Nicko

Myy house is insured through John Lewis. The contents cover covers instruments inside and outside the house, but I cant remember offhand what the single item limit is - I think is £2k. I fail to see why getting paid for gigs comes up in the insurance enquiry, I certainly wouldn't volunteer this info, but if they ask you'd have to tell them.

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1435398711' post='2808379'] I'd disagree, I play this in our set in a schecter pj with standard 105's. It's a little loose, but it's meant to be that way if you listen to the recording. If it's the o my song you play in that tuning, it may sound off to your ears, but I play a couple tuned to Db so I'm used to the feel. Is it possible you are being a touch to gentle with your right hand? My setup is the above with just the P pickup, tone full, gritty overdrive sansamp VT, and dig in! [/quote] I suspect I'm being too vigorous with the right hand - it may of course be a complete lack of talent that prevents me getting anything even passable! I think your bass has a longer (35") scale length as well so I guess the standard 105s are a bit less floppy?

I'm another one who didn't really think they were that good. I appreciate they're getting on a bit but if you're just gonna go through the motions whats the point?

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1435241766' post='2806895'] Do you get any rules to follow? [/quote] That and this, these and those. But basically the answer is you cant really play play it on a 4 string with normal strings. I'm glad its not my technique.

[quote name='No lust in Jazz' timestamp='1435233639' post='2806761'] Yes, Fender P tuned to drop C. [/quote] That's my setup - what gauge strings are you using?

Anyone managed to play this on a 4 string without it sounding absolute s***? E string tuned down 2 whole tones just isn't working for me.

Whats the speaker config in the cab? I haven't noticed that the amp is particularly loud, and I find it a little distorted when pushed hard.

Yep, I get if for guitars, but most bass changes are not for major tonal differences or alternative tunings. I've seen may bands bass players swap P bass for P bass, where the tunings for the songs are the same.

I've always been a bit confused about people changing guitars every couple of songs on stage. I saw the Stokes at Hyde park, and they took it to the other extreme. 4 guitar amps, one big ampeg for Nik. One Fender Jazz, one Strat and one Gibson semi (es335?). Same instruments the whole way through. Never saw a stage that bare for a big gig before and it was quite refreshing.

Well, a couple of things: 1. Why ship it freight rather than either excess baggage or if you are lucky as cabin baggage. See the flying with instruments thread [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/41208-flying-with-instruments-my-guide/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/41208-flying-with-instruments-my-guide/[/url] 2. Make sure you buy in a low tax state. [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States[/url] 3. Beware import tax when you come back. Limit is £390. Buying just under the limit will buy you something nice - personally I'd try to negotiate a small discount on a standard Fender precision (list is $599 or about $400) - and save you money compared to the UK (UK price somewhere around £500). I agree $$ your hand gives you the right to play no matter how bad you think you are.

My sadly departed brothers old bass. Its strung left handed, I'm a righty, it's battered to hell. Is a no name (possibly custom) and obviously home upgraded. So its utterly unplayable, but I'll always treasure it. Its only when he got ill that I started playing bas again.

I think people are missing the original point (maybe I didn't explain properly) The band all know the songs and structure. Practice in this context is intended to get it really tight, and to be honest we can't do that without the stickman. Anyway, we cancelled last night and bonded over beers instead which was probably time well invested but its great to see everyone's views.

For Bon Jovi I could be the constant yawning!

You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. The chorus sounds difficult and is, the start of the verse is one note, but hitting it in the right place is an absolute pig. Flea at his best.

Our drummer has cut his hand. It doesn't look too bad but its 3 stitches in the palm. So he cant practice with us for a few weeks and then he's on holiday for 2 weeks. The rest of the band are suggesting rehearing anyway. I reckon its pointless for a bass player to rehearse without the rest of the rhythm section unless you are working on new original material, which we're not. So I reckon the band will be taking a month off. Which is even worse.

Well, that kinda goes without saying. But I'm a relative beginner myself.

I tried several small lightweight cabs running a 250W Littlelmark Blackline back to back on Saturday and thought I would share my impression. Markbass Traveller 102P 4 Ohm Markbas Traveller 121P 8 Ohm Eden Compact 115 8Ohm The 102 was by far the loudest setup - probably because of impedance rating. Overall it was maybe a bit lacking in character if anything. The 115 wasp pretty good, but seemed to lack volume and definiton low down. It sounded great further up (past A string 5th fret or thereabouts) I didn't get on with the 121 at all.

I'm sure this has been done before but... The band agreed to cover Place Your Hands by Reef. I had a quick listen and it sounded quite complicated. But it took about 5 minutes to learn the phrases and another 5 to learn the structure. Any more suggestions for great lines that are like falling off a log?

I'm crying

Love Cats by the Cure. Uses lots of strings and plenty of fingers, sounds fantastic but is actually pretty simple.

1. Jimi Hendix, Like a Rolling Stone, Monterey version: 30 years I've been trying to get anywhere near this - IMHO the greatest piece of rock guitar ever recorded, and got me into Bob Dylan as well. 2. AC/DC Problem Child: I think this is when I first became aware that rock didn't have to involve makeup. 3. Duran Duran: Planet Earth: You can play miusic with guitars and make it sound like this, rock music does not have to involve dirty jeans and leather jackets 4. Run DMC: It Aint Funny: Rock Funk Fusion. And massive medallions. 5. RHCP: Under the bridge: Even befrore I was a bass player this was my favourite bass line. 6. Stereophonics: Local Boy in the Photograph: I come of age as a guitarist - shun the poodle rock and understand that rhythm and melody mean more than flash solos 7. The Strokes: Someday: I realise you can play guitar using partial chords to create tension. 8. The Killers: Somebody told me: I grow up on bass as well. Book: Crime and punishment, by the time I get to the end I've forgotten the beginning. It just keeps giving! Luxury: A fully functioning still

Thanks all - I'm really glad no one said I shouldn't even attempt gigging with such a weedy amp Looks like for outside everyone agrees this setup is completely inadequate! Not sure about why theres a suggestion that an additional 1 x 10 would be less effective than a purpose made 2 x 10. Is this simply down to the cabinet volume?

We played a small outside gig on Saturday. I ran a passive bass through a Markbass LM250 head and an 8 Ohm Ashdown Mi10 lightweight speaker. I always knew it would be touch and go volume wise and basically everything was on 10 except the gain which was around 7 ish so it wasn't clipping. The guitarist is convinced I need to move more air and I'm inclined to agree. So, I have choices - keep the 10" and add one more 10, 12 or 15" additional cab - ditch the 10" and go 2x10, 1x12 or 1x15" standalone - run an output from the LM to the PA As I understand it, a 4 Ohm set up will maximuse the output. An additional 8 Ohm cab could be parallel wired to end up with a 4 Ohm set-up so I'm knd of favouring this route initially. The final setup ideally needs to fit in the back of a mid sized hatch and I need to be able to get it upstairs when I get home. If none of these is going to work I guess its list the LM and seek something with more output? I should say we're a small venue typoe of covers band. The 250 Head shoudl be good for inside gigs, but I guess a little extra wouldn't hurt. I've been keeping an eye on the lightweight speaker cabs thread and personally I'm not convinced I can actually tell much difference tonally in speaker diameters. The 10" sounds fine - I just need more bang!

I agree. Its completely useless. Its been removed and stored inside my MicroPog box.

Saturday was the debut for the band - we've only done open mic nights before. Pretty much everything was against us. Playing at 7.00 pm in the garden, lack of punters, weather wasn't that good, pub doesn't normally do music. But, it went really well. As we did the soundcheck some people came up to us with requests - we don't do requests, but we put them on the PA fom the IPod and I think they really appreciated that. We managed to get pretty much all the punters into the garden and most were singing along. Highlight of the night was "Al the smalll things" which went down a storm with the youngsters. We did an encore of (say it quietly) "Sex on Fire", and actually ended up adding an extra chorus so the crowd could sing along. We didn't play particularly well, and there were a few bum notes form both the guitarist and me, but nobody seemed to notice, possibly cos my set up (single 10" lightweight) was not quite up to an outside gig. I might be looking for a 15 speaker to move some more air.