markbunney

Back home from playing at Pier 5 in Chatham this evening. first time playing here and I don’t think we would return. There were quite a few people in when we were setting up, but they all started to drift away and by the end of the night we were down to 8 audience members! It seemed more of a food pub, rather than a music pub. Other bands that we know who have played recently have said it was quiet when they played as well. It wasn’t that well set up for bands, we were stuck between a shuffle board and a barrier, and there was no dance floor either. on the positive side, the staff were nice, we got paid well and stopped playing at 11pm, so was home at a reasonable time.

How much were they going for, now says they are unavailable

We had offered to do it for the cost of the van hire plus the £300 we would normally charge for a pub, as the opportunity for pictures and videos would have been good. We thought this was a good deal bearing in mind how far, and how long we would have to travel, but they didn't want to know. I think they might be having karaoke instead 🤣

We today got asked to play at our singer/guitarists work Xmas party. They asked us to play for free, as there was no budget left! this was for 200/300 people, and a big corporate in central london. We said no thanks, as a) it was taking the gypsy's kiss and b) would have involved us hiring a van and all travelling into central london together from various parts of Kent. this contradicts my earlier reply in this thread, and it would have been by far our biggest ever gig, but in this case the company was having a laugh

I would look at this as a paid rehearsal and take the gig. Also, if you've only had 4 gigs, it is a good opportunity to practice & improve the efficiency of your set up and strip down time, sound check etc etc. We normally pay £40/£45 for a rehearsal space for the evening, and have to use the provided rehearsal room equipment, so Id look at it as an opportunity to have a rehearsal with your full band set up and PA etc. I am always of the opinion that you never know who might be in a crowd (even if its sparse) and who might want to book you for a wedding, party etc in the future.

Wow - what a great place to play!

I think that if you learn it and play it at a few gigs, and it clears the dance floor then hopefully the rest of the band would notice, and look to drop it from the set

Thanks for the tip, I had actually been looking at one of these as a backup solution

Yes it happened to me once as well years ago. The soldering on a wire on the inside of the input jack broke and started cutting out. The bass would only work if I stood completely still in a certain position to make the connection. That wasn't much fun for 2 hours! I don't really want to waste money on a cheap piece of firewood, but equally am not in a position to buy anything "decent", so will have to see if any good offers come up.

I have a couple of Mono BTY straps, really comfortable.

We (The 77s) are playing NYE at The Oak Tavern in Sevenoaks. We played here once before, it was the site of our first gig as a band in March this year. We have played 10 gigs since and have really improved and become tighter. we played there for free earlier in the year as we were an unknown band and trying to get some gigs under our belt, so it is great to be asked back to play one of the biggest nights of the year, and with a decent fee. I think we are playing 9ish-12ish

I am in the market for a spare bass for gigs. I only have one, and get paranoid at every gig that I will have a problem

Thanks, I never knew that was an option! Ill have a look into

How are you finding the the Digitech drop? I have been considering getting one to practice songs at home that are downtrend by 1/2 step, but that my band plays in standard tuning, as it would save me down tuning at home all the time. I wouldn't be using it for anything more than a step down, so would be interested in hearing how it is

This thread has got me thinking that I should start to use my Hiscox case, as my Fender gig bag that came with my bass has seen better days

Just to add to this, I have been using the AO500 for most of the year and have been really pleased with it. at our last gig I used my Tech21 Steve Harris in front of it and found that the amp cut through our mix so much more. I had all of the EQ on the Steve Harris at noon, and dialled in the gain to around 2. I am going to try the same setting at next weekends gig as well

I have a Hiscox hard case and a fender gig bag. I rarely use the Hiscox for anything other than storage at home as it’s quite unwieldy

Another vote for the Corona Chorus, I used one for years and loved the Duff Mckagen toneprint download

I have the Tech 21 Steve Harris preamp and love it, I've got my eye on one of the new Frank Bello ones as well, but not sure how much different it will be to warrant the expenditure.

Yep, understood. However we had never had any noise complaints before, and were playing in quite a large open air space. He didn’t have any of the aforementioned noise reducing equipment on him that night

The worst we have had is "the drums are too loud". Literally nothing we could do about it on the night as it was an un mic'd kit, and our drummer is a hard hitter

Next one for me is British Lion in January at Leo's Red Lion in Gravesend. I saw them there a couple of years ago, and it was quite something being within touching distance of one of my favourite bass players!

Good to hear you are pleased with it. I found the notched volume hard to get on with, and thought it a strange design choice. It is not something I'd ever come across before on the numerous guitar & bass amps and hi fi equipment that Ive used over the years. When I got mine, I thought it was broken at first as in my excitement to open and use it, I plugged my cable into the foot switch socket in error, and couldn't work out why it it didn't work!!!!

I played with The 77s band at The Druids Arms in Maidstone on Saturday. We only got the booking the day before due to the scheduled band cancelling but fortunately we were all available to do the gig. We had played there once before in the summer, its a good venue in the town centre, playing outside on a stage in a covered courtyard. We had not had a gig together since mid September (the other 3 had played with a dep the week before whilst I was on holiday) but it went well and we were surprisingly tight. A friend came along and was able to take some videos which are now on our newly formed you tube channel. It was a cold wet night and the crowd varied in size through the evening, but had at least 50 at peak. Picture below of our homemade light up sign!

I have the Boss WL20L - its great. For live use, Ive had it drop out due to the amount of wireless things going on in our band, but for home you'll be fine. I have recently acquired a lekato 5.8g guitar wireless set, but havent had chance to properly test it out to compare to the Boss yet.