neepheid

What is this nonsense? I have had to learn songs I've never listened to before, songs I've heard once or twice and ones I'm intimately famiilar with. All three take more intense study than you suggest to get them to a standard I'd be happy exhibiting in public. I frankly don't care if you think being in a covers band "isn't really for" me on this basis. You just sound condescending here.

Also, you can add me to team G&L in your post above. Currently have a CLF L-1000, in the past had Tribute L-2000, Tribute SB-2, El Toro.

Don't forget the LB-100, if you don't want the heat of the MFD pickup (but why wouldn't you?)

From a covers band perspective, I think there has to be a degree of give and take. Utimately it's all about what the audience want, and I do find myself playing a couple of songs I find pretty boring, but when the audience dance and/or sing along it makes up for it. In our band we do have a veto system but everyone's up for at least giving people's suggestions a go - the only flat out vetos occur when it's too difficult to distill it down for a single guitarist or something's beyond one of us to be able to play it well enough. We cull songs from the set if they don't get a good reaction from the audience rather than because we like/don't like them - although our guitarist will do almost anything to get out of playing an Oasis track I grumble about playing "Don't Stop Believin'" (effing boring song that doesn't go anywhere) and the rest of the lads poke a bit of fun at me as a consequence but it's all good natured. Ultimately, we're there to entertain people not pander to my tastes or preferences, so we try to give the people what they want first and have a private grumble about the ones we'd rather not play in rehearsals.

Maybe a bit too song specific but I don't think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles has dated. I am of the belief that they basically invented The Chemical Brothers. I don't think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" would have sounded out of place on the "Dig Your Own Hole" album, save for the slightly low-fi production values (particularly in the percussion) compared to the shiny, precise nature of today's sound sensibilities. If things go round in predictable cycles, then 60s > 90s > 20s so it's time for this sound again this decade.

As a Gibson man, I'm guessing that translucent cherry red is an obvious choice... So happy with my 20th Anniversary JC Signature, combining cherry red (wine red, technically) with flame maple. Noice. I'm a sucker for all metallics though. Currently got a "Smoked Almond Metallic" (gold, basically) Epiphone Embassy... And a G&L CLF Research L-1000 in Royal Purple Metallic (purple, basi... oh wait, it's not a stupidly named colour) And there's something inherently classy about black with cream binding... As long as there is a colour though (not too keen on natural finishes), I'm happy.

Nailed it! The band's called Nine Lives.

Not last night but Saturday, had a gig with the covers band and the first live outing for the Epiphone Embassy. Was very pleased with it, sounded really good and rorty on 100% neck pickup and it was super lightweight so very comfortable 2 set gig. Wasn't a super busy gig though - I think people are still getting used to the fact that live music is back up and running. Here's a wee vid from the gig - mobile phone so not great but the bass is coming through pretty nicely 10000000_901488457466520_842087986603972956_n.mp4

Glad you got it sorted. I wish I had seen this back in the day - I would have suggested the headphone jack replacement route. A few years ago my amp would regularly and seemingly randomly mute itself (although it happened more when things were loud). Worked out that plugging a jack in and out of there a few times would provide temporary relief. Eventually I replaced the jack socket and the problem was solved. No obvious damage like the one which came out of yours but it was one of these types: When the headphone jack is plugged in, it breaks the contacts shown and sends the signal down the headphone jack instead of passing it through to the speaker and the ground lift is detected by the amp and lights up a mute LED (which was very handy in piecing together what was happening). My guess is that the socket was cheap as chips and the contact(s) had lost their spring and were lifting away causing interruptions in sound and the LED to come on. Haven't had a problem since I replaced the socket.

To be clear I wasn't worried about them physically clashing, was just considering aesthetics.

I used a pillar drill with a forstner bit. Did I cheat?

Anyone still have their Big Trak? Necessary? No, it was a toy. Relevant? Yes, it was a toy, we were kids. Benefit? Kinda - if the act of programming it in a kind of pseudo Logo got you all excited then congratulations, a childhood sparsely populated with friends followed by career in computing beckons! If it got boring after 5 mins, you probably did something else with your life.

While it would have been nice to see the tuners rotated such that their full frontal profile is parallel to the face of the headstock to gauge how close to each other they get, to be fair, that doesn't look as bad as some efforts I've seen. Are Hipshot elephant ears are a bit smaller than some? I could put up with that, nay even like that. I've seen some big eared horrors in the past but those slightly smaller buttons, coupled with the fact that they're not sticking out half a mile on long stalks and that doesn't come anywhere close to that. I thought the disconnect between the small size tuner posts and the elephant ears would have had me cringing like watching someone spread marmalade on a steak but it's not as bad as I had feared. Hell, I would go so far as to say I approve of this configuration (not that it matters what I think). Go forth and fit these machine heads with my blessing Gibson themselves have used the full gamut of possibilites for bass tuners from full on ridiculous sticking out elephant ears on long stalks (which are the ones I think look bloody awful in small headstock 2+2 configuration) through close fitting elephant ears to mini bass tuner buttons to sideways mounted minis (in the slotted headstock EB basses) to fully invisible rear facing banjo tuners. They've thrown everything at it - sometimes changing types and sizes even during a model run (for instance it's possible to see either close fitting elephant ears (Schaller BM) or mini bass buttons (Schaller M4) on a Grabber or G-3 depending upon when it was made). So I guess when the company themselves can't even settle on a style then why should you?

Yeah, yeah

Suits me, that attitude keeps me in a job, long after I predicted that a generation of computer whizzkids would come along and render me obsolete. Turns out, much like any other subject in life you have to be interested in it in order to give a hoot about it

If only the stock tuners were Grovers - sheer luxury compared to the rather uninspiring units as supplied. Having mine off the bass I can see they have the name "Marvel" stamped into the underside of them. They're lightweight by manufacture, not by design, but probably part of the reason you can score one of these for £350 new - which I still think is ludicrously good value for money. All this Embassy talk has made me decide to take mine to band rehearsal tonight and probably play it at the gig on Saturday - my G&L L-1000 has been getting all the attention recently.

Liking that one on the right - is that a metallic copper finish?

Hey, it's your bass and you don't need me to tell you that you're free to do what you want with it. I'm merely pointing out the reasons why I wouldn't, won't and don't fit full size tuners to an Epiphone Embassy (the modern remake). I also think it's different for in line tuners vs. tuners either side. You've got double the "sticky-out" effect happening. I don't mind the look of elephant ears on the likes of a Thunderbird. But sticking them on a small 2+2 headstock - well, all I see is this:

Yes, it's smaller. Here are the deets: Jack Casady headstock Length (nut to tip) - 20.5cm Width (widest part after nut - narrowest point - widest point at top) - 8.3, 7.9, 9cm Tuner centres (E&G) - 4.3cm Tuner centres (A&D) - 4.5cm Tuner centres (E&A) - 8.4cm Embassy headstock Length (nut to tip) - 18.4cm Width (widest part after nut - narrowest point - widest point at top) - 8.3, 7, 7.8cm Tuner centres (E&G) - 4.2cm Tuner centres (A&D) - 3.3cm Tuner centres (E&A) - 6.1cm Not only is the Embassy headstock visually and demonstratably smaller, it lacks the same kick out at the top (in fact it's narrower at the top than the bottom, unlike the JC). The A&D tuners are super close together compared to the JC, and top to bottom they're much closer together. You factor in widening the posts and bushes and see how close together the A and D tuners will be. You could try to bore them off centre, but then you'll be risking getting awfully close to the edge of the headstock - also looking silly, not to mention possibly structurally unsound. You could get Ultralites with the thin posts and elephant ears, but that looks out of proportion also. In my opinion, you really can't win with this one - it's going to look off whichever way you try to put what was not designed to be there, there. A bit like oversized wheels on a small car.

If I didn't say it before, I think full sized elephant ears would look bloody ridiculous on the small headstock.

I can vouch for Hipshot (Licensed) Ultralites as a direct replacement for Embassy stock tuners. No fuss replacement - drop straight in and screw holes line up with the original holes. Way smoother and direct acting, much less play in the gears.

I've got a dual footswitch, but I'm a bit too far away - would have gladly loaned it if close by - would even have posted it down if necessary. Let me know if you still need a shottie of it, happy to help. I never use it - on my amp all it triggers is mute or a single eq change (a passive tone knob in effect - which I never use).

It was the 'Spoons first post-lockdown gig last night. It was a mate's wedding - no pressure then! It was unusual circumstances all round - we are an originals band (although we do know some covers that we like to do for fun) and we've never played a wedding before! Thankfully, the drummer and I are also in a covers band so we're happy to set up PA etc. and used to doing it on a regular basis. We went to the venue the day before to set things up so as to minimise the disruption on the day (the whole shebang being in the one big room) and were a bit worried about how echo-y and boomy the room was (albeit when empty). When we got down to playing all together and with bodies in the room it turned out fine. We really weren't sure how we'd go down - sure, the bride and groom like us (that's why they asked us to play) but people who go to weddings generally expect a covers band. Thankfully we had a very generous, open-minded audience who didn't only dance to the covers but stayed on the floor for most of our songs too. The second set went great - after the post buffet mini coma had passed (around half way through) we played "Hard to Handle" and they stayed up for the rest of the set, bless 'em. Got two "one more choon"s, and we dared them to dance to "White Room" - challenge was accepted and they gave it a right good go - some quality robot moves during the 5/4 bolero bits We had a fabulous night - no major fluffs, the bride and groom were very happy (main objective, tick) and we're off and running again. I don't think we'll make a habit of playing weddings - it was a very select circumstance where we knew the bride and groom and I don't think it would have worked at any other wedding. Also, one of the guests was a fellow bass player so I got to talk shop for a bit in the break so that was cool. Next gig - this Saturday with the covers band, Dec 11th for the 'Spoons.

What amazes me about this thread is the OP not even bothering to google The Smiths to find out for themselves who the bass player is. Definitely worth a "let me Google that for you" link at the very least!

Right then, let's have an uninvited, unexpected inspection of your nether regions then. Fair's fair, if you're going to be like that.