mike257

I've found the forum at tdpri.com to be a great resource. Its a Telecaster forum first and foremost, but I joined up long before I'd even considered buying a Tele as so many of my guitar related web searches landed me there and there was always useful information and reasonable discussion. I don't really come across any bad attitudes, 'flaming' or snobbery on there, it's a pretty friendly place. Mainly US based but there seems to be a fair contingent of UK members too. Although its a Tele forum, there's subsections for 'Other Guitars' alongside the usual amps, effects, off topic bits. I read far more than I contribute but I'd definitely recommend checking it out. It's the nearest I've found to BC in terms of friendliness, usefulness and general lack of divvys.

Trying to work up band-friendly arrangements of pop songs is always worth a go. Struggling with it a little bit in our function band at the mo as a few of the guys have no background in playing original music so aren't coming along as fast with the idea of arranging new ideas but we're getting there. Nice to step outside your comfort zone!

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1371282271' post='2111997'] Yep... and who is going to want to book one and try and sell them as such. I just don't think enough people will go to see them often enough outside of a pub... so I don't see much point in limiting yourself to their material. Just no real selling point., IMO [/quote] Well if the OP thinks there's a market locally and is going to embark on this in addition to his existing gigs, what is there to lose? They haven't got the audience that a trib for bigger name artists would draw, for sure, but even if they get a few small gigs and some extra beer tokens (as it sounds like that's the aim) then why not!

Its all about communication, and an element of compromise and understanding too. When I'm mixing a band (or 5) I make a point of establishing who needs what where before anyone plays a note in soundcheck and doing my best to give that to them. I'll also (especially if its not a typical guitar/bass/drums line up) have a quick chat about how they should be balanced out front and what the important bits are. If you can't give the band exactly what they want because of the room/gear etc, they're usually more inclined to compromise when they can see you're doing your best to make it work. As a player, I've always tried to be rehearsed enough that I could get by with the bare minimum of monitoring. My last serious touring band were a four piece with two vox and were often soundchecked in ten mins because we could get by with the basics and just got on with it. Whilst it's nice to have great, clear stage mixes, the experiences being shared all across this thread and others tell me that its better to be prepared for the worst and to be able to cope without - treat anything more as a luxury.

If you're serious about making some dough from it I'd agree with flyfisher and vote "do both". Keep up whatever your current gigging commitments are with the existing band but use the contacts you have to launch the Feelgood trib as a whole new project. I'd just make sure you do enough to differentiate the two acts - don't dress too much like the Feelgood look with the general covers band, don't load that set up with Feelgood numbers either. Make it clear visually, audibly and in your communications and promotion that its two wholly separate acts and get stuck in! In my function band we work with a number of agencies and whilst we get a fair few gigs under our own steam we would miss out on a lot by trying to fly completely solo. There's demand for good tributes all over the UK and further afield so if your act is sharp and you guys are keen you could potentially keep busy and make some good money out of it - a good agent who knows and works the tribute circuit would make that much easier. Depends how far you want to go with it!

I think there's good arguments to be made for both, and you can find plenty of bands that are examples of either. Some bands will write/arrange songs in a way that gets the best out of the available line up, maximising the use of dynamics etc, which is a great skill and discipline to have. Others will approach with the view that the song is king and will do whatever they feel gives the best representation of the song in the studio environment, even if that means overdubs all over the place. These are often the bands that, once they 'make it' and can afford the wages will suddenly acquire extra guitarists/keyboard players dotted around the stage. I know, love (and have been in) bands that do both to differing extents, its just a matter of deciding what works for you at that point in time. If you go all Phil Spector on one album there's nothing to say you can't go back to basics on the next!

I used to take two Stingrays out, had strings break more than once in my fast-n-heavy days. Traded one for the Sandberg and that's become the de facto first choice for its versatility, but quality wise there's not much in it. Its nice to have options, and I never go anywhere without a spare (especially now I do this for a living) but there's nowt wrong with the budget stuff and I've happily gigged my Squier before now.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1370875719' post='2106702'] Investment. [/quote] There's surely more secure and profitable ways of investing your money than a stack of musical gear that may or may not increase in value. Fine if you catch a bargain, but the money that sought after vintage stuff goes for now, is it really worth buying a shitload of it to wrap up in cotton wool and hope it's worth even more in ten years?

Great stuff! I did a bit of research on these lately as I was buying a desk for my function band's rig and heard lots of good things. I like the easy access channel strip thing they've got going on with the knobs, and it's one of the few budget digi desks with 16 discrete mic pres, most of them lumber you with 12. I ended up going Yamaha and picking up a used 01V for a frankly ridiculous price, it's nice to just push a button and have our setup more or less there. How is it settling in, done any gigs with it yet?

The guitarist will have been miced up, so when he's turned up its affected the level hitting the desk. I don't know of any bass amps where the DI level is affected by the master volume as that would render it pretty useless in the situation you describe. Turning up your input gain and pre-volume would affect the DI level but your master should be safe to adjust. Alternatively you could use universal sound engineer sign language - point at your bass, point up in the air, he turns up your level in the monitors. Winner!

I can't get my head round owning gear to not play it. My two main basses are expensive-ish (but not mind blowingly so) but I bought them to gig with. I saw a discussion on another forum recently about whether or not people gig their vintage guitar amps - the number of guys on there who had brilliant amps that were built for gigging (and definitely too big for home noodling) that they wrapped up in cotton wool at home while buying cheaper, less tasty sounding amps to gig with. Why even bother? If you're playing Bob's Country Bunker and you're worried the locals will get through the chicken wire then by all means take something cheaper, but for day to day gigging, surely you want the best tools for the job?

I'd forgotten all about that Thrice cover, recording sounds like a demo though, its pretty raw. They did a storming version of Helter Skelter as a b-side a few years ago, that's worth looking up on YouTube. I Want You (She's So Heavy) too, didn't know about that one until just now. Thanks for making me go looking! I love Thrice but haven't explored all the B-sides and non-album stuff thoroughly yet.

And a side note - can't hear my rattly tuner when its plugged in, so its only annoying during unplugged/low volume home playing!

Happy new bass! If its worth it to you and you'll get use/enjoyment out of it, go ahead. Won't make it any more valuable to resell though. The pickups are well worth doing (Wizards in my Squier) and I swapped the stock bridge for a Badass, although having realised I'm not going to gig this bass any time soon its come back off to trade for a pedal. I've got the same rattly tuner on mine, but aside from that I have no problems with tuning stability so maybe a whole new set of Schallers is overkill - just replacing the duff one with an equivalent will probably suffice. If the bass feels ok, I'd just upgrade the pickups/pots/socket/wiring and get a decent setup on it. I think anything beyond that will have a negligible difference to the tone and playability - others may feel differently and go for bridge/nut/tuners too but I don't think it'd be enough of a difference to be worthwhile on my Squier. I've gigged it as is and it sounds and feels great with the upgraded electrics and stock hardware.

Spotted this over on MusicRadar and thought it was well worth sharing. If you subscribe to six issues of Guitarist (think Total Guitar and Guitar Techniques are running the same deal) you get a tidy little Diago Commuter softcase pedalboard for free. The subscription is only £28 quid, that's about half what the board normally sells for! I think I'll indulge myself in it, not that I'm too fussed about six months of glossy adverts dropping through my door (anybody want six free magazines?) - I was just about to build a tiny little 'spare' board with some excess pedals to take to rehearsals so I can leave the big one in our lockup with the big gigging toys. Linky here: [url="http://www.musicradar.com/guitarist/subscribe-to-guitarist-and-get-a-free-diago-commuter-pedalboard-worth-59-99-485749"]http://www.musicrada...th-59-99-485749[/url] Mike

I'd agree with the posters who've said you'll soon get used to a different feeling bass. If the Yamaha sounds better to you and doesn't feel uncomfortable (just different) then I'd go for it. Made a similar change when I traded one of my Stingrays for my Sandberg, totally different feel and was set up completely differently to how I had my rays too. It felt odd for a couple of months, especially changing between the two, but the Sandberg feels so comfortable now. Just took a bit of time to get acquainted!

Its Abbey Road and the White Album for me, despite the latter having a bit of filler as mentioned (find me a double album that doesn't!). I think Abbey Road sees McCartney really showing his range with his vocals, as well as condensing tons of cool musical ideas into that big ol' medley on side 2. Having said that, I really enjoy the early stuff in a different way, great catchy pop songwriting isn't an easy thing to pull off. Don't listen to any of it all that much these days but always nice to revisit every once in a while.

Then buy a broken down SVT810, rip the insides out of it so its just a box with a grille, and stick your Barefaced inside! Best of both worlds for you. Mind you, I'd rock a BF with pride - great gear and its nice to see something other than the usual suspects on stage.

I think my Sandberg is a tremendous instrument and the longer I spend with it, the more I feel I'll never need another bass. Obviously things like neck profiles will come down to personal taste and it took some adjusting after being used to a ray but my MM doesn't get a look in now. No surprise that the waiting list is shooting up, they deserve any success and recognition coming their way - colour me a fanboy!

[quote name='ezbass' timestamp='1370353506' post='2099565'] I can also recommend the Squier Tele Custom ll; a very nice P90 equipped guitar for not much money, if I hadn't seen this I'd have one of those now. [/quote] Just missed an absurdly silly cheap one of them on Gumtree locally, had my eye on them for a while. Would match my '72 Deluxe nicely too! Plan B is turning my battered old Epi LP Special II into a Les Paul Jr - that's been in the pipeline for ages and I've picked up a few of the bits I need, I just don't really have the time for a project at the mo so it's going nowhere fast

Happens quite a bit - some mates of mine have even showed up on stage in the background. The studios are just up the road from my house, maybe I should drop by with my bass and try and sneak in to a few shots!

Thanks guys, some food for thought there. The Tritons are certainly great kit - I hadn't considered them as I wasn't looking at workstations but there's a few gone for a steal on eBay recently. I used a Trinity for a while way back when so I'm aware of the quality. Think the complexity might be a bit much for our man though. The 9 instant recall buttons on the Yammy sound good - I doubt he uses any more sounds than that in the course of a gig so I'll look into them. I've tried looking on some keyboard forums but there seems to be a fair bit of snobbery dropped on those looking at the lower cost end of things. Knew trusty old BC would come good! Will share all this with him and broach the difficult subject of getting him to part with some dough for gear! Thanks again and any more thoughts/suggestions are welcome

Looks lovely! Not helping my cravings for a P90-equipped axe one bit though. Great find at that price!

Our keys man, whilst being one of the most naturally talented guys I know (can play ANY instrument you throw at him) doesn't actually own his own keyboard. Every gig, he goes and pinches one from his dad (a veteran career muso himself) and uses that. Its not the greatest sounding piece of kit and we're constantly ribbing him about it in the hope that he'll take the unsubtle hint and upgrade. I'm shopping around for options for him and wondering if anyone had suggestions for me. Its solely a live performance board we need, and he's not particularly techy minded so a massive feature list and sequencing abilities are not important - good workable sounds that can be accessed quickly in a live situation are. Sounds-wise, its the typical acoustic/electric piano, organ, strings/pads stuff needed most. Decent sounding brass would be great too as there's some stuff we've attempted and abandoned because the brass sounds on his current board are laughable. Less important but a nice bonus is some decent synth sounds as I'd like to work some more modern pop material into our function sets. Got to be a self-contained unit as well - I've considered the VST route but its an extra level of complexity and potential problems that I'd like to avoid worrying about (because it will be me fixing it when it crashes!) One board I've spotted that is very affordable second hand is a Korg PS-60, seems geared to our kind of setup so I'm keen to hear any real world experience of that, or any other suggestions that won't cost a bomb on the used market. Looking forward to your thoughts! Ta, Mike