Clarky

sounds a roaring success, Adam. Shame it clashed with our gig, otherwise I would have been there. BTW my lot are up for triple header with BigRedX's lot and the Jetsonics

[quote name='Mykesbass' post='1170064' date='Mar 20 2011, 09:28 PM']Just downloaded and put a quick review up on Amazon - sorry, not my greatest piece of writing but hope it helps![/quote] Thanks Mike, much appreciated. Glad you enjoyed it! Here's Mike's review for those interested [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004Q2G3OU/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B0...howViewpoints=1[/url]

This looks very useful as a do-it-all pedal for DB. [url="http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product_details.cfm?ProdID=2093"]http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product_details.cfm?ProdID=2093[/url] I was using my Eminence through a Fishman and DI'ing into the PA in Portugal over the past few days and the silent stomp tuner functionality would have been so useful (the Eminence strings tend to go slightly flat for the first few hours after you put the removable neck back on). Plus you get the LR Baggs EQ/DI which seems to be pretty much on a par with the Fishman Platinum Pro (and is recommended by the manufacturers of the Eminence). Anyone tried this? ANy views? Thanks!

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1169974' date='Mar 20 2011, 08:32 PM']London in 10 days and I haven't bumped this thread in a while. See new dates I've added [/quote] Hope to make it to the Half Moon gig, Tim

[quote name='Kirky' post='1169615' date='Mar 20 2011, 03:56 PM']I'll take one. PM payment details please.[/quote] Thanks Kirky, PM'd back

We burned a bunch of CDs with proper professional gatefold artwork and printed discs to bring on our Portugal tour. I have a handful left which I can send out to BC'ers for a fiver including post if interested?

I landed at Porto airport about 11pm on Thursday and was picked up 45 minutes later by the band in the tour minibus. We were staying in the Holiday Inn in the district of Matosinhos, not far from Porto (here the venues each supply the hotel, which meant changing hotels every day even if the gigs were not that far apart). The band had already played three small gigs on the Weds/Thurs, each of which was in a shopping mall (eg, the FNAC complex in Matosinhos). I don't think it was quite what they had expected but fun nonetheless. The tour featured a slimmed down version of Rattlin Bone (there are normally 13 or 14 of us). So we were playing to tapes of the backing singers and brass section. The tour band comprised double bass (me for the last two gigs; tapes before I arrived), drums, guitar, souzaphone, trombone, and lead male and female vocals. Back to the diary, having dumped my bags in my room (including the big hard golf case that contained my removable necked Eminence upright bass) we of course went to the hotel bar, where we stayed drinking until 3.30am, just to ensure we all had hangovers the next day. I am (under doc's orders on a low-fat, low-alcohol diet which was suspended in my time in Portugal!) So, Friday ... Got up at 9am for breakfast, feeling grim, as my room-mate is an early riser. Went back to bed to hold head for an hour then checked out and crammed all our gear into the minibus. This was like doing a Rubrik's cube with a hangover as there were seven in the band plus promoter and her roadie guy. Eventually we managed to pile the gear in and drove off, each of us in the back carring (squashed by) something awkward, in my case a floor tom. We drove to the centre of Porto, dropped our bags and went for a wander in search of sun (it was gloriously sunny but very cold in the shade). Bang went the diet as we found a big sunny square and piled into cheese omelette and chips. Lots of chips. With ketchup and mayonnaise. Mmmm says the man who has been living off low-fat yoghurt and grilled fish and salad (not together of course, fish yoghurt isn't a favourite). About 6pm we unloaded the gear into the venue which was a very funky bar-cum-club in the centre of Porto called the Armazem do Cha - the main 'alternative' (non-chart topper band) venue - and soundchecked. The venue then fed us at a restaurant (bacalao, salt cod, which was full of lethal bones and not great) and we went back to the hotel as we were not due to play until 12.30am. Having made ourselves up as zombies we went to the venue, frightening a few people on the way. The Armazem do Cha is a very buzzy place, packed with a young crowd, drinking beer, cocktails, or pots of tea (! Cha means tea). They pushed back our onstage time to 1.30am, which is an unnatural time for an old git like me! Anyway we played an hour-long set which was well received to maybe 100 or so people at any one time (lots of people mlling between the various drinking rooms and watching us) and got loud yells for an encore, which we duly obliged with ... And f@cked up royally as the drummer, guitarist and trombone player all came in a bar or so too early/late. We did get it together at the first chorus and probably noone really noticed. But definitely a Category 2 moment, according to the standard definitions created by BC's Low End Bee. After the gig we drunk until 4.30am and crashed. This time we were in triple rooms and I got the bed by the bathroom door, meaning I had to listen to one of my room-mates, who had overdone the caipirinhas, chucking up for England for 15 minutes. Saturday and last gig. We checked out of hotel, feeling a tad ropey, and did the 'how the hell do we all fit with our gear into the minivan' game. Then a two hour drive to Figueira da Foz, a pretty seaside resort. Were much cheered on the way in as we saw huge road-side posters for Rattlin Bone. It was a very well promoted event at a big multicultural centre called the CAE (Centro Artos and Espectaculos, or something like that). We went to the venue straight away to drop our gear and soundcheck, which we thought would allow us an hour or two on the beach later in the afternoon. Wrong. Despite having a three-man team, the manana sound engineers (who kept disappearing every few minutes for fags, coffee, or basically anything that prevented them doing anything useful) took three hours to set up the stage. Talk about boring. We then had problems with the soundcheck (having told them we didn't need the drums miked, they miked them, and the had problems with the acoustics). The room itself was a theatre auditorium with 200 seats capacity and a decent stage. After soundcheck the venue fed us some superb shrimp and saffron risotto and Vinho Verde (nice zingy local white wine) and we went to the dressing rooms to get zombified. The dressing rooms were larger than most venues we have played - each of us could have had two mirrors (the ones with lightbulbs all the way round), there were showers, wardrobes etc. Being a cultural centre our onstage time was a more normal 9.30am and we were well chuffed to learn they had sold all but 10 tickets. We waited back stage and were given the nod to go on. We then played a really good, tight set for an hour and had a really appreciative audience who got us back on for an encore with really loud yelling and applause. Probably the best we've ever played and the best reception we have ever had. Really fulfilling. We then of course went to the bar, had a few and then loaded the gear into the van. Off to hotel, drop bags and out drinking again. I threw in the towel at 3.15am as I had a 6.30am taxi pickup (the rest of the band had a later flight back) and I write this from the taxi. Conclusions: That was really fun, the camaraderie was great, the audiences were appreciative (even if the venues were quite idiosyncratic, mainly the ones before I arrived thankfully). The cramped minibus, the painfully slow sound engineers and the hangovers were not so great! But a brilliant experience overall and I will post pictures as soon as the promoter lady sends them on.

[quote name='Paul S' post='1166196' date='Mar 17 2011, 08:00 PM']Nice one. My experience of the Portuguese is that they are an extremely friendly nation. A tip - when filling your hire car at a petrol station where you've just encountered the one person in the whole country who doesn't speak English, 'Gasoleo' in Portuguese means 'diesel', not 'Gasoline'. Seems perfectly logical now - gas oil, gas-oleo...[/quote] Thanks but hopefully not required. The Portuguese promoter is driving the band minibus herself. Mind you, I'm thinking Anvil and Spinal Tap ...

Thanks gents! In the lounge at Gatwick waiting for my flight, more excited than an excited thing! Middlie-aged man gets to tour overseas, something he has dreamed of since being a teenager,. Will report back Sunday evening or Monday. Smiely face emoticons galore!

Lovely photos. Don't think you'd like to see a pic of my surly Slipknot-obssessed 13 year-old with his all-black (what else?) ESP lefty bass. Would not convey the same warm feelings! Especially if wearing his favourite T-shirt ("My other ride is your sister")

Badass

[quote name='chris_b' post='1165434' date='Mar 17 2011, 09:38 AM']What are the differences between this and a £600 Fender?[/quote] You can't get stack knobs on a MIM Fender, nitro finish, (hopefully!) superior QC etc

If you strip out the 'who gives a damn' votes, 24% (so far) hate slap, while 76% either love it or like it when used tastefully. Thats 3:1 in favour of slapping in some form. So I'm not sure why the pro-slappers appear to feel so backs-against-the-wall!

[quote name='Sibob' post='1165382' date='Mar 17 2011, 08:51 AM']stacks do look cool [/quote] Isn't that enough?

[quote name='bh2' post='1165332' date='Mar 17 2011, 07:48 AM']I love those stacks... Guitar Village... [url="http://www.guitarvillage.co.uk/product-detail.asp?id=10555&catid=8&manid=29&quantity=1&product=Fender+Custom+Shop+1960+Relic+Jazz+Bass%2C+Faded+3+Colour+Sunburst%2C+New%2C+Inc%2E+Case+%26+COA"]http://www.guitarvillage.co.uk/product-det...2E+Case+%26+COA[/url] £2325 Skint.[/quote] Gosh thats a nice looking beast. Very classy sunburst (sorry Wayne)

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='1164548' date='Mar 16 2011, 03:49 PM']and you said the argument was finished off in the other thread..... [/quote] Yep, I'm f.o.s As soon as people, rather than simply voting, started giving their reasons for voting it inevitably started going down the tried-and-tested BassChat route of Harry Hill-style "FIGHT"

[quote name='Hot Tub' post='1164525' date='Mar 16 2011, 03:30 PM']From my perspective, this is the crux of the matter: There are ONLY two types of bass player. Those who can slap, and those who can't. It doesn't matter if you can slap but choose not to. It doesn't matter if you have decades of experience with the greatest names in music, or if you're 12 years old and have just picked up a bass for the very first time. It doesn't matter if you play with fingers or a pick, play jazz or rock, old classics, modern, pop, prog, rap, whatever, IT ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT MATTER. You can either slap, or you can't. This automatically creates a division, "us and them", those who can and those who can't. And with any division comes elitism. And with elitism comes envy, jealousy, derision, intimidation, superiority, inferiority, frustration, fear, anger, etc. Those who can slap look down on and demean and patronise and condescend those who can't. Like, "Is that it? Is that all you can do? Come back when you've grown up and learned to slap like a real bass player." Those who cannot slap are afraid of and intimidated by those who can. "I have absolutely got to learn this technique. I have no use for it, and no interest in it, but no one's gonna take me seriously as a bass player unless I'm good at slapping." I believe this is why slap bass generates so much strong feeling.[/quote] I disagree. I can slap adequately (I'm no Marcus Miller, but who is .... err apart from Marcus Miller, and I'm certainly no Cluetterbuck ) but I choose not to as I don't much like the sound and it doesn't suit the bands I have played in. I can appreciate it when it suits the context of certain songs (Ashes to Ashes, Forget me nots, RATM stuff etc), hence my view being in line with the majority in the poll.

I would like to think the arguments on the other thread have pretty much exhausted this topic. Was interested to see if the ultra pro- and anti-slap community would be in the minority and thus far they are - most seem to think its cool if used to suit the context of a song (my view)

No comment on the combo's abilities just letting you know that the guys on the Orange stand said at the Bass Show they weren't going to go with the smaller 300W version (a 2x10), just the 500W (2x12). Sounded like a combination of financial and likely demand reasons. They didn't have one on display either which I thought odd given its supposed imminence.

12 pages of arguing! Well, off you go peeps ...

Sorry Ad, can't be there after all - as will be joining a Rattlin Bone mini-tour of Portugal [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=127448"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=127448[/url]