12stringbassist

Saturday night was our second gig of this year at Hogarths in Bolton. A decent sized venue and usually quite busy. It was fairly packed while we were playing and our two spots went down really well. They even went a bit mad when we played one of our own songs off our album. Back in September.

I've never hated an instrument that I have bought. I have sometimes found that they don't get to the front of the queue for being played and then have parted with them. There's very little point in hanging on to something that you don't use.

The fault in that instance is the potential for someone else to buy the package and then it doesn't work for them, or ceases to work in similar circumstances.

As I see it, the instrument package that you have bought is completed by the essential software. There is a functionality issue with the instrument, due to software issues. There's no separating them. The instrument is within the warranty period and is 100% dependent on the software. After three months, just the same as after a day, you are entitled to go back to the shop for a replacement or return from the supplier. It is not the shop's fault, but your sale contract is with them. Once the shop takes an item back, if they can't re-sell it, in a case like this, they have to take the issue up to get recompense from the manufacturer to cover their loss. I personally feel really sorry for the stores who get caught in the middle when something like this happens. They should never lose out due to a manufacturer's mistake. Mooer have a recent product out there, probably still being sold, that ceases to work. That is something that Mooer needs to sort out.

The answer is a decently balanced mix, with the bass level matching up with the guitar for rhythm and the guitar not leaping out to an overly silly degree on solos.

18??!!! Good God. One's hard enough for me!

I'm so very sorry to read that, that's just dreadful. Christmas is such a hard time for some.

Who's Mike? I'm Ian.

I wish people would just stay on topic as regards this thread.

It's recognisable from the photo, begins with BS

I think most people in a band could be replaced. In my band it would cause a lot of disruption, but if any of us went, the band could feasibly carry on. Whether it would or not, I don't know. I am in my band to play with my drummer. If he stopped it would be over immediately.

A venue in St Helens. I began to get misgivings about this evening's gig when I first saw the venue's advertising for it. Just as they did last year, the venue advertised us as a specific glam rock band, which we are NOT. We play some glam rock, but we would never say that glam is what we do. Our own poster was far more honest. A message during the day that someone had complained last year (they put images of Roy Wood and The Rubettes on the poster, two bands that we don't touch) set my nerves jingling. We talked amongst ourselves about how to rearrange the show to survive such critics. We were assured that it was just one person and that we should do our regular show. I dressed up. Some people at tables were dressed up glam-style and I felt nervous, but we went on and played two great sets. After the show, a Chinese lady took me off to a room to pay me. Our fee was £100 short. I showed her the message with the agreed fee and she directed me to talk to the chap who had booked us. We had a circular conversation about how the Chinese lady at the venue lies to him about attendance and rips him off, the attendance being a bit short so they couldn't pay our full fee (that he had agreed in July), and how, if I took money out of HIS pocket then we would never play there again.... He invited me to think about that. After thinking about it for a fraction of a second, I said that we did not want to deal with a rogue venue who cheats bands. He's got an ego about being The Man Who Puts Bands On. I walked away from him and he followed me, shouting pathetic insults about me politely asking him not to use his smoke machine, as they mess my throat up and I live in fear of them. Our drummer Graham went for a lengthy chat with him and came back with some more money, but not our full fee. I presume this means we will not be playing there again. I don't want to play there again. He was very affronted when I said I would not be blackmailed and ripped off. I said that if he paid a plumber part of an agreed fee for doing a job, the plumber would hit him. I came home very annoyed. Happy Christmas.

Jim Lea John Entwistle Tom Petersson NIck Lowe Macca Guitar players Dave Edmunds George Harrison Pete Townshend Rick Nielsen Noddy Holder

Meanwhile, after that protracted detour into outer space, where exactly does all of this planned legislation leave Basschat and other such forums?????

You know what you would like to do. Hold out for that. It is there. Advertise for like-minded people. Don't wait for them to advertise.

I run a Slade forum and I'm extremely worried that the talk of mirrored top hats on there breaks some Ofcom rule or other.

The Dels in Manchester.

In 'my band' we have three people, two of which have no particular IT skills to speak of. That means that one person (me) looks after http://www.the3.co.uk/ and does the vast majority of our Facebook stuff, posters etc. I don't mind as I have a hobbyist attitude about web stuff and quite like getting results. Our drummer does the upkeep of our weekly jam night page at https://www.facebook.com/TheThreeJamNights and puts new video on it, as I decided something had to go. I'm also busy doing books and the occasional CD release. Usually I do all of the band bookings through Facebook messenger (which keeps a handy audit trail for any disputes), or I sort them out when we are actually there. One message cut and pasted to umpteen venues every now and again and the diary fills up nicely. I won't use agents, as I have found that mainly they are useless and just parasites. Our guitarist passed us a gig the other day for next August next year after a venue had messaged him. He used to be a bit of a gig magnet, but he's stepped back from it a lot. Every little helps. My wife occasionally says I shouldn't be doing it all, when I have a small hissy about a venue suddenly mucking us about. If I didn't do it though, we probably wouldn't be out. I have set myself just over another year of doing this, as the band is coming up to its 10th anniversary in Jan 2026. I have blocked off a couple of weekends a month in 2026, though that page isn't openly visible on the website yet. I'll be 67 and a bit then and I hate going out gigging in bad weather over winter.

The thing is that there is an enormous divide between the former Pistols, so any of them refusing to do something or not being invited shouldn't be a surprise. If John Lydon actually was bothered enough, he would have put an injunction on them to stop them playing. Once he hasn't done that, the rest can run with it. But it will always be a man short.

The Sex Pistols is Lydon, Cook, Matlock and Jones. Or with Vicious if you don't care what it sounds like. On his talk tour Lydon gently rubbished the notion of a group without him. However, that doesn't stop the other three putting on a show without him. It's just the same as No Freddie, No Queen - YMMV.

There's a lot of us, I suspect, who would like to go back and give our younger selves a good slap. My ears would be ringing for years to come if I got the chance..

The thing with 5-string basses for me is that I get lost on them because I don't persevere with them enough. I have had two that I've sold (my third made a second one redundant). I haven't opened my 5-er case for a few months. It's an Ibanez SR1405 and it's great to play. I may have to break it out this weekend and make myself get used to it again. The bottom B is really good on it and the tones are fabulous. I have some lovely basses and wouldn't stop playing them for the extra few notes on a 5-er.

Paul McCartney Sting Lemmy Mark KIng Phil Lynott John Entwistle Sid Vicious Oh yes it's hard to name 10 bassists that the man on the street would easily come up with... Some of mine are probably a bit obscure to the younger end now.