BillyBass

I'm a big fan of blue basses, I have three of them.  That is a nice shade of blue, congrats.

My punk covers band has started to diversify a bit and some of our newer covers I prefer to play with fingers.  We are going to add 'Are you gonna be my girl' by Jet.  Apparently, the Jet bassist used an Epiphone Jack Casady with a pick in the studio for this song, whereas he uses a P bass with pick for their other songs.  There is a distinct bass tone  tooth's song which certainly isn't P bass with rounds.  Watching live videos of them, he uses his P bass but doesn't replicate the studio version's tone.

I'm not going to buy an Epiphone Jack Casady for one song or put flats on one of my basses but I can get close to the tone by using fingers, in a certain way.  Close enough for a covers band at least.

I play most of our set with a pick: Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Damned, Green Day, Undertones, Buzzcocks, UK Subs, The Ruts, Kaiser Chiefs, The Clash, Motorhead, Hives

I feel these songs work better with fingers:

Hold your Hands Up - Reef

Are You Gonna be my Girl - Lenny Kravitz

Pump it up - Elvis Costello

Get it on - T-Rex

8 hours ago, casapete said:

No pressure then Billy!

I just hope you enjoy the gig - we’re a theatre show so play most of the hits from ELO in 2 x 50 min sets.

The venue has a bit of a sports hall feel, so we’ll do our best to warm it up a bit! Our sound guy usually

does a great job, so hopefully it should be a good night.

Cheers, Pete.

I'm looking forward to it.  ELO are one of those rare bands that have so many great songs that you could do 2x50 minute sets full of crackers and have plenty left over.

On November 4th, myself, wifey and my cousin are off to see @casapete's band 'The ELO Experience' play in Stevenage.  My cousin once travelled to Dublin to see ELO, he loves them and we are all looking forward to this.

Though gigs are a bit like buses.  Jah Wobble is playing in Camden on the same night.  Shame I can't be in two places at once.

Merchant City Music in Glasgow have a few Reverend fivers for sale.  String spacing at the bridge is 19mm and the one I tried in August had a good B string.  I love the looks but they aren't everyone's cup of tea.  

On 15/10/2023 at 14:56, fretmeister said:

they claim it’s a brand new material they invented. 

Markstyrene?  like polystyrene but with improved low end register and fitting with the Italian lifestyle.

On 13/10/2023 at 15:25, Woodinblack said:

 

It used to be. But then it depends where you are buying from, if you happen to be taking a trip to one of the states with no sales tax such as Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon (or alaska, but a long way for a bass!), it can be worth it, assuming you don't get caught out, in which case it is likely more expensive.

 

Not sure I understand the logic of carrying an empty case out, for one it will probably cost you more in bagage and for a second, who is going to make a note that you went out with a case?

Is it possible to avoid paying sales tax or get a refund if you are taking the object bought abroad?  Like VAT in this country?  

This is us last night.  It's the first time we've played it and I fluffed one or two notes but it came out ok.

4 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

We supported Original Punks, 999 at a cosy little pub (The Victoria) in Birmingham. It's probably about 100 people max allowed in! 

Unfortunately, I had The Cold From Hell (first for years!) - I'd got over the aches'n'chills and was on the dribbling and feeling a tiny bit less duff stage. I even wore a mask in the car to make an attempt at protecting 2 of my bandmates who were getting a lift from me, though who knows?

Anyway, deliberately arrived only half an hour before we were due to go on as it was line check only, after we finally managed to get the previous band off stage (they took forever unplugging a guitar and bass, possibly to to over-refreshment) and found a space for my Markbass 4x10 with Crown PA head (firing across the stage!), plus a little niche for me, my Wal and Helix to stand in, we could get going. And despite the venue being tiny, and everything mic-ed/DI-ed up it was not too loud (unheard of!) and sound was great both on and off-stage. Cheers Mr Soundman! I was also very pleased with a new patch I'd made with some GK drive and Ampeg sound in parallel and mixed with a spot of reverb compressed both front and back end - it cut through beautifully and I managed to get far more of The Funk into our songs than usual (normally, as the sound is an overloud unholy mess there's no point!), which was nice!

Crowd were very appreciative, though being mainly Original Punx Of A Certain Age too there wasn't much dancefloor action.

Still, we sold some merch, and one of the CD buyers insisted on us all signing it. Fame!!!

Sneaked off immediately afterwards making sure that everyone had congratulated me for being a brave soldier, to discover that the Hagley Road was closed, meaning teh quickes way was via M6, M54 and Much Wenlock, probably 20 miles extra. But rewarded myself with a rather fine dram of Ludlow single malt whisky.

 

 

I saw 999 (and the Lurkers) a few times back in the day. They always put on a good show.  I would feel honoured to support them.

We played at the Fox and Hounds, nr Watford, last night.  Small but appreciative crowd, particularly after the football had finished.  Like most of our gigs recently, the crowd gets more enthusiastic as the night goes on, no doubt helped by beer, and for the last few songs people start dancing.

This was the first time I had taken the Reverend Decision P out for a gig; I love this bass.

What amp are you using?  If you have tried other basses with your rig and they sound fine, well its probably not the amp, however, I used to own a MarkBass head; it always sounded like it had a blanket over it, even when using bridge pups.  I sold it and went through a few different manufacturers heads and settled on Gallien Krueger.

2 hours ago, TimR said:

We have 2 separate what'sapp chats. One for general chatter, setting up gigs, arranging practices and choosing new tunes. 

 

The other just has details of gigs we are playing. This means no searching in the main chat and we can delete past gig messages. It stays very clean and empty except for upcoming gigs. 

1 hour ago, philbie said:

That's a great idea, we have one whatsapp chat and it's mostly full of total drivel tbh so hard to keep track of important details. 

We have three.  One for gig bookings, one for song related stuff and one for everything else.

4 hours ago, casapete said:

Our upcoming gigs over the next few months, ( although we’ve just heard that the Carlisle gig has been 

cancelled due to problems at The Sands venue regarding the concrete structure of the building.)

 

 

I have a family member in Welwyn Garden City that loves ELO, I think the two of us will be going to the Stevenage gig.

2 minutes ago, binky_bass said:

Not as colourful as your lot though. Not had an 11, but I did have a 13 string at one point! 

13 string!  More of a portable harp than a bass.

I'd love an ACG but I just couldn't take them to the Dog 'n' Duck for a gig.  Maybe when I retired I've got lots of spare time I'll buy one to noodle with at home.

1 hour ago, binky_bass said:

Not quite as rainbow-ish as yours @BillyBass, but mine are quite a colourful bunch!

 

 

There are some serious holes in your collection there.  Where is your 11 string?

But seriously, bloody hell!  Those two ACGs in the front row🥰  That's an amazing collection.

21 minutes ago, odarellmc said:

How does a tuner substitute a pre amp? 

It isn't being substituted for a pre amp, read it again.  I needed more space on my pedal board and I was hoping to replace my existing pre amp with something smaller.  In the end, I kept the pre amp and swapped the tuner for a smaller model. 

11 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep i'm always aware of the punk stigma from its heyday when audiences were a bit raucous and causing more of a disturbance but these days its anything but. Yes punks love to dance a lot but that creates atmosphere at a gig. Sometimes its difficult when you say you're a punk covers band the venue automatically thinks "trouble".

If anything i've found the punk audiences are genuine fans of the music and are great fun to play for. And like you @theplumber i'm from a prog background and in no way a punk. 

Dave

One comment we had from a Landlord who wasn't keen on us performing at his pub was: "Punk doesn't work well on a Friday night"

Our next gig is on Friday at the Fox and Hounds, near Rickmansworth

My first bass was an Ibanez.  I left the lead in, the bass died, I took it back to the shop, they apologised for not telling me to unplug active basses when not playing and provided me with a replacement 9V battery.

I still felt like a bit of a plonker though.

On one occasion a Landlady got quite upset with us as someone from another band had posted something on Facebook about the way the venue treated bands and she thought it was us, despite our lead singers protestations.  Thankfully it was sorted out and we have been rebooked.

16 minutes ago, ezbass said:

IIRC Ian Anderson taught himself.

As an adult, I love learning new things, and being an adult I have learnt that to learn one must knuckle down and put in the, sometimes monotonous, work to achieve that.  The rewards can be life changing.

I bought the flute when I was a teenager.

8 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I'm still looking for a flautist who'll duet it with me!

I went through a Jethro Tull phase, about 40 years ago.  I bought a flute but failed to find anyone to teach me how to play it, the teachers advertising flute lessons only seemed to be interested in school kids taking exams.  So I gave up.  I imagine there are online lessons these days. 

58 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Maybe some Jethro Tull? 😎

Hi @Low Places, welcome to the forum

I don't think I've ever met someone from Kentucky but I have eaten a lot of your chickens.

We have just added this to our set.  I used the Big Bully Bass covers video on youTube to get the basic cover down.  It's a pretty good approximation of the real thing, minus a few chromatic notes and detail.  I made a few alterations to how I play it.

I haven't played it live yet, though it's in our set for a gig we have this Friday.  I don't think it really matters now close to the original the bass line is if it is being played in a pub on a weekend.  So far no one has pointed out to me my bass lines aren't exactly the same as the original in any of the songs in our set, if they did I would advise them to drink more.