uk_lefty

I wish you'd never told me that. My American mate who tells his whole Facebook "audience" "sanded down this bad boy coffee table today, a hard job but worth it just hope the kids and dogs don't mess it up too quickly" tried to wriggle out of it by saying among his colleagues they all love to share their online restaurant reviews. As if anyone gives a flip.

YouTube has a lot to answer for. It has created this online personality cult that even ordinary people doing ordinary things feel the need to lecture you about their humdrum daily life on Facebook as if they're teaching you ancient Tibetan wisdom, when really they just want you to "like" that they gave a homeless person a quid. One of my mates puts the most tedious crap on Facebook about sanding down his coffee table and we just slay him for it every time. Worse still is LinkedIn with recruiters spouting sanctimonious shite about how they were the only person who gave the unqualified sex offender a job in a toy shop when nobody else would and now he's CEO of Disney, etc. Some are obviously bots, some are spoof accounts, some are just young recruiters trying to create a noticeable online personality for themselves, but it's funny how many have exactly the same story to share about how nice and wholesome they are. The whole "unboxing" thing baffles me. I don't want to watch some ordinary person unpack a Kenwood blender or whatever, I literally don't give a dog's Richard. My nephews used to watch YouTube videos of adults unboxing toys like transformers and other weird videos of adults playing with kids toys. This is harmful in a minor way, the boys were then just playing out what they had heard on YouTube with their toys instead of using their own imagination. Life was better when we lived in relative ignorance and had only daily newspapers, four colour TV channels and taped songs off the radio.

My mates uncle found a very rare 70's epiphone electric in a skip. My mates dad is a serious guitar collector, can't remember exactly value but they thought it was around £500 worth in the early 2000's. I think quick access to eBay and internet records of sales has wiped out a lot of bargains but if you're willing to travel you can get some good deals and I find it's mainly on amps. I got a Carlsboro bass amp that was HUGE for about thirty quid and almost two hrs drive, sold for a profit because it was just far too big. I had a Vox Escort 50 lead and bass amp for about fifty quid posted, still kicking myself for selling it in 2005. The original bassist from my first band sold me a "150 watt" Peavey TNT that was in my guitarists house, they had fallen out but coincidentally I knew his younger brother so bought this massive amp for a tenner, spent fifteen having the on/ off switch repaired and had a stupendously loud practice amp. He also sold me a more portable, for the 90's, 100 watt Torque amp that was ok for ninety quid which was a good deal and I occasionally linked them together to create a ridiculous combo stack. I bought a great Trace set up for a bargain because it was for sale right over Christmas and the guy selling it needed cash to repair his car, bad time to sell, plus he lived in the derrière end of nowhere so it was quite a detour to do the collection. Not second hand but in the old days of the Musicyo website I got my Kramer fretless for about £250 imported due to the amazing exchange rate to the dollar. It's a cracker of a bass and I still gig it today whether the gig "needs" fretless or not!

The zoom devices are great, you can just set up for ordinary volumes and balance, put the recorder in the middle of the room on a stool or mic stand and off you go. Really worth doing, you can analyse your playing a lot better and see how fills and so on are working out. And you can prove to others that their backing vocals are really, really, REALLY out of tune.

The Line6 G75 has a mode where it can emulate "cable tone". I had no idea what this meant until I read your post! I haven't used it yet so can't comment. They're going for a song at the moment though so might be worth a try for you?

It doesn't take months to work on endings but they do need work to make it tight. On the odd occasion I have depped the rest of the band have known each other so it's easier for me to follow them, if we were all strangers it would fall apart quickly I think. I respect what you do, but prefer the regular rehearsal approach myself. Though sometimes I think I would love it if my band could work on a few rehearsals pre-gig given challenges we are having at the moment!

For me weekly practice covers lots of ground. Developing a style together, understanding how each other plays, learning each others likely flip ups and how to cover for them, working on backing vocals, fun and social aspect, practicing without the backing track as a crutch or prompt, playing around with arrangements, working on song endings, testing your gigging kit, getting your finger stamina up, probably loads more reasons too. I see lots of advantages to it and would prefer this to ad hoc meeting up to polish before a gig.

Don't reply if I'm boring you senseless, I just need to vent. I joined an established band three years back and we've really grown in to something last year in particular, great fun, big gigs, reasonably pay for gigs and becoming really good friends to the point we forgive each other of a lot and we socialise away from being a band. Recently it's started to get me a little down and frustrated. After a lot of pushing in the last few years mainly by me we have developed a dynamite set. Our "core audience" is basically couples in their early to mid forties at functions or just down the pub, they bloody love big 80's tunes they can sing and dance to but we retain a rock/ bluesy edge. Terrific. The band is now getting really complacent and pulling in different directions. We added a couple of questionable songs like Parklife and Sex on Fire. I know. But when people are drunk enough they enjoy it, fair enough their enjoyment is proportional to our getting re booked. However, despite the big 80's stuff being core to our set we are not building on that but doing what I would call random "filler", in the context of this band anyway. Sweet Home Chicago, a guitarists wet dream but boring as hell and not a dancer. Our rule was they gave to both sing and dance to it. Also it just doesn't fit with what we do. Last night we cancelled another rehearsal but hot given more new songs to learn. We are up to seven new songs to learn but we haven't finished the last three new ones. Also we are doing a wedding in two months and nobody has asked the couple if there's any songs they want...??!! Gigs. We only accept gigs from the drummers friends. This is really limiting us. He controls the email account and if anyone he doesn't know contacts us he either ignores them for weeks or gets awkward with them. Some are obvious wastes of time but many... Well we will never know. So we are stuck doing the same gigs year on year. I've tried getting us other gigs in other nearby towns and got told it's not worth the bother. In-ears. Some people now want to play along to a click. Fine, this will improve our timing but I don't want the expense of s proper in ear system, I also like to be on my toes and the danger of it all falling apart of we are not on our game. Another motivation for this was to play samples of horn parts etc. I am very sceptical, we can't all learn one song in a month so how are we going to program horn arrangements, who will buy the software, spend the time on this, adjust for key...? I don't get it. It doesn't suit us. I've got a baby arriving at the end of summer so I'm taking two months out. I'm not sure I'll go back. It's a shame because I absolutely love the guys and love the nights when we tear the roof off a small market town pub, but I can't keep trotting out clichéd pub band songs, we were trying to be different now we seem to be trying very hard to be exactly the same. I always wanted to have my own three piece band doing covers and originals, realistically my time to do that was either in my twenties or its yet to come once my kids are older, it's not now. Vent over. Sorry.

A broken heart?

If I wasn't living in a second floor flat at the time I'd never have sold my Trace rig to you, but I'm glad it went to someone who appreciates it as much as I did and probably a bit more! On topic: I like Markbass but have never owned one. I read an interview with Tom Morello that really stuck with me. He had crappy gear while at college so just got the most out of it to make his sound. He did ok. That's tenuously relevant to this thread I think... Or not. I don't know I'm tired.

When you order it and they say: "great we will ship that to you by Hermes/ Yodel/ DHL... Or we could just chuck it over a garden fence in a street roughly near you?"

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.