Boodang

Stunning visuals and why not if you can afford to do it... and I'm sure they can! Also interesting is the lack of on stage amps & sparse monitoring, very clean. Complete with a perspex cage for the drummer!

Love or loath U2, they don't take their audience for granted. Can't believe how many people are watching through their phones!

Desolate, haunting and isolation are the themes that come across for me in the picture and ones that inspired this melancholy, and hopefully atmospheric, piece.

5 minutes ago, Merton said:

We’ve ended up with a tablet which we use for the main mix, but everyone downloaded Mixing Station to their phone so they can control their IEM mix themselves. Also allows for multiple redundancy, or in the case of last night, muting crap singers from the comfort of the bar area 😂

Actually the moment we were announced and I went to the tablet to unmute was one of those, thankfully, rare moments where your entire body feels like a gut punch as your brain realises what I giant pink torpedo up you’ve engineered!

7 hours ago, Rexel Matador said:

Played last night at a pub in Liverpool that we haven't played before. It was nice to be on a raised stage for once. Not so nice to be told while soundchecking that "everything will have to come down because there's a quiz in the room next door". Sigh. Why did you book a rock band then?

 

To be fair we often get told we're very loud. Maybe our ears are so shot we don't notice. Additionally, there's no way to "turn down" our drummer, so we just set up accordingly.

 

Wasn't the best we've ever played, but it was a good turnout and a nice responsive crowd. And we've been invited back.

 

It was also the first outing for my new homemade bass, which you can check out over in the Build Diaries form if you're into that kind of thing! It sounds great (though that's mostly down to the good people at EMG, in my opinion) and doesn't crush my spine over the course of a gig, which is a massive relief.

 

I was getting weird bassy feedback coming from my side at certain points though. The others thought it was coming from my amp, which did seem to be the case, but it doesn't really make sense to me. It's never happened before and feedback wouldn't swell consistently while you were actually playing would it? I'm hoping it's not the new bass, but the exact same pickup and electronics are in the bass I've been using for gigs up to now. Plus it was fine in the rehearsal room

 

From the sound of it, it seemed much more like feedback you might get from a PA, but again, it did seem to be coming from the vicinity of my amp. Maybe it was the room. I really hope it's a one-off.

 

No-one outside of the band seemed bothered anyway!

 

There is one way to turn down the drummer but it’s not very rock n roll! I play drums as well and last year started using an E kit because of A. late night practice and B. small venues. As much as it’s not the same it’s made a massive difference to giging. 

7 hours ago, jimmyb625 said:

Ouch!

 

A little late now, but I carry two tablets when I do the tech stuff for the electronic duo I work with. It used to be an ipad air and a galaxy tab, but I've recently upgraded to a Galaxy Tab S8 ultra for a larger work surface, so I now take 2 Andriods. They both run mixing station, so the interface is about the same, although I've set a custom layer one the S8.

 

It might be cheaper than buying an X-touch (although I do like those).

Yeah, my fault for being lazy and complacent. Have ordered the x touch and a second tablet! I do like to be able to wander around and mix remotely but I’m needing the comfort blanket of the x touch now. Plus, back in the home studio it’ll get a lot of use (I keep telling myself that to justify the expense!). 

Aaaaahhh, what a painful Oktoberfest gig! Used our trusty xr18 and my trusty tablet, but as the gig was just around from where I live I didn't bring any backup. All setup, great sound, muted the main outputs before taking a break... then as we're announced the tablet decides it wants to do an update, I press 'not yet', it loses sync with the xr never to return. Now we have no sound! 

We had a small old desk with us, so a quick repatch, awful mix, half the monitors not working and that was the first set. My wife went and grabbed my laptop from home so all restored for sets 2 & 3, but still very stressful. 

So, lesson learnt, always have a backup but after tonight I can feel an x touch coming on so we're not dependent on software. 

56 minutes ago, nilorius said:

Seems like you preffer hard core steel

Nah, just hard core metal!

1 hour ago, nilorius said:

Pedal board - Rev ?

The board itself seems to be a sofa... do you not have problems fitting that on stage? 

Brilliant! After Janek's last album which was based around pedal noises, I'm loving the return to the classic trio format. And he has such a lyrical voice when he solos. I got his Giant Steps book and in it he talks about all the Pat Metheny solos he transcribed and how much of an influence he was on his playing. I've always thought of Gwizdala as the Metheny of the bass.

16 minutes ago, meterman said:

I’d have to draw the line at playing “Sex On Fire” though. Or that flipping Killers song....

Unfortunately that flipping Killers song goes down so well it ends up getting played most gigs, but... the audience reaction is so strong it always puts a smile on my face.

Worse for me is the colour tv/ microwave oven song, so I've turned it into a challenge to make it as funky as possible without the audience noticing. 

Until recently I've never done covers, nothing against it but it's always been jazz standards (a covers band I guess but with a small audience) or originals (even smaller audience!). Now I'm in two covers bands and loving it, the audience loves it and we definitely do not feel parasites when everyone is having fun. I think also the thing a covers band brings is the variety you wouldn't necessarily get from an artist and if you pull it off (hard work as a musician to get all the styles covered) there's something about live music, as opposed to just pressing play on spotify, that is very powerful and satisfying.

PS was in an originals band once, getting nowhere, small gigs, no audience. So instead we marketed ourselves as a covers band specialising in obscure tunes (it was the same stuff, we just lied). Because people believed it wasn't originals they liked it. We never kept track of who we said did any particular tune so it changed every gig but either no one noticed or cared.

3 hours ago, BigJHW said:

nah i'd rather be nice and buy a 4 string off someone on here that's nice enough sell them on here, rather than my usual trick of taking unwanted gear to bass direct and p/x'ing on something new lol

Out of interest, and a bit of a variation to the original thread I realise, but have you considered getting a custom 4 made so it exactly matches your GAS (sorry, I meant 'needs')?

I got this done by my local luthier, cheaper than a fender and to my exact needs.... until I want something different. 

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Nothing wrong with that, we all indulge in a bit of GAS from time to time, that's mostly what Basschat is for. However don't ask us all to endorse your GAS. That's not what Basschat is for. 

Ah, but by endorsing the OPs GAS you can spend his money vicariously, which is great fun!

4 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Yes, but which three..? Low 'E' missing..? The 'G' string..? Surely no-one playing with no 'A' string, or doing without the 'D' string..? (All this assuming 'standard' tuning; does anyone these daze use 'standard' tuning, or is that, too, a thing of the past, for the 'older' folk here..?)..? 

 

...

 

 

 

...

 

Dearie me, standard tuning is so last century! Tuning in flatten fifths of the pythagorean system by a quarter of a syntonic comma is all the rage these days.  

3 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I did mention 2 string basses though.

It gets worse! 5, 4, miss out 3, then 2 gets a mention!!! I'm currently a 3 string bass player but that's mainly due to having broken a string.

The fact that 3 string basses have been totally ignored in all of this is a tragedy. All 3 string bassists should be mortally offended.

After damaging my hearing when young in stupidly loud bands, it's now too painful for me to have excessive volume on stage. I used to wear decent earplugs but recently I bought an XR18 and now the band have gone in ears, with the exception of our new singer who's not used to them and uses a monitor. 

However, a second band I've just started up are still in the old 'valve amps' stage and while it's not that loud, the overall volume is out of my control. So what I'm doing is running a signal to the XR18, even if it's not going from there to FoH, and then creating my own monitor mix to my in ears and thus can now control the volume to a certain extent. Overall benefit though, apart from reducing volume, is the quality of the monitor mix I hear which is totally under my control and makes a huge difference live.

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

You need to play better basses.

If I wanted to play a 5 string I could pretty much buy anything I wanted but I haven't found one that can do the job. Imho 31hz is just too low and the tension on the string, no matter the scale length, makes it feel wrong (bearing in mind my upright is 41" scale and just about right I reckon for low E, although the full scale 44" is better!). Actually my 5 string high C is a custom Sei bass and originally I strung it low B... for all of a week! After which I discovered the joys of the high C, Gwizdala style but without the talent. Which all reminds me of a bass Overwater made ages ago which was a 4 string 36" scale where it was tuned low C, which felt good but not if you tuned it down to B (actually quite fancy that bass now as it would be different). 

Also, as @Dan Dare says, how are you going to reproduce 31hz?! Do you take folded double 18 bins with you to gigs? Most bass cabs, or at least ones you can carry and fit into a car, start going -3db at 80hz and -9db at 41hz let along 31hz, so you're struggling with low E let alone B. So for me that's another issue. Even if you're happy with the way the bass plays, you still can't really reproduce the bottom end properly. Bag End used to do a system with a dedicated processor and speaker which they reckoned could do it but obviously not cheap, and outside of a big PA system I'd say you're struggling to get a speaker to do anything but fart at those frequencies.

I play a 5 string but it's high C. For me low B doesn't play like the other strings, undefined and basically just a giant fart sound. 

The rest the time I play a 4 string fretless or an EuB. I certainly don't feel the need for that lower string. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is that I centre myself on C of the E string (8th fret), which I put down to mostly working with piano players rather than guitarists. As a result I naturally feel like I have a lot of lower notes to choose from rather than starting at the lowest note on the bass and the only way is up!

So basically I think you'll be fine going standard 4 string, you just need to rethink your tonal centre.

On 09/09/2023 at 22:14, joel406 said:

Over the last 7/8 years my personal equipment has reached a level where I have no need, or want, for anything.

 

Amp wise I already have the best. As well as multiple heads and cabs.

 

I own 6 outstanding instruments. Carefully selected, and compared to the likes of Lakland, MTD, Alembic and any other brand you can think of. They fit me and sound fantastic.

 

Over the last 3/4 years I have gone primarily ampless. And now I have six pedal boards. Any of which can, and do, get the job done. 

 

Anyone else out there that want for nothing? It actually feels great.

I reached a similar position recently.  To cure this, I took up drumming and now we've started all over again!

31 minutes ago, stewblack said:

New band starting on Sunday. I've been building a board with the specific set in mind.

What's the specific set?

1 hour ago, OliverBlackman said:

Busy practicing what? We can all hit things…. 👀

Ah, but many hours of practice mean that drummers hit things with more style!

8 hours ago, Bolo said:

That's asking a lot of drummers 

Actually, as a side note to this (and as a drummer myself), the drum forums that are out there are not very active compared to the bass ones. I put this down to the fact that drummers are too busy practicing and improving their art rather than talking about it. Which reminds me, I should go and practice!

2 hours ago, ordep said:

Small update to the mini/practice board. 

Ooh, a 3 leaf Enabler, you don't see one of those often. 

48 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

Seems to be a compressor, not a pre amp.

It's a really nice 1176 style comp and preamp. Range control is the mid range and it has lows and high eq.