phil.c60

On 21/10/2018 at 13:04, Chris2112 said:

 

I used to work in a hotel and we had bands on every weekend for wedding functions over the summer. Most were not 'players' and banged out garbage tunes. Some could really play (I remember one band in particular used to warm up with Weather Report) but when the paying customers came in, they'd revert to playing the same stinky poo top 40 tunes that get the grannies bopping. 

 

I

Because that's what they are being employed to do. 

We use Google Calendar with colour coding and it works fine for us however my Galaxy S3 on Android won't seem to load things into Google Calendar via the app that are in the main calendar online if it's more than a year in the future. I can see them online via my PC or Laptop but not on my phone. Weird but true. I checked it by loading dates up to the present day via my PC with my phone next to me, which I refreshed/synced after every entry online. A year in the future: as it went over the year they were not visible on my phone despite clearly being on screen in front of me. My harmonica player, however, who has a more modern phone has no issues. Worth checking, all the same before something unfortunate happens!

On 05/10/2018 at 13:24, Stylon Pilson said:

Imagine turning up to the Tickled Trout on a Saturday evening with this.

S.P.

Is this JTUK's rig then? (Where he now?)

And so do I - unless the next note is either fretted on the same string or is played on the string below so that it naturally damps he open note.

Reply to Stantval - Sorry, Visog's post got in between!

Paulownia, Paulownia, it's what makes my jazz bass so good........

I'll get my coat.

I have a 1999 Hot Rod Precision which is very light indeed - less than 8lb - no dive for me.

I do this with the PA speaker leads as they are (obviously) quite long. My instrument leads are quite short so I simply coil them up and they go in the pocket of my gig bag. The amp to speaker lead is so short it coils up and goes in the amp carry bag pocket with the kettle lead. So I never forget them - have bass = have leads (and tuner). Have amp = have leads.

And they're all OBBM so  they never go wrong.....

Great gig last night - the sort that makes sit all worthwhile. A street party in Brighton - road closed for the day, all the residents and their kids having a lovely time. Set up a bit tricky - the road slopes and has quite a camber so had to keep the PA stands very low. No stage - we just set up across the road! Love to have a photo but didn't think to take one. Two sets with an hour in between so they can have their raffle: 7-8 and then 9-10 so a relatively early night although I had agreed to keep the PA up until 11 so they could play music through it (and I knew it would finish then because that was the curfew and time to reopen the road). One guy has asked to sit in on a couple of songs on keys ( we knew in advance and had OK'd it) so he brings out a very nice Fender electric piano. He turned out to be surprisingly good!  We were well looked after, everyone was very nice and we had a lovely time: harmonica player brought his Fender Bassman and was like a dog with two doodahs as he got to turn it above above 2 for a change. People were dancing from moment one including a very nice lady right in front of me who had her shoes off dancing barefoot in the road within the first bar of the first song. A wonderful night, we played well even with a dep drummer (who is, to be fair, a great player and thoroughly nice guy) And we got paid. Great evening on all levels.

Booked to play at a multi band event at Brighton Marina as part of a bike rally type event with a long ago blues band, booked by the singer who has  a Harley and fancies himself as Barnaby Wilde. He apparently knows the organisers and assures us it will be great. The event runs late (How unusual.Yawn.) We're told we're next. And then next again. And again. And then "We've run out of time, sorry." Guitarist has driven down from London for this.  We don't play. We don't get paid.  We have stood in a windy car park for hours minding our gear for absolutely feck all.  Singer clearly knows no one of any importance at all (Quelle Surprise).  It starts to rain. One of the most dismal experiences I've ever had.

12 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

1978. I'm playing a my college band. A cross between Dr Feelgood and The Clash.

My car has  been totalled in a crash but a friend can lend me his Mini van. It's cold (and very snowy), the car heater doesn't work. As I get to the gig the back fills up with smoke and the engine overheats. We push the car about 400 yards to the gig and play to people who couldn't have carted less.

We're keen and confident so we had agreed to play for a whip-round. 65p. 16p each. I am reduced to trying to shovel snow into the radiator to try and get some water into the system to drive home. I fail.

Entertaining as ever, Steve. Great story. 

Thanks for your input everyone. Guitarist has done his own research and found this: https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1942#19932 which covers the exact problem we experienced and is very clear about how and why it happens.  Discreet: thanks again for your comment, I'll go shopping for a tester and start testing everywhere we play before we plug in. Mykesbass: I couldn't possibly comment. At least we found a solution on the night and actually had a good busy gig and they want to re-book us but I don't want to have the issue ever again so we'll see.

I did wonder about this, but of course the venue owner insisted that "They had never had a problem before" - I know,  I know  - they would, really wouldn't they. And the earth testing plug is a great idea - I'll get on that now. Thanks.

Firstly, Mods: if this is in the wrong place please move it!

Weird things happened at last nights gig. We set up as usual, Yamaha EMX512SC PA mixer/amp into two EV SX300's two mics. Harp player has a 9W Harp Train amp di'd into the PA. Me, LM3 into Barefaced Compact. No pedals except a tuner. Guitarist has Line 6 Helix plus matching Line 6 powered FRFR monitor thingy. All set up fine, we have done this lots of times. Then....Guitarist plugs in guitar, gets a shock from the mic. Only when he touches the strings. Both mics are the same. We switch everything off, check it and try again. The same. After a lot of fiddling around, swapping mains leads for spares, swapping xlr's, guitar leads, (and all our kit, leads etc is in A1 order - we're those sort of guys) trying spare guitar etc. it's still the same. Guitarist is adamant that as his kit is almost new it must be the pa. I am not so sure - it works and with his guitar unplugged  everything is fine.  I suggest we take the Helix out of the set-up and use the Harp Train for guitar pre-amp into the Line 6 FRFR for volume, harp player di's straight into the PA from his pedal board, still the same. By this time I have unplugged my rig completely including taking the plug out of the wall socket so it's not that. We are now running 20 minutes late. Finally I suggest we take the guitar into the Harp Train for on stage monitor and the di from that into the pa for guitar and completely jag the Line Six kit. Problem solved. We play straight through and have a good gig - on stage sound is not good but regular watchers tell us that it's fine out front - harp is wireless so he wanders about to check anyway and it's a thumbs up. Phew. Well, Bass Chat massive, any thoughts? We've got two gigs next weekend and then almost every week this year so I need a solution. Apart from that, and more importantly, harp player has an in-dwelling heart pacemaker/defibrillator and absolutely cannot afford to get an electric shock. Help!

Left handed P for me! Well, Hot Rod P 1999 so Jazz too. Light, too:  about 7.5 lbs Sorry about the crap photo, pickguard is reddish tort.

5 hours ago, mic mac moe said:

There's a very nice epi jack casady on here for sale

Yeah, but it's right handed.........

I gig regularly with my 1999 Hot Rod P-Bass but I've always wanted a semi-hollow f-hole bass. I've been looking for a left handed Gretsch BroadKaster but more chance of finding some rocking horse doo-dah. I'm going to look at a Warwick StarBass local to me this weekend. Chinese, but supposedly very nice. I's black,which would not be my first choice but beggars etc.

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

Much as I agree with this sentiment in principle, in practice my entire career was built on putting up with truly industrial quantities of sh!t.

Deeply depressing and unenjoyable, but it paid for my early retirement.

You pays your money ...

 

Strictly speaking they paid your money......

And I wish I'd started before my late forties too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KJjVMqNIgA

One of my favourites....

Dizzee Rascal "That's Not My Name" on a BBC Live Lounge CD I've got - well worth a listen IMHO.

And (as she's all over the news a the moment) the steaming pile of brown sticky stuff that is Madonna's version of American Pie. Although I did hear a very jovial Don Mclean interview on Radio 4 where he was asked what he really thought of it and he just laughed and said "I thought it was great, but then I do own the publishing rights!".

14 hours ago, T-Bay said:

You do have to pay if you want to talk to people though. There is a band I may be interested in so tried to contact them but I have to subscribe for a month at a tenner. They may be great and it could be the best tenner ever spent, or I could hear nothing back. I know they have to make profit somehow but not sure it’s the best way.

If they're not bright enough to work out how to put contact details in their ad without you needing to subscribe and use the messaging service, are they going to be any good at the nuts and bolts of running a band, getting gigs etc? Personally I doubt it, but you literally pays your money and you takes your chance!

10 hours ago, charic said:

Yep! Leaving for band practice, carried my gear out of my front door, bass on back, cab infront of door.  I lean over the cab, resting my hand on the doorframe and pull the door shut to lock it...

Hear crunching noise, look at my thumb... now trapped in the shut door (hinge side) halfway down my thumbnail.

My thumb pretty much doubled in size, the nail filling with blood but I was determined to go to practice.  3 hours of practice later my thumb is absolutely throbbing and now a rather horrific shade of red/black (worth noting I'm a pick player and this was my picking hand).  They needed to pierce my thumbnail with a red hot needle to release the blood, typically in going through the thumbnail they managed to drive said needle into my nail bed at the same time.

The pressure of the built up blood in my thumbnail was so high by this point that the blood managed to easily cover a distance of around 4-5m as the needle released it.

That wasn't a great deal of fun!  How the hell I didn't break my thumb I'll never know!

Top tip from someone who has done this many times (given to me by a doctor): don't use a needle or anything sharp. By the time the hole is big enough to let the blood out the point is painfully stuck into the nail bed underneath. Uncurl a paperclip or similar. Heat the end to red hot in a lighter. Push red hot end through nail slowly - it burns it's way through and is then cooled by the blood underneath so you won't even feel it go through the nail. Repeat if you're too slow the first time and don't get right through! Cue satisfying spurt of blood and relief from the throbbing. Do it as soon as it throbs and there's clearly blood under the nail - if you do it soon enough you'll keep the nail. If you just leave it you probably won't.

1 hour ago, Shaggy said:

 

3.  A really decent quality lead.   Audible improvement in sound, and no more re-soldering crappy cheap jack plugs.

 

This. I am so fed up with my band mates assortment  of cheap crap that causes no end of problems.

And we all know where to get them - from OBBM!

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Change of heart: if a purely originals bassist wants to slag me off as a covers musician 'cos he's "so much better", he's welcome to; I'll happily settle for having a lot of fun with great bandmates, audiences loving our sets and my annual expenditure on gear and rehearsals being fully met from gig monies 😎

This.

The Blues for me. Every blues song always seemed to be held together by the bass. Forget the "widdly widdly" guitar, it never interested me that much, but simple lines played with feeling get me every time.