Boodang

Yep, in order to keep the audience attention we now do gigs with three bands... a Hendrix tribute, a Jimmy Smith tribute and a soul/blues cover band. The fact all three bands have the same musicians in them is just a coincidence. If we put on different wigs for each set I reckon we could charge management 3 times!

I'm still in shock that a Jaco tribute has been fretted!! If you listen really hard you can hear Jaco turning in his grave! I'm sure it plays well though, but it should at that price!

Miracle of modern science, here’s hoping your rhythm guitarist is good for Friday…. and beyond!

The routing shouldn't be too difficult. Plug all your sources direct into the desk, then you can use the routing options to make use of the six aux outputs for the foh feeds, and use the ultranet for monitoring. Using the ultranet requires buying the P16-M units but that does mean you get hardware control over your personal monitor mix and frees up the 6 aux outputs for dedicated foh feeds.

We use a Behringer XR18. With 6 xlr aux outputs you could create your own monitor feed for your iem’s. We did a gig recently with a 15 min turn around between bands and we managed it with time to spare. Admittedly not as complicated as your setup but the xr18 is very flexible.

Quick anecdote… I had an SWR combo with four 8” speakers. On it’s own it sounded awful, in the band context sounded great and cut thru really nicely. Basically, do you have a scooped tone that disappears in the mix?!

When I play in the covers bands we all make an effort to get the tones right, that’s where multi effects comes in handy for the guitarists, and if I’m on drums I make the effort to try and match those when I’m on the ekit. As for playing style, well that depends on what we’re going for but then we’re a covers not tribute. I’ve never been in a tribute… until now, sort of. I came across a guitarist who looks a bit like Hendrix, sings like Hendrix and more importantly, plays like him. We’re thinking of calling it the Jimi Hendrix Experience Experience! Anyway, it pretty much plays itself without much attention to detail as we’re well versed in what we’re playing (although I’m going through the Mitch Mitchell tutorials on Drumeo and attention to detail on the drums is going to make me a much better player when I nail it cold). However, I think with a tribute band I’d expect more detail than we’d put in on the covers, and we put quite a lot into that.

I think in this case absurdism is justified as 'real musicians....' is bit too much of a blanket statement.

Actually I was lucky on this one. My local luthier was retiring and wanted to reduce the amount of wood he had lying around so he only charged me for the parts not all his time. £800. Normally it would be double that, so not that much more than the target price.

Because it makes you feel better about buying a Chinese made bass!

So, it could be a cnc machine that gets rid of the excess wood or the wood could be removed by hand tools but… I had my local luthier make me a custom bass and he used only hand tools; it might all be in the mind but it felt all the more special for it.

Your post scared me there for minute but I’ve been to the mirror, pinched myself and I’m definitely real. All this despite buying a new boutique bass every 6 months.

Side note from the Islamabad spring festival…. As usual the electrics were a feat of improvisation. Don’t bother bringing your mains tester because as normal there was no earth. The electricians tapped into the floodlighting, the outside insulation of the cable stopped about a foot short of a wooden box with the two inner cables going to block terminals for distribution with no cover. The whole system had no fuses or rcd’s! And extending cables were done the traditional way of twisting bare cable together and adding insulation tape. Don’t touch a microphone and your guitar at the same time! Btw this is how every venue or event is put together here. This is what you walk past everyday….

Islamabad spring music festival finally went ahead. Stayed dry with a bit of cloud so not stupidly hot (only 35C at the height of the day). I played in three of the bands but the most fun was a Hendrix tribute as I found a guitarist who’s been inhabited with the spirit of Jimi…. Started with ‘Fire’ and ended with Voodoo and guitarist leaning his guitar live against the amp as he walked off stage, much to the consternation of the sound guy who wasn’t paying much attention until the howling feedback. Modest turn out but everyone stayed until the end and the food stalls were serving up great food. Right at the end as we were packing up lightning appeared in the sky and it was a mad scrabble to get everything packed away before it tipped it down but we got it done. All the bands used my Yamaha DTX ekit and it sounded superb through the PA. Getting 6 bands worth of musicians together was like herding cats but well worth it in the end.

So, we’re setting up for an Islamabad open air spring festival… 6 bands and plenty of side stalls. Typically 36 degrees and sunny all week then a thunderstorm this morning. Hopefully the weather behaves itself for the next 24 hours as we’ve postponed it once already due to storms. I’m in three of the bands so should be a long but satisfying Saturday!

It’s not the hardest thing in the world to tune your bass accurately with standard tuners but the ratio ones definitely make it easier, especially on the E, plus they’re well made.

Buy graph tec Ratio tuners. They have a different ratio for each string to make tuning more accurate. They will however cost 10 times more than the bass is worth but at least least you'll be super accurately in tune!

Not traditional covers band in what way?!

Funny you should say this…. have been in a very generic ‘jukebox’ covers band, good musicians, very competent, ok gigs. Accidentally (long story) have formed a Hendrix tribute (not an easy thing to do until you meet the right guitarist!) and the gigs have come pouring in.

John East is great if you want an active preamp on your bass, but not necessarily if you want passive. Vintage ‘vitamin’ caps not really his thing.

PS give serious consideration to a series/parallel switch as this adds versatility (every jazz bass should have one!). Coupled with a stacked vol/tone vol/tone configuration (why have one tone control when you can have two) and you'll have the widest tonal palette for something that is still passive.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/282279109716?itmmeta=01HX2FW2Q5WEDWZKBYT0S543NP&hash=item41b9256454:g:dLUAAOSw2fpaqBNo Starr Guitars. Got mine with a parallel/series switch.

At the expense of the dyslexic! Only joking… well, mostly. But you’re right and we should get back to the business of the thread and talk about gigs.

Oh no… now we’re going to have the comma police as well!!! Next thing you know there’ll be an exclamation mark police!!!!!!!

Unless of course @Dad3353 is saying people shouldn’t be lazy by using apostrophes and type in full instead?! Perhaps Dad could clarify this and the reasons for his obsession… but only if he does it in a dedicated thread to the apostrophe police or we’re never hear about people’s gigs again.