BigRedX

Next two gigs for Hurtsfall: Supporting Miranda Sex Garden at Rough Trade in Nottingham on Thursday 10th July. Opening will be the excellent Modern Coven. Then on Saturday 12th July we'll be playing second to last on the second day of Goths On A Field: We'll be playing at around 8.30 in the evening just before headliners Attrition.

I'd be reluctant to buy anything from Modal until the new owners have demonstrated that they are in for the long haul and will be supporting all the current models.

My basses (and guitars) have been bought in order to be played. Currently the only instrument I gig is the cheapest one I own - Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass - but that's because it's the only one with the correct string configuration and scale length for the music my band is currently doing. However I have gigged all the instruments that I currently own depending on the band I was in at the time. Also I only practice using the instrument I am going to be playing at the gig. There's no point in using a different one.

I have the opposite problem with glasses. My long distance vision is ok, but everything close up is out of focus. For work I have "occupational" glasses which are for reading and computer screen use with the balance shifted towards computer screen use. I tried full varifocals and they were terrible for me for all the reasons described by others in this thread. For playing I have a Helix Floor which has a nice big display and scribble strips that I can read fine without glasses and I have a pair of gig glasses that I use when setting up and if I need to do anything to the computer that runs our drums mid-set. These are out of the way on the computer stand and I only need to wear use them during the set if something has gone wrong. Because my glasses are needed for near vision I can't really wear them when standing up and moving around because they make all objects more than 2m away out of focus and make me feel dizzy if I wear them while moving.

It really depends on the bands and how dedicated the musicians who are in more than one band are. I think that covers bands can be more flexible as to who is on stage, original bands not so much. I've done originals bands with deps and it's never been as good as having the proper band member on stage. Those deps that had a couple of rehearsals weren't too bad even if the musical vibe wasn't quite there. Those who thought they could wing it with recordings of the songs we were going to play and some practice at home on their own came unstuck, sometimes quite spectacularly. Also not one of them could follow simple dress code of "wear black, no obvious band or brand logos, no trainers for guitarists". If you are a band with a definite image and stage presence, having someone on stage who obviously hasn't made the slightest effort looks totally crap and in retrospect it might have been better to cancel the gig. I have tried four times to be in more than one band and every time it has not been a success. Originals bands thrive on the last-minute important gig. If half the members aren't available because they are playing Dad rock covers at the Dog & Duck it's going to acrimonious. If members are in two originals bands there is always going to be jealously if one is doing better than the others. As an example the band I'm in currently weren't doing a lot of gigs when I joined. They were mostly writing and recording, so when the opportunity came up to join a much better known band (in the same genre) who had an album out, a publishing deal and some fairly high-profile gigs, I jumped at it. For a while it was possible to be in both bands, we had separate set rehearsal nights, and our gig schedules only overlapped when both bands were playing the same event. I had a strict rule that I wouldn't try and use my membership of one band as a direct means to get gigs for the other. However over the last 2-3 years it was obvious that fortunes of the two bands were shifting, and there were starting to be problems with my availability as my first band was getting more and better gigs. When the singer of the second decided to call it a day at the end of last year, I used it as an opportunity to tell the others that wouldn't be joining them in their next project as my other band was too busy for me to be able to dedicate sufficient time. It looks like this was the right decision. The band I'm still with are very much on the "up". We have on average a gig every other week until the end of the year and two gigs already booked for 2026. We're currently finishing off our album for release later this year. As far as I know the other band have done nothing in the last 6 months.

I've travelled on the train with musical instruments loads of times and like others it has never occurred to me to check if there was a maximum allowed luggage size. Besides I've seen people with enormous suitcases that take up far more room than any bass ever could. One thing to note - last time I did this was on the EMT Nottingham to London and my bass in its Mono M80 case was too bulky to go in the overhead racks.

Hurtsfall played the Nottingham Craft Beer Festival in Sneinton Market on Saturday. If you are not playing covers these events can be a bit hit-or-miss and on top of that we were the last band playing that day, so we didn't really know what to expect. Sneinton Market is currently the "happening" area in Nottingham where all the interesting independent shops are situated in units in the old market buildings. On arrival we discovered that the beer festival had taken up the whole of the Avenues area and was entry by ticket only. However to allow people to still use the shops you could get in but didn't get a wristband which was required in order to buy beer. As performers we all got wristbands but I don't recall being asked to show mine before being served. There were two stages - one outdoors where unfortunately the performers seemed to be mostly ignored and also had to compete with all the other music - there appeared to be at least one DJ set up on every avenue, and the other in The Grove where we were playing. Probably the most convoluted load-in so far this year. There was only one entrance and some of the avenues were blocked off half way along the length meaning that getting all the gear to the venue involved not only negotiating all the beer festival attendees but also doubling back on yourself to get around all the blockages. Certainly not as easy as the last time we played at The Grove when it was possible to park directly outside the venue. Thirty minute turnaround between performers, whilst someone played on the other stage. No time for a proper sound check, set up, just one verse to make sure we could hear everything in the monitors and a couple of minutes to get changed and then we were on. Luckily there was nothing "miss" about this event. The venue was packed (that's not that difficult as it is really tiny) and it appeared that quite a few people had come specifically to see us play. Cue dancing, singing along to the songs and cheering in between. We even got our first proper encore. I'm a firm believer in both bands and the audience have to deserve an encore. None of this coming back on stage just because a couple of your mates have shouted "more". We were technically past the live music curfew but the sound engineer said do one more and so we did. Even sold some merch afterwards although at this sort of event you don't really expect to. Load out was much easier as the festival was over by the time we had everything packed up and we were able to leave by a much more direct route. As usual here's a couple of photos: Next gigs are on 10th July Supporting Miranda Sex Garden at Rough Trade in Nottingham, followed by Goths On A Field festival on Saturday 12th.

IME Rotosound strings "go off" even if they are just sat in their packets on the rack in the musical instrument store. Either switch to a different brand, or only buy Rotosound strings direct from Rotosound at their stand at a music instrument show and fit them within a couple of weeks of purchase.

That will tend to remove the fundamental from every note from C on the A string downwards. In practice even with the steepest of filters there will be enough of the fundamentals present on all the notes down to low B for your brain to be able to use the non-filtered harmonics to properly detect the pitch of the notes being played.

I suspect that the 5U height specification might be the sticking point. IME ready-made light-weight plastic racks tend to come in multiples of 2 or 3 units depending on the brand. The only ones I have seen that don't conform to this are custom-made plywood with aluminium cladding rack cases which are much heavier. You may have to go for 6U to get something suitably light-weight.

IME scale length does make a different on a 36" Overwater Original or the 37" low-B on a Dingwall, but 35" on a budget bass not so much. If a manufacturer can make a 35" scale bass with a decent sounding and feeling low-B they can probably make a 34" scale one too. Neck construction, stiffness and the rigidity of the neck joint (if it's not a through-neck bass) are the most important factors.

MIDI over USB is not the same as traditional MIDI using DIN cables which is a peer-to-peer connection. USB over MIDI requires one of the devices to be the "host" This usually means a computer or a dedicated USB Host device. Unless either the Zoom or the MIDI foot controller are capable as acting as a host device you will need something between them to do the job. As usual Zoom don't tell you much about the USB MIDI capabilities of the MS60b+. Some of the Disaster Area pedals might work but the couple I had a look at don't appear to be host devices.

Is that your actual bass in the photo? If so it looks as though you have already tried a taper wound B-string. If not try one. IME The extra inch of a 35" scale bass makes little difference to the clarity of low B. What I have found that works are all the following: 1. A heavier string. 130 is the MINIMUM I would consider for a low B. If you look at string tension figures for those manufacturers that publish them, the standard 125 low B has a much lower tension than the other strings. 130-135 is a good compromise between getting a more balanced tension and for the string to not be too thick to make playing uncomfortable. 2. Taper-wound string. 3. Moving the pickups away from the lower strings. I'd drop it a couple of mm more from the low B compared with the height away from the G string 4. If the bass has a bolt-on neck making sure it is as tight in the neck pocket as possible. With the bass about a tone way from standard pitch slacken off the neck bolts about a turn. Then bring the strings up to pitch and once this is stable tighten up the neck bolts. This method uses the string tension the pull the neck as tightly as possible into the pocket. IME getting the best sound and feel out of the low B is all about neck stiffness and neck joint construction. You can't do much about the neck stiffness but you can make sure any bolt-on joint between neck and body is as tight as it can go.

IME if you were paying fees just to list an item you were either a business seller or you were doing something wrong. As @neepheid has said eBay used to dish out free listing offers all the time. IIRC, I would get 100 of these every month. I think I had one month when I had a lot of things that I was interested in selling and I had to hold back a couple of items until the following month. If that is a different experience to others on here I don't know why. As for complaining about stuff being too expensive second-hand, it's pointless. There are lots of things that I would like to own new and second hand that are selling for more than I am prepared to pay. I just shrug and move on. If it's something I really want I'm prepared to wait until one comes up at a price that I am prepared to pay. I'm currently in the market for a second Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass. When they do come up on eBay and other sites they are only slightly less expensive than a new one, so I'll pass until I can either afford a new one or one comes up at a price that makes buying used worthwhile for me.

This is pretty much me too. I walk every day, although not as much as I used to when I didn't work from home. The band has ditched all our backline but we still have a couple of weighty items notably the flightcase that holds the gear which replaces having a drummer, and the synth player's 2-tier stand. Our rehearsal space is a fair walk from where it is possible to park the car for unloading and involves a flight of stairs if the lift isn't working, so carrying the gear for that and for gigs tends to be a decent work-out. I used to be a member of a gym but once the novelty wore off I found it pretty boring and after Covid I didn't bother re-joining. Despite being the oldest in the band by about 15 years I'm probably the fittest and most healthy. Musically I play 3 times a week once for writing, once for a rehearsal with my band and once for a gig. If I have a week when we're not rehearsing and/or gigging I'll get extra writing or recording sessions in. I've never practiced for the sake of it, it's always been because I have something specific that I need to play and my fingers aren't up to speed.

It's a typical 60s, non-Fender type spacing. I had a Burns Sonic with the same "wide" spacing although both pickups were identical and the best sound was with them wired in series.

I've been using eBay to buy and sell for over 20 years now and I have never paid anything to list an item for sale.

IME, while it is a great idea to have all the options available, in reality you'll pick one that works for your sound and then never change it. If I was doing this, I'd make a temporary control plate that will allow all the various options, and then when you have settled on the one(s) you like make a new one that just allows that/those.

On a combo like this the tone stack is mostly compensating for the speaker/cab so any setting that doesn't take this in account is not particularly useful. The OP would probably be better off getting rid of this combo and buying that has been properly designed.

Completely crap design. DI output should not be affected by the master volume control. Whoever decided that this was acceptable shouldn't be allowed to design any more musical equipment because they are clearly not competent. Like the others I'd suggest a separate DI box with a loop through that you put between the effects send and return, However IME any amp that has the DI out after the master volume control may also have the effects loop in the same (wrong) place. If you can check to see if the effects send is affected by the master volume before shelling out on a DI box that would be sensible.

Next gig for Hurtsfall is on Saturday 21st June at The Grove at the Sneinton Market Avenues as part of the Nottingham Craft Beer Festival. We'll be closing the event on on stage at 21.30

The vibrato mechanism on the Barracuda essentially became a fixed bridge once I fitted Newtone Axion Bass VI strings.

If I had a Fender obsession I'd want to buy from a store that had at least 10 examples of the supposedly identical bass (or guitar) I was interested in so I could try them all and select the one that suited me the best.

Up until earlier this week we had a massive PMT store here in Nottingham. Lots of guitars and not nearly so many basses but all very mainstream and nothing quirky second-hand. It's been over 30 years since I was last interested in a mainstream guitars or basses. I'll stick with well-known manufacturers for high-tech products mostly because I want decent support should anything go wrong. I bought my Helix from PMT (pre-COVID) mostly because they were one of the few resellers that had one in stock when I wanted to buy it. However when I was looking for a MIDI controller keyboard a couple of years ago they were exceedingly unhelpful (as mentioned earlier in this thread).

I'm not keen on built-in XLR outputs unless they are guaranteed to be protected from phantom power voltages. I always use my own passive EMO DI box with my Helix for connecting it to the PA.