TheRev

Our Beringher mixer amp died in the middle of a gig last night. No sound coming out the front and all the signal/level LEDs are slowly pulsing (not in response to an input signal, just pulsing on their own). I've tried different power leads and plug sockets and everything else I can think of but it's definitley borked. Anyone got any idea what the problem might be - other than it's being a Beringher.....

I'd love to come along to this, but it's a 5 hour round trip on top of gigs on Friday and Saturday night. Boo hiss.

It looks like half the population of Bristol are talking about this. Hopefully the petition will do some good. I've just this morning received a live recording of our Fleece gig earlier this month - we've done live recordings before, but there's something special about the Fleece.

Please don't...... I'm trying very hard to not get tempted into trying guts.

I think it's important that your band has an identity that makes you stand out from other bands - how effective this is depends on the quality of your designs and ideas. A rubbish, cheesy half -arsed logo will do more harm than no logo. We're lucky in that our drummer is a very good artist who has come up with characters & poster designs that are unique to us and are instantly identifiable. This is our standard promo poster/image. It was inspired by real events at a NYE gig a couple of years back. The same band 'characters' are used in all our posters and promo material

It happens to all of us mate - I've just come back from a big gig at a Pontins weekender, headline act on the last night. We launch into the first song and everything seems great. I'm aware of one of the stage crew hovering around behind me, but I don't pay it any mind. We finish the song to lukewarm applause and the sound guy says 'you've not any bass coming through the PA'. He swapped the XLR cable from my DI- nothing. The singer is trying to keep his banter going, but he's running out of ideas. In desperation I unplug my DI and plug the FOH XLR cable into the XLR output of my amp. That works and we carry on but the momentum is gone and we never really got it back..... My DI was fine at soundcheck, so no idea what happened. Got a big support gig tomorrow night, so I need to find out WTF has happened to my DI.

I run my plat pro into the main input of the LM2 with the tone controls at 12 and the VLE & VPF full counter clockwise. If I'm not putting the bass through the PA, I'll use the EQ on the plat pro to get my sound but if it's big gig with proper PA then I run a DI signal from the plat pro to the FOH desk and use the LM2 tone controls for my onstage sound. I used to put the PlatPro signal into the fx return, but as you've discovered, the signal level is low, plus I like the extra versatility of having 2 separate sets of EQ.

Wordpress?

I quite like having a 'band uniform' - when I put my gig gear on it's like I'm getting ready for business. I also think it's good for a band to stand out a bit from their audience - get noticed and all that.

Hmm. I'm not sure if the 46 is 'that' much bigger than the 45. But it is definitely more expensive..... Bear in mind that although I thought he sound through the Omni 10.5 was much better than the MA45, the Omni 10.5 is a very flat cab whereas the MA45 is 'voiced' - the MA45 still sounded fine (if a little vintagey) with the electric bass, the Omni just sounded better to my ears.

Hobnobs? Any particular day suit you? I can't do Saturday.

I'm quite friendly - what kind of biscuits do you have?

I have a MA45 - it's only used for DB gigs as I don't play those little basses live anymore! I've tried the MA45 with electric bass at home and compared it with a BFM Omni10.5 and an Acoustic Image Contra - I much prefered the sound of the Omni 10.5 over the other two cabs. That's not to say that the MA45 sounded rubbish, it just didn't sound as good. Not suprising really as the MA45 is specifically voiced for double bass. Mike Arnapol recommends the MA45 for DB only gigs and the MA46 for electric/double bass doublers, so why not get a 46? I plumped for a 45 as I will only be playing double bass for the forseeable future, but if I had the choice again, I'd buy a 46, just for the extra volume and versatility Dave

You're getting a really nice tone - makes me want to splurge on a set of spiro weichs.

Sent out to Trashabilly today - sorry for the delay. Dave

Could you buy a roof box and put some of the pa gear in that? FWIW, I get three people, my double bass, my amp, cab and cable bag and the drummers kit (excluding bass drum) in a Seat Leon.

If the 'SGC' logo is on the top end of the pickups (ie, where your plucking hand is) it'll be a SB301, if the logo is on the bottom edge of the pickup it's a 310.

The GEL Eminence EUB is very close in feel to a double bass. It's also just loud enough to play acousticly without annoying your neighbours.

That's a tasty bit of flame on the neck.

Hi Subthumper, What do you mean by clubs? Do you mean working men's clubs or dedicated music venues like The Fleece and The Exchange? As far as events and parties are concerned, my band gets bookings off the back of pubs or festivals that we've played and the person throwing the party has seen us before. We get events for the same reason and also because we're a niche act that comes out first or second on a Google search list. We don't use an agent by the way, we just play a lot of gigs and work hard on promotion. You don't mention the type of music you play, but unless you have a unique selling point that makes you stand out from all the other bands on your current pub circuit, you might find it difficult to get a promoter, agent or booker to notice you.

My 2p worth from a couple of years of gigging with a fairly loud band 1) If you don't already have one, get a high pass filter (HPF) and a phase reversal switch DI unit like the Fdeck or the Fishman Plat Pro. Stick it between your pickup and your amp input and roll off everything under 100Hz - this will remove most of the troublesome feedback causing frequencies. If you can give the sound engineer a feed directly from this you won't end up with 300W of sub bass coming through your monitor beacuse you won't be producing any sub bass in your signal to the desk. 2) Get your amp up off the floor and as close to ear height and to you as possible. The stage monitors will be supplying your bandmates with all the bass they need, so use your amp for your own [b]personal[/b] monitoring. On big stages I usually have mine to my left at the side of the stage on a keyboard stand at approx shoulder-head height so that's is firing sideways across the stage rather from front to back. I have the EQ set so I can hear the pitch clearly, rather than for my ideal DB tone - this may mean a nasal middly sound, but it's better than boom and out of tune... Your amp doesn't have to be loud - just loud enough for you to hear. Also, ask the sound dude to take most or all of the bass signal out of your monitor so that you haven't got your signal blasting up at the front of your bass. 3) As a last resort - cheat. I have a little sheet of white stick-on dots (about 3mm diameter) that I'll stick on the side of the fingerboard to show me where the main hand positions are. On echoey stages (I'm looking at you Mr Kyps in Poole!!) where despite all your efforts, your bass still sounds like an elastic band in a tunnel and when you're trying to pitch backing vocals, it's a real stress saver to just be able to glance to the left and see where G should be and know that your note will be in tune, evn if you can't actually hear it. Yeah, I feel a bit muso-guilty about using markers but the audience is there to have a good time, not appreciate my musical morals.

I'll send them out in the next day or so... Dave

Is Bristol too far away? I can think of a couple of venues that would suit.