geoham

I've recently moved home, and want to attach some guitar hangers to a wooden beam that previously supported a fitted wardrobe. Much easier than trying to get it down, and easier than trying to attach to the dot & dab plasterboard walls underneath!

I'm struggling to find the dimensions of the back plate on the Hercules ones (like this: https://herculesstands.com/international/products/fretted-and-bowed-instrument/guitar/wall-hangers/gsp38wb-plus).

Can anyone help? I'm hoping they are less than 95mm tall!

Thanks,

George

I've had many courier related issues over the years.  A 'lost' designer handbag, last seen when scanned in to the local depot and never scanned out. A case of craft-beer that was out for delivery, then 'delayed' on a Friday afternoon, never to be seen again. I could go on!

In my experience, complaints from those receiving deliveries from them are rarely given the time of day - because their customer is the company sending the parcel. Assuming DPD have messed up a delivery somehow - I'd suggest you'd have a better time contacting the company who sent it. Obviously it's very different situation if it's another private individual. 

I wonder why your friend even went along to the audition. My anxiety would be through the roof in a situation like this! I can think on my feet and have done so in the past - but trying to wing it on bass rarely works out well.

The auditioning process can be pretty poorly managed from both sides. I remember auditioning with a band years ago, and I was given a setlist of about 60 songs. Upon asking what I should audition with, the response was 'just the setlist.. I had an hour with the band! I knew a load of them already thankfully and got through the audition.

3 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

To hell with auditions, every gig I do can't remember the songs until we start playing them.

 

 

I thought this was just me! If my guitarist or keyboard player asks me to remind them of the chords for a song - I'll generally have no idea and need to play a few bars.

10 hours ago, lozkerr said:

Interesting to see the amount of dislike of Oasis on this thread. I'm quite happy to play any Oasis song, with one exception:

 

Wonderwall.

 

God, how I detest that racket. It should have been called Caterwaul. It's the one Oasis song I would instantly veto when picking songs. There are plenty of better songs - Cigarettes and Alcohol, Little By Little, Don't Look Back In Anger, Songbird, Roll With It, Champagne Supernova, even Stop Crying Your Heart Out, but Caterwaul? Faggeddit.

 

I was thinking much the same about Oasis myself. I listened to them loads as a kid, though I never do now. I cut my teeth learning to play their stuff on guitar and bass when I was a teenager.

Rock 'n' Roll Star is a mainstay of our set, and always goes down well with punters. Our gigs are generally busy pubs, frequented by those looking to have a good night out rather than those with refined music taste!

Sold Brian an amp head. Payment within minutes of agreeing the deal, very easy to deal with. Top marks!

On 20/02/2023 at 14:09, sirpinno said:

he said he changed the jack and everything including the push pull active/passive pot but nothing worked. Unfortunately I got it off reverb and it took some weeks before my tech back back from his holiday to work on it so I doubt the seller would want to do anything about it.

If it was me, I'd try to have a check over the installation myself - in particular that the module is receiving power. Installation diagrams should be easy to find online, and not too difficult to follow. Checking the power would require a multi-meter. You can get a basic one from Amazon for a tenner if you don't have one - it's a really useful tool. Alternatively, you could have another tech or someone knowledgeable help you. It's not my intention to cast undue doubt on your tech's abilities... I just know from experience that an extra set of eyes can be useful.

Good luck!

George

You'll probably find that when it's in passive mode, that the pre-amp module is entirely bypassed - hence why it works.

Assuming things are installed correctly, it appears that everything else has been changed, so a faulty preamp module seems all that remains.

1 hour ago, funkgod said:

im not saying do this, but with the info you have submitted and the shop can check on line the the clame is gen, if it was my bass i would walk into the shop, show id leave my name and address with proof and take the bass and walk out, if they try and stop you tell them to ring the police but your not leaving with out the bass, at worst the police would have to take the bass or at least an incedent report will have to be made then at least they wont be able to sell the bass, but i would walk out the shop with it and ask them to call the police if wanted at least its in your possesion then, thats only what i would do, i would not be able to stop myself doing just that being so anoyed !, im not sure of the repercussions of that but i would just not care.

When my bass turned up, they were clear they would only hand it over to the police, and not me personally. This was over the phone though. Their point was, that even with a crime reference number, they only had my word for it.

However, I guess there'd be very little they could do if you did walk out with something that was stolen from you. It's 100% legally yours - you can't steal your own property!

I also had a stolen bass turn up in Cash Generator - despite the branch having a description and the serial number number before purchasing it. 

The cop handling the case said they'd need to be able to prove the people who completed the purchase and put it up for sale were the ones who had spoken to me in-store and took the details in the Facebook messenger follow-up. It was a non-starter!

I'd suggested that even without this, it was really easy to check if it was stolen - pop the serial number in to Google and you'd see it all over social media. It's not part of their policy to do this, so they don't.

It's got me thinking that there should be some kind of central hot-goods list that companies buying and selling used gear would have to check before buying something? 

George

So many of them in both directions for me! 

When I was younger, I basically wrote off the entire genre of metal. It was what the weird kids who hung about outside the Gallery of Modern Art (Glasgow) listened to. Indecipherable growly vocals, no melody, unpleasant to listen too. At the age of 40, I opened my mind a bit - and discovered Nightwish, who I'd previously written off as a bit of gimmick - an opera singer with metal band, doing Gary Moore, Pink Floyd and Lloyd Webber covers. I think their current vocalist, Floor Jansen, is incredible - and I love their slightly progressive take on things. They've led me towards similar acts - Epica and Gloryhammer for example. I still can't handle bands that exclusively use growly vocals though.

I used to think Muse were a poor-man's Radiohead. Until seeing them live at the Radio One Big Weekend in Dundee and realising that Chris Wolstenholme is in fact a demon, and their songs were great. One of my favourite bands these days. On a related note, I find Radiohead incredibly difficult to listen to now.

Like many my age, I used to love Oasis. I can't listen to them now, though I do enjoy playing their stuff with the pub band - punters do love them. Lots of their contemporaries are in the same boat here - Manics, Stereophonics etc. I don't actively dislike them - I just never listen to that kind of thing now. I also used to listen to a bit of dance music, especially when pre-loading before going to a club. Never happens now!

Overall, you could summarise it by saying that I now put more value on good musicianship and a good song - whereas as a kid there was an element of listening to what was fashionable.

I could write pages more, but that'll do for now!

George

1 hour ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

I absolutely LOVED Rachael and Vilray, thought they were fantastic. 

Didn't mind the rest of it - it's mainstream MOR stuff for all the family, It's always going to be pretty mild and inoffensive.

And as mild and inoffensive stuff goes... I thought it was OK  

I'm much the same myself!

Thought Rachael and Vilray were awesome. I discovered Lake Street Dive through Later, and always thought Rachael was excellent - this was my first time seeing her with Vilray though.

I do quite like Andy Fairweather-Low - I saw him live at The Ferry in Glasgow a few years back and found his show really entertaining. Kind of stemmed from my long running Pink Floyd obsession.

On 23/12/2022 at 20:42, dudewheresmybass said:

I had the same issue with this system before I got my xvive u4 rig

Possibly just an underpowered system then? A tight pub stage with drummer right behind the singer a bit much for it.

Hey guys,

You're a knowledgeable bunch, so I wonder if any of you can offer any advice?
My singer recently swapped his reliable Behringer wired IEM belt pack for an LD Systems MEI One wireless set up, that he picked up used for a good price. It's an entry level, fixed frequency system - but seems to get pretty decent reviews.

Despite maxing everything in the signal path, the volume is too low for him to use them realistically. He got through the first fairly small gig with them, but by the third song of the 2nd gig - after being asked for 'more me!' when his channel, aux master, transmitter volume and receiver volume maxed - I put him back on his old wired setup. And nearly blew his head off the volume was so loud. Same KZ IEMs on both setups.

It's possibly also noteworthy that the RF signal LED on the receiver is quite dim. It's not visible under bright kitchen lights, but you can see it well enough under pub lighting. Fresh alkaline batteries installed.

Not sure if there's much we that can be done with it. Had a peek inside the receiver, as you'd expect it's full of minute surface mount components - but there's no obvious blown components, debris, shorts etc. There is a little variable resister type component, that appears to be connected to an IC chip. But overall, the circuit is far too complex for me to follow.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

George

12 minutes ago, Jolltax said:

 

Wow, I'll look them up.  The shape doesn't really worry me too much, I actually like traditional looking basses although I prefer active electronics and humbuckers.  I actually just bought the components to knock together a copy of a 2 band stingray preamp, bit of soldering practice. 

 

J

If you don't know of Jon, he's possibly the country's top independent bass builder. He's based in Derbyshire, and while I did a 5 day, Monday to Friday course - he can do other things too. He'd be worth chatting to at least.

Whatever you end up doing - good luck!

George

I did a five day course with Jon Shuker last year. I can thoroughly recommend it.
The group size was small - limited to three people, with Jon leading things and assisted by Tim Lever (a very interesting character - great to chat to!)

It was an all-inclusive price of £1,000 each - I believe Crimson charge separately for the course and materials.
 

A possible down-side is that you are restricted to building a Precision or Jazz style bass - although you can basically do whatever you want as long as you stick to the basic design. There's also no time for any solid paint finishes - I had a clear lacquer. Sunbursts and similar were also possible.

I made a standard P bass. All good quality components - Gotoh bridge, Schaller tuners, Seymour Duncan pickup. And lots of attention to detail on things like fretwork left me feeling that I'd struggle to buy such a good quality bass for £1k.

Here's the finished item!

20 hours ago, MungoBass said:

 

I have no idea how pawn shops do their research but hopefully like many of us they would turn to google. If so, a quick search for Moon 6 string bass brings up this thread on the first page of the google results.

 

Let’s hope the toad walks into a decent shop and they nab him!

If I may share my experience - which is limited to a single stolen bass. No research was done whatsoever. 

In this instance, I visited the local Cash Generator as soon as I'd noticed the bass was missing - which was shortly before shops closed due to Covid. I gave them details of the bass then - assured me they'd keep an eye open. I followed up with a message via Facebook messenger, with the serial number and photos - which was acknowledged and they again assured me they'd be on the lookout.

I've also spread the message far and wide - here, Facebook, guitar shops etc.

Fast forward to when the shops re-open... I receive a message from a good Samaritan, saying that his interest was peaked by a Gumtree ad for a Fender Jazz at a bargain basement price (£180!). He suspected it may be hot, so googled the serial number from the pics and found me. It turns out the ad was placed by a different branch of Cash Generator - and they'd just sold it! I did manage to get it back thankfully.

It turns out my local branch bought the bass - and very quickly transferred it to the other branch. The reason given to the police, wasn't that they knew it was hot - just that they thought it would sell better in the other branch.
 

My wife's spoke to the selling branch (before discovering it wasn't them who bought it) - she suggested that they'd have found out very quickly if it was stolen by just googling the serial number. That's not part of their process apparently.

Apologies for the slight thread hijacking - I do truly hope you get this back, and hope the uniqueness of the bass works in your favour.

George

As a side note... legend has it that the great Leo Fender (creator of the solid bodied bass) was an electronics engineer who couldn't play guitar or bass himself.

Well done - sounds like you've done a good job.

Many of us do our setups. I learned the basics when I was younger, as I simply couldn't afford to pay someone to do it for me.

However, lots of musicians are a little scared to tinker with their instruments - they've paid a lot of money and don't want to ruin them. They'd rather leave it to the professionals. I'm like that with my car, but I'll happily tinker with any of my instruments, bikes or computers.

Last year I went on a week long course with Jon Shuker (well respected bass-builder!) and built my own bass from scratch. That really opened my eyes to how simple solid bodied electric instruments really are, but also highlighted how important it is to use the right tool for the job!

George

I played a support slot with the Pat McManus band a few years back. Pat himself played Vintage (the brand) guitars, and his bassist Marty had a Squier P (Pino-ish appearance). The guys insisted the gear was good quality and was far more sensible to tour with than expensive equipment. It certainly all sounded good to me.

I guess that when it comes to it, a P bass is a rather simple design (as are all the classics) and easy to mass produce. Spend a little time on setting it up properly and maybe shielding it then most will do the job well. All the things that can make a premium bass expensive - rolled fretboard edges, high-mass bridges, graphite reinforced necks, tonewoods, quarter-sawn necks etc - are all of course nice to have, but unnecessary for many.

I've been doing my own setups for years - just basic things like action and relief. I'd never cut a nut until a year ago, when I did a course with Jon Shuker to build a bass from scratch.
The nut wasn't difficult job at all - though I was using Jon's files, which I can only assume are good quality. I also used a belt-sander to help pre-shape the blank a little.

Like mentioned by @lownote above - I think having the correct tools is vital - and if you're not using them often, they may not be worth the investment.

Working under Jon's supervision was also rather comforting!

George

15 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

My impression is that pubs are also very confused about how it works. Also, I think the requesting/invoicing process itself changed between the first time I used the system last year and the second time I had to use it this year. We have at least one more gig paid via Concur, so I'll keep this thread up to date if relevant.

The process seemed the same to me - for a gig just before Christmas then one a few weeks ago. From what I can fathom out, this is the process:-

Submit request

Pub manager approves

Area manager approves

Submit claim, attach invoice

Audit team approves (This step took MUCH longer this time)
Pub manager approves

Sent for payment

For about enough to cover beer and petrol!

18 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

Ugh SAP/Concur - as a now retired employee of a large company that was how we claimed our expenses. It was horrendous. One of the clunkiest and user hostile systems I've encountered. We decided it was a conspiracy to deter us from submitting expense claims...

I've been using it for various jobs for about 15 years. Never gets better... 
Definitely not a good system for bands to invoice pubs!

We've just about resolved as a band to cease playing gigs for the last remaining Greene King pub on our circuit. We're all hobbyists, so we've accepted being incredibly poorly paid for years - but the hassle of getting paid at all is now just not worth it. 

Our recent claim took 11 days for their audit folk to review, who rejected it due to a very minor error on the item description on the invoice. Resubmitted 5 days ago and no further forward... presumably to the back of the queue. 

Done