Boodang

6 minutes ago, neepheid said:

There are more "out there" ideas that I respect, like the "wedge" bridge on the Gibson Victory bass which instead of having two grub screws through the saddle for height adjustment had the saddle move against an opposing wedge shape - move the wedge back/forward and it lifts/lowers the saddle as it pushes against it or moves away from it.  I always thought that was pretty clever.

That's basically how the KSM Foundation bridge works which I'm tempted to put on my jazz.

As a fretless player I'm quite taken by the sound of this bass, at least what I've heard of it on YouTube. Love the fact that the fingerboard is continuous and apparently there's a magnetic pup under the board. 

There's going to have to be some serious saving up for this one but I'm tempted. 

This reminds me of the Ray Ross bridge and his 'tone pin' solution. I think the only reason to put one on a bass is to make it look different but they're not cheap.

1 hour ago, lownote said:

Unlined's even better - great watching their little faces drop: "Sure, here..."

... or an EUB with no markings! 

As @Mudpupsaid, a source audio aftershock will give you loads to try out in one pedal. I'm using a TC Electronic spectradrive and there's a lot of toneprint drive/fuzzes to experiment with, but unlike a multi effects it's v simple to use and has a 4 band eq and comp.

To mis-quote the Shrek line to describe the jazz/groove trio I played in, it wasn't getting us to play that was the issue, it was getting us to shut up. The set was made up mostly of stuff from the 70s (think tv theme music), with plenty of improvisation. If we weren't feeling particularly inspired the set would still over run, but on a good night the improvisations could easily triple the length of a song and the keyboard player, as good as he was, would be in a world of his own.

Playing a gig in Northampton, we were feeling particularly inspired, no break between sets, heads down and thoroughly enjoying our improvisational genius (well in our heads we were genius!). Then, all we could hear was drums as the PA stopped working. Management had pulled the plug and came over to sort of apologise but mostly to say it was the easiest way to shut us up given that it was closing time and we weren't paying attention to his gesturing. We were still feeling quite chuffed with our playing but the managements parting comment was that 'we were quite good but next time could we play more than just one unrelenting song'. We felt slightly less chuffed as we packed up.

1 hour ago, ubit said:

  We have been there too. How many gigs over the years getting that sinking feeling as you realise they have  booked the wrong band.

Ah, the 'we've booked you by accident' syndrome. Was in a folk/rock band, there was a local festival which was quite popular, we submitted a demo to try and get on the lineup but we'd put it in late and wasn't surprised to not get selected. Then, with not long to go and thinking we were just going to be in the audience, we got a call saying there had been a last minute cancellation by one of the acts and could we oblige. Of course was the answer but was very surprised to learn that the organisers had put us on as the headline band. Now we had been around for a bit, so in our egotistical minds this seemed plausible. 

Come the day, the organisers were chatting to us so no suspicions about mistaken identities. Then, the MC announces us with the line 'we're really excited to have booked this band, we've been trying to get them here for years...', at which point we all look at each other with wtf faces, ' please welcome THE *****'. 

Turns out we had the same name but without 'THE'  in front of it as the band they thought they'd booked. We had never realised there was a band out there with a similar name as the 'real' band were doing much bigger gigs than us and our paths had never crossed. Well, no time to think about it, we went on and the set went down well. The organisers were happy and said they really enjoyed our new material. We never told them!

32 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

A gig that features both a train wreck and drunken "mates".

 

In the 80s there was a very attractive set of gigs at Nottingham University Halls and bars which were on the main campus a long way from the city centre and therefore had a decent sized captive audience. Not only did originals bands get handsomely paid, but you also got the opportunity to support well-known indie bands and up and coming chart acts. My friend's band who were well-established on the circuit did loads of these and got to support The Belle Stars the week they hit chart success for the first time and consequently played to a massive audience.

 

At the beginning of 1984 we had finally convinced the committee responsible for booking the bands to consider our synth-pop group and we got a "try-out" gig at one of the smaller halls. It wasn't the gig we had hope for as there was no "proper" band headlining so it was going to be just us and the disco. Then we discovered that none of the university PA systems were available as there were several other gigs going on that weekend on campus. So we were asked to organise our own and we would be reimbursed as part of our fee. We duly contacted one of the local PA hire companies we had used before and booked a rig. Soundcheck was late afternoon, and we turned up to find the PA setting up but only a small rig rather than the full one we were expecting, and which we really needed as we had no drum kit or backline and the PA was responsible for the whole band sound. The PA engineer assured us that it would be fine and this was a new more compact design he was trying out. We were rather dismayed to find we were being treated a guinea pigs for what was for us an important gig, but there was nothing we could do about it now.

 

The soundcheck went pretty well all things considered, although it was difficult to gauge the volume in an empty room. Having several hours to kill before we were due to play it was decided to go and get some food. However just as we were about to leave a couple of friends of one of the band showed up and he decided to stay with them rather than going with the rest of us. When we returned about an hour before we were supposed to play we discovered that they had got completely pïssed on cheap student beer. Our efforts to sober our band member up were completely futile, and so we went on as we were. To say it was a disaster would have been an understatement. Our drunk member could barely stand straight and spent the whole gig playing random notes on his synth and then wildely celebrating each time he thought he had one right. Halfway through our set he needed to go for a pïss which he announced to the audience (what little was left) and was most upset on his return to find that we had started the next song without him. There exists a single photo of the gig where the rest of us are all heads down concentrating on what we are doing (a probably hoping the earth would open up and swallow us) while he's leaping wildly into the air arms and legs akimbo.

 

To make matters worse his friends spent the whole gig shouting for us to play our cover of "Summer Wine" (the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood song) which we had only intended to play as an encore. They were getting quite aggressive about it and were at least as responsible as our poor performance for driving the audience away. In the end we relented and included it in the set in the hope that they would be happy and shut up. However they just wanted us to play it again! Finally when we thought it was all over and we could pack up and go home and forget about it, one of them fell over into the PA damaging one of the speakers. 

 

We got paid, but the promised money for the PA hire never materialised and the PA company wanted compensation for the damaged speaker, so I think we actually lost money on the gig. Also we found ourselves barred from playing at the University again.

Did you ever forgive said drunk band member?!

On 29/01/2022 at 18:50, Ricky Rioli said:

 

... under £200 and probably has a better bridge than the original. 

On 29/01/2022 at 18:50, Ricky Rioli said:

 

All mahogany construction, set neck, body & neck binding... actually looks quite good. At this price I'm sure the hardware and finish isn't the best but still, looks quite serviceable.

Yep, Percy Jones was a huge influence, especially the Brand X days back when Phil Collins was playing proper drums!

53 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

That’s the one 👍🏼😁

I had one back in the day... lovely bass, wish I'd kept it.

Wilkes used to put 'percussive' plates on their fretless basses.

5 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

That's reminded me, I think Derek Forbes also switched to fretless Vigier, possibly when he was playing in Propaganda. I should of remembered, I only interviewed him once and we talked about it and why he chose Vigier and not another manufacturer like Warwick, Ernie Ball etc. hahaha

 

I do remember those basses as well, I think @ped or @Dood on here played one???

What were the reasons he chose Vigier?

The fretless I want to get is the Vigier Passion delta metal... but the through neck model not the latest bolt on (I much prefer thru neck). I played one many many moons ago at the bass centre, very nearly bought it but went and got a custom made instead. You very rarely see them up for sale s/h. 

For some reason they changed the name from 'delta metal' to 'iMetal'! As the current trend seems to be to put 'i' in front of everything. 

1 minute ago, Rich said:

Nah.

 

Ah, that would have worked a treat!

8 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

That is lovely.  Shame they are so bloomin heavy.  Something about the tone those earlier Thunder 1a had was rather special.  A real 'Precision but not Precision' woody character which seemed especially to suit the fretless.  At the time the 'budget' fretless was the Squier VM Jazz, which was fine, but the Westone knocked spots off it.  It seemed like it wasn't trying to be anything other than itself.  The later ones were lighter but I wasn't so keen on the pickup.

It is v heavy! I play sitting down these days but I wouldn't want to stand all night with this around my shoulders. But the sound is great and I love the profile of the neck. I've got a custom creamery pickup in this one, i pluck the strings over the end of the neck and the sound is huge, a lovely woody tone i can't get with any other bass, even my most expensive custom. 

45 minutes ago, Boodang said:

Another own goal... I was in an originals band, the guitarist was also the vocalist, he wasn't convinced his vocals were the best so we thought we'd get someone in. The vocalist we chose had a great voice but we weren't sure it was right for the music, so a few gigs were booked as a tryout. By the time of the 'incident' I was getting fed up as the new vocalist would always turn up late after everything was setup and disappear as soon as we'd finish.

We were playing at a small pub, the song in question had the lyric 'you call out my name' just before the middle 8, at which point I 'inadvertently' blurted out 'w*nker' at the top of my voice just as the band dynamics went quiet. The vocalist instantly turned around and came at me, I'm trying to fend him off with my bass whilst still playing, the band keep playing but have joined the audience in that they've turned around to face the debacle at the back of the stage and are laughing. I wasn't sure how long I could keep up my defence when the vocalist, in the spirit of the show must go on, went back the mic. 

After the show I expected more of the same but he did his usual disappearing act but this time for good, which did solve this issue of whether he was going to stay in the band. Of course, once the band realised he wasn't coming back he became the greatest vocalist ever and apparently it was all my fault we were now not going to reach the dizzying heights of fame!

Oh, and forgot to say the moral of this particular story; the best bass to fend off an attack from an irate vocalist is of course... a Fender.

Another own goal... I was in an originals band, the guitarist was also the vocalist, he wasn't convinced his vocals were the best so we thought we'd get someone in. The vocalist we chose had a great voice but we weren't sure it was right for the music, so a few gigs were booked as a tryout. By the time of the 'incident' I was getting fed up as the new vocalist would always turn up late after everything was setup and disappear as soon as we'd finish.

We were playing at a small pub, the song in question had the lyric 'you call out my name' just before the middle 8, at which point I 'inadvertently' blurted out 'w*nker' at the top of my voice just as the band dynamics went quiet. The vocalist instantly turned around and came at me, I'm trying to fend him off with my bass whilst still playing, the band keep playing but have joined the audience in that they've turned around to face the debacle at the back of the stage and are laughing. I wasn't sure how long I could keep up my defence when the vocalist, in the spirit of the show must go on, went back the mic. 

After the show I expected more of the same but he did his usual disappearing act but this time for good, which did solve this issue of whether he was going to stay in the band. Of course, once the band realised he wasn't coming back he became the greatest vocalist ever and apparently it was all my fault we were now not going to reach the dizzying heights of fame!

That reminds me of the time I got asked to sit in for a mate of mine who was going away for a couple of months. A trio mostly doing Hendrix and the like, no rehearsal before the first gig but I did get a sit down acoustic evening with the guitarist just to go through any tricky bits. 1st gig went ok and it gelled quite well. 2nd gig, feeling confident (and I still don't know to this day why I did it), I thought, I know what this band needs to pep it up, we should do Hendrix with a double bass. So without announcing it beforehand I turn up to the venue with just my DB. Almost worth it for the look on the guitarist face when he realised A. I was serious, and B. There was no alternative/going back now. I thought it went really well, especially the bits where I got out the bow (again a great surprised looked from the guitarist). The guitarist however was under the impression that the band had taken a dramatic musical turn for the worst but give him his dues he did think it was an interesting experiment... so long as I didn't repeat it (yes, after all that he still let me do the other gigs but double bass and firewood were used in the same sentence). Interestingly I'm not sure the audience noticed much difference!

Is playing sitting down an option? I do most of my gigs on a drum stool these days.

I got a back injury from surfing and yoga / core strength exercises helped a lot.

1 hour ago, Linus27 said:

Seen a few of those for sale on Ebay and been really tempted for a bit of retro fun.

My Westone Thunder... first bass I owned.

1 hour ago, iconic said:

Good timing, I'm thinking of getting a drumset. I'm extremely lucky, I live in the country, fair size man cave, no close neighbours.

 

.... thought it might improve my rhythm....then thought that electronic drums maybe easier to hoof about and, don't regular drums need tuning and other maintenance? 

One of the ways I warm up for a gig when I'm playing bass is to use a drum practice pad and go through some fundamentals. Drumming definitely helps your bass playing  and vice versa.

6 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I always felt that I wanted to be a drummer and was steered away from it by my parents. When my attention was grabbed by a bass I think they felt 'well, it's not a drum set' and went with it.

That's not to say I'm unhappy with where music has taken me on the bass, but I just can't help wondering what route the other journey might have taken.

I think there's a lot more to keep you occupied with a drum set though, so I'm not sure I'd have as many kits as basses 😂

It's never too late! Always played bass but bought my daughter a drum kit when she was young and I ended up playing it more than her. Upshot was I took up drums as well. The drum kits are not so much the issue as the interest in percussion it sparked, so now the house is full all sorts of weird instruments half of which I got because they looked cool but only played once.

1 hour ago, Webby308 said:

I think karma (in a bad way) exists, as I was telling our drummer about this thread on the way to our gig last night and we we saying we've got off lightly compared to some of the stories here...  so guess what?  It was out turn last night...

 

Firstly our lead guitarist amp failed 4 songs in - the only time he didn't bring a spare because he was car sharing with out other guitarist...  fortunately one of the audience (who plays in a Bowie tribute band), went home and lent us his spare. Lucky or what?  At this point my phone in my pocket managed to dial 999 twice - it turns out Iphones can be fired up without human intervention when performing.... Then the singers wireless mic started weird feedback hums at random, then the other guitarist broke a string, so one song was bass, drums and 5 of the usual 6 strings whilst amp surgery was talking place...

 

The second set started ok, then the 2nd guitarist's IEM's stopped working, then to top it all about 30 minutes from the end I got a huge nose bleed that covered everything (shirt, jeans, shoes, bass).  It's bloody tricky to play and sing with blood and snot adding to the rock and roll look...

 

Oh well, hopefully that's our chunk of chaos this year, but you never know these days...

I hope the nose bleed happened during a suitably rock n roll song!