Simon C

A bit late,  but Thursday's Jam Night was good. We were on shortly after 9 followed by the band I depped for the previous Saturday (Matt Guntrip and the Roadsters). Matt and said Roadsters hadn't heard us play before.  A few of my mates also came down, some of them for the 1st time

The pub manager told the guitarist he'd had a few people asking about us and offered us a Friday slot if we want one. So I guess we either played well,  or played songs people liked,  or both. 

My 1st Granddaughter (and also the neice of the drummer), was born on 4th May. Hence I managed to get this one on the set list.  Intro to the song was along the lines of "Can you guess her name. No. No. No. Well there's a clue in this song".

violet

I depped for “Matt Guntrip and the Roadsters” at the inaugural “Epsom Square Festival”.  We did 10 or so songs: 8 OGs and a couple of covers.  I played 2 of the songs a couple of weeks ago, so it was only 8 to learn 😀.  I really enjoyed the gig.  A few highlights / lowlights:

• 2 of the band couldn’t find the car park they’d parked in, so we were without the stage piano.  I (the Epsom local in the band) eventually worked out which one it was (almost directly underneath us) and showed them how to get there.  When we got to the car we couldn’t get stuff out of the boot.  Then we couldn’t work out how to turn on the ignition or where the handbrake was, or maybe wasn’t (it was another band members car).😂
• We were sat at the stage we we were going to play on, then saw my mates band go on who were on a different stage to us.  Quick panic to find the organiser and then our stage.🤔
• One of guitarists snapped a string in the 1st song and couldn’t see to get a new one on.🤷‍♂️
• A gig of 3 halves. Ist half we had a good number watching, who all left after about 3 songs that we’d played well (broken string faff not withstanding); we later found out it was at least 2 groups leaving for restaurant bookings. 2nd half playing to 2 tables who looked like they’d just stopped for a beer. 3rd half a load of people piled out of the indoor stage for the last 4 songs or so.
• I used my wireless system for the 1st time at a gig.  I went for the odd wander in the 1st and 3rd halves (I.e. the ones for which we had an audience).  I think it helped engage the audience.
• Saw a few people I hadn’t seen for a while, so good to catch up with them.  Chatting to one of them was responsible for me leaving my wireless stuff on top of a wall.  Luckily I realised before I drove off and they were recovered successfully.
• Bass G&L L2000
• Outfit: Hawaian shirt, shorts, cap (for reasons of sun and bald patch), neon blue trainers.  And glasses, which I thought were so I could see, but I’ve found they also help guitarists change strings on the fly 🤣.

56 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Not a last night, an afternoon, multi band event. House FOH and backline. On stage volume absolutely, way too loud, painful at times. I wore the same hearing protection as last week, which was fine then, but felt like it was doing nothing today 😖. Couldn’t go anywhere near my mic, because of the monitor volume coming back and the guitarist’s amp behind me (he turned it down twice, but was battling with the monitors). I hid adjacent to the guitar amp, just in front of the bass rig, which I had already turned down, but sadly right I. The firing line for the snare and crash cymbal. Lots of compliments from other bands, which was really nice. Best thing was I only needed my bass and pedalboard.

 

I’m sure you will have responded to this question previously, but what’s the reason for 2 preamps on the board (I think the Sadowsky and the VT re both preamps)

7 hours ago, geofio said:

GG, have always been the same there is no surprise there, I tried a few years back 6 different Ricks in that shop not one was playable , basically they don’t give a shit,  too busy mucking around any time I have been in, they lost my business years ago for that reason.  I don’t honestly think they are capable of setting up a 4003 anyway, that is the truth. 

I bought mine 2nd hand from GG in Epsom.  After a little while I realised that either the neck was twisted or the E string nut was cut too shallow (this is documented on one of the other Ric threads).  There was a 1 year shop warranty on the bass.  They  cut the nut properly and set the action up as I requested.  It plays really well now.   Based on a later warranty fix on my electric 6 string, I suspect they put new strings on at the time.  So my experience: Original set-up / QC may be a little wanting, but they sort stuff out - or at least in Epsom they do. I’ll continue to buy stuff from them.

I did an acoustic open mic with a band I’ve said I’ll dep for.  I’ve practiced with them 3 or 4 times, but last night was the 1st performance.  As it was an acoustic night, I took the fretless - still electric but maybe more the vibe than the Rick, G&L L2000, or headless would have been.  It went pretty well.  
 

The BL (Matt Guntrip) has several albums out.  We did a couple of his newest songs.

I couldn’t hear myself singing so have no idea if I was in tune , but I could hear the bass (it was in tune 😁).  I’ve another gig with them in June at a local festival.

The Jam Night I usually go to has moved back to its original venue (McCafferty’s in Epsom).  We weren’t really able to attract a following at what was the new venue - various reasons I guess.  Certainly there was never much of an atmosphere there. I think the original venue probably saw their takings drop by more than they were paying the band and certainly by more than the £50 pay cut they were trying to get the band to take.  I’m pleased we’ve moved back as McCafferty’s is a much better music venue (and it’s walking distance from my house 😀).
 

It’s a while since we’ve had anyone take any video of us.  My daughter who was the main videographer has moved to Derby.   My wife didn’t attend the new venue as often.  Anyway back to the old venue so my wife came, and a mate and his wife came for the 1st time.  They both took some video.  We played ok, without nailing any of the songs.  As it’s the 1st one back at McCafferty’s I decided on a compilation video.

I went for a jam at an ex bandmates a few days ago.  He was the bass player in the band (I played keys).  I took my EHB1000S.  He loved it - said it was the best bass he’d played. 

On 26/12/2024 at 18:05, thisisswanbon said:

Thread resurrection alert! (Seemed a better shout than starting a new one)

 

Any Bassrig users (either of the two) using this to go to FOH and running other effects into it? REALLY fancy one but past experience with IRs and my C4 aren't the best, but never used an analogue cab sim so not sure if will have the same effect 🤔

I have the Super Vintage (the SVT one).  I’ve only used it outside my house to FOH once. That was with guitar and we were short of XLR cables, so I didn’t use the cab sim.  I have some recordings (via a DAW) where I use the cab sim , but I’m not sure which (if any) effects I had with it in most cases .  I do have a couple of guitar recordings where I used the cab sim and know what effects I was using (you have to listen to my dodgy guitar playing and singing though).  If you want me to share any videos (bass or guitar) let me know.

Friday was our (In Progress) 1st gig outside of Jam Night.  So 17 songs rather than 4.  We weren’t as tight over the 17 as we are for 4, and the error to song ratio probably went up a bit.

It was my company’s Christmas Party and I’d agreed to pick up and drop off the hired PA gear (a faff).  We had 2 hours to set up and soundcheck and took 1h52mins of it 😀.  The high / lowlight was finding out that the only monitor we’d managed to position an hour into set-up to be feedback free (space restriction in the restaurant), didn’t have the jack plugged in properly and was indeed feeding back😖. So we had no foldback.  The singer couldn’t hear herself.  Luckily a couple of us had in ears with us and a long connector that reached the desk so we sorted her out ok.

People seemed to enjoy it, some dancing and plenty of singing.  
 

Overall we enjoyed ourselves and were reasonably pleased with how it went.

We’ve a gig in early December for which I am going to have be the sound tech (me as roadie was already baked in for it).  I figured being able to hear the FoH sound, at least during soundcheck, is probably going to give the audience a better experience.  I’d been thinking about wireless for a while, so being the sound tech was the required push.  After reading through this thread (thanks to everyone who responded) and a bit of YouTube research I went for the NuX C- 5RC.  The main things for me were: 5.8GHz, easy to charge and not too expensive.  I checked them out at home today- they seem to work well.

On 06/10/2024 at 20:19, ezbass said:

I think I may have found a way to stave off the bass and 2nd tier GAS, buy camera lenses and golf clubs!*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*However, this devil may care attitude may bleed over into that which must not be bought. 😬

My 2023 strategy was similar, though bike and ski stuff for me.  Bass gas was held of by doing “research” - I.e. have no fixed idea about which bass I wanted to buy with 2023s work bonus, but look at what was on the market place here and in some of the physical music shops.  The SE Bass Bash also helped. The research was fun and all was resolved with a scouting visit to GuitarGuitar on New Year’s Eve , then down on again in Jan 2nd to pay for the 2nd hand Rick 4003W that was hanging on the wall but didn’t get as far as their web site.  

On 27/09/2024 at 07:30, Skybone said:

There is something a bit disconcerting watching people in their 50's playing "Teenage Kicks". 🤔😄

Very disconcerting.  I comfort myself with the thought that The Undertones (minus Feargal Sharkey) are still touring and one would feel short changed if they didn’t perform Teenage Kicks.

On 05/10/2021 at 17:49, dmccombe7 said:

Just curious what others think.

I've recently joined a 2nd band which is a 70's Punk covers band. 

I've tried few of my basses but haven't quite managed to get the sound i was looking for.  I'm trying to cover tone from mainly from a P sound thru to the biting Ric tone used by Eddie and Hot Rods 

So far i've tried :-

Fender PJ - not enough clarity but i find that with a lot of PJ style basses. Even on full P it never sounds like a proper P bass

Sandberg VM4 - could get away with it but not quite what i was looking for

Fender Geddy CIJ -was the most comfortable to play but took me ages to get the tone close to what i was looking for.

 

Using the Mesa Mpulse head into Subway 210/115 cabs.

 

The 2 basses I'm now thinking about are Ric 4003 which might work for both bands but are expensive and a Fender Vintera P bass which i tried a few yrs ago before covid and it did feel very comfortable.

 

Just curious what others think might be most suitable for mainly the punk covers band (yes i'm that shallow)

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to 70's punk as i've always been a rock / prog bassist.

Any advice would be welcome. 

 

Dave

I think I have the definitive answer Dave @dmccombe7.  Fretless active jazz with flats 🤣:

I was brave enough, or maybe daft enough, to give the fretless a run out.  Due to the dep guitarist being unavailable we switched songs to make it easier for others to join us.  So the pub was treated to punk on a fretless.  The host band even had the good grace to have my vocal mic low in the mix at the start which gave a me a bar or 2 to (almost) find the pitch 😀. 

3 bands didn't turn up which meant a runaround for the organiser to fill those slots.  It became a Blues Jam - which was fun.    

15 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

No video. However here's a few pics. All humorous comments are welcome. Lol

 

Daryl

 

 

 

We were loud enough that the deer herd 😀

 

Jam Night on Thursday.

The host band set up the stage in a different orientation.  I think it probably worked better.  It's not really attracting a following yet - it's an out of town venue, so hardly surprising.  The stage area is bigger so it does mean I'm less concerned about whacking the singer and can thus use my long scale basses rather than the headless shortscale - my G&L L2000 got a run out.

We were asked by one of the other bands if we fancied doing a half gig with them.  Probably neither band is at the stage where we can do a full gig yet.  10 - 12 songs so I think we should be able to manage that.  The guitarist and I are keen on it, so I think there is a good chance we'll do it.

This is us doing Price Tag.  I'm not sure what happened with Vicky's voice with "Look to the Left" and "Look to the right".  Hopefully we can sort that out at the next rehearsal as I think this could be a good gig starter for us.  James' rap is good.

The mute was bottoming out on my 4003W before it engaged with the strings on the treble side.  I thought it was probably a case of the bolts needing to be reset.  The tech at GG had a look and decided it needed a new mute.  He had to take the whole bridge assembly apart to fit the new mute, which sounds like it was a bit of a job.  It was done under warranty though, so no cost to me.  It seems to be working ok now.  So hopefully that’s all the teething problems sorted out.  

I bought an MXR234 pedal from Paul.  The item was as described.  Paul communicated well and sent the item shortly after I had paid.  I’m a happy purchaser.

23 is very good - Kudos.  I think we were down to “fingers on one hand of a bloke who’d had an accident with an angle grinder” at this stage last year.

I mentioned “Canada” over on the “How was your gig last night” thread.  They sometime do the same Jam night as my band “In Progress”.  The BL plays her tele well and sings well, but in “Canada” she is the drummer (she plays the kit well too). The bass player plays well and the lead guitarist and singer has a voice that’s different enough for them to have a good shot (IMO).  He liked my Walnut Ric, so he gets a few plus points for that 😀 (and would have had a few more if he’d said the player was also good😜).

"Accidentally in Love" - it's on the Jam Night list. 

Many believe it to be by "Counting Crows", but I'm fairly sure it's by Shrek 😊. 

10 hours ago, BillyBass said:

I have a no name Strat at home that I pick up every now and again (more again) and re start my attempts to learn guitar; unfortunately, there is no love in my heart for the instrument.  

 

I have a guitar playing mate and we often go to guitar shows together.  Of all the guitars on show, I'm normally attracted to Teles and the brightly coloured guitars on sale at the PRS stand.  Your PRS is beautiful.

Yes teles are cool.

Thanks re my PRS.  It plays really well too.  It sounds pretty good with me playing it, so in the hands of someone who can actually play, I think it will sound really good.

On 15/07/2024 at 22:40, Simon C said:

Good question.  The work bonus is due to be paid with this month’s salary.  I have 4 basses (I’ve discovered the perfect number is 3.5), and enough pedals to be going with, so some of the bonus will go on a guitar.  I’ll let you know what the answer is when I’ve bought it.

A PRS SE 24-08 is the answer. NGD today. 

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Not complex, but the 'proper' bassline to Pride and Joy. I've winged it a few times, but the original is a fun walk that ocassionally steps in unexpected directions.

Oddly enough I was just listening  to a recording of "Pride and Joy" that I did a few months ago.  I agree it's a lot of fun. In the OG he does make sure he uses a lot of the neck as I recall. I didn't learn the original line, but I did enjoy walking around with it. 

3 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Nice groove. You guys didn't lose a beat. 

 

Daryl

Thanks Daryl.