SimonK

Me too - 1997 & 1998 I played full time in a function band touring Europe. Thing is we were in a a couple vans, carried our own PA, and although it was fun for a bit, as an 18 & 19 year old I remember looking at one guy who was in his 30s and had been doing it for ten plus years, and while he was an excellent musician, I didn't want to be him ten years later. So I went to University, and have played music pretty much ever since, but also with a job that pays! I suppose if we had been doing bigger gigs with someone else carrying things and running the PA it may have been different, but very very few people get gigs like that.

Reveals my insecurity about playing fretless - allows me to keep tuners on permanently just to reassure myself from time to time, but can still mute as needed!

We used to use an Alesis SR-16 live back around 2000 ish. Ever since I've been lucky enough to be in bands with drummers, although ironically played Cajon twice myself over the last couple weeks due to a drummer disappearing on half term holiday - first time in years and interesting to see how my bass mind interpretes bashing something in time! Recently I've been using one of these for practice, which has been great. I've been programming a chord sequence in with the guitar, then taking out the bass and voila. Probably my favourite practice tool at the moment: https://digitech.com/dp/trio-plus/

Ooh I like this game. My rack stays at home as class D amps and pedals are so much easier to gig with, but here's mine with one side of the compressor & effects processor handling guitar (from the Marshall) and the other side bass currently from the Ashdown preamp but alternatively the Genz. Then everything back into the Ashdown effects return and out to whichever cab takes my fancy... I like nothing better than fiddling with a rack at home, in private...

"keep your passion as your hobby but not your career because it will be more satisfying" https://theconversation.com/why-putting-your-artistic-calling-on-hold-might-not-always-be-such-a-bad-idea-192203

The nice thing with the bass is it has a fairly shallow initial learning curve - I picked one up for the first time ever in a band that had two guitarists but no bass player, started with roots & octaves, then discovered fifths, and then how to walk up a scale. But by far the most important part is locking in with a drummer, a communication thing you can't really practice on your own. Of course the fun thing is that although the initial curve is shallow, it all gets a lot steeper after that even if you only stick to one string...

Thanks! I've always thought acoustic guitar works well through most bass gear, certainly better than it does through electric guitar pedals etc. Most of the time, however, my acoustic guitar is going to FOH through the DI box, and occasionally I use the bass amp to monitor, but only if it is there already due to me playing bass on other songs. Also, despite posting the picture of "a" pedal board above, my rig changes like the wind and last night I used the below in a little three-piece acoustic get together (playing guitar & even a bit of Cajon at one point). I switched the bass chorus pedal into this board to replace a Boss CH-1 as I prefer the mxr's sound, and also like the way you can control which frequencies it adds the chorus effect to:

There's a huge difference between what sounds great on it's own and what works in the mix. My current approach is to dial in just enough crunch using the drive control on the Aguilar to be aware of in isolation. Then I give the desk the "post" signal on the DI, which some sound engineers don't like - I'm always in two minds as one part of me thinks that the preamp is only really there to shape the tone coming out of the cabs so yes the desk should get a "clean" signal, but then again the Agi preamp sounds so good with a touch of drive! I should say I also have an EHX Big Muff for proper hit the dirt moments.

That's interesting to hear - I was never too impressed by their stock or prices, but used to drop by fairly frequently for strings, cables, stands and also to check out what second hand gear they had in as sometimes gems could turn up. The staff were actually quite friendly, but yes almost aways despairing about the management. It does seem that as a music retailer you now have to go big online as Andertons have done, or maybe try to be more niche. I like the idea of getting a physical premise somewhere and then running a commission business model selling second hand gear sourced from local musicians - there's enough of us around wanting to get rid of stuff. Could probably also branch out into rentals and repairs...

Here's mine:

I was in the Portsmouth PMT just before Christmas. The stock was dwindling and the only basses that caught my interest were a pair of sunburst American Standards - both J & P, albeit their mid priced Ibanez range was pretty good. Then this morning someone told me the shop closed down at Christmas - and checking the website this seems it may well be the case! I wonder if the whole chain is going bust?

Hi all, Decided to join this forum as have been a long time member over on talkbass, but then after some struggles moving on second hand gear as most of their members are US based, someone asked why I'm not on the UK forum! Current setup: Stingray Fretted/Fretless or Acoustic guitar into: (NB top row for guitar, bottom row bass, switching between chorus, envelope & octave depending on mood (but seldom use any of them!): and then into: