KevB

If you can pick up from west midlands then maybe worth keeping an eye on this; [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squier-Precision-Bass-Vintage-Modified-W-Flight-Case-/131000231641?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item1e8038e6d9#ht_159wt_958"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squier-Precision-Bass-Vintage-Modified-W-Flight-Case-/131000231641?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item1e8038e6d9#ht_159wt_958[/url]

Inspired by one of Entwistle's Fenderbirds maybe?

Before setting off nip to your nearest Wickes and get 3 or 4 of those thin but strong tarps for about £5 a go. Indispensible for a quick cover up if things get more damp than you bargained for or the wind starts blowing the rain in over the stage.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1379956328' post='2218729'] I love KT (on every level!)and was initially slightly disappointed by some of the album (although some, e.g. Feel It All, I loved from the off) but I'm finding it's a real grower. I've found I really have to sit and focus on it more than her others (FWIW my favourite is still her Scarlet Tulip ep). I've seen her 4 times and I wouldn't miss her live; oh, and I've now met her 3 times and she's just lovely. [/quote] I think I need to revisit this one. I wasn't expecting it to be exactly upbeat, written in the aftermath of the death of her dad and her marriage falling apart but it did wash over me a bit. If she was playing Nottm I might have still gone but not driving all way to Brum. I'll keep KT on my 'to do' list as it were

Ian Paice on brilliant form on the title track, what a way to start an album!

Band I'm in at the moment gigs with the most crude ancient piece of old tat you could wish for and the singer has a phobia about monitors so we don't use any. However it means he gets all the PA plus guitar and combo into a little Ford Fiesta. As said before you can get away with a lot if you are doing small pub gigs, we've been asked to turn down (including vox) occasionally so despite a small power amp it's enough. As also said before the trick is to make sure the backline (we only put vox through PA) doesn't swamp the vocals. It's not rocket science to nip out front at soundcheck and make sure there is a sensible mix. Then it's a matter of minor tweaking depending how full the venue gets once you start the set proper. I've seen bands at the other extreme playing small venues with the most ridiculous amount of kit leaving hardly any room for the band members to work in, it's all about tailoring it right for the venue.

Just as an antidote to the other thread, which albums did people get that had good reviews or big expectations but didn't deliver for them personally? For me I was somewhat underwhelmed by KT Tunstall's latest offering to the point that, having wanted to see her live at some point I decided that this tour probably wasn't the one to start so not bothered buying a ticket.

[quote name='dave.c' timestamp='1372617858' post='2127776'] I've been getting into Sabbath's 13 being an old rock geezer and Spock's Beard's Brief Nocturns but slightly unexpectedly my best album of the year is Now What?! from Deep Purple, excellent stuff! [/quote] As I'm going to see DP next month I thought I'd better give Now What another go yesterday. Played it a few times back to back when it first came out but then neglected it. You're right it's abetter album than I first thought, some of the tracks have a similar feel to the material from Abandon from the mid-90's which tends to get overlooked.

I like 'Family Tree' off the new KoL album too.

[quote name='police squad' timestamp='1379610125' post='2214832'] I've got my minitaur but nothing to trigger it with (yet) [/quote] If you lived a bit closer I'd loan you my PK-5 pedals, not really using them in my current band.

Still using a couple of cheapo stands I have had for years, not broken yet. The bit with the resting cradle on it sometimes drops out during transit in the car but they are designed to be removable. Never had any issues with them actually in use though they aren't great for jazz basses as the bass sits at an odd angle due to the body shape.

I remember the Mardi Gras well Ray, went there a lot in '87 as I was doing revues for a student paper (though I'd graduated by then) and was living in the meadows so could walk there easily any night and had a year long free press pass. On the rare occasions I'm down that way these days and pass the building (usually on the way to the vat & fiddle) I wonder if there's any remnants of the club still under there.

Green cloth covered Trace 1x15 combo which I've had about 8-9yrs. Supposedly about 300W with an extension cab. Never had it above halfway on either gain or master output at any gig I've done. Lots of EQ options and an inbuilt compressor which is adjustable in level but nothing complex. Options for DI out and switchable whether DI out is pre or post EQ, should keep any FOH engineer happy if required to go through house PA (hardly ever required in bands I've been in). Cheap S/H, reliable, robust but sadly not lightweight. Coupled with a 2x10 ext cab (used to have 4x10 but just too big to be worth the effort really) and my Hartke Bassattack pedal I can get all the sounds I need for now.

If I'd been born about 15 years before I was and lived locally I would have probably practically lived in the place from about '67 to '75

Personally I've never found mine to be any more or less versatile than, say, a jazz or a P. They all have their own 'voice' but depending on how you play, whether using flat or round wounds and what rig you play it through there are as many avenues open as most other basses. Probably not everyone's first choice for heavy slapping though! Do Lemmy, Chris Squire and Macca all sound the same?

Finally (some would probably say inevitably as I've always been in covers bands) needed to learn 'Play That Funky Music'. There was less going on with the bass than I first thought. Also knocked off The Lemonheads version of Mrs Robinson. I think the next thing I'll need to sort out that will require some discipline will be 'This Charming Man' mainly because I can't stand The Smiths (actually I think it's just Morrissey but he just contaminates the rest of the work unfortunately).

Outsideinside by Blue Cheer (1968)

Left handed but right footed with me. Most two handed jobs I tend to do right handed, single handed operations (writing, holding a raquet, spoon etc) I do left handed. So it's knife and fork rightie and spoon leftie with me! Can hold a drinks glass with either but as they are usually set up rightie I tend to go with that. Play bass right handed.

Decent gig, wedding so you never quite know how it's going to go but they were a good crowd and plenty on the dance floor all night. Groom spotted me heading for the changing room after the gig and specifically thanked us for putting on a good show, said everyone really liked it. Only downer was the mic lead provided by band leader had died and since I only bring one with me I couldn't set up my little Boehringer monitor. Judging by sniffy comment from band leader when I told him I couldnt monitor myself it's quite clear he has a real thing about monitoring full stop which i find quite bizarre, so I've withdrawn from providing bvox for the band. If he prefers to get someone else in it's fine by me I'm just not going to be unnecessarily compromised over something which amounts to an unreasonable phobia on his part.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1379073214' post='2208359'] If you're doing something really well known and get an audience singing along it can quickly go very disjointed if the audience sings one line and you sing another. [/quote] Same goes for rest of band if they are doing bvox, lead sings one line and the bvox do another, sounds a mess!

But realistically for those of us that have full time jobs and other interests in addition to music how much time is sensible to spend trying to master something that you have rarely been required to do and are not intrinsically interested in but feel might be handy just in case for a very very occasional situation?

Yep I've acquired a good few black marks on the walls which don't seem to scrub off (repaint likely I think) or chunks taken out the edge of doors. However I limit which items I have properly flight cased. My combo and extension cab seem robust enough to not need it so its mainly basses. I like hard casses for my basses as it gives me more confidence to pile in other things on top of them with no worries. I had a flight case made for me for my PK5 pedals and that was done by [url="http://www.flightcasewarehouse.co.uk/index.asp"]Flightcase Warehouse [/url]and a sterling job they did too, at the time you simply couldnt get cases off the shelf for them and that might still be the case, not sure. All my little bits, power brick, leads etc are in a [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/flight-case-with-foam-36796"]Maplins camera/tool case [/url]which last ages if you don't overfill them and strain the latches. Buy them when they are in the half price sale.

Ditched virtually all my vinyl a few years back as I was moving house it seemed a natural break. I kept a lower shelf of my biggest CD rack stocked with vinyl that no one wanted to buy due entirely to its weight. The rack was a bit unstable and somehow top heavy even though all the shelves were evenly filled (I think it's the floor).The weight of a shelf of vinyl at the bottom keeps it stable. Most of the stuff I really liked had naturally been replaced with CD anyway and now I've moved on to downloads I don't even buy that many Cd's any more, I think this is a fairly common pattern with folks around my age.

Great stuff, but it's also a big commitment. Be prepared for people coming up to you with little or no notice and expecting you to know some obscure tune and frequently in an obscure key to boot Been asked to do a house band at a local jam myself but I've made it clear I won't do it every week (it's on a Sunday and starts at 3pm so when the evenings get shorter it pretty much starts using all your available time that day). Given the two previous guys in the particular version I'd be taking over from were both full time pro's (including our own Richard 'out to play jazz') they are pretty big shoes to fill but could be a fun aside from the regular band work.

I have drifted back to cable just so it is less kit to set up but when I was playing midi pedals regularly I found wireless an absolute godsend as I often found the bass cable would get stuck under a pedal or get between my foot and the pedal, always just where I didn't need it basically. I opted for a cheap Samson plug in job with the little receiver that look slike a stomp pedal, worked fine.