thepurpleblob

Never used them.... never seen the point... never (touch wood) dropped a bass off the strap.

Got my Overwater strap from Music Rooms the other day. It's not the prettiest thing in the world and I would like to have seen metal fixings rather than plastic for the money. However, it's all very solid and purposeful looking. It has *lots* of padding so I'm very optimistic. I'll see how it holds up during a gig.

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='559385' date='Aug 3 2009, 04:36 PM']Never a truer word spoken. Some string/bass combinations definitely have *that* tone! I'm glad you've found one! I've only got 4 basses sussed out on that front; Fender Jazz - Fender 7150s were good. DR Sunbeams are amazing. 40-100 Warwick Infinity SN4 - Elixir 45-100 Vigier Passion V (SIII) - DR FatBeams 40-125 Status Streamline - Status Hotwires. End of. 40-100 We need a thread to document synergistic combinations, but as ever, one man's killer tone is another's... [insert comment][/quote] It's my second string/bass epiphany actually. My Precision Fretless sound amazing with LaBella Flats. The one that I've really failed to suss is the StingRay funnily enough.

It's 2009 - facebook, twitter, myspace etc. No excuse for not putting your gigs around !

Covers bands get a hard time but there's nothing wrong with it. I play in a covers band that plays more or less what the hell we like. We have a small but loyal following but that's our lot. Getting gigs in the mainstream covers band pubs is nigh on impossible because we won't play the 'standards' (e.g. Build me up Buttercup, Summer of 69, Brown Eyed Girl, you know the stuff). You've got to be objective about what you play and how you present yourselves - covers band or not - is it what people actually want to hear. Maybe - like us - you don't care and are happy to play for fun to a limited audience maybe you are not. Notwithstanding all that, if you get the chance get out and play!! There's nothing like playing live to get better at playing live!!!

Update.... new set of strings and a right good downward shove in front of the bridge solved the problem. Thanks for the suggestions... especially to Chris May for the PM. You can't beat personal service without even asking for it Another funny thing. I put on a set of d'Addarios ProSteels - a string I have never liked - because it was all I could get. They sound amazing on the Overwater. Once again demonstrating it's not just the sound of the strings, it's the sounds of the strings on *that* bass

I don't want to give the knife a twist particularly but all this is just talk. They didn't like you. Not everybody gets on with everybody else and there's not a lot you can do. If they thought you where a great guy they'd have made an effort to get you up to speed with what they needed, talked to you about it, or given you more time. Just leave it alone and put it down to experience. Having to learn new stuff with new people under pressure is the best practice there is - even if it doesn't go any place.

[quote name='mrcrow' post='555120' date='Jul 29 2009, 02:29 PM']the B is quite fat and may take some bending to get it to witness properly on the saddle i found my B saddle had to go quite a bit back take the string up to pitch and slightly push down on it just in front of the saddle...this will force a bend in the string around the saddle shape more and release a bit more straight string to vibrate in fact lengthening the actual useable string do it gently and dont try to push too hard eventually it will settle in and you may get it to intonate within the range of the saddles adjustment hope this helps[/quote] Makes sense.... I'll give it a go. Thanks.

[quote name='peted' post='555099' date='Jul 29 2009, 02:11 PM']Sounds like you've successfully defied the laws of physics! I suppose you could just double check the distance between nut and saddle, and 24th fret and saddle to make sure that the bridge is actually making the string longer.[/quote] Yeh - I might try a new set of strings before giving up. I guess a 'stretchy' string might act like this. It's been kicking around Guitar Guitar for the last year or so.

This is actually with my new Overwater 5 string. So, sanity check before I go moaning back to the shop. When I got the bass home the strings where a bit buzzy down the thin end and the neck is as flat as a flat thing. So I wound back the truss rod a little. The action is still quite acceptable. I check the intonation and it was a bit sharp on the B string. Tightened up the screw on the saddle (ie. move away from the pickups and neck), retune and no different Hmmm... Kept going until I ran out of travel on the bridge and it's still as sharp as it was to start with. All the other strings were still spot-on even after the neck adjustment (I didn't check before) which seemed a bit odd. I'm confused. I'm not new to this - until this happened I would have said I was pretty confident in doing my own setup. Any thoughts appreciated. I won't mind you calling me an idiot BTW

[quote name='fusionbassist1' post='554120' date='Jul 28 2009, 04:21 PM']Thanx guys that's really helpful. I do indeed know at least one person in my general area who's a musician with an accountant but any suggestions in the north wales (or there abouts) are would be a great help. So i'm gonna set myself up as self employed then get me an accountant (which i must point out does indeed make me feel grown up ) and basically start being really anal about getting receipts for just about everything so to make the accountant's life easier and also save myself some money by not having him/her do it at a £50 an hour rate then i guess? Do i need to collect all the receipts/invoices/etc i have knocking about from past jobs for any reason or just keep them in a safe place incase mr tax man decides he hates me at some point during my life? Thanx again.[/quote] That's the first question you ask your accountant. I wouldn't throw anything away though

[quote name='leftybassman392' post='553994' date='Jul 28 2009, 02:35 PM']Any of a whole bunch of people that frequent this place can answer this for you, but since I seem to have got here first I'll make a start:- If you are earning money (ANY significant money) by playing your instrument then you need to get yourself set up as a self-employed musician - I believe I'm still correct in saying that you should normally declare yourself as a sole trader. There are documents on the HMRC website that tell you how to do this. It's important that you do it fairly soon if you plan a career as a musician. Others will be able to give you more details about why it's important. As a self employed person you will get paid for the work you do. This is income. You will incur costs in carrying out your business. This is expenditure. Your expenditure can be offset against your income - there are two principal types: 1. revenue expenditure (broadly speaking, day-to-day costs such as fuel, strings, etc.); and 2. capital expenditure (broadly speaking, purchase costs of major items you need to conduct your business such as basses, amps & other large cost items.) How you do this can look incredibly complex if you read too many HMRC documents, but the basic idea is simple - if it's expensive and/or essential to your business then it's a capital item (you can't really be a bassist without a bass...), and if it's less expensive and incurred progressively over a period of time (fuel for your car for example) then it's a revenue item. There is a bit of a grey area on certain kinds of things, but in time you'll figure it out. When you subtract all your expenses from your income what you have left is your profit. This is taxable. Whether you actually pay tax depends what your profit is. The calculation is done annually. Others will no doubt fill in the gaps and correct the errors of detail that I've no doubt made.[/quote] A good accountant will pay for themselves. You'll almost certainly know someone who has an accountant so you can get a personal recommendation. As long as you do all the sorting and adding up donkey work yourself your tax affairs should be simple, so it won't even cost much.

[quote name='RhysP' post='553212' date='Jul 27 2009, 09:08 PM']See if you can find the original version by Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club, there's a lot more guitar in it (it's more sort of XTC-ish). It's on the album "English Garden".[/quote] Wow ... every day on BC is an education

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='553166' date='Jul 27 2009, 08:41 PM']The above has been suggested but it doesn't lend itself to a 4 piece guitar band (no keyboards) too well. Anybody play this and have any arrangements / thoughts?[/quote] Oh hang on... Presidents of the USA. Sorted

The above has been suggested but it doesn't lend itself to a 4 piece guitar band (no keyboards) too well. Anybody play this and have any arrangements / thoughts?

[quote name='Reverend' post='542562' date='Jul 16 2009, 08:09 PM']I was interested in trying out a compressor they had on display. The guys asked me what I normally played, I said a Jazz Bass, and expected to be handed the usual Squier starter bass to try it with, but was astonished when I was handed a beautiful Celinder instrument to play through a great EBS combo. Just to try out a compressor. Sounded absolutely amazing. That's the thing, if you want people to buy your amps/pedals etc, give them something that's going to make it sound great.[/quote] Never mind that, bet you went home going "I really, really want a Celinder". It's just sensible "selling up".

[quote name='TheButler' post='552861' date='Jul 27 2009, 04:45 PM']My playing was of a far higher standard than they'd have ever needed to use, and they were well aware of that![/quote] I not saying... I'm not... but just think for a minute...... BTW... don't ever burn your bridges. The music biz is a surprisingly small world. It doesn't take much to make yourself that arse nobody will have in their band. IF you reply do make it pleasant. Get someone else to read it before you press the send button. I had to sack the drummer in my old band and it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I only did it because nobody else had the balls. I phoned him up mind you and gave it to him both barrels. He might not have been happy but at least he knew why.

Sorry to hear that.... it's happened to me too. I just got a "we don't need you, thanks. I found another bass player that I'm going to try". I guess it's worth asking why but being in band is like being in a relationship. There's no redress if they put all your stuff in a bin-bag and ask you for your front door key (and yes..... that's happened to me too )

I use Sennheiser HDR-120 wireless headphones. I put the bass through a BassPod-XT first, although you might well get away with not. However, I think a proper preamp of some sort would be a good plan. The pod gives me the advantage of a USB connection to my computer for mixing play-along music and recording myself (in theory). Wireless means not getting tangled up in the wires. The downside is that they have a vast amount of compression. If you play loud they back the volume off noticeably to compensate.

[quote name='hubrad' post='550421' date='Jul 24 2009, 05:25 PM']I think we're down to the last one.. hopefully OW will have more stock soon![/quote] I have succumbed to your marketing skills. I'll have it. It seems only right to go with the new OW bass.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='550038' date='Jul 24 2009, 12:05 PM']Also it's not a theft if I keep the money / item as the legal defination of theft includes "dishonest appropriation" - there is no dishonesty if you have been told by EBay that you are within your rights to keep the item. I wonder if perhaps EBay won't be chasing the seller? I think where this goes wrong is that I've had pretty poor communication from EBay. If all of there actions were explained I'd probably be a little more relaxed with the situation.[/quote] Sorry - I didn't mean that literally. If you are very charitable and assume the seller didn't know. He now has no bass and no money. He's probably calling his lawyer... etc etc

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='549994' date='Jul 24 2009, 11:31 AM']Yep, I think some people put a positive spin on this whole situation too quickly![/quote] I don't know what Ebay are planning but there's no way you are keeping the bass and the money. They call that theft or something :-) You'd need a court order for that sort of thing.