dougal

[quote name='cetera' post='630515' date='Oct 19 2009, 04:52 PM']Try this site.... [url="http://www.kissfanshop.de/GeneSimmons/costumesGene1973USA.htm"]http://www.kissfanshop.de/GeneSimmons/cost...Gene1973USA.htm[/url] Click through the years to choose which one you want to try... he had many different outfits (almost one for each album/tour) If you're doing it as cheap as possible then your ideas are already on the right track [/quote] Excellent link - thanks.

It might be a [i]touch[/i] cliche: but we're playing a Halloween gig, and I want to go as Gene Simmons. Question is; does anyone have any experience or good photos from which I could base my costume? Best internet resource I've found is here: [url="http://www.legendaryhalloween.com/gene-simmons-costume.html"]http://www.legendaryhalloween.com/gene-simmons-costume.html[/url] I'd prefer to do this on the cheap. I think it'll have more mojo that way. I'm thinking: Charity shop for black bottoms / (several sizes too small). Army Surplus for black boots. Pound shop for knee pads, plastic tubing & Black Wig. Halfords for Silver spray paint. Pet shop for studded dog collar

I had the same set-up with a death metal band. The solution was to take my otherwise normal carvin XB-75P: Which has a 35.5" scale length. Buy some [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/2639-warwick_black_label_darklord_bass_strings"]warwick dark lord strings[/url] and tune it F# B E A D, (except go down a semi-tone so it's F A Eb Ab Db). Needed a new nut, and some coaxing to get the .175 through the hole in the back of the bass, but wasn't too bad. Actually, the most annoying part was that I had to buy another entire set to get a matching D, so I now have 3 spare strings, which I'll probably never use...

I'm planning on going. Was't going to take my upright...

We're playing a fancy dress Halloween party - and inevitably we're looking to extend the song list a little. My starter for 10 is below. Any other suggestions. Bear in mind we're a straighforward rock band and so suggestions of 'Thriller' and 'Monster mash' are fine but unrealistic... Highway to Hell - ACDC Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden Children of the Grave - Black Sabbath War Pigs - Black Sabbath Ghostbusters Theme - Soundtrack Boris The Spider - The Who Black Magic Woman - Santana Don't fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult Ghost Town - The Specials Bat out of Hell - Meatloaf

[quote name='geoffbassist' post='604753' date='Sep 21 2009, 05:26 PM'][url="http://shop.ebay.co.uk/geoffbassist/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg="]http://shop.ebay.co.uk/geoffbassist/m.html...from=&_ipg=[/url] im selling on some strings as ive decided to stick to Evahs and seem to have loads of spare strings in the draw! all in great nick, cheers geoff[/quote] Time for me to start experimenting then :-)

[quote name='supabock' post='593266' date='Sep 8 2009, 08:45 PM']Just out of interest what EUB did you go to? What model of DB did you end up playing?[/quote] I bought one in Japan: it was called the atelierz cub. [url="http://www.atelierz.co.jp/cubpassive.htm"]http://www.atelierz.co.jp/cubpassive.htm[/url] The bridge was a bit flatter: Here they are together: as soon as I got the acoustic I neverplayed the EUB again. My bass is a Zeller: the all solid model.

I rather like it (although there's no way I can afford it...) Ritter can pretty much make any bass he wants to at this stage, and it'll almost certanly sell. Most seem to be asking 'Why?'. I would ask 'Why not?' It does, after all, appear to be generating free publicity.

[quote name='teej' post='592522' date='Sep 7 2009, 10:43 PM']I took the leap something over 20 years ago, and pretty soon afterwards I was playing upright exclusively.[/quote] Funny how that happens: of the eight-ish basses I own, it's the upright that gets played the most. There's something honest about you, a bow and a bass. No amps, no FX, no speakers: just a big wooden box & some strings. Love it. (I didn't believe them when they said 'Tone is in the fingers'.) Back on topic I did electric=>EUB=>acoustic. If I was going to do it again I'd drop the whole EUB phase. It was easier to play, but I could only play pizz on it (arco was a non-starter, YMMV) and as soon as I started lessons (a must, I think on any instrument, especially one where you can easily knacker your muscules / tendons with bad technique) I wanted an acoustic. Every time I type 'acoustic bass' I want to say 'proper'. So perhaps I'm biased...

My spare bow is up for sale in the 'misc' section [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57999"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57999[/url] D.

Yeah. I do. PM me & I'll sort you out.

I have a carvin XB-75P (35.5" scale) with warwick dark lord strings tuned F#-B-E-A-D [url="http://www.carvinmuseum.com/playersgallery/xb75.html"]http://www.carvinmuseum.com/playersgallery/xb75.html[/url] (second one down). Never use it as the band I was playing with (6-strings dropped to 'C' - so I had it up a semi-tone & layed like a normal 5-string) has dissolved. Not an option if you don't like a 5 string though. If I were you I'd go the 4-string with the bottom 4 of a 5 on it. Otherwise you'll have a normal 5-string with an extra 'high' string, which I don't go for, although there are those that do.

Powerball: I got mine from Maplin: [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=99237"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=99237[/url] Looks like the same thing. What sort of music are you going to play on said beast?

Post the same question in the Double Bass / EUB section of the site. Get a lesson so you know how to play the thing without damaging yourself. Get a powerball to warm down with: I was having some trouble with stiffness. Five minutes (slow) on the powerball after playing (both wrists, bowing's quite a work-out too) really helped. Don't give up, it's so worth it.

[url="http://open.spotify.com/user/g1ngerrevolution/playlist/4Qr2vDHqPHFPfy1KWEDCJa"]http://open.spotify.com/user/g1ngerrevolut...qPHFPfy1KWEDCJa[/url] Comments? Songs / Artists that should be there but aren't?

When I went to Uni halls (in Salford; room 5M in Faraday) (too many years ago to mention...) I took my #1 bass, Sessionette 4x10 100w combo, a lead, a duvet & a pillow. I didn't have much room left for clothes in the car: not that that bothered me much! These days I'd still take my #1 bass (although it's harder to choose which is #1 any more) and a bass pod, and use whatever I was given at the rehearsal room. I'd have to agree with those who've replied before & say that I think a simulated speaker makes for a much more pleasant experience: as already mentioned all you layabout students will have laptops so I'd go: POD --> USB --> Laptop (mix with mp3 playback) I had the MOST fun at university. Try not to ingest too many narcotics and you'll be fine!

Michael Anthony (1954) Urgh, unclean!

+1 for Malcolm Healey. Repaired my bass, gave it a good set-up. Super nice to boot. His co-worker (not his wife, don't make that mistake, she doesn't like it - as I found to my cost) needs some getting used to. There was lots of "well there's not much point spending that much on a case for a bass of this quality".

Add another happy TU-2 user to the list. My only complaint is that one I had (for years, sustained heavy abuse) started sounding like a boiling kettle one day when it was in-line. Easy enough to relocate to the tuner out on the head though.

Where do you pluck the bass? moving the plucking hand closer to the end of the neck may relieve pressure: but as with all the suggestions will also change the sound. The other option is when you feel the blisters start to form, use a plectrum. Final suggestion is to use an Asbury. Silicon strings==no blisters, surely?

My tech 21 sansamp thing: Has a 'blend' knob. For really fuzzy tones (drive post-12 o'clock') I tend to roll this back to a 50-50 split so that the unaffected bass tone can be heard. Helps with definition wonderfully. Means I have to be more careful with the level controls but it's pretty effective. You could probalby do something similar if you put a fuzzbox in the fx loop in your amp?