BigRedX

Gig on a school night with Hurtsfall, supporting goth icon Aurelio Voltaire. There was weird stuff going on with the backing that supplies our drums and second synth and we ended up having to mute the left channel in the PA. That means my job later today will be taking the rack apart to try and track down the problem. Despite that the gig was absolutely fantastic! Sold out several weeks in advance (nothing to do with us, Voltaire is extremely popular and this is his first UK tour since COVID - there were people who had travelled a long way to come and see him), the audience were queueing to get in a good 20 minutes before the doors opened. All this meant that despite playing first at 7.30 the room was packed when we went on and the audience were most appreciative even though most of them were seeing us for the first time. Played well although I lost the plot at the end of our latest single the whole set went down brilliantly. There were obviously some people who know us because several were singing along and a couple of songs got cheers when we announced them. Afterwards there was another massive queue of people to buy merch and have selfies taken with Voltaire, which the promoter had arranged so that everyone had to file past both support bands' merch tables so we sold a load of new T-shirts and CD copies of the single (my mistakes can't have been that obvious). Voltaire is a throughly nice person and insisted in paying for a copy of our CD as well as giving us some contacts should we want to go to the US to play. Also picked up a couple of excellent UK gigs for 2025 which I can't say any more about yet. Didn't get home until 1.30 despite it being a local gig with pub hours! For @Mickeyboro as usual I played my Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass through my Line6 Helix going direct into the PA. No photos of us yet, but my girlfriend took some of the audience during "Calling Out"...

The tuner on my Helix produces identical results to that on the Peterson Stroborack I used to own.

Just back from Whitby Goth Weekend. Gave the pavilion a miss (I've seen both IST IST and Peter Hook & The Light recently) in favour of a selection of lesser known and up and coming bands. On Saturday afternoon it was Goth At The Brewery with the magnificent Machiner: Combining the best parts of The Blue Nile and Talk Talk to create something new but with a darker edge. "The Sound Of Disappearing" is probably my favourite new song of 2024. Followed by Death Trippers. I hadn't been that impressed with their recording, but live it was a whole different proposition. A more psychedelic Joy Division with some real brooding power. Hopefully they will manage to capture that sound in their next trip to the studio: And finally the mighty Westenra: Unfortunately I couldn't stay for all their set as we had to battle our way through the crowds across town to get to Flowergate Hall where Stock Image were playing at 5.30: Influenced by all the best bits of your favourite early synth-pop bands, but still bringing something original into the mix. And then the surprise of the weekend - Social Youth Cult: Despite all looking as though they were under 20, they bring a powerful combination of early Joy Division meets first album Bauhaus. After that I had hoped to see Holy Braille along with Killing Miranda and Iamimperfect at The Crafty Cove, but I left it too late to get tickets and they had all sold out. Probably just as well as 8 great bands in one day might possibly have been overload! Then on the Sunday went to see Dr Diablo and The Rodent Show at Abbey Wharf. This was the first time I have seen The Rodent Show in its current incarnation, and they didn't disappoint. The audience appeared to be an equal mix of those who knew what to expect and those who spend the weekend parading around the town in costume who had popped in for a final drink before going home who mostly had WTF expressions... And here we are just before the mayhem commenced: Hoping that I'll be gracing one of these stages in 2025...

Have you been in touch with the UK part of Shure? about 10 years ago I needed spare parts for Mr Venom's very abused Shure Super 55 and they sorted me out at a reasonable price.

Make sure that you are in the right place at the right time, although that could be applicable to any age. Be prepared to wait for the right opportunity to come along. I had a year without a band from the point where it was obvious that The Terrortones were over until I found a band that I wanted to be part of. When you're 50 something or older a year isn't that long. I certainly couldn't have gone for a year without being in a band when I was in my 20s. Go to gigs and get to know the other bands and musicians in your area. The one time I have tried something different for me (classic rock covers) I ended up hating it. Over the past 7-8 years I have worked hard at getting myself known on the post-punk and goth scenes, so if both the bands I am currently playing were to end tomorrow, I'd probably be able to find another one fairly quickly. Also if you can bring something other than your ability to play the bass to the band that always helps. I don't own a car or drive, but because of the other things I can do that will benefit any band I am in it's not been a hinderance. I'm a graphic designer, I do all the drum programming and much of the sound design for one band that I play with. In the past I have been able to offer a place for the band to rehearse and recording facilities, the vast majority of the band I was in during the 90s' album was recorded in my living room.

I've had no problem finding bands, and the three originals bands that I've played with since I turned 50 have been far more popular and successful than anything I did in my 20s or 30s.

Looks like I'm not alone in just reading the title and not the actual content of the OP. So to answer the actual question my signature instruments wouldn't have any wear patterns. If my instruments get to the point where the wear was actually noticeable I have them refinished/refurbished. I've already done it twice once with a guitar and once with a bass although in the second case the wear had been inflicted by a previous owner, I also took the opportunity to have it refinished in a colour that was more to my taste.

In the 90s my multi-effects of choice was the Peavey BassFex. Turns out it was exactly the same as the guitar version apart from the name on the front panel and the factory pre-sets.

Are the HX devices really chock full of stuff you don't need? As I've said before I don't often use any amp or cab models, but when I do it is more likely to be a guitar amp and cab. Just because a device is supposedly aimed at guitarists doesn't automatically mean that it won't sound good with the bass. Remember that a lot of classic bass amps are guitar amps with a different badge on the front and maybe the EQ frequencies shifted down slightly. The main reason that you wouldn't use them in real life is that they can't cope with bass frequencies at gig volumes. That doesn't apply to digital models. Be open minded and try everything. The worst that can happen is that you won't like the sound and then you try something else until you do find something that sounds good for your needs. As someone who also plays guitar and synthesiser I'm glad that the Helix is so versatile so I can have a single device to use with all my instruments and not have to have separate effects units for each one.

Mine hasn't changed since the last time this question was asked. It would be a Gus Bass VI, based on the Gus 30" baritone design but with a Shergold Marathon 6-string bass neck width, Fender Bass VI pickup positions but with custom switching/routing that allows me to send each pickup to one of two outputs or turn it off; plus a piezo bridge MIDI pickup. Colours would be pearl white and shiny chrome.

The other thing I have come to realise now that I'm in my mid 60s is that age is less important than overall fitness and health.

Starting a band from scratch can be tough, but IME of 50 years of being in bands only a couple never made it as far as gigging and one of those was always seen as a recording only project whose aim was simply to put out 2 tracks on a white label 12" single which we succeeded in doing. Another advantage with playing originals is that there doesn't have to be a specific band line up. One of my current bands has neither a guitarist nor a drummer simply because we chose not replace either when they left the band. The computer handles the drums and I play bass VI and alternate rhythmic and melodic elements with the synth player.

An update to this for anyone considering a similar set up. Unfortunately I have discovered an incompatibility between the Elgato StreamDeck hardware and the Focusrite interface, which manifests as occasional audio drop outs. Because the problem is very intermittent it has proved impossible to troubleshoot. I've been given some very generic things to try from both Elgato and Focusrite, which involve re-initialising various settings, but none have made any difference. The only thing I have been able to do with the help of a few other users on the SOS forums is to narrow down the problem to a USB conflict between the StreamDeck hardware (not just the pedal) and Focusrite USB interfaces. As a result I am now trialling an alternative device in the shape of an AirTurn BT500S-2. TBH I'm not keen on using Bluetooth on stage, and the interface is not a reassuring as the Elgato one. Although it offers 7 different footswitch settings, switching between them is less than intuitive, so I have ended up putting the same combination on all off the five options that allow it. So far (at three rehearsals) in has proved to be reliable and most importantly we have not noticed any audio drop outs from the backing. We have a gig coming up on 5th November which will be the first time it is used "in anger", but I am also taking the Elgato switch as a back up.

However Epiphone also make an EBO case which is short scale. And if you wanted it to say "Gibson" on the case you could look at their cases for the SG bass.

To the OP what sort of band exactly do you want to be in? I'd assume from your YouTube channel you'd like to be in a classic rock covers band, but I might be wrong and if there something other than that you'd like to do your videos aren't selling it. IME experience musicians often try and sell themselves as versatile but unfortunately it comes off as directionless which can put a lot of bands off. If there are lots of styles of music that you would be happy playing I would consider doing a separate ad for each style maybe even with a separate profile for each ad. As others have said you also need to do some real life networking. Go and see some bands, talk to other musicians and get your name out there. I got into the two bands I currently play with through networking and a JMB ad. One band I was a fan of their music and therefore following them on Facebook so I saw that they were looking for a new bass player. For the other I put a very specific JMB ad up saying exactly what sort of music I wanted to play and what level of commitment I was prepared to put in and what I expected of any band I joined. It took almost a year before anyone answered my ad but that were exactly the sort of band I was looking for in terms of both music and the amount of gigs, rehearsals and recording sessions they wanted to do. It also helped that both bands knew who I was from my previous musical activities before I went for the audition which I believe gave me an advantage over the other applicants.

My tactic with anyone complaining hoping for a discount is to offer a full refund for the return of the item, only this, and absolutely no shift from my position. I've a few buyers try to get money off for supposed "problems" with items I have sold, but only one return. Most disappear silently when they realise that they won't be able to scam me out of a discount.

To the OP. Some important questions the answers to which may influence the advice we have give: 1. Where are you? Are you in a big town or city, or out in the sticks? 2. Do you want to play covers or your own compositions? 3. What genre(s) of music would you like to play?

That doesn't sound right at all. For me there's no difference in sound between the NUX and the 5m OBBM cable I was using before. However I do run through a lot of effects to the point where it makes little difference from a sound PoV which of the 3 Bass VIs (Squire Bass Vi, Burns Barracuda, Eastwood Hooky) I use. However there is definitely no noticeable latency or high pitched hum coming from mine. I always use my transmitter folded back on itself. If it wasn't designed to be used like that it wouldn't bend that way. TBH until you mentioned it in your post it had never occurred to me that the small disc on one side might be there to protect the finish of your instrument. Besides there's one on the receiver too, which is unlikely to be plugged into anything that needs protecting from a small piece of plastic. To me it sounds like your unit is defective, and I would suggest that you send it back for replacement or refund.

The dirt is being produced by high output pickups overloading/overdriving something further down the signal chain. IME most overwound pickups tend to sacrifice other more important tonal elements in their efforts to be as "loud" as possible. Personally I'd rather turn the gain up a bit more else where in my signal path.

A bit late, but here are some photos from our gig supporting Byronic Sex & Exile 2 weeks ago: BTW our next gig supporting Aurelio Voltaire on November 5th is now sold out, so if you haven't bought a ticket you won't get in.

No MIDI. External PSU which IME is insufficiently robust for extended gigging use.

I've done 5 festivals so far this year with one more coming at the end of November, and most were indoors. Luckily the two outdoor events we played were graced with decent weather. However everything about the organisation and logistics for them was less than optimum. There were no facilities for getting changed before we played - for the first event I travelled and set up in my stage gear which wasn't very comfortable or convenient, and so for the second one I wore something more practical that also looked reasonably decent for our on-stage image. Also they were organised in such a way that you set up, did 30 seconds of a song to check the foldback, and then played. Again there were problems at the first where our singer thought we were still sound checking when in fact we'd just done the first song in the set! Compare that to the indoor festivals where in each case there were proper changing rooms for the bands and backstage areas for safely storing the gear and relaxing if you didn't feel like watching the other bands, and even the opportunity to do a full soundcheck before the audience arrived. And while I can't deny that as a band all the events have been useful in terms of growing our audience and networking with other bands and promotors and even selling a decent amount of merchandise, I doubt I'd have attended any of them if I hadn't been playing. Eight or Nine years ago The Terrortones did a whole "summer" season of festivals. It rained at every single one often with detrimental results for both the performance and audience numbers, apart from one where we played indoors. At one event it was so cold that I was glad of my leather jacket stage wear and our guitarist played the whole set wearing gloves! At another our set up on stage was entirely dictated by having to avoid rainwater leaking through the roof. After every event I had to clean the mud off all my cabs and cases. For most of the 80s I was involved in organising a fairly large 2-day festival in Nottingham. Luckily we had city and county council funding and additional sponsorship from local firms which covered all the costs, so none of the event organisers had their personal money on the line. However it was still lots of hard and mostly thankless work. I certainly wouldn't want to get involved in something like that again unless I was guaranteed a substantial sum of money for my efforts.

IIRC the synth part of your bass uses pitch detection rather than modelling to produce sounds. Therefore in theory a string which produces less overtones should make the process easier, but it may be that the detection relies to some extent the higher harmonics which will be more prevalent in a round-wound string. The other thing you need to consider is how often you intend to use it as just a bass without the synthesiser capabilities and when you are using synth sounds how much of the bass sound you want to mix in and what bass sounds work best in conjunction with your chosen synth sounds. Ultimately I suspect you'll need to try both and see which ones give the best result or least worst compromise.

I suppose my view is clouded by the fact that I don't like outdoor festivals and these days I couldn't see myself attending any as a punter, partly because I don't trust the weather and partly because most of the bands I like are much better appreciated in a small indoors venue. As a performer I'll do them, but my preferred method would be to turn up as late as the festival schedule allows and to leave as soon as we have finished playing.

Why anyone would want to put on an outdoor festival in the UK is a complete mystery to me. We simply don't have weather that is conducive to having them. A weekend of bad weather can completely wipe you out if haven't sold enough tickets beforehand. This is what happened to a festival run by someone I know. They had a couple of excellent years and then got more ambitious for the third which unfortunately coincided with several days of heavy rain. The site was looking pretty waterlogged on the Saturday when my band played, and by Sunday it had been cancelled. IME the successful festivals in the UK are ones that are strictly indoor only. The other problem for promotors is that if you want to grow your event you'll find that costs start spiralling pretty quickly. For a couple of years I was involved with a monthly night put on by the band I was in at the time. Initially it was simple to organise. We could get a reasonably well-known up and coming band within our chosen genres for less than £200. Our band played support. Admission was free and we got a percentage of the bar takings. Even on our worst night we still made more than enough to cover the costs of putting on the gig. Unfortunately we became a victim of our own success. After a couple of months when we packed out the venue, we were told that the audience sizes were on the verge of becoming dangerous and it would be best if we looked for somewhere bigger. The cost and logistics of doing this were considerably higher, and therefore we started looking at more popular bands. It was a this point we discovered that booking a band that we could reasonably expect to draw enough people to cover the runnings costs was heading towards £1k. That wasn't the kind of money we could afford to loose and at that point we needed everything we were making as a band to pay for recording our album. Therefore we stopped being promotors. My experience of promotors recently is that none of them do it for a living. Like most of the bands they put on they are happy so long as it's not actually costing them money. They keep the events small and well-targeted, and they know their audience and which bands within the genre have the required pulling power to make a gig work.