mingsta

Okay hands up who spent their first 20 minutes on some sort of fuzz wah patch recreating their favourite 70s porno soundtracks?

Mine turned up today - its built like a tank, seems like a quality piece of kit. I had a quick whizz through the presets and the sounds are good, at least compared to the crappy multieffects that I played through in the past. For £109 this is a bargain and also covers off the my headphone amp and USB recording device needs quite nicely!

Rupert operates from the UK - I finalised my specs on Friday with Rupert and it was received this morning via royal mail. Drop him a message via the form on his site and you'll soon realise that there's nothing to be concerned about.

If you want to know how expensive things can get, check out moody straps or brookwood leather!!! Leather straps seem to start around the £30 mark, but that only tells half the story as its about the quality of the leather.

Rather than actually playing my instruments, I've spent most of my idle time over the past 6 months searching for the perfect strap. I picked up a few duffers along the way, and at times I questioned my sanity as I found myself involuntarily surfing on the ipad for straps in the middle of the night when I woke up to use the loo (much to my other half's annoyance). Happily, the quest is now over since I stumbled upon: [url="http://www.bearstraps.com/"]http://www.bearstraps.com/[/url] Rupert and his straps are definitely a bit of a secret treasure! I got in touch with Rupert last week to discuss making a custom 7.5cm wide strap based on his no.8 model. Less than a week later, after a friendly and useful email chat, and its in my hands! It basically the strap which I had in my mind, but could never find on the web, except with some boutique US makers who were charging an arm and a leg. This is one lovely big chunk of hide, 4mm thick but suprisingly supple, I'm pretty sure that when he says a "strap for life" its not just idle talk. Quite frankly its ridiculous that you can get a custom made strap of this quality for £45 incl postage when you could easily spend as much on an inferior mass produced jobbie made in asia. My only regret is that I didn't find him sooner as I now have 3 existing straps which cost about the same price, but look very mediocre in comparison. Bravo Rupert and your straps!!!! Here's a quick and dirty pic: [url="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3x_XWwCrufzX8ZJY80z0oDtDaOet5p7tL5G38hlpkiA?feat=directlink"]https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3x_XWwCrufzX8ZJY80z0oDtDaOet5p7tL5G38hlpkiA?feat=directlink[/url]

I'm not an fx person but have always fancied having a board in the back pocket. At this price I couldn't resist. Thanks for he heads up!

I have four rather fantastic instruments dotted around the house, so there's always one close to hand to pick up and have a noodle.

I was there the weekend before last and they were great. Really friendly staff who were more than happy to chat and let me try out a squier retro vibe precision (which was an awesome bass for the money). None of the snobby/can't be arsed vibes that you get from some of the other shops. Thumbs up from me.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQmeh-8Finw&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQmeh-8Finw&feature=plcp[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5L9lkUJ-s8&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5L9lkUJ-s8&feature=plcp[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuD41yANp-Y&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuD41yANp-Y&feature=plcp[/url]

I tied the knot with my lovely wife Si Phong on the 8th of September. And the icing on the (wedding) cake was that I got to rock out with some chums and play a 50 minute set of a few golden oldies during the reception. I've picked up the bass again after a very long (10 years!) lay off at the start of this year, so it was a real buzz playing in front of a crowd again...even if they were something of a captive audience!!! Full props to my mates as well as we started from scratch about 2 months before the wedding and we didn't suck too bad on the night. Here's a few clips... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2tWopTsQX8&feature=plcp[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl9X6XK4iJ4&feature=plcp[/media]

I hear ya OP I'm the same age as you and for too long I've been a bass karaoke'ist And in that I mean I can play the songs I learn with a decent groove and feel, but I know nothing about music or basic chord structures and would fail miserably to make my own lines on the fly in a jamming situation. Deep down I know I've got it in me, but I need to start opening up that side of my brain and learn some fundamentals. Looking to start taking lessons as soon as I get my wedding out fo the way in Sept. Good luck on your journey, hopefully I won't be far behind ya! Ming

Check out the Stanley Clarke Original Album Series on amazon - 5 of his classic albums for a tenner! Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magick - fleas tone is killer on this, I spent years wondering why I couldn't get that sound from my Stingray until I read that he recorded most of it with a Wal! All the early Four Tops/Marvin Gaye/Stevie Wonder stuff with Jamerson and Bob Babbet

Hey! I should have given a bit of background - the wedding band are all friends and I'll be playing the bass. I'm really just looking to find a decent firm thats good to deal with and then at that point I'll hand it over to the guitarist to sort out. Totally hear ya - you really don't want to have to be involved in the nitty gritty on yer big day. [quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1341907768' post='1725804'] How come the band hasn't got all the necessary gear to play a wedding gig? I'd prefer the band to be responsible for sorting out their requirements. Providing the music should mean providing everything to do with the music and the customer should not really be expected to deal with such things - especially as a newbie to such things. If anything goes wrong, it'll all just descend in to arguments over whose fault it is. Also, as it's your wedding, you'll have loads of other things to worry about and I wouldn't recommend taking on the PA responsibility if you're not experienced about such things. Sorry if this seems a bit pessimistic, but a wedding is not really the best sort of event to start learning about such things - you need someone experienced enough to make sure it all goes smoothly. [/quote]

Hi guys, Im looking in to pa hire for my wedding in September 7 piece band, With 2 keys, 2 guitar, drums bass vocals and a couple of backing vocals from band Medium sized venue with 180 guests Does anyone know any good pa hire companies in London who offer good kit at a fair price. We can hire a van and pick up, but even better if they do a drop off and collect service. The lead guitarist is experienced with setting up the sound so won't need an engineer. Would welcome any general tips on pa hire too ie what works, things to consider as I'm a bit of a newb Thanks Ming

Hello!!!! I've recently moved in to a new house. I've managed to blag a little corner of the lounge to keep my bass stack. Problem is, the acoustics suck in the section, so I'll need to push it out to the middle of the room for practice. Does anyone know of any roller/trolley type things that I could buy to make moving it around easier? Talk about a flat tray type thing with wheels on each corner. Ta! Ming

For me it's gotta be an hh stingray - great build quality, feels great and lots of good tones without too many knobs to fiddle with. It took me a while to bond with mine but it's now my favourite.

Thanks again guys - plenty of material to be looking at over the weekend!!!

Cheers guys, keep em coming...will check em out when I got home tonight.

Hi all, Looking for any suggestions for some fairly up beat, get the crowd going type INSTRUMENTAL tracks that would be a good fit for a 5 piece band (drums, bass, guitar x 2, keys). I'm putting on a gig for my wedding in September - but as our singer is involved in a number of other projects, he's asked if we could limit him to 8 vocal tracks so he can rest his voice a bit. So looking to add a couple of instrumental songs and maybe a few shouty numbers that would be easy for one of us to sing (not me, I sound like badger out of bodger and badger when I sing). If we don't get any good suggestions, then we'll just go ahead with our plans for a 20 minute progressive rock/jazz fusion jam, probably with a 5 minute drum solo in the middle. The set list is currently as follows, in no particular order: Signed seal delivered Stevie Wonder Love rears it ugly head Living Color I heard it through the grapevine Marvin Gaye Lovely day Bill withers Use Me Bill withers Apache Rose Red Hot Chili Peppers Dani California Red Hot Chili Peppers Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers Ming

I'm sure there are some out there!!! In fact they've just closed the books on an April only special run from premier dealerships - they were taking orders for Bongos, Rays, Reflex, Stingray with a special spec of honeyburst finish, mahogany body and roasted maple neck. I was tempted, but at ~£1800-2200 depending on model it was a bit spendy for me.

Cheers Mornats, you're right its a good challenge and it must be very satisfying when you really nail a track. I found I tended to start off badly and then improve as the track went on. PS just checked out your soundcloud, there's some really good stuff on there...are those your own compositions? Really impressive if they are.

RIP Could anyone point me to some of his classic recordings?