Boodang

I've told this before ages ago but it's my fav band breakup story so here goes... We had a song where the lyrics before the solo was 'call out my name'. The drummer and I had developed the habit of calling out 'w@nker' at this point, the vocalist not being our fav person (the reason at end of story). Well, on this occasion it's gets to that point in the song, I shout out said word with more gusto than normal, the drummer decides for some reason not to join in and the band goes unexpectedly quiet at this point. Much to the amusement of the audience the vocalist lunges at me during the solo while I try to keep playing the bassline and fending off the attack with the pointy end of my bass whist running around the drum kit as far as my lead will allow. At the end of the gig the vocalist just walks straight out. Apparently he stormed off in a huff but as he always left straight after the gig and never helped pack up the gesture was lost. He never returned and I, unfairly in my opinion, got the entire blame for the episode. The band didn't survive after failing to find another vocalist.

Well you learn something every day. Interestingly, wiki says 'double bass, possibly part of the violin family' and under viol 'Gamba contrabass, not to be confused with the double bass'. Possibly a good discussion for another nerdy thread. However, wiki does say the electric bass is the lowest pitch member of the guitar family.... and we all know that wiki is the font of all knowledge! PS I'm going to say that hating people not knowing their history is irrational just to get keep this post in topic! PPS I would say that hating people who hate people who call the electric bass a guitar is irrational except that it's entirely rational to call it a bass guitar.

Good point! It's a bass...... guitar! Not a double bass and part of the violin family.... it's a guitar, own it and be proud!

SM57s on instruments are great but 58s on vocals, not so much. Bought a warm audio wa19 and a vocalist friend of mine heard it in action and got rid of his beta. There's better alternatives to 58s these days. Edit; conversely, tried the WA in another band and the vocalist hated it. He said it was too clear and everybody could hear how bad he really was. We reverted back to the 58 to muddy up his vocal.

Came across a Hofner violin bass the other day in a shop. Have never played one before so gave it a go. I always thought they were crap (they still are!) but turns out they're a great slap machine (the salesman was horrified). Maybe could be Mark Kings next unexpected endorsement.

Irrational? Don't think so!

In my last blues band the guitarist starting wearing a hat that gave him that SRV look, so I can forgive him that as he did look cool (and had the 'LICKS' to back it up). Baseball caps I can't abide! Worked with a guy once who I never saw take off his baseball cap, day, night, restaurant, on a plane. On one occasion we were waiting for transport in an army canteen, he still wearing said cap as we eat, an army guy walks in, I can see the immediate rage in eyes, walks over, takes the cap and puts it straight in a bin. Brilliant. Should be made a standard policy.

Keyboard players who still have a left hand..... never employ them.

Definitely this. Thought I'd ruined my Sei custom as a five string low B, restrung it high C and it's awesome.

I've just bought an MXR Band of Gypsies '69 Psych series fuzz because it looked good..... and I don't even play guitar!

Behringer XR18; 16 input stagebox with six monitor and two main outputs. You can control the mix of the monitor outs with an app, so each person using one is in control of their own mix. Each musician has a DI which goes to FoH, the 'thru' goes to the XR18 and the monitors to the IEMs, the mix of which each member of the band controls via the app (doesn't work so well if you have more than 6 members!). Once you've set it up it pretty much stays the same and it's not so bad to cable up. In the old days, or when we're not using IEMs, we have an amp for each member of the band each side of the drums so at least we have a good mix of every instrument across the whole stage and vocal monitoring is this only major issue.

Where we can, we take control of our on stage sound. We give the FoH engineer DI's and tell him not to bother with foldback, then feed an XR18 stagebox which from which everyone uses IEMs and controls their own mix. For the most part the xr18 settings don't change now they're dialled in, so it's just a case of plugging everything in. And to make matters easier, we use cables rather than wireless.

You could always get a bypass switch fitted. Easy enough for a techie to do.

For everyday noisy environments like a pub, I use Loops on a low attenuation (this helps to understand speech). Loops on higher attenuation for when playing acoustic drums with standard monitoring and when it's IEMs I use with a limiting preamp to stop high levels. For sleeping I find the Bose sleep buds help distract my tinnitus. In fact I use them regularly when travelling rather than noise cancelling headphones.

Interesting that you should bring this up as my reverb pedals are back on my pedal board now. I'm still using delay but not as much, only when it's short so tempo is less of an issue. The HoF is back on the board, I found a nice tone print with a bit chorus that adds just a bit thickening without being noticeable. Lots of reverb for the fretless tho!

Maybe too simple for your needs and they don't make it anymore but cheap second hand and just records what ever you put through it and syncs to the app. It's not a looper.

The minimum I’ll bring when sharing a kit is snare, BD pedal, hh pedal, hh and ride. The basics of my sound and playability. Had to hire a kit for last nights gig, the heads were the opposite of what I would use, as was the tuning (although that bit is fixable). And the cymbals way heavier than my usual. Nice surprise though was a Roger’s dynasonic snare…. awesome!

Well that's it.... the final gig in Pakistan for me and a big farewell to all my musician buddies here. Played with three of my bands tonight (singer away in the fourth unfortunately), a bit of bass and a bit of drums. Punk, 80s cover and Hendrix/blues. All my gear packed away so hired a drum kit and borrowed basses. It was a great jam and very emotional. Fly out of here tomorrow. Hopefully will find some equally amazing musicians in Riga but will miss these guys.

Thinking about this, one of the things that’s keeping it fresh is recording technology. Thanks to our xr18, L20 and Tascam Models, we’re able to record and work on ideas all the time in our own small shed studios, rather than it be limited to occasional and expensive trips to big studios. We’re recording our gigs easier and getting a great live sound. This plus excellent microphones, all relatively cheap, keeps the creative juices flowing.

I'm 63 and still loving it. As I've got older I've adopted the no @rsehole rule when it comes to bands. It means I'm more picky about the bands I'm in but it does mean they're more enjoyable. And to keep it fresh I also play drums, which has helped my bass playing as well.

This was going to be our Saturday but it’s been cancelled… bummer! I organised the spring and autumn festival last year but as I’m leaving post next week it was organised by others. Well, what with one thing and another, the posters went out very late so very little uptake. Shame really as it would be one of my last gigs. The only upside is that we’d be setting up in 45c heat, which would have been a bit much. Still, next week is our last Friday and all my musician friends are coming along and we’re having a big jam at the our Brit club. Should be a good blast. I’m getting everyone up from the 5 bands I’m in for the last number… a giant jam of superstition. Actually maybe we should start that first as it could take all night!

Interesting. For some reason I’ve always wanted to give them a go but have been put off by the lack of truss rod. After reading this I might get one. Don’t mind a thicker neck as I come from a DB background.

They have a unique tone but, imho, that's due to the pickup design and electronics and not the magic fairy wood used to make the basses from. I once had a Westone Thunder that I put a Wal style pickup on (made in Germany, eight individual coils, two per string) and it sounded like a Wal.

Our last ever gig for the Hendrix/blues band. Just as we have to part ways we’re beginning to really gel. Still, at least we’ve had the opportunity to do it and playing with them has been an amazing experience. We have recorded about 18 songs which will be put out on Spotify in the next week under the name of Move Over Rover. The guitarist is the ghost of Hendrix (I kid you not he was born the day Hendrix died and is steeped in the blues). I’m moving to a different country in a few weeks so the reason for it ending. Although I’m trying to persuade the others to join me! The gig had a small but enthusiastic crowd who are big blues fans. Always good to play to an appreciative audience. I’ve organised an open air music festival (a small affair) for next week, so we might do a few numbers at that, but the temperatures are now 45c and creeping up so it’ll be fairly unpleasant.

Of all the Wal basses I could have bought back in the day, it’s a green single pickup fretless that I wish I’d bought. It was in a small music shop in Hanwell, very west London, and £500. I’m a fan of Wal basses when they’re at that price, but a penny more and they’re not worth it.