Greg Edwards69

This weekend we're at Birchanger Sports & Social Club. It's become a regular for us, although we never know what sort of audience we'll get.

It's nice to see that he's embraced the "face of Christmas" image the media have anointed him with. It wasn't that long ago that he was on the Graham Norton show getting a little irate at the "Buble coming out of hibernation for Christmas" memes.

24 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

The head L6 Helix guy is a member of thefretboard forum.

 

I did put a thread up tagging him and their main UK product demo guy to ask if they had anything coming - particularly in light of the new Yamaha headphones... and there was nothing. Not a reply. Just silence.

 

Fingers crossed then!  

HX-powered wireless headphones would sell like hot cakes!

Only thing is, it would need a mobile/tablet app - not Line 6's strong point as far as Helix devices goes (even a wired tablet to Helix solution would be useful).

I am surprised nobody else has made a similar device yet.

Or maybe Boss holds some kind of patent or intellectual property on such a system that prevents the competition from making something similar.

1 hour ago, casapete said:

Result ! - you did the right thing and then got the rewards. 
Have a great gig.

Indeed. It was in the back of my mind that several months ago another band on the "Essex Cover Bands Community" Facebook group didn't do the right thing, and cancelled one venue (albeit at the last minute) in favour of a "better" venue.

Let's just say the internet did not approve!

Much like @EssexBuccaneer last week, I had some good Southend based gig news last night.

Last week, the Cow & Telescope, one of the best cover band venues in the area, who we played for the first time last month, asked if we were available on 23 December **EDIT: due to another band having to cancel**. Unfortunately, we were already booked at a sports bar elsewhere so did the right thing and turned them down to honour our commitment. 

Yesterday, apparently some "top card" boxing matches were announced for 23 December. Being a sports bar, they realise their usual punters would be mightily upset if they didn't show the boxing and had a band playing instead. So they have postponed our booking until next year.

We enquired whether the other option was still available, and it's now ours  What a stroke of luck. It's all fallen into place in our favour without upsetting anyone.

A coveted spot at one of the best music pubs in Southend on a Saturday evening, two days before Christmas. It's going to be a belter!

1 hour ago, peteb said:

 

The Self-Adhering 'E-ThumbRocker' is exactly what I'm looking for. Many thanks. 

 

You’re very welcome. I didn’t realise he made a self-adhering one. Keep us posted if you get one and how well it stands up to the rigours of gigging.

Contact Tom at Thumbrocker and explain what you're after.

He was able to design a custom piece for my Squier 50s P from just a couple of photos (that's actually my bass on his website) and sent it over from the US to the UK for a very reasonable price (I believe the postage was only a few quid).

12 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

From what we discussed earlier I think they start by posting as a friend messaging you about some b.s that requires a code. They quickly pose as you to FB locked out or wanting to do admin or sommat, and you are silly enough to give it to them. That's the only way I can see how it could be done short of an actual hack.

 

How they fool you that it's your friend messaging you on some other platform I have no idea.

It's quite easy to create a "spoofed" fake/cloned account. As long as the name looks right and it has a profile picture of your friend it's easy to fool someone.

Whilst the spoofed account can't directly message you, then by default they can send you a message request. It only takes a momentary lapse of judgement to accept it. This setting can be changed within messenger to "Don't receive requests" which I understand blocks them.

If I get a friend request or message request from someone I definitely know are friends on FB, I'll double-check it. The same goes for competition adverts from big companies.

And don't get me started on those security question, data harvesting posts, such as "Your porn star name is your first pet followed by the road you grew up on"

On 09/11/2023 at 19:23, Cliff Edge said:

Facebook threatened to take down one of my accounts years ago because they didn’t like my name. To be fair it was obviously not a real name and they gave me the opportunity to change it. So I did, to Mahatma Coat from Glasgow. They seemed happy with that and I continued to use it for several years until they again asked me to change it. 

A couple of friends of mine had a similar thing. Both of them worked for the local council, with members of the public, and frequently vulnerable people. They used pseudonyms as they didn't want to be tracked down easily by members of the public, until Facebook changed the rules saying that fake names were no longer allowed.

Two thoughts occur.

1. Going digital with the Helix has allowed me to leave the amp at home (actually, I don't own a bass amp and cab anymore - just an FRFR speaker). I can get "that" Ampeg sound, consistently, anywhere I can plug into a PA system. And it's less gear to carry. Sure there are ways of doing this analogue with preamps, eq's and cab sims, but a single digital multi-fx is so much easier and more tweakable.
2. The audience doesn't care. If it sounds good, it is good. Most non-musicians really couldn't care less if you're using a vintage tube amp and hand-wired stompboxes or a digital modeller.

That said... I'm considering getting an analogue device, such as Sansamp Bass Fly Rig as a backup. If the Helix craps out in the middle of a gig, I'd rather have something that's "plug and play" and quick to dial in, than another digital device that might need tweaking for the room.

6 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

If the PA has been regularly used over a decent period, it is no longer to be valued at the original buying price of £600 each. The leaving member must surely agree to a reasonable depreciation sum, no..? If not, it could be argued that he pay you all your £600 each, and keeps the PA himself. Nonsense, of course.

Your initial investment should have been 'paid back', little by little, by the gigs you've done, until its depreciated value is reached, at which point it's basically a 'free' PA that you all own, but has no residual monetary value. These arrangements can easily be made, at any time, by mutual agreement and consent. Do it now with all the current members, in preparation for the next time someone leaves. A bit late, but I hope this helps. 

This is where it gets messy. Their new guy has agreed to stump up a substantial amount upon joining the band to co-own the PA (I'm not sure I would). Absolutely, it should be based upon current market value and depreciation.

But if the new guy leaves in 6 months or a year, he could get back less than he put in. That would just rub salt in the wound if it were me, and could make an acrimonious split, a bitter one.

This absolutely needs sorting and putting in writing now, before any money changes hands.

10 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

Well it’s not last night, but I’ve learned this evening that we’ve been booked to play at The Pappillon in Southend on Dec 1st. It’s one of the more important venues to get your foot in the door in the area, and it’s a pretty hard gig to land, so we’re all stoked!

 

Not expecting an enormous crowd on Southend seafront in December, but if we can impress the owner/booker then maybe we’ll be able to swing a night or two next year!

Nice one. We'd like to get in there too. We were stoked to finally get in the Cow & Telescope (and get repeat bookings), which is similarly challenging to get booked in the Southend area.

Maybe I'll swing by. I'm playing at the Sarah Moore the next day.

Queef

10 hours ago, Aygotaygo said:

I upgraded to a B6 this week, after using a B1 Four X. To be fair, I never used the B1 to its full potential, but I was happy with what it could do. I upgraded to the B6 in large part because since I lost the sight in my right eye, I needed something that was easier to see, so the upgrade would have been worth it just for that.

 

However, this thing is amazing. 1 hour out of the box and I managed to set it all up for my needs without having to go anywhere near a computer. The effects are top notch, the modelled amps are pretty spot on, it’s got two inputs and a DI. I’ve read a lot about it being ‘only plastic’ (which is true), but there’s plastic and there’s plastic. It’s not made from yogurt pots so I’m not sure what you’d have to do to damage it. It’s sturdy, but I suppose if you abused it badly it’d break, but that’s true of anything.

 

I was initial hesitant, wondering if it would be that great an improvement on the B1. This just in: it definitely is.

Serious question, and apologies for derailing the thread (and being a nosy, inquisitive sod), but how challenging do you find playing without the use of one eye? 

The reason I ask is I tried playing a gig with an eye patch many years ago. It was at the wedding of one of our guitarists who had detached retina surgery a few weeks before the wedding and had to wear an eye match for most of the day. Being the loving type of people we are in the band we decided to all wear an eye patch when we started playing to take the fosters.  It's really difficult without any depth perception!

I don’t minds the song. But it obviously wasn’t good enough to work on past the demo stage when John was alive and the band was together. 
 

not keen on the video. Bits of it look like a Stevie Riks spoof. 

33 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Zoom's use of composites has been a discussion point for years, but every one I have owned has never had a problem. In fact, I would say that they have all been very robust.

I've had several zoom units in the past, both plastic and metal housing. One of the plastic ones developed a fault with one of the jacks. This was due body of the unit flexing when I stepped on a footswitch damaging surface mounted jack socket connection. A solid, metal enclosure is less likely to suffer this problem.

This is the same reason I stopped using those solid jack-to-jack stompbox connectors - just a little flex can damage the jack socket connection.

There's quite a few filters in the Helix ecosystem - my particular favourite is their own design "autofilter".  All of these are in the new HX One pedal and HX Stomp if they're in your budget.

Helix models

https://helixhelp.com/models?categoryId=8&subCategoryId=4

Legacy models (from the old M series)

https://helixhelp.com/models?categoryId=8&subCategoryId=6

20 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Which are excellent by all accounts 

I believe so, yes. I have an Indonesian 50s P that is excellent (although it might be up for sale soon - as much as I wanted one, it doesn't "fit" me as well as I hoped it would). I believe some Chinese squiers are just as good, if not better in some regard. Some people are even saying Squiers are now so good, that in some cases they are better than more expensive MIM Fenders, and that Fender should drop the name and call them "Fender M.I.F.E."  - Made in the Far East.

Struggling to find a decent picure of my current No.1. This one will have to do.

It's a G&L Tribute JB2. Maple and block fretboard and sunburst finish. I'd been watching it for a while It came up in a Black Friday sale a couple of years ago for £299, down from £399, so I had to.

My Yamaha Attitude LTD2 had been my main player for ages until I threw my back out after the first gig out of lockdown. So I decided I needed a lighter-weight, inexpensive, main-gigging bass. Even though I bought quite a lightweight Squier 50s as a backup at the start of lockdown, my band's repertoire had diversified enough that I also needed something more versatile. I've had aspirations for a 70's style "black and blocks" jazzes with maple fretboards, black block inlays and black bodies and had previously had half an eye on those black and blocks Harley Benton 70s jazzes, as well as looking at Sire but I wasn't keen on going back to active.

In the meantime, I had replaced the tunes on the Attitude with hipshot Ultralites (3x licenced, and a D-tuner ) which helped a little, and resigned myself to not being able to find a proper black and blocks jazz that was the right price and lightweight, until this cropped up on a lightweight basses round-up article on Bass Direct's website. It ain't black and I've never been one for sunburst, but something about it really appealed to me, and the article mentioned they were a little over 8lbs. It also had a P bass-sized body and a chunkier than usual shaped neck for a jazz, which suits me fine. So I thought about it, thought about it some more and decided to wait for Black Friday, and I clicked "buy". (Sure it wasn't expensive to start with, but what with my wife being off work at the time with COVID-related health issues, we had to be a little more careful with money).

It's a great playing bass. Lighter than the Attitude, balances well and has a good range of tones with the stock pickups. I had to work on the setup as the E string slot in the nut was cut too deep - nothing baking powder and super glue couldn't fix. I do need to get it re-wired, as there's a bit of bleed on one of the volume pots (rolled completely off, there's still a little sound coming through), so I'll get this done in the new year when gigs are more sparse (I am the kind of person who needs to give the authorities not less than a month’s notice before picking up a soldering iron). And I'll likely replace the tuners with Ultralites and D-tuner soon.

I really enjoy playing this one for most of the gigs we're currently doing. Inexpensive basses have really come a long way.

PS, excuse the shirt. It was a corporate summer festival and our band always wears black and red!

16 minutes ago, GoodShowSir said:

Nice, I saw someone locally selling one for under 100squid and was a little tempted. Even more so now

 

Curiously, just been doing a quick google, but does it say where the bass was made?

It says made in China on the back. Considering Jackson is owned by Fender, I would assume it's made in the same factory as the Chinese Squiers.

7 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Frankly the recently released HoTone Ampero Mini seems like the superior unit for this kind of thing.

 

And it is cheaper as well.

I've been toying with the idea of getting one as a "get me through the gig" backup to my Helix LT, and as a home practice device. But I'm waiting to see what the first proper firmware update brings as there's a couple of features I'd love to see added/improved (global eq, darkglass model and pitch-shifting).   It's a real shame they didn't include Bluetooth as well, that would make it a perfect practice device IMHO.

How about one of the Warwick Gnome cabs to go with your head? The specs and price look great to me.  Whether they sound great is another matter, but they could do the job for just occasional use.

2 hours ago, krispn said:

I had to catch myself the other day looking at the new UA 1176 pedal thinking it was affordable because it’s under £200 then I did a quick wait it’s nearly £200!!

I was completely unaware of that pedal. Thanks.  If there's one effect I wish the Helix had, it would be the 1176 compressor. It's got a great LA2A model, but really needs the 1176 to pair with it.

Actually, what I would really want to see, is a model of the Origin Effect Cali76 Compact Bass, as this has a hpf sidechain feature that would be incredibly helpful.

1 hour ago, Sibob said:

Interesting, but then the Helix range has always been a bit of a mess from a marketing perspective.....as good as they are of course.

I kinda agree with that sentiment. As as said, it's an unexpected release, and previous releases have been similar and not quite what I thought they could/should be. The Stomp XL for example could have been so much more. I get why they developed them, but I think they could do better by engaging more users on forums and social media.

56 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I think the price is reasonable too. I don't mean cheap, but the humble Ibby TS9 now costs £120 with zero R&D need, a TS808 is £170!

It's still a lot of money but that doesn't mean unreasonable.

It's also £50 cheaper than a Darkglass B7K, and the emulation of that pedal is excellent. Come to think of it, that (and the sansamp BDDI model) could make it a viable direct to FOH backup rig solution, as the output can be set to line level too.