deepbass5

1 hour ago, jbu09 said:

Don't often get the urge to gush in public, but this is just so nice..  and at this price.. 

I don't need this, 😥 But have to say If Schack or Marleaux made this tomorrow, with this quality of wood and construction it would be £3000. Human basses are not as higher profile in UK but up there on quality.

Also my favourite bridge of all time. 😍

Great basses. I'm with Luke  - the incoming may not match up ? 

14 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

She’s an absolute diamond - and about 7/8 years ago, actively stopped me giving up playing by booking a rehearsal space and contacting all of my musician friends to start a band, she was adamant I wasn’t giving up on a passion…

 

She pushes me all the time.

You need to be careful, I knew a trumpet player that started playing in a band again after a long break, His wife suspected he was having an affair, so removed the mouthpiece from his instrument case. He continued going to band practice every week until she confronted him some weeks later   

Sonic for me, Red basses are always too loud

Whilst i am reminiscing.

I traded my 77 Fender P bass at the Gallery in the early 90's  it had a maple neck and was originally olypic white but i stripped it, because it was looking tatty ( yah I know) I added a baddass bridge and white EMG's  and cut a slot under the pickup cover to take a PP9 battery.

So if you own a 77 P bass with a white neck pocket and a battery sized chunk missing under the guard, that'll be mine. It may well have been refinished and reverted back to stock by now, as i supplied the original pups and bridge etc.

Think i got £300or £320 for it partX. 😪

The bass i miss most, which i sold on here about fifteen years ago approx, never seen it come up since. Was that you ? and do you still love it ? Just wondering

A passive Schack swamp ash with Padauk board, I added a jazz pup and tonestyler pot. also the Barts and a string through for the 'B' and some fancy knobs.

4 hours ago, gapiro said:

I’m curious, as my knowledge is more electronics than electrical ,what sort of thing you do to check a venues power ? 
I’ve been tempted to take a socket tester with me but not sure what else you’d do ?

That's all you can do within reason, (a test plug) that shows polarity and earth correctly wired. It has saved us on a few occations. Lets face it when you get to a gig you hardly have time to scratch your derrière.  You then may require a longer extension to bring power from a socket further away. Like when bypassing the sound limiter 😮 But on large venues you can run the risk of plugging into sockets on a different final ring circuit, that is been wired on a different phase of a three phase system to balance the load across the site. This can create another risk. example. that the guitarist has a good socket near him, your side of the stage shows a fault and you run a lead from another room for your power and say the PA. and monitors. You now have the potential of 415 volts between the Guitarist amp and his mic. his monitor and maybe the lights by his feet. Best in this situation to run the whole band off the one good socket, It is a bit more do-able now with LED lighting I am assuming bands are not carrying around 3Kw of PAR cans anymore.

If I do come across faulty wiring ( broken, cracked, melted, socket etc.) I will always get the most senoir employee I can find and point this out. If a large hotel Chain or Civic hall,  I will actually write to head office the next day.

You won't know whats best until its too late, and the bass is in your hand. Go with what the guy making the bass suggests then take the bass round the gear stores and see what amp and cabs sound best with the bass.

Just about everyone on this site has been here. It is a real lottery. Hope all the combinations line up for you. 

Great Bass, I preferred mine over the Rob Allen i had, which i felt was a bit of a one trick pony IMO. 

You have to grab these when they come up.

On Venues electrical sockets.

I had a section in our bands terms and conditions that states. something similar to the following:-

Our Bass player is an Electrical Engineer and has over the years found various issues with venue electrical installations. We will test this to ensure it is safe for us to use, but reserve the right to not perform should a problem with the venues power supply be identified that may put band members at risk. Please ensure the venues electrical installation has been periodically inspected as per IEE regulations recommendations, and is properly earthed.

This may sound OTT, but means you can drive away and still bill them for a gig that never happened through no fault of your own.

My way of hitting back at the venues as Fleabag pointed out. i.e. two can play at this game.   

26 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

I love all the "we've never been asked to show our certificates in 20 years", I might as well not bother to tax, mot or insure my cars then? 

Or carry a spare set of strings.       My view of bands with this attitude are basically Rogue Traders.

I have not been asked on the night for these either but the evidence is in my gig bag. I even carry the PAT tester in the Van just incase the guitarist has bought yet another new Amp

Ya -  sorry my copy and quote, copied the quoters?

It was a pooly written sentance by me,  what i think Bassfinger is saying quite correctly.

The court will decide if the Trained qualified tester was doing the job as trained and kept good records to back this up. And would also challenge the uncertified nominated tester ( competent person) as to his actions and record keeping but would also focus on why he believes he is competent for this role - in light of incident being brought to court. A far more uncomfortable situation. I am under no illusion that a passionate and conscientious tester without qualifications, can do this perfectly safely and maybe better than someone with a certificate that is not conscientious. The court will decide.

My main driver on this is that, If you run a band and lets say will be playing at someones wedding that has been a year in the planning and you and your band mates may be travelling many miles to fullfill that gig, why would you risk being turned away at the door over PAT testing. Also why would you risk not having insurance to cover expensive equipment and to indemnify you against financial risk. Or Why, as has been indicated on other threads would you just buy PAT test stickers from screwfix. In hope of putting people off the scent.? 

Just to get back on track of ownership of images, We got an e-mail once with reference to images on our website that i had downloaded from the web. Just nice colour lighting washes of a stages. It was a good mood setting image to have some band info words over on various pages. I never replied but did remove them and found others that did not upset anyone. So it doesn't need to be someones face just a registered photographers property. 

On 23/12/2021 at 11:14, alyctes said:

don't get me wrong, I don't want that, but the point I hate is that PAT testing is a completely unregulated industry with no standards and no definitions of what it must contain. 
Therefore quality is variable and yet people overcharge for it all

On 24/12/2021 at 08:11, nilebodgers said:

Because there is no such thing as a defined PAT test, there is no such thing as a course for it...

All the law says is that a competent (which is agian, undefined) person has inspected (undefined) the equipment at an appropriate (undefined) interval

We have been on this subject a few times. PAT & PLI So here is my bit again.  Not picking on these two individual comments but as examples of, so don't beat me up.

As an electrician and later a lecturer in H&S inc Electrical safety.  There are certified courses run to train individuals on PAT testing - been there done that.   Though this does not stop a competant individual doing this without a certificate but removes that ambiguity, one less thing to prove in court.   I have had individuals that were on the course that simply needed that certificate to get a job or extra pay for that role. So mindful of their reasons for being there my emphasis was always around due diligence, which is why all H&S law is written very openly, so you need to prove you have done all that was reasonably practical to avoid that situation that may occure. So I went to great lengths to emphasise that this was not about buying a tester and pressing a button. But inspection and understanding how the equipment would be used and where etc.  Many bits of kit i have tested and passed on the machine I have later, on inspection seen things that were dangerous inside and required rectifying or scrapping.

As a Band you have a collective responsibility to each other your audience and the venue.  Under H&S Law "by your acts and omissions"  So what you do and what you fail to do to avoid danger.  Prove that you care and are a professional outfit that people will want to hire.

If money is changing hands for you to perform, you are a business and the hirer or other third parties may wish to persue you for losses or damages. So get insured MU is good for legal advice. 

Playing the bass is the easy part 😁

Yes very sad, I thought she was very good on the radio, knowledgeable with a good style and manner. With Keith gone too young, brother Jeff must be really cut up.  Some families seem to have more than their fair share of tragedy. I often think of Keiths second wife who also died young and so left a son without either parents.

On 27/12/2021 at 22:32, steantval said:

I think this guy would disagree with that statement.

I have had to play a few funky bass numbers during my function band days, and would say that even if the bass player and drummer have it down, if the guitarist doesn't do the right things and leave the holes you've created and have that same feel for the grove, just strumming chords in time doesn't help make the piece work and feel right. In fact puts you off what you have learnt.

Firefox may be the issue lots of comments on there, about spell checking issues

i thhenk i havve donne it noww

it is on in the browser settings on English, also restarted the computer but from the above dosent seem to have worked, I'll ask a boy Cheers 

Just wondered if or why there is no auto spell checker, it used to prompt you when replying to posts, but mine no longer warns me of my poor spelling ?

is it me / my computer ?

Cheers  

37 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Tubular Bells ... on the radio !

If you find your radio isn't on  - your late for Church

CSN & Y

Here is another that needs to be added

https://www.atbguitars.com/store/products/basses/

and

 https://bassbros.co.uk/category/bass-guitars/

And this of course

I ended up a fingers only man but i am aware that limited me on some numbers. 20 years ago I always had a pick in my pick guard ready for certain numbers 

Here is one almost impossible with fingers I just about got away with it. If you listen to it closely you will hear how the pick is used to bounce down across one string and then up stroke the next string as the song was recorded.

I have the dots for this if anyone is interested PM me

19 minutes ago, GreeneKing said:

I’ve been riding motorcycles since I was 16. There is my field of expertise  I wish my bass playing were anywhere near that level. 

But just like going out on the bike this winter and being aware through your experience, It sounds like you already have a good awareness of the greasy leaves and the cats eyes that crop up in the band situation 👍

Edit - There are people you know that you probably would want on the back of your bike.

Great comments here, Skinnyman summed it up for me.

I have had similar issues in the past, but one thing we always did as a band was agree on what version of the song we were learning. The Single as played by the BBC 🙂 ? album version. or maybe specific Radio edit?

Hopefully everyone had done their homework come rehearsal day, but my Mrs (singer ) would always have a tape or CD player there to iron out any points that individuals had forgot. That way there is no arguement.

To back that up I would get drummer to agree to stick to the record. Mistakes happen, Vocalist may drop a verse etc or guitar may forget the bridge ? Then as a one off thats where everyones musicianship steps in. The ability to use your ears and know where to jump. This is so the audience don't even know something has happened.  Lastly Volume, my pet hate. Agree that it is too loud in the rehearsal room and you can't continue like this. and at gigs look at the venue and comment to each other that we'll need to keep it down in here due to people eating and wanting to talking. We would have a quiet set 1 and then a louder bopping 2nd -3rd as required. We would also supply recorded dinner music so we did not always have to play while people were eating and socialising at the start of the evening.