BigRedX

I've been playing in bands for almost 50 years. In that time I've been in 17 bands that played at least one gig or had recordings available for the public to buy. I do it because IMO there is still nothing more exciting than performing something that I have written to an audience. Like others who have commented I can be socially awkward, but stick me on a stage with a musical instrument and I'm an entirely different person. And TBH since 2009 I've had more fun and more success with my music than I did in any of the years before that. I still enjoy gigging and even all the stuff that goes with it. If it became impossible for me to play live any more, I'd still be releasing weird instrumental music that I had written on Bandcamp.

Late again, but two gigs over the weekend and then life got in the way. First was the opening slot for the Re:Vamped Weekend gig at the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford. We were on at 5.15 which was a bit too early really - there were still people coming in as we were packing up after playing. However those that had made it to see us were enthusiastic and we had a good proportion of them up and dancing and singing along and we played well. Sold a couple of T-shirts afterwards, and would have sold some CDs too but someone (me) forgot to pack them. Here's a photo from early on in the gig: We stayed for a couple of numbers from the next band but then had to leave as we had our second gig of the weekend the following day and had been asked to load in at midday. So Sunday saw us back in Nottingham playing the "I'm Not From London" stage at The Chapel as part of the Nottingham day of the Dot-To-Dot festival. Another early start this time we were on at 3.00 but there were 4 bands on before us so there was a decent crowd. Weird sound problems on stage with some bass notes causing the drum monitor (which didn't need to be on for us) to fart out, and it was one of those things that once you'd noticed it you couldn't stop listening out for it again. Didn't play quite as well as the previous day, but the audience seemed to enjoy it, although only having 30 minutes meant that we had to keep the inter-song crowd interaction to a minimum which always impacts on the performance. Sold T-shirts and CDs afterwards and had to sign some CDs too - which that always surprises me as it's not something that I would ask for as a punter. Still it is gratifying to know that people are interested enough to ask for us to sign stuff. One of our fans took this short video of the last verse of "Lost Souls (Driving At Night)": AQNSbRIdNxxoFSFNULxeMhr8TOT0MZ2RdKNtVmn-y-KELkj4aSQ4k26wN9AVp3ia1SG8CVGX2k0coV7_dIQdt0jt.mp4 We have a month off until our next gig so we'll be working on a couple of new songs and recording for the album.

As others have said the holds of all modern planes are pressed and temperature controlled. Animals are regularly transported this way. Your cab will be fine, although it would be best cased or otherwise properly packaged as though you were going to send it by carrier service. About 10 years ago someone on the SOS forum did a test with a max/mim thermometer in their hold luggage. I can't find the thread right now otherwise I would have posted a link, but the outcome was that the hold temperature pretty much corresponded to the cabin temperature for the flight. The only time in the last 25 years I have flown in a plane where the hold probably wasn't pressurised and temperature controlled, all the important luggage was transported in unused seats in the cabin under scrim netting. Also the whole flight was at an altitude low enough for me to easily make out vehicles on the roads we passed over so there wouldn't have been much pressure difference in unpressurised hold compartments.

No always. One of the 5 I own is exceedingly battered and at least one of the catches has failed meaning that it's only really suitable for holding an instrument in storage now. It arrived in that condition when I bought the bass that came with it, so I have no idea what the previous owner did to it. Unsurprisingly the bass inside was in a similar poor condition and ended up going back to the maker for an extensive refurb and refinish.

All my basses have plenty of sizzle if I turn up the treble somewhere in my signal chain.

I have to admit I've done it on occasion when it's been a multi-band gig and I have another gig the following day. In fact I'll probably be doing it this weekend where we're on first of 6 bands at 5.15 and we have another gig at 3.00 in the afternoon the next day (that we need to be at the venue at midday for). However we've already let the promoter know that because of this, we won't be staying for all the bands. Also I doubt there will be many people in the audience for the first gig who haven't already bought all the merch they want from us.

And for some genres Compact Cassettes are a viable option. When The Terrortones released our mini-album on cassette we sold enough copies to make a small profit even though you could download the tracks for free from Bandcamp. And a band who we played with at Whitby in April - Social Youth Cult - were selling their EP on cassette. Our synth player was going to buy one because he still has a cassette player in his car, but they had packed up their merch and gone before the last band of the night had finished playing, re-enforcing my assertion that in order to maximise your merch sales you need to stay until the last punter has left the venue.

Looks like the Carlsbro swap to green happened around the same time as Trace Elliot were making their first bass amps (1979/1980)

But is it any less environmentally friendly that the amount of power required for 5+ competing streaming services (who all have mostly the same catalogue) and the devices they are being streamed to? And the objective is both, and if you are entertaining and good at promotion, IME it works.

My first amp was a Carlsbro Wasp 10W "practice amp" bought in 1976 for £20. I used it for guitar and later bass - it worked well for a Peter Hook type sound at low volume and was used on the recordings that got CBS Records interested in signing my band in the early 80s. In the 90s my big bi-amped rig included a Carlsbro 15" Cab and a Carlsbro 2x300W PA amp.

That vibrato mechanism is a bit optimistic. I have a Burns Barracuda 6-string bass and with decent (95 E or heavier) Bass VI strings the vibrato mechanism is inoperable.

Ex Bassworld member as well. I joined some time in the 2000s probably a year or two before it became Basschat. IIRC I was looking for more information about Spalt Basses. I joined BassTalk around the same time. I've not been back there for years now.

The guitars in particular seemed to be a regular fixture of the second-hand section in music shops in the mid-70s. Mark Burgess of The Chameleons is a massive fan. The brand has been re-issued recently with prices of around $3k hence the overinflated prices for "originals".

I've only seen 3 basses for sale second hand in the 20+ years I've been playing them. One was the 4-string fretless that Happy Jack bought off me, One was a 5-string fretted in flip purple that I bought and had refinished in CAR when it was refurbished by Gus. The other was a 4-string fretted in cream with a carbon fibre scratch plate that believe was owned by @6feet7 for a while?

Again not so rare depending on which model you want. I've owned 3 and the Hondo copy of The Duke. However these too are now starting to edge into ridiculous pricing.

No particularly rare, but almost always over-priced when they do come up for sale.

Next two gigs for Hurtsfall: Re:Vamped Weekend We're playing at the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford on Saturday 24th May. Doors are at 5.00 and we're on first at 5.15 Dot-To-Dot Festival We're playing on 25th May in Nottingham at The Chapel which is above the Angel Microbrewery. The venue opens at 1.00 and we're on at 3.00

The instruments date from the late 60s to mid 70s. The adjustable nut was a feature on all Micro-Frets instruments. It makes more sense on the guitars where it helps make some first position chords sound more in tune. It's a good price at the moment even taking into account the condition and the non-original parts, I think the machine heads are replacements too. There are a number of well-known Micro-Frets collectors so I don't expect it to stay this cheap for long. However if I was still collecting unusual instruments I would be taking a punt on this.

I'm of the opinion that if you are prepared to wait long enough and spend time looking at all the different selling outlets eventually anything, no matter how rare it is supposed to be, will come ups for sale. I went through a phase of buying unusual guitars and basses and there were several models that I never expected to see for sale let alone at a price I could afford, but I was still able to own a Born To Rock F4B Bass and a Yamaha BJ5B of which only 50 were ever made

I think that's a bit out of date now... 1. No longer true for all services. Of the main streaming services Spotify is now the only one that doesn't offer an option for a format without lossy compression. However how important is that? I do much of my streaming listening in the car where the audio has to compete with all the noises of the road and driving. When I originally ripped all my CDs in the early 2000s for use with my iPod and HiFi, I spent several evenings deciding on the best format to use and decided that under most listening conditions I couldn't tell the difference between the original CD and a 320BR MP3. I suspect that most streaming listening is done in far worse acoustic environments. 2. What does this actually mean? When you buy a CD the only thing you actually own is the piece of plastic that the music is encoded onto. The music itself is just licensed. If it's a CDR rather than a glass-mastered replicated CD, you may find that your piece of plastic is no longer playable after less than 10 years. Then it's just a piece of plastic with hopefully a nice design on one side. 3. It could be argued that CD artwork is but a pale imitation of what you would get if you bought the same thing on vinyl. It also depends on how good the sleeve design is anyway. I have plenty of CDs and vinyl where the packaging adds little or no artistic benefit to the listener. I've also got some with fancy packaging that is actually an impediment to listening to the music. PiL's Metal Box (vinyl) and Scissor Sisters Ta-Dah (CD in a box) spring to mind. 4. Personally I like the algorithms. I like the way that when an album I've been streaming on Apple Music comes to an end the algorithm will play me more songs in a similar style. I've discovered several new bands this way.

Not necessarily. While there are stories of bands who would do multiple live takes to 2" multitrack tape and then physically cut and splice them to produce a track made out of the best sections of each take ready for overdubs and mixing, the normal practice was to do a drop-in to replace the offending section of a track. Whilst not as scary, it still required the tape-op to hit the punch-in and out at the correct points and for the musician to be confident that what they were going to play would be an improvement on what was already there as there is no "undo" with analogue tape. Things became a bit easier from the tape-op's PoV with the advent of time code which allowed the punch in and out points to be automated.

Most of the venues I am playing now have "green room" which is for all the bands to use for relaxing, getting changed and storing cases and gear when not playing. One venue even has separate changing rooms for the headlining and support bands. I've not seen the headliner's room, but the support band's room is tiny. Whilst you could get a 4-piece band in there it would be so cramped that no-one would actually be able to get changed and one person would be in the toilet!

Has to be something available in 1978 when the song was recorded.

I have never produced "trouser flap" even when I had my massive bass rigs. Firstly I haven't worn trousers with enough material to flap since some time in the mid to late 70s which was before I started gigging. Secondly if I had been playing that loud, I'd be even more deaf than I am already.

That conveniently ignores the fact that musical instrument amplifiers only form part of the "sound" because when amplified instruments first started appearing the technology wasn't up to producing clean tones at any serious volume. The original idea of the electric guitar and bass was that they replicated the sound of their acoustic counterparts put louder. Of course with what was available and, more importantly, affordable in the 30s and 40s that was impossible, so they settled for being able to be heard over the rest of the instruments in the dance band. Listen to early amplified guitarists and they are all favouring clean sounds. The "character" that the amplification process imparted on the sound was an annoyance and not initially a desirable feature. While it is possible to build a clean valve amp, it's not cheap and it's not very efficient in electrical terms. Had the idea of the electric guitar and bass not come along until solid state amplification was well-established and easily affordable, the sorts of sounds we'd be used to would be very different.