shizznit

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1331209531' post='1569382'] Brilliant. Love the 'medallion men' one in a field. Classic. [/quote] I have just sent that pic to my band members to reconsider our stage appearence and go for that look. Sharp and sexy!!

[quote name='TomRichards' timestamp='1331148414' post='1568565'] What do you think about "reverse bursts"? Kubicki used to feature them, dark blue or dark color in center, fading toward the edges. [/quote] I recently saw a lad using a blue reverse burst Kubicki. First time I have ever seen that finish. Looked pretty cool.

Genz Benz cab's too expensive? Mark @ Bass Direct has just taken delivery of these bad boys... [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/GenzBenzfocus.html"]http://www.bassdirec...zBenzfocus.html[/url] I am going straight to those to test the next time I visit the shop!

[quote name='Chairleg' timestamp='1331186900' post='1568980'] +1. They shouldn't need Ebay to sell this for a good price anyway. Plenty of collectors out there would love this. [/quote] I agree. If this guy wants to sell this at its true value then there are lots of specialist auction agencies and merchants he can approach. A collector in the right circles will snap that up in next to no time.

I'm usually pretty flexible with other musicians using my kit if soundcheck time is limited and they can't do one for themselves or the kit they brought is not going to cut the mustard (i.e. backline volume). I lay down a couple of ground rules and away they go, but they have to ask my permission first and not assume that the kit already on stage is communal. I did a strange gig a long time ago whereby we were headlining and the support bands were poles apart from what we did. One band was a live drum & bass act and the other was an acoustic hip-hop thing. They both showed up late...we had already sound checked and I was across the road with my drummer in a Pizza Hut having a quick munch whilst they frantically sound checked. By the time we got back the drum & bass band were already in full flow with their set. They sounded really great and I enjoyed their set. When they finished I approached one of the keys/samples guys to comment how much I enjoyed their set. This is how the conversation went... Him - "Awww...thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, sorry we were late for the soundcheck. Thanks for letting me use your amp" Me - "Don't worry about it...it happens to all of us once in a...wait, hang on. What do you mean amp?" Him - "Thanks for letting me use your amp...it's a monster! Sounds great with the drums going through it. I have to get one of those for myself. Sounds much better than PA monitors" Me - "Whoa whoa...hold on. Are you telling me you were sending all your samples to my bass amp behind you?" Him - "Yeah...sounds great!" Me - "Who told you to do that?" Him - "That tall guy over there" (points to my singer) Me - "Why didn't you go through the stage monitors to hear yourself?" Him - "We didn't have enough time to soundcheck the stage levels, so he said I could plug into the amp behind me" Me - "Oh, did he now?" Him "Oh...have I dropped him in it? Shouldn't have I done that?" I asked the next band to give me a few moments so that I could review what kind of state my rig was in. Two speakers were split and one of the horns was distorting, which a couple of weeks later I had to replace. So, I was incandescent with rage. I marched up to the singer immediately whilst he was chatting up a couple of women to pull him into the hallway backstage. After giving him the lecture on how instrument amplification works and that he will be paying for the damage I told him that under no circumstance is anyone other myself is allowed to touch my kit unless they have my permission. He refused to pay for it and pinned the blame on the guy from the D&B band. His excuse was "You weren't around to ask. He should have known better anyway…wind your neck in!". Totally void of any ownership or responsibility over the incident and very lucky not to get a colossal slap. We played our set, he retired to the bar happy as Larry acting like nothing had happened. Over a course of a few weeks his attitude towards me stank. No matter what kind of conversation we all had during rehearsals he always managed to drop in a sarcastic sentence relating to that incident. One night whilst only 20mins in I had enough…without a murmur from me I packed my kit, left the room and I haven’t seen him ever since.

No-one on BC as I have only been a member for 3 or 4 months, but a friend of mine is giving me an opportunity to buy back my old Jaydee Supernatural that I sold him 12yrs ago! I did regret selling it to him. Great little funk machine! However, I bought it from a second hand shop for £350 and now he wants £900 for it!

[quote name='gelfin' timestamp='1331156971' post='1568757'] I live in Cardiff and wouldn't, really wouldn't play anywhere near Gurnos. Rather play in the old docklands than that. [/quote] We have played in Mischiefs a few times with no incident and a couple of private functions at the Coal Exchange. The docks are not as bad as it used to be years ago since the professionals have been moving into the area with all of the fancy development going on in the Bay. [quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1331154443' post='1568681'] [b]Lads, I think you need to look at this again[/b] - ok, so the OP isn't naming and shaming; but there's not many social clubs in Grunos, eh? In fact, I'm pretty sure there's only one on the estate. So just avoid that one, eh? [/quote] There's actually two...one in the heart of the estate and a sports club just on the outskirts...both of which I would recommend avoiding. Like I said guys, I don't believe in naming and shaming on a public forum. It's come back to bite me in the ass in the past. If you are a S.Wales band and want to give this venue a wide burth then PM me and I will fill you in. I have played many gigs in the Merthyr area because 5 members of the band are from that neck of the woods and we get a lot of gigs from word of mouth. Always had a lot of fun up there and never had any trouble with the punters. Stay in town...stay away from Gurnos!

[quote name='LemonCello' timestamp='1331158433' post='1568803'] Good job you weren't wearing that up the Gurnos! [/quote] Could you imagine me playing 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' wearing that clobber? The angry mob carrying flaming torches would have been breaking down the doors!

"We have 2 record label exec's that wants to come to the gig next week, but I told them not to come because we are the first band on". (I'm not joking!)

Don't get me wrong, I don't come from a privileged upbringing and I was raised in Cardiff Docks which also has a savoury rep, but I do treat folks with less than what I do with respect and non-judgement because I know what it is like to live in an area that is not affluent. However, I do believe that you have to give respect to earn respect and that has nothing to do with social class and living environment. The trouble with me is that I don't back down when threatened. I have met many idiots whilst doing gigs that push it a bit too far, but I am getting a bit wiser and self controlled as my hair is turning grey!

My head hurts now

I played a last minute gig last night at a social club in the infamous Gurnos district of Merthyr Tydfil. If anyone doesn't know about the reputation of this place, google it! I won't publically state which venue it was because I don't believe in doing that (PM if you want to know). We are usually a 9-piece outfit and luckily all of us were available, but 2 of the members refused to do the gig because of the location (percussionist and sax). We could still do the gig without them, the money they were offering was ok, so we decided to do it. We got to the venue, unpacked the cars and set up the stage. All appeared to be well, the staf were quite friendly and we were thinking to ourselves what was all the fuss about from the other two guys that refused to play the gig. That was until we finished the line check and popped out for a quick smoke. When we walked back in a bloke grabbed my arm in the main hall we were playing in and said... Him - "It's my birthday tomorrow...can you play some Elvis for me?" Me - "Sorry mate...we don't know any Elvis. We're a soul band" Him - "Well, you’re a useless bunch c**** then aren't you?" (that alone made my blood boil because I can't stand that word) Me - "We don't learn songs we don't need to play because people expect a soul band to play soul music...not rock 'n' roll" Him - “I have paid for my ticket tonight…you should play what I want”. Me - “Nah…it doesn’t work out that way mate…we are not a juke box”. Him - "If you don't play any Elvis tonight I am going to wait for you outside and stab you in the f***ing eye!" Me - (stared back him with no comment) Him - "I'm a f***ing nutter me...I'll do it!" My guitar player has seen that look from me before and knew that he had to pull me away from him. We tried finding the manager to tell him that I was physically threatened by one of the punters, but he was nowhere to be seen. I had a drink to calm myself down and got on with the first set. After playing for an hour in front of a very despondent audience that usually prefer bands that play Sex On Fire, one of our singers stayed on the stage to keep an eye over the kit and we proceeded to go outside for another smoke. I was then chased down the hallway leading to the exit by the wife of ‘the nutter’ hurling abuse at me. If that wasn’t enough the punters outside in the smoking area were also abusive towards us because they didn’t like the music we were playing. We promptly went back inside to play the second set with every intention to pack up early and get out of Dodge as soon as humanly possible. Some idiot kept coming on to the stage to grab a mic and barked some incomprehensible nonsense over us. We could have stopped, but because of the hostile atmosphere we thought that would have been a bad idea and just tolerated it. We finished the set with the same lack of enthusiasm as the audience, ‘the nutter’ was eyeballing me whilst packing down my rig and the lads made sure I wasn’t left alone when loading the cars. I didn’t even wait to get my cash…as soon as my kit was in the car I put my foot down all the way back to Cardiff. Not often I will rag my Golf GTI, but I certainly blew off the cobwebs last night! [i]**Just received a text from my guitar player whilst typing this post and he said that our drummer (who is of West Indies descent) was also racially abused last night whilst packing his car***[/i] Hence to say that this venue is on our black list and we will not be returning there in the future. I am glad that it didn’t get physical last night, but I haven’t had to put up with that much intimidation at a gig before and has made me more selective about which bookings we will take on. This particular agency that found us the gig give us regular work, but don’t check the venues first. Unfortunately, they have placed us in a few venues that are not suited for us on many levels, so we are considering kicking them into touch. Above all else, the personal safety of the band is paramount. Some gigs in infamous districts are simply just not worth the aggro or the money. [i](sorry if I have caused any offense to any BC members that live this area of Wales...I just don't like being physically threatened and intimidated whilst doing my job, or my fellow band members for that matter. I am not painting everyone from Gurnos with the same brush and hopefully this will never happen again to any other artist/band in that venue)[/i]

It's top time! Jon picked out some very nice burr woods for this build. This has been so tricky for me as I like 5 out of the 9 that he has selected![list=1] [*]I really like this dark buckeye looking one, but it's quite a small piece...waiting for Jon to confirm if he will have enough of it to work with. Also, that piece looks like a swine to fill in too! But, I think that one would look lovely with the darker part at the rear of the body and expose that lovely figuring at the lighter part of the piece with all that blank space between the pickup. It would also make a lovely headstock laminate. [*]This a very pretty piece and an almost perfect candidate for a book match. The only criticism I have about this one is that the diagonal, grey'ish light streak will cause a weird 'V' shape when book matched. Lovely piece, but probably not a front runner. [*]This piece is absolutely gorgeous! The figuring is beautifully formed. That will definitely give a very elegant appearance to the instrument. [*]If Jon doesn't have enough of #1 to work with this piece is a definite back up plan. This is a seriously pretty piece of wood! That will look stunning as a book matched top. It’s much lighter than #1. Might have to ask Jon to darken it a bit if we go for this one. Not too much though because I wouldn't want to ruin the beautiful detail of the figuring. [*]I have seen this type of birdeye burr on a couple of Warwicks and is a very attractive. It has a lovely light honey colour with a high gloss lacquer. That said, I would probably like to darken this piece a tad too. [/list] So, some lovely pieces of wood there. All very pretty and all have stunning attributes. The top will be purely cosmetic (2mm thick) and won't contribute to the tone of the bass. I want the swamp ash to be the fundamental tone generator. What would you go for? [attachment=101892:burl2.jpg] [attachment=101891:burl1.jpg] Also, we have decided to go for the single Delano FE MM pickup (bridge) with the Seymour Duncan 3-band preamp with passive switching and split coil parallel/series switching. I want a strong and dynamic pickup with a very open mid and top end, but a preamp with a reasonable flat response. Jon thought this would be the best combo for live use as the EQ sweeps on the Seymour Ducan preamp are not as wide as Aguilar, EMG, Bartolini preamps. I play with a pretty flat tone tuning on the bass itself, so this sounds like the right way forward. I'm a bit nervy as my ears have been so used to Bart's for several years, but I am confident this choice will hit the mark after a lengthy conversation with Jon. Oooooo!!!! I have forgotten how much fun this is! It brings back good memories when I was discussing the build with Mike Tobias for my old MTD 535 years ago. I got the bug again. I am certain that I am going to order another bass from Jon once this one has been completed (probably won't be able to wait that long!). Jon is looking forward to this build too as he has never built an Uberhorn with a reverse headstock before, so this will the the first of it's kind! Tidy!

I just realised that I am going to see Primus at the Albert Hall in April. That's not going to do my confidence any good! LOL!!

I went to the show last year and decided not to go this year because of the bloody noise. I primarily went down with a friend to help him find a high-end bass and rig, but it was very hard work whilst being bomarded by the racket. I did the demo's for two years at the BMF for Carlsbro and the noise police walking around with their dB meters were always on top of the volume levels and I got a few rollockings from them. This seems to be totally ignored at the LBS and it's so frustrating when you are testing kit for acquisition when some pleb at the stand opposite you is playing the worst slap known to man and loud enough to be heard from the moon. From the feedback I have read on this thread the problem has become worse and I have no motivation attending next years event, which really ticks me off. The organisers really have to put their foot down about the noise saturation in the hall during the event.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1331039682' post='1566653'] Have a couple of £6k mics to play with as well.... [/quote] Oh, he has those too...believe me!

I lived in Dallas, TX for a short while and I used to make frequent trips to Austin because my partner had family living there. I visited the Bass Emporium once when stumbling across it whilst driving and they have some very tasty kit in there. I can't recall if they have much there in the way of vintage basses, but they have plenty of Fenders, Laklands and Sadowsky's.

I'm going out for a munch with my girlfriend, but hopefully we can swing by to catch your set. Do you know what time your on?

The only black bass I ever owned was a Jap Fender J 'Boner'. A local luthier replaced the scratchplate with a mirrored one. Very Steve Harris looking, but it looked the mutts nuts.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1331036609' post='1566580'] Yup, lovely mic mate, enjoy it! [/quote] I'm just lucky that the mate I am borrowing it from keeps forgetting that I have got it! How can you forget that you are missing a £3k mic??

Satin black looks cool, but it always reminds me of the blackboard when I was in school! (which I was very familiar with during detention!)

I like natural wood colours, but I have a soft spot for old 80's style metallic colours too

If I can syncopate the vocal phrasing with the bass line I can just about manage, but if the phrasing of both are out of unison that's where I really struggle. My girlfriend has suggested that I should go to a vocal coach, but I dunno how they could help?

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1331032367' post='1566479'] A Neumann M147 is a long long long way away from cheap in anyones book.... [/quote] I did mention that the Neumann doesn't belong to me. I was recommending the mic's that I own, just to clear up any confusion. I was simply suggesting that different mic's suit different vocal tones. At £700 the AKG seems expensive, but I agree that next a to a Nuemann it's a penny sweet. I am very fortunate to have access to one when I need it.