KevB

I've done it with just tarp down on top of the grass and a piece of carpet over the tarp for the drum kit but it does feel a bit strange even on reasonably flat ground. The marquee was so small we couldn't really move around much in it anyway!

One here not far of ending on eBay; [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Midnight-Blue-Rickenbacker-Bass-4003_W0QQitemZ300331076343QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item45ed208af7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1688%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Midnight-Blue-Ricken...%3A1%7C294%3A50[/url] It looks like it's genuine and a sensible price for a nearly new instrument. I paid just over £800 for a mint jetglo back in 2002.

You'd think he'd wipe his strings down *before* they started playing at least... And what the hell is the guy in the silly hat playing?

Saw Lee playing with It Bites, great player. Made me wonder if he (and others in similar mode) started out as a lefty playing a RH bass by flipping it upside down without restringing and then got so used to it when they got a proper LH instrument they had to keep the strings upside down? it was the only scenario I could come up with why anyone would deliberately play strings in that orientation. I think the guy from Doves has the whole thing upside down without restringing too.

Try 'Moving To New York' by The Wombats, if it's a young enough crowd they'll know it and it's fun to play. I learned it for an audition and hadn't heard it before but it grew on me.

+1 for the blanket, done that myself too though I've gone for a tatty tartan job that looks like it's the sort of thing you'd put down for a dog to lie on. My next car, when I finally get to pick it up, has darkened rear side and back windows which might help a bit (or just makes you look like you've got something to hide and thus a better target, difficult to tell how the criminal mind works!).

I'd pay particular attention to the singer and whoever's 'doing' Angus, if those bits are right the rest should fall in to place. Nothing worse than a trib that looks right and sounds right until the singer opens his gob and bears no audible resemblance to the original. You might just have to keep track of where other ACDC tribs have been playing and try to avoid playing the same venues too soon after another one & avoid playing the same town on the same night as another similar act. I went to see a Zep trib last Friday and the pub was reasonably busy but not that full. Then someone pointed out that another Zep trib was appearing at another pub only 4 miles away, split the potential audience right down the middle!

Problem is that often rehearsal studios are in either slightly dodgy areas or remote 'industrial unit' type places and casual thieves soon get to know about them. Not having gear in the car is no deterrant. The drummer in a band I was in a few years back had his side window put through whilst we were rehearsing one time even though there was nothing on display in the car, they were just opportunists having a go at the glovebox and boot on the offchance, could have happened to any of us. He quit after that and I had honest sympathy for him.

Thanks for the responses guys. I think in his day he was a well respected player in the area but he's not gigged seriously for 12 years and I came to live work late in life so our paths have never crossed. He's played more gigs than I'll ever do in my life so I've tried to show the respect due but I can only assume his social skills have got a bit blunted during his lay-off. Weird thing was he then started going on about some of the new songs he had in mind not really needing another guitar and doing a trio with a bass player and drummer and there's my mate the guitarist who he's taken on in the first place as a second guitarist/b vox standing right in front of him. I think it was at that point I started putting my bass back in the case...

Went to rehearsal last night with a new project I've been involved with for a few months after a past band mate (guitar) asked me along. The guy behind it (guitar/vox) turns up and says he'd like a meeting before we get started. Well you know when you get one of those 'Uh-Oh' moments? Now this guy has been pulling me and the guitarist mate up on some of the most trivial things pretty much every session and I've tried to accomodate wherever possible. Of the 16 songs we've been working up to date I *once* commented that I thought *one* of them was being played a bit too quick and it didn't do the song any favours. Apparently this means I have been 'constantly moaning' and have 'an attitude'. He then started grilling me on previous bands I'd been in (never asked at any of the previous sessions to date). questioned my commitment (I'm between cars for a short time and took 2 buses and a tram just to get to the session) and rounded it off by saying he thought the bass sound was 'muddy' (oddly no one has ever used this adjective in any of the previous bands I've been in, I actually go for a bit of an upper range 'edge' to my tone if anything). Packed up my gear, wished them all the best and walked. Sorry to use the forum for a spleen venting session but thought some of you might find it amusing. At times I was trying to keep a straight face myself hearing some of the guff coming out...back to the want ads when I get my new car sorted out

There are some nice bass parts on the first Wombats album if they are 'indie' enough for you.

Also, if you are not in a great hurry, a few people may change up from their std Epi's to the Epi Pro leading to a glut of std Epi's on eBay at knock down prices. Last time Pete Way toured with UFO he was using Epi T birds rather than Gibson and it sounded fine, I doubt they were modded.

My Jazz came with an SKB shaped case and it's very solid, so much easier to carry around than huge oblong shaped things.

Doesn't anyone use rechargeable batteries? For anything that eats up batteries, be it wireless kit, pedals or active basses that aren't unplugged the trick is to have a decent number of backups and a recharging kit then you just recylcle them. Works out far cheaper in the long run, especially things like 9V batteries. I even use them on my wireless Samson transmitter and that only uses a tiny AAA job! Rechargers that have multiple inputs for 9V to AAA batteries are reasonably cheap now.

Schecter did a jazz bass for a while, not sure if it is still in production though. [url="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=47221207"]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoID=47221207[/url]

Does anyone know if the Jim Dunlop nylon 1mm come in any colour other than black? I use them pretty much exclusively but they are easily misplaced and on dark stages etc black is very easily lost!

I'd go for the rosewood with MoP inlays. If you're going to do a trad retro look might as well do it properly. Black blocks on naked maple just look a bit naff. They aren't even inlays on the GL sig models, just painted on.

[quote name='tredders' post='516407' date='Jun 17 2009, 01:46 PM']Bloody hell - did you have to post that photo? I've been trying to put off buying a Jetglo, but seeing yours here has just caused me to start Googling for stockists....[/quote] There's one here if you've got close to a grand burning a hole in your pocket... [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/rickenbacker-bass-4003-in-excelent-condition_W0QQitemZ160342703777QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item25552b7ea1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1688%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/rickenbacker-bass-40...%3A1%7C294%3A50[/url]

I think if I did have any criticism of my ric is that it might be 'over-finished' if that's not too much of an oxymoron. A few coats of paint less on the neck might make it a bit less sticky in a sweaty pub environment. Could just sand it down I guess. A roadie I once chatted with was convinced that it was really the amount of paint that went on the rics that gave them their unique tone. Think he was pulling my leg though I do know that whenever I take it to open jam sessions everyone wants to play it, they do seem to carry a mystique. One player was almost teary eyed when he gave it back to me as he'd been playing for years, always wanted to play a ric and never got chance so I'd fulfilled a little dream for him. As long as they look sensible I'm OK with others playing my ric these days though I was a bit protective in its early years. It passed through a few hands at the Nottm bash bass a few months back and genrally got a thumbs up...

What amazes me is that with so many utterly wasted TV channels and with the fairly large UK population of amateur and semi-pro musos that there isn't a market for a freeview available music channel that properly caters for people wanting to learn instruments. You'd think the overheads would be quite small compared with, for eg funding a drama series or whatever. A half decent teacher with half decent gear sitting there and telling you how to play should be pretty cheap to make surely? All these kids are spending thousands going to music colleges, there must be a market there to be tapped into?

Great album, was disappointed by Kamakyriad (not sure if that could really be called a follow up album though, must have been about 10 years after NF). Anyone else recall when NF came out, Dave Lee Travis just got besotted with it and played tracks from it on his show for weeks on end?

I have a Behringer 450H which I used to have permanently set up at a rehearsal room with a band I was in a few years back. Perfectly usable bass head and utterly reliable. I've since had a mixer and a couple of pedals from them and all have done what they were supposed to do, none have broken. Behringer just seem to be a bit of a whipping boy on this site. I've never been that impressed with Ashdown, disappointing as they were set up by ex TE people. Speaking of TE and getting back on topic, I don't know about the musical merits but if it was a 'robot wars' type face-off I'd put my TE 7215 combo in against anything of similar size, it's a hard b*s*ard

Any bass that doesn't let me play wrong notes, still looking for that one...

Lemmy's not really a bass player, he's a rhythm guitarist with a couple of strings short...

I've heard enough of him on Planet Rock to decide I wouldn't spend a fiver for the experience, sorry.