Muzz

I think it's safe to say that 95% of the talk about tonewoods is still nonsense... 😁

The bands I've gigged with in the last 10 years have all had decent PAs, so while I've taken a rig with me on some larger gigs, I've got the option of going straight from the Stomp to the PA. A lot of the inears gigs are exactly this. I've also got a Behringer BDDi21 in my gig bag that I've never used, but for £20 it's worth leaving there, if only for hoodoo's sake... I take 2 basses to every gig (mostly because I can, in a double gig bag) and I have spares of all the gigbag stuff like strings, leads, batteries, etc...

There's a wedding DJ in the North West (can't remember his name, but I'd know him if I saw him...and I'd groan) who we've been paired with a few times on agency gigs, and he brings 4x15 full range speakers with him (big old 3ft x 2ft x 2ft cabs...he stacks them) and seems to take it as a personal mission to be louder than the band every time. When we play as a trio, we're in-ears, triggered kit and using 2 x RCF 12s with a 12 sub, so we can go from very quiet to loud enough (we can bring more for bigger rooms, but generally people like this)...then this twonk kicks in with 120db of distorted bass and fizzy mush...and that's for Lionel Ritchie... He's a complete weapon. Oh, and he brings his missus to sit there with him, a la Yoko Ono. He's in his 50s... TL:DR Wedding DJs can be Too Loud, too...

I came to the conclusion years ago that tonewoods look lovely, and are something for people who sell them to talk about while they're selling*...there may well be differences, but in a solid-body electric bass they are so far down the scale of what affects tone that their influence is vanishingly small. Especially when the drummer starts hitting things... * The Alembic website used to be awash with this sort of stuff, and tho they've toned it down (SWIDT?) recently, it's still dotted with gems like this: 'Tonally, Burl Redwood packs deep, dare we say "burly" bass reponse.' OK, we get it, you've got to upsell your premium tonewoods...pffft... 😕🙂

We had a record library in our school, a venture run single-handedly by Mr Murphy, and I never got to thank him enough. For the princely sum of 5p, you could have a week with the album of your choice, and it didn't half open my eyes...the Kiss albums I gravitated to first (the cover of Alive II was the biggie), but I played it and went 'This doesn't sound like it looks', and then I saw this: And that DID sound like it looked... 🙂

You know as well as the rest of us that time faffing around looking for something in particular is 75% of the fun anyway..so no, you can't 😁

I seem to recall (tho it was a loooong time ago, so I could well be wrong) that the 5000As were basically the 3000A with a modded P pup, head (+tuner), nut and bridge...if that was the case, and the nut width wasn't daft, I could live with this as a 4...for a bit less money, obv...

Watching jet-powered vehicles? A large marshmallow rammed down each lughole is a simple and cheap way to slightly reduce the noise levels...

Just on that Santa Pod thing (and for the OP, Motorhead and Manowar have both been pointlessly, painfully loud), I was at the TT a few years ago and some lunatic had brought a jet-powered dragster thing to loon up and down the prom for a show one evening. I was standing just the other side of the barrier (nearer than you can get at the Pod, unfortunately) when he let it rip, and it was as if you could hear the air tearing; it went beyond a noise into a slap in both ears...horrible...

I'm toying with replacing the tuners on my 414 with Ultralites - when I've done it in the past it's always been a good thing; the actual weight reduction isn't much on paper, but because the weight's out at the end of the neck, I've always noticed how much lighter the bass feels. There'll be an extra hole to drill, and there'll be a couple of empty holes, but I've never minded that...an easy job. I should add my 414 is my only bass without Ultralites...

There's an entirely disconnected middle section to Sting's Englishman In New York, like he's just remembered he's aspiring to jazz sensibilities (and he's got Branford Marsalis tapping him on the shoulder) halfway through a perfectly good pop song...the drum break to bring it back in is one of the most jarring transitions I've ever heard... I should add it's one of our 'Quiet set' staples, and we originally played it with the middle section in...once: everyone just looked at us like we'd gone mental, I guess people don't remember the middle...and for good reason... 😕

Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out starts out as a completely different song that just runs out of steam...

In my covers/function band, it's just the BL/singer/geetard and me, plus a drummer, so the BL likes the flexibility to call not only the song but the tuning, hence the Stomp presets; if he says 'We're playing blah-de-blah...in Eb', I just, ahem, Stomp a switch, and I'm in Eb. He has a full Helix, so he can bugger about with tunings all night, and I'll eventually hunt him down... 🙂 Yes, I know I should be able to transpose on the fly (and I can up to a point), but if the technology's there, why not use it?

I have drop tuners on my gigging basses for a 'natural' D when that's all I need, but the Helix Stomp tracks superbly for further drop tuning. I have all my tone/effects patches (6, IIRC - it's been a while since I switched it on 😕) copied into Eb, D and C, just in case. Having said that we used to cover both Uptown Funk and Get Lucky, and the keyboards can cover that lower end just fine - was never an issue...

Why thank you...it took me a while to get just where I wanted it (it had a Lakland neck originally, and getting the U-Retro in and the pickups under the covers was a bit of a squeeze)...the pic doesn't do the birdseye justice (tho it's not as 'marmalade' (Jon's word) as the other one)...both basses have the same neck profile, based on the other Shuker on the left, out of shot...

I was just thinking that the other day, when that Youtube clip of them earlier in the thread led me back into the Hysteria stuff; it's a fantastic album, real benchmark stuff, and you're right about it sounding evocative of its time and yet not dated, either... Huge credit to Mutt Lange, right on top of his game, producing a sound that many many others tried to emulate...

Phoenix was Sunday night, Monday was the Ritz, they opened the Banshee on a Tuesday for a while, Wednesday was the Sporran, Thursday Banshee, Friday Jillys/Banshee/Phonenix, Satdy UMIST/Jillys/Banshee/Sporran. There were always lots of girls around, especially when Hair Metal kinda (Bon Jovi's first album in 83 really kicked it off) softened the whole biker bloke denim and leather thing... I was never in the house after 10pm between 1982-89... 🙂 Edit; I should probably add that I wasn't out drinking 7 nights a week, I went on my bike most of the time, with two helmets...just in case...Satdy was a Last Bus Home fixture, tho... 😁

It's got 5 kernobs, you could get a John East in there... 🙂

These two...the one on the right was made by Jon Shuker for me and paid for by all my friends for my 50th, it's been my go-to ever since for mixed-music gigs, as it'll do everything...the other one is my Rawk bass, and it's another Jon S creation (kinda), but with everything I wanted to put into a Fenderbird...if I sold it I know I'd just have to start putting another one together straight away... Both are double-Ps, both have John East Preamps...

Oh, noooooooo...I'm skint...must resist... Oh, it's nearly 10lbs. Must focus on that... 😕🙂

I'm very flexible as far as the Switch Vs Blend debate goes (I have basses with both), it was more that the 2024 switch felt like a £5 switch on an otherwise fantastically-made instrument...I wouldn't be surprised to find it's the same one as on my 414, which at £180 second hand is much more the price range for a switch like that. It's also too big a hole to replace with a smaller, better-made switch... 😕

Ohhhh, an Aria ZZB...I've got one of those in bits in my stash...I must get round to rebuilding it... 😀

I found the SB-1 was very nice, a much more a Jazz neck than the 2000s (I had a couple), which were baseball bats by comparison. Obviously, it depends on your neck preference...the 2000s have, erm, sturdy pickups... 🙂