Muzz

We don't rehearse much in the function band (at all over the last few years), but that's just what works for us - we all know each other and every song inside out before we play it for the first time. Since we dropped down to a trio, though, there's been some reworking of the set and new songs, so we've actually had a couple of rehearsals recently. The bottom line, though, is does the band sound good? [quote name='project_c' timestamp='1496232035' post='3309720'] So do I stay with this band? It can be fun, and we all get on, but if the band sounds crap in front of an audience (which it often does) I want nothing to do with it. [/quote] It clearly doesn't, so something needs to change, whether it's the rehearsal schedule or the band, I dunno...

How did you guess?

Played a song not long ago that the singer/guitard uses a capo for. We started, and it was terribly apparent from the word go that one of us was half a step out. He kept shouting "In D!", which is correct, and what i was playing. Unfortunately, his acoustic doesn't have front dots, and with the lights I couldn't see properly, so it took me a verse to work out it definitely wasn't my tuning, and he'd put his capo in the wrong position...D flat it is then...

Dunno about the Eich, but my 300w Walkabout through a Super Twin will happily keep up with two JCM100/412 half-stacked guitards and a monster drummer in a full-on Rawk band without the Master going past ten o'clock... One thing I do notice, tho you'll probably never crank it that hard, is the Eichs are 600w RMS handling, and you're looking at an 800w Subway...as I say, you'll probably never drive them hard enough for that to be an issue...

Played a wedding in the New Forest Friday night, the Best Man wanted to get up with us (he was a harmonica player who 'just happened'to have his harp with him) for a couple of numbers...we agreed, and one of the numbers he called was MS. He turned out to be a very very good singer and player...a great version resulted. All good Oh, and I did four gigs over the weekend, and played SHA...four times...and enjoyed every single one...

A couple, for different reasons: one's an Irish pub in Manchester City centre - it's a long narrow building, the space at the back is just where they've moved the tables and benches to either side to give a very small amount of space. The kicker is the bogs are at the back, just behind you, so you have to leave a walkspace right up the middle through the band (drummer to one side). We did it one Paddy's Day as a trio, and it was...colourful: we went on about five, and most of the punters had been in since eleven, there was a bloke selling packets of meat out of a Tesco bag, and despite having a fairly long Irish set, we were constantly moaned at for not knowing 'My Grandmother's Pig From Tralee' or some other obscure request. One bloke went for a slash seven times in the first set...I started counting after his third visit. As he stumbled through us for the seventh time, our singer told everyone we'd be donating some of the fee to the Prostate Awareness charities...not a titter... The other is a wedding 'venue' up on the tops North of Manchester - it's basically a converted barn: straw in the floor, you can see outside through the gaps in the walls - and their db meter is on the stage, set to Gnat's Fart. Our drummer, a girl on this occasion, not a big hitter, hit her snare once, just as she'd set up, and off it went. OK, brushes, then...woop, the kick set it off, too. This is without any of us plugged in. It was freezing bloody cold (they had two of those jet heaters on the floor) and overall a miserable experience. Oh, and the Social club we played in Scunthorpe, the gig venue is upstairs, a tortuous route up (and bizarrely down) too many flights of stairs, a crowd like Burton's window. Worst bit is the pub below turns into a club later on, so getting out was a nightmare, picking past the bodies littering the stairs, and through a crowd of complete arseholes outside... I've never actually minded playing dives as such, never really had too much mither. I probably spent too much time in them as a kid... Weddings can be a bit lairy, mostly with drunk bridesmaids under the impression that they're Beyonce, but again, yer actual fisticuffs is rare IME...

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1495701272' post='3305910'] DBeriff, I tried the amp again yesterday but using my Alembic F1-x pre-amp with it. What a difference it sounds great everything I want in the sound is there easily. But it's made me think a better solution for me would be resume my search for a good quality affordable Class D 1U Power amp and use that with the f1-x in a small rack. Thanks again for prodding me in the right way. :-_ [/quote] When I dabbled with the rackmount pre/power thing, I found an effective Class D 1U power amp was a Markbass F1 with the rack ears...just a thought...

I dunno about weight being an arbiter of tone...or 70s, per se. I had a 78, all original down to case and ahtrays, and it not only weighed as much as a boat anchor that's let itself go and put on weight, it was also one of the worst, most lifeless basses I've ever played. It sounded...brown. And not a good brown, like you get from a rich walnut; more a runny, beige brown, like you get from a poorly spaniel...

You could start by saying "We all go straight into the PA, use digital modelling and in-ears, I thought you knew? But I could probably hire you some backline if you want me to...let me know your budget..."

I work shifts and on an On Call rota, and I can make it work with two bands...although you quickly get used to promising co-workers the moon on a stick to get them to swap shifts...I got tied down to a 'twofer' deal the week before last: to get Saturday night free, I had to cover two weeknights...

Last time I went to see Whitesnake, they were dropped about a yard so Dave C could keep up. The bassist's E was flopping about like a washing line... If the singer can cope a full step down, you can put a D-tuner on your bass and you're good, but yeah, the guitarist will struggle.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1495102801' post='3301256'] [url="http://youtu.be/N0Wf4RTMU5M?t=3m20s"]http://youtu.be/N0Wf4RTMU5M?t=3m20s[/url] And in the beginning you see a reference to the "Pi" that must be hi's nickname (try calling him mr.Pilichowski out loud). Also the video sub-title is "Bass Shot 2" and in the description of the video the model of the bass is refered to. The guy is just noodling on the bass, he's just like any guy trying a bass in a music store and gets carried away in a slap fest. He has it set with his own EQ and settings as (fom me) it is a signature model made for him, so it's expected that he demonstrates how it sounds with him. IMO, of course. [/quote] While I'm delighted he's got his own signature bass, he's not got his own signature bass sound there - you're right, he does sound like any one of lots of guys I've heard in shops and at Bass Shows (admittedly with more technique than most, but hey) noodling and slapping with a super-scooped bedroom tone. Still a rubbish demo of a bass: it's all about him. Maybe that's the hope, that lots of people will be impressed enough to buy the bass to sound like him. I wish him the best of luck with that.

[quote name='Japhet' timestamp='1495095446' post='3301157'] Feeling sad and rather old all of a sudden. [/quote] This.

And overall, whilst it's clearly virtuosity of some sort, I defer to the best comment I overheard at a bass show: "Is that as hard to play as it is to listen to?"

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1495028806' post='3300622'] That's the point people are missing. [/quote] What's that clip got to do with the bass? Bright roundwounds, scooped tone...could have been playing that on any one of a zillion basses.

Possibly a step further than you might be thinking, but I found that the nickel covers and rings I got online would accommodate a lot of different soapbar-type pups: I've got Dingwalls under mine...

That's the one!

Gig with the Rawk band in a biker/music pub in Morecambe. Early days gigging with this lineup, but it worked well. We didn't have a zillion songs, but went down well, and have been invited back. The all-too-familiar hollow stage to contend with - the foam under my cab worked well, though the two guitards have JCM100s and 412s, and the bottom end from them was a bit much. Once I'd got them to dial it back in the low end it got better. No bass in the PA, the Super Twin meant the Walkabout could go very, very loud...300w goes a long way into a very efficient cab Oh, and one punter took exception to the Shukerbird's neck "It's not a proper Gibson any more". I pointed out that there isn't a molecule of it that's Gibson anyway, and we discussed precedents a la Entwistle and Wilkeson. Then I showed him the Dingwall, which had been sitting in its case, and he was pretty much speechless...

I recorded our album almost exclusively (two tracks were done on the Stingray I had at the time) on a bitsa P: Black SX body, Mighty Mite maple neck, Schaller 3D bridge, Hipshot Ultralights, Wizard Thumper. A great passive P, as good as any Fender I've owned. I'm all active now, but I've a hankering for another (light) passive P. I've got some bits kicking around, I might just see what I've got tonight...

Actually, on the New Strings bit, I never gig with new strings straight out of the pack, I'll always have played them in at home a little before I gig. As part of the stringing up process, I always pull them hard, archer/Billy Sheehan-style when they're up to tune, and then re-tune; that seems to settle them in.

Done, emailed. Fun.

My basses don't go out of tune under normal circumstances - I let them settle when I arrive and we're setting up PA, etc, then check them before soundcheck. I can't remember the last time I had to re-tune during a gig.

I got fired from a band in the late 80s...to be more accurate, it had kinda broken down - I was naffed off playing venues 150 miles away to three people (yup, that was a belter), they wanted their old bassist back. We had a big row about it in the rehearsal studios, one of those "F*ck you." "Yeah, well, f*ck you, too" sort of Spinal Tap/Bad News affairs, I stormed out...then had to come back in and ask for a lift getting my 810 (an old pre-handles, pre-wheels one) into the car...