Muzz

The giddy ten-year-old in me loves Jens' more OTT elements (50,000 year old mammoth ivory nut, anyone? Wonder where that sits with the whole Tonewoods debate?*), but his blobby shapes just aren't me. Possibly just as well, as they're not something I'll ever afford. Plus, a pal of mine** kinda calmed the whole thing down for me when I showed him Jens' site and he said "It's all a bit vajazzle, tho, isn't it?" 😕 * 'Gives an old-school vibe, but not as well as proper 60,000 year old mammoth ivory...' 😃 ** Same pal who ruined Corvettes for me by looking at the top horn and saying "That looks like a nob". I can't ever not see that. I've stopped showing him basses now. 😕

As with all these sorts of situations, it very much depends on your band - I've got a Rumble 100 for the small trio gigs when there's some PA support, and for smaller bars with vocal-only PA, which is even smaller and lighter than the 200, although with a giddy drummer I've found myself on occasion driving it quite hard. I'm seriously considering spending £65 to put a much better speaker in there (and another tenner to line it: it's an unlined cab, and I've experienced it feeding back when I'm standing close and cranking it), as I like the weight and small size. I should add that I have a Walkabout and two BF cabs, a 115 and a monster 212, so if I need to step up I've got lots of options, it's just the verrrrry small Rumble combo is great to grab and go... I would say that the 'lightweight' part of the cab has nothing to do with the whooomph, heft, grunt or whatever - the BF 212 weighs 39lbs and will drown any drummer - I used to use it in a Rawk band with a shedbuilder and two Marshall/412 halfstack guitards, and it comfortably ran with them with headroom to burn...

We avoid multi-band bills unless it's the occasional charity festival-type thing, I've found people are much more relaxed about it all under those circumstances, so it usually goes OK. Pubs are a mixed bag, but the bad stuff is very rare compared to the good stuff. The worst ratio of bad to good ones are agency gigs, culminating in an derrière-clencher of a NYE gig last year when we turned up as a guitar/bass/drums trio to be greeted (sic) by a landlord who said "I was promised a seven piece soul band". And he'd advertised it and sold tickets as such. It was never gonna be a good one after that... The thing about the bad drummer is absolutely the case across the board, though: if I had to pick a single worst factor, it's that...

I think that's almost certainly the case; furthermore the sweep of the narrative arc and the thematic focus recall another sublime high water mark in the librettist's art, Dan's Underpant. Marvellous. More lager, anyone?

Quite. Anyone who can rhyme 'Macclesfield' with 'knackers feeled' should be in with a shout to topple Carol Ann Duffy as Poet Laureate.... 🙂

Bass from the word go (see (or rather hear) 14 seconds into Hanging Around by The Stranglers), I have a couple of guitars, more for faffing, and as I'm right-handed and left-footed, drums are...interesting. Still bass. 🙂

A great set of videos, plus the bonus, thanks to the title, is that forevermore I will think of Sheldon as 'Sheldon Dingwall of Dingwall'...

I use a Stomp, so I went through a Helix they had lying around. I was looking for a one-box solution for when we gig with the small tops and the small sub. Really didn't have any confidence in it as a gigging solution. I picked up a Rumble 112 cheap which still isn't quite enough, but a change of driver should sort that. I'd say try one definitely, but the only real test would be on a rehearsal/gig, so if you can get one with a returns policy, then do that. I should add I tried a QSC K12.2 which was in a different league, and would have done the job fine...but it's more than twice the price, so I guess you get what you pay for...

I tried the bigger Headrush FRFR (the 112) in PMT a few weeks ago, and I wasn't at all convinced it would keep up with a drummer, therefore I'd say the 108 wouldn't have a hope, unless your drummer is verrry quiet.

I have JE pres in all my gigging basses, they're simply the best in the market, and any time I've contacted John with dumbass questions he's been a real gent.

Onboard I have East U-Retros in all my basses, Externally I use a Stomp for everything, backline-based or DI.

I've had one full custom (another one on the way) and I've bought other customs and modded them to what I wanted, and it's a long road to learning what you really need/want, and what's just wish-fulfilment and Shiny Thing GAS. I absolutely won't sell my full custom, ever, and the ones I've modded are keepers, too. I've made many more expensive mistakes buying mass-produced basses which I ultimately knew wouldn't suit me (two Alembics, four (to date) Stingrays, two Ricks, and Buddha knows how many Jazzes) but I'd convinced myself this one would be different.

I'm good for 4s with my Shukers, to be honest, but yeah, the slimmer the better for me...

So do I, although my 34-36.25 scale Dingwall ABZ4 is actually the lightest of my basses, at a sniff under 7.5lbs...

When I try a 5 that's 7.5lb, with a slim 38mm neck (think Geddy Jazz slim - all my basses have these dimensions), I'll consider one. I'll wait. 🙂

When our BL was making a living from playing full-time, he got some afternoon solo acoustic gigs at Old People's Homes. I giggled a bit, and was set to send him up as a crooner, until he told me the most popular stuff was Beatles songs*. * And with the added benefit that he could play the same set every week, with nobody complaining they'd heard it before... 😕

All this +1: I play with a few younger deps (drummers especially) and the amount of overplaying can be bizarre. I think it's an age/confidence thing. I can barely manage just 'playing', so overplaying isn't a problem for me...

I've just listened to the Something bass part, and I'll never complain about my bass tone again...gawd, it's awful...

My only expensive ones go way back, but both involve selling basses which I should have stashed, tho I was in my late teens/early 20s and new shiny things were irresistible. Since you're wondering, a Jetglo 4001 and a 73-74 black and maple precision. sold both for less than £200. I knowwwww....😕

Yup, these. Took me a wee while to get to the point where I'm (almost always) happy with my contribution to a song. It possibly helps that I don't like solo bass, and I long since lost any inclination towards wide-eyed intimidation by virtuosity. There'll always be someone better...than everyone 🙂

I can get my Shukerbird (Thunderbird with a Shuker P-neck - it's a biiiig long bass) into my Mono dual bag with another bass, too, so I'm pretty sure you'd get your Alembic in one of the single ones.

Yep to the Rattus Norvegicus, and most Rush stuff, lots of bass driving the songs. Slightly more subtly, Lizzy's stuff is a favourite, too. Solo bass albums? I've bought a few and got rid: a bass solo'ed is like a comedian explaining comedy: instructional, and occasionally interesting, but not the point.

Walkabout into one (or two) BF cabs (Super Twin and Compact) - warm, valvey, gritty if required, and loud enough to hurt if needs be...

IME, the Big/Super series will, unlike a lot of very voiced cabs (like Bergs, Aggie, etc, etc) put out what you put in, and as such are a different proposition to a lot of cabs in terms of EQ. I've put heads as varied as a MB F1 to my current Walkabout, and the sound I got out was very, very different once I'd realised I wasn't hearing the voicing of a cab - or at least a more neutral voicing - and EQ'd appropriately. Similar thing to FRFR: IME that (at first) sounds verrrry neutral, and one man's 'neutral' is another's 'bland and smooth'... EDIT: When I first got my Berg 112s (bought unseen off t'internet), I hated the sound...until I turned the horns off, and then it was much, much better...which effectively voiced them much more traditionally. Kinda-sorta related, as I could probably have achieved the same with EQ, but back then it didn't occur to me...