northstreet

Carrying on with this thread, anyone know of any places in east London - preferably somewhere accessible by car? Cheers

Played at a tennis club Christmas party on Saturday. Only a small place but a good crowd - up and dancing from the second number. My wife and some of her friends were there and we dragged them up on stage to do backing 'vocals' on Mustang Sally. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm still not Mr Popular! The bad news was that my amp packed up mid-way through (good job I'd borrowed a back-up), the good news is that I now have an excuse to buy the Hartke LH500 that's been well reviewed in another thread. Tonight I'm playing for some (God have mercy on my soul) estate agents, in between two sets from a line dance band. Also seemed like a good idea at the time. I must be getting old. Going off thread, I've only recently found this site, and it's been really helpful to me as I dip my toes back into playing. Have a great Christmas.

Did my first gig for nearly 30 years last night. No nerves at all until about 2 minutes to go - all of a sudden I couldn't remember which way to hold the bass, let alone the opening chords for the first song. Got up on stage, the drummer counts us in, and thankfully the automatic pilot took over and I was OK. Wouldn't have it any other way though - if I can't get excited/nervous before a gig then it's probably not worth doing.

Thanks for all the advise. I'll be keeping the Ibanez. Re the amp, I've decided on a Behringer 1x15" cab (I know the quality may not be the best but there's not too much to go wrong with a cab) and a Peavey Tour 450. That will give me 300W and should be loud enough. I need more volume I can throw a cheap 2x10" cab into the mix and get the full 450W. Cheers

Hi. I'm after some words of wisdom about what gear I should buy, rather than what the guy in the shop needs to sell this week. I've recently started playing again after a gap of about 25 years. I bought an Ibanex GSR200 and a Crate BT100 - both of which are fine for auditions/rehearsals/small rooms. I've got in with a couple of bands that gig occasionally and for live work they are using 300W+ stuff and some expensive guitars. I don't want to spend a fortune but I reckon I need to trade up in order to get some gigs. What do people think would be some good gear to move on to? With my existing gear, I really like the neck and light weight of the Ibanez, and was looking at something else from the range, but is a £750 Ibanez good value - or should I follow the crowd and get a P-bass? Or is OK to stick with a cheap guitar for now? I will definitely need some louder gear. I like the depth of sound from the 15" speaker in the Crate, so I was looking at some of the Behringer stuff, which seems reasonable value - but again, what's the general opinion on mid-price gear? Thanks for any help or advise you guys can give.