TimR

Quick update. I bought a single Gotoh machine head back in January and fitted and was great. Then decided I should really replace them all. Then came the pandemic and couldn’t find them anywhere for love or money. Maybe I wasn’t looking properly. Anyway new set £62 delivered now fitted. And I have a spare for my E or A string. Only real physical difference is slight colour, these are a more black/gold sheen and the post is a lot wider so only have 3 windings round each post as I didn’t replace the strings. Think that’s just about enough.

It depends really what it’s used for. Film scores and TV adverts, no one cares, backing for one hit wonder singing artists, no one cares. Band corroborations where the sum is greater than the parts (U2?), you’ll not replace that. And watching a computer isn’t particularly entertaining.

It’s all that click track and midi nonsense. Everything sounds like everything else. No feel.

Room acoustics change pretty rapidly. A sound check in an empty room will change when the room fills and then change again depending whether the audience are all standing at the bar, moving to seats, or jumping around in front of the band. I’d say PEQ is only any use on the mains PA and /or the monitors to deal with feedback and cutting problem frequencies.

Neat.

dBs are relative. A 3dB cut is a halving of the signal. Regardless of that signal strength. So yes. It should have the same effect whether you apply that at the bass, at the preamp or at the output of the amplifier. Is that what you’re asking?

The things we do for Basschat research. Just weighed my bass. Ibanez SR400. 8.6lbs. Always considered it to be very light.

The landlord of a pub should have done research and booked a band that the normal crowd will like. The crowd will tell him pretty quickly not to book the band again if they’re rubbish or he will sell a lot of beer if they’re good. Hence you get re-booked. If we’re being booked for a party then the person booking us will have seen us play and book is on that strength. Again, Covers and Originals are no different in that respect. If people are asking you to come back or asking if you do private gigs, then you’re doing something right. Otherwise, don’t blame the audience for not appreciating “your art”.

I think a lot of originals artists flog a dead horse. If your music is popular and people come to your gigs without you having to bribe them or lever them out, you build a following fairly quickly. Then that’s great. But I think you need to recognise that your mum will come to any gig whatever you play, it’s your sisters mates you need to convince. And in a covers band, if people are requesting that you play something they know, then learn some different tunes.

He said 16 people in his conservatory. But I know he’ll just sit on your sofa and play. It’s just like having a mate round your house who can play guitar and sing.

[ cue out of tune upright piano ... with heavily damped strings and occasional yelping noise from first year boy trapped inside.]

Nice. Leave nothing to chance.

What did you get from Santa? I have a set of stings - I sent Mrs Santa a link and she sorted so exactly what i asked for. and An iRig HD 2 - again the link worked well for Mrs Santa. I’m not one for liking surprise presents as usually they’re close to what I would have liked, but not exactly what I wanted. How did the man/lady with the white beard get on at your house?

It’ll be refreshing. Hard work, listen lots, but worth it.

Steve Nieve is their keyboard player. It wasn’t him, in fact I just remembered the guy didn’t even try it out and said he couldn’t play. Was just sent to pick it up. Seems he still has a spare that he uses for parts.

@Reggaebass Elvis Costello is an amazingly versatile artist. His keyboard broke one tour and they searched the small ads of Loot to find a keyboard the same as an emergency replacement. My dad just happened to be selling his. Their roadie (or whatever) turned up at our house with a handful of £5 notes from the box office takings. 😂

It’s not just that. What happens in the worst case scenario and your admin dies? You have to build everything from scratch.

You can have multiple managers and admins of a page.

I’ve just put a fresh set of Bass Centre Stadium Elites Stainless steel strings on my bass. I’m not playing thrash but if I was I’d be putting fresh set on every few weeks. In the 80s we were using Rotosounds. They lost their ‘zing’ very quickly. Don’t forget the spandex trousers.

I agree. It’s way more faff. I think it illustrates that if your drummer is going to do all those things. The last thing he’s going to do is check a metronome. In 35 years of gigging I’ve never seen anyone use one live and only seen drummers use click tracks when playing to sequencers. A song should breathe. Light and shade, and slight shifts of tempo.

No point in having a metronome in that case then. 🤔

Unless everyone comes in together, a count in by anyone is pretty much surplus to requirements.

The guitarist started a song off far too quickly on Saturday night. By the time we got to the chorus the drummer and I had pulled it back to a sensible speed using a mixture of raised eyebrows and accentuated head nods.

Thanks. StewMac have them new for under £50. Seems both the Warwicks and Ibanez also suffer from random snapping as well. That’s crazy.

One of my machine heads broke many years ago. I bought a set and replaced just the broken one. The E string. Kept the others a spares. Last night I had another failure. Again with the E string. The post just shears off at the bass. Seems to be cast aluminium. Not the best design. The fault seems to be over time the tension in the string pulls on the post and must strain the gearbox or something. All the other posts have about 90 degrees where the tuner is very tight. The rest of the rotation is free. I’ve now replaced the D and the G and obviously the E but that leaves the A as I’ve already used the spare ‘A’ tuner on the E string (if that makes sense) The tuners are handed for top and bottom. The bass is probably 15 years old. Anyone else seen anything similar? Should I just order another set or upgrade somehow with a different manufacturers? Any suggestions welcome.