TheRev

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1330434043' post='1557339'] It's still better than the smock and straw that we all usually wear down here in the wilds of North Devon [/quote] Never did the Wurzels any harm..

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1330421094' post='1556994'] Imagine... or look at the photo! Brilliant! [/quote] The Shirt on the left is hurting my eyes.

Both my bands have a certain onstage image. The Lemons go for a scruffy jazz look wheras the Skimmitys, being a scrumpy'n'western band have our take on the Wurzels look. I used to be dead against dressing up fior the stage, but now I quite like putting on the band persona - sort of 'time to get down to business'. It also helps to have a band that looks like a band and stands out from the rest of the audience.

My skills go the other way - I deal with opinionated, puffed-up, childish w*nkers on a daily basis at work, which has been very helpful when managing people in bands.

[quote name='BassBod' timestamp='1329937847' post='1550113'] Good to hear your blonde is shaping up well! My next step is going to be a full fingerboard shoot, and strip the 'oribble finish off the back of the neck. I'll probably get the finish off first, and then have a minor re-carve done to make the profile a bit slimmer. But before that I've got to just play the thing until those Spirocores don't seem so scary...... [/quote] I'll take some pictures this weekend, if I can stop playing for long enough! The work has made an enormomous difference in both the sound and playability. *edit* found one from saturday's gig on Facepuke [quote name='gcordez' timestamp='1329938561' post='1550133'] Good to hear you went to Martin. I really rate his work, and him as a person. [/quote] I only ever spoke with Steve, though I believe Martin did the actual work. He did a fanstastic job for the price. I really couldn't be happier with his work.

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1330003984' post='1551198'] 2. Do NOT get an 'ebonised' fingerboard. It must be 'ebony'. 'Ebonised' is a painted softwood. Other kinds of board can be ok, but are less usual. [/quote] On some of the cheap Chinese made basses I would tend to agree, as an ebonised board could turn out to be plywood. However, older european ply basses often have black painted, beech or maple fingerboards and, although not as hard as ebony, are still perfectly playable and don't sound any different to basses with ebony boards. My 50s ply bass has a beech fingerboard which I've just had stripped and re-shot. Sounds good, feels great, looks cool.....

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1330002432' post='1551130'] Even the soft cases are a pest to store. They seem to have minds of their own, so when you fold them up they unravel themselves over 10 minutes with lots of shooshing, creaking noises that make you jump. Under the bed is good (once they've quietened down). I'm going to try hanging mine on a wall. [/quote] Hmm. I've just moved house and have struck a deal with Mrs Rev that she can have a whole room for shoes and bags and piles of paper on the condition that I get to use 2/3 of the dining room as a bass room AND she keeps all her crap out of the bedroom. If I stared shoving bass bags under the bed I think she'd see that as a breach of contract and resume her habitual use of the clothes storage potential of the bedroom floor. Think I'll stick with my crappy canvas bag.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1329993392' post='1550866'] The letter is good, but only really relevant to small-time working jazz bands and lounge acts who are there to augment the ambience of eating and drinking establishments. [/quote] This is a good point - there is a world of difference between the politics of playing pubs and playing proper music venues.

I have a crappy canvas/vinyl bag... but it does have some Glastonbury mud on it. Tres mojo! I'm considering getting a decent padded gig bag, but I wonder if they take up as much space as a hard case? My gig bag folds up and goes under the chair in my bass room - I can't see a heavy duty padded gig bag foldin up very much. If I had enough room for a double bass sized case, then I would have enough room for another double bass....so I'd get another double bass!

I agree 100%. I had a very similay argument with the new owner of a pub that my band played regularly. He didn't want to pay us any more than £100, even though we were popular and the regulars were asking him when my band was going to play again. I was about to accept his £100 when he said 'how many people can you bring?' I replied that the venue has customers and it was my job to entertain them. 'you got to bring at leat ten people, or it's worth me paying you £100' I said that if we were the sort of band that carried their fans around wherever we played, we'd put our own nights on at a better venue, charge on the door and pay ourselves a lot more than £100. As he was clearly more interested in having ten people in his pub than having entertainment, I then offered to take his £100 and bring ten mates to his pub on Friday night. I woud then give each of my mates £10 of his money to spend over the bar. At very least he would get his £100 back and probably more as my mates are very thirsty people. He said this was a ridiculous idea - why would he give me £100 to bring my mates to his pub? I pointed out that paying my band £100 to play on the condition we brought in 10 people was exactly the same thing except I'd be drinking instead of playing.

It always takes a couple of listens before I get into any new Muse album. I also used to get annoyed about Matt Bellamy's gaspy vocal style, but I don't really notice it now. Definitley start with Origin Of Symmetry, give it at least three listens before moving on to Absolution. Give that a couple of listens before moving on to Showbiz. Then listen to some early Radiohead, Queen's 'night at the opera' and 'Grace' by Jeff Buckley. Just for a bit of perspective. ;-)

I got Jayne back from Bristol violin shop on Saturday, just in time for Saturday night's gig. They did a fantastic job of shooting the fingerboard and reshaping the neck, he even threw in a bridge reprofile and repositioned the soundpost. The whole thing came to £250, which I felt was pretty good value, considering the ammount of work done on the neck reshape. The sound and playability is dramatically improved and as I had him strip off all the ebonising paint from the board, Jayne's collar now matches her cuffs and she's totally blonde.

[quote name='Lazy James' timestamp='1329658959' post='1545398'] Hi again. Just posting an update, I now have a budget of around £500 to get myself started on double bass. I'd prefer to buy used but pickings are really slim around the North East it seems. I'm currently thinking of getting a thomann 111E BR along with a set of Thomastik Spirocores for general pizz playing and arco at some point. No bands planned with double bass in the near future, just something I want to learn for now! Currently wondering whether to buy from Thomann or wait to see if anything comes up used [/quote] If you can wait and add a bit more cash to your fund in the meantime, the Thomann 22 bass is much better VFM that the 111E (IMHO). They're about £750 on Thomann. There's a lot of activity in the DB for sale forum, so it's likely that something very nice will com up soon.

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1329843299' post='1548364'] The JS solo CD has Danny Thompson on UrB,and a few nice tunes! [/quote] Oh really? *fires up spotify*

These guys: [media]http://youtu.be/TiBI3A2WcrE[/media] Obviously, they were the cool band playing Smiths covers and we were a bunch of oiks playing AC/DC covers, but we used to share each others amps and PA.

Last week's drive home wasn't fun at all. Thursday night, our drummer is driving the singer and myself back from Bridport in Dorset to Bristol. The snow that had hit Bristol earlier in the day had moved in over the Mendips so by the time we came through Shepton Mallet it was looking a bit dodgy and there was talk of pulling over and riding it out. No sooner had that been said, the front whells lost traction, the car fishtailed a couple of times before skidding right across a junction and into a brick wall. Luckily, we only had scrapes and bruises but the drummer's car is a write off. We eventually got back to Bristol about 5AM an still had to go to work the next day. The gig was good though - a lovely place called the Stables in Bridport. Normally our drives back from Dorset (and there are many...) involve listening to Huey on Radio 2 and saying nice things about the gig. Sometimes we have musical themes - our singer hates saxophone, so we often put some Coltrane on to wind him up.

I get mine through the stores at work - £0.00 per battery. I haven't bought a battery for years. Don't tell anyone....

'I decided to go for a curry instead'

Nope, no problem at all, as long as your PA isn't stupidly small. It's almost impossible to get a double bass loud enough to be heard over a band with backline alone, especially if you're up against amped guitars. If your band only want you to go through the backline, then switch to electric bass - that's what Leo Fender invented it for..... I have my amp loud enough for myself and the drummer to hear on stage. We then take a line out into the PA for FOH sound and a monitor on the guitarist's side of the stage. To be fair, we don't need a huge of bass going through the PA, just enough to spread the sound out and allow me to stay below feedback inducing onstage volume.

Last Friday went something like: Bad town on the coast Owermoigne People arr strange Skimmity pint song Lovely pint a cider Thatchers Cheddar Valley Sunday Dorset is beautiful Viva Lyme Regis Hold up yer cider jar Skimmity girls I'm in love with scrump West country girls 2 Handled cup Westcountry holiday Wiily's getting hard Which cider you on? Trippin' on Moonshine Badgerman Don't waste yer pint Drink up thee cider F**k off out of my pub

I'd also be interested in a set of these - if you're not fed up with them after you've finished with Steve, Sarah and Gareth. I'm currently experimenting with the inflated beach ball anti-feedback trick but it would be good to have other options.

[quote name='fatback' timestamp='1328263969' post='1524511'] If you're really stressed about intonation, put a little white sticky paper dot on the edge of the fingerboard at the A and G. Since I started doing that I've never had a worry about getting completely lost, even when I jump about. Not very PC in some circles, I know. [/quote] I still do this - particularly at festivals where the stages are big and the onstage sound may be less than optimal. I do feel guilty about it, but then I think that given the choice between annoying the DB purists and being in tune, I'd rather be in tune.

I have just taken Jayne (50s laminate) to the [url="http://www.bristol-violin-shop.co.uk/index.php/page/browse/2"]Violin Shop[/url] on Upper Maudlin street (next to Colston Yard) for a fingerboard shoot and neck reshaping. I spoke to Mike from the workshop and he was very helpful and informative and said some very nice things about Jayne, even though she is plywood. The work's going to take a couple of weeks so I can't comment of the quality of his work yet. I can say that Mike was very helpful, he spent quite some time explaining what he thought needed doing, what could be left alone and what would be economically nonviable, considering the value of the bass. Price wise, the fingerboard shoot may cost up to £250, depending on whether the whole board needs working or not - this will include scraping off the ebonising gunk and applying a couple of coats of oil. The neck reshape is estimated at no more than £50. We discusssed a new bridge, but that would be another £250 (cost of bridge plus fitting) -which is a typical price. The cost of fixing th crack will depend on where it is and how deep is is. The best thing to do is to pop along to the violin shop with your bass and have a chat with Mike - it's the only way to get a clearer idea of costs. He's not pushy about him doing the work or anything and seems pretty happy to spend 15 or 20 minutes talking through your options. Mike's in the shop Tuesday to Friday and most Saturdays. It's best to go in during the week if you can as it's a lot quieter. Dave

I installed one on my old Japanese Bass Collection and very nice it was too. The treble cut/boost control has four pre-set frequencies which you can change via a couple of DIP switches on the circut board so you can choose between slap friendly hi end or growl friendly upper mids. I don't imagine for a second that it's as comprehensive or flexible as the P-retro, but it's got a decent tonal palate.