uk_lefty

I would have said my Jim Dunlop Bass Wah. It was awesome but in a 2 guitar band it wasn't getting anywhere near the use it deserved and I am happily living without it. I always scoffed at amp sims and cab sims for people who played through amps and cabs. Possibly because my first experiences of them were in a Zoom BFX708 so that's... 20 years ago. Now, even though I have a very good amp, the main effects I use are essentially EQ effects based on amp and cab sounds! A Trace Elliot simulator is my main one at the minute, but there's also a "super flat" amp sound I used a lot with a lot of compression that really sounded awesome with my Sire active jazz, there's an effect I'm just going to call "Duff" which is essentially my copy of Duff McKagans tone that is mostly amp sim with a chorus I can kick in. When I had a Fender Bronco bass amp I didn't bother with the on board effects but loved going through the different amp sims to get different flavours out of the bass. All I have now is a Boss GT10B old but solid tech. I don't know if the audience can hear any difference if I change from Trace Elliot to Super flat or if they even care, but it makes me happy.

Pedal boards seem to me like golf. Nice idea but frustrating as h3ll.

There's a website somewhere that can do this planning exercise for you

I had a pedal board and was just never fully happy with it, some effects not reacting to my playing and instruments the way you expect them to or simply not delivering at all. Or being great for a passive P bass but awful for an active J bass (EHX Battalion). Or causing nothing but noise even when bypassed, or having a noisy switch. It was a constant in-out of pedals. Constant rearranging and sticking stuff back down, then getting flat head cables to save space. I tore the side of the pedal bag there was so much bulging out of it. The Wah pedal was too heavy and didn't fit on too. I lost patience and got a bargain Boss GT10B that does everything you can imagine. But its a pain in the bum to use unless you spend hours crafting your sound for each bass, storing the patches then knowing where they are to recall them it's exhausting. I tend to just put it on something I vaguely like from the presets and leave it like that all night, maybe adding the chorus if it's there. I often think I want to go back to more simple days of having a chorus and a drive pedal in front of me. And a Wah. And a pre amp/ DI pedal. And I'm using octave a lot now. An EQ pedal would be useful for quick changes from fretted to fretless. Of course all this needs an actual board. And a power supply. And cables. And a compressor. And a tuner that does mute too. I did think about buying good pedals for my essential effects then adding something like a zoom ms60b for stuff I might need occasionally or in future. And when I think about this I'm right back where I started, facing a lot of cash outlay for effects that probably won't give me exactly what I expected, a heavier bag to carry around more points of potential failure. And I think maybe those hours on the Boss multi will be worth it, when I can fit them in...

It's never been an issue for me. But I don't play with my knobs in public.

Love, love, love that whole piece. Thank you for sharing. Really enjoyed listening to that. Oh yeah, the HB bass sounds alright too.

I don't think you're cold and unfeeling. There is a difference between being genuinely upset by something that has happened and being "social-media shouty look at me and feel sorry for me and let me be part of someone's grief" playing to the crowd. I'd add to your list, if I may, footballers doing "tributes" to people. A minutes silence, OK, but then the whole writing messages on shirts, having props to pull out during games to pay tribute to people... Don't get me wrong, footballers do give a lot to charity etc. But it's the showy "look at us displaying our grief" thing that just seems tacky.

I think that's the problem, Eurosender are not a courier they're like an agency. So they get you a price and offer insurance but you're in the hands of whichever courier they send to you. They had previously sent DPD and there was no issue. To your previous point, we all accept some things go wrong sometimes, but it's how it's dealt with. Eurosender don't seem at all interested in trying to resolve the issue. Anyhow, as an update I've got the package on return to sender as of yesterday morning. Lady at customer services said I'd get a new parcel number, I haven't, its the same parcel number again. Website tracking still saying "we've received your instructions and we're waiting for your parcel" which doesn't fill me with hope that I'm seeing the bass again any time soon.

Nah he became a born again Christian and couldn't have been more generous in nature. I found a similar Peavey to this on eBay, a long drive away and I have no need whatsoever for it. I just want to know what the pyramid knob does, might be worth a 4hr round trip...

My first ever band sounded a bit like that... Band breaks up because lead guitarist is an ego maniac. He reforms with the drummer and recruits me. I didn't have a gigging amp but there was a huge Peavey at the guitarists house, you had to take the head unit out, turn it upside down and join two wires to switch it on. Anyhow, it worked. Luckily the ex bassist was the older brother of a mate from college, so no hissy fits but he sold me the amp for a tenner, then I spent fifteen quid repairing it. And bought a good condition amp off him for another hundred. Used to stack them on top of each other and go from the line out of one to the input of the other, monstrous.

Agreed. Bad news travels faster, but there's never news of things going unspectacularly just as they should. However my main issues are DPD's information being unreliable and Eurosender being unable and unwilling to step in and deal with DPD when I was getting nowhere, that's what will dissuade me from using either again as I think both are signs of a broken system rather than an off day. Obviously no guarantee that anybody else will be better.

Band hissy fit, unfortunately I didn't witness it all but am reliably informed... Keyboard player tries out and is terrible, odd personality, can't play his masses of kit, talks like he's Rik Wakeman, you get the picture. BL says "pack your gear in to your car and when he's gone get it out again, I'll fire him now..." so my gear goes in the car but its late and I'm knackered so I say I've had enough and drive home. I get a phone call on the journey "we know you haven't got it, but can you check all your gear for keyboard players car keys, please? We've turned everything inside out and can't find them!" they had given him his marching orders which were not well received expecting him to pack up and go, but he couldn't load up his car and they had an excruciating hour looking for his keys! Eventually they found them. In the pocket of his hoodie that was in the corner of the room all along.

I will listen out for cues a lot because I am not a person who counts bars in my head I just try to "feel" where the changes come, which relies usually on a cue from the drums, so I guess I'm a follower. Though if I know the song better than the drummer, which does happen, I'll lead with a bass fill to tell him it's time to transition to a different part and to pull the guitarist out of a solo or whatever.

Well after DPD's tracking system and staff telling me it is definitely being delivered today on Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday and then yesterday telling me it will definitely be delivered Monday the buyer has just had enough. He's requested a refund and said if the bass is delivered he will just reject it. I get it from his perspective he could be thinking he's been scammed. I've called DPD this morning, customer services person kept saying "it's not me, I'm not in the depot" which to me as a paying customer is entirely irrelevant. I've ordered a return to sender and raised a complaint. Goodness knows if I'll ever get the bass back. I've refunded the guy's money too on Reverb and if the bass goes missing I'll then claim through Eurosender insurance. What an absolute farce. I don't think I will use Eurosender again, and I definitely will never use DPD again. How can they promise a delivery three days straight but not even attempt a delivery? How can they "agree a new delivery date" without, you know, agreeing it with anyone?! Absolute shocker. Eurosender just can't do anything about it, which makes me think they're little use and for the money saved too much of a risk.

I think it's one of those things, if you've got loads of it you can reign it in when you want to (e.g. Muting techniques or devices) but it's much harder to add in sustain if it's not there naturally

Indeed. He's a bit odd but he's not an octopus.

I've learned the hard way this time, for certain

Yes, likely the auto fill on my phone and me not checking the confirmation immediately. But their inability to contact DPD once things are in motion is disappointing

Long story short. If using Eurosender particularly off your phone, check all details in the receiver fields before confirming. Then double check the email confirmations immediately to make sure they've got the right info. Mine had overwritten the receiver details with the same as the collection details and I'm now suffering because of it! And once a package is with a courier Eurosender can seem to do very little to help or intervene. And DPD's tracking website may as well have that disclaimer "while this is based on real events some characters and events are created for dramatic purposes"

🤔

Guitarist in my band is a very good bassist. I heard his originals band where he played bass and all guitar parts and was a little bit put out by how surprised I was with the quality of the bass part. But then he appreciates some of the things I do on bass that he can't. I guess it's just a case of he is a very good guitarist playing bass, whereas I'm a "pure" bass player so we approach it in different ways.

I like my butterscotch jazz, up close you can see the woodgrain through it. The picture doesn't quite do it justice

Well... This was my family shot. 4x basses. New this year were the CIJ Jazz and the 1984 Aria... However, I just didn't get on with the Aria. Its a very, very nice bass but for a single pickup bass it didn't beat my Stingray so it went. And I acquired this lovely Warwick in its place and all is right with my (bass) world once more. And there are 4 different headstock/ tuner arrangements 😊👍

That's a lovely collection. I really like the Antigua burst Fenders, there were some lefties knocking about a few years back, hopefully they come back on the market when I've got the cash and the inclination.

So last night was the night. Three songs chosen, not very wisely, by myself. Guitarist and drummer both really sound people, no delusional muso types, good guys who had been in bands before and liked the sound of doing 80s covers. Winner. Evening started off OK though the shoddy PA in the rehearsal room and probably some nervousness from me meant vocals were appalling initially. Guitarist very good, tasteful use of effects to fill sonic space, drummer grinning like a monkey with two bananas while playing fills, rock solid timing, all good. I had a bit of a crisis of confidence 80s Tom Cruise style over my stinky poo vocals but we had a chat for a while, I relaxed, turned up the PA, turned down the amps, and the guys were really cool about it. We tried again and were a thousand times better. We didn't play anything perfectly but as a first time together and a bit of a jam there was definite potential for something to form. Lesson from the night, sage advice from guitarist over my vocals, summarised as: key thing being if you want to do it, if you don't want to then don't and get someone else, but if you do want to then work on it. He said "it's in there, you just need to work on pitching it right" and we agreed that two of the songs were probably out of my range anyway so to move on from one of those and work on the other as an aspirational thingy. However, then did well with a bit of Springsteen and another song we just bashed through too. Bass was no problem at all, but having not done lead vocals for over ten years and being with new people who may be deciding whether I'm a serial killer or a good chap to be in a band with I was probably deep down nervous, but after a chat and relaxing in to it, far far better. Somehow playing my unlined fretless helped too... No idea why, I've only had it 5 days and never had an unlined before! Will be getting together in the next few weeks to work on some more songs.