Silvia Bluejay

A few months ago I bought a fishing rod carry case for keeping our two (rarely-used) double bass bows, German and French. It seems to be far stronger and better padded than many of the 'real McCoys' for sale on music shop websites, and it's cheaper.

I think so too. While even simply 5-6 years ago the most likely thing our bands would be asked for was a signed poster, now you have punters coming to the band after the gig and asking for selfies. I have a far better camera than their mobile phones, and could get a much nicer picture of the person with the band, if asked, but I always choose not to offer. The actual experience of getting close to the band and gathering them to pose for the pic is an important part of getting that selfie for the punter. And obviously, they can post it to Facebook or Instagram straight away, without waiting for me to photoshop it so it looks gorgeous, but it's two days late! 😄 Great thread, by the way.

You're absolutely right, it's the Q2n I'm talking about, and the H1n for audio. Apologies, I'll edit my post.

We've got a Zoom Q2n and we're not impressed by the thin, shallow quality of the audio recording - our dedicated audio-only recorder Zoom H1n wipes the floor with it, and then some. Video in the Zoom Q2n is of high quality, though. It tends to be very, very dark when recording in low-light concert mode, but it can be brightened up on the computer if necessary. Video recording in good light, indoors or outdoors, is great. An advantage of the Zoom Q2n is its wide-angle lens, so you can place it on a shelf in a cramped rehearsal room and still be able to film the whole band, if the shelf is at the correct height. However, I recommend buying a clamp to attach the recorder to a convenient piece of furniture and tilt it appropriately - when it's simply sitting on a flat surface it needs to be really very near the edge, or it will show the horizontal surface in the bottom half of the scene. We use it as our backup video recorder when the viewing space is too limited for one of our proper recording cameras.

Please try not to inflate his ego too much... 😉😛😄

Doesn't need to be shared. In fact, ours aren't. Jack and I manage them; the band members text or email us their non available dates, and I enter them in the calendar. Job done.

We use Lemonrock for both The Junkyard Dogs and Damo And The Dynamites. We manage each calendar by asking all members to let us know their unavailable dates as soon as possible, and anything that's left, marked in green, is available for gigs on a first come first served basis. So far we've only needed a dep for one band once. The advantage of those calendars is that landlords and venue bookers can see them too, should they so wish, and know which dates the band can do even before making a call to offer us a gig.

Different. I found the show layout and some aspects of its organisation rather confusing and/or offputting, but I think it was a case of teething problems rather than spectacular failure. There are lessons to be learnt by the organisers and also by us, the punters. Clearly, we can't have the bass-only show back as it was before: this move seems permanent. So each of us has to decide whether a small-scale NAMM-style show may be to their liking, or whether not having a dedicated bass show is a deal breaker. I'm perfectly happy with the new location and the addition of guitar-related exhibitors and performers. I'll definitely be going next year, hoping the issues we identified this year will have been addressed, and hoping that the bass section will look a little less like an afterthought. Having said that, I do live in London, and travelling to the show is for me simply a 45-minute journey on one underground line plus a single stop on another.

Hmm, I think there's at least one good reason to keep bass-playing women at the front, then. Think Suzi Quatro, Tina Weymouth, Divinity Roxx... all just marginally larger than their bass guitars! Carol Kaye probably not much bigger either. Ida Nielsen is slightly taller, and so are Yolanda Charles, Julie Slick, Esperanza Spalding and Tal Winkelfeld, but big women? Nah, none of them. Our very own @seashell can hold her own with bass-playing gentlemen from the point of view of height*, but she's offset by yours truly, who's 5'2"... * and that of bass-playing, natch.

We add £5 to our fee when payment is via Invapay. For managers who 'forget' to send us the invitation, we have email text and printed requests to pester them with. Incidentally, after some controversy with one pub manager, I received a message from Greene King on Invapay. Excerpt below. Every time I don't get an invitation at the first attempt, I email again quoting that message. It usually works.

Many thanks to Colin, Nik, Gary and Pete for organising a great get-together against a lot of difficulties and cancellations. @Happy Jack and I could only stay a couple of hours but thoroughly enjoyed Pete's talk and catching up with a lot of people we otherwise mostly see online. Below, Pete listening to a question Below, Orange Friday and his amazing technicolour fretboard (controlled by a dedicated app)! More on my forthcoming mini-blog.

I've tweeted this as Basschat. Good luck, hope you recover it.

IMO it's more of a case of reverse sexism. I could argue that those young ladies did have an unfair advantage over the better-qualified-but-wrong-gender-or-wrong-age candidates, assuming that the ladies didn't fall into the trap of sleeping with the boss, and instead simply worked their way up the ladder normally. I have witnessed the opposite as well, young men being favoured over older, more experienced women by a female boss, without the need to sleep with her; just 'because'.

I see what you mean. I think @Happy Jack and I may be older than you, though! And he plays mostly rockabilly, which looks like hard work, from what I can see from my sound engineer seat.

Seems a lot of hard work to me! If we did that we'd end up getting to the gig pre-knackered, but still having to play 2 hours on DB, and then having to do all that in reverse to get home. The Precision still looks like the wiser option! 😉🙂

Or indeed, get an electric upright, a semi-acoustic bass guitar, or a bass uke. (We've done all that!)

LOL, but I was there, so I can!

If anyone's interested, my blog has finally been published.

Blog finally here!

Have you seen THIS? Works UK to UK too.

TIs have been the lowest tension flats I've tried, and I love them. I've got them on my Hofner violin and they sound great. A few years ago I also bought a 5-string set with the intention of putting them on - I think - that same Fortress 5 that now has the Labellas. However, the low B did not fit in the hole in the one-piece bridge, not even if I had tried to mangle it, so I had to get a set of Chromes (Labellas low tension didn't exist at the time). I installed the Thomastiks on one of my 4-string Corvettes and kept them there for a long time. I must still have the low B somewhere, unused! Having said all that, the TIs do have the tendency to be floppy, especially the B and E, so in my experience they are slightly more limited in their use than the Labellas or Chromes. In terms of tone, they have their own recognisable sound, so it's a matter of taste whether or not they suit the music you play.

You mean you have fitted Fender flats to your bass? If they're your first ever flats, be aware that they are the stiffest set of flats I've ever had the misfortune to try on (and almost immediately whip off) a bass of mine. While their tension may be all right for your hands, their tone/sound will almost certainly be different from the very high quality (and rather more expensive) Labellas.

You can try lowering the action but, depending on your playing style and other factors such as saddle and pickup height, you may end up with buzzes and/or distortion. Easily fixed by taking the time to set up, obviously. As for the tension, I know that I find the normal Labellas (which are on most of @Happy Jack's basses) too stiff for my liking, but I love the low tension Labellas, even as a player of D'Addario Chromes and Thomastiks (both notoriously 'soft'). I do realise this may or may not help you; apologies if it doesn't.

I'd also recommend Low Tension Labellas. I bought a 5-set at Bass Direct at the LBGS to put on my Warwick Fortress with old-style one-piece bridge, as I was fed up with having to mangle the D'Addario Chromes low B and E in order to make them fit in. To my ears the low tension Labellas sound rather like the normal tension Labellas, to be honest, as well as very different from the zingy D'Addario Chromes (which would emphatically NOT be the sound you're looking for). While I still prefer the tone of the Chromes, I am thoroughly impressed with the feel and clarity of sound of the low tension Labellas. They will definitely stay on my Fortress.