Monckyman

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I voted no. You are under no obligation to loan ANY of your expensive personal kit out to anyone, especially at a gig where you aren`t even getting paid. You are not selfish in wishing to preserve your equipment for your own personal use, you bought it, transported it and maintain it. Are you loaning this other bassist your car? if not why not? Seriously, it`s no drama, tell the promoter organiser, that you are not prepared to share and they need to make alternative arrangements. If the other bassist simply doesn`t have a rig, then ask yourself why.

Reminds me of one of those women on Star Trek.

Not sure. I was tempted but I think I`ll hold out for some J-Nuts. More variety.

Regarding Monitor men at festivals, you need to go and chat to them at least one band before you are on, so you can make sure they`ll give you what you need. Most chaps I have to deal with are happy to plug your transmitter(if you`re using wireless) in to the desk and send a few things for you to get a decent level on the beltpack, while the previous band are performing. If it`s a decent festival, they`ll have a few in ear units set up and waiting, you just bring your own phones. You can usually ring ahead to confirm this and "reserve" one. I quite like the look of the Samson though, I suppose you could run an extension up your jack cable and tape them together. It won`t be a prob for the techs, they`ll be used to hardwired drummers in ears. Good price too. MM

Keep your gear simple. You don`t need all the pedals and crap, just your bass,cable and amp (if they aren`t providing one). Then when you get the gig you can amaze them with your multi pedal setup and how like Hysteria it really does sound

Yes but they`ve all been confiscated by Carling on Health and Safety grounds.

I`m off to Ireland on Saturday, Holyhead to Dublin, if anyone between Manchester and Holyhead needs anything taking over let me know. I can manage a 4x10 or an average size 1x15 etc. Guitars easily. Pedals etc. I can only do to Dublin as I`ll need the space in the van after that. I`ll be coming back on the 24th sept. Same offer in reverse. MM

I was looking at similar fx a month back for some Goldfrapp synth type tones where I could get at the filter via the expression pedal. I got 80% there with the GT6 and the sound isn`t a million miles from your clip but I can`t get the pedal to alter the filter yet. Nearest I got was a chorus oscillating slowly and that brings out the filter sweep. MM

I`ll always remember after a Crazy Cavan rockabilly gig in Manchester, I was 15 and my guitarist was obsessed with their icepick in the brain guitar sound and couldn`t wait to ask what strings he used. So after the gig we pushed through the sweaty throng and managed to pop the question,bearing in mind this could affect our whole tone, it could be the breakthrough we were looking for, THAT sound,.. for US!!! "Oh", sez he of the magic tone,"I use any old f***ing strings see". As I led away a deeply uncomprehending guitarist, I pondered the ironies of life. I never worried about my tone after that though.

Then it`s an eq or gain thing. Something between the head and the eq on your MM is giving the tweeter a heart attack, try rolling off a bit of top end or bringing the gain down a little on the input, it may just be clipping a bit and you`re hearing that through the tweeter. MM

Is it more of a raspberry then a rattle? If so the diaphragm is almost certainly blown. Have you tried turning it all the way down to see? if it`s a rattle it wont make a diff, if it`s the actual tweeter it should change with the tweeter volume. try a tone or an ipod through it while you try. MM

I worked sat night, not as a bassist though. The gig was a private 40th b/day party,outside in a paddock, and the stage was an artic lorry trailer, the one with plastic roll back sides.... It rained a lot, the genny was too far away for our 32 amp cables so it had to be moved, there was no easy way up and down off the bloody thing so I had to make a sort of perilous staircase from flightcases, and there was no working lights of course, so I used my portable led I bring for desks with no lighting. The rig was a little underpowered too for an outside gig and I struggled for the first set trying to get it to sound warm enough without clipping the digital desk. Oh, and it was covered in potato dust so the rain and the dust made a very kakky evening for cables and trouser knees. Food was great though, hog roast, couple of fee drinks, band were very professional about it and took it in their stride. Another day another dollar.

Happy Birthday oh Long armed one! (you aren`t Cliff Gallup are you?)

Was just convincing meself that I`d like to go and fiddle with a Barefaced when I looked at the date, and I`m away on a mini-tour. oh well...

>49 in December. So what we`re all saying is mid 40s is PRIME time! You would be suprised at how many bands doing the covers scene are in their 40s and older. Get stuck in, you have at least 20 years of gigging to look forward to! MM

I use Sennheiser HD 280 Pros and for the last 4 years they`ve done everything I asked from onstage monitoring, studio mixing, iPod listening and general home use. They are rated at 64 ohms which seems to suit most outputs and stay loud enough to be practical. They aren`t flat in terms of frequency, but don`t tire the ear or head if you need them on for a couple of hours. They fold flat and into a ball for easy carrying. Average price seems to be £90, Amazon has about 25 good reviews [url="http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Sennheiser-HD280-Professional-Headphone/4399361/product.html?cid=133635"]This place[/url] seems to want £56! which would be a bargain. I paid £120 a few years back. MM

We have a Wharfedale SVP-X12PM for our singer and it seems to work OK. There are basic bass/treble tone controls and assorted inputs. It`s quite loud for vocals but I wouldn`t put anything bass heavy through it like Kicks and Bass etc. Keys and Gtr maybe. They work a lot better with a graphic eq but if you can`t carry one then here`s a tip. Make or buy an XLR splitter,1x female to 2x male. Use this to split your vocal into two chans on the desk. One chan is for front of house and you use the chan EQ for that. Use the other chan to ONLY send to the aux your monitor is connected to and EQ it to suit the monitor. DON`t send this to FOH mix, either by not routing the chan to the stereo buss or by simply leaving the fader down,(if the aux is pre-fade as it should be). Now you have separate EQs for FOH and Mons on the cheap. If you have enough chans free on your mixer you could do this for all the Vox, allowing individual monitor eq to suit the particular demands of the singer,and eq out a little feedback etc, and the FOH EQ remains unaffected. MM

So is a Bee, but both are beautiful things.

Might be nice to tell him.

The question to ask is does it hum without your bass plugged in? If it does, try a diff socket.Maybe in a reh room or a mates house. If it still hums take it back and try another. If it only hums when your bass is plugged in, it`s probably your bass earth.Or a cable. or a pedal or..... So, just do bass+amp no pedals, a nice new cable and see what you get, then start adding what you usually use till the hum appears, then you have the cuplrit. Hope this helps and Welcome! MM