peteb

But how many of those are rechargeable? The idea is that it should be smartphone sized, so that you can put it under a PedalTrain mini board, and can be charged up before the gig (like a phone) so that you don't need to run a mains cable to the board onstage.

I am thinking of getting a rechargeable pedal power supply for my mini pedalboard. It would need to run one 12v (ideally 15v) pedal and maybe three 9v pedals. Does anyone know if such a thing exists? I know that there is the PedalTrain Volto, but that only seems to work for 9v pedals.

The Xotic jazz basses are well worth adding to that list as well. Mike Lull basses are supposed to be excellent if you can find one.

For £2k you should be able to get a really nice secondhand 5 string. If you want something versatile, then personally I would go for an active jazz. As @thodrik notes above, something with a Fender vibe will never look out of place on any gig you're doing and will give the band leader a nice fuzzy feeling of recognition!

It's his job to know these things and he has a track record of developing young bands that went onto better things.

No, at least not in the midlands, but apparently he does play bar gigs around town when he's not touring!

I've had this discussion with a guy who's worked in A&R and actively tries to find great new bands - he does not think that there are that many coming through, certainly not compared to previous eras.

But look at some 'old codger' like Leland Sklar. He's very definitely a 'feel' player and doesn't have a load of chops, but he's one of the most in-demand players out there and probably the most recorded bass player of all time.

I'm part of the 'old guard' and he certainly doesn't get up my nose. I find his humour a bit twee at times but he can obviously play, most of his stuff is pretty musical and he has the sense to keep all of his clips showcasing his chops pretty short! All in all, he can be quite entertaining at times so that's cool. Like it or not, stand alone YT music clips are a thing now and lots of good young players choose to express themselves in this way rather than being part of a band. If they can make a living doing this then good luck to them, but I'm guessing that it is a small part of the reason why there aren't as many good young bands around as there used to be...

MXR M87 (settings for tonight's gig)

I don't necessarily agree (Come Taste The Band is currently on my car CD player), but Paice is certainly a great rock drummer!

Funnily enough, I preferred the Coverdale / Hughes version, especially the album with Tommy Bolin! Not the same band, but certainly more to my taste (not that I didn't like the classic Gillan / Glover line-up).

You're the guy who didn't think that there was a difference between a tax break for people buying a bike to ride to work and an offshore K2 tax avoidance scheme. Nuance is everything. I know that this something that you have no experience of, but FFS. The point is that it was a reply to Al about the relative importance of various members of a band i.e. the idea of the principal members and the more replaceable other members ('hired hands', sidemen or whatever you want to call them). Usually the principals tend to include the LV / frontperson, but there are exceptions. Obviously not all bands are the same, which is why I qualified my statements with terms like 'generally' and 'tends to be', etc. Anyway, enough of this nonsense - I'm sure that anyone who has a clue about (or is interested in) how bands above the pub circuit level tend to operate will be able to understand the point that I was making.

I said that "Generally, the most important members of a band are the frontman and the songwriters". All you have done is pointed out the exceptions that prove the rule, mainly acts where the singer wasn't necessarily the main focus of the band. You might note that three of those bands reunited with the singer who fronted them when they became famous, once the subsequent version of the band ran out of steam. You are very literal, aren't you. Nuance is something that just happens to other people...

WTF are you on about? You have just brought up several bands that illustrate what I was saying pretty well: Iron Maiden: sacked their drummer as soon as they got a record deal AC/DC: run as a vehicle for the Young brothers, with everyone else as hired hands (even the LV) and a constantly changing line-up, especially in the early years Black Sabbath: originally run more as a democratic band, but with Iommi as the leader until they fell out with Dio with singers and drummers coming and going – when Ozzy came back for the reunions, obviously the dynamic changed, and he had the biggest say due to his commercial clout Deep Purple: constantly changing singers & bass players, mainly due to the whim of Blackmore in their Mk 2 /Mk 3 heyday Genesis: a more democratic set-up with people coming and going of their own volition Pink Floyd: like Genesis until Waters started throwing his weight around – once he went the principals were Gilmour, Mason & Wright with Gilmour as the clear leader You have obviously misunderstood what I was saying and picked out bands that changed the lead singer! Certainly, the LV tends to be the frontman and as such, often more difficult to replace, but the focal point / band leader in the acts you have mentioned was not the singer.

Thanks for that - very helpful

Oh I struggled for ages to get it right, especially when I moved away from a simple two knob pedal. In the end I got a studio engineer (who was also a bass player and had the same comp pedal) to show me the settings he used. I just copied him and it sounds spot on now...

That depends and it can vary from band to band. Generally, the most important members of a band are the frontman and the songwriters. Occasionally there might be a star guitarist / instrumentalist who makes the cut. Usually, the rest of the band are considered to be hired hands and replaceable if need be. For your old school rock / funk / pop band that gets a record contract, that might not have been the case when they were on the way up playing the clubs, but that is what tends to happen once they start getting money and management / record companies behind them. The hired hands might be on a wage, or they might be on a wage plus points, but usually they won't be getting the same deal as the principals. Some bands might be more democratic, but most aren't, especially once they start to get a glimpse of success. Unfortunately, the drummer, second guitar, keys or bass player can be replaced pretty easily. You might miss them if they aren't onstage, but not for long because there will be the new guy up there doing their job...!

Don't judge whether you need a compressor from being on a stage, get someone who really knows what they're doing to listen out front when the band is playing. If you are using a compressor properly, you shouldn't notice much of a difference until you turn it off. The idea is that it should help the bass find its place in the mix...

It depends on the genre a bit, so if you're playing reggae or funk the bass might be a bit more to the fore. Generally, the bass player is playing the bottom line to an invisible (usually) score. You miss us if we're not there, but unless you are a virtuoso or have a strong stage presence, you won't necessarily grab the attention. At least we aren't as easily replaceable as the drummer...!

Good question! I suppose that it's just if I wasn't to use the wireless for some reason (forgot to charge up the transmitter or whatever), I would still have the tuner / mute to plug straight into. I don't have pedals fighting for space on my mini pedaltrain board, so there's no reason not to take the tuner pedal. It's not as if I haven't got a TC clip-on tuner for checking the tuning backstage, but to be frank, I'm just used to (and trust) the pitchblack pedal.

I'm surprised that you think this, as I've got a GLDX16 and it is certainly the best wireless that I have ever used (and I've gone through a fair few over the years). I've never had any issues with it at all, and I play a variety of venues, from small pubs to theatres / outdoor festivals with big pro stages / lighting rigs, etc. If I could find one s/h for a reasonable price, I would get it just as a back-up. I quite like having the receiver on my pedalboard, as it means that I don't have to carry a rack around and it makes it easier when I have to use a house rig, etc. Mind you, my pedalboard at the moment contains just the GLDX16 receiver, a tuner and a compressor...

Not metal enough either...! 🙂

I assume that you are referring to Dan McCafferty??