Delberthot

I'm not sure I understand what is wrong with playing in a function band? I've been playing in function bands since 1995 and most of the time I've had a rock band running along side as well. When I was younger we would play 4 or 5 times a week which was great and at the time I was still living at home so I didn't have to worry about getting a proper day job. Personally I would love to be playing every Friday and Saturday with maybe one weekend off in 6. In the height of the wedding season we are out 2 nights most weekends but add a Sunday night into that and you have to prepare yourself physically and mentally. I'm always hyper when I get in from a gig and it can be 5am before I can go to bed which over a 2 gig weekend has never been a problem but with the addition of a Sunday and/or a distant gig on one of the nights then you need to make sure that you are well rested and physically fit to cope with working 40+ hours during the week then potentially another 30 hours away from the house at the weekend. It doesn't leave a lot of time to rest and recuperate. We did a 3 night weekend a few weeks back and from leaving work on the Friday to getting back into work on the Monday I had 15 hours sleep and it took a good week or so to recover If I seriously wanted to play 4 nights a week now I would have to go part time which doesn't make sense to me as I am in a good job and it would be crazy to have to lose money that I would be making during the day to make it at night. I love playing and I am in the best band I have ever been in but I'm still 8 years away from paying off my mortgage plus all of the usual outgoings plus I want to retire early so my job takes priority and any money I make with the band is a bonus.

I've said it before but I am in the best band I have ever been in. It's not just that we're all really good at what we do, we all get on fantastically well yet we couldn't be more different individually. Our drummer and singer are 31, the guitarist has just turned 40, I'm 42 and the keyboard player is 50. We all listen to completely different music and if I had to be honest, there isn't a single song on our set list that I would listen to outside the band yet I love playing everything. I've never been closer musically or emotionally to my drummer than I am now. She is one of the most incredible people that I have ever met, we get on great and we play really well together - we all play really well together. I've been really luck to have played with a lot of great musicians over the past nearly 30 years and some completely sh*t ones as well but this is the best period of my life as far as making music with some great friends goes. Life is good.

My amp and cab are my monitor and sit at ear level. I set the controls on the first gig I did with them and never touch them - same with my bass. The only thing I might adjust is the volume depending on the size of stage. In the bad old days when I was carting around a pair of 37-45kg cabs and they sat behind me on the floor I generally spent the entire night fiddling with the controls on the amp and the bass In fact this might be a reason why I don't have GAS for anything. In the past I was never truly happy with my sound so would change everything regularly striving to get a decent sound but now I have that sound I'm sorted.

How about a Musicman Sterling? To be honest I never got on with Stingrays (despite having owned about 10 of them over the years) At the end of 2015 I had myself a stunning Stingray 5 with the ceramic pickup which sounded amazing but it was too heavy for me as at the time I had a shoulder injury so I began looking for something lighter. The obvious choice was a Sterling with the ceramic pickup and the same pickup switching of the SR5. It's also lighter due to the smaller body and has the jazz width neck. I only needed to go lower than E for a handful of songs so got a 4 string and added a Hipshot double stop so I could knock it down to D or B and a set of Ultralites to take a bit more weight off it. Never been happier and haven't had bass GAS since I got it.

[quote name='indiegrungesound' timestamp='1504537432' post='3365532'] +1 to this! They are cumbersome and a little awkward in terms of their dimensions. Mine is more so due to the slightly oversized 3U Flightcase I have it housed in (It overlaps the front and back of my cabs. Though this does allow for the safe storage of the necessary plugs and speaker cables!). And yet it's still only a quarter of the weight of an Ampeg valve head or the like! :-) [/quote] They fit perfectly in a Gator 2u shallow rack

Nillson, Without You and Bon Jovi, Always are both break up songs that were popular in the late 90s as first dances at weddings.

I'm also just back from a 300 mile round trip wedding. This was the second wedding of the weekend with the last one tomorrow night. The gig was good but it was the drive home that was really fun. I recently had a midlife crisis and bought a VW Scirocco R. I can still get my gear and the guitarists, and the guitarist along with clothes, supplies etc inside it. Unbelievably fast. I've never owned anything even close to this before. I always used to say that when I stopped gigging I'd buy myself something silly as I've always had to have big cars to carry 4x10" etc but thanks to class D amps and Barefaced I can enjoy it now while I am still gigging

I've never tried it with a Rick but I would have thought a Gallien Krueger with the boost turned up quite high would sound pretty good.

[quote name='ikay' timestamp='1504257582' post='3363673'] "The Fender Bass – An Illustrated History" - [url="http://101basses.com/the-fender-bass-an-illustrated-history/"]http://101basses.com...trated-history/[/url] This covers from 1951 to 2001. It doesn't have the comprehensive level of detail that you're after but covers the main models and significant changes over those years. This site is also a really useful reference for vintage Fender - [url="http://www.guitarhq.com/fender.html"]http://www.guitarhq.com/fender.html[/url] [/quote] That's a fantastic book. I read it in great detail when I had my '54 Warmoth built to get everything right

I take it that it's too much effort to press the "End Listing" button? I'm sure you can do that from the mobile app as well - maybe just a robin git or fly by night.

Great basses these. I had an SB465 - fantastic quality and really good sound. I remember it being slightly heavier than the normal models, maybe to do with the paduak top?

They're fantastic amps. I've had both 500 & 1000 models. The last one I had was the LH1000 which had a blend control - this is great if you are running two cabs with different power ratings. In my case a 4x10" and a 1x15". It meant I could have more going to the 4x10". Really, really loud amps and sound better with a different valve IMO. I used a JJ ecc803S in mine. You're not meant to be able to overdrive the preamp valve but a powerful enough bass, in my case a Fender Precision special FSR with EMGs and 3 band EQ did the trick

For me it can only be this: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH8nfp5sD_s[/media]

Every weekend for me too. currently playing in the best band I've ever been in with 4 amazing human beings as well as great musicians. We're playing weddings most weekends and last night we played Wannabe by the Spice Girls. A first for us all as we hadn't played or even rehearsed it before but that's part of being in a wedding band, playing what the audience want to hear (within reason) Saturday night I found myself jumping up and down on stage along with the audience when we played Mr Brightside. Life is good

Is there a particular style where I would need one of these? I'm guessing that after nearly 30 years without one I probably don't need one. I play almost exclusively with my fingers and learned early on how to mute the other strings so that they didn't ring out This is a genuine question BTW, I'm not trolling or dissing them, only I can't imagine why I would need them but it's good to learn new things / techniques etc

The bass used might also be a factor - if it's a Musicman then a GK MB500 is what I would recommend. Best sound I have ever had with this combination

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1501778344' post='3347324'] His early stuff was excellent. He used to be fairly normal and modest (for a rapper) but a few years back his mum died suddenly. That's when the weirdness started. I also blame him for developing the autotune/vocoder style which seems to be dominating popular music at the moment. [/quote] I thought that was Cher back in 1998?

20-30 and I'm 42 next week. Very surprising as I think my hearing terrible at times. If someone is talking and facing away from me I have trouble understanding what they are saying

[quote name='lownote12' timestamp='1501661366' post='3346226'] [color=#5A5A5A][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Looking at Norfolk Band Network on FB and I'm depressed by the number of groups who proudly ID themselves as 'cover bands' or 'influenced by...' [/font][/color] [color=#5A5A5A][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Imagine if all the seminal 60s and 70s groups had been cover bands. " We're called The Who and we're going to be doing Chuck Berry numbers..." [/font][/color] [color=#5A5A5A][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Now clearly there is a market for really good tribute bands. It's probably an art in itself. But you get the impression with the cover bands I'm talking about that what they're really saying is "we'd like to play something and the easiest thing is to copy someone else, probably badly.". [/font][/color] [color=#5A5A5A][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]By way of balance I am impressed at the number of young bands who [u]are[/u] inventive, either in versioning or coming up with originals. And covering someone else's work but with skill and creative variation has got to be OK . Last Sunday I saw the awesome Dove and Boweevil do Stormy Monday so differently I didn't recognise it until half way through. [/font][/color] [color=#5A5A5A][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]What bugs me about 'covers bands' is that they're so proud that poor imitation is a valid musical identity. [/font][/color] [color=#5A5A5A][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Am I being a Victor Meldrew here? [/font][/color] [/quote] Yes you are. I've always played in covers bands and enjoyed the vast majority of it. I've never ever wanted to be in an originals band. In fact most of my playing career has been split between a wedding/function band and a rock covers band. The former is also heresy in certain parts apparently but you try playing originals at someone's wedding and see how many bookings you get. The biggest challenge in playing in a covers band is trying to play something different to what last week's band did. no one wants to go to a pub and hear Sex On Fire or All right Now every week. TBH the problem you have with covers bands is your problem but if you don't like covers bands then don't go to listen to them. Music is music and most bands do covers. Motorhead are about to release an album of covers they have done over the years, GnR have done Knocking on Heavens Door since they began playing, The Chilis released an album a few years ago called Under the Covers which unsurprisingly is entirely covers. I doubt there are many bands who haven't released covers. Hell Muse covered Feeling Good FFS. I don't understand the snobbery associated with playing covers. I enjoy it, the rest of the band enjoy it, the audience listening to us enjoy it so what's the problem?

I'm wondering if the neck has come loose at some point as some of them do and instead of gluing it back in, someone has fitted a metal plate and screwed it on

They are pretty heavy but can go very loud if you can manage a couple of them. I think they're around 35-37kgs each.

Either a Fender Rumble 500 combo with matching 2x10" cab or a GK 500MB with your choice of Barefaced cab up to the limit of the budget.

There is absolutely no way I would ever have or would do 4 hours without a break. I've done quite a few 7 hour gigs but there were always breaks. Apart from having to pee you occasionally have to take on fuel as well and for £100? Last time I played pubs was 2014 and it was £80 a man for a 3 hour gig with 2 short breaks so realistically I'd be looking for £150ish to make it worthwhile and cover the cost of the incontinence pants so that I didn't have to stop playing

The Nexus Cabs are amazing. I used a 15" and a 4x10" with a Hartke LH1000 and there was a ton of clear deep rich sound from them. The only reason I changed was that I didn't need something so powerful anymore or I would still have them. I think they've changed them slightly but I had the original NX115 & NX410 cabs

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1501229091' post='3343386'] Over the last 15 or so years I have bought and sold somewhere in the region of £25k worth of items on eBay. [/quote] I've just had a look and in the 15 years I have been on Ebay I have sold £38,520.42 worth of stuff. Mainly basses, amps & cabs. That's ridiculous and made worse by the fact that I've sold a lot of stuff on here as well. Probably another £5-10,000 worth. Not to mention Bumtree sales I think they all have their uses for different purposes. I think here is the best for UK & European stuff, Ebay for worldwide and Gumtree for things that are too large to post.