mike257

[quote name='merchant' timestamp='1329956291' post='1550561'] Oh no, it's got even more complicated. I have no idea what the impedance of my pick up system is, but intend to run the pedal after fuzz as I don't want the change in volume to alter the characteristics and response of the distortion, so i'll be looking at a low impedance pedal (I assume). Would be great if pedal manufacturers could include a trim pot inside to change the impedance so we could taylor the pedal to it's position in a chain. Plus I need a pedal that is visually quiet. Some of these beasts are hard to ignore. Oh well. [/quote] Impedance is only really an issue with passive (unpowered) pedals. An active pedal like the George Dennis I mentioned in my last post will happily sit anywhere in your chain regardless of the impedance on either side of it.

Just bought a pedal from Rich, great fella to deal with and got it out to me super fast too. Top bloke, deal with him with confidence!

Even on no pay originals gigs, I decided back in my teens that pre gig pints were out. Did it once, and I feel like even one pint can make a noticeable (to me) difference toy playing and awareness, so I don't bother. Would never do it on a payer. Bit of a moot point these days as I own a Splitter van so I'm invariably the one behind the wheel, but I just consider it a professionalism thing. Not judging anyone who sees it differently mind you, I've worked with guys who are useless after a beer, but also with guys who regularly put on a stellar performance after imbibing plenty. I guess it's down to the individual and them having awareness of how it affects their abilities.

I imagine the velcro that is included with pedal boards is cheap and cheerful stuff. You can buy heavy duty velcro from a couple of the big brands (Velcro, 3M) and a plethora of ebay sellers. An effects crazy guitarist I play with sometimes is a firm advocate of the "drill and cable tie" method because he doesn't have to stick anything to his pedals, pry the feet off etc, so they stay in better condition for when he inevitably sells them on for the next one! Another option is using screw fasteners - Johnnyshredfreak.com sell kits to fit a wide variety of pedals. Basically they're little washers with two holes (like a number 8) and you remove the screws from the base of your pedal, screw them back in with these washers attached, then screw through the second hole on the washer into your board. In fact, here's a link: [url="http://www.johnnyshredfreak.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=44"]http://www.johnnyshredfreak.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=44[/url] Plenty of options, sticky or otherwise!

Oh how I wished for a room with a window when I was in Elevator Nice vid, sounds great!

Another vote for second hand here. If you're looking at a serious move into function work, hopefully you'll be swiftly moving up to weddings/corporate stuff and I'd aim to get something upgradeable. For me, that means avoiding powered speakers or mixers and going for separate mixer/amps/cabs. That way, you can put cash aside every few gigs and upgrade a piece at a time whilst retaining connectivity and compatibility with the other parts of your system. I can't help but see powered speakers as dead money when it comes to upgrading as you're effectively having to replace two components in one if you need something bigger.

Needs more checkerboard!

Yeah, I had assumed from the OP that this would be a young-ish originals band. Any band asking you to audition playing covers should have been able to tell you at least a couple of songs they'd be doing before the event, surprised at this one and its not what I'd call the normal way of doing things!

Didn't see this when you first posted it, looks great. Will be downloading when I fix my PC!

Glad to hear its working out! Just had a quick look at a pic of the ME70, it has a master EQ section so you can always up the bass a bit on there to compensate for anything you feel is missing. I take it you're recording from the "Rec Out/Phones" connection? Have you tried using the different pre-amp models to see which gives the best results? I would imagine the "Clean" setting or bypassing the preamp modelling altogether would give the best results for bass tone - I would probably try to get the cleanest possible signal into Garageband and then use some of the plugins to perfect the bass tone. Looking forward to hearing it!

Seems unusual, I've been in touch with hin a few times in the last couple of years, sometimes for pickups and sometimes just to pick his brain but he's always got back to me pretty quickly. It's a one man business as far as I know though, so its possible that there's nobody picking up the slack if he's unavailable for any reason. Might be worth giving him a quick ring if you don't hear back.

I got mine on eBay for £450 a few years ago, have seen them go here on Basschat for a similar price too - just had a quick look and there's one on eBay now starting at £500 with no bids yet and a couple of days to run. I don't think I've ever seen a second hand one listed above £550 so fingers crossed one will pop up sooner or later - a wanted post on here might help you out if that is what you're after!

If you can add an extra £100 to your budget you'll be able to pick up a used Ampeg SVT610HLF - two speakers shy of what you're looking for but has the classic 'big rig' looks, is surprisingly easy to move around, and sounds fantastic. I traded in a 4x10 and a 15 for mine and never looked back, the bottom end from it is massive. They seem to go between £450 and £550 so are a little over your MAG budget but will hold their s/h value and (I'd guess) sound even better. Just something worth thinking about.

Won't do your fx any damage with a bass, although as said above they may not sound great - some guitar effects sound great with bass though, don't be afraid to experiment! The problem with bass through guitar amps is more to do with the speakers and the amount of power needed to produce the low end. Most guitar amps will handle bass well enough at lower volumes but struggle when pushed harder - there are exceptions though!

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1330694354' post='1561714'] I do it with my band and we're tight. I only start pedalling the hats if there's a very long section with no beat, or if the guitarist gets a little too excited, which is almost never. [/quote] That's what I mean - long sections with no drums need something from the drummer to keep you in with the click!

[quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1330690951' post='1561624'] IWe notice that the singers drag the tempo's down during breaks in the songs if we don't use a click which really winds up the other musicians. The only bummer about that is that you need the drummer to do something to keep time to ensure they have a timing reference [/quote] That's the one thing I forgot in my last post - drummer has [i]always [/i]got to be playing something, so even in the bits where the drums drop out, he's got to give you a bit of hi-hat or something to keep in time with. Forget about that and it all goes tits up!

A more suitably sized/shaped desk definitely sounds like a plan - I went for the desk with the biggest surface area I could find so I could get my screen, monitors, midi keyboard, mixer and preamp all set up on there, but from the sound of your setup it's all pretty compact and you could get away with a smaller workspace. If you get one with a slidey keyboard tray, maybe think about using that for your UX1, hard drive and other occasional bits, and leave the keyboard on the desk top - that way, your music gear isn't in the way when you just need to use the computer for browsing/work, but you can leave it all cabled up and just slide it out when required. Bedroom definitely sounds like the place for it though, that's what I've done when i've shared a flat. Lucky enough now that I'm sharing a house with the missus that she lets me take over the back room with music gear (even claimed a piano on freecycle!) but I know how tricky it can be when you're in a small place.

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1330690490' post='1561610'] WTF??? Am I missing something here? [/quote] PVC + spare hair = instant chest rug!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1330683293' post='1561398'] I pressed that button once and my PC got off with the guitarist's girlfriend and was sick in my gig bag. Never again. [/quote] Tea all over my laptop, well done sir. On topic - I've done this with a few bands now, if you've got a good drummer who's comfortable with a click then it's easy to achieve and can sound great. Only ever used it for adding in a few samples/synths/drum loops but mixed a band the other day who had all kinds of backing vocals and bits and pieces in there - say what you will about the musical rights and wrongs of it but they sounded fantastic. All really tight musicians (and all four of them singing real live harmonies too) who could have put on a great performance without it so it wasn't covering up for anything! Techy wise, I've done it (or seen it done) with iPod/Pads, mini-disc, laptops, even a Sony PSP (drummer liked the big bright screen!) - if you're happy to run your backing as a single mono track, then you can knock up a stereo mixdown with your click panned hard one side, track panned hard the other and use a stereo to dual-mono cable. Decent monitoring for your drummer is important, the headphone amp of your playback device probably isn't enough so they'll need a dedicated headphone amp and a decent pair of in-ears to keep track of the click over the racket they'll be making!

[quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1330511671' post='1558469'] When my band was dropped by the label I sold most of my kit (had to...used to live in a private rehearsal room and I had no room in the house) and hid away for a couple of years. During that time I had absolutely no intention to join a band and work from the ground up again. I was invited to join a couple of working bands with tour commitments out of the UK, but when I started to spend more time with my family and friends going back on the road lost its appeal. I also thought that there were lots of younger, better looking and more talented lads out there doing it that can put up with a lot of the bulls**t that I couldn't...so I felt passed it (even at 27yrs old!). I even stopped going to gigs because I felt envious watching other bands being successful. I was in a bad state musically. But, I kept playing. I used the time to study and develop myself as well as teaching other guys and it kept me ticking over for a bit. A very close friend of mine who is a respected session musician took me out for a coffee one day and very bluntly told me to get my head out of my ar*e and get over it. He thought that networking by working as a session musician would lift me back up and if the right opportunity would come back around through doing that then cool. He hooked me up with a couple of the agencies he works for and over the past 7 years it has now developed into a very healthy second income for me...to the point whereby I could probably give up my day job. Okay, some of the work has been pretty crappy and nothing to sing about, but I am in the network and active. I am a hired hand at the moment and I haven't found a full time job with an artist yet, but I have found regular work with a couple of artists in the UK and over in the US. My covers band is always quite busy which also earns me a few extra quid. I am now planning to put together a new band to start writing and performing my own material which is something I never thought I would do again. In the meantime I can still teach and session for other artists. I am a very happy musician Anyway, in a nutshell...what I want to convey is that you shouldn't give up on your musical ambitions if there is a bump in the road. That small break after my deal fell through took my eye off the game and took me a long time to get back into the swing of it. Always try your best to keep the momentum going…something that you will enjoy doing and contribute to will come around if you keep trying. Bass players are always in demand. [/quote] I'm 27 and after 13 years of gigging feeling exactly in the same place as you described after a bad year of let-downs trying to pull a new band together - it's cheered me right up reading your post! And to the OP - don't ever give up! The last couple of years I've played more and more guitar (mainly as a songwriting tool) and have gotten that into it that I've sold a few bits of excess bass gear and assembled a pretty tasty guitar setup for a minimal outlay. Love the challenge of being out of my comfort zone on an instrument with which I'm less experienced, and it doubles the opportunities available. Maybe something like that would be good - another instrument, a fresh perspective. Even if you land in a band as a bass player, the 'view from the other side' you'll have gained is invaluable if nothing else! Good luck and don't forget why you started playing in the first place!

[quote name='LiamPodmore' timestamp='1324138030' post='1471215'] A good way to get around this, like they do at Manchester Academy (3 and Club are the only ones i've seen so far) which is use a splitter snake, to send the original signal to FOH and the monitor desk too. Seems to work pretty well for them and they always seem to have a good sound both on and off stage. Liam [/quote] If you're looking for a way round this in a 'one desk' setup, you could always use a small splitter and feed each vocal to two channels on the desk (if you've got enough spare) - send one to the masters and use the other to feed your auxes, you can EQ and process seperately to minimise your feedback. Happy days.