Huge Hands

I know that crez5150 had a fretted and a fretless because I've pestered him before with similar questions (not your question though). I think the Rondo website does list string spacing on each guitar, but I think it may be a copy paste thing gone wrong as similar models often appear to have different dimensions. I was tempted to buy myself but then found a cheap second hand Squier P5. Let the modding begin!!

If you read the (real) adverts in Viz, someone already beat you to CNUT t-shirts.

I'm enjoying my "King Curtis Live at Filmore West" and "Aretha Franklin Live at Filmore West" albums. It's basically the support and main act at the same gig, using the same band. They had been on my to buy list for ages, and it was the BGM 5 funky albums list in the Peter Hook cover edition that reminded me to get them. Jerry Jemmott plays some very nice stuff!

[quote name='Miacomet' post='246072' date='Jul 23 2008, 01:45 PM']We are about 20 miles (km? Sorry!)......[/quote] Don't worry, European beaurocracy hasn't completely taken over yet, we still deal in miles too. Welcome to the forum. Be careful, there'll be loads of UK Basschatters offering you places to stay as long as you bring some of those nicely priced basses with you!

[quote name='clauster' post='243675' date='Jul 20 2008, 10:33 AM']....once I relised I wasn't going to be struck by lightning for not sounding great I got more confident, sang harder and sounded better. I reckon at least 50% of it is doing it with confidence.[/quote] Clauster speaks the truth. I've been doing it since January in our band and now feel a bit better about it. Unfortunately I have to do a lot of "up a 5th" harmonies so end up singing really high. It can get embarrassing and doesn't appear to impress the girls like a Barry White kind of voice would. Mrs HH laughs at me anyway!

ARGH, Don't get me wrong, I do sympathise, I was trying to see if you had considered attitude etc. Our band once auditioned keyboard players. We got this one guy in who was amazing. Sounded like he was a regular at Nu-Soul and gospel style stuff. I wanted to turn him down because he was THAT good and he was quite frankly showing how s**t the rest of us were in comparison. He didn't take the gig because we weren't making any money and he was a pro, but if it had been up to me he wouldn't have been offered it in the first place. You may think that's a weird attitude, and I'll admit, it is. I actually like to be the worst muso in a band because it gives me the challenge to better myself and keep the gig. However, this guy was SOO good he was making me uncomfortable that we were all looking like major amateurs so I chickened it. Of course, it didn't phase the guitarist who has eternal belief in all of us, and he did offer him it. I just wonder if this is some of what you're experiencing? When they offer you a drink, are you refusing to drink alcohol or refusing to go down the pub with them? As others have said, bands usually have to be built on friendships as well - if you won't even join them afterwards it can seem a snub? I will apologise again, I'm not trying to assume anything about you, just trying to think of scenarios that may be causing the problem? I used to use Gumtree and Partysounds. I noticed that most people didn't seem to notice the "Bass Players Available" ads, I always seemed to have to wait for bands to advertise themselves and reply to them. I agree with the guitarists thing. I remember once meeting a guy at his house who wanted to do gigs playing his own stuff he'd recorded on Cubase. He would play me his tracks with his own recorded lines he'd done on his guitar. I'd then start doing my own thing and he'd be going "No, like this!" and start showing me his lines note for note. Suffice to say it was like a poor man's Simply Red so I made my excuses and left.

What was going on with the rest of the band? Was the drummer mic'd up? I've had it before with a mic'd kit, the PA is throwing out loads of bass and kick drum. On certain frequencies, the bass drum would act as a resonator and via my amp, the acoustics of the stage room and the PA, the whole stage area would resonate. The reason in my case was that between soundcheck and gig, I had accidentally knocked the input gain on my amp (the knob is easy to catch and turn). That had turned up both my amp and the feed to the PA (he was using the DI out on my amp). Turning my amp down would have cured it, unfortunately I didn't realise until we had finished a rather unhappy gig. Shame the sound guy didn't spot it either.

Never mind an A string, I broke a low B on my P5 last night. It was from a set of Labella flats I put on it only 2/3 weeks ago. It's only done a couple of gigs and a rehearsal. From putting it on, I was a bit peeved about the lack of sustain - you would get the initial attack, and then it would stop ringing quickly, almost as if it was being gated or heavily limited. The string didm't snap or anything - in fact it looks intact. I think the inner core is broken. I reckon it may have been a badly manufactured string. I have seen people comment about Labella flats with that before. With this in mind, I've sent a mail to Stringbusters (who I bought them from) to see if I have any chance of getting a replacement. It's worth a try, but I won't hold my breath.....

ARGH, I expect I'm going to get flamed for this, but I am geniunely interested in the answer to this question: Do you think it could be your attitude? I'm just wondering that if you've had so many problems with bands in the last few months, you may have become so upset about it all that you are struggling to see the wood from the trees and when you show up to auditions this rubs off and comes across as being difficult to other band members? It is just kind of reminding me of that other Off Topic thread about people applying for jobs that they are too qualified for. Do you think that perhaps you are giving off an air of arrogance to these bands that you are too good to be playing their original stuff? I know you've disagreed about this but turning up with a 9, 7 or whatever string can give them the impression you are a widdler and will overplay on their stuff. I've had grief about having a 5 string before. I've said this many times, but I once got kicked out of a blues band and one of the reasons was because I refused to do what they wanted and use my 4 string JV Jazz instead of my 5 string which they reckoned was too modern looking for their image. This was not a signed band by any means and they played a mix of covers and originals (if you can call a 12 bar blues with different lyrics an original (oops - another flame heading my way!!!)). I love blues music by the way. Perhaps they assume you are going to want to quit after 3 months and join a band with better musos? I don't know you, so please understand I'm not accusing you of anything. However, from your posts, you do seem a bit depressed and almost paranoid about what your other band members are saying about you. Perhaps they think you are always moaning, and a bit of a volatile angry man. I am speaking from experience here, I have been accused of this myself. In my experience, the band can only be as big as the bloke or blokes (or women!) who started it want it to be. If you turn up and start trampling over their ideas, they think they are starting to lose control and the problems start. Oh, and another point to mention, I am under no illusions that as a 6'3 fat ginger bloke with glasses, I have missed out on the opportunity of joining several bands, even though they thought I was a good bass player. No matter how wide the stereotypical trilby hat and long jacket, it's not easy to look cool. I guess I'm just lucky I have found a few mates in various bands over the years who have become a core group that we can form, with the addition or replacement of the odd member, into something different. We play covers and the odd original, and I love playing both! It's also good that they know me so well they will put up with my occasional rants and outbursts. I am not excusing that behaviour by the way!

The 2 pole sockets are keyed to stop you inserting a 4-pole plug. However, 2 pole plugs should fit into a 4-pole socket. If the OP is only buying cables with the plugs on, he should be ok with 2-pole.

Are we allowed War of The Worlds by Jeff Wayne? Not originally a soundtrack to a [b][/b][i][/i]film[i][/i][b][/b] but a soundtrack all the same.

[quote name='phil_the_bassist' post='239541' date='Jul 14 2008, 09:33 PM']Erm, well...I suppose I could...Howzabout a swap? I'll getcha a brand spanking new SR5 HH, in ANY COLOUR YOU WANT if you deposit approximately £30,000 in a high-interest, tax free, off-shore bank account in my name, and send me all the associated documentation? Whatcha recon? ...shake on it? [/quote] Done. Send me the bass (crimson?) and I'll let you know the bank details......honest! Huge Hands is my pseudonym. My real name is Mr Lord Lucan.

Reading your topic title, I hoped you meant you were asking whether to give it to me or not. You can if you want, I don't mind!

I just tried to look at the link and it looks like it's been pulled.

The biggest problem will be for your drummer. Unlike someone said, you don't want click coming through the stage moinitors, as it will be heard FOH. The drummer will need to wear headphones of some sort, but then the problem for him may be volume. A lot of bands I used to work with used to use all manner of playback. For example, a stereo device such as a DAT ot Minidisc player would do, with L going to the drummer, and R going to the mixing desk, but this would mean that you would be unable to mix the various tracked instruments, so the recorded mix would have to be good. Some bands would just use the headphone socket on the playback device, but often the click volume wouldn't be loud enough for the drummer on loud stages, especially if there was no pan function for the headphones and he was also getting backing track as well.. Remember, impedance of headphones in this respect can be just as critical as bass cabs! You will probably need to give your drummer plenty of practice with the click tracks if he's never used click before. This is my experience (as a former drummer): The first time I tried it, I thought I wouuld want the click thumping into my eardrums to make sure I was hearing it. I kept asking for more volume and couldn't understand why my timing was getting worse. It wasn't until a few years later, working as a sound man with various cabaret acts that use click all the time - that I had a sneaky shot on the drummer's gear and found that the secret was (for him and me anyway) to have the click at lower level so that you subliminally get used to it and don't really notice it - you only would start to hear it if you were going off time.

We played at a wedding last night. We decided to keep "St James' Infirmiary" off the setlist...

Who played on the Bee Gees disco stuff? Was it actually Maurice? I always assumed he didn't do the recordings, and just stood with a bass on stage to cover shyness or something. I know I probably would!

Sorry NJ, I have to disagree. I love the Precision shape, but for me my regular gigging bass HAS to be five strings. With this in mind, and the fact that I don't have the spare cash to fork out on a new Fender or Lakland similie, I have just bought a second hand Squier Precision V. It has Jazz pickups, but for me it's the neck feel (I like cricket bats!) and look of the guitar that gets me. I am just waiting for the postman to deliver my custom build 5 string Wizard 84's for it. One day I might take a chisel to it and fit a proper split coil precision style pick up, but I'm not brave enough just yet! I completely see what you're saying, but it appears there will alway be a niche market for Fender to exploit with traditionalists like me. It's not just us bass players though, I once played in a blues band who kept pressuring me to change my Cort (Ibanez lookalike) because it was "too modern looking".

I used to use the Csx800 amps that Ironside 1966 attached a few years ago, but with a separate crossover. I have never used the internal one. It looks to me by looking at the connectors on the photo, that to use that properly, you would need to go from your mixer into the jack inputs on the crossover section, and then put a jack to jack patch lead from the relevant crossover output (high or low) to the amplifier channel input. You would then output from the amplified output section (binding posts or jack). I think the output from the Hi and Low jacks are at line level, not amplified. I would prefer to see the diagram on the top of the amp before I said that was definite. IIRC, the Bose 802 crossover is a passive unit that confusingly is all jack inputs and outputs. The amount of "engineers" I have seen plug that up AFTER the signal has been amplified is untrue. And that's from people who claim to know what they're doing!

I've got it on again now. I think it must have been recorded to promote that album because most of the stuff is off there and the crowd don't really seem to clap in anticipation when Ben Folds introduces them, although they do when the first album tunes are called. I agree, they wrote some very good stuff. All three appear to be doing some really good 3-part harmony vocals as well.

Yesterday, in HMV, I found a DVD of Ben Folds Five "Live Sessions at West 54th". I think it was recorded mid-late nineties (sorry can't be @rsed to look at the box!). Anyway, I've had it on full blast all night while Mrs HH has been out. I had forgotten how much of an influence Robert Sledge was on me when I was first playing, not that I play anything like him. I'm now even thinking of getting a distortion pedal to blend with clean signal to fatten out our band sound! Classic. For you gearheads, looks like he's playing an Epiphone Les Paul and an upright (on one song). I can see a Marshall head and a Marshall and an Orange cab. Quality! A one for the "Underrated Bass Players" thread if ever I saw one. Just thought I'd share that with you. Cheers!

Just purchased some "bling" gold straplocks from John. Not exactly a Warwick Thumb I know, but I'm excited anyway. Quality service, and a canny blurke to boot. Arrived very quickly. Just waiting to take him up on the offer of a cuppa (and stottie sandwich) one day!

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='233249' date='Jul 5 2008, 05:40 PM']I have a large holdall for carrying cables and the like to gigs. It got wee'd on by one of our cats.[/quote] One of our cats is kind of bulimic - he wolfs his food down which upsets his stomach and then he throws it all back up. While you're on your hands and knees trying to clean it up, he's usually whingeing for the next course. We have to feed him half a packet at a time to stop him overeating - but it means he's always asking for food! He once climbed up on top of my Ashdown rig (I have no covers) and barfed on the top edge so it then slid over the side. It took ages to get the furry coating on the amp clean. Good job he's got one of those "I'm innocent" type faces. You can't dislike him for long......