gapiro

As seen on here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0009K9MUA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Brand new, in box.

I bought five of these, at the above price, only for my brother to then remove the ones off his wall and give me 5.... Then Amazon wouldn't take a return as it was too late.

Collect all 5 for £45 (Huntingdon/St Neots), or £50 posted (saving ~£8 from amazon).

On 28/01/2018 at 01:15, lefunk said:

Please note that this position with LeFunk! was filled successfully. Many thanks to everyone who responded ,  LeFunk! Manchester Wedding Band

Holy thread revival, 3 years later!

22 hours ago, ambient said:

Does this allow you to make notes and changes?

I usually put the PDF into something like forscore/onenote etc that does allow annotations and thus have got them.

I did rock of ages earlier this year and could not do that without the pdf, or without spending a lot of time memorising the whole score

I also appreciate I duplicate work by keeping the pad within arms reach usually (if not on the stand in the case of a hidden pit).

23 minutes ago, lowdown said:

So what’s the tip then? 

Ha, it was more an "information" i guess!

There's one group I play in that does shows with Double Bass every year. The orchestra is in front of the stage on floor height. I'm generally forced to play electric DB for that because otherwise I block out a large chunk of the stage with the DB body ....

Mind you, they are probably hte best cast and production I play in every year- consistently great.

A volume pedal is something I need to sort out - I have a mute button on my multi fx 

You probably dont need effects except for specific songs in specific shows - for example I did Sister act last year and you need a lot of autowah in that.

Another tip - most pits dont fit a double bass when you're meant to be doubling

On 04/12/2017 at 13:36, bornagainbass65 said:

2) Copy your score and put it together in such a way that page turns are minimised.  (I bought an A3 ringbound drawing pad which enabled me to have up to four A4 pages in view at once, which meant I could do the page turns when I had rests.)  I then attached a bit of hardboard to my music stand to support it.

Of course, you "shouldn't" do this - but most musical theatre score providers have now digitized the scores and send you the PDF - you must not share them online though 

Of course, people have, and you can access a shedload of them on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/MusicalTheatreScores/

On 04/12/2017 at 13:36, bornagainbass65 said:

10)  Consider bringing a cushion to sit on and a water bottle to drink from. Don't have a curry before the show! In a confined space, comfort is everything.

For popularity points, bring sweets or cakes too

On 04/12/2017 at 13:36, bornagainbass65 said:

12) If you are playing every evening for four or five days, and twice on Saturday, then try and time off from your day job.  You’ll be knackered.

+ this - I usually take a friday off if its weds to sunday - just breaks it up a bit.

I do a lot of theatre musicals nowadays and do love it. Its a completely different discipline and good to learn.

Other tips I would add.

•  Make sure you have Pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners and, if you can find it, score tape http://www.overscoretape.com/
• Write notes as you need them on the score - esp if you have a dep for any night
• Try and avoid tech night if you can legitimately (very rare the band does anything and usually just sit around for 4 hours)
• chat, socialise, spread the word on social media about shows- will be appreciated by the theatre co group

I'll try and think of some more tonight!

On 01/12/2017 at 05:07, Bluewine said:

Stuff is all above my pay grade.

I know I'm XRLed out of my anp. But we bo longer have that snake box on stage, no mixing board either. 

There's a lap top and a tablet?

Blue

 

I feel that this is one of the distincitions between the British and the Americans (not just in sound but in life in general) - In the UK I get the feeling there is far more of an attitude of you should have a working knowledge of how (in this case a sound) system works from back to front whereas Americans tend to be far more specialised and know more about particular facet's. 

18 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

What if your sound isn't right for the venue? The room has an enormous effect on the sound of the bass and by going post EQ you are tying the sound guys hands behind his back. I've run sound for years and quite often in this situation you are left with little option other than to apply heaps of eq or drop the bass to a level so low it's barely audible just to save it from killing the mix. You can't compare it to guitar as that works in a much narrower sonic space so you have far more leeway. 

Basically this.

If you want your band to sound good, let the soundman do his job. If you have instructions such as - "I like to have a bit of boost here etc " that is good and gives them ideas to work with but ultimately if you want to sound good trust the man who can hear it all.

Going back to the previous comment I made - this is why I think the some of the best sound guys are musicians as well.

heh, had already been emailed about the Trumpington one - I have a booking form (pdf) if anyone would like.

Right - Run your bass amp on stage as you would normally

The soundman should then take a DI however your amp does it, through to the desk.
The Soundman then sets the input gain such that when you play as loud as you can, it just about hits unity or there abouts.

Soundman then puts some track from phone or w/e through desk , again at unity from input gain, into unity on the faders, into full powered PA and sets volume on speakers based on where he wants it to be for the venue - using a track that he is familiar with makes it easier to judge. Some speakers have an input gain - again here he should make sure the input gain is unity and then can adjust the output volume appropriately.

WRT crossovers etc, it really depends on the PA system you have, without knowing anything about what power amps / speakers/ active speakers/etc you have, its impossible to tell you. 

4 hours ago, owen said:

Get custom moulded. Get them with a piece of string connecting them. That means they are round your neck so are instantly available and you will not lose them.

Hearing damage is cumulative. Do not wait any more.

If you have wandered into thia thread by accident and do not have earplugs do yourself a favour and just get some. Now is the time, not when it is too late.  

This, largely.

I have 4 pairs of the ER20s that I keep lying in my car, in my gig bag etc. The only reason I dont have custom is because i'm a clumsy forgetful muppet who loses things - £200 earplugs would be too easy.

20 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Great story but did you just say you were using 'high end' Behringer gear and it broke down on you?! Ok I'm feeling a cheeky, but...

Hired sound company, they were using X32 with the CAT5e snake (whatever that is called)

The Mixers aren't half bad nowadays!

Two times that come to mind

One - first ever theatre show. halfway through a show mid week. big bang, some sort of large voltage spike goes through amp takes out pre-amp in bass and leaves me with no noise.
I stole an amp from one of the keys players (mid show)  and put him through that with me.

Second time was a few weeks ago

Mid Elvis tribute gig, and Behringer desk and/or snake just crashes - PA puts out full volume white noise whilst sound man in theatre desperately trying to get it fixed.

It was loud. I had ear plugs in and it was seriously loud.

It really varies - I often use tab or dots from the web for free because I am often very short of time  (i do a LOT of dep gigs) - so I'll find one, play to the record, if it sounds ok, I'll use it (i'm often using an Ipad for notes). If its awful i'll try another or work out the bass from the record, but it takes me maybe 10 times as long.

It helps knowing the songs - I'm helping a friends band out at the moment due to serious illness - they just said yesterday they wanted to bring in California cation for tonight rehearsal - the rest of the band already knows it, so today I shall be looking at tabs in the 1hour between getting home from work and going to rehearsal - Knowing how the song goes in my head does give me a huge advantage.

PM#ed

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1510131414' post='3404111']
In a function band you will also often be travelling further and leaving later so arriving home at 2 or 3 am is common place. IME generally parties and other functions where generally OK, weddings usually the worst.
Pub gigs are generally way more fun but nothing beats a good tribute gig - its about as close to the "real thing" you can get as weekend warrior.
[/quote]
I actually really like touring with tribute bands -> usually finishing at a sensible time (10-1030 or so) and then head back to hotel and get to explore a different area of the country for a few hours before off to the next show.

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1510068495' post='3403707']
I have a well-stocked Kindle. Get yourselves organised make sure the person running things knows exactly what you have been hired to do and look after yourselves.

Last one I did paid 200 a man & we wound up playing 2 spots an hour each. Not too shabby & I was at home by 11:00PM
[/quote]
About right
Many of the posts on this thread have been spot on

My survival guide for weddings/functions;
* Get along sociably with the band but let people zone out on their own if they need to - everyone is different. Especially on tour (eg tribute bands) - some people drink until 3am after a show, some go to bed at 11/midnight and get up early to go for a run - just let people do what they do.
* One person near gear at all times - rotate on different gigs/sets/etc as needed
* Get clear agreement about what you're doing - but be flexible - weddings are nearly always late so if you're expecting to finish at 11, be prepared for it to be 12. Also make sure you know if you're being fed/watered/etc in advance.
* Everyone know everything about the band/gig for the night - nothing more annoying than having to refer every query to the one person.

Saw your post on FB about it.
They are charging £30 a ticket FYI so a freebie is out of the question IMHO!

I'm fully aware I really need help with it, just Cambridge has a huge distinct lack of (arco playing) DB players and then only the one teacher I mentioned....
The only other DB player I know who plays arco is a violinist...

Welcome to the forum. I'm from Cambridge too, although Huntingdon based now.
Plenty of great muso around!

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1506519423' post='3379304']


Ahhhhh ... Bicester.

[size=2](You need to be a certain age to get that.)[/size]
[/quote] it's all Gravy.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1506440731' post='3378767']

I've got an issue with the "dates you can't do" thing too, our guitarist wanted us to give him all the dates we can't do rather than him check for each gig but he's not my dad, if I've got no gig next weekend and I book a weekend away that's my lookout, I'm not going to update my personal free time diary with him on a daily basis as things come up, booked holidays of course no problem and times you already know are out to save checking every time but not my personal free dates for him to book what he likes.

Ah bands
[/quote]
I'm with this.
I have a calendar.
I put things of my own schedule in my calendar
Ask me if i'm free, i'll respond within minutes unless I'm physically unable to, I am far more connected to the world via technology than I'd care to admit.
I almost never say no to a gig that I can make - hell I'm doing a dep gig for a musical where I'm coming back from a weeks work conference and on the night I get back the Mrs is driving to meet me at the train station (with gear) and take me to the theatre. (I have arranged for her to get a ticket too!)


I do not fill my calendar by sending every event/thing in my calendar with the band.
Quite frankly I don't want them knowing when i'm having a dirty weekend away, or if i'm having a doctors appointment.

This means I either have to create two events (one with info and one just "busy") (= space for mistake) in the calendar, so my calendar also looks sh*te and unreadable (as well as the potential for mistake).
I had one band insist they were an invited person on the calendar items.
I also don't like other people feeling like they have a say over what a priority is in my life - I have had arguments with a band because I had a cricket match on a Sunday a month in advance (cup match) and they decided that the gig was more important than my cricket match.

No luck? I tried the string identifier thread and have got no where

Hi Chaps
Trying to identify a string
Long story short - I picked up a DB what, 18 months ago, haven't had much time to play due to change of jobs, two house moves and so on, now just getting into it properly
I took my bass over to a recommended luthier (recommended by two cellists and a violinist) - hes done a sterling job - new bridge, planed down a bump in the neck and just general set up. He also removed the D string as it was.... in a bad state and put one that was in the bag (which came as I got it!) on.

It sounds a hundred times brighter, louder and fuller than the other strings, so now obviously I want to get a full set.
I can't see any that match it in the bag. There are a couple of wrappers for superflex thomastik but the colours dont look like they match:

Description of string:

D: Black both ends
Ball ending is round with a hole in
It seems to be smoother (more "ground" if it was a groundwound bg string) than the rest (see attachment?)


There are some other strings in the bag with the same ball but no colour matching, and when I put one of those on, it didn't sound at all similar.

Conversely I've found that the rougher areas (well, rough for cambridgeshire) and their pubs tend to look after the band better - if anyone even dared going onto stage in some of them they would get beaten by the locals, whereas in a "posh" venue, where the clientele think nothing of dropping another £600 on an item of gear, they don't respect you or your talents and are more likely ot break it.