Newfoundfreedom

I like a bit of Rammstein. I've not seen them personally, but a good friend of mine whose seen just about every touring rock band you could name, said they're the best band he's ever seen live. So that's a good enough recommendation for me.

We use all Behringer stuff. Power mixer, PA speakers and monitor, and I honestly can't fault any of it.

HB's look superb for the money and are very highly rated in reviews. Vintage basses with Wilkinson hardware are ridiculously good and cheap as chips. I hate to say it but even budget Squier stuff is really good and definitely giggable. I have absolutely no problem with anyone spending thousands of their hard earned on a high end instrument of that's what they want to do. But in this day and age, there's absolutely no "need" to do so.

To be fair, anything is an improvement over the standard Fender / Squier headstock.

It was good, don't get me wrong. But at 6 times the price, it certainly wasn't 6 times better. I think even budget instruments these days are so well made, after you've spent about £300 you soon start to hit the law of diminishing returns. That threshold used to be much, much higher.

I've always found them to be the emperor's new clothes.

I used to have a £1500 Warwick Thumb. I now have a £200 Traben, and I honestly prefer the Traben, both for playability and sound. I have a Bugera Veyron head which was about £250 new and is absolutely superb! Louder than I'll ever need, punchy as hell, and the tones it puts out are amazing. I also bought a couple of the Wharfedale cabs that Anderson's were knocking out cheap a few months ago and they're unbelievably good. It makes me wonder how much "better" the expensive stuff can possibly be, because the sound in getting on a budget is outstanding!

I think relaxing too much because everything's going great can also be a big culprit. We played a small festival on Saturday night, (our first ever) everyone brought their A game, concentrated on what they were doing, and we had probably the best gig of our (granted somewhat short) career. The following night, we played a local charity gig which we've done before, to a handful of punters and were all relaxed as it was a throw away gig. It was bloody awful! So much so, the drummer started packing her kit up in the break and had to be talked around, and I wasn't far behind. We had a word with ourselves in the interval, and the second set was spotless. It was like playing with two different bands.

For me it's got to be Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. The person who made me want to pick up a bass guitar at 15, and still inspires me now at 45. His playing has been consistent through all those years, and his sound and style is unmistakable.

As I'm the only member of the band that's fully wireless and don't need to be neer a pedal board or tethered to an amp or PA, I don't have a problem if they don't leave me any room. I'll just stand in front of the lot of em.

I'm married to the singer. It's like taking a packed lunch to a buffet. 😂

My mates the drummer in System of Hate. I believe they're playing Thursday afternoon.

Yes the amp head gives me "my sound" as I run it post eq. But it's tiny, weighs next to nothing, and tucks away neatly under the PA stand. I had a whole pedal board but I don't use it at all now, it's just more gear I don't need to be lugging around. I'm aiming to keep things as simple as possible from now on.

Could be worse. The guitarist is married to the drummer. 😂

I've already gone wireless from the guitar into a class D head, and I've just decided to give DI'ing directly into the PA a go. So that'll be two cabs I don't have to hump around. Providing everything sounds OK at practice tomorrow. That should lighten the load considerably and hopefully make gigging a more pleasant experience. Just the bass, and amp head in a small laptop bag. Although as I'm married to the singer there's no way around having to hump the PA about.

Ooh I like it too. I've said it before, bit the Vintage brand stuff with the Wilkinson hardware is ridiculously good for the money. Definitely punches well above it's weight.

Yup. Despite dire warnings that mixing cabs will bring about the end of civilisation, I'll take the 1x15 + 2x10 combination any time. I don't really care about the science behind noise cancelling frequencies and sound waves traveling at different rates and all the other nonsense people constantly spout. It just sounds good!

Ah another Tonika. They are really a thing of hideously ugly beauty. One of our esteemed members ( exactly who escapes my recollection at the moment ) bought the bass version a few months ago and has it hanging above his fireplace. At least it keeps the kids away from the fire. 😂

It would, except it was perfectly voluntary, and to be fair one of the guitarists (the only other member of the band that was wireless) joined me out front for most of the gig. I'm quite happy dancing around out front rather than being penned in on a small stage.

Yup. Definitely a resemblance. Especially if you were to grow a bit of facial fuzz.

Love it. It's very rare these days to see something truly unique.

How dare you insult the man! It's obviously a 6 string high octave bass.

Ah. I see. Thanks.

I think turning around and leaving would work even better.

I like it when he shows his musical skills by playing a bass guitar, high hat, and bass drum all at completely different timings. That's talent!