KevB

Only thing I have with touch screen is my sat nav and half the time I end up using that with the end of a pen because it is so easy to activate the area next to the one you want even without massive fingers. I recall using a crt monitor on a piece of lab kit 20yrs ago that was touch screen. You had to occasionally wipe down the little cells on the edges of the screen because if they got too grubby it would misbehave.

I mean the ones with staff that look like they would rather be doing [i]anything[/i] other than serve customers and are just killing time before they get their gear together to play metal to 12 punters down the local in the evening.

We don't advertise ourselves as a wedding band either, I was amazed when i joined that they had done any. It didn't look a wedding set list to me and it's the same one whether we are doing pubs or weddings albeit with a few tweaks. However between myself and the drummer we've got about 5 or 6 new songs into the set over the past couple of years which do make us a bit more wedding friendly in my view. Pretty much all the weddings we have done has been the result of someone involved in the wedding approaching us at pub or private party gigs, as happened to chris_b. It's still no guarantee of success. Just because the happy couple like what you do doesn't mean the rest of the guests will. No matter how well you perform it's always a bit of a crap shoot as to how you go down at weddings if you are not a wedding band by design to begin with.

Bought 3 US Fenders and a Ric S/H online without playing any of them. No important issues with any that a good set up didn't cure. Most basses I see new in shops are often in need of a decent set up anyway so that would be done in any case. I can see how many 'physical' retail shops are under pressure. Especially the ones with poor customer service.

I've done a couple of weddings where the groom and some of his mates had been in a band together before and have done a short set between our 2 sets. It had been agreed in advance and we loaned our gear to them, no real problems either time though I recall on one of them the singer getting a bit over-exuberant with our singer's mic stand which got him a bit twitchy.

One of the first bands I was in was with older experienced guys who had been gigging regularly, taken some time off and were looking to get into it again. Rehearsed almost weekly for the thick end of a year before I started making noises about getting out and gigging. Eventually the band leader (main guitarist) relented to us doing 1 unpaid gig, told everyone before the gig that he actually didn't want to play live anymore and the band split after that single gig. Bizarre. By that time I'd also been coopted into another fun band and was doing stuff with them anyway so that just became my focus until the next 'serious' one came along.

I used to plug directly (or via a tune pedal perhaps, negligible effect on proper gigging tone) but since I got a BassAttack pedal several years ago I found that I could get a tone I preferred which I couldn't quite achieve with the amp alone despite there being a lot of things to tweak (trace combo so it has EQ sliders, the 'shape' button and compression all adjustable at the amp end). However I couldn't get the same sound if I set everything 'flat' on the amp and only used the pedal for tone shaping, it really seems to be a combination of them both. One reason I'm a bit loathed to change rigs despite the weight and age of the combo.

I still like butterscotch blonde on a Fender. Currently have both a jazz and a passive P in that colour (with black guard) and used to have a P deluxe also in that scheme. It seems to work with either rosewood or maple fingerboards for me which not all colours do.

Tony Kaye used to be in that band, Tom

If ever there was a case of 'one size does not fit all' it's got be be taking part in organised music.

For further conformation you could probably have posted the pic on the Ernie Ball forum, Sterling himself might have been able to confirm if it was some sort of prototype or trade show one-off. As others have pointed out it probably isn't either but those guys on the forum would have put you straight pretty quicky. Then probably banned you for posting a dodgy bass with an EB neck on it

Does look a bit odd. The gig bags aren't air tight are they? the metal parts on the gig bag are as corroded as you'd expect from something sitting round for 62 years and though obviously the bag protects the bass to some extent you'd expect some discolouration of metal parts over that period surely? the knobs, tuners etc look like they just came out of the factory. I'm still sticking at my arbitrary £1000 limit on any bass purchase so it's a non starter for me anyway I guess if some 'expert' has put it on record that it's pretty much all original then you have to go with it. Maybe sue him for the cost if it turns out to be fake?

We are in negotiations to add another venue which we've played a few times before but now they are talking about us doing about 6 for them during 2015 on top of the ones we are currently committed to. This will probably mean them being Friday gigs as we will be already booked on the closest Sats to when they want us. I'm not a big fan of Friday gigs, if I've been working all week I like a non working day before I play on an evening. I'd also like to do fewer gigs with the band this year anyway to free up time and do a possible 2nd project with other people to get more variety. There's another BC member who could hopefully dep for me and I could do 2 bands but it might end up with me just leaving permanently for fresh ground.

I've also used xperience guitars in the past with some mixed results. On the Derby side of Nottingham is Robin Asher, he's done work on 2 or 3 basses for me in the recent past and always does an excellent job. I get the impression he's not really interested in trivial £30 set up jobs any more though, likes to get into a job that's worth his while & expertise: [url="http://www.theguitardoctor.net/"]http://www.theguitardoctor.net/[/url]

To be fair to the ebay sellers they are not making any particular claims that he played this bass on particular (or indeed any) recordings or gigs, simply that it was once owned by him. Must be lots of artists who have stuff knocking about at home that they are not naturally known for if they don't use them for recording or gigging.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of Little Wing - how good is your guitarist?

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1420475108' post='2649722'] Jim Leverton methinks. [/quote] Ah that's more like it, more on him playing with Marriott here; [url="http://www.rockyandthenatives.biz/players/Jim%20Leverton/Jim%20Profile.html"]http://www.rockyandthenatives.biz/players/Jim%20Leverton/Jim%20Profile.html[/url]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1420200259' post='2646577'] The lefty on bass with the overdriven Wal - never known his name but I know the vid you mean. [/quote] It's not Colin Hodgkinson by any chance? looks like him and CH is a lefty but don't recall seeing him play a Wal before.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1420466198' post='2649591'] Well that would certainly be enough to make me frown at the crumbs on a crust of bread. [/quote] It's just as well there isn't a spike handy on stage, I'd be sorely tempted...

First hint of a music stand coming out and he should be hounded out of the marquee

He never got the last 'double' verse (starts with 'I was drowned') sorted at all and now just sings a garbled repeat of bits of the first 2 verses instead. I'm not even sure the first 2 are actually 100% correct anymore either. His other trick is to swap lines around or marry lines from different verses together if they happen to rhyme, does it with 'She's Electric' a lot.

I have no issues with the singer turning stuff down if it's beyond him or switching keys etc. He's not an awful singer, just not great either and a reasonable but not great front man. It's just annoying the length of time it takes him to get a song anywhere near giggable standard having agreed to do it. We started doing Jumping Jack Flash at least 8 months ago, he still hasn't got the lyrics correct and I suspect he now never will. The other thing is he has turned down songs because he doesn't think us lowly backing singers can handle the bvox well enough (before we've even tried it in a rehearsal!) yet perserveres with other songs that he frankly murders the lead vox on every gig. Bizarre.

Was going to post the London Boots link myself but BRX beat me to it, they were the first thing I thought of when I saw the OP. Most rockabilly type acts round here tend to go for the matching bowling shirts look.

The weak link in my current band is quite clearly the singer so now I'm not learning anything until he's sorted his part out after wasting time over and again learning stuff that I thought we had all agreed on only for him to not come up with the goods. Before you ask I've been looking for a new project for about 6 months.

Back to the more mundane pub gigs now (OK, we have one last 'company xmas do' next Sat) and the venue was, as I expected, quieter than usual (we play it regularly) but not dead by a long way. Kept asking for more at the end so we did about 3 encores in all, stretching the 2nd set to 1hr 15min. Bit knackered at the end but it was our 7th gig since Dec6th and we all have day jobs. After next Sat we can all have a bit of a rest before going out again on Jan24th.