EliasMooseblaster

Not to hijack the thread, but can anyone recommend a mic which works well in a live setting for a stupidly deep bass voice? I've managed so far with SM58s and similar, trying to keep half a mile away from the mesh to minimise proximity effect, but I wonder whether there's anything out there which might be more...erm, flattering. Bonus points if it doesn't cost a small fortune.

I shouldn't beach...but that doesn't mean I won't! One of our previous singers was technically excellent: great ear, plenty of power huge range, but...she used to insist on singing everything like she was Shirley Bassey belting out the theme from Goldfinger. With subsequent singers, obviously we'd use the studio recordings as a reference, but always with the subtle hint of, "that was her style, of course, but feel free to put your own spin on this one..." The improvement was remarkable...

I bought a copy of Rob van den Broek's Gibson Bass Book - mostly just for the gear pr0n photography, I'll be honest, but it turned out to be a really interesting read. I had never previously guessed that Gibson had experimented with so many different designs, especially in the '60s and '70s. I guess, much like Fender, they've become victims of their own success, in that a group of people will always just want a straightforward LP, SG or Thunderbird, but you have to wonder why they didn't at least push some of the variations a bit harder - double-cut LP Juniors (as you rightly say), "Melody Maker" SGs with single-coil pickups, or SGs with PAFs, or even - that radical idea which they only seemed to pick up on in the last couple of years - a f***ing 5-string bass. Seriously, did none of the bigwigs in the company pop the telly on during the last few decades and think "eh-up, some of these bass players have got more than four strings on them there bass guitars...I wonder if there's a market there?" I know I've stuck to fours myself, but I'm not so blinkered as to believe that a 5-string bass is still a strange and exotic variation on the bass guitar's design. FFS, if Mike Lull can stick a low B on a T-bird shape with minimal ballache, what was stopping them? I thought those EB models from the last few years showed a promising change of direciton, but clearly too little, too late.

I don't know whether to take that as a warning sign in itself...it does remind me of one band I quit where the singer showed his true colours pretty quickly. I decided to be as diplomatic as possible and explained that I didn't have time for the things they wanted to do (read: all the horsing around that went on behind the scenes), and the two guitarists and drummer went to similar lengths to write back saying they were sorry to see me go, but they understood that I had other priorities and wished me all the best. Response from singer? "no worries mate thanks for letting us know"

+1 for Warwick Reds as a substitute for Rotosounds. They're a good alternative and a fair bit cheaper, if you're in the habit of changing strings regularly. Personally I find there's some subtle tonal quality in the Rotos that the Warwicks don't quite nail, but I'd happily go for another batch of them if I were gigging more regularly.

As well as being reliably spot-on, skank's response hints at how things have changed in the last few decades. It seems that we've moved away from a time when the single reliable measure of success was "the charts." Getting a song or album to cause a small ripple in the appropriate Top 40 would have been a good indicator of an early success; being able to follow that up would indicate that you were more than just a "one hit wonder." Trouble is, now that everyone takes their music differently - whether buying physical reproductions, paying for downloads, not paying for downloads, paying for streaming, finding free streams, or just good old-fashioned shoplifting - it's much harder to put a single measure on success. Streaming has only recently been added to physical sales and downloads as a measure for The Charts, and even then in a fairly arbitrary and clumsy fashion. But with this, of course, it now seems more acceptable - indeed, more sensible - not to desire the old trappings of fame as a musician. Most of us have accepted that a Los Angeles penthouse with booze, drugs and groupies available via Deliveroo is greedy, puerile, and unrealistic, and would settle instead for our music being sufficiently important to enough people that we could make a steady income from it. Steve Lawson is the first example who springs to mind, of somebody who has embraced a different, more low-key model of success, and seems to make a comfortable living from a loyal following and a healthy ratio of fingers to pies.

How hard did you find it to get such a string set in a 34" scale? It's a whim, rather than anything more serious, but I've often thought that if I were to dip my toe into ERB territory, I'd be more interested in extending the range up rather than down - an E-C 5-string was the first to pique my curiousity, but an E-E 6er could be fun...

Funnily enough, I've met some very adept kit players who have freely admitted that they barely know where to begin with hand drums! Perhaps it's like the difference between bass guitar and upright - being a virtuoso on one doesn't necessarily translate to the other (with the exception of some talented bar stewards).

We'll have to agree to disagree on Carlos' guitar tone! But yes, funnily enough I've had an inkling for a while that most rock music has been rhythmically quite uninspired ever since "rock drumming" became an idiom in its own right - circa the time most young drummers decided they wanted to play like John Bonham - and it seems to have been dominated by variants on "kick - snare - kick - snare - emphasise - every - beat - think - like - a - metronome" ever since. I feel like there was a lot more freedom and invention when drummers basically learnt to play jazz and then joined rock bands. He says, having been born decades after the event, with only the recordings to go on...it's hard to put my finger on exactly what it is, but maybe some of these modern rock drummers just need to learn to swing.

There was a definite gulf in ability between the many harmonica players at one of my old regular jam nights...every so often one guy would get up who really knew how to get a tune of the thing. Unfortunately those guys were much less regular than the guys who had learned three blues licks and thought they could get away with playing them in a loop. A bit like the Bernard Black approach to the accordion ("...well, I can't play the guitar either, but I thought this would be less obvious...") Mind you, this was also the same jam where one singer would get up carrying a guitar that he never plugged in, let alone played - it was literally just hanging off him for show...

I know there was more emphasis on congas and bongos than maracas/tambourines, but the two percussionists in the original Santana lineup were pretty impressive - on those early albums you almost feel like the drummer had to rein in his playing to keep out of their way.

Of course, it was Marr's departure that precipitated the breakup of the band - originally reported in error, which led fans of the band to wonder why he'd left. French fans, however, saw it coming all along, as they thought the clue was in his name. /coat

Yeah, I'm certainly no stranger to "audience outside, band inside" - I think just made this case particularly strange was the disembodied applause that could be heard from outside between songs!

I had a weird version of this a few years ago. My colleagues at my old job were very excited about the fact I played in a band, and booked us to play at their summer party. We set up in the venue, but it was a hot day...and everyone gradually buggered off to the terrace outside. The way the building was arranged meant that we couldn't see the terrace, and therefore couldn't see the audience. We could hear a bit of applause from outside, so we soldiered on for a bit, and people drifted in and out - they had to walk past us to get to the bar, after all. We ended the first set a bit earlier than planned, and I had a quick chat with the organisers. Did they want us to keep playing? Only, people don't seem especially interested... "Oh, I think people are enjoying it. We can still hear you outside. It sounds great, but it's a bit hot in there." We were getting paid either way, and to be fair a few more people did filter in and get a bit more involved during the second set. Now, I've done my fair share of "background / cocktail music" with assorted jazz bands, so I'm used to being ignored by an audience I could see. The inverse - being enjoyed by an audience I couldn't see - was certainly a new and peculiar experience.

All you need now is a Pentangle tribute band to play it in! Joking aside, I like it. The rest of the guitar is kept relatively understated, so I think it makes a good focal point - it could have been very easy to overdo it and end up with some kind of Celtic Bootsy, so nicely done on keeping it tasteful.

Christ alive, that's a lovely-looking instrument.

I feel like the drummer might be the weakest link of the three. He's almost playing as if it's a rock number in 6/8. Sheehan's playing is impressive, but the overplaying in the wrong places, combined with the drumming, just makes it feel like the whole thing's desperately trying to race past the beat. I rather like what the guitarist is doing, mind.

It's either that or you bite the bullet and invest in an 8-string...though your left hand's tendons may hate you for it.

I'm not sure I want to see Ringo's sex tape...

Unfortunately I dont know he best answer to that - afraid I've never had to fiddle with the insides of a semi-hollow before. Anyone else on here have any ideas?

It's definitely a strong possibility, and I know I've been in that position more than once myself! But then in the settings where I've played, it's typically been in a pub where people haven't paid anything to see the band, or one of those six-bands-in-four-hours nights on the Camden toilet circuit, where most of the crowd are there for the better-known headline act anyway. What I find harder to relate to is those gigs where people have paid money in advance to go and see a particular artist, who they (presumably) already know and like...maybe I'm just being my usual, tight-fisted self but if I've forked out for the ticket I like to get my money's worth!

Yeah, I've had this a few times. First case was as early as 2001/2 - my sister and I went to see Mercury Rev and agreed it was a great show but the audience was an absolute pain in the proverbial. There was a bloke a few rows ahead of us who just put his feet up on the chairs in front and spent the night texting people. I guess this was still the era before cameras were so ubiquitous on phones, and approximately 50% of audiences felt compelled to film the entire gig on the damned things, so at that point the little backlight on a monochrome phone screen was still quite distracting! Ian Siegal was probably the first person I saw who challenged an audience. I think it was the Charlotte St Blues club, somewhere they had a sort of VIP area up on a balcony. It just seemed to be stuffed with people intent on talking over the band. "Sorry if the music's a bit loud for you, back there," he sniped in between songs, "you know, you come to a live music event, you expect a bit of peace and quiet, naturally..."

A few thoughts spring to mind: 1. Duff/no shielding - how easy are the controls to access? If you can get inside easily this can be fixed relatively easy. 2. Loose earth wire - typically in contact with the bridge, but can work loose. 3. Do you have separate tone controls for each pickup, or one master? I've had a capacitor fail on a P bass before, which led to a rather prominent buzz. Could be this problem if you've only got the one tone control...or both could have failed, but that's less likely!

One might even say they recorded some of them with[out] a little help from their friends... I'll get my coat.

Stacia? (Or "Lady Stacia" in some of the liner notes) The tale I've heard is that she approached Messrs Brock and Turner about joining the band, and just said "I dance." So at her first gig, both the band and audience were equally astonished when she took all her clothes off. I remain very glad that Bez didn't go that far with the Mondays...