uk_lefty

20% ?!?! Not in Yorkshire.

I enjoy the private gigs, they're as hit and miss as the pub/ bar gigs can be though! I just find the heckling more polite at a private function. My band plays covers, we mainly do private functions for people we know, friends of friends and so on. We also play "festivals" where pubs or local organisations do a day or two of live music. We occasionally do pub gigs but our set is tailored to getting forty-somethings dancing rather than entertaining angry town centre drunks. We played one pub gig last year and our singer lost focus on one song while he watched a fight in the smoking area. The rest of us couldn't see it and wondered what he was up to.

I'm no fan of theirs, only ever bought their records as nostalgic presents for my brother who now lives abroad, but the documentary is a good watch. If you hate their personalities, and I can't blame you for that, you still can't help but admire the hard work, determination, song writing and seizing of the moment. It really shows the band as a group of mates who tried to start a band and just stuck their neck out for one gig where a chance encounter got them a record deal. It's in BBC iPlayer at the moment, worth an hour and a half. Some great 90's pop songs from the days before the internet ruined everything

I have been put off keys players for life by one guy who took an hour to set up his Rik Wakeman stuff, banged on about playing big festivals and needing all kinds of complicated sound equipment. Could barely string two notes together. Had never heard of most popular music from the last forty years (and he was about forty so age was no excuse!). He also got sacked at the second rehearsal then went to pack away his gear and had lost his car keys. Had all of us turn out our gear, I'd got bored and driven half an hour towards home when I got the call to go through my kit to see if o picked up his keys... Anyway after two hours of searching for his car keys he found them in his pocket. Never again.

It's not always like that... I joined a five piece who lost their bass player and rhythm guitarist. New rhythm player is already pals with the drummer. I've been in the band nearly two years and can hand on heart say they are really good friends as well as being a kick donkey band.

You could look at it another way... I'm assuming that you and the guitarist don't sing. Find a singer or maybe a singer songwriter and be their backing. Get some gigs doing acoustic sets. If you do sing, don't look for a singer, but do the acoustic sets! Then get a drummer. Then do bigger gigs. Open mic nights can be good to polish things and inject some momentum and urgency to rehearsal, if there's something to aim for people pull their socks up. Did it myself where there was a singer and guitarist who were flatmates, I played bass for them and we did some open mics while looking for a drummer. A good drummer will want to know you're moving in some direction and not being yet another load of dreamers, so it helps.

Personally I use a hartke preamp pedal with an optional di out so if I'm not happy with the backline I can go straight from the pedal. I also have a di out on my amp head I could use or I now have a fender bronco 40 modelling amp with a di. The lightest and easiest would be di out from the pedal board but that would take some rearranging of the pedals.

A good pickup. I have it on my Japanese P Bass (could be basswood body) 1970 reissue. Getting the best out of that pickup for me involves using rotosounds Steve Harris strings. There is just a presence, power and clarity that fits perfectly live. I've got thomastik flats on now and they don't get the best from the pickup, sadly, though I think they'd sound great on my jazz or with a more vintage voiced p pickup.

I did think it odd to put that logo on if making a fake... But couldn't search the serial number anywhere. Puzzling. Price seems a bit strong for a squier, even though it is "fender" logo'd

You can do some clever stuff with a boss Ls-2 (??) I think splitting the low and high signal and sending them through different effects. Something like that may help you, but you would be best asking in the effects topic area for specific advice like that and getting a more knowledgeable response than I can give. I can recommend the Hartke VXL DI pedal for some drive (not dirty), can be found cheap second hand.

I can't find the serial number anywhere either... Shame, looked like a good start price.

Oops. Senior moment

Hofner and the copies of the Hofner bass can be had around that cost and they're short scale. Have a look at your favourite second hand sites if nothing in the forum. Or import an Ibanez Talman from the US.

Lana Del Ray is just awful, I don't understand how that rubbish exists. Not a legal viewpoint. The melody of the song, the inflection in the vocals, the misery, it's a "tribute" to Creep undoubtedly. I would rather Radiohead issued a complete cease and desist against her career.

I had seen that. Was aware of the link with Mayones but have never seen a Fame in the flesh so no idea how good they are. Was a bit out off by the note saying a pickup screw had gone all the way through the bass!

I can't stress enough how important strings are to the overall sound but the feel too! As a beginner I had the cheapest rubbishest steep strings and they just shred your fingers. I'm still experimenting 19years in to bass playing by buying my first tapewounds set last week. For me, my jazz bass is best with Ernie Ball slinky's if I want it to zing and they last far longer than I was expecting but it's great with fender flats when you want that kind of tone from the J. My fretless 5 loves Ernie Ball flats but currently has cobalt rounds just for a change and they sound magnificent. My p bass loves Steve Harris signature rotosounds, isn't keen on thomastik flats, sadly though these could go over to.my jazz soon. I used GHS boomers on my hohner headless and it sounded great, got a set for my jazz bass and not so great...

They look just at home on the bass

Looks good to me....

I like the chrome top knobs with black plastic round the sides. Reminds me of the hifi we had when I was a kid.

So this is becoming more of a blog/ review as I discover what this little amp can do, but people are reading it so I hope you find it useful. Last night was headphone practice time. I needed to sharpen up some sections of songs for an upcoming gig. That quickly dealt with I dug out an old mini USB cable and connected the amp to my laptop. Downloading the fender fuse software was quick and easy for Windows. Now, I am the kind of person without the patience to learn how to reprogramme a multi effect pedal so this is the test... Using the amp while hooked up to the pc was very easy and intuitive to bring in new effects and change cabs and so on, far more functionality than the amp controls alone. The only thing I couldn't find was how to record using my pc but that will come later... Still impressed with the amp. The effect sounds are not at all artificial but the real test will be playing this at band night next week. It has an XLR line out so hoping I can run this in to the PA. one worry is that, like the older zoom pedals, the great sound at home is rubbish with a band. So we will see!

So it arrived yesterday. I have it a twenty minute noodle, nothing comprehensive but enough to get a good first impression. I bought second hand so some of my gripes may be due to mistreatment by the previous owner... Low end rattle. The thing buzzes and rattles when playing the lowest notes. Could be speaker or cab, or could have been something else in the room so will try elsewhere. The SWR simulation is my favourite! Really nice clean bass sound. The other amp Sims aren't very distinguishable from each other to me, just different amounts of drive to the sound. None of them sound "artificial" though which was an initial fear. The amp is heavier, bigger and far louder than I was expecting! 40watts is more than you expect. Easily capable as a monitor or for acoustic type lower volume gigs. The onboard effects... They're ok. I haven't yet spent time with the software to tweak or completely swap out these. Nice to have them there to save getting out the effects board. Overall I'm quite pleased with it. I wanted a practice amp for playing at home and through headphones, it does that and can do more. I need to play with the software and recording capability but that's a bonus and not the prime reason to have it, though it is an advantage. I wouldn't pay £250 for a new one, but second hand they seem to go for around a hundred quid and at that price I think you'd be hard pressed to find more features.

We do the same. We've not yet failed to tie it up to something and it causes the absolute minimum of disruption.

I had a text like that when I was selling a pedal recently. I don't trust people enough with things like that.

Thanks. There's no way I could justify the full cost of a new one but it sounds like of you can spend the time with the software you can get a lot out of it. I'm keen to see what the recording feature is like too...