Dan Dare

I had a set of 5 year old Chromes on my main gigging bass until recently. Tonally, they were still fine, but the intonation had started to become a bit vague, so I changed them. Am playing the zing off them. It's mostly gone after a month.

Never say die. I'm 70 (one of the reasons I bought a good trolley) and still doing it. If you do think you may not be playing for too much longer, that's another reason not to throw a lot of money at new gear.

If you like your existing cabs, buying a quality folding trolley is a lot cheaper than replacing them. Don't buy a Chinese 40 quid cheapie. For a little over £100, I got one that is rated to 150kg that makes shifting gear easy.

Few 1x10 cabs will cut it in a band that plays "pretty loud rock", especially if you rehearse at or near gig volumes. The laws of physics and all that. A quality 1x12 would be better, but you don't appear to want to spend much. As the saying goes, "Light, loud, cheap. Pick any two".

Under-rated = someone whose playing I like, but who is not as widely appreciated as I think they should be. Dave's a very good musician. As pointed out above, he was (and probably still is, although he's almost 80 now, so he may well be taking life easy these days) a session player. it's in the nature of the job to do it well and not be a household name or someone the music press raves about. I don't suppose he's bothered. He's made a good living out of playing music, which is an achievement in itself.

I'd like to try some different pickups in my Rebop. At the moment, it has EMG HZ p/us, which were what it came with. I know the HZ was the budget EMG. Tonally, the sound is not very subtle. The low end is massive, the mid honk very pronounced and the top end is a little reticent. I know that mid growl is part of the Spector signature sound and I don't want to lose it, but it would be nice to tame it a little and add a bit more air in the highs. It's a 4 string, so EMG 35 type p/us should suit. I'd rather not have to start routing it to get replacements to fit. Anyone tried the EMG 35P4? It's claimed to be a bit closer to a P bass sound, which could be interesting. All suggestions appreciated.

2x45, as most say, seems to be standard. 2 hours with a 15 minute break, so 1x45 plus 1x60 is common, too. I find functions can be longer - 3x45, for example. Having at least two hours worth of material ready to go should be fine for most jobs.

What Burns-bass said. It's been a few years (quite a few), but I used to play there in the early days of the Irish theme bar boom, when O'Neill's bars booked Irish music (my original/main instrument was the fiddle). It could be interesting. There was little to no stage or separation between punters and musicians back in the day, so when it got boisterous (which it did on occasion), it was a case of sauve qui peut. Sounds as if little has changed. I'd set your monitors up well in front of you to (hopefully) act as a barrier to the punters. Brizzle seems to be one big building site/pedestrian only zone these days. I played in another Bristol bar last autumn and we couldn't get that close had quite a schlepp from the vehicles to the venue.

Jeremy Hosking? He owns two Deltics and one pf them is in a museum on the site of the old Hornby factory in Margate.

I should imagine it's to do with the fact that lower frequencies are felt - via causing your bones and tissues to resonate/vibrate - as well as heard. Blocking your ears masks the high frequencies by preventing vibration of the air reaching your eardrum, leaving only those which reach it structurally. It's the same as hearing only the bass from your neighbour's hi-fi because it causes the structure of the building to vibrate.

Now that is a serious toy. Which one?

The average person's ability to discern - visually or audibly - is not high. They seem to hear and/or see anything complex as a jumbled mess and are unable to separate out the individual strands of what is going on. If a musician tells me something is up with the balance, I take heed. If it's anyone else, I thank and ignore them.

There's some truth in that, but Switchcraft stuff, which is American, certainly isn't rubbish. Ditto CTS.

I've long since given up reading anything so-called music journos write. It was tripe back in the day and I've no doubt it's tripe now.

The major difference between covers and originals bands seems to be supply and demand. I play in one of each. The covers band (mainly classic soul) gets many more bookings than the other. Without wishing to blow our collective trumpet, we're pretty decent. We're all experienced and know what we're doing, have high quality kit, etc. We do pubs, clubs, functions (weddings, parties, etc) and similar, nearly always get booked back and work once or twice a week on average. It could easily be more, but we've had to agree between ourselves to limit the number of gigs we do to avoid issues with clashes with family commitments and so on. Getting a decent fee for our efforts is no problem. Crucially, there are plenty of venues where we can play and which want to book us. The originals band, which is just as good in terms of ability of the players, quality of material, etc, does maybe one a month if we're lucky. Fee is usually a couple of free drinks or non-existent. There are far fewer venues that put on originals acts and which will take a chance on an unknown quantity and it's a much harder sell to get into them. We have quality demos - audio and video - and a typical response from venues is "You're great, but we're not sure how you'll go down with our audience". They may want some kind of guarantee of how many people we'll bring in. That's fair enough. They're businesses and it has to be worth their while to open the doors, pay the staff and switch on the lights. We're up against dozens of other hopeful (and good) originals outfits eager to get their stuff in front of an audience and fighting for gigs in that limited number of venues. I'm not complaining. Playing in an originals band is satisfying and enjoyable, but the potential to gig and make money is far smaller.

He probably has decent eyesight. Most clip-on tuners are bright enough to be read at a metre or so distance. I can see mine fine and I wear spec's to read. Massive disrespect to the maker? Not really. Strings are metal. Not only that, they are a blend of different metals - core, winding, etc. Never heard of metals expanding/contracting due to temperature variation? As far as music stands go, as long as they are discreetly placed, they're fine in my opinion. I used to play in a function band. Our book had several hundred numbers in it. It just wasn't feasible to have them all in your head at all times. It's a different matter if you're a bunch of weekend warriors playing the same twenty songs each week.

True. Most quality vocal mics (excluding expensive condensers, which are not that useful for live work) are cheaper than pretty well any any decent guitar, bass, drum kit, etc. And that's before you factor in the cost of backline. I'd tell your singer to regard his mic' as his instrument and the PA as his backline and suggest it's reasonable that he should spend the equivalent on it of what the rest of the band have spent on their kit.

Maybe read before rushing to score a point? The post to which you responded stated that the "general public" would be unlikely to be aware of anyone other than Suzi Quatro and "the girl who played for Robbie Williams". I'm sure Tim knows who GAD is.

A dream come true for any music enthusiast... I had one of those dreams the other night. Took me ten minutes to stop screaming after I woke up.

"No tyre kickers"? Must be legit, then.

I'd pop the Tecamp in the boot of the car and head for a few shops to try stuff if I were you. Or take it with you when going to look at/try used cabs. Fender cabs are OK. They use Eminence Basslite drivers, which are not bad. However, if you can spend up to £500, some better quality options are within reach for you, especially if you buy used. A high quality 1x12 should give you plenty enough volume with your Tecamp and you won't have to worry about impedance (quite a few 2 driver cabs can be 4 ohm). Something like a used BF Super Compact should be well within your price range and they can make a lot of noise. Other makes are available, of course.

Absolutely old boy. The PA can go in the stables.

Yep. I've stored a PA in the hallway before now. It now resides in my lounge (heavy bits) and spare bedroom (stuff I can carry upstairs). My wife passed away some years back, so I don't have to worry about her feelings on the matter, although I have to give her credit for being understanding/accommodating when she was alive. Our drummer still keeps gear in the hallway. His wife is also understanding, although as she has her grand piano in their lounge, she couldn't really complain that much. I'd probably tell your drummer "Fair enough. I'll stop bringing my PA to gigs and we can hire from now on".

Their original shop was in the back streets of Camden Town. Like you, I bought a lot of stuff from them. When they moved to the North Circular, they were still within easy reach for me, luckily. Since they went online only, I haven't used them.