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The Mrs just showed me this on Reddit, so I found it on YouChoob to share.

Back in the early 90s I was in a punk-funk band. We thought we were going places, had headlined the Marquee, supported Carter USM and Gaye Bykers on a number of occasions, when our drummer left. So we advertised for one; we had a number of assorted chancers who couldn't play, or didn't have their own gear and expected us to buy it for them, then a Dutch guy turned up... He had long hair, denim, was obviously from the 70s (!) and didn't really fit in with us (mohicans etc) but wasn't a bad drummer. His only problem was a tendency to put the "EastEnders"/Phil Collins drum bit into everything, but we felt we could perhaps funk him up a bit. He turned up for the 1st rehearsal with his girlfriend. Who was called Janine (you know where this is going!). We started teaching him our songs, and she kept stopping us to say things like "I fink the guitarist should do a little peggio there", or "what this song needs Is a flutey sound on the keyboard". We politely declined all her suggestions, then she said she'd do a better job than Mikey, our manager (and m8 of many years), and she could get us a great gig in her local pub... We managed to struggle through 1 gig with him before he left to (as she said) "join a proper rock band".

We picked up our 735A cabs for £900 the pair in mint condition, that included quality covers and a pair of pricey winch stands (£115 each online), we also got our matching Art subs for just over £500 for the pair, again with quality covers. Surprisingly we found them on a PA selling page rather than a bass forum, they tend to be more popular there! I dare say you'll find quite a few for sale on PA/DJ forums and probably on metal guitar forums too.

I think this is actually the most annoying thing in the world (first world, that is). Nothing worse than having to push and pull your playing to try and keep a crap drummer somewhere near the beat. Makes the whole business of playing bass a terrible chore, instead of the great pleasure that it should be.

Just to clarify, there shouldn't be any RCF worship here - the word RCF could be replaced with any competitor brand... Yamaha, QSC, EV whatever... HOWEVER when it comes to the RCF 735 and 745... they are stand out cabs because of these things - VC size and resultant performance of the drivers and the horns that they are used are not used in any other ABS cabs - they are only usually found in wooden cabs. VC size and resultant performance of the drivers and the horns that they use are not found in any other cabs at this price point. VC size and resultant performance of the drivers and the horns that they use are not found in any other cabs of this weight. Smaart shows the DSP to be a true FRFR with a pink noise test - and these cabs will actually handle so much lows that a lot of users could (and do) use them without a sub. So those two cabs in particular are cabs that should not exist - and therefore are worthy of mention because for the reasons above, they smack all others (comparable but ultimately non comparable) into the ground. Are RCF the cabs the best in the PA world? No. Far from it. Are the 735 and 745 the best compared to their non-existent competition? I'd say so. If that makes them flavour of the month, I'd say given the reasons above, it's fully justifiable.

Only ever done one audition, way back in the 60s, when I sat behind a kit. Not an audition from Hell, but it turned out fine for me. I answered an ad for a drummer wanted for a re-forming showband, there were three or four blokes turned up, which were quickly reduced to just two of us. We were using the band's old drummer's kit for the auditions, but chatting it transpired that the other bloke and me both had identical kits, red silk Premier, and he was left handed, so set his up as a mirror image of mine. Well, it was a showband, (sax etc) so they decided to offer us both the job, to have two drummers, and left it to us to get together to swap notes etc. When I phoned him to arrange, his dad answered, and told me in no uncertain terms that his son wasn’t going to be one of two drummers, and he, Dad, would make sure his son got the gig. I phoned the band leader, who said he’d just heard from the Dad, and was about to phone me, to ask if I’d have any problem being 1 of 2, to which I replied no problem. In that case you’ve got the job, he said.......

They love it, since it's far smaller than my previous rigs and takes up less space in the band van. It sounded great at the first rehearsal and the sound has been getting even better with every tweak I make to the various patches. These days I'm playing what could be best described as post-punk/gothic music which is a modern take on 80s influences, so unconventional is the order of the day. TBH (apart from short stint playing covers) The Terrortones are by far the most conventional band I've ever been in and they would have probably been OK with this too. I got a few worried looks from the bass player of the band that supported us at the last gig, but I plugged him into the Helix and was about to run through some of my patches to find a suitable sound, but he thought the first patch was fantastic and that was that.

I'm keeping myself busy at the moment with this. Bwahaaahhaaa!!

It's back on eBay!! The BGM award winning bass. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F132586830399 Another high quality well worded ad by the seller. At least they haven't called it an Elwood this time......

Guildford, early 2000's Not exactly an audition... A mate who had a band, mainly with people he knew through work, had booked a gig without really considering that they didn't actually have a bass player. They didn't play very much and I'd never seen them, but he had a knack of playing pubs near work on Friday nights so their mates (apart from me) and everybody they worked with would come along, the pub would sell a lot of beer and the band would go down pretty well. He was the BL, and being a mate I said that I'd come down to a practice, see if we gelled, and assuming no disasters I'd cover for the gig... The lead guitarist had been to GIT in LA and had lessons from Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. The BL, on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, was a triumph of enthusiasm over talent. Quite a contrast. The drummer had previously left the band to move to Spain with his wife, but having found out that she'd been cheating on him almost as soon as the plane landed, was back a year later, in a slightly fragile emotional state. It was difficult to tell if he was any good as he hadn't played the drums since moving to Spain, and was extremely rusty. There was also a female singer who did BVs and a couple of lead vocals, who was OK, not spectacular. That the drummer very obviously fancied. Really not subtle at all. And despite her being happily married. The previous bass player was someone at work who liked the idea of being in a band and owned a bass from when he was younger, but now had better things to do. I'd got a list of half a dozen covers to learn, some unusual choices but fairly mid-paced rock from the Beatles to Radiohead, nothing too trying, all in the original keys. This'll be fun... It rapidly became apparent that the position of BL was purely ceremonial, with no actual leading going on. If everybody started and stopped in more or less the same place, it was a success as far as he could see. the main problem was both his very average guitar playing, and his below par vocals. The odd song would be in the right key for him, and it wouldn't sound bad, but most of them weren't, so rather than changing the key, or letting the girl take those ones, he would screech his way through. And think he'd done a great job. We rush through the covers and the BL wants to move on. I suggest that we weren't sounding very good, how about we work on some of the issues...I politely point out a few parts where the drums were out and the BL played the wrong thing at various points, and it's really lacking in any dynamics... The drummer takes this OK, and apologises that he's a bit rusty, plus the previous bass player wasn't really one for any dynamics (his strength seemed to have been playing the root note of whatever chord the BL was playing) so he's not used to the bass trying to do any more than that. The BL concedes that he isn't playing all of his parts correctly, what with some of them being quite tricky for his standard of playing, and made more complicated because he is singing at the same time, but he thought he'd covered them OK and I'd only noticed because I'd been listening to the songs to learn the bass parts, nobody in the crowd would spot it. I also pointed out that a lot of the vocals would be better if we changed the keys to better suit his voice. Or did different songs that were better suited to his voice. He actually took that very well because he knew when his voice was straining, and was genuinely interested in the idea, but thought it wasn't worth trying right then as he'd need to go away and work on which keys were the right ones. Fair point. The BL insisted that we'll be fine with another couple of practices, and he wants to move on because he's written some songs and wanted the band to focus on playing those at future gigs rather than just covers. He shows the band how they go and we work our way through them. They are all dreadful. Nobody else in the band seems very enthusiastic, but out of politeness nobody says anything, so the BL thinks that they are dead keen to play them. The lead guitarist seemed completely bored, so I had a chat with him during a break. He knew exactly how bad the band was, but like me, the BL was a good mate, and with a couple of very young kids and a wife who clearly wore the pants in his house, this was his one excuse to get out and play his guitar. they didn't play very much, and he was happy to remain at a very low level weekend warrior level. We ran through the set, such as it was, one more time. the drummer was even worse, the girl has joined the lead guitarist in looking very bored, possibly because she is clearly the best singer in the band but only has a couple of lead vocals and none in the new songs, and only the BL is showing any sign of enjoying himself. He's given me a lift to the studio, and on the way back he asks me how I think it's gone, and would I be interested in joining full time rather than just doing the one gig? Didn't seem to mind in the slightest that I'd spent the night telling them how bad they were (actually, I did try to do it as positively as possible), my bass playing is a definite improvement on the previous incumbent and the band was sounding really good... I politely decline, say that it's not really for me but I'll do the gig if he wants me to. But I am not really very keen. He rings me the following day to say that the girl singer has decided that she'd rather stay in with her hubby than come to any more practices, certainly while the drummer was still there.. They could cope with that by cutting the couple of songs that she sings lead vocals on, but probably wouldn't need to as the drummer had decided that he wasn't in any state to be playing in a band at that time so couldn't commit to anything. They wouldn't find a new drummer in time for the gig, so it was off and I never had to return.

Nah! All educational banter. Cam and I are good buddies. He's just taller, better looking and a better singer than me. However, despite that I'm in two much better bands than he's in! And I have a massive amount of respect for the other guys I've been exchanging views with, although I might not always have had the time when crafting a quick reply to be showing it! +1 Let (polite) free speech reign. Besides @JSB is clearly a big fan of my Markbass combo so maybe I can sell my DG M900 and Vanderkley cab and spend the money on an FRFR

When the band can turn up on time, I'll then consider a metronome!

No, its a ballache!!

Our drummer *is* a metronome. His tempo is so consistent I was recently able to mix and match bits of the multitrack from three different takes of the same song. Was impressed.

Hooray! New strings have completely solved the problem. The Warwick Black labels arrived so I fitted those. Not only can I get the E-string action down with the others, I have been able to lower the action on all the strings by quite bit as well. Not sure if it is just a one off rogue E-string, or if this is a systematic problem with the 'Red labels'. Tension in the black labels seems slightly higher than in the Reds. They seem slightly brighter than the Reds, which may well be because they're new, but fundamentally sound much the same. Physically the Black label B and E strings have a significantly finer outer winding than the Reds. The only thing I'm not yet convinced by is that the Blacks have a taper wound B string. It seems to sound a bit 'hollow' compared to the original (non tapered) Reds. BUt whether that is the taper or something else I really don't know. Newtones are on the way and I'll report on those when they're fitted. Thanks for all your suggestions on this.

Hi all. In my 74th year and still playing, I have never really recovered from the theft of my '77 Stingray some 15 years ago. I used to be a "one bass guy" but since that time I have never really felt so "at home" again and have been through a handful of basses since, though choice limited by pension and her indoors. I did manage to land a year of issue Sabre bass from US but it didn't quite hit the button. So.......... the purpose of this thread is to ask if anyone out there has been able to A/B a pre EB S'Ray with a post EB S'Ray and their conclusions. The date of any compared basses would be useful. I know I should be over this by now, they are only peaces of wood, but heart refuses to be ruled by head !!

You don't want to know. 😁 Blue

I had one of them - the Roland D-bass 210 - I'm not quite sure why I moved it on it was very impressive in the 'ultrA flat" mode. At the time I had a hellborg pre into a poweramp and a ACME B2 which again was even cleaner sounding. Sold them both and ended up with a walkabout which is like the diametric opposite of FRFR - but the MB AC combo is something I would like to try some point

With a 12" main driver, the ideal crossover point is between 1.2 and 1.5kHz, which is where the driver rolls off off-axis. Anything up to 2kHz will be useable, but above that and you get a dip off axis because of the way the bass driver beams at higher frequencies.

@Al Krow if you get a 735A you know you are going to need a Yamaha BB735A to go with it!

Indeed - carrying a dumb bell is easier than carrying a similar weight javelin.

Surely that's more a "jazzy guitarist" than a "funky guitarist"?

I had the opportunity to visit Alain Caron (AC) in his studio while he was transitioning from Roland to MarkBass. He explained to me that the Roland D-Bass combos were designed with his feedback and the goal was to develop the most neutral combo possible, with the technology of the time. They came up with the FFP tech, which is basically a DSP similar to what was found in studio monitors. In SuperFlat mode, you had as much as a FRFR system as it was possible in those days. As Roland was moving out of the professional bass amp market, he was approached by MB... At the time of my visit, Alain was in the process of A/B testing the MarkBass prototype combo with his reference for what he was looking for: his own studio monitors. This is what he uses at home. This is what he wanted to have on stage. No coincidence the design is similar to a PA system (bi-amped, powerful tweeter, etc.) With the controls "neutral", this is probably one of the most FRFR combo available, plus you get the MB coloring on demand. Love this combo!

This is a lot more common than you'd think. The responsibility for keeping time is shared by the whole band, it's not all up to the drummer. It's difficult enough finding people who can play (and aren't nuts), but finding people who can play, who aren't nuts AND have natural rhythm, great feel and good timing is a real mission. But this is one of the main differences between a really good band and the thousands of bands out there who are, er... not quite as good.

Try hot air, heat gun or hair dryer, to tighten the cloth.

We don't play with backing tracks. We do play with a click when required. When is it required? When we have the synth player playing synth patches with arpeggios or samples being triggered that are beat dependent. It's not cheating - as unlike backing tracks, we can go round verses, choruses, bridges until the cows come home. We are not limited by the playback of a backing track. At one point, I was syncing MIDI across the stage for patch changes and being able to trigger different tempos (so we are still not bound by a song structure) - but ultimately, it was overkill, extra complication and another thing to go wrong. It also depends on the drummer... a great drummer can groove to a click and push and pull the tempo around that click. Hell, I use three drummers regularly and they all share a common pad with all the notation (they are all theatre show drummers) - makes learning new songs really easy for them... they just turn up and read.

I've just ordered a pair from David at Retrovibe for £85.

I'm saying that a good drummer can play loud and can play quietly, and a drummer that can only play loud is just not a very good drummer. Hitting the right bits in time is only part of the game, you have to hit them with the right amount of force for the situation. Dynamics. They exist.

I know your comment wasn't completely serious, but in 40+ years of playing in bands I've never once come across this attitude outside of this forum (i.e. in real life).

Have replaced the knobs with proper Fender ones. Wow, they're expensive for what they are! Couldn't find the 'correct' EQ knobs with plus and minus values, which is apparently because they're rare as hen's teeth. Repositioned the decal but the cloth looks a bit loose and baggy, so might try to tighten it a bit. Anyway, it will do for now until I get enough time to re-cover it with new tolex.

There’s also a helpful “fix” described on TB under the heading “Quick 3 point bridge adjustment screw fix for Guild B-302”. This guy stripped the thread on the front adjustment screw and had to replace it. However what he says and shows gives good insight into how this bridge functions, which is similar to the Gibson 3 point about which there is much info here and elsewhere.

Agree entirely. In my experience it is only the people who don't know or care to learn any theory who use the .."it stunts your creativity" concept. I have never come across anyone who abandoned theory because of the same argument.. ANY knowledge is never a waste of time.

I spent 28yrs of a 30yr playing career with no pedals. Recently I have been using them. They are fun to have but not essential. They do sound good though. The best improvement to your sound is practice though.

Ummmm - yes you can. You just turn your bass volume down. Most Clip on tuners work by sensing the frequency through vibration.

And then worked with George Martin who DID study music. The 'music theory stunts your creativity ' argument is a justification. Any knowledge empowers you. A lack of knowledge will not improve creativity, it will be irrelevant to it.

I love the idea of a couple of pedals, but in practice I know at a gig they would stress me out and add more complications and more chances for things to go wrong. In all honesty I barely even use my amp settings, it’s mostly flat and my stingray does my small EQ tweaks.

If anyone is still interested, the vong hpf kit is now available: http://schalltechnik04.de/en/kits

Me too. Only problem I ever encounter with clip ons is when tuning a semi or fully acoustic bass / guitar whilst there's a lot of noise going on. On a solid bass mine is 100% every time whatever the environment.

This isnt a "hell audition" but we did laugh. A lot. We were a fresh from school band. All of us between 18 - 20. Quite well known on the "local scene". Our set list was fairly heavy rock. Metallica, Free, RATM, Led Zep, Black Sabbath etc. One of our guitarists was going to university so we were auditioning guitarists. We had 3 or 4 people coming to a practice to audition. We sent them all emails with 3 songs to learn, and aid if they had BVs or vocals it would be a massive bonus. The songs were "Wishing well ", "Black dog" and "Enter Sandman". So first guy turns up. Long hair, pointy dimebag guitar, Tight jeans, big boots, a amp and cab that was far too big. You get the picture. Nice enough though, had a chat as he was setting up, got on fine. Looking good. He tells us he can sing a bit, and would be happy to have a go with "Wishing Well". Fair play to the man. So he starts.... "You hear me , so clearly....." He starts singing Wet Wet Wet's version of Wishing Well. Brilliant. We were all crying laughing. The guy clearly felt a little embarrassed, but we couldn't stop. Too funny! DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!

Well, I've enquired. Let's see where this goes...

Acton Unusually, this time it is me who placed the advert. Dispirited by how many auditions for other peoples' projects have turned out to be fiascos, I decide to try starting a band myself. With a drummer friend ready so that we have a decent rhythm section to build on, I advertise for a vocalist - guitarists are easier to find. Once I've weeded out the obvious flakes & fantasists by email, I'm left with one decent candidate for the role, so I invite him to my studio in Acton for a try-out. He's keen to accept, and he also knows a really great guitarist he'd like to bring along. He sends me some links. MMM, the vocalist, has some YouTube showing him doing a pretty impressive Van Morrison at some sort of open mic, he seems to be an intense, focused sort of person. VVV, the guitarist, is apparently an American now based in London, whose self-published album (recorded in New York) is available on Spotify and contains some very nice guitar work. When the two of them arrive at the studio MMM is very much as he appeared on YouTube. VVV isn't, and things go all to stinky poo very quickly. Actually he isn't American, and his name isn't VVV. He's a Spaniard called JJJ. Huh? What's going on here then? It turns out he loves Americana so much that he'd wanted to record his first album in the States, under an American pseudonym. OK, so far so weird. We try to play a simple blues and it very quickly becomes obvious that JJJ (the artist formerly known as VVV) is no great shakes as a guitarist. In fact, he's pretty rubbish. He explains that he didn't know the song. Erm ... it's a blues mate. What's to know? We try another song. Same result. Well if you can't play those because you don't know them, why not tell us a blues that you DO know. "Fine", he says, "let's play Red House". We wait for the famous guitar intro and ... he plays something completely different. We ask him, what are you playing? He says, I'm playing Red House. No, we say, you're not. Ah, he says, maybe this is a different song called Red House. Game over. Insert new coin. As we're packing up I ask JJJ about his album, and how he'd set about recording it. Simple. He'd recruited a bunch of NY session musicians to play on it. That, plus a decent sound engineer, had produced quite a good album. Having shoo'd the pair of them out of the studio and then wet ourselves laughing, I call MMM the next day and ask if he'd like to meet for a beer. I explain that there's no future for any band with JJJ in it, but that we haven't had a chance to hear what he, MMM, can do. Would he like to come back for another try, this time without his mate JJJ? He accepts the offer, so I call up an old friend to play guitar for us and we set the date. MMM arrives and we play the first song. I wasn't wrong about his Van Morrison persona - he's got that whole Brown-Eyed Girl thing down to a T. We play another song. It sounds ... erm ... just like the first one, that strange barking, almost-coughing delivery, very gruff, very distinctive. Very repetitive. As long as we're playing material that works with the that vocal style, it's sort-of OK. When we try a pop song it just doesn't work. When we try a gentle blues it's horrible. We point this out to him and suggest that he tries a different style occasionally. He reacts badly, says that's the only style he can sing, in fact we get the impression that he's not even aware that other singing styles actually exist. All very odd. The session breaks up in some disarray and it's not looking good. Next morning, MMM emails me to apologise for both his performance and his attitude. He explains that he has a serious problem with autism and is at the far end of the spectrum, but that he's being treated for it. Incidentally, he has now signed a recording contract (!) with an agency looking for new talent, and would the three of us like to be his backing band? I make my apologies and leave ...

for a start, he opens with "respectfully", so he's not being as much of an chocolate starfish as people are making out. It's just his opinion based on his (no small) experience. I like Kiss, as they're a band with a mid-level talent, but great showmanship who have undoubtedly left their mark. I wonder if the Kiss naysayers are a touch jealous a la Adam Clayton.

Depends what it is? Brass strap buttons? Just replace like for like with new versions, and leave the originals in the case, then give the new owner the choice if you decide to sell. Shouldn't affect the value if the holes aren't altered. Even on a vintage Fender, which I'm assuming this isn't, if a part is no longer functional, then you need to replace it. If your concerned about original appearances, try and be as sympathetic as possible with the replacement bits. Simple as that.