OldGit

Off to the Basschat Wiki with you! [url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:buying:strings"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:buying:strings[/url]

[quote name='lowhand_mike' post='404179' date='Feb 9 2009, 12:14 PM']interesting reading this, our genre is slightly different but the same rules apply. we dont have an image and generally our onstage persona is just not there. but how do you take that step from being onstage playing to being a bit more of a show? i dont mean the full on running round the stage like lunatics just more interesting to watch[/quote] +1 for what Edward said .. Plus Plan and practice your stage show.... Eh? yup anathema to a lot of young bands in black skinny jeans playing rock who believe that their guitarists fabulous triplets in bar 17 will be enough, well they are really fabulous, no, really they are and the 26 guitarists in the audience will love them. The rest of the audience will appreciate a bit of a show... Heck the guitarists might even enjoy it too, especially if you project the image of a band having a lot of fun.... Now the poor ol' singers get lumbered with the "front person" duties cos they have the mic and everyone is looking at them but guess what? It's a different skill to singing and doesn't come naturally to some people so they have to learn how to do it! Yup! it's a learned skill!. That means anyone can do it ... and they rest of you can help. Here's how: If your front person is rubbish at those talky links between tunes you have a few options: you can write the links, practice them and work on it 'til he delivers them well - yep just like your mate's guitar solos..... or you can plan your set so there's no talky bits for him to deliver. Option C, and the best, is to use both techniques in teh same set, keep the talky bits to a minimum and practice them. That is: you roll straight our of one tune into the next. No waiting for teh guitarist to tune or change guitars, no keyboard button pushing, and no looking around for the last person to be ready before the intro clicks start ... This needs you to plan things so that there is time for the keyboard person to switch patches during the big end of the previous tune or during the intro to the next one - ditto for guitar changes and whatever. The other thing to do is to [i]Never ever[/i] talk over silence. Just dial it out of your set. Listen to a radio DJ and you'll find they nearly always have something goin on behind them. That's the result you want but with the intro to the next tune or a part of it. It adds tension, anticipation, and makes the actual start much more effective. Examples are a key or guitar wash or a bass drum beat then when ready the front man can yell "one two three four" and the tune begins properly. Get a copy of Thin Lizzie alive and dangerous .. OK so that's an audience that's paid to see them but there's some good ideas and techniques For more ideas, get out and see the bands who play around your area - all genres - especially the ones with big followings, stay sober and take notes.. What do they do that communicates with the audience? Do what you do with your music - be "influenced" ... Then rehearse setup as if you are on stage rather than in a circle. Then you can rehearse your non-visual cues. So many band rehears in a circle with eye contact and then fall over when the drummer is behind everyone , can't hear the vocals and has to take cues off the singers backside. Worse the singer has to turn around d look atteh keyboard player for his cues cos that's how they do it in the rehearsal stuio... Rehearse set up as if you are on stage you can spot where you need audible cues and build in the cues you need in a live stuation. Better still rehearse on a stage with lights, PA and everything. Ask an honest friend to check your stage show , video every show and rehearsal and review it. Always [i]play to the audience[/i]. Band member inter lay is fun and it's good to watch for a bit but staring at your laces, fretboard, the drummers bass drum foot or the stage is not good. Make a point of looking up and out at the audience (or lights at the back of the hall) at least twice per verse. If you can't play stuff without looking then practice 'til you can. Your singer and any lead players should be playing directly to the audience and not at you or anyone else in the band. Then work on it... You should always treat the audience to the best show you can. Even if there's just 10 people in the room. They are the ones that bothered to come and see you and they will tell their mates. If you play a half hearted show like fed up people 'cos only 10 people came to see you, that's how they will describe you if they bother to tell their mates about you at all but "wow there were only 10 people there but what a show, you all really missed out" will work wonders for your next gig audience size.

[quote name='Eight' post='404392' date='Feb 9 2009, 03:39 PM']A trendy melodic metal band!?! What has the world come to!!! [/quote] Well it would be a statement ... Who were those US guitar rockers on Jools a while back in suits and horn rimmed glasses? That was memorable - well except for their name, obviously

[quote name='Randy_Marsh' post='404307' date='Feb 9 2009, 02:04 PM']i played through one in a gear shop once and my god it was sweet! I would kill to own a nice Mark bass setup, the only problem is [b]why do they cost SO much more than others[/b]? especially the cabs as i think that Eden cabs are probably better, but thats just my opinion[/quote] I think you have answered the question yourself in para 1 ...

+1 to most of the above .... Whatever you do make sure you look like you thought about it and you mean it. Unlike a normal band you will almost certainly be grilled on all aspects of your presentation by the judges, and on telly too, so you will need to be able to justify your clothes decisions. Remember to practice being interviewed, brain storm all the questions they may ask and prepare answers, preferably smart, witty, entertaining but not challenging, answers ... Watch the presentation and interview sections for each of teh bands on every edition of previous programmes you can get your hands on and make notes of all of the questions ant he answers, look out for the ones where the judges rip the band up - you should have answers for every one of teh previous questions and variations of the theme. Whether its full on zombie or jeans and tee shirts, you still have an "image" and when they ask "so how did you come up with your image?" you need a good answer

Saturday night. Back to our 9th annual Save the Children fundraiser in a little village in the middle of Arctic Gloucestershire. The gig was virtually sold out by Thursday (the organiser is outstanding and hand sells 120 tickets each year) but the weather was looking terrible. The gig village was looking OK (and we had no snow at all in Cardiff) but Dave1 was coming from Heathrow and Steve the Squeezer had been snowed in for days in his village in Wilts. Some very deep discussions ensued over Friday and Saturday especially when we learned the Stroud Ceilidh had been cancelled - that's in a gritted town centre a few miles from our venue .... Anyway all managed to get there despite some fairly interesting snow covered roads, the crowd all turned up and it was fantastic to see 100 people all get up for the first called dance. We had fun, they had fun, Save the Children made a big wedge and we got booked back for the same gig next year - the tenth year running - and asked about 3 other gigs. The last 4 door tickets went to some refugees from the snowed off Stroud Ceilidh who will hopefully report back so maybe we can do one of those some time as well ... The Auralex Gramma isolator pad seems to be making a significant difference to my sound and a few people in and out of the band commented on it. Certainly a good value for money addition and something to try before changing more expensive items. Shock horror though, for the first time in ages at a charity gig, no one in the band won anything in the raffle ....

Nice one Al .. have fun with that.

You accept the dep gig and the money, you just have to play what's needed and put up with the conditions ... If you want to have a say you join the band. If, however, this is just a moan about singers with anal-cranium syndrome then I'm on your side and l, as you have said, the visuals are some kind of compensation ... Stevie has his moments too ..

[quote name='Monz' post='402724' date='Feb 7 2009, 11:46 AM']I'm sure he would be overjoyed at that... now if only I could remember where he lived lol[/quote] Seriously nice mojo on that .. I suspect it will be worth well into the thousands ..

I did realise that was what you meant after a good night's sleep but Jon changes the bass on his home page frequently. Each has it's fans. Just as some like the gorgeously wooded custom Shuker shaped basses (like [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=5402&view=findpost&p=96445"]my own[/url] ) some people really like Jazz basses and are surprised to find someone making a hand made super Jazz they can afford, and in the UK too. Purple flip paint 7 string single cut customs are Ok (well actually they are fantastic) but I bet Jon sells more JJ Burnel P basses and jazz-like basses per year .. Got to pay the rent, chaps ...

I'll give him £50 .. be round in about 20 minutes .. OK?

Ah, It was this one I was thinking of [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=218&view=findpost&p=76562"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&sho...ost&p=76562[/url]

[quote name='LWTAIT' post='402415' date='Feb 6 2009, 09:36 PM']on the shuker home page he has a blue jazz copy. let down or what?[/quote] Er what do you mean? I think thats a BC member's bass ...

[quote name='chris_b' post='401669' date='Feb 6 2009, 12:05 AM']John McVie. Live, he was a fantastic player, but like most of the blues guys playing in the 60's, he didn't really get a good sound on record. Still check him out and the great way he locked with Mick Fleetwood.[/quote] Yeah .. Gary Moore (and me) was really talking about Greenie playing now though

[quote name='kdphysio' post='401803' date='Feb 6 2009, 09:58 AM']I've just picked up one of these (B2.1u) from eBay, so this thread is very handy, coz i hate reading manuals (like most blokes!). Ta muchly, Karl[/quote] This is one of those times when reading the manual first is a really good idea ..

[quote name='Geek99' post='401763' date='Feb 6 2009, 09:07 AM']OldGit, can you tell me how you erase a whole patch in one go? I've not found that in the manual. PaulCooke, I'll give your patch a go soon, I printed it out. I recommend "Stingray" to you.[/quote] I'm going to try the wah one, though it's got other stuff in it ... I think the man problem is the limited variation between up and down on the pedal. To make a blank patch: Have a look at P14 .. section 2 says "To switch an effect on and off" So, using the Effect [b]Module[/b] selector go through each of the modules and select "off" using the foot switch, apart from the ZNR/MIX one that has to be set to "of" using the rotary controls. Then save that edit and Robert's your mother's brother... [url="http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/B21u.pdf"]B2.1u manual PDF[/url]

Just learning Josie by Steely Dan and there's a tiddly bit of slap and pop in that .. It's about all I can manage but at least I've found an approriate place to try it

Just re-read an interview with Gary Moore where there was a side bar entitled "Less is Moore" geddit? where Gaz talked about jamming with Freddie King and Freddie telling him to play half as much. He also says he played way too much and too rocky on "Still got the blues" but that it helped as a crossover album and drew in people who would never approach the blues otherwise. So that agrees with what was said earlier. Also he was saying Peter Green was great at the less is more stuff, playing just enough notes. So the OP could check out what Peter Green's bass player plays, for inspiration .....

[quote name='pete.young' post='401513' date='Feb 5 2009, 09:14 PM']Depends on the fretboard. I have a Dean BB2 which has a very dark fretboard, no fretboard markers on the neck and very small marker dots up the edge. I've been in a situation in a very dingy pub where I couldn't work out where I was on the fretboard. The fretboard illuminator has sorted out the problem, at the expense of looking a bit bizarre.[/quote] but illuminated side markers would have done the trick (ie given you some location clues) without looking bizarre.,.. Do you get blinded by the light source when you go looking at an F on the E string? I just wondered..

[quote name='bassmasta' post='401463' date='Feb 5 2009, 08:23 PM']ha... ok sorry guys i have to admit i don't really know what I'm talking about here, sorry. From what you have all been saying I'm looking for neck length (which includes the head stock???). sorry to mess you all around, should have sorted out jargon before posting. neck width (nut and body end) would also be another good one to know. thanks[/quote] Annotate a picture and post that to show what you want. If you have a 24 fret Ibby and a P bass you've got it covered, I'd say. The "average" bass has a 34 inch scale no matter how many frets it has - that's the vibrating string length. 32 and 35 inch scale lengths are available but a lot less common and 36's are around too, balanced for statistical purposes by the Ashbory which is about 2 inches long I think ..... You can get the nut width from the makers websites stats pages like this one from [url="http://www.fender.com/products//view_specs.php?full_partno=0194060&name=American+Deluxe+Precision+Bass%26reg%3B"]Fender.com[/url] So taking those measurements as your gauge, you can work everything else out from a picture such as this [url="http://www.fender.com/products/prod_images/basses/0194060764_xl.jpg"]P Bass[/url] You may want to have a look here on [url="https://fretfx.com/"]https://fretfx.com/[/url] .. They have stick-on glow dots, stick on light up side markers and the [url="http://www.fretlord.com/FretlightZ_LED_fretboard_illuminator.htm"]fretboard illuminator[/url] Light up side marker dots are fantastic and I use them all the time to find a starting note in the dark but an illuminated fretboard is not needed. It's never that dark once your are playing unless your avantguard nu-metal band plays in total darkness or you are are doing sneaky strumming under the duvet at boarding school .. and then there is the The SimS SensiLight System... Download the video [url="http://www.simscustom.com/video/sensilights.wmv"]here[/url] I hope you are coming up with something different ....

Hey Bilbo!

[quote name='Rasta' post='400959' date='Feb 5 2009, 01:07 PM']I said i would never get a combo again and that i'd always stick with 10" speakers (Come from an Eden wT800 & 6x10")....so that went out the window - Now a Markbass Jeff Berlin Combo & Markbass 15" Ext cab! it's kind of like the perfect rig for a reggae sound with the speaker emulator almost full on-however i've been dabbling in my fonk again and i am quite impressed with 15"'s for a slap sound....pretty clean! A tube input would be nice...but to be honest its warm, light, i like the yellow and its phat! Gwan blaze de Markbass fyah - Bit like Robbie Shakespeare - Irie [/quote] You could always stick a tube stomp box infront of the input if you need tubeness ..

Take your tape measure to a music shop. For an average bass measure a Jazz Bass and also measure one with a two octave neck That should do it. So how does Martin Simms install LEDs without destroying the neck? If you find out please PM me cos I've wondered for years .. Some say he uses trained woodworm from North Korea ...