EliasMooseblaster

[quote name='The-Ox' timestamp='1450576317' post='2934060'] I don't want to divert the thread too much, but how do people compare festival gigs to bar gigs? What are your thoughts? I might have a couple of festival gigs lined up in the new year Taran [/quote] If you're playing original material, as my band are, festivals seem to be a much more reliable punt than bar gigs and normal band nights in the UK. Without wanting to turn this into a long rant (and divert the thread even further!), it's almost as if festivals do a lot of tacit filtering, so the people who turn up are already those who'd be interested in checking out new artists, and they in turn assume that the organisers will have put some thought into the lineup and not just cobbled together four or five disparate bands based on the size of their Facebook following.

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1450286982' post='2931402'] Bands are like omelettes - sometimes you've got to break some eggs. [/quote] Sometimes I get a little worried when I number the bands I quit who completely folded a few months later - am I leaving a trail of scrambled egg in my wake?

Mrs Mooseblaster, not long ago, was dragged along by a friend to see an "up and coming" group (I've since seen their output advertised on the walls of tube stations, but I couldn't name any of their songs). Apparently it was a pretty miserable experience: they kept the crowd waiting for an hour and a half before they even let them into the venue, then played a short and spectacularly underwhelming set. Her theory was that they didn't have enough material for a longer set, and they didn't book a support band because that would probably have shown them up for how lousy they were!

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1450273419' post='2931228'] That is exactly why gtrs drive most bands...because they think they are more important than that... Them deciding what tone is best for you/us is also one reason[b] why I can't really go for 3 piece bands[/b] because that perpetuates this sort of stuff...and panders to their desire to fill everything with everything. I've been very lucky to have a few gtrs who will colour over the foundations I lay, not compete with them. [/quote] Surely it's worse in four- or five-pieces bands as you've got to deal with two of the buggers!

[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1450113617' post='2929738'] if you take the last zero off all his figures... [/quote] ...including the number of strings on the damned thing!

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1449560930' post='2924562'] Following on from the Jaco thread... Rush are another band I have never heard. Any suggestions? I could do with something to listen to on the way home tonight... [/quote] There is a collection called "Chronicles," which takes in quite a large chunk of their back catalogue - I'm fairly sure it includes key snippets from [i]2112, Moving Pictures,[/i] and a lot of the stuff in between. Not sure which era it takes you up to, but it's probably worth a punt.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1449497562' post='2924025'] I can't slap, so please forgive me if this is crap. It depends upon the Gibson bass - the SG for instance (and a few others like the pre-1972 EB, plus the Victory Custom/Artist, Midtown Standard/Signature) has its neck pickup jammed up against the neck heel and therefore could frustrate the popping part of slapping by limiting the amount of space available to get under the strings. Carved tops to a lesser extent could also cause issues in this respect (will have to check my Epi Les Paul about this). Apart from these simple mechanical compromises, there's nothing stopping you slapping on a Gibson bass. [/quote] This is a very good point - my SG bass would be no good for slap style. The other consideration is that a lot of the more readily available Gibson basses (SGs, T-birds) tend to have quite a dark sound. Obviously you can EQ the amp to counteract this, but you may find the guitar's basic tone lacks the combination of "clank" and "burp" that are normally blended on a Jazz bass for classic slap tones. (But then I'm a Gibson fan, and not a slap player, so take my advice with a healthy pinch of salt!)

Schecter Model T - P/J body with Seymour Duncan pickups, and a neck that's definitely more akin to a Jazz. Probably about the same price as a MIM Fender, but the sound and build quality are a cut above.

Well, if we're literally going for opening chords, it's another Who vote: [i]The Punk and the Godfather[/i] http://youtu.be/B7FrIt352VE

[quote name='roman_sub' timestamp='1449239983' post='2921882'] Just declined seller's counter-offer of £1,250. Phew, that was stressful, felt my life flash before my eyes, in the fear that I would accidentally click on "accept" and not "decline". [/quote] So you offered 99p, and he came back with twelve hundred quid. I've seen some haggling in my time, but that's got to be a record!

I think there's a bassist available...as long as they don't plan to rehearse anywhere near their school: http://weinterrupt.com/2013/04/bassists-craigslist-ad-could-be-funniest-ever-goes-viral/

[quote name='Bigjas' timestamp='1449222399' post='2921623'] It was really strange Ubit, Kelly picked this person out in the crowd and was making a big deal out of it. Obviously having a bad day? I can't see the problem with taking pictures. Jas [/quote] If I'm in the audience, I know I've been a bit annoyed when the bloke next to me films the whole set on his iphone, but if I'm on stage I'm happy to see a few cameras pointed at us - it suggests people might actually talk about us after the event, which is a nice thought!

I say this with the full disclaimer that I was looking to add some cheesy '80s style chorus (think Pino, or John Giblin on [i]Hounds of Love[/i] album) to my fretless, but I've been quite pleased with the Joyo Analog Chorus. Quite a bright and airy one (not as dark as, say, the Boss Bass Chorus), with a good passive bypass. Also quite inexpensive, which was nice!

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1449064417' post='2920473'] I'm [i]very[/i] close to pulling the trigger on Cataldo number 2... [/quote] I noticed he offers an 8-string version as well...anyone have any idea what the damage might be on one of those?

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1449059991' post='2920398'] He is definitely good enough imo, on occasions when we have rehearsed without the main guitarist, he has really excelled, and he has taken on some of the lead/solo work when playing live, which has drawn great compliments on his playing, the other plus is that he is a really good rhythm guitarist who can really feel the song. [/quote] Sounds promising - a good lead guitarist with a sense of modesty, who also plays good rhythm, seems to be a rare and valuable treasure!

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1449051577' post='2920304'] Cheap and easy to develop in the first stages - two guys with acoustic guitars can probably get two or three gigs a week and run an open mic session or two every month. Less cost to landlord, less intrusive, so can fit in as background music, and without meaning to sound disparaging as it isn't meant that way, it appeals more to people who wouldn't go out specifically for music. [/quote] This is a very good point - it's a good way to almost gig by stealth! You can't really put a rock band into a pub discreetly, and you do seem to be increasingly at risk of setting off the punters who just think that live music is a nuisance. I just wish some of the acoustic-bangers would be a bit more adventurous - Ian Siegal, for example, is living proof that one man and a guitar can be incredibly engaging, so what's stopping so many of the others?

[quote name='Heket' timestamp='1449002530' post='2920035'] Honest question, if rock is on the decline, what do you feel is on the upswing? What's "new"? Pop or indie stuff? Electro genres? Any music that gets people dancing is good surely, so what about disco and funk? [/quote] I honestly don't know...though that may be partly down to my ignorance of modern chart music, and it's a very good question in any case! I'm tempted to say that it might be Ed Sheeran and Mumford clones - "nice young men" with acoustic guitars and just the right amount of facial hair. The best indicator is usually the heavily manufactured model the record company pops out within six months of a fad becoming popular, and I think Sam Smith's sudden appearance is probably the result of the big labels trying to create their own Mr Sheeran.

"Hook has accused Bernard Sumner and Stephen and Gillian Morris of "pillaging" the pop group's assets." Would it be very distasteful to suggest that New Order were basically the result of pillaging Joy Division's remaining assets in the first place...?

How huge is this huge jump? I'd expect the tonal characteristics of a note to be different depending on the neck position you use to play it, but if it's bordering on the unworkable then you might have a problem with the guitar's setup. First thing I'd try to do is plug it into a different amp and see whether you get the same results - if yes, you might want to tweak the pickup height. If not, perhaps it can be EQ'd out of the amp. (To be honest, if you're playing through an 810, you can probably get away with cutting quite a bit of bottom end to get a bit of a clarity!)

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1448980455' post='2919760'] No name acts that stand out as bad for me but there a few amateur nights with solo singer songwriters that I'll never recover from. [/quote] Good point...I've been to a few open mic nights where I've lost the will to live after the ninth identikit man-bun has shuffled on stroking an acoustic guitar under the inexplicable delusion that he's the next Neil Young/Bob Dylan.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1448918435' post='2919246'] Trolling? No, not at all. Only in the sense that I wrote the post with the intent on generating responses. Blue [/quote] I agree, there is a growing diversity in approaches that I've seen even within the cluster bands I've worked with, and it's not even necessarily a question of snobbery. It's very easy to fall into the instinctive response that "well, if we don't rehearse every week then we're not really a band," but if you think about it, does it always make sense to maintain such a regime? For example, when you first put the band together, you've got a lot of work to do - original or covers, you want to make sure that your live set is as tight as a gnat's chuff. Then the gigs come in, so you want to polish the set for those - and, hopefully, work retrospectively on the bits that do and don't work. Maybe you want to start recording, so you make sure the arrangements are absolutely spot on in the cheaper environment of a rehearsal space. But then the two species of band probably diverge a bit. Covers bands are more likely to be playing over christmas, for instance, so it makes sense to keep that engine well-oiled. But originals? It's tacitly accepted that most small groups won't have a big draw for christmas or January gigs, so it's just sensible to take a bit of a break and save some money - even if just from a business perspective, as you could well make a loss playing to an empty room. Taking the latter approach to more extreme levels, I know some bands who will seemingly drop off the radar for three months at a time while they work on a single gig to make sure they get word out in the local area and can be confident of filling the venue. It's less fun musically but might well make sense from a business perspective. Even as recently as the beginning of this year, I thought their approach was a bit much, but after a couple of "three men and a dog" gigs in October, I'm starting to sympathise with their point of view!

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1447102978' post='2904946'] Here's a clip of an early Cataldo bass being played, very well I should add, with a treblier, driven sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I17XWY3kBxk [/quote] That Cataldo sounds amazing!

[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1448653515' post='2917262'] Damn I miss that amp! [/quote] I hope it gives you some comfort to know it's gone to an owner who loves it very dearly!

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1448602750' post='2916746'] Was thinking of a cool idea, I know at some of the bigger bass bashes people do comparisons etc. Well maybe a wattage comparason might be cool so 100, 200, 300, 400 watt and so on fed through the same cab tested with a db meter or have a number of small combos tested anything from sub 50w to 500w. I know there are lots of variables on this one but it's more for fun and a general view. [/quote] I'd be very interested to hear the results! Personally I'm in the camp that says "my 100W valve head is fine," but then my tonal holy grail is [i]The Who: Live at Leeds, [/i]so my honking, overdriven Ashdown probably wouldn't suffice for anyone playing dub reggae. It's made for some very interesting reading, this thread, though I do feel the question of overall tone and EQ has got slightly short shrift.

[quote name='rubis' timestamp='1448630338' post='2916969'] Be careful dealing with Gear4Music though , they sell off an awful lot of (very) damaged stock on ebay They seem to be a bit cackhanded with their stock [/quote] Tallies with my experience...if memory serves I tried to buy a Pitchblack+ from their eBay page. Paid my money and then heard nothing from them for about a week, so I raised it as an issue and they refunded my money without evening telling me what had gone awry.