TimR

[quote name='JTUK' post='866021' date='Jun 13 2010, 03:09 PM']... PRO this and that comes cross as school boy wannabee and you are 41..!! ...[/quote] I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. In fact the original advert is very wordy and probably goes right against my less is more philosophy on everything else. Why mention anything about equipment, attitude or transport? Only because I've seen it on a lot of ads looking for people ie must have reliable gear and transport. Personally I would probably assume that someone experienced and my age would have all the pre-requisites. [size=3]Experienced Bass Player, 41, looking for covers band with regular pub, function or wedding gigs. Phone Tim xxxxxxx[/size] (I still like the kisses - I think it ads that personal touch.)

Thanks everyone, the first line will now read: [size=3]Bass Player looking for regularly gigging covers band playing pubs, functions or weddings.[/size] Now for a radical zany photo of me.

Bliidy spill chucker! I'm in a band at the moment so have the luxury of being able to be a bit up front about the practicing. No point in auditioning/meeting another band only to find out they're more into practicing than playing live. One singer was pretty up front about having better things to do with his time than spend hours running over old material or learning new stuff when there's no gigs happening. They got rid of him. It is a good point, I'll have the conversation over the phone. Maybe its worth just going for a jam with a band looking for a bass player just to get some contacts, but I don't want to waste anyone's time. A few years back I was looking for a singer to join my band when a guy called me . His first question was "How often do you gig? Because if it's less than twice a week I'm not interested." Simple as. You have to admire him for his honesty even if a little blunt.

[quote name='misrule' post='865503' date='Jun 12 2010, 08:28 PM']Yup, I'd lose the third line. You can discuss that once you're hired. Cheers Mark[/quote] Going on experience from the last 2 bands, I will ask that question before I put the phone down.

Yes, silddx, I'm constantly watching out for on-line ads, not just here. I wasn't sure of the third line. I supose I should have learned by now that the first few questions should be: "How often do you gig?" "How often do you practice and when?" "What's your setlist?"

I'm looking to find a new band and am going to start with the old card in the local guitar shop trick. I'm thinking. [size=3]Bass Player Available for covers band playing pubs, functions or weddings. I am experienced, 41, with pro gear, pro attitiude and reliable transport. Happy to practice to get up to speed but not interested in weekly practices with no gig schedule. Phone Tim xxxxxxxx[/size] Any comments. How would/do you advertise yourself. I'm trying this first as an easy option, my next move will be to visit some jam nights.

I might be living in cloud cuckoo but if the Promoter has asked to use your amp then he is responsible for it. He is effectively lending it to the other bands. I would go after him to claim any damage. It's his gig. if anything happened to the public they would sue him, not the band that was playing at the time. He's making the money from the event. Get him to give you a deposit and sign a waiver. Job done. That might persuade him to hire decent backline in the first place and you wouldn't need to bring anything either.

Well I saw the singer of the band yesterday. He said some of the tunes were impossible to pitch because there was nothing coming from the bass. He's going to have (another! ) word. It wasn't just me then.

[quote name='spike' post='859052' date='Jun 6 2010, 05:11 PM']I don't see anything wrong with changing the bass line if you want to but if you get too busy you risk losing the groove of the song. I often simplify the bass line compared to the recording because the subtleties you hear on the recording will often be lost in a live situation. In a large band like the OP mentioned the idea is to listen to and interlock with the other band members, not to play loads of notes. PS. I agree with what Bloodaxe says about not changing the signature bits.[/quote] This is exactly where I'm coming from. He had no problem playing the original line. He did that for the first verse and chorus and it sounded good, but it was almost like he was bored of playing it and wanted to show off his shredding skills. After the first chorus the songs lost all groove, he never really played much below the middle E for longer than a bar and the drummer didn't lay down anything solid either. I come from the school where in pop, disco and funk, the bass and drums provide the force behind the band, driving it all. The only real driving force was the snare.

Saw a function band the other day. The drummer wasn't particularly tight and the bass player wasn't locked in at all. In fact in most of the tunes he played the original bass line for the first verse and chorus then wandered off and appeared to be soloing for the rest of the tune. Fair enough this might work in some situations, but it was a 7 piece band. I found it impossible to dance, and gave up for a fair number of tunes. At one stage he was playing a recognisable solo from a completely different tune as the bass line to the verse. Does anyone else in a function/covers band spend their entire gig trying to be clever and what do the rest of the band think? Anyone else seen this happen and agree/disagree that its a bad thing to do? Is it just me because I'm a bass player expecting to hear the proper bass line? You wouldn't expect the vocalist to sing different words or is that different in some way? Do I ask too many questions and should I just worry about my own band?

OK what would the judges say about your band?

I broke an E string many years ago. I'm sure it was a boiled one. No spare, managed to borrow a bass from the support band. Always carry spare strings (keep last set taken off), and spare leads (1 instrument, 1 mains). I broke a tuner on NYE tuning up before going on, My E! I had a spare string, but not a spare bass. Completely restrung the bass during the next song so that the E was where A should be etc... Played the rest of the gig doing mental gymnastics.

[quote name='jezzaboy' post='852159' date='May 30 2010, 09:51 PM']I play in a covers band and am very happy with it. The only problem is we only play twice a month at the most. We can`t do any more due to our singer getting a hard time from his wife and we have knocked back umpteen gigs recently due to this. I would like to gig every weekend if possible...... Cheers, Jez[/quote] What about the other guys in the band? What about finding a second singer? It's covers so should be simple. Current singer always gets first refusal. The main issue is whether you have time to rehearse. I seem to be the only person in the world who would rather run a one rehearsal per gig ratio, rather than a 13 rehearsals per gig ratio. Grrrr! I joined a second band that didn't gig much to complement my first band that didn't gig much. For various reasons I left the first band and the second band don't actually gig as often as they say they did. So now I'm looking for a second band (or is in First band? I get easily confused).

David, why do you want to use an amp? You can plug your bass into the H4 directly. The H4 has amp simulation which is quite good if that's what you want.

Missed the two replies. No point in puuting T13A in the lead as the T6.5A in the chasis will blow first. Mad.

Sorry Ian, I don't fully agree. the fuse in the amp is a time-delay and looking at the current/time curves for a normal 13A normal and a T6.5A there's really not that much in it. The mains fuse would also blow under live-neutral fault. The chances of a live-nutral or earth-live fault developing that would leave a fault current that would blow a 5A fuse but not a 13A fuse and hence lead to an electric shock risk are extremeley low. Fuses should not be seen as protecting human life. Fit RCDs if that's what you want. ALL fuses are there to stop your gear from turning into a fireball. In this case the time delay fuse is fitted in the IEC socket on the chasis amp, so the only thing the mains fuse is protecting is the mains lead. The main point is that the plug top fuse must not be sized bigger than the mains lead is rated at. So 13A should not be put into a 0.75mm2 cable. I think that the earlier discussion on 3A 5A and 13A fuses becoming the norm is that it is increaslingly common for all electrical equipment to be fused at the chasis and the only size cables in common usage are now either 0.75mm2 or 1mm2. 7 and 10 fuses are essentially redundant.

I did some more thinking. In Europe they don't fuse the plugtop. I'm sticking with the 13A and a heavy duty lead. The T6.3A is enough to protect the amp.

I have recieved a reply, not the correct one so I have clarified my original question. Never put a glass fuse in a plug top! The standard cartridge fuse is sand filled. Put one of those screwdrivers with an LED in it that shows contiunuity in your gig bag. You can use that to check the fuse. Porsonally I just take a spare lead. I don't really want to be standing around changing fuses at a gig.

[quote name='discreet' post='845784' date='May 23 2010, 02:45 PM']Er... bit techy for me, but if I understand rightly, VA (Volt-Ampere) is a measure of power in a circuit, so a 640VA transformer is more likely to blow a fuse than a 500VA transformer at power-up, without a current limiter? Or am I just mincing about in a bikini because I'm mentally ill? Thanks![/quote] Yes VA is Watts in this case. I'm guessing that the transformer has to be rated higher than the power amp and from what I've read it is the transformer rating that governs the inrush current, not the power amp rating. Anyway, I posed a Q on the Warwick support forum. Its Sunday in Germany so I guess all their designers are out in the sunshine on the Nurberg Ring in their Porches. Hopefully,knowing their efficiency, they will reply at 8.01 tomorrow morning. [url="http://forum.warwick.de/20-warwick-amp-customer-support/11987-pro-fet-5-1-fuses.html#post185930"]http://forum.warwick.de/20-warwick-amp-cus...html#post185930[/url]

The transformer has 4 taps; 2@59v rated at 5.2A and 2@18v rated at 0.63A. The taps are combined to give 118v and 36v. So it looks like its a 640VA transformer not a 500VA one! 500W is on the limit of what you would put a soft start or startup current limiter on. The 5.1/5.2 don't have one, the 10.1 Extreme does! Warwick are obviously trying to keep costs down here. They do have a delay before the speakers are switched on though, which is nice of them. The screws holding the case together are shocking quality as well but the chrome knobs are a nice touch. Still it's a really nice sounding amp for the price.

Haven't contacted Warwick yet. I'm not convinced that the lead I had came with the amp. Inrush current is the current that flows in the transformer when you initially power it up. It can be up to 10x the transformer rating for 0.1s The power rating of the transformer is 500W so 2A under full load but possibly up to 10A on start up. A 5A will blow straight away if you catch it on the wrong point of the cycle, but this is going to be random hence it being only occasional. A 10A fuse is going to be fine. The important thing is to protect the lead as that's the most likely part to get dammaged and you want the fuse to blow before the lead catches fire. I'm sticking to a 13A cable 1mm2 and a 13amp fuse (only because 10A fuses seem to be difficult to get hold of, I'll swap it for a 10A when I next see one, or I'm at the electrical wholesalers). The amp is protected by the 6.3A slow blow fuse (marked as a 5A on the Warwick drawing!) 10A on the IEC relates to continuous current and is not an issue, the 5A sticker on the plug top relates only to the size of fuse fitted. I am going to open my amp up on Monday to look at the transformer and associated wiring to see what I can see.

[quote name='discreet' post='843727' date='May 21 2010, 12:25 AM']Thanks very much, guys - I picked up a supply of 5A fuses from feeBay, but obviously these are of little use to me - I'll run out! Anyone want? I've also ordered a shedful of 7A fuses, again off peeBay, and a 2m IEC cable rated at 13A, but have not had the opportunity to try them yet. Yeah, EU... that's a whole other topic right there. 10A I didn't know about at all, but hey. Thanks for the offer of a 10A Ian, will gladly accept and add to the equation... PM'd. TimR, thanks, it's a ProFet 5.1 I'm talking about, as you no doubt knew from my sig. Reassuring to know the problem may soon be history, thanks! 5A certainly does seem to be a bad idea... Will let you know how it goes. Thanks again. [/quote] I hadn't noticed your sig. I'm going to contact Warwick tomorrow. Seems a bit of a coincidence. Maybe there's a problem with the transformers. BUT why have a 5amp slow blow internally and then put a 5amp normal fuse in the lead? What is also interesting me is that it appears that IEC connector on the amp may only be rated at 10amps, but I'm not sure that matters too much. There are also IEC leads that are only 0.75mm2 and therefore only rated at 5amps don't put a bigger fuse in them! If we are putting fuses bigger than 5amps in them we should be using 1mm2 leads. More investigation required!

None of it makes sense to me, I think I have missed something. How many are in this band - the ad doesn't even say! Have you/they ever played in other bands? If they are a start up band then they should have all gone away for a few weeks and learned lots of tunes on their own, then 4 weeks of 2 practices a week should have them up and ready to gig - do a few small pub gigs to gage audience reaction and clear first night nerves - job done. Were you just rehearsing music or adding choreography too? They say they are making money - you say you are not gigging. They say you have no gear - you say you aren't willing to leave your gear at the rehearsal space. I joined a 5 piece and was gigging with them within 4 weeks one practice a week. We practice once a week and there have been issues that mean we've only gigged twice this year. I'm looking for another band to do in parallel, one that plays more than it rehearses. Be careful - some people just want to be in a band to tell their mates that they are in a band. They say they want to gig, but really only ever want to practice and do the occasional gig in front of those "mates". Move on. Work out exactly what you want to do and are prepared to do first. Make that clear to the next band before you join.

I've got a Boss SYB-3 bought off a fellow forumite. It didn't fully work, tracked terribly, wouldn't switch on and off very well and the mixed output only outputs the synth. I think it's had a hard life. I cleaned the board up with some cleaner and brush and it now works fine except for the mixed output. It would make a nice project, even if just a mixer to bridge between the two outputs. I paid £45, make me an offer?

Alex's was Mechanical. Speaker and cabinet design is all mechanical. Crossovers and thermal limits are fairly simple electronic concepts to grasp if you are bright. Mine's Electronics with an Acoustics module but that was in '94. Things have changed a lot since then. The way that engineers resort to numbers, formulas and long words to explain things hasn't and I still get the salesmen giving conflicting advice in shops.