Monkey Steve

Not helpful to the OP, but my experience of everything I’ve ever tried is that everybody agrees that a band calendar/diary/app/whatever will be used, and that it is everybody’s responsibility to fill it out as soon as they know they won’t be able to play on a particular date, and if a date is free then whoever is booking the gig can book it without having to wait for three or four other people to respond to extra or e-mails, etc And half the band will do it, and half the band won’t, and as soon as a gig is booked the guitarist (always the guitarist) will tell you that he can’t make the date and that you should have checked with him first because he’s a word that BassChat won’t let me use

Yeah, a bit of honesty usually works much better than trying to fudge things and pretending that they didn't mean any harm. I expect there's something behind it, but I doubt you'll ever get to the bottom of it, and there's probably nothing to be gained if you do Onwards and upwards

nice looking instrument

Nothing I have ever tried has worked Unfortunately you are dealing with musicians

yeah, that's not nice Have there been any issues with you and any of the band members over the years? I was talking to a mate about this sort of thing recently, about the stream of band members who have joined and left for various reasons, and whether they could solve a current issue by asking one of them back who I know to be a good musician and who would be open to returning. And the reply was that while he personally liked the person concerned and would be happy to see him back, the band leader had a very scorched earth policy - if you crossed him then you were out and there would be no return. And the reason for not inviting him back (there had been an opportunity to do so) was nothing to do with his playing, it was around an incident or two that seemed very minor to me, and I'm sure the individual has absolutely no idea would have upset the band leader So, feck 'em. You're better off without them

yeah - Rainbow. Not there any more, but used to be opposite the George Robey...which isn't there any more either...Finsbury Park would be more helpful

When I first started playing the common opinion in my group of mates was that using a tuner pedal was some sort of awful affectation and they were only used by non-serious musicians with too much money. You just needed an accurate E and it's harmonics for the rest. So I used to tune up at home using a flexi disk from a "learn to play the bass" book, and when we all got to practice/gigs everybody would tune to my E. None of us understood about stretching strings. We did understand about staring at everybody else and insisting that they were out of tune, definitely not me

I always remember my first trip to Denmark St to sell a guitar, many, many moons ago. A very good lesson from one of the assistants, who explained that while he could see that I had put better components on the Gibson Les Paul (really just my preference, whether sound or cosmetic), you're never getting any more money for doing it, and often you'll get less for it not being "original". I was reminded of that when I was window shopping on Reverb - someone was trying to sell a quite limited guitar (also a Les Paul by coincidence) and he'd changed the pickups, the knobs, and swapped the case, all to make it look and feel more vintage. It was listed for about a grand less than one without the "upgrades", and it's been listed for a while with no takers. I'm happy to make changes to anything that I think is a keeper (and usually keep the parts, just in case it isn't). And I'm generally in agreement with the OP - the one that makes me laugh is when the ad assures the potential buyers that any "upgrades" have been professionally installed, which apparently is worth paying more for than having soldered it correctly yourself

not had to play anything going that low, but from my experiences of needing to go lower than standard, it's more or less the same as for a 5 string bass - get the right gauge strings and tune to the note, don't try to get anything to track it. Personally I'd want at least a five string bass if I was going that low, possibly six, but it depends on whether you need the higher notes so putting thicker strings on a four string will be fine if you don't need the full regular set. You will need to do a proper set up though That may then give you an issue with the tone across the whole set lower strings often "boom" a bit, or can be muddy. I found that when I went to a low B a lot of it is getting used to the difference in tone from the E and adapting your playing technique, which is a longer term solution. In the short term, the best "out of the box" tone I got across lower strings was from EMG pickups on a relatively cheap ESP/LTD bass. I didn't especially like the bass in the long run and don't have it any more, but the EMGs really handled the tone across the whole set brilliantly, so that the low B didn't boom

I don't suppose we'll ever know exactly what was really behind it, but it sounds like he wanted to be part of the band, and they were happy to keep him as the hired help. If he was after a share of the sweet, sweet T-shirt money then that may have forced their hand, and while it may seem short sighted, I can understand why they might want to have a distinction between original members and latecomers, whether financial or otherwise. I've certainly seen that sort of thing force issues in other bands, admittedly not at that level, but one name band I know have a level of tolerance for musicians who can turn up and do their job even if they don't especially like them as individuals, but that wanes if the musician struts around like they own the band, which makes them focus on any shortcomings. One hired hand is on very thin ice at the moment and I'd put money on him not seeing out the year. But to the public, you'd never know that he wasn't really part of the band, because the good PR thing to do is announce that he's in the band and everything's great, and when someone is sacked it's never a sacking, they have decided to devote their time to other projects and the band wishes them well, etc. This one is unusual that the dirty washing is being aired in public, but I suspect it's more common that we think

You sir must be a fraud - honestly, I can't believe you've ever played with any other musicians if you think they're all nice guys 🤣 Seriously though, these two are really good mates, and two of the best guitarists I've ever played with in our previous band...but as soon as the studio door closed the gloves were off and they never held back about their opinions on what the band was playing, whether any band members were performing to standard, if they thought the songs were any good, etc. It really surprised me when the band first started, but unlike any other bands I've been in, it was kept strictly to the studio, and actually was really healthy - nobody went home feeling resentful or annoyed at what somebody had been doing, all the arguments were had in public and resolved. And it was always about the music, not personal. Nine times out of ten we'd go to the pub after practice and there would be no hard feelings about what had been said at rehearsal. It was a really healthy attitude. Ironically enough, the "drummer" recently sacked the actual drummer in his main band for not being up to scratch Like I say, we'll give him the chance to fail, and if he's not up to it and can't improve enough to be the drummer we need then we'll tell him. In fact we've already told him that he'll be sacked if he isn't up to scratch, only half joking. The guitarist is happy enough if we tell him that he can't be the drummer but can play guitar instead, though whether his ego will allow that would remain to be seen. It might also be an issue if one of our ideas for a singer works, as the person who has been making noises about maybe wanting to do it also plays guitar...

He might take that personally...still, it'll solve a problem if he quits

Two suggestions for fixing it using pedals If it's purely volume then a simple booster like an MXR Micro Amp would work - I use one live to balance active and non-active basses as a clean boost to adjust volume levels, and it's excellent. Well, I used to use one live but now don't need to... If it's more of an issue with the active electronics being underwhelming, I had a very similar issue with a Warwick, and I ummed and aahed about changing the active eq, but in the end fixed it with a Darkglass Harmonic Booster. It is now my "make everything better" pedal for any passive basses and the underwhelming Warwick. Honestly, it makes it sound like a brilliant active circuit and just adds a bit of sparkle and depth to the sound

I don't have any criticism of the OP's position, and am a bit similar - partly it's because of my interest in the bass, but also because vocals tend to follow the roots of the bass melody. Not always, but often But of late I am coming to the opinion that I've been missing a trick when writing songs by not focusing on the vocal melodies (not the lyrics per se) Possibly from a punk/metal background where often there aren't any vocal melodies, and I am aware that I've trained myself to not listen too closely to the singer from too many years of playing in bands at an early age when the vox were just shouting. I also think it's a failing of guitarists that they write riffs, when people listen to melodies. F'rinstance - listen to Zombie by the Cranberries. There's a very clear verse bridge chorus structure, but actually it's all over the same four chords. If I presented just the chords or bass to a band they'd complain that I hadn't written a song

funnily enough I'm the opposite - I'm drawn to music that I can't understand how to play

Hey folks. I’ve been on an extended break from social media - I’m sure you all missed me! Dipping my toe back in, and the biggest change since I was last hanging around here is that I’m in the middle of putting a new band together. Very long story short, a drunken chat in a pub shortly before covid hit in 2020 led to three of us agreeing to start a new band The plan at that time was that we would work on some music on our own, ready to get together when one of our number got back from his main band’s European tour that was due to kick off at the end of March 2020. Turns out that the tour ended much earlier than expected, but lockdown also put paid to us getting together, and much procrastination followed The next time we were all together was for a birthday drink in between lockdowns in May 2021 and after a few drinks we repeated that we should start this new band, let’s all work on some songs and arrange to get together… One thing that did happen in lockdown was me buying an iMac with Logic Pro, and I finally got round to recording some demos last Autumn. A mere 18 months after I said I’d get started. A little bit too pleased with myself, I sent those round and we’re off! Sort of There are some issues needing to be resolved First, it turns out that making drunken plans leaves some room for interpretation about what had been agreed. Mainly around the style of music we are going to play. The other two are guitarists in reasonably well known extreme metal bands, but we’d played together before in a much less extreme hard rock band, and they thought we were doing the same again as they like doing stuff that is different to their main bands. But that’s been ironed out and we are now playing what we like and seeing what works. It's probably more towards the hard rock end of the spectrum than the extreme metal Second, despite the fact that the other two are both very good guitarists, one of them wants to play drums in this band. He has never played drums in a band before. It all made sense when we were talking about being a three piece in the pub, but me and the one guitarist who will be sticking to the guitar have little confidence that the drummer will be up to the task. In fact he sent us a demo of him playing drums over my demos (which the guitarist has played lead on). I scored it as 4/10, and told him so. It wasn’t actually that bad, or wouldn’t be if he stuck to getting the basic beat right rather than losing track of what he is doing every time he puts in a fill…but there are loads of fills and he is frequently out of time. In fairness, he sort of knew this when he sent it, and it was partly for our amusement, and partly to illustrate that he could do most of the basics OK. However, now that the guitarist understands that we’re not limited to being a hard rock band, some of the songs he is writing are quite complicated and being able to maintain a basic beat is unlikely to cut it. But we’ll do the decent thing and allow him to fail rather than sacking him now. But you can’t have a band with a drummer who can’t drum, so me and the guitarist have contingency plans. Admittedly drunken contingency plans which haven’t actually been mentioned to any of the people we think could be asked to be our new drummer. But we’re sure they’ll work. The last problem is getting some impetus to move things forward. I might complain about getting used to things returning to normal as we emerge from the latest lockdown, but the main issue is down to me - the other two seem to think that I’m the band leader, and I’m rubbish at that sort of thing, as is the guitarist. I’ve also had a bit of a health issue for the last few months, which I’m hoping will be resolved shortly, but that’s really an excuse for my putting off arranging anything. The irony is that the drummer is a natural band leader, but he seems to treat this as his excuse to play the drums rather than a band that he is fully committed to, and he’s contributed very little thus far. So it’ll be down to me to get a studio booked for our first jam. I’ve acquired two new basses in lockdown so I’m really keen to get that arranged…just don’t seem to be in a hurry to actually arrange it. I only have myself to blame. We then have the search for a singer, but that’s a problem for another day. Oh, and we have to find a proper name for the band, as the working title will definitely prevent us from getting any gigs

Thing is, I can understand that mistakes happen, and with Hermes being the biggest UK couriers after the Royal Mail, they will also be the ones who lose or damage the most. It probably makes sense for high volume senders, where a small saving on the individual postage cost adds up to massive savings, and more than pays for any losses not covered by insurance (or, more likely, more than pays for the independent insurance for the losses) But unlike Amazon, DPD or UPS (who have also delivered packages to me recently) they are noticeably the only ones who seem to give a boot full of parcels to some bloke to drop off in his car. Unlike some others, I don't seem to have a "local Hermes driver" - possibly it's different if you are the sender. I seem to have a different person each time, never in a Hermes van. While Amazon are repeat offenders for knocking on the door and running away, Hermes are the only ones who frequently just dump the parcel on the doorstep and leave without even bothering to knock on the door.

I've had a lot of deliveries from a lot of companies over the last few weeks, and the only one to make a complete mess of things is...Hermes An Amazon delivery from the USA - rather than doing it themselves (as they do for orders from Europe) they seem to put the deliveries into the hands on one of the panel of logistics managers who then arrange the delivery. Parcel makes it to the UK about a week ahead of the estimated delivery date (which seems pretty standard for the US Amazon orders - I had another one delivered today, a week ahead of the estimate) who then give it to Hermes. A day later Hermes has an update, that "We're sorry your parcel has been delayed, we'll have it on the move in the next 24 hours". Over 100 hours later I contact Amazon to point out that the local courier with a reputation for losing and selling packages had reported a delay four days previously. I then had an, ahem, interesting exchange with the first Customer Services person who couldn't understand that if a parcel was showing as Out For Delivery on their tracking then clearly it was an issue if it had been out for delivery for four days, even if that is still two days ahead of the original estimated delivery date. I got transferred to a manager who agreed that perhaps something did seem wrong, and they would chase their "logistics partner" who would in turn chase Hermes. And if it still hadn't arrived by the original delivery date then I could ask for a refund. Which I did not want because it is an Amazon.com exclusive release, shown as sold out on Amazon.com. I'm amazed when the Hermes tracker app was updated to show that they now had my parcel! Great, that exclusive is on it's way to me. And not at all updated simply because Amazon had chased them... Then nothing for two days, despite them apparently having it ready for delivery. And then "We're sorry your parcel has been delayed, we'll have it on the move in the next 24 hours". That was 170 hours ago, yet still they are telling me that it will be on the move again by 11.30 last Thursday. By a stroke of luck Amazon in the UK now has the US exclusive to order through their global store, and oddly a few quid cheaper than the US order, so it was an easy decision to get a refund from the US order and place a new one through the UK site...currently shown as having cleared UK customs...keeping my fingers crossed that they don't give it to Hermes for the last few miles

I had last week off - booked in advance of the proposed lockdown easing, but it left me with a lot of spare time to be messing around with new gear the week before the shops reopened... So I welcomed to the fold a couple of Darkglass pedals MicroTubes X - still settling in. I don't use fuzz a lot but I want a better option than the pedal I used when I was last called upon to distort the bass (the fuzz section of an Ampeg SCR DI). So more as a tool for when I need it than for my main sound. I think there's more exploring to be done Harmonic Booster - wow! I was put on to it by a guitarist mate who told me over a Zoom call/drink that when his band recorded their last album the producer put all the bass through one of these and while he didn't really understand what it did (had it been a guitar pedal he'd have know all about it, but being a guitarist he has no interest in what is happening to the bass) it just made the bass sound better. He was not wrong

So the replacement nameplate turned up today... very happy with how it turned out

I think subjective plays a huge part here. In the case of my mate's album, the CD version is excellent, and I suspect most like what they heard in the studio. I know they didn't do a specific vinyl master (there's no way the record company would have paid for that) but he liked the way the vinyl softened his guitar sound. I dare say most of their fans would disagree, but it's not a hugely noticeable difference in any case. He certainly hasn't been complaining that the CD sounds dreadful for the last three years As an aside, now that I do most of my listening to music on my phone, i have got used to the much better bass response that I have from my headphones and DAC, so vinyl, and even CDs, can sound a little lacking in comparison. Again, so subjective...

I have to say, I've wondered the same thing - it's stated like it's a thing, but if it was that good wouldn't everybody do it? I do agree that vinyl which has been specifically mastered for vinyl sounds better, to my ears at least - the Nine Inch Nails vinyl remasters sound stunning, as do the Steve Wilson Jethro Tull remasters on vinyl, but as a rule of thumb CDs always sound better (but vinyl has an X factor that makes it more of a pleasure to actually play) That said, "better" is subjective - I was playing a mate a vinyl copy of his band's last album which he'd never heard because he doesn't own a turntable, and he could hear differences to the CD and digital files, and he preferred the vinyl - a slightly warmer sound to some of the sharper guitar parts

@BigRedX is right that there are a lot of factors at play here, not just the set of strings Gauge, pickups, set up (you might try dropping the pickup height or raising the action under the B string if it is overpowering the rest of the strings) and playing technique all have a role in how the low B sounds in comparison to the rest of the set, and it took me years to get an even sound across the fretboard. Probably the biggest change for me was developing my technique, and while I can recognise that this has developed over the years, I'd be hard pressed to explain exactly what i have changed - it really comes down to being more used to playing on the low B. For what it's worth, I like a bright, zingy tone, and use D'Addario Pro Steels, EPS300-5s. The low B is quite light at 127, which is against the conventional wisdom that thicker is better, but it works brilliantly for me. Depending on your wallet you might try a few different gauges

So I tried the plexi nameplate from my 4001... Looks good from this distance, but annoyingly it sits about 2mm away from the nut - makes it look like a fake with the wrong nameplate! I’ll see how good the Far Eastern replacement is when it turns up, hopefully in a few days

Not that I could see - I suspect they want to stay on the right side of Rickenbacker, who stopped selling name plates quite some time ago (as I understand it they will sell replacements, but you have to go through quite a few hoops to get one, and prove that it is destined for a genuine Rickenbacker, and send back the broken original - I had hoped to be able to do a straight swap, but Rossetti say No)