Mudpup

Let us know how you get on with them 🙂

I'm getting on well with Happy Ears having tried a few other lower/mid priced options. They seemed to have a more even frequency reduction and I find them comfortable. Not expensive either. You can buy the Discovery Pack to check sizing - I ended up using the large black ones and the white medium ones fitted the guitarist. https://www.happyearsearplugs.com/uk/shop/

After a traumatic week at work being made redundant I needed a good night out and some cheering up. This did the trick nicely. We sacrificed all musical integrity and pumped out an evening of rocky crowd pleasers in a sports bar type pub local to me. Dance floor full from 30 seconds in. Opened with She Sells Sanctuary and didn't put them down until Killing in the Name Of.. as the 4th encore. A week of extremes for me - on the floor on Tuesday and high as a kite by Sunday morning.

I suppose if you're buying at full price you're expecting absolute perfection. The smallest blemish makes it B stock. Certainly doesn't bother me buying anything that's likely to pick up gig wear on the first gig at a reduced cost

It's usually a few minor things such as wonky stitching or small marks in the leather. They usually put some pics up of any damage with each individual item. My 2 arrived and I couldn't actually see much wrong with them. I can't see much wrong with this one

Gotta keep an eye on the outlet. It changes all the time

I'm desperately hoping they may give me some if I say nice things..... Here's the link to the outlet https://www.richterstraps.com/en/c/products/b-stock

Oopsie quadruple zillions post alert. Sorry! Sticky finger....

DOH (@binkybass look away now 😂

Jeessuss - my phone is possessed! Sorry about the world record double post chaps

FFS!

Aaargh

I picked up a couple of Richter Springbreak 1 Nappa leather straps a few years back from their outlet shop and think they're brilliant. Super soft padded Nappa and brilliant build quality. I don't think I would pay full price for them as they're shockingly expensive normally but I only paid about £35 for mine. Grabbed a Levy's padded 3.5" one a couple of months ago for a spare bass and it's good but not in the same league as the Richter's. (@binkybass look away now 😂)

I tend to put mine behind me at the foot of the bass cab. I only switch things on/off a few times in the set - just a bit of chorus or distortion on about 4 songs. We have too many gigs with punters tipping beer all over the place to risk having it anywhere near them (I didn't realise how expensive it would be to replace it if it blew up) If we have a barrier or a decent stage it can go in front

Yep, got them on all my basses. Which bass do you have?

Big Block 750! Epic amp!

The trick is to get a good balance of standards and some interesting curve ball stuff. But the curve balls have to be recognisable and can be hard to find. And we really stay away from the Killers and Sex on Fire to try and retain a point of difference. If people want that sort of thing they can find it in plenty of other places. Thinking of the obvious song and then trying to take a couple of steps sideways is a good plan. We pick up loads of gigs because we seem to have found a kind of sweet spot and the common denominator is that people need to be able to sing the chorus even if they had forgotten the song or never knew who it was in the first place. I call them trigger songs. If you can get people singing and dancing for most of the set they will be staying for the evening and that's what the landlord needs. We get a lot of feedback at the end of gigs about how nice it is to hear some different songs for a change though. Consequently we have stuff like Sweet Child, Dakota and Living on a Prayer in the set but we also have things like Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls (it's amazing how that gets everyone singing the chorus), a rocked up Maniac from Flashdance (all the 50 something laydees will have a sing/dance to that one), Design for Life by the Manics (massive chorus), Echo Beach (everyone remembers that and it's got a great tempo and groove) and True Faith by New Order. No one else locally does these although a few local bands have started to copy some of our set as a result. Doing a search on You Tube for known songs but a cover version is a good source of inspiration. Here's a couple of examples below that we found...

How about having access to a Swap section as a bonus to the Marketplace subscription ? I think a purely Swap section is a great idea.

I forgot to do the feedback thing for Nik a few months ago, sorry! We had a chat about Mesa amps at the Bass Bash late last year and sorted a meet out to do a swap at Niks place a few weeks later (seems like he was doing a bit of horse trading there!) So he now has my MPulse 600 and I have his old Big Block 750. Fabulous guy and totally upstanding 😁

Our 2nd gig of the weekend was last night in a pub in Essex. They've banned hazers and smoke so we travelled light and just used the couple of par bars the pub has installed - it was a nice quick load in and out without all our usual lights and lasers. When we arrived it all felt a bit quiet and we were fearing a dead duck evening. There was only about 15 people in there as we kicked off the first song but after about 20 minutes it had filled up and was packed out at the start of the second set. You play nose to nose with the crowd in here and it can get a bit lively. Last time here we had to stop at 11.45 as there was a fight kicking off mid crowd with a couple of cokey chavs being idiots. The security team here aren't as good as they used to be and have become a bit slow on the uptake. You can smell when it's likely to get a bit silly but they can't seem to pick up on it. No fights tonight but we had a youngish girl sneaking round the side and trying to hit the cymbals and getting too close to mains leads and stuff - we had to stop mid Sandman to tell her to hop it or we wouldn't start again. Drinks were going everywhere due to some pretty frantic dancing front of house later on. Another drunk woman was going on at me to give her the singers tambourine to play with - I kept saying no but the singist gave in, said yes and she immediately hopped up next to us and proceeded to do some odd booty wriggling routine and knocking the drum screen rather precariously. I booted her back to the crowd side of the monitors with her precious tambourine. We have a few more there later this year and we're definitely asking for some barriers at the front or a security guy for the second set.

In my case, the never ending search for an amp that will make me sound 'better'. I have finally come to the conclusion that the money would have been better spent on some lessons and earplugs 😂 What was I looking for? Well, when I discovered class D existed after my break away from playing it was mainly having something the weight of a biscuit tin to carry about. But I eventually figured out that there was something missing to my ears after I had been through all the usual suspects on my list. Most things sounded fine at home but when I tried them with the band there would be something not quite there for me. So that covers most of the changes i think. There are a few in there that plain didn't work for me like the Thunderfunk and others that in hindsight I would cheerfully have again such as the Ashdown ABM600 or EBS TD650 And I think the other motivation for the changes is that it's my hobby. I don't really do much else apart from work and raise my family. I don't drink or smoke or spend on myself in any other ways and was fortunate enough to have a job that paid enough for me to treat myself now and again. Most of the stuff was bought second hand and then moved on without too much of a loss and the money put back into my toy fund until something else interesting popped up on here mainly. Also my wife is an enabler - she comes from the 'if it makes you happy, do it' school of thought so I suppose I don't have a braking system either.

Pub gig in Essex last night. A few PA gremlins. Crowd didn't notice them though. Good fun venue where we can unleash our inner rock gods