phil.c60

There is actually an economic conversion rate based on Mars bars, and it is apparently surprisingly accurate!

G&L L2000. Always fancied one, USA rather than tribute, hard to find left handed. No more GAS for one because I've just bought one! Waiting for it to be delivered, let's see if it lives up to my expectations

Effects. Thought I wanted an Octabass, bought one, plugged it in and discovered I didn't . Took about 15 minutes to work that out, an it's been in a drawer ever since. Jazz Bass - sold my 79 Jazz as it was just too heavy compared to my HotRod P and I also found the neck a bit too skinny for me. Heavy gear - my Ampeg B200R combo sits ion the corner looking pretty. Since I bought a Compact and a LM3 it never leaves the house. Every time I think I'll take it to a local gig with easy access because it looks nice I pick it up and then put it straight back down again. A Wal - should have bought Leftybassamn's Mk 1 when it was for sale, didn't and now their even more money which I can't justify** ** This is subject to changes of mind from one day to another!

Watched the game on BT Sport having a gentle afternoon before my NYE gig - a great game and Exeter were fantastic in the second half. Lucky you.

There's a left handed G&L L2000 on Ebay that's caught my eye...........I don't need it but I've always fancied one. And it's a USA not a tribute too. Oh dear.

Great gig last night - we were a bit worried as the venue had bands Friday and Saturday night too. Not as busy as last year, but busy enough with lots of familiar faces from the local music scene both folks from other bands and regular audience members from around and about plus band friends and family. Got told I was "gorgeous" by one woman which is always a treat(!) and also by lots of people that the band was great and that we all played well which is even better. I thought we all played well too, the odd slightly tricky bit as we had some songs just for NYE which we would never normally play and had only rehearsed once. We played three sets from 9 until just after 12, supposed to be about 45-50 mins each with a 10 minute break between but the guitarist and harmonica player kept going off on one so in fact the breaks were only about 5 minutes which kept the vibe going nicely. Everyone enjoyed it, lots of well oiled but nicely behaved people, the band had a great time. And booked again for next NYE which will be four years in a row at the same place. Home by about 1.15, sat up until 2.30 with my wife and one of her friends (who came to the gig) eating Stilton and drinking port. Happy New Year!

Same pub for the third year running, and a strict 12.00 finish due to noise constraints (but the pub's open until 1). If it's as good a s he last two years it'll be great fun with a great party atmosphere and whilst not a great payer, more than we get when we gig there during the year. It's only a small venue and they don't charge or ticket it so we don't feel as if they are taking the mick in any way. We got the gig originally because another band turned it down for not paying enough: their lead guitarist then spent the night watching us and spending his money in the bar. Go figure. As a blues band we were surprised they asked but they took a punt on us and it worked out really well, we chucked in a few party standards and everyone was happy. This year they even advertised it as "becoming a NYE tradition" which I thought was very nice. If I can get next year on the way out I will. I'd rather do it than watch Jools.....

18 this year, a bit low for us but we only aim for around 20 -ish so not too bad. 18 booked for next year already so we're quite happy. I've been ill at one point and needed around 12 weeks off and our the guitarist/vocalist now has the same thing so we've got a long term dep which is working out really well apart from transport issues....NYE to go (third year running in the same pub) and then we're into 2018!

I have read all of this with some interest, and some amazement. I know it's nearly Christmas, and it's the time of goodwill and all that, but this seems to me to be a bit like putting the cart before the horse. Whilst for a lot of bands, mic'ing everything up including the drums, cymbals, guitar cabs, DI'ing the bass and running everything through a top class PA with in ear monitoring for everyone and maybe even a dedicated sound guy to play in a pub where the band has a small area to pack themselves in floats a lot of peoples boat it doesn't float mine. We run with backline only in a four piece blues band, vocal PA only and it works just fine for us. We regularly get told we sound great, but I accept that we are not a "loud" band. We set up in 25 mins including the drums. There is no clutter - the PA is passive so it's only speaker cables plus power for the mixer. I have no effects: bass, tuner pedal, LM3 and Barefaced Compact. That's it. Guitarist (who sings) has pedal board, one power cable for that, one for his amp and two guitar leads. One mic, one lead, one stand. Harp player similar to Guitarist . Drummer has things he hits. From reading the OP's original post, and looking at his PA mixer, it seems to me (and do correct me if I'm wrong) that thy are similar in set up to us. If they want to change, and go down the all singing and all dancing solution as a band that's great, not my way, but hey it's your hobby/small business /whatever so you do as you please. It takes all sorts. However......if it were my band, in my situation, and I decided I wanted a new car, I'd want to know I could fit my gear in it and maybe the PA on occasions. I wouldn't be looking for something I could fit the drums in as well as my gear, but I wouldn't be looking for something I could only fit a bass and a DI pedal in either. A Caterham 7 is out.( cue people who get a wardrobe and a chest of drawers in theirs). If I turned up to rehearsal and told my bandmates that I had bought a new car so I couldn't fit my gear in any more and suggested we spend lot's of money on a new PA so we could all go through that, that we should mic up everything and all buy in ears otherwise I wouldn't be able to gig with them, what do you really, really, think the answer would be? I think it might involve an advert. My answer is simple - I have an elderly bulletproof Nissan Almera worth £500 that refuses to die. It's what I use for gigs as I can park it anywhere and not worry about it. I can justify the expense of it because I also use it to and from work. Perhaps that's the OP's solution: stay as you are as it works for you, and buy a cheap reliable hack for gigging. Oh, and is a Super Compact much bigger than a decent wedge monitor capable of giving you a good bass mix? and if not, and neither will fit in your new car, who's taking your monitor for you?

What a sensible and helpful chap you are. As someone who's ability to pick out chords by ear is not that great, I'd love to see it this on here. Happy Christmas bassace.

So you're calling the band "The Prima Donnas" then.

Pretty sure it's "souls", but then again, "soles" is quite a nice concept if you have a large enough fish bowl......

I didn't see you in the audience at our last gig......

Try this........

My point exactly.

We're playing the same pub for the third year running. We'll get twice what they usually pay, plus a few pints for those in the band that drink (although none of them drink much at gigs) and will probably end up with £110 each. And we're happy. The pub should be busy, it has been both times before, but it still only holds as as many people as it does the rest of the year when it's busy so I think paying us twice the usual amount ifs fair. They don't charge entry, if they did I might think differently. It's a strict 12.00 finish due to noise constraints, no dragging on with "Oh please keep going" so overall we're happy to do it. And if I can get next year on the way out like I did last year, I'll take it. I have never been a great one for going out NYE to parties, so playing with my mates in a pub I like with a good natured crowd for £100+ is fine with me. Sooner that than sat indoors watching Jules Holland. Cue the usual suspects telling me I'm devaluing music and taking the bread from their mouths and the shoes from their children's feet

Silly me - I've just edited mine as it should, indeed, be Bb.

At the start of the solo, Two bars of A#, Am, D#, A# then two of G, F, C, G According to a post elsewhere from a few years ago.......Hope it helps. Sounds right to me The bit before that sounds like 4 bars of G, then G, Bb, C , G. The bit after that goes back to G,D,C,G until the last time which is G,Bb,C than G to finish. That's how it sounds to me, but then.....(looking for a deaf emoji)

Right, here goes. It's not a security issue here - I'm logged on using a PC running Windows 7 on the same network. My laptop with XP, service pack 3 running Chrome as a browser (which may be an old version, Chrome tells me that updates are unavailable as XP is no longer supported) will not connect. Search in google for "basschat" shows the site as a result, click on it and a blank white screen with the error message: "This site cannot provide a secure connection. www.basschat.co.uk uses an unsupported protocol" ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH Details: The client and server don't support a common SSL protocol version in cipher suite. This is likely to be caused when the server needs RC4 which s no longer considered secure. Hope this helps, Charic. Regards, Phil

I'm at work in the morning and home around this time so I'll post the error when I get home. Can't do it from work as I can't get on here....unless I can get sneaky try on someone else's pc running 7. If I can I will .

I can't get on with a laptop at I use at work . At home, no probs. At work no. And yes, it runs XP as it has various diagnostic programs on it that were designed to run in XP. They may be old, but they are very useful! It gives me an error regarding a server communication issue "this connection is insecure" and when i click on more information it seems to concern a protocol that is "not supported". I'll have a better look tomorrow and post the exact message.

I use open strings, but usually only if the next note played is fretted on that string or is on the string below ie on the A string after an open E so that it's easily damped as my finger comes through from plucking the next note. It seems to be necessary for me in order to get the right note lengths/values on an open string, not just leaving it ringing away. Probably due to poor technique on my part. I appreciate that you may not hear that when the band is going full chat, but as most people learn stuff at home on their own I find it just doesn't sound right to me with open strings ringing, and I play it how I learn it! Well, mostly anyway . I should add that I'm a finger player with flats. If you're a pick player with rounds it may be different. That may be the sound you actually want or like!

I didn't make it through either. I was a big fan in my teens, and still listen to my old vinyl on occasions (Shades of Deep Purple anyone?) but i'm afraid it came across as a lot of old geezers who should have packed it in. Not as bad as Macca, but almost.

Close enough for Jazz, maybe.