How was your gig last night?

[Woodinblack]

I realised I had a label maker, so when I change the battery I put a label with the date on it - its easy to forget otherwise.

[SuperSeagull]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Think all my active basses can be put into passive mode and will work without a battery. Its something i was always curious about just in case a battery died on me.

I still change the batteries every year and i'll remove and test the off-load voltage every few mths or so.

We all live and learn by our mistakes and pretty sure you won't do that again. @SuperSeagull 

Dave

I've emailed Dawn at Status to enquire about retro fitting an active / passive switch - don't know why I didn't do that when I ordered it. 

[casapete]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I realised I had a label maker, so when I change the battery I put a label with the date on it - its easy to forget otherwise.

I just write on mine with a Sharpie. Always change them well before they should need it just in case.

 

First ( and only!) time I was ever caught out was at a flash wedding gig and my P- Lyte distorted for a few

seconds and then died. I’m sure most folk with active basses have had this happen at some point, so

treat it as a learning curve. 

[Woodinblack]

never had one die, had one go a bit distorted for a bit

[martthebass]

Happens to the best of us @SuperSeagull 

I'm worst with Musicman basses as the batteries seem to last forever and I forget how long they've been in.  Had the LED battery go in my Status once but that was no biggy. 

Edited January 31 by martthebass

[cheddatom]

We played at The Sugarmill in Hanley (Stoke) on Saturday night. It's our first headline gig here and the local venue so it felt like there was a bit more pressure than usual, that plus the lack of gigs since November, and it would be my first time on BVs, all gave me some nerves

 

When I arrived, I greeted the soundguy. We're on first name terms and I thought we were pretty friendly, but the first thing he said is "what ridiculous gear have you brought this time then?". I explained it's just my usual stuff but he seemed really annoyed for some reason. I set up the kit and the whole band were ready to go in 10 minutes as usual. Then the soundguy spent 30 minutes plugging everything in. While he was mic'ing the kit I showed him my nice new cymbal. He's a drummer so I thought he'd be interested. He said "oh, so that'll be dominating the whole room then!". I said "not really mate, it's the way you play them" to which he replied "Yeh, which is F&*KING LOUD!!!". I asked if he'd ever done the sound for us before, and he confirmed he hadn't, so he'd have absolutely no idea how loud I'm going to play my cymbals. I just let it go. 

 

So, all mic'd up, he tried to get sound. He had the main outs from his mixer routed to the centre vocal wedges. I explained that it all sounded weird and that my drums shouldn't be feeding back but he just cracked on, sweeping EQ on the drum mics for a solid 15 minutes. Bass was checked just fine, but guitars (just DI'd) sounded weird and kept feeding back. I asked him to turn the stage monitors off just to check there wasn't an issue, and this is when he finally figured out the mains were routed to the two centre wedges. Half an hour to who knows on the phone and he reckoned it was sorted, so we went back on to sound check. All fine except the lead singer can't hear himself. There's sound out of the centre wedges, but it's quiet and muffled. The soundguy told me I needed to play the drums quieter. I explained that it's never an issue and we play similar sized venues all the time. He finally came up to hear the vocal in the wedges and agreed it sounded wrong, and so after another long phone call figured out that he should have used a different cable for these wedges. FINALLY everything worked and we did our check in less than 10 minutes, but from setting up to completing sound check was pretty much 2 hours. 

 

After this check the soundguy approaches me to tell me that my bass drum is a nightmare. "oh, what's the problem?" I ask and he complains it has "no top end". I screwed up my face and said "we're not playing metal mate". Then I went home to change and try to forget the sound check

 

The actual gig was awesome, loads of people in, loads of people singing along, an encore... just an awesome gig all round. A couple of my mates were there, and they said it sounded OK but that my vocal mic was muted! All that practise and all those nerves for nothing!

 

Edited January 31 by cheddatom

[Lozz196]

Through adversity (and sound-men) you shall triumph!

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, cheddatom said:

We played at The Sugarmill in Hanley (Stoke) on Saturday night. It's our first headline gig here and the local venue so it felt like there was a bit more pressure than usual, that plus the lack of gigs since November, and it would be my first time on BVs, all gave me some nerves

 

When I arrived, I greeted the soundguy. We're on first name terms and I thought we were pretty friendly, but the first thing he said is "what ridiculous gear have you brought this time then?". I explained it's just my usual stuff but he seemed really annoyed for some reason. I set up the kit and the whole band were ready to go in 10 minutes as usual. Then the soundguy spent 30 minutes plugging everything in. While he was mic'ing the kit I showed him my nice new cymbal. He's a drummer so I thought he'd be interested. He said "oh, so that'll be dominating the whole room then!". I said "not really mate, it's the way you play them" to which he replied "Yeh, which is F&*KING LOUD!!!". I asked if he'd ever done the sound for us before, and he confirmed he hadn't, so he'd have absolutely no idea how loud I'm going to play my cymbals. I just let it go. 

 

So, all mic'd up, he tried to get sound. He had the main outs from his mixer routed to the centre vocal wedges. I explained that it all sounded weird and that my drums shouldn't be feeding back but he just cracked on, sweeping EQ on the drum mics for a solid 15 minutes. Bass was checked just fine, but guitars (just DI'd) sounded weird and kept feeding back. I asked him to turn the stage monitors off just to check there wasn't an issue, and this is when he finally figured out the mains were routed to the two centre wedges. Half an hour to who knows on the phone and he reckoned it was sorted, so we went back on to sound check. All fine except the lead singer can't hear himself. There's sound out of the centre wedges, but it's quiet and muffled. The soundguy told me I needed to play the drums quieter. I explained that it's never an issue and we play similar sized venues all the time. He finally came up to hear the vocal in the wedges and agreed it sounded wrong, and so after another long phone call figured out that he should have used a different cable for these wedges. FINALLY everything worked and we did our check in less than 10 minutes, but from setting up to completing sound check was pretty much 2 hours. 

 

After this check the soundguy approaches me to tell me that my bass drum is a nightmare. "oh, what's the problem?" I ask and he complains it has "no top end". I screwed up my face and said "we're not playing metal mate". Then I went home to change and try to forget the sound check

 

The actual gig was awesome, loads of people in, loads of people singing along, an encore... just an awesome gig all round. A couple of my mates were there, and they said it sounded OK but that my vocal mic was muted! All that practise and all those nerves for nothing!

 

Can't have been too bad then as quite a decent sized crowd and they look as tho they are well into it.

Sound Engineers are a hit or a miss and this guy sounds as tho he doesn't really know what he's doing.

Just move on and if you return there either take your own SE or just accept its gonna be a difficult sound check again. Maybe whoever he was on the phone to could come along and do the sound for you. 

Apart from the fact your vocal mic was muted i'd put this down as a successful gig.

Dave

[cheddatom]

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Can't have been too bad then as quite a decent sized crowd and they look as tho they are well into it.

Sound Engineers are a hit or a miss and this guy sounds as tho he doesn't really know what he's doing.

Just move on and if you return there either take your own SE or just accept its gonna be a difficult sound check again. Maybe whoever he was on the phone to could come along and do the sound for you. 

Apart from the fact your vocal mic was muted i'd put this down as a successful gig.

Dave

 

Yeh it was definitely a successful gig!

 

This soundguy normally works at the other local venue, which was his excuse for all the problems, although both venues have the same desk... Anyway, issues with the bar and door staff mean that our fans would never go to this venue again (even longer story!), so it's not going to be an issue for us in the future

[Bluewine]

On 30/01/2024 at 14:50, dmccombe7 said:

Think all my active basses can be put into passive mode and will work without a battery. Its something i was always curious about just in case a battery died on me.

I still change the batteries every year and i'll remove and test the off-load voltage every few mths or so.

We all live and learn by our mistakes and pretty sure you won't do that again. @SuperSeagull 

Dave

 

Dave,

 

My 1994 G&L ASAT bass will not play in passive mode. I put a new 9 volt in before every gig. I also put fresh AAs in my Line 6 wireless transmitter before every gig.

 

Daryl

 

[Bluewine]

On 31/01/2024 at 05:29, cheddatom said:

We played at The Sugarmill in Hanley (Stoke) on Saturday night. It's our first headline gig here and the local venue so it felt like there was a bit more pressure than usual, that plus the lack of gigs since November, and it would be my first time on BVs, all gave me some nerves

 

When I arrived, I greeted the soundguy. We're on first name terms and I thought we were pretty friendly, but the first thing he said is "what ridiculous gear have you brought this time then?". I explained it's just my usual stuff but he seemed really annoyed for some reason. I set up the kit and the whole band were ready to go in 10 minutes as usual. Then the soundguy spent 30 minutes plugging everything in. While he was mic'ing the kit I showed him my nice new cymbal. He's a drummer so I thought he'd be interested. He said "oh, so that'll be dominating the whole room then!". I said "not really mate, it's the way you play them" to which he replied "Yeh, which is F&*KING LOUD!!!". I asked if he'd ever done the sound for us before, and he confirmed he hadn't, so he'd have absolutely no idea how loud I'm going to play my cymbals. I just let it go. 

 

So, all mic'd up, he tried to get sound. He had the main outs from his mixer routed to the centre vocal wedges. I explained that it all sounded weird and that my drums shouldn't be feeding back but he just cracked on, sweeping EQ on the drum mics for a solid 15 minutes. Bass was checked just fine, but guitars (just DI'd) sounded weird and kept feeding back. I asked him to turn the stage monitors off just to check there wasn't an issue, and this is when he finally figured out the mains were routed to the two centre wedges. Half an hour to who knows on the phone and he reckoned it was sorted, so we went back on to sound check. All fine except the lead singer can't hear himself. There's sound out of the centre wedges, but it's quiet and muffled. The soundguy told me I needed to play the drums quieter. I explained that it's never an issue and we play similar sized venues all the time. He finally came up to hear the vocal in the wedges and agreed it sounded wrong, and so after another long phone call figured out that he should have used a different cable for these wedges. FINALLY everything worked and we did our check in less than 10 minutes, but from setting up to completing sound check was pretty much 2 hours. 

 

After this check the soundguy approaches me to tell me that my bass drum is a nightmare. "oh, what's the problem?" I ask and he complains it has "no top end". I screwed up my face and said "we're not playing metal mate". Then I went home to change and try to forget the sound check

 

The actual gig was awesome, loads of people in, loads of people singing along, an encore... just an awesome gig all round. A couple of my mates were there, and they said it sounded OK but that my vocal mic was muted! All that practise and all those nerves for nothing!

 

 

 

W

What a crowd!

Cool

Daryl

[Downunderwonder]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

My 1994 G&L ASAT bass will not play in passive mode. I put a new 9 volt in before every gig. I also put fresh AAs in my Line 6 wireless transmitter before every gig.

 

Daryl

 

Hell wasteful to be junking barely used batteries like that, or do you use rechargeable ones?

 

The hungriest active I had would do a dozen gigs on a battery.

 

That hungry bass gave up with juice left and the other could keep that battery for months.

 

I am sure you could save a packet and whole lot of waste if you put in some research on what volts it really needs to maintain sound.

 

I got a 4 pack of cheapie 3v buttons for scales. Expensive enough. Checked the 1st one. 2.5 v out of the packet. No more of those!

[neepheid]

4 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

My 1994 G&L ASAT bass will not play in passive mode. I put a new 9 volt in before every gig. I also put fresh AAs in my Line 6 wireless transmitter before every gig.

 

Daryl

 

 

Then you've got a wiring fault somewhere, you might want to get that looked at.  L-2000/ASAT basses should be able to play in passive even with no battery physically installed.

[Doctor J]

Yep. I always use my L2K in passive mode. Everything works in passive mode, it just seems to boost the output. If there's one thing it doesn't need, it's higher output.

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

My 1994 G&L ASAT bass will not play in passive mode. I put a new 9 volt in before every gig. I also put fresh AAs in my Line 6 wireless transmitter before every gig.

 

Daryl

 

I did have an active bass that didn't work in passive mode when battery was down or removed but can't remember which one it was. 

I change my batteries every Xmas / New Year but voltages are usually still ok typically above 9V off load. If i check a battery on my working basses and its below 9.2V i'll replace it. Typically a new battery will measure 9.6-9.7V off load. They still work down to 8.7V off load but wouldn't trust it at that level.

My wireless transmitter has built in rechargeable batteries which give me approx 3 gigs before a recharge approx 12-14hrs.

Dave 

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Doctor J said:

Yep. I always use my L2K in passive mode. Everything works in passive mode, it just seems to boost the output. If there's one thing it doesn't need, it's higher output.

 

Active mode is just a line boost, I think it was added simply so you could use longer cables.  Active with treble boost does make an actual difference to the sound beyond loudifying it (duh neep, the clue's in the name), but I always found it scratchy and horrible sounding.  I left my tookay in passive mode all the time too.

[Woodinblack]

Agreed that asat should just have active passive. The active shouldn't boost your sound at all, it is just a line buffer so you don't change your tone by the cable.  Proper Mr Fender wiring. The tone boost does add treble, never found that particularly useful, but I guess Leo was driving much older amplifiers at the time and also had hearing loss

 

[scalpy]

15 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

My 1994 G&L ASAT bass will not play in passive mode. I put a new 9 volt in before every gig. I also put fresh AAs in my Line 6 wireless transmitter before every gig.

 

Daryl

 

Another +1 for your ASAT needed a once over electronically. Mine runs passive no problem, similar era to yours too. Battery lasts about 12 months hard playing. 

[Paul S]

Played a 'blues and brews' night at the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket.  Lovely venue - we've played there before - easy load in/out, big stage, lights, great sound system with a team of sound guys.  3 bands, we were on last or 'headlining' as like to call it, a selection of local beers on offer.  I wasn't confident anyone would turn on a chilly thursday in February up but apparently 60 souls made it - far more than I imagined.  Bands were Red Sky High, Jamie Williams and the Roots Collective - who were especially good, great set of originals delivered in some style.  Their bass player had a bitsa short scale Bronco/Mustang/Jazz hybrid that sounded awesome.  Good player, too.

 

Having been nicely warmed up and lubricated the crowd appreciated us and we went down very well, despite some left of field errors on a few songs we have played faultlessly for months (why does that happen?).  We played a longer set, just over an hour, and it was all round a damned fine evening.  No traffic there or back, in bed by 1am.  My gear was my SG > new Trace Elliot Transit B pedal > desk which sounded pretty fab from where I was standing.

 

Guitarist Alan's pic, taken from the mezzanine 'green room' where the performers hang out - Jamie Williams et al on their last song.

 

  

[Stub Mandrel]

Big small gig for us tonight. Borough Blues Club. It's 'on the circuit' and gets some well known bands, just 12 gigs a year. We are booked for November,  but got the call after a band had to drop out.

 

This was their first Friday event (due to the six nations) so they were worried about numbers, especially at £10 admission. It was about half full with forty-odd people and they were happy. Expectations of us were high as the organisers know Alex, our guitarist. Two hour long sets plus encore.

 

We had eight(!) new songs after Wednesday's rehearsal, with the aim of serving up a setlist for an audience serious about blues. So we had a few hiccups- I muddled one song for another, and we had some miscommunication about keys... but got through it. But sound was excellent and we enjoyed ourselves.

 

Fortunately the reception was as good as we could wish for. Not just the usual goog gig comments, but I got complemented on my playing (which I though was a bit random with a fairly big chunk of improvisation).

 

Best bit, at the end we were told that our November gig will be packed as the word will get around 😎

[JapanAxe]

Stood in with Dire Streets last night at Swindon Arts Centre - less than a 10 minute drive for me, which was nice. My direct-to-PA bass rig is now fully sorted, as is my IEM setup. I really enjoyed the gig, the only slight hitch for me was when the batteries in my IEM belt pack gave out halfway through the last number - Telegraph Road. I had to pop my earpieces out and work from the ambient sound, which was way louder than my nice IEM mix, especially the drums. Fortunately I was able to change the batteries before we came back on for the encore.

 

I’m back out with them on rhythm guitar next Saturday - Artrix Arts Centre in Bromsgrove if you fancy a nostalgic night out!

[dmccombe7]

31 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

Stood in with Dire Streets last night at Swindon Arts Centre - less than a 10 minute drive for me, which was nice. My direct-to-PA bass rig is now fully sorted, as is my IEM setup. I really enjoyed the gig, the only slight hitch for me was when the batteries in my IEM belt pack gave out halfway through the last number - Telegraph Road. I had to pop my earpieces out and work from the ambient sound, which was way louder than my nice IEM mix, especially the drums. Fortunately I was able to change the batteries before we came back on for the encore.

 

I’m back out with them on rhythm guitar next Saturday - Artrix Arts Centre in Bromsgrove if you fancy a nostalgic night out!

Well done. You must like Dire Straits to dep on bass one week and guitar the next. Impressive.

Dave

[JapanAxe]

25 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Well done. You must like Dire Straits to dep on bass one week and guitar the next. Impressive.

Dave

Yes. Yes I do - right from hearing the demo version of Sultans of Swing on John Peel in 1977. 

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, JapanAxe said:

Yes. Yes I do - right from hearing the demo version of Sultans of Swing on John Peel in 1977. 

One of the best songs ever imo

[Linus27]

Absolutely brilliant gig last night which was one of our regular acoustic residences that we host every other month where we introduce one or two acoustic solo or duo acts and then we as a band get up and play for just over an hour. Super busy with a very engaged and attentive audience who really clapped and showed their appreciation after each of our songs. It was a night of original music including 4 new songs and we ended up doing two encores.

 

The highlight for me was the compliments I got after the gig. One lady came up to me and said, "apologies for interrupting (I was talking to my daughter) but I absolutely love your fretless bass playing, it reminds me of Del Palmer and the fretless playing on Kate Bush's first album". This absolutely blew me away as I'm a huge John Giblin fan, probably my favourite bassist along with Pino and Jamerson 😁 However, about 10 minutes later, another couple came up to me and thanked me for making her night so special. She said she couldn't believe the quality of music being played in a pub in Farnborough but to then hear fretless bass, her favourite instrument just blew her away and she couldn't keep her eyes off my playing. She turned out to be a vocal coach who also tours in a lot of different tribute acts but I was breaking her as that afternoon she had been to a funeral for a friend who happened to be a fretless bassist so it was joyous but a tough evening for her 😥 Then another guy came up to me who happened to be a Canadian drummer and said he was mesmerised by my playing and loved all the high melodic stuff I was playing but also all the lower stuff. He said I was watching you play and I knew there's no frets so at some point I was expecting you get it wrong and play out of tune but you never did, not once 😎

 

When you get compliments like that, it just makes what you do worthwhile. I'm a little bit on cloud 9 today 😂

Edited February 3 by Linus27