molan

That should keep you busy for a few hours 😉

How about Superstition and Play That Funky Music White Boy? Are these on the BC massive blacklist?

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1495795022' post='3306646'] Yes, alright. It was me. A girl got up to do some singing, had a nice soulful kind of voice and had called out Chain Of Fools. To me it was a natural progression to move on to Mustang. In my defence, it was the ONLY time the whole night that any of the few punters present got up to dance. I've always said that on the rare occasions i play it I always enjoy doing it and last night was no exeption. Rather that than another rendition of Stormy Monday etc. The day I'm ashamed of trying to get a bit of atmos going and entertain folks is probaby the day I hang up the bass for good. [/quote] Sounds like a good choice. It always kills me when people here on BC complain about songs that people in an everyday audience actually like enough to sing along to and get up and dance. Maybe we should all play really obscure jazz that people hate so we can go off and smirk at how much cleverer and musically hip we are. Of course, our audience would end up being just us playing to/with ourselves . . . 😂

Grosvenor House, Park Lane. Paid lots of money but we had to be there stupidly early, they treated us like sh*t, the house sound man barely spoke to us and had no interest in how we were hearing us on stage (we were the only band so it's not like we were support), the 'food' provided consisted of tiny stale sandwiches even though there were loads of uneaten main courses from the event, the pre-show ran over massively, the post show disco went on for ages and then we had to wait for the very last person to stagger out before we could start breaking down any of our gear. It really, really wasn't worth the money and we all said we wouldn't do another Park Lane hotel

Quite a lot of Lakland basses seem to have the John East Pre fitted. It's not my personal favourite but it does seem a popular mod for these.

Have to be very careful with heavily chambered bodies. Especially on 5's. they can be really neck heavy and dive the floor as soon as you strap them on

We never had a 212 in the shop but sold a few 112 and 210 versions. I really liked them personally but the weight was too much for my poor old back Lots of low end and punchier than the new versions whilst still retaining that great Bergantino tone Build quality is, of course, exemplary!

Be sure to check warranties are valid on all the sale stuff. Especially the heads. . .

I gigged with an AE210 for quite a while. They really are so well built and survive knocks without a mark (unlike a lot of other brands out there). How they achieve this level of build quality but at such light weights is beyond me! That rear porting can cause some issues in tight spaces but I found a Gramma pad often helped on a wooden floor. I only sold mine to get a CN series which is another 25% lighter. Doesn't quite have the same depth as the AE but the lighter weight, and front porting, made the difference worthwhile for me. Pairs really well with a nice valve pre like my Jule and Demeter heads.

Which Berg did you get Mark? Have you gigged it yet? I always find Bergs to be one of those manufacturers that really come alive in a gigging band situation (as opposed to sounding great solo'd in a shop or at home). Some of the older ones can be a bit picky on stage positioning - mostly the rear ported ones. Jim Bergantino listened to user opinions and moved ports to the front on most of the newer models. This doesn't mean the rear ported ones are bad, you just have to think about more about where you angle them to any rear walls. Sorry to anyone else reading this - I know it's off topic to the main thread here.

I must admit that I really don't 'get' most solo bass playing. So much of it seems to be technique for the sake of it and duller than dull to listen to. There seems to be an increasing number of videos appearing of guys playing solo stuff that just lacks any feel / groove / emotion etc. I remember seeing Victor Bailey once who was discussing the rise of the bass player who never played with any other musicians. He was pretty damning of the way they had developed and the 'music' they were playing and how potentially limiting it was for them in terms of musical development. Of course, this is just my view as someone who loves to play with other musicians far more than 'playing with myself' (an analogy Victor B also used - but in a more graphic way, lol). If people are happy playing technical solo stuff then that's great for them and I'm sure there are some people out there that want to watch it on YouTube and maybe even listen to solo bass albums - just bores me to tears I'm afraid

Change of UK distributor I think. Knocking out all their old stock at cheap prices to clear the shelves.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1494936295' post='3299709'] Depends what you want...we have Andy Needham, D'addarioUK, as a member here who can offer lots of great advice if you're not sure. [/quote]. I agree - Price can vary a lot from brand to brand so it would help if you name the brand and string gauge/type

If in doubt then I'd always stick the compressor at the front (after the tuner).

We always, always have every instrument in the foh mix. Levels obviously vary from room to room but our start point is always to try & provide a balanced mix. Some of this is a 'necessity' because our drummer has a Roland electronic kit. This in itself is a huge advantage for smaller venues because we can 'turn the drummer down', lol. I'm aware that at some venues a lot of the bass tone being heard out front is from my cab but we will eq for certain frequencies and add more foh where required. This allows me to set my on-stage volume at a very similar level for every gig so I'm not screwing around with settings all the time. I think I'd miss the 'physical' volume from a cab onstage but I'm certainly not averse to the idea of going completely in-ear at some stage.

I saw a pro pedal board recently (can't remember who it was now though) who had both a tuner and a compressor at both the start and end of his signal chain! Each compressor and tuner were different brands. Apparently he liked to swap the compressor position depending on the song and other effects used. Not entirely sure why there were two tuners as well - at first I thought maybe he wanted to retune if using particularly heavy tone shaping, like an octaver, but that seems a bit excessive so maybe it's just paranoia in case one failed, lol

Bass Collection Portrait is a decent bass. I hardly ever play fretless but I also wanted something just to noodle around on and chose one of these.

I really must dig my '63J out more often. It has a nice pale seafoam green finish and a gorgeous tort guard. Don't think I've played it this year

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1494431233' post='3295938'] In my case the packaging held it together well, whatever hit the box did not pierce the cardboard and it did it not get as far as the cab. The amount of packaging used, tons of bubble wrap, over 13 layers, even more on the corners, thick padded cover and the strong double-lined corrugated box did their job...well, up to a point. The parcel also had big stickers stating "Fragile". ParclHero are being a right pain, with stupid email replies, pretty much repeating the same over and over again. So far, they have failed to prove how my cab was packed and what aspect of the packaging was insufficient. I have so far receive a so called "report", just a few lines long, provided to them by UPS, in which they merely state my claim is rejected due to insufficient packaging, in there they quote a UPS policy and the International Safe Transit association test procedure for small parcel shipments. They do not provide any facts and information on how the parcel was packed. Just today I received a set of images, on which they are basing their claim rejection on, and there's not even a photograph of the bubble wrap, according to their images my cab was only packed with the padded cover and then the cardboard box! My contract is with ParcelHero and I did pack the item according to their criteria, at no point I was provided with any other packaging policy or packaging standards.There seem to be discrepancies between ParcelHero's packaging criteria and that of UPS. This was not for me to know as I wasn't informed of their existence. Yesterday I had a very productive meeting with an advisor from the Citizens Advice Bureau and the wheels are in motion, I will be following all the recommended steps they advice and go all the way to court if we need to. [/quote] I've had something similar from one supplier who more or less just kept saying 'not our problem' over & over again. We eventually claimed on our own policy rather than the courier because we just wanted to get it sorted. The photos without showing the full packaging sound like them trying to get out of their obligations. Hopefully they'll just give in rather than having the hassle of a court case

A relatively small and low(ish) option is the little MarkBass 210 Traveller in a 4ohm configuration. It's easy to carry, sits at a nice height standing vertically, sounds pretty loud with decent bottom end, draws the full power from your amp and is available at reasonable prices on the used market. It also doesn't look particularly flash (although the yellow speakers are fairly distinctive).

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1494405268' post='3295609'] Exactly! But we only know this if we check! I may check at the end of a song if there will be a natural pause before the start of the next one, but nine times out of ten the tuning will still be fine and I don't need to change anything. But at least I [b][i]know[/i][/b] that! [/quote] I guess experience has shown me that my basses don't move out of tune during a set so I don't need to check them. Plus I'd be able to hear them if they did I think. Recently had a rehearsal where I somehow tuned my E to D using a silent tuner. Must have knocked the tuner in my gig bag and wasn't really paying attention when tuning and tuned it to he nearest 'green' line on the headstock tuner. Didn't play it plugged in until the first song which just happened to start with open E and realised I was wildly out of tune 😂