BigRedX

But do your trousers flap? Not withstanding the fact that the last time wore trousers with enough surplus material to move in the wind was some time in the 70s; even when I was playing rock covers or in a psychobilly punk band with a 1kW rig I have never needed so much on-stage volume that I could feel the air move.

One of my bands uses Cram for our CDs and we have nothing but praise for their services. However I can't speak for how good vinyl organised through them will be, although I suspect that should we decide to realise something on record in the future they will be our first choice. The problem with vinyl still is that there a relatively few cutting facilities and pressing plants, so nearly everyone offering vinyl will be out-sourcing the actual production, and where that production takes place may well change depending on cost and capacity. Although all the brokers I've used for vinyl in the past 15 years have been UK based the actual production took place in The Czech Republic, France and labels for one record were actually printed separately in the far-east. The waiting times for getting your pressings back have increased significantly since I last was involved in putting a record out. And if your production schedule in any way overlaps with the run-up the Record Store day then forget it! Getting test pressings done is an absolute must. Don't skimp no matter how much it adds to the final price and production time, and check them all before signing off. One thing to look out for and bear in mind when making an order, is that vinyl is bulky and heavy to ship. Because one of my bands wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary when it came to the packaging we ordered our records in paper sleeves only, with the packaging being produced separately and we would assemble the final product. On both occasions the shipping cartons were too flimsy to properly protect the contents and we ended up with some damage. 500 copies of a 12" album was delivered on a pallet that had been smashed to pieces by the time it arrived at my house. Luckily it looked a lot worse than it actually was and we had to get the broker to send us an additional 100 paper sleeves to replace the ones that had been damaged. All the actual records except one were OK. However had this happened to records in their sleeves I would have been demanding a complete repress of the whole job. Loosing 20% of our stock would have have serious consequences for how were would have been able to price the records, because the actual production cost is just a fraction of the over cost of making a record, all of which ideally needs to be recouped. HTH.

Afternoon and early evening gigs are weird. When I was in my covers band we used to do one that started late Sunday afternoon and was over before 8.00. The strange thing was that even though the pub was open all day it would be almost completely deserted until 5 minutes before we started our first set when the "rock crowd" would turn up en-masse, order their drinks ready to enjoy whatever band was playing that week. The kind of music I'm playing at the moment doesn't really feel right being performed during daylight hours. Having said that we have at least two afternoon gigs booked for this year. One of them is in a large windowless venue so there's no real sense of time once you are inside. The other is in a brewery where they open the large glass doors along one wall so that the people in the courtyard outside can see and hear the bands too. I've been to this one as an audience member several times and it seems to work, although in the past it's always been as a "warm up" to the main events happening elsewhere in the town in the evening. This time around the evening entertainment is significantly less than normal, so it will be interesting to see if it affects the atmosphere in the afternoon.

At least they are holding their second-hand value a bit better these days then they did back in the pre-internet age when I originally bought it second hand. This was in the early 90s when I spotted it in my local musical instrument retailer priced at £575. Spent about 30 minutes trying it out, thought it was very nice, but a it more money than I wanted to pay for a bass back then. I told them I'd think about it and left the shop. By the time I'd got home I decided that I'd been an idiot to leave it at that, and I would nip back into town during my lunch break on Monday and put a deposit down, with the view to paying the rest at the end of the month when I got paid. Unfortunately work suddenly became so busy I didn't have any time either during the day or on Saturday (this was in the days before Sunday opening was normal). When I finally had time to go back, I expected the bass to be long gone. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only was it still available, but the price had been reduced to £350! I didn't bother putting down a deposit, I paid in full there and then, and managed to persuade the shop to thrown in a suitable hard case for an extra £20. I hate to think how little they gave the original owner in cash or PX value in order for it to still be profitable at the price I paid.

The problem with playing music with the intention of earning money to be able to live off, is that unless you are very lucky you will need to take pretty much any gig that is offered. That will normally mean playing music you don't like in dodgy places with people you don't really get on with. I've said before I do something creative for my day job - graphic design - and while I would love to be able to spend all my time working for one or two clients who are keen on cutting-edge designs and think everything I do is fantastic first time around, the reality is that most of what I do is an exercise in trying to get the logo, the product shot and the USPs as big as possible without it looking too horrible, for people who wouldn't know what good design was if it slapped them around the face. Because what I do earns me enough money to live and have some fun, I put up with it. If a client wants something that I think is seriously wrong/bad, I'll politely suggest what I think would work better, but only once and if I'm over-ruled then the client gets exactly what they have asked for. However I like music too much to treat it in the same way. Having to treat playing music in the same way as I treat my design job, would mostly likely kill off any interest I have in playing or composing. No wonder the "giving up" thread is so busy!

There's only one thing there that would point to a slow down problem and that's if the system drive really is an HD rather than an SSD. What model is this Mac? It will be in Apple Menu > About This Mac And while you are their click on the System Report button, and when the system information panel appears select Storage from the left-hand column and see what it says about your system disk.

Unless you still have, and want to fit, the original bridge cover which attaches to the the bit sticking up between the A and D strings, replacing the bridge would probably be a good idea. However check the string spacing first as it tends to be narrower than normal on these old basses.

1. What version of MacOS are you running? 2. How much RAM does this Mac have? 3. Is the system drive a SSD or HD? 4. How big is the system drive? 5. How much free space is left on it?

I currently have one hardware drum machine, as the Linn Adrenalinn has a programmable drum module, although I've never actually used it. My current DAW (Logic) has more than enough programmable drum kit and drum machine sounds and options for my needs, and because I've got 30+ years using to program drum parts I find it far more versatile than any stand-alone device. However in the early 2000s I went through a phase of buying as many of the 70s pre-set drum machines that came up at affordable prices on eBay. At one point I had the following: Bentley Rhythm Ace FR-6 Casio VL1 Electro Harmonix DRM16 Hammond Auto-Vari 64 Hillwood HR2 Rhythm Ace FR-2L Roland TR-33 Rhythm Arranger Roland TR-55 Rhythm Arranger Roland TR-77 Rhythm 77 Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm SoundMaster Rhythm 1 That includes nearly all the "classic" preset drum machines that could be heard on records from the late 70s and early 80s. I also soon discovered that many of these drum machines were re-badged (and occasionally re-cased) Roland devices so there were a couple of duplicates in terms of sounds and patterns in this list. The purpose of this exercise was to record the different patterns and turn them into REX files which would allow them to be imported into a REX player plug-in in a DAW and be played back at any tempo. It would also produce individual samples of each "step" and a corresponding MIDI file of the pattern that would allow the playback of the preset rhythm in conjunction with a hardware or software sampler, but would also allow the production of new patterns by editing the MIDI file within the DAW. I was then hoping to sell the results as sample CD, as these were popular at the time, and I figured having both preset and editable versions of the patterns along with individual samples of each "drum" sound from the various devices would be a winner. However, after having spent a considerable time sampling all the patterns from two devices and slicing them up to produce REX files, I discovered that someone else had already had this idea and was selling the REX files from all the drum machines I had, and some more that I didn't, for a total that was be a lot less than the cost of a typical sample CD. Some sets they were even giving away for free. The only device they hadn't sampled was the CR-78 which was supposed to be in progress. Therefore I started work on doing this myself and soon discovered why there were no REX files for it. In order to be able to replicate what could be done from the front panel controls of the drum machine, the number of patterns, variations and sounds I would have to sample meant that it was going to be a massive undertaking, and in the end I abandoned the idea. All the drum machines were sold - mostly for quite a bit more than I originally paid for them and used some of the money to buy the REX files instead.

Depends on whether you are supposed to play in "unison" with the guitar(s). If it's not mandatory I would stick with standard tuning on a 5-string. In the past when playing with guitarists using down tuning if I'm not tuned to the same root notes as them it makes for more interesting song arrangements. However that may not what the rest of the band want.

If you have the time and patience, I would do something similar to the TB photo you posted on a removable panel that would allow you to spend some time playing the bass with all the options available. You'll probably find quite quickly that there is one that you really like and maybe another one or two that would be useful occasionally. Which of all those options you favourites will be will depend on what sounds you like, what sort of music you play, and how the other instruments in your band sound. There is no guaranteed solution, but I would say that pickup combinations that sound great on your own at home don't aways cut it in a band situation, and often the simple selections work the best. Once you have decided which combinations are actually useful, put them on a single switch and print a new panel for it.

Firstly I need to say that I'm primarily a synth player rather than a traditional keyboard player, so most of this is based on observation of other players. With boogie-woogie in particular there is a lot of left-hand movement, and generally a lot of separation between the left and right hand parts. I suspect that you find very quickly that a 61 note keyboard is too small for this and if you are able to bring the left and right hand parts an octave closer together without them overlapping it won't sound right. Also if your are playing from written notation you'll be constantly be transposing one or the other hand on the fly. IME if you want to play proper piano parts you will at minimum need a sustain pedal. Thankfully you won't need a Leslie Cab. Any decent keyboard which comes with organ sounds should include options for Leslie off, slow and fast. The important thing is to be able to change this from the performance controls as it plays a big part in the sound of 70s rock organ.

While those other luthiers will be able to make you a very nice instrument, none of them (with the possible exception of an ACG with the appropriate pickups and filter pre-amp) will get you close to the sounds of a Wal. Once you step outside of the Precision and Jazz bass market, one luthier/manufacture's basses are not a substitute for another's, and if you think they are you would probably be best off with a Squier.

If you are planning on playing piano parts especially boogie-woogie, you will want more than 61 keys. At least 76 or ideally 88. You'll want velocity sensitivity for piano emulations - the harder you hit the keys the louder the notes sound, like a real piano. For organ parts you'll need to be able turn it off. I'm assuming touch sensitivity means "after-touch" this allows extra expression in synth sounds by pressing down harder on keys you are already holding down. Not needed for Piano or Organ emulations. Weighted and semi-weighted keys will react more like traditional piano keys. Organs tend to have unweighted keys. What suits you best is something you'll only discover after you have been playing a while. Unweighted keys with velocity sensitive sounds (like piano) will make you work harder at your piano technique as they tend to do everything at full velocity. If you watch piano players and (rock) organists you'll notice that the playing styles for each is totally different due to the nature of the sounds each instrument produces. If you want to emulate a real piano you will need a sustain pedal. You might also want something that supports the soft pedal function and a pedal to go with it. Finally remember that a big part of the traditional rock organ sound is that of the Leslie Cabinet and the speed controls for it. You won't get a convincing emulation without being able to change the speed on the fly. You will also want a volume pedal.

Do you have a DAW? MIDI files will load onto a suitable track in your DAW and then transmit the system exclusive patch data to your synth. You may need to adjust the playback speed to get a reliable transfer. If you don't have a DAW there are detailed instructions in the "How To Load Instruction" link on the page you linked to. Be aware as it doesn't seem to be mentioned on the page, but loading these sounds will over-write what you already have on your synth so if you want to keep any of them you'll need to make a backup first. Ultimately you might be better off with a MIDI librarian application. What OS are you using?

It is really the vendor's duty to sort you out with a proper UK legal PSU. Since it appears to be Harley Benton that's Thomann and they should really know better. While it might be quicker to just go out and buy a replacement PSU, it means that you are out of pocket buying something that should have been supplied in the first place, and it also means that Thomann are less likely to start supplying the correct electrical items for sale to the UK.

The thing about second prices for Wals is that you can have the bass the moment that you had over the money. Right now, due to the backlog, you can't order a new Wal, and even if you could you'd be looking at a wait time of 4 years for yours to be completed. However, since the basses at The Gallery are currently unsold, it would suggest that they have been priced too high. A true indication of what a Wal bass is worth would be to look at what second hand example have actually sold for over the last year.

Here are the gigs we have booked so far for the first half of 2024: Tuesday 13th February at The Chapel above The Angel Microbrewery in Nottingham Supporting Murdah Srvc, with Laura Dickinson and NMG We're on at around 9.00pm Friday 16th February, HRH Goth 2 at the O2 Academy, Leicester with Fleisch, The Danse Society, Exilia, PLAY/DEAD and Nox Pulso We're on at 7.00pm Saturday 27th April at The Whitby Brewery, Whitby with In Isolation and Chaos Bleak This is part of the April WGW events and is on in the afternoon Hurtsfall are on first at 2.00pm Saturday 8th July BlaqkhOlesun Alternative Music Festival at The Alhambra, Morecambe Line up and running order still to be finalised Saturday 13th July Leodis Requiem at Wharf Chambers, Leeds Line up and running order still to be finalised

Hurtsfall have two gigs coming up next week. First we are supporting Murdah Srvc at the Chapel (above the Angel Microbrewery) in Nottingham on Tuesday 13th February. Were on at around 9.00. Then on the Friday 16th February HRH Goth 2 is finally going ahead with a change of venue from Sheffield to O2 Academy Leicester on account of O2 Sheffield still being closed due to RAAC concrete problems. This has resulted in a changed but expanded line-up on both days, which for us has both advantages and disadvantages. The overall line up on the day that we will playing is now a lot stronger, so hopefully that will result in a bigger audience; however, we will be playing further down the bill and much earlier (7.00pm) than we would have been had the event gone ahead last year. The full line-up for Friday 16th February hen we are playing is: Fleisch 11.00pm The Danse Society 9.30pm Exilia 8.10pm Hurtsfall 7.00pm PLAY/DEAD 5.55pm Nox Pulso 5.00pm

Both my bands play originals and gig as and when suitable slots are available. Most of the time this means supporting someone reasonably well known, so we don't have any regular schedule. I've had no gigs in January but have 3 in February. So far for 2024 I have 10 gigs booked and will probably finish the year having done at least 20. At the moment the majority of these are "festival" slots - luckily all indoors because IME the UK weather isn't conducive to outdoor festivals. Last time a band I was in did a series of festivals in one year it rained at all of them apart from the one where we played indoors when there was a heatwave... Neither band has an agent but both will are on the radar of well-known promotors on the Goth/Post-Punk scene. The singer in one band and the drummer in the other are the main gig getters. We don't do it for the gig money alone but will expect to sell a decent amount of T-shirts and CDs when we play. Having said that several of the gigs already booked are paying a significant amount. I like gigging. 10 years ago I was in an originals band that gigged almost every weekend, and could have probably been out ever Friday and Saturday night had the money and logistics been right. At the moment I'd be happy with 2-4 a month split between the two bands. Both bands are currently also working on writing and recording songs for our next albums, so there is plenty for us to be doing when there are no actual gigs coming up.

They all come off which gives me the chance to properly clean the fingerboard and the section of the body under the strings.

That's nasty. My understanding of Trading Standards regulations regarding electrical equipment sold in/to the UK is that if an adaptor is required, it can no longer be of the simple plug-in variety like yours, but must be attached to the Euro plug by some method other than just the electrical connections. Normally for a Euro plug on a lead there is a special UK style plug which clamps over the Euro plug and is held in place by one or more screws. If it is not possible to supply a suitable adaptor, then a PSU with an integral UK mains plug needs to be supplied. I would complain to the vendor citing UK Trading Standards. If enough people complain they might just get the message and start supplying regulation standard plugs as standard. While it may not be contributing to your hum problem this adaptor is another potential point of failure on your gigging equipment. However I have come across similar issues with equipment powered by PSUs with no earth connection on the PSU. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for good old trial and error. Start by removing everything from the pedal board and disconnecting them from the PSU. Then try one pedal at a time. If each one individually produces no hum, then start adding devices one at a time in the order they will be in your final signal chain. I suspect the hum will re-appear when you add you first digital device. Good luck!

@Linus27 Thanks for that photo. Does the UK adapter fit over the pins of the Euro Power supply or does it plug in? If it's the later then they are breaking UK trading standards as any electrical equipment supplied for to the UK must come either with leads with UK plugs or adapters that fit over the Euro-style plug and cannot be removed without undoing screws. Plug-in adapters are no longer allowed, and in that case the PSU should be replaced with one with a built-in UK plug.

Time for new strings?

I used to own this: Manne Mandobass. 26.5" scale, tuned the same as the lowest 4 strings on a guitar. Used a couple of times in the studio to produce faux 8-string bass parts by double-tracking with the normal bass part. However I would throw in the occasional non-octave note just to keep things musically interesting. However it didn't really offer anything that I couldn't do just as well on a standard guitar, so it got sold when I had my big instrument clear out some years ago.