BigRedX

First ever public performance: Venue: A community centre somewhere in Loughborough. Age: 15 (1976) Bass/Amp: I didn't have a bass at that point. I was playing an acoustic guitar fitted with a piezo pickup going into a Carlsbro Wasp 10W transistor amp. The other members of the band played acoustic guitar and percussion (mostly bongos). Set List: We played 3 semi-improvised instrumentals of our own composition - I can't remember any titles. This performance was part of a music evening organised by the teachers of various musical instrument evening classes. The band was made up of myself and two of my friends who all were in the same year at school and attended one of the "folk guitar" classes. The rest of the evening was made up of teenagers playing mostly classical music with varying degrees of competency. We were much louder and a lot less disciplined than the others, most of the audience were left perplexed by our music. First proper gig in a proper gig venue: Venue: The Ad Lib Club, Nottingham (later went on the become much better known as The Garage) Age: 20 (1981) Bass: Burns Sonic Bass. I also played a home-made electric guitar on some of the songs. Amp: Whatever the headlining band had brought - probably a Carlsbro Stingray or an HH of some description. My guitar was amplified by my Carlsbro Wasp amp. Set List: Mostly songs from the band's (The Midnight Circus) third cassette album "Do Modern Atoms Wear Fashionable Clothes?" which we had just finished recording earlier in the week, plus our two tracks "Silicone Baby" and "The Hedonist Jive" from the Angst In My Pants" EP which had featured on John Peel's radio programme a few months earlier. This was the only gig the The Midnight Circus ever did which featured the same line up of the band that was on the recordings, but because we didn't know who was going to be available to play when we said we'd do the gig, we decided to play as "The Sickle Clowns" (fans of The Pretty Things will get it). To be honest I can't really remember much about the gig other than being very nervous because we were woefully under-rehearsed. It could only get better from here...

BassPod. Any version from the BassPod XT onwards. You will need a separate foot controller for some models if you want to change patches mid-song but you can pickup the FBV Shortboard for under £40 second hand

[quote name='borntohang' timestamp='1507041934' post='3382956'] Regarding low tuned Rics - one thing to remember is the propensity for tail lift with high-tension strings. I assume with the right gauges it wouldn't be an issue, but at the very least I'd be cautious about converting one with the vintage truss-rods. [/quote] The thicker the strings you use the lower the tension generally - in a standard 5-string set the low B string will by far have the lowest tension, so stringing a Ric B-D rather than E-G would most likely be helping to prevent tail-lift.

In order for a songwriter to receive PRS performance royalties the follow conditions have to apply: The songwriter is a member of the PRS (or similar PRO - performing rights organisation - if they are operating in country other than UK) The song must be registered with the PRS (or the PRO for their country) The performance must have been logged and the data sent to the PRO of the country in which the performance occurred. The actual amount of performance royalties paid depends on when and where the performance happened - and there are different criteria for live and broadcast performances - and the duration of the individual songs that make up the performance. Finally the amount paid to any individual songwriter will also depend on who else has a share of the performance royalties of the song such as co-composers and publishers and what percentage share each of the interested parties actually has.

Join a band.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1507032025' post='3382838'] I had sold my XT a few years before. I almost bought another instead of the Helix. But in the end I was trying to get 1 rig for both guitar and bass. Job done! [/quote] When I add up the value of all the gear that I currently have that could potentially be replaced by a Helix, it would almost pay for itself.

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1506791735' post='3381184'] Looks like Jon Shuker has embraced the challenge in the past , and you know it'll be top quality [url="http://www.shukerguitars.co.uk/customgallery.html"]http://www.shukergui...tomgallery.html[/url] [/quote] It's not really a Ric though is it? It's a Shuker bass with a body that is similar in shape to a Ric.

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1507029334' post='3382804'] [url="http://www.smoothhound-innovations.com/"]Smoothhound system[/url]? The transmitter is probably shallower than a Boss pedal when plugged in. British made. Inexpensive. Works really well [/quote] Depends on what other digital devices you have in your signal chain and how sensitive your are to signal latency. The Smoothhound system has quite high latency which in itself isn't a problem but could be if you have other devices adding to the overall latency of your signal.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1507024330' post='3382743'] - if you like the sound today, you'll still like the sound the day after the new one appears. [/quote] Which is why I'm still procrastinating about "upgrading" my BassPod XT to a Helix.

Good can you post a link to the YouTube video where he is using the Helix to control backing tracks? Is he actually using the pedals to select songs (as well as selecting the guitar patches) as well as start and stop them?

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1507020756' post='3382703'] Now all we need is for wireless send and receive in a Line6 Helix board (hoping in V2!), theoretically they could go wireless bass to board and wireless board to amp. [/quote] No. You buy the rack version and use the foot controller. Then all you need is a single wireless connection between your bass. The foot controller doesn't actually carry any signal so no extra latency. As for the "authenticity" of the effects in multi-effects units. It's never something that really bothers me. The various amp and effects might not sound like the units they are supposed to be imitating, but for me that's not the point. The point is that I can get a sound which works for the song within the band mix. My current multi-effect of choice is the now ancient BassPod XT. There are 7 different distortion effects available plus the drive parameter built into the each amp model. From that I can always get something that works perfectly for the band sound.

Unless the sound I want is all about over-driving pre-amp valves; I find that the hotter a pickup is, the more band the clean sound from it is.

Having been in her position in the past I can completely sympathise. She will have insisted on doing the web site because she knows that the alternative will be something nasty cobbled together with a template that she will hate forever. The problem with the template "design" route is that all the good ones will have already been over used and not everyone will have the taste to know which ones are right for your style of band. When you are playing covers you don't have the luxury of being able to use the music to make you individual so it is very much down the presentation (both on and off stage) that is what is going to set you apart form your competition.

Working in IT doesn't mean that you have the graphic design skills also required to create a decent web site (and even any HTML skills depending on what she does in IT). And IME when you work at one thing for your day job, the last thing you want to do in the evening is more of it for your hobby.

I'd replace all those pedals with a multi-effects unit that can be placed on top of your amp (or rack mounted with it), and then run a single controller cable of the appropriate type (probably Cat5 or MIDI) around the edge of the stage to your foot controller unit.

I look after my gear, but don't worry about it too much. IME no matter how careful I am at some point my instrument of choice will pick up a ding or other mark. When it finally gets to the point of looking too shabby I'll get it resprayed, at which point I can also consider a change of colour scheme.

3 x Five string fretted 2 x Four string fretted 1 x Five string fretless 1 x Four string fretless 1 x Six string fretted I expect by the end of next year I'll only have 5 string basses.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' timestamp='1506678455' post='3380329'] Build your own - if you can solder its not a great problem. If I can do it........ [url="http://alexplorer.net/guitar/mods/varitone.html"]http://alexplorer.ne...s/varitone.html[/url] G [/quote] AFAICS none of those circuits include the choke which IMO is an essential part of the Gibson Varitone sound. That's the hard bit to do as it seems for the best results you still need to wind your own.

The lack of mid-week gigs now is simply down to the lack of audiences IME. It doesn't matter if you are playing covers or originals. Fridays and Saturdays are fine. Thursdays and Sundays might be do-able given the right venue and/or line up of bands. The rest of the week forget it unless you are a big name band with a following large enough to be doing a tour of 500+ sized venues (or supporting someone who is). When I started gigging in the early 80s, there was only one opportunity here in Nottingham for a weekend gig if you were playing your own music which was a support to Pinski Zoo who had a Friday night residency at The Hearty Goodfellow. Want a gig on Saturday Night? Forget it. Most venues didn't even put on live music at the weekends, and those that did were strictly for covers bands. Therefore we played mid-week and there were plenty of bands doing it and audiences going to see them. Most weeks there was at least one local band playing that was worth going to see. By the time we reach the 2000s that had all changed. While there were gigs available mid-week most were so poorly attended that all but the most desperate bands stopped doing them. What had changed was that there were plenty of weekend opportunities for bands playing their own music to gig and even more if you were prepared to travel. I don't mind what day I play on provided that either the band are getting properly paid for the gig or there is a decent sized appreciative audience ready and willing to buy merch after the gig.

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1506620814' post='3380024'] I didn't really start playing until the 80s but then I recall that 70s guitars and basses were considered crap - CBS ruined them all. Of course now they are worth a fortune. [/quote] AFAICS they are only worth a fortune because the older ones are even more eye wateringly expensive.

Will EZ drummer or Hydrogen work in stand-alone mode or do they need a DAW to operate in?

Which instrument in GarageBand are you trying to use - is it the standard Drummer instrument? Most drum machines work in a completely different way. Instead of "loops" which are chunks of audio edited to make them fit together seamlessly, they work with "patterns" which are made up of individual drum hits controlled by the sequencer in the drum machine that tells each drum hit when to sound. In order to turn those into loops you would have to record the output of your drum machine into the computer and then edit it to make it loop smoothly like the ones in GarageBand do. My advice would be to look at "upgrading" from GarageBand to Logic, as it can use the Garageband loops but also includes several drum-machine-like instruments for creating your own drum patterns all seamlessly integrated within the Logic environment which behaves like a "grown-up" version of GarageBand.

The whole point of a messaging system is that it has to be sufficiently user friendly for all the band members to actually want to use it. Facebook Messenger on a computer is such as nasty thing that I can't imagine anyone wanting to use it for anything complicated. I certainly couldn't keep track of anything more complex than a short conversation made up of 5 words or less sentences.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1506530007' post='3379396'] Is anyone here in a band in which responsibility for getting gigs and making sure everyone knows about them is not the bass player's job? Are there similar threads to this on guitar chat, drum chat, sing chat and keys chat? I often get the feeling that being organised always needs a bass player! My band has played 140 gigs over the last 4 years. Left to their own devices, I doubt that they'd have managed to get 14! [/quote] Me. After having spent most of my musical life being the person who sorted everything out in bands both musically and organisationally from my very first band in the mid 70s right up to 15 years ago, I decided that it was too much work on top of doing all the song writing and synth and sequencer programming and therefore I wasn't going to do it anymore. I stopped organising rehearsals and when it took 8 weeks before any of the other band members got in touch to ask when we were going to be getting together again, I realised that it was time to end the band. Since then I've been happy to take a back seat from an organisational PoV. In The Terrortones I was more involved than just writing the music, but it turned out that my skills set and Mr Venom's complimented each others' very nicely and it was Mr Venom who did most of the getting gigs and sorting out rehearsing. Both the bands I am playing with currently are well established and have other band members that already deal very competently with the non-musical aspects of running a band, and for now I am happy just to turn up and contribute the bass parts to the wonderful songs they have written.

I've got the Marshall Power Brake which I use with my guitar amp. It is big (twice the size of your average class D mini amp), heavy (almost 5kg) and has a rather noisy fan that kicks in when you stick anything extreme through it. Also it's only rated for 150W maximum. It does it's intended job (allowing you to run guitar power amp valves flat out without having to endure ear-bleeding sound levels) brilliantly. As an impedance matching solution for a modern bass amp it's completely pointless.