12stringbassist

Excellent playing. He must have his action really nice and low to get that kind of speed and agility on his 12er. My two beasties. I have been trying to contact Waterstone recently about getting one of theirs and no response. I think they have ceased to trade.

[quote name='nash' timestamp='1491982186' post='3276861'] Can anyone enlighten me? I see it often, Squiers, bitsa, Nash, Lime Light and some that have a headstock shape that's not even close. I Squier rebadge for example. I think so what if it's a Squier, big deal. If it plays and sounds nice then that's all that matters and then credit where credit is due if it's a good bass. I just don't understand it. [/quote] There are two reasons to re-badge a bass: Snobbery. Fraud.

I run a jam night near Manchester every Sunday. We get paid. Not bad money for 6.30 - 9pm, either. We provide the backline, drums and PA, plus guitars for when people don't bring their own. I have to say I enjoy our jam night because it's a real mix of players, as well as some of the same-old, week in-week out. I may get a bass player, guitarist or drummer come in on his own - I'll find out what sort of stuff he does and pair him with some other people, or he can play with us and we'll do something he wants to do if we know it. Bands have formed at jam nights. Our setup for those who are curious: Fender Champion 100w / Hartke bass rig / Yamaha drum kit / Blackstar guitar amp. Our own guitars / basses, plus whatever guitars or basses we bring specifically for others to use.

I have factored that in. It will be adequate for the smaller gigs.

Japhet - Where's the like button when you need it?

I googled and found this - speaker ordered. It's my secondary rig for small gigs, so it's not imperative that my rig is mad loud.

I'd start off by going along to jam nights to keep your hand in. As to how many gigs you do, form another band with a strict remit. Let them know quite clearly that you're not going to exceed the stated number of gigs. It can be hard to get a band together that may rehearse more than it plays out though. My own situation is that I'm 58 and my health is not all it should be (Half of thyroid out the other year and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and had the thing whipped out last April - three all clears, thankfully, but I am left really exhausted a lot and mornings after the weekend involve a lie-in). I parted with my last band because I came back too early after my op and had a very short fuse for their foolishness and the workload. My Sunday jam night band now works as hard, if not harder (bearable as I am not with imbeciles now, but I retired early from my day job 18 months ago. Diaries CAN run away with you, but you have to hold firm about what you want to do gig-wise.

Last night I blew a 15" speaker in one of my two Trace Elliot 715 combos. I am looking at a replacement for the 4 ohm LSP-C1504 speaker. Would I be able to put an 8 ohm speaker in its place? The cabs have a splitter box handling the input signal so the ohmage shouldn't be affected. I'm just wary of the amp struggling - It says 'Min Load 4 ohms' on the rear. It wasn't the 12-er that took the speaker out. Thanks, guys.

I just use it as an excuse to buy a new bass, then sneakily clean the older ones.

My wife used to come to a lot of my gigs in the early days of us seeing each other, because weekends were our only time together and I was always gigging. Now we've been married for years on end, she has to be dragged into the pub next to us to watch me play. Everyone's different, but I imagine following you round 8 nights a month hearing the same stuff would get too much for anyone. It can be her 'me time'.

I always had trouble with singing and playing guitar. I became determined to sing a couple of songs while playing bass, my main instrument, or the songs didn't get into the set. First of all I learned a couple, bass first and then practised singing over them, when I didn't have to concentrate on bass. I would use a lyric cheat sheet to the side of the stage with the chords as a prop for my confidence. Eventually, singers went etc etc and if I wanted to play various songs, I had to sing them. I have always figured that if some of the uitter bananas I have seen on a stage can do it, so can I and that realisation was a big step. Another secret is not to pick songs that are too hard and to play them the same way consistently! If I f*** up, we laugh at it. I have been playing for about 40 years and the current band is the very first where I have done 95% of the lead vocals. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8e1KYVSbmI[/media]

I love this one. Had it since 1994 and it's my soulmate. Gold hardware.

Bands NEED to be able to advertise for the person they actually want. They should not have to audition someone they are not interested in. If they don't want a man or woman in their particular band, that doesn't bother me. If they don't want a black person or a woman in their serious Beatles tribute band (for example), I don't have a problem with that. Nor if they don't want a bloke with a bushy beard in a Bangles tribute band. I'm 58 and have played in aband recently with a 20 year old. It was disaster for me, as he wasn't really connected to the music we were playing and was just lazy and immature about learning any songs he didn't have an interest in and so he played stiffly and 'by numbers'. If it had been my choice we would have got a better, older player. In an advert, if they state an age range that they want, I find it helps. Once you get to the level of 'everyday, general bands', I think the wording of the advert - if done properly - should be enough to give people a clue as to whether they would fit in. It doesn't have to be done in a bigoted way.

[quote name='Bassbadger' timestamp='1474464124' post='3138202'] Hi there, Here are some Facebook comments by Ian Taylor who has been using his T-ROD for some months now. [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1161405247205516&set=o.165543703496598&type=3&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=3[/url] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1206725152673525&set=a.465667920112589.109788.100000081557258&type=3"]https://www.facebook...81557258&type=3[/url] [url="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1187384261274281&set=o.165543703496598&type=3&theater"]https://www.facebook...&type=3[/url] [/quote] Ah, my guitarist. He really DOES like the Retrovibe. It sounds like THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWpcfSnc6g

Video of the bass section in use... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU5MID0sjs8"]http://www.youtube....h?v=pU5MID0sjs8[/url]

Status Quo's 'Caroline'. Particularly satisfying as I absolutely dreaded playing it with my previous band as they weren't competent and really butchered it. Then into 'Roll over lay down'.

If I had a pound for every time some fool asks us for a Meatloaf song, I could stay at home. I occasionally get asked for a song by The Arctic Monkeys and I just can't keep the politeness going. I just tell the person asking that I am not going to play music that I detest. Last night someone cheerfully asked us to play [i]Shangalang[/i] by The Bay City Rollers and we hammered it out (seeing as it's in our set anyway). That shut him up.

I play in a general rock covers band and I will take any bass I like out to a show. Pointy, whatever. The idea of 'what bass should be in what sort of band' is in [i]someone else's head[/i].

[quote name='peety' timestamp='1481882884' post='3195887'] Hulton Arms there's another big Pub across the way on the same crossroads at 4 lane ends there not sure what its called but that looked shut or was being refurbished. Have no idea why this place has bands on two of the lads in our band used to play in a duo and have played there three times and it was the same then [/quote] Ah, you've strayed into Over Hulton! The pub across the way is The Red Lion. Mainly an eating place. Interesting time of year for them to be doing a refurb! I've played The Hulton Arms and had a decent crowd at times. I think it has changed hands recently. That doesn't help, nor does the run up top Christmas, when some are trying to save their cash.

[quote name='peety' timestamp='1480950317' post='3188307'] Had a similar experience earlier this year at a big pub in Little Hulton inbetween sort of Bolton and Manchester audience clientele maxed out at 8 which included a guy who never left the smoking shelter all night just had someone regularly delivering pints to him out there and 3 people round the far side of the bar watching TV meaning the actual audience ranged from zero to 4 despite it being a really rubbish experience for bands how can such pubs justify paying out for a band when they can't even be taking enough to cover the bands fee even before the cost of the beer. Have spoken to a couple of other people who have played there and had a similar experience safe to say will not be going back no matter what the payment is despite already having had an agent try to book us in there again. [/quote] Was it The New Inn?

Don't work with anyone who doesn't respect your work. Tell them that you need to devote more time to your own work and that something had to give and it was them. For the future, your time will be charged (mates rates) by the hour.

I have done two support slots that were a bit painful. [b]The sad remains of S***e in 1994.[/b] The sound man came along and repeated the same litany that D*** H*** had offended me with ten minutes before: No S***e songs - or the power goes off. No standing in front of the monitors - or the power goes off. Don't over-run - or the power goes off. A few minutes before we went on, the guy behind the mixer demanded roughly the amount of our fee, or we wouldn't go through the PA. He basically said 'show me your contract that shows you are even contracted to play the show, or I am going to the pub'. The organiser of the gig was feeding D*** H*** at a restaurant round the corner, so our drummer wrote a cheque (which he cancelled the next morning). Then suddenly our set was cut by 15 minutes. We brought most of the crowd to that show. [b]The Qu*******s 2010.[/b] The gig was on their acoustic tour and they were seated for their show, apart from their singer. The guitarist from the band spent all of our soundcheck time complaining about a spotlight that was in his eyes. We had to put our gear on stage in front of an audience that couldn't be kept outside of the theatre any longer. No soundcheck. Their singer was a gent about it. The guitarist was moaning like an arthiritic old lady the whole time.