neepheid

Have a wee video of us destroying a Martin Stephenson song at what can only be described as the most quirky but amazing venue in the NE of Scotland by a country mile (and you have to navigate a few of those to find it!). I would apologise if you prefer the original version of this song but the way I see it if we're going to cover a song then we should make it our own - after all we're musicians, not a photocopiers. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHj6nqP9wdI&feature=plcp[/media]

What a fantastic gig last night! We were playing in the strangest venue I've ever encountered - The Last Bus Depot - a big shed in the middle of rural Aberdeenshire which you have to go down single lane roads and a farm track to get to. It felt more like a private party than a gig and the atmosphere was amazing. The main depot itself has two double decker buses either side that people can sit in (top deck has roof partially removed) and various other paraphernalia like a Reliant Regal, a Robin and motorbikes plus bus parts, light up full size Esso signs and it was absolutely brilliant. Take a look (they're really wide and will probably mess up the forum, so have a link): http://www.ifb.co.uk/~matthew/pics/Oxbow_live/20120728-lastbus/ Anyway, it was a brilliant gig, despite some power and PA issues at the start we managed to get things going. We went down a storm and rock and roll of rock and roll moments - we managed to trip the circuit breaker once during the set. Drummer and horns just kept playing until we got power back and then we all just came back into play Fantastic crowd, really up for it, some of my family came to see me too which was nice - and the first time my Dad had ever seen the band properly. Afterwards it was up to the cafe for a cup of tea. The place is fabulous - converted railway carriages you can stay in, a hexagonal veggie cafe made from reclaimed electricity poles, just a weird, wacky but extremely welcoming place! I enjoyed myself so much that I would play there any time for free. First run out for my new office bass and the BB300 was amazing! Perhaps all split P pickups should be the "wrong" way round!

"For personal reasons, the Squire [sic] bit on headstock has been grinded [sic] off" What personal reasons might those be? Insecurity? Snobbery?

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' timestamp='1343339248' post='1749346'] I have an old TU-2 gathering dust our rehersal space, can't believe I didn't think of it sooner, D'oh! [/quote] Remember that the TU-2 will only mute one of the outputs when you press the pedal. Of course this is moot if you're not going to use it as a tuner.

Well it's technically last night as we finished at around 11pm yesterday. Not long back from a gig in Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen. The gig went pretty well, team RD in full effect! The sound engineer used a DI box for pre-everything DI and I had the house Trace 4x10 combo for my own reference. Thunderous. Apart from our drummer wanting to kill the guitarist because of a deafening increase in volume in his monitor (perhaps a pedal setting wrong?) and a few fluffs on my part it went pretty well. We had our guest MC in attendance performing a couple of tunes with us and that always goes down well. Afterwards, a guy who plays a bit of bass (and was sober) told me that he loved the band, and more importantly for me loved my playing and the tone - could hear AND feel it. Seems like the sound engineer, for all his strict adherence to an earlier end time than we were told we could have gave us a great FOH sound. Awesome. Support band was good, sort of jangly, country, psychedelic stuff, bit of harmony singing, I enjoyed their set. Go team RD! Mental thick humbuckery goodness all the way. A great night, all in all.

Duff machines on a Mustang? What's wrong with the ones which are on it now?

Just gig it - I'm playing my RD Artist tonight - anyone who comes near me when I'm playing who isn't in the band or bar staff can eat maple death!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1343293346' post='1748312'] Maybe a rethink about the kinds of bands you're willing to play with? As I get older I find that what I play has become less important than the people I pay it with. That is to say in the past it was all about the music and I put up with some fairly "difficult" musicians because I really liked the music that we produced. These days I'd rather be a band with people I can get on with and perhaps want to interact with outside of the band. I've also discovered that I'm much more tolerant of music when I'm actually involved in the playing and writing. This attitude tided me over and allowed me to carry on playing until I was able to find my current band where both the music and musicians were great. [/quote] I want and have achieved both, in both the bands I've been in in my fledgeling career (as well as the super occasional side project). I have turned down bands where I've liked the music but didn't care for all the interpersonal drama.

[quote name='Steve G' timestamp='1343124801' post='1745509'] The idea of bringing my bass to work for a lunchtime practice occured to me over the weekend, interesting timing to resurrect this thread (didn't see it before). Bass would have to commute with me (in the car so ok), got a cheapie bass headphone amp (Ogre). Being a noob and mostly just needing to work on scales, rythm etc my fear I guess, is as mentioned above, people coming over to watch/heckle/whatever. I'm not up to audiences yet! Does seem like a good use of an hour though. [/quote] Eh? To hell with them, you're the cool one playing an instrument. Then take that attitude and get on a stage!

[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1343286361' post='1748189'] It has been about a year since I played with a great band. At the moment I am with a sh*t / volume war / don't practice at home / ego tastic / etc band just to keep the practice up playing with people. I have an audition tomorrow which fingers crossed will mean I can tell the other band to foxtrot oscar. [/quote] Ugh, hope you get the new gig. Obviously you don't feel the same, but I'd rather stay at home and practice with my bass trainer than play in a band I didn't want to be in.

[quote name='Dick' timestamp='1343028824' post='1743842'] BTW The 4X10 bass cabs from Thomann to go with the 500 head seem to be crazy low money at £140 a pop. I was thinking of buying two of these so that all bases (poo pun) are covered. To my uneducated thinking, that gives me 1k driver headroom to 500 watts output at 4 ohms. Lots of air movement too! Are these cabs OK? This might be another thread right here so soz if it is. Just linking to the Harley Benton part of the topic. [/quote] Couldn't possibly comment, having neither seen in the flesh nor heard or used them. Sure will be interesting to find out though

I can make my RD Artist sound like I'm playing a set of tuned springs with the correct settings and plucking right at the bridge. Boing, boing, bwaang, boing!

[quote name='fumps' timestamp='1343119692' post='1745368'] As I'm not a serious enough player to own a Ray .....it is one i will always admire from afar ! [/quote] That's daft. You want one, get one. You're probably a better player than you think you are.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1342991503' post='1743634'] Here's me the other night at a botb (at my age, really ) ... the prize is £2000 so it's worth the effort* Forty minute set - the longest I've stood up for since my achillese tendon op 4 weeks ago - admittedly I had to perch on a stool for a song in the middle of the set. See my crutches hanging off the stage bottom right. For those who have met her, yes that's Betty (second bass I ever built). My main basses are setup and strung for CGCF... which is a little gruff for this new band. Betty's doing fine though and her new QP barks like a good'un. *We notched up one of the highest scores in the comp so far and have been bumped straight through to the semi's without the "indignity" of more heats. [/quote] Your leg scaffolding was surely worth 50 points before you even played a note

The truly flippant answer is that it sounds like a bass.

Geoff has dibs. Now if only I can sneak away for 15 mins to get to the post office!

If it's new it should be perfect. Take it back. It's up to the shop to make things right. Don't try and fix it yourself, if something goes wrong the shop will wash their hands of you.

[quote name='Christophano' timestamp='1342534740' post='1736719'] Thanks dudes.... I'm really considering it. Anyone shed any light on using the aux port for a preamp? Apparently it works..... [/quote] I have used the aux in before for amplifying many things - laptop, mp3 player, phone, and also used my Tascam bass trainer as a bass preamp to use two basses at once for bass lessons. Never used a preamp before but as long as the output is the right level then it should work. Of course all tone shaping will have to be done on the preamp - only the master volume will have any effect.

I use the RedSub BT5110 combo, which features the same head which can be removed from the 1x10. I really like it - I use it with my Zoot 4x10 cab for bigger gigs or ones with no PA support. Dunno what comes close for the money and it wasn't really a consideration for me - I bought the combo for flexibility. Last night I did a radio session with some of the band and I just used the combo and pointed my microphone down at it, worked like a charm.

I can't believe I missed a Gibson "guess the bass". Too busy baking.

First Act Delgada? [url="http://www.firstact.com/Products/LimitedEditionGuitars/Delgada_bass.aspx"]http://www.firstact.com/Products/LimitedEditionGuitars/Delgada_bass.aspx[/url]