chriswareham

I suspect that sound engineers and their presumption of what a bass guitar should sound like is a big factor in what JJ sounds like at any given show. I wouldn't be surprised that even a band with the stature of The Stranglers don't have their own sound engineer these days and normally rely on the house engineer. For example, I'm used to house sound engineers scooping the mids on bass sounds. My sound and that of JJ's early era is the mids at full, a smidge of bass boost and a smidge of treble cut. That goes against what most sound engineers think is appropriate in all circumstances and often a source of argument. I hate it when engineers mic' the guitar amps, but only directly DI the bass before it's even reached the amp. My amp sound is deliberately part of the band's sound, and I have to insist on being mic'ed up or at least having the DI coming out of my amp's preamp. The show I did last Friday we were the last to soundcheck as things were as usual running late, and I set the (mic'ed up) bass amp to maxed out mids, flat bass and treble. I was amused to see the previous bands had left the amp settings untouched when we went on stage, despite the sound engineer's initial grumbling about the bass sound when I first soundchecked solo before we played as full band. Long story short, most sound engineers at small to medium venues have a very blinkered idea of what a bass guitar should sound like for certain bands. And don't get me started on sound engineers who still mix keyboards to be inaudible because most of them are guitar bigots.

There were quite a few on the London scene a few years ago, but most didn't reappear after the COVID lockdown. One band that is definitely still around and making a bit of a name for themselves are Black Doldrums. They have a friend of mine on bass - he's actually a lead guitarist normally but had made the transition to being a melodic bassist very well. I'd suggest checking them out on YouTube, although the studio recordings haven't quite captured the intensity of their live sound yet so if you get the chance I'd highly recommend seeing one of their concerts in person.

Just play it slow. Really slow - as slow as you need to in order to able to follow the tab in your head. Then start to speed it up until you reach the tempo of the original. After a while you'll just find your fingers doing the right thing without consciously thinking about it. This is a similar pattern to a lot of "industrial" or "electronic body music" patterns that I've had to play over the years that were originally written as a sequenced synthesiser parts.

Reverb started as a very US centric website, and in many ways it still is. What people outside the US often miss is that in the US people expect to be able to haggle and pay less than the listed price. That's true of things that would have no chance of being sold for less than the asking price in places like Europe. So a lot of the prices on Reverb reflect the starting point the seller expects to have to take offers below. People who do not understand this then think "wow, my <insert item> is worth <insert price>". The other problem, and one that is true of websites like eBay as well as Reverb is when researching prices sellers usually look at the current listings. They rarely look at the sold listings to see what people are actually likely to pay. When I'm looking to sell something I check the sold listings, and then price at the high end of what the item has sold at but with the option for people to make offers. Then of course you get the chancers saying "it's only worth half what you've listed it for mate", (and it always invariably has that "mate" at the end of a sentence like they're doing me a favour). I just ignore the chancers and hope they see the item's actual sold price when it invariably sells at the list price or just below.

Fairly similar experience to Paul S above, with the added bonus of the singer actually pointing out how Spinal Tap it all was. Asked at short notice by a promoter we'd done plenty of gigs for to support to a band playing in Camden. We arrived in time to find to find neither opening or headlining act had arrived. Nor had the sound engineer. The latter eventually appeared looking totally hungover, and he proceeded to explain that someone had stolen all the DI boxes the night before while he was too drunk to notice. Not good as we had a drum machine and several synths. No soundcheck for us, as the headline band finally appeared and had a major strop at being initially told they'd also have no soundcheck. As a result the venue opened late, and the opening act went straight on. Despite being told to cut their set from 45 to 30 minutes they played their full set and then leisurely packed up. So we go on stage without even a linecheck, set cut from 45 to 30 minutes. I press the start pedal for our drum machine and... no drums in the monitor plus a distorted mess from the front of house speakers. I proceeded to play by watching the blinking light on the drum machine to try and stay in time. That meant I missed the promoter frantically trying to get my attention. Turns out he wanted us to stop after 15 agonising minutes. The headline act wanted their full hour, which would have taken the venue over it's curfew. He ended up getting the soundman to cut us off mid song. I jumped off the stage, and walked through the audience only to find the door to the dressing rooms locked and I didn't know the code. So I kicked it down and proceeded to reduce the dressing room furniture to matchwood. The security guy was called by the panicking promoter, only to be told my reaction was perfectly reasonable under the circumstances (turns out the security guy had seen us several times before and realised something wasn't right with the sound).

I have a Trace Elliott BLX combo, which I actually like even though I get the impression they were not highly regarded when new. I'm planning on giving that a test at the next rehearsal with the Stingray and a Boss CE-3 chorus I've just picked up on fleaBay.

Absolutely. I knew someone who voluntarily agreed to being sectioned, but was close to being committed without their consent. It was a battle for them to get out once they felt better, since a lot of people soon relapse.

Did a rehearsal on Monday night, first one with the Stingray and also the first without our lead guitarist (who as I write is playing his first show in Barcelona fronting legendary US punk band Dead Boys, the lucky sod). The sound of the Stingray through a Boss flanger was immense, and on many of our songs actually made up for the sound of two guitars we've been used to. Then I check my email today to find that Jamie Stewart of The Cult had taken the time to reply to a message I sent him. He confirmed that the Stingray and a Boss chorus was key to the sound I was looking for, although he says he preferred the Ampeg amps he used later to the Trace Elliot ones he was using in the early Cult era.

The band Section 25 were named after one of the sections of the mental health act. I was also in a band called Section (3) that took similar inspiration. Both refer to conditions where individuals can be placed into secure facilities against their will.

That sounds familiar. The drummer wasn't known by the name "Belle" was he? A legend on the London alternative music scene who unexpectedly passed away in 2023.

I have a Brandoni constructed Eko semi-acoustic bass guitar. Fantastic instrument, and I got the opportunity to tell Roberto how much l love it shortly before he passed away. In the early 1990s his instruments would occasionally appear in Macaris music shop in the London's West End, which is how I came by my one.

Amphetamines maybe. A fair bit of research has gone into using them for military applications, ever since they were first produced in laboratory conditions just over a hundred years ago. They were used extensively in World War II, particularly for air force personnel by the Axis and Allied forces, as they increased endurance and attentiveness. Studies show they can improve reflex responses and awareness of stimuli, although at the cost of increasing levels of paranoia and eventual fatigue when usage increases beyond certain thresholds. An interesting case is the Finnish soldier Aimo Koivunen who accidentally took a massive dose of German supplied Pervitin while on a mission behind Soviet lines - it resulted in a week long period where he evaded capture while frankly off his tits. Didn't seem to do any serious damage as he went on to live into his seventies, but he did father nine children so I guess it may have impacted his libido 🙂

Many thanks for the responses! I've been pondering my options and based on some of the comments decided to buy a Ray 24 which seems to have a recreation of the 2 band pre-amp from a Stingray from the early 1980s. After changing the strings on my regular bass this evening for a set of stainless steel Rotosounds I think that also plays a big part in capturing the sound I'm after along with a modulation effect. I experimented with a bunch of effects, and came closest with my ancient Frontline rack mounted thing. The modulation offers either chorus or flanger and seems to be a clone of Boss circuitry. With careful tweaking of the manual and feedback controls on the flanger setting I got really close to what I'm looking for even on my passive bass.

Oh, that's tempting. I think I bought a Yamaha BB1200 from you, which I used with a Joy Division tribute until I got tired of too many people saying I should be playing a Rickenbacker (I'd point out Hooky's clearly playing a Yammy in the Love Will Tear Us Apart video and before that he actually played a Hondo rather than a Rickenbacker, but to no avail).