JPJ

Thanks @Phil Starr and @Dan Dare for your input. I must confess I am not convinced by the stick systems - I’ve only really had experience of the low end ranges and to my ears they do not sound good nor look good (I know, Luddite etc). I’ve been tempted by the RCF NLX24’s before, in my pursuit of a single box solution, but I could certainly see using a pair of these with either one or two 905’s working for us. My plan was indeed to retain the XR18, I’ve had mine almost ten years and I am very comfortable with the UI and workflow, despite being tempted by the x32 rack for no other reason than I am a self-confessed gear slut. As you say, the EV’s and Peavey’s owe me nothing but would still probably return some money to the pot.

Danny’s tone is the tone I aspire to. Stylistically, he always managed to hit the sweet spot, underpinning what the other instruments were doing, never getting in the way, but always adding something significant to the setting. Thanks to @TwoTimesBass for sharing that beautiful version of Magic Strings.

Sounds good, but to be fair, I get a very similar tone from my Warwick Rockbass Alien. I ripped the frets out and fitted her with La Bella low tension flats and she growls and sings. Mind, my playing isn’t anywhere near Matt Garrison level 😂

@BassBags that’s great to hear and thank you for taking the time to clear that up 😎

I think we’ve all played the gig to the bar staff and the gig to a rammed out room. My own highlights include travelling 50 miles to play in a remote Northumberland village pub to the bar staff and pub dog because two local lads were having a birthday party in the village hall (at least the dog seemed to like us), and playing to 4,000 Hells Angels in a big top tent on a Thursday night in Stafford. Locally, live music is often seen as a way of saving failing pubs with the result that you get three or four pubs all offering live music of varying standards within a 1 mile radius. This splits the local audience with reduced numbers all round. Suffice to say that most fail and eventually close or get new management. We’re blessed with a few pubs and clubs with a reputation for good quality live music, and as both of my bands are shall we say ‘niche’, then we prefer to wait for gigs in these venues than take a gig in a dying ‘flat roof pub’ where the meagre audience are not going to appreciate your efforts. But I think we have a huge role to play in attracting audiences. The prevalence of social media means that marketing/advertising your gig doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Timing your advertising is important too, too early and folk will forget, too late and they will inevitably already have other plans. Also, all band members have to share the workload of marketing as whilst we have many common connections, if we all hit the like and share on our bands posts, we will hit the widest possible audience. Oh and posters, many venues still rely on bands sending posters to advertise inside the venue.

So we’re thinking of upgrading our PA. Current system is Behringer XR18, dBX DriveRack PA, an old pair of Peavey Pro 15 powered subs, and a pair of EV ZLX15P tops. As we’re all using in-ears now, and with most of us having the gear to go amp-less, we’re thinking of going down that route. The band is a southern rock five-piece (2 x guitar, bass, drums, fiddle) and we play everything from small pubs to largish clubs. I’m looking to get a good solid kick drum and get increased vocal headroom as we, on occasion, run out of headroom. There is lots of chat on here about how to get a great sound with minimal kit, but if you had a budget of £5k, what would you buy? To give you a steer, I’m old school, so I don’t see us going out without subs, and I’d not rule out going back to passive cabs if it reduced the weight of each individual element as we’re all getting on these days.

^ this I do this with our acoustic Americana’ish trio on double bass. I used to use the TC BG250 208 for ‘personal monitoring’ but now prefer to use in-ears with the bass going into FoH via the Stanley Clarke’s DI.

If I remember correctly, the Shaftsbury’s were bolt on necks?

Just a thought, but before you worry about eq, are you sure you have the gain set right, and that all of your Anagram patches are putting out the same level?

So the LEDJ 211’S arrived this week and I used them last night when I was “Dad’s Disco” at my youngest daughter’s 30th birthday party (wife’s suggestion, an upstairs hump 😤). Unlike my old iColors, the LEDJ’s use five-pin DMX and you need a minimum 6-channel controller so more expense buying a new controller and three five-pin to three-pin adapters. Anyway, I’m very impressed with the lights, they filled the dance floor beautifully and were bright and colourful. Interestingly, they are almost as heavy as the iColor’s they’ve replaced which I was not expecting, but the level of built-in control more than makes up for this.

Might help if you tell us which model of Overwater you have. Also, things that I’ve had rattle in the past include tuner bushing, tuner gear, tuner ‘ear’ (the ones that have a little screw in the top to hold the ear to the shaft), truss rod cover, truss rod when loose, string through body ferrule, neck plate screws/neck plate. I’m sure I’ll probably come across more sources of rattles but that’s the first 47 years worth of bass ownership experience.

I have one of these which used to get lost with the electric band but works great with the acoustic trio

So at our last gig one of my old iColor 3’s took a stage dive and is no longer with us 😪 Having hummed and haa’d about upgrading for some time, I have finally bit the bullet and gone for a pair of LEDJ 211’s. They put out quite a bit less lumens but we never ran the iColor’s at full power anyway so I am hoping these will serve well as stage wash lights. I will report back once I’ve tried them out in anger.

Not a single pair of long trousers between you - people will be getting the impression that we have a summer up here, and before you know it we’ll be overrun with ‘tourists’

There was of course that crazy design with flippable frets that went from fretted to fretless at the flick of a switch from Mickey Guitars of Toronto. There was quite a bit of noise about this system in the early naughties.

I had a similar experience when I went from the KZ’s to the Sennheiser IE100’s. The sound is just ‘better’ all round to my tired old ears, and as they as less bulky they are easier to wear.

Having never really used anything smaller than 12” tops, I’ve always been a bit reluctant to try 10s as FOH but when a pair of mk1 Italian made RCF Art 310A came available locally for a give away price I decided to jump on them. Fast forward to this morning, and we held a ‘technical’ rehearsal for our acoustic Americana three-piece to test these out alongside my recently procured Behringer Flow 8, ahead of a gig next weekend. Firstly, these things are amazingly loud (probably louder than my EV ZLX15P’s), and also much clearer. The line-up is female lead vocal, male BV, two acoustic guitars, and me fumbling away on double bass. The guitars needed no eq whatsoever, and only the lightest of fairy dust on the vox. The 310’s handled the bass admirably, and I was able to get a very natural sound. The Flow 8 (should really be called the Flow 6) continues to amaze me and took no time at all to set up. With five of the six channels in use, plus FOH, and a single monitor feed, this diminutive little mixer coped brilliantly. So I now have a complete setup that will fit in the car without losing the back seats, and will arguably sound better than my ‘big rig’ for the types of gigs we play with the acoustic band 😎

Weakness in the hands suggests it could be carpel tunnel related, but pain around the elbow could also be tennis elbow. I used to suffer from tennis elbow quite a bit, despite not having played tennis for over 40 years. I found that an Epicondylitis clasp like this helped, in fact I still carry one in my gig bag just in case. Like @Burns-bass my elbow (and knee, and back) issues disappeared once I started using the gym regularly with a personal trainer.

I used one of These when I had the KK Baby Bass five string

I’m afraid I can’t help with the restoration, but it’s a bloody lovely looking bit of 80’s bass you’ve got there 😍

First around 1977-78 Jedson short scale catalogue special, photo taken in my bedroom (I was probably playing through the family stereo using the old trick of the microphone input and putting the tape deck in record and pause). Second one June 2025, playing my Boosey Hawkes Excelsior double bass, no amp, EBS Stanley Clarke preamp straight to FOH with in-ear monitors.

Got chatting with the singer from a very good traditional country band we saw last night in Laylas, they are indeed only paid in tips, bars make no contribution, but drum kit (minus breakables), backline, and full PA with engineer are provided by the venue. He said they aim to do two four hour sets per day, and pick up drop in or dep gigs if they’ve got a slot free, this can result in playing 12 hours a day, all for their share of the tip bucket!

So yesterday (Monday) we arrived in Nashville (self-appointed music city). We were amazed wandering down Broadway at 5pm how many bands/duos/trios were playing in the bars - every bar had live music, some having multiple floors of live music and on a Monday. Fast forward to this morning and making the same walk at 11am, same result! Obviously, most if not all are playing for tips only, and you had to feel sorry for those playing to empty or near empty bars. We spotted at least two musicians playing in different groups to yesterday (one bassist was still wearing the same clothes). Got me wondering how it works out here? Surely you cannot make a living playing for tips only? Do you have to take the early, empty gigs to get later more popular gigs? Are agents involved or does each bar do its own booking? So many questions - you can tell I’m in the second week of vacation and have nothing else to think about 😂