JapanAxe

I’ve seen some discussion that Rhythm Stick was originally recorded a semitone lower but the pitch was raised by speeding the tape up. It would be a lot easier if the open E string were available. Not sure whether anyone has asked Norman about it.

You and most cover bands then! When I play it on skinny-string guitar I find the trick is to count the drummer in. The first guitar note is on beat 4 but most people seem to hear it as the back of 4. One of the ways I work on improving my bass playing is to keep a folder of dots for numbers I struggle with. Now and then I have a bash at one of them. It currently contains: Highway Star Hysteria Master Blaster New Born Son of a Preacher Man

A friend of mine is a solo guitarist/singer with backing tracks and all his kit is linked up wirelessly. His only cables are for mains, and he covers these with hefty rubber mats. The benefits to him are (1) quicker setup, (2) less stuff for drunken feckwits, sorry punters, to trip over.

I would want ‘Trace’ on the left, ‘Elephant’ on the right.

Are we right in thinking that this wasn’t explained to you before you joined? What reason(s) have the band given for not wanting your bass in the mix? Is the position likely to change, either over time or if you play different (larger? smaller?) shows? And do you think the experience will be worthwhile to you in terms of fee and/or satisfaction?

Mrs Axe was decorating one time and had a paint roller tray of white emulsion on the landing floor. I said, ‘The cat will walk right through that.’ Seconds later, the cat scooted up the stairs and walked through the paint tray, panicked, and ran round the house leaving white footprints everywhere. The cat was called Marshall but my nickname for him was Fat Boy Dim as he was all 3 of those things. Without fail he would time his use of the litter tray to coincide with us sitting down to our evening meal. More than once he stood in the litter tray and crapped out of it onto the floor. But no, no Valentine’s Day gig.

Thanks for the good wishes. We have recently started rehearsing with an excellent guitarist, with yours truly on bass.

And that’s exactly why my maple-board Precision was my choice for last Saturday’s theatre gig. The lighting changes drastically throughout the set and I need to be playing the notes that I mean to play, especially up the dusty end.

Late-notice stand-in with Dire Streets at Axminster Guildhall, having spent a day and a half getting back up to speed with a 2-hour set that I hadn’t played in a year (although I had done some more gigs with them on rhythm guitar). Excellent venue with great lighting and PA and a good-sounding room, plus nice green room with refreshments. Not a capacity crowd so the seats were set out to leave room for dancing in front of the stage, which plenty of people made good use of - more during Sultans of Swing than Private Investigations it’s fair to say! Got a compliment from the sound guy on my bass sound: '73 Precision > Origin Effects Cali76 Compact > Origin Effects Bassrig '64 Black Panel > DI to PA. I had been suffering some IEM angst over my Sennheiser XSW setup but it worked brilliantly last night. In the close-up pic I must be playing the solo run from after the last verse of Telegraph Road, as none of the other songs take me so high up the fretboard!

Strangely, for sight reading I have taught myself to find higher fret positions without looking; but on a rock or pop gig I really want to see where I’m putting my fingers. One of my Precisions has hard-to-see side dots that I make more visible with white paint from a Posca pen. The dots last maybe two gigs!

I don’t think you’ll save much weight downsizing from the Super Twin. The cloth front version only weighs 17kg plus as you know it has wheels on it. But I’d suggest the Two 10 (13kg - cloth front, no tweeter) as long as you don’t give it more than 500W.

I would have to say there are things I haven't thought of replacing yet.

That’s not a phrase you read on here every day!

I’m pretty sorted with my Focusrite Scarlett & Reaper setup, but what makes me want to bang my head on the desk is MIDI. I’m no technophobe, it’s just a weird blind spot that means MIDI never seems to want to do what I want it to do - changing patches is about my limit. You have my sympathy.