Greg Edwards69

Good Halloween fun on Saturday night for us at Starr Sports, Canvey Island. Load in and set up appeared to go smoothly, and we was ready for soundcheck within an hour. I still thinks there's work to do, to assign several tasks to other band members to get make it even quicker, however. Being a hallowed party, we went a little heavier with some of our first set, adding Enter Sandman, Run To The Hills, In the End and Zombie (yes, I know). For the second set our singers dressed up and we added a few halloween themed party songs that we learned especially for this even - Thriller, Monster and Ghostbusters that went down amazingly well. I think we may keep the first two in permanent rotation. Ghostbusters was a bit messy and my left hand cramped up toward the end of it - it's a bitch of a riff to play on the bass, and we purposely sped it up! Kudos to Ian Martin Allison for his Vintage Synth Pack — the Mini Mogue sounded perfect for Thriller. I'm not one for buying presets, but synths are not my forte, but it's made be consider trying one of his regular packs.

Halloween party in Canvey Island

I meant to add. I had the headrush frfr-108 for a while - apparently designed for guitar and bass. More power, a bigger woofer and a deeper frequency response than the Behringer B1C. It kept up with a full band in a rehearsal room fine but still needed an hpf to protect it - as I discovered when my drummer plugged his Roland trigger unit into it and damaged the woofer with a particularly deep bass drum sample. It was a good job the woofer was easily replaceable and not expensive!

Have you seen the new Spark Edge? Looks to be a more useful proposition than the Behringer. Spark EDGE – United Kingdom - Positive Grid Although, for bass, I still think it's more for practice and acoustic jams. I doubt it will hang with a drummer.

I wouldn't want to use one without a judicious hpf. Thre frequency response is 60 Hz – 20 kHz (±3 dB). Without a hpf it would be easy to damage the woofer.

Set length is rarely dictated, so we usually elect to do 2x60min, or occasionally 2x45min. If we're playing straight through we will do 90min max. Either way, we usually get asked to play "one more song" and then "one more song"...

Next? No idea. But I got a couple of tickets a few days ago for Iron Maiden at the London Olympic stadium next June. Bucket list item almost ticked.

I had one of these when they first came out. Really wish I'd kept it. I recently bought the short/medium scale EHB1005SMS. Very lightweight and incredibly ergonomic. There are also non-fanned fret options in the EHB range if multiscale isn't your thing.

The Markbass MB58R range of cabs is worth a look. Similar weights to the Bareface and GRBass - kind for kind - and a bit cheaper. I have no idea what they sound like, but I'm presuming they'll have a more coloured tone compared to the more neutral sounding BF and GR offerings. PS, a GR Active cab is on my wishlist.

I’ve had a strap button work loose and nearly fall out. Strap locks are all well and good, but no use if the strap button itself falls out.

Generally yes, I take a spare. I have on occasion taken just one for logistical reasons without issue, but it's always in the back of my mind that something could happen. Besides, if we're being paid to provide a service, we should be prepared and have a contingency plan for potential problems. I got fed up with taking two 34" basses to gigs just for one to stay in a gigbag all night, so last year I bought a cheap Jackson Minion as a "hope I never need it" backup. It's really no fuss to transport and will get me out of trouble if the worst happens. Also, when I change strings on a bass, I keep the old set in the bass' gigbag, just in case. FWIW, I usually only take one bass to rehearsals, but those spare strings will suffice in that situation.

EDIT: Whoops, just read last OP's post above that this isn't required anymore. But I'll leave the below in place in case anyone else need a similar solution. Take a look at Brevo (formerly SendInBlue). Lots of customisable templates and can also handle SMS and WhatsApp campaigns. The free tier lets you send up to 300 emails a day (so you should be able to break your 700 recipients down into smaller groups spread over several days via a workflow). We use it at work just as the SMTP server for our more complex MarketDirect CrossMedia solution (it used to be called Direct Smile - you may have heard of it). But Brevo seems to be a very capable solution for a project the size and scope the OP needs. We went with Brevo for SMTP has it seems to get through spam filters more than some of the other providers, although Hotmail/live accounts still seem to be quite aggressive. FWIW, most SMTP servers need to be 'warmed up' before sending loads of emails out. But if it's something you do regularly, and the numbers you're saying it shouldn't be a problem, which you can break into smaller chunks as I said earlier.

The Fender Rumble is often praised in these parts for good reason. Great sound, easy to use, light weight, and enough volume if you play with other musicians.

Same here. I reckon at least 25% of our average set requires me to play with a pick for "that sound". If my fingertips get too sore by the end of the night I'll often switch to a pick to alleviate the pain. Although luckily our usual set closers are pick songs.

Is there any chance of this being filmed? I'd be most interested in listening to this demonstration. (And yes, I'm quite aware of the limitations of recording a PA system, but still, it could be useful to those of us who live too far away)

I know few people who use a Zoom field recorder, such as the H2n clipped to a mic stand to feed a set of IEM buds as an impromptu monitoring system in loud environments. There's no reason you couldn't use a decent pair of over-ear headphones instead

FWIW, the Markbass MB58R 121 Pure and Energy are 11.1kg and 11.6kg respectively. They would definitely be worth considering. It's a shame they haven't built an MB58R in the NY121 form factor though. I reckon that would be a big seller.

A good night for us back at Birchanger Sports & Social club. They had a fete on during the day so asked us to start an hour or so earlier than usual at in order to keep people there. It definitely worked, the place was full when we got there, all the tables were booked for dinner (unfortunately that meant the only food available to us was a couple of plates of chips and onion rings) and it stayed full. The first set was good, but challenging to get people up, but once we launched into our second set, they got up and stayed dancing until the end. Whether it was because we were playing well, or the early start and therefore finish, they kept asking for more, and we ended up playing 5 encore tunes. The manager apparently asked one of our singers, “how much for another hour?” He replied for all of us, “I don’t think I’ve got another hour in me!” Quickish packdown, and were was out by midnight and home by 1am, and enjoyed a well earned lay in this morning.

MarkBass make a lightweight range called MB58R, similar in weight to the GRBass stuff. That's worth a look at if you want something similar to your existing rig.

I'm considering something like this myself as my headrush frfr 1x12 is quite a heavy lump (it's certainly not a one-hand carry over any distance) and I've been having back trouble on and off the last couple of years or so. But, I only use it for rehearsals as we use IEM for gigs. So, I still have to wear a backbelt at gigs anyway as I need helping to carry and set up other heavy band equipment such as drums and the PA, and I still ache the next morning!

I keep a couple in my back pocket. I've never had an issue not being able to grab one in time. I've tried the scratchplate trick, but swiftly gave up when one slid inside the bass, and also because some of my basses don't have scratchplates!

I've had a similar experience as well. Like you, I was led to believe you needed to use a thick pick for bass. But it was only when I discovered that some of my pick bass players/lines achieved "that sound" with a thinner pick that the lightbulb went off. I got by with 1.14mm Dunlops for a few years but I wasn't totally happy with them - the attack was almost there but I didn't like the increase in volume over fingerstyle. So last years or so, bought a couple of multipacks and I've settled on 0.60mm Dunlop Flex. They give me "that sound" the right amount of flexibility that has a crisp attack without losing low-end, combined with a natural compression to avoid sounding louder than fingerstyle.

If this is a persistetn issue you could always attach your transmitter to a long cable out of the monitor desk to get it closer to you. We run our from a passive xlr splitter box centrally near the drums. We're generally all happy with the same mix and a couple of band members use a wired connection instead of wireless.

Following this one with interest. I'm considering replacing my Blackstar core ID Beam as it's not great for bass.