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Saw Jools Hollands Big Band at Hull on Sunday, the most disappointing night in decades. The sound was abysmal, muddy and over loud, indistinct vocals, couldnt hear Mark Almond at all and even Ruby Turner was hardly audible. I know how good this band can be and I think they were probably superb as usual, just couldn't hear anything but a blast of noise. I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt re venue acoustics etc but have since spoken to people who were at the Skegness gig on Saturday who said it was the same there. Bitterly disappointed.

I thought lemon oil was for cleaning fretboards and dried them out? I use boiled linseed oil on rosewood fretboards.

I ended up in a band that needed the P Bass sound, awkward because the only bass I owned at the time was my 1978 Jazz. Anyhow after messing about with the sound at every gig and never being completely happy I found that setting the neck pickup at around 8 to 9 and about the same on the bridge gave me the best tone, opening the pickups fully did not work at all. If you experiment with the volumes you can plainly hear the difference around the 8/9 setting, changing the tone almost like a wah pedal, until you find the sweet spot. I realised that what I needed was a P bass with a J width neck but all I had was an Ibanez Blazer fretless with a narrow neck, took it to rehearsal and the tone was there straight away, no faffing around, little tone change when lowering volume, tone knob working from thud to biting. Conclusion, if you want to sound like a PBass player then you need a Pbass, you might have to find a narrow neck version a la Duck Dunn but its a Pbass you need, anything else is an approximation. I bought a Jazz back in 1978 and stuck with it because the wide Precision neck didnt suit me, tried a Precision recently, still doesnt, but for the music I play its a Precision I need. They are plug and play always sound at least ok and are easy to control.

I have posted before on this subject, the last two bands I played with paid attention to volume and we were often complimented on our sound, punters and landlords liked it, meaning repeat bookings on the spot. Bar staff appreciate taking drink orders without lip reading and punters are fine if they go home without ringing ears You really dont need to be ear burstingly loud but its a hard message to get across and dont get me started on rehearsing at 120dB. I have come close to quitting due to ridiculous volumes, I refuse to turn up over and over to be heard but the worst culprits dont even notice as they only listen to themselves.

Every so often a story like this hits the media, its been plumbers, market stallholders, part time car traders, ebay sellers and now the gig economy. HMRC gave up on extracting tax from weekend band members decades ago as so few actually made a profit after expenses, it wasnt worth their time chasing musos when there were other richer seams to be mined. Even when they did a big publicity effort to frighten black market tradesmen into declaring income they did not have the manpower to do the job properly instead hoping people would become spooked and register themselves. Lack of resources means that little effort is actually expended finding and investigating all the Dellboy types. I learned this from a friend who works for HMRC and a relative who is a chartered accountant.

Its not only class D amps that play up, my band plays a couple of venues where there is a issue with the power supply. The ancient keyboards (4) use 9volt phone charger type power supplies and I use my 1970s HH solid state head for bass. At various points during the set my bass will sound horribly distorted but one keyboard in particular will fail altogether, just producing a clicking noise. We put this down to a voltage drop caused by the long extension leads and demand from the fryers and other equipment in the venue, the cure is not easy to find. I dont look forward to playing one of these gigs as our sound is always compromised, the place was rewired last year but we use the same setup elsewhere and never have a problem.

I have one of these in for repair, its branded as a Behringer, made in China.

Bought my Antigua finish Jazz Bass new in 1978 from Carlsboro Music, paid £350.

I used to play in a few ballroom/dance halls with sprung floors, some had the bandstand built directly onto the sprung floor. When the crowd started to dance, the spring reverb unit in my amp would crash and clang like crazy!

Anything Motown or Billy Ocean will fill the floor immediately.

"I have not rehearsed the set list at all but we can play a completely different set of songs that I know" , in the wrong keys for our female vocalist as well! "I don't drive if it might be frosty" , well mate we are not making an 80 mile round trip to pick you up. Did you bring your Gretsch? (Early Sixties covers band) No, just the Les Paul and Marshall. "Oh I am going on a three month trip" starting the week after our first gig, with six months of gigs booked.

My amps are a Hiwatt from 1972 and an HH from 1974, I bought the HH in 1976 and the Hiwatt in 1998, used regularly now but both stood unused for over ten years when I had a break from performing. Neither have ever been opened up and they work perfectly despite the HH being rattled around the country during the seventies. On the other hand our 2013 Behringer mixer was faulty after a year.

double post

I've had this happen a number of times and usually just put up with it because I couldn't work out the cause, once or twice I've moved my cabinet onto a table/stand or tilted it back which helped. Having a proper sound check is invaluable, the same song each time so you can get an idea of the room acoustics, don't play too loud either, good luck with that though.

My result said Geddy Lee, I could not name any of his numbers let alone play one, the only similarity is we both use an old Jazz Bass. Despite that I sound nothing like Geddy Lee, I was hoping for Duck Dunn but half expecting Gene Simmons, rubbish quiz!

Lead guitarist needed for covers band, mainly sixties material. Regular paid gigs waiting. Call Graham 07514 649085

One of my most memorable gigs was playing in the pit orchestra for pantomime in the now long gone local theatre, all red velvet seats, dark wood and steep tiers. Watching the antics of the cast as they rehearsed, big egos, the sulks and tantrums when lines were cut, blaming the band when cues were missed, fantastic entertainment. The shows though were brilliant with audience participation at full volume and a 9 piece band blasting out, I particularly remember a Boxing Day Childrens Matinee when the audience had all been given a bag of sweets. It wasn't long before the little horrors were throwing sweets at the drum kit which was raised above the pit, confectionary rained down until it sounded like an invisible Keith Moon was playing! I would jump at the chance to do another.

Mixed feelings about this years NYE gig, the venue is the Draymans Arms Spalding, a pub we have played before and gone down well, the hosts are lovely and we are receiving our usual fee x3. However this will be the last ever gig for "Commercial Break" as two members are retiring, which is sad as we all get on really well and go down a storm wherever we play. After gigs every weekend, I will miss playing with them terribly. (Or playing terribly with them if you like! ). I would like to continue gigging but will probably have to concentrate on business this year, unless I have an exceptional offer of course.

I have a 1982 Blazer with a lined fretless one piece maple neck which is slightly narrower than a Precision but much thinner. Pickups are P type no hum and pretty powerful, build quality is excellent, I have had it 25+ years and rarely adjust the trussrod, it gets a lot of use and even with rounds fitted the laquered fingerboard is hardly marked. Sounds like a really punchy P bass but lacks Mwah for songs that call for the fretless tone, I am on the lookout for a similar fretted Ibanez but preferably with P/J pickups

Sadly, I am old enough to have seen many bands in the early seventies and have played bass since then as well. The most you could ask of a bass rig back then was that it was audible, IIRC no one ever mentioned tone, just volume. Most of us amateur/semi-pro players aspired for a massive stack that would compete with the drummer, we settled for a cheap mismatched half stack with flappy speakers and wooly tone. There were no real role models for bassists, maybeJPJ, Mitch Mitchell or Andy Fraser and their tone was not exactly HiFi, later on there was Chris Squire but his tone was no good for belting out CCR covers in the clubs and dance halls even if you could afford a Rickenbacker. I still have most of my gear from back then (Fender Jazz/Hiwatt /H-H etc) and you can get a reasonable sound from the amps but the speakers are rubbish, There is a Fleetwood Mac live concert on you tube from the late sixties and (through headphones) the bass sounds really good, as good as modern day recordings so perhaps good live tone was possible. ETA maybe it was DI-ed?

Did not enjoy this at all, especially as I spent the first half dismantling my tv system bass speaker because I thought it had stopped working. Pretty sad viewing really, I was waiting for Ace of Spades, did I miss it? Also wondering why the thread hasn't turned into a Rick lovers vs haters thread, what's going on?

Lowdown, I had forgotten the Parkinson Show theme, we used to play that as an "off" at the end of each set!

My first proper band in the 70's had Hammond, a new fangled polyphonic synth with "strings" and a real brass section. We did loads of TV and Film Themes as they went down really well with the audiences. Shaft, Hawaii 5-0, Six Million Dollar Man, Charlies Angels, Summer of 42 Biddu arr., Muppet Show Theme, Monty Python Theme, Exodus, The Avengers, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, Shadow of your Smile etc. Really enjoyable tunes to play especially as the composition/arrangements were by people such as John Barry, Michel LeGrand, and Lalo Schifrin and recorded by top session players. I miss those days, playing 5 nights a week plus Sunday lunchtimes, how times have changed!

"Try a Little Tenderness" was written in the 1930s I believe and "It's Now Or Never" uses the old Neopolitan tune Santa Lucia. Greensleeves was a 1966 hit in Europe, by The Lords I think, my old garage band used to perform their arrangement.

I gigged my owned from new 1978 Jazz Bass regularly until recently, it is totally original and mint apart from the strings (which are tucked away somewhere) my amp is from 1973 as well. I only stopped using it as like the previous poster, I was afraid of it being stolen or damaged in the tiny spaces we often have to play in. Orchestral players use fragile instruments over two hundred years old so I wouldn't worry about something as robust and basic as an electric bass dropping to bits. Perhaps a quick check and clean of the pots and tightening up the jack socket and it should be good to go for another 20 years.