Al Krow

Which multi are you using? Just asking for a friend...

So three Xmas gigs - 2 corporate and 1 pub. My takeaways are: The 8 Xmas songs we did at the corporate gigs are definitely too many, haha! 3 went down really well: Slade. Mariah Carey and Feliz Navidad. The rest were tolerated or "floor emptiers". 2 out of the 3 Xmas songs at the pug gig went down a storm: Slade and Pogues. Our lead singer persuaded the band it was ok for us to do the Pogues song as she was going to use Kirsty MacColl's own change to the original homophobic slur in it and, not only that, she actually took the time when introducing the song to let the audience know that she would be changing a couple of the words to be respectful. It was probably the best received song the band did during the night, and the bass player was able to go off and get a beer (or more precisely take some footage, haha!) as the keys more than adequately covered the bass line (please excuse the rough audio):

Final gig of the year for us and could have been a wipeout due to technical issues with the mixer, which meant the band started very stripped back and, in particular, without any bass - as we've always played this small, somewhat cramped, venue without backline putting everything through the PA. But we managed to fix the problem and my bandmates were then very much more appreciative of having a bass in the mix, after experiencing the sound of a full band without one for the first time! https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmTuWIlDjvN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link We got a couple of birthday party invitations off the back of the gig, so I guess all's well that ends well! Happy Christmas all!

Super useful, thanks. But finding myself having a hefty prolapse with the first two: 144 strains to a grunt AND 12 grunts to a strain??

Do you both plug your Xvive transmitters directly into your desks or are you using a short cable to keep the transmitter away from the desk to minimise any noise interference? I've seen a YT clip suggesting that might be a good idea and was wondering whether it was something either or both of you do?

What use are you planning on putting it to? 25W RMS at 8ohms would seem very underpowered in a band mix. Or are you planning on using it as a dedicated headphone amp? Seems pricey for just that at £350,though, and relatively bulky compared to the alternatives headphone amps.

The AS is really, however, a drive/dirt multifx. Will it be up for the chop now you're loving the drive/dirt options on your Zoom B6?

Been giving a fair bit of thought to us doing Fairytale. I think where I'm landing is a "no" to us playing it live. I can't see how we can possibly prevent drunk and not so drunk members of the pub audience shouting out "faggot" as they sing along, even if we drop it from the lyrics ourselves? I can't be doing with encouraging anyone to be using a gay equivalent of the N-word because of what we're playing. On that basis, I'm very happy to give that particular Xmas song a miss.

That bass line is definitely the best bit of that song, haha! For me, the Jackson 5 Xmas song is one that combines a good bass line with a decent tune. But then the Motown brigade have always understood what a decent bass line is about.

Yup, completely understand that line of thinking! If you're going to be playing them, be nice if they're on a par with the rest of the sets you're doing, although a drunk Xmas pub audience probably wouldn't care too much if you were including one or two rough cuts at the end of the second set. I suspect most bands wouldn't offer to learn more than one or two new songs for a wedding gig (eg a the first dance and maybe one or other fav) which typically pay the most. Having said that, once you've got them learned you can at least roll them out every year - as someone's already mentioned, there has not really been anything much new in terms of Xmas songs written since the 1990s... I guess they really are turning into modern day carols!

A detailed A/B of these vs your Xvive U4s would definitely be interesting!

Yup totally agree on what you're saying about Fairytale - it seems to be more of pub singalong rather than a corporate-party dance-along. I mean, yes it's definitely one of the more meaningful Christmas songs, but function bands aren't typcially booked because they include Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen in their sets are they? Aside: the (genuinely) saddest version of it I came across of it was actually one done by the Pogues themselves with Katie Melua. Shane MacGowan's demons visibly coming home to roost. Still, he's written something more beautiful and meaningful than I ever will.

Cheers - but sounds like 2 Christmas songs in a two-hour set was plenty - or were you typically doing a few more?

Agreed. Two would be cool. 8, which our singer wants to do, seems massively excessive! Not sure many are doing more than 4, though, from the replies so far.

Which ones do you typically do?

The Irish contingent in my bands are fully behind you on Fairytale, haha! But OMG it's the dullest bass line ever, right? Going to let our Irish keyboard / singer use her left hand for that one, while I get a beer...

Please come dep for me.

I guess that is a key point ie if bands are being booked for an office "Christmas party", it seems to me the focus is actually on it being a "party" at Xmas, and much less on the "Christmas" aspect? I mean isn't the latter what carol services are for? And if you do Xmas songs, how many? Maybe a couple to show willing, but what's a reasonable number to be doing? They're generally not great ones to get folk up and dancing. Our singer is pushing for us to do eight.

Bit of a debate going on in my two covers bands - the singers are keen, with some of the rest of the band throwing up their hands in horror. Do you guys typically roll out Xmas songs in your Dec set lists and, if so, which ones / how many do you do?

I'm going to be a bit of a dissenting voice here - I found the AS core tones to be typically 3 to 4 out of 5 in terms of the original drives they were digitally emulating. So, all in all, it felt a bit meh to me and I didn't hold onto mine. Obviously others seem to love it, so YMMV etc.

Dave has just bought a pedal off me: fast payment and really good comms, a real pleasure to deal with. Hope you enjoy the pedal! Cheers, Bas

Had mine for 18 months and really happy with it - provides me with an excellent back up / alternative to my DG M900 AO which costs loads more - the Bugera really is incredible value for money! Why am I not surprised to find out that we've got this piece of kit in common, Phil? 🙂 You mention good EQ centre points - do you know what these actually are for the ultra-low, bass, treble, and ultra-high? The variable mids are obviously marked on the unit, but I couldn't see any mention of the rest in the manual?

Or pick up a pretty decent set of Harley Bentons or Warwick Red Labels for < £10, rather than paying the cost of a new Harley Benton bass each time (see related thread) 🙂

Harley Benton Valuestrings Bass 45-105 Actually under £5 for the strings themselves, but then need to add P&P on top. But still works at two sets costing < £20 or under a £tenner each. Anyone tried them and liked / disappointed?

Boss OC-5 is a good shout - have one on my board. I've tried a few others over the years and ones that do a decent job include the Digitech pedals - I have the Mosaic, which does a pretty good 8 string bass effect. Having said that, I think most pedals struggle with the octave-up in terms of producing something natural sounding and not tinny. Octave-down seems to be much easier to handle, particularly if you're not playing too low in the first place. So when I need to thicken the sound up, I've ended up playing up the octave and engaging the OC-5 on octave-down rather playing where I normally would and engaging octave-up. Much better result! Obviously on the OC-5 you can have octave-down and up simultaneously if you're feeling like straying into the full Royal Blood!