sharkboy

Saturday was our annual fundraiser for The Alzheimer's Society - a cause very close to our band. This is the 4th consecutive year we've held it, and the 4th consecutive sell-out of the 500-capacity Belfast Empire. An absolutely brilliant crowd made this one the best and most memorable gig yet, and while the final sums aren't yet tallied, it looks like we're on course to raise around another £6000 for the charity. This also takes us over the £20000 mark for the running total. Here's to next year!

Have you thought about Schroeder? They've a great range of lightweight compact cabs, and they've a UK distributor now as well. Everything from a 1x8 cab that'll deliver 400W up to a great range of multi-speaker cabs (the 812 or 1210 might be good options for a one-cab solution to your needs). I use their 1212 and 115 cabs and they've coped brilliantly with everything I've thrown at them. It's the older version of the 1212 with the downward firing driver, so it has pretty much the same dimensions as a 1x12 cab. Check out schroedercabinets.com for more info.

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1452789484' post='2953549'] Is there such a thing as anti-gas (I suppose that might be anti-matter in a gaseous state)? I keep looking round at all the stuff cluttering up the place that I never use and really should get rid of, but putting it up for sale seems like a big effort considering none of it is worth very much. [/quote] Isn't that liquidity?

I think theres some confusion between a pro player and a pro session player. If your primary source of income is playing, whether in a signed band or a wedding band, you're a pro as far as I'm concerned. That is it- nothing else matters. It's not about how much that happens to be or your ability to play. Most of the advice on here fits well for a session player or someone looking to get regular gigs, but not for the (to use an earlier example) Adam Claytons of this world. Doesn't make him any less of a pro though!

I've been playing bass since I was 14, been gigging since I was 16 and turn 50 later this year. I've actively tried to listen to new music all my life - some I've hated, some have become life-long favourites. Do I have musical blind spots? Hell yeah! I've actively avoided most of the last 10 years chart music, mainly because I find that with a few exceptions it has few redeeming features. There have been some great songs, but all too often recorded by a bunch of talentless celeb wannabees. If the last 10 years have taught me anything, it's that while it may not be possible to polish a turd, some "artists" have a talent for coating a gold bullion with sh*t! Also, I just didn't get the whole poodle rock thing of the late 80s-early 90s, mostly because of the look, though the music did little for me too. Grunge was such a breath of fresh air when it arrived. However.... We live in the information age. As someone above says, there are ways of discovering new music or clearing blindspots that the younger me could only dream of. There are forums/blogs etc where people would be only too happy to give you recommendations if you're looking for a particular style. The best thing about recognising a blindspot these days is that it's so easy to do something about it without dropping a week's wage on back catalogues. It's all out there, folks - just go looking! As for Megadeth, they were never the same after Fast Eddie Mustaine left beflre they released No Sleep til Hammertime

Drive-In Saturday, followed closely by Heroes and Life On Mars. Predictable, certainly, but classics all.

There's a lefty HB Acoustic bass in black there at the minute - £43.63

I was doing OK until I checked out the local Gumtree situation. Colour change sucks but, hey, that can be sorted. The £1200 asking price, on the other hand, means the GAS must remain unrequited [url="https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/1979-pre-ernie-ball-music-man-sabre-bass/1149418316"]https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/1979-pre-ernie-ball-music-man-sabre-bass/1149418316[/url]

Had some trapped gas for a Dingwall NG-2 for some time now, but hopefully there's a good fart happening soon to relieve that trapped gas! That was all the GAS I had, until I spotted this on the local Gumtree: https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/1979-pre-ernie-ball-music-man-sabre-bass/1149418316 1979 pre-EB Sabre, seller looking £1200 but open to reasonable offfers...think this might qualify as a Deep Horizon...

I would stick with my current rig (TC Electronic Blacksmith head, Schroeder 212 and 115 cabs), but probably swap out my Ray for the Stingray5 that I used to own, but sold to get out of a financial hole.

I've a pal who, when he lived out there, used to organise punk gigs for his (and other) bands. By all accounts, there wasn't a thriving scene for this genre (not sure about rock though), and it does seem to be quite underground. It might be different for a band playing covers in the tourist hotels, but as a resident he had quite a few difficulties even getting venues to allow him to put the shows on.

Baby Jesus - born to rock! [url="https://youtu.be/P0G7Cs5fQKk"]https://youtu.be/P0G7Cs5fQKk[/url]

There was a local band who opened as part of a Raging Speedhorn/Amen double header. Their name has long since dropped out of my memory; their performance, unfortunately, hasn't. The singer's idea of performing was literally to insert the head of the SM58 into his gob and roar into it, while the band appeared to play 4 different songs behind him. For 30 minutes. To his credit, his singing was responsible for the strangest request from a singer to the sound guy when Raging Speedhorn took the stage - "Can I get a new mic up here? This one just smells of puke". Ah...the look on the soundguy's face... In terms of named bands, the only gig I've ever walked out of due to boredom was The Waterboys in Bangor (Northern Ireland) around 1986-7. I'd already seen them 3 times by this stage and they were never less than entertaining. Unfortunately by the time of the Bangor gig, Mike Scott had gone all "I'm an Irish folk troubador, me" and the gig basically consisted of the band coming on pissed as farts and trying to out-Riverdance Michael Flatley. After about half an hour of boring as hell diddly-dee music and some very dodgy Irish dancing displays, we all decided that enough was enough and retired to a nearby hostelry to reminisce about when the band used to be good.

It's bad timing and bad taste, but it's entirely reflective of his (and his cohorts in RATMs) political views - they have always supported left-wing revolutionary political organisations. AK-47s and balaclavas may not have much to do with bass, but they have a clear connection with Cummerford's music and politics. He's also pimping his latest band Wakrat, so expect more media coverage and publicity shots/comments that'll cause controversy. He's a great bassist, but a bit of a dick.

I had a Superheadless and apart from one major downfall, it was a great sounding bass. Unfortunately that one major downfall was reason enough for me to get shot of it. Rather than going for a double-ball option for the strings, you fed them through a hole in the top of the neck, then clamped them down with a small metal bar secured with allen screws. So once you trimmed them down to size, you had a bass with 4 sharp ends sticking out of the end of the neck, which led to far too many painful encounters. But that wasn't even the worst part of the design - these were cheap components and the threads would strip so easily that it became difficult to maintain sufficient pressure on the strings to allow them to hold their tuning. I lost count of the number of times I had to go to a local engineering firm to get these components rethreaded, but it eventually was one time too many and it had to go. The Stingray that replaced it is still my go-to bass, 23 years later As for the Thunders. the IA and IIA were decent but basic instruments, but the IIIA was actually something quite special

You might find this handy if it was described as sold as seen- eBay's own advice on this and similar situations: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Sold-as-seen-as-is-no-returns-/10000000002394120/g.html"]http://www.ebay.co.u...02394120/g.html[/url] Having said all that, if the seller argues that it was a latent defect that he was unaware of, then its unlikely that you'll have any success in pursuing a refund

Is it just me that has a little trepidation about taking set-up advice from someone called Buzz?

I'll always associate this guy with early-80's Ibanez Blazers

[quote name='Oldman' timestamp='1444043576' post='2879657'] After reading about Schroeder Cabs and their 'Sound' on this here Forum I looked on the Schroeder www to see who stocked them in the UK, SFX were listed on the www as UK agents/stockists, but they no longer existed at the time of my interest. I mailed Schroeder's direct and found out that they had been dispensed with about 6 years previous to my inquiry (this was December 2014) for unmentioned reasons. [/quote] I had a chat with Jorg about this once - the reasons related to some of SFX's dodgy sales approaches, including passing of ex-demo or returns as new cabs. [quote] By the time we Skype'd I had discovered that there had been construction and reliability issues in the past, I raised this with Jorg and was satisfied with his answer that Chinese built Eminence speakers and a duff pallet of Chinese wood from his lumber merchant caused many of the issues. Drivers are now Italian B&C and all reliability issues have been addressed over the past years so that now they have good product and plenty of good reports from users. We decided to bite the bullet and place an order delivery to coincide with a web site going live. Initially we majored on Schroeder as a www name but then decided to spread the net wider with other merchandise and changed the name to www.b-lowbass.co.uk [attachment=202061:be-low bass.png] [/quote] As the person who started the thread on these forums when Jorg shared the good news about a new UK distributor, can I just say a huge thanks to you for making these more readily available? I've a old-style 1212 (with the downward firing speaker) and a new 15PL, and they are both amazing. Yes, the epoxy finish can make them seem a bit cheap, but on the plus side, nothing's going to slip off your cab! The B&C driver in the 15PL is immense and easily copes with everything I've thrown at it. As a one-cab option, the 1212 is hard to beat, but combine these two with my TC Blacksmith and I can cause structural damage if I wish!

This is something I've a bit of recent experience on (and a recent thread in the forum too!), after our guitarist's PRS custom slipped its strap and did a painful nosedive at practice one night. I'd always just relied on normal house insurance, but after a bit of research online revealled a lot of horror stories from people who had their claims refused on these policies (in most cases because they earned money gigging and therefore the companies were classifying their gear as professional equipment and therefore not covered on a domestic policy), I decided to go with specialist music equipment insurance. After comparing a couple of providers, I ended up with Allianz's musical equipment policy. It cost me around £11 per month for around £5k worth of cover, and it's pretty comprehensive. It covers pretty much every aspect of the gear that you could hope for. If the damage to your gear reduces its value after repair, it will even refund you the difference (god forbid these people ever find out about relicing your bass!)

This probably won't go down too well, but I live less than 5 minutes from the venue of that gig and spent most of that particular bank holiday with doors and windows shut, playing music that didn't sound like elevator music for sh*t shops. I'm not disputing that the grumpy wee sh*te has some good tunes, and Mr Moore did a sterling job holding down the bottom end, but Christ was it dull!

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1441891046' post='2862651'] And we complain as musicians about the triumph of style over substance in music Facepalm aside, I’d say it all depends on the context of the band as a whole. If the “pretty lass with potential” is going to be fronting a bunch of muffin-topped 40-somethings (hello readers!), then no amount of beauty is going to make up for the downwards gravitational pull of what will otherwise be facing punters on stage. A middle-aged ‘dad band’ will always look like a middle-aged ‘dad band’. If your mate is serious about wanting to crack the corporate scene, then he’d be advised to focus on hiring someone who is (or capable of seeming like) a professional singer, worthy of spending a corporate fee on. Issues of prettiness and physique are - albeit sadly - mostly confined to the younger end of the market. Image is [i]always[/i] important, of course, but less so as the audience ages; by which time the content of the performance is what tends to count about all else. All sweeping generalisations. But then so is casual sexism. [/quote] Quoted for (a) truth and (b ) despair that we're still having this conversation in 2015.

[quote name='blamelouis' timestamp='1441223798' post='2857137'] I watched my dad die from Emphysema and cardiac problems five months ago .........and I tell you watching Lemmy in that vid brought it all back. The wheezy breathing, the weight loss ,skin colour and the shaking hands it's all there. I hope I'm wrong but he doesn't look a well man. [/quote] I thought the very same thing when I watched that video. I know he had a coronary bypass recently, and that breathing is definitely showing all the signs of emphysema which, after the lifestyle he led for the last 50 years, shouldn't really come as a huge surprise. Doesn't make it any less tragic though.

I'm running my Blacksmith through a pair do Schroeder cabs (1212L and 115 L) and the sound is earth shatteringly epic

Apologies if my post has given anyone a bad attack of GAS! If its any consolation, it appears to be contagious, as I now find myself thinking what I can sell to get a one-cab solution I run both an old style 1212L (with the angled speaker) and a new 15PL. Individually, I find little difference in build quality, although the older one is starting to show very minimal signs of wear on the finish (though to be fair, it has been gigged extensively and I never did get round to buying those covers). The main difference in the newer models that I can tell (apart from all speakers now being front-facing) is that they're all loaded with B&C drivers these days which, if memory serves, is the same make that Markbass used to use before they decided to try cutting costs. Both sound immense by themselves; combined into a killer stack they are mahoosive!