uk_lefty

Love the colour combinations, looks like a quality bass.

I had a Black Star BEAM and thought it was great, though you're not getting a decent low B sound out of it. After not using it a while I moved it on, regretted it, got a Positive Grid Spark. I wasn't impressed with the Spark until I managed to update the firmware and download some new bass amp sounds, now I am impressed. I recorded this entirely using the Black Star BEAM. There's loads of layered guitar tracks and two bass tracks I think... https://soundcloud.com/white-collar-fraud/take-on-me?ref=clipboard&p=a&c=1&si=861ba76c87db4da2aafd57cc030a77f5&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

How many of them wait patiently playing something tasteful, though? Unfortunately I've seen too many who treat "the band" as their opportunity to have a backing track while they endlessly bend strings and pull faces.

Harley Benton PB-50 or Sire D5 both appear to have the look and contour. Don't know about weight...

Yes. It didn't go well... I ordered a lefty fender p style neck in black with black headstock and pearl blocks. I got a right handed all maple (I assume it was maple) neck with multiple issues like tuner holes not being drilled straight. There were other issues too. Too costly to send back, they agreed to refunding a big chunk of the cost and I sold it here on BC with full disclosure of issues to recover the cost I was left with. I solved the issue by being patient and waiting for a used Fender neck to turn up on eBay.

We used to have this in an old band. I'm now I'm a band with people more on my wavelength and the number of times I've said "I can't stand this song, but I'll do it" and I end up either enjoying an aspect of playing it or recognising the audience enjoys it, that's enough for me. It's when people refuse without trying because they don't like it, don't know it, didn't like the video, their brother had it on vinyl and wouldn't let them listen to it... Or best yet my old drummer "NOBODY KNOWS THIS SONG!!" For Bad Case of Loving You by Robert Palmer. The people at the Grammy Awards who voted it best rock vocal of 1979 knew it.l, so I'd be willing to bet a fiver an average pub crowd might be able to hum the chorus.

The Desert Penguins presents... An evening of Noughties nostalgia. Acoustic covers leading to the Desert Penguins playing the pop, rock and Indie tunes of the decade before a DJ finishes the night. 2nd December, Hertford Corn Exchange

One of my "regrets" not that I want to have regrets at all, is not seeing Amy Winehouse in Nottingham Rock City 2004 for £15, because nobody would go with me. I already had the Frank album and had seen her on Jools Holland maybe but nobody I knew had heard of her and certainly wouldn't spend £15 on going to a gig. I just wish I'd gone on my own. Fast forward to the days of social media and a friend of mine who is recently divorced loves going to watch Frank Turner and through some form of social media they connect fans who go to gigs alone. So you go alone but end up in a big group. She's made some good friends out of that.

Most venues offering to do promo, even the music clubs, will put something out on their social media accounts a week or so beforehand and a poster inside the loos. That's it. They're advertising to the people who'd be there anyway. We use Facebook to create the "event" but I feel Facebook is dying out over privacy concerns or it being an "old person" (over 35) thing. Instagram is better because good images/ videos and the right hashtags spreads well, far better than facebook. For example a hashtag with your town/ county name followed by "livemusic" is a must, plus any special groups tagged, etc. We had a good chat at one of the clubs recently about changing some things about our act and getting further afield. We were told all you need is really good social media presence. Doesn't matter if you send a venue an incredible recording if your social media stuff is pants, but if you've got great images and videos, etc. Then you can be a lesser band but you'll grab the attention quicker and be more likely to get booked. It makes it easier for the venue of you're in charge of how you promote yourselves, and you're good at it.

Absolutely love my JC Bass, as the Greek says they don't do everything but what they do they do superbly. They're excellent value for money too IMO. Like most basses the strings you use really affects them. I tried tapewounds and it killed the bass, it was just mud mud muddy mud. Roundwounds are good on them but flats are perfect on it for me. I never understood neck dove and so on because I have one hand on the neck while I'm playing and another arm over the body so it doesn't move anywhere I don't want it to, but understand it bothers other people. Buying the case separately is a ball ache, especially if left handed and you need the lefty case (seriously!!), But these need to be in a hard case. They look fantastic. There's a good Anderson's video where they compare semi hollow basses and the JC wins. It's just a really good bass for traditional bass tones.

Totally off topic but that's the right handed version of the bass I'd give a kidney for. A fretless twin for my Ray!

Absolutely love this comment, any type of bass solo or embellishments must keep the groove and reference what has come before! Without that the song collapses.

Before I knew the song was called Panama I always thought Van Halen were singing something like "ready to burn" but wasn't sure. "Panama" was a surprise.

Similar to others here: I started bass at fifteen and an old rocker came to our house to do some work and asked where my guitar was. He couldn't understand someone only playing bass and he advised me to learn guitar so I understand how chords work. Well... I got a guitar two years later and very quickly picked up all the standard open chords. Has it made me "understand how chords work" more than twenty years later..... No. What it has given me is a different outlet when I'm getting tired of bass, and when in a band situation and we are playing new songs I recognise a lot of chord shapes the guitarists are making so I can jam along... Which we even do live when reacting to requests. I find acoustic guitar more satisfying to play, though I struggle beyond open chords, and I find electric guitar a bit easier and more expansive in that I can do a lot more than open chords and use effects and things.

It's ok. My only previous wireless was a Line 6 unit that was faulty then I didn't gig through covid. I bought a battery checker and I need to make sure before a gig I've got 75% minimum battery in it, if it goes below 50% I get issues. What I find is that the unit flops around a bit so it needs sticking to the bass. I do go walkabout occasionally and have gone off onto the dancefloor etc a few times without issue.

Well this is growing and changing.... Here it is as of yesterday. The TC Corona Chorus is fixed on the Duff Chorus setting. The HOF Reverb is "new" but it is for one echoey part of one song and the rest of the time for fretless use. I'm still madly in love with the Darkglass Duality and whenever the band wants to do a pop song with synth bass this is it, whether combined with the OC-2 or not. The Fender DT Express does its job and is always there in case the amp snuffs it. The AMT Wah has crept back onto the board. The recent "loss" from the board is my Boss SY-1 and Expression Pedal. It was a decent pedal but was hardly being used. I took the HOF and some cash for it and I'm happy with the deal. The drummer uses sample pads so has better access to synth sounds, I'll stick to OC-2 and fuzz for my synth parts. There's space for more pedals though....

Personally, it wasn't just the ABM that did it but I upgraded my amp to the ABM and ditched the Helix around a similar time. The Helix is fantastic but for me I was just using a few amp Sim patches, nowhere near the full capability so it was hundreds of pounds sitting idle on my pedalboard.

I'm amazed you haven't had the standard BC answer of Buy Both!!!

I think that's your answer. And if you still have a Helix you can run an Ampeg sim through your Ashdown with the EQ disengaged. ABM600s are awesome but dog around all the online retailers, Reverb, and the BC Marketplace. I got a cracking deal on a brand new ABM600 by buying the last one in stock from a Belgian retailer. Even after import tax and VAT it was cheaper than some second hand ones.

We've had some good discussions with promoters. For one venue reopening after a refurb they found free entry to be the killer for live music, because if it's free it can't be any good, right? But charging a fiver for the same band nobody bothered to watch for free a few months earlier tends to get in a good crowd. People are strange, aren't they?

We've not got any weddings booked in next year. Three or four a year are very good for boosting the bank balance to buy new gear, pay website fees, etc but none in. I think one venue we were booked in has shut down too. Can see it being a year of doing more pubs just to fill the diary with weddings and private parties looking a lot less likely.

We all use iPads in my band. The good point is that our set list is getting so big we can quickly recall songs. The bad point is on a LOT of photos of us as a band we pretty much look like we are starting at the iPads. I even do it when I know the song. Such a bad habit.

True, we don't know what goes on in the supply chain, but that's a huge assumption to make based on a few people saying they got ones with poor quality. I thought they were cheapest because they were probably Europe's largest music retailer, so buying the most scale and getting by with leaner margins. The numbers of everything they sell there will still be the odd dodgy one getting through. Not saying that it should happen or that its "ok", just that it's likely. I might be coming across like a Thomann apologist here, I don't mean to, just my perspective on it I guess.