icastle

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1317042136' post='1385807'] If punters cant hold a conversation at the bar, or order a drink easily, you are not helping the landlord. [/quote] Yep. Pub gigs are awkward to play as music is not the sole reason that people are there. If you're too loud than the punters rasie their voices so they can talk, then the band cranks the volume up a bit to compensate and the punters start to shout to communicate so the band turns up some more...

IMO you're absolutely right Dave. If it's a paid gig, you are the employee and need to follow whatever criteria are laid down by your 'manager'. Anyone can play loud, playing quietly and still getting the feel across is what seperates the men from the boys.

Kinda depends on the ability and experience of the musician you're trying to slot in. Over the years we've met and worked with some guys who can just jump straight in and some who need a few rehearsals before they're up to speed with what's going on - all great musicians but some just have a knack of immediately immersing themselves into the set without the join marks showing. Strangely, my band were all 'pre-approved deps' for another band in the area. That worked well for a year or so until one night when the 'band' was made up from 4 deps out of the 5 'real' members and the quality of the performance was significantly better than the 'real' band. It seemed daft not to work together on a permanant basis.

[quote name='Chris2112' timestamp='1316893536' post='1384236'] I am still struggling to work out how this came from Newcastle. So much cheer...maybe things were different back in the day? [/quote] Ah - a certain brand of Brown Ale I reckon

It sounds very much like focal dystonia - quite common amongst musicians and writers. As always though, get professional medical advice if it happens again...

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1316870826' post='1383894'] Duly ignored I did previously own a Thunder Jet bass (which I had sold and subsequently regretted) that, although 25+ years old, still had a decent satin sheen to it. This makes me hopeful I might be able to get it back somehow. Maybe just trial and error around the back somewhere. As I say, it isn't crucial. [/quote] How about masking the area around the shiney part and giving it a quick blast with an aerosol of satin varnish? - I think Plastikote do small tins in the local DIY stores.

Short of having the neck refinished there's no way of getting a satin finish back. You could try some wire wool but I suspect the best you'll achieve is a 'matt scratch' efect, asuming you don't take it too far and go through the laquer. My experience with satin fnishes is that they only last a few months anyway as my hands 'polish' the surface - I have three basses here that originally has a satin finish and are now glossy from nut to heel with only the rear of the headstock retaining its original finish... EDIT: Ignore that - I read it as 'neck' for some reason, funny how a few days away from here gives one slower eyes and faster fingers

Crikey that brings back memories... <cough> I mean stuff that my Dad told me about when I was a kid...

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1316590200' post='1379929'] Speed is now up to the speed of the previous site, but we were doing some work on the attachment system and as a result there was a bit of slow time as it was being fixed. RE notifications. I tend to keep track of my threads using the new and improved 'new content' area, where I can select 'threads I started' or 'Threads I participated in' and go to first unread post as normal. Notifications I have for email and if I'm quoted, and sometimes I'll turn them on if I post something which isn;t likely to have 19 pages of replies, like a random thread asking for help notating a track. Once you tailor it to your needs it's really useful. Can I suggest turning them off altogether and looking at 'new content' area instead for now, as that's a good place to start. Cheers [/quote] Speed appears to be up to a reasonable level now so forget I ever mentioned that , but the notifications really suck. The options seem to be: 1) turn everything off and then trawl through every page to see if someone has replied or added to a topic. 2) multiple e-mails detailing every last click that a user has made - you replying to my post has generated 8 emails at my end. It doesn't matter which option you choose, both stifle communication - the very thing that has seen BassChat grow into the community it has. A good forum should be about communication not inundation and I'd love to find out what motivated Invision's decision to discard that fundemental tenet.

Sorry to be a dissenting voice, but this site just isn't working for me. I am getting so many notifications that I'm just bulk deleting them unread (just zapped another 132) and haven't got a clue what's going on anymore. It's taking me upwards of 40 seconds to load a page then the same again If I want to post a reply (even on a 5600Kbps ADSL link). The upgrade itself seems to have been performed smoothly by the BC tech guys, but the product itself leaves a bit to be desired... I'm going to jump ship for a little while and pop back in a week or two and see if things work any better.

Erm... Is the really slow response time due to tweaks and/or maintenance work going on? It's taking me around 45 seconds to open each page despite having a 6Mbps connection... I'm pretty close to the skirting board at the best of times but this is driving me up the wall!

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1316386047' post='1377546'] I don't think it can be done at the moment - it's on the to-do list, I think.... [/quote] Cool It's just a wee bit excessive at the moment - Stingray Pete has just turned his kitchen light on, Johnston is looking at rubber sites and Ped has just called me an a*se...

As far as the notifications are concerned... There are far too many options there to make sense of. When the techs get a chance, how about one of them posting a screen dump showing how to get the notifications back to the old 'one notification per topic' format?

[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1316382443' post='1377458'] I confess that I don't like the facebook integration at all. Every time you visit a page that has a facebook like button on it, information about you is sent to facebook via that iframe. Even if you don't click "like", the fact that you visit this site is transmitted to facebook (if you are logged into fb on another tab, for instance). If you log into fb later, it can see you have been visiting this site. If you do not have an fb account, but create one in the future, all the past data that has already been collected will be used by facebook and sold for advertisement purposes. You will soon see all these bass related adds on your facebook page... One of the German states has now made the facebook like button ILLEGAL for this reason... I have removed it from all the sites I am running... And would seriously like you guys to do the same, do me a favour. What the hell, we don't need facebook do we, licking up to such a ... well ... [/quote] The problem I have with Facebook is that everytime you try and hit the back button, the Facebook plugin tries to communicate with the Facebook site. Now that's just fine if you allow all traffic through the firewall, but causes the page to hang because the rather crude coding simply 'refuses' to believe that anyone would intentionally prevent it from snooping on them and keeps retrying. Hit 'Back' often enough and you can get past it, but it really makes the site unpleasantly cumbersome. The BBC iPlayer had a similar issue when they started using the plugin and they issued a 'fix' to those who wanted it. Perhaps something the BC techs could have a look at once the site is stable and bedded in?

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1316342951' post='1376668'] Oh god. a reputation system? Never seen one be worthwhile before. [/quote] +1 I have several, none of them particularly good... ...and the systems aren't great either...

There will inevitably be a few oddities to put right over the coming weeks where schemas haven't matched but the new site seems to work pretty well and is certainly cleaner looking than the old one. The only minor niggle I've noticed with it so far is that the profile pics are now constrained to square. Job well done guys - outstanding effort!

If you can't get to the pot slot directly then try turning the amp upside down and let gravity trickle the switch cleaner in. Don't forget though - mind your eyes as you peer up!!!

[quote name='4000' post='1370923' date='Sep 12 2011, 07:13 PM']I kind of look at it in the same vein as making models or painting. You might not care whether anyone sees the results (in fact in some cases you might prefer it if they didn't, for whatever reason) but that's no reason not to put everything into it. But then as you've probably guessed I'm rather fond of antisocial hobbies. [/quote] LMAO

[quote name='Johnston' post='1370860' date='Sep 12 2011, 06:33 PM']OI I would resemble that comment [/quote] Nah - your missus told me you weren't allowed to play in the bedroom anymore... Damn. Wrong forum again...

[quote name='4000' post='1370632' date='Sep 12 2011, 04:06 PM']Ah, but I don't think that actually matters. If it interests them to do so I understand it completely. As I stated above, although it's nice for people to hear my songs I write & record them to satisfy something in myself, not to entertain others.[/quote] I guess it kinda depends which angle you come at it from. From a 'performer' point of view it seems totally odd to me, but from a 'non performer' point of view it probably doesn't seem too bad.

Some of it's just a natural progression - over the years various replacement kit is bought and each time round, a little extra is spent as it's a long term 'hobby' that (generally) brings in a few £s and is therefore seen as a justified expenditure. Up to a certain point, better equipment will allow greater flexibility in developing a playing style or learning techniques, but the difference between a £500 bass and a £1000 bass is far less than the difference between a £99 bass and a £500 bass. It's just not going to make you a better player. I think the oddest thing I've seen on here are a few bedroom players who insist on dismantling everything in sight to perform upgrades that are either impractical, doomed to failure or pointless at this point in their life as a player because, at least for now, nobody ever hears what they actually do. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious Jedi, the majority of playing comes from within. The instrument itself is just a tool to express that - copying your idolised bass players gear, spending hundreds of hours 'upgrading' it and spending thousands of £s on kit is never going to make you the same as them.

Excellent news!!! Don't worry about it going pear shaped, just get yourself in there and blow them away some more . Even if it doesn't work out, it's far easier to get a slot in a band if you are already playing than it is if you aren't!

It's a bit of a non starter. An experienced bass player is going to want something they are familiar with, so the last thing they'd want to be doing is battling with controls trying to get 'your sound'. My experience is that after being told 'no', every one of these bass players manages to turn up with something... and then proceed to thrash the b*ll*cks out of it. IMO if a bass player just expects to plug in and go, then alarm bells about their experience should start to ring. I won't actually do gigs where I'm expected to use a 'shared' rig any more.

Big NO from me. I've already given my time and talent to the 'cause', I am not about to risk my equipment or spend time faffing about trying to put the settings back to where they started on top of that. In the past when I've said 'no' to an organiser there's been no argument about it - they've accepted my decision without argument or sulking and made alternative arrangements.

[quote name='tauzero' post='1367597' date='Sep 9 2011, 01:22 PM']The power going to the second speaker in the daisy chain is also going through four connection joints rather than two. It's not going to make an awful lot of difference though. My preferred option would be separate leads, but if lead length dictates daisy chaining, I wouldn't lose sleep over it (not while we've still got Dakota in the set to send me to sleep, anyway).[/quote] If you're stacking your cabs with the amp on top then you're still running through the same length of cable to get to the bottom cab as you would be by running a cable direct from the amp head...