Norris

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1426799362' post='2722199'] I find the term "weekend warrior" rather interesting since when I started gigging in the early 80s there were absolutely no weekend gigs available at all for local bands. The best you could hope for was a Friday night support slot with an avant-garde jazz band who had a residency, but otherwise gigs were strictly Monday to Thursdays as the pubs didn't need any incentive to get people in at the weekends. [/quote] There used to be a lot more mid week gigs back in the 80s and 90s. It's pretty much all Fri/Sat/Sun now

Weekend warrior here and been doing it long and often enough to feel a certain amount of confidence in my playing ability. I'm not a particularly flash player and don't generally do solos. I can get around the fretboard pretty well though playing in a band. Whenever someone hands me a bass to try though I never really know what to play.

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1426193329' post='2715585'] Hall "worked for the British government"? What have I missed? J. [/quote] 4003 - licence to sue

[quote name='gareth' timestamp='1425905714' post='2711985'] The Eurovision is a joke both in terms of the songs that are presented as representing current music (they do not) and the political/bias nature of the voting which is completely unrelated to the strength/weaknesses of the songs If as a nation we had any pride, we would not take part. This will not happen however as it easy/dumb tv for the BBC and there is a large and willing and dare I say dumb audience ready to lap this crap up. [/quote] In a nutshell. However for all its faults, who doesn't like watching the car crash?

The past few decades has been an exercise in "who likes who" i.e. countries vote for other countries that they have ties with. However in the last few years it seems to have turned into a freak show. The reason we have not won for some time is that our entries are just not freakish enough. Where's our Lordy novelty act or our beardy bloke/lady/cross dresser?! Seriously - you really want to win that?

Some amps are built to distort and this is usually controlled by the input gain. What it does is to amplify your bass signal to a level that is comfortable for the tone circuits to work with (gain staging). On valve amps giving "too much" gain will cause the signal to distort, usually in a pleasant way. Transistor amps usually don't sound quite as nice when overdriven. The volume control will attenuate the signal coming out of the pre-amp stage, in effect setting the volume of whatever sound you've made. How you set them depends on what sound you want. If you want it clean don't over-do the gain

They missed off "Have your own music stand?"

We rehearsed quite a bit one year. 1985 I think it was. Since then we have gigged lots and only rehearsed if we have a particularly tricky one to do or it maybe needs a bit of rearrangement to fit to our trio. Having said that I did rehearse weekly with a Floyd tribute for three years without playing a single gig. Needless to say that folded eventually

We down tune a semitone but it's not so much about the singer's top range as making it a bit more comfortable to get through the night... and the next one.

Leicester a bit of a trek? Peavey Databass combo...

/popcorn at the ready

[quote name='solo4652' timestamp='1425029224' post='2703035'] Band 1; singer sacked Band 2; the singer was not very good Band 3; Singer left Band 4; singer's gone AWOL [/quote] What to do next? Learn to sing & play bass at the same time!

That looks really nice. In fact all the burst colours look good. Mantra: I need a new amp, I don't need a new bass. I need a new amp, I don't need a new bass

My Databass combo is going nowhere. I hope to get a new combo this year as the Peavey is knocking on a bit. I won't get rid of it though as it is too useful as a reliable backup. I'll have to check out that programme. It's a shame they seem to be in decline

I use a long Comfort Strapp [size=2][sup]TM[/sup][/size] (big slab of neoprene with elasticated strap over the top) with mine and never had any problems. I use the same type of strap on all my basses, but have one dedicated to the T bird, as the Schaller lock needs to be installed t'other way round to normal on the neck end.

I could do with changing my combo this year as it's getting a bit long in the tooth (Peavey Databass). I was thinking of going the barefaced + amp route, but the Rumble 500 looks very interesting (and a lot cheaper). Hmmm.... GAS lit

Would it be feasible to incorporate some of the design into a more conventional cabinet? i.e. use more standard materials for the main part, including bracing & padding, etc., but then have nice plexi front panel with all the lighting?

Many, many years ago I used a Marshall 100W guitar head. Not for long mind you, as it could not cut it volume-wise on larger gigs, and getting a clean sound was nigh on impossible.

Nirvana made a point of never playing any song the same - which makes me remember a truly awful rendition of one of their hits on TOTP once. It was excruciatingly bad

I like to have physical media. I have quite a lot of vinyl, but don't generally buy it now. I usually buy CDs and then rip them on iTunes as mp3 for convenience & sharing around the family iPods Vinyl: Rega Planar 3 / Arcam Alpha / Kef Coda 7 CD: In car or the Philips mini system in the kitchen (the best [u]sounding[/u] one within budget in the big electrical retailer shop back in the day) MP3: Computer with 5.1 system or iPod nano 3rd gen + my new Betron DC950 earbuds (highly recommended - excellent quality/price!)

We formed our first band at school aged around 16 or 17. I was originally going to be the keyboard player, having learnt the piano as a kid. However we didn't have a bass player, I didn't have a keyboard - and certainly wasn't going to lug an upright piano around! Between us we decided that bass was more important than keys anyway. It just so happened that my music teacher, who ordinarily wouldn't allow any electric instruments near his music room, had an old Kay shortscale SG style plank bass. This was duly purchased for a nominal amount and off I went. Of course my mum wasn't pleased, as she wanted me to play the trombone in the Royal Marines band. Despite having reached grade 8 on it, I really never wanted a trombone-related career, let alone being in the armed forces - you still have to do physical training, being told what to do, and being shot at, etc. Our school band's first (and only!) ever gig was in Germany. That may sound impressive, but we actually just took our guitars along on the school choir exchange trip. We got to play all of the three songs we knew, with two guitars (a Columbus 'strat' & a Les Paul copy), bass (my Kay SG) and vocals all going through a tiny little combo. In fact the singer was singing through one of those cheap tape recorder microphones, and had to sit on top of the combo because the mic lead was so short. Our poor German hosts never knew what hit them. The combo was of course inspected by customs heading both ways. Within a year or so the Kay was ditched for a Franconia Jazz copy, and that then for a Ric 4001, and I was playing bass in a real band, starting my 'career' with a 9 month summer season at Butlin's Skeggy playing 6 nights a week. After a few 'pro' years being pretty skint I eventually got a proper job, but continued as a weekend warrior to this day - about 30 years later.

Nothing else sounds like a Ric. Most basses can't sound like a Thunderbird. Neither of them can sound like a Precision. IMHO there is no one bass to rule them all. Having said that, you may find a bass that ticks all of *your* personal boxes (although as you're a basschat member I find that hard to believe !)

Dunno about you, but I find a lot of stuff online isn't actually correct or misses a lot of the nuances. If you want a job doing properly...

[quote name='AntLockyer' timestamp='1424078105' post='2692161'] Now I'm really confused. I've got a series 1 and always assumed it was passive with the switch on the rearward most position. What is being switched in and out if not the pre amp? [/quote] I must admit it's always confused me too

On the flip side, the Marc Johnson album I mentioned on the other thread (I think it was the track crossing the corpus calloseum) actually curtailed the fumbling as I was so intrigued. She didn't go out with me again