maxrossell

There are no stupid questions. The middle setting on a notched active EQ pot is usually even, with a cut if you turn it down and a boost if you turn it up. If you run them all high then you'll boost everything, so you'll get noise and nasty sound and all that. It's best to just set evenything flat and then tweak slightly where needed.

[quote name='MB1' post='670577' date='Nov 30 2009, 11:28 PM']MB1. Sounds like the Manchester Academys unsigned nights?[/quote] I did one of them once, thanks for reminding me. Three bands from Preston, around 120 of our own people. The other 200 or so people in the club just stood at the very back of the room acting like they were far too cool to give a sh*t. We got our thirty or so quid, but it cost us about fifty quid to do the gig. Another massive waste of our f*cking time, as are all pay-to-play gigs.

Seems fairly clear to me. Playing gigs for fun instead of money gives you the luxury of picking and choosing the gigs you want to play, because there's no point in doing a sh*t gig if you're not even getting cash for it. The fact that your band leader still takes any toilet gig he's offered, to the extent that he'll do it with half the band if he has to, indicates that he's sort of missed the above point. You mentioned fifteen other reasons for wanting to leave the band, but frankly the one above would be enough for me.

They're both covers bands, so join the one that does more gigs, so you can make more money out of it. Seems silly to be in a covers band if you're not going to make money out it.

[quote name='deathpanda' post='668252' date='Nov 28 2009, 01:44 PM']I think I will ask for a small refund just to cover a professional setup, do you think that is reasonable?[/quote] Yeah, it's reasonable, so you won't get it. Start off by asking for a full refund. If he doesn't want to do that, then either take it up with eBay or negotiate down to a refund for a setup. Like £50 minimum. Don't forget that he sold you a bass that was less valuable than he advertised, and a pro setup isn't going to fix the dents in the neck. I actually think you should be a bit of a hardass about this one, because what he did wasn't acceptable.

Superglue was invented for use on the skin. It was designed, as you say, to close wounds quickly in battle conditions. Gluing fingernails back on is probably a really good use for it.

I'm not really sure I see the point of thru-stringing. It's always struck me as one of those "magic" options that people throw money at when they're looking for a perfect instrument. End of the day, you can have thru-neck, thru-strung spalted bollockwood basses with 24 fanned frets and nine strings and active preamps and five pickups and ramps and D-Tuners and stereo outputs and high-mass bridges and elixir strings, and all that won't charge the fact that the best recordings of all time were made by some dude and his beat-up old Fender Plank-o-caster.

[quote name='Sibob' post='668156' date='Nov 28 2009, 11:52 AM']The few bravewoods I've seen have had Fender Decals, although he says he doesn't apply them. odd Si[/quote] Yeah, The Bravewood policy is that although he is known for his extremely high quality replicas of vintage F**der guitars and basses, he [i]doesn't[/i] apply F**der decals on the headstock. Note how I put "doesn't" in italics there. That could mean something.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='668379' date='Nov 28 2009, 03:45 PM']Well I'm neither of those! Firmly in the middle, a pretty competent player without being flash and I'm sure many are the same[/quote] Sure, but you don't live in Lancashire!

... That every available bass player I encounter around these parts is either at such a basic level that half the rehearsals would be spent teaching them how to play bass, or so obsessed with advancing their awesome technique that they can't tell the difference between an interesting bassline and a full-blown bass solo? That said right now I'm talking to a really good guy (a BC-er, what a surprise) about possibly having a jam with us, so I'm a little bit optimistic.

I may have encountered the exception. Played a show in a club where new management had just taken over, we'd played there before and the previous soundguy was brilliant, but they'd sacked him and the manager's wife was standing in. It became clear a few minutes into soundcheck that she hadn't done it before and had a "how hard can it be" attitude towards it. She didn't want to mic the guitar cabs even though it was a pretty large venue (she didn't see the point of amplifying an amplifier), she had no idea what EQ was even for, and tried so hard to get the vocals far too loud in the mix that there was so much feedback we eventually had to do the show without monitors. The whole time she acted like it was our fault she couldn't get a good sound, and she wouldn't let us run the desk ourselves. And then at the end of the gig the manager came to give us a bollocking for sounding sh*t. My drummer said "we wouldn't have sounded sh*t if you had a real sound engineer", so the manager told us to pack up and f*ck off. Within two months the club had stopped hosting live music and was running pathetic themed DJ nights for soccer dickheads and hen nights, and within six months they'd shut down. I don't understand why some people go into running clubs.

There's been a lot of talk about cheap basses and how they're great value for money, but what I've noticed is that they rarely get any kind of porn-style exposure, which I suppose has to do with expensive basses being more of a luxury item and therefore more desirable etc, however for me that doesn't take away from the beauty of the instruments, and their potential for stimulating arousal... Anyway, put up your snaps of your cheap basses, and make 'em sizzling hot! Here's some tasteful solo-girl action from my walnut Squier Std Jazz:

[quote name='LukeFRC' post='668237' date='Nov 28 2009, 01:24 PM']er... it has one grub screw missing, and is in need of a set up. Other than that the dings on the next he could claim he told you about. The E string would be quieter if the A was lower and you lowered that side of the pup to compensate? The guy dousn't know how to take care of instruments, he's an idiot, but it doesn't sound malicious. If you are the sort of person who plays a bass set up like that then presumably the dents are not going to be a problem for you. Given that when you buy any bass you are going to have to set it up for you're playing style and change strings i figure you're out of pocket one bridge grub screw and a difference in how big small is.[/quote] I dunno man, if I bought a bass that was described as "well looked after", which mitigates the "few dents in the neck" thing (every used guitar, even well-maintained, probably has some sort of little nick somewhere on the neck), but received a bass that was basically unplayable due to bad adjustment and a missing part, and had mystery blue stains on it and what deathpanda's describing as great big divots in the neck, I'd want a refund, because not only does the additional damage mean that I should have paid less for it, but also God knows what issues I'm gonna get down the line (a bad setup if left for too long can permanently damage a bass).

[quote name='phil_the_bassist' post='668149' date='Nov 28 2009, 11:46 AM']I completely understand about the rip-off promoters, I think there's more of them in London than sewer rats! I long ago got the musical integrity beaten outta me by travelling 3hrs+ each way for a 5pm soundcheck (which is always an hour late cos of the soundguy/headliner) to go onstage at 10pm (see previous parentheses) for a 40min set and then get £20 for petrol to split between the van and car, and be expected to be grateful for it![/quote] That's a better deal than a lot I've encountered. On the pay-to-play circuit you're expected to turn up with thirty people (which is really realistic if you're playing out of town), having sold them tickets which you usually get a 25% cut of. So if the tickets are four quid each band stands to make thirty quid for travelling for miles and shifting a tonne of gear and playing a set, and you don't get any petrol money or free beer. Meanwhile the "promoter" gets ninety quid per band and all they've done is make a few phone calls. Worst one was where we were booked in Manchester, we had to pay to put on a minibus to get the required amount of people to come down, we managed to sell the thirty tickets, we turned up for the show, played our set, and watched the other two bands play to our audience and no-one else. We got paid our thirty quid, and then the other two bands got thirty quid each despite the fact that they hadn't sold any tickets even though they were both local bands. It later turned out that they were mates with the "promoter", who was getting paid quite handsomely by the venue to put on the gig anyway, so he just used the cash he made from our ticket sales to pay the other bands - and still came out thirty quid ahead, while we made a net loss of about forty quid. Needless to say, we've long since stopped doing pay-to-play. So, have we ever been paid to not play? No. But we have in the past been told that we can't play because we didn't bring enough people to the show, and of course we've played gigs and then been told that we're not getting paid what was agreed for a variety of stupid reasons.

Aerosmith, on the Get A Grip tour. Saw them twice on that tour, actually.

Exactly. The reason why I always assume that backline means guitar amp cabs and NOT guitar amp heads is the same reason you don't show up at a jazz gig carrying a BC Rich Warlock. I bring my own amp head even if someone else is supplying the backline because there's a good chance that they'll have an amp there that will be totally different from mine. I don't mean to sound like a snob, but I play a single-channel Marshall VM head, so if the backline is a solid-state Crate or something that's no good to me at all - and similarly, my amp is going to be all but useless to a guitarist who needs a three-channel high-gain monster. Furthermore I don't trust anyone but the other bands when it comes to deciding who is bringing what and what they are okay to share, and it's just common courtesy to thank someone if you used their gear, even if you just borrowed a power lead. Anyone who's played a few gigs will have at some point experienced the sh*thead band who turn up with their 10w practice amps and their beat-up ASDA guitars, and decide they'd like to have a go at playing through the other bands' expensive gear. The key is that you never want to BE that sh*thead band, so always plan tightly, communicate well and be courteous with people who lend you their stuff - or don't be surprised when they tell you to piss off. My guitar player has a Mesa Dual Rectifier, and he gets asked every other gig if he'll lend his head, usually to some fifteen-year-old who showed up with a Marshall MG combo. I used to, for the sake of organisation, allow dumb kids to use my stuff, but a few bits of busted expensive kit cured me of that fairly sharpish. I'll be generous up to a point, but not when it means that my amp could end up in the repair shop for six weeks.

Just sounds to me like an instrument that's been owned by someone who doesn't know how to take care of his stuff and doesn't care enough about it to not pass his problems onto other people. He probably didn't even realise he was ripping you off, he probably just doesn't give a sh*t about the condition of his gear. I've met loads of guys like this, they show up to play gigs with crappy little amps and ask if they can use your expensive rig, and if you let them more often than not you'll get it back with broken jack inputs and beer spilled in it. I've known guys who could turn a new guitar in perfect condition into an irreparable wreck in the space of about two months because they don't understand that if you don't take care of instruments they fall apart. If I were you I'd demand a full refund, as the bass is clearly not in the condition advertised. He might decide to be a dick about it, and unfortunately if he does your only option is to take it up with eBay.

[quote name='matski' post='667370' date='Nov 27 2009, 02:02 PM']I know what you mean - but it's someone else's grotty residue! I wouldn't mind if it were my own... [/quote] The only option is I'm afraid a sand-bleach-refinish. Which you may not want to do.

My white Hohner fretless Jazz with tort pickguard. I traded it for a Hohner B-Bass V, which was a nice bass but totally wrong for me. Loved the fretless. This was in around 1997 in France though, so I'll probably never see it again. Interesting story, a while ago I picked up a Kramer Imperial (explorer) guitar for not much money, and totally refinished it in matt black with a black diamond plate full-body pickguard, fitted EMG-HZs on it, had it fully rewired, shaved the neck to a shallower C, and stuck a custom logo on it. I eventually had to sell it off due to needing some funds, but six months later I came across it again on eBay, the guy I sold it to had sold it to another guy, who was now claiming that he was a guitar builder and all the mods were his own work. What a dick.

I've never played a corporate gig, but I have booked a handful of them. The rules I followed: 1. Book a professional corporates/weddings band with lots of experience and great references 2. Said band should have a set made up of about 80%-95% #1 or at least immensely popular chart numbers, and no original material 3. Said band needs to submit the setlist at least one working week before the event so it can be reviewed and possibly modified to suit the event organisation That's why these acts get paid so chuffing much - you need to be sure that they won't go down like a knackered lift, so the above three criteria are absolutely essential, because when I did it if the band went down badly it was my arse on the line. I don't know if the dude trying to book you guys is under the same sort of pressure as I was (usually entertaining bosses from California and BAe clients), but as far as I can tell from the description of your act and your youtube video, you don't meet any of the three criteria (except maybe number three, but without the other two it's sort of irrelevant). I mean absolutely no criticism by this, but the bunch of pissed old stoners down my local live music/open mic bar would find a straight electric blues act hard to get into, so a bunch of suits at an event they may not even have particularly wanted to attend is going to be tougher going than damp concrete. That being said, if you fancy the money then take the gig and hopefully it'll go well, but as you say you're in this for the enjoyment, and I'm not sure you'll get much of that from a crowd who probably think that a blues harp is a big triangular frame with lots of strings on it, painted blue.

Yeah, I hate to say it but I think you got a bit stiffed. 250 euros is a lot of money for a no-name P knockoff with mystery wood and generic electonics, even with a hardcase thrown in. That's a cheap chinese neck (possibly SX, although I can find no evidence of 21-fret SX necks with the last dot missing), and the body looks like it could be Squier Affinity, although it might be some other chinese knockoff. It's also quite a bad relic job, and the Tim Anderson guy, whoever he is, isn't a known Brighton luthier. I suspect that he wasn't the one who applied the serial number to the back of the headstock, and it kind of looks like he just wrote his name on marker on the headstock - which may actually have been his only involvement with the manufacture of the bass. Can you put up some bigger photos, specifically of the body without the scratchplate on?

Yep. It seems that there's a company that have really understood that the key to being a competitive online business is to provide great customer service.

[quote name='lowdown' post='665857' date='Nov 26 2009, 05:43 AM']Just a rich slapestry of musical styles then. Garry[/quote]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='664522' date='Nov 24 2009, 11:28 PM']I make sure they realise a decent bassist who isnt just a guitarist fiddling with bass is a tough musician to find.[/quote] Bloody hell, you're not wrong there. The things we don't put in our bass player wanted ads, but probably should: - We're looking for a bass player, not a guitar player who reckons he can be a bass player because they're sort of similar instruments, so if you're gonna join and then three weeks later decide you don't like not playing guitar solos and bail, don't bother. - Just because people who don't play bass say "any dimwit can pick up bass in five minutes", that doesn't make it true. We're not gonna hire you just because you own bass gear, we actually need you to know what to do with it. - That being said, bass players are people who own bass gear. If you don't own bass gear, you're not a bass player. Don't say "I'm getting an amp for Christmas." - If that's the case, call us after Christmas. Oh, and call us snobs if you want, but an £85 chinese Precision knockoff with three strings, a crackly budget guitar lead and a 20w Stagg practice combo isn't bass gear. - We'll send you some of our tracks. That's not for our enjoyment, it's actually because we would like you to learn them. Also it would be nice if you learned to play them as they were written, and not just invent yourself a noodly bass slap solo halfway through the second verse for no apparent reason. It's very nice that you've spent the past five years assiduously studying the techniques of Marcus Miller, but we're here to play songs, not to showcase your spectacular chops. - We appreciate that you might already be in six other bands, but don't be surprised if we're not overwhelmed with gratitude should you consent to granting us a half-hour of your time every other week. If you aren't going to be at the practices, there's no point in you joining the band.

I played an SR500 the other day and it was really good. I can't comment on the Cort though.