BigRedX

I assume you mean what are all those weird people doing on "stage"? The gig was at The Hearty Goodfellow in Nottingham, a pub that has since been demolished and replaced by a new building for the up-market Indian Restaurant "4500 Miles to Delhi" Back in the 70s and 80s The Hearty Goodfellow was one of the few places that originals bands could get a gig, either on a Monday or Wednesday night, or supporting avant-garde jazzers Pinski Zoo who had a Friday night residency (and which was the only "weekend" gig available if your weren't playing rock covers). The band was called "The Perfect Party" and was a post-punk/synth pop amalgam, and in true post-punk style featured "unconventional" instruments and playing ability/technique. It was formed by the percussionist and myself who'd been together in a previous band, and various weirdos we'd picked up from ads in the local record shop. The band lasted just a year of which only the last 6 months was spent gigging, but in that time we managed to rack up on average ay least one gig every week, record two demos, get a track on a local compilation produced by BBC Radio Nottingham and build up a decent reputation and following, all of which got CBS records interested in signing us. Eventually they decided to go with Wham! instead, and that pretty much resulted in the break up of the band. On stage from left to right the "musicians" are: Percussion (bongos and home-made drum synths plus drum machine - Boss Doctor Rhythm - programming). With his back to the audience our guitarist whose unique approach to the instrument meant that we couldn't write anything with conventional guitar parts. He went on to be half of Diskonexion who had a couple of critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful house records released on Graeme Park's Submission Records label in the late 80s. Next, our singer who also played recorder on a couple of songs in true post-punk style. Two synth players one playing an Octave Kitten and the other an EDP Wasp (which belonged to me). The girl used to go out with Stevo (of Some Bizzare Records fame) which we though might help raise the profile of the band when we asked her to join. It didn't. She also did backing vocals on a couple of songs. Finally there's me on bass guitar and in control of the drum machine. Musically we fell somewhere between early ACR and a low budget version of New Order. The songs were all written by myself (music) and the percussionist (lyrics). For the time (1981/2) we were pushing the envelope of what could be done with technology if you didn't have record company backing to be able to get professional quality gear. The drum synths and the Wasp were particularly unreliable, but not in any predicable way. At one gig the Wasp played random notes all by itself during the first song and then remained stubbornly silent for the rest of the set. Back at the rehearsal room the following day it was perfectly fine. The photo comes from one of our later gigs when we had properly found our musical direction and had learnt how to write to the various members musical strengths and weaknesses. It was taken by a friend of mine who would go on to be a synth player in my next musical venture. Somewhere there is a mixing desk recording of the gig which sounded pretty impressive at the time, but I suspect hasn't aged as well as I would like to remember. So there you go, with probably way more detail than you would care for...

The real tracking number and courier information will be on the label which the sender will have a copy of. Ask them for the details and you should be able to get more up to date information.

I think EBS_Freak was referring to the fact that you'd called HMRC "Inland Revenue"...

I found in the days when I was using individual non-programmable pedals, apart from a digital delay that had a numerical read out for the delay time, I didn't have time to change settings between songs, so each effect was reduced to either being off or on and the setting would be the one that was the best compromise for all the songs that effect needed to be on, rather than tuned exactly to each song. In the few instances where I absolutely had to have different settings for an effect, I would have a separate pedal/device for each different setting. It wasn't ver efficient, and my last iteration of this set-up filled a 14U rack case, and was controlled by a massively complicated custom-made foot switch bank (with its own huge cable snake). In 1991 I replaced all of this with a 1U Roland GP8 multi-effects unit and it's FC100 foot controller, and I haven't looked back. My current multi-effect unit is a Helix Floor. Whilst I do most of the programming from my computer using the HX Edit program, all the parameters I might want to fine tune once I'm in rehearsal with my bands are at the most 2 button pushes away, and its certainly more reliable and consistent than the 14U of individual effects (and IMO only very slightly less easy to use).

But unless you're a competent DIYer with a box full of the right tools and parts, there's no substitute for a decent plumber. As a covers band you have to ask yourselves "what can we bring that is superior to a well chosen Spotify/iTunes playlist and how much extra is that worth?"

Almost all of these "problems" can be fixed by buying a decent multi-effect pedal and using that instead.

Actually the one I used to own sounded pretty much like a very good P-Bass without any noticeable increase in sustain or additional harmonics.

Having a "hi-mass" badge is supposed to prevent energy transference from the string as the non-string parts of the instrument are too heavy to vibrate. Except of course they don't really work because the overall increase in mass of a typical bass body with a hi-mass bridge compared with the same body and a BBOT bridge is negligible. For an alternative look at isolating the string from the rest of the instrument have a look at the Born To Rock bass. In this case the design was conceived to do any with the need for a truss rod.

That makes a lot more sense. Thanks for posting that photo. I have to say I'm not keen on having any non-latching connectors in a gig situation. Maybe it's just the kinds of bands I play in and gigs that I do.

@Dood

Add 25% onto the combined sale price plus shipping charge and you shouldn't have any nasty surprises.

Any reason why the XLR socket is on a wonk? It looks like a mistake. Also there appears to be no cable holder on the 9V in socket. That's unfortunate accident waiting to happen on stage.

Thanks. Every day is a school day! When you "literally go flipping nuts" are you expected to remain in key?

IME no amount of "good set up" will produce a decent sounding and feeling B-string from a bass that is incapable of producing it.

Do you know what piece this fragment of notation is actually from? I doubt it is from anything serious of the sort described above.

Neck and neck joint construction play a major role in getting a good sounding low B string (along with matching the correct string to the bass and your playing style). It's unsurprising to me that the higher quality basses have the best sounding and feeling low B strings. I've yet to come across any 5-string bass that retails at under £1k that is any good in this respect.

I tried boiling string once. It took ages, left a stain on the pot I used and one of the strings broke when I tried to fit it back on the bass. The rest sounded just as crap as before within a couple of days.

Surely the simplest thing would be to modify the existing BBOT bridge to be slot loading? A couple of hours work with a junior hacksaw and some files should do the job.

We all need to eat a peck of dirt before we die.

Since both the bands I play in at the moment use computer-driven backing, this is the next thing I am considering. Not only will the main song patch be selected on song load, but all the mid-song snap-shot changes will be automated as well. All I need to do as a bit of programming and add a standard MIDI lead between the interface than the Helix. I used to do this with another band back in the 90s when the technology was a lot less reliable and user friendly. In fact we automated the patch changes for the whole band - synths, samplers, guitar and bass effects, electronic drums as well as the digital FoH mixer we used. We did have our own FoH sound engineer who would adjust the mix on the fly as necessary, but being able to set up the basic levels, EQs, effects and routings automatically at the start of each song was a massive time saver.

If you can be organised any of Helix-based units should be fine. I have the full Helix Floor with each song assigned to an individual patch and then up to 4 snap-shots for each song for all the various effects changes (I could have 8 snap-shots on both banks of foot switches, but I don't find the upper bank very user friendly for getting the right switch at the right time mid-song. Using the Set List function, I have all the patches in the order that I need them, so that the up switch selects the patch (and snap-shots) for the next song (along with the song name in the display), so I don't even have to have a printed set list on stage any more. Of course that won't work if you are in a band who change the set order on the fly...

Yes. However there is no single bass that does everything I need so my perfect basses are: My two Gus G3-5s (one main and one spare for gigs) and my Eastwood copy of the Shergold Marathon 6-string bass (I may even get a second one so I have a spare for gigs). Unless I find myself playing in a band that needs some fretless bass sounds I can't (at the moment) see myself buying another bass again.

It's is also worth considering that the plug-ins that come included with the more expensive DAWs tend to be optimised for the DAW in question then therefore have a lower processor and memory footprint. 3rd party plug-ins are written with maximising compatibility for as many DAWs and operating systems first and foremost, and can work out more expensive in the long term in terms of hardware requirements as well as the upfront additional cost.

These awards tend to be for people who are singers/songwriters/producers rather than "traditional" musicians. I'd far rather someone like PinkPantheress wins this than Coldplay, whose "songwriting" is distinctly lowest common denominator stuff and everything that makes them interesting has been done by Eno.

Unfortunately it appears that DaytonaRik has turned into his dad. He'll be telling us pesky kids to get off his lawn next...