BigRedX

I suppose it depends what kinds of gigs you go too. Most of the originals bands I go and see are in small venues and at best only half the set will be material that has already been recorded and released.

TBH I've yet to try a set of DR strings that I like, and I've tried plenty (although not DDT), and at DR prices I'm unlikely to by a set just to see if I can get on with them when previous experience says I probably won't. As someone who thinks that the 100 E in a standard 40 - 100 set is slightly too light (the others are fine), and won't use anything lighter than 130 for low B, I think my ideal tension for strings is very different to yours. I also play a hollow body bass but find that the string feel is the same as my solid bodies ones.

This one has also been told before. First a bit of background... Thos of you who know Nottingham will know that Nottingham University campus and its halls of residence are located a fair distance out of the city centre, and back in the early 80s getting back to the campus after a night in town was neither cheap or easy. Consequently both the Student Union and the individual halls had some form of entertainment on every weekend - often there would be 2 or 3 gigs going on in various locations across the campus. There were also plenty of opportunities for decent local bands to get supports to often to some fairly well known acts. My friend's band had managed to tap into this circuit and could be found performing about once a month to enthusiastic audiences and getting paid £100 as well. Not bad for a band playing post-punk electronica originals. I decided that I would like a bit of this for my band, and we lined up our "audition" gig in the Student Union bar. That went very well no doubt helped by the presence of a video crew who had come specifically to film us which in those days was a very big deal indeed. In due course we were offered a gig at one of the hall parties. The band had taken a couple of months off to work on some new songs and sort out a cohesive band image, and this university gig would be our first in the new and improved format. The first sign that things were not going to go smoothly was discovering that due to the number of gigs being held on campus that weekend the technical committee wouldn't be able to provide us with a university PA system, we would have to use our own (and because like all originals band we didn't own one would have to be hired in out of our gig payment). Secondly we discovered that rather than opening for someone the audience was likely to have heard of, we were going to be the only live music on at this particular hall party. We were also required to set up and soundcheck in the middle of the afternoon, so that everything would be ready by the time the event started. Soundcheck went OK although the hired PA wasn't as big as we had hoped for, as a miscommunication between the band and hire company meant they hadn't realised that we were an electronic band with no backline and relied completely on the PA for our amplification. Having completed the soundcheck we the plan was to go back to one of the band member's houses to chill out for an hour or two and then go and play. However as we were about to leave, two friends of one of the band turned up and dragged their mate off to the bar for a drink or two. By the time the rest of us returned, all three of them were compressively p!ssed on cheap student beer. In hindsight what we should have done is bought them all another couple of drinks and let them pass out safely in the bar while we played the gig one member down. What actually happened was that our inebriated member, played random notes on his synth and then spend the next few bars celebrating this technical prowess by leaping about and shouting. Half way through the gig, he had to go and have a p!ss which he announced loudly before departing from the stage. He was most put out on his return to discover we had started the next song without him. There exists a single photograph from that gig, of the rest of us hunched over our instruments hoping that the ground will open up to swallow us all, while he is leaping in the air arms and legs akimbo. Meanwhile his two equally drunk friends spent the entire gig shouting for us to play our cover of Nancy Sinatra's "Summer Wine" which we had intended to do as an encore (should we get one) and being generally intimidating and obnoxious, gradually driving what little audience had come to see us away to the other room where there was a disco. One of them ended the evening by poking his finger through one of the speaker cones in the PA (which we were subsequently billed for). Needless to say the University never asked us back to do any more gigs there.

IME you can get away with it more on the guitar where the difference between string gauges is less than that on a bass. I need a chunkier string for drop D on a guitar partly because of how I play and partly because I favour a set that is light top heavy bottom. I've tried tuning the E string down to D on the bass. It was horrible and both sound and feel.

If you want to get your music up on iTunes, Spotify etc. then you'll need an Aggregator service as well. And never underestimate to importance of gigging - not just for selling your CDs at the gig but also for advertising in order to sell CDs and downloads on line after the gig. Back again with The Terrortones 95% of of music merchandise income came from selling CDs and vinyl at gigs, but also once the band stopped gigging the on-line sales of both physical product and downloads has dropped off to almost zero. In fact in the last 2 years we have sold 1 LP. Also as a "dry run" for putting out the first Terrorises single as a digital release, I put up a compilation of recordings I made with my band from the late 90s. Despite the fact that "back in the day" we had a decent sized following and before we split were getting a lot of record label and management interest, and that apart from a couple of tracks none of the music on the compilation had been previously available; we have not sold a single download. Not one. I get about $1 each month from streaming but that is it.

If you have your E string the right tension for E, then how can it possibly still be the right tension for D (a whole tone lower)? Bear in mind that at those kinds of pitches the the difference in string gauges for a 5 semitone drop is 25-30 thousands of an inch, so you'd want a string tuned down to D to be at least 10 thousands of an inch heavier than one then tuned to E. It might be that I am more sensitive to string tension and compliance. I have a separate guitar for drop D playing as I need to have a 56 rather than my standard 52 gauge string fitted.

IME it sounds best in a decent 5 string where D on the low B string will have proper tension and not be a horrible floppy mess that results from tuning E down to D. For me the enigma of covers bands is what makes them better than a playlist of the original recordings? Yes they are. But since a lot of the music they play was never recorded when first written, they can get away with it. However with contemporary classical music there is now a trend towards ensembles playing music that has been specially written for them. For instance I don't think I'd want to see anyone other than Arditti Quartet perform the Fred Frith pieces that he composed for them to play.

Bandcamp. IME there isn't any point putting them up elsewhere. I have Terrortones CDs up for sale on both Bandcamp and on the band's own website. Since they went up for sale on Bandcamp I have sold only a couple from the website, and I'm seriously thinking of taking the website merchandise page down, since it is twice as much work to update both sites every time the postage changes and Bandcamp has it's own "shopping cart" which you really need to have if you are offering more than one product for sale.

Wasn't he playing an ACG at some point recently?

Even if there is a mic on the cab there's no guarantee that it is any way contributing to either the FoH or broadcast sound. Only the mix engineer(s) will know for sure. Bear in mind also that the EQ and compression available on a decent PA or broadcast desk is going to be far superior to anything in a bass rig.

My point was, that unless the cab was mic'd and the mic'd source was the main component of the broadcast bass sound, then the choice of amp and cab is completely and utterly irrelevant. My experience of large gigs and live broadcasts, is that the engineer will try and take the DI feed from as close to the bass guitar as possible. I've never had my cabs mic'd up and the only reason the engineers have used the DI output on my amp is because that is the sole accessible point in the signal chain that also includes all all the effects I use. Otherwise I am sure they would have taken the DI feed from somewhere in front of the amp. This has been one of the reasons why I have replaced my large, heavy and expensive conventional bass rig with a Line6 Helix and an RCF745 powered cab.

I'm using Warwick Black Label Strings on some of my basses and LaBella Stainless Steel Round Wounds on the others. Although D'Addario strings are my first choice for my guitars and have been for the past 30 years, I haven't used any on my basses since 2002, and although I thought they were OK I have since found strings that suit my basses, playing style and sound better. I'm always open to experiment with new strings when I can but it's not always cost effective to try something different on a whim. A free set of NYXLs would always be appreciated, and if I find that they don't suit me I'd be happy to pass them on to someone else to try.

Of course how much contribution all this gear makes to the sound you hear from your TV will depend on where the DI for the TV feed is in the bass guitar signal path and how much separate processing has been done on that feed. Two things you can't possibly know unless you are the engineer doing the TV sound.

Boiling/cleaning strings is IME a waste of time and effort. It is at best a very short-term fix and every time you remove and refit the strings you increase the chances of them breaking. Coated strings. You'll have to try them for yourself. Some people like them others like me can't stand the feel. I'm currently using Warwick Black Label Strings. If I didn't have a requirement for a taper-wound low B I'd be quite happy with the much cheaper Red Label versions.

We at least you got answer. I asked the same question a couple of months ago and it was completely ignored. The forum software seems to be heading more and more towards the illiterate Facebook generation.

At 20 I was just starting my second attempt at university doing Town & Country Planning (which was going to be just as unsuccessful as my previous attempt at Marine Biology) and about to have 15 seconds of fame when my band's record was going to be played on John Peel's radio show. Music and graphic design were the two main things in my life but I hadn't really figured out how to do either of them with any effectiveness. The record and subsequent radio exposure were all down to being in the right place at the right time, and my graphics skills were all entirely self taught so I didn't know how to turn them into skills I could use in real world situations - not that I knew much about the real world at 20. Now that I am a couple of years away from my 60th birthday, music and graphic design are still my main obsessions but in the last 35 years I've learnt how to use both of them more effectively. I make my living working with graphics and I'm doing far more with music these days then I was when I was 20. I've paid off my mortgage and having avoided the money pit that is having children I am able to live comfortably and have fun without having to work too hard. I probably don't listen to as much music these days as I did when I was 20, but I have noticed that more music I produce myself the less of other people's I have time for, which is something that has happened on several other times in my life and not unique to my current age.

Pickups look wonky to me - especially the J.

Bas Extravaganza. He appears to have taken down his site so there's very little information about his instruments out there any more other than what other people have saved or written.

The thing is Saturday night TV is for Sad acts with nothing better to do with their lives, so it is really no surprise that there isn't anything interesting on. If you really must have some moving pictures style entertainment, that's what your TIVO/DVD recorder/Netflix etc is for. Otherwise why not do something more intellectually stimulating like read a book?

Talking Heads for me are one of those bands filled with interesting people with lots of interesting things to say. Unfortunately just not musically interesting. I'll happily ready anything that Davis Byrne has written, but don't expect me to listen to, and enjoy his music.

My CAR Gus was originally green/purple, and was done by Simon Farmer of Gus Guitars.

If I was after a J style bass it would have to be Sei, but that's because I know that martin would be able to build me something that looked superficially like a J but had all the problems I have with the Fender design ironed out. However I get the impression that the OP wants something much more conventional but with a few tweaks to his specification. It shouldn't be difficult to find someone to build that considering that the basic J bass was designed to be cost-effective to be made by relatively unskilled labour and by now is a well-known tried and tested design. Pretty much any UK luthier offering a J style bass should be able make you exactly what you need within your budget.

If you can't even agree a rehearsal time then they are not the right people for your band. There is a lot more to being a suitable band member than being able to play an instrument competently.

I think it helps if you were friends first before you were in a band together. Certainly that is the case with all my ex-bandmates I still see regularly. I think there is only one bandmate with whom I have had a really bad falling out, but now 15 years on I'm really not that bothered anymore. Since the band split up I've gone on to do some fantastic things musically and AFAICS she has not. The most common reason for me not keeping in touch with old band members is that IMO they have stopped being interesting people and I simply don't have the time or energy to continue being friends with people I don't really have anything in common with anymore.

Dood, as others have said social media is the way to go. Even if you are not a Twitter or Facebook user, now is the time to sign up and kick up a fuss, because that's what companies will take notice of. Like them on Facebook, and them hijack one of their posts, ideally one where they boast about how good they are that can be tangentially linked to your problem.Hashtag them on Twitter and mention how poor the quality of service is. I'm sure it is doing your "soul" some good coming on here, venting about the problem and getting lots of sympathetic replies, but 3+ pages on it doesn't appear as though you have managed to sort out the problem. Also who was actually responsible for booking the courier service? Yourself or the Shop? If it was the shop then surely it is also in their interests to be making a fuss? Why aren't they?