SteveXFR Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 3 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said: I use a baritone Tele for just that job and it sounds fantastic. Glad to hear that it was a productive session. That's what our guitarist bought. It's only a Squier but with dual P90's. It sounds great. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 (edited) Spent all day yesterday in the huge cold industial unit 'venue' that is KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton where we were filming the new promo video for "The Bootleg Rock Show featuring Leather & Lace", our 'rock anthems & power ballads' theatre show.... Huge stage, lights, video screen and sound. Looking forward to seeing the finished product! Edited January 8 by cetera 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 21 minutes ago, cetera said: Looking forward to seeing the finished product! Me too! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelDean Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 13 minutes ago, SteveXFR said: Because we use a ridiculous low tuning (drop A#) I've been telling the guitarist for ages now he should try a baritone guitar to get some decent definition in the lower notes. Last night he turned up with one. It's such a huge improvement to our overall sound compared to his standard strat. He complained a lot about how difficult it is playing with a .60 lowest string. I pointed out mine is more than double the thickness and told him to stop complaining. I'm not sure if it was just because the guitar sounded so much better but we all seemed to be really tight and it was a really productive rehearsal. Our guitarist/singer sometimes brings a multiscale 7 string guitar that, tuning wise, sits between me and the other guitarist (I think he's got it tuned to F something or other) and sounds really great. Something about the thicker strings makes it fatter sounding and it just fits so well. We've been trying to get him to bring it more often... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staggering on Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Rehearsal that was planned for yesterday with a singer who has been trying to get a band together for months was cancelled. She is out west and has been for a few weeks and will be back "around the end of the third week of January". She has had a couple of bands before Covid and for seven months has been working on a new swing band and asked me to play DB and all my musician friends said stay away but I thought it might be interesting. Seven months with about 5 "rehearsals" and she keeps talking about booking gigs...crazy! The keyboard player is about the best musician that I have played with in 60+ years of making music and the drummer is very good but she just can't get her act together and I told her yesterday that she will have to find a different bass player. Most people who have been in her bands last only a couple of gigs and I should have listened to them and stayed clear. I am out now and all the emails I am getting from her won't get me back, she has a dream but without some focus and a lot of organization on her part it won't happen. At my age I should have known better but she will never change. The good thing is that I have been playing in a seven piece swing band for several years and we have a rehearsal tonight and a couple of gigs in February. I also play in a bluegrass band that is booked for at least two festivals next summer and I help out with a youth orchestra. Main message is that if it doesn't feel right get out before you waste too much time and energy on someone's dream, I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzyJ Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 1st rehearsal with the new band today Was a little apprehensive but I've nothing to worry about. Great set of lads my age group (58-62) and I feel positive moving forward. I was spared "Rio" this time though. 😄 Fully equipped studio too which is a bonus. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubbersoul Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Had a great night with Crackhead Control. Blasted out some of our older stuff for an hour then worked on two new tracks for a split ep release coming out soon. A real cobweb-chaser of a night 😁 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Good rehearsal last night with my no-singer non-gigging classic rock band. The guitarist is now taking advantage of hiring one of the rehearsal rooms 412s rather than using his own 112 and the difference is quite staggering. Far from being louder and overpowering everyone it’s actually enabled us to turn down and the sound is much better balanced. We’ve also added in Next To You by The Police, not exactly classic rock but a good song and it gives the drummer a chance to shine. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackroadkill Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 21 hours ago, Lozz196 said: The guitarist is now taking advantage of hiring one of the rehearsal rooms 412s rather than using his own 112 and the difference is quite staggering. Less fizz, more ooomph? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Yep, bigger & better sound, much more depth to it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGBass Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 First rehearsal the other night of 2024. It's a brand new project and is shaping up to be a jazz/blues fusion sort of thing with hopefully a sax player joining for next rehearsal. There is also a marked departure from my other rock/blues band volume wise. The new drummer has a jazz background and plays very quietly so there isn't any need for my ABM or my 700RB. I took along my smallest amp, an old Gallien Krueger with an honest 125 watts @ 8ohms that hadn't previously left the house and was my home/studio amp. To my surprise it was more than capable in the new band situation and it wasn't being worked hard at all. Also tried a wireless system a very kind bass brother donated to me at Christmas. It's old school but worked flawlessly. Not having a lead snagged around my foot was another pleasant first for me in 2024. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowregisterhead Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Second rehearsal the other night of a Soul/Funk outfit I got roped into as 2023 came to a close. The rest of the band all know each other, having worked together in various line-ups over the years. I'm the new boy. Despite how it may sound, this has some advantages - they know all the songs in the proposed set pretty well already, having played most of them in other configurations. I did my homework, so by the end of the first rehearsal before Christmas we'd rattled through 10 or 15 numbers effortlessly, and it sounded far better than I would have expected at this early stage. The guitarist, drummer, male and female vocalists are excellent, whereas the keyboard player has great chops, but is overplaying dreadfully, and needs to reign himself in. He's over 50, but hopefully it was just 'youthful exuberance', and he'll settle down with time, otherwise I'll feel compelled to have 'The Talk' with him. But come the second rehearsal this week, a slight hiccup. The female singer had a stinking cold, so very sensibly cancelled. No point in infecting the rest of us. Then the male singer turns up with a young lady in tow, ostensibly to help out in the absence of the lady with the cold. She's very young, and can carry a tune and has decent pitch, but her voice lacks character and substance, unlike the lady she's standing in for, who could knock her into a cocked hat without breaking a sweat. My feeling is she needs to spend a few years gigging in dodgy bars and clubs, sleeping fitfully half-cut the the back of smelly Transit vans on motorways at 4 in the morning. That's what I was doing at her age, but suffice to say I have no intention of doing that now. Hopefully the male singer isn't trying to stage a vocal coup in the absence of the lady with the cold, which could cause cracks to appear in what is an otherwise very solid setup. Thankfully I got the distinct impression the rest of the band felt the same way as I did. The intrigue, twists and turns of being in a band are never ending. I don't mind really. It gives me the perfect excuse to buy new gear. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelDean Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 We didn't have regular practice, instead we rented out a "production room" at Pirate Studios. There was a couple of big Yamaha speakers, a minor and a Focusrite Claret interface, plus a vocal booth. I wouldn't have wanted to record any vocals there. The bleed from another room was too high. It wasn't a terrible space to have a group review of my mixes for the EP though. I just brought my laptop and plugged in. A bit of good feedback and tweaks approved by all, so now we've finally got pre-master tracks for everything. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 It was the first rehearsal of 2024 for the Hulla band last night and the first time we'd played since 10 December. A medium sized pile of rust accumulated at my feet as we dusted off a few oldies, of few regulars and some I'd never played before. The first hour was largely catching up (they all live in a village the the drummer and I are 'outsiders'), so between songs there were great gaps as we settled in. But overall it was a good night with few glaring errors and nothing that won't be put right by the next rehearsal. I was using a new pair of earphones for my IEM; when I first started using it I tried the 'phones that came with the kit (a cheap Gear4Music set) and they didn't work for me - too tinny and low volume. I took to using a pair of Sony noise cancelling earpieces, which were fine. But over the break I tried the originals again and found that I hadn't been fitting them correctly and once I'd made the effort (in other words, pushed them in properly), they were much better. Last night was the first time I'd tried them with the full band and what a difference! Clarity, volume, more isolation and more comfortable to wear. In fact, so much more isolation that I'm going to have to set up a mic to pick up the drums to feed into them. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Great rehearsal with The Spacewasters last night, the first one with our new line up. The singer/rhythm guitarist has dropped guitar so we’ve brought in another guitarist and it’s made a really good change as he’s able to trade on lead solos with the regular guitarist, plus the singer is now able to concentrate on his vocals much better. We’ve a gig tomorrow evening and really looking forward to it with this new line up. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 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. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ossyrocks Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 A couple of months ago I was asked if I would like to join a newly forming blues band. I was quite flattered to be asked to be honest, as some of you might know I haven't been playing bass for very long (just over two years) having been a guitarist for the last 40 years. The guy forming the band is quite well known around here, having been in two rather famous and successful bands in the 80's, touring the world and doing TV. The other musicians are not slouches either, one moved to Chicago for five years to immerse himself in the blues, and the drummer has played the Royal Albert Hall, twice! Rehearsals are low key but diligent affairs, well run, well planned, briefed in advance on what to learn. Three new ones each week, and by the end of rehearsal they are recorded as a reminder of form and structure. All rehearsals are at the band leaders house, in his cellar, which is well kitted out and comfortable, and we often retire to the pub around 9.30 for a bit of reflection. The thing I hadn't anticipated, was being asked to try out a few of the numbers on lead vocal. Which I did for the first time on Wednesday, and it seems they have stuck and are now my tunes. More will be coming my way in due course. It's the one thing I thought I would never do again, sing lead vocal. This time last year, I would never have managed it, as playing bass and singing is a whole other level of difficult than playing guitar and singing, but here I am. Onwards. Rob 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzyJ Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Good rehearsal yesterday. The keys player has jumped ship but a possible replacement attending on Thursday. I'm progressing well with the set list and the guys are appreciative of my ability, so all is well 😀 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asingardenof Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Tomorrow's rehearsal cancelled as the father of our singist and drummist has passed away. I'm expecting next weekend's gig to be postponed as well, but obviously there are more important things in life than that. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Was interesting. We usually record with a zoom H2 thing for reference, but we have discussed plumbing everything into an interface. Bit of a learning curve as none of us are sound engineers - but we can all record at home. So we managed it in the end with some support from a mate of the band. Recorded 4 tracks…here’s one Think this was our 8th rehearsal 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 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. 😃 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 2 hours ago, Franticsmurf said: ... caption competition ... (Sings...) "Specsavers, Specsavers, y'all get on down to Specsavers..." 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 (edited) 2 hours ago, Franticsmurf said: caption competition within the band. 😃 Good grief!! And look where he is putting it!!. Anyway, back to the song. Edited January 29 by Paul S 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steantval Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Good productive rehearsal with the new band last night, four new songs now almost gig ready. The Foo Fighters proved to be a bit difficult with some odd 7/4 time signatures thrown in, definitely needs a bit more work to be really tight. Already have six confirmed bookings including a festival. Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions American Girl - Tom Petty Times Like These - Foo Fighters La Grange - ZZ Top 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssexBuccaneer Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Great rehearsal tonight with some new material as we’re in a gig-desert at the moment. The Rasmus - In the shadows Linkin Park - One Step Closer Tom Petty - Love is a long Road (shamelessly cashing in on the GTA6 popularity!) All were nailed well, surprised at how good Linkin Park sounded, I think we all expected it to fall down horrendously, but pleasantly surprised! Maybe, just maybe, we’re getting tight 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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