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Time for a story, sorry Many years ago lighting was expensive and I was broke. For our band I kibbled some lighting together, ahem health and what? Anyway I had two kitchen spotlight units with three different coloured halogen spots in each, a strobe attached to each and a smoke machine. It was all wired through a homemade footswitch to turn it all on and off. The smoke machine was tucked behind my massively over the top bass rig consisting of a bi-amped pair of 15's and a pair of 12's, aiming behind the drummer. When we did Motorheads Overkill I would stomp on the switch turning off the coloured lights and turning the smoke and strobes on when it got to all the false endings, if you know the song you'll know when I mean. At one gig I stomped enthusiastically on the switch at the correct moment which immediately fell to pieces leaving the smoke machine and strobe permanently on only able to be turned off at the wall. The drummer slowly disappeared from sight, then the guitarist and I and it stayed on for the remainder of the song until the stage area and crowd were completely lost in the fog and blinded by massive white strobes bouncing off the cloud. Oh how we all laughed, well apart from the drummer who was having some sort of epileptic asthma attack

Sounds a fun project, if you give us a call and chat to Dave Green(who designed the LB30)he will more than likely give you some advice(he normally does even when not asked...) on how to tie everything up... I’m fairly sure he won’t mind you being ‘inspired’ by his output stage... but sometimes he can be a tad grumpy so you takes your chances 😉

I had a Kay EB100 (tulip bass). It did go on the bonfire 😃

Kays are getting harder and harder to find these days, as anyone with any sense who had one would have spent an enjoyable afternoon pouring petrol on it and watching it burn!

A bunch of Indie halfwits, who are so talentless they are unable to join in with the opening theme, and instead just stand there with their arms folded. A proponent of world music, never heard of before or since, producing some unintelligible atonal drivel, which nevertheless is lapped up by the audience less they be accused of racism for not liking it. A former boy/girl band member trying to gain some real muso credibility to kickstart a solo career, but obviously finding live vocals a bit tough. A former legend living on past glories, much loved by the audience who are obviously saddened that the legend is past their best and the voice is not what it was. A re-formed but fatter and balder line up of a band, failing to make anyone interested in their new material. Plus a painful ‘off the cuff’ chat with a ‘friend’ or celebrity in the crowd.

Taken just now from Ebay.co.uk, used, 'BIN', with approximate postage costs. I've not selected on make, just availability, but not damaged, of course... Hi-hat £20 HH Stand £15 2 x Cymbal stands £30 20" Ride £25 16" Crash £25 Total £115 There are also packs of 'beginner' cymbals starting at £20 or so. Is that expensive as a 'get you going' deal..?

Some of that is harsh but true. However for an originals project 4 months to write and release 9 songs isn't unreasonable (depending on the songs of course). For the majority of new originals bands a handful of 25-30 minute support slots would the way to ease into gigging. No one is going to want to see an unknown band band with unfamiliar songs playing for any longer. IME originals bands don't need a PA. The venues they play nearly always have them. In the last 10 years of gigging with originals bands I have done less than a handful of gigs at venues that didn't have an in-house PA and engineer to drive it.

There were several episodes of spontaneous polite applause from the clientele throughout a very pleasant evening with my quartet at a restaurant/bar in Sutton Coldfield.

And don't forget, Bonfire Night is coming up soon... just sayin'...

Quite, Health and Safety. Or do I mean Health & Efficiency..? Anyway, the safest way to dispose of a Kay bass is to bury it (not in your own garden, obvs) or leave it in the boot of your car until you can drive to the coast and hurl it into the sea. If you're pressed for time and really can't stand the damn thing, wait until it's dark and throw it into next door's garden, preferably at that bloody plastic flamingo you don't like. Done!

I think it fits in just fine

His book, Kraftwerk: I Was A Robot is an excellent read.

It is indeed a Kay, as sold by Woolworths in the 70s. Didn't cost a lot then worth even less now although some think they are worth a fortune and collectable.

This is true. If there is a musician in the audience and you are playing like you don't care, you have probably lost networking and gig opportunities. Always give 101% even playing to one man and a dog. . . you never know who's listening in the other bar. I've been asked to join every band I've been in since 1985. I've picked up every gig and band because a band member suggested me or a band leader dropped in and thought I would fit into his band. So how you sound is important but how you play is even more important. Every gig is a potential introduction to more players.

Yer actual leg end, there.

Jeff Lynne's ELO at London O2 Arena last night! Wonderful songs, fantastic musicians and vocals, stunning light show and an atmosphere of smiley, happy people singing along..... oh, and my 'young at heart' Mum by my side enjoying very minute. Precious moments for sure :)

There is a different switch available, maybe thats more for you: I have a mopar purple NG-2, and have experimented with the pickup configurations a lot... as you might know all the recent Combustion and NG models have all three pickup cavitys routed already, so it was easy to switch positions. After all the testing, my ideal NG-3 switching would look like this - if limited to four positions..: middle/bridge in series middle only bridge/neck in parallel d-bird type all three Neck only sounds worse imo to the middle only. Comparable character, just less tone and definition to it. It has a bit more low oomph. neck/bridge in parallel sounds absolutely cool. Mind that the Combustion and NG models have different preamps. I like the gritty Tone Capsule a lot.

Wolfgang Flur, (ex Kraftwerk) last Friday night, in a small club in Cardiff He's now over 70, but still full of energy (more movement / dancing than he did in Kraftwerk) Great songs & accompanying videos, met him afterwards for a signed CD + poster. Nice fella too

Just picked this up, does anyone have any idea what it is?! Any clues as to it's value other than not very much? It's an old Kay obviously given the logo on the pickplate and the body is plywood but other than that I have very little idea...

I have a fretless sunburst '79 pre EB Stingray I bought off Pino and it enables me to play just like him. Not all listeners agree.

My Babies 82 JV Squire Jazz (with Fender decal) with a Hipshot Kickass bridge,Nordstrand NJ4's,East J retro Deluxe and Gotoh Lollipop Tuners strung with DR High Beams Fender Nate Mendel with a Hipshot Vintage Bridge,Aguilar P60 and a mint rebel relic pickguard. Strung with TI flats Used to have loads of basses, but now just have these two! They do everything i need 😁

Andertons didn't show much interest in taking it as a stock item which shows how far down short scale bass users come on their list of priorities. It wouldn't surprise me if Fender do the same and stop at the cheap version. I hope to be proven wrong!

Forgot about the through body stringing. Where's that fella whispering "remember thou art mortal" when I need him 😆

She's a bass player. Doesn't matter what she looks like, doesn't matter what gender she is, she's an inspiring and totally groovy bass player. Simple, funky and fabulous. Nobody gives a **** what Geddy Lee looks like, he's just a great bass player.... to me, Tina Weymouth is the same. Male, female, irrelevant.

James was loudest in the mix. They knew he was great ! Even Macca knew he was great.

How many cymbals does a drummer need? Hats, crash and a ride, that's the job done. Use basic tools until you feel you can afford, justify or even need more. Decent cymbals can be bought quite cheaply now and even economy brands are certainly better than they were in the past or at least better than no cymbals at all. He has to hire cymbals in? What's all that about? I've never heard of such goings on. This would not happen in any Northern town. Sounds like a load of old bollox to me. He may have delusions of grandeur! They usually have. 🥁 Maybe the singer is delusional about being a singer too if he can't remember his own lyrics after that length of time. That would be about 8 months since you started the project? If he can't remember them by now, he is either not cut out to be a singer, the songs could be too long and/or full of pretentious philosophical nonsense that no-one but he can understand anyway or, he is a goldfish. Seriously though, it sounds like they are scared to me. Well, maybe the drummers doing a drummer thing and trying not to let the girlfriend know that he needs to actually buy something for a change! 😂 Good advice in above posts though. Book a gig, get a target and you will hopefully find that the rest will get themselves together. If they don't, you have the answer to your OP.

I like it... looks good! 👍🏻

I know a few musicians who'd rather have a theoretical band with a social media profile and pictures of themselves that they can talk about to impress* people than actually get out there and gig. I wouldn't waste my time with them. * for a given value of 'impress', obv...

I've been in a similar position a couple of times; start-up originals bands, reluctant to take that first step. My solution was to go to a local open mic (that accepts full bands and if possible has back line and drum bits) and pop the cherry. I worked my local contact with the organiser of one to get 30 mins. I did this with a band I've since left who have recorded two CDs and play medium sized festivals. They still talk gratefully to me about 'that time you made us play at the open mic when we didn't feel ready' However, if people really haven't got the stomach to play in public......well you know the answer really.

That’s great Only asked because I was 14 and just bought my first bass and i remember playing public image and exodus, Bob Marley 👍

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You may! I have just acquired (as scrap) a Carvin Vintage 33 combo. The cabinet is more than a little distressed, the speaker is blown, but both transformers work. My plan is to take the existing chassis and transformers (and some other useful working parts e.g. switches, pilot light) and convert it to a 30W bass head with the following features: Output section based around four EL84 valves, because that's what the OT is suited for - hence my interest in the LB30 schematic; Preamp based on a 1964 Amped B15 channel; That's about it! I need to make sure that the pre-amp will work with the power amp (i.e. that phase splitter has enough beans to drive all the EL84s), so I will be working on my understanding of push-pull amps and hitting up the forums . Here's the innards as I got the amp, and the almost-gutted chassis:

https://www.karaoke-version.co.uk/ We use this site and is £2 per track and you can amend the mix as many times as you like. Great quality for covers and we do some Dub step stuff that we couldn't reproduce. We don't do it for the full set, but when we smash out a Rammstein track people take notice.

Lucky you, they are amazing live!

If you have a problem with the answers maybe you should have phrased the question differently. This is also the problem with "click-bait". If you point people in one direction you can't complain if that's the direction they go! Then there is the long post problem. People generally don't read long posts so any points being made in a long post will probably be missed. Long posts are generally not to the point. Sorry, but I tried reading yours and drifted off several times. Perfection is overrated. The value of anything to be "good enough".

True, I guess it's what makes him happy and gives him the onstage sound he likes..............of course it'll turn out he's on in-ears and can only hear the monitor feed anyway

We know. If you took the French and German out of the English language we would only be able to grunt at each other.

We use Drop pedals in our band - both guitarists and myself. We have a few originals that just sound right played lower (three half-steps down from already-half-step-down with our last singer and from standard tuning with our current singer) and whilst we used to change guitars to achieve it, it put a break in the flow of the performance while we changed over and checked tuning, which we didn’t like; it was even worse if we then had to change back, especially given the average set length for an original power metal band playing local support slots etc. For the guitars it was a bit of a no-brainier - the Drop pedal works great as intended. For me on bass it was a judgement call; do I still change bass and work on the speed of changeover, play the line further up, play the whole set on a 5, or try the Drop pedal. I tried it and initially wasn’t sure as it sounded a little modulated, but with the Thumpinator in front of it to give it the cleanest possible signal to process, I decided it wasn’t out of tune or unpleasant and it was plenty close enough alongside the other elements in our live performance. Tuning up half a step to standard when we changed singer helped very slightly again in terms of accuracy, though I still wouldn’t want to go any further than 3 half-steps down with the pedal no matter what the starting point. I wouldn’t use it always-on and certainly wouldn’t record with it, but for an instant change in feel for a couple of songs to vary a set, it does more good than harm. We’ve been using them for a good while now and nobody’s ever come up and said “that sounded dodgy”! 🙂

Well at the next bass bash you could organise a blind audience fingering and get answers.

I own three Peavey B-Quad (original owner). Two 4 stringers fretted and one 5 string fretless. The two 4 stringers are 2 of the first 12 pre-production prototypes (Violet & Teal). I have a personal letter from Hartley Peavey stating so. These were on USA dealer tour at select Peavey dealers featuring Brian Bromberg himself giving a seminar/demo. It was a fantastic experience being able to sit just a few feet away from Brian as he just blew everyone away with his virtuosity. The 5 string fretless I have was custom made. It's one of the very last B-Quad made (see extended story below) I had to contact Brian to get permission for the changes (no fret lines, side dot markers placed were the frets usually are, and no "B" at the 12th position). Surprisingly he approved it! It's black, black hardware. If Darth Vader played bass this is the bass he would have. The pre-production prototypes have electronics and piezo bridge saddle pickups that were designed and hand built by Rick Turner, co-founder of Alembic. I don't know how long Turner continued to make the pre-amp for the B-Quads. I do know that he wasn't happy with the Peavey relationship at some point because I had to contact him for a piezo bridge saddle pickup replacement for one that failed. He had ONE in stock and kindly sent it to me for FREE (Thank you so much Rick!). The custom 5 string was a disaster. It took 18 months to arrive. I had to repeatedly complain and inquire "where's my bass?". It turned out that because of the above mentioned "custom" modifications, someone at Peavey thought it was a defect and had tossed in pile of other defective components. When it finally arrived, it had the wrong hardware (I originally ordered gold), and the batteries were dead. It had different electronics, different piezo bridge saddles, sounded way different, and I never really liked the way it felt. BUT - it sure looked cool. It always draws comments from the audience with the shiny fretless, almost glass-like black fingerboard. At the time I bought the first one I really had my heart set on a Modulus. The sales guy suggested I try more instruments including the B-Quads. I hadn't been playing for a while and was just getting back into the music scene. When he left I decided to try a B-Quad. To my surprise, my wife who was with me suddenly said "I like the way you play this one. You're playing things I've never heard you play before". I was stunned. Why? Because at Brian Bromberg's demo one of his pitch lines was "This instrument will bring out music in you that didn't know was there". I thought "holy s***! talk about taking the words right out of the horse's mouth!!" So I bought it. It was nearly a year later and the other B-Quad left behind from Bromberg's tour was still sitting there. I was surprised no one had bought it yet. The store manager knew I had bought the first one and caught me eyeing it again one day. So he said "give me a figure - take your time". So I thought about it and finally gave him a rather low-ball figure. He then showed me his calculator. My "bid" was $50 higher. He sold it to me for the lower price.

I think everyone has their own holy grail, a bass they arrived at through influences, fave tones, feel, looks, value for money, ability to fit most/all musical situations...... endless other reasons etc...... but mainly that just feels 'right' and almost an extension of their musical self. Mine is the Spector NS2. YMMV.....

Well true generosity of spirit would have been for the seller to sell the bass on behalf of TM Stevens for a modest fee, not to exploit his name for a huge mark up.

@MoonBassAlpha Short out C12 on the pcb, or short the junction between R8 and C12 to ground, whichever is handiest. Haven't done it myself yet, but I've modelled it in LTSpice and C12 is the culprit. When I get around to it I'll be playing with the MOSFET clipping in the circuit too... There are differences in the overall circuit between the CTM15 and the MiniMOFO, but not much until after the tone stack. The minimum gain available is very slightly lower on the CTM15 (different value for R9). Now maybe shorting C12 will highlight a deficiency somewhere else in the circuit, but to get a quarter turn of travel on the gain control without it turning to crap I'm willing to give it a rattle! Some plots to show what simulation says. I've only simulated up to just after the tone stack, and have bass and treble cut, mid boosted to get the flattest response (fender-style tone stack). Should have measured before the tone stack, but you get the idea... Obviously there is some high and low passing going on elsewhere in the circuit, but I'm not planning on playing with that... yet... First, minimum gain, original circuit: Now minimum gain with C12 shorted out: Now back to original circuit but gain about half way up (assuming 100k ohms on 1meg ohm log taper pot): Now half way gain with C12 shorted out: