Muzz

This. And I'd agree with 'You can mute to reduce sustain, but you can't add it if it's not there'.

Yep...I'd imagine ski jumping for the first time is similar...

You clearly have more restraint than me Chris...

I liked the couple I've played...although when I popped into PMT recently, they're £1250 these days...

I had a Streamliner for a long while, too - the Magellan's much more versatile. And the power section's much better. And I'm not using that word, either I had three AE112s - I didn't like them at all with the tweeters on, but when I turned them off, they were brilliant. I only moved them on because even though they were only 30-something lbs each, three of them were 90+lbs in total, and that's more than I was prepared to hump around the place. And before anyone chips in, I thought "Well, I can use one or two of them for smaller gigs", but once I'd heard three of them together, I never quite managed to resist taking all three to every gig...

That's very very brave (I did the same thing a while ago with a US SUB MM4, and I was cacking myself even with that) and it looks fantastic....

Oooo, I might give one of those a go...thanks for that

I have a Walkabout and I use it in the Rawk band (and sometimes with the function band, when I'm in the mood). I've had an M-Pulse, too, and a previous Walkabout that WoT and I kinda pinged backwards and forwards until we both made up our minds It's a fantastic amp, close enough for me to full-on valve warmth whilst being a practical size/weight. And with a Barefaced Super Twin, it goes really, really loud...the Rawk band has two half-stack Marshall guitards who live in the Spinal Tap 'mine goes up to eleven' kinda territory, and it's more than enough. 300w my derrière, as Jim Royle might say... I've never fancied the weight of the Mesa cabs, and their new prices are astronomical, so that rules them out. I've got a Magellan, too, which has a verrry similar Class D power section as the Subway, and that's very good, too. Much more versatile for the function band stuff. And smaller and lighter. I have to say I'd try a Handbox if they sold them anywhere I could, because they sound very interesting, but they'd have to be very, very good to prise the Walkabout from me these days... EDIT: Oh, and on the 2 ohm thing, I ran the Walkabout with three 8 ohm Berg 112s quite a lot (possibly the best sound I've ever had), and it never even warmed up...

Yup, all my basses have one. It's as low as I need to go. Despite what the guitard might think...

Yep, a similar list to many of the above - the 'definitely nevers' are: Heavy cabs (over 40lb) or amps (over 15lbs) or basses (over 8.5lbs). Anything Rickenbacker or anything Jazz-shaped (and I'm conscious the latter rules out 40% of boutique basses) Anything with a rosewood board (there's another 40% of basses ruled out) 5 strings and up (tho I'm definitely not ruling out 8 or 12s - they're not in the current wants, but they're in the 'never say never' list) Anything wider than a 1.5" nut... It occurs to me that this thread could turn into a very active swapshop...

I've always played it in standard, it's an easy enough riff...no complaints from anyone. I had a monster BEAD bass for a while, but I never really used it much, so I moved it on. Oh, and I don't like 5s...as for the guitarist telling me stuff I should do, I generally smile, nod, and just get on with it. They usually find something else to worry about quite quickly...

Posh hotel, very good money, first set 9:30 - 10:15, second set 10:45 -11:30. Packed up and home by 12:05am. Bingo.

AFAICR (my paperwork is dreadful), it'll be 55 this year with two bands, although the bulk of those is with the trio. To answer the latest question above, the trio function work is mostly from the website/recommendations, with a spattering of agency stuff when it's slowed down a bit. The other band stuff is good old-fashioned phoning landlords...

Good luck getting that sentence over to a good proportion of our punters: "You play an elephant with what?"

The function band I'm in has a very very eclectic mix of songs on the setlist (Daft Punk, Johnny Cash, Bon Jovi, The Smiths, RHCP, The Police, Modjo, Stevie Wonder, Nirvana, Erasure, anyone? ) , so we encourage potential customers to visit the website and browse the setlist to see what they'd like us to play. We also have a variation on the setlist depending on whether we go out as a trio (most common these days) or a four piece, which can bring in keyboards. We get a lot of bookings from recommendations and people who've seen us, we get people who are interested coming down to see us when we do pubs, and we get 'blind' bookings straight from the website, so we don't really agonise about it, to be honest. I think an online presence of some sort that you can direct people to is essential these days. You don't exist if you aren't online to some extent. Songs choices are based on what we like, what punters want to hear, and what works for whatever venue/occasion we're playing. Not necessarily in that order, and not all three are mutually inclusive Oh, and if anyone asks? "Allsorts...wait and see." With a smile. HTH

Try one of the newer Class D amps (Magellan, Mesa Subway, etc) - they're an evolutionary step up in terms of performance. I've had LMs and Streamliners and all sorts, and there's a difference.

I might only be a stripling at 53, but I'll be doing my 10th and 11th gigs of the month this weekend. Just to reiterate what's been said earlier, as far as live work's concerned if you're enjoying it and can get the gigs, there's no reason to stop. I have obsessed about lightweight gear, though, and now I have a full gigging rig for any size of venue that weighs less than 50lbs, and a couple of basses around the 7.5lb mark for when I'm feeling tired, and just can't face either of the other two, which are about 8.5lbs. Even better is the IEM/DI route: that's fantastic at the end of the night...

As a band, the middle bit of Black Betty...if it isn't absolutely bang on and clean, it's a car crash; there's no middle ground. On my own, anything discotastic with with 2-1 octaves*...I play too much with a pick for that to be easy with fingers, and with a pick it's even worse... Oh, and the fill in You Can Call Me Al...I beat myself up about that for ages until I went onto YouTube and watched everyone else (including Paul Simon's band live) make a balls of it, too... * You know, the whole 'dee-dee-dum' thing...

£350 a man, same place we played last year (a hotel/function place) - they re-booked us on the night last time. We finish at 11:30 (at the DJ's request) last year I was home before twelve.

I've never ever been as deluded as to consider myself any sort of genius, but there's an immense satisfaction for me in doing the very very best job I can in whatever situation I'm in: I'm lucky to play regularly with some very good musicians, and whether I'm skipping to keep up with them, or being able to improve the representation of a song, be it a 'cheesy' old (or new) cover or an original song, I always enjoy myself, and I'm a better player after every gig...actually after every time I pick a bass up. That seems to me to be the whole point from a personal point of view.

A 79 4001 and a mid-70s (I cared so little about gear then I never found out what year it was) Precision, both of which went in the mid-80s for less than £200. I woudn't want them to play (certainly not the Ric), but just for the investment value lost... I still hanker after a Roland D-bass rig, too: I liked my 115 and 115x, although strictly speaking they were stolen, rather than sold... Other than that, I've been fine with pretty much all of the vast amount of stuff I've had and sold on in the last few years...maybe the Overwater Perception I bought, sold, bought and sold again...oh no, hang on: I sold a green Shuker Horn I'd love back, but the last time I saw it on sale it had acquired about £600 onto its price tag, so maybe not...

Putting the whole fan-fret thing aside, the Dingbird is much more of an update on the Tbird design: it looks modern while still echoing the older design. FWIW, I agree that combining the exact copying of some aspects of the vintage Tbird (the chrome covers, the colour, the headstock, the two piece bridge) while changing the shape pretty radically seems pointless. It's relic'd, too...rusty Hipshot Ultralites? Now that's REALLY pointless...

Jazzes - they sound OK, I like slim necks, but they never inspire me: I've never liked the looks, they just bring out the Meh in me. I've owned a few, from modern US ones to 'vintage' 70s... Stingrays - I keep buying them because I love them every time someone else plays them, then I get another, and...it just doesn't work for me. I've owned several, in fact I have one now I don't use. I must get round to selling it... Rickenbacker 4001/4003 - Just No. On every level but the visual.

Yup, another +1 for the Magellan here. I'm as fickle as Picky McFickleface with amps, but I've had mine for a good while, and I have no GAS* on the amp front.... * Pfffft...I've said it now...

I've been to three, and loved all of them. He's a great entertainer, and he does different 'shows', dependent of host request. One I went to he looked around and said "I know a lot of your faces; has anyone not been to one of these?" Very few hadn't, so he said "Shall we have a singsong, then?", and he played all sorts of stuff. Brilliant evening...I must go to another.