uk_lefty

Musicman Stingray. So, so easy to choose. Why? I bought it from brand new with a nice tax rebate after discovering accidentally I'd been overpaying tax by a considerable amount for a long time. Went into Wunjos and under no pressure chose the bass I wanted for thumping out covers in pubs, halls and at weddings and functions. It's my number 1 live bass for its massive, massive ballsy sound. You can slap it, you can pick it, you can gently fingerstyle it but you get the best out of it by digging in. The tone and punch of this bass fits perfectly for pop and rock style stuff. The neck is perfection. The EQ is intuitive and so easy to use. It's really lightweight and it looks fantastic. The only thing it doesn't do is subtlety. If it were a dog it would be a stupid, slobbery Great Dane that only wants to play 24hrs a day and jumps all over you. It will chew up your shoes but never sh!t in them and you'll just love it even more. If my house were on fire it's not the first bass I'd run back in for. That would be the "worthless" Kramer I got for my 18th birthday and have loved ever since. Many basses have come and gone but the Kramer stays. That's the bass that is just so natural for me to play. Sadly it's looks, and it's sound, don't fit all occasions.

Similar to my gig it seems! Thing is the audience don't notice most of what you will have noticed. Even my bandmates didn't notice the vast majority of my mistakes on Saturday night. We've agreed to have a "random riff quiz" at our next practice: list the songs each of us tends to f up, randomly shout the name of a song and everyone needs to belt out the riff together!

Odd gig Saturday night. Had to wait until Liverpool v Spurs finished so didn't start playing until quarter to ten. We had loads of new songs to try out before a massive gig in two weeks but this meant I forgot and messed up loads of the set staples. Loads of issues with volume (staff telling us to turn down even though we were as quiet as we could manage if you didn't want a drum solo all night) and a strange room for sound. Very small audience sat still in chairs either chatting and reacting a bit to the start of a few songs or staring intensely at us throughout. Started to feel ill through the set and just couldn't wait for it to be over. FInding the positives: we got a rubbish gig out of our system before our next which we want to be perfect; I have a greater focus on what to practice for the next two weeks.

Loads of great tips here, thank you. Our drummer is in charge of the mix, he has a laptop linked up to the PA for balancing and EQing. I will be passing on the advice about filtering as we may need it in other venues and if he knows what he's aiming for he can work out how to do it. This weekend it turned out we didn't need it. In a medium-large sized pub I managed with the bass amp (Ashdown RM500) with the input vol at twelve o'clock and the master volume at about its third notch from the bottom, so barely anything of its output, and no PA support for the bass. The room was odd with a big brick pillar in front of us dividing the room and pockets of mushy sound here and there. I was stood around 1m away from my cabs all night and heard a weird reverb type thing happening with the bass. All very odd. Not to mention a lot of other aspects of the night being odd too.

But you probably do.

This is why I'd like to put a smidge of bass through the PA, then I can lower the stage volume... In an ideal world

My thinking and the drummer too, we want to put it through the PA as a way of levelling everything out. The speakers should handle it but the guitarists are scared of it damaging them. I like @Lozz196 suggestion, get the heft and weight of sound up without actually adding volume. May be the way forward.

Asking for some advice, please. My band bought themselves a lovely high tech PA system before I joined... Without subs. Nobody in the group owns a van or has loads of storage space so buying second hand subs is a bit of a last resort and could be awkward. For gigs where we provide our own PA, which in my 6 months ish has been about half, I just play with my amp providing all the bass. My amp is an Ashdown Rootmaster 500, going through two fifteen inch ABM Neo cabs which are rated at 300w each. I really like the amp sound and it's flexible enough to handle all my different basses well. I am quite certain that for some gigs and venues coming up this will not be enough bass output, so pumping up the amp as I have done in a nice big room, would be intolerable on stage but maybe ok out front. It's not been a problem yet, but I don't really want a problem later. So with "buy some subs, idiot!" As a last resort, what would you recommend as first steps? Remember my cabs are rated at 300w each. I bought these recently brand new so don't want to take the hit of selling them on if I don't have to. I like my amp, I could get the 800w version for more output, but can the cabs handle it? Or would the heft of an ABM 600 be a good way to retain the cabs but get more bass output...? Thank you!

It's a lovely bass. Fantastic old school tone with flats on it. I've developed a bit of a thing for Epiphone now. I sold off my acoustic guitar and telecaster and acquired this to keep the jack Casady company...

Or like a METEOR....a.

I'm no massive user of it but I think they're two very different effects. I had a Dunlop bass crybaby and it was fantastic, I'm now using an AMT bass wah and it's pretty good, the Dunlop was better in that it had more range. I'd use an autowah when I want a quicker response than I can get from rocking my foot but the wah pedal gives more depth or sweep to what you're doing to the note... IMO.

I'm getting really tempted to buy an ABM Head for the added power in terms of output watts and also the sheer heft of the things. I'm currently running an RM500 through two ABM Pro Neo 15"s rated at 300w each. It sounds great, the RM is so flexible it's just a small tweak to get it sounding perfect for any bass (I have and gig: fretless 5 string Kramer, MM Stingray, Sire V9 and an Epiphone Jack Casady). But, having used ABM heads before I found them outstanding for a passive P bass but not so good for an active J. Did I not spend enough time tweaking or is the general way of things? My main bass is a Stingray so it needs to sound great for an active bass, which the RM does easily.... Next question is then around output and what my cabs can handle. Ashdown seem to make a wide range of outputs from the heads but then the cabs don't quite match, e.g. if I get an ABM 900 do I need a third 300w ABM cab?? Thank you

Only one way to find out... If the venue has a backup amp for you that you know works then it can be a v quick changeover after sound check or the first few songs. I'd just stand your Ashdown cab on top of something and/ or angle it upwards if you can to get some projection. Out of interest what is the venue?

True, but there'd be knobs in all the wrong places...

Firstly I'd say don't restrict yourself to pubs, a gig is a gig. Round Hertfordshire way there's all kinds of 'festivals' which are a good way to get seen and "network" with other bands and the people running the sound. Some are paid, some are not, whether you take unpaid ones is a debate I don't want to get into. My local practice studio is a great place to get gigs, the guy who runs it runs loads of events so if he knows what your band is about or if you just ask him he can get you pub gigs and festival slots. With pubs going direct is a lottery. I tried allsorts over the years from leaving cassettes or CDs with them, leaving guitar picks with the band contact details on through to sending links to live videos.

With the dodgy links it could be a few things, spyware on your device or something else. The whole "my dad wants it but can't come to collect..." type of thing is to draw you into their story of why they can't actually collect, but keep you keen on the idea of a sale, then why they can't pay, etc etc and draw you into parting with either the guitar or your bank details.

You don't get cash.

Within seconds of listing a guitar for sale on Facebook I attracted a lot of scammers. I got a handful of "hey! Is your product like this?" Then a load of suspicious links. I reported them and Facebook very quickly told me they did not have enough evidence to see there was a scam in play. Then came Karim. I understand Karim to be a male name. I looked up Karim's profile and he/ she has changed gender and ethnicity a number of times according to the profile photos. He or he also isn't very sophisticated in trying to scam people...

Crazily it didn't cost much more than the V7, and it was cheaper to get a five string than a four!!?! It's a nice bass, I love the preamp on these. I gigged it the same week I got it, I think. Its very comfortable to play. Still doesn't beat the Stingray though.

Updating my family photo... The fretless needs a friend I think.

Does anything, really? Time? Thought? Is it real or just a fictitious construct we use for our inability to describe it in any other way?

I recently acquired this because I've got a gig abroad coming up and I really don't want to take my full board with Helix Stomp. I'm also not allowed to take much because I'm going by Eurostar. This will fit in my gig bag and if it breaks or gets stolen then I've lost very little in comparison to my usual set up. I know it won't give me anywhere near the quality I'm now accustomed to but I just need to dial in a few tones for particular songs. Will try it out at a band practice soon. If it doesn't cut the mustard then I'll think about taking just the Helix Stomp with me 🫣

I use a Wenger laptop bag! The handles are knackered and it's stuffed with cables etc. So anyone eyeing it to nick it will realise it's not got a laptop in, but it also doesn't scream "expensive musical equipment here!" Either!

The Desert Penguins will play at the Dome in Watford on Saturday 7th May. High energy, guitar driven pop and rock covers.