warwickhunt

2 weeks away but at the moment, our Southern most gig... and a chance to hear the chiming (distorted) overtones of a 12 string bass played as homage to the pioneer: Tom Petersson! Oh and an early start (16:00) so an early finish!

INXS UK playing Newcastle City Hall, Christmas Rocks 2025 with a guest vocalist; Jen from Alanis - Jagged Little Pill. WhatsApp Video 2025-12-29 at 9.21.04 PM.mp4

Thomann advertise them as 2.4 but that might be incorrect.

I'm not saying 2.4Ghz doesn't work, there are 1000's of regular gigging musicians using systems on 2.4 and many rarely have an issue but when I was using 2.4 I was plagued with drop outs; I put it down to our desk being 2.4, everyone else in the band using 2.4 AND most of the club/pub systems had stuff running at 2.4. As soon as I changed to the 5.Ghz range (in fact the MiPro system) I got zero drop out, the downside is that the range is reduced but I've never had a problem as most stages are quite open with no major obstructions. As a side note, today I'm off to do a multiband 4 day theatre gig and the techs requested to know in advance who was using what radio/IEM gear and on what frequencies bands.

Personally if you are only a few feet away from a given transmitter point and unlikely to be moving around much, I'd be looking at being wired. If it must be wireless, I'd be going 5Ghz rather than 2.4; 2.4 can be congested and you have quite a few devices.

Things such as this are often lauded as absolute bargains etc... yet nobody pulled the trigger and it is relisted. LOL From the lack of bids (zero), it clearly isn't a bargain and needs to be cheaper; how much cheaper will dictate its true 'value' but not a bargain if absolutely nobody is prepared to drive to Bristol to buy it..

Well there you go, that perfectly demonstrates 'One man's meat...'! LOL I keep the finger nails on my right/picking hand at a length whereby I can use them to affect the sound but not so long that I can't change my position and use the flesh. Sometimes I also play the string below the one I am playing almost percussively with Ghost notes (I'd never analysed or even thought about it till someone asked me how I do it), a DB technique in a way; some tutors would find this an anathema to 'proper' bass playing but it works for me.

One day, we'll venture South... which brings us nicely on topic; certain bands might (and I'm blowing our trumpet) be better than the real thing but you can't justify the travel fro the gig!

Ditto with Mrs WH. She'll often hear another bassist and say something akin to 'He sounds/plays like you'... and I rarely get it straight away but she's often right. She's attended a few Bass Bashes and she can hear me and knows when it is me playing (and NOT because I play the same bass line every time) amid a cachophony of bass!

I play in two tributes; one I do purely as I love the band (Cheap Trick) and the 2nd I joined as I liked the band (INXS) and it was an ideal opportunity to play better/bigger gigs (but not necessarily for more money). A couple of observations. Be sure you like the material, nothing worse than playing a couple of hours of stuff you don't like. Network with anyone you know in a tribute band, you'll likely get any gig/band through contacts. Be prepared (if you aren't already) to use IEM and compromise on 'your' sound because you may be doing gigs where you have a 15-30 minute turnaround with other bands. Don't take for granted you'll be getting good money; we've done gigs where I'd have been paid more for a pub covers gig. Some gigs 'might' end up being percentages of ticket sales (your band can of course refuse these). If you choose to do a tribute that is often covered, you'd better be significantly better than the local competition. If you choose a less obvious tribute, you could end up with very few gigs... it's a fine line. The singer/frontperson is where it is at (unless it is something like VH), so you'd be a numpty to join a band that doesn't have that main ingredient. If you elect to play 'Fake Festivals' you might need to travel considerable distances for gigs (does anyone in the band work on a Fri/Sat/Sun?), you are likely to be ofeered a series of gigs and you can't cherry pick otherwise the organiser will need to work twice as hard... and they don't like that!

I bought my 'Orange' VS soft aged from them this year. Great to deal with.

I wouldn't disagree that it seems like a random scratch (as opposed to factory) BUT the very fact the bass is 'aged' I can't see that you'd ever manage to claim it was / wasn't part of the process!

It used to be a 'showreel' was for corporate/club type bands but I've found that to move out from your immediate circle it is useful... but be aware some folk will listen (look) at the first 30 seconds and likely as not on a phone or mobile device.

As a tribute, we needed a Showreel, so we did a mash of DIY and pro. Recorded audio ourselves at a rehearsal space (individually not as a live take), guitarist's brother is a bit of a whizz at recording. Went to a theatre to mime to the track on a stage, where a guy did mate's rates for multiple shots of video. The guitarist has the know how to then edit the audio and video to this end product. Probably cost us £300 to rent spaces and pay for video recording but would have cost x3 that if our band didn't have the knowledge and contacts to bring it together.

Hohner should buy it... save me typing in the wrong name all of the time!

'Blade' used to be a top quality Japanese manufacturer but I'd be surprised if this is the exact same outfit even though the name and logo look the same.

My 15" cab... but it doesn't 'sound' like most people expect a 15" to sound!

BTW if you decide to listen to these samples, just try to identify the speaker size you have a preference for, don't try to identify all of the variations.

I did a totally unscientific comparison with some cabs (which is probably more relevant going off some comments here, than the science numbers). I can tell you that of those who messaged me after I did this, 'nobody' identified the cab that had a 15" driver! I actually conducted this test again with two bass playing mates + my wife who is relatively new to actually playing bass but has heard every cab/amp I've ever used in the last 38 years; we had to adapt it so that the directionality [position of driver relative to the ear] was taken out of the equation and in the blind test it was concluded that identifying the correct driver size was pot-luck! When writing down notes, the descriptions were likewise so random that one person's tight response was the other person's wooly sound! LOL

I generally don't connect wireless (tend to just use the CQ as is) hence I tend to forget that my android devices need fettling when I do go to use them. It's even more relevant when infrequent users in various bands that I'm in want to connect and set IEM; I generally have to go round and get folk hooked up after disabling networks.

I'm not a techy type so I'll likely describe this ALL wrong but whenever I've had connection issues it is my inability to recall what I need to turn off/disable on my device regarding connecting to the internet / WiFi. I always forget to go into my phone/tablet settings and switch off 'something' ergo the device can't see/interact. It is a basic thing that anyone reading this will likely have no issue with! LOL

Unless it were made from something other than some type of metal, I'd not imagine sonic improvements would be any different to the majority of bridges on solid bodied basses. Even high mass bridges gain you fractions of 'sustain' and tbh 1/2 of the bass playing population go out of their way to avoid sustain! LOL

Yeah it saves having to leave space to insert a headphone jack or a lead if you are using it as an output.

Top left is my IEM transmitter. The DiCosimo and Broughton are always on effects. I could use the Stomp HP/LPF (and have done in the past) but the Broughton resonant bump is easier to achieve with the pedal. The DiCosimo is an easy EQ/boost solution to save going into the Stomp.

Thet eventually conceeded that the courier had no case and dropped it. A courier or intermediry will try and avoid any pay out. However, my case (and @Gunsfreddy2003) is a case of the courier trying to claim that packaging wasn't appropriate (which it patently WAS) and they tried to claim a handling charge because it wasn't regulation packaging!