Muzz

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... 😕

...and ends before five past, when the clenching starts, if my audition experiences are anything to go by... Good luck... 😀

Ahhh, the moment Les and the Boys went international in the their hunt for The Caledonian Turnup Thief...

The only time I've ever judged someone negatively for their gear was a bloke who showed up at a jam night with a Status 5 with the full Liberace LEDs...and proceeded to plod 4-to-the-bar roots to unending blues songs. He occasionally dropped a couple, too, and the changes seemed an effort. Shallow and horrible of me, I know, and I felt even worse because he seemed well pleased with his night's work. I felt very depressed with myself, but then again, that might have been the two hours of meandering blues I'd been listening to...it was one of those jams nights...

What kind of attitude is that? This place'd be a wilderness within a week if we all thought like that... 😀

All that said, I did use to get a frisson from doing posh gigs with a Harley Benton £38 PB50, especially Dos where the tickets were £150+...but that was a bit of a novelty... I'm also struggling to beat my BB414 on the Yamaha front, having already tried and sold a 1024x which cost three times as much. I keep looking at 2024s, but it'll have to be extraordinary (and just the right one) to replace the 414...

And 'effectively' is the most personal part of it all...one man's 'effective' is another man's 'extravagance', and all that...

This, pretty much verbatim 😁

A right handed black and white Aria ZZB Custom, upside down lefty. I know, because I was gigging one at the time. I didn't hear the last of it for bloody years...

I've got an old Arbiter Les Paul which I bought for pin money years ago in a second-hand shop, which is a fantastic version. No idea where it was made, but it's a good un...

Definitely +1 for the Walkabout (and the M-Pulses, tho not as much), in the smaller/lighter Class D corner the Streamliner blooms nicely, and the Magellan does a very nice valvey sound, without having a valve in it. That Genzler bloke knows what he's doing...

Gloria and the Estefantastics?

Mr Dog has beaten me to it (and in far more detail): one of the collateral facts I picked up in my searches was that the more expensive Rumbles (200 and up) have a different league of Eminence speaker than the smaller ones, which are built down to a budget and use bottom-end (SWIDT?) Chinese-made Eminences. The 100s and smaller, though, are very much improved by replacing the speaker with a 'proper' Eminence.

Then again, they were all trying to follow Chas and Dave...now there's a Led Zep opening act... 😀

It was quite the thing with punk bands, especially round Manchester, to get JCC to support...he was always terrific. If you've never heard Beasley Street through a 10kw PA, you've never lived... 😀

I've parped on a bit about this in a few other threads, but I've been looking for a small light combo for trio gigs, which will sit somewhere between the IEM and big rig gigs, both of which are great in their own way, but I'm doing a lot of small pub/bar gigs in which the simplicity of a combo with the smallest version of our PA is a winner. I'd been using a Rumble 100, which in size and weight is perfect, but I was conscious of it getting farty and squishy when things (read: the drummer gets carried away) got a bit giddy towards the end of the last set. I was clearly pushing it a bit hard. I tried quite a few replacements (including some powered FRFR ones) but nothing under £500 was very convincing. So after a good trawl of TB I lashed out £60 or so on an Eminence Beta 12, got the screwdriver out and replaced the stock driver with it. I got to use it in anger at a rehearsal yesterday, and blimey charlie, that's the best £60 I've spent on music gear since I discovered Elixirs. It sounds bigger and louder (there's a 6db sensitivity jump to the Beta, so it should do) and it'll hang with a drummer now. It's a couple of pounds heavier, but still under 25lbs. TL:DR - Eminence Beta 12 into a Rumble 100: sometimes a replacement speaker just works... 😀

A few from back in the day, I'll have to have a think to get my dates straight, but in the last couple of years Thunder support Whitesnake and then Journey: that gig should have been run in reverse, Thunder were fantastic. The Damned supporting that Alice Cooper/Johnny Depp farce of a covers band thing (I only got dragged there by my SO, who still didn't get anywhere near JD), the Damned were still great fun, and clearly delighted to be out of the house, let alone on the big stage of the Arena... The Volbeat supporting Alterbridge, again at the Arena. Their sound wasn't great, but it (and they) were streets ahead of the headliners... Oooo, that Nuclear Assault/Slayer SOH gig...yup, NA were an onslaught...in a good way...