BillyBass

14 hours ago, Johannes said:

I begun playing the bass about 49 years ago. Made my living with it from age of 17. Today I feel I am better musician than ever. With experience I have matured, playing less but with more understanding about what really serves the music. I am accompanying, not showcasing my chops. Even my tecnique is better since I don’t panic facing difficult tasks and my experience and knowledge about practising helps Me to survive.

Do you do everything naked in Finland?  Or is it just saunas and bass playing?

On 25/05/2023 at 08:25, G-Lo said:

Hi guys, I have used myus.com in the past for US purchases. You get a US adress to use, it means you dont pay state tax over there and you get to pay your import tax when paying for shipping. You get a choice of couriers at pretty good prices and if you use the premium service theyll bundle purchases to keep your costs down. Might be worth it for some of you folks...

Oh dear! GAS incoming.

Interesting topic. 

I've only just started gigging; 3 so far with another couple booked for June and others later on.  My bass collection is 8 strong with all the main varieties of pick up/position: P, J, PJ, double hum bucker & single humbucker at bridge.  I also have 3 heads and a few different cabs.

In the 3 gigs I've played so far I've taken 3 different basses and head/cab combinations as I'm trying to find the tone that I like/suits the songs/cuts through etc.  Lots more research to do but so far I am favouring a P or neck humbucker sound with a bit of bridge pick up dialled in.  This maybe out of a desire to stand out rather than be swallowed up by the 2 guitarists.

Another variable just added is that we have decided to diversify a bit and add a few non punk songs, mainly 90s rock and some of these songs I prefer to play with fingers rather than a pick.  So I'm starting to play with duller picks and experimenting with bridge pups when changing between fingers and pick..  

Lots to learn and much fun to be had in doing so!

6 hours ago, BassAdder60 said:

Yep that’s my thoughts too but the Tort does look classy !!

Classy?  No, quite the opposite.  If a tart had a boudoir, it would be in those colours.  Here's mine, the 'Tart'

Machine Gun Etiquette was a classic.  Saw him play bass with the Damned a few times after this album came out, end of 1979 at the Rainbow and the Electric Ballroom.  Sad day.

Have you thought about putting a better pre amp in?  And while you are doing that, shielding it too.

I would agree with you re the pre amp.  Fender/Charvel would have built these to a price point and anything more than a couple of dollars on the pre amp would have gone over this, I presume.  I also have a Charvel fiver, the pre amp in that was ok but I swapped it out for a Nordstrand.  My first 4 string got sent back because the pre amp was faulty (amongst other issues that PMT didn't check before posting it).

I would have been happy to spend another £100 on these basses if they came with a decent pre amp but perhaps the general bass buying public wouldn't be.  Still, I paid £699 each for both my 4 strings and the fiver, which are bargains really, considering you are getting 'Player Plus' style hardware for 'Player' series prices.

I have 8 basses and these Charvels are my favourites.

How does the neck feel to play?

I have two of these, one metallic green, the other metallic blue.  I love the look and how they feel in my hands, the jazz neck on a P body is great.  As its a two pick up active bass, the pre amp and pups enable me to get a multitude of tones.  Yes, the G string is dull when used in passive mode but its an active bass, I would only use it in passive mode if I had battery or gain issues, and then there is a treble knob on my amp's EQ.  

The worst thing about the bass is the pre amp, so I swapped them out for John East preamps.

So @How1 why did you buy the bass?  if you didn't want an active bass and the appearance of the neck and nut width wasn't to your liking?

21 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Respectfully disagree with earlier posters. My fave Bond film is You Only Live Twice. Love the swirling Barry soundtrack and title song. As a fanboi (and being unable to afford an Aston Martin!) I have a sort-of Bond tribute car, a 1966 MGB GT re-painted in silver with red leatherette interior, phwoarrr

 

Have you got the ejector seat?  Must come in handy if the wife nags a bit too much.

👍

I’m really happy with my band mates; we get along, are happy to compromise and are generally on the same page.

We are 2 guitars, bass and drums, with one of the guitarists on vocals, standard stuff.  We would like to cover certain songs but can’t due to the original having keys or sax, for example, and we have trouble converting that to two guitars.  Sometimes our arrangements work, sometimes they don’t and we drop the song.

I’m nitpicking here, our set is 33 songs strong and we are adding more.

7 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I'm looking for a particular kind of character too, which means I'll be buying before I try rather than taking a leap of faith.

Hic🥂cheers

2 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

Yes I think the player plus has a tort pickguard 

I have a Mexican Standard Precision in CAR, I swapped the pick guard for a tort on and it looks lush.  CAR body, rosewood fretboard and tort pick guard 😍

Nice!  That does look like it’s crying out for a tort pick guard.

I have one of these in Tidepool.  Good bass, slightly heavy but not too bad.

3 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Fantastic night in Beat Generator in Dundee with 70's Glam Rock covers band BLOCKBUSTARZ.

First time at this venue, well to be honest my first time in Dundee centre and have to say i was impressed. Looks like a good day out could be had there.

Bit of a pain loading in and out with 3 flights of stairs but no PA to carry. Good size stage a bonus.

Sound was first class from SE and PA was good quality. All in all a great venue and really nice owner too.

Good sized crowd too that spent first 6 songs just watching us before they eased off into a bit of dancing. Many had even dressed up in their 70's Glam gear so that was good to see. It was more like a concert audience, all standing from front of stage to the back entrance door so pretty full by looks of it.

It was a door money deal 70/30 to us so we ended up with a tidy sum at the end of the night. They want us back this year again and owner said the feedback was astounding. Not just a band but a full show. 

Had to cut the set short as they only wanted two 1 hr sets whereas we normally do 1hr:15mins first set and 1hr :30mins the second set.

On stage 9pm finished back of 10 and back on 10:15 to 11:30 altho we were asked for more and got permission from owner to do another encore.

Very warm night but everyone was happy.

Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless and then into Roland mfx then into Handbox WB-100  head and Mesa 210/115 cabs.

I'll add some pics when they come in.

Dave 

 

I would love to be in a glam covers band; you lot must have a blast.

NYXLs are the first round wounds I've put on a bass that didn't need a couple of days to lose the extreme bright edge to them, they sounded great straight away. So, currently, they are my favourite string.  To me they sound better than the standard EXL170s.

I get the impression that XTs are EXLs with a coating but the NYXLs are an uncoated improvement to the EXLs?

My current band has a 34 song set list, I play 33 of those songs with a pick and one with fingers.  I'm a bit apprehensive about using coated strings as I believe my pick will just remove the coating.  Whether this makes any difference to the sound or longevity I don't know?

2 hours ago, cetera said:

Vids starting to come in from our 'Bootleg Rock Show feat. Leather & Lace' tour.....

Here's Extreme's 'Get The Funk Out'... 

 

Love the growl of that Spector!  

13 minutes ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

A good one last night with a very appreciative  and engaging crowd. We secured another booking later on this summer and a further booking for another club as one of their bookers was visiting friends. 
 

I gigged my Sandberg for the first time and loved it, especially the weight!

 

 

I do sometimes drool over the Sandberg basses on the bass direct website; that looks really nice.

How do you find the GR cab?  I know they are meant to be really light but how do they sound?

5 minutes ago, taunton-hobbit said:

..... And which pub  (I used to live in HW ) ?

 

😎

The Flint Cottage, just by the train station.  They put up an awful sounding clip of us on their Facebook page, so here is something better:

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I'm curious about what the 2 white bags are in front of the bass drum and what bass you're using there.

Dave

Two bags of salt.  Our drummer complained about the bass drum gradually moving away from him during the first few songs.  The floor had no carpet, it was just floorboards so to stop it slipping he acquired a couple of bags of salt from the management.

The bass is a Balaguer Select series Goliath.  I got it from Guitarguitar in Newcastle a couple of years ago.  Lovely to look at and play, however, I don't play it as much as I should, generally preferring my Charvels, but yesterday I thought I'd put it to work. Here is the NBD thread I started when I bought it.

Coronation celebration in a pub in High Wycombe.  We were supposed to be playing in the garden but rain stopped that.  Not many punters in but we've been asked back so we must have done something right.

9 minutes ago, casapete said:

Nice rig, although I think I’d have trouble with the (presumably guitarist’s) Vox combo

at head height? 🤨

It wasn't ideal; our singer/guitarist got there first.  The placing of the PA was worse though and when I wasn't on BV duties I shifted over to the left of it all.  I could hear myself but not very well, though listening to videos of the gig the sound was ok for the audience.  We were supposed to be playing in the garden but the weather put paid to that.

Rig for yesterday's Coronation gig at a pub in High Wycombe.  Gallien Kruger Legacy 800 into a Barefaced Super Compact.  

I like baselines that are busy but not difficult and that, perhaps, add a bit to the melody, rather than just being the rhythm behind the guitars.

Losing My Religion - R.E.M.

Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young

Smooth - Santana

Down in a Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam

All I wanna Do - Cheryl Crow

Echo Beach - Martha and the Muffins

Pump it up - Elvis Costello