Happy Jack

Mustang Sally? Don't know that one - how does it go?

[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1490173475' post='3262759'] I play in a covers band on the pub circuit. The best part of any gig for me is when we play 'crowdpleasers', when everyone is up singing and dancing. (If I had my way every song we play would be a crowdpleaser but a sizeable chunk of our set is songs that the various band members like but are bordering on the obscure. I'm opposed to this but that's a different thread...) Very few of the crowdpleasers we play are songs that I would choose to listen to at home but if the punters like them that's good enough for me. Granted, Sex On Fire et al have been done to death but to see a crowd explode when the intro kicks in is priceless. Give me that any day over some album track that's everyone's cue to go out for a fag. Happy punters equals more beer sold equals more gigs. [/quote] Sounds like we play in the same band(s) mate! I started in covers bands by playing songs that we, the band, actually wanted to play. A fair number were crowd-pleasers but an equally large number were obscure songs that no one was going to recognise. After a year or two of struggling, we had a big internal debate about whether or not to play more crowd-pleasers, and would this somehow 'go against' our policy of playing stuff we liked. The solution was dead simple. Play crowd-pleasers that we all liked. Job done. If you have SIXTY YEARS of popular music to select from, how difficult can it be to identify three hours' worth of music that is (a) crowd-pleasing, and ( band-pleasing? We've all dealt with tougher problems than this.

IMHO you have to have your own transport. Even if you don't need it right now for your next band, sooner or later you will find yourself wondering why it's so hard for you to hold down a gig or get offered a place in the bands you audition for. The idea of turning up on the bus with your DI box in your gig bag may seem appealing, and it's certainly cheaper than buying and running a car, but you then have what's known as a "single point of failure". Get to the gig and find the PA is f***ed, and guess what - you're f***ed. Even if you get there and all is good, you still face the breakdown at 1am followed by trying to get a night bus home again at 2am. Maybe you're still young enough to find that a fun idea. Inevitably you'll start cadging lifts off your band mates, and at first they'll be happy to help. Until they realise that you are - quite literally - a passenger in the band. This is not a good place to be.

Just spotted this on Gumtree - nothing to do with me. https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-player-wanted/bass-player-needed-for-paid-gig-this-saturday-se-london/1225467593

Hmmmmm ... £150 is not to be sneezed at, but[list] [*]those knobs aren't original [*]that brass nut is not original [*]it looks like a very poor refin to me (rattle can job?) [*]the one thing I never rated the SGC Nanyo for was the low B [/list] [i]Caveat emptor[/i]. I'd want to have a very close look at that and play it for a while before making a decision.

It's really not the same on kazoo ...

I was going to say "+1 for the Snark" but Roger's point about the dampening effect is hard to argue with. In that case, the only answer that works for me is the Korg Pitchblack. That way I can keep an eye (literally) on my intonation even when playing badly-lit stages without adequate monitoring.

From the ripe old age of 60, I'd say that this is chiefly an age thing. I can still remember all the wannabees I spent time with 40 years ago, who seem to have been directly interchangeable with the 20-year-old wannabees who are around now. Only one of them ever amounted to anything, a guy I shared a bedroom floor with (we had no furniture) in a semi-squat in the East End. If I had anything new or original to say musically, I guess I'd have said it many years ago. Instead, I recycle other people's songs and other people's basslines, I have a lot of fun, and it's about as stress-free as being in a band ever gets ... i.e. there are still plenty of fantasists, wnakers, and irritating twats but it's all more-or-less harmless. Investing heavily in "being the next big thing" is strictly for the young folk of today. I still remember when all this were vinyl round 'ere. Oh yes, and that guy I shared a floor with - Bruce Dickinson.

As soon as I joined, they abandoned the idea. News like me soon gets around.

In fairness, I've been hearing that for a while. I really hope he doesn't stop. He's one of the finest in the country IMHO.

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1490003583' post='3261312'] I'm sure we all know why the prices jump (it shall not be named) [/quote]

A headless bass with a headstock? I don't know what you're smoking, Mick, but save some for me, yeh?

Just out of interest, why will he not ship to Guernsey? Is Jersey alright do you think? Or maybe Alderney, seeing as it's a bit closer.

Extraordinary to think he was several years older than my Dad! I grew up listening to Chuck and Elvis and The Beatles. So that's just Sir Paul and Ringo left ...

[quote name='MacDaddy' timestamp='1489783024' post='3259891'] 10 t-shirts, 1 colour print front & back, £120.00! �� [/quote] OK, so that's two each for the band, and then you'll try to sell the remaining two, right?

It's bass, Jim, but not as we know it.

Lully and the Couperins? Yeah, I caught their gig at The Tuileries back when they still had good music there.

No Chris, he meant http://youtu.be/lNYcviXK4rg

http://s1128.photobucket.com/user/h4ppyjack/library/Other%20music%20related/Melody%20Maker%2011%20March%201967 Some absolutely sublime stuff here ...

You may have missed this, since it has been posted in the wrong (IMHO) section: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/300747-l200-thomann-the-t-amp-tsa-v-7oo-multi-channel-power-amp/ It's a bit heavier than a TH350 mind ...

Hmmmmm ... maybe slaphappy is the way to go.

I can see the sense in discouraging other manufacturers from making designs where the headstock snaps if you sneeze, yes.

I've had several U-basses from people as different as Kala and Harley-Benton. Your Countryman shouldn't be giving you this sort of grief ... just send it back and insist on a working instrument instead.