Patster1969

Let's Get Rocked - no thanks Come On Eileen - hate it Sweet Child O Mine - so over-played I'm sure there's more...

Totally agree - I don't think I've every managed to get through 1 listen of either "Hardwired" (Anthrax's "For All Kings" was vastly superior to Hardwired) or "72 Seasons". The songs are overly long & the riffs are generic/boring. I would also agree that "Crack The Sky" was a brilliant album and they haven't bettered it but every album is way better than anything Metallica have put out in the last 15 years.

Sunbury was kind of in the middle for all of us, as it was almost the middle for the 5 of us (I was in Woking at the start)

Annoyingly, I am the one that lives in Farnham 🤣

Hi all We are looking for a rehearsal space near Sunbury, as the space we usually use (Airplay) has closed recently. Unfortunately, we are a bit spread out (between Farnham and Princes Risborough & in-between) - any one have any good suggestions/recommendations? We are a 5 piece covers band. Any help greatly appreciated Pat

I answered one advert because I liked the bands that they mentioned in the advert, met them in the pub and they seemed ok, so sorted out a rehearsal date. As it was an originals band, they didn't have anything in terms of songs/structures (which was a bit of a worry), so they gave me two song covers to learn, as apparently they played these all of the time. I get there and the drummer doesn't know either of these "regularly played" songs. Also, it turned out that the singer/guitarist has only one song that he is working on, which I bluffed my way through, as he had nothing written down and nothing else. I didn't go back - I would be stunned if it went anywhere.

The sound for Metallica at Twickenham on their last tour was awful, although I was sitting near the top of the stand to the left of the stage. The sound was better when I shoved my fingers in my ears though. It was bad through the support acts but we sat in hope that either they would sort it out or we would get used to it - wrong on both counts.

John was great to buy from - organised a courier for me for a fabulous Ibanez bass (and even paid the top up on the cost after he was wrongly quoted a cost by UPS). When the bass arrived, it was really well packed/protected within a padded gig bag, a load of bubble wrap & a bass box as well - was pretty bullet proof. He also undersold the condition of the bass, mentioning marks on the headstock within the advert which I am having a tough time really finding. All in all, a great basschatter to deal with 👍

Good call, I will have a look at that 👍

That's a comfort knowing that I'm not alone in trying to reach this magic tone - are we all mad I wonder? There's certainly nothing on this bass that I 'need' to change in terms of what you have had to do to your P-Bass, as it hasn't really had a particularly hard life but as I said to Rich, am I looking for something that isn't obtainable but my head/ears are telling me that I need to find. Good point about setting a sensible budget at £600 and trying a few in that price point, as I could probably easily bust through that if I changed pups & pre-amp (for example) - if I went down the Sims route, it would be way over that. For some reason, I have it in my head that I have to spend way more than that to potentially get the tone in my head that I want but this isn't really the case. Thanks Nancy

That's the million $ question really and I'm not sure whether I'm looking for something that isn't obtainable, as I have any idea in my head that the tone I want isn't achieveable with the Ibanez in it's current form which could well be complete rubbish on my part/my hearing playing tricks on me. Having not played a great many different basses (and this one was bought through ebay several years ago without me trying it particularly because I liked the look of it), it could well be me/my technique/amp settings that is causing my doubt about the tone, and by changing any of these could allow a variation in a sound that I like. Certainly, I don't have any experience with your question about single/series/parallel switching, so can't even comment on that sensibly, although Nancy's point about going and trying a few different options could well answer some of these questions for me. Thanks Rich

I have a 2012 (I think) Ibanez SR400 but find that tonally, it seems to be slightly limited. I love playing it, as it's a very easy bass to play and I love the look of it but am now weighing up upgrading the bass or upgrading the pups/electronics in order to have a bit more tonal variety. I have seen the switchable Sims SuperQuad pick-up and these look great but if I bought these and then paid someone to install them (as it looks like a job well above my limited skill), this is likely to cost way more than the bass was brand new. However, could I either upgrade the pick-ups (currently CAP EXF-N2 pickups, paired with active three-band EQ) and get more tonal range and not spend a fortune, upgrade the pre-amp/electronics or bite the bullet and buy a new bass that gives me more variety (P/J mix or something like that - I'm a bit of a blasphemer as I'm not a bit fan of the Precision Fender look)? I don't really want to buy a new bass and have the 400 sitting there gathering dust, so it would be a one in/one out. Any help/suggestions would be gratefully received.

I think Paolo Gregoletto from Trivium plays the majority of his stuff on a 5 string

LOG I like - some of the guitar & drumming is really intricate, which I hadn't noticed so much on the cd's but more when I've seen them live at Download

Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill > Paul's Boutique

I had also heard that DB. It does seem that there was pockets of areas where the sound was good and other pockets not at both gigs

We were the same BC. My brother was hopeful, as he had seen them on a previous tour where the support band's sound wasn't great, as Metallica usually pulled it out of the bag soundwise. Not to be unfortunately. I was doubly disappointed, as had been at Download the weekend before and they managed to get the sound right in varying positions across the field on both stages for pretty much all of the bands but the sound guys at Twickenham couldn't manage it - we were wondering if it was something to do with the roof and whether it was loudly vibrating

Did anybody go to the gig last night? We were sat on the side in the top tier and the sound was absolutely dire - if anybody was there and in a different area on the stadium, would be interested to hear if the sound was any better. From where we were, the sound was boomy & muddy at the same time, so a lot of the James' vocals/inbetween song patter was incomprehensible, Kirk's guitar was hit & miss and you couldn't really hear Lar's snare (although probably not a bad thing) - I could actually hear it much clearer with my fingers in my ears, so next time I might take my rehearsal ear plugs. My brother saw Maiden there a few years ago and even from the pitch, he said it was just as bad.

In a break with my current covers band, I answered a 'need bassist' add on JMB, who's influences were all quite interesting. Met the guitarist & drummer in a pub to have a chat and they seemed pretty enthusiastic and committed. Alarm bells started to ring when although they were an originals band, they only had 2 covers that they could give me to learn to play at the rehearsal (although I liked both covers). When I got to the rehearsal and we started playing, although they had told me that they always play these 2 songs at rehearsal, neither had a clue what they were doing with either song and the only other song was something that the guitarist had started writing (6 months ago) but only really had the verse currently. During a break, they let it slip that they had had 3 other bass players that had not bothered coming back after the 1st rehearsal - I made it the 4th.

I bet he never dropped you in it though if you made a mistake 😀

He'd soon learn after a few accidental bashes with a head stock

Surrey 2014ish This story has two parts. Had been playing in a covers band but had lost our (excellent) drummer, so we had to find a new one. 3 auditions were set up but on the day, only one turned up, so although I had reservations, he was in by default. He didn't know any of the songs but over subsequent auditions, told me that I was playing wrong parts (although he couldn't actually play them properly himself). 6 months in and I was fed up, as he was gradually sucking all of the enjoyment out of the band for me. I therefore decided to have a look for something else in the meantime & answered an advert for a band influenced by a load of bands that I liked. Met the guitarist & drummer in the pub and they seemed decent guys (although a bit younger than me - I was over their ideal age but because I liked a lot of the bands they did, this was all good). Set a date for first rehearsal and they only sent me two songs to learn, as apparently these were songs they played all of the time and they talked a good gig (although thought that was a bit odd). Got to the rehearsal and set up, the guitarist counted us in and I then found out that the drummer did not really know either song at all even though they had apparently played these many times. We kind of hacked our way through with the guitarist 'singing' and then started talking about other songs, which I then found out that they didn't have any but the guitarist "had written one", which he could kind of play but couldn't explain how to play, wasn't actually really a whole song & had nothing written down. After giving it a go for a bit, we then had a bit more of a chat, where I found out that although they had been playing together for a few years, didn't have a name, hadn't been able to find a proper vocalist, nothing had really happened & they hadn't had a bass player stay for more than 2 rehearsals - I managed this one only!! Luckily, the drummer in the covers band decided that we had lied to him about the kind of band that we were (which was rubbish) and he quit - thank god!

Wanted to play the drums as a kid but believed my parents when they said that "I would get bored very quickly" - obviously parent code for too bloody noisy. Never picked up a musical instrument until aged 39 and picked the bass as always liked the bass lines that John Taylor played in DD (always played a mean air bass - always fingerstyle ) - no idea about playing a guitar though but only play in a covers band, so can wing it

Would you be able to hear a discernible difference in the sound as well between the 10's & 12's?

I suppose this is why Barefaced are a bit of fresh air in the industry though, with the amount of info Alex posts on their website