chris_b

Wonderwall? Played it last Saturday. It's not a song I'd play at home, but it went down a storm, which was the point. The only songs I would suggest a band didn't consider for the set are the ones that don't get a positive reaction from the audience.

My big rig is a BB2/SM, the medium rig is an SC/SM, the small rig is an SC and my home practice rig is 2 One10's. I can rattle my fillings out with any of these set ups and cranking the big rig has my loudest guitarist running for his volume control! These are all lightweight options but I still use a trolley when moving them. You can always buy "one more thing". The secret is knowing when "you're good" and it's time to enjoy what you already own.

It's very precarious, which is why I only lasted 6 years the first time around. I managed 10 years the second time around, but now the pension is making things a little less precarious. We'll see where the energy prices take us!! Not long after we bought our first house, in the 80's, when we were most financially stretched, the interest rate was in the high teens. Much later, the wife, who is the money expert in this house, told me that if it wasn't for the money I earned gigging, regularly 3 nights a week, we'd have gone under.

Pictures or it didn't happen. . . .

The availability enabled by the internet generally is the problem. In 50 years of playing bass I owned 3 basses for the first 25 years (pre internet) and 11 bases in the last 25 years (post internet). Only 1 of these basses was bought from BC, the rest from other online sources. I haven't bought a bass for 6 years so I think I'm done. Maybe.

From 2005 to 2015 I was in 7 bands and doing about 150 gigs a year. Everyone has to understand (and accept) the situation and accept that occasionally you'll put in deps. Basically you have to be organised and good enough that people will accept that you might take a few nights off. I'm currently in 5. One hasn't gigged since November last year, one hasn't gigged since 2019, one has 5 gigs this year, one only gigs on the first Monday of the month and the last one is just starting out. The number of bands isn't an issue, it's how busy they are that matters. I regularly dep with another 4 or 5 bands and fit in one off gigs. In West London there is a pool of good players who can step in and we all cover each other. How many gigs? 2 a week is good, 3 is better, none is crushing. Last month I had 10 gigs in 2 weeks. All good bands, all good gigs. It wasn't work at all. This month I'm just scraping by with 1 gig a fortnight.

IMO there's nothing better than getting paid to do something you love, and getting paid enough to live is the cherry on top.

If you want more power from a Super Compact. . . . get 2. 500 watts into a pair of those and you'll be a match for any guitarist, and they will still sound great at moderate volume.

Love it. Thanks.

Les Paul's have always been expensive, so my guess is that they were all treated well. The real "dogs" would have been sold on until they ended up with someone who didn't mind or didn't notice any "shortcomings". How much of the guitar can you actually hear if you are using 15 pedals? There's a happy owner for every bass and guitar.

They do. I played a duo gig last night, in central London. Just me and a singing guitarist. Our audience was 200 or so happy, legless Sunderland fans!! We played Sweet Home Alabama and they all joined in, we had to go around the whole thing twice. After that they were putty in our hands! Same with No Woman No Cry, Brown Eyed Girl and all the Elvis songs we played. We were entertainers for the night and it was a good job done. . . . for them and for us.

No idea. So far I've not felt the need to use any pedals. An amp I recently bought had built in compression, but after a few weeks experimenting I stopped using it. I preferred the natural sound of my basses.

I don't listen to much music, but when I do it's a wide range from Rock and Roll to current. As long as it's well played, I like gigging all styles of music.

No. You try one and tell us. If you've already got a nice bass, how much better does the US version have to be?

No one touches my basses. I've seen what happened to other, more generous guys. I've been in a house band for a Jam night for the last 20 years and I provide the back line. Some people didn't treat my gear very well in the early days so I keep a tight rein on what they can do. Sadly some people can't be trusted, even friends!

I'm waiting to see what they do to Aguilar.

Hold on. . . . how did you get hold of my number????

I'm not fond of a lot of stuff, but I have no negative opinions about any music, band or musician. If I don't like something I ignore it.

Hi Clarky, your Ampeg is only putting out 250 watts into your BB2, so I'd say you were under powered. If you are fighting against 2 half stack guitarists, I'd vote for an 800 watt amp and suggest a Super Midget to go with the BB2. I use an Aguilar AG700 with a BB2 and SM with my loud bands and I can give a cranked Twin Reverb a run for its money.

If I had a plan the P bass would be used at home, because it's passive and I'd save the batteries in my active Jazz for the gigs. What actually happens, I'll use which ever one comes out of the nearest gig bag.

Western standard tuning was designed as a compromise. There is a lot about this on the net. Better accuracy of multi-scale tuning is one of the Dingwall selling points.

Ah yes, the care home and day care circuit. That's where the gigs are these days.

I doubt it.