uk_lefty

Still good mates with the ones I can keep in touch with. My first ever band had two great lads in it and we got back together for reunion gigs, but both are complete technophobes so can't even look them up on Facebook to get back in touch. Another band ended when I moved out of London, the singer now lives in Thailand but we all keep in touch and have attempted to get to gigs together, we may manage one day!

Probably taking the example of his country's elected President...

While I don't approve of violence in general he can't say you didn't warn him!! I'll save this one for my list of "reasons to never play with a keyboard player"

I could easily find it but if I publish it here, especially after that post, I could get locked up for cyber bullying, or one of the original offensive communication crimes.

I avoided a certain audition from hell three or four years back. My wife said it was a shame I had all this bass gear but didn't play in a band. I agreed, and we said before we had kids I should join a band, play some gigs, etc. So I set about looking, in the meantime invested in a gorgeous P bass, and had some interest. I was looking only within five miles of home initially. There was a guy who said he plays country, has recorded ten albums, most of which were recorded in Nashville and played regular gigs locally. He was dead keen, I like country but was honest in saying I'd never played it but would have a go and learn as I went along. He was trying to sort dates for rehearsal with his band mates. All sounded promising. So as this is going on I asked for the third or fourth time for weblinks to his songs. I got sent a YouTube clip to his "video". It was the most excruciatingly embarrassing thing I have ever seen in my life. The guy could barely play and obviously could not sing. Camcorder video of him strumming a guitar on his garden while wearing reactolite glasses with his "pro recording" dubbed over. It was absolutely dreadful. Don't know of it was the awful voice or studio autotune but my wife summed it up, between fits of laughter as "it's Kermit the ****ing frog!!!!" I sent a polite decline email saying my old band was getting back together (a lie) and I didn't have time for both adventures at once. I then receive an email saying "bassist has cried off, shall we meet anyway?" So I replied to him "don't think this was meant for me, and I'm doing ok holding back the tears"

A lot of years ago I had wireless headphones that worked with an infrared transmitter. As long as nothing got in the way of the signal path it worked well and I used to use it for late night bass practice. Must be over fifteen years ago now.

The only slight drawback, and I mean slight because as far as I know most amps do this, is that to get the full oomph you need two cabs connected. I've somehow got a 500w 15" Rootmaster cab which is likely to have been from the 500w combo unit or a special order, but I can't run with just that cab to get the full oomph from the amp. From time to time it would be useful to flick a switch and give the full beans in to one suitable cab rather than having to run two. Again, as far as I know most heads are set up like this and if it were as simple as flicking a switch then I'm sure that would be the norm...

Would happily demo a lefty for you... Though I don't own one and have not played one, the wife keeps telling me to get a bass with F holes, far be it for me to defy her

Nowt wrong with a pointy headstock in 2018!

Zoot.... Oh, you said "other than". As you were.

Gigged Saturday night. Used for nearly all tracks. Disabled the amp EQ and didn't use a pre amp pedal, just purely the onboard active electronics. Very very happy! Used it on just about all controls at flat, touch of bass boost, pickup pan nudged ever so slightly to bias the bridge pickup, best live tone I've had in a long time. Listening to the recordings right now, rolled up the bass boost and went to bias the front pickup for "come together", equally happy with the tone. Very versatile bass, very impressed.

Gigged on Saturday night with the new bass and the EHX, no Hartke. Turned off all other EQ sources to purely get EQ from the active bass, but kicked in the Batallion when I brought out the passive fender jazz bass for a few mins. Using the pedal helped me compensate for volume differences between the guitars and allowed me to get a familiar EQ immediately without too much faffing about. Having listened to the recording now, it sounded pretty darn good too. I'm now in a quandary. My active bass is probably going to be my "number 1" for the foreseeable so this makes both the Hartke and EHX a bit of a bystander until I use a different bass for certain songs or gigs. In conclusion, I'm thinking of moving on the EHX and keeping the Hartke, mainly down to familiarity and the 'punch' it adds which I can't replicate through the EHX alone or in combination with other pedals. What I would say about the EHX is that the EQ section is easier to use, the distortion is good and it works very well with other pedals in the chain. This is a tough decision!

update... Sort of. Band took a hiatus through most of August due to holidays. By the time we got together for a rehearsal I'd bought a new bass so testing out the preamp pedals went to the bottom of my list. However, my findings so far are that a great sound for a passive jazz bass on the Batallion does not work for an active jazz bass at all! I'm also a bit miffed that I can't just kick in the distortion, I need to have the EQ section running, so I can't just use it as a distortion pedal for the active bass. I might whip out the passive jazz on tomorrow night's gig and engage the Batallion to see what it does live, but I honestly can't see me putting down the new active bass while I'm having so much fun with it. The Hartke is now off my board asking what the hell it ever did wrong.

Japanese Fender precisions can be had at a good second hand price. I love mine, quality and simplicity. Different types of string completely change the character, but it's always a Precision. The ultimate plug and play, no faffing about, gigging bass.

I had the pleasure of being on jury duty for a rather unsophisticated Gumtree "scammer"... Well, not "scammer" as such but he used Gumtree to set someone up for a mugging. Meet me at the train station, I'm not there yet walk to the bus stop, I'm not there yet walk down this alleyway.... Then batters the lad and nicks the phone. Silly thing was he did it in an alleyway that led to his house. With all the other evidence presented there was not much "reasonable doubt" left and he was rightly convicted. When we have the verdict the judge told us he's already admitted a few more of these so this would be added to his sentence. Seems some small errors in the victim statement provided enough to take this one to jury. Anyway, seller not giving a proper location and messing you around is a massive red flag. Google earth is also your friend. When trying to rent a flat through Gumtree many years back I thought the address wasn't right but didn't know the area. It was the local holiday Inn.

If you ever get insomnia I can bore you with a lot more. Loving it!

Yep! Was happily using my P as my main gigging bass this summer then used my jazz for half a set and thought actually that bridge pickup is "my" sound. Just bought a Sire and I love it.

My drummer has done it twice, handed his sticks over to a known drummer once and another time some kid kept asking to have a go so the drummer got him on for a song he hates. He thinks we're an alright band.

What was more exciting, the bass or the dangerous encounter, making sure the fuzz weren't following you, staying in the CCTV blindspots... ?

I had a guy buy an amp who was a decent chap but he "tested" it at full volume in a flat in the evening which I wasn't happy with and he had the most terrible BO. I had the windows wedged open for ages afterward to get rid of the stench. Also he talked and talked and talked... All the while I'm trying not to gag on the smell of his stale sweat. Meeting up somewhere public is way better if the item is non Electrical so doesn't need testing!

In case anyone is thinking about these I've done an NBD thread in the main bass guitars section (can't get my phone to link it here). Have used the Sire in a 2hr rehearsal last night and will gig it on Saturday. So far incredibly impressed.

Used it last night for two hours with the band going through new songs. Wow. I'd put this up there with my Japanese Fender for quality, maybe not quite the same but almost. The only higher quality bass I've played is a Sandberg costing three times as much, and I would not say there's three times the difference. Sound wise I'm not used to active EQ. I've had active basses in the past but always run them passive. With this one I tried a little bit of cutting and boosting here and there but I loved the sound so much I was running flat EQ on the amp, no pre amp pedal, all the controls on the bass pretty much flat including the pickup pan. With this bass you get a really snappy sound, bright-ish and raspy when everything set flat but a smidge more front pickup and a smidge of bass boost and that snappiness is gone and you get a thick, deep rumbly bass tone. I bought this for many reasons, including to see whether I should spend big later on a bass such as a Sandberg and what body, fingerboard and number of strings would suit me... But I'm so bowled over by this I think it's a keeper. Time shall tell. It will come out to gig on Saturday night. The tuners hold really well. Half an hour before practice I took it down half a step and it did fine. The stock strings are surprisingly good. The initial set up is excellent. If I change the bridge it will be more cosmetic I think. Believe the hype on Sire, this is excellent value!

It's that 15v power requirement that's stopping me buying the Californiwah. I'm ok with running one Eden pedal needing its own plug but two is too much. If these were 9v it would be ideal

Fair comment! Might be worth checking how they print then.

True, but with well over fifty songs we can all have a mental block from time to time! Can't remember a gig where one of us hasn't had to ask what chords for a particular song.