Franticsmurf

Last night's rehearsal became a gig at short notice when we played in the local RNLI lifeboat station as our usual hall was the venue for an art exhibition. The Station Manager and one of the helms are in the band so it was all above board. Despite the rain earlier in the day, we played to people coming off the beach and a family who were staying in a holiday cottage a few yards away. Surprisingly for the boat house, the acoustics were good and we had a lot of fun. I played my Hohner 'The Jack' through a Zoom B1Four DI'd into the desk. EDIT: YouTube link to a short video from this 'gig'. This is one of the helmsmen, our band leader.

Probably, but we'd have to sacrifice one of the band to the waves. 🤣

I think this is the fiver - the low B is on the reverse side.

Looks like a neck through. If it was headless I'd be interested 🤣

Turns out my next rehearsal with the Hulla band will be a kind of gig, too. We usually rehearse in a village hall (half the band are on the committee and a portion of our annual profit goes to help run the hall). But this Sunday there's an art exhibition there. So we've been offered the use of the local lifeboat station (!) The BL is one of the helmsmen and the Saxophonist is the station manager and, as a band that plays solely to raise money for charity, about a third of our annual take goes to the RNLI. The station is about 200 yards from the hall and they have promised to remove the boat to make room and, of course, in case there's a shout. As the station is close to the beach, we'll pick up an audience and I expect we'll have the RNLI collecting buckets out. Band on the Beach!😀

I met Mark King outside a venue near Hereford in (I think) 92. I was there with two friends from work to see Level 42 and we were parking just as the tour bus arrived. The two young ladies I was with were shy but I went up to him and asked for his autograph 'for the two shy girls'. As the rest of the band made their way inside, he stayed and chatted to my two friends and I in a way that put them at ease. Great bloke. Ok bassist too! 😀

And that's why I want to try one for myself. I've heard both sides of the argument but unless I try one myself I'll never know what it's like for me.

It is good, isn't it. I started learning the original version for a funk/rock band a few years ago and liked it but I think I prefer this version. Great fun to play as well. I just need to persuade the BL to keep it in the set after the wedding. I had to Google the guitarist but yes, unexpected but a nice solo.

There are many styles of bass I haven't had the opportunity to try and I'd give any of them a go simply because I think the more experience of different thing I can get, the better I will be at knowing what I really want/need/desire. But there are only a few that I feel I've missed out on. I'd like to have an extended trial of a Rickenbacker 4001 as I started off listening to Chris Squire and loved the sound he was getting. I subsequently discovered there was more to it than just the bass, but I've always wondered what they're like to play. I've never played a semi acoustic or hollow body bass and it was something I was contemplating for a recent rock n roll project that never really took off. I own and have played live a Sterling 5 string but the string spacing and neck width were too big for my little hands to feel comfortable playing it so it's currently being sold. I understand there are 5 strings with narrower string spacings so something of that ilk would be interesting to try out. I'd like to see what difference the graphite makes on a Status headless. And that's it. 😃

Our BL is a big Bruce fan, so a lot of our stuff leans towards his style.

I've just started working on the Bruce Springsteen/E Street band version for the Hulla band as a request for an up coming wedding gig. Our version is loose enough that I have free reign over the bassline I play so I'm currently swapping between the guitar riff and original bass part. As part of the same request list, we're also working on Texas Hold 'Em, 21 Summers, There's Your Trouble, Thinking of You and Rainy Night in Soho.

The Hulla band are rehearsing for a wedding, including 6 request songs, which we're happy to do. It exposes us to stuff we may not have considered and the current 'standard' set includes several toons that started off as requests. We're a large band with an unusual mix of instruments (drum, bass, guitar x2, sax, trumpet, ukes x4, banjo, keys and bongos with several of the above singing) so arranging for new songs is fun. As a massive Springsteen fan, the BL starts off from a point of 'what would Bruce/the E Street Band do?' and then we end up with a Bruce/original version/Hulla band mash-up chart at the first rehearsal. Sounds chaotic? Yes, it often is at the start. Doesn't always work (Imagine an E Street Band version of 'Dancing Queen' further interpreted by ukes with limited ability to play anything other than strict 4/4 on the beat, bass and drums trying to inject some movement and feel and the rest following as best they can - we don't do that one anymore 😃) But largely it works and by the time the gig comes around we're pretty tight. The best part is that there are no egos, lots of laughing and I always look forward to the next rehearsal. Not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but it works with my philosophy that being in a band is about enjoying the whole experience - live and rehearsal. In some ways you are also rehearsing on stage relationships, which usually leads to a better experience for the audience. And speaking of tea, as we rehearse in the local village hall, there is always tea available. 😃 Our 6 new request songs are Texas Hold 'Em (Beyonce), 21 Summers, Staying Alive (we're working on the Bruce/E Street live version as a starting point), There's Your Trouble, A Rainy Night in Soho and Thinking About You (Chic). If I'm honest, the only ones that I'm enjoying at the moment are Staying Alive and Thinking About You. I suspect that Texas Hold Em, Staying Alive and A Rainy Night will remain in the set.

We use one with the Hulla band for the annual festival. It does the job but it's a pain to manage (lay out flat and stow away) and very heavy. As @BigRedX says above, try and get one with a drum as I think that would be much easier to handle. I believe there are version available now that work with cat5 cables.

Yes. I have no problem with notes/cues/music/charts etc in whatever form, but they should not interfere with the interaction with the audience - so it comes down to how they are used. In bands I've played with where one or more people are reading directly from a sheet (usually the lyrics from a phone but occasionally charts) the performance suffers. I include myself in that where I've had to play a new piece 'on the night' from a chart. It always sounds dry, uninspired, lacklustre compared to playing it once I'm familiar with it. And, of course, constantly looking at the sheets means you're not connecting with the audience.

I love this part of any new band. And great that you spent time not playing and making sure everyone was on the same wavelength. Time away from instruments can be as productive as time learning new songs. Good luck. 😃

In addition to my contribution above, I also find (and have done since school exams) that unless I'm trying to remember a specific thing (fact or note sequence) I can't - in other words often before a gig I couldn't actually tell you the notes of the bass line to, for example 'Take Me To The River' but as soon as I start playing it I'm there and it's fine. My notes will include the start note for songs like that and any other prompts that I need. When I was doing my exams, I'd enter the hall completely blank and I'd have to manage the panic of thinking I couldn't remember a thing, but as soon as I read the first question I was off. I've done gigs with that feeling at the start, too, but now I know to expect it and I have the crib notes to fall back on.

I'm a bit like the OP and also a couple of the other posts above. I find unless I'm playing the song regularly, specific riffs/fills etc disappear from my head. The OP mentions 'Don't Stop Believing' and this is a good example of my struggle - I know and can play the riff but if it were to come up as a request and I hadn't recently played it, I'd have difficulty getting it started. In my case I have an annotated paper* set list for every gig, with not only song and key but notes (a bit like @uk_lefty above), e.g. 'riff starts on A', 'descending middle 8', 'vox only at end' and sometimes the first few words of lyrics if I'm singing. The notes are very personalised so I wouldn't expect anyone else to be able to use them. The set list is normally no more than 1 side of A4 and usually I'll split that into 1xA5 per half so it's not intrusive. More often than not the notes are a prompt rather than something to sight read and I always try not to use them if I can help it. *Paper because I have seen tablets and laptops crash to a halt, crash to the ground and run out of power. I have also seen people contorting themselves to try and see despite the reflections from lights/sun on the screen. That said, I depped with a mate's band at a festival and had three sheets of notes (Eagles covers, only a few days to prepare) when, during the first song, a gust of wind distributed the notes to the audience. I I fell back on the 'watch the guitarist's fingering' technique and made it through. Paper notes and now gaffa'd into place.

I have been using my Zoom B6 for the first half of the year as the nature of the Hulla band gigs has meant I've needed a few rapid changes. (From the dirty Squire-esque sound I've been using on 'Town Called Malice' and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' to a psychadelic flange/phase on our version of 'Sweet Child of Mine' (which follows the Sheryl Crow style rather the the G'n'R original) and clean P Bass sounds for the Motown numbers. But the gigs lined up for the second half of the year are shorter and the set lists less varied. Coupled with smaller venues (we're usually a 13 piece) I've decided to down size to a small board which I'm currently using in rehearsals. The goal is to end up with just the MS60b although I do like the sound of the Ampeg. Our sound guy has a shelving filter on my channel which negates the need for the Broughton H24. The DI is there so I am self contained (for most Hulla gigs I DI and use IEM but one gig coming up is a multi band line up and we're not in charge of the sound, so I may be using back-line and/or DI-ing). The MS60b gives me a clean channel, tuning/mute, a filter and chorus.

Rig 1 is a Peavey Minimax 600 into two TE 1x12 cabs. 2nd 'rig' is a Zoom B6 into the FOH desk (I count this as a rig as it's the set up I always use for the Hulla band). Back-up amp is a TCE BAM200 but this would usually go through the TE cabs.

When I played on the club circuit, it was strictly 2x45, with the ents sec standing in the wings calling 'last song' in the first half. At the end of the second half, we might be allowed 'one more song' but only after the sec had come on stage to allow it! Once or twice we were asked to play longer but as it was a contracted gig, they would offer more money, too. For pubs we usually ask the landlord/lady and more often than not it's around 45-50 for the first set and 50-60 for the second, with encores if requested (and with the nod of the boss). We have about 2.5hrs of material on hand, just in case, and can busk through a bit more if necessary, but it's very much b=venue driven. With the Hulla band, it's usually 2hrs or thereabouts although our self organised festival tends to go on a bit as the singer is a Springsteen fan and tends to get a bit carried away. 🙂

Before I saw the light and became a bassist, I played guitar and my dream was to own a Les Paul. Eventually, I found I could justify it as I'd started playing in a busy duo (which is where I started playing bass, too). I also had an opportunity to get an American Strat at trade price so I was using both at gigs. As much as I loved the Les Paul, the Strat was more versatile for the duo and eventually the Les Paul went to fund yet another bass. Recently I depped on rhythm guitar in my mate's band and he lent me a cheap Squier Tele as a back up guitar and I loved it. So my answer would currently be a Telecaster. But in the same way as my bass-of-choice changes, so would my go-to guitar.

Yes, I have to play through songs quite regularly (monthly, or thereabouts) to be ready to play with any confidence, although I have found that once the song starts and I've played the first few notes, the rest tends to fall into place with little problem. I guess it's largely a psychological thing for me.

I don't think you're unreasonable to expect being paid your share of the cost of the gear as the band (and new bassist) will be benefiting. Personally, and as long as it doesn't compromise the buy out, I wouldn't be worried whether or not I was playing the gig. You've done the decent thing and offered to cover it, if they choose not to use your services, that's ok. But I would certainly want clarity on when the buy-out was going to happen. How they organise that within the new line up is up to them but I would be thinking that the money should come to you within a couple of gigs.

I have two basses for sale in my mate's shop and usually that would be the justification (ok, excuse) for looking around for something new/different. But so far nothing is calling. At best, I see something, think 'that would be nice to have and play' and then move on.

The last song I played was an extended, audience requested version of Proud Mary as an encore with the Hulla Band at our Hullabaloo festival in Gower. I was playing my Fender P bass through a Zoom B6 straight into the desk with in ear monitors.