mike257

[quote name='iamapirate' post='610628' date='Sep 28 2009, 10:18 AM']OT, but I've just seen one of the new ampeg transparent basses - look nice! Probably sound like sh*t for the price![/quote] Haven't tried the bass, but a mate of mine has the guitar. I wasn't expecting much, but it blew me away. Perfectly balanced, and a great neck on it. Sounded the business too, although that interchangeable pickup nonsense seems a lot of messing around. Clever idea though!

Can't comment too much on the content, as I'm not to clued up on how the covers scene works, but make sure every last bit of material you hand over to the landlord/agent/whoever has your contact details on. The front, the back, the disc itself. That way, when the landlord throws the disc on in his car and manages to lose the case somewhere, he can still book you when he realises how utterly badass you are - result!

All plans for a spare 6.0 are now off. I wonder if it's much heavier? That's bloody ridiculous.

Ah, 'Sticks and a smile' bands. Get them in sunny England too, and it's almost always kids with pushy parents. We ran into some on my old band's last tour. One in particular in the Music Box in Manchester who literally had drumsticks, guitars and nothing else. Not even a lead. Still stuns me every time.

Guitarist in my band has the Ernie Ball one, and it's truly superb. He has just replaced a pot in it, but he basically uses it to simulate pedal steel playing, and therefore hammers it right through every song in our set, so it takes some beating! He had a couple of different pedals on loan while his EB was out of action and none of them came close. It's expensive, but it's money well spent!

[quote name='Lew-Bass' post='600473' date='Sep 16 2009, 05:06 PM']or could I get a good head for £200?[/quote] On Crown Street of a night, probably. [quote]Did you find that you have more 'sonic space' in a band like the one you're in at the moment? I've always wanted to be in both an indie (I'm using the term broadly here) and a metal band, as the bass has two different functions really. I've insisted, as the band former, that there's only going to be one guitarist in the indie band, to allow the bass more room to be heard and utilized. I reckon we'd be ready to gig within a few months in all honesty, it won't take long to knock a few songs up with the odd cover thrown in. It'd be great if we could open for you or whatever, if you have any say in that[/quote] The demos on the site are pretty old (pre-band, missing half the members) and don't really reflect how we sound. There's actually me, the drummer, acoustic guitar, two electric guitars and a steel player. All of that is backing up three lead vocals with almost-constant harmony going on. We're all very careful to leave plenty space musically, as the harmony vocal is the focal point in the music. I play less notes than I've ever played in my life! The new recordings should be getting mastered next week, I'll drop you a line when it's up if you fancy a listen. As for amp shopping, check out this for £480 in the For Sale forum: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=60660"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=60660[/url] It's a hefty head, racked, with a rack tuner included, and a 2x10 cab. You'll be putting 300ish watts into the cab at 4ohm, and as the head runs up to 2ohm, you could always add a second cab in future if your needs change. The seller is in Cumbria, but says he'll come as far south as Warrington to drop it off, so I guess that's close enough to us in the 'pool. Well worth a shout, I reckon

I started bass at 14, mostly out of neccesity, as everybody played the guitar, so somebody had to do it. I spent my teens dabbling with drums, guitars, and a weekend job in a studio, but quickly realised bass was where I got my kicks. I think I was probably 21/22 before the penny really dropped and I started feeling like a 'proper' bassist. I've never taken lessons on any instrument, and have never really had a proper practice routine. I still get an inferiority complex with this, I feel like I should have a higher playing standard and more solid theoretical grounding after 10+ years! 'Decent' is such a subjective word. On one hand, I would probably consider myself absolutely useless next to somebody like Doddy, who has really put the time in to master their instrument. On the other hand, I've played in rock bands, country bands, acoustic groups, metal bands, covers set-ups, and done plenty of last minute depping for originals bands, and have never found myself feeling out of my depth. I love the challenge of having to work with new genres, techniques, or sets of songs, and feel like I learn a whole load of new stuff every time I step out there and do something. If you're dropped in the deep-end, you'll learn to swim real quick

[quote name='Lew-Bass' post='599526' date='Sep 15 2009, 07:17 PM']Ahh, thanks for the info. And yeah, you're not wrong about the Zanzi, the majority of bassists have sounded decent when I've been there. We're called Padula mate (urbandictionary has the answer if you [i]really[/i] want to know.. it isn't pleasant though!). We couldn't think of a name so we just went on there and looked for the strangest thing that sounded decent Had a listen to your band, you're really good mate and I'll keep an eye out for you too. Not usually the type of music I'm that into but really enjoyed the listen, good luck with gigging etc. and even though we're very different genres (Athough I am starting an indie band up; maybe we could sort a support slot out for you when we're ready?) hopefully we cross paths [/quote] Haha, I'm on my work laptop, maybe I'm best waiting til I'm home to look at that then Cheers for checking the band out - those demos are pretty old school, we've just finished our EP so there'll be some new tracks going up soon. It's a new sound for me really, I've always been in noisy rock bands up until now! What kind of stuff are you guys playing? EDIT: Just got your PM, reply coming back atcha!

I don't reckon you'll be disappointed mate, look forward to hearing what you think!

[quote name='Lew-Bass' post='598413' date='Sep 14 2009, 05:07 PM']Do they provide you with a head n amp there mate? I've noticed at the Zanzibar anyway that there always seems to be a Wawrick ProFet 5.1 there with a cheap cab (Laney/Peavey I think). If so, what happens then? Do you have to use it?[/quote] Hey man, The Zanz provide you with backline, they prefer you to use that rather than have loads of changeovers. I was actually surprised how good the rig sounded last time I was there though. The Barfly don't have any in house backline, it's only really the Zanz and the Cavern that have their own stuff in. Everywhere else, you'll likely need your own gear. [quote]And thanks mate, I think 300W with PA will be plenty loud enough like you said. And also, I'm only pretty young (16 on April Fools' Day ), and I'm yet to start gigging but my band have a few songs already. Luckily our drummer has a pretty much professional studio in his house so the recording isn't bad for what it is. Got no bass recorded yet though as his dads working intensively in there for the next couple of months. I'll put a link up on here though once it's been recorded, hopefully we'll be gigging by then too [/quote] What are you guys called? I'll keep an ear out for you, defo let me know when the recording is done Mike

[quote name='steve-soar' post='598983' date='Sep 15 2009, 09:46 AM']Are we talking about Martin from Kappa?[/quote] Small world, eh!

Hey Lew, I'm a regular stage-botherer at the Liverpool Barfly - The Funk is right on the money with his recommendations, that kind of power will do you fine. If you're playing those kind of gigs, your amp is only really there for you to hear on stage anyway, the dirty great big PA does all the hard work I've used heads from 350w up to 600w in there, and never got my master volume even close to half way on stage, so you don't need anything earth-shattering. Who's your band then? Probably catch you around sooner or later if you're gigging round here, Barfly's only round the corner from my flat! Mike

No hands on exp with one myself, but a fellow bassist I know has one, and it sounds fantastic. He swears by it now, and it's left his (really tasty sounding) SVT2 out of service. I'm chuffed enough with my Shuttle, but those GBEs sound mega.

I gave away a bass, but by no means my best one! I donated a semi-hollow Tanglewood Warrior to my mates brother cos he wanted to learn to play. My friends muso Dad loaned me a bass back in my teens and that's what started me playing, so I figured I ought to keep the pattern going

I thought I was over it, there's more gone out than come in for the last couple of years. I'm now down to 5 basses, 2 eleccy guitars, one acoustic, a combo, two heads and a giant cab. And a triangle. I'm still gassing for Alex's cabs, and although I'm [i]almost[/i] convincing myself that I'm done buying basses, I can't stop getting all pie eyed every time a nice P appears in the for sale forum.

Looks the business mate, nice one

I guess it depends on the kind of gigs you're doing - if you're playing gigs where FOH is carrying your sound, and your amp is just on-stage monitoring, then a pre-amp means you've got some control over your tone before it hits the DI box and the audience's ears. If your backline is what the audience are hearing, then there's little reason to add yet another set of tone controls to the ones already present on your bass and your amp, unless the tone you want ain't in there.

If you can find one wide enough, just get yourself a big chunk of foam to go under the bass - it'll solve your slim body problem and be loads cheaper than a custom jobbie!!

I can't bad mouth God Gave Rock'n'Roll. In my head it's eternally associated with Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and there's not a bad word you can say about Bill and Ted

[quote name='Linus27' post='586359' date='Sep 1 2009, 11:10 AM']Wow, hold ya horses. Are you telling me that the Ten album has been re-mixed and re-released?? Is there a big difference between the two? I love Ten but I did find some of the guitar very weedy and plinky plonky.[/quote] Hell yeah! They did a bunch of different re-releases, I think it was earlier this year. Brendan O'Brien had already remixed a track or two for the 'rearviewmirror' greatest hits thing, but the whole album got done. Sounds much more ballsy and like his stuff on Vs, I like it! See BigRedX's point about the production placing it in it's time though, it does have it's charm! I'm just a fan of his sound, I guess, I love the stuff he did with RATM and Incubus too.

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='586147' date='Aug 31 2009, 10:57 PM']I've always thought that someone should go back and re-mix all the great songs from the 80s and bring them to life without all that dreaful over-worked, synthetic production..[/quote] +1 Imagine all the awesome songs that could be rescued. Brendan O'Brien did some cracking mixes of Pearl Jam's 'Ten' album for the reissue, took all those comedy drum sounds and massive guitar reverbs out and gave it a new set of balls, sounds great!!

[quote name='JPAC' post='582862' date='Aug 27 2009, 08:15 PM']It's when you catch your skin on the hot iron and it smells of roast pork! 20 years with BT here, I've done a bit of soldering. (Not recently).[/quote] There must be a few of us here, I'm only 3 and a half years in though, got a bit of catching up to do to you

Would it make sense sticking me next to Uncle B, since he's only a short hop over the Mersey from me?

No guilty guvnah, me and half my band were moonlighting in a hotel bar playing a hastily thrown together covers set. I've asked my Dad. Not only was it not him, but I've finally disproved his theory that he knows the answer to everything. So it wasn't all in vain.

I'd love a crack at one, especially next to my SVT610 to see how they compare. I don't have my own transport to move the thing about, but if one comes to Liverpool I'd love a go