uk_lefty

That's the first Dingwall I've liked the look of, looks amazing.

Small gigs: effects Boss GT10-B in to amp Ashdown RM 500 input, no bass through PA. Big gigs: We have been taking the DI from the amp head but I'm now tempted to take the DI from the Boss just to see if it gives a better translation of the amp and can Sims from the Boss. Now I've got a wireless kit I can go and check it out in soundchecks. I trust what I was getting before, but now I can actually go and hear it for myself.

I hope whatever is going on all gets sorted quickly and you come out on top! These things do tend to snowball in your mind and when you come in the next day dreading seeing someone it never turns in to the argument involving you throwing stuff at them and walking out, no matter how many times it's like that in your head! When my wife and I got together sleepless nights through stress was one of many things I was struggling with. She brought me some lavender oil to put on my pillow. It really worked for me and lasts ages, still got the same bottle now.

I was getting that for quite a while, I feel for you. I've had similar at various points in time, mainly while working in an environment full of bullying type behaviours and also being in a relationship that was falling apart. More recently with a happy home life I've had sleepless nights after band, I had a lot of work stress at the time, mainly through being frustrated with my job, undervalued, looking for a new job. But I did these band related things and they seemed to work: Stopped having alcohol or sugary drinks and snacks at rehearsal, just water. Also reduces the amount of times I get up to pee before falling asleep! Using ear plugs - I seriously think this helped me sleep after band as well as protecting my hearing; Rehearse in the bigger room with good PA, it cost more but I wasn't pressed up against a PA speaker at high volumes getting severe headache from the crappy sound quality and volume and the rehearsal is all the better too; Listening to "talk" radio on the way home instead of music; Leave rehearsal happy. Even if the drummer is annoying you, the guitarist pulls out of next week's gig, whatever, sort stuff out to a compromise, have a chat and a joke before heading home. Less to play on the mind; I don't leave kit in my car no matter how late or knackered I am. Then I'm not hearing the slightest noise outside and checking to see if someone is breaking in to my car; Don't do anything that pisses off your other half when you get home... My wife is in bed when I get back and she hates it if I turn on the landing light. So I leave my PJs in the bathroom and use the torch on my phone to get upstairs. And I close the door quietly! That worked for me. Can't stop my calf muscles twitching from my dodgy "dancing" though but I manage to sleep through that!

I don't think I can offer any new advice except to say that what has already been said is great advice: turn up the volume to dig in less, it's less forgiving on technique errors but it will save your fingers. Maybe practice with the lightest touch possible. Try a good compressor/ enhancer to aid in getting the balance of touch/ tone/ gain and output volume. Try getting better monitoring on stage (amp louder or directed better for you to hear) so you don't have to dig in so much. Nickel roundwound strings are to me more comfortable than steel but flatwounds are by far the most comfortable if the difference in tone suits your style and nylon coated strings feel good too. Also I recommend practicing to play competently with a pick, even if you can keep the fingertips well worn in for plucking you could easily damage your finger or hand in other ways that means playing with a pick is your only option, something I've had to do due to blisters, cramps or sporting injuries before

Wonder how many are tempted by the "buy it now" https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F312586698622

I think it looks nice. A Tele style headstock would look good on it but overall I think it's got potential.

I was in PMT (??) in Oxford a while back and saw one of the cheaper Sterlings. Have to say I wasn't impressed. Didn't play it but the frets had sharp ends and there were curls of plastic where the scratch plate had been cut roughly. Hope they play nicely but you may need to give them a bit of finishing from the one and only that I've seen. Tempted myself as I've moved on to a USA Stingray as my main bass, if only I had the space and had all other itches scratched!

Not yet... But my old Warwick Streamer LX comes up now and then. I'm tempted but there is a reason it keeps getting sold, I guess. For the right price I'd buy it back to see if now being more equipped to handle it I can get the best out of it.

Depends how thin you slice them

We have either had rooms provided as part of the function, slept in cars or tents, had a "family room" at a hotel and hoped that the ratio of beds to band members who want to sleep Vs those that want to party is correct, I've slept on the drummers lawn, and a few times just bit the bullet and driven an awful long way home after the gig aided by red bull and resisting alcohol.

"Alive" by Pearl Jam is a cover band classic, a great song, and a great way to get used to fretless without having to do anything too difficult. There's also a hal Leonard instructional book on Fretless Bass (I think it's called fretless bass techniques and one of the contributors is Bunny Brunel... I could be wrong I'll edit when I get home if I need to) and that book has some great exercises for tastefully applying slides, vibrato etc. As others have said fretless is not a different instrument, you don't have to slide and vibrato all the time and you can just play anything on it... It is fun to whack in a sliding harmonic every now and then though

Screwing a goose would probably land you in more trouble.

Best thing to do would be to buy everything you're thinking about on the second hand marketplace and resell what doesn't work for you. There will be soany other factors in your set up and preferences that affect whether the pedal does what you need it to that you have to experiment. Buying off the marketpt you probably won't lose money on anything other than postage and for the cost of one brand new pedal you can probably keep two but have tried three or four others.

The Battalion has EQ shaping for the drive which gives you loads more control so you can get more flavours from it than the Soul Food. I didn't like using the Battalion with an active bass though. I wrote loads about it in a thread comparing the Battalion to the Hartke VXL. thing is I'm not a big drive/ distortion user so I don't have an "always on" drive or whatever, and at the time I had mine I had three passive basses but got myself the first active bass that I could actually get on with but didn't invest the time to figure out the pedal for both active and passive. In a one line comparison: the Battalion does more and can get in to your low end which I couldn't get the Soul Food to do.

I had one, did a review on here. If you like the Soul Food I think you'll like the Battalion

Doctor Doctor... You don't mean Bad Case of Loving You by Robert Palmer?

I think there is the difference! Are you reinterpreting a song to add a new angle to it.... Or has the band gone "sod this, the solo is too hard will just bluff something much simpler"

Haha it's true, sometimes people over simplify stuff to the point of annoyance. But you ask a non muso if they know there's something missing or something different... And also sometimes you have to accept if your watching a gig for free in the back room of a pub in the derrière end of nowhere you are watching amateurs, you can't exactly expect a superb and completely accurate performance I suppose.

I get so sick of some songs I don't listen to them, don't rehearse them and then you hear it on the radio and realise that you've gone so far from the original it's time to rehearse it again!!

I know lots of venues where I'm sure that sort of thing happens regularly judging by the smell and the sticky floors.

Ask him which one of the Police he thinks is the biggest cnut. That might set him off for a while!

Be careful with all this honesty business. My wife came with me to Denmark street on December. A bit of thinking time later and I've got a brand new Stingray with her blessing. I then felt guilty about the cost. I'd traded in my Mexican jazz against the Stingray, I sold almost anything that gets little to no use. I then sold my Sire fiver and put a drop tuner on the Ray. I've trimmed down the whole works... But I have this nagging feeling I will never buy another instrument again!! It was all a clever trap.

Here's the plan... We group together in tens based on geography. Each of us throws in £150. Or more, whatever. We buy two or three basses and share them round between us. That way it really does appear as if we are "looking after it for a mate" when someone comes to collect it for their turn... OR we get together in groups based on geography. We decide a list of one bass each we all want. We buy it, BUT here's the clever bit .. we keep swapping them round between us! Oh the red one?? That's Mick's, he's collecting it next month... Oh why did he drop off another? He wants me to fix something on it, won't get to see him for a few months though... Etc.

A little unfair. About four of the presets were usable and the rhythm track thingy was ok. And it worked as a DI. But yes, lots of headache inducing weird crap from it and no intuitive way to edit them. Put me off multi effects for many years.