chris_b

I use the same amps at home as I do on the loudest gig. 800 watts sounds fine in my front room. They all have a thing called a master volume.

Check out a Markbass 112 combo. They are small, light and you can get a good sound out of them. Add a 112 extension cab if you feel the need when the band gets going.

Good choice. Lakland make fantastic basses. This is your second and third basses all in one go.

Hi Chris, they moved the business to larger premises over Christmas and the New Year which seems to have had a knock on effect, but they should be replying to emails. The website says they haven't got a phone number for the new premises yet. I'd try email a few more times. https://barefacedaudio.com/pages/contact_us

I noticed they'd renamed a big store in town. When I told the wife she said, "They did that 4 years ago!" That's how often I go to the shops.

Oooops!!

I won't say don't do it, but many years ago I de-fretted my bass. . . . and I regretted it. Taking the frets out (with a kitchen knife and filling the slots with polyfiller) never gave me sound I thought I was going to get. If the bass wasn't worthless when I started, it certainly was when I finished. It went in the bin shortly afterwards.

You've got a chorus section with some structure. A verse with looser structure and the rest is just jamming. IMO there's no need to "learn" more than the chorus section. Just get the feel right and you've cracked it.

I still measure myself in feet and inches and stones, pounds and ounces. If it ain't broke. . . . I drive miles in the car and fill it in £'s, not those silly litres things.

The handles on the 112 are not in the right place for a balanced lift and carry.

I was there and we put a lot of people out on the streets.

AI for finding a cure for cancer is good. AI for replacing people's jobs, absolutely not good. As far as music goes, we survived Synths, so we can get through this. IMO the bigger problem is that younger kids don't see live music as a thing. It's as interesting to them as golf. They have their songs on Spotify, playing on their phones, it's musical wallpaper. My musical career has gone from cutting edge to historical. 90% of the music I get asked to play is from the 20th Century. When AI has its own programs on Radio 4 I'll start getting annoyed.

I used DR strings on Laklands, Wals and Stingrays, for more than 15 years, and I loved them. Faced with the same problem I'd cut my losses. I have D'addario NYXL's on my Sadowsky Jazz right now. I'd recommend those as well.

The crowd are very generous with the bucket. Which is why the management's short-sightedness is going to lose them a great earner. I like the Welly boot idea. Nice one. We also have a card reader, which gets used a lot.

My first thought was Jim Horn. Looks close. . . .

Sorry, spelt his name incorrectly. . . . still isn't Emilio Castillo. . . . he's not black. Doesn't look like Doc Kupka either, but this was a long time ago, so I'm less certain about that.

A 2 x 8 cab wouldn't be enough for me. I did a duo restaurant gig last month, with a guitarist singer, and I took a 110. With a drummer the smallest rig I'd use would be 2 x 110's or a good 112. I also use one or two 110's at home. You can always turn down, but turning up doesn't always work.

A major university in London started to move towards course work instead of sitting exams. Now they're moving back to the exam room due to the amount of AI students were submitting as their own work!! We're also seeing smart watches being used for cheating in exams, alongside multiple phones secreted in socks and anywhere else they can think of. I guess technology has always been used for cheating, but these days it's being used by students on an industrial scale. AI is a powerful tool for good and bad, depending on the person using it.

I don't know who it is, but that's not Emile Castillo on sax. Great band though.

The band leader is negotiating, but they think they are already paying enough. They actually pay us about half (so it's a very good night for them) and we make the rest up with the tips. This is a pay cut for us on a very successful money making night for them. I can't see us being there more than a few months longer.

I've been house bass player for a jam that's been running on the first Monday of the month for 26 years. We've seen 4 or 5 managers come and go in that time and the new management has decided that they don't want us sending the bucket around! They don't like the look (ffs). They get about 4 people in on a Monday night and about 100 on our jam night. We're looking for a new venue.

I'd like to see anyone use AI to copy how I play. Good luck to them.

Beat me to it!!

My guess is that very few players are going to gig with these combos. Looks to me like they're intended for music rooms, studios and home players.

Sorry, but no!!