T-Bay

Welcome! Many people never use effects/ pedals but a few simple ones can be a lot of fun and really add to your sound.

Same here, love the precision sound, hate the cricket bat neck. Seems strange that with such a wide product range of both that they don’t offer a few options.

Out - quite a few including my Gibson Thunderbird In - Fender Ultra Jazz and some new pedals

I was going to mention their mics, We tested my cheap one against an SM57 and 58 and it was the match of either. My sound engineer buddy was very sceptical before and gobsmacked after. Doesn’t make me sound any better though 😂

I bought a pedal off Paul, superb communication, pedal was well packaged. Would 100% recommend.

I could be being completely stupid (and when it comes to musical theory, I frequently am), but couldn’t you just fudge it by playing pentatonics up and down the fretboard? No experience in jazz but it has got me by playing a few old rock and roll standards.

Marry you by Bruno Mars - bear in mind that we play alternative rock/ indie! So a few really fast numbers then that dirge. We only ever play it on the odd time we do weddings, this was a Christmas party for a local place. Set was divided into three sections - fast/ rockier songs ( the lighter end of our more usual stuff, we don’t do the heavier stuff at mixed gigs like this) then a few more mainstream ones (Oasis, Bruce Springsteen sort of stuff) then Christmas songs to finish. It was only right at the very end with Slade and Wizzard that we got back to the numbers we had had at first. Quite often the last minute additions will be stuff that they want to play with the other band (and hence the drummers agreement) which makes sense, but is still annoying, but why would you put it in a Christmas set? Teenage dirtbag was the song dropped to put it in.

Sadly there is no point, I work with two of the band and this happens all the time. It’s annoying and a shame as the band is brilliant apart from this one frustration. Usually it doesn’t have a big impact (apart from on me!) but this one just killed the set. I spoke to the others after but there were a million excuses as to why people stopped dancing. I don’t want to leave the band so I just put up with it I guess……….

Sadly no, one of those things…. Bloody annoying but there you go

Did a private function last night. Played well and a decent crowd. Lead guitarist had insisted on substituting a song in that he likes on the grounds it’s one ‘everyone loves’. Despite protestations I was outvoted (drummer always votes with lead guitarist as he is in another band with him). And guess what? Before that song we had 60+ up on the dance floor, after it, two lads who were bouncing around all night. Absolutely killed that part of the set.

Finally got it sorted but phoning them or emailing them is pointless. The only way I got things moving was to moan on their Facebook page and get PayPal involved. Bloody crazy way to run a business.

And….. as promised it’s back, good as new and I am sure I posted about it, so unsure where that post went 🤔

I mentioned that but thought it also worth pointing out the other page - sure sign something is wrong when a page like that appears and gets the volume of traffic it is doing. Really sad as I have used them for ages with no issues but seems like they have changed or maybe I have just been really lucky in the past.

Quick update, I thought I had sorted it but turns out it was cow poop again. I have opened a PayPal dispute now. I will never use them again and judging by their Facebook page, and the new scammed by Bax Facebook page, I am not alone sadly.

What is this mythical Hermes customer service you speak of? They are impossible to contact, I have searched everywhere for a number to contact a human being and it always ended up with the same bot chat crap with no suitable options. Reading around they are notoriously impossible to contact. If you have a number that works you could make a lot of people very happy! However in this case it turned out that it wasn’t actually Hermes to blame (although their appalling tracking system and contact issues above added to the hassle). It looks like the issue has been finally sorted but according to my phone I have spent just under 4 hours on to them, I waited in a day for a non existent delivery, my Father in law did the same, someone will have to wait for the replacement. So far from a decent service, I could be wrong but I wonder if my stating that I would seek recompense in the small claims court could have been the reason that my last email was answered whereas the others weren’t. It’s sad as they have some great stuff you can’t find elsewhere but it’s just not worth the hassle.

Sounds like I have been lucky so far then! To be fair, I have never had an issue before but getting anything sorted is a bloody nightmare. I won’t be using them again.

I have used Bax many times without issues but had a bloody nightmare on two recent orders. The latest one of which may well end up at the small claims court. Takes an age to speak to anyone, when you do they are incredibly helpful. Or so it seems, but then nothing happens. You ring again (another 30 mins plus waiting time) and again someone very helpful tells you all is well, and again nothing happens. Repeat for two weeks so far.

Sounds like some real chancer, how loud are most gigs? I was at The offspring on Wednesday and the guy next to me was messing with a db meter on his phone that was showing 115-125 db through the set. I had my passive earplugs in for some of the set but not all and was fine. I have ever been in a pub gig that has come anywhere close to that (or many many other gigs at medium- large venues). I would imagine you would get loads of complaints before you came close to that level.

Should be back with me Monday, so a week from when I sent it with at least 5 of those days in transit, and I only had to pay for parts on an amp I have had about 10 years. Needless to say that my next amp will also be an Ashdown.

In case anyone was interested the cause was the breakdown of insulation in the transformer causing a short which then cooked it. It now has a nice Polish made version which has a lifetime warranty. They also replaced a few pots and it has a new valve. All done for cost of parts only. A lot of companies could learn from their customer service.

So I sent it off to Dave at Ashdown. Their service was beyond superb. I cannot rate them highly enough. I would recommend them to anyone without the tiniest hesitation.

The Hives and The Offspring this Wednesday, I will be knackered for the rest of the week.