BigRedX

Playing with new people is one of the things that keeps being in bands interesting for me. While I was a fan of one of the bands I currently play with, I didn't really know them as people before I joined the band, and the other band I play with were all new to me both musically and personally.

Having at one point owned almost 50 guitars and bass plus numerous synths and samplers and other bits of high-tech musical hardware, I am down to one bass plus a (near identical) backup for each of the two bands that I play in. The bands have very different bass requirements - for one I use a 5-string and the other a Bass VI - so just one bass (and a backup) is not a viable option. I've also kept the 2 guitars I had custom made for me in the late 90s, but all the high-tech stuff has gone (replaced by whatever plugin instruments come free with Logic), although I am contemplating getting a small synth for use with one of the bands...

I've never actually played at The Boat Club in Nottingham, although I have seen loads of bands there including YMG, U2, Comsat Angels, Bow Wow Wow and Orange Juice. OtOH I have played on the main stage at Rock City.

I saw Evan Parker at the Huddersfield New Music Festival. As well as his ensemble on-stage there was also a bunch of people with laptops manipulating the sounds for each instrument in real time. I'm sure the playing was technically accomplished, but a troop of chimps could have achieved the same effect. All-in-all it sounded like a poor quality cabaret Voltaire B-Side but went on much, much longer. And the venue was absolutely packed...

Whilst I haven't actually played there myself, I was lucky enough to be in the audience at CBGBs just before it closed for good.

Blondie have a knack for making cover versions their own. Their cover of The Nerves' "Hanging on the Telephone" makes the original sound like a very poor demo.

IME learning covers note for note (for band purposes) is only relevant if your band has exactly the same instrumentation as the recorded version, including all the easily picked out overdubs. Almost everything else will require some adjustment to the arrangement, and that's what sets a good band apart from the others when it comes to covers in that they know how to rearrange the song to play to their strengths and avoid weaknesses. My experience specifically as a bass player is that songs from the 60s up to punk, often have several instruments covering the bass part, and the bass guitar is by no means necessarily the most important one. Quite often I found myself having to come up with something that was a mixture of the bass guitar and the left hand of the organ/piano part(s) in order for the song to still have the same bottom end impact as the recoded version the audience would be familiar with.

And in the last 20 years I can pretty much count the number of places I've played that didn't have an in-house PA on the fingers of one hand, and all of those were "venues" that didn't normally put on live music.

Here's a selection: 1978 Playing my home-made electric balalaika: 1982 Playing bass: 1985 Playing Synth: 1997 Playing bass: 2000 Playing guitar: I don't consider any of the later ones to be "old" enough but if you want I can dig out some Terrortones photos...

You don't really feel the fingerboard (and the strings certainly don't touch it unless you are pressing them down with superhuman strength) on a fretted instrument, so as long as it looks good to me I wouldn't have a problem with it.

This. It's how my band works too. As a general rule you need to work on the arrangements and the instrument sounds for the whole band (not just the bass and keyboards). There are plenty of classic bands with keyboards and no-one has ever said that their arrangements and mixes have the instruments fighting for their own sonic space. Listen and learn.

Generally speaking they are either a 4th (B-B) on 28" scale or a 5th (A-A) on 30" scale lower than standard guitar tuning (E-E). I've not had a chance to try a 30" tuned A-A, but the 28" B-B sounded great with normal guitar chords even full ones at the first position, while I have never been able to get any decent clarity out of chords with more than 2 notes on a Bass VI (30" tuned E-E an octave below standard guitar tuning) unless I play high up the neck, which IMO defeats the object as I might as well use a guitar. Of course you can tune a Baritone any way you want the same as you can tune a guitar to things other than EADGBE. I have my Bass VI tuned EADGCE because I do a lot of work with open drone strings and the band has a number of songs in C or Am which means tuning the "B string" to C is more useful for me. BTW have you considered a Bass VI? That way you get to keep your bass player "credentials" whilst gaining access to some guitar type sound too. Just don't expect to be able to play full chords low down on the neck and get anything other than an undefined mush.

Not being played live, but here are the studio recordings of Hurtsfall - all the "bass" and "guitar" sounds are either the Burns Barracuda or the Eastwood Hooky through a Line6 Helix.

Yes of course you can. There are plenty of us who play multiple instruments on here. What scale length/tuning are you looking at? 28" B-B or 30" A-A? And how do you intend to use it?

You won't find any load boxes rated above 150W (and most are only good for up to 50W) simply because they are aimed at guitarists wanting to overdrive the output valves on over-powered amps while keeping their volumes at relatively sensible levels. And as has been said, Class D amps will work fine without a speaker load.

You shouldn’t need any drivers for the Mac, so long as the Zoom is USB class compliant, Core Audio in OSX takes care of everything.

I've just moved home office location and because it's currently in a rented property drilling holes for a reasonably direct cable run wasn't possible. I had a look at Powerline adaptors, but for every glowing review there was another one cataloguing problems (and the good ones weren't cheap), so I ended up running 30m standard cat6 cable round a convoluted path to get from the lounge where the router was to the room I'm using as my office with the minimum of visual disruption. Personally I'm not a fan of WiFi for anything other than hand-held devices. Everything else requires a power cable so adding a network cable as well is no big deal. If this was my studio build, I'd seriously consider only having wired network connectivity to discourage others from constantly checking their phones when we should be getting on with the more serious business of making music without distractions, but then again I'm starting to turn into a grumpy old man...

And I'm not. My Mono gig bag, on me, is a bum slapper as described in the OP, and is fine for a 5 minute walk, but for me not at all suitable for the 30 minutes I would need if I was going to walk to the rehearsal room. I'm only 5' 6" tall which might have something to do with it, but the Ritter bag I had before this was perfect. The Ritter bag while not having a waist strap did have a chest one, which might have been relevant. Before I got my Mono Bag, I didn't realise that some "quality" gig bags were so uncomfortable to wear. For me the whole point of putting my bass in a gig bag was so I could walk 2-4 miles with it on my back. If I was going by car or band van and would only need to carry it a short distance it would go in a proper hard case.

The most common point of pickup failure is where the wire used for the actual coils is joined to the cable that goes to the controls. If the pickups aren't sealed at the base, there should be two tags (they often look like rings) where the thin wire from coil and the corresponding wire from the cable are joined. If these are visible check that you can see the coil wires are still attached.

This. The problem with ethernet over the mains is that both ends need to be on the same circuit, and your new building is almost definitely going to be on a completely separate one to the rest of the sockets in the house. Plus they are not as good as a dedicated cable and can introduce noise into the mains which may affect audio equipment. Not what you want in a studio/rehearsal room. Besides if you're already running other services to it, one extra cable isn't going to make a significant difference.

I doubt whether there are any other UK-made basses under £1k.

You be surprised...

This is the problem with most bass guitar sized gig bags, as hardly any of them are designed for walking a significant distance (further than from the pub car park to the pub). What I have found is that on most the straps join the bag too close together at the top because the bag mimics the shape of the bass too much, and it is this rather than the height on the bag which makes it uncomfortable to wear. However the overall height of the neck/head of the bass will also be a factor. Also what suits one person is completely impractical or uncomfortable for another, due to us all being different heights. The most comfortable gig bag I have ever owned was a Ritter one that I got free with my Sei Bass. I've just had a look on their web site and none of the current offerings look much like the one I had. I suspect it was close to the bottom end of the range because it was free and the alternative was a Hiscox case that would have had to pay close to list price for. However the down side was that after about 4 years of weekly use it was completely worn out and I ended up using it as additional packing when I shipped a bass to Japan. The only advice I would have is if possible to try before you buy ideally with the bass(es) you intend to carry and any additional items you want to fit in the various pockets. It is also my experience that lots of additional carry capacity is not so useful in practice and overloading the case is just as bad for comfort and balance.

The other you need to check is that the flow rate of your replacement fan is at least equal if not greater than the one you are replacing. Some low-noise fans are low noise because they simply don't move as much air at the same rate. If you don't move a sufficient volume of "cool" air over the hot components at the required rate, they won't cool down enough and will eventually go pop...

But the back of the pot in itself is not an essential part of the circuit. And the only additional earth cable should be the one from the bridge. Personally I'd solder this to the closest convenient "proper" solder tag, whether that is the one on the volume pot, tone pot or the output jack. That way you aren't trying the heat up an excessively large area/volume of metal and potentially damaging an electrical component in the process.