Lozz196

I know what you mean Paul, I generally find that a 30min set from a band where I don`t know the material is generally enough for me.

I`m currently in an originals band and the answer is yes, I would go to see "us" if I weren`t in the band. We`re playing music that I love, on a scene I love (but that I wasn`t aware of until we started the band I should add). Up until this band I used to go and see local covers bands regularly, as I just love music, but I do so much with my current band I hardly ever have the time to go out and see a band locally, on those weekends when I`m not gigging the feet are up storing energy for the next batch.

I`m amazed at this, I think it`s treating a member of the band pretty poorly (possibly a major understatement there). If anything get a dep in, but in all cases never book a gig when a band member says up front they are unavailable.

If you like the Hydrive 112 get another - doubling up on the same cab really is a grin-inducing move.

Whilst I`m not exactly keen on bands playing for nothing, sometimes, when starting out on the originals circuit it`s one of those things that has to be done. You either get 5 paid gigs a year, or you take a punt on a few more unpaid as well, knowing you`re expanding your audience/merch sales/fan-base. Additionally, and in regards to the op, they agreed to play for nothing. Now irrespective of whatever any other band is getting, if you make an agreement you should stick with it imo. Again, not wonderful but you can gain a reputation as trustworthy, which can work in your favour - it`s how we`ve done things. An example of this is we were playing Gateshead on a Friday night, Blackpool on the Sat night afterwards. A big gig in Glasgow was offered to us at very short notice. So we did all three, doing an early afternoon Glasgow set, we wouldn`t bin the small Blackpool gig for the better Glasgow one. It was knackering, but in honouring our commitments it further cemented our reputation as a band that can be trusted.And the band is now self-funding, we don`t take any money from it but it pays for all recording/merch/hotels/flights/ferries/van & driver hire etc. But if we`d binned all the early unpaid gigs I wonder if we`d be in that position now.

Or a Ludwig Black Beauty. Or one of those china cymbals, they`re horrible and far too loud.

Depends on how loud your drummer is really, a 100 watt 1x15 should be loud enough but will it have the depth of sound you want? Ideally I like to have more power than I need, so that I don`t push my amp, with that in mind for the size venues mentioned I`d probably look at 300 watts or so. The Fender Rumbles are great amps in this range, as are the Ashdown Rootmasters. Both are lightweight as well - but not on sound I should add.

Still do it, now you know what time you`re on promote it to the best you can, including that there has been an admin error on the name of the band on the official blurb. Turn up, play, stay for the rest of the bands, sell your merch and keep cementing a reputation of a band that honours its commitments. Might sound a bit po-faced, but when you`re starting out a reputation as a band that`s good to work with will keep you in work. Unfortunately we all encounter promoters like this, but at the end of the day you can play a blinder and gain an advantage through it.

When we started our band I really had no idea of the type of sound I wanted - or more importantly that the band needed. My preferred sound is a traditional warm Precision/Ampeg type sound, maybe a touch of high end and compression to stop it being boomy. But that wasn`t what was needed, the guitarist has a very full on, and at the time quite bassy sound, so didn`t want a sludge fest, especially as we play fast. Additionally as we`re a 3-piece I didn`t want the backside of the songs to drop when there was a solo, so added a bit of gain, a fair bit of top end, and some high-mids. I ended up with somewhere between Duff McKagan, Mike Dirnt, JJ Burnell & Bruce Foxton. Which imo isn`t a bad place to be, sound-wise. I also developed a slight different style to suit the music I`m now playing, again to fill out more in lead solos. To get this sound I`ve tried a fair few preamp/DI pedals, Tech 21 Sansamp BDDI, Tech 21 VTDI, Aguilar Tonehammer, and combinations of these, but eventually settled on the Tech 21 Para Driver - it has sweepable mids, so I can get the regular Sansamp type sound, just with boosted upper mids. It`s a great pedal and that piece of kit that I find invaluable, pairs so nicely with the weighty sound of my Ashdown ABM600.

Our drummer uses damping rings. They don`t make him quieter but they do make the attack of the drum seem quicker, and there is less resonance, so they should probably be known as compressors

I think the word under your username sums that up nicely, Ian

As a follow on from my earlier post, I`ve since found out that the guy who died is having his casket come out to one of our songs. Really moving, and just goes to show that our bands may touch people in ways they never get to know, but the two things from this for me are never get big headed and remember the audience are the ones who count, and always put on your best show/performance.

A Fender Pino Palladino Sig Precision. Was a cracker. Have to admit next for me in terms of basses I`ve not owned are the Road Worn Precisions, amazingly good basses.

Really? Whilst I do agree that you have to write music for you, and not because you think audiences will like it, take away the audience completely and what do you have left, bedroom guitarists/bassists/drummers. The audience and fans are to me the major thing - what we all do means something to people who come to see us. A few weeks ago we were asked to play a gig for a guy who unfortunately had cancer - I say had as sadly he passed away recently. At the end of the gig he said to me "that made my night". I was really humbled and pretty choked by this, I felt honoured that we had been asked to do the gig. Never forget that whilst we get pleasure from what we do, it`s who you deliver it to that counts, and your music could really mean a lot to someone.

These cases look pretty good, have been tempted for a while to get one for touring, make life easier with the wheels etc: https://store.trifibre.co.uk/waterproof-wheeled-rolling-travel-equipment-tool-hard-case-pick-and-pluck-foam.html

I had Eminence Betas put in a couple of Ashdown 210 cabs, by Ashdown, and I found them to be very nice indeed. Re 610s, well I`ll take the opportunity to shamelessly plug the Ashdown RM610 that I`m selling, and I`m pretty sure Ashdown also have one of these as B-Stock, unless they`ve sold it, so you could get two pretty decent cabs that would be big enough for any gig with change from £800. Which is nice.

A great gig for me is where many of the audience buy merch and tell us how great it was. I don`t say this because I want the attention and to be loved, it just means that they really enjoyed themselves and liked the band, which after all is the reason why we do it. I`ve played to some very small audiences but because of their reactions to the band these gigs have been some of the best, like a gig we did in Bremen last year, small venue (full though), first time we`d played there and they went nuts. To get that reaction means we`ve done a good job. We try to remember that the audience are the important ones, not us, we`re there for them, not the other way round.

The answer from me is no, however my backup Vintage Tony Butler Sig Precision at (new) about a fifth of the price of my my US Standard Precision isn`t as far away as the price gap would suggest.

For anyone liking Rotosounds, Warwick Red Lable steel roundwounds are great, last a fair bit longer, and you can get them for around £8/9 a set.

+1. I`ve had many Class D amps and the RMs are the closest I`ve found to that big weighty sound you get from a big weighty bass amp.

Tone is in the plectrums?

There`s probably a lot of science and theories on this, but if the sound is acceptable to the ear then that has to be the most important factor. I think they`re probably more designed to be removed to make shipping easier/less prone to breakages/able to be stacked better.