peteb

True - if your amp isn't trying to boost inaudible low frequencies, then it won't clip unnecessarily and can be more efficient in amplifying useful frequencies and of course, you are protecting your speakers from those frequencies.

No, it really wouldn't be interesting in a situation like a Bass Bash. The Thumpinator filters out frequencies below 25Hz, which you can't hear, but the amp still tries to boost. If you are trying to A/B a bass with or without a Thumpinator, in a room at a normal volume, then you will not be able to hear any difference. But if you are putting the bass through a PA in a large room with a wooden floor, brick walls and a high ceiling, then a HPF stops the sub-bass frequencies (that are too low for you to hear anyway) from bouncing around causing havoc with the overall sound. https://sfxsound.co.uk/microthumpinator/

Maybe your amp has an internal HPF, but none of my amps do. I never saw the point of a HPF, until I did. There are some rooms we play that get a weird bass response, most notably a community centre come sports hall in Chelmsford. The only way round it was take all of the bottom end off the amp. I added a thumpinator to my board and next time we played there, no problem!

That's kinda the point of them isn't it? The idea is that they take out inaudible sub-bass frequencies, thereby making your amp more efficient and making it easier to get a decent sound in bass-trap rooms.

Dunno about that, some people will complain about anything! Obviously, I prefer playing the bigger, better gigs but I'm perfectly happy to play bars as well. Sometimes the bad gigs can be fun in a perverse way and provide you with the best stories!

Yea, of course there is! It's really the lowest level of fame, a bit of recognition because someone has seen you on stage. I was in a couple of bands that were quite well known locally several decades ago. When I went into a pub, quite often someone would recognise me. Later on, I would meet someone through work and it would turn out that they used to be a fan of a band I was in. To this day, people will come up to me in pubs and start talking to me as if they know me. I will chat away for a bit, always referring them as 'mate' or whatever, then after they've gone the person I'm with will ask 'Who's that'? Of course, I've no idea, but generally they will have seen me play over the years and probably talked to me after a gig one time. It's no big thing - it's not like someone genuinely famous walking into a bar and everyone trying to work out if its really them. I imagine that real fame may become a bit tiresome after a while, but the odd person vaguely recognising you because they used to like a band you were in several years ago is cool.

I've got a pretty much identical 2015 American Std that I picked up from Bass Bros about three years ago for use in a Led Zep tribute. As you say, you can't really knock it - sounds like it's supposed to, looks the part, plays well and very robust. A great bass for not an awful lot of money. I've also got a 09 Am Std in natural with a white scratchplate, which is a really nice bass that I bought for less than a grand...!

Not the right time (when is it ever), but if it's still there when I get back from holiday I might be in the market for something like that! The thing with late 70s P basses is that you really need to have to look at them first.

This one on eBay is inviting offers for his 78 P bass. I wouldn't know where to start putting right what ever the hell he's done to the paint job. Apart from that, I dunno. Its got an old Badass, which I think is pretty cool, but apart from that there might be a decent bass in there, even if it currently looks like a dog's dinner. It's not silly money, but still too much for the condition (to me): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267360313595?mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=e90001.m161799.l174482&plmtId=700008&mesgId=3015&mkcid=8&ch=osgood&bu=43398990830&trkId=047e9bb3-4020-33a3-9807-5e8107c4e99f&cnvId=700003&recoId=267360313595&recoPos=1

I've seen something similar in an Irish bar in Budapest!

I used to go to school in Bingley / live in the next town and I can safely say that JSG (later Spectre) was a big part of me starting up playing in bands. We used to go walk across town to go there at lunchtime (or get the bus on Thursday late night opening) to hang out, look at guitars that we wouldn't be able to afford for several years and try out ones that might be our next instrument. On weekends and Thursday nights, there were always local musos hanging out who would give impromptu lessons and advice about gear or playing or whatever. A few years later, I was the one of the guys giving advice or showing kids how to play Smoke On The Water or Wishing Well properly. Quite a few of my mates / bandmates worked there and as I walked in they would put the kettle on, or if they were busy, ask me to put the kettle on, or answer the phone, etc. Then we would go to the pub after they locked up. As I said, a big part of my early musical journey. The demise of these sort of places (and Electro in Doncaster was another one) was a symptom of the decline of local music scenes. It's where musos would hang out, put bands together and share knowledge. All gone now unfortunately...

What's the blueburst bass dude??

Pretty much what @Woodinblack said. He mainly used the 62 sunburst Jazz that he bought as a teenager, but he also had a red jazz bass, a 50s precision and a fretless P bass. Towards the end of Zeppelin he had an 8 string Hagström and an Alembic. Post Zep, he generally used Manson basses, although I have seen him playing a more recent sunburst Fender Jazz. https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-10-most-famous-bass-guitars-of-led-zeppelins-john-paul-jones Now that's a bit of a sore point! A couple of us have been on about that for ages, and it is one thing that is definitely stopping us getting more of the top gigs on the circuit. A guitar player that I play with in another band, also plays in a Police / Sting tribute who are very busy - basically some of the bigger places we play are some of the smaller gigs that they do. When they got a pretty serious agent behind them, the first thing he did was get some high quality promo videos done, which led to them getting bigger and better gigs. If you search on YouTube (and I would rather you didn't), you get all sorts of cr*p come up, mostly with a different singer and before I was in the band. The best of a bad lot is probably this clip that a punter did on a phone at the excellent Cluny in Newcastle (not too bad for a video on a mobile). This was the first gig that Didge (keys player) did with us, but he's hardly featured on the clip for some reason.

Led Into Zeppelin - obviously a Led Zep tribute based in West Yorks / Lancashire, playing 20 or so gigs a year all over the country. Formed long before I joined, exactly four years ago (almost to the day). There have been a variety of different line-ups (some good, some not so great), but the current band is really good and seems pretty settled. Originally, I was asked to dep by the guitarist BL (who I knew vaguely from playing the blues circuit), but they asked me to join full time after a couple of gigs. Since then, I have brought in a new singer and keys player. I've also got an 'occasional' blues band that only plays a couple of times a year (due to how busy a couple of members are), and I do the odd dep for blues bands and sometimes the originals band led by the girlfriend of the guitarist from the Zep band.

The gig on Saturday was a dep for a blues / americana (sort of) band at Diseworth Village Hall. A bit different setting to the last gig I did two weeks ago, a slightly dodgy rock club in a rundown part of inner-city Hull, this was a small village hall in a well to do part of rural England, just off the M1 a short distance away from East Midlands Airport. A lovely and rather picturesque little village, complete with signs on lampposts rallying locals to protest at any possible industrial development in the area (as well as discouraging strangers from parking up there for a fortnight to avoid using the nearby airport car parks)! The people promoting the gig were super friendly and helpful (as they were in the club in Hull), decent PA, free food, having to keep turning down free beers, etc. Not a bad payer either! I say it was a dep gig, but I was in an earlier version of the band and have done a couple of deps since I left. Basically, when I’m playing, it’s the Zep tribute band with a female singer-songwriter (the guitarist’s girlfriend), so we all know each and are used to playing together. The audience was not exactly the most rock'n'roll crowd, but nice people and a very good reaction, so generally a great night. The usual motorway closure on the two hour drive home, but this one wasn’t too bad – M1 closed, diverted onto the M18 to the A1(M) and then picking the M62 up just a little further out, maybe 15 minutes added to the drive. One day I will start a thread on night-time motorway closures driving back from gigs! Gear was, as ever, the 70s P bass into a Handbox R-400 amp / Berg CN212 cab. Footwear was the usual grey suede Vans hi-tops! I’m a bit worried that they are starting to wear out and I might have start wearing in a new pair for gigs (darker grey pigskin Vans)!

But it often does. Also, a clear loud sound doesn't sound as offensive or as noticeable as an overly distorted (where its not meant to be) one does. I still see people taking out JCMs and the like, but they are not cranking them as much as they used to and only using one 412 (or even a 212), whereas in the past they would have taken two cabs. Also, even if you don't want to take the modellers / IEMs route (and I'm not keen TBH) but think that a JCM is too much, there are loads of quality, lower wattage valve amps available now.

Was that a Ric or a Stingray? My second ever bass was a Ric copy, which was awful and put me off them for life. A mate of mine has a Ric that he adores, but I reckon is probably among the the worse 'expensive' basses that I have ever played (sorry Paul)! I have a curious relationship with Stingrays. I think that they sound, look and play great. But... I never seem to take them out on gigs! I have bought, then sold, the bought again a number of Stingrays, but hardly ever played one on a gig. I currently have a red 91 Ray, which a mate of mine sold me cheap after me admiring it for a few years. Because he wanted me to have it and insisted on letting me have it so cheap, I feel a bit bad selling it on. That and my missus telling me to just keep it as I will inevitably buy another one in a few months time! It currently goes out as my spare for the tribute band gigs, but rarely leaves its gigbag!

You are quite right. I can tell you from experience that stage / out-front volumes are nowhere near as loud as they were in the seventies, eighties and (to a slightly lesser extent) nineties.

Great story from Nick Beggs (in the latest edition of Popbitch): "I was performing at a rock/pop festival in Europe in the 80s and staying at a hotel with all the other luminaries of the day. I recall seeing Ozzy Osbourne and Bruce Dickinson talking in the hotel bar that evening. Becoming overwhelmed by my fan-like mentality I helplessly ran up to Ozzy and spouted, "Oh my God! Ozzy Osbourne! I can't believe it, you were my biggest influence!" "To which he replied. 'F*** off! I'm not taking the blame for that crap." There's another great story going about featuring Ozzy, Slash, Cliff Richard and the late Queen of England (that I won't repeat here) 🙂

I must admit, I did wonder about that. However, Jake E Lee put up a screen shot of a text he received from Ozzy a couple of days before he died, thanking him for doing the Back to the Beginning gig and suggesting that they meet up in a few weeks time when he went back to LA. So, perhaps it was more unexpected than you might think.

I was never too keen on the original Barefaced cabs, but I quite like the cabs with the 10" speakers. As I'm getting older, I can see myself getting the 310 cab sometime in the next few years.

They've probably just got it back from being repaired after the last time you used it...! 🙂

In my experience, they pretty much always do...!

Hasn't that always been the role of bass in 90% of music?

The rumours are that a new album is indeed on the cards!