Kiwi

Oh blimey, I haven't updated mine for a while. Too busy! Sheesh. Okay, here goes: [b]Dec 15th[/b] Corporate christmas gig at the Sloane Square Hotel on Sloane Square for a hair dressing chain. Really small stage space sort of crammed between two seating alcoves. Dreadful acoustics but the crowd looked like they'd all stepped out of [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skins_(TV_series)"]Skins[/url]. The singers heads were being turned for a change! LOL. Arguably the worst company pep talk we've ever listened to, with the manager focussing on the economic downturn. It would have pretty much peed on the fire of most staff socials but from what we could tell most people just ignored him. No meal supplied, but we did get sandwiches. [b]Dec 19th[/b] Leeds Town Hall, corporate gig. What an amazing venue. The staff bent over backwards to help us, even with the load in and load out. We had our own dedicated security guard keeping an eye on our room and it was the biggest stage we've ever played. The gig went well although quite a few people left early during our break so only the hard core party crowd were left when we came back on. Meal - lasagne. [b]Dec 20th[/b] Fawsley Hall near Northants. Interesting gig in the midde of nowhere (almost), we were in the refurbished stables building separate from themain house. The staff were fairly helpful although the manager was pretty stressed out and curt with everyone. Load in/out was easy as we were playing in front of a large set of double doors, basically just had to take the stuff into the van directly through the back of the stage area. The crowd were pretty responsive but the acoustics were terrible with all the hard surfaces there. Meal - lasagne. [b]Dec 21st[/b] Gig at Westgate-on-Sea, at St Augustines Chapel for a wedding. The event was a surprise for a couple, thrown on by her parents. The crowd were a bit rough, one bloke had too many and kept walking up and down in front of the stage, oogling the singers while clutching a can of lager. A number of his attempts to engage the singers were ignored until the Best Man hauled him away and told him to sit down and behave. Meal - sirloin steak dinner, cooked to perfection! [b]Dec 31st[/b] New Years gig in Dubai. Flight from hell over there via Cairo on the 28th/29th. We left at 2pm and got to Cairo around 9pm local time only to be told our connecting flight to Dubai was delayed until midnight. What was actually the case was there would be an announcement at midnight. We found a starbucks with free internet access and those of us with laptops and iphones managed to stave off the boredom. At midnight we were invited to get some food so we followed an airport staff member to their 'Long Transit Lounge' (which reminded me of a prison for lost travellers) and then into a cafeteria which looked like a civic service staff restaurant from the 80's. We joined maybe 200 other passengers all in the same situation and we were treated to a meal of some diced chicken, chips, rice and an apple. Plus some water. We were then left to our own devices for the next hour until we were led back by which time they'd announced our departure in another hour. Overall our flight had been delayed by 8 or 9 hours and we eventually landed at 7am in Dubai. While Dubai was free of fog and a balmy 20 degrees, the same couldn't be said for our sleep deprived brains. Anyways, so we rested. Then the following day we each did our own thing apart from checking the hire equipment that had arrived. There were some glaring ommissions, including the bass cab (an Ashdown 8x10), keyboard and percussion. That evening we went out in the evening to a bar with one of the singers friends (late nights are easy if we stayed on UK time). On the 31st, we got word that the Ruler of Dubai was considering a ban on all New Years celebrations in order to show solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. There was a strong likelihood we would have come over for nothing, however he relented at the last minute and allowed indoor celebrations to continue. Another band who were booked to play to 2000 people outside at the same hotel weren't so lucky but they were a lot smaller than we were too (two singers and keyboardist) The rest of the gear arrived and we soundchecked while the hotel staff were stage dressing around us. Everything seemed to go well. The meal for that evening was basically help ourselves from the banquet and the banguet was stunning. Lobster, fillet of lamb and beef, salmon in every variety of cooking, foie gras brulee, raw oysters, and the chefs had even prepared a seafood selection in the shape of a 5 string bass! The night went well although the crowd arrived a bit late and we had to go on for our first set before they'd finished eating. So there wasn't a lot of dancing until the last couple of songs. Then we counted in New Years and used that as an excuse to get people on their feet for Aud Lang Syne. The second set went a lot better and once we'd packed up we all piled off to the girls apartment to see in the UK new year. The following day, the drummer had organised a desert safari with dune bashing and a BBQ. It was fun at first but some of us were on the verge of succumbing to motion sickness at the end! Flight back was nearly as hellish. The girls were late back from the apartment of a friend of one of the singer's and delayed us getting to the airport by nearly an hour. We made it just about in time though. We left at 2am on a red eye flight and got to Cairo about 5am Dubai time and landed back at Heathrow at midday. Then I faced a 2 hour drive back to Peterborough! The food and features on Egypt Air were about what most airlines had back in the 80's. The food was awful and everyone had to share preprogrammed entertainment. [b]Jan 10th[/b] 18th birthday party for a private client at the Dali Cafe in County Hall, the former GLC building. I arrived an hour late and in a mild state of panic only to find that everyone else was still unloading too. The crowd were very young and didn't recognise most of the 70's stuff in our set list until we got to the choruses! lol We were apparently also told we were too loud by the venue manager and we repeatedly turned ourselves down. Apparently they'd never had a band there before and guests at the Travelodge next door were complaining (as well as another band elsewhere in the building!) We finally ended up playing at a volume that was more of a side show to the conversation than anything so we lost a fair amount of atmosphere. Still, not much we could do about that. Meal - nothing

[quote name='umph' post='383984' date='Jan 18 2009, 02:08 PM']i'm sick of this perception that valve amps only do gritty tones, valve amps also do extremely hi fi sounds to just as well as solid state amps if not better, they just distort in a much more pleasant manner[/quote] I'd agree with that to a degree. My strategy 400 power amp acts as my hifi amp at the moment (200w a side - oh yes!) I'd say a lot of 70's amps sound a bit grindy to me like ampeg, Marshall, Hiwatt etc. Nineties stuff like the Eden Vt300 and some of the Aguilar kit definitely doesn't. I've even played my old Smith 5 through an Ampeg SVT and 8x10 once and it didn't sound too bad. Nice match in colouring I guess.

I never say never...

I don't think he's far off in some respects. In my experience its about how well the colouring of the bass matches the colouring of the valve amp. Warm basses tend to sound better but sometimes even some fairly modern sounding basses can sound good. I've had great results from playing a graphite necked status through a valve amp as well as the more traditional stingray and fender p bass. I'm sure there are probably some vintage instruments that don't sound so good either.

I think they're a little overpriced and owning one of the family reserve is almost like wearing a badge that says 'I want to be liked by other musicman stingray fans'. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, just not for me.

bugger, I'm too far out of town to make it. She didn't come on until 10:45pm at the last gig I went to and she got visibly narked about the fact that half the audience left around midnight. I don't think anyone had told her about the underground.

I still think the preamps need dual inputs. (My Shuttle 6.0 was plenty loud enough for Leeds Town Hall, BTW and I'm playing one bass now at gigs anyway.)

Given Zavvi in Peterborough are having a sale, I've snagged a couple of Hed Kandi Twisted Disco complilations.

welcome matey

[quote name='eshears' post='381541' date='Jan 15 2009, 05:39 PM']Is yours the same as [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/4747-levys_cm88_polyester_double_electric_bass_gig_bag"]this one?[/url][/quote] No, mine doesn't have the separate zippered compartments. It just has a foam separator. Although mine is blue, its more like this: [url="http://www.bassexchange.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=93"]http://www.bassexchange.com/catalog/produc...?products_id=93[/url] I was told it was made by Levys but maybe it wasn't...

its hopefully in the right one now.

I think that finish is achieved by spraying a stain over the wood and sanding it back. Jens has a real eye for dramatic impact though.

BUMP

[quote name='Beedster' post='381594' date='Jan 15 2009, 06:26 PM']I once replaced myself in a band, although it was never as good as when I was in it first time around [/quote] Did you find it intimidating having to fill your own shoes?

[quote name='eshears' post='380721' date='Jan 14 2009, 09:41 PM']Where did you pick up your Levy's? The Bass Gallery told me they couldn't get them in (even though they're on their website?)[/quote] I got it from Eubassix I think.

Update: Spoke to Jon today. The finishing is complete, the hardware, pickups and preamps have been installed. He just needs to sort the backplates out and give the bass a set up. Reckons the bass might be ready to pickup in a couple of weeks...maybe.

[quote name='Beedster' post='380552' date='Jan 14 2009, 06:48 PM']LOL, hope you didn't find out it was your old band by reading this thread [/quote] I did but thats OK. Im still in touch with them now and then. They're based up around Ruislip and are nice people. Whoever joins them will have a lot of fun, I'm sure. Ear plugs are essential if you're standing next to Nige their drummer though .

Thats my old band!