chris_b

My guess is they have to protect against tyre kickers. You get a lot of those in shops. I prefer Mono M80 Vertigo bags. IMO it's a gig bag. Do your homework, find a good one, that fits, and just buy it.

I've thought about this situation and plan A would be to switch to a keyboard bass.

Flats on a Precision, with a pick and the tone all the way up. Dave Richmond got this sound on a 60's Burns bass for Je t'aime. Same with Wilton Felder on I Want You Back etc, with his original shape 1969 Precision. The finger style makes it a rounder sound. And in all cases, thousands of pounds of studio equipment.

Wise words. Always buy stuff that is better than what it replaces.

I've played a couple of Overwaters and they are amazing instruments. Sadly too heavy for my back, ho hum!

If I say to the wife, "I like the look of that xxxxx", her reply has always been, "If it's that good, get it". Back in the 80's we were having a look around Peter Cook's shop, and I expressed an interest in a Fender Precision Special that was hanging on the wall. She bought it there and then!! She has about half a dozen dolls houses around the house, 3 or 4 quilts on the go and a garden full of flowers, oh, and I nearly forgot the shoes! We support each other's interests.

I played a Pino Precision once. Everything about it was better than any other Fender I'd played. A fantastic bass. Having said that the Standard Jazz bass I briefly owned, about 10 years ago, was good enough for everything I play.

With BF cabs it's mud in, mud out. I'd be looking at my EQ for that one. I reckon your band thinks you are too loud because they aren't used to the enhanced dispersion well designed cabs provide. When I sound check I'm setting up the bass for me, the stage and the audience. If I'm too loud I'll turn down, if the rest of the band starts up and they drown me out I'll turn up again. I play in a blues rock trio and regularly have to turn up during the first number, when I've worked out if the guitarist is on 11 or 15 tonight.

You can't hear a Two10, 8 ft in front of it? That's not normal. What music is the band playing? "I tend to have my sound pretty sorted". Have you changed cabs or any other gear recently? Is the band loud? Is the guitarist "stealing" your frequencies? My guess is your band thinks you are "so loud" on stage because the dispersion from BF cabs exceeds most other cabs. They can hear you because the design of the cab makes it happen. Another guess, your problem might be your EQ. I'd try a gig with no pedals and see what happens. I'd also experiment with the position of the cab. Maybe move it forwards on stage, maybe angle it away from the band.

You're missing the point. Demanding a dep turns up with the same instrument and trousers makes no sense. A dep is not a member of your band, he's sitting in and getting the band through a gig(s) that otherwise they would have to cancel. He gets you out of the hole so the promoter, the audience and the rest of the band are not disappointed. I'd be very surprised if any audience knows or cares when a bass player turns up with a 4 string bass rather than a 6 string bass. Of course no dep is going to be a clone and if that's what you demand, then all you can do is cancel any gig the whole band can't do. Most bands are not in that situation. Being a clone is not what deps or this thread is about.

I don't understand this. Why will a dep have a lower level of effort and committent? Like I said before you're playing with the wrong people. That’s not my experience of how a dep behaves. Most of the musicians, even many of the band leaders, I know are in more than one band and every one of them gives every gig full commitment and maximum effort. If we didn't give 100% we'd deserve to be out of work.

Ah, yes. . . . C3 (not split) and 2 Leslie cabs!!! Thank god for Nord.

I was chatting to Nathan East and Victor Wooten, as you do. They both have tinnitus and neither wear any hearing protection! I have tinnitus and I've been using ACS plugs for over 20 years. I dread to think what my hearing would have been like without them. The subtitles and sound bar help, but in my house we're at the, "Do we really need the TV to be that loud?" phase!!

x

I used to have a Hiwatt stack, 200watt amp and 2 412 cabs. I never lifted it. We had roadies for that sort of thing. Just rereading this thread made my back ache!!!

I did a marquee gig once where the lights were running off a generator and the band were running off a daisy chain of extension leads from the house. As I understand it, that had some very dangerous possibilities!!

How loud do you want to go? What amp do you use? I gig my 5 string basses through an Aguilar TH500 and a Barefaced Super Compact, and it sounds pretty good to my ears, but for mad blues rock (twin reverb) trio's I'll use 2 x 112's. Really there will be a few cabs that will sound good, you just have to find the one you like. The limiting factor might be the size of your boot.

I bought a bass and an amp with the proceeds of a summer job. A year later, after another summer job, I bought a cab. After a year of playing along to records I was ready to play with other musicians. Within 3 months of getting the cab I'd done my first gig. My bass was second hand and the amp and cab were new but the cheapest I could find. The sound quality didn't matter. It was a live bass sound and, with all its faults, it just sounded wonderful. Play your favourite songs. Start with simple songs, and when you can do that expand your material to stuff you find more difficult. Learn scales, common riffs and patterns.

Are you guys putting your basses on stands, or leaning them up against something during a gig? My basses live in Mono M80 Vertigo gig bags unless they are being played. I'm more likely to damage a bass at home than on a gig.

Sorry I asked now. Scared me just looking at the photos!! Be extra cool. Why don't you wear the shoes and pants on the train?

All my basses are "best". They are all tools, are replaceable (although I would rather not have to) and were all bought to be gigged, so leaving them at home has never crossed my mind. Same for amps and cabs. I'm not going to sound my best if I leave the "best" gear at home.

I have no idea what that is. . . . but I have carried basses on trains since the 60's. I've also seen full golf bags, numerous full sized bikes, families with a dozen large suitcases off to Heathrow and workman with bags of tools that made my gig bags look small. As long as you can get up and down the stairs, go for it.

Hi Aberdeen bass players. . . . did any of you play with Dave Innes? I gigged with him a lot down here in London. One of the best drummers I played with, he is sadly missed.

Deps are not a negative scenario. Deps make gigging more flexible. Pick the right deps and you can have a lot of fun. You don't give your band members much credit for their ability to learn sets for 2 bands. You don't want band members to be in multiple bands, I get it, but your whole outlook on the subject is very negative.

As I said, get your gigs into the diary first. Problem solved! Then it depends on the deps. Deps can be good or bad. If you've got a bad dep then it's your fault for not booking a good dep. Make the right choices and the deps can be better musicians than the guys they are replacing.