Stylon Pilson

A slightly odd gig on Saturday night, in that it was a punk night but we're not a punk band. Don't ask me, I didn't book it. I had some concern that, being first on, we might scare away any crowd that showed up, but we were actually very well received, which was nice. The main annoyance of the night for me was that, after the other bands had soundchecked, I got intercepted by the sound guy as I was lifting my rig onto the stage. "Is that for the bass?" he asked. "Yes, " I replied. "There's an amp already set up and plugged into the DI." At this point, I know what he's trying to say, he's trying to say "we're already running late and I would be ever so grateful if you would do me the favour of speeding things along by using that TE 7215 or whatever it is." It's a weedy-looking little ankle-biter, dwarfed by 4x12 half stacks either side of it, but I figure that we're the first band on at a punk night, we shouldn't even be here, and this is not the time to make a fuss. So I put my rig back down in the backstage area and plug into the supplied backline. It's very quiet. The gain is on 2, so I try to turn it up, and the knob just spins freely. I get the sound guy on the case straight away, because I don't want to be held accountable for breaking someone else's amp. He's convinced there's something wrong with my pedals, or the bass in my battery is flat (it's passive). Eventually, by turning the gain knob past 10 he gains enough traction to actually have an effect. He seems surprised that the gain setting that worked for the other bassists during soundcheck doesn't work for me. "Your bass is really quiet" he says. "Maybe, but that's why we have gain knobs" I think to myself. Later on, after we've played and the second band have taken the stage, he approaches me again. "Had to turn the gain back down for them. I think you should get your pickups checked out." I smile and thank him for his suggestion. S.P.

Vertically-aligned 6x15. S.P.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1429271806' post='2749884'] Please don't take offense, but posing questions like this one point out why you should not be trying to design your own speaker. One must learn to crawl before learning to walk, and where the science of acoustical engineering is concerned you're still in the pram. Whatever time and money you have invested in this project should be chalked up as a loss, the cost of a learning experience. Go back to square one and read, read, read. The sources are out there. [/quote] If this was a Hollywood movie, the plucky bootsy666 would build his bass cab anyway. There'd be a montage scene with lots of screwing and glueing and tolexing. And then there'd be a final climactic scene where his bass cab would face-off with one of Bill's, and blow it out of the water, and Bill would admit defeat and pass the mantle to the spunky young underdog. However, this is not a Hollywood movie, so that probably won't happen. S.P.

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1427895458' post='2735562']buy a jazz, go on a Jaco bender to end all Jaco benders and get it out of your system![/quote] Ding ding ding! We have a winner! You know when you get a really catchy song stuck in your head, and it won't go away? Is the solution to try to forget about it? No! That never works! The solution is to seek out a recording of said song and listen to it in its entirety. Once the beast is sated, it will trouble you no more. S.P.

Does anyone know of any recording studios in the south-east where they are set up for recording a full five-piece rock band simultaneously? I'm all about that live energy. Thanks. S.P.

Had a pub gig last night, went fairly well, though I think we had a bit too much "mellow" content in the set. Things nearly fell apart during the last song when the '1' briefly disappeared, but we kept cool heads and wrangled it back into submission. Cute little coincidence as I step off the stage and am approached by a familiar face, a guy who played drums in a previous band with me. "Oh hello, " I smile, "fancy meeting you here! Is this your local?" "Nah, " he beams back, "we're up next!" S.P.

Happy with my rig (TC RH450 into a Barefaced Compact) but not convinced that I've found the perfect bass yet. S.P.

Really enjoyable gig last night, only one other band on so we got a decent length set for once. Driving into London at rush hour was a bit unpleasant - ended up taking me about 1h45 to get there and not much less to get back (there was a crash on the M4 at around midnight). It was also a really nice opportunity for some family members to come along who haven't seen me play a gig for a long time (or even at all!) We've got a much more local gig this evening, which will be a relief. I'm also very happy about the strict cab-sharing policy, because it means that I can go on the train! S.P.

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1424014467' post='2691524'] I've seen a bass masterclass session on YouTube featuring Sadowsky and Tobias (which I've linked to a couple of times on here) and they talk about coated strings being problematic where they lack a metal to metal contact for grounding (so their advice is don't use them). YMMV. [/quote] The metal-to-metal contact seems to be fine - it's the metal-to-me contact that's absent! S.P.

Here's an update - took my bass to rehearsal today (with a backup, just in case) and while the problem was still there, it was nowhere near as noticeable. I wouldn't use the instrument for recording, but for live use I think it'll be fine. I'm going to try it at a gig on Thursday, but again I'll have a backup just in case. I have also tried setting up in a different room in the house, and again the problem was far less noticeable. I think that this room has problems, either sources of interference or bad wiring. S.P.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1423946744' post='2690815'] Does the coating prevent the string making an electrical connection with the bridge? That would do it. [/quote] If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say no - because when I touch the tuning posts, the hum goes away, which implies that the tuning posts are connected to the bridge via the core of the string. It's just that the coating prevents the string making a connection to my body. [quote name='Romeo2' timestamp='1423949979' post='2690873'] I cannot find the original post from Roger Sadowsky on this at the moment (seems some places have removed his spiel on the issue) but someone posted a pic of an article he wrote, on fb: [url="https://www.facebook.com/cleartonestrings/posts/481917048503023"]https://www.facebook...481917048503023[/url] [/quote] Now I'm confused. There seem to be two schools of thought - one, like Roger S, says that a string ground is essential, and others say that a properly shielded instrument shouldn't require it. But I can't help feeling that if I have to constantly have at least one finger in contact with one of my strings to prevent background humming, then that's a design shortcoming. S.P.

[quote name='KiOgon' timestamp='1423938658' post='2690661'] Have you tried a different/proven good lead? [/quote] Tried a variety of leads, all produce identical results. Also tried it with a different bass (though I haven't tried putting the strings on another bass, that's one option, though not really ideal), and it's fine. S.P.

I've just put a set of coated strings on my bass and I'm now getting a buzz that goes away when I touch the bridge or control knobs or tuning posts. From what I can gather, this suggests that the bass isn't correctly shielded. I've had a look inside the control cavity - there seems to be metal foil on the underside of the scratch plate, and a little piece of copper on the body that it connects to. The inside of the cavity is painted black, there's a earthing wire underneath the bridge. Does this indicate that the jack socket maybe isn't earthed correctly? I dunno, this isn't really my area of expertise. Should I just avoid coated strings? S.P.

Okay then, never mind. S.P.

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1420646147' post='2651693'] What is this 'changing strings' thing of which you speak? [/quote] I replace my roundwounds every 4 years, whether they need it or not. S.P.

[quote name='juliusmonk' timestamp='1419283303' post='2638409'] Nothing fancy but blue it is... [/quote] I have the exact same bass! It was my first decent instrument after my crappy second hand starter bass. I still take it to rehearsals once in a while. S.P.

We did "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" at our gig 10 days back. I wish I had a recording of it, I think you'd all get a tickle out of it. S.P.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1414795112' post='2593521'] I probably have as little faith in councils and planners as you do but the musical heritage that was Tin Pan Alley went years ago. It is a shadow of what it was in the 50s and 60s. [/quote] I think I first visited Denmark Street about 10 years ago. After I got over the initial shock of seeing so many guitar shops in one place, I felt a bit disappointed. I dunno, maybe I had been expecting too much, but it had been sold to me as this place where rock history had been made, and I was anticipating some kind of quasi-religious experience. The impression I got was that any "soul" that had lingered in the air there had long since evaporated, and now they were just going through the motions. S.P.

The update you've all been waiting for! So, got there with my lead guitarist shortly before 7pm. Parked on Oakridge Road (no restrictions after 4pm or at weekends), about 100m from the venue. Lugged my stuff in, fair few punters in, had great fun weaving my way through those crowds. There's a little area to the side of the stage which presumably has tables in during the day, but is cleared out and reserved for bands' gear in the evenings. The rest of my band were already there, they said that the strippers... sorry, exotic dancers... had already gone off upstairs, about half an hour previously. Never mind. The stage was reasonably deep but somewhat narrow, I was concerned that with three of us standing side by side there might be a danger of some headstock-in-face action, but we dodged it. The acoustics were superb, we got a really tasty stage sound, and the other bands sounded good too. Exceptional clarity, no-one got lost in the mix. The night was really well-organised by Major's Live Events. My favourite touch was that 5 days ahead of the gig, the organiser sent out a PDF containing information such as when to get there, what equipment is provided, what equipment ISN'T provided, line-up, venue policies, organiser's mobile phone number. It's not the first time I've had the pleasure of receiving such a document, but I believe it should be obligatory, and it's the indicator of someone who knows where their towel is. The crowd thinned out a bit over the course of the evening (I think that the opening act, a guy with an acoustic Telecaster playing Oasis covers, probably didn't help) so we didn't end up playing to a packed pub, but it was better attended than some of the shïte gigs we've had lately. Went home about midnight. Didn't bother going upstairs to say hi to the exotic dancers. I'm way too cerebral for such low-brow distractions. S.P.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1416481847' post='2610594'] At the same time though, if the stuff is in the garage and the thief has come with a van they can just steal his stuff without trying to break into the van.[/quote] Yes, but lugging all the stuff out and transferring it into their van will make a lot of noise and disturbance which increases the chance that someone will catch them at it. [quote name='charic' timestamp='1416481847' post='2610594']Also if it was in the van they wouldn't know anything is in there. [/quote] True, unless they'd done a bit of research. S.P.

I think that of those three bands, one of the first two probably won't pan out. I'd suggest that you get started with all three, and if the first two both somehow miraculously come together, then make a decision on which one to retire from. It sounds to me like the established covers band is the one that you're the least musically engaged with, and it sounds like they wouldn't have much difficulty replacing you, so perhaps it would be them. S.P.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1416481038' post='2610571'] So if you keep your gear in the garage but not in the van, and you keep your van in the garage too, what's to stop a thief just loading the van with your gear and driving off in it? OK, it would take a minute or two to load the van, but... [/quote] Actually, I can see the insurance company's point here. If all your gear is in your van, it's packaged up and ready for transit. They just need your keys, and they're off. As the OP has admitted in his own post, loading and unloading is a lot of hassle, and that probably acts as a deterrent to a lazy thief. S.P.

Excellent article. I agreed wholeheartedly with the original when I read it a few years back (5? 10?) and I agree wholeheartedly with his latest. The music "industry" was a fad. Music was around for thousands of years before it, and it will be around for thousands of years after. S.P.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1416328630' post='2609105'] When are you guys playing there? Sounds like this place has all the ingredients for a BC drink up [/quote] Haha, that would be awesome! The date we've been offered is Saturday 13th December, not sure if we're confirmed yet. I've been reassured by the comments above that it's not a dangerous place, but it sounds hella sleazy. Which might be fun. S.P.

Don't know if this is supposed to go in the Gigs section or not. We've been offered a gig at The White Horse in High Wycombe. I know that this place used to be one of the roughest pubs in the country, but supposedly has cleaned up its act in recent years ([url="http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/4077192.Strip_club_pub_to_clean_up_image_with_rock_and_roll/"]source[/url]). Has anyone played a gig here recently? Am I likely to leave with the same number of teeth that I walked in with? S.P.