dmccombe7

15 minutes ago, casapete said:

Got a call from a friend yesterday afternoon asking if I could dep at a local social club last night.

They have a rock’n’roll night on Wednesdays which is quite well attended, and I’ve depped there

before. Just a 3 piece band (guitar, bass, drums), and when I arrived I found out it was a dep

drummer too, who turned out to be an old mate who played with me in the same band years ago.

Had a cracking gig, both musically and socially. Two 45 minute sets, nice people and well paid!
Used my Danelectro Longhorn into a Fender Rumble 500 combo. Home before midnight too, so

happy days. Tired today though, and got 3 more gigs this week - tonight at my local pub with 

the acoustic duo, then Redditch tomorrow / Shrewsbury on Saturday with the ELO Experience.

 

Gotta ask Pete. What's the Danelectro bass like to play ?

Dave

17 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

I always use one except when I'm using the Nux Mighty Plug. Leads just get in the way. With bug-type wirelesses, it's hardly any more onerous than plugging a lead in.

At home I just leave my cable attached to the amp and the other end left on the floor next to the amp. If i'm using a passive bass at home to practice i'll just leave the lead plugged in so its not really any bother. I usually sit down at home to practice or learn new songs so i'm not tripping over any leads and not an issue for me.  I can understand when you have kids or pets in same room tho. As for ease of use a cable left attached is no different from plugging in the wireless every time you want to use it plus i don't need to charge it.

Dave    

41 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

 

I use a few different wireless units (for practice, rehearsal and gigs) and the ones that dont come with a clip (LEKATO WS-90 and Smoothound) I came up with a solution that works for me. If you're jumping around the stage then you'll probably need something more substantial. I simply use a hair wrap the strap end is fed through, patch cable and jack to jack socket!

 

 

I had a cable made up for my Smoothound with a locking female jack one end and standard jack the other and bought a slim holder to attach to my strap.

Dave

2 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

I have three kids, three cats and two dogs - avoiding a lead trailing across a room is a very good thing so I always use one at home!!

 

Ironically I seldom use my wireless when gigging as I often don't move far from the amp and find a cable a little more reliable!

Fair point.

My gear is in a specific room with door closed at all times, no cats and no wife allowed in without permission ............... unless she tells me she's going in of course 

Dave

If you don't gig i'm not sure why you would bother with a wireless system to be honest.

I use a lead at home when practicing and i don't find it a problem but i much prefer a wireless system when gigging especially with the Glam band. It saves tripping over any leads when wearing platform boots which was my main reason for one.

I had the Smooth Hound one but it was picking up occasional interference altho it was only rare occasions but it annoyed me when it did so i opted for the Shure GLXD pedal but that's only because i gig a lot.

Too much money if i wasn't gigging.

Our guitarist has tried a few cheaper versions and is currently on a BOSS wireless and he had trouble with it at our last gig and went back to his lead.

Dave

Not a fan of single cutaway basses.

Dave

Cheers for that Tim, thoroughly enjoyed it. Looks bitterly cold as i could see the singers breath when he was singing.

Great voice too, deep and powerful when it needs to be and soft and gentle at other points.

The various acoustic instruments work exceptionally well with the songs. 

Great idea using the old church too.

Brilliant stuff

Dave

2 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

Deadlight Dance had our album launch at my local pub. I was mostly on the mandocello with occasional mandolin and three songs on my bass vi. We sold a few albums to a respectable sized crowd and my absolute highlight was we got sketched - the picture is to be framed in the pub wall! 

 

 

I thought we played well and I particularly like my growing confidence in the bass vi. 

 

Anywhere we can hear something from the album and where to buy it. Its not my usual style of music but i'm very curious with the various instruments you use, could make it very interesting.

Dave

14 hours ago, martthebass said:

A very local gig for me last night, only 4 minutes drive (yes I timed it 🤣). Place was a WMC in the next village that’s only just started to have bands back on after a couple years hiatus. It was about 2/3rds full which was nice as it’s a big old place and even 50 people would have made the place look empty. Quite a few people were non regulars who’d seen us at other places in West and South Yorkshire so that was appreciated. One guy brought a small entourage and a selection of wigs and hats in line with our glam theme that he let the masses wear. All in all a decent night, paid more than agreed and promises of more gigs. Next week it’s the middle of Hull….

4 min drive to a gig that must have been the perfect gig 

Love the wigs along the stage there. 

Dave

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Hurtsfall were in London at the New Cross Inn supporting Ghost Dance on Saturday.

 

There were good and bad bits...

 

I've never played a gig south of the river and I won't be in a hurry to do it again. The last 5 miles took about three and half hours to drive, although much of this time we were completely stationary. I've seen heavy traffic in London before but this was ridiculous! Instead of turning up just before load-in we arrived 10 minutes before our advertised playing time, just as the first band were finishing. No time to do anything except load the gear in set it up , a quick line check and then straight into the set. No time to get changed or relax for a moment, although Sam, or singer, managed to sneak off and get into his spangly trousers while were sorting out DIs with the PA engineer.

 

However as a result of all the delays and the real possibility that we might arrive too late to play the energy on stage was electric and we stormed through the set. The song we'd chosen to open with at this gig, the somewhat prophetic "Lost Souls (Driving At Night)" which can be a bit hit and miss live just came alive in a way that it hasn't really before, and the new song which we'd stumbled through on Wednesday was played with the sort of authority that normally only comes after a lot of gigs. 

 

Apart from a few friends of our singer (he's originally from London) none of the audience knew who we were, but there were plenty of nice things being said afterwards and we sold a lot of merch and fended off questions about when the album will be out (later this year - honest). The drive home despite a large section of the M11 being closed was a piece of cake in comparison to our journey in...

 

Obligatory gig photo, apologies for my appearance, but there was no time to get changed so I'm still wearing my comfortable travelling clothes rather than my gigging clothes.

 

Ouch !! that's what you call horrendous traffic. Sympathy for you guys there. Looks like you pulled it all together and had a great gig tho.

Well done.

Dave

3 hours ago, theplumber said:

Superb news mate! Loving mine as well! maybe I should have kept both lol!!!

Too late now 

Dave

Drummers 65th party last night playing with both the Glam band and the Punk band.

Great night and just good fun night. 

Glam band went on first mainly because the singer Mikey and guitarist Colin wanted to get it done so they could have a few beers etc after playing.

Have to say the Handbox WB-100 with the Godin Shifter bass is a perfect match. The depth of tone was simply incredible and worked so well in both bands. 

Guitarist and singer from the Glam band told me after the punk band played that the bass tone was the best they had ever heard and reminded the guitarist of Roger Glover's Deep Purple tone. He had never heard me playing like that with so much energy and aggression. I don't particularly play that way with the Glam band because its not needed when you are copying the Glam era from studio recordings rather than a live sound. Its more controlled and a bit more mellow. So many compliments from our guitarist about my punk band style and tone and the fact he had no idea i even played like that. He reckoned it was the best punk band he had ever seen. I have to add that by the time we finished at 1am they were a wee bit oiled and i think the comments were fuelled with alcohol a bit but a compliment is still a compliment is still a compliment. 

The punk band is all about energy and that amp and bass gave it in buckets full. It had so much depth and from what they told me carried right thru the guitarists Marshall stack with so much power and clarity. Singer said the high notes at the dusty end were so clear and sharp where he was standing at the back of the hall. 

For the more Ric style tones i engaged the "bright" button just to give it that little kick edge. Loved it. Particular punk favs for me last night from a tone point of view were Do Anything you Wanna do and In To the Valley with its de-D tuning for one song but the depth remained but that bright button just meant it carried so much further.

Another thing i found using the Godin bass was that the pick ups being so hot meant the amp was nowhere near the same master volume as with my Sandberg basses meaning that amp has a lot more headroom than i thought.

I am now keeping that bass and amp. Guitarist said it ws THE best bass tone he had ever heard from any band

The Handbox is staying and hoping the Mesa TT800 when it arrives will also give me that Mesa "heft" as so many have commented on the TB site i follow.

If anyone gets a chance to play one of those Godin Shifter classic basses then try them they are so well made, not heavy and some of the nicest sounding pick ups i've tried over many many years. Not a hugely expensive bass either on 2nd hand market. If you like a P bass with some extras its a wonderful buy. It has a V & T control and 4 way switch for P, J, Series or Parallel. I had it on Parallel last night and cant fault it. Many thanks to our very own Stevie @theplumber for finally selling me the Godin. If you're reading this Stevie i'll take the other Godin if you decide to move it on. 

No pics as yet but if any appear i'll post later.

Short drive home too at 25mins altho the road to Wanlockhead is very pot-holed at the moment and a bit of care was required in the dark.

Just got to head back there today at mid-day to pack up the gear and return home again. 

Bit long winded post but it just shows how excited i am with that HB and Godin combination. Sometimes things just fall into place by accident and this was that night.

Dave 

Used mine for the first time in ages last night. I had forgotten just how great it sounded.

Deep, tubey warmth but retaining its clarity.

I had thought about selling mine but after last night and i'll be using it again tonight i've decided its a keeper. 

For a full tube amp built like a tank but compact and relatively light weight this is a great price.

GLWTS

Dave

Those 115 cabs are so bl**min good i might consider another at some stage. Got the 210 & 115 cabs but the 15's are extremely versatile.

I've not tried the 12 cabs but a lot of folks on Talkbass at the moment are moving back to this combo with 112 / 115 set up.

Cannot fault these cabs.

GLWTS

Dave

Not so much a gig tonight but more a set the gear up and sound check for tomorrow nights gig for the drummers 65th party in his mates house.

Its a large 8 bedroom sleeps 22 house with function room, swimming pool, sauna and games room. He lets the drummer use it for "special parties" and the owner has a large outdoor BBQ and Pizza oven. Tonight after setting up we had home made pizza's which were amazing.

Both the Glam and Punk bands playing tomorrow night so the stage area was a bit busy. Got the punk sound check done and dusted and as soon as the singer arrived from Glam band we did the sound check and ran thru 3-4 songs. Its funny how quickly a band that gigs regularly together can adjust their own sounds and volumes to suit an unusual gig very quickly. After the first verse the balance and tones were sorted but we did 4 songs anyways.

Only doing an hour set each band tomorrow night so that will be good fun.

Tonight had a small audience as people are staying from Fri to Sun so maybe around 20 folks in including the house owner and his wife.

Used the Godin Crafter classic bass tonight for both bands into my Handbox WB-100 and Mesa 210/115 cabs. I had forgotten how good that HB amp sounded. Warm, deep and clear sounding too. The Godin boosting the depth with its amazing solid deep pick ups.

Was considering selling the HB and tonight was going to be its last gig before i advertised it but now i'm not so sure. The tone was spectacular. The Godin having very hot passive pick ups too meant i could push the HB amp easily into valve distortion giving it a really nice edge when hitting the strings hard during the punk songs.

Think i might just keep the HB as it sounds wonderful matched with the Godin bass.

Will update you all Sun on the actual gig tomorrow night.

Dave

46 minutes ago, juanbcn83 said:

If a guitar player wants to tell which strings I have to use it's probably and wouldn't be very polite. Why do the bass players have to adapt our sound (bass, amp, strings...) for the "good sound" of the band but the guitarists don't? If we are a group we have to work for sounding better but together not adapting to a "reharsal music legend". I'm tired of that comments from other guitarists.

To be honest i did ask what the band thought of the tone with the flats but the guitarist was the one who spoke his mind. I'd rather have an honest opinion in a band than to remain silent.

The guitarist is no longer in the band. (his choice i have to add)

Dave

48 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Has anyone put flats on their Sandberg?

 

If so, which flats did you use.

I put Low Tension Flays (i think they were LaBella) and quite liked the tone but guitarist wasn't so keen so i went back to my usual D'addario nickels.

It obviously doesn't have that top end zing but it made the Glam songs sound very studio like and it reduced any string noise to almost zero.

I'm now using Elixir nickels.

Dave

On one occasion we had 2x1hr slots so that meant cutting a fair few songs out of our 2:45 min set. We left out Slade mainly because the singer struggles with them a bit. At the end when we got to the encore we did the usual extended encore medley and the shouts continued with we want Slade so we did a Slade song as the last song and we've kept a Slade song as a final encore ever since providing the singers voice is ok. On the longer sets where its up to us to decide when to finish each set we'll just play the full list of songs. That all depends on the audience and if they are up for a full party night. I think the longest we've done is almost 3hrs at a Xmas party night. I was absolutely knackered after it wearing all the Glam gear incl the wig and wearing platform boots. Sweating like .......... well you know and legs and feet aching with those bloomin boots but i loved every minute of it.

Dave

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

See, that's a pro setup, that is... 🙂

 

Ohhhh, I don't want to even introduce the concept of playing something from the set again: that'd give the BL 40 more songs to go at, we'd be there till it was light... 😐🙂

Its an odd one cause its the same drummer and female singer in both bands so why the punk band doesn't have a song up its cuff for an encore has always surprised me but if suggested we do a song for an encore in both bands then that song ends up in the set list and we just do it leaving us with considerably longer sets than we need or venues expect with no encores to do.

With the Glam band we always keep the last song as the encore and the singer will announce this is our last song knowing we have one more to do. We always seem to get asked for an encore but in the rare occasion we dont he'll ad-lib his chat and announce something daft that by special request or because you've been such a great audience we'll do one more song. Wearing all the glam gear etc with those platform boots and wigs does make it difficult when finished as we sometimes need to walk thru the venue to get to our changing rooms so we will linger a bit at the end like you say put the bass on the stand and put the amp on standby to see what happens. I totally leave it up to the main singer to make the call.

Dave

In the Glam band we'll do up to 2 encores depending how long we've been on stage and if venue time allows. Think the most we've ever done is 3 but that's our fav venue and we need to ask the owner if its ok to do another. He's usually up for it so that helps but he runs a Rock night club upstairs directly after the band so it cuts into the DJ's time but he's ok with that too.

In the punk band we generally don't do an encore and if we do its usually a song from the start of the first set. 

Dave

After a gig i open a bag of peanut M&M's for the drive home but i like the Red Bull and Yorkie idea from @Gasman

When i get home its coffee and 2 tea biscuit dookers and like @TimR if local kebab shop open its a cheeky wee donner kebab to be eaten when i get home another 8 miles up the road. (country living means takeaway food is usually a bit cool when i get home so i have to pop it in the old microwave for 20-30secs.

Happy Days.

Dave

My dream amp. 

Just placed my order for one with Andertons few days ago.

Sods law. 

At that price it should go quickly. I've paid a lot more than this.

GLWTS

Dave

21 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Not a gig, but we had a rehearsal last night... our second gig is coming up on Saturday and our lead guitarist can't make it, in fact he apologetically resigned as he can't commit to gigs far enough ahead.

 

I asked Alex from my other band to dep which was met with a bit of scepticism as he's only 22.

 

The rehearsal went really well, the clincher was John Mayer's Who Did You Think I Was. Alex hadn't heard it before, listened to it once and nailed it 😲 Tony our drummer literally had his jaw dropped when we finished it.

 

Fingers crossed we can repeat the feat on the weekend as it's three 45 minute sets so we'll have to include all the hard songs...

 

WOW that's a bit of a blow but well done the 22 yr old and wishing you all the best with the gig.

Dave

What Kramer basses do they have ? Nothing on the website ?

Dave

26 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

Not quite a gig, but last night I performed two songs at our local folk club - the first time I've sung publicly since 'ambulance day' in December after I had trouble breathing, needed an ambulance, and lost my voice for a month. I think I sang well and it felt so good to be 'back' ! 

 

Well done. 👍

Dave