Al Krow

Well it's an interesting one Andy - I'm a founder member of my main covers band and it's got to a stage where we're getting regular and well paid bookings with three of the five band members connected up either to agents or other contacts. None of the main line up have left in the last 3 years, so it's a pretty stable crew. We've only had a bass dep in for a couple of months. She's actually not been playing bass that long (3 years) but she is a full time musician and whilst I'd consider myself the better bass player having heard her, the band almost certainly won't notice (lol!), and she does have a lot to offer. But now that I have the chance to step back, I'm kinda making the most of it! I hate driving across central London in rush hour at 4mph and I will be putting my foot down (obviously not while driving at 4mph) and getting an Uber or offer for them to dep me going forward for gigs on the other side of London, certainly for mid week gigs. These should be are easy for the dep to get to as she's in a different part of London to me. If it means my band mates avoiding Uber fares I suspect they'll be tempted to go with the dep for those. So it could well be the start of a slippery slope.

Yeah I did think of you Mark - and that would have been most kind. But losing Friday and Saturday to travel for 2 x 45 sets even though it was very well paid just didn't appeal. I think it was at one of the hotels - some annual dinner thing.

I think that was me 😉

Well I wouldn't have really dreamt of turning down gigs before. Tbf I'm the last band member we've found a 'regular' dep for but having finally done so (I guess there had been no need previously as I've not missed any of our gigs, or if I had we simply hadn't done them). But this is the second "not sure I can make that one, guys" in two months. The previous was in the Isle of Wight, which would have written off two full days, albeit for an even better payout. But my dep is a pro, half my age, and more than happy to take on well paid gigs, so it kinda feels like a win win. She also sings (which I don't), has a PA (which the band have relied on me to provide) and drives, so basically I've written my own P45...😁

Yeah we got stung with 5 x £60 = £300 (!!) of parking fines at Wembley BoxPark over two gigs. Managed to get them all waived on appeal fortunately, although the non driving band members were pushing back on the fines coming out of the gig monies...quickly changed their tunes when we said we'd get Ubers going forward then!

In which case, I've got two guitarists in my bands after one, so first dibs please

I just turned down a well paid gig. Suggested to my bandmates that they offer it to our dep instead. We've got a few mid-week function bookings coming up - I just turned down one in Reading mid-week in a few week's time. It would have been 5 to 6 hours of travel there and back plus 2 hours of setting up / putting away and 45 mins of loading / unloading the car. And that's on top of the gig itself and they want to make use of the PA for some party set lists in between so another 3 to 4 hours at the venue. It's a decent pay day at £175 per head, but 9 or so hours faff for 2 hours of actual playing on a school night? Ugh! I absolutely love playing and can happily put up with a few hours travel / setting up but this doesn't appeal at all. The dep lives in NW London so will be an hour or so each way travel for her and I don't have to deny my bandmates the opportunity of a gig. Slippery slope / beginning of the end? Would you have done the gig?

I think you may have mentioned that the pedal you had bought had been even cheaper? But tell you what - the fact that you had recommended this particular pedal got me seriously interested in it! And I just missed out... The original ad was posted 19 days ago. You commented 7 hours ago and it sold the same day. Tell you what - feel free to comment on any of my FS threads any time you like!

Ok this is slightly cheating, but I reckon that this probably gets you 90%of the way there for 10% of the cost? It's cheating because my point is that there is a Tech 21 "sound" and all the Tech 21 pedals seem to be variants on this (very successful!) theme. The Joyo I understand is a clone of the Tech 21 Blonde and obviously the Blonde will have the Tech 21 sound... ...and I seem to have just missed out on the one in the FS, so I'm hoping that Dave has already managed to get this on his Stomp

"Rockstar decides not to look like an accountant" Not sure that's gonna be headline news?

This should do it....

I'm more sceptical. The Fender P he's using should be capable of delivering a pretty classic Motown sound straight out the box. No need to fork out an extra £299 or is it £399(?) just to avoid having to dial your treble knob down a touch.

'Fraid I'm struggling to remember...!

I've actually off loaded my Mastotron since my earlier post on this thread and have taken quite a shine to the Tech 21 Red Ripper pedal, although it's out of production and doesn't seem to come up used that often. It really does provide versatile sonic options, though!

Yeah true. Although the preamp has often been cited as the weak spot on that one.

Yup, his tap dancing skills were consummate. But in a studio you have an armoury of sound engineering and editing which is not going to be available to you with a live rig that is essentially back line.

Ok that's going to rule out the budget Yammy BBs as they are purely passive. Shame as they are a cracking bass for the money!

+1 for the Yammy BB425

Are you after active or passive? If active, 3 band EQ or fine with 2 band?

Following on from our discussion a couple of days back on MIJ vs elsewhere, I received this really positive review of the BB P35 I'd recently moved on, from the guy who bought if off me: "I just want to drop you a note. The BB [P35] is an amazing instrument, I haven't had such a positive vibe from a new instrument in ages. Since getting it home I used it both in our studio as well as a dep gig and I cannot be happier. It has enough flexibility in tone to be useful in a lot of settings, but also has the sensitivity and responsiveness to touch that I often miss in active basses. Only thing I did was change the strings (I am not a D'Addario fan) and tweaked the setup a teeny bit and it feels like I have been using it for years. The neck is just perfect for me." Worth also mentioning that Mark, whom I bought the bass off, rated this as the best bass he'd ever played and was only moving it on as he needed a lighter bass for the considerable amount of gigging he's doing. The one stand out feature for me of both Mark, who is a pro bass player, and the guy I sold this same bass on to is that they are both in a league up from me in terms of how good bassists they are. I can't help but conclude that their greater skill and experience on the bass means that they will be hearing a difference in quality between a very good and an outstanding bass in a way that will simply pass me by.

Right you Dutchmen, let's get this thread back on track! 😁 What a brilliant idea to audition each of the 99 presets on this YouTube clip. For those of us not inclined to spend our lives PC editing, there are going to be a dozen usable sounds for us to get our hands on straight out of the box! And having them all in one place on this YouTube clip is just a really useful reference manual in itself.

I speak fluent English. And I understand Northern dialects. Although I have to 'fess I struggle with understanding WTF our Scottish lead singer is going on about half the time...😂

I have three that are currently vying for my top spot. All three are fantastic basses and I count myself lucky to have them. The one I can't currently put down, however, is...a Spector Euro 5LX. The sculpted body, great neck, meaty low end and OMG, above all, that tone!!

Done, thanks Peter. @Dood - how come you've not set one of these up yet, mate? You'd be right at the top of my (and many other's lists) of BC folk to be saying thank you to / wanting to support for all the effort you put in to making bass a better world to inhabit.