lozkerr

If you find it, any chance I could have a copy too?

That is sadly true. I was just lucky to find myself on the right side of the fence.

Yes, very much so, but not in the bass department. I went to a provincial grammar school, which thought of itself as a public school, except it had all of the pretensions and none of the class. It was big on sport, which I absolutely hated and resigned myself to years of misery. Then I started music lessons. The music teacher was a real character - a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists no less, with a famously short fuse leading to a fiery conductor's temper. Most of the kids, and many of the staff - including the headmaster - were sh|t-scared of him. But he and I got on famously after he discovered I had a good singing voice. I found myself in the music crowd, where you could get away with a hell of a lot as long as you were delivering the musical goods. The school was big on music thanks to him - I had a part in an opera directed by the Master of the Queen's Music, took part in choir recitals broadcast on Radio 3... it was great. Sadly, it didn't last. We moved away and my confidence went with it. It took a while for it to come back - changing schools half-way through O-levels had a horrible effect on my psyche. I bounced back a bit by mastering the marching snare drum and rising to become Leading Bugler in the school Corps of Drums, but my musical ability, such as it was, took a back seat for far too long. I've recently started lessons in singing while playing bass, and quite a bit of what I learnt way back when is starting to return. Thank you, Mr Tickner. And may you rest in peace.

You say that like it's a bad thing 😉

Just stumbled across this old thread... I've recently started lessons in singing while playing bass. I'd tried off my own bat a few times and not made much progress, but having a teacher who both talks the talk and walks the walk has made all the difference. We started with a simple Wilburys number - End of the Line - but finding I could sing, play and crucially, stay in time was a massive confidence boost. I think it'll be a wee while before I can front a band and do Won't Get Fooled Again though!

Uh-oh, polly ticks. IBTL! 😉

Seems to be an issue with gear from the USA too. I'm still waiting on an Eden WTP600 that I ordered back in March from our local Musicroom. Covid lockdown obviously didn't help, but when the shop reopened, they contacted me to say there were delays right along the supply chain and did I want to cancel? I said no, but I'm still waiting.

I'm in the same boat - our last gig was in March and since then we've picked another set o twelve songs. I can play them all quite happily, but I'm swithering between champing at the bit tae get oot there again and shitein ma trews at the thought o playing anywhere outside my living room. Had a wee health scare too - I ended up in A&E with a suspected cerebral haemorrhage the other week. That was Not Fun. Thankfully, I'm OK. From our regular Zoom chats, it looks like the rest o the band are in the same boat (A&E visits excepted!). We've all slipped back and although no-one's said it out loud, it looks like we'll be terrible when we get back together. Thing is though, many musos, both amateur and professional, will be in a similar situation. There's nothing we can do about it other than to recognise where we all are and put some effort intae recovering lost ground.

The first song I learnt completely by ear was Joe South's Games People Play. Bit of a lightweight number but I liked the catchiness in the bassline. I then put some effort into reading bass clef and cracked Queen's Hammer to Fall, which is a song I love and was one of the reasons I picked up the bass in the first place.

"Moons" being the operative word...

Aye, the hand size is deffo a factor. My Fender Jazz Deluxe V has a 34" scale length, which I'm used to now after playing it exclusively for a couple of years now, but the stretch can sometimes be a bit much, as I have quite small hands and short fingers. I get round it by using the 1, 2, 3&4 double-bass technique instead of trying to stick to one finger per fret, and it makes a big difference. I don't think I could go back to a four now.

You'd have had to have tried harder than that with me. I love that album.

Honey, by Bobby Goldsboro as they all file in looking po-faced while secretly thinking they're glad the beach is dead. Then Highway To Hell as the curtains close behind my coffin.

I suspect I am sailing very close to the wind indeed - I've bought video recording gear, a couple of mixers and some lighting gear. And I'm also intending to relieve @la bam of his PA when I can travel to pick it up. Nothing for my signal chain between bass and mixer though (unless you count a replacement for a dead amp), but it may only be a matter of time...

I saw them at the Usher Hall here in Edinburgh back in December. It was a fabulous gig - I hope you get the chance to see them after lockdown's lifted.

That bothers me too. I was all set to hop over to the Netherlands to see Ellen Foley when lockdown put the kybosh on my plans. She's currently holed up in the sticks away from New York, and I hope she comes through it OK, but she's pushing seventy now and living in der Trump Reich. If she succumbs to C19, I really will have it in for Herr Tweetler.

FTFY.

Thanks again, everyone. I've decided to snap up @la bam's gear when I can drive to pick it up, unless he shifts it locally in the meantime. There's obviously a lot to work through here, and I can see that we might end up with more than one PA. I'm trying to get as fully tooled-up as possible during the lockdown, so we can hit the ground running when things start up again. Regarding monitoring, I'm liking the idea of splitter cables - one for the FoH PA and another for whatever monitoring system we end up with. I find IEMs work well, as does our front man, but we haven't gone into it in depth as a band. If the others want foldbacks though, I won't stop them buying them 😉

Could you ping me the full spec? Many thanks.

Wow. Thank you very much, everyone! Lots there to think about. @lurksalot, I think you're right about kit coming up for sale - that's why I'm looking now. Plus, I do have a bit of spare cash what with not having to travel dahn sarf every other week. I don't doubt that any PA I buy will be sitting in store for some time to come, but at least we'll have it to hand when things start up again. @Dad3353, the mixer I have is a Peavey PV20 - sixteen mono channels, two stereo aux, two monitor sends and a control room feed. I'm thinking of using the control room feed as the primary audio source for video recording, which would leave two monitor mixes. We haven't really dug into the monitor side of things yet - the front man and I use IEMs but the others generally run with what's available. I'm thinking that IEMs all round would cut down on the gear we need to lug about, so some gentle persuasion may be in order 😊 Our lineup is drums, bass, keys / vox, lead vox and two guitarists. The guitarists have a mix of electric and acoustic; there's even a mandolin lurking in the lead guitarist's armoury. He might have to adapt a wee bit, and stop getting narky when I call him Andy Anderton 😊 @Happy Jack, agreed - I don't think we'd want to lose the backline in any event. We all have DI, so we could vary what went through the PA depending on venue size and acoustics. The main thing I'm aiming for is to get a PA that will cope with most venues that a covers band will be playing. One thing about subs - ISTM that they'd provide a fairly stable base if my idea of attaching lighting bars to the tops was workable. Some LED par cans for the stage plus a few fancy effects for the dance floor shouldn't make the rig top-heavy - they're a far cry from the filament-powered monsters I cut my teeth on way back when. And @itu - oh yes, I can relate to needing cables, more cables and spares. I'm thinking about putting together a sort of standard setup, with cables bundled together, a la Socapex. Maybe make some shorter extensions, with colour-coded connectors. And, of course, have spares. All labelled. Back in the day, I did some voluntary work at a local theatre. The resident tech had had problems with cables going walkies, so he switched to orange instead of black. The thefts miraculously stopped. So ISTM that a PA with about 1300 watts a side would cover most eventualities. Good points about budget, but TBH I'd rather stretch myself a little than buy something that isn't up to the job. I'm thinking a figure of one-and-a-half to two grand second-hand all-in - obviously I appreciate that new kit will cost more. As for transport - well, my own car is a Defender 90 that only just holds my bass rig, so I suspect I'll need to shell out for a tow bar and box trailer, if I can find somewhere to store it. Edinburgh clowncil gets narky about keeping trailers on the road in controlled-parking areas, the peasants. Thank you all so much. I really appreciate the advice. Stay safe, everyone.

Hi everyone, I'm in the fortunate position of being able to work from home, which means that the money that would normally go on train tickets and grotty Travelodges can be put to more productive use. I'm starting to look at PA systems, and I'd be grateful for da BC massif's thoughts on wattage, innit. I already have a 16 channel passive mixer, so I guess it'll be either powered speakers or passive speakers plus power amp. I'm wondering how much power would be right for small to medium-sized venues and thinking it would be better to have too much oomph than not enough, although a full Knebworth would be completely OTT for the Dog and Duck and I would expect a dedicated music venue to have a house PA anyway. But something that's under-powered for a six-piece rock band would just be a waste of money. So I guess the question is - if you have your own PA, how much power does it crank out, and is it enough for your needs? All thoughts and advice gratefully received. Many thanks, Laura