Al Krow

12 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Late 30s and early 40s.

 

Daryl

Have you had the same line up since 2007 or have there been a few personnel changes during that time? Be amazing if you haven't!

12 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

In my neck of the woods at the local or regional level you can't make a living playing in a band.

 

Even if you were working your butt off you'd be hard pressed to clear 12k annually. 

 

Blue

Is that $USD 12k each i.e. (about £9.5k)?

I'm aware there's some who are making $25k / £20k per band member on this side of the pond from covers/function work, but they will likely be part of very successful function bands and that level of earnings won't be true for most. I guess that could be sufficient to live off if you were single or at least make a pretty decent dent in living expenses. There will be a bunch in a similar earnings bracket for individual band members to the figures you've said and I suspect plenty more getting half that again.

Bugera Veyron 1001M - around 800W RMS.

4 band EQ plus ultra low & high boosts, with semi-para mids.

Bought as a spare back-up amp for my DG AO900. Only gigged once and has had very light home use, so it's in pretty much pristine condition. I've switched to going through FoH so currently sitting in its case not being used.

Best price I can currently find online (from DV247) is £279 plus £20 to £25 for the padded soft case i.e. £299 new, so if I knock 25% off that to reflect a used price discount (and the excellent condition it's in), that comes in at £225.

Add around £15 for P&P or happy to meet half way with a reasonable distance of E London.

Any Qs please shout.

17 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I brag a lot about my band. They're young,smart, fair and generous to a fault. We've been together since 2007.

 

Maple Road gave me everything I'd ever wanted in a band.When and if this band folds that will be it for me. I'm too spoiled and I'm 70.

 

I'll go out on a high note.

 

Daryl

Very cool! 

When you say "young" what's the age range of the rest of your crew? 

On 23/11/2023 at 17:38, meterman said:

The last band I used to play with in the UK have just announced tour dates for next year, with tickets online. Massive demand, sold out album, etc.
 

I think even if I was still in the UK I’d struggle to make it to a rehearsal let alone the likes of Islington Academy. I’m just done. Finito.
 

I’d go and see them live if it was possible though, and have a pint with them, but the thought of the slog of touring is pretty much an instant soft-on now. 

Sounds like a bit of a dream band - can we ask who they are, if you're comfortable with sharing? 

What caused you to fall out of love with playing live - is it something you could get back into if it didn't involve touring? 

47 minutes ago, steantval said:

Fish & Chips, Burger & Chips probably £35 each in The Shard.

Haha, you're not wrong! £39 for fish & chips and £10 for half a lager!! Fortunately we had food provided (which was an unexpected treat) by the wedding couple who very kindly looked after us. 

Mentioned a few months back that I'd been thinking of replacing the stock preamp on my Yamaha BB 2005. Partly 'cos it felt a little "tired" but also because I was making zero use of the Nathan East ('NE') mid-cut on it. Ended up going for an Aguilar OBP-3 with a push-pull mid frequency selector, which gives a choice of 400Hz or 800Hz for the mids: the former seems to give more mid punch; the latter is "sweeter" tonally. Early days, but I think I'm liking it.

I've gotten so used to either leaving the bass EQ flat or cutting it slightly, that it was a surprise to find that I'm really liking giving the bass EQ a slight boost, which seems to add a real weight to the low end, without being boomy - but that's maybe the combination of having an HPF built into my Zoom B1-4 patches to cut out low end "crud".

As the NE selector switch was going spare, I asked Gary Mac of this parish who was doing the work on it, to make use of it as an active/passive switch which will give me added peace of mind if the battery ever goes flat mid gig.

Gave it a spin last Thursday night down at Kingston market with the band - was a fun gig!

Not going to be often that my crew get invited to play a wedding at the Shard - so definitely one for us to remember.

Logistically it was one of the most tricky we've had to negotiate: moving kit from the loading bay, which we needed to pre-book slots for the two cars, then going off to park in a nearby car park while a member of staff plus one bandmate moved all the kit from lift 1 to lift 2 and then from lift 2 to outside the wedding reception room on the 34th floor. Then doing all that in reverse at the end of the night! The view was worth it though 😊

15 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I suggested IEM few weeks ago ............ again and the reaction was great until i mentioned i won't need any backline as i'll just go thru the PA. The drummer owns and operates the PA and he went into a panic saying the cabs won't cope and i replied that many bass players now use a powered PA cab and pre-amp as they are full range speakers. His cabs are QSC 3 way 15" and more than capable of coping with anything we would put thru them. Response to that was that he would then need to control everyone going thru PA and i said Yes that's true but its a digital desk. Once its set and stored the levels are more or less there every time. You just store for each venue.

He wasn't impressed so its not gonna happen anytime soon.

Dave  

Aww that's a shame - we have the same issue with one of the rehearsal venues we use: the owner is both flabbergasted at how light & good a Barefaced cab compared to the "fridges" he has on site and simultaneously not being prepared to allow anyone to put bass through the PA - only just about tolerates keys! Hope you manage to bring your drummer round eventually - as you say lots of us are going through the PA these days often without backline support.

Hi Brian - welcome to Basschat!

What's your budget and are you after a combo or just an amp head (i.e. do you have separate bass cab)?

Maybe worth posting your query in the main amps & cab forum, rather than this more specialist PA one - although a powered PA speaker may actually be a good answer here in terms of what you are needing 🙂

@Silvia Bluejay - if you agree could you move Brian's query to main forum please?

On 08/10/2023 at 16:25, BCH said:

 

Use for the first time last night @ a pub gig 5 piece used 12 inputs & 5 outs for monitors....I & sound eng' use to A&H SQ...downloaded the CQ app ...90% intuitive sound check took 30 min all happy with monitors...improved during 1st set...very happy with the sound...its early days & I'm sure A&H will update with functionality & add on's ...sound helped by amazing KV2 active FoH cabs

 

Pulling your post onto this thread if I may...do you have any clips of your KV2s in action? You're not the first person I've come across to rave about them! 

About us | KV2 Audio Wasn't previously aware of the linkage between KV2 and RCF - found that article v interesting.

Just now, lidl e said:

This board comes with both. Will ha e to figure out which is which, although looks like i wont need!

Yeah just seen your PSU comes with enough juice to power the Grateful Dead... 😁

38 minutes ago, lidl e said:

does that work? i thought it would double to power but not the mA.

 

I don't know anything about this stuff! I do have plenty of ports on the PS. So if i use two 9V, both at 300mA, that will give me 600mA?

Should be fine, as @jrixn1 suggested. But make sure you're using a current doubler not a voltage doubler otherwise you will fry your pedal. 

24 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Sorry, this page isn't available.

Ah apologies - try again now?

SY200 clip in band mix

On 04/11/2023 at 13:15, BabyBlueSound said:

Good to know there is a synth pedal that actually works. The Electro Harmonix Bass Synth was SO disappointing in terms of tracking & triggering... I'll have to check some vids about this SY-200

Here's a short clip of the SY200 to give you a feel for it in a band mix.

Grizzly Bass can do this (and a range of other tones / dirt) as well. 

Only has mid-cut not mid-boost though. Wonder if the sound at 2.45 is what you are after?

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

 

They also tend to cost more than the alternative if you are only using it for a couple of things, so for some people it makes perfect sense to sell if they are only using 10% of it. It's like selling a bus because you don't need to transport a football team around when a car will do the job you need cheaper. 

Unless you're happy to settle for the budget one I've previously mentioned - £45 to £50 used. But tbf I reckon I use perhaps 70% to 80% of what it can do, so maybe that's a best of both worlds sceanrio?

Also maybe we're thinking of what these can do in the wrong way? I tend to think of making use of features rather than every variation of that feature? E.g. using it for any type of patch is making use of its simulation capability i.e. you don't have to use every patch going!

The features that come to mind are:

• bespoke patch creation 
• being able to chain patches in sequence in any order
• software editing of patches and being able to copy these across as the starting point for variations of a patch 
• tuner
• looper
• global EQ
• DI out
• headphone amp
• drum machine
• scenes / snapshots
• parallel path routing 
• IR modelling

Not all multi-fx's will have all of the above features.

10 hours ago, SumOne said:

 

Nice!

 

I keep owning B1-Four's and then foolishly selling them. They're better than many expensive multi-fx or individual pedals for home practice (more portable, drum loops, aux in) and there are a few Band practice sessions where it would have been really useful (especially when I've had to lug about a pedalboard on public transport, and when the drummer is late!), and even if I just add it to my live board for HPF it's cheaper than most HPF pedals, and it'd do as a backup. I'm going to get one again, probably for about the 4th time!

Well I reckon I've had four, too! But that's because I got one for a mate and at one point had 3 for own use (one at the heart of a small pedal board, another as a standalone "board" (as per last night's gig) and a third... well not sure why I had that one 😅. They are as cheap as chips if you buy them used, and as you've outlined can be ridiculously useful for money. 

But clearly anyone getting 4 has got to B1... 

On 16/11/2023 at 11:57, Paul S said:

Yamaha BB425 would be my choice if I could still handle a 9lb bass.

Good shout.

17 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

Hi all, I'm after a bit of advice.  I play in a covers band and have done for about 12 months now.  Song choices are always by consent, with the understanding that there will be some that an individual loves to play, some that they're happy to play and some that they may not like as much as the others.  I've been lucky so far in that most of them so far I really enjoy playing and the few that I haven't initially been keen on have grown on me after a while for the most part.

 

However, I've just hit the immoveable object of a song I just can't like.  I've tried my best and I find it a very boring (heaven knows what an audience would think of it) and needlessly fiddly dirge, bereft of hooks, groove or anything I find attractive.  I'm aware that some of the other guys in the band absolutely love it and it would be a personal high point in the set for them, and also that they've played songs that have held the same joy for me even though they don't particularly like them.  I've no problem with the abstract that sometimes I might have to play a song I'm not keen on (this is a covers band after all), but the reality seems to be different.  It would be better perhaps if I thought it would go down well with an audience - this happened with PUSA's "Peaches", which I think is rubbish but I can see why the audience might like it, and when we've played it live the reaction has been very positive.

 

The problem I have is that I dislike the song we're supposed to be learning for practise on Sunday so much that when I sit down to learn it, it turns me off so much that I just can't focus on it or even stomach hearing it played enough to follow the tabs.

 

"Don't play it, then"-type answers aside, how do you old sweats deal with this?

 

Thanks very much,

 

JRK

I could have pretty much written the same post as you, certainly a while back, so I completely sympathise with where you're coming from!

Being obliged to play stuff that grates can put you off enjoying a gig. In the covers bands I've been in, as well giving everyone a say in song choices, we've also allowed each other a veto on the occasional song which falls into the "can't stand that" category. 

The point about whether your audiences are going to like it or not is an important one, although some songs may appeal to a minority in the audience and you then have something "for them" which they never usually get to hear played live.

We've found having an open chat about songs we dislike and being able to share what's a turn-off to us individually has helped, and maybe also given a different angle to a song. I've ended up recently agreeing to play a couple of songs which are crowd pleasers but I'd previously really disliked. Annoyingly, haha, I've found they've both really grown on me! So I guess sometimes it's worth pushing through and giving it a try?

Played on a small stage at Kingston market last night. 

"Rig": Yamaha bass --> Zoom B1-4 --> (venue supplied:) Behringer XAir desk -> Alto TX210s 

Super simple / cheap as chips set-up but did the job! (I used the Zoom B1-4 as tuner, clean patch with "Presence" to aid cutting through, and Xotic BB drive patch).

Had a complete blast playing with the band!

Played on a small stage at Kingston market with my band last night. 

Rig:

(my kit): Yamaha bass --> Zoom B1-4 -->

(venue:) Behringer XAir desk -> Alto TX210s 

Zoom B1-4 used as tuner, clean patch (with "Presence" to aid cutting through) and Xotic BB drive. 

Super simple / cheap as chips set up but did the job! Had a complete blast playing with the band. 

On 12/11/2023 at 18:58, bartelby said:

I've never heard a digital overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedal I've liked.

Nor modulation, come to think of it.

I'm managing to get pretty good dirt with both a Xotic BB and B7K sims on a budget Zoom B1-4. It's not perfect, but "good enough", but then I've still not managed to find an analogue pedal that is a perfect dirt, particularly when dealing with different gigging basses. 

Where I think multis still struggle are:

- pitch shift (but then so do analgoue pedals tbf);

- filter and synth sounds (unexpectedly I've found the budget B1-4 seems to stack up pretty well here against more expensive rivals eg Helix Stomp). 

Not all lightweight modern heads are expensive eg Bugera Veyron 1001M or 1001T, which both provide around 800W RMS. A fair few of us BC'ers have had one of these models and been very happy with them. 

Be also interested more generally on what effects you feel the GT 1000 Core does well / not so well.

Are there any dirt / fuzz sims you really rate? I'm guessing with the parallel paths it's easy to dial in a decent clean blend to avoid too much low-end suck?

@fretmeister interesting point about whether pedals are "designed" to handle the very low end: e.g. an octave down dealing with a 41Hz low E fundamental = producing more flub at the 20Hz end and also several pedals double up as guitar pedals. But appreciate your experience was different here.

Max's (Thumpinator) advice was to put it at the start of the chain.