KevB

Not last night but Sat. Not particularly eventful and I wasn't going to post about it but I wondered if other jobbing pub bands have experienced quiet gigs in Nov? We play this particular venue each month and Sat was the quietest we've seen for a long time. It wasn't just us, the manager says it has been quiet right through November. I'm guessing people (partic those with kids) are financially girding their loins for the onslaught of crimbo.

As others mentioned before, went to see PG in Sheffield last night. It's definitely the kick drum/low floor toms that are ruining it for bass. During a song with little drums for a lot of it you can hear Tony Levin, even on fretless. As soon as the full drum kit comes in he's completely drowned out. Chapman stick? he might just as well been up there playing my ironing board with rubber bands attached. Swings and roundabouts though - crappy bass sound but otherwise the mix was fine and you wouldn't fit that superb light show into a small venue.

No more the end than it was when Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton etc filled that Sunday lunchtime slot which is when I understand LR will be on. From the info currently available he is not headlining.

Maybe not better but I'm rather liking this at the moment, wait till they go all Stevie Wonder in the middle, cracked me up; [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDs41rgyCbw"]http://www.youtube....h?v=dDs41rgyCbw[/url]

Isn't Wakefield our very own Dr Dave's back yard? might he turn up....if it would mean spending some money, perhaps not

I buy diaries from poundland, smaller than a smartphone and you can carry them everywhere. You can even cross stuff out and put in revised entries. Amazing piece of technology. I even found one for 2015 with an outer cover that matches the tweed covering on my P bass case. The band also keeps a google diary but the bandleader is pretty crap at updating it so my 'hard copy' is frequently more reliable than the online version

Is that the one that you have to read for a minimum of 10,000 hours before you've mastered it?

I have to say that on the last 2 Rush gigs I've seen I've been sorely tempted to drag Geddy offstage during a song, stand him half way down the centre aisle and say 'Is this [i]really[/i] how you want it to sound?' You wonder if the big arenas are so unfit for purpose that the sound engineers have given up on them. We all know that bass gets the crappy end of the stick during sound check at the best of times. I guess those bands where the bass player is a key band member (Rush, Iron Maiden, Yes etc) in terms of running things then they'd get better treatment but I think the bass on Rush tours still sounds crap, though some others will disagree. Not being able to hear bass when it's a key component of the overrall sound in a medium sized venue just isn't acceptable though.

Don't have time to look at the details but Dolphin have put some of their stuff here; [url="http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/promotion/deals?utm_source=Dolphin+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c65d0303e7-Black_Friday_201411_28_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0d0cbeee6f-c65d0303e7-189469417&mc_cid=c65d0303e7&mc_eid=7db11dbd03"]http://www.dolphinmu..._eid=7db11dbd03[/url] TC Electronics deal on BH500 half stack, get additional cab for free. So that would be for eg BH500 + 2 4x10's for £624. Not sure how good a deal this is tho, not really in the market just now.

I used to listen to his radio show on Planet rock and I must say he came across as someone I would happily have a pint with, very genuine.

Why do I get the feeling there are probably some organised groups with very fast computers cherry picking all the in-demand stuff and it'll all be on eBay again soon at a tidy profit for them but still comfortably under manufacturers rrp? Not that I'm really in the market for anything at the moment so no skin off my nose.

I've owned both but only still have a P so I guess that makes me more of a P player. I think that at one time I had a wild notion of having one each of accepted 'classic' basses as a collection but quickly dispensed with the notion, particularly after trying out a T-Bird and realising I was never going to be really comfortable with that shape from a playing point of view. I still have (to me) decent examples of P, Jazz and a Ric so I guess I have 3 'classic' boxes still ticked.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1417098321' post='2617071'] If you read it fully, he lost his house when one tour collapsed. [/quote] Exactly, reiterating what I was suggesting in earlier posts - this is not a stable predictable income that many of us are fortunate to have! At least he'd made enough by then to actually own a house outright he could then put up as collateral I guess but it must still be kick in the teeth to see it all go.

[quote name='cybertect' timestamp='1417087637' post='2616902'] For a UK comparison, Fish (of Marillion fame) put together a breakdown of costs of touring on his blog last year [url="http://fishheads.club/2013/01/29/touring/"]http://fishheads.clu.../01/29/touring/[/url] [/quote] Now this really [i]is[/i] enlightening, one part stood out; ''The lottery win of a complete sell out tour would be around 45k profit. Those numbers aren’t coming up! Half that and I would be a happy man but that’s doubtful . If it did hit say 25k there’s still the bogey man of HMRC and corporation tax at 24% taking 6k and leaving 19k. It’s still a lot of money which I would be lucky to be able to make in this day and age and which I’d be exceedingly grateful for'' A respected and well known name who's been in the business 30 years would be very grateful making under £20K take home per year and that might not take any pension contributions into account. It's not the gravy train is it? I hope he stashed plenty away when he was making (hopefully) more money. You can see why some guys start selling off loads of high end gear when they retire from touring.

I'll admit I only briefly scanned through the article so I might be wrong but my understanding was that the actual tour lost about $12K but then was brought back into the black by associated internet business and other income spin off as a result of the tour, so I guess it is fair to put that business in with the whole deal. However this was for a single 1 month tour where they worked pretty much every day and ended up with a net 'salary' of about $2K each. Could you really do that [i]every[/i] month? apart from it being utterly knackering i would expect the returns to diminish. Maybe you could get away with it in the USA because there are so many places to play, but in a small country you'd soon start repeating the same venues and people just wouldn't pay to see the same band multiple times a year. So as a contiuous income stream it doesn't pan out. It's easy to see why many professional musos actually have other related jobs, typically teaching, when they are not out gigging.

Peversely, at the Robert Plant gig last Friday the bass sound for the support (3 piece) band The Last Internationale was a bit too much, could have done with less bottom end and the volume of it being much lower in the mix. I wouldn't mind if this was representative of how it is on the album but it wasn't. It just made the guitar sound a bit weak and tinny in places. RP's band was about right mix, maybe could do with the bass being a bit higher in the mix but it was audible, you could hear all those lovely flowing notes in 'What Is & What Should Never Be' just fine. However it wasn't in a massive shed. I was actually impressed with the PA in the Wolves civic hall, no idea what it was but it was generally very clear, particularly for lead vocals.

I used to have one of the older US models from around 2003 with the double humbucker at the bridge end, great piece of bassery. Go easy with that mid boost on the end knob though, it can get a bit overpowering. It's now with another bc'er who apparently is very happy with it.

Just hold a mirror up at arms length, they'll soon coming flocking in.

I picked up some PK5 pedals several years ago whilst in a band that needed some basic keys sounds to flesh out a few tunes. I managed to find a Roland JV1080 on ebay that had some additional sound cards fitted (orchestral, vintage synths and keyboards of 60's and 70's) so I had a large library to play with. There are some decent Moog samples on the vintage synth card among many others. The thing I liked with the Roland was that by using 'performance' mode rather than 'patch' you could mix a number of patches together to get something that sounded fuller than an individual patch on its own. I guess going with some sort of laptop driven interface is probably the modern way to go but the JV1080 was flight cased and very robust in a gigging band.

My only 2 gripes with The Last Internationales was that (at Wolverhampton at least) the bass was way too loud in the mix and was all bottom end, didn't sound at all representative of the tone on the album and they didn't do the first song off the latest album which is probably the best song on it.

I saw a Natalie Cole gig years ago where at one point a big screen came down and she did a duet with her dad. It actually worked on the night and didn't seem weird at all but Iguess there was more of a connection between the peformers in that particular instance. Never seen a full on hologram show. If they become a feasible technical/economic avenue then one or two members of trib bands might be getting a bit twitchy. Imagine turning up to your Doors trib rehearsal to find out that you've been replaced by 'holojim'.

I don't use its versatility half as much as I probably could. I just found that even with all the knobs, sliders and push button options on my Trace combo I could still get an improved tone with the pedal in place so it just stays there, I don't change the dials unless the room is particularly weird and I keep it on all the time. If I played bigger venues or there was a problem with my rig I'm guessing the DI aspect of it might come into play but not needed it yet.

Hartke bassattack pedal (silver anniversary model) for under £40 delivered at the moment, bargain.

I was going to post about this a while back when i got their latest deals through the post but never got round to it, just put a link in the 'Black Friday' thread on general board but looks like you guys are already on it. I've had a regular black case model for years and never had a problem with it. Won't gig without it and at this price it's too good to pass up for anyone in the market for a reliable tone shape / DI pedal.