Muzz

I picked mine up for £150 - not a mark on it...kinda middle ground...

Nowt to do with the bass: I've bought and sold several fretlesses. I'm just not a fretless player, much as I might GAS for them. I've bought and sold more Stingrays, mind...

Sadly it went a good while ago...it was a Wishbass, though, which meant it looked quite like all of them i.e. something I might have doodled on the back of my Maths workbook in the 4th year...and yeah, it had that huuuuge headstock. Didn't neckdive, tho, and wasn't particularly heavy. Had a lot of purpleheart in its construction, too. Every non-musician commented on it, which is something that doesn't happen with, say, the Alembic I had...or indeed much of my posh boutique stuff... For a couple of hundred quid they're well worth trying...

So we're good for Motorhead covers, yeah? 😀

I had one for a while, and I liked it. The neck was a bit like trying to strangle a giraffe one-handed, and it was very, very different to a 'normal', mass-produced bass, but it was very, erm, organic, and for the small amount I paid for it, great fun. That video, though, is comedy gold...

With our wedding band, we're not 'themed', but we have a lonnnnng list of songs (maybe 200 or so) we can play on the website (which is where the majority of bookings come from) and if they're bothered they can pick what they want, though most will only pick a handful and rely on us to play stuff that is tried and tested to appeal to most people. It's another reason we don't have a fixed setlist: our BL will call songs as we go, depending on the audience and the evening, not unlike a good DJ...he's very good at it.

It's very similar to that of originals bands - if you build a following/gain a reputation for being a good band, then people will come to see you rather than just turn out. Obviously, pubs are almost always free to the punter, so they're much more populated than venues where there's a door charge. Oh, and the money's better. 😁

Yep, they're tragic, all right...oh, and they were an originals band 😁

Looks rubbish for metal...it'll never catch on...

Yeah, I'm beginning to get a picture here...maybe that's where I was going wrong all those years... 😕😀

I tried one last month at PMT, when I was looking for a possible upgrade to the Rumble 100* for small trio gigs, and of all the small combos I tried (and a couple of FRFR 12" PA tops), the Studio 15 was my favourite: compact, very very light and with plenty going on. It was priced at £499 * A job which I completed on the cheap with a better speaker in the Rumble...but I digress...

Yep, I love the Performer...tho I've no idea why... 😕😀

We chucked that in the other night, just to see (I'd got an email from the BL a couple of days before with a link to the video asking me to learn it...it was a tricky one: I'd watched the video 14 times before I remembered there were some notes I had to learn) and it went down a storm, it's gone straight into the setlist... Oh, and if you don't already do it, Wheatus' version of A Little Respect is solid gold, too...

Don't hold your breath, Al...and that's no comment on your personal delightfulness, it's just an observation formed from forty years of disillusionment... 😕😀

Unless he's acting like he wrote something when he didn't, apparently...

You can stand your ground all you like, it's when you denigrate other people's views that you sound verrrrry defensive, for no real reason. As someone just said, it's not a battle. I'm in an originals band as well as other covers/function bands, and I'm not as precious as some about either. It's only rock n roll, but I like it...

Hahahaaa...the 'Good God No' veto...I used to cherish this, until the 47th time the BL proved me wrong...and two of those were Radiohead songs. Still not my favourite songs, but at least I get to relax and have a rest...

This, every day of the week, although the BL/Singer/guitarist has the final say, which is perfectly fine by me, because he's the one who has to sing it...although this doesn't explain the number of time we get asked for Tina Freaking Turner songs... Oh, and put a couple of Oasis songs in if you want a singalong. Works every time.

I'm keen for this not to happen, can you tell me how it's done? Is it anything like gurning through originals that sound like dozens of other songs anyway?

The Hu at the Ritz in Manchester. Oh, my ears and whiskers, what a band they are...no pics, I'm afraid: like thankfully most of the audience, I was too busy grinning from ear to ear to be holding a phone up in everyone's way. Those low, low vocals (seven singers) through a big PA? Goosebumps. Ninety minutes of Mongolian lyrics, and they had five words of English between them*, but completely mesmerising. And not a single guitar solo all night...bonus... I've seen Rammstein, Manowar and Motorhead many times, but this was on another, different level. The bloke next to me turned to me and said "You can see how they conquered the world, can't you?", and he was right. If someone had stood up at the end and suggested we go and sack Wigan, we'd all have been halfway down the East Lancs before someone went 'Hang on a minute...' The support band suffered from a horrible sound, the usual cannon-kick, inaudible bass and massive mid-scoop that seems to pass for rock gig mixes these days, but the main boys sounded really, really good: despite two sets of drums (a conventional kit and a bloke hitting four huuuuuge toms with what looked like broom handles) the bottom end wasn't overpowering, and they were actually quieter than the support band; just goes to show you don't need bludgeoning volume to be powerful... Confirmed again the confidence in the Ritz to produce great sounds for bands - I've never heard headliners with a bad sound there, and that's why it's my favourite venue. I'd recommend them to anybody, whether a rock fan or not, because they're so different from so much that's out there that they're an experience all of their own. I spent a lot of the gig laughing out loud at the sheer energy of it all. You may walk out feeling a bit, erm, invadey, but that passes quite quickly... Oh, and I'd like to go to Mongolia now, please... 😃 * 'Next song'...'Thank You'..'Manchester' 😀

The Warmoth page is always good fun for a play with the configurator...then there are lots of luthiers who could help. I presume you have a neck, as long as it's a standard heel then the Warmoth option is a goer, if not the a luthier will make the body to fit... If you are thinking luthier, Jon Shuker is my favourite, but there are lots and lots of others, too.

Wow. That's verrrry close to my old 4001...can't help with the provenance, I'm afraid, but that's one of the best fakers I've ever seen...

Just to reiterate: all my basses are for gigging.

Oh, and I gig all my basses...it's what they're for...I've never (and I know I'm tempting fate here) had any problems that have made me wish I'd brought a cheaper one...it's not like some people don't pay extra for damaged (sorry, mojo'd) basses...

Just another addition to the observation that actual fights are very, very, very rare in the pubs I've played in. And yep, the pubs with the rep for rowdiness have the best, most active security. The pub trade is so close to extinction these days that any place with a rep for uncontrolled violence will be out of business very quickly... We do know Eye Of The Tiger, just to take the rise when it gets a bit shovey...not had to use it for years, tho... 😕