Jakester

I've seen some Mackie SRM450's for sale nearby. They're the V1s (Italian made) ones. My band could do with some higher-powered tops (currently have some Thump 350 equivalents) but I'm loath to spend a flying fortune. I know there are better options out there and I know lots of people don't like Mackie - no need to tell me. We'd be using them for vox and support for guitars (both cabs mic'd), sometimes drums (we have a sub with crossover etc). These are up for around £300 for the pair. Provided they work, is it worth getting them?

Some of you may have seen my post Rejection Dejection, where I detail how I may have talked myself out of a great gig. Well, round two has arrived - this time, where I didn't even get to meet any of the band before not getting the gig! As the kindly souls in my first thread noted, often the first time rejections come back to you if their first choice doesn't work out. And so that has proved - there was an ad up a while back which was a swing band looking for a bassist. (I know that's totally different to the other band - what can I say? I love playing different styles of music). I dropped them a line but I was told that they'd found someone. However, it seems that person didn't work out so they dropped me a line to see if I was still interested? I said yes - I don't think their standard was particularly high, which suited me as I was looking to improve my EUB playing without much pressure. I knew I could play the parts on electric bass at worst. Anyway, I'd managed to build up a bit of rapport over email with the person doing the recruiting (the singer, I think), when matters came rather swiftly to a head. I'd already told them I play in another band. She said they rehearse on Wednesday nights, did that work. I said possibly, though the other band I play with also do Weds eves when we're rehearsing so I may have to do alternates. That put the cat right amongst the pigeons. The singer had to go and check with the band leader whether that would be okay, and the response came back "no - wouldn't work due to split loyalties". I was quite surprised at that - I've managed to successfully play in multiple ensembles for many many years, and IME it's better to actually have a player there than none at all. I'd have been happy to rock up and work out with them when they needed a bassist and when not. In all honesty, having listened to their recordings I do think I have dodged a fairly big bullet - anyone who can't really crack 'In The Mood' was probably not going to be much fun anyway! I get that they want someone committed but I find this "commit 100% only to our band" thing really odd. Variety is the spice of life - I'd go mad if I could only ever play one style of music. At this rate, I will getting bands I've never heard of get in touch to reject me before they even put up a 'bassist wanted' ad!

Our lot aren't this bad, but what REALLY gets my goat is checking that the patches are properly loaded by playing the riff to the next song - just before we play it. Now, I'm sure that our audience couldn't really give a hoot about what's coming next but having listened to some of the gig videos, it sounds like we're completely uncoordinated as the guitars start, then stop, and then the band starts. Widdling the riff inbetween tunes should be punishable by death IMHO.

Thanks Nick, very kind of you to say, and likewise!

Well, I can play it, I just don't play slap very often cos until now it's not really been an issue. Maybe one song in the set every so often, or a cheeky slapped disco fill every now and again if I think I can get away with it. Amusingly this is the first time I've had to learn a tune by ear instead of reading a transcription - I found one for one of the tunes, but not the slap one - or even any tab. The one with the part was fine - learned it, played it - job done. Nah, I like it/don't hate it - I'd have been happy to play it and I love the style of music - much more so than just rock covers etc. I reckon I could have done the gig - the idea was to stretch myself out of my comfort zone. I've actually only played in one band as a bass player, nearly 10 years ago now when I was starting out. I currently play in a community orchestra which is great, and have done hundreds if not thousands of gigs as a drummer over the years. I think lesson learned to a) nail the part and b) don't talk yourself down! Still annoyed with myself. Ah well.

Thanks Nick. They did emphasise I was a good fit personality-wise, so hopefully the other chap is a douche (assuming he's not on BC of course) and they decide to revisit it... Yep, I think this was where I went wrong - trying to pre-empt any criticism, which, as it transpired, probably wouldn't have materialised!

Sigh. I think I managed to talk myself out of a gig! I recently went to audition for a band. The stuff they were playing was great - proper hard funk. They gave me two tunes to learn, one of which had a slap bass solo. Now, I can slap but it's never been my main focus. I managed to put together a passable rendition of the solo - not note-perfect, but in keeping with the intent of the song. However, when I met them at the audition, before we started playing I explained I struggled with the solo and said "I'm not really a slap player". Anyway, it all went fine - got one well, played the tunes well - they complimented me on my playing and feel, said the solo was fine, and I left on a high note (not literally, I am a bass player after all...). Got an email back from them saying thanks but no thanks, which concluded "you clearly have great musicianship (timing etc. was spot on) but some of the tunes we want to play have pretty technical slap parts." It sounds like by saying to them I'm not a slap player before we started, I effectively ruled myself out of the gig! I'm quite gutted as they were really nice people and the tunes were brilliant. I'd almost talked myself into buying a Stingray for "when" I got the gig as well! I suppose the moral of the story is learn the part more. I was close, and I can hear the solo in my head, I just couldn't quite execute when it came to it! Anyway, just wanted to share my dejection with my fellow bassists and I'm really jealous of whoever got the gig. Is it petty to hope they're an chocolate starfish and get fired in a couple of weeks? 😈

Yep, I use ours to run 2 IEM feeds and a trad monitor from the auxes. Dead easy and works exactly as you suggest. As Silky suggests each aux can have a different mix, though we haven’t got there yet.

You didn’t say it three times backwards whilst looking in a mirror…! I am a drummer in Somerset. Not very metal though. The BC equivalent used to be Mikedolbear.com though it seems they shut the forums down. Maybe try their Facebook page? Otherwise JMB and Gumtree have got me gigs in the past.

Not blue, but a bass drum…. https://www.facebook.com/groups/507827252616774/posts/4269944513071677

How do you take them down though?

Lol - it's his so he can do what he wants with it!

If you’re still looking, there’s a load of different sizes going for sale here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/507827252616774/posts/4240110686055060

Yep, I have the GR Mini, and it's great!

No. Schedule 23 to the Equality Act 2010 provides that a religious organisation does not contravene the Act if it restricts participation in the activities of the organisation to members of that organisation. As such, it would be legitimate for a church to limit members of the band to its own congregation or people of like-minded faith.

I was asked a while back if I wanted to play in a pentecostal worship band. I'm not religious, though I do like a lot of classic gospel stuff. It wasn't quite said explicitly, but it was made known that the general vibe was that you had to have some kind of commitment to faith if you wanted to stick it out, so I passed. I felt it might be a bit hypocritical as well. That said, I've played plenty of weddings where I didn't like the bride or groom...

If I was confident doing it myself I wouldn't be asking for recommendations for repair places!

We have a pair of Mackie Thump 12"s, and I noticed at our last gig the master vol pot on one of them was bent. It still works, but I'd like to replace it to avoid problems down the line. I presume as a result of someone either dropping the speaker or putting something heavy on it.. 🙄 Polar Audio say they don't do out of warranty Mackie repairs. They recommend Real Electronics or Surrey Amps. My recent experience with Real was it could well be VERY expensive, let alone the cost of postage. Not used SA before but again the cost of postage could be expensive. So, does anyone know of any PA repair places in and around Bath/Bristol? I presume a new vol pot will be a standard part and hopefully not TOO difficult to repair...🤞🏻

Yep, in the end we had to simply take the bass amp out of the signal chain entirely. I'm completely stumped but I think I'll just have to work through all of the inputs etc to try and work it out. Annoying.

Yep, it wasn't on any of the effects channels - only the backing vox were (the main vox has a TC pedal jobbie). I did think it was a gain issue - not sure whether the DI was pre/post etc from the amp, but whatever it was when muted it shouldn't have come through! I'm really confused.

Wahey, second post-lockdown gig last night! It's great to be back out there again. However, during our gig we experienced a really odd monitoring issue and wondered if anyone might be able to help shed any light? So it was an outdoors gig. The singer and I used IEMs - he had a wireless, I used wired as I was playing drums. Because it was outside we mic'd everything and pushed the bass though the PA via the bass amp DI straight into the desk. The amp was an Ampeg 2x10 combo. It was the same setup we used for our last gig - XR18 with the vocalist and I each getting our own monitor feed to our IEMs, with another monitor out to a wedge. It worked fine then. Last night, though, the bass was wildly high in the mix and distorting so much that it obliterated everything else in the monitor mix. So, of course, we did exactly what you would do in such a scenario - mute the incoming channel on both aux out mixes. However, despite that, we could both still hear the bass out through our monitors. I checked input gain and turned that right down too. Turned down all faders on the aux mixes too, and muted in both. It was still blasting through. I checked it wasn't being picked up from the cab by the onstage mics (and it wasn't). I've checked the signal routing etc and can't see any reason for the bass signal to be present in the aux feeds when muted, let alone completely turned down. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks Ped!

Not really bass related, but I once saw Herbie Hancock live with the Headhunters and he played the first tune of his set without having switched on any of his outboard rack synth stuff, so it was all just default piano sound. Still good, but not quite what he was going for… On a more sad note, I saw Oscar Peterson on his final tour, and he played the first tune, then the second tune, then played the first tune again, then the second tune again, then the second tune again, and then then first tune. His band were getting more and more agitated and one of them went over to speak to him between tunes, and they were waved off. So over the whole performance we only heard a couple of tunes. A real shame.