Dan Dare

This. The sound that works in context is the right one. If you're a soloist, knock yourself out with YOUR tone. If you play in a band, you need to find what best suits the instrumentation, songs, style, etc. Sometimes, a sound that isn't particularly pleasant to listen to in isolation can be the best one in context. "Us, us, us". rather than "Me, me, me".

Is there money or benefit to you in it? Is there a future in being in this band? If so and you have nothing better to do, I'd mime to the backing track for the show. You say you've "joined the band". Was it recently? If it wasn't long ago and they have bass parts on the backing track, are they just concerned that they will be right for the show? It's not unreasonable of them if you are still learning your parts.

I bet they can't read a sundial either. Wasn't like this in my day, etc.

Deep joy. So who walked sh1t through the house on previous Valentine's Days?

Is the Aguilar pre' wired/connected correctly? If so, sounds as if there could be a mis-match between it and the pickups. As the issue is the same in passive mode, you are likely correct that you need a pickup that will play nicely with it. The obvious choice is Aguilar, which ought to work with your pre'. I'd take your tech's advice. No point in buying/trying stuff on spec'. You could easily end up spending more than it will cost to get the right one in the first place. The only way to find out whether the ones you already have will work is to try them.

Not a bass, but a 1960s Gibson A50 mandolin. I bought two in the States - one to keep and one to turn a profit on back in Blighty. The other was a rare A5 from the 1950s. It was in very good condition. whereas the A50 was well used - in sound but slightly scruffy condition but it sounded great and played wonderfully. I kept the A5 (I later sold it to buy a F5), but I've often wished I'd kept the A50.

This. There has never been much good music on mainstream/mass media. It's pointless looking there for it. You may as well dig for gold in a coal mine. I remember the 70s (and, sadly - I'm ancient - the late 60s). Most chart stuff back then was unmitigated tripe, just as it is now.

Same here. With all large companies, you are dependant on the local staff you deal with. If they are good, you will have a happy experience. I agree that it is not the easiest job and that we should do what we can to make it pleasant for them.

I've never heard of a venue being licensed for a certain number of performers in recent times. The old "two in a bar rule" that the MU campaigned against for years no longer applies to my knowledge. Guidance on the need for music licences can be found on the .gov website. Requirements for licences are governed by audience size and the hours when music is performed, but not by numbers of performers. The venue you spoke to may have had insurance that limited the number of performers, or they may have decided that they don't want any more than three people playing. Or they may just have been looking for a convenient reason to say no.

So no change from the "good old days", then.

My BAND is called RaNDoM CapITaLS. Weer all old aje pensionerz. We rite are own songz and moan a lot about YOUNG PEOPLE having NO sens of MUSIC hisStory. Know one wonts to sine us up and giv us a lode of munny. Itz SO unFaiR.

I DRive a TRABANT

My hovercraft is full of eels.

The only way to find out is to try the RCF in that role. Wouldn't the cheapest option that wouldn't add much to your transport/storage issues be to go back to using the RCF for bass and add a sub' to the Yamahas (which are hardly behemoths)?

Because the sound of an acoustic instrument, unlike that of a solid electric instrument - note that I differentiated between them - depends on it being able to resonate properly. It may not matter if it's plugged in, but we're not talking about comparing two solid electric basses. But you do you. It's a free world. I'll pass on wax coating my 1975 Martin D35, my Gibson F5L mandolin or my fiddles, thanks.

May be fine for a solid guitar, but putting a hard coating on an acoustic instrument (as in the photo above) won't do its sound any favours.

You can get a set of reasonable jewellers files from the likes of Amazon for around a tenner. Won't be up to daily use, but will serve for occasional jobs.

Unless the wood is raw (unlikely), it depends on the finish applied. Satin seems particularly prone to show up finger marks, etc. You won't prevent or protect against that unless you don't handle the instrument or only do so with clean gloves on. The finish is already protecting the timber (that's its job). So anything you clean it with will clean the finish, not the wood itself. If the finish is poly, that's impervious to most things. Obviously, you don't want to soak it, but a wipe with a cloth dampened with white spirit should do the trick. You can, if you choose, jump down the rabbit hole of special guitar polishes, etc, but all they really do is cost a lot and make the instrument smell nice.

"Can rerbots play behs?"

Just saw that ridiculous pointy bit off the end and use a normal gig bag 😃

The other option, for that funky industrial look, is to buy a piece of powder coated metal mesh (you can get it cut to size) and replace the cloth with it.

Class D amps are often more tolerant of low impedance. Both of mine will run into 2 ohms. The back panel of any amp will state the minimum speaker impedance it can be used with. Because the majority of standard speaker drive units are 8 ohm. That's why cabs containing two drivers will often be 4 ohm (two 8 ohm drivers, parallel wired). They could be wired in series to give 16 ohms, but that would limit the volume they can produce with a given size of amp, so manufacturers choose parallel. Once cabs use more than two drivers, they are usually wired in a combination of series and parallel to give 8 ohms total impedance. Things can get more complicated. Impedance can vary according to frequency and, as itu points out, speaker efficiency (how much volume a cab will give for a given amount of output power) will also affect how much volume your gear can produce. From a simple, practical point of view, as long as you stick within the impedance and power limits of your amp and cabs, you'll be fine.

Hello Mac. This is not completely technically accurate, but it helps, if you don't understand impedance, to view it as your amplifier needing to see a certain amount of resistance from your speakers. If it doesn't see at least that resistance, it may attempt to deliver more power than it is capable of providing. This can cause it to overheat or even be damaged if you are running at high volumes. Once again, for those who do understand this topic, I am trying to express it in a simple to understand manner. From your post above, your Yamaha can deliver a maximum of 500W and must see a minimum impedance of 2 ohms. It will happily work into higher impedances, such as 4, 8 or 16 ohms, but not into lower. If it sees higher impedance than 2 ohms, it will deliver less power, but will be quite safe to use in that way. Note that it will only be delivering 500W when it is running flat out, which rarely happens in the real world. As a rough rule, the power an amp can provide will halve when speaker impedance doubles. So 500W into 2 ohms becomes 250W into 4 ohms, 125W into 8 ohms and so on. Speaker impedance reduces as you add more of them. So using two 8 ohm speakers means the amp sees a combined impedance of 4 ohms. And so on. If you have one 8 ohm and one 4 ohm speaker, the total impedance they present to your amp will be about 2.7 ohms. You can run both together, but be aware that the 4 ohm speaker will get twice the amount of power as the other because it provides less resistance to the amp. So make sure it can handle it. Hope this helps.

Another tea-leaf who has nicked a bass from the back of someone's motor trying to shift it. No clue what it is, but someone in the local boozer has told him it's "werf fousands", so he's giving it a go. Note no previous sales or feedback. The funniest I ever saw on eBay was a crap copy advertised as a "Jazz Precision". Someone had hacked the top off the headstock and re-located the 4th tuner to the underside of it (a la Sting Ray), but the wrong way around.

Fixed that.