NJE

I used to dep with a band who’s singer found it hilarious that our set was full of songs by artists that had passed away. When he introduced a song he would give the song and artist followed by “he’s dead” or “she’s gone now”.

This was unfortunate at the best of times but was in particularly poor taste at a birthday we played that was also doubling as a celebration of life for someone who was terminally ill.

I was playing with a 9 piece soul band about 10 years ago and we had what felt like a steady flow of drummers coming and going.

The band leader announces that he has a top local drummer who teaches coming to play with us, and I was excited at the prospect. Well my excitement quickly dwindled when he wouldn’t count the band in and it was left to me as joint lead singer. I gave him the benefit of the doubt as I thought he might not be familiar with the material.

This carries on for a couple of rehearsals with the occasional quiet “how does this one go” from said drummer, who clearly had not listened to or learnt the songs, relying on me to not only count in but also tell him when to stop.

Before I have a proper opportunity to raise it with Band leader a gig is booked and I am told “don’t worry it will be alright”.  Now we played some very well known soul/Motown songs and some disco stuff like Chic so not a ‘proper’ soul band, but our absolute Feck-Witt of a guitarist had managed to wangle us a gig at a venue saying we were the counties best ‘Northern’ soul band when I’m fact we probably only played 2-3 Northern soul tunes.

I was furious that he had lied and also told the owner/promoter that we had a following because we really didn’t. I had this bad feeling that we would end up playing two northern soul tracks all night like that scene from the Blues Brothers in the country bar!

So we get there and there are some northern soul fans looking quite excited, and we get going with a few easy well know tunes and then launch into a thumper of a northern soul tune. I count the drummer in and he plays completely the wrong beat and and tempo for the song but in the spirit of keeping going I adjust my playing and we carry on with brass and everything until we are going so fast I can’t get the lyrics out fast enough.

At that point I stop the whole band, lean over and have a word to the drummer “do you know the song? The beat is like this” (I tap it out in my leg for him at the correct tempo). He says “sorry, yeah I’ve got it” so we start again after making light of it with the audience.

1, 2, 3, 4….he does the same thing, he just didn’t have a flipping clue so I lean over whilst playing to get him to adjust but it’s no good, I have to stop the band again.

Meanwhile my good friend, who is also a drummer is on the desk for us, is dying with laughter and trying his very best not to make a noise at the end of the venue as he’s heaving and crying with laugher so badly at the whole situation.

This happens a couple more times but we manage to get through it and intake the hard songs out of the set, but the whole time we are playing I can just hear people complaining louder and louder “this isn’t f*+king Northern Soul” and getting less involved and start leaving.

We get to the end of the gig and you have never seen a band get out of a room so fast, leaving me there to collect the money from the owner. In the meantime a large number of teenagers tune up to the proper main event which is a club night and it gets darker and louder. Knackered but wanting to get paid I hang around asking bar staff where the manager is. “He’s a bit p*ssed off but he will be back soon” comes one reply….oh balls!

After and hour and a half I spot him and I get pulled into the office, where he politely but sternly quizzes me over why we claimed to be the counties best Northern Soul band and why should he pay us. I was not in the frame of mind to be quick witted or clever so as I disliked the guitarist immensely I just said I was sorry and laid all the blame on the guitarist and that he had taken the rest of us for a ride and I though he was a pr*ck.

It worked, he paid me, laughed and sent me on my way, but never before, or since have I wanted there to be a sniper at the back of a room to put me out of my misery whilst on stage.

22 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Ooops scrap that! - Just re-read your OP and spotted your point (2) 😁

FWIW:  my issues with MB combos have entirely been dealt with by using a presence EQ boost at 1.5kHz and 3.5kHz - removes the feeling that there is a blanket over the cab! If I had worked that out a few years back I would have held onto my AC 121 Lite.

 

That is really interesting, I had an old LM2 and it was built like a tank, really quality bit of kit and worked flawlessly, but I just felt it was muffled in some way.

I sold it and then got an EBS Reidmar through the same cab, and my exact words were “it sounds like I have taken a blanket off the cab”.  Good to know it can be resolved because I have completely written off MB since.

1 hour ago, Skybone said:

 

And money... 😄

Oh god yes! Who knew school uniforms were so expensive! 😄

5 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

Right now if it were me I'd go used QSC K12.2 and a behringer BDI21 if you needed a preamp...

Yeah I have been keeping an eye out or contemplating stretching the budget. Also contemplated a Yamaha DXR15 but I would have to order without trying.

2 hours ago, Skybone said:

Fender Rumble 500. Only about 300w with the combo, 500w with the extension cab. Light too.

 

Ashdown RM500 or the OriginAL C210T 300.

 

There's a few in the Amps For Sale section that look pretty good, the GR combo, or the MarkBass combo for example.

 

Though for that kind of money, you could pick up a good head & cab. Plenty of older, big heads available, or a few Class D's. That Laney Nexus 400 rig looks very tempting. There's an RM500 head & cab as well (but maybe a bit far to collect).

There are some good deals in the for sale section, but everything is quite a trek from me and I am so hesitant to use couriers and don’t have much time to drive and collect. It’s a real pain, pre kids I had so much more time!

I sold my amp and cab last year as I didn’t think I would gig again for a while, but some pals have been in touch and it looks like we will be having a get together in the next week or two. 
 

So I need an amp, but despite hours of browsing I just can’t decide, so I thought I’d seek ideas from the collective knowledge on here.

I have up to £600 budget and here’s the guidelines:

1. Combos and Head/Cab setups considered

2. I am not overly keen on MarkBass

3. don’t mind Class D or something like an Ashdown ABM

4. 300w would be ok, but I’d prefer 500w

5. Collectively it can’t be too big, so ABM head and 1x12 would be cool or a lightweight 15 or 2x10 combo.

6. Used or New is fine

7. A frfr cab would be ok too

So far I have got one idea which is the Fender Rumble 500, is there anything better?

Mono M80 for me, one of the best things I have ever bought. Mines had some abuse for years and years and it’s still superb if a little frayed in places

22 minutes ago, Grimalkin said:

 

Careful with that axe Eugene, quantity does not equal quality.

 

 

I completely agree, and didn’t mean to imply that it did.

Perceived quality comes down to the individual and is subjective, and whilst I don’t particularly like a lot of the music that racks up huge streaming and YouTube numbers, I can still respect anyone that can write something that sells and achieves a mass appeal….I can’t do it! If I could write a piece of pop fluff that stuck in people’s heads and got streamed 139 million times I would in a heartbeat.

My idea of quality may not be someone else’s, so I try to look at things objectively as much as possible. I don’t see quality in some huge critically acclaimed musical acts, but I still try and respect their achievements.

I don’t like Coldplays music, but that’s fine, you can’t like everything.

I have only ever heard nice things from a few people who have met various members, and apparently they are decent chaps, so I won’t have a go at them personally.

I do have a huge amount of respect for anyone that create music that obviously connects with a vast amount of people. They probably started off like anyone else looking for a life in music, wondering if they could make a living doing this instead of a ‘proper’ job. Fair doos they have done that and then some!

They have  accumulated huge fortunes, plus apart from Chris Martin they are all fairly unrecognisable/anonymous…win win! 
 

I have spent years playing in bands where I find the music generally tedious, annoying, and musically unsatisfying for no money or real appreciation, so I feel like the Coldplay guys have got it sorted.

It’s all about what you value though. Some people would be happy playing what they believe to be ‘superior’ music down the road in the local, to 3 men and a dog than compromise their artistic integrity. I respect that to, but I’d rather compromise, get paid well and have a few more people at the gig.

On 22/12/2021 at 09:45, jd56hawk said:

And if that childish name isn't enough...

 

This new approach allows us to make the most of all the advantages of living in Italy, with our “Italian Style”, allowing our “Glocalisation” to win over globalisation. By “Glocalisation” I mean that we are able to make the most of our “Local” world, with the unique Italian lifestyle that’s envied throughout the world.

 

Seriously, what are they smoking over there?

You joke, but I remember when MarkBass first came on the scene and I went to a shop that had just had one of the first big shipments. Chatting the guy behind the counter, I said how excited I was to try them after all the hype. He said “yeah they are great…..give one a sniff, they are fresh out of the box”. I laughed and did exactly that, they absolutely reeked of weed.

I don’t understand the hype around the Squier Classic Vibe Basses and people paying over the original retail price for them secondhand.

I had one of the Fiesta Red CV precisions, I think I paid £220 for it new and it was a decent bass, it wasn’t perfect but it did the job at the time as I was a bit skint. I get that fiesta red/tort precisions aren’t that common, but considering what is out there for around £500 I certainly wouldn’t be in a rush to get a Squier CV.

I get the JV thing a little bit more, Japanese made and they are ‘vintage’ now, but still the prices seem a bit daft. 
 

At the end of the day though, we all like different stuff and see value and appeal in different things, and if the market will pay those prices then well done to those making a few quid, how often do we actually ever make money in buying and selling basses 😄

I am always interested when people discuss getting “your tone”, as it’s not something that has ever been a conscious part of my playing life.

I have not played in many originals bands which is where I imagine creating a tone is important as part of the bands musical identity? 
 

As I have been mainly in function/covers bands, my tone is generally whatever the song needs. That could be a muted P like tone or full on aggressive Stingray bite and everything in between.

In recent years I have just made whatever bass I could afford work for whatever I was playing at the time. I have had a 36” scale Overwater Progress and a £260 Squier as my main instrument, and given the variables of rooms, other band members, audience size etc I can’t say that any one piece of gear sounds any better than the other, just different. And as per another thread, sometimes my rig could be phenomenal and other nights it would be shocking in a band context, purely down to the room.

I do admit that I like having my USA Stingray, the neck and comfort is great and there is a tiny illogical part of my brain that likes the romance of the made in USA thing, but honestly a friend pretty much gave me a Harley Benton Jazz and it feels good too, and once the shielding is sorted it will be gigged.

Maybe someone might be able to identify my playing by my style, but I certainly don’t think I have a tone.

I gave up worrying about ‘my tone’ and the specific tone of my amp and basses a while ago.

I would have some nights when my setup would sound incredible and others where it was inaudible or shocking, and  it was all down to the room/floor/stage.

Going through FOH helped a lot and so did having a quieter stage, but on the whole I just focussed on being in tune, in time, and learning the songs properly. As long as I do those things, no one really cares.

I found a video of a gig the other day and thought it was a gig someone sat in for me, because I couldn’t see myself and the bass tone was great. I then spotted my old bass and I remembered the gig. I couldn’t hear myself properly most of the night and I remember the room being awful, the sound seems to swirl around. Shows that what you think you hear isn’t always what gets heard out front.

I have swapped and changed basses so many times over the years and am currently on my third Stingray which I have had for 5 years now.

I bought all three of them secondhand and have been very lucky to get them at very low prices by being patient and hunting around. I would highly recommend buying a used USA model which could cost you less than a new Far East made Sterling by MusicMan model.

The Sterling range are very good but I don’t think the necks are a patch on the USA models. Saying that I would never fork out the kind of money they want for the new current models, I am sure they are great but they are serious money now.

Pretty sure it’s Peter Randall

Those of you that are using the Beyer DT770 pros, are you running the 32ohm or 80ohm?

I would primarily use them with an audio interface or headphone out on an amplifier, will both of those drive the 80ohms?

Do you have any pictures of the EBS and microtubes? Just o get a general idea of condition.

I have reluctantly decided to sell my Seamoon Funk Machine. I got this at the beginning of September direct from the states, and it has had no more than 2 hours use. It is basically new with box, instructions, and small rubber feet.

In august I started building my first pedalboard and I specifically wanted a down sweep filter for synthy type sounds. I originally wanted a 3Leaf filter but couldn’t find one anywhere, and then stumbled upon the Seamoon and was sold.

It took a while to arrive, but it was spot on with my OC-2 and after less than an hour fiddling it got packed up while I did some decorating and I started looking for more pedals.

A 3Leaf Proton came up and I decided to A/B it against the Seamoon. The down-sweep is nowhere near as good on the Proton, but it gives me the ‘regular’ filter tones and it’s good enough for my uses. I can’t afford to keep both so hopefully someone else can get some use from the Seamoon.

Happy to ship insured or you can collect.

1 hour ago, stewblack said:

Anyone know where a Seamoon can be purchased? 

I think you can get them direct, or there’s a store called Prymaxe, or try on Reverb. They all come from the states though, but I had no issues getting mine over and didn’t pay anything extra.

I have had a Seamoon for a few weeks although I haven’t had the time or opportunity to really dig into properly.

Like Doddy says above, it’s a bit unique in just being a down sweep, something that I don’t think everyone realises despite a few videos on YouTube.

The consensus seems to be its tricky to dial in but I didn’t find that. I found a few sounds I like and it was easy to get a the cool synthy down sweep sound I had in my head and have heard on records. It has a huge amount of shaping considering the one thing it does.

It’s weird but since getting the Seamoon I hear the down sweep filter on more and more songs when the radio is on. It’s obviously a bit part of a lot of synth sounds and I need to start writing them down to jam along to.

I have just picked up a 3Leaf Proton which has a down sweep, and my plan was to let the Seamoon go. The down sweep on the 3Leaf isn’t as good and I am now battling my brain which is telling me to get some money back.

At the moment it compliments the ‘normal’ filter on the Proton and so I’m thinking about keeping both. Given the slightly negative reviews of the solid gold and my experience of the Seamoon, I’d say go for it, it’s great fun, but if you haven’t already, get your head around the fact it won’t sound like a normal filter.

I like the nod to the OC-2 with the knobs.

I love it already, but I bet it’s going to be expensive. 😩

I had the same thought yesterday, surely you can change the fan for a better quality/quieter equivalent for not much.

I had an ABM 300 head many years ago, and can’t remember how loud the fan noise was. I’m getting old and fussy now and I would love another ABM, but fan noise would drive me nuts after years of small class D.

Are these both still available?