MartinB

How long it takes to be able to gig is simple - as long as it takes you to learn the 30 / 45 / 90 minutes of material you need. How long it takes to get your first gig depends on whether you have someone in the band who's prepared to do the work of contacting venues and promoters, and whether they have the experience and contacts to do it well. If you get your whole setlist together without figuring out who's doing the booking, there's a high chance of fizzle-out...

I'm a big fan of Dunlop Max-Grip picks for both bass and guitar - they've got a raised criss-cross pattern that's super grippy and stops them slipping or twiddling around in use. https://www.jimdunlop.com/category/products/guitar+picks/max-grip.do

Oh hey, cool! I was at that gig Really, really entertaining stuff, regardless of how much of it is sequenced. The massive acid house flag was being passed around the audience the whole time - it's amazing that no-one hit the disco ball in the middle of the ceiling with it.

For me, the worst of the worst is 1980s synth horns

I do: G --------- D ---0----- A -2------- E -----0-0- And then I also like to add in an extra E an octave up (D string, 2nd fret) to match the guitar stab.

Note that it needs a 15V power supply (included) rather than the usual 9V.

You might be able to get around that by putting an A/B pedal in the effects loop, e.g. FX out -> A -> FX in Synth -> B -> FX in

It's unfortunate, because for me that's the point where it all starts to go downhill. They did a lot of important, groundbreaking stuff in the last part of their career, but the ratio started to skew towards "interesting studio experiments" and away from "actual good songs"

If you missed the Digitech Trio, Gear4Music now has them back in stock @ £49.99 (they're also reduced at PMT and Andertons, but not by as much)

Depends on the "features" of your amp. Fender Rumble (v3) starts to add compression once the gain is over 12 o'clock. IIRC the new Trace Elliot Elf has the first third of the dial as input gain, the second third adding compression, and the final third to add overdrive.

Working out which bits you should play like the original and which bits you can alter/simplify/"make your own" is a real skill, and I don't feel like people talk about it that much. You have to learn to recognise the hooks and the iconic parts that make the song, otherwise it's can sound a bit half-arsed. It's the same for all instruments. There's a lot of genres where none of the bass parts are particularly recognisable. But if you try to play an iconic part like [b]Another One Bites The Dust[/b] / [b]Gimme Some Lovin'[/b] / [b]Money [/b]/ [b]Good Times[/b] in your own "creative" way, you're going to get funny looks. Obviously if you're doing a cover in a radically different style, it's much more like writing your own parts for an original tune.

As many people have already said - the music that you like listening to isn't always the music that's fun to play, and vice versa. I [i]like[/i] most of the covers my main band plays, butI don't [i]love[/i] them. I wouldn't play something that I really didn't like; obviously this would be different if I was doing it for a living! I've learned from experience not to suggest any of my [i]favourite[/i] songs, as it just annoys me when everyone else doesn't give them 100%.

I recently put one of these: [url="https://www.amazon.co.uk/FLEOR-ELectric-Pickguard-Precision-Replacement/dp/B071VC873C"]https://www.amazon.c...t/dp/B071VC873C[/url] on one of these: [url="https://web.archive.org/web/20081216001707/http://www.squierguitars.com/products/search.php?partno=0321500543"]https://web.archive....rtno=0321500543[/url] It came out looking like this, which I thought was not bad at all for a tenner. [attachment=256814:WhatsApp Image 2017-10-27 at 21.07.18.jpeg] But it was not a simple swap. I had file off a lot of the pickguard material around the neck and pickup holes, and a few of the screw holes were misaligned enough to need filling and re-screwing.

Oh Andy Well I wanted to purchase your Shuttle But first I had to pay, oh Andy So I sent you the cash via PayPal And you posted next day, oh Andy

http://jacksinstrumentservices.com/custom-scratchplate-cutting.html or http://www.originalscratchplates.com/ (cheaper, but single-ply and not beveled)

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1493042908' post='3285110'] I've not bought any downloads only from Bandcamp. Is there some way that you can keep track of what you have purchased just in case you have a problem with your computer at some point in the future and you need to download them again?[/quote] Yep, there's a page that shows all you've bought and lets you stream or download. But given the number of legal download sites that have gone bump over the years, you're sensible to maintain your own backup. I don't have that much downloaded stuff, but I've got local and remote ([url="https://www.backblaze.com"]Backblaze[/url]) copies of all my music files anyway. It took me [i]forever[/i] to rip all my CDs - I'm buggered if I'm doing that all over again!

I've bought Terrortones releases from Bandcamp Spotify's great for checking out artists at minimal cost, but if I decide I like them, I'll always support them by buying the album - on CD if possible, otherwise lossless digital is ok. CDs offer the best combination of reliability, flexibility and sound quality... plus they look good on my shelf! For singles/EPs I generally prefer lossless, because (1) I don't have enough space to store them, and (2) almost no-one releases them on CD anyway. It winds me up when the only options for singles are vinyl or lossy digital - why wouldn't you want me to listen to your music as close to the recorded quality as possible? It's like painting a masterpiece and then only letting people look at polaroids of it. I wouldn't consider streaming any good for long-term usage, as there's no guarantee that a song will still be available the next time I want to listen to it (plus the obvious issues with releases being fragmented across different services).

I bought a pedal from Paul, and it could not have gone more smoothly. Well-packaged and swiftly despatched. Thank you!

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma8ABYwo1Ew"]The Meters - Just Kissed My Baby[/url]

We use [url="http://www.teamup.com"]Teamup[/url]. Browser, iOS or Android, and doesn't need everyone to create accounts - this helps a lot when your bandmates are technophobes and/or lazy!

[quote name='BassBunny' timestamp='1490053099' post='3261880'] I did this with all my Bass Collection basses but used a hole punch, the type for punching holes in paper, to get them nice and round and jobs a good un. [/quote] Genius! I might have a hole punch somewhere in the drawer of things I haven't used since leaving school... along with a compass, protractor, set square, fountain pen...

Normal LEDs aren't very good at charging up luminescent materials - you want to give them a blast of UV light. You can get a little torch for a couple of quid. [b]edit:[/b] like the one down there! v I use the bargain-basement alternative to Luminlay - some glow stickers (sold for putting on light switches) chopped up into strips narrow enough to not get in the way of my fingers