uk_lefty

How do I deal with it? I am basically doing an act when I'm on stage. I enjoy what I'm doing but I shared video of my last gig with a friend and was told I didn't look comfortable! Need to work on the act!!!

I used to really beat myself up about mistakes, my first ever gig I walked off gutted, turns out the drummer was the only person who realised what was going wrong and it was no biggy. It's not a sport, like it's not the FA Cup Final... If you make a small mistake do it again next time that phrase comes around, people will think you meant it. I think Marcus Miller said that. I do it and it works. If you make a massive mistake turn sideways so the audience can see you mouth "@££&!!!" At the drummer 😎😄😄

I used to book bands at a pub I worked in many years ago. We tried to get a bit of acoustic stuff going on a Sunday night and committed to making a go of it through the summer. I was always there either working or drinking so always sorted out the acts, got them paid, etc. The one night I wasn't there the three piece act didn't show up, just the singer with his acoustic. Apparently he brought in a decent crowd, I knew he was good and well known around town. The next morning I had a polite text message asking why he'd been paid £30 instead of £100 and saying it was fun, even after the police incident. I texted one of my colleagues and over the next few days the story unfolded. The landlord and landlady had a huge row and the police got called, Landlord emptied the safe and disappeared. The staff were all close friends and family of the landlord so tensions were high. Come time to end the music and the act was told to have £30 because £100 was based on three of them, a third of the act, a third of the fee. I felt for him but there was nothing I could do to rectify it. I also learned he basically winged it, loads of mistakes, scraps of songs, not a great performance... So the sympathy dwindled a little. 

Over a few months of booking acts there was a stark difference between those who had a full and well prepared set and those who just turned up with a guitar and mic and thought that they would magically have some epiphany to play flawlessly without a set list, or notes, or memory of whole songs. 

I've only depped for people I know so there's an amount of comfort with it, but even so I've had surprise set lists, asked the band whether they play certain songs in the original key and been told "don't know, you'll be fine!". If there's a lull with my covers band I might cast my net out a bit wider to do some deps for bands I don't already know but to make it worthwhile financially I think I'd be pricing myself out. There's a dep to replace me at a gig in summer and he's an accomplished musician going for a rate I would want to be taking... Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Bought a non standard body off them, very good value and excellent quality. Really worth using them if you want good quality rather than buying the very cheap parts you can get on eBay etc.

Utter gits. Not your fault their clientele are tight/ the venue isn't popular enough for people to come to/ only sells sh!tty beer... What if a band said sorry mate, you don't sell McCoys crisps so our fee is up by 25%.

I adore SWR amps! Something about the clean, glossy sound of them. Enjoy 

Wow!

18 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Mine definitely was 🙂

 

 

Think it cost me £189 either last year or the one before that so if they're no £150 it's a serious bargain.

 

Saw no reason to "upgrade" anything. Neck is a dream to play, not too chunky but thankfully not too thin. Had two issues. 

 

1. Slight string hum, that's down to grounding;  either poor contact at the mono saddles (no bare metal) or a saddle has been skipped.

2. Tone knob needed raised 1mm so it could clear the finish.

That's a really classy take on the P bass. Amazing the cheap ones can be made without gouging a ditch out the body between the pup and the pots but US Fenders still do. 

7 hours ago, JottoSW1 said:

Guitar Guitar have a used Epiphone Jack Cassady for £449

That's a steal 

7 hours ago, Linus27 said:

Red Red Wine by UB40.

I'm with you.

Ship Called Dignity is my all time top most worstest song in the world ever. I can't put my finger on what about it makes it so awful, it's just the entire thing.

https://youtu.be/s-QCYoKpOoI?si=WZl2eSMCs7o-_9o1

I'm enjoying the punch from this. I need to put on my preferred strings. Going to replace the bridge with a BBOT and add ashtrays. I've also got some Sadowsky lightweight tuners which will hopefully fit. I wouldn't change the pickup, it's perfect stock. 

Hi Zim... In truth the order is whatever you want it to be! Personally I would go this way:

Tuner first so that you can mute the signal before it goes into any noise boxes;

Then I'd test the way your octave and chorus sound with the drive before or after them, that can make a difference, and settle on what's right. If your Harley Benton pedal doesn't have an effects loop and you use it to DI I would put that last purely so you're giving an effected signal to the DI. If it has an effects loop then that changes things.

The HX Stomp is a phenomenal piece of kit. Absolutely amazing capability to it. But. You can easily get lost in programming it, trying every single type of chorus, there can be an overwhelming amount of choice. If you want to delve into it, it's all there. I found I spent more time programming it than actually playing bass, whereas with dedicated pedals you just turn three knobs to get what you need. 

If your pedalboard has noise it's probably worth persistence to solve it with better quality patch cables, power supplies and secure it all well. If you've got pedals that only get used once or twice a year then you could either replace them with a little, easy to use zoom unit or take them off the board until you need them.

Long and short of it, you're happy with your board already.

It's really crazy, sorry you're struggling and that with all the pressure you must be under theres some idiots out there thinking they're funny or just taking their anger and stupidity out on you.

On a lighter note... A mate of mine listed a pair of designer jeans on eBay for sale "never been worn". And the photo was him wearing the jeans... I could have commented on it as a little joke but didn't bother wasting my time and his. 

22 years ago I got a fretless five, but I have to say I'm a four string guy. Though that bass is very special to me, my main gigging basses are 4 strings with a hipshot d-tuner. Drop D is big, gutsy and punchy, but I find anything lower just doesn't have the definition... On any fiver I've had at least.

Interesting one last night... The Horn in St Albans doing a 00's night. I get on well with the soundman, he's a former bass player and knows his stuff. I told him I might like to go DI pedal into the PA and no amp, he persuaded me to keep using the amp and I'm glad I did, fantastic sound. 

Gig-wise it was one of those where all the songs we never mess up we really messed up! Lots went wrong, I missed loads of cues, guitarist did also, drummer did... Singer broke two guitar strings... But, the place absolutely rocked. We were recording the gig and we don't really want to listen to it, very few songs were performed without fault, but we had a good time.

5 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

Keep em coming chaps, thanks!

 

Funny how drummers keep cropping up. It is a drummer, he quit without notice but now his replacement has moved in he is suggesting he might have made a mistake. We are using him as a dep initially but the future divides our band. One wants him in, one is undecided. And there’s me!

You need to arrange some kind of drum-off at your next gig and let the audience decide....

Or, more realistically, did he think quitting would make you beg him to come back and he can't stand it that you've moved on? Some people need constant reassurance but adults don't tend to do that so much for each other. There could be millions of other reasons but if it were me I'd invest time in the one who wants to be there and hasn't quit at all, rather than one who has.

The Desert Penguins at the Horn tonight (Fri 22nd March) playing rock and pop from the 00's. Loads of new songs in our favourite venue. 

20 minutes ago, thebrig said:

Reverb:

Prior to 6 September, Reverb has been paying for this VAT/GST out of pocket on sellers’ behalf. Given that this isn’t a sustainable solution, we’ve updated our policies. Please check this to your tax authority for the confirmation.

That seems very fishy to me. I don't for one second believe that Reverb, a business, has operated for so long paying taxes on behalf of their customers, it just seems like bullocks.

In the last year I've done probably half my gigs via a DI pedal instead of an amp. I've had an MXR M80 and now an EBS pedal with all my other FX in its loop. The sound quality I've had has been mostly very good. My band now owns active subs for the PA so on the most part I don't really need to be filling a venue with bass from an on stage amp. The drummer plays an electronic kit and one of the guitarist goes amp-less now. 

I've been toying with selling off my Ashdown rig and my SWR Working pro and going for one of the Boss Katana amps. I persuaded myself I'd regret that so took my amp to gig last weekend even though I didn't need it. We were using the venue PA and I had bass coming out my monitor which sounded different to my amp behind me. Depending on where I stood I was getting more of one source of bass sound than the other to the point where it became a bit distracting.

Do I really need an ABM600 and two 15" cabs? It just feels like overkill now. I don't use it at all at home, preferring my SWR combo for quick plug n play. I worry that one day I might need the full wallop of the amp and regret not having it, but realistically I haven't had to run amp only with no PA support for over a year.

What should I do...?

Took it to practice last night with a hipshot d tuner fitted. Really big, thick, meaty bass sound. I haven't directly compared but I think the output is a lot stronger than my US Jazz.

Playing a precision after a few years without one just proves that if anyone tells you using the neck pup on a jazz "gives you a precision" they are completely and utterly wrong. Or trying to sell you a jazz.

2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

The sound of the accordion, which is only surpassed by the bagpipes as hand held cacophony devices. BTW, it was the Irish who invented the pipes as vermin repellent. After the Scots brought the gift of the game of golf to the Irish the Irish returned the favor by giving the bagpipe to the Scots. The Scots didn't know it was a joke.  🤪

I love this!!

I think the Scots should have their independence as long as they take their bagpipes with them. And never allow English people to wear kilts at weddings.

29 minutes ago, mowf said:

How does that work then, does one lefty = two right handed basses?

 

Haha there's three other basses out of shot.

13 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Far from complete, lacks a G&L!

Lovely set though!

I knew that was coming at some point!

Six basses is sufficient for now.