Delberthot

I was disagreeing with you saying that DJs are more effective than wedding bands as opposed to what your band does - it depends on the band Maybe there aren't any good DJs in my neck of the woods then We also do corporate stuff / dinner dances / wedding anniversaries and not a music stand in sight thank you very much

I had the 4x10" & 1x15" NX Neo cabs and they were amongst the best I've ever used

I would have to completely disagree with you on your first point. A good wedding/function band will try something that isn't in the set that they have been asked to play, within reason of course. I've heard a lot of DJs and rarely can understand a muffled word that they've said. They can have a huge variety of music available but nothing beats live music. A few years ago hotels were offering complete packages including DJs but those have died a death as people wanted live music and this year will probably be our busiest yet. You can't approach a wedding/function/private party the same as a bar gig. I've done lots of both over the years - in bars they are there to hear you, at weddings/functions you are providing a combination of background music, music to dance to and if you're good you will develop a rapport with the audience during the night. Each gig has a different mix of ages and you have to be ready to change accordingly. If you play weddings etc looking for people to tell you how good you are as a player then you will be thoroughly disappointed. If you are good you will occasionally have people telling you that the band are good and in incredibly rare events you might even get someone telling you that you thought that your playing was good but those are few and far between. I sometimes miss the compliments and experience that playing bars provides but I couldn't contemplate give up what I am doing. I'm having too much fun.

I also use a laptop bag - it dates back to when I had a Genz Benz Shuttle and it used to live in a laptop bag with a divider and my cables in the other half.

I've gigged 8 and 12 string basses and the 12vers are much, much bigger sounding than only an extra 4 strings would suggest. However, despite this, I'd still rather have a 4 and some pedals to emulate a rough approximation of a 12 string any day of the week

Not Labellas but the last time I bought Chromes it was cheaper to pick single strings of the gauges of my preference than it was to buy a pack from Strings Direct

My Trace MkV AH150 and 1248H cab were epic - and so was the weight. Must have cost about £250ish. Allegedly 90w was all that the Trace was putting out into that 4x12" but it was bloody loud

I've always gone for the heaviest B available so 135 on my SUB using my usual gauge D'addarios. Years ago I used the Nathan East Elites strings which had a 137 for the B If you like what you have then stick with it, if you have a lighter touch then you'll get away with a lighter B The 105 E sting has a tension of 38lbs and the 135 B is 35lbs compared to 48.35 for the D. Once I've used my supply of strings then I'd consider buying a 4 string set plus a single 145 for the B which has a tension of 41.5lbs

I got a crazy deal on D'addario strings on Bax but a lot of the time you need to be there at the right time as I've found that their deals can change quickly. I bought 4 twin packs of D'addario EXL165s for £26 a pack (£13 a set). At the moment Strings Direct are £40 for the twin packs

Always love to watch Buddy play but this video is the same as ones that appear on Youtube with Billy Sheehan or Stu Hamm. They don't play like this all the time, these clips are there to show that they can play like this should they want to It was when watching this video the first time that I came across this Since then Steve Gadd has become one of my favourite drummers

Waterstone are still doing them as far as I know. Tom Peterssons previous bass before the Gretsch was the TP-12. I had one very similar to this with the Tennessee name on it (who were famous for 8-15 sting basses on Ebay - yes that 15 string ) http://www.waterstoneguitars.com/bass-tp12.html

One thing about playing one is that you either have to keep it fairly simple of have a really good technique otherwise it ends up sounding like someone pushing a piano down some stairs

If this was the kind of thing I did a lot of I would have a preamp pedal with my sound in it that I could take a DI directly from. In my case it would be a GK Plex

Jeff Ament - if you want to hear a 12ver on it's own then listen to Jeremy. That's his own version of the B12A. The "A" stood for acoustic and the regular version looked like this: Unless you play it really low with a plectrum I always thought it looked like a big cumbersome bass to play. In the early 2000's there were loads of cheaper 12vers floating around - most made in the same factory that makes the Dean Rhapsody. I bought one from the USA when the exchange rate was 2:1 and used it for entire rock gigs and I don't use a plectrum.

I saw them 3 or 4 years ago and they were one of the best bands I've seen live

Tom Petersson's original basses were made by Hamer. The idea being that Cheap trick wanted the biggest sound they could get. The singer Robin Zander occasionally plays a 12 string guitar. He still uses one to this day and his most recent one is a beauty - a Gretsch White Falcon the price tag is eye watering but I think in terms of looks it might even beat the Chandler Royale

Practice as much as you can with it. Try playing songs in different positions to get a feel for where everything is.

I too own my dream bass. Everything on my Sterling just feels right. I try other basses from time to time but none of them have the same feel. The balance, sound, string tension, weight and feel of the bass is just incredible. It was originally intended as a compromise from a Stingray 5 with the ceramic pickup as I had been having shoulder troubles so wanted something a bit lighter but sounding similar. It doesn't sound exactly the same but I prefer the sound of this. I haven't touched the controls in about 18 months and it stays permanently in series mode. Strings seem to last a long time as well - I always use D'addarios and in December 2016 got a great deal on 4 twin packs that were intended to do me for all of 2017. I'm about to put the third set on I use it for all rehearsals and gigs and only need to change the battery every year at the beginning of April which is the anniversary of buying it in 2016. There's still life in the battery but I don't want to have to keep checking it every gig to make sure it will last to the end of the night I really must take some proper pictures of it but here's a blurry one from hogmanay

There's loads of bands that I like but invariably there are tracks on many albums that I skip past when listening to them. There is one exception to this and that is Queen. I've been listening to them since Live Aid and I've realised that I can listen to all of their albums all the way through except a couple of tracks on The Game. Including all of the live albums. Excluding compilations that's 24 out of 25 albums I forget where I'm going with this, oh aye, that's a lot of albums - can anyone beat that? (Yes I'm bored out of my gourd)

I don't hold the kind of parties that serve little cubes of cheese and pickled onions so I've never owned a cocktail stick but I always have superglue. To avoid getting it on the bass I coat the threads of the screws and I've never had one come out but they are still easy to remove if you ever sell the bass on.

I developed a staccato technique over the years to compensate for big wooly sounding cabs so that I could hear myself properly and make it sound more punchy. I don't use a plectrum and I've never tried palm muting. I've just realised that there's a song I play where I drop the E to D for the bridge. I then play the open D for a full bar then flip the lever back up to play the E for a further full bar so 2 bars in total.

You need some amount of sustain available, you don't just want a note to stop dead as soon as you've played it. Unless there's something I'm missing and sustain is something completely different? e.g. you play the note and it rings out for as long as you need it to? If so then I'd rather have the option to use it than not have it available but unless you stick mutes or bits of sponge under the strings then I can't imagine any bass not having enough unless it was a turkey

"It's Better To Regret Something You Did Than Something You Didn't do" Deep Kick by the Chilis from One Hot Minute I've done a lot of stupid stinky poo in my time but I don't regret anything. It's all part of learning and maturing

Here are my current two

Why stop at just the hardware when you can have gold frets, sparkly gold body and gold strings