uk_lefty

I don't think you do. Singer may have one, otherwise hire one. Most practice places worth playing at should have one in place and would probably hire you one, or there would be local hire companies. The music shop in town when I was a kid used to hire out a decent PA for twenty quid if you could collect it. Also, what is a PA? The guitarist in my attempt to set up a band insists his Line 6 powered speaker is a PA. I insist it is not.

Anybody else watching this on Disney+..... Suppose just those of us with small kids! Watched part 1 last night, excellent. Sir Paul and Rick Rubin talking about how certain songs came about and isolating the bass and talking about how it works with the track. Sadly not a full bass documentary, so they comment on the tone on While my Guitar Gently Weeps but don't say how he got it. I'm off to buy a Hofner. And maybe a Rick if I can get one for a realistic price (£500 or less...)

LA studio comp is my favourite, seems to add punch and is quite good at keeping the sound well defined.

Interested!

Great collection @glefty! I've got sale proceeds burning a hole in my pocket, just need to know if my band will still be going or not by the time I'm ready to spend!

Agreed, to the extent that I have no insight into what they're made of or how, which is why "better" is in "quotation marks". It's a tough act to be really truly environmentally and ethically improving, often one improvement is made at the expense of other things. When I worked for a retailer we were phasing out single use coffee cups, then someone claimed that washing a China cup used seven times more energy, or seven times more carbon, or something, than making a disposable cup...

I've got that strap. It's so good I got two more. Mansons have been great at getting me whichever I fancied off the RightOn website, whether they stock it or not. As for the vegan aspect.... I'm not vegan, I wear leather shoes etc. But it's just a very good strap. And if it's in some way, environmentally or ethically "better" than I'm OK with that.

True. My first band had a guitarist/ singer who was an unbelievable guitarist but shoddy singer. Ego told him he could do anything. We got by on the fact we had an incredible guitarist.

I have been round the houses with a number of options but for gigs you always need confidence in your sound whether you have room for a pedal board or not. The quandary is that a pre amp pedal that sounds great with one of your basses might sound awful with another, E. G. An EHX Batallion sounded great with my passive P bass but awful with my active jazz. If you have a Helix already and it's creating unwanted noise then you really need to get under the hood of what it is doing so you can tweak it to get rid of what you don't like and build up some good basic tones for your go to basses. The PC based editor is really easy to use and there are good presets available for free on the Line 6 forum and elsewhere so you could try some of those and experiment with pulling out bits you don't like or don't want. You can easily build up settings from scratch too: I had one called "Nowt" because it had nowt in it for when I just want to bypass, I've got others where there is a compressor and pre amp I can switch on and off by footswitches, nothing else going on, nothing fancy. Since you have it I'd recommend persevering with the Helix and starting off with basics.

Just recently pulled the plug on a band I started with random off tinternet 9 months ago. It was so, so hard to get agreement on things, or if it was agreed get things done. If you already have a drummer and you're both on the same hymn sheet then you're adding the final piece of the jigsaw, not starting out so that should help a lot with setting your stall out early and not having too many competing opinions. However, being blues based I fear you're at the mercy of the widdly six string soloist and would have to fit to their repertoire of "awesome solos" they already know and this could pull you away from your original starting point. The lesson I learned when starting an 80s band... Just say No! When someone says "but this song goes down well..." referring to something from 2007 don't sheepishly say "errr yeh" with no intent of doing it, say "it doesn't fit what we said we would do, nice idea but No". And beware there are lots and LOTS of "all the gear, no idea" people out there. So audition and don't commit until a few sessions in. Wait til they get comfortable and then make your decision when at session three they're bringing weird kit and it's all "but if I can pre programme this sequencer and set off pyrotechnics here, and there's a spotlight on me while I juggle flaming guitars, and you guys can errrrrrr, go for a pint?"

While everyone else lusts over the jazz may I just say that the fretless P is a slice of 70s inspired magic.

Yeah but at £200 or £250 for the pickup its a big outlay to stick in a Bitsa. I do like the look of them, bass centre put an ad on the back of bass magazine recently, P style bass with 2x Sims in it. Looked an absolute beast, but won't be cheap.

Stingray sounds best to me but I am biased because I have a Stingray for that "stingy" gritty but in the high notes that is unmistakably Stingray. None are bad basses, all fit the style to me, but the Ray has its own very distinct personality. I did like the Celinder too though.

Small gigs you could do with one cab. When you need everything a laptop bag will carry the head and a cab in each hand is easy. Have done it many, many times!

Have considered buying 2x12s at that price!

Looking like this isn't going to work... Back to the drawing board!

Thanks. I think they do one with wider string spacing (a 145 they call it) which is the same pup but broader...

I'm looking for opinion on this DiMarzio pickup. I've got a PJ bitsa with a bit of an untidy P rout, which is a shame because I've got a DiMarzio model P in there that sounds AMAZING. However, I think getting a big square pup might help cover the rout error and now that I adore DiMarzio pups thought this could be a good option.... I'd love to hear any first hand experience. It would be in the P position with a DiMarzio model J in the bridge position... Though tbh I hardly use that because the Model P is so, so good!

I've just knocked my 80s band on the head today, sadly. Rehearsals were not productive enough, not everyone was learning their parts or was maybe being half hearted. The guitarist sat us all down and said to make real progress we need a month of weekly rehearsals. I said great, but can't be August cos I'm away or busy every week! But the more I thought about it I thought about the fact that we had 14 songs on the go but very few could we just pitch up and play competently all the way through. Putting in more time and effort would have led to more frustration. I had quite a few nights after rehearsals where I couldn't sleep for a few hrs just thinking about things. I don't have that with the band I joined that was already established and I just slot in, learn my parts and when someone isn't so sure on a bit we are well rehearsed enough to pull that person through. Take a step back and see is it one person slowing things down, are people saying they want to do X but their commitment won't get them there? Might be a harsh decision to be made. Or be honest, tell them it's all good fun but it's going slow so you're prioritising another band that moves faster.

Agreed. I tried really hard to set my stall out early. My view is that you need to be able to describe what your covers band is. It can't be "we play stuff people like" or "a bit of everything, really" that means nothing. To be able to say "we play 80s pop songs with a female vocalist" immediately gives me a good idea of what the band is all about. That's my view, you have to be able to 'market' the band and be clear about what you are. Otherwise you're just yet another 3 middle aged blokes and a girl singer doing "Maria" because it's the easiest blondie song, Katy Perry because you think she's "new" when actually her more recognisable songs are 10 years behind us, and various other guff. Sadly other people like to say "I used to do this one, it's easy..." and don't quite get the point or move away from the point for their convenience or preference. There was no power struggle or anything I just found it hard. I look also at how I've been in my existing band, I've put such little effort in to songs I don't want to do, it's not really fair.

I think this is something I would be doing for "special birthdays" if it was a big band I really wanted to see. I'll still watch the likes of Black Stone Cherry in an ordinary venue, but for the big outdoor stuff unless it's the MK Bowl, which I saw Foo Fighters at and had a great time, I'd consider VIP. There's venues I am completely put off, like Knebworth, that it would have to be VIP or nothing.

So in the 9 month gap, which included some long lock down periods a lot happened and a lot didn't happen. We brought in the singer who the guitarist knew. She was pretty good, loves her 80s music... Then the cracks appear across the band.. That sounds too dramatic really but you get the idea. We have strayed away from the original concept and I'm getting uncomfortable. We are now discussing "modern" covers to add in, and disco... Its all gone a bit wrong. We persevere, conveniently ignore Katy Perry, add some new songs in, get back to the 80s roots. I think the singer is trying to help me steer the ship back on course. We rehearse, we try to learn songs. The guitarist plays synths too. He wants to bring his synth kit in and pre programme everything which pretty much sidelines me and the drummer. The drummer has a way of calmly saying "no" that puts an end to things, I really respect that. Synths arrive but no pre programmed sequencing stuff. We play a song where the guitarist engages an arpeggio with his feet, sounds fantastic. We play a song with him playing keys but he misses a key melodic motif of the song... He plays keys the way I play guitar which is I can do the basic chords but you're not getting lead and widdly bits. This sucks some energy out of big synth songs. I record some of the rehearsals and ask trusted friends "what do you think?" got some good feedback but one comment stuck with me: "does your guitarist ever learn any of the songs?". More rehearsals, frustration at my door for some breaks to the regular bi weekly meet up due to summer, family stuff, etc. Meet up again. We had three easy songs to learn, guitarist has not learned them and has not fully learned most of the other songs we were practicing. It's all a bit flat. Guitarist sits us all down and says for the band to go anywhere we need to rehearse more regularly. I agree. Then I start to think about everything, put it all together in my head. We've been going 9 months and we can fluently play 2 or 3 songs from a list of 12. The others we still need to sort arrangements for or critical parts. I suspect he only learns the songs he wants to do or has done before, but even then they aren't perfect. I haven't been perfect by any means but I've learned my parts adequately to play along with a band, as per my limited dep experience . I just don't think we have gelled enough to get each other through new songs like the band I've been in for 5 years does. I've reflected on it all and sent the note. I need to quit. I don't have the time and energy, and if I did I think it could be wasted. I don't want to blame one other person. We all were a bit ropey on different parts. I like all of these people, which makes it a bit harder. But the excitement wore off and the hard work became too hard with the end result becoming less and less realistic. Lesson learned on starting a band with random people off the Internet.

Well, it's come time to knock this one on the head. Excitement inevitably gave way to frustration. It's a shame because I really wanted this to work... More details to follow...

I was once in a nightclub in Chicago. My mates and I saw a beaded curtain with a small booth behind it, a small table and seating for four people. We said to the bouncer "what's that all about?" "VIP area." "can we go in?" "yeah, sure..." and he pulled the curtains back for us. We sat in there for five minutes then came out again.