uk_lefty

It's clever. A bit better than watching an old gig at a cinema but not as good as seeing them properly live and feeding off the atmosphere in front of them. I won't be going. BUT if they could do Hendrix, The Doors, etc. in a similar "better than cinema" way and at a reasonable cost I might consider it.

Almost 18 months with a Helix Stomp now... These are my reflections and experiences: 1. Ease of use. It's easy to use IF you invest the time getting under the skin and seeing how the presets are made up and experimenting with all the different variations on some effects, like the autowah which can do each vowel sound with either an upward or downward inflection. I find the PC editor more intuitive than editing on the pedal itself. Still, I often cannot be bothered to get out the PC and connect it all up. I wish they did an app for connecting. 2. Presets. I mainly use the presets as my starting point and then bring other effects in and out by footswitch as I need them. I tweak some of these to suit what I'm playing. Generally I find the presets pretty good and I'm happily gigging with Del Sol as a default sound, adding on drive or fuzz as needed. 3. Wah? I could never get an external expression pedal to function as a wah so had to buy a wah pedal. Almost every previous multi I've used had a built in wah pedal and I knew I'd miss that on the stomp. I don't use a wah much but when I do I want it to sound good. 4. Synths. I play covers and we try to add a lot of detail to some of the more well-worn songs, so for me that means synths to replicate sounds off the original records a lot of the time, or to cover up for missing backing parts. I had to buy a Boss SY-1 and add this to the pedalboard, and use an expression pedal for it. Since then Line6 improved their synth offering but I've not had much chance to play with that yet. I've not found a good OC-2 type effect yet either. It's really lacking here for me, but I guess not for the majority of their market. 5. Switches. I had to buy external switches. This 1 box solution is far from it. The more I can talk myself out of buying additional pedals, but I got rid of all my pedals to buy the helix stomp. My board now has: Harley Benton tuner/mute; Line 6 helix stomp; Two button footswitch for the stomp; Boss SY 1 synth pedal; Expression pedal for boss synth; Wireless receiver; AMT Bass Wah; Calibe power supply for everything except the Helix. 6. Downloadable patches and stuff... I paid for a package off Sigma Audio and that was.... Ok. I don't think I use any of their settings actually!! I did for a while but not now. I paid for a Trace Elliot IR too but unless I do any recording I can't see me using that either. I've had mixed experience with downloading free patches off the Line6 forum and Dr Tone. Dr Tone stuff is not suited for me on the basses I play or the style of music. Some of the free ones off the Line6 community have been ok but again I'm not using any of these live. I'm sticking with the tried and tested presets with my tweaks. Overall is it worth keeping...? Well, I can't spend my time buying pedals to discover they sound nothing like the demos or they don't interact well with my other pedals. Or buying pedals for a song then never rehearsing or gigging that song again. So the Helix has saved me there. I would like to try the Boss and Zoom multis but I don't see a massive improvement there either. Yes, they may address some issues but then there's the whole learning curve to go on again. What does the Helix do better than any individual pedal? Hard to say. The only answer is variety. It has so much more variety than individual pedals. I cannot say it's a better preamp than any of the preamp pedals I've had before, except it has so many more options. It can do all my guitar stuff too, which is a bonus, so it's not a bass specific pedal. Would I upgrade to the more expensive Helix stuff? Only if I got a stonking good deal secondhand and even then it would be a push. It's the learning curve again, and knowing I'd need to add one or two other pedals. Would I buy it again if it were lost, stolen, or most likely damaged by a punter spilling drink on it? No. There's more choice now than there was 18 months ago, I'd probably go for the Zoom or Boss multis out of curiosity on what I've missed out on and hope they suit me better. Or maybe even the Pod Go as it has wireless and wah built in.

If there's nothing wrong with it, stick. You can spend hundreds chasing some indescribable difference that you'll never catch. You have a good amp, you like it, keep it. Seriously, that's a very good amp. It will sound amazing. If you can manage the weight of it then keep it going. If it weren't for the weight I'd still have one of my old Trace's. Nothing else sounds like them.

I'd second this. Rather than buy something online that you haven't seen for yourself have a luthier make one for you. It will fit your bass perfectly and be the right height for your set up.

For me I have a spare bass on standby usually. Sometimes I like to use a different bass for a second set, sometimes it's cased up and in the boot of the car. If I don't have a spare bass I definitely have spare strings. If my amp goes down I can DI off my pedalboard. If my wireless goes down I have a spare cable on stage with me. If my pedal board goes down I just won't use effects. I've never had a spare amp because I don't want to pay out for something I hope to never use. I carry a bag of leads, speaker cables and so on to bigger gigs. The thing I find most useful is a £15 battery tester off Amazon. I've had a Stingray battery go weird on me and I have spent tons making sure I have new batteries for gigs.... Well, gigs don't tend to drain batteries much. Since buying the tester it's probably paid for itself in stopping me buying new batteries. Now I'm on a wireless and I have an active bass a quick check with this before going out... It's not priceless but it saves me about a tenner per gig.

I clocked this a while back. I'm all for encouraging learning and creativity... My daughter does enjoy having a go on my basses too

That jazz is very pretty too.

Proud Mary seems to be too well worn. Others from my old band: Sharp Dressed Man, Sex on Fire... It's like "what's the easiest song by....insert band name?". Problem is audiences in pubs and even music venues want this and will go mad for it, so you have to play some of these "classics". I think the trick is to play them really, really well and not many covers bands can! Then also to have a rotation of these so if people see you more than once you can swap a "sex on fire" for a "Mr brightside". My new band has loads of songs that I cringed at when first reading the setlist: Dakota, Seven Nation Army, Mr Brightside... There's more. But. This band plays them bloody well and structures the set well. When we rehearse we concentrate on the details in the songs to keep it interesting for ourselves and elevate the song above a pub band bashing around at it. Makes it work for us. I still hate some of the songs though, I'd gladly never play Seven Nation Army ever again.

The Desert Penguins will do a one off 00's indie rock night at the Corn Exchange, Hertford, Friday 17th May. We are learning a lot of new material for this so please come on down and enjoy the night. After the live music a DJ will be on until late. Great venue, decent sound set up, left handed bassist. What more could you want?

Awesome name for a cover band.

I got back in Sunday after a whirlwind two days away for this gig. What an experience!! Left home at 5am Friday and arrived in Amsterdam early afternoon. Taking guitars and cymbals on the Eurostar was so easy, far better than flying IMO. We arrived, had some food and a few drinks and eventually got ready for the gig. We walked into the venue, which was packed, and there was a band on stage (they do two bands each night Thursday to Sunday I think) and they were good. A countryish band with great backing vocals. The crowd enjoyed it.... We are nothing like that. After a v quick setup we were on. We spread out our set into four parts to fit the running order and to manage the churn of audience as people go bar to bar. Each of the four forty five min sets was a mini whole gig setlist with a "big one" at the end. We moved the order around a bit and played for over an hour in the first set to minimise breaks. My hands felt like sausages and I fluffed a few lines here and there but no clangers in the first forty odd mins. The place was full and the crowd were energetic, singing and dancing. We powered through and the place was heaving. In the second set I can't remember which song started it but bouncing around turned to gentle shoving and then a sort of mosh pit formed. A few songs later and I saw something I didn't like one bit, a lady was shoved by the back of her head, and stopped playing and had to say something over the mic. The band continued and I joined back in a few bars later. We gave a bit of a warning out on behaviour and shoving people who probably don't want to be shoved about. That sorted things and we continued. The energy in the place was amazing, loads of people genuinely there for the live music and bouncing around, singing along to every song. Overall it was an incredible experience. I never thought I'd end up doing something like this. Playing pubs can be great fun, but playing full music venues in a foreign capital city was just something else! The staff and the soundman loved the set, I think we will be going back!

I personally can't stand them, so different strokes etc I expect. I can't stand the way they look, especially the really long ones you get on quite high end basses, and I can't stand the feel of them. I fitted one to a jazz bass once and hated it, it felt quite restrictive. Then I play my Jack Casady and my hand slips all over the bass, if only there was just something to grip... 🤔

My favourite home base varies. The Jack Casady is great for a quick noodle when I can't be bothered amping up. My fretless is great because I've had it for twenty years so it's the most natural to play, but my band doesn't really fit for fretless playing. My number 1 love bass is my Stingray, the massive ballsy sound is what I need and what my band want, but I'm very protective of that bass and often can't be bothered getting it out the case to play at home when there are others waiting around to be played.

Hmmm... I like a lot of stuff that some people love and some hate. I like metal, Megadeth probably being my favourite but a lot of people hate them because of Dave Mustaine's voice and personality. I like Sixx:AM but wanting to see them at Download 2016 I got a drubbing from my friends cos they're seen as very naff (does anyone still say Naff?) but I think the guitarist is outstanding. I liked country when I was ten and discovered my mum's Johnny Cash LPs, that was very unpopular until the film Walk the Line came out then suddenly everyone idolised Johnny Cash. I love 80s music from Level 42 to the cheesiest of pop. Club Tropicana is pop perfection, but I am now in a band where half the people cannot stand anything 80s.

I'd love to have the time to learn it. It all looks so easy. Then you sit there and it's like your very first driving lesson all over again.

You can't stop it, and why would you? Punter sees something interesting and videos it... Then hopefully they whack it up online and tag the band in, traffic to your own pages develops and you might get more interest from further afield. It would be nice if people did post it and tag the band in so you can choose whether to keep it or not but usually there's a few people filming and then you, maybe even they, never actually see that film played back. We've made twenty second advertising clips using stitched together mobile footage and recordings from gigs made by people we know who have shared them with us. So the viewer gets multiple camera angles, perhaps from multiple gigs, alongside a good quality audio that is also recorded live, every box ticked.

"custom" must be part of the ad template for guitars in eBay. Many described as "custom" are either not at all in any way customised or custom made. Some are badly modified though. "Hand made". Yup, your Yamaha Pacifica was handmade. Well, someone picked it up by hand at some point in the production process. "Collection only DO NOT contact me asking about delivery". Items described like this are often located in a dragons backside, guarded by hungry dobermans in the hardest to reach part of some remote Scottish island. Or just some sh!thole somewhere around the country that's a pain to get to. Either way, if I'm willing to send a courier and pay the asking price and nobody else is biting why wouldn't you sell it? "Never gigged" what are you implying happens at gigs? Why would it be better if it just had the stuffing knocked out of it at home by your kids, but NEVER GIGGED. Why does it matter? It's either in good condition or it's not.

The Water Hole

Looks ok. If it were cheaper and I hadn't just spent too much on kit already I'd want it, take it to Mike and have it defretted and less vulgar hardware fitted.

Amateurs playing for one night only. Not Pink Floyd selling out every city three nights in a row.

This news is what we are relying on, also we are not earning from it. Understand it's not a dig, the topic is a minefield and one I've been wary of ever since it was first mentioned. Going by Eurostar I'm afraid so all luggage space is allocated!

Am thinking of sticking some stuff up on Instagram about it if I have time, can be bothered and don't look a complete t!t doing so. I am one of the most boring people on Instagram, but if you like pictures of left handed bass guitars you're welcome to check it out: @rr_on_bass

I raised this and one of the lads googled it, for small one offs there is no visa requirement.