JapanAxe

Bohemian Rhapsody Not learning it by heart, just getting my head and fingers round the tricky bits so that I can read the dots confidently when I play it (as a dep) at next Friday’s party gig. The click track through IEMs will help!

I used to have a bad habit of eating unnecessary food when I got home and staying up late playing computer games. Nowadays I’d rather have a quick cup of tea and head to bed. The thought of eating dubious scran in a motorway services does not appeal, although if it’s a really long drive (say 3 hours) I plan a toilet and coffee stop along the way.

Sort of. Two Precisions and a Super PZ5 (effectively another Precision). I generally take two basses to a gig. I play whichever one suits the gig, the other is emergency only but I will still feel at home if I need to switch to it. But no two of the three are really identical, just similar.

You’re right! They all come in at the right speed, which is frequently different from that of the count. Now that’s hard!

I’ve known a drummer to count in a waltz with ‘1 2 3 4…’ Also never let Joey Ramone count in a song.

Ampeg PF-50T all day. Plenty loud for a pub band, and starts to get nice and ‘furry’ when pushed. I slightly regret selling mine but then I did build my own B15-ish head! The only downside is that the form factor is a bit inconvenient.

Well that was interesting! Guitarist had just arrived when he got a phone call regarding a family emergency. After a while it was still not clear whether he would be able to do the gig so I nipped home and picked up guitar, amp and pedalboard. On the way I called another bassist to see if he could dep, but to no avail. I played the first set on lead guitar (no bass) which I have done before but don’t enjoy because it feels very exposed. Guitarist appeared in the audience during this, so at the break we got him to set up. This he did with no apparent regard for the stage space I would still need. I moved my mic stand back a fair bit which made things tolerable, but he’d also left stuff on the floor which made it more cramped than it needed to be. Given the somewhat pressurised situation I didn’t address this with him, I but I certainly will if (when) it happens next time. Not the most enjoyable night but the club audience seemed to like us and the BL paid me extra for bailing them out.

Nope, thinking of one of these, which looks like an Ampeg SVT450H.

Depped on bass with a rock’n’roll band last night - I normally dep on guitar with them. ’73 P (La Bellas) > Demeter head > BF One 10 Plenty of volume for the pub, and a nice full and warm sound. They were trying out a new dep guitarist, who admitted to being a bit rusty. Hopefully tonight (same lineup) will be better.

Shampeg!

What was the Behringer? Just curious to know.* *By which I mean I might rush out and buy one cheap before word gets out and they are on Reverb at £2k a pop.

Stocks of these seem to have pretty much run out - and they don't even have valves in them!

Best to just ignore it tbh.

I start at the and and work backwards. (The idea came from this very forum iirc.) This means that when you are learning a section, as you come to the end of it you are into familiar territory rather than a part you haven't learned yet. Works for me!

Almost all songs are built up from sections and you’ll have a much easier time learning them if you tackle them that way, like this typical structure: Intro Verse 1 Verse 2 (same as Verse 1) Chorus Verse 3 (same as Verse 1 but repeat last 2 bars) Guitar solo (same as Verse 1) Chorus Chorus (drop last 2 bars) Outro (like intro but slows down at end) This means you only have to learn 3 sections plus a couple of variations. In terms of post-gig analysis, congratulations on being so focused on improvement. Make a written note soon afterwards of whatever the issues were. This will allow you to enjoy your life without obsessing over your perceived ‘failures’ as well as ensuring the valuable information is not lost. Next day, look at your notes and decide first whether each issue was down to you, another band member, or the whole band. Take one of ‘your’ issues and break it down into small actions that you can do to improve. Work on those in your practice time. Raise the other issues at your next band rehearsal but avoid blaming people. If the singer came in early after the guitar solo say ‘Can we run through where the solo goes back into verse.’ Playing in a band is very much a team enterprise and it’s good to be the person who clearly has the band’s interests at heart.

Iceland is real. My Mum’s been there.

Thanks both. I had put this on the back burner until the new financial year - tax deductible!

I use Google Streetview and Parkopedia to check out parking before I leave home. Ideally I would do this before accepting dep gigs - don’t ask me how I know….

At a sound check I was getting a nasty crackling and thought there might be a problem with the drivers in my BF cab. Turned out to be a bad connection in my tuner pedal.

Welcome aboard Grace! Quite a few members here play keyboards and/or synth bass. I expect one of them will be along soon

This is only going to cost me £149 because I was looking to spend £250 on a used JHS Color Box v1 - WIN!

FTFY

That tends to confirm my choice of the '64 Black Panel!

Whichever one I get, I’m guaranteed to suffer massive FOMO over the other one!

I’m not sure I would ever have tried flats except I bought a bass that had a set fitted. I really liked the comfort and the lack of finger squeak and I ended up going flats-only for several years. More recently I wanted to go back to rounds on one bass, tried and liked Elixirs, and now 2 of my 3 basses have those on.