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This is very true. However, the guv'nor of one place my then band played in gave me an interesting slant on why he favoured certain styles of music. I had asked him for a return booking and he declined, saying he thought we were good, but not for his venue. I asked why and he explained that he tried to book bands that women liked and would come to see, his reasoning being that if the place was full of women, plenty of blokes would turn up. He had a point. We played tricky proggy stuff (this was quite a few years ago) that you couldn't exactly dance to and our audience was always predominantly blokes.

...and how many did you have to buy, 5, 10?

Meat Load

Katrina and the Daves

this is a great book - well written and thought provoking

It's funny, listening to the original track, I would also presume fretless StingRay, but isolated it sounds more like a fretted two pickup bass (the Alembic he used around that time perhaps). The high levels of compression and (I presume solid state rather than tube) distortion really kill the tonal nuances of whatever bass it is, but it still sounds great in the final mix. I also have to say, if it is fretless, his intonation is really quite good.

Looks nice, hope sounds nice too. Happy You !!!

Nob Zombie

Back in the early 90s my old band had a bunch of followers called The Bromley Boys... They'd dress up like the Monty Python housewives and leap about in rather a crazed but generally peaceful fashion. We'd played a couple of times at The Joshua Tavern in Oxford, one of them supporting Gaye Bykers On Acid, and were offered a headline there. The Bromley Boys came as usual but just before we played there must have been some argy-bargy with locals - I saw the biggest of the BBs chasing this bloke with an iron bar shouting "we're from faackin Laaahnden!". We played the gig and all was fine, but they never asked us back...

I doubt they do many checks. There was a pair of Foderas at one a couple of years ago, up for sale at about £2K. IIRC they were top of the line - £25K new. There was no way they weren't stolen.

That was quite unusual. I stopped and started again with a different mindset as my first attempt just made me think Vic is a bit of an old hippy!

Not sexy, but I just received this stand for less than a tenner. Discreet enough to stay in living room.

Yes. Scoop? Set the gain as high as you can to eliminate noise. Watch for clipping, unless that's what you want. It also controls sensitivity so will affect your playing dynamics. Too low and it will be all or nothing, too high and every little unevenness will be exposed. Then use the Master to control the overall volume level.

I travelled with a bass quite a lot and lived in hotels for weeks at a time, I think a lot of the super-compact basses are a bit compromised although I have only 'tried' a Steinberger not owned one. I am with @Burns-bass and others, the secret is having a cheap setup and then not worrying about it being bashed about, I do also think headless is good because actually there is no real compromise in actual playing / fretboard, unfortunately they aren't cheap. The way I did it was I bought a cheap Harley Benton JB and had the neck bolts fitted with inserts so I could easily remove and restore the neck. Then I played through headphones, or occasionally I managed to play through the hotel clock radios line-in - the Bose ones pack serious bass for their size! The bass cost £85 so it didn't matter if it got bashed or broken in my baggage and I actually sold it for £100 a couple of years later!

I try to keep gain as high as possible to benefit from the character of the pre-amp and adjust master for the volume. On some amps this can mean riding it into the red, I just trust ears on whether it sounds nice. When I had an ashdown abm I always ran the gain about 80%. It wasn’t overdriving but sounded warm and full.

Aren't they foam backed and so damp the strings automatically. Hence - take them off if you don't like the sound.

Just got this today and already gave it a spin. Sounds great and is different enough from my Octbvre and T47. The sound options are great and a lot to explore and as Taylor suggests to pair it with a filter (preferrably Xerograph) and that is so true. I have read a lot about these and early ones had a bleed from the synth voices but this one is really quiet. Really looking forward to see what I can do with it.

Higher gain at the front end increases the level through the rest of the circuit and gives a better signal to noise ratio. I prefer to run the Gain as high as I can and leave the Master as low as I can get away with.

Always be careful of your following, the amount of times I've realised at a gig that a band I've recently joined have a dodgy follower (singer's wife) or following (singer's entire family)........

John Lee Hooker - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

the cliff burton biog is an interesting read, as is the aforementioned Lemmy, Geddy, flea, duff, and Nile Tony Visconti's book (bowie and the Brooklyn boy is close to the title lol) is really good John Taylor's and Alex James' first book as well as Ronnie James Dio's are all worth reading IMO also I was a teenage sex pistol by Glen Matlock was interesting especially after reading lonely boy by Steve Jones Gene Simmons kiss and make up is well, Gene but I found it interesting that might give you some ideas lol

The band I used to be in, played a regular, well paid gig, in the bar of a 5 star hotel, in Edinburgh. One night we were playing to a, very large and appreciative, crowd of Americans. They were on a trip over to Edinburgh, paid for by the bank they worked for. At the end of the night the President of the bank came up and asked us to play 'one more song'. We told him that the management told us that the curfew was 11pm, for the sake of the residents staying at the hotel. Under no circumstances were we allowed to play after that cut off time. He replied 'Goddarn it, we ARE the residents!!!!'. He had a point.... So we played one more song. The next day we got an email from the management to advise our contract had been terminated 😢