paul_c2

It is basically impossible to expect sax/trumpet/trombone players to listen to a big band piece and work out their particular part which resides in the middle (pitch) of a bunch of other instruments. They would need to know what everyone else is playing (or going to play). Bass has the advantage its at the bottom. Also, it would take a horrendous amount of time. Also, how on earth do you run a rehearsal and start from somewhere other than the start of the piece, if you haven't got at least something of the structure written down so that they all agree where a bit is. (Singers have a tough time at this, unless they read too).

I'm involved in two bands. The first one back (on Mon 17th and also 24th) was.........terrible. However the other one had its first rehearsal last night and its pretty much back to business. Pragmatically, I can't read music while wearing a mask (it interferes with the sightline) but most of the band are wind players and everyone is 2m or more apart. Dealing with the other aspects of covid compliance is no big issue (but I can't wait to get back to completely "normal")!

Didn't even look at the video. When you have a wife with two lovely even-sized pickups already, do you look for another wife with one big fat lumpy pickup?

A DI box and 2 extra big boxes of Malteasers - as a present for the sound engineer and the monitor mix engineer (they might be separate roles). In that size venue, the backline is rendered pretty much irrelevant and its all down to those two guys and the kit they specify/use/adjust. If I were the one specifying/using/adjusting the FOH and monitor equipment, I'd take a crash course in mixing and try to do a number of smaller gigs leading up to it to gain experience. Or just get someone else in, who IS qualified and experienced!

(I don't know the specifics of a Sire). Which hole? On my bass there's potentially 3: bridge; body thru bridge; tuning peg.

Guitar is better: 1986: bought an Encore Strat 1987: sold it (and switched to bass) 2015: bought an Epiphone Les Paul (ie to get back into 6 string guitar) 2016: bought a Fender Strat (Mexican, secondhand) 2019: sold the Epi Les Paul So I only have 1 guitar now - a Stratocaster. Amps.....I have had 10 catch fire or blow up, so I have had many amps over the years unfortunately. Currently have an Ashdown 120W bass; Fender Rumble 30w bass; Boss Katana Mk2 (guitar). I gig with the bass hence there's 2, in case one catches fire again. I have never gigged on guitar (yet) hence 1 main amp tho I still have a Vox which is unreliable.

1987: bought my first bass, an Antoria Jazz copy. It was secondhand and from the early 1970s. No idea of its worth now. 1993: bought (new) a rubbish fretless bass, I think it was an Encore? 2012: sold the Encore fretless 2017: bought a secondhand Jap Fender Jazz (the Antoria had developed a few issues and I fancied a change - I know, daft/outrageous reasons to go out and buy another bass) 2019: bought a secondhand Squier Jazz fretless - because the band I'm involved in - big band - could really benefit. It was that or an EUB

I've never owned one but so what - I've only owned 4 basses over my entire lifetime, and I still have 3. Tried friend's P-bass (a long time ago) and tried them in music shops (when we could) but always preferred Jazz, so own 3x Jazz basses now - an Antoria copy (my first bass, had it 34 years), a Japanese Fender and a Squier fretless. If I had limitless money and saw any purpose in "collecting" basses or buying more, sure, the next would probably be a Precision.

Just use it as a thumb-rest. Like what 90% of 5 string players already do.

Good point - if the sensitivity is wildly different between them, the apparent sound volume out of them will also be different.

Same ohms ------> same power delivered to both.

Hmmmm. A few little snippets which come to the front of my mind. 1. Enjoy yourself! Don't get into a nervous/worrisome state. Soak in the atmosphere, relax (but once on stage treat it like a job and go about it calmly and professionally). 2. Try to simulate rehearsals to be as similar to a gig as possible. This means, rather than standing around in a different position, measure out a "stage" area then choose a wall of the rehearsal space and perform to the wall. (In the later rehearsals approaching a gig) do a whole song, then do some interlude chatting while you prep for the next song, then do the next song too. Then when the gig occurs, you've practised the changes and nothing is different. Also, rehearse at the same sound/volume level as a gig, if possible. 3. Know your equipment (and respect it). The simplest signal chain can have some kind of weird issue, so plug it in logically, don't have 1000001 wires and pedals all over the place, do it logically and it will reward you with consistent performance. Have a spare for every eventuality (on stage, powered up ready to use - not in the car in the car park etc). You don't want a flat battery or a broken lead or a weird grounding issue spoil the gig, especially if you can't properly troubleshoot it. 4. Think of rehearsals as "mini-gigs" in your mind. You ARE performing - to the 2-3 other band members. Once you can do a rehearsal with a degree of consistency and satisfaction, you can approach gigs the same way (just scaled up a bit (you'd hope) for numbers you are performing in front of).

What did Geddy Lee do? Apart from have two men - a bass tech AND a keyboard tech - help him. I guess the mixing engineer is pretty good too, and knew their set very well, as well as keeping a close eye on what he's playing in case of differences.

https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

Yes

Playing with other musicians doesn't necessarily mean having to play by ear. To be honest, I don't play (much) on my own, the bass IS boring on its own, but it comes alive when played along with others. I don't know where you are but now the Covid thing is easing, it may be a good opportunity for playing with others realistically.

That's fairly clear - no indoor pub gigs, in the conventional sense that a pub does it. It would need to be a ticketed event.

If you have an hour and a half free.....

Overdrive is less gain than distortion. Where the dividing line is, is undefined though. Fuzz is a distinct type of high gain/distortion, I think its something to do with the electronic components involved in producing it and the resulting sound wave.

I'm looking at possibly doing this in the (near) future too. Obviously, the LS-2 is an obvious choice for combining keyboard and bass into one amp; but would a noise gate also be handy? It would be used on the bass's output, then maybe the LS-2 used to simply mix the two signals. The keyboard ought to be near silent when not in use so no noise gate needed there. This way there isn't actually switching of the instrument, instead both are present but the bass would be kept silent when not played. Or are accidental knocks of the bass likely to trip the threshold of the noisegate anyway?

I am sure cavemen beat primitive drums in a repetitive fashion, ages ago.

Its just that (IMHO)................ Bassist develops a liking of (a) particular genre(s) ----> Bassist buys a bass to suit that genre ----> Bassist joins band of that genre ----> Band progresses, allowing upgrades to equipment It appears we are discussing stage 4 but stage 2 got omitted along the way somewhere?

So are all the people making gear recommendations tacitly accepting its okay to tell another band member to buy another instrument?

There are 10 kinds of people who understand binary. Those that can, and those that can't.....