JTUK

[quote name='markinthegreen' post='1236848' date='May 19 2011, 12:36 PM']...... I understand if it sounds great live then leave it at that, however when you spend the kind of money it cost you kind of want it to be good at everything right? Cheers, your thoughts are a great help. Mark[/quote] Not really... some basses excel at some things and suck at others. If you have more than one, you'll use each in the situation you find it works best in. If it sounds great live, that is good..but you can't demand or expect it to work well everywhere. You probably paid the money you did for its date of manufacture, first and foremost..no garuantees beyond that, IME.

It is relatively easy to get £1000 for a function with little or no work or outlay...you just need to be in that network of people who pick up those gigs and you need to be able to deliver once you get them. But that isn't a plan as such, but then you haven't worked at it, you are just picking off a few morsels here and there. If you want a regular income and for it to form the backbone of your wages week in, week out, that is another thing. If you want to or have to travel 300 miles to and from a gig, then you'll have to put the time in..if you just want the bonus work now and again you can just lets these things happen I think by and large, you get work from work ... pub dates can lead to functions but a party here and there or a wedding, if you want £1600-2000 that takes a LOT of time and effort and thinking. It does, of course, depend what network you are plugged into as well. a friends band..who aren't frankly that good, get offers to go all over..Kenya, Austria etc etc i the last year, and that is all down to who you know..

Beautiful facing...

[quote name='Mog' post='1235319' date='May 18 2011, 10:15 AM']For Speakers and power amps I'd go with something like Peavey. Especially if ye are going to be playing outdoor gigs. Solid and reliable. Desk wise I usually go with Mackie. Wattage wise I wouldnt go under 1.5k. If transport allows and your desk does 2x2ohm these are the mutts nuts [url="http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/general/Product.aspx?PId=91&MId=3"]http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/general/Prod...Id=91&MId=3[/url] just add one or two tops or top/mids if desired.[/quote] Desk and amps are sorted. We are looking at a good deal this weekend so will let you know if we get them.

We don't do functions unless people insist and we tell them this is what we do and that is it. Mates rates start at £350 for a 2 hr set upto £1000 to the band All by word of mouth and from any gigs we do. We have agents but they seem more interested in getting a silly number of friends on FB than getting any meaningful gigs so we don't bother with them either. We only wanted them for festivals anyway. I am not sure I would be in the market for any old gig that people could throw your way as you need to know what you are letting yourself in for. If an agent that you don't know very well gives you a gig from nowhere..I'd be thinking what is wrong with it. I am not sure there is a way round word-of-mouth unless you are prepared to take anything

Now that is strange Gareth, if these are supposed to be more hi-fi than the norm as I had you down as a vintage guy. But seeing as you liked the Berg 410 and now the TC's cabs..maybe you are more modern than you think FWIW, I would like a clean clear sound and will be collecting my DB 10's very soon.

[quote name='BottomE' post='1234390' date='May 17 2011, 02:59 PM']Thanks folks. Its been going on for about a year now ever since i decided to re-learn the bass and spend hours every week hunched over the the fretboard. How do you find a good physio? and Is there a proper way to angle the bass when playing? Most times i play sitting down at home.[/quote] After I 'fixed' or managed the problem, I don't have to bother about how I hold the bass but I do use comfort straps and practice sitting down with the strap on at all times. I am not mad at lifting but if you take care I don't worry about rerasonable weights upto around 60-70lbs.... I don't lift 4x10 anymore though typically. As for the physio..that is the hardest part. Getting out of the quack NHS syndrone where GP's dish out pills etc when the best thing they should do ( IMO ) is establish how an MRI might help. I went private to get the MRI sorted and then ended up with a consultant who played bass..so we empathised there..ha ha .. but they put me onto a physio who struck me straight away with her straight talking. At no point was I patronised..they said you have a problem but we can handle it..if YOU do some work. But I think word of mouth is the best way to go... with a MRI. My problem is 20 years old ..maybe... and the NHS is lights years on from when I first started going round in circles... First thing I would do is bug the GP until he refers you... stage 1. Next is MRI and consultant and finding a good physio..these guys ( consultants ) tend to know the best but it also seems to be accepted in the medical world that the better solution is managing the problem rather than ignore it and put it down to an age thing or unlucky injury and thems is your breaks type of thing. I have 2 prolapsed discs, they said... and aaprt from a bit of stiffness now and again and a twinge here and there..any set-backs I might get are handled in a few days of re-focusing on what I have learnt. In that respect it is more me lapsing than anything else. Just my 2p... Mine was football..others have had to contemplate fusion surgery... oh..another myth... which a consultant told me..so don't get me started on some of them... that my injury was because I was tall... FFS..!! Basically, pursue it yourself and don't get fobbed off...try another route/GP etc tec ..

[quote name='BottomE' post='1234290' date='May 17 2011, 01:51 PM']Thanks chaps. What about massage chairs and orthopaedic stuff? Have you tried them? The doc did mention Pilates and Yoga - anyone do this?[/quote] We have decent chairs at work..but it depends how hard you want to pursue this. Under health and safety you could probably swing it but by the same token you then might have to formalise medical history and that might not be advisable for what gain you may get.. Chairs can be very expensive for companies. I had such good results from my physio that I never got to plan B..which was pilates and yoga. Certainly wouldn't knock it if looked like it could help the core exercises and also promote more mobility. Also a decent bed/mattress is essential, IMO. So all in all..there is a lot you can do to help yourself but the one thing above all else I avoid is crunching sessions. If the operator cannot devise a regime to KEEP your posture in place, no amount of crunching will fix things, so by that token weekly visits are useless as it could take 2-3 weeks for exercises to have an effect so anyone who wants to see you weekly is not getting to the root cause, IME. The first thing my physio did..after I had a long search to find her..was devise an exercise and tell me to nail it before I visited her again 3 weeks later. She told me if I couldn't pass this basic test and work on it myself...the rest of her work would be largely useless. I took the hint.

Manage the core, manage the problem. The skeletal stack needs to be maintained and it is this simple thing that is often over-looked. If you get a decent physio to show you a regime and you adhere to it as much as poss and as often as poss, then there is no reason why you can't ski and play golf, for example, ..neither of which are kind to the back. Once ligaments start taking the strain that muscles are supposed to do, you will have trouble in any joints. So good core, decent posture and correct regime can delay a lot of problems, IME.

... It will be no disgrace to admit defeat over this... so I'll be interested to see if the OP comes back after trying this in rehearsal, with his observations..!!!

I take all the posturing with a pinch of salt. Recent project I was lined up for had such a good CV ...apparently. If only it had been true. When I hear it being laid on thick, I always think..we will see when we get there. Most people don't need to shout from the raffers, it is pretty obvious a few bars in

Getting the drummer to play to click is tough and not many can do it..although they all think they can. Monitoring is CRUCIAL but so is maintaining that groove. I wouldn't put any time into sequences until you have nailed this..waste of time otherwise.

All my settings are centred apart for the enhancer. If the room is challenging, then I might boost the para higher mids to suit and my taste. Never touch the bass control

Not sure if you know what you want anyway. You seem to have basses to cover a lot of ranges in music and one or two are very focused and almost limiting..not that that in itself is that bad, possibly.. but until you grow into a style your thinking will not have much shape to it. A jazz is a workhorse that can cover anything with a bit of imagination.. but you need to really rate it as a bass and just because it has Fender on it doesn't make it any good. I wouldn't worry about direction until you get some. Maybe your upcoming gig will help ...as hopefully, that is the point.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1233462' date='May 16 2011, 07:11 PM']What are your experiences of stand-in gigs? Did you ever do one at last minute and had to busk it? Did the band supply you with a set list beforehand, then didn't stick to it? Did they spring different and unfamiliar songs on you, that were hard to busk and made you feel uncomfortable? Did they change the keys of the songs you had learned for the gig?[/quote] yep... happens more than you'd like but this is all part of it as well. I normally work in the same sort of circles so there is a standard thing going on and you know the playing will be good..but every now and then..usually a 'favour' .. things can get a tad ambitous for the line-up. That is where it gets fraught, IMO.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='1233382' date='May 16 2011, 06:22 PM']Not sure of the size of the venues that you intend playing but unless you can get your subs (assuming you are looking at a pair) a good distance a part (sure BFM/AC/others will give the required distance), then you are better off just using a single sub... or stack the two subs together! We went active last year and bought some used RCF gear with a Yamaha desk and we've never looked back. In the region of 2.4k rig and despite the six piece band going through it at some venues, we've got loads of headroom, cost us about £2k which was a pair of used 750 tops, single 900w bass bin and a new desk. The weight (bin aside) is great and it's an easy one man lift to get the tops onto the pole/stand.[/quote] Venues will be a decent size pub and small outdoors. I had thought about that... I guess it all depends what tops we get and whether it is easier to stack with a pole on top of the sub etc .. The ICT500 which are favourites at the moment are pretty full on full range anyway so one one sub will suffice. ICT300's are more compact and would work with S12's subs, I think...or the ICS unit but that is a big beast.

If we have to build them ourselves then that is out. EV is decent and widely available and would allow tops and subs..whereas Martin would be a one cab solution but then they wouldn't be light. Talking about ICT500's

[quote name='xgsjx' post='1232710' date='May 16 2011, 08:42 AM']For outdoor stuff, I've always been happy with the sound of Peavey HiSys or EV cabs. For indoors, I recently heard a DAS pa system & sounded very nice. But, I would have thought the best bang for buck would be to build some BFM tops & subs?[/quote] If we are careful we can go Martin..have seen some cabs that we like the sound of. DAS are a name I know little about so good shout there, thanks. EV ..? could probably get more spec for the £ but I am leaning towards an English made company ( Martin ) ..even though we will not go to the 'new' prices for the cabs. Turbosound were in the frame but I was told they were ( Some..?? ) made in China and that brings around to our JBL problem... or perceived problem.

Seems to be a theme with more a one or two U.S forums, IME.

Get the drummer involved first if you intend to use one on gigs. And then set up to the natural volume of the drums...so you can ALL hear what is going on. Adjust instrument/vocal vols accordingly. Different type rooms make a huge difference so get used to working with unhelpful rooms..and the same applies..start the mix low and keep it in check. Don't let anyone instrument swamp the overall mix. If you do this, it is hard to recover and you might miss cues as you are lost etc etc .... If you can't hear, you can't play... always always keep that in the equation and if anyone 'forgets' that, you'll always have potential problems so you may as well make it a band rule now, IMO/IME.

Not against Mackie but we have good amps so feel that going powered would be putting money into something we don't need and could use elsewhere. I would like us to spend £1000 tops and pay it off very quickly through gigs. We only need cabs I am thinking Martin F12 and S12 ( SH, of course ) and that should do away with the need for a controller. If we use smaller tops, the maybe a controller would be the way to go...in fact I am sure it would be. Nexo looks great but way too expensive for our purposes. HK, Mackie and Martin are in the frame...maybe EV/RCF as well It is ironic that we have some perfect full range JBL's but they are just too big and heavy. There are JBL's and JBL's of course but we can't carry these. We wouldn't use a engr but would hope we could stay disciplined enough. For all our open air gigs the FOH is hired-in...but it would be nice if we could stretch to a decent sized marquee P.A if we had to. The more I read here, the more I am thinking 12" tops with 12 or 15" Subs...as compact as possible for carry in individual cars.

We start with an easy listener that serves also as a band mix/soundcheck. Typically, Come together or Leaders of the Free world...maybe Grounds for divorce. We always mix up the sets and no song is an automatic inclusion...although we have probably encored Fooled again everytime.

I prefer the feel of SS so that is why I go for them... but it wouldn't be the deal breaker

[quote name='chris_b' post='1231529' date='May 15 2011, 12:27 AM']Don't get a combo, get separates. Look in the For Sale section.[/quote] I'd agree with this... but if it MUST be a combo, the Markbass 102 is very good, IMO. Add a 1x15 underneath and you'll cover almost everything.

I'll watch the DVD..