Gareth Hughes

I nabbed a bit of unused studio sound-proofing foam at the start of a session once - worked a treat. A little on the stiff side, but thick enough to be trimmed down to size.

Yup, I can match that - and possibly beat it for amount of hours involved relative to hours played. (Not that I'm proud, or that this is any competition with a great winner). I did roughly the same amount of hours travelled for two gigs as Pete Academy did for his Irish jaunt - except that my two gigs were in Chicago. What should have been a three week tour was all but cancelled at the last minute. Seeing as the visas/flights, etc had been paid for the manager thought the act should still do the two shows that had sold well. Flew from Dublin to Chicago late Friday evening - gig on Saturday, gig on Sunday, early morning flight Monday. Second time - same act now that I think of it - was worse. I had a different gig in Killarney - a good five hour drive from Dublin at the time, but took it anyway, thinking I'll still get back in time for my 7am flight to Germany. Coming into Killarney there are thousands of punters heading to a gig - but not my gig, I knew from the numbers. Turned out Westlife were playing there too that night. And all those people were leaving the same time I was leaving!!! I left the gig at 1130pm - by 1am I was still in Killarney and panicking as I looked at the map. I finally got home at 5am, packed quickly, said goodbye to my wife (whose birthday it was.......) and left for the airport at 530am. It gets worse. The flight is on the Saturday, but the gig is on the Sunday. So why the early travel? There's a 6 hour bus ride from the airport to the gig and as we're playing at some huge conference once it finishes (and it started at 9am), we have to soundcheck the night before. Joy. At least two hours are wasted once we land because whilst a bus has been booked for 10 people, it does not hold 10 persons luggage and their instruments. Doh. We finally get there late in the evening and all I remember is setting up my gear and then lying down to sleep in front of my rig while a tortuous vocal soundcheck was done . Band soundcheck time - midnight. The better part is that this was the day of the Germany-Brazil World Cup in 2002, so we had to watch the match on a huge cinema size screen in the same room as the conference and they play immediately afterwards. Fair play to the German punters -when they lost we thought it would be the worst gig ever, but everyone in the room stood up, applauded Brazil and then seemed to enjoy our gig. So all that for about 90 minutes of music. (And a HUGE frikking buffet;))

That's a great set-up you have already Dave. I use an F500 with a UL112 for most things, then add another if necessary. Tried using a GK MB150S combo, but kept missing that full low-end feeling that is seemingly only obtainable with a bigger box. OTOH, I have heard great things about the Markbass combos for DB. Another option is a tilt-back cab/monitor - I need those high frequencies aimed at my head or else it's a shot in the dark with tuning. Sorry that's not more specific gear wise.

Onwards and upwards!!!! Next week - WEST SIDE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (with no rehearsal, of course )

None that will match a baritone uke and a mandolin sadly. As small as they may be, those high frequencies are just tough to get heard over - as an acoustic bass guitar simply doesn't have the body size to move the amount of air required to generate the volume you need. That's why an upright bass is the size it is. Apologies if that comes across as a smart a$$ answer. Believe me, I wish there was an answer that would work.

I tried a bent endpin once, from George Vance, and that really helped for removing a lot of weight from the bass when playing. (Still the same weight to carry tho;)