peteb

Two gigs depping for the R&B band over the weekend. The first one on Friday was a pub on the main drag in Wakefield (first pic below). Very quiet night, although everyone there was nice enough. I used my newly acquired 91 Stingray for the first set, which sounded great but it feels like it needs a bit more work on the set up, so went back to the precision for the second set. Last night was a tiny pub in Cleckheaton, squashed into a little alcove (see second pic below). We played a lot better than the night before, but the pub was pretty quiet and not the most appreciative audience I’ve ever played to. We did a couple of slow blues in the first set (rather nicely I thought) to the sound of tumbleweed drifting through the bar! First set mainly notable for some blonde coming onto the “stage” in the middle of a song to ask me if I was married! The second set picked up a bit and we had a group of 40 something women up dancing to the last three or four tunes, including a girl called ‘Kaff’ (I had to ask if her name was spelt with one or two ‘f’s). All in all, the weekend was not the highlight of my musical career. But we got paid and had a laugh and we’ll do it all again next weekend (but with a different band for me and hopefully different audiences).

No aggressive drunks or acts of senseless violence to report. Shame really, might have livened things up... To be fair, even the drunks stumbling past the door outside when we were loading out at the end of the night were unfailingly polite!

I often wonder how American bars manage to stay in business if everyone drives and then can't drink alcohol when they get there? The same thing applies to an extent here for live music bars. I had last Saturday night off so went to see a Rory Gallagher tribute in a great club venue in a different town about a half hour drive away. It would have been impossible to get home by public transport and would have been an expensive taxi there and back, so I obviously drove. I only bought one soft drink all night, so they can't have made any money behind the bar from me and the many others like me who went who didn't live locally.

To be fair, I haven't come across any punters being aggressively drunk at a gig for many years. I think it depends on the type of pub you play. In my experience most pubs with a reputation of putting live music on get a pretty reasonable class of punter! However I'm depping for a band playing a city centre pub near a railway station on Friday, so I might have something different to report after the weekend...!

According to their website, they own their own sound & lights and book their own gigs with the option of booking through an agency if the venue prefers.

Plenty to choose from (a disproportionate number in the north west of England for some reason) but I will go with this one if I may. Back in the mid to late 80s, I was in an original rock / metal band that travelled round the country a bit in our bid for megastardom! We had a guy who wanted to manage us who had on his books a singer who wasn’t actually a big star, but who we had at least heard of. He had some big ideas and a few connections, so everything was looking up. He got us a gig supporting Geezer Butler’s band in a big club in the midlands (Coventry, if I remember correctly). Unfortunately, Geezer cancelled at the last moment for some reason (I think that we found out later that he had been invited out to America to guest on an Ozzy tour or record / write with him or something). Our prospective manager decided that we would go ahead with the gig as a headliner, as he thought that it would help to introduce us to a new audience and that playing this club where the likes of Geezer Butler played would look good on our CV! However, the deal was that we wouldn’t get a fee but would get 100% of the door take. The problem was that it was too late to promote the gig properly and the word had got out that Geezer had cancelled, but not that there was still a band on. We turned up and set up and waited for the hoards to arrive, but all we got was the bar staff saying ‘it’s never this quiet normally’. In the end we got one paying punter who had come down on spec to see if there was still a band on. We got talking to him and bought him a drink, gave him his money back and a signed demo we had for sale! We also let in about ten people who we had been playing pool with in the adjoining pub and who had been buying us drinks after taking pity on us having driven 120 miles to play for one person. We then went on stage and played the full show for this handful of unlikely punters. Of course, once we had been playing for ten minutes about twenty or more members of a biker club turned (all back patches, I vaguely remember them being Angels but could have been another club). Unfortunately, the guy on the door refused to take any money off them in case they found out later that we had let everybody else in for free…!

Great club venue - have a good one

Is that the gig at Hebden Bridge Trades??

As I said above, the best bass that I have ever played was a Fodera. It looks like I was lucky to find one of the very few good £6k+ basses out there...

I have to say that the MIMs that I've played were a bit agricultural, even for Fenders! I actually like the US Standards from 5 years or so ago (more than the current Pro series) and would certainly buy one if I needed another Fender. Softer wood is generally not great for basses, but the older Squires are certainly highly rated.

To be honest, I haven’t played a Squier since the 80s, when they actually were better than the crappy Fenders being produced at that time. My reference for the OP’s question is a MIM Fender, which are certainly not anywhere near as good as any of my basses or any recent American Fenders. I certainly could use one for my current gigs if I had to, but would much prefer a better bass. I have certainly seen some pros occasionally use old Squire basses on blues gigs. I don’t know how the hypothetical Squire in the OP would compare to a MIM Fender?

That's the thing, you probably have but they had the good grace not to play one within earshot...!

I went and bought a Fender P because I knew that some of the people I was playing with (and also some of the band leaders that I wouldn’t mind playing with) preferred that sound image / look. The BL was gushing about how great the new bass was and said that his bass playing mate had said “I see that Pete has got himself a proper bass at last”! Personally, I think that a lot of it is nonsense and that a decent bass will get a sound that will work in pretty much all situations. But it can’t be denied that a lot of people think that a ‘proper’ bass sounds and looks like the basses on the records they grew up with (be it Motown or the Clash) and ideally has ‘Fender Made in USA’ written on the headstock. So, I bought one because it would help me get more gigs. I heard a story of someone auditioning for Mark Knopfler who turned up with a high end coffee table 5 string. The audition obviously went well because he was asked to come back but Knopfler said to him ‘next time you come, bring something that looks like a proper bass’! So, he went and bought a 5 string that looked like a Fender for the second audition and I believe that he got the gig in the end.

It's the old adage on the blues circuit, that the definition of a gentleman is someone who can play the harmonica but refrains from doing so...

Perhaps she's from Essex (or Halifax)!

I think that answer to your earlier question is that guitarists are much more likely to break strings and maybe occasionally justified in using a different guitar for different songs! I usually take a spare bass to the gig, but it stays in a gigbag at the back where it is out of the way unless it's needed. You do realise that bass players don't HAVE to stay at the back don't you (depending on the gig of course)??

I could never see myself buying one, even if I had the money (something like a Sadowsky would be more suitable for my needs) but certainly the best bass that I have ever played was a Fodera.

IMO all versions of Deep Purple up to and including the mark IV version with Tommy Bolin...!

I know plenty of bikers who might dispute that statement...! :-)

That's a world many of us inhabit! I'm sure that you can play the riff on a 5 string but that song fairly motors along - but would you want to play that riff live without the open D for four minutes? Especially if the next song is Spoonman by Soundgarden?? I have a bass tuned down half a step with a D tuner for most of the rock gigs I do and a P bass in concert for the blues stuff.

Depends what you're playing mate - a lot of rock stuff depends heavily on bouncing off open strings (Slither by Velvet Revolver is a good example). A mate of mine (a good player) has ended up installing a d tuner to the E string of his 5 string Ray so that he can get the open drop D for a lot of the 90s alt metal / grunge stuff he plays.

You're possibly taking the comfort part of the post a little too literally and I am sure there are a lot Squires around that are actually better than many 80s Fenders, or even the worst 70s ones. But, as you say, most Fenders (and remember other types of basses are available) will be better and will therefore sound / play a bit better. You may not think that makes any difference in a pub, but it is little details that make one band better than another. One of these details is how the bass or any other instrument sounds - not a major thing in itself but it all adds up. The other thing to remember is that as a bassist you are being judged on your sound and you playing. There may be a band leader in the audience thinking the bass player has got his sound together. In a year's time his bassist may have quit just when your band breaks up and you might get a call...

It is a bit of a loaded question, suggesting that you don't need a more expensive instrument when you could cover most gigs with a budget instrument like a Squier. I could drive the 200 miles to London in a 20 year old Fiat Pinto. However it would be more comfortable, safer and enjoyable to do the same journey in a Mercedes!

Depends on the gig. If you are playing a 'music' pub where people have come to see the band then I reckon that more than two 45 / 60 (at a push) minute sets is excessive and you will struggle to keep the audience's attention. If the gig is at a place where there is a circuit of bars, the band's job is to keep the punter there for an additional drink or two before they go on to the next bar. At those type of places they will want the band on for as long as possible to catch the punters who have just come in, who are not expected to stay for the whole show.

I believe that most of the classic Metallica stuff (Black album, etc) is in concert pitch If you are playing rock stuff you will probably find it better to tune down.