peteb

I’ve got a couple of gigs left in the diary for this year, one in September and another in October. They are both in good venues that get decent crowds and I’m reasonably confident that they should both go ahead. Things will get back to something to normal, pubs will re-open and social distancing won’t last for ever. As you can see on the news, other European countries are starting to allow bars to re-open and they are starting to make steps to get back to normal (even though I can’t see any major events happening this year). My worry is that there is going to be political pressure on the UK to follow suit as soon as possible, when in reality we should be at least a few weeks behind. There is always a risk of a second wave of infection over here, so hopefully people will be sensible over the next few weeks. If that happens then hopefully things will be something like normal by the autumn.

This all depends if you like the sound of the amp completely flat! I got the R400 to replace a Mesa Subway D800, which had a really nice sound but lacked something (heft or whatever you want to call it). The Handbox has that in spades, but I struggled to use the EQ to find a usable tone at first. Now, the beauty of Leszek’s design is that (for me) 1k is just about the right frequency to cut on the contour, but the three knob EQ section isn’t necessarily that intuitive to use. I think that you have to look at the reasons why people are buying Handbox amps. I didn’t need an amp to be ridiculously light like the Subway, which used to bounce off the cab mid-gig, but I wanted an amp that was an easy one hand lift that had a lot more ‘heft’ / transient response than a Class D amp. For me, the compromise is that the EQ section is relatively limited in order to keep it in such a compact package.

To be honest, the one thing I struggled with my R400 was the EQ section. I eventually managed to find a sound that worked for me after reading something posted in this thread, but I find the three knob option a bit counter-intuitive (especially after using an amp with a semi-parametric Q for many years).

I loved DSOTM and WYWH, but lost interest after that. Perhaps that's the reason why?

The biggest gig I’ve played in recent years was to 2,000 plus bikers at a bike rally. We were the middle band of three, no soundcheck as headliners were late and then took forever (ska band). We hit the first chord and absolutely no sound from the bass (it turned out later that a wire had come loose when I had changed a battery, five minute repair with a soldering iron). I pulled out my spare bass from the double gigbag at the side of the stage and no one was any the wiser (even the drummer didn’t realise until he saw the video footage after the show). When I first joined a regularly gigging band, I was offered the gig on the basis that I would get a spare bass, even if it was just a beater just to get me through a show if anything happened. In over 40 years of gigging, I’ve only needed the spare maybe half a dozen times, but that has included a few of the most important gigs that I have done. So, I always take a spare wherever possible and always for the bigger gigs. I’ve probably had more issues with amps than basses over the years and yes, I do take a spare (a TE Elf these days, which fits in a gigbag and will get you out of trouble at a push) …

The point is that it doesn't really matter whether you like it or not - it's something that inspired (several) generations of bass players, some who may have influenced you (even if indirectly). I managed the whole lot. Not really my thing, for me the Jaco album kicked into gear with the second song (i.e. the tune after this one), but still interesting to get an understanding of how he interpreted a very challenging bebop standard.

I noticed that in the most recent Bass Direct newsletter, the first two bass builders being promoted were: Dingwall (as used by Lee Sklar) and Spector...!

Get It On (slap part starts @ 2:11)

Red Baron off the Spectrum album (Billy Cobham)

I wouldn’t necessarily agree that they are that predictable! There were often quite leftfield tracks and ideas, although you probably had to be a fan to have heard ‘Groovy Little Hippie Pad’ or ‘Manic Mechanic’, etc. Of course, Eliminator was quite unique at the time. I saw them at Hammersmith Odeon (pre Eliminator) on one their first ever European shows, which is still one of the best gigs I have seen. Having said that, I wasn’t as impressed with the Eliminator tour and I’m afraid that I haven’t been inspired to buy any of their albums post Afterburner. Still, a great band on their day…

Reflecting on his friendship and working with the great Jeff Porcaro

Playing a version of Black Hole Sun in fives...!!

Would love to see it - perhaps I should think about getting Netflix??

Would it help if I used less confusing adjectives like ‘sterile’ or perhaps ‘crap’?? The point that I am making is that the majority of bands using a silent stage approach in pubs do not sound very good. That is not to say that it doesn’t work in bigger venues, because it obviously does. But not at the Dog & Duck… As far as drummers goes, you are missing the point. You may be dismissive of ‘Dad Rock’, but that’s what a lot of us play and there is certainly an audience there. If you ever were to venture into that genre, you would find that any decent drummer will tend to be a reasonably heavy hitter. The challenge for them is to then vary their technique or otherwise find ways to get their levels down to work in a small venue / stage area. For example, I have seen drummers change the angle of their snare drum so that they get less rim every time they hit it. There are always compromises that you have to make when you are playing small venues. I should mention that there are plenty of perfectly good small pub gigs that I have happily done with R&B or blues bands that I would refuse to do with the louder hard rock band (despite being asked).

Haha :-) That was part of a discussion about playing a bigger venue, the point being that in pubs normally everybody can hear the onstage sound and it can sound odd if they can't...

That’s the point about the drummer – small gigs are inevitably a compromise between getting a great sound and be able to make it work in that venue. A drummer can get an awesome snare sound that sounds great to them and to a punter 30 feet away, but there are problems if he is blowing out everybody’s ears onstage and you can’t hear anything else every time he hits the damn thing. However, you do have to accept that the top rock drummers around are all big hitters (e.g. the Kenny Aronoff, Josh Freese, Deen Castronovo & Brian Tichys of this world). But you do need to find a compromise when you are playing in pubs and on small stages. You may prefer the clarity and spread of a soundless stage, but some musos (like me) and indeed many punters might prefer a more organic, ‘immediate’ sound. To take the example of my mates’ band that I mentioned above, (IMHO) it can sound more like a CD coming out of the PA rather than a live performance. It is undoubtedly different in big venues with proper stages, where only the first few rows can hear the onstage sound anyway.

Far be for me to intervene in a private argument, but just a couple of points: The first problem is that the biggest and best, fattest snare sounds occur when a decent drummer hits an ‘obnoxiously loud snare’ hard with just the right amount of rim. The trouble is that the such a snare sound risks completely overwhelming everything else in a pub gig, especially one with a small stage area. There are similar issues (to an extent) with certain guitar sounds. The trouble with these types of gigs is always finding the right compromise between getting great sounds and still having a suitable level for playing such small venues. Also, speaking purely as a punter, I would have to disagree that low onstage volume with everything coming through the PA. The problem is that pubs can have rooms of all sorts of shapes and they don’t usually have significantly raised stages, so there is often no clear demarcation between the stage and where the audience is. Different parts of the room can have different sounds and if you are stood in the wrong place then things can sound a bit strange without sound coming from the stage area to reinforce what is coming out of the PA speakers. For example, some friends of mine have a band that has completely embraced modern technology and rely totally on IEMs, electronic kit, Kempers, samples, etc. It’s not that it doesn’t sound great, it’s just that it sounds a bit unnatural in a pub (different thing in a decent club venue where it certainly does work). They laugh and say that I’m just old school, but I’m hardly the only person to have told them this. Their bass player came to see one of my bands and thought that we sounded great. He told me that he had to admit, he missed the big sound and physicality of having an amp behind him and a relatively loud stage.

Quite…! I would strongly advise the OP to ignore the last page or so of posts, just keep it simple and stick with what he is already doing. The thing is, there are several ways to get a great sound and even more ways to get it wrong. I have seen bands with loads of good gear sound awful because they don’t know to use it, as well as bands using cr*p gear sound terrible. Of course, I have also seen guys who actually know how to operate a mediocre PA system sound fine. A mate of mine (who I have played in several bands with) runs a big, well known PA hire company that works across Europe and beyond. He says that he hates having to deal with local sound engineers because the vast majority of them are useless. He reckons that most learn how to get a half decent sound from their own set-up without really understanding what they are doing. If they encounter something that they are not used to or have to use different gear, then they haven’t got a clue. What annoys him is that then they won’t listen and learn from people who know they are doing! FWIW, his preference was to keep things as simple as possible, use amps and for the band to be happy with the sound they were hearing onstage and then for the PA to reinforce that out-front. But that is not the only way to do it – it all depends on the gig, venue, band, etc. We would play pubs using £15k of Meyer Sound gear and often the only things going through the PA were the vocals, a mic in the kick and an overhead for the kit…

You are pretty unlikely to have a sound engineer in pubs and they will almost always take the DI from your amp. I do have a Radial DI box (one of those green bass bug jobs) as a belt & braces job, but it is rarely used by sound engineers. I would say that running a 500w amp (with the option of more power if needed) into a top quality 212 cab is ideal. You can always keep the master volume down and have more in reserve when you need it. Having plenty of headroom is always good. Good luck with your first run of gigging. You seem to have the right gear and approach, so I'm sure that you should be fine...

Over the years, I’ve seen one or two fights, a few pain in the a*se landlords and several times where they have booked the wrong band. This compares to hundreds of perfectly good gigs. The main issue has been perfectly well-intentioned punters putting their beer down in places where it shouldn’t be, so you have to try and make your stage area pretty much idiot proof. If you are going to play live regularly, then it generally means (for most of us) that you are going to play a fair few pubs. You take the rough with the smooth, but generally most pub gigs are great. I remember seeing Lee Sklar saying once that when he is off the road, he looks forward to playing bar gigs with his friends around town. If it’s good enough for Sklar, then it’s certainly good enough for me…

That's definitely a Fender, a couple of unidentified pickups and a mate who's got both a soldering iron and a router...!

I wouldn't have thought that Alembic would have done a bass that looked so much like a P bass. Back in the day when there wasn't so much choice in the marketplace, guys would just get a 70s Fender and keep modding it to try until it met their demands / was unique. Of course, this was when no one realised how much unmodded ones would be worth 30 years later and how much they were reducing the resale value...!

I always thought that it was a modded Fender P??

Dan Hartman started out as a member of Edgar Winter's band and then Montrose (if I remember correctly) before changing direction and becoming a leading light in the emerging disco scene. He had a big hit with Instant Replay and wrote Relight My Fire (yep, the same song that Take That covered and had a massive hit with) and co-wrote Living In America for James Brown. No idea about the wearable bass though...! Unfortunately, he died from an AIDS related illness in the early 90s.

Been a fan for years, but never seen them. I've got tickets for their tour in Holmfirth at the end of September, so here's hoping...