Greg Edwards69

Another one here. Many years ago. I knew the jack socket was intermittent on my old Warwick Thumb before setting out for the gig, and it worked if I wrapped the lead tightly through the strap and didn't move much. But I ended up swapping to my backup for the second set anyway - a Yamaha RBX4/A2 - the lightweight "iPod" bass - I really wish I had kept that one now. After carting a full scale backup around that never gets used - first a Yamaha Attitude Std that I didn't get on with (that I also stupidly p/exd the above RBX4 for) then my Squier 50s P. I decided to get something smaller and lighter, and acquired a Jackson Minion. What a whole lot of fun that is to play. Highly recommend as a backup solution.

FWIW, a Boss Pocket GT landed on my desk at work today. A bit cheaper than the Waza Air, and hopefully better than my Nux Mighty Plug. Looking forward to trying it out later.

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.

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.

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!

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).

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"

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. 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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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.