Skybone

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1461912791' post='3038610'] Is it green? [/quote] It's not (say it quickly ) It's a "tobacco burst", but just can't seem to shift it.

I would have said that my old 4003 was the one that I'd keep, but I ended up having to sell it. I now have 2 RikenFaker's that are more than ample replacements for it. But I get the feeling that my "keeper" is the G&L L2000 Tribute I've been trying to sell for the last year or so.

Warwick Star Bass?

My first bass was a sunburst Kay P-bass copy, it weighed a ton and had a ridiculously high action, but it was mine. 30-odd years later, I'm still playing, so it must have done it's job at the time. I remember it came with cable-like flat wounds on. Managed to sell it to someone at school, then went out and bought a Westone Raider 1 in red/graphite. That one wasn't great, but it was far superior to the Kay! Bought an Aria Pro II SB Special after the Westone, now that one was really good.

Try them in any order you fancy until you find something that sounds good to you.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1460957101' post='3030047']You really have to put a lot of thought into what your looking for in a band. Weren't there any "red flags " that indicated these guys we're not going to work out for you? Blue[/quote] What I look for in a band is other people who aren't bell-ends. The whole ethos of this band was to gather together a group of people of a certain vintage (most of us were over 40, parents and with responsible jobs), write a bunch of songs and hopefully get some local gigs. We said we didn't want to do covers, or blues, just play some rocking songs. No ego's, no "chasing the big time" or record deals. Just creating interesting music, having some fun, and being "yourself" for a few hours, instead of husband/dad/employee/responsible bloke etc. Don't know about you guys, but I've been in quite a few bands over the years, a number of which didn't go anywhere because there were bell-ends involved who just wasted time. Time is a precious commodity when you're older, more people want more of your time, so time where you can do something you want to do is quite precious. Not wasting an evening surrounded by bell-ends who want to dick about playing Pink Floyd badly. So yes, I have put some thought into what I'm looking for in a band. And your term "business" is very appropriate, I liken a band to a football team, you all have the same aim, and you need to work as a team not as a bunch of individuals.

Classic brown tortoiseshell

After another awful rehearsal, where the other guitarist kept on dicking about, the singer got pissed, the drummer was pissed, myself and the guitarist called it all off. we were going nowhere. After a handful of successful jams, where we actually played a number of original songs, and played around with ideas with a view to writing songs, it's descended into covers and arsing about, despite our efforts to keep it on track and write and play songs. Last night was the straw that broke the camel's back, the first hour was mildly amusing, though not very productive, and then it descended into farce. The guitarist and I just kept going until it got to the point about half an hour before the end of the session, when I just started to pack my gear away. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Quite fancying a POD HD500 too

Never done a "Battle of the Bands" affair (dislike the concept intensely), but I have played quite a few all-dayers, which is basically a similar format but without the "competition" element. Turn up early, find out where on the bill you're playing and how long the set is (and the "turn-around" time), watch sound check, watch preceeding bands, play set (30-45 mins), watch the rest of the bands, get food, catch up with old friends, talk to other bands & audience members, sell some merchandise (CD's/shirts/etc), etc.

Used to use Stringbusters a lot, until I worked out that, even with the additional postage costs, it was cheaper to buy from Thomann.

Alesis

I want a Rickenbacker. Can't afford one, can't justify one, certainly don't need one. I just want one. I want a new motorbike too, and there's even less chance of that happening.

Is it for the effects or is it for amp modelling and effects?

For me, I voted sound over playability. Playability can be tweaked until it's right at no extra cost. Making something sound right can cost a lot of time & money, and you're not always guaranteed the "right" results. I've owned guitars and basses that have been superb instruments to play, but no matter how much I tweaked them or spent on them (new pickups/pot's/capacitors/etc.), they still didn't sound right. I've owned guitars and basses that haven't been great players, but they sounded great, so I invested a bit of care & time into them (setups etc.) and they became fine players (and I got used to how they played). With hindsight (and after spending a small fortune on equipment), playability comes after sound in my book (but they still have to look good too!).

Musically unfulfilled? Yup. They're going in a completely different direction, and I'm just not enjoying rehearsals anymore. I'll give it a few more rehearsals before deciding, but at the moment, it's a "meh" from me.

I found that both the BB & SansAmp drives were quite smooth

The Helix looks excellent, but way too rich for me. Looked at the HD500, but again, quite an expensive piece of kit for me. You'll have to give us all a review of it when it arrives Fret.

Try: [url]http://www.matsumoku.org/[/url]

Sweet. Welcome to the club!

Guitar I used a Hybrid Slinky set (9-46) for a D tuning, sounded good to me. Bass, I used to use RotoSound RS66LC (40-95's?) when I played with a pick, but moved up to 45-105's about 2000 (still playing with a pick), and still like them, but now I don't use a pick. Never tried felt picks, but SWMBO bought me one of those wood pick selection tins a few Christmas' back. They look good, feel nice, but are too hard for me. They don't sound that good IMO with either bass or acoustic guitar.

I use Dunlop Tortex 0.6's for electric. People used to ask why, when they all used heavy picks & heavy strings, well, if light strings are good enough for Iommi, May & Gibbons, they're good enough for me. Plus they just feel far better.

Bizarrely, I've gone the other way... Started playing fingerstlye, but then soon realised my fingers weren't fast enough to play what I wanted to play, so went down the plectrum route (favourite is still the Dunlop Nylon 0.73 (grey)). About 10-12 years back, I got back into passive basses big style and started playing with my fingers again. Now I can keep up, through playing how it feels right for me, not the text books interpretation of what is "right". Still keep some picks in my case, just in case, but they haven't been used on my bass for some time. Though I have found a use for my unused Dunlop 0.73s. They sound great with my acoustic guitar!

Ambient, I don't... I'm currently running a Line6 POD xt Live (guitar version) with the Bass Expansion pack, and I'm very happy with it. I previously had a Zoom B3, which was great, but not flexible enough. Prior to having that, I used my very old, but very trusty Line6 POD xt (red kidney bean version) for years without the Bass expansion pack for both bass and guitar. BigRedX, totally agree with trying tech from 5 even 10 years ago. The POD xt Live being case and point, bought it second hand, totaly meets my needs, and well worth the money. My good old kidney bean POD xt is now 13 years old, and still going strong.