BigRedX

What sort of music is it? Do you have a link to something we can listen to? It's difficult to give specific advice if the actual music is unknown. IME there are plenty of gigs available so long as: 1. You are extremely proactive about going after them 2. You are entertaining to watch as well as listen to. If you're not having any luck with promotors and venues go straight to the bands you'd like to support, when you know they have a gig in your area. I'd also suggest that if you haven't already you make a "promo video" to go with your best song.

No hats for me on stage. They get in the way of the hairstyle.

For me nitro is a put off. I don't want the finish on my instruments to wear away.

I've been a multi-effects user since the late 80s, but even then extra devices have always crept into the signal path. My current multi-effects unit is the Line6 Helix. Earlier this year I was considering adding my Linn Adrenalinn for live use, but after a lot of experimentation I have found a way of creating the same effect within the Helix itself, and so my current philosophy is that (certainly for live use) if I can't do it with the Helix then it doesn't need to be done.

If you are a pick player, depending on your technique, having the octave strings below the main ones can been that you don't always strike both strings in the course which will lead to inconsistencies in the sound. For the same reason if you only play finger style then it makes sense to have them the other way around.

Except the most recent versions don't have much in common with that one apart from the body shape.

Just done something similar three days in a row for 2 weekends, see above ↑ Up at 7.00 am so I can get some work in and not be too far behind with everything after the weekend, I'm self-employed graphic designer and some of my clients can be quite demanding (but they pay me well for the fact that most of the time I can be straight on whatever they need). Have lunch at 12.00 and make a pack-up for the evening because I know from previous experience that I may not have time to go out for food once we're at the venue, and even if I do, I don't want to be eating fast-food crap three evenings in a row. Down at the rehearsal room for some time between 1.30 and 2.30 (descending on how far we need to drive and when the venue load-in is) to load up and then set off. We're based in Nottingham and this week were playing London, York and Bracknell (Thursday , Friday and Saturday respectively) so it's 2-4 hours plus any stops along the way. Arrive at the venue just as it opens. The tour is basically In Isolation (us) plus Gothzilla with Feather Trade (from Athens Georgia) and X-Superstar (Andy Cousin - previously of All About Eve and The Mission - new band) on selected dates and local supports on the others. All four bands have different PA and monitoring requirements so it's a bit of a nightmare for the sound engineer (especially when they don't appear to have received the technical rider for any of the bands). Feather Trade are using my bass rig and Gothzilla one of our guitar amps and it generally falls upon me to be around just in case there are technical problems during the soundcheck. Getting all the bands sound-checked before the doors open isn't always possible and at the London gig things were running so late that Feather Trade had to sacrifice song from their set in order to have 5-minute break between sound checking and playing. Now comes the bit that makes everything worthwhile - 3 hours of great music including 40-50 minutes when I'm on stage, followed by 15 minutes of audience members telling us how much they enjoyed our set. Sell some merch and pack the gear away before loading up and setting off. Get home sometime around 3 in the morning grab some sleep and back up at 7 the following day to do it all again. My legs ache from all the standing up and bouncing around on stage, and my Fitbit tells me that I did nearly 20,000 steps each day. Luckily this weekend's gig is local (but it is up two flights of steep stairs with nowhere close-by to park for the load in). Do I love it? Of course I do!

You'll probably have to settle for something second-hand. I've just looked at the FretKing website and the current range are all basically copies of Fender and Gibson models. If you want a Telecaster or Stratocaster shaped guitar with a slightly different pickup configuration then you are in luck. Unfortunately all the original designs including the Esprit have gone.

Wilkinson parts have a pretty good reputation. However at the time he got involved with the FretKing company the perception was that the overall design strategy was getting more mainstream which was a pity as when they started FretKing were one of the few guitar companies that were offering something noticeably different to the run of the mill copies. If you are interested in a FretKing Esprit bass, you'll need to try one and see if it suits you. The one I tried which was the first production prototype was horribly clunky and very heavy. However the electronics were a lot more interesting - IIRC it had two Thunderbird type pickups in the standard Thunderbird locations but also a mudbucker at the neck, so lots of tonal possibilities. However it was very big and cumbersome compared with my 36" scale Overwater Original which was of a similar appearance but with a lot more finesse.

Can you still get EH valves, and if so are they still the same? IIRC they used to be rebadged Russian-made ones which of course are no longer available.

The nitro finish will wear off - that's what it does. Hopefully as it wears away the poly coat below will polish up at the same time so it won't be massively noticeable. AFAICS overall it's just a marketing ploy. Although it's never stopped Fender in the past. Even in the days when both the colour and clear coats were all nitro, the grain fillers and primer were poly-based.

The stage is a massive improvement from when I was playing there with the Terrortones about 10 years ago. However it is still quite shallow' and there's a lot of house equipment lining the back that can't always be relocated elsewhere, so if your drummer isn't keen on being close to the back wall you may be short on room in front of the kit. We always have to persuade ours to set up as close to the wall has he can. As you can see they do put the wedges in front rather than on the stage which definitely helps!

Unfortunately there's lots of different FretKings and navigating your way through all the variations can be difficult. I've got an original "by Eggle" Esprit V Guitar, from the days when they were being made in a workshop behind Musical Exchanges in Birmingham. This is just before Trevor Wilkinson got involved with the company. It's a wonderful instrument, and even though I asked them to do something slightly different to their standard built it has turned out to be everything I wanted. At the time I was after a Firebird, but the current Gibson versions were all horrible and an original one was beyond my means; this was easily a suitable alternative. When I had by big musical instrument clear-out all my guitars were sold apart from this and my Gus G1. However I did also try the prototype version of the bass with the same body shape and it was an unmanageable lump - imagine all the worst aspects of a Thunderbird ramped up to 10. Gratuitous photo of the guitar:

Interesting that the seller didn't feel confident enough to post a photo that showed all of the bass.

Out of interest how did you find out that the bass had been replaced?

It might be worth posting this on the Sound On Sound forums in the "keyboards" section. There's quite a few Kurzweil users there and I'm sure one of them will be able to recommend a suitable PSU.

It's not always that simple. At the gig in question there was plenty of room on stage, and I spent so long trying to get something I could hear that wasn't going cook the voice coils of the supplied cabs that I might as well have brought and set up my own full rig. These days with the Helix and FRFR I don't have to worry. For those gigs where the foldback of the house PA isn't sufficient, I can fit the FRFR into places where a conventional bass rig wouldn't go. On stages where space is really tight it goes under the stand that holds the computer that supplies backing track (synth and sound effects for one band; drum machine and second synth for the other). Since we have to find room on stage for this anyway it means my "bass amp" doesn't take up any more space.

With my engineer's/producer's hat on, it seems a strange thing to do. The original signal would need to be very low with a noticeably high noise floor and the overall band mix would need to be very minimal for it to even begin to be necessary. On the other hand as a songwriter/band member, I'd have no problem having anything I recorded being removed replaced so long as it made a noticeable improvement to the overall sound and feel of the recording.

"Less than 12ms latency". Not ideal and may well be unusable once the cumulative effect of all the other latencies in your signal chain have been taken into account.

I'd start by asking Kurzweil. They have in the past been very helpful when it comes to supporting older equipment. Even if they don't actually provide a suitable supply anymore they should be able to supply the specifications for a suitable replacement.

Thanks. I'll download it before I do some programming tonight.

I suppose it depends on the sorts of gigs you do and whether your rig is expected to provide the bass guitar FoH as well as on stage. Since I ditched my conventional rig for a Helix and FRFR I've only had to do 2 gigs where the bass wasn't also in the PA. Although it coped perfectly well at these and improved dispersion of the FRFR meant that I wasn't as loud on stage I had been with my previous rig under similar circumstance.

I've always found the notion that it's OK to use your amp with whatever tat the venue have knocking about masquerading as a cab, very un-nerving. About 10 years ago my band played a festival where we were specifically told that we needed to bring amps but would have to use the venue supplied cabs - supposedly in order to minimise change over times. For me that meant specifically making up some Speakon to jack leads just in case the cabs supplied were jack only (I've never used jack leads for bass cabs) and it's just as well that I did because the cabs turned to need them. The cabs were terrible with very poor sensitivity compared to mine and were either inaudible or noticeably distorting, even though we weren't a band that played loud on stage. In the end I turned up as far as I dared and played "blind" hoping that it sounded OK FoH, and that the cabs and my amp would still be functioning afterwards. The experience left me vowing to never do that again, and in the future I would either use my full rig or expect an amp to also be supplied.

Hurtsfall will be playing at the Chameleon in Nottingham on Friday 7th April opening the Goth Friday event:

Last night (Saturday) we were in the somewhat misleadingly named Acoustic Couch in Bracknell for the final gig of this mini tour. Anyone expecting a small intimate venue showcasing sensitive souls with acoustic guitars will probably be disappointed. It's a massive space underneath a multi-story carpark, with a good sized stage and big PA and lighting rig. Probably the largest venue we played on the tour. Didn't really know what the expect and were very pleasantly surprised. Good sound on stage (and FoH so we were told) although our tour support band Gothzilla struggled to hear their backing and it was somewhat swamped by the guitars FoH on many of the songs. Still they managed to put on a good show. Like York there were people dancing from the first number even though it wasn't a predominantly goth audience, and apparently afterwards we sold all of Anthology CDs we had brought with us. Only photo I've found of the evening so far: In Isolation will be back in Nottingham on 29th April supporting Autobahn at The Chameleon, and my other band Hurtsfall are opening the Goth Friday event at the same venue this coming Friday.