uk_lefty

A recent rush of nostalgia I think. They used to be almost given away. Shame because the really nice ones, the two pickup genuine neck through models, go for a heck of a lot!!

Yeah you are right, in thinking about it my mate doing the sound can't be checking everything all the time. I should have at least left a big note on it saying not to raise input volume over half or not to let the vu go in to the red. Or gone over and shouted at him to turn down the input volume or get strangled with his bass strings

I saw a guy play a sixer in a covers band once. He was awesome, playing jamiroquai and some funky stuff really nicely. I see lots more fours and fives, few fretless. I'm happy with it. I don't go round judging guitarists or drummers by what instruments they play, it's their choice, I care more about how they sound. One of my guitarists loves a Squier Bullit guitar he has, they're peanuts on eBay but he sounds awesome with it, why should anyone knock it?

I'll lend out my rig but only to people I know OR if the person running the sound is the guitarist from my band. Though a punk band did decide to max the input volume on my Ashdown head at a festival last year and it was permanently in the red, I wasn't too happy about that but you can't really go up mid set and ask them to be flipping sensible with the gear can you? Was paranoid about the amp for the rest of the night, hadn't had much sleep and during our "headline" set when the smoke machine went off I had kittens!!

I don't mind the black and yellow colour scheme, not keen on this ninja stuff with the lime green though 🤮

Bass related... Around 2006 I was walking dazed around the Liverpool Street area one Sunday morning. I was looking for whichever bass specialist shop was in that area and just couldn't find it even armed with the address and my A-Z so I went in to a newsagent and asked at the counter. A couple walk in. The lady shopkeeper couldn't help so she asked this couple (it was a man and woman, not sure if they were a "couple" but you know...) So I ask them. The lady asks "what are you looking for?" I tell her the bass shop name and she says "not heard of it, sorry". I was feeling very lightheaded and dizzy, something I often suffer from and in my state turned to leave and stood on the chap's foot. On leaving I realised who the lady was. Famous artist, Tracey Emin.

Are they doing this to raise money for a charity? Didn't see anything in the ad but only skimmed through. You can see people paying that if it were for a charity... Meaning self employed types who can write off tax against it as a charitable donation.

About this time last year I bought myself a five string Sire to test a number of things before I invested in a more expensive bass. One of those being whether I wanted a fretted fiver or if I preferred a drop D on a 4. Answer is I prefer the drop D on the 4. I have had a fretless fiver for over seventeen years but I don't necessarily play it as a fiver... It's more a 4 with some extra notes I may use at times if that makes sense. I tried to play the Sire as a fiver and had ok results. I ultimately moved it on, and my Fender jazz with a drop D, to fund a brand new USA Stingray. I quickly had a drop D put on the Stingray. Once you get used to which note is where and playing fifths and octaves without the usual muscle memory I find it easily sufficient. It's rare I'd need to go below D, or Db seeing as we are tuned half a step down from standard across the board.

No, they're a dead easy one handed lift for the 1x15 and the 2x10 so I imagine the 1x12 is lighter still. Ashdown will have the weight of them on their website.

It never used to be, it's just that these days there are lots of lightweight options. In the (very recent) past they just weighed whatever they weighed and you dealt with it.

There's loads in your price range. I'd nearly always go second hand on amps and cabs because the value is there as opposed to new. Trace Elliot, Hartke, Gallien Krueger backline series, Fender Rumble, Ashdown, Peavey... There's loads about and if you are prepared to drive to the bum end of nowhere then you can get some great deals because people don't want to post them and they're the only bassist in their village. Just make sure you can test first if buying from eBay, Gumtree, Facebook (check for hums, rattling speakers, no clean tone available... But a lot of amp issues are quite simple for a tech to solve). If you're playing covers and need something versatile all of those brands (and more) would help, don't forget you can get good effects tools for not much money second hand that can give you amp emulators etc of there is a really specific sound you need... You're on a slippery slope now in to trading through gear in search of a sound you may never find 😀

We have them at our rehearsal room. They're decent, complement both the ABM and RM series heads very well. I'd be tempted to get one if it weren't for the weight. I'm happy with my Rootmasters but if cost and weight were equal I'd go ABM.

Sign your emails "from Mark King"

But you know in fifty years time it could be worth a lot on antiques roadshow if all the bits are kept together... Or a holographic recreation of Fiona Bruce will just say "nah, they were sh!te"

Duff McKagan. The bass, the sound, the attitude, the songwriting. Also comes across as a nice guy (who has learned from his past!). He is everything a bass player should aspire to be. Lines that sound simple but are made complicated by the 'feel' with which they need to be played to recreate. The energy to keep going, keep creating, after all these years. The contribution in bass and songwriting on the greatest rock album ever, Appetite for Destruction. Look no further than Duff!

Sire/ Ibanez.

That neck looks amazing!! All o Dr looks great to me, very 80's, like you'd have got it free with a Commodore 64

To be fair I wouldn't recognise their drummer of he was sat in front of me at a drum kit, playing through their "greatest" hits, nevermind his wife!

I think you can deal with it very easily. You found a drummer to form a funk/ soul band. The guitarist joined that band but brought in a mate who took everything in a completely different direction that you didn't want to go in. These guys have basically taken a shortcut to forming their own ego trip band by hijacking you and your concept. I'd chalk it up to bad experience/ sh!t happens. Maybe see of the drummer wants to keep going on the original track with you?

@Ashdown Engineering if you ever want to prototype that pedal with LED indicators on it and your massive list of endorsees are too busy, I'm available and almost local to you 😜

I had a wedding gig last week and the stage was tiny. I usually use a Boss GT10B with amp modelling on and turn off the EQ on my Ashdown RM 500 head... However the stage was so small there was no room for my pedal. So for the first time in forever I played a gig with no effects pedal, unless you count the footswitch for the Ashdown! To tune I used a Boss Tuner app on my mobile phone. I set the Ashdown EQ as I like, engaged the compressor and cranked it up a lot, and had a two button footswitch to engage drive or sub whenever needed. Have to say I was very pleased with the sound and not faffing about trying to remember if my next favourite effect is on P03 button 2 or whatever else. The sheer simplicity was great, the sub effect can get quite synthy which is nice and the drive brings out some crunch and presence when needed. I like the simplicity of it all, and using amp emulators is really not going to make a difference to most except me anyway. The only thing I'd ask Ashdown for is LEDs on the footswitch to indicate whether I've left an effect on or not! Would be handy when you're not sure if you've hit the button well enough with your foot! Anyone else using inbuilt effects on their amps? I'd always thought they'd be pants live but having used out of lack of choice I may well be using more often now!

Nevermind that, what about the double P??! 🥰

My band plays rock and soul covers. We are supposed to avoid cliches but quite a few have crept in! We recently did our first wedding. Our last two gigs have been a Thurs night in a pub with less than thirty people and a wedding paying multiples of that. We approach the gigs far differently. Thursday is our practice night so why pay for rehearsal space when we can get paid to rehearse and get live feedback? No pressure, playing the new songs that are at least eighty percent ready, but no faffing about with things like how many times a riff is played to transition from mid eight to verse, etc. just feeling our way through. It went ok, we gave a reasonable account of who we are but not great, I wish we'd done a bit better. The wedding was great fun. We were nervous, very strict on rules such as no drinking at all before and during, no "trying something" during the solos etc. And we went down a storm and have had incredible feedback. Those are two great examples of the breadth of what we will do and we do a lot in between including paid festivals, some very speedy charity festivals and free gigs, pub gigs but only in busy places that do a good job of live music. What will we not do? Play at tiny venues where the five of us would barely fit in the stage area never mind our kit. Play for less than X amount. Give a discount on the agreed fee for "exposure". Play in places renowned for trouble. Play in restaurants. Play in places where we have to chase and chase for our payment. Play in venues with bad acoustics such as a great big metal shed of a building. Take payment on the door. Long travel on a weeknight (most of us have day jobs). Won't play for people who are really sketchy on details, such as even the date(!!!!), how long we play for, etc.

It's the only Dingwall I like the look of! Glad they've found a way to keep it going

What's wrong with ties and a banner...??! 😲