bigjohn

It's easier to get a gig being a bassist I play a bit of guitar too, but I've got very little interest in showing off how crap I am at it to a wider audience. I've got no problem showing off how crap I am at bass though.

Sounds better than it looks too. Which is an achievement!

I have some "experience" of John Chambers' amps. Though mostly to look at, I have seen/heard a 1000W bass valve amp turned on and music played though it as his place. I can't remember what he called it... killer or squasher or something or other. John was a bass player back in the day. It was immense and looked very dangerous! He makes some lovely amps to oggle at Unfortunately, I've only had repairs done through him rather than buying any of his stuff (bar the odd NOS valve, which he does a good line in). I'm mates with the fella that winds his transformers who also makes some rather lovely valve HiFi. Seriously lovely.

[quote name='RandomBass' timestamp='1354116980' post='1882262'] I turned up halfway through a gig once. I was quickly told to turn down again. [/quote] [i]Pardon?[/i]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1354020998' post='1880855'] At least one per song - and probably a lot more if you include things that are musically correct but not actually what I ought to have been playing. However in over 30 years of gigging I don't think I've ever messed up so badly that it's brought the song to a halt. As others have said it doesn't matter. I've now learnt not to acknowledge mine or anyone else's mistakes. They are over as soon as you play the next right note and long forgotten by the end of the next bar. [/quote] Aye. That's about where I'm at. Some songs in our set I have a bassline for the whole song in my head. It's rare I get from start to finish playing each note exactly as I want. But that's life. Being a musician is about embracing that and being creative with it. Some songs I'm just happy I know "how it goes" and it's never gonna be the same every time anyway as the songs are long and are mainly instrumental. That's a different thing but again, that's life. Embrace it and be creative. No-one notices anyway if things get a bit out of line! I've played one really bad gig where I couldn't hear myself onstage at all. It was just mud. With no vocal either. Now that gig was littered with awful mistakes all over. What made it worse was that FOH everyone could hear everything clear as a bell.

Omega 3 fatty acids are where it's at. And the balance between them and Omega 6. I take flaxseed oil every day at that has really helped with my bad joints. Even my big right toe which I have a bad case (supposedly untreatable other than cortisone injection) of impact arthritis in from a football injury.

Just get an NOS Blackburn made Mullard and forget ahbaht it... Especially if it's just one. They're expensive, but it's not like you're fitting five of the buggers.

I've got an Amplug (original Japanese made version) and it's great. It's not amazing, but it's a fun little thing for playing with. They cost about £20/£30 though, so I'm not sure I'd part with £100 for a pair of headphones with one in. I'd rather have an Amplug and a decent pair of headphones. Unless money was no object of course. One detriment would be that I often play with my Amplug using a pair of open foam on ear headphones, that means I can play along with stuff. Wouldn't be possible with these. Though they have an Aux in (as does the Amplug) that's not the same thing at all.

Nice pre-amp you've got there. I've seen people use an angled jack and put the cable through the rack mount hole.

Hiscox Lite Flights are boss. As incidentally are SKB X Series shallow racks... Soz to hear of your troubles!

Lovin' the bass and drums.

I always thought it was Gail Ann Dorcy.

There's nothing wrong with keeping stuff somewhere other than a centrally heated modern house. So long as it's done with some common sense. So long as the roof doesn't leak and it's not got mould or damp, the temperature won't matter too much. What might do some harm is taking it from cold to warm and back to cold again in one evening. That's the route to water condensing on the cold metal in the warm then later being taken back to the cold and not evaporating. Or simply just having warm moist air from a bar or club inside the cab which then goes cold and unloads the moisture into the nearest absorbent material - the speaker cone. The trick would be to put some bags of silica gel inside the cabs. And yeah, raising it off the floor, where the coldest air and the biggest water "droplets" live. And these would help. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kontrol-Krystals-Unscented-Streamline-Moisture-Dehumidifier-Trap-/181011918840?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Hearing_Cooling_Air&hash=item2a2526aff8"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a2526aff8[/url] I keep some dotted around our garage and they do make a difference.

I go in phases. I've we're rehearsing or gigging every week I sometimes never take my bass out of the case except for at the studio, sometimes I practice every day and take that practice into the studio. When we're not, sometimes though I play every day. Something new, something old... whatever. Sometimes I see an exercise I'd like to try and that makes me play more. Sometimes I decide to play a line slightly differently so I practice that. Sometimes I can't be bothered. Like everything else

Heavy and flat for me 49-109. Thinking of going heavier. No pain.

I've been using Dunlop 65 for years and have nothing but good things to say about it.

I bought mine from a discount book shop for buttons... How i wish I'd bought the job lot!

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1350409268' post='1838468'] We could have pulled the audience in but surely an audition is about the quality of the performance? [/quote] Or about actually being auditioned, rather than them collecting the door money and buggering off home before you even play. Basically, all they're bothered about is gauging if you'll sell some tickets to the festival, whilst taking door money as a bonus. You could be a one man band who plays Dixie on a toilet brush shoved up your arsehole and you'd pass the audition if you bring enough punters. Though I'm sure there are some very good bands who have graced their stages, their once-in-a-lifetime chances to do so bestowed purely on musical merit and suitability.

We "auditioned" for it a couple of years ago. I think it can be ok if you get on. Though I have seen some photos of bands playing to emptiness. We "auditioned" a couple of years ago and to be honest, I found their whole set up a little unprofessional and felt like we got the piss took really. We got the last slot on audition night (11pm on a wet Tuesday), which punters had to pay to come to and by which time the only judge, who'd told one of the other bands earlier that he "doesn't like Neil Young" had fooked off home. As a Neil Young tribute, we wondered what the hell we were doing on a few different levels. Their loss as it were.

Pitchblack for me! Like Knightrider.

I dunno. If it was all about what punters thought most of the instruments and music produced wouldn't exist. I'm more in the, buy the best bass you can afford camp.[i] It's you that gets to play it[/i]. It doesn't really matter what other people think it sounds like so as you like it.

I put a US "original" Fender pickup in a MIM bass once. It did sound different after. Much hotter high end and much more clank. Before I sold it I put the stock pickup back in and actually prefered it. That said I've heard some MIMs sound a bit lifeless and dull. Basses are strange beasts, often more than sum of their parts. It's a virtue to be able to play and hear them with an open mind to what parts they built with and where.

Very interesting. Though yep, as people have said, its very hard to tell the diff between a 4ohm and an 8ohm cab volume wise. In fact I rewired some 4ohm cabs to 16ohm once and couldn't hear the difference. My amp ran a lot cooler though!