JapanAxe

Shotgun by George Ezra - it’s just Baby Shark. Dakota by the Sterophonics - ruined by seeing crowds of drunk punters singing it to each other.

This. Not too much milk. I’m usually singing (at least BVs) and a warm drink helps to relax my throat and vocal cords. I almost never drink alcohol on a gig as it kills my concentration, plus I’m usually driving. Drugs? I shared a very weak spliff with a load of my Mum’s friends in 1978, that’s the full extent of my dabbling.

Picked one up used on here and spent some time setting it up to my liking - NBD thread to follow after this Saturday's wedding gig!

Yes. 2x Fender Precisions (original 1973 & RI 1962). 1x Dingwall Super PZ5 (their take on a 5-string Precision).

It’s sometimes referred to as the ‘flow state’, but it’s not drink that’s flowing - in fact intoxication is highly detrimental to my playing.

The best gigs are the ones I barely remember because I’ve been ‘in the moment’.

99% of the time I drive to gigs and rehearsals. Occasionally I travel to a gig in a band van. Even with provided backline, or going direct, I need more stuff than I can comfortably carry in one go. On a handful of occasions I have managed to get to a rehearsal on foot or on my push bike.

No, I wouldn't have described any of the guests as rednecks, just a lot of love in the room ❤️

We started with what they requested, which was Brown Eyed Girl.

Last night was a wedding celebration for about 150 in a massive marquee with a proper stage, out in the wilds of Wiltshire. We were well looked after with a place to change and a meal in the bride’s family’s house, and whatever we wanted to drink. I played my ‘73 Precision (recently fitted with rounds for the first time since I’ve owned it) through my Demeter head and BF Super Twin, and it sounded fantastic as you might expect. I finally got to set up my own IEM mix properly and that’s a game changer. The crowd loved us, in fact the bride and groom barely got in a couple of steps of their first dance before just about everyone piled onto the dance floor. I’m just about recovered now!

Woah! I can’t unsee that now.

Or an ironing board.

I started to teach myself guitar at 17, and quickly realised I wanted to understand the theory too. At around 40 I decided to learn bass too. I was well aware that it was a different instrument which required a different musical approach. Initially I played with a plectrum but after a couple of years I cracked finger style, just by dogged persistence really. For a long while I had used music notation to write down material that I was working out, so I did the same with bass. I was then thrown in the deep end when I started playing with a dance band that used 99% written charts. I’m now a reasonable sight reader! I would say that I’m still learning, particularly when it comes to theory - every so often I stumble across something I didn’t know that I didn’t know - hats off to Adam Neely!

I’ve heard one played with a big band, which can have a huge dynamic range, and it more than kept up.

I think a lot of it is down to the guitarist. Around 20 years ago I played in a couple of covers bands where the guitarist used Line 6 Flextone amps. One guitarist always seemed to make the thing work for him and he sounded great; the other invariably had a thin sound, frequently with an overcooked (and usually completely unnecessary) chorus effect.

I guess we're talking scooping out the mid-range to benefit slappity-poppity shenanigans?

All of the different amp modelling units have their adherents. I was looking at the HX stomp but I dread the option overload that comes with programmable do-everything gadgets.

I have been depping on bass (sometimes) and rhythm guitar (other times) in a tribute band where all the regular guys use Kempers. Both guitarist sound absolutely stellar, having done the hard yards in setting up their sounds beforehand.

Was trying to contact a member, contact now made

I used to have this setup in my car. It could sound a bit weird...

I had one of these and you definitely need to turn up all the stages to get the full beans out of it. I re-biased mine and ended up fitting a multi-turn trimmer to achieve this reliably - see this thread (sorry, pics are long gone). Be aware that if you blithely twiddle the bias trim pot you risk sending the output transistors into thermal runaway, which will burn them up before you even realise something is wrong.

The one I chose to start with had flats and just wasn't cutting it, so I switched to the other (with rounds).

And mine! And Christmas of course. Sorry - used the C word…