chris_b

Looking good JA.

What cab(s) are you using? There is always something "better" out there. The clever bit is to know when to stop looking.

Nice one.

A bigger carpet.

Yeah, but IMO if you got the song down it's not time wasted.

Firstly, if I broke a string I'd be amazed. It would be the first one ever! Depending on the band I could easily lose the G or B strings and get to the end. Again depending on the band I could loose 4 strings and root note it to the end if I had to.

The guitarist I play with writes songs containing some dodgy guitar riffs including hammer-ons, pull-offs, pushes, slides and generally too many notes. . . . and then wants me to play them in unison. . . . and then counts the song in too fast when we're on the gig!!! Apart from that I don't get stressed by bass lines. Work them out, practice slowly then speed up. I did feel pretty satisfied when I put together good slap-less versions of Let's Get Serious and Uptown Funk.

2 each? Jazz? Not really a big fan. . . but I did like Oh Yeah and Ah Um by Charlie Mingus enough to buy them in 1967. Rock? Too many to choose from but I'm picking Waiting For Columbus by Little Feat and Delbert McClinton Live.

Really? You dropped the amp and it was the internal design that was at fault when it stopped working??

He carried a spare tool kit in his car, just in case!

I could have done with one of those on my first recording session. The D string tuner broke. The button came off and we had to tune the bass up with a 12 inch long Stilson type pipe wrench the drummer had in the boot of his car!

I always put the set of strings I've just taken off in the bag as spares to use in an emergency. In order to cover either bass, I'm currently carrying sets of rounds and flats. I have never broken a bass string in my life but I still do this. . . . just in case.

The Police were a what. . . . ? They use a Reggae rhythm or two in some of their arrangements but that doesn't make them a Reggae band.

+1 For those few hours they control your destiny, so make them honorary members of the band and create a rapport as quickly as you can. The guys I meet are usually happy to shake hands, do the introduction and chat about "stuff", then get down to business.

Why would bass be a boomy mess? I assume the sound guy has an HPF and will use it. He will have a parametric EQ that will knock the socks off anything a bass player has. He just needs to use that correctly and problem solved. I'm not talking about 5 band amateur nights, but proper FOH sound guys. We were supporting Paul Jones on his album launch. We were in a church so the sound was difficult and getting it right was critical. I was standing behind the desk ans there was one slight squeak of feedback. The PA guy jumped right on the correct fader. Immediate solution. I was impressed. I agree that we always have to work with the sound guy but unless either party is a total idiot I don't see how the bass tone on stage cannot be the tone out front. It must be, it's your tone.

Eh?? Whatever sound you provide to the FOH should be "your sound", the sound that you want out in the room. It's not about providing a sound that is convenient to the sound guy! If the sound guy has a particularly difficult room then that's for him to resolve with his PA config and more powerful EQ. The "room" won't dictate and the sound guy won't have "hands tied behind his back" unless he's not up to the job. If that's the case then pre or post won't matter at all.

The OP says, " . . . I'm put off a little by the wide necks I keep seeing" and ". . . the necks look so fat on those." Wider necks are not difficult to play so I'd suggest he gets out and tries some basses so that he actually knows whether he can get on with wider necks or not.

They were a great band. Should have done much more. Shame they couldn't get on together. I remember seeing Andy Summers in the 60's playing with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band.

Even if I was playing with the MG's I'd definitely think twice if Stevie Wonder called!

Booker T and the MG's, if I could do the Stax and Blues Brothers stuff as well.

I get it. If they're only releasing material online then they're not making any sales here. Their loss.

Just seen this. I've always rate Sting as a bass player and he's still playing with a ton of energy. Love the band.

I always give FOH a post EQ signal. They have never had a problem with that. If the OP has a soundman who doesn't know how to do his job, trying to do it for him isn't going to work.

Get the CD's and be able to hold your music.

I have TI flats on my 35" PJ5 and I don't find the tension to be very different to the GHS Precision flats I had on before. The sound is pretty good though and IMO is an improvement. I'm wondering what the the OP is looking for in strings that makes him want to switch to a set of flats but keep them sounding like a set of rounds? I've never heard that and I reckon he's going to be disappointed. IME rounds clank and flats thump, not the other way around. Flats on the right instrument make a fantastic sound, but they are always flats and never sound like rounds!