ratman

I gig for a living and I certainly don't feel it's another form of rut. Saturdays and some Fridays are my bigger earning nights doing functions, the rest of my gigs are generally pub/bar work. Like Blue, I love what I do. I may not be a rich man but I'm happy in my work. I approach my gigs with the attitude that I'm going to play to my best ability and put on a good show, like most of the musicians around me. And after all these years I still get excited getting ready to leave the house for a gig. I don't have time for half-arsed performances and attitudes. I do take my work seriously and yes, it's still a job, but it beats doing 40+ hours a week in an office or warehouse. I know this because I've done both. I have the best job in the world and long may it continue.

Give yourselves extra time on the set up & sound check on the next gig or three. I found that it took a few gigs to be good and quick getting sound check done. Make sure you ring out the monitors too. And tell the band to be patient with your sound guy, he's got a learning curve ahead of him but he'll get there soon enough.

I had a go on a PJB Bighead recently. It was fabulous. My bass sounded amazing. Definitely worth the money if you can stretch your budget.

TC Mojomojo overdrive (this rocks on guitar & bass), 3 Leaf Groove Regulator 2 filter, TC Corona chorus, Bearfoot Blueberry overdrive.

Something like this maybe? http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_xenyx_302_usb.htm

Big Muff for me. A close second is my old EHX Double Muff pedal, raw & nasty, lovely.

I've been using a Mackie DL1608 & iPads for a year now with my own bands and as an independant PA man. It's brilliant. Proper Logic style EQs wipe the floor with the traditional Bass/Mid/Treble found on analogue desks. And I have 6 auxes. The interface is easy to navigate and it didn't take me long to get to know it. Actually, I'd downloaded the free app before I got the mixer & iPad so I knew how it worked before I even had the hardware. I even use it on bigger 7+ piece bands down to small 3 piece pub gigs because it's just so good. You can save everything - EQs, comps, gates, whole channel strips, complete mixes (incl auxes), which makes life really easy. The wireless mixing thing isn't for everyone, but I'm sticking with my Mackie.

That'd be right up Tom's street. A Tubescreamer with bass/mid/treble/presence, blend, and maybe a HPF on the wet signal too? Hmmm, could be tasty!!

From my experience, the stock Bad Monkey doesn't retain much low end. It may work for you if you're thinking of blending though.

I play a P with flats. I have a Bass Soul Food which gives me that dirty clank. I've also tried a B3K which did it brilliantly too. As said above though, the VT you own should be able to do this for you.

I just picked up a TC Corona today. I love it. The PC editor is a great tool too. Definitely a keeper.

I just bought a pedal from Nick. I paid on Sunday, he posted Monday, it arrived Tuesday. Nice. A great job with the packing too. Thanks Nick.

The B3 is packed with effects. The QTron model is pretty good. And you'll be able to try all the major effect types and find out what does it for you.

It was a lesson in great defense. Neither offense was allowed to play their normal game.

Like when you say 'we're on at 9' and they turn fashionably late and only catch the last three songs, and proceed stand at the back talking through then anyhow. Nice.

[quote name='keefbaker' timestamp='1454928500' post='2974174'] Sometimes simple is the right thing to do, sometimes complex is the right thing to do. Half the time self-restraint is the real power of bass players IMO. [/quote] Absolutely right!

The Ginger is an approximate recreation of a 1965 Ampeg Portaflex 1x12 combo. I've never had the luxury of trying the real thing but I really like the vintage vibe of the pedal. Like the Blueberry, the drive section is a breaking up valve sound. I'd say the BB is slightly hotter. The BB has the one tone (Nature) knob but the Ginger has Bass and Treble knobs which makes it a bit more flexible for tone shaping. Personally I prefer the Ginger as an always-on with subtle bite, then either going to the BB for a bigger driven sound, or stacking them for a full blown valve breaking up sound. Bear in mind that I play P's with flats, so I'm after a warmer tone overall. I just checked the VFE site and it's seems to have been updated. Peter is saying he's getting a proper job and not doing so much pedal work. And the Runoffgroove pedals aren't showing up there now. I guess you could email him and ask if he'd do a one-off job. Kits are available online if you're ok with a soldering iron.

Cheers Dan. I was using a Diago Showman up till a couple of months ago. I had it full of pedals but it was pure overkill, so I slimmed down to this with all my current favourites. The one thing left to get is a B3K which will probably replace the Soul Food. I got the Ginger made for me by VFE. It cost about £113 delivered from the States and took about 8 weeks.

It's been a while since I posted my board, so here's the latest set up. [URL=http://s1343.photobucket.com/user/bassboyherms/media/Pedal%20Board%20070216%201_zpssnook7sp.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o798/bassboyherms/Pedal%20Board%20070216%201_zpssnook7sp.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s1343.photobucket.com/user/bassboyherms/media/Pedal%20Board%20070216%202_zps2xeddybx.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o798/bassboyherms/Pedal%20Board%20070216%202_zps2xeddybx.jpg[/IMG][/URL] The signal path is: Line6 G30, In/Out box, Zoom MS60B, Bass Soul Food, Blueberry, Ginger, COG parallel blender - Loop 1 = Knightfall 66, Grand Tarkin, GR2. - Loop 2 = DOD Octaver. In/Out box, to amp. It's fairly obvious I like my drive pedals. The GR2 is fairly new to me but it's just so good, my best giggable filter yet. The Blueberry & Ginger get used for more blues/soul/funk gigs. I usually swap them out for an Xotic BB & a Catalinbread or COG boost pedal for rockier stuff.

Very nicely cabled!

Make sure you turn it right up before you pull away

The 'which pedal should I try' question is so subjective. So much depends on your combination of rig, strings, fingers/pick, playing intensity etc. It's sometimes the case that when you see a You Tube demo a pedal sounds perfect, you buy one and it just doesn't do it for you. Also, I've got pedals that I tried that I was sure wouldn't work for me, but they turned out to be keepers. There are some good suggestions here but you'll have to find out for yourself what does the job for you. Something with a blend might be worth considering. Also, be aware that active and passive basses react differently to pedals due to impedance differences. It's a journey of discovery. Welcome aboard, and bring your wallet!

When I come to learn a new song I have a couple of passes through to get the part, riffs, stops & changes figured out. I'm not worried about the arrangement at this stage, just the small chunks. Then I'll do another pass where I'll chart it out (lots of use of the pause button here). I used to get it down on paper but now it's straight to OnSong on my iPad. This is where the magic happens for me - it has always helped me to not just have a mental map of the song, once I've made a chart I have a visual map too and I find that this helps it to sink in really quick. My chord charts are simple too - basic key info, and all the arrangement info. I like to remember the specific bass lines for songs so on a gig I'm not buried in my charts like a sight reader, I'm just using them here and there if I need them, and I can carry on have a good time on stage. Once I've got the chart done, it's once or twice through and I'm pretty much done. I'll normally run the new songs every day for a few days just to make sure they've sunk in. Some songs take a bit longer, for sure, but on the whole I don't find learning a big deal. When I was younger I took a gig where I had 7 days to learn 35 songs. We did the gig and I survived, a few dodgy moments of course, but I proved to myself that it's possible to cram a lot of information in a short space of time. Have faith in yourself that you can do it. As ever, practice is the key. It gets easier the more you do it.

It's another Bergantino HD112 recommendation from me. It's a serious piece of kit that'll handle a 5er with ease.

I've just had a B3K on loan and I really liked it. The tone I preferred was a hint of drive blended in, and I used the switches to select treble/bass/both boosted to give some nice variation of flavours. I'm not normally a fan of the scooped sound but for me it worked well used subtly. There's a whole pallette of sounds accessable with this pedal, subtle bite to full-on drive, and I'll definitely be buying one of these sometime this year.