Muzz

Buy good ear protection. Use it. Don't sell the 4001, or either of the 70s Ps. Stick em in storage, and find the £200 somewhere else... 😕🙂

I'm in (at least) two bands, I joined another when Band 1 gigs slowed right down a couple of years ago but from Day One I've told Band 2 that Band 1 is the priority, and always will be. Band 2 doesn't gig much, so it's never been an issue... Band 3 is an originals band with the band leader from Band 1, so when (if) that picks up gigging again, there won't be an issue there...

I have to say if the bar staff haven't had a word while moving tables we just pitch in and advise people with a smile that it's gonna get loud if they're that close to the band, and that table over there looks like a much better bet...works every time... 🙂 Two wedding gigs in fields over the weekend - I blame Mumford And Sons for this sort of thing. First one was a place we'd had a raaah with the manager last time (she's one of those people who are not naturally predisposed to work with the public - very abrupt, defensive and abrasive) and is just an awful venue, with the most aggressive limiter in the North; it was louder in my in-ears than through the PA. I was wearing them because there are few things more depressing than being able to hear the sound of feet and people chatting on the dance floor while dancing... Not a lively crowd at all, and a dozen hard-core drinkers (not dancing) left by quarter to twelve; we were booked till one, but our patented Feck Off Home remix* did the trick and we were packed and off by twelve. Saturday was another twin tipi (twopi?) in a glamping field, a much better crowd (and sound) than the previous night, younger and a lot more fun. Four people left in the place by half twelve, but we'd judged they were all too hammered to notice, and so the tactical deployment of New York New York did the trick, they staggered off happy and we were off and on the road five minutes later. As an aside, after the Friday we've decided not to take any more four piece gigs: we rarely gig with four now, and we're so accustomed to the trio thing that another guitar just sounds muddy and unnecessary, even on the rock stuff. * A subtle blend of of songs which tread the line between a bit obscure and hard to dance to, without actually being Yes album tracks...

Again, when I found you could get a split coil pickup in a soapbar casing it opened up all the aesthetic options - best of both worlds: I've got one in my Shukerbird, my Shuker Horn and my Dingwall... 😍

This, kinda: I'm shamelessly shallow when it comes to looks, and went through a phase of thinking Ps were boring to look at (tho nowadays the only real GAS I have is for a Shuker JJB P), but I wish I'd worked out sooner that the sound I really like is a split coil pickup in (or at least near to) the P position...that simplified the 'buying on looks and trying and being disappointed with the sound and then selling' of lots and lots of basses... 😕🙂

IEMs and/or attenuators: I might not have tinnitus...

It depends on the gig and the venue: functions and weddings, these EBay jackets with black shirt and trousers: Yes, we know they're cheesy, but we're spangletastic and we don't care 😀 Pubs, bars, festivals, clubs and the like: jeans and black t-shirts (logo'd or not is not important), trainers if we want. It's never, ever been an issue...

Mine was exactly that model, bought new in '75...I loved it at the time, but in retrospect it was bloody awful...traded it for a Satellite P-Copy, which was leagues better...

Yep, and Schroeder cabs (especially the angled-speaker ones) are heavy in the mids and low-mids: it was this cab I was thinking of specifically when I mentioned boosting mids onstage...not the prettiest-sounding cab soloed, but very useful in a band context...

At the cheapest end of the spectrum, I'd second the suggestion to have a play with your EQ in a band context - the mids is where you could have a look: a pleasantly scooped sound might be nice soloed at home, but might not work in a band context. Have a listen to some soloed bass tracks on YouTube to hear how different the big boys (Geddy Lee, tho he may not be your bag tone or music-wise, is a good example of this) sound without the band playing - it's always harsher on its own, but sits in the mix* much better. On the power/speakers front, I'm in a similar position, playing in a busy function/covers band, and a Rawk band. We've gone in-ears/DI with the busier band (less humping and shifting backline down fire escapes at 1:30am), but even in the Old School Rawk band, I use a 300w head and an efficient 2x12, and I can more than compete with 2 100w Marshalls/4x12 playing at being Guitar Heroes, and the Gorilla from the Cadburys advert on drums. My criteria for backline is the unmiked kit: if I can compete/be heard with the unmiked kit (maybe some kick in the PA), then I have enough backline - if the kit starts to go through the PA, then I will, too. Guitars/keyboards should level to this, I should never get into a contest with them, because nobody ever thinks to attenuate, it's always 'turn up', and we'll be too loud for most venues and certainly my ears. I have the t-shirt (tinnitus) from years of doing this wrong. HTH... 🙂 * It might be just me, but this 'cutting through the mix' thing always confuses me - it's supposed to be a band sound, the mix is supposed to be that: a mix. I digress...

He's doing something wrong...I've done hundreds of gigs with BF gear (maybe not all the same cab, but...) and I've never damaged one yet...

You do know you said that out loud, right? 😐

Put a John East pre into pretty much any bass, and you'll get +15 on a sweepable mid...that'll do it. Ping it through a GK MB and a Schroeder angled cab and you'll have the ability to sound as aggressively middy as you could need...

Just to interrupt the sadly-missed DA* lurve, I rarely watch the drummers hands - it's the feet for me... I'm lucky to have played with a fantastic drummer for a few years now, we rarely have to make eye contact, because I know what he's gonna do, and vice versa. When we have a dep for one night, it can be very hard work readjusting... * Can you imagine what he'd have to say about the current POTUS? 🙂

There was an awkward silence, and the party-goers paused their revelry to stare. It was only then I realised the heart in my mouth wasn't mine...

Well, the yurt was a double tipi (twopi?), boiling hot as the sun was still on it...still, we were done for half seven, and paid. To the important bit; turns out my FOH sound wasn't as bad as I'd feared - the Presonus/Mainstage had been picking up the slack - so in the ten minutes we had*, we flattened it, EQ'd for the room (tipi) and it sounded much better. We're having a rehearsal this week with it all when we should get a lot closer. Still no closer to trying out a single Art as backline, tho... * Hey, that's an age for a bass soundcheck, right?...

Overplaying drummers...it's usually deps trying to show how great they are. It's the same with any musicians who aren't actually as good as they think they are, Over-widdling guitards are almost par for the course, over-widdling bassists are deeply annoying, but overplaying drummers can wreck a song more thoroughly than all the above.

Never bought any Laney gear, but a good mate in a band whom we shared a rehearsal room with back in the day had a DP300 stack - 15 and 10s? I forget. What I do remember is he offered to leave his stack in the rooms and let me use it, so I didn't have to hump my Ampeg stack around (and some folk wonder why those of us of a certain vintage are weight-obsessed? 😃) . I used it for a couple of rehearsals, but it never delivered any heft*, so I ended up bringing my own stack...and an SVT stack was not humped around to twice-weekly rehearsals lightly (SWIDT?), so you can gauge how little I thought of the Laney. On the other hand, I was near enough to the front of a BCC gig to be able to hear Glenn Hughes' Laney (a Nexus Tube? It was all lit up and blue, anyway) a couple of years ago, and that was lovely. I believe he has roadies, tho... 😃 * And this was in the days before The Great Heft Hoohah...

Just as an off-topic aside, I replaced the four-position switch in my ABZ4 with a John East U-Retro preamp. Works a treat, but then I'm a big fan of East preamps... 🙂

This one could be useful for me - I'm struggling to find the Zoom +rhythm guitar patch on my B3 (or in fact any reference to it anywhere), is it only on the B3n? Advthanksance... 😁

Anyone who's getting excited about the n-bomb in Oliver's Army is taking offence completely out of context in an anti-war, anti-racist song.

Just a quick interim update, as I had a quiet house and a spare hour yesterday, too, so I had another run around the presets/setup, just in case I'd made a terrible mistake the other day. I dunno about anybody else, but there's a kind of inertia sets in after I've spent more than a couple of hours tweaking sounds - I feel I lose the ability to judge, and they start to converge the more I tweak...kinda like that thing where you try aftershaves, and after you've sniffed half a dozen, you get a bit overwhelmed by it all and can't remember what was good and what wasn't... I digress...anyway, point being after twenty minutes I realised I was listening to the presets and the dynamics of the bass, and I'd completely forgotten I was playing through a PA speaker: it sounded like a bass amp, reacted like a bass amp. It was a bass amp. Satdy's gig, I've just been informed, is in a yurt*, so it might not be the best place to judge FOH sounds for bass, but we'll see. * Is there any real need for this? We're having to go on at five, finish for seven (normally a Very Good Thing, but it's a loooonnng drive anyway, so it'll still be most of the day), presumably because of noise concerns. A yurt. I ask you...our drummer, who's Italian, asked me what a yurt was...the best I could do was 'It's like a tent, but more expensive...' 😕😏

Ummmm, 10 right now - I have three 'main' basses I play all the time, an acoustic bass, and half a dozen I've bought in fits of GAS, or for projects that haven't worked out, and that I really must get round to selling...

The closest we get to this is when/if we play Killing In The Name, the singist will introduce it with "It's a bit sweary, this one...brace yourselves..."

^ This. Wheels...they're the way forward... :0)