jwbassman

that is going to look awesome

First played - Marlin (blue) First owned - Yamaha RBX800A (great neck - sold to a good friend of mine so still see it now and again)

Interesting thread this one... I voted for 1 hour because in my (big)band, which I guess is classed as covers as we don't play any original material and albeit a very different genre to most of you guys, I have the responsibility to set up the PA (it's all my gear and for my sins I make us sound as good as I can) means I'm usually there at least an hour before the rest of the band so having to drive more than an hour to get there makes it a very long gig for me. In respect of the being paid to play it's unusual for us to get more than expenses, maybe £10 each (there are 18 of us in the band) if we have a few punters in, we charge a modest £4 on the door for over 2 hours of very good quality music, there is the odd exception to this but they are few and far between. I guess it all comes down to our individual situations, I certainly don't play in the bigband for the money, but there are other gigs (pit/show work) I take because they pay reasonably well and other gigs I'd do for nothing depending upon the situation. I guess I'm lucky in that I have a day job and any cash I get for playing is a bonus and it also means that the music I do tends to pay for itself, which is nice. If I had to make a full time living out of playing (which I did for a short while) I'm sure I'd have a different take on it...

Keep it simple - make it groove

Sorry - doesn't really do it for me

I've gone for the neck thru option because my main bass is an Overwater Fretless 5 - I think this construction style is well suited to fretless. That said it really is horses for courses - my recently accquired US Fender Precision is bolt on and sounds great, clearly more edge than the Overwater but it also has a maple neck and board so that too will be a contributing factor. Different tools for different jobs... Yet to try a set neck - maybe next time

it's started

Trower stuff is a good shout - I'm trying to get my guitarist to do some of his stuff - might suggest a few of these...

why thank you - it needed a good old clean, but came up beautifully... plays really well too and sounds great, really looking forward to next weekends rehersal to give it a proper run out... I know my guitarist is gonna love the mirror thing, so I may not have any choice as to wether I keep it or not he's even ordered one to match Cheers for the positive comments guys

+1 on a great resource... I recently changed my gigging set up to include a valve pre and went for a BBE Bmax T. Using an active bass I was getting an unwanted distortion so I sent the unit to OBBM who very kindly modded it to reduce the input gain (removed some components, replaced a couple of others) and also sugggested I try a JAN 5751 valve in there - the stock valve (GTECC83) was quiet harsh to my ears - and what a difference the lower gain valve made, so much smoother and warmer and souned great. I've also just 'invested' in a Demeter VTP201S for my studio rack and was contemplating which valves I should use in that - I'm obviously keen to try a couple of Mullards to see what all the fuss is about but would be happy to use the JAN 5751's again. I'm also interested by the lower gain Mullard the ECC81 - guess it's all a bit of trial and error, until you find something that works for you - but this thread has given me a great heads up so many thanks...

I'd say that's a pretty cool set list - not a million miles away from what my blues/rock trio would be playing... Our set would contain a few originals as well, but as mentioned you need a couple of reasonably well known ones to keep the punters happy. Good to see you've got a bit of Rory in there - we do For the Last Time which is one of my favourites to play and the guitarist is keen to do Tattooed Lady We also do Black Magic Woman in a kind of cross between the Peter Green and Santana versions, always went down well... It's been a few years since we'vew gigged (but we've now got a new drummer on board so hopefully out again soon) we used to find that providing you make a pretty good fist of it everyone is happy. We decided (as it sounds you have) not to do all the really obvious stuff - just make a good listenable noise and you'll be fine - the mix is the key thing and try not to get carried away and stick everything on 10...

Just got back form the gig - he didn't make an apperance in Manchester either... By the sounds of things the same guy was on, I didn't catch his name either - played a Warwick fretless 5 - he was really good but the Warwick just didn't have enough mwah for me, I think my Overwater would have sounded better Thought the stage setup was cool and the lighting added greatly to the mood of events. There was some great playing and some really cool moments, one of those gigs you come out of (2 hours later - no interval) and go - what just happened? That reminds me I need to pop out and buy some more reverb before my gig tomorrow, oh and some wind noises too

Maple board with black blocks and binding - looks good to me

[quote][attachment=3439:Picture_173.jpg][/quote] That looks mighty fine - I'm contemplating doing the Shuker course to build my own and if I got anywhere near that I'd be very happy The black burst is quality and the birdseye maple...

Lets throw EA into the mix here too... I used a [url="http://www.overwater.co.uk/euphonic_audio_iamp_200_wz.htm"]EA iAmp 200[/url] for over 4 years - compact, lightweight, small footprint, good connectivity, big clean sound but with good eq options so you can tweak to your hearts content. If you want small - check out the EA Micro 300 head [url="http://www.overwater.co.uk/euphonic_audio_iamp_m300.htm"]here[/url] and pair it with any cab you like... Only reason i changed was to introduce a valve pre into my set up and try the whole separates thing as I'd never done it before

Hi Pablo The bass is cool - cleaned up really nice and sounds great - shame you never got to play it... Must admit I was a bit aprehensive at first buying a bass unseen when I then found out it was beening shipped from Scotland and that you had never actually had it, but I needn't have worried - Anndra is a top guy too (and a very busy) but he supplied additional photos on request and his communication was good. Happy when we got the shipping organised and it was worth wait... Your good communication and quick to reply to PM's counts for a lot in my book Cheers John

Maple gets my vote too... Something like this [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8471"]My recently purchased US Fender Precision[/url]

I'm undecided, but my wife seems to like it - i'll stick with it for a few weeks and see if it grows on me...

For your viewing pleasure tonight - my very first Fender - it's only taken me 18 years of playing to get round to getting one ! A 2003 US Precision, I wanted a black, black, maple... but ended up with this instead ... [attachment=3519:fp_01.jpg] [attachment=3518:fp_02.jpg] [attachment=3517:fp_03.jpg] [attachment=3516:fp_04.jpg] Jury is still out on the scratchplate - so I may still get my black, black, maple...