd have laughed at you.

Oh, the strings round the wrong sides of the tuners - be still, my aggravated OCD!

Even later in replying to feedback received lately because the forum had lost my following setting - Marc bought a G&L Tribute M-2000 from me last year. Picked it up in person, had a pleasant yap before sealing the deal. Straight up guy, deal with confidence.