Adrenochrome

Yep, I've always like a tad of compression. The compressor on my Zoom B2 is noisy, so I've cheated and adapted one of the valve amp patches to run almost clean, which does the job.

Try any decent brand strings in 40-100. When not downtuning, this is the guage I prefer, especially for fingerstyle. ** I'm aware that different brands and different alloys will have varying real and apparent tension, this is just a generalisation **

Without labels, names and badges, how would people know who to slavishly copy? People might make their own decisions and that'd never do.

It's ALL about the FOH sound. We play a few pubs where the band set up in the pool room which is often tiled floor, and echoey - ususally sounds fine in the rest of the pub with bodies and soft furninshings and carpets to take the egde off the sound. Plus we have a huge PA which helps.

People who can play bass = shed loads (>10 at my work) Dedicated bass players with kit and transport, supportive families, helpful work hours etc = not loads

[quote name='Chest Rockwell' post='882822' date='Jul 1 2010, 11:20 AM'][size=3]So, I'm wondering about 50 70 85 110 (Heavy - Long) or 65 80 105 130 (Drop Tuning - Long) ?[/size] any thoughts on that? would the tension help?[/quote] In my main band we tune DGCF as standard and CGCF for quite a few songs. I use normal 50-110 strings which are perfect for DGCF but the low C is a little floppy (but perfectly playable) for CGCF tuning.

I have a Crate Powerblock and active DI box just for emergencies. Not a great amp for bass but just about manages with PA support. Cheap as chips.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='882570' date='Jun 30 2010, 11:12 PM']I have a UK-built MAG400 (Redface - 485W@4 Ohms) into 2x15 cabs. I'm assuming it's the same tone stack. I have found that the MAG set 'flat' (all tone knobs at 12 o'clock) doesn't carry much punch at all. I leave the bass at 12, low Mids at 3, Mids at 3, Hi mids at 9 (as is my wont) & treble at 3. Run like this I have plenty of power & rarely need to go past 12 on the master volume. If I go back to flat, it all goes quiet........... Anyone else find this?[/quote] Almost - I often don't need any EQ but if it's a bit boomy or wooly onstage I often cut some bass and boost the upper and lower mids. It seems to add a bit of clarity.

Get more sensitive speakers. 600 watts is plenty of horsepower.

It definitely is Hocus Pocus - I've got the album. The riff was appropriated for Blitzkrieg.

I've got one and I think it's effing brilliant for my needs. I've found the compressor to be noisy so I avoid it. My normal 'clean' sound is actually one of the valve amp simulators set to a very low gain level and I use that setting on most songs. The muter tuner is priceless for live gigs where we swap from D tuning to Drop C tuning regularly.

- Ultra reliable - Good transport, also doubles as accomodation - Versatile - Very experienced - Reasonable backing vox, even lead vox at a push - Love playing live, happy to dep for girly pop band through to grindcore metal - Kit to suit any venue/genre from acoustic with DI box to full stack.

Guys, I get the impression that you mut have worked with some really poor guitarists! All the GOOD guiatrists I know are also pretty handy on the bass, and usually reasonably good at other instruments too.

I agree with missing out line 3, as you don't really want anything negative in there. You could state that you're looking for a 'gigging band', that might help.

On CD, MP3 etc - NO Stood in front of real amps - YES Can modelling sound as good as tubes - YES Do most guitards use them to their best - NO

A TNT was standard kit for venues that provided backline and PA BiTD. Nowt wrong with the old ones, especially with a beefy PA to take care of FOH. Use em regularly at venues like the Royal Park Cellars, Josephs Well etc in the past.

I broke a couple many years ago (more than 10). Never happened since I used proper amplification.

In my experience people are using less speaker area. I started gigging with a 100w amp and a decent 4x12 cab, then a huge 1x15 and 4x10 stack - still with 100 watt amps. The 1x15 + 4x10 was enough to fill a pub without PA. Now I can get away with a 2x10 for gigging as I have an amp that will do up to 300w into an 8 ohm cab, plus decent PA support.

[quote name='Mykesbass' post='852463' date='May 31 2010, 11:30 AM']Ah, luxury! But you're playing fairly top end gigs - I'm thinking more about being stuck under the dartboard in a local pub or WMC [/quote] To be honest, we even won't play a pub witout a decent PA with everytinhg miked up/DI'd. Myself and the lead guitarist are both wireless, and the drummer checks he's okay with the FOH sound by having one of the guitarists play his kit whilst he listens out front.

I like a full range sound, so yes I prefer a reasonable amount of zing. I use worn-in nickel rounds with no tone cut and flatish EQ on my amp. For the sort of gigs I do, boosting the bass just adds mud/boominess to the FOH sound.

Ergonomics and playability for me. Of course the sound has to be of at least a minimum standard as well. For the record, I've played a few 'Rays (never owned one) and they all had medium-ish necks, could yours be a bit bigger than usual?

Yes but I didn't play proper gigs on guitar. After I started on bass I then played a few songs on guitar at gigs.

Well, bearing in mind that I'm not a gifted bass player, then yes I seem to be able to play most styles of music as well (or badly) as each other. When depping I've happily played everything from Duffy to System Of A Down. As for classical, jazz etc, I don't honestly know.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='843078' date='May 20 2010, 01:06 PM']...I can't see that it reason enough for us to ask ordinary folk on limited incomes to pay over the odds to access the world of making music.[/quote] That's it in a nutshell. About 3 years ago I needed to buy a load of band stuff such as XLR mike leads, guitar leads, stands, bags etc. I got it all delivered from Thomann for half what it would have cost me to source it all locally, including travelling and parking costs. The service was fantastic with updates on the packing/shipping texted to me regularly. I have tried to support my local shops for small items like strings, straps etc as well.

No, it's far too much for a covers band and you'll burn out eventually. Loads of good comments above; if the rehearsal is being used for [i]anything[/i] other than rehearsing as a band then a lot of time is being wasted. Rehearsals should not be used for learning material, moaning about the gf/bf/wife/husband, trying new kit that hasn't been set up properly, extended smoking breaks etc etc