mike257

You've picked an absolutely lovely guitar to start out on! I'd say you should persevere with it - I played guitar for a couple of months before I made the jump to bass in my early teens, but in the last few years I've really worked on my guitar playing, mainly for songwriting purposes, although I've now ended up playing lead guitar in a function band for the last 6 months or so and I'm enjoying the challenge! There's nothing but good can come from learning more about other instruments and how they work - even if you never play them outside your bedroom, you'll go away a better bassist with a better understanding and appreciation of your bandmates roles.

We're averaging about £800 after the agents cut for a fairly new 5 piece wedding band, and expecting to push that up with all the new promo material we're assembling and the extra investment we're making in sound/lighting. I'd be having tough words with the singer as you're very much selling yourselves short if the function market is what you're aiming for.

I have a long base high roof Transit decked out with seven seats and a mid bulkhead which can take anything you throw at it. If you don't need to carry band members though, its probably overkill. One option that hasn't come up is a box trailer. A band I used to do sound for would take two cars - the drummer with his kit in one, the bassist, guitarist, me in another with guitars, heads and small bits, and towing a box trailer with subs, tops, mixer, outboard and a pair of 4x12 cabs, plus all the other miscellaneous nonsense you need on a gig. That way, you've got one vehicle that will do for day-to-day use, and you just hitch the rest on as and when you nerd it!

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1349766873' post='1830107'] Just one of those plastic cheapy things [/quote] Quite often cheap tuners will struggle to track the very bottom end of the range on a bass, so you'll have no lick going below standard tuning. Tins if good workarounds already posted though!

Looking good mate! Just wondering, is the cable cut out on the back of those cases just a big hole, or is there a panel to cover it? Just got thinking that you could put a plate there with jack sockets and a mains connection and wire it to your first/last pedals - all your connections on the back of the board for a nice easy set up!

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1349627006' post='1828423'] I didn't realise Transits could reliably get from A to B either. Transporter Syncro is where its at IME a good MIM is a fine bass. Sound wise they hold up well against the majority of instruments in the same price bracket. On occasion there can be some slight construction flaws but nothing too serious. Despite the differences between the two, at the end of the day the punters will rarely notice. If I were a noob bassist starting out with a new band I'd stick the price difference on a good sound system or transport (the joy of hindsight). [/quote] What are you implying? My Transit is a magnificent beast!

[quote name='Shambo' timestamp='1349555091' post='1827788'] Arguing about which Fender is better than which has always struck me as being a bit like arguing about who's Ford Transit is the best. It's just a tool with a specific task and as long as it reliably gets you and stuff from A to B, it matters not where it was built or if it has electric windows and a nice stereo.. [/quote] Clearly the words of a man who has never been in my Transit van.

I had a crack with the Big One when it was on tour for tryouts a few years ago. Sounded wonderful with my Shuttle 6, didn't get the chance to try my SVT3 with it but sounds like it wouldn't have been a worthwhile effort. Really tempted to change my giant cab for something more manageable to suit the types of gigs I'm doing these days, Alex's stuff is always tempting!

I read the thread title out of the corner of my eye and thought your bass had died. Glad the content is more cheerful!

Couldn't find an existing thread so here's a shiny new one. Bought a pedal off Scott, it was dispatched super quickly, well packed and in great condition. He kept in touch throughout too. Pleasure to deal with, recommended basschatter - cheers mate! Mike

I get this with a guy who deps for the function band sometimes. He's a very talented, classically trained pianist, but when he goes off and learns a song on his own, he learns how to play everybody's parts all at once, and needs a bit of coaxing to dial it down when he gets in the room with us. Recent example would be 'Sex On Fire' (yeah, I know ) where we counted it off and went for it, and he turned out to be pretty much playing the bassline and both guitar parts all at once. I definitely think it's something to do with 'proper' pianists and it being very much a full-range, all encompassing instrument when played solo. Our regular keyboard player (who is also very talented) is much more of a 'band' player and leaves tons of space for the rest of us. So, yeah - don't hire a piano player who has learnt how to play it properly!

Mine has shifted dramatically this year. I've gone from playing bass in originals bands for over a decade to playing lead guitar in a function band. I do feel some frustration at not having an outlet for my songwriting, but on the other hand we couldn't afford to pay our childcare bills if I didn't spend most weekends busting out Mustang Sally at weddings. Luckily I enjoy music in general enough that I get a kick out of seeing people have a great time to the music we're playing and it doesn't (usually) bother me what's on the set. Glad to be playing at all, and to be contributing to people's special occasions and directly impacting on how much of a good time they're all having can be really rewarding! Still miss big dirty riffs though.

[sub]There's a lot of guitars change hands on BC over in the 'For Sale - Other Musically Related Items' forum, why not suggest he posts them in there. Plenty of members here who moonlight on the skinny strings![/sub]

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1348652724' post='1816372'] That's a function of that amp - they just create a HUGE perceived volume, whatever the theoretical output is. I had a 50 Top for a short while and just had no use for it at all (came as part of a deal) because until it hit ear-bleeding levels it sounded stiff and dry, even through a 1X12 Celestion Gold. I'm pretty sure they are really just PA amps with a single channel. [/quote] I wasn't totally sold on mine at first but between a great service and spruce-up from my amp tech and getting the Orange in the mix it's really come to life. Love that bit of grit and breakup on input 1 but find I need to use input 2 for my clean sounds with current gig. Dying to get the chance to really wind it up and see what it is capable of. I'm using my brother's Yamaha SA2000S at the moment, which definitely helps with the tone!

I've got an MXR Smart Gate on my guitar board, does the job ok, although it's a fine balance between having it kill the noise and having it cut off the end of long, sustained notes. Adding a compressor which will hopefully help me fix this! Good pedal though, and fairly widely available on the used market.

I did a search in case I was beaten to the punch but couldn't find a thread on here. Seems to be very little info on it online, not seen any demos yet, but it's apparently for sale in all the usual suspects. Somebody buy one and let me borrow it!

Oh, and back on topic - bass was non-existent for me today. Yesterday I had a meeting with the guys from what will be my new function band, which seems very promising and will get me back into regular bass playing, I've been out of it for around a year now. Not much bass on the immediate horizon but looks to be changing soon!

[quote name='Jack Cahalane' timestamp='1348606499' post='1816001'] Rang up Dawsons to find out that Marshall are going to potentially charge me £30 an hour to fix my amp. Anybody fancy fixing it for free? ...Anybody? [/quote] How far from the Wirral are you? I know a great amp tech in Ellesmere Port who is absurdly cheap too. PM me if the distance isn't too bad and I'll hook you up his number!

Haha, you're going to get your head blown off! I've been playing guitar in a gigging band for the first time in ages this year and had to throw a guitar rig together. I'm using a 70's Carlsbro 50 Top head and an Orange 2x12. I've only had the cab a month or two but already wish I'd bought the smaller one, it's absurd how loud it is. I can barely tickle the bottom end of the range on my volume knob before it's too much for the function gigs we're playing. Obviously you guys are looking for more volume than my current situation requires (oh, for a chance to crank mine up like that!) but he's going to move a lot of air with a 4x10 behind him, not going to do you any favours for controlling your stage sound!

So, they snuck this out under the radar! I headed off to investigate the "Win an Ashdown drophead" compo at GAK and chanced across this: [url="http://www.gak.co.uk/en/ashdown-stacked-actor-bass-distortion-nate-mendel-signature/59941"]http://www.gak.co.uk...signature/59941[/url] Looks interesting, two footswitchable distortion options, with the ability two split the two tones to two seperate amps, apparently built and tweaked for him to use on tour with the Foos. Anybody even heard about this, let alone had a go? My curiosity is piqued!

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1348076154' post='1808978'] I mused about this while trawling WHS for some card this aft. I can't remember the last time I bought any musical instrument magazine; possibly around Xmas/NY time. Of those who bought one recently who has found enough in it that couldn't be found in this forum, Youtube or a simple i'net search that justified the cover price? Hasten to add, it's not the cost of magazines that put me off (though I do object to the price going up to justify the [i]free [/i]CD/mug coaster on some guitar mags); it's just that I've seldom found anything worth buying of late. [/quote] I've had a cursory flick through some of the guitar magazines while loitering in front of the shelf but they really do seem to just recycle the same old. The only muso magazine I used to always make time for was Sound On Sound, had a subscription for years, but even that seems to have succumbed to the curse of more adverts than decent content when I've picked up the odd one lately.

See no issue mixing the MAG and ABM ranges, but I'd echo the last few posts regarding mixing a 410 with a 115. I went from a setup like that (Ampeg Classic series cabs) to an Ampeg 610HLF and found I had a lot more punch and definition (and other words that don't really mean anything tangible ) with the tens. My 115 always struggled to keep up with the 410 and I don't think it added anything useful to the tone. Obviously, if it sounds good to you then all this is irrelevant, trust your ears first!