Muzz

I've had a 1024 and played a 2024, and the 2024 was definitely a superior instrument (though a real 'sleeper', as it looks the same), but, given the huge rise in quality of cheaper instruments from just about anywhere, the higher up the price range, the more subtle the differences*. I've got a 414, as a replacement for a 3000A I had for a couple of decades; in a band mix it sounds like me, and because of my preferences for slimmer necks and lighter weight, it feels better to play. So really those 1024s aren't worth three times the price of a 414...YMMV... 😁 * Though my 'best' basses are made-to-spec Shukers, which is a different thing altogether...

Our geetard has had a bunch of different multi-effects (including a Helix), he now has one that'll do harmony vocals, too, and he needs a good selection of guitar tones (Nile Rodgers to Johnny Marr to Matt Bellamy to Luther Perkins to the usual slew of distorted rock tones), plus his acoustic presets, but they're all worked out beforehand, and he has them stored by song, so it just isn't an issue...I'm not sure why it would be to anyone with an eye to a professional approach...

I really, really hate this, even when I'm watching it, and even more when I'm standing around like one o'clock half-struck on stage waiting...luckily, I haven't played in a band like this for a long time. Dicking about with riffs between songs is for eejits/egomaniacs, and punters hate it, too... Our geetard/singist/BL retunes his guitar in between songs sometimes (by which I mean changes tuning, not tunes up), but he can talk to the crowd while he (very quickly) does it, which, if you've ever tried it, is an impressive thing to pull off... I've got three banks of about half a dozen sounds in my Helix (C&W to Muse to Chic to Rawk needs a few), but the banks are all for drop tuning i.e. one bank in E, one bank in Eb, one bank in D, etc, and even then it's the work of five seconds to change. It's just a bit of homework...

Nope, I'd agree with the folk who said 'My basses are better than anything in a shop' (and getting basses custom built by Jon Shuker has meant I'm super-fussy about every detail) and 'I can't afford the new price of anything I might want in a shop'... Having said that, the only two which came close were a Roadworn Precision in PMT donkeys ago (but the neck was waaaaayyyyy too big for me) and a BB2024 in BD, which was waaayyyy too expensive...and now I've got my Cheap As Chips BB414 modded, I don't need one...

My Walkabout doesn't have an HPF (unlike the Magellan I had with/before it), the best thing I discovered was to turn the end two dials of the parametric right down; no mud, no boom...they've never moved from there... The Schroeder 1515L I had shouldn't really have worked as a bass cab, but in a live band scenario, it definitely did... I was at music festival all over Bury town centre last Monday, and watching the various bands (there were dozens and dozens) humping big old cabs in and out of pubs made me very grateful I'd moved on...on the other hand, I'm playing in Glasgow next month, and there's a supplied SVT backline, and I'm looking forward to playing through one again...knowing I don't have to shift the thing... 😃 We're playing as a trio in a few smaller venues at the moment, and my little Rumble 100 (admittedly with a better Eminence 12 in it) onstage with all the bass cut and DI'd to the PA is a great setup; no booming thunderous bass onstage, the PA does the heavy lifting...

Regular venue Satdy night, some new songs (well, six of them, four (links) sent by text Friday, two Satdy afternoon), pub was quietish (for that place - I'd say half/two-thirds full at the most), and the first two sets were OK, so the singer cranked them up at the start of the third set by Gallaghering them...I'm sorry (actually, I'm not, but you have to say that) to all the Oasis-haters, but it Just Works(tm), and the third set was borderline riotish...

Yep, genius; 'Hang gliding; it's the latest craze sweeping the Pennines, and right now I'd rather be sweeping the Pennines...' 😃

Two on the trot here, first one was the regular at Mulligans in Manchester city centre...busy as always, singing the roof off (to Oasis...sue me), then last night's was a new venue above a Bangin Bar in Monton...just awful. A 40th where nobody really cared, the music downstairs was so loud we didn't even bother with any acoustic numbers, it was full of yapping Hooker Barbie types and fully sniffed-up tattoed lads in polo shirts. Three songs into the second set some hero insists, with the misplaced confidence and persistence that only over-imbibing on the sniff can provide, that he's gonna sing. Backed up by his similarly-wired mates, an altercation just short of fisticuffs ensued,. The BL pulled it, we packed up and were in the cars by 9:45. Got paid in full, tho, so there's that...ahhhh, gigging, I've missed it... 😕🙂

I've got pretty much the same box I use for my Walkabout, from the sadly-now-defunct Maplins...it's great...

Old! Ish...it was in the middle of a very busy year with lots and lots of functions and weddings, and I just got bored trundling it all backwards and forwards to the car every time, usually through throngs of drunken punters at 1am...oh, and the back stairs of stately homes weren't made for easy hauling...and there never seemed to be a lift... 😕🙂

I had a M-Pulse 360 for a good while - great amp, never wanted for power with it, either...it outstayed a lot of other amps (I went through most of the Class D amps of the time), and IIRC (it's all a bit hazy), I only sold it for the Walkabout...

So I should probably update this with the gig experience from Satdy...took the 414 and one of my Shukers as backup. The Shuker stayed in its case...tho that was partly due to the, ummmm, liveliness of the venue (yeah, one of those gigs...), but I was very, very pleased with the results of a low-cost pimping. That bridge is super-comfy under the heel of the right hand, and the sound was bob on...the weight was fine, too...

This, above...I have some tweaked versions of presets on my Stomp sounds for the rare occasions I use a passive bass, the others all work with any bass because all my basses have split-P pickups and John East EQs, and sound broadly similar. The advantage is I can use the Stomp direct in, or into any of the combinations of amp I have, from 112 100w Combo to Stoopid Stack, and I'm at least ballpark all the time...

Oh, that's very sad news. Martin brought a lot to this community, and was a very very nice guy, gone way too soon. RIP indeed.

Edit: I am ummming and aaahing about taking her to my local luthier and getting a brass nut and a fret dress done, but I'm gonna gig her with the pub band on Satdy night, so we'll see how that goes before I spend any more money...

Pimping my 414... OK, after giving up on finding a VW BB3000A for less than a king's ransom anywhere, and realising that the majority of BB necks are a bit too chunky for me (1024, 424, 1100, etc), I've decided to stick with the VW 414 I picked up a while back... It's a specific bass for a specific band, and we've a few reunion-type gigs coming up, so a VW BB is a must. So far, so meh, on to the interesting stuff...I love the pickups; the neck, while not exactly my broom-handle ideal, is close enough, and it plays pretty well. The weight's borderline, but doable. The only things I really considered changing were the tuners and the bridge; tuners for weight, and I play with the heel of my hand on the bridge a lot, so the BBOT is literally a pain, especially if the grub screws are protruding. So I lashed out £30 on a Fender bridge and £17 apiece on Hipshot Ultralites, and the bass feels a lot better. The whole quality of the thing has gone up a notch, and I'm very happy with it. Aaaaand this is nowt without pics, so here they are: Yeah, I know it says 'Fender', but I don't care; it's a fantastic bridge for £30, and verrry smooth under the heel of my hand. The whole 'more sustain/more tone' thing is very contentious and very relative, but I do like it. I'd put one on anything for that money... And the new tuners; the screws fit into the original holes, and they tighten up nicely from the front. Good solid tuning. I also kinda like the tan lines... Total screwdriver/fitting time was under half an hour, total cost £98, and for that money, it's a big improvement... 😃

Funnily enough, the BL suggested this as a cover a couple of months back (he seems to have forgotten about it for now, tho), and I immediately suggested we could stick a bit of SOF in the middle. It'd go down well with the pub crowd, anyway...

A busy Oirish Bar in Manchester last night (short notice gig...as in 'Can you do tomorrow night?'), great to be out again, even unrehearsed and frankly winging it...it all came back to me; muscle memory's a wonderful thing... 😃

Actually, when I said 'I'd expect...', I should really have said 'I'd hope...', because that'd indicate I was playing with some very good musicians... We had a guitarist dep for a couple of wedding gigs a while ago who was a session player for some big names - he was in between jobs and wanted some quick cash (and he wasn't cheap, either), but maaaaan, he was a revelation; no rehearsal - we did offer, but he said he didn't need it, and he was right - absolutely fantastic. It was a pleasure and an education playing with him...you know that thing they say about 'Don't be the smartest person in the room, or you'll never learn'? That. Quick example; we do/did Jump for weddings, and I jokingly said 'You been practicing the solo?' and he said 'Yeah, I had a quick look at it last night...I've heard the song' (he'd had three days' notice for the gig) and we all sideyed each other a bit*, but...nailed, note for note... * That Jump solo usually sorts the Dep Men from the Boys... 🙂

I'm lucky to have been playing for ten years with the same two blokes - the singer/guitarist/keys-when-he-has-to is the band leader, the drummer reads (and is the best I've ever played with, he spent years on the cruise circuit)...we're at the point where, for instance, the BL has just sent us four new covers for our first gig back a week Saturday, and we won't bother rehearsing them...when we go out as a four-piece (usually for weddings and functions), we use good deps, so we don't rehearse with them, either... On the other hand, I was in a Rock covers band a while back, and despite the two guitarists (one was the singer) being technically very, very good, it just seemed to be endless bi-weekly rehearsals, and live we weren't half as good. The drummist was the forgetful one...the band didn't last all that long... Funnily enough, we also have an originals band, we've recruited one of the Rock band guitarists into it, and he's had a real culture shock - the BL is the same, and he chops and changes stuff all the time e.g. 'Can you put some slide guitar over the intro? OK, 2-3-4...', so your improv chops have to be pretty good. After the first rehearsal the new guy came over to me and said 'Is he always like that?' As I say, he's a great guitarist in a learned-it, note-for-note way, but for the first time in a long time he's out of his comfort zone...and he's enjoying it... 🙂 If I joined a new band, I'd expect to have three or four songs a rehearsal done and dusted, then, once gigging, we'd only rehearse for new stuff...

Our drummist (who's very, very good) has a portable kit (one of those that all fits into the kick, kinda thing...look, I'm not up to speed on drum technicalities, OK? 😕) and can hoick the whole thing in one go on a folding trolley - he's also a drum teacher, but doesn't drive, and in the past has gone to teaching appointments on the bus... Anyhoo, he's also a great sound engineer/producer, and has it all wired up via triggers and Mac-based jiggery-pokery (yeah, I'm not very hot on that stuff, either 😕) - I was a little sceptical at first, till he went 'Do you want John Bonham's snare...like this? (poinks Mac) Or Alex Van Halen's snare...like this? (poinks Mac again)... It's not often I goggle these days, but goggle I did... The sounds were fantastic... And best of all (and here's where this nonsense references the actual thread), there's a volume knob for the whole thing... 😃 It's such a small kit, tho, that we do get people saying 'How big is that drummer? And how far away is he?'

That sounds more like a cry for help than an actual cover... 😕🙂

I was just gonna say they certainly know how to photograph a bass...shame they didn't pay the same attention to the E string... 😕

Yep, I did this, too...fantastic sound, it was only when I realised I was hoicking 90+lbs of speaker around (albeit in smaller lumps) that I looked for an alternative...