Chienmortbb

After a hectic three months with The Rebbels gigging two or three nights a week, we played the first of our three gig Farewell to 2024 tour. This wa so close to home that I could have walked the mile journey were it not for a shortage of hands and a fecking great hill. Its always a bit nervy playing the Legion in Broadstone (Poole) as it's my Saturday haunt when not gigging.

As some of you know our rhythm guitarist had a heart attack earlier in the year and frankly I don't think he is still up to it.  Of course as everyone at the club knows me, there was no reticence in feedback as in comments at the end.

Last week's band were definitely a bit rough round the edge but played a good third of our set of covers, disappointing an poor scheduling by the Ents Sec.  Never mind, I thought, we will show them. Apparently we did not. There were some very good songs but the rhythm guitarist's timing was all over the place, I have been noticing that the guitars were not playing in time a few gigs ago, they stand on opposite side of the stage and their amps beam straight ahead. WE have the equipment (or I do) to add two small fill monitors juts to get a small amount of each guitar on either side of the stage. We did it the last time we played a large stage

Anyway I had to dig in more and more to try to get them to hear where they should have been, I might as well have have tried semaphore on a blindman.  As the night went on and the RG became tired, it became worse. Ironically I was told we were tighter than the last week's  band but that they had a better balanced set and were preferred by many.  Some of these comments were quite candid and made to my other half, not directly to you. Sadly the comments were all close to what I have been thinking for a long time. There are five of us, the drummer and lead guitarist just enjoy playing although I know they think broadly as I do. The Lead singer, the only original member and DE-facto bandleader and RG both have very strong views and seem to balk at any changes. So two gigs and at least one rehearsal to save the band. 

At my age I do not need to feel so physically and mentally drained after a gig and if we were rehearsing today, I might chuck it in. however I will simmer down and try to calmly get my point across. We don't have anything booked after 15th November until June 2025 so if I jump they have over 6 months to get a new lowender.

One of our regular venues told us recently that we were not being booked for 2025 as they are "refreshing" their offering. My thought was we need to look at what we are doing wrong, the BL said "Their loss". So how do I say we were crap, the set list is pants?

Sorry rant over.

12 hours ago, lozkerr said:

Seconded @Jack I really fancy a nice red fiery glow underneath mine!

I do hope you are speaking of your pedalboard!

I fitted  the GB 640s to my Japanese Fender Aerodyne. They are great machine heads BUT I should have fitted the 528s which would have been close to a drop in. Check all the dimensions before buying but the Gotohs are better that Hipshots.

I emailed them and it has not yet been launched. When they launch it will be online and via Andertons.

From the email:

"

Hey John, I need to discuss with the boss what are plans are for the launch, but I'm sure once we have stock ready you will be able to purchase direct in our website or via Andertons."

I could not find them anywhere. I have emailed them to ask.

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

sit down by James

I sang lead vocal on that in a previous band.

Some great stuff on here. We usually do 2 x 60 minutes in clubs and from memory have done 2 x 75 on one occasion. Our best payer by far has 30 mins, break, 1 hour break 1 hour. Sadly they booker there has had to retire on health grounds and I cannot seem to get hold of the new one. Next year's GAS may suffer from low pressure

6 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

GAS never goes away though, I keep eying up a pair of these https://www.thomann.co.uk/rcf_nxl_24_a_mk2.htm

True, those RCFs look nice but at close on 25Kg, they would never get out of the garage!

I have just bought two sets of Newtone's or I would be tempted.

Slight;y off topic but others have mentioned they like the twin HH version better. The original Ray never appealed to me. IMHO the pickup was in the wrong place for my needs YMMV. A two HH version would be more interesting.  Thoughts?

On 01/10/2024 at 10:43, PaulThePlug said:

Would like to give em a go... but £32!

I'm more an Adagio or Olympia Flats Guy at £15... Bang for Buck.

£32 for what should be  premium string sound OK BUT there are  many warnings that suggest they may be a bit fragile.

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Currently, my main practise rig has a 6m on it... a Cheinmortbb won at the SW Bass Bash IIRC...

Still well within Guarantee then.😀

I contacted a new Social Club for us yesterday and they require 3 x 45 mins on  Saturday Evening , 8-11 pm or  the same on Sunday 5-8pm. We have never been asked for this except on NYE. I wondered what other set times are common.

On 30/09/2024 at 12:51, Woodinblack said:

We have had discussions about these sort of things before, like weddings of 'friends of the band' - I am happy to do a wedding for a friend of the band for normal gig money, rather than wedding money, but 'friends of the band' tend to be friends of the singer and guitarist, sometimes the drummer, and rarely mine. If they were mine, then yes, I would be happy to do it free. If they want to do a free gig for someone, I am perfectly happy to take their cut of the fee out of what we are charging, leaving mine.

In our case we charge our minimum fee and the friend's friend does it for love.

8 hours ago, Matt P said:

Klotz AC110 cable

Yes that is in the same class as Spirti LLX. Both superb cables.

On 29/09/2024 at 15:47, Beer of the Bass said:

 

It's this one, 600 watt version, plus the recommended power supply. I'm sure it'll be fine if/when I get around to doing something with it, but a succession of house moves and band changes disrupted what projects I'd been getting up to.

 

https://connexelectronic.com/product/irs2092-modular-amplifier/

I have three of the 500 watt powered amps. Cristi is very knowledgeable about the products although his relies were not always instant during Chinese Covid lockdowns. If the 500 is anything to go by you may need extra heat sinking. 

6 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I think the increase in sustain is, at best, neglectable, they do change the tone noticeable however, but in my opinion for the worse, compared to the traditional simple bend piece of steel bridges : 

 

I have had many basses with many bridges and never really felt/ heard very much difference. 

1. Firstly, apologies for any missing capitalisations, my pc is playing up.

As many of you will know, I make cables for others and would like to bring a few to sell at the bash. Of course, i pay my bc seller's subs each year, so all is good.

 If anyone is looking for a specific cable, please let me know, and I will make it and bring it to the bash. Of course, any cables bought at the bash will not incur the cost of postage.

I am planning to bring 3, 5 and 6 metre instrument cable made with sommer spirit llx low loss/low capacitance cables. Some with neutrik standard plugs, right-angled and straight, some with silent plugs.  There will also be some lower cost ones made with sommer tricone cable. I can also make/bring;

• mic/balanced cables,
• wireless body pack cables, shure, Sennheiser, line 6.
• speakon speaker cables

they are not the cheapest, as they are the best quality parts and cables I could find. However, they are cheaper/better than any of the designacable, lynx or any others, of course lynx cables do smell nice. I will post a price list for some of the cables on here shortly and check whether I can offer bash discounts.

 I would agree that good acoustic treatment is you friend but there are simple measures you can take. Firstly heavy lined curtains behind the band will improve your onstage sound. 
 

If the windows have curtains think about  adding aftermarket linings. These will save heat as well so not just a sound issue. Stand in the church and clap. If you hear an echo, that is part of the problem. Acoutic treatments are expensive and not always aesthetically pleasing so drape where you can. 
 

If you can get advice from an acoustic engineer, take it but remember that some sound controlling techniques do not  need to come from the “PA” budget. 
 

There is a. PA shootout at the Sw bass bash in two weeks and there will be lots of gear to look at. I will bring my CQ20 if you want.

47 minutes ago, SuperSeagull said:

But get the comment that a well meaning but unskilled person can make the best kit sound rubbish - you’ve obviously heard me play bass 😂

You could use the "you" apps that some mixers have, usually designde for a personal monitor mix, they only allow volume adjustments to a limited number of sources/mixes and do not alter  FoH.

I think there is some good advice here and the words about acoustically treating the room is key.

The problem you have a need for two or more systems. One a simple speech based system, the other one for a band. For a simple speech background music, something like a Cloud Mixer plus amp. These allow a simple system and you can have small control boxes on the wall at strategic points with a mic, aux input and remote volume control. All the  EQ and gain settings are on the back  of the racked mixer well out of Tommy Twiddler's reach,  a set and forget system. Cloud stuff is not as cheap as say Adastra etc. but it is built to last and IMHO, having installed a few systems, bullet proof. It is quite affordable second hand.

As for the band system, Rather than the Qu, would the CQ20 work? Cheaper and still has 16 mic/line inputs, 2 of which are Hi-Z and will take a guitar/bass directly. It does need a screen, tablet  or computer to operate, usually via WiFi, but you can hard wire those by Ethernet, again to stop Tommy Twiddler gaining access.

Speakers, after using various PA cabs over the years, I recently found a good reason for having a narrow dispersion angle, a pair of 60x60 degree cabinets used for monitoring, cured most of our feedback problems. Most places of worship are long and thin so a more directional system may work better for you.

Narrow beam speakers for PA are hard to find now so you may need to look beyond the usual suspects. A quick look shows the passive Wharfedale Pro GPL-12HQ.15HQ staring at just under £1000, going up to the (ouch) PD500 range from JBL.

Wharfedale Pro are designed in the UK and the staff there are very knowledgeable. Sound Technology, the UK distributor for JBL/Harmon are also happy to chat. Of course the other option is an array but that starts to become very expensive.

From standard PA ranges the best you can get at a reasonable price would be a 90x60 dispersion and as was said in an earlier post, it may be worthwhile using satellite speakers placed along the room, this would allow lower overall speaker volume, reduce the effective coverage angle but will increase system complexity, as you will need to delay the speakers further from the front using some type of DSP/speaker management solution. You may be able to do this with the right choice of digital mixer. You can do this with the Qu and CQ mixer as well as with most digital mixers.

Sadly you are getting more questions than answers but we are all here to help/confuse you further.

54 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

What I was trying to imply was that, for me, the only reason the chose a specific type of cab(s) for a particular genre of music is for the image.

 

For the sorts of gigs I play my choice of both amps and cabs make no contribution to what the audience hear FoH.

 

Since for one of my bands our image is for an empty stage I don't use any cabs and go straight into the PA.

I was not criticising you use of a cab-less solution. In fact I find it quite appealing, but the OP asked about cabs. A good cab can do every style of music but to go silent stage needs real commitment and a good sound tech and as with all thing digital, the wetware is usually the problem.

I was using Private browsing by mistake on my iPhone and that and an easier password seems to work across all devices. I used to be all apple but when my 2007 Macbook pro dies afte only 13-14 years solid service, I could not afford to replace it so ended up with a WINgy 10 then 11 machine. Of course for some things you need a Win PC but for most things I prefer mac book. The piggy bank is bulging with every paid gig although it goes up then down depending whether my anti GAS medication is working.😀

On 28/09/2024 at 12:08, Beer of the Bass said:

 

I have a Connex power amp module and power supply that I bought a few years ago and never quite got around to doing anything with. I never managed to get even a basic spec sheet for it from them, stuff like input impedance and sensitivity, cooling requirements etc. Literally the modules in a box with no info even when I emailed them asking for it. The website still says "more details soon" for that model, and it must be getting on for 10 years.

What module is it?

7 minutes ago, PinkMohawk said:

I prefer black cable with coloured heatshrink, or you could even do the techflex stuff, that keeps it pretty subtle but gives it a clear identifying mark as well. 

Techflex adds to the weight and also makes the cable less flexible and more difficult to wind. It would also add to the cost. This does raise another question. How many people have had a cable fail through damage or breakage? Some of the early Van Damme cables were very prone to breakage close to the plug. As yet I have never had a cable break using Sommer Cable and Neutrik Connectors but there will always be a first time.