mike257

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1342962718' post='1743170'] Don't underestimate how difficult and stressful it can be, even for established artists. [/quote] Thanks Nige, wise words. Whilst I'm still writing and playing original music, I'm not expecting that to generate any kind of real cash and I am totally prioritising things that will make a bit of money. Whilst functions etc aren't anywhere near as enjoyable as creating original works, I still enjoy being out playing them enough to make it a main source of income compared to a thoroughly unrewarding 9-5. I'm trying to have as many avenues for earning as possible so that will hopefully alleviate the stresses of where the next pay check is coming from slightly. I do worry about the gaps in between and am looking into insurance to cover sickness etc. I'd like to get some decent savings in the bank before kissing the day job goodbye!

Hi guys, I'm sure we've all considered this at some point in time, I'm seriously thinking about taking the plunge and would love to hear your experiences, those of you making a living or those of you it didn't work out for. At the moment I have a reasonably well paying job, but have been 'redeployed' from running a successful, award winning project that was saving tens of thousands a year for my employer into a lower grade desk job that is essentially glorified customer service. This has left me completely pissed off and demoralised, and thinking it might be time to make a life change and do something I love for a living. I've recently joined a function band who are out doing a couple of weddings a month, with bookings already in place until this time next year. I also own a seven seater splitter van and do a bit of work transporting, tour managing and teching for bands, and some occasional freelance live engineering for a local PA company - my day job limits the amount of this work I can take on at the moment. I think if I could pick up one more regular function gig, I could probably get close to making a reasonable living, though I need to carefully consider things as I've got the missus, 3 month old baby and two step-daughters to think of. I'm lucky to have a very supportive other half who made a similar move a few years ago to pursue photography and has ended up with a career she loves as a lecturer in a local college teaching the subject, so she understands where I'm coming from and is very supportive. I'm trying to make positive steps towards this - I've joined the MU, and I'm just getting signed up with an agency that specialises in hooking working musos up with function acts and dep gigs (a friend is on their books and between them and a few bass students he's making a living from it) - and I'm putting together a catalogue of video and audio recordings to build a proper online presence for myself. I play bass and guitar, so that will hopefully double my opportunities, and I'll be starting singing lessons soon to get my BV's up to scratch. I'm hoping that between this, the splitter van and the engineering, I'll have enough things on the go to keep my options open for work. I know there's a good few full-timers on here, and a wide range of experiences, so I'm really looking for some advice - am I being realistic here? Any pitfalls I should be aware of? Any tips and suggestions? Thanks in advance for all your help and advice! Mike

I love that colour combo on a J style (particularly with the black scrachplate) so certainly looks the part for me - cheap basses can be pleasantly surprising. I've still got the 'Extreme' branded Jazz I won in Silverfoxnik's BC charity raffle a few years ago, think it retails at £95 but I think the neck feels great and I've had no issues with the fit and finish elsewhere. It's my main 'playing at home bass' and lives propped up in my back room ready to be grabbed whenever, and it's just a decent set of pickups away from being a good solid gigging bass that I'd happily take on stage.

Yeah, that would be the place for it, and any low impedance volume pedal (or any active one) will do for your needs. Placed after those pedals, it will effectively act as a master volume. The only big tonal difference it will make is if you use any drive from the Microbass - it will reduce the gain hitting the pedal so your drive tone would clean up a bit. If you're running it clean anyway then it's no biggie!

I see you're in the West Midlands, so only an hour or two from us in sunny Scouseland. There's a guy local to me who's building up quite a portfolio with local bands, he's doing increasingly good work. He's done a few for this band here, but this is a good example - location shots out and about near where they live, performance shots in the corner of the basement where the band rehearse and in a park up the road, looks ace. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxfj-ltW7-g[/media]

As said, high impedance pedals are great for placing right after your bass in the signal chain. Low impedance pedals may play nicer in the middle or at the end of a chain of effects. Another option is an active volume pedal - these can go anywhere. I've got a George Dennis volume pedal on my guitar board, it's active so sits wherever I want, optical so has no pot to wear out, and also has a switchable distortion effect if I go an extra push down at the top of its range. They do a range of volume pedals with different effects built in, or just dedicated volume - I picked mine up dirt cheap on eBay and don't use the built in effect, so don't be put off by that if you spot one cheap, you can safely ignore it and just use the volume function. If switching between a min and max volume is a concern, I think some of the Morley volume pedals allow you to set a minimum level, so your bass will never disappear. Alternatively, there's pedals out there (or easily built DIY style) that are essentially the same as the volume pot in your guitar, but in a box - if you just want to switch between 'loud' and 'quiet' this would be a simple solution, and cost buttons to build if you're that way inclined. I played with a guy who used the Ernie Ball VP Jr - heavily abused it as he basically emulated a pedal steel guitar in our alt. country band so the volume pedal was in constant use, and he swore by it, so if you're going for a simple passive solution they're probably a good option.

[quote name='vsmith1' timestamp='1342643764' post='1738675'] I use a Mac app called Neutrino - lets me loop, slow down, change pitch and uses my iTunes library. [/quote] Was hoping somebody would mention a decent Mac app, had no joy finding one myself - off to download this now!

[quote name='slobluesine' timestamp='1342647815' post='1738845'] errr with respect... the guy is still calling me an arsehole in PM's if you have a problem with the thread dont login [/quote] I live my life by the words of the great Roy Walker on Catchphrase, and say what I see. You state problem, seller accepts responsibility, solution is offered, complainant makes childish digs at seller. He may be calling you all kinds, but we can only judge what we see in the thread, and if his behaviour to you in private is abusive, the mods should be informed as shenanigans like that aren't tolerated round here. As it stands, you've gone from making what could be construed as a reasonable argument to just verbal sparring and petty name calling, which, as the above responses show, leave other posters questioning your integrity. Mods will always try and arbitrate when a deal goes bad here (often to a level above and beyond any obligation they have) and abusive behaviour from one member to another is dealt with as stated in the forum rules. They have visibility of PM's so can look at exactly what has been said if required - take it up with them.

[quote name='slobluesine' timestamp='1342645766' post='1738746'] lets hope you dont try to sell it on here as NEW hey, send the £45 to Basschat [/quote] Respectfully mate, I'd stop with the sniping now. You've made your point, the seller has accepted his mistake in the original listing and offered to make a contribution to resolve things, and is now offering a full refund, which seems plenty reasonable to me. Think everyone should bow out with a bit of dignity still intact and maybe the mods should put a lid on this now.

I've played in a couple of setups like this before in varying combinations of one or two acoustics and vocals. Often just used my Sandberg direct into the venue's vocal rig, you don't need a huge booming sound at an acoustic night and the preamp gave me all the shaping I needed. As others have said, some songs won't work immediately as the rhythms don't click without some kind of percussion to bounce off, but you can compensate for this with a bit of rearranging. Don't be afraid to take a step back and approach the songs from a different angle, there's almost always a way to make it work in a stripped back fashion. An extra vocal will make the world of difference if you can handle some BV's (I can't!). With one singer-songwriter I backed up, I also took my acoustic guitar along and would play second guitar rather than bass on songs where that seemed more appropriate - if you're alright with a six string it will give you that extra bit of flexibility in terms of what you play and how you approach it, and as both are probably just plugged to the desk it's a matter of seconds to put down one and grab the other. Good fun though, and a wholly different experience to blasting it out with a blazing wall of backline!

Yeah, the original site was owned by British Rail and was demolished a couple of decades ago to make way for a tunnel air shaft that was never constructed. Stellar work at preserving our cultural history. There's mixed feelings about the Beatles stuff in Liverpool - it's a great part of our city's musical heritage, but often seems like it is a shadow hanging over anyone trying to do anything different. The Cavern as a venue mainly plays host to covers bands these days (a guy I know has a residency there and may well be one of the 'buskers' you described) but there's only so many sets of Beatles tunes you'd want to squeeze into a venue over the course of a week - if they had a Beatles tribute on every day they'd quickly lose any semblance of a regular crowd as the repetition would be stifling. As for original music - The Cavern is very much removed from the Liverpool music scene on that front. For the last few years all the original band nights have been run by JAR Music, who are renowned for their tactics of making bands buy tickets up front, sell them at inflated prices and squeezing as many bands as possible onto each bill to up their profits. It's generally given a wide berth by any of the decent/clued up bands around here and unfortunately ends up playing host to younger, more naive and less experienced bands who are suckered in by the name and history associated with the venue. All in all, bit of a wasted opportunity, has the venue itself is ace and the big room at the back has a great stage, high quality in house backline and a cracking sound system.

[quote name='Alex Nikitin' timestamp='1342611271' post='1737795'] [color=#000080]As for soundung itself, a decent effect pedal board or processor can turn a bass sound into any tone wanted.[/color] [/quote] I've never heard an effects pedal make a fingered bass sound convincingly like one played with a plectrum, or vice versa. It completely changes the envelope of the sound. I don't buy in to the idea of one technique being more 'respected' than another. I respect great musicians who either excel at the style they are playing, or are capable of fitting comfortably into any musical situation in which they are placed - the latter is certainly what I would aspire to. A great bassist should be able to use his experience to decide which approach sounds better in the circumstances in which they are playing. It's a change in tone, just like playing by the bridge or the neck, or twisting your tone knob up/down - just one in a long series of decisions, conscious and unconscious, that contribute to the end result. Some people choose one or the other and stick with it, but make it work for them, some people will prefer to master everything and apply what they feel is appropriate, but none are 'better' than the other. If you sound good in the context of the song and the band then well done, you picked the right one. Someone else could make a different choice and still sound just as good, that's just the way it is.

[quote name='pietruszka' timestamp='1342530125' post='1736624'] Right, I'm really confused now (no pun intended), I've just got a quote on confused.com and put my Mum and gf on the policy as named drivers, the quote is now £589! It costs me less to put more drivers on the car? Does any one on here work for an insurer to explain how this works? Dan [/quote] I think the gist of it is that if they see you as risky and you're the only driver you will be using the vehicle 100% of the time. If the policy includes two other drivers who are perceived as less risky than you, you will be using the vehicle for a lower proportion of the time so the risk is lower and so is the premium you pay.

I've been rudely awoken from a post-gig car nap by a pedal board coming off the parcel shelf and wrapping itself around the back of my head - stupid guitarist was racing the other band's van back home and went over a traffic island on a roundabout. My head was ok but his car was shagged, and when we all jumped in the other bands van for a ride home it wouldn't start either. That was the same night that a chancer ran out the venue fire exit with my Stingray and we chased him through the streets of Warrington. Found it dumped in a bush. Good gig.

It's confirmed on the forum at his website - sad news indeed. R.I.P.

I've applied for a (please don't disown me, I'm still a bassist at heart) guitar playing spot on this. Apparently he debuted it in the Sacre Coeur in Paris with 400 guitarists, looks out and out nuts really. Should be fun! The Anglican Cathedral is a stunning building, will be an amazing venue for something like this.

What's with all the Springsteen hate on here? Thought there'd at least be a little bit of love for the boss (and the excellent Mr Gary W Tallent) round these parts. If they were just rounding off the last song and saying goodbye then it seems a bit harsh chopping them off at that point.

Lovely stuff mate. Really tempted to go Super 12 myself, would love to get my hands on one. Glad you're enjoying the new toys!

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1342129308' post='1730269'] Stick to the roots, use space, not notes, to create a groove and pump that bitch and add the odd clever note. I'm self taught too. [/quote] This, basically.

OK - against the consensus here by telling you how I'd approach it, but here goes anyway. I'm listening quietly on awful laptop speakers (sleeping baby nearby!) so can't hear the bass part at all on the track - blank canvas for me! Listen to what the drummer is doing and build something around that - you don't have to write something spectacularly complicated, they'll want to see how you'll contribute to the sound of the band and that is as much about supporting the melody as anything else. If it was me, I'd be looking at doing something slightly different for each half of the verse - changing my part where the dynamic lifts and the second guitar comes in. I'd also maybe use a different 'first half' part for each verse, so that when it comes back after the first chorus the groove or use of space is a little different. It's a subtle change but makes a difference as the listener isn't hearing the same thing constantly repeated. If you've got a couple of ideas that you're happy with, get them both in, one in each verse, and you could really vary the feel of the song - take control of it and make it yours, but still keep it simple and grooving. I think the important thing is not to overdo it - they'll be looking for someone who fits neatly into the band, not shred over the top of it!

You can get the Joyo pedals from YooSmart with free delivery for £24, I think that's the cheapest option for them right now. There's a page on their site for the UK warehouse, they ship from over here so should come pretty sharpish.

I was wondering when 'the secret project' would get unveiled! Sounds interesting, would love to hear (or should that be feel?) that in action!

I've had a Planet Waves cable go on me, but was then pleasantly surprised to find out that their lifetime guarantee is a real deal with no catches - posted it back to the UK distributor and they had me a shiny new one out in a matter of days!