BigRedX

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1473009610' post='3126016'] Personally I don't get to go out much on a Saturday because I'm gigging but when I do get the chance i always try to watch live music. The problem for me is that a night out is very expensive these days so if I'm going out I'm going to spend a little extra and buy tickets for either a show or a gig that I really want to see. I can't justify spending £50+ for a night out watching originals bands on the off chance i might like them. If beer was still £2 a pint and entry was free then I'd definitely take a punt on a few bands I know nothing about but it's just not like that anymore. [/quote] There is absolutely no reason these days to go to a gig and know nothing about the bands playing. A quick search on the web before hand should bring up their YouTube or Bandcamp page so you can check out what they are like. And there's still no need to be paying out £50 for a night out seeing live music. Having very little money spend has never deterred me so long as I can afford the get in to the venue. Sure a beer or two might make the evening a bit more enjoyable in between the sets, but I'm there primarily to see the bands play, and TBH I'd far rather spend my cash on a CD or record at the end of the night, then some alcohol I'm going to pissing out later.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1472990604' post='3125790'] what's the age of your band? I'm afraid with very few exceptions bands tend to attract the same age group as themselves and older folk, generally, aren't interested in new music, I've said it before, but as rule of thumb, if you've not 'made it' by the time you're 30 it's very unlikely that you will. That's not to say you shouldn't make new music, but it'll be only for yourself and a few followers, my band are working on our next CD but I don't really expect to sell more than a few hundred. [/quote] IME age has very little to do with it. You only have to look at the number of "younger' musicians on here who hold the music created when their parent's were teenagers in the same reverence, to know that. We attract an audience of pretty much all ages, and for every old punk/psychobilly who likes us because they are also a fan of the bands that we take our influences from; there's someone in their late teens early 20s from whom all of this is as new and exciting as it was for me back in the 70s and 80s.

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1472982134' post='3125692'] People don't go out at weekends the way they used to. [/quote] That's a completely lame excuse.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1472979051' post='3125659'] [color=#1D2129][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]So, we played the Shed in Leicester last night, great little venue, great PA some fantastic artists and absolutely no crowd again....you have to wonder whether it is worthwhile, clearly bands / artistes playing new music are less attractive than a Saturday night in front of the television watching the next up and coming manufactured buy / girl band / whiny solo artiste with an acoustic guitar on Britain's got X Factor?[/font][/color] [color=#1D2129][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]We have spent hundreds of hours writing, rehearsing to be[/font][/color][color=#1D2129][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]come the band we are, we get radio play and great reviews from the few that bother to come and see us. It seems a waste of time inviting people to come to these things as invariably they don't turn up. So, it was a waste of time for the venue, the promoter, the sound man and the bands, I assume at some point these venues will close, the promoters will stop, the bands won't have anywhere to play and people will be on here bemoaning the fact that there is no new music anymore.....rant over[/font][/color] [/quote] As I said in my very brief previous post I think a lot of the "blame" unfortunately lies with the attitude of Leicester audiences towards out of town bands. The Terrortones play gigs up and down the country to decent-sized appreciative audiences, but every time we land a gig in Leicester the turnout has been consistently poor. Even when we've had a gig with a Leicester band with a following, they've been there just to see the "local heroes" and then the majority of them are off somewhere else while while we've been on stage. I think the only way we'll be back in Leicester is if we are on immediately before a nationally known band with a sizeable following, otherwise Leicester is simply not worth our while when there a plenty of other places we can go and play where there will be an audience who want to see us play. So sorry Leicester, but on the strength of my experiences you are a sh*t audience for lesser-known bands. Having said that there is a lot more to being in a reasonably successful gigging band than being able to play your instrument and turning up to the venue to do the gig. To the OP; I'm not saying that your band doesn't put in the work to put on a decent performance and do the necessary work to promote your gigs but... You are a reasonably prolific poster here on Basschat, and while your signature has plenty of information about the instruments and equipment you own and a link to your Feedback thread, there's nothing about your band. Not even a link to your Facebook page (you do have a Facebook page don't you?) I couldn't find anything you'd posted in the last few months in the Gigs sub-forum on here either. Promoting your band means using every avenue available to you and IMO Basschat is one of those avenues. OK a lot of us might be out playing gigs of our own on a Saturday night, but I know from my own experiences that those who aren't, are quite keen to see fellow forum-members bands if we know that they are playing in our locality. So when you don't use a source of free advertising to an audience who are pre-deposed to enjoy live music, who knows what other failings you promotional activities may have? My experience is that as a band you have to put in a lot of time and effort to persuade people to come and see you at first, but if your band is entertaining, that hard work will eventually pay off. If your band is getting radio play (where?) then you are obviously doing something right, but how about letting us know about it too? It's all very well coming on here and having a moan about poor audiences, but when AFAICS that's the only source of information I have about your band, it makes me wonder... Also stop blaming X-Factor etc. for your lack of audience. Unless you are a boy/girl band or a solo artist playing bedwetting acoustic music those people aren't you audience and are unlikely to ever be your audience. However there still is a good sized audience for interesting and entertaining live music and you just need too do the work to find them.

IME part of the problem is Leicester's attitude to out of town bands, however, I'll type out a more comprehensive reply to the issues as I see it tomorrow when I'm sat in front of a proper computer and not on my iPad.

A proper book is a good idea. However I think you're page weight of 110gsm is a bit light for a quality publication especially if the pages are going to be so dense in their ink coverage like the examples you've shown. I'd be going for 150gsm minimum as well as something a bit more substantial for the cover with a lamination. Good luck!

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1472839461' post='3124730'] Jack Bruce also used a Bass VI with the Graham Bond Organisation and then with early Cream, Entwistle with early Who, and Lennon and Harrison both used one when McCartney was playing piano. Plus plenty of others too. But it is tuned normal bass pitch, not piccolo. [/quote] If it was tuned piccolo it would be a guitar.

How feasible is it to build this amp with the controls on the front (or at least on the front of the top)? I know top-back mounted controls are nicely retro, but with modern combo placement on stands or tilt-backs having them there makes it very awkward to adjust anything mid-performance.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1472817974' post='3124494'] I love it when an expert bass player announces "and you can hear that lovely clear piano tone" before playing a few notes that couldn't sound less like a piano if you hit it with an adjustable spanner. [/quote] To me it sounded as though the whole video had been EQ'd to bring out the "clank" those frequencies were noticeably boosted on the voice at the beginning.

Interesting bassists have always been trying to push what bass is meant to be/do. It's just that these days everything is acceptable so long as you can make it musical and not just a gimmick.

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1472808953' post='3124389'] OK, here's a question for the (other) oldies on here: when I were a lad and the Hollies were at their peak, Eric Haydock's bass had 6 strings on it. Generically speaking, what was it? [/quote] A Fender Bass VI. 30" scale length, with Fender guitar string spacing (so fairly tight) and tuned an octave lower than a normal guitar. What it does depends on how you play it. However, despite it's looks, IMO it's not really a guitar as the voicing doesn't suit chords unless you play quite high up the neck in which case you should have probably bought a Baritone guitar instead. If you are a pick player that doesn't slap and you don't need any notes below low E, then it can be a perfectly acceptable substitute for a more "traditional" bass. I've done gigs with a couple of bands who use them this way and if you didn't look, you wouldn't know from the sound and parts being played that it wasn't a more "conventional" bass.

Definitely now. You can do what you want without any regard to what is considered "fashionable". If you want to rumble away with root notes in the background that's perfectly OK as is upfront virtuoso playing and anything in-between. If you're not hearing the bass you want in recently released music it's because you are not looking hard enough!

Which Rick do you want to sound like? Paul McCartney's? Chris Squire's? Lemmy's? Mani's?

Can I ask why you're not using a separately adjustable saddle for the octave string in each pair? I've never played an 8 string bass with shared saddles for both strings in a course that didn't suffer from terrible tuning problems above the 7th fret (which for me on an 8-string bass is where all the interesting stuff happens).

I've been the oldest member of all the bands I've been in for the last 20 years. Edit: Thinking about it some more I've only ever played with 5 musicians who were older than me in the whole 40+ years I've been in bands. However I was the youngest member of the band I was in back in the 80s.

If the manufacturers of digital effects were really on the ball they would all include digital ins and outs. Then you'd only have to do the A-D and D-A conversion once.

I once played synth/sound effects in a 4-piece post-punk industrial-funk band with 2 drummers and a percussionist. IME it can be hard work if you don't have the right musicians as there has to be one drummer setting the tempo and the other drummer following and even these days of drum machines and sync/click track playing it's still difficult to find drummers who are able to follow a tempo rather than set it.

Buy a programmable keyboard synth.

I used to run a Superfly 500 into two modern, efficient 8Ω cabs and it was plenty loud enough for my classic rock covers band when it was working. However they are notoriously unreliable. Mine developed the classic Superfly whine within 6 months of me getting it and shortly after that developed a problem where it wouldn't switch on half the time. As the shop I'd bought it from had gone bust I wasn't able to get a refund under the sale of goods, and Ashdown were remarkably uninterested in my problems. Given the reliability issues and the fact that they were EOL'd at £199, I'd be reluctant to spend very much on one. The going price on eBay seems to be around £40-50, maybe a little more if it is in full perfect working order and comes in it's original packaging with all the bits - carry case, strap manual etc. Good luck!

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1472368184' post='3120551'] Seen various adverts for basses wanted etc. Always makes me laugh. Oh must be between 20 to 30, must play a black pbass, must not wear trainers, must have a stylish haircut. Etc etc, Blah blah. The sort of band I would never be interested in. Where's the, must be able read chord charts, must have good musical communication skills,etc etc. Rant over. [/quote] If it's the sort of band you'd never be interested in, what's the problem? I realise that your "rant" isn't entirely serious, but IME there's a lot more to being in a band than simply being able to play your chosen instrument competently. When it's so easy these days to put up and answer on-line musicians wanted ads these conditions help to weed out the people who wouldn't be suitable for the band. If band image is important you don't want someone who doesn't fit that image no matter how well they can play, and IME it's much easier to find someone who looks the part as they will most likely be interested in the music and be prepared to put in the work required getting their musical skills up to the required standard if necessary, whereas from personal experience trying to persuade someone who doesn't understand image that they need to get a suitable haircut/shave off their beard/wear some appropriate clothes is generally a futile exercise. I never have a problem with "image" ads - the chances are that if I'm not able to fit the image then I'm unlikely to be into the music. There's plenty of bands looking for bass players, and if the ad I'm currently looking at isn't right for me, one that is will be along shortly.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1472482877' post='3121458'] Not everyone can read chord charts but likewise, not everyone can be cool. Those who say image doesn't matter generally look like crap. [/quote] Absolutely. IME if it is necessary to be able to read a chord chart, it can be taught, but people who have no idea about image generally never will, and even if they can be persuaded to dress appropriately, generally look mighty uncomfortable in their "stage gear". Sometime it's easier not to bother with these.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1472214966' post='3119518'] Nearly went to see them at the Flowerpot but the date clashed with another band I wanted to see so they missed out. I liked '...Are In Bed Now' too. [/quote] Their 50th Anniversary gig at The Flowerpot was the first time I got to see them live, and despite the fact that the set was drawn entirely from their 60s repertoire, I really enjoyed it. My very first band was named after one of their tracks.

[quote name='interpol52' timestamp='1472213660' post='3119499'] That's how I feel when I think about being 16. I think using 16 as a point in time is, for me, a time when I felt that music defined who I was and how I dressed more. Up until then it was just 'songs I liked'. Its an interesting age! [/quote] For me at 16, everything was in limbo. Glam rock was over, and punk hadn't happened if you didn't live in London. I didn't really "discover myself" until I left home to go to university in 1979.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1472154840' post='3119007'] I'm going to use what I usually use...and what often kicks off a debate . - red fountain pen ink. Specifically Diamine ink. I may try a few different reds to get one that looks right with this particular mahogany. [/quote] Why does this "kick off a debate". Surely as long as the wood takes the colour and it is reasonably light-fast it shouldn't matter what it was originally intended for?

The Pretty Things. Still one of my favourite bands, even if their post 1980 output has been mostly dull. However the most recent album released last year and recorded with the current live line-up is a welcome return to form.