Viajero

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

A massive shame. The only decent shop for bass in the Toon. Where can we go now?

And I was going to get him to do a fret dress soon, too. Damn.

I've taught bass and English without any qualifications, and there are some important general principles.

1) Know exactly what you're going to do in any given lesson. What you want to achieve, and how.
2) Be patient.

With those two, you'll be fine

Anyone got any opinions on the best noise-cancelling 'phones? They always let you zone in on the bass easily, I find, so I'm thinkin of getting some.

I agree. Stop reading everyone's answers, get on the phone and take the gig.

I imagine the Leeds shop will be Music Ground. Back when I could get real discounts off them, they were massive. Now they offer you money off but it's still way over what you can get it for elsewhere.

I hear that. +x where x is any number you can think of for OBBM.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm being unrealistic with my gear for a gig. At most, I have:

1 bass (5 string)
Head
Cab (115 or 210)
Bag of leads, tuner, stand etc.

At least, just a bass, a stand and a DI box.

I've never had a gig which I felt couldn't be done with one bass and altered settings, not counting theatre shows, that's a different ball game (though not much).

I've always tried to have as little gear as possible for a gig, without being short-handed. Does it not become a bind, keeping track of everything and transporting it?

Quite a stage effect, at least.

I get something similar - pain in the right shoulder and back, especially if sitting down for a long gig. I think it must be posture, having my shoulder forced back and up by the need to play in the usual position. Good to know it's not just me!

My worst was when I foolishly offered to play double bass (my first time) to do a show. Ten days later I went into opening night with all four fingers on my left hand bandaged and both plucking fingers on my right hand bandaged too. Incredible pain, and no chance of even starting to heal until the run ended.

+1 for your future calluses.

[quote name='jakesbass' post='64973' date='Sep 24 2007, 08:37 PM']tell me, do i sound jaundiced?[/quote]

Jaded, surely?

I've learned most of what I know out of double bass books - The Evolving Bassist by Rufus Reid is a good one, or Ray Brown's Bass Method.

Yeah, what would domestic postage be, do you think?

Thank you, all. If anyone's going to be in the Toon tomorrow, PM me your number tonight and I'll give you a call - you always need another player to advise on GAS.

I have a head, but no cab. To try and remedy this situation, I'm going to Newcastle on Saturday morning. I'll head down to Dean Street, but where else should I go to try good gear and chat to knowledgable folks? I know there are plenty of BCers in the NE, so please, help me out, guys!

Oh, don't even start me on that one...

Quite. Even if you are a purist, where's the damage? It's just a preference.

See, never intended that, but it's a good'un.

The Never-Fail Viajero Technique: Meet Up, Drink Up, Think Up. Repeat as necessary.

A band name shouldn't be too defining - it's like being called Dennis and finding yourself working as a lion tamer: it might seem a little out of character in the future.

So, my advice is to get together with your bandmates and get utterly ruined (using the intoxicant of your choice). Get the banter going, and something will come along. It's worked for me on a couple of occasions.

Thanks everyone. Think I'm going to try a Markbass one, once I find somewhere near Durham that stocks them.

Yeah, but is the bigger, ported one a bit bulky? It has to be a reasonable carry with one hand.

A Sceptic's Universe by Spiral Architect. 'Technical Metal', so a difficult listen, but the bass player nails some frightening parts accross the whole album on fretless.

I recently sent my Hartke head to Wales with the Post Office / ParcelForce and, I believe, it turned up safe and sound. That was a fairly large, 20¡odd kilo parcel with 150 quid insurace (undervalued slightly to get a cheaper postage rate), and it cost 21.39.

Good value, I thought, and it turned up on time, tracked, and seemingly in good condition. Jase can give you the story on how it arrived, I would think, but from my end I have no complaints. One thing worth noting, however, is that the 30kg individual parcel weight limit drops to 15kg if you take it to the Post Office rather than have it collected.

+1s all round, I think.

Ok, here's the situation: I've got a LMKII (300W into 8), and I need a lightweight cab to pair it with as a small rig. Needs to be powerful but portable, a cab I can carry in one hand.

I was thinking of an MB Traveller 210, but have recently seen favourable reviews of Aguilar GS112(NT) & DB112. If you had 400-odd pounds to play with, what one cab would you get to cover all kinds of small- to medium-sized gigs?

Your help would be much appreciated - your collectivev experience is far greater than mine.

Just the Way You Are, Barry White version. Miles and miles better than Billy Joel's original.

Also, Cassandra Wilson's version of Shelter from the Storm by Dylan. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that Dylan's songs are almost always better when done by other people. Controversy? Perhaps.