Muzz

Well, my Stomp arrived before New Year last year, so that doesn't count (even though it's very, very good), and my new Shuker isn't due till March next year, so that doesn't count, so I'm left with three things I've bought, all for very practical reasons...I may be getting boring: Best BB414 - exactly what I needed as a reasonable and cheap facsimile of my old white BB3000A for a one-off 30 year reunion gig. Still a great, simple PJ, and punches wayyyy above its price range. Rumble 100 combo - for small acoustic gigs where the inears aren't a goer, it juuuust about copes with the louder end of those gigs. I might still line it and put a better speaker in there, but as far as simplicity and form factor is concerned, a winner. Worst BB1024X - not all that bad, but too heavy and too chunky in the neck for me, and doesn't sound any different to the much-cheaper 414 which replaced it...looked nice, tho...

This was the first one that come to my mind...great song, tho...

It's surprising how many of the songs listed I've heard bands play very very unconvincingly, and a lot of the time it's the bass that's at fault. We play Elbow's One Day Like This which is basically E/octave on the bass all the way through, but to make it sound good it's all about the dynamics of those two notes. As someone has already said, it's not about what you play, it's about how you play it...

Yep, i agree completely: it's the sort of thing I fall for, and never, ever use. Are those flats? 8 of them? Crikey... I love the marketing promo on the last pic: 'Fine Modern Basses'...sounds like it comes from the days of Empire, when men were men, and 11lb* fretless 8-strings were hefted about with impunity, the better to impress the memsahibs... * I'm guessing here, and I may be doing it a disservice...but it looks heavy...

I had this very bass in my hands the other week...it's a thing of beauty... 🙂

Yup, Stomp here, after a range of others like the ME-50B, MS-60B, B3, HD500X, etc.

Although our drummer has an acoustic kit with triggers, for simpler/problematic setups we can use just a kick and overhead pair, and no backline. This is in a lot of pubs. Our drummer is a good one, inasmuch as he has several gears between brushes, hotrods and shedbuilding. The inears are basically plugs with speakers in that you have a volume control over, so not attenuating the drums enough isn't an issue. At a push if he's a proper gorilla (and your 27dB filters suggest so - imagine how loud you all are to the pub punters...), you could just run the guitar, keys, bass and vocals into your inears (including wired ones for him), treat him as background noise and adjust Mix With Mongo accordingly...a half-decent setup would allow you all independent mixes... 🙂

It's a Presonus, but it belongs to the singer/BL and it's racked up with the wireless receivers, his Helix, etc, and it's in a big(ish) rack which he doesn't like to bring to this particular venue. It should be a simple setup (it's a very busy city centre bar, so soundchecks aren't really a thing; it's squeeze in and get on with it) using the venue mixer/PA, and it is, barring the bass monitoring... 😕

Yeah, I went into PMT for an hour or so to try out the FRFR options, and went for the Headrush first, and it really struggled with a low E at volume - much more than the Rumble 100 did. I ended up buying the Rumble off the back of that experience (secondhand, obv...) - I'd run a Stomp into the Headrush, which was the store's unit, I'm wondering now whether there was something in the Stomp that may have been pushing too many lows or something like that, but it was definitely flapping...I might go back with my own Stomp and try it all again, tho the chap in the store stood and shook his head as sadly as I did, and said "Well, they are primarily designed for guitar..." I should add I'd be looking for it to cover small bar gigs (think acoustic and vocals through 2 x Bose S1s, no sub, small kit with Hotrods) as backline, too...my gear's gotta earn its' keep 🙂

We tried that, but it's racked in a fairly large rack box, and the stage area really is cramped (they love us there because our drummer uses a tiny triggered kit, and we're pretty much the only band they can get on with a drummer) - the PA is well forward of the playing area, too so there's no chance of hearing much clearly from there. The guitarist/singer uses one of his Bose S1s (which double as PA tops for small acoustic gigs) to monitor, and we can all hear that, it's just the bass definition that gets completely lost without some kind of monitoring.

The band I gig with most often with dispensed with backline a while back, and it's a revelation. Unfortunately, we have a residency at a place with an in-house PA we struggle to use the inears with, for various reasons, and we need some stage monitoring (the venue is far from ideal in physical shape), so I use a small Rumble onstage. Unfortunately, this has introduced more issues (DI out is Post only, my Stomp presets need new versions to cope with the Rumble pre, etc) so I'm thinking a small FRFR would be the thing in these circumstances. The Rumble really is very small and light, tho (did I mention the venue's a nightmare?) - I tried a Headrush, but it really struggled to reproduce the low E, so I'm thinking an Alto 312 would struggle, too, which kinda pushes me up into QSC territory, and they ain't cheap for what I need...

I'm not sure they'd actually go 'down' enough to get through a 30 in doorway...possibly sideways, but even then...

Bet he couldn't walk through a doorway carrying it, tho...or not carrying it, for that matter...

Just watched that: Glenn is astonishing; "Sit down, Bruce: the bassist's got this..." 😁

Oh, it was all off and mostly disassembled (hence the XLR-coiling)...not that they noticed...

With the function/covers band neither, just how many bookings we have in the diary. With the originals band(s), I'd take either as long as they showed up... 🙂

Loved this, bought the EP...it pretty much disappeared without trace...

Anyone encroaching in the band area gets firmly and immediately directed back where they came. I stop playing to do it if necessary. Having said that, we were mid-packdown on Satdy night when we had two idiots at the mic; "Switch it back on, we want to do song." Singer put down the half-coiled XLR, walked up to the stand, disconnected the mic and put it in the case... 🙂

We go out as a trio of 40s-50s blokes, and regularly get asked for ‘Tina Turner stuff’: I now point at the 18st singest and say ‘We used to, but he insists on putting on his leather mini dress to do it’. That usually sorts it. Oh, and we played a do at an Italian restaurant last night and got asked for Rammstein. ‘We would do, but I forgot the flamethrowers and foam cannons. Sorry.’

Will do if it's out and snappable 😀 The whole thing with Jon reminds me of that great dedication by PG Wodehouse in one of his books: 'To my daughter Leonora without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this book would have been finished in half the time.'

Good luck getting a tune out of the Limp Bizkit one...

Yeah, it's the price you pay (sort of) for a busy one-man artisan: he generally responds to the second email I've sent him rather than the first, and I (probably like yourself) don't want to mither, but sometimes that's what it takes. In this case, though, I know he's stacked out, so I've told him I can wait for mine... I'll mention this tomorrow - I'm going to see him to pick up the bass he's used as a neck template for my new one.

It’s OK, I’ve told him not to rush with mine...I can wait. Just about. 😀

Does the landlord ring the Time bell to kick this off? 'Come on now gentlemen, let's be having your best fisticuffs please...'

As someone who, like many of us, spends a lot of time sober in pubs and other venues people-watching (while playing), I'll just say this once: the reason things have become more lairy is the fairly recent proliferation of a cheap, cut version of a certain Class A drug, which has become as normalised for a night out as lager...