markbunney

Played with The 77s last night at the Market House in Maidstone last night. It was our third gig in 4 weeks playing in Maidstone and was by far the best. Quite a tight area to set up in, but a great crowd and we ended up playing for nearly 3 hours.

Amazing, what an opportunity! I saw British Lion last year in a tiny pub in Gravesend, they were really good. I find it amazing that Steve Harris happily goes from playing huge arenas to small bars because he loves playing so much

Have a look at the WL-20L, these are a low impedance version and should be suitable for active bass. I have this set, and it works great. I don't have an active bass, but was looking at buying one when I bought the WL-20L so wanted to make sure it would be compatible for future options. I have been getting a bit of interference now we are using a wireless desk and some members are using wireless IEM's, but I found that if I rescanned after everyone else had set up then it was fine and I just had a 2 & 1/2 hour pub gig with no issues.

The 77’s played in Maidstone again last night, this time at the Druids Arms in the town centre. First time for us at this venue and it went pretty well. We were on a small stage in an outside courtyard, which was nice given the heat. We played pretty well, and I got to use my new amp which sounded awesome (Darkglass Alpha Omega 500). we managed to get the new digital mixer and powered speaker to working as well. The other three all used IEMs which they said worked well, I stuck with the wedge monitor which I couldn’t hear that well. I would like to get IEMs as well, but will likely need to get some custom ones made, as I already have some hearing loss and tinnitus so need ones that have a good seal. Next Saturday we are playing in Maidstone again, at the pub next door!!

Played with The 77s last night at Drakes Cork & Cask in Maidstone which went really well. Wasn’t as busy as we, or the venue were expecting but I think a combination of the heat and champions league kept people away. Used my new terror bass head which sounded great, it wasn’t as loud as the Mk 1 version so I am looking at getting another cab to get more volume out if it. I had some problems with bass last night in that anything on the A string was a lot quieter than the other stings which was very annoying. The venue wanted to book us again so that was a good sign!

It’s just a yoga mat folded in half, from B&M I think. My wife bought it for me as matched the colour of the cab and thought it would look cool. I don’t think it does much sound isolation wise. I used to have a gramma of as well and everything wobbled on it too

The 77’s played at the Chislet Colliery Welfare Club in Hersden, near Canterbury last night. it was our 3rd gig together and went pretty well. Our singer and guitarist tried using IEMs, but didn’t get on too well with them. I think more time setting them up and testing them is required. I hired the Ampeg SVT3 pro again, I also tried an Ashdown RM 220, but could hardly get any sound out of it. I have had so many amp problems recently, I am starting to think my cab might be the problem. It’s an Orange Sp212 and rated at 8ohms/500 watts. I never had any issues when using it with my terror bass but nothing else seems to work that well with it since. we have our next gig in a couple of weeks so will have to sort something better for that, as it’s a big one in a popular town centre pub in Maidstone

Band was called Baklash. I don’t play with them anymore, but think they are still going. We used to play in the Black Bull quite a bit. There was a nice chip shop in Kirton called the Codfather!!!

Used to play in the Black Bull, Kirton a lot in my old band

If you were able to give it a try and let me know that would be great. the Blackstar blurb, and also Andertons said it would work with most external preamps and modellers thanks in advance Mark

I spoke to Andertons who said they could order me one in, and it would take a week or so to arrive, and I would then have 14 days to return it if it wasn’t suitable. So I might try that. however the fact that i can’t find anyone else who uses it in the way i was planning makes me think it won’t work and I should stick to a normal amp

Thanks for the replies. I can’t find readily available info on the input sensitivity, but will keep digging

Either Orange Terror Bass, i had one for 12 years before, but just got bored of it, but it was very reliable. Stick with what you know etc. possible an Aguilar tone hammer, or I am considering getting one of the Blackstar active cabinets and using my sansamp in front of it, but not sure yet

Don’t think it’s the cable, as it worked fine with the old amp and with the hire. I had to Google what NFG meant lol

Lol my previous amp lasted 12 years so I think it’s down to poor QC rather than my magnetic field, but you never know!! 🧲 🧲

The first was an Orange Little Bass Thing. It kept cutting out all the time at rehearsal so it got sent back to Andertons who thought it might be a power supply issue. Second was a Darkglass Alpha Omega 500. On this one, the light on one of the EQ sliders went out in its third use at home, this one didn’t even make it to rehearsal! I’d had reservations about this one before buying, as I had read reviews where it kept cutting out. I was disappointed in this, as the amp sounded amazing, but I thought that if a bit had broken already, it didn’t bode well for the rest of the amp. I have booked the hire amp again for our gig next week, but hopefully will have my own for the gig after that in June.

This is interesting to read, I recently put a set of fender bass strings on that I had bought ages ago from Amazon. I have been thinking that they sound rubbish and have terrible action

Has anyone had any experience of using the Blackstar active cab with their own preamp? I have been looking into getting one of these and plugging my Sansamp into it but can’t find any reviews of this, or anyone doing a similar thing. Blackstar said you can plug a preamp or Helix (which I am also looking to get) and the cab will go up to 250 watts. am getting fed up trying to buy a new head (see my other thread about broken amps) so looking into other options

Thanks, yes I’ll take a look. The reason for the rental is that I bought two new heads, both of which developed faults within a few days of getting them, and I didn’t even get chance to gig with either of them. Am currently trying to decide what to try next. The rental is ok for now but I do miss having my own amp!

Played with The 77s at The Queen Charlotte in Rochester last night. it was our 2nd gig as a band and it went really well. We played through our whole set, and then had to play through 5 again that we’d already played as people kept shouting for “more”. We didn’t have any spares that were rehearsed to a good enough standard to play, so we let some of the crowd pick the ones they wanted again, which was fun. I had to hire the Ampeg SVT 3 pro head again, put it didn’t seem anywhere near as loud as at our last gig. The pub was smaller, but I had to have it at max volume to keep up.

PS. It’s a shame as jt was a fantastic sounding amp

I would go if you get the chance. they played lots of the hits, so even if you are only a casual fan it’s worth it. production and stage show was great and failing that, there were at least 3 nice Dingwalls to see & hear

They put on a great show

I had the alpha omega 500 and it developed a fault on its 3rd use. One of the lights went out in the EQ sliders so I sent it back

Saw Duran Duran tonight and John was using the Rio Dream bass. It sounded great, and now I wish i had ordered one. looks like he swapped the pick guard to a white one.