KingBollock

It seems to me that the blame for the perceived fault actually lies with the venue. And the claim that venues are closing down because they put the wrong bands on (because they've been tricked by people charging less or nothing) makes no sense whatsoever. If that really is the case then those people have no business being in business in the first place. If there really is a pattern where hiring cheaper bands = losing money, and they don't spot it, well... If you can accept that, then you really should accept that those who aren't bothered about making money at it might feel the need to stick up for themselves in a thread intended to moan about them.

[quote name='swanbrook' timestamp='1349911397' post='1832299'] Look I said it twice already it won't effect me, I do see both sides and agree I think to a point playing for free isn't the best idea in the world but in general it's not going bother me. When I moved to this town the standard fee for a band was 80 quid a man ( again in pubs not weddings) now because bands where under cutting the standard is 30. And if the guys are happy doing it than fair enough. I don't look down at anyone who has the balls to play live. Sorry about the prat thing ! But I take what I do very seriously made too much the fishing stands but I will be watching from the side with a beer and practicing brown eye girl [/quote] In which case my posts weren't really meant for you, but to the few posts in this thread that expressed a very different view. I might join you with the Uke that I like to take fishing with me, so I can widdle about on it while waiting for a bite and trying to drown out the sound of the ducks laughing at me. Here's a thing, though, I don't even play live, I haven't for over 20 years, I'm not in a band. A few years ago I was talking to a local musician who asked if I was looking for a band. I told her the sort of thing I wanted to do, but said that I was just in it for fun, not interested in making any money at it. She suddenly seemed to turn into a Gollum type creature and hissed "Well some of us have to!".

I'm not looking down my nose at anyone. I was showing that there is another side to many of the things that have been said in this thread. I agree that doing free gigs isn't going to affect you. So all I am asking is not to be looked down on just because I want to play for free. It doesn't make me wrong, it doesn't make me an inferior player, which is what I've been reading throughout this thread. And sticking up for myself doesn't make me a prat.

I don't have a problem with bands who want to charge, get what you can get away with. What I object to is being told that by not charging I am ruining it for those who want to and I am obviously an inferior musician. I can understand charging if you're being asked to play a crappy gig that's not going to be any fun. But I just wouldn't do the gig. If there's no fun there's no point, as far as I am concerned.

One problem I have with all of this is that the ones who claim bands playing for free take money from "better" bands, in the same breath will say that if you don't charge, you're obviously crap and who would want you to play for them anyway? It's two faced and both faces are wrong.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1349904632' post='1832201'] For me it can be too much work for the money..Pubs are invaribly that.... so the gig needs to return. It is EITHER great fun or a good payer. If it is both then great, if it is neither, then that is a killer. [/quote] See, I can understand that. I'm an angler and I have a philosophy that goes: If the sun is shining and the landscape beautiful, I don't care if I catch or not. If I'm sitting next to a wet, muddy hole in the ground, then I want to be catching Fish. However, I still have to pay for my license, day ticket, bait, line, hooks and tackle and all I might get out of it is a wet head and slimy hands.

Money causes too many problems that I wouldn't want to have to deal with in the hobby I do for FUN. I don't want to have to worry that we're not charging enough, making us look crap, or charging too much, making us look arrogant. I don't want to have to worry about the singer wanting 2 cuts because he also plays a guitar, or a drummer wanting more because he has to carry so much, or because he has further to travel. I don't want to stress about being stiffed by the venue at the end of every gig. And I don't want to have to cope with paying tax and stuff. And if I leave all this to another band member, I don't want to have to worry that he or she is doing it properly. I have a few hobbies that I enjoy and have to pay for and don't expect anything back from. There are hobbies I would like to do but they're expensive, so I can't, I just have to accept that. I am far from well off and having to travel to gigs and rehearsals and replace strings and leads and such, would have to come out of my own pocket and I would have to go without other things to pay for them, but that's the price of a hobby. Not being bothered about making money at it does not make me evil or a lesser musician than you. And implying as much is just snide and smacks of bitterness.

Those who play for free won't get paid any less, so why should they give a toss? They just make those who think they should be paid prove they're worth being paid.

Well, I wouldn't play any venue unless I was being paid £10,000 per hour. So I am obviously a better musician than you.

Or hobby bands that demand payment are worse for pro bands than those who play for free. In these times, when cash is scarce, instead of buying a bottle of vodka from Aldi and staying in, someone might be more tempted to go out to see a band if it's for free. You can go out and see a couple of local bands for free and still have money for a ticket to see a pro band, this might help keep the Pub open too. Hobbyists charging are eating into the money that people might need to go see a pro band... If your band isn't getting the gigs it thinks it deserves and blaming it on bands not charging, perhaps your band isn't so much better than the free bands as it thinks it is?

For the wires that go through the hole from pick-up to cavity, I used the outer shielding from this kind of wire: Which I got from here: http://www.wdmusic.co.uk/silver-braided-gibson-wire---1m-283-p.asp I just pulled the its original wire out and fed the pickup wires though it. It can be soldered too, which is handy. A cheap and easy way to shield those wires would be to wrap them in tinfoil and then feed them through the hole. It can't be soldered, but you can stick it down with something like [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/aluminium-tape-4098"]Aluminium Tape[/url], which is what I use to shield the entire cavity.

I currently own four Basses and have no intention of increasing the fold. However, if I still had my old Westone Raider I, which dire circumstance caused me to sell, over ten years ago, then I would probably still only have that one Bass. I loved it to bits and miss it like hell. Though, I have to admit, my Warlock is a much better Bass.

It took me over 20 years to get around to buying my favourite Bass, a BC Rich Warlock. In the end I went for the NT. I adore it, it plays beautifully and sounds ace, and I still have to catch my breath when I look at it, it's gorgeous! Even so, there are problems with it and I am going to have to tinker with the bridge to make it absolutely perfect. But I would never sell it. Well, if I lost both my arms and ended up living on the streets (again. The living on the streets bit, I never lost my arms.), then I might consider selling it. But if I'd only lost my arms I would very proudly mount it on the wall (well, I'd get someone else to mount it for me).

[b]Intelligent[/b]. I didn't finish school, so have no GCSEs, but, later, I did get myself into a college doing electronics and did quite well. [b]Introverted[/b]. I am incredibly shy, until I can properly relax, then I get quite loud. [b]Deep thinkers[/b]. Don't have much else to do... [b]Don't make eye contact[/b]. I don't play live, my playing never leaves this room, so no, no eye contact. [b]Prefer the dark to the light (night to the day)[/b]. I am naturally nocturnal, which rather confounds my Doctor (though, this summer, I have been quite good and only lapsed a couple of times and not for long). And other than an obsession with sparkly things and coloured lights (I have disco lights set up around my house, in fact I put together a mobile Disco purely to be able to play with the lights. And don't get me started on smoke machines and lasers...), I prefer the dark. [b]Moody[/b]. I shouldn't be, I take so many tablets every day, to control it, that I rattle. And I'm [i]still[/i] moody.

[quote name='steve-soar' timestamp='1348740111' post='1817508'] Bin those shades and get some large Ray Ban Aviators. Cool tats. [/quote] Those shades are genuine, £180 Gucci, Japanese imports! I didn't buy them, they were a gift. I hate Aviators. I do have some old Ray Ban style shades, with polarized lenses for fishing, but they don't look right with the hat.

[quote name='lowdowner' timestamp='1348691913' post='1817084'] Surely, *SURELY* you asked him how he knew i.e. what he recognised in you? Go on, spill the beans.... [/quote] I didn't, sorry! I was dressed like this, but without the sweatbands: Perhaps it was the Bass I was carrying that gave it away? Oh no, I'd left that at home...

In the summer I was in a Guitar shop somewhere on the Welsh coast. I looked around and commented to my wife (quite quietly but there was only her, me and the shop owner in there) that there was only one Bass in the whole place. The shop owner nodded and said "Bass player, I knew it! I thought when you came in that you looked like a Bass player.". I took it as a complement.

I quite often manage to get exactly the sound I want. The trouble is that the next time I play through the same rig, with the same Bass, in the same place, playing the same tunes, absolutely nothing different, it's no longer the sound I am after and I have to start again. I've been doing this for over 20 years, I just can't settle on one sound. I do know what sounds I don't like, which is a start.

[quote name='lowdowner' timestamp='1348601274' post='1815888'] Ah, now, that's interesting. Are you thinking some kind of electro-magnetic feedback of some kind? The answer is - I don't know! I will check it out in the morning and report back... funnily enough, I didn't think to experiment with that.... [/quote] I'll be honest, I have no idea... It happens to me but all my amps and Basses are squashed together with 2 running PCs and their monitors, and a bunch of different kinds of lighting, including strip lights. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of buzz in here.

This might sound strange, but I'm curious... Does this happen no matter what orientation you are in to your amp? As in, if it happens when you are facing your amp, or the amp is right behind you, does it stop, or get quieter, when you turn so you are at a right angle to your amp?

[quote name='lowdowner' timestamp='1348513027' post='1814641'] surely this doesn't just depend on the length of your strap but the length of your *cough* as well ...? [/quote] I've got a bit of a chest infection, I can *cough* for hours.

When I played in band when I was young, I always had my Bass covering my gentleman's area, which is where I wear it while sitting down, I don't have it on my lap I let it hang down between my legs. After 16 years of not being in bands, so not having to stand up, and getting bigger and bigger as the years went by, I was surprised to find that when I stand up I can no longer have my Bass that low because my belly shoves the top of the Bass away from me so that the strings are almost parallel with the floor. So when standing, I have to have it over my bellybutton.

I once jumped to the wrong conclusion after I had bought a brand new 15" speaker. If I played anything below G# on the E string it farted really badly. I was gutted because I'd had to save up to buy the speaker. I went on a different Bass forum (didn't know this place existed) and complained, just for the sake of ranting. Someone suggested that it was the cab I had put it in but I said it wasn't (it wasn't). When I came back later that day there were 4 pages of people calling me an idiot and a liar! (despite the fact that there was absolutely no way for them to know what size cab I'd put it in). It turned out to be a hidden gain setting on my V-Amp Pro, it was set too high and was causing the DDT protection in my Peavey amp to cut in. I was very relieved when I worked it out. I gave up on that forum (I'd only just started visiting there anyway) and while searching for a new Bass forum I found this place, so it all worked out for the better in the end!

I think my assumption has been that the extra downward force on the bridge would create a better connection to the body of the Bass, allowing for better sustain by helping eliminate errant vibrations which would dampen sustain. I would worry about the break angle though, I think having the strings run from the end of the Bass, instead of from the back, would be better.

I know it's not a Bass, but I love this: Would love to get a Bass done in this design. Half my clothes have this pattern, be cool to have a matching Bass!