Silky999

I have had a clear out and got rid of the MTD KZ4 and the Rockbass Corvette to fund this; I have decided that i just love Ibanez SRs so when this 2005 SR1000 Prestige came up that clearly I needed it! It’s my first neck thru and although it’s a Korean made prestige, it’s as close to a proper prestige as I can afford lol. I still have my 1989 Fujigen SR800LE so now to decide which is the main player.

You lucky devil! I can’t wait for our first one in July. We are doing a charity gig for a charity that supported me when I went a bit mental with PTSD due to work. Paying it forward and all that.....

I love ELO! Time is IMO their best album as it follows a concept idea from start to finish with some cracking songs. I have it on my playlist for when I’m working in the office. We have 4 gigs booked from July to end of August so far but only 1 of those is a wedding and another is a festival. No bookings coming through for private parties or weddings yet. I think people are waiting to see if the last restrictions go on the 21st June or the Indian variant put its back. Hopefully even if infections go up, the link between infection and hospital and deaths has been broken by the vaccination.

Thanks for the words of wisdom and the confidence boost. Let’s hope that we can all actually get to do some gigs this year.

Thank you all so much for the advice. I knew the BC posse would come through for me. The band are going to start using IEM at our next gig(only cheap Gear4music). What it boils down to is the rest of the band are mates as well, I really don’t want to let them down and in turn the audience. We all work in the emergency services and that’s how we met so we all have the same sick sense of humour lol. They are ultra supportive as they have all been in other bands and playing longer than me. I will stay away from the Dutch courage. I have started a spares bag with batteries, strings, tape etc and got a double gig bag so I can take two basses. I think I am finding my practising on my own frustrating as I need to start picking up and remembering some musical cues from the rest of the band. I use ultimate guitar backing tracks but they are not always the same as we do a song. We have our first of our post lockdown practices in a week to get ready for some gigs in July and August. I can read music from my brass band days but not as quick on the bass clef as the treble and I do not know the note positions on the fretboard as fluently as I would like. This is a work in progress. I will stay away from using any form of written music aid on stage as per everyone’s advice. I absolutely love to gig as it’s the complete opposite of my day job as you can imagine and really good for my mental health which has suffered after 30 yrs of witnessing some not very nice stuff. I really appreciate the tips and advice.

I’ve only been playing since late 2018 and in a band since 2019. Seeing a last year was a complete washout for gigs, I don’t have a lot of actual stage time. Do any of you seasoned veterans of the gig circuit have any advice that you’d wish you’d been told when you started out gigging? My big fear is having a complete blank of the bass line as I go to pluck the first string or forgetting that crucial part of the song where the bass is exposed. I am practising and practising our set list for this year in anticipation but is there anything I can do to prevent that mind block? Should I do some form of tab aide de memoire with the opening phrase and final phrase for each song? The band I’m in is very relaxed so there’s no pressure from the others only the pressure I put on myself as I want to be a professional as possible and give a good show.

Like others have said don’t be pressured into buying a bass that they(the band) think is appropriate. If you like your SR300 then there are loads of decent second hand higher range SRs out there. You can get a decent SR800 from the 90s, made in Japan for £5-600. I have an 89 and I love it. I also had a 300 and they are like chalk and cheese in quality. The SR1820 I had was only £800 brand new as it was an ex demo discontinued line. There is an SR1000 on the bay at the mo for about £800 and that is a prestige top of the range. Whatever YOU decide will be right.

Hahahaha........I wish I was that good.

I had read that the new generators are much better than the older versions. Hopefully I’m just fretting over nothing.

The band are due to play at a wedding in a marquee in July where the power will be from a generator. The wedding is on their land and they are doing it themselves hiring a marquee etc. I have suggested to the happy couple that they hire in a decent silenced diesel one with a distributor box. In case they decide to go with a couple of petrol driven Hondas, will a couple of APC Line R 1250i automatic voltage regulators/line conditioners be enough to protect our amps and mixer from harm? They are supposed to even out any over or under voltage plus surge protection but are not a UPS. They are rated at 1250va each and there will be 2 guitar amps, bass amp, XR18 & laptop and 3 pedal boards split between them. Our lights I’m happy to be just off a normal surge protector. Not playing is not an option as the couple have already been let down by another band and like many others have postponed their day a couple of times. Off the back of this I have actually amended our booking form to ask about and stipulate minimum power requirements as part of the hire agreement but cannot apply this retrospectively to this gig. I’m less worried about surges and more about voltage sagging. All our kit is insured under a band policy which also gives us PLI but I really don’t want the hassle of having to replace kit if the worst happens. Do the APCs sound enough or is there anything else I need to do?

A pair of Yamaha DXR10 should be just about in your budget. We use a pair over a pair of DXS12 subs when putting most of the band through it but a pair of the 10s would be more than enough for just vocals. I’ve never managed to get them to limit yet and they can go ridiculously loud.

I have the job of BV in my band and similar to OP I’m looking for a little assistance. I’m waiting on an TC Helicon Touch 2 to be delivered which I’m hoping will add some harmonies to my backing and generally thicken things up a little. I will need to have a play with it to see if running off the rhythm guitarist, preseting the key or using the built in room mics works best to control the harmonies. From the YouTube vids I have seen, it appears to be a very capable bit of kit but apparently you need to control the gain structure to prevent feedback. I’m not planning on using reverb, compression etc on the Touch 2 as the XR18 will handle that. It’s just the harmonies and a vocal effects I’m interested in.

I’ve only had a couple of onboard preamps and some strings off BD and the ability to email and discuss which ones would suit the bass best tonally with someone who knows what they are talking about is fantastic. Their delivery times are so speedy as well.

The best thing with wraps is they are very durable and protect the body underneath from scratches and knocks. If you get bored of it, just take it off.

Mines only wrapped on one side with a seam of tape around the edge;

Yeah the 5751 is about 70 gain opposed to the 100 or so of a 12AX7. With it in V1, I can crank the gain higher before going into overdrive which I prefer.

That’s brilliant. Thanks for the advice.

I am going to be wiring these to a Bartolini 5.2ap 918 preamp. I have looked at the wiring diagrams for both and have some questions if anyone is able to help. I get confused with the concept of grounding The pickups have three wires which are hot, ground and shield. Can I just connect the ground and shield together and solder to the foil cavity shielding as one ground or do I need to do something separately for each of them? If I can ground together, can I ground both pickups at the same point so all four pickup wires in one spot? Further to that can I put all the ground wires in one spot on the foil i.e jack ground, pickups, bridge etc? I have attached the relevant wiring diagrams so I’m talking about the black and grey wires from the pickups, basically where shall I solder them? Any advice is much appreciated as is anyone who can explain grounding in relation to bass wiring in simple terms to me as I want to be able to work on my basses myself....thanks.

This.........

Got Model Js on my Rockbass Corvette paired with an East Unipre preamp. I agree with Johndabass about the tonal options. They run quite hot which I like and have lovely punchy mids. No experience of the SDs though.

My 1989 Ibanez SR800LE.....my first proper bass