Cat Burrito

If your band has at least one member with drive and determination, things tend to happen quickly. Otherwise it can run the risk of quickly becoming a talk shop and never really getting off the ground.

I avoided sustain for years and was very much into dampening the sound. Only now after 30yrs of playing do I get that it's good to have options. Traditionally we do dampen rather than let it ring but as this thread suggests, there are those occasions where it is nice to let a note ring out.

The Sansamp VT bass pedal tends to go for under £100 secondhand and mine transformed my playing and indeed attitude towards pedals. In my current studio project the producer took one look at the pedal and said "well, that's your bass sound sorted then". I just went through the desk via the pedal and it sounds great. I originally bought it as I was sick of the sound of rehearsal studio amps but I use it all the time.

Somewhere between 40-50 shows in 2017. An obvious highlight would be the O2 back in March but I like the small tours we do and playing Liverpool after a BBC session was another high. This year will be a dramatic drop as 3 of my bands are recording so this impacts on the live appearances.

I love saxophones and honky tonk piano / Hammond / B3 sounds. Having played several years on the Americana circuit I quite like banjos, dobros, mandolins etc but am less keen on the accordion. And yodelling!

Mr. Jason Isbell, I believe. A few years back in my late 30s I went through a marriage break up and escaped to the USA to get my head straight. Jesse Malin's lyric "meanwhile back across the pond, all my friend's are Dads and Moms" certainly struck a chord with me at the time.

I was up in London between Xmas and New Year and they had one of these Hutchins 6 neck models in the window of a music shop. Again a two bass, 4 guitar model. I did snap a picture on my phone as I couldn't believe the silliness of it all.

I used Orange for a couple of years and the classic mod was flipping out the valves to get a later break up. I used my Terror head with just one SP210 head and it sounded great once I replaced the valves. I never had an issue with the volume.

I used them for a couple of bands in the 90s but haven't missed them over the last 20 years. In some venues they really lift the professionalism and as mentioned in other posts, they can look a little sad and cluttered. It wouldn't be my priority in 2018 but I don't have a problem with them.

Anyone vaguely alternative at school had a Cure phase in the 80s. I liked the bass player Simon Gallup. I felt they did some killer songs but there was just a bit too much that passed me by. Robert Smith really hasn't aged too well as this photo that was doing the rounds a while back suggests.

It goes full circle. I've recently been looking at acoustic basses, having got rid of my last one 12 years ago. I'm back on roundwound strings after 20yrs on flats and experimenting with effects. And having ticked the box on owning a Rickenbacker, my 2nd one I bought last year is something of a firm favourite. So I would certainly say never say never.

My main rig (plus I have a PF500 head and a BA108 practice combo not pictured)

I've had both and there are definitely good and bad examples of everything. I think everything I own now is 21st century but with classic / retro stylings. I had some great 70s basses though. Were they better? No. But I get that people want a bit of vintage mojo to get closer to their idols / the classic era. We live in the consumer age and players can have whatever they can afford. I wouldn't knock a player for spending £6k on a classic Fender anymore than I would a friend having a modern PRS, which although not to my tastes I have to remind myself it wouldn't be my instrument!

We toured around Scotland in Summer '16 ; 8 days with a hired big splitter van and hotel rooms. We had to work hard with only 2hrs downtime on one day (in Edinburgh) but we managed to brake even. It's tough but you can do it. We lose on some shows but often manage to brake even. I guess the view we take is that music is art and we're not in it for riches. I play in a couple of other groups, one of which does covers, but this is just to keep playing and performing.

No worries. It's not unusual for all of us to miss something that is perhaps so obvious to others - we all do it.

Over the last couple of years on forums music stands seem to have become the new pick vs fingers topic. Thankfully this thread seems to lean towards a healthy common sense approach. Some forums get very silly about such things.

It's Em so it should and does work. It's a pretty widely used sequence for that very reason.

I can't imagine the 20t would be but I play in a quiet and a loud band and it keeps up with both - probably sits around 4 on the dial with the quieter band and up to 7 with the louder group.

You've got a mightly selection of Ampeg cabs there fella! I have a PF500 as back up (early issues long sorted but for some reason it comes up every Ampeg thread) but went for the PF50t as my upgrade. I've long been an admirer of the PF800 though.

Pretty crazy to set limits on age. If you can and you enjoy it, that's all there is to it.

They seem to average out around £550 but I occasionally see them just under £500. I'd imagine when examples come up secondhand there could be a bargain for someone. It's one of my cheaper instruments but I think it holds it's own against the more expensive stuff.

I'm quite taken by that Mooer Hustle Drive pedal in the video. So many of them sound rotten to me but that works for my tastes.

This would be my lot...

"It's all about the music" is a fairly tired cliché. It's about how it makes you feel, it's a soundtrack to people's lives. Music is about passion but music can also be about fashion. Sometimes the non-image or simple show is a statement in itself. People seem to default to thinking of Pink Floyd lightshows or Alice Cooper onstage beheadings when they think of the trimmings that come with rock n roll but the reality is it can also be Bill Wyman's 'at the back nonchalance'.