Woodinblack

Almost all my basses (and pretty well all of the basses that I actually gig) are active and it hasn't ever happened. I just change them when I remember, which is every few years and everything is fine. What would happen is that they would seem quieter before they went as they are all analogue.

the UK is fairly notable in its tolerance of complete drunk culture, people staggering down the road and having fights, so while I have seen a few violent drunks in pubs, most have been dealt with by the bar staff, or ended up punching other random strangers, so I have luckily never really had too much trouble with them personally, just stupid drunks and drunks that think they are funny. I wouldn't go to a pub if I am not gigging, so I don't really have to deal with many of them, apart from the ones staggering home damaging things.

Thats good. Anytune is one of my favourite pieces of software for that sort of thing

Think I would prefer the chapman stick.

Yeh, well, there is a cultural difference for you. A lot of the British are embarassingly over drunk a lot of the time. Acting like a complete t**t in public in an evening appears to have no social stigma. Having said that, I observed a fair amount of drunken behaviour when I lived in the states, but it was a lot more area specific.

That sounds very loud. We are very loud, far too loud in fact, but I have never turned my RH450 past half way going into 2 1x12s. Basically we have to go up to the volume of the drummer, and he is loud. I wear in ear monitors, they also work like earplugs, I wouldn't be in that volume without them. We are way to loud to have a good sound, if you are louder, I would hate to hear what it sounds like. I have a dream of not having a backline, but I can't imagine it ever happening.

I think you will find it is an eternity

Years ago I had a tape with 6 acoustic tracks by billy bragg on that someone had given me, including the only acoustic version of 'The Few' and a great version of 'tank park salute'. I lost the tape around 1996 when I moved to the states, and have been looking for versions of the few for year. The other day I thought I would have another look and found this, which includes 3 of those tracks, so I was really happy. I picked up a guitar and tried playing Tank Park Salute - found it still causes me problems trying to sing it clearly. My dad died in 1996, and it still brings everything back even after this time. One day I will play it somewhere!

I’ll have a 5 string premium if that helps?

I just used a car spray paint can and a lot of coats, followed by some lacquer. Seemed to work ok

Indeed - you can advertise something for as much as you want, it only becomes worth something when someone buys it.

Generally I find there are two 'ages'. People play music until they are late 20s, early 30s, have kids and stop gigging / playing. Then at mid 40s onwards the kids have moved out and they realise that they miss it and start again. So you get young groups and old groups. I am in a mix, being early 50s in a group of late 20s / early 30s, and we are cutting right back on gigging as the singer needs to spend more time with his kids. However, looking for other groups to fill the space at the moment in somerset seems like there is a vaccum that I hadn't really seen before.

I looked into getting some recently but they seemed a lot more just for having a bit of colour

Why would anyone care about that? We don't have a problem singing love machine.

I always get concerned about it but have been really lucky with those sort of events

I have a stupid amount of stuff, 8 basses (down from 10), probably 10 guitars (I genuinely don’t know exactly even where they are), 4 keyboards, 3 sound module, gr55, few sound boards etc. Sometimes I feel guilt about it but all of my later stuff is paid with gig money and all the other stuff paid for with giving up smoking money. And then I think, well, why should I feel guilty as it isn’t hurting anyone.

My squier 4 sounds nice, although the Gibson did sound better and it was cheaper (new) than the squier!

Genuinely? Wow, you must live in a fantastic place.

Or taking the strings off

I sold my EB5 as I couldn't get on with the string spacing, but it sounded fantastic.

I have no idea, although recently I have managed to get back under 10. I have however, gigged all but two of them this year.

Only if someone buys it.

Funnily enough I saw some of those on aliexpress yesterday, only £200 - can’t be that good

A weekend of two gigs. The first night, a normally fairly busy pub was very busy and everyone having a great time, but it is always good. The one tonight, weren't expecting good things. It is a members club and it has traditionally been very flat, and not only that but they have a license for sport and there was some people hitting each other on telly - so we had to play the first half until the hitting started, then continue after it finished, but he hasn't got that late a license. I don't know if it is the hitting on telly but the place was really busy and also quite a few people danced, so probably the best night i have had down there in two bands times. The fight started late and didn't end before his music license, so turned out that we got £300 for 1hr and 20 (we rarely play less than 2 hours), and everyone was happy!

Why not? Most of our gigs are just regular pubs, just do money for nothing as a sound check and stand out the front to get it sounding right. If you don't do that how can you tell if it sounds bad unless you have someone else that can do it for you? In previous groups it was eaiser, my wife came to all our gigs and she would just say what was wrong, but she doesn't come to the current bands gigs.