Franticsmurf

The Insiderz are playing a rock n roll night at Tumble Hall tomorrow night. The reception we get will depend largely on the result of the Wales v England rugby match earlier that evening as the area is very, very rugby orientated. 😃

Rehearsal with the Hulla band last night was the usual mix of chaos and good fun. Three new songs (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Love Story and 17 Going Under), one we had a go at last week (Town Like Malice) and a few oldies from the set list vaults (Let's Stick Together, Heroes, Getting Away With It, Sweet Child of Mine) just to keep us on our toes. I'm finally getting a decent mix from my In Ears through the P16 monitor mixer and it's making a big difference, mainly to my backing vocals. Not only can I hear myself, but I have a good mix of the other BVs to help me pitch.

January is a slow month for the Hulla band - it tends to play weddings, anniversaries and other private functions locally and they tend not to happen in the cold, dark months. That said, we're playing the village 'Full Moon Party' in Feb. As the band is based in what is effectively a village of retired folks, gigs are all word of mouth/friend of a friend stuff and are usually well paid. By mutual agreement the band plays for a nominated charity every year so we collect the fees which go mainly to the charity with a small percentage being used for band gear and expenses. Last year we collected enough for the local school to buy a much needed minibus. I want to gig more frequently than they do (last year they played 8 gigs), so I'm also available for other things; I'm on the dep list for two bands and I'm currently dipping my toes in the rhythm guitar role in a mates band. The latter has five gigs lined up between now and July with more on the cards. Those gigs are usually obtained by the singer and bassist who between them have a lot of contacts in the area. While I wouldn't say I was in it for the money, I believe strongly that bands should be paid what they are worth and have rejected playing gigs where the reward is 'exposure' or 'beer tokens' as this undervalues me and makes things harder for the next band. The money from gigs goes towards kit and expenses. I definitely couldn't live off it.

I bought my first bass from one of the shops in Denmark St (I forget which one). It was a 2nd hand short scale Telecaster style Jedson. It was truly awful but as a guitarist at the time, I knew no better. I remember as I was handing over the cash, there was an almighty fuss in the shop and people went charging out of the door - it turned out some bloke had come in to pay for gear with a dodgy credit card and had legged it pursued by a couple of staff. It ended its days coupled to an old Kay Les Paul copy as a twin necked guitar - my dad did the carpentry, which was good, and I did the electronics, which were rubbish. The first bass I played was a Colombus Jazz copy and I remember it had matt black strings. It was actually a nice bass to play (I used it mainly for recordings) and it had a great thumping sound on the demos. I played it live a few times in a band where I shared bass duties with the singer. Although I don't recall with any certainty, I believe it went in part ex for my first 'proper' bass - a Hohner Jack headless - which I played as a full time bassist in several bands. That got sold during a break from playing in the early 2000s. I recently acquired a much nicer looking version of The Jack from this very parish.

Music really can be therapy. I hope your dad is on the mend. I went through a couple of low points last year (nothing in your league, but low enough) and band mates offering help and support and returning to rehearsals really lifted me. 😃

In. Just. A new rhythm guitar spot in a mate's band is sorely testing tier 2 status but so far, so good. 😃

Back rehearsing with the Hulla band last night after a short swerve into 6 string territory. Nice to be back without those two confusing extra strings. 😀 Several newish tunes and it literally and metaphorically took us about an hour to warm up - the hall usually heats up much quicker but we'd been fooled by the mild weather and forgot to put the heating on. As for the music, I think we were all just a bit jaded after a long week. But once it got going, it was good. We jammed (ha ha) 'A Town Called Malice', which went well enough to make it into the proposed set list for our next gig in Feb. I was using a different rig for in ear monitoring last night. The band has a Behringer X32 fro FOH and I've got a P16m - a small personal mixer that links to the X32 via Ultranet (a cat5 cable) and gives me channels 1-16 pre-fader from the desk. It means I can mix my own monitor feed - something I have found the need for recently as I take cues from different elements of the band for different songs and the singer's guitar is not always helpful in the mix. I'm also hoping to record a stereo version of the mix in the future. It's taken a little while to get our heads around the P16m, but the sound guy is good and we've finally nailed it. This is our singer, our guitarist and me all crowded around the tab for 'Town Called Malice'. It is currently the subject of a caption competition within the band. 😃

That's the kind of thing I can do quite easily. So far only during rehearsals, thankfully.

Last night I played rhythm guitar for the first time in many, many years. It was an unremarkable gig in a venue I've played many times before as a bassist. The band area (a small alcove) is too small for four, not helped by the giant TE rig our bass player used (although the sound was gorgeous). I got to stand next to the drummer behind the kit, unable to take more than one small step in any direction. The volume in that small area is huge but in ears helped, even if the dodgy PA only gave me vocals in one ear). We went down well, we performed well enough for it not to make me feel guilty (that I'd 'got away with it'). Highlight for me was the rendition of Wish You Were Here I took lead guitar and lead vocals on. Parking off street at the venue, decent crowd, home by midnight. Overall a success.

1st gig on guitar for a good few years tonight and the first of three or four lined up over the next couple of months. The poster was done before they confirmed me as playing, so I was thrown in very much as a last minute addition - 'Dave' (squeezed up photo bottom right in lumberjack outfit playing acoustic bass at a Christmas charity gig). I took the other photos of the band when I went to see them last year.

I put this together for last year's support slot at the Hullabaloo festival. The idea was to play it loud through the PA to attract the attention of the crowd (who would still be perusing the beer tent when we went on). There's a deliberate silence at the end to allow the sound guy to stop the track. We opened with Miserlou as soon as the talking stopped. The phart/rip sound early on is because the band was called 'The Rip'. RIP Intro Stutter Rip.mp3

I was going to say the same thing. Music and photography are my escapes and had I spent that much time on them, they would have become the things I was looking to escape from.

I'm in a band where the drummer is 75. He's very good and very busy (he plays with two other Jazz/Big Bands and regularly deps for local jazz, Strict Tempo etc bands). What I've noticed is that while he's not reluctant to try new songs, his confidence is starting to go a bit. When he does make a mistake (its very rare that any one notices him making an error) he tends to focus on that rather than the other 2-3hrs of great playing. When he talks about a Jazz band gigm, the first thing that tends to come out is 'this mistake, that mistake, missed a beat' etc. Reading between the lines, it seems he's beginning to think about his age and rather than celebrate the fact he can still do it, blame the years and start to think he's past it. I had a chat with him before Christmas and talked about letting the missed beats go - because its likely that no one but him will notice 99% of the time. One of the factors I think doesn't help is that in the Jazz and Dance bands, the B/L tends not to hand out positive criticism. There's also an old school mentality amongst the players who, from what he tells me, are unwilling to praise their fellow musicians but quick to nit pick. So I've started to mention the good bits when he's playing with me or when I hear recordings of the other bands he's in. Genuine praise (flattery would be worse as he'd see through it straight away). Maybe it's a confidence issue with your keyboard player associated with his perception of what is expected of a 68 year old, his health or both. I don't know the characters involved so I can't say what would work (and you may already be doing this) but perhaps a subtle and genuine praise for some of his playing, 'lets try a different arrangement' to simplify the things he's struggling with - even get him to suggest the new arrangement. If it is a confidence thing, the aim is to boost it without going over the top. This may be a temporary situation and it would be a shame for the band to stagnate. With my drummer, we've got to the stage now where we joke about any mistakes, referring to them as our free form jazz moments. 😀 More importantly, I haven't heard any of his age related comments so I think he might be getting over that one.

I've posted on a different thread about the B6 - we have a permanent sound guy and he is full of praise for the sound of the B6 going directing into the desk.

I haven't used mine at a gig yet but I have used it twice at rehearsals and every day at home. So far no glitches or software issues. It's the usual wall wart power supply with a recessed socket on the unit itself, (which is more secure than any pedal I've used). Two switchable inputs with adjustable impedance (but not, as far as I can see, adjustable volumes). 4x DI modelling options plus 'straight' with separately adjustable volumes for jack and DI out. I'm happy with the filter patches but haven't really explored the synth sounds other than to note that they play with no glitches. (Commenting on quality of sounds is subjective - they work for me and sound better than my B1-4 or MS60B). As has also been mentioned by @stewblack above, the tuner is the best one for live use I've come across - visible and responsive. If you do a search, the B6 manual is available to give you more technical details. I would have no hesitation in using this unit live and it is replacing a board of pedals for ease of use and compact size/weight.

I'm not tech minded and while the B6 looked daunting at first, once I'd started playing around with it I found it was quite straight forward to use. There is a lot of functionality in the unit, so there are a lot of options in the menus but I found I wasn't using most of them to start with hence my comment about finding it easy to set up. If you want to set it up for one patch per song, you can do that and select them sequentially using the Bank/Patch function, cycling through each patch in order using footswitch 4. In that mode, banks are only relevant for keeping a record of where each patch is for editing purposes. As you can see from my previous posts I use it differently so for me a bank is where I store a band's worth of patches and I switch effects on and off within those patches.

Last night's rehearsal was dominated by Storm Isha. The Hulla band is based in a little coastal village about 30 minutes drive from where I live and the drive through the lanes was an obstacle course of fallen branches and around one corner, a hedge in the middle of the road. Then we spent some time clearing out our gear from the storage room in the community hall to swap for another room. In the process I managed to acquire a Line 6 Spider 2 practice amp, which was going free and we discovered a powered bass bin and a powered PA speaker that no one knew was there! And all the while the wind and rain were battering against the windows. The actual rehearsal was another relaxed session clearing the cobwebs from our collective minds as we went through about 15 songs, interspersed with cups of tea and (for the village locals who weren't driving) wine. I like the relaxed atmosphere of most of the rehearsals (as we near a gig, it tends to get a bit more focused, which is how it should be). The drive home was less windy, but there was a lot more debris on the roads and the added challenge of flooding. The area has only one main road and that can be flooded to a point where it becomes blocked, so we were lucky to avoid that.

I was looking for 9v extension cables and there are loads available associated with CCTV/security cameras. This is a link to a coupler on Amazon. I can't comment on the actual item but I think this is what you're looking for. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08M6B8XMN/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B08M6B8XMN&pd_rd_w=P0PMT&content-id=amzn1.sym.84ea1bf1-65a8-4363-b8f5-f0df58cbb686&pf_rd_p=84ea1bf1-65a8-4363-b8f5-f0df58cbb686&pf_rd_r=AF4KKK501ZD2RSB3GHFK&pd_rd_wg=MrE1w&pd_rd_r=b4cd91a3-4453-42ba-bc66-80e7af1d5384&s=diy&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

Brilliant story.

Sometimes. I try to play for at least 30 minutes per day but I struggle to play bass or guitar for its own sake. I usually play because I'm learning a new song, practising for a rehearsal of gig or writing new songs. I was recently offered a rhythm guitar slot with a mate's band which has resulted in me practising the guitar and re-learning some technique as well as learning the chords to songs I've been playing for years on bass (so many notes 😂). If I'm away from my gear, it's rare that I'm thinking about playing or gigs unless they are imminent. But I do enjoy that moment after a break in playing when I pick up the bass and start again.

Unless the postage is £1500 (or whatever the gear is worth). 🤣

I was prepared to watch YouTube tutorials and plug in to my PC to edit, but by the time I'd finished the initial 'new toy' tinkering to see what it could do, I'd created a bank of four patches that, with minimal tweaking, were the patches I used on Sunday. As mentioned above, I treat each patch as a mini board, a bit like the Plethora, with individual pedals I can switch on or off as required. That worked well on Sunday too.

I've never done a tuner shoot-out (😀) but I have to agree that for clarity and speed, it is the best I've used.

Two weeks in and I haven't even been tempted by anything, despite a healthy daily visit to this site and it's wicked marketplace, and a bookmark to Thomann prominent on the toolbar. 😀 This year's strategy is to bag up and store out of sight a coupe of basses with the intention of 'unboxing' later in the year and swapping over. I have found that part of the lure of gear acquisition for me is the idea of having something new (or new to me) and I have found that I can go some way to satisfying that by this method. I'll do the same with some effects pedals as I've just started using my Zoom B6.

I unleashed mine on the unsuspecting band for the first time at last night's rehearsal. A universal thumbs up, with some nice compliments from the guy who does our sound. He was a fan of my old pedal set up (Digbeth pre-amp, EHX Bass Clone chorus, Zoom MS60B for various spot effects (swapped out for a Plethora X3 for some gigs) and TC Hyper Gravity compressor). From my perspective it was nice to hear it through the PA (I DI for this band) and it sounded pretty much as I had hoped it would, having only really used headphones and amp/cab at low volumes.