BigRedX

I think everything you need to know is here.

My take has always been that the "sound" of the amp and speaker get in the way of your overall sound. We only think we like it because it is a sound that we think we are used to from our favourite recordings where we conveniently ignore that fact that even if there was an amp and cab in the signal chain the sound has been massively manipulated to fit into the overall mix. I now use a Line6 Helix but a lot of the time I don't bother with amp or cab models, and simply pick an EQ and drive instead. When I do use an amp it has been specifically chosen for its distortion sound, and EQ will be adjusted elsewhere. When I do use a cab model it is part of a guitar combo, and again has been picked because I like the final sound from the output and not because of how accurate (or not) a representation of the actual amp it might be. So for me the answer is "yes" but only because I'm not trying to replicate a particular speaker cab, but because I am making a suitable bass guitar sound for my band.

Both have strong and weak points. Bridge 1 looks as though the sides would prevent lateral movement of the saddles, and while the solts might make it easier to change strings they also make it easier for the string to pop out in the middle in the middle of an emergency re-string mid-gig. Also the asymmetry of the slots plays havoc with my OCD. Bridge 2 is more straight forward and doesn't have the jarring asymmetry of the previous one. The matt black colour is very pleasing too. However apart from the high density string block (which IME makes very little overall sonic difference) it's a primitive design that has been improved upon since the early 80s.

Standard jack normalised patch bay? How are the connections made at the back? Hardwired or jack sockets? Personally I wouldn't risk it. There's always the chance that you'll plug in something inappropriate, or you'll create a short with half-inserted plugs. If you want the connections in an accessible place use a single row blank patch panel and populate it with Speakon connectors and label them clearly. Then use appropriate cables to make up all the connections.

At one point I had just under 50 guitars and basses plus a load of synthesisers and samplers. These days I'm down to 4 basses: Gus G3 5-string bass active in CAR. This is my main gigging bass with In Isolation Gus G3 5-string bass passive in black. This is my back-up bass for In Isolation, and for recording when I need a "normal" bass guitar. Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass. This is my main gigging and recording bass for Hurtsfall. Burns Barracuda 6-string bass. This is my backup bass for Hurtsfall. Hopefully soon to be replaced with a second Eastwood Hooky. And 2 Guitars: Gus G1 Guitar with Twin Humbuckers and Vibrato FretKing Esprit V Custom And whatever plug-in synths come free with Logic.

Strangely enough In Isolation did an acoustic warm-up gig at The Pit (ours was practice for supporting Mark Burgess of the Chameleons in Glasgow). We got around the PA problems by doing a bit of lateral thinking with the wiring and my FRFR cab for as a monitor for the whole band.

See you at a gig soon?

The * appears to mean that the artists in question are playing on the Thursday night, which strangely isn't one of the festival days.

I've found the only fool-proof way to avoid latency is not use software monitoring, but to monitor via a mixer.

There is a limit. Also IIRC there was limit put on the file size of individual photos as they were taking too much space on the Basschat server. Most of the time you are better off using an external image host.

Thanks! I see we nearly did a gig in Wakefield with you, but had to cancel as I was on holiday.

I intend to get one of these later in the year for one of my bands. The plan will be to run everything through this but split it out 3-4 ways for FoH mixer at the venue (Vocals on their own feed and other instruments either in stereo or split for drums and synths/bass) so they can fine-tune the mix for the room, although ideally they can just push all the faders up to the same level and they should be 95% there. We'll use a scene for each song so the effects and relative levels for the instruments are set automatically. Since the backing is run from a laptop, we can use MIDI commands to select the correct scene for each song, and also to mute the vocal effects between songs so that the audience can understand what our singer saying. There ought to be enough buses left over for each of us to have our own IEM mix too.

I've encountered this a few times. AFAICS it stems from general insecurity about either their playing or their equipment. It's generally worse at rehearsals compared with gigs but not always. TBH when I have come across it the practice is so ingrained and automatic that the musician in question is barely aware that they are doing it. A lot of bands I have played over the years have used some sort of backing which I am usually in control of. For one particularly bad example, I go so fed up with this at rehearsals that would deliberately not start the backing track for the next song until there had been a couple of seconds silence from all the band. When I was eventually asked why I was taking so long to start each song, I told them that if they were playing stuff then they obviously weren't ready, and it was only fair that I should wait until they were. After couple of rehearsals like this they finally got the message. For The Terrortones we got around this problem ever arising by simply not giving anyone any time between the songs. IMO for the majority of bands the space between songs should be taken up with: Applause, "Thank you, the next song is...." count in. That's it. If the intro is being performed by the problem musician, either give it to someone else or drop the song for one where everyone comes in together. With a bit of luck they will eventually get the message.

I've just been updating Hurtsfall gigs on the Goth Calendar, and it looks as though The InSect have a lot of gigs coming up, so if you get the place you are going to be pretty busy. @2elliot which band are you in?

"Festival" covers a wide variety of situations from playing on the back of a covered trailer to 50 people to Glastonbury and bigger. Therefore there is no "one size fits all solution". However for all but the very smallest festivals I would expect the bass to be delivered by the PA and my rig to be at best for on-stage monitoring only. From personal experience, even the smaller festivals I have played unless my rig was being mic'd up (and that mic being used as the main feed for the bass guitar to the PA) my rig was little more than a big, heavy and expensive stage prop. On any reasonable sized stage it stopped being even a personal monitor to moment I was no longer standing directly in front of it. So unless you can guarantee that your rig will be mic'd up and that mic feed actually used, or your are the kind of bass player who stands in front of their rig for the whole gig, there is little point agonising over what to take. Bring a decent pre-amp and go straight into the PA. There will probably be something on stage for the visuals anyway and I guarantee that none of the audience will have even the slightest idea that you're not using it.

The sooner Thomann drop DHL for UK deliveries and returns the better. They are most definitely the weak link in an otherwise efficient service.

I don't know. It was cringe-worthy when it came out and it hasn't improved with time.

It's not an either/or. Sometimes you need flats. Sometimes you need roundwound strings.

I've got a load of wide-ranging and some very eclectic influences, but if I was looking to join or form a band I'd narrow those down to suit the sort of music I wanted to play. Edit: And if I wasn't sure about the music I wanted to play, I'd probably run multiple ads each for a particular genre.

Like that a lot. Got to be doing a gig with you some time!

The easiest but quite costly method is to pay for some properly targeted PR. If you want to do it yourself it involves a bit more time and effort, but IME the most effective way is to have a look to see where similar bands are being reviewed, written about and playlisted and target those websites and social media pages.

IME there are people who are ONLY on Instagram or TikTok. If you are not posting there you could be missing out on potential fans. It doesn't cost anything other than a few more minutes to tailor your content to the relevant platform, so why not?

Good luck with the audition. If you get it, one of my bands will probably be doing a gig with you at some point.

Good. prompt communication is essential for all small businesses, especially those with long project times. I put aside time every day to make sure that I am up to date with all my business communications, so that no-one is hanging on for a reply.

Personally I'd start by getting that eBay footswitch. If it doesn't work as advertised you should be able to return it. If you need to trouble-shoot it, make sure you have some sort of MIDI monitor on your computer so you can see what messages it is sending out. One thing to consider does the effect on/off toggle with the same MIDI message or do you need two different ones for on and off? (In which case you may need two footswitches.)