spinynorman

There's a couple of local bands I've seen that seem to be "entertaining", judging by the number of younger and older women who are happy to dance themselves to death in front of them. The formula for this appears to be a) get a youngish, reasonably good looking front man (ie male) with a forceful, but not too aggressive delivery b.) play "My Sex is On Fire" and as many other songs that sound like that as you can c) all look like you're enjoying it. Admittedly there are other models, running around in mid-calf shorts with your top off being one, but for us almost-pensioners that's not an option either.

We play some very small places and generally they're best gigs. Markbass 1x12 combo helps, that'll fit almost anywhere. Some people above saying headless bass is the answer. I was thinking short scale would be better, any opinions on that?

Your best bet would be Peter Alan, who is on the Solihull side of the A46. http://www.guitartechnicalservices.co.uk/

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1329991457' post='1550811'] I agree 100%. I had a very similay argument with the new owner of a pub that my band played regularly. He didn't want to pay us any more than £100, even though we were popular and the regulars were asking him when my band was going to play again. I was about to accept his £100 when he said 'how many people can you bring?' I replied that the venue has customers and it was my job to entertain them. 'you got to bring at leat ten people, or it's worth me paying you £100' I said that if we were the sort of band that carried their fans around wherever we played, we'd put our own nights on at a better venue, charge on the door and pay ourselves a lot more than £100. As he was clearly more interested in having ten people in his pub than having entertainment, I then offered to take his £100 and bring ten mates to his pub on Friday night. I woud then give each of my mates £10 of his money to spend over the bar. At very least he would get his £100 back and probably more as my mates are very thirsty people. He said this was a ridiculous idea - why would he give me £100 to bring my mates to his pub? I pointed out that paying my band £100 to play on the condition we brought in 10 people was exactly the same thing except I'd be drinking instead of playing. [/quote] I think this is a much better argument than the chef analogy in the original article. There's a lot of confusion in the discussion about this between pubs or bars, which are mostly frequented by people who want to drink, and music venues, where the band and the music is what people go for. In a venue, the problem is getting people to turn up and buy a ticket, so of course you need acts with a name and a following. In a pub, especially in a town centre, the main problem is stopping the punters who come in from going on somewhere else. There's two ways of doing that: book good, entertaining bands and build your clientele around a reputation for good music; or rely on the bands to bring an audience, in which case it's a bit like eating a whole packet of hobnobs - huge sugar rush, big high and an empty sick feeling soon after. I do have some sympathy with the landlords - most are being squeezed so hard by the breweries there's no money to invest in the business. But, it's very hard to persuade a following to turn up to a pub that smells like the stairwell of a multi-storey carpark.

MIJ Precision. It's very reliable, does everything I ask of it, and it's probably the last bass I'll ever sell.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1329528046' post='1544009'] Looks like his tele has caught some sort of infection, best get some penicillin on that bad boy before it's too late. [/quote] I think that fur is growing on penicillin.

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1329052765' post='1536467'] As a predominantly rock player myself, who has been playing (and gigging a lot all over the country) in a blues band for nearly two years, I would suggest that you don’t get too hung on authenticity and listen to the more recent stuff at this point. The two I picked on were Walter Trout (as both of his bass players are great but quite easy to suss out) and Kenny Wayne Shepherd – in fact if you listen to the first half of the first KWS album you will have the basis of pretty much all you need for modern blues rock! Not massively authentic I know, but a good crash course on what most punters’ seem to like and a good basis to get you thru any blues jam and many decent gigs that might be out there! [/quote] Last time I saw Walter Trout he announced he wasn't sticking to the set list and would play whatever came into his head. Later on he started "Sitting on Top of the World" and the bass player clearly didn't know it, and wasn't much closer to knowing it by the end of the song. Created an interesting atmosphere on stage.

Lots of Basschatters also trade on eBay and I don't believe there's some evil spirit that turns us all into scumbags when we do, so I think some of the anti-eBay sentiment on here is misplaced. Having said that, I'm in the throes of two bad eBay experiences right now, so my opinion might be about to change. I like buying here, though I've sometimes been surprised at the state basses turn up in, especially when they were claimed to have had a professional setup. Selling is more difficult, because of having to decide on a price, and the relatively small population, compared to eBay.

[quote name='ZMech' timestamp='1329136390' post='1537541'] I'm not sure what makes them great, but I do love listening to John Lee Hooker, or BB King. Although saying that, after a while I do always feel the need for a change. When my teacher sat and explained the reasoning behind the 12-bar blues and it's structure it did help me make sense of it and why they can be awesome. So to summarise what he told me, they evolved from the work songs in the cotton fields, where they would be question and answer format, a spirit you can definitely hear in B.B's playing. Bars 5 and 6 up on the IV are then a bit more wailing, to return back down to the root, and then the V IV turnaround is often then the more joyous and hopeful ending segment of the song. Since learning about that, I think you can hear the difference when the player is fulfilling that, be it on purpose or instinctively. [/quote] You might be interested in "Escaping The Delta" by Elijah Wald, which suggests the working in the cotton fields idea was largely invented by white folklorists. Music developed out of getting pissed and having a party didn't have the intellectual romance they were looking for, though it's more like something I can relate to. I found the book quite heavy going though. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Escaping-Delta-Robert-Johnson-Invention/dp/0060524278

If you're right, it's a real dilema - do you play it wrong because that's how the original was, or correct it? I never saw it as a song you needed to be that accurate with. So long as you get something vaguely like the high twiddly bit, everyone's happy. The entry for Steppenwolf in The Great Rock Discography amused me: "they continued to inflict their tired biker rock on audiences into the 90s"

This'll kill the purists. My guilty pleasure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so_YzWg7QUs&feature=related

This was our last outing.... Seven Nation Army Wishing Well Inbetween Days Stop Because the Night Red House Waterfall Mystify Waking Up Celebrity Skin Steady As She Goes Sweet Dreams I Wanna Be Adored Weak You Got the Love Tainted Love One Way Or Another Lets Work Together Jumping Jack Flash Sweet Child I Love Rock n Roll Teen Spirit The Chain

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1327582750' post='1513673'] God that's depressing. [/quote] And how. I stopped going to see The Hamsters - great band that they are - because it's like watching a video with the tracks edited into a different order, and I got sick of hearing the same between-song stories over and over again.

Some great information there, so thanks, as always. With the combination of female vocal and not, I think, great mic technique, sounds a bit risky, especially as the guy who baby sits the PA while I'm playing doesn't have a great grasp of the options when something goes wrong, other than to turn it down. I thought the SM58 was still industry standard, so I'd also be interested what has overtaken it.

A while ago I bought an Audio Technica ATM710, without any very clear idea what I was going to do with it. Are there any (dis)advantages to using condenser mics in live situations? We're a guitar + bass + drums + female vocal pop/rock band in mostly smallish pub venues, currently using SM58s. Our mixer can deliver phantom power, but it's only switchable on channel pairs. So I'd have an SM58 on a channel with phantom power switched on. Any problem with that?

Any views on these, also at Thomann and the same price? http://www.thomann.de/gb/db_technologies_iem_500_810650_mhz.htm

[quote name='Linus27' timestamp='1326554167' post='1498778'] Thats not good, glad to see its being reported. Just out of interest, as we have been scammed, can we go back to the old forum now :) [/quote] According to the little known Moore's Second Law, the rate at which software developers create improvements that nobody wants doubles every 18 months. There's no going back.

I had an old DT10 and now have the new PitchBlack. The DT10 is very robust, except you need to watch the stomp switch doesn't work loose. If it does, it's easy to take apart and reassemble. Display is easy to read and it does the job well for 4 and 5 strings. Only other thing to watch is you don't accidentally knock the flat or calibrate buttons on the back. The PitchBlack is equally robust, easy to read and easier to get a stable reading than the DT10. I've only used it with 4 strings, so can't comment on how it handles low B. That aside, I've had it for a while now and would recommend it without any reservation.

A mate did some for us a couple of times a few years ago. If I remember right, it required a PC projector, a microphone, a laptop and Winamp. Basically the mic feeds the live sound into Winamp, which has customisable visualisation, which is output to the projector. It looked good, but was just something else to carry around and set up.

Seems like it was just bad luck on anyone who bought an EB0, that it was the most popular EB model, but with the least long term appeal, as no one famous used it.

I had a Spector Rebop5 which had the EMG HZ pickups. I didn't like the Spector preamp or the Aquilar I replaced it with, so I stripped out all that battery-based nonsense and rewired it passive. It was great, if it had been a 4-string I'd still have it.

[quote name='daz' timestamp='1324376940' post='1473479'] The moral of the story is. Never sell on a favourite 'cheap' bass to get a better one, before you have lived with the new one for a few months. You may well regret it badly. [/quote] That's good advice. I had a Japcrap EB3 copy with an EMG Select guitar pickup in the bridge position. Then I bought an MIJ Epi Elitist EB3 and sold the Japcrap one. Later, when the neck dive and other things about the Epi started to really get me down, I wished I hung on to the old one.

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1324217681' post='1471888'] Sounds like what happens when one side of a balanced signal goes down, especially if the mic setting was noisy. [/quote] So it's a repair shop job? Tried different leads and mics. It's a combined 1/4" jack and xlr socket and I've tried both types of lead, no better either way. Edit: found references to similar problems with SRM450s on the Mackie forum. If it's just a case of finding the back of the socket and resoldering the connection, I could probably do that. If it requires tracing a fault, maybe not. http://www.mackie.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=115732#Post115732 http://www.mackie.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=115248#Post115248

It's a good job rare basses are so common, otherwise they'd be really expensive. Take this rare Hohner the jack. Only three listed concurrently and two others sold this month. Rare as hens beaks. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-Hohner-The-Jack-Headless-Bass-Guitar-Steinberger-Licensed-Excellent-Cond-/170747751773