All Activity

Our fans seem to appreciate the between-member banter we engage in between songs - even some poor humour. For example - here’s a song by Elmore James dedicated to men of a certain age who wander around in the middle of the night looking for the bathroom. It’s called ‘I Can’t Hold Out’… Maybe I should stick to the bass!

I've seen several former instruments of mine relisted at over double what I sold them for - at prices they struggled to sell at - and then struggle to sell again at the new higher price. I've had a Stingray, a Peavey Sarzo, an Ibanez Roadster, an L-1000 and, most recently, a Warwick Streamer LX, all show up at over double their previous sale price, usually a year or two after they left my hands. Are these collectibles? I don't think so, I just think Reverb has given a global platform to set ridiculous asking prices which then seems to affect the general prices of these things. Generally, though, desirability seems to really go on brand name, rather than instrument quality. There doesn't seem to be a correlation between how well built an instrument is and the size of the market interested in it. With more obscure brands, you might find an obsessive or two who are prepared to pay up but, if you want things to move, I think you're safer with the big-name unit shifters.

I always enjoyed purposefully antagonising them. That could be done a number of ways but, usually, it would involve musically heading places they were not expecting to be taken, which kept it exciting for the musicians, too. It also allowed more room for self-expression, which was always nice. I understand this is different for the covers game, though. If you're playing for the money, you can't really do much outside the well-worn tropes for fear of alienating your brand and affecting future bookings, so I suppose you're relying on one of the group with charisma to continually work the crowd to keep them engaged and that energy should feed back to the performers. Everybody should play some part in that, however, and take their eyes off the neck dots now and then to look at, and remember to perform to, the people they're playing in front of. There are few things duller than a band with eyes glued to the necks of their instruments.

Dont cry 😀 Hiscox not dead! Polish guitar maker RUF Technologies has acquired the British brand Hiscox and is moving its entire case production—along with tools, technology, and brand identity—to a factory near Warsaw. The original name and high-quality standards will be preserved with the support of the former owner and key Hiscox experts, who remain involved as advisors. RUF produces high-end guitars using aerospace-grade composites and sells them in 14 countries. The company is actively expanding, especially in the U.S. market, and promotes its instruments at major global trade shows.

He Knows You Know - Marillion

Have you been to KOKO in London before? What’s the venue like for jazz-funk gigs good acoustics and sightlines? Geometry Dash

Thank you! I couldn't honestly tell you the exact year, but I received the bass for Christmas in either 92 or 93.

I've been to see a few local bands recently. Mostly bands with senior members. Some are very good musically but outside of that I've seen some real snooze fests. Bands with very little interaction with the crowd and not many smiling faces on stage. Our saving grace is our lead singer who does a great job telling stories and engaging the crowd. What are you guys doing to engage your crowds? Daryl

Deleted

Hi Dave, I put a lot of effort into my stage sound. If we keep the stage volume low things always seem to go well. I don't get involved with FOH stuff. There's too many other things I'm concerned with. Mainly that the band isn't boring people. Actually that's the topic for my next thread. I'm glad you had a good gig. Daryl

I’m playing my final gig with blues band The Alligators at this festival this Saturday 12th July.

Do You Remember - Phil Collins

Fwiw I don't think the Boss SY-1 or SY-200 come close to the FI in terms of the quality of its synth tones, but it delivers something decent enough for live use on a few songs that need it in our sets. (I also really like its arpeggiator!) I'd therefore be pleasantly surprised if the SY-300 was able to come anywhere near close to what the MXR / FI are producing tonally. What the SY-200 does provide, however, is excellent "tracking" (in the commonly used sense of that term understood by most non-engineers) and a lack of glitchiness, neither of which seem possible without changing playing technique with the FI. So, despite its limitations, the Boss is the one that I've kept on my board. If the MXR provides both great synth tones, accessibility, and tight tracking, as they seem to indicate they've done, then they've pretty much hit the jackpot for many bass players looking to use a bass synth for live band use.

Rabbit hole now. So if I was doing this with single pedals you need a blend, a fuzz maybe two, a filter, a fuzzy filter like the EHX Bassballs or a synth pedal and I feel like a phaser and I’d run all of that into a fairly gritty Sansamp. There is fuzz all over stuff, I’ve never really known where he uses the G5 but then I’ve never been able to get the swirly squelchy sound of Twisted. Which is always where I hear most of the fx. If I had to do it with a small board I’d grab an EHX Bass Big Muff - the new MXR Bass Synth (with a switch for the presets) or a Digitech bass synth wah (depending on budget) - MXR Phase 95 - Sansamp. Big board (no budget) I’d have a split going into a boss or source audio programmable eq pedal into a sansamp or the qstrip for clean and a ehx pog - digitech drop - jhs crimson or a wren and cuff box of war - jhs bender - digitech bass synth wah - digitech synth wah - mxr bass synth - analogman mini chorus - into a gritty sansamp then blend them back together and run that into a Neve DI or your choice of clean di box. I’d probably use the gigrig wetter box and have the expression pedal for controlling the blend. I’d also likely shove my Subdecay Noise Theory and a Mojohand 442 or Dod 440 in there. Grab a Stingray, that would do me and be hella fun to play. If I was doing it with a multi, I could cop the tones with a Zoom MS60b+ (it has a g5 emulation in it) but wouldn’t give me the switching I’d need live so I’d be on the HX Stomp or Anagram. I could probably do most of it with the MXR Bass Synth from what I’ve seen. I’m enjoying this thread too much.

TC Spark Booster.

No better, all hail the MXR 😂😂😂

It must be possible to make an ABM I. A smaller form factor. 300mm wide would suit me.

Long live the MXR 😅

Bassist returns home from a summer tour of Seaside gigs. "Has anyone seen my old bass, you know, the red one with all the knobs? it was under the bed" "You. Did. What?!?"