dirgefornovember

Been very content with my Squier 40th anniversary P and Warwick Corvette for quite a long time but had a sudden hankering for a Stingray that I just couldn't shake. Never tried one before and just loved that sound. This Ray34 came up at a good price on Reverb, just a shade over £500 after some negotiation, and had to pull the trigger. The colour is unbelievable. I love that blue sparkle, and the roasted maple neck is really smooth. Not totally au fait with active basses but put it through my pedalboard with a Solidgold Beta V preamp and a Jam Pedals Rat and I'll need to do some serious tweaking, sounds wildly different to the setting I use for my P bass. Now the conundrum of trying to justify having 3 basses around the house...

My band is called Wooed and we opened for Ma.Da.Sa, also a new-ish band but a bit of a 'supergroup' from other Southampton bands. Good local crowd.

Final show of the year (and indeed our second ever show!) was at Heartbreakers in Southampton, opening the show. We had some technical issues with our previous gig (venue's bass head and cab didn't work 5 mins before we were due to start...) and, while it was overall really enjoyable, I wasn't too happy with the sound on-stage. This show was miles ahead sound-wise, and that's because we managed to have a proper 30-40 minute soundcheck before doors. Big shout out to the sound guy Izaak - we're a loud band, so it really helped to have an outside ear to keep us all sounding even and ensure we had enough coming through the monitors so we could hear ourselves properly. The sound guy took the DI from my Darkglass Element to the PA, and I used the venue's (or maybe the other bands? didn't check!) 210 Ashdown combo for stage monitoring. Sounded great and most importantly I could really hear myself, which felt like a world away from the other show. It's made me think I should invest in some kind of lightweight head/cab/combo for stage monitoring in the future. Done a few hours research and I have complete option paralysis, but that's maybe for another thread... I genuinely thought we'd be playing to about 3 people as this was a paid event very close to Xmas, so was pleasantly surprised to see a good 25-ish people there. A great local show by Psych Ltd and v well-organised, I'd play again in a heartbeat.

This is a new fairly new board for me, graduating from a Orange Bass Butler > Way Huge Swollen Pickle > DOD Rubberneck > Element to what you see above. Chain is Tuner > Beta > Jam Rattler > Demhe > SY300 > EQD Afterneath clone > Element. Only had one rehearsal with it so far (context: I play in a loud rock/psych/post-hardcore band) but pleasantly surprised by the Beta V, which has not made me miss the Bass Butler that much. I'm still to learn the full capability of the LPF - in fact our drummer said having the switch to 1 sounded like I was playing in the other room - so still trying to find my way with that one. Keeping it neutral on 0 felt like the best place so far. The pedal I thought would be a slam dunk but has left me a touch disappointed is the Rattler. Done a fair bit of knob-twiddling with the blend but still getting a bit lost in the mix. However I love the secondary switch to go full-gain for those heavier parts, so will be staying in the board for now. Quite easy to accidentally engage that switch, mind.. Enjoying the Demhe, it's a bit more velcro-y than the Swollen Pickle, which I did really like but there is only really one setting for that and it is big booming bassy fuzz. So needed something a little more versatile. Boss SY300 is brand new so haven't had the chance to get it in the rehearsal room yet. But mainly looking to use it as a multi-fx and an all-round ambience creator than a straight synth. Sounds good so far, and have been able to make just simple chorus / flanger / phaser patches (after some YouTube tutorials). Afterneath clone is great (bought from a DIY pedal maker on The Fretboard). Had the real thing before and this sounds just as good. For me, Afterneath is the best reverb on bass. Element is the Element, had it for ages now and don't see myself ever getting rid of it. Cab sim, headphone out, DI out for live performance, and plug it into the laptop to record straight into a DAW. Brilliant tool.

I guess I'm just used to the Darkglass pedals (and the Source Audio C4) coming with all the necessary guff so I can use their editors on desktop straight away.

Just got mine today. The pedal itself is a bit smaller than I expected, which is nice as it'll fit on my pedalboard. Has come with a European power supply - fine, it's being powered by my Truetone power supply so that's not too much of an issue. But no USB cable to I can connect to the BOSS software? This is meant to be a £400+ pedal. I'm sure there's some people who would be fine with that, but I don't think I've got a USB type-B cable lying around, so I can't actually use the dedicated BOSS software that I'm being told to use. Unbelievably annoying.

Just checking! I've bought one. Thanks for the heads up.

Delivery is from Sweden to the UK....so are we getting stung with customs charges on this?

Last week, I played my first ever show on bass guitar with my new band Wooed. Background: I’ve been ‘playing’ bass for a few years (just mucking around playing my favourite bass riffs when I get the odd minute) but only started to take it seriously when Covid kicked off. In 2022, a couple of long-term friends expressed an interest in forming a band, and we all love the same music (rock/punk-‘adjacent’) so booked the local rehearsal room and muddled our way through some of our favourite covers. It’s only in the last 6/7 months that we’ve managed to write some originals. I like to think we’re a mix of Brutus and The War on Drugs – that’s the sound we’re aiming for, anyway. We were the first band on a lineup of some great up-and-coming punk/hardcore bands (Out of Love, Tripsun, Buds) at a venue called The Vaults in Portsmouth. They’ve all either toured with bands I love (Scowl, Angel Dust, Static Dress) or are playing some pretty big festivals in the coming year (Buds are playing 2000 Trees for example, and they were on straight after us). So felt pretty chuffed that our little band, with only a 4-track demo to our name, was able to open the show. The show was also free entry, so we knew there would be a decent crowd. Definitely feel very privileged in that respect, as a lot of bands’ first shows are played to a crowd of 5 people, so the whole band and I were bang up for it. That being said, it was still my very first time playing bass in front of a crowd (same with the drummer), so I was nervous as anything. We had rehearsed the set quite a few times over so wasn’t too worried about the playing itself, but more about how we sounded in front of others and whether we’d sound as tight as we do in the rehearsal room. We’re also not quite as fast-paced or as frenetic as the other three bands on the bill, so the chances of us going down well were mixed. None of the other bands wanted to soundcheck so we arrived at the venue and had to set up the drums/amps etc for our soundcheck. The backline was provided but there was an issue with the bass head, so had to DI straight to the PA. Not a great start as I’d have liked to have felt the air from the bass amp, but these things happen. Soundcheck sounded good, so we basically launched straight into the set. I was standing right next to the drums – the stage was very small so couldn’t move – so popped in the ear protectors and away we went. Straight away, I could barely hear anything through the monitors. I just assumed it was the ear protectors dampening the sound a bit, and our first song is our heaviest, so maybe I was lost in the mix a bit. Second song starts…nope it’s definitely the monitor. This carries on for the rest of the set, but didn’t hear any complaints from the crowd and no-one told me if I was quiet, so it must have sounded good out front. I should have asked for more bass in the monitor, regardless of how uncool it sounds on the mic - definite learning opportunity for me, there. We also only had 20 minutes, so we had to rocket through our 4 tracks. I think we came in about 22-23 minutes, as we have some tuning time between the 2nd and 3rd songs. The tuning was a good minute or two, and unfortunately this made some slightly uncomfortable dead time, so I wish I had a) spoke on the mic for a bit just to engage the crowd, or b) at least smashed on the reverb + delay and created some ambience for that moment. Another big learning opportunity that only presents itself when you actually play the show, so I’m kind of grateful that it happened, as I know what to do for next time. Another small thing is that I was insanely sweaty from the word go 😰 so I’m definitely packing a towel for those moments in between tracks. That being said, I enjoyed the show and we had a lot of compliments afterwards, so we’ve already reached out to a few more promoters. Really buzzing to have been on such an awesome show, and more importantly to have ripped off the first show ‘bandaid’.

Yeah that was a really frustrating part of it. With hardly any seating and no re-admission, I had to enter the venue late afternoon-ish as I can't stand up for 10 hours 3 days on the trot, so missed quite a few bands I wanted to see. Still, a banging line-up and enjoyed myself - picked up the HV top at merch too! Anyway, enjoy the shows you've got coming up and will hopefully see you in 2024 again.

If you are actually the High Vis bassist then let me just say how awesome your band is. Saw HV at Outbreak this year and were the best band of the weekend. 🫡

That's great news. Have to admit I have a soft spot for the current website and it's old school design and charm - it's basically a Geocities website that sells £5,000 basses - but it is 2023 and all sites should have some sort of ecommerce inventory checker.

PLEASE let the new website have some sort of automated inventory check. Ordered a pre-owned bass last night - and subsequently spent all night dreaming about it - but unfortunately got a refund email this morning as someone must have beaten me to it. But the page for it is still live with an Add to cart button... I'm just really bitter 😂